When it comes to Sniper's you get people who play Engineering, but never that many who actively main an engineering sniper as their main class within the game....and there's a very important distinction between the two. especially when you are referring to PVP. Back when I was actively participating in pvp I could name just 2 others on my server who I knew that mained an engineering sniper...lol and oh man did they know how to play the spec. In 4.0 sniper's were in a pretty good state, and then they ended up giving us all that healing in 5.0, so of course what happened...you get a lot more playing engineering and those who actually knew how to play engineering did even better, enter the posts that said sniper's were OP (this is right about when I quit the game). Faltun will understand what I'm saying. For the record I've watched some of your engineering vids and it's nice to see someone playing Engineering, there's simply never been that many of us who has engineering as their main spec and main character. It's quite one thing to play a spec when a spec is in it's prime, but quite something else entirely to play it when the masses believe it's....not so good (putting it politely), and even more something else for those few to be able to utilise the spec and do well with it. Keep the spec alive Faltun

In regards to a speed boost I'd rather have my shiv back with the little boost in speed it gave us. Saved my bacon on numerous occasions back in the day.

You do realise the concept of the fact I quit the game 5 years ago and only just reactivated my account means I'm highly unlikely going to be making new videos during that 5 year period where I'm not playing? The point as you put it, has not been made Whilst you're looking take a look at SnipersFOTM and episode 102 and perhaps you'll see I made my comments about healing back then and the main reason why I quit.

That right there is my point, as I said I have no intention to upset or antagonise anyone. I've heard that argument before back when I was playing, there were many people who said for ages that snipers needed a huge boost, that we were boardling upon being useless yet all the time there were those of us that were doing fine.

I'm sorry but again I have to point out my knowledge is from just after 5.0 started and I can assure you back then I was used to not having healing and did ok for myself. Operatives had insane healing even back then so that argument doesn't really enter into the equation. I am not trying to antagonise you or anyone else in the slightest but the sniper has always had things stacked against them, as an engineering sniper I feel like my defences are in a better position to that of the other two specs. Back then I could count the amount of engineering snipers on just 1 or two fingers, only one I remember is a sniper called Heymonkey. The sniper has always needed to have a good balance between offence, defence and mobility. Do any one of those out of balance and you're going to be toast, the issue was knowing when to use your cc's and in what capacity you use them, and when to move around. People have always been able to tell the good snipers from the bad snipers, the ones who know what they're doing will continue using them and will still be able to turn out the goods because they didn't need it in the first place, the ones who relied upon the healing will not. It's simply the way of things.

I can't remember all the gunslinger terminology my apologies. It is odd what they have done and it does differ between specs as well. For example on engineering we can have maim and evasion, but we cannot have maim and hololocate. Though for me though I see the strategic value of hololocate, it's very lore'/immersion breaking for me and would take Maim over it any day of the week. I'm not familiar with hideout/scrambling I'm afraid so can't comment. Losing Flashbang completely (no idea if that was removed in 7.0 or 6.0) is a loss, though it depends how many other classes have their version available to them. With all of that combined though we still have access to: Legshot, Cover Pulse, Shield, Entrench, meticulous preparation and if you're engineering Evasion, Maim and the 2 second stun on EMP Discharge/Plasma Probe. So that's the basis of our defence right there. I can appreciate that the loss of healing is a big thing but we survived for five years without it. The only thing we're missing is flashbang. I didn't take a lot of notice of the other two specs (I've always had Engineering as my main class in the game), but if they can't have maim and evasion then that is an odd thing to do. Evasion was back when I last played a key skill. They have made some talents part of a choice that I barely rated...some of which are a high skill level. My first impression of all the changes from coming back after 5 years is things were quite screwed up. For engineering though as I've specified it doesn't look to be that bad. Back then I was never against us having some healing but they went way overboard in 5.0, I have no idea if it was nerfed at all but if it wasn't then my 5 years out of date view is you all got lucky it didn't happen sooner. The defence changes are another thing entirely however, having to chose between maim and evasion if thats the case for marksman and verluence sucks and should be revisited, but at the same time you can have maim and hololocate which engineering can't. All in all, I fully admit I haven't stepped foot inside a warzone since my return and I don't have the knowledge as to how the other classes are now (they're still lvl 65), but from an engineering point of view I can get pretty close to the defences I used to have when I last played. the lack of healing for me is not a bit deal.

For one thing you need to understand I've returned to the game after 5ish years away so I haven't experienced the history everyone else has, I quit shortly after 5.0. Back then snipers were in a very good state already, our defences were pretty good and used correctly could be made to do some funky stuff. But then on top of that they gave us essentially a combined set of healing skills that could bring back close to 90% heals. That's quite simply far too much for a class like the sniper with the amount of CC's we had. A sniper who is average at the class or has only just started playing, still getting to grips with how to use the cc correctly (which lets be honest does take a new sniper some time), then such heals are going to help a lot. But give veteran snipers that amount of healing and they're essentially in god mode. To have some healing? Sure, as long as it's balanced of course, but THAT amount of healing? It was far too much.

It was a mistake for them to give us those heals in 5.0 anyway

If I had to pick something then gunslinger probably.

Does my signature look like I play melee? ...in second thoughts don't answer that. I have all the classes, I'll give you one guess to determine which one I prefer. There's no difference here from what it's like to be a sniper v stealth enemies. In fact...perhaps I should go pest a load of idiotic babble in that "I miss #nerfoperatives" thread. Not everyone I freely admit that, but a lot of people in this thread should be dipping their head in shame with what they've posted. Ill made posts without a credible ounce of thought put into it. I find healers annoying I find stealthers annoying I find melee that are being healed annoying...when I'm not getting any support from my team I find tanks that do nothing but guard healers all game annoying There's lots of things everyone finds annoying, you know what? It doesn't mean to say things need to be nerfed, it means sometimes you just have to put up with things because that's the way some things have to be. Engineering is one of those...it's ALWAYS been annoying, right from launch, or at least since patch 1.2 (which is when I first started playing the spec). Anyone just waking up to the fact that engineering can be incredibly annoying has been living with their head in the clouds. It's like...seriously...where have you all been?! The by far overwhelming amount of "suggestions" in this thread have been quite simply...awful. People need to urgently gain a better understanding of the game insofar as how everything is linked, and how changes effect everything else because this thread is just embarrassing for a lot of people. For the record, yes I agree that changes need to happen, the difference is the changes I've suggested come from someone that actually understands the spec and has played it as their main since patch 1.2 I know what it's like to play the spec, I know what it's like to be against the spec, I've seen it all, heard it all. Do my changes, and engineering will be fine. Any complaints after those changes are nothing to do with engineering.

No it doesn't, a sign of people who don't think about things properly.

Only problem with that though Icy, is a lot of the posts are complete baloney

I'm biased for sure, but a couple of friends (who weren't sniper addicts!!) told me some time ago now that for them series of shots with the sound effects alone made it far more enjoyable than the slinger. Personally I agree but hey, I'm a self confessed addict

...dude we were so close. Until you edited it and slapped in that insane call for a cooldown. Regarding the radius...yup agreed...said so many times. There wasn't any need or call to buff it to 8m, 5m was and still is perfectly fine. The healing reduction...again yup. Said it here many times, for me it's the healing on ballistic shield. Leaving the heal on covered escape would have been pretty satisfactory by itself. But the slow to 50%, dude you know full well why it was buffed from 50% to 70%, if you slap a cooldown on it and reduce the slow then you'll have to make some amendments to that 2s stun via EMP Discharge. The whole reason why that 70% slow was put in, is quite simple. With a radius of 5m and a slow of 50%, you could never actually get that stun to take effect, by the time you're able to smash that keybind, they've already walked out of the area. Not forgetting that the reason the cooldown was removed in the first place was having that cooldown was causing problems for PVE. As soon as you slap a cooldown and slow reduction on plasma probe then you have to completely rework it. the 2 sec stun is still required in order to able to get the damage dealt (use I've heard all arguments regarding plasma probe and damage, lets not go there dude...the thread is long enough as it I). They'd also have to amend the damage from damage over time to front loaded damage, like it was originally. That would be much more of an extensive change than a lot of people realise remove the healing from ballistic shield (legendary utility) - Yes Reduce the radius to 5m - yup but also get rid of the speed buff on countermeasures as well as the purge to movement imparring effects. We don't need this with the purge we already have on covered escape. The speed boost we used to get on shiv was much better suited to the class. this is of course the re-establish range utility. Those three changes alone (together with the simultaneous nerfing of mercs), would be more than sufficient. Anything else is overkill.

He really is, I'm not detailing the nerfs I myself propose again (I've repeated myself far too many times). I admit that something needs to change, just do a search on the posts I've made in this thread (and the other one that was going around), and you'll find them. Do those nerfs to engineering/snipers and the problem will be fixed. No cooldown, or reduction in the slow is required on plasma probe.