Why so few Snipers?

My server had a HUGE flip in Gunslinger/Scoundrel.

At launch, there were a lot of Gunslingers. FAR more Gunslingers than Scoundrels. Once Scoundrel got some of the "Holt crap this is OP!" attention.... there were Scoundrels all over the place. You know - typical FOTM stuff.

Honestly, I don't know why no one plays a Sniper/Guns. I've played a Scoundrel since 2 months of Beta, and those guys mess me up like there is no tomorrow. Seriously - in the hands of someone who knows how to play one... they're really good.

I was just doing some statistics today on only the 40-50 range. (I know many gunslinger/snipers who rerolled around 2x-3x)

For each gunslinger there seems to be 4-5 sages.
For each sniper there seems to be 8-9 sorc.

I think the reason for such a large amount of gunslingers compared to snipers is that many people who rolled gunslinger thought of hansolo or were ranged class in kotor (had blaster attacks). While the sniper is a new addition to the star wars universe.

When it comes to pvp the merc/commando has the same sort of gameplay as the Sharpshooter/marks gunslinger/sniper and actually does better.

These arent identical at all, but are quite similar.
aimed shot/ambush ~= demo round/heatseaker.
trickshot/followthrough != HIB/rail shot.
charged burst/sniper ~=grav round/tracer missile.

The big difference in above shots is that:
1) sniper/gunslinger requires cover for most, Merc/commando doesnt.
2) Grav/tracer improve the damage of demo/heat and HIB/rail
3) sniper/gunslinger has slighly larger initial damage values, but their shots do not ignore the enemies mitigation as much and go up against mitigation from defense/shield that merc/commando shots ignore.

Obviously there are many other differences in cc/survivability but overall it usually favours the merc/commando.

It is a mix of a lot of things.

We do not have super great Damage at 50, no real utility, no stealth and we tend to get targeted a lot.

Cover mechanic is buggy, I feel that muh of my gameplay is adjusted to do all kinds of workarounds to make stuff work, like Balistic Shields/Cover Pulse bug, which prevents the use of those on many occasions, before you activate something else and so on.

I, myself wonder, why the hell am I trying hard and not rerolling Merc to faceroll tracer for the same damage overall minus all the cover bull... (usually happens when I get stomped, because for some reason after patch 1.01 we can't enter cover when rooted, which is yet another sweet cover bug that will get fixed in 2017).


When everything works, however, Snipers are awesome - we have much more powerful and more immidiate burst than Mercs and Sor and quite a few tricks that can make people rage like our instant AoE CC, ranged root and CC immunity. Once cover **** gets sorted (if at all), I am sure there will be more snipers around.

All of our utility abilities require cover, while no other class in the game needs cover to use similar abilities.

AoE Knockback? Requires cover.

CC immunity cd? Requires cover.

DMG reduction aoe cd? Requires cover.

Hardest hitting abilities? Requires cover.

Ranged stun for troopers/BH's/Sorcers/Sages.
Sniper/Gunslinger stun? Requires melee range.

Speed boost talents or sprint abilities? None.

Heals? None.

Force pulls, force leaps, grapples, ect.? None.



Now go back through the list with a Sorcerer/Sage and you will see why no one plays Sniper/Gunslinger.

Because while they're sitting still in cover, I'm going to stack three DoTs on them and then hide behind something. Then I'm going to laugh at them.

Engineer/Lethality snipers are a massive PITA, though. I'm glad there are so few of them.

Lethality snipers are ok in PUGs, can do good damage numbers. But if your against any decent players, your dots are gonna get purged and have fun with your 12 second main dot cool down. Snipers are gimp right now.

The thing with cover is that it will get you killed. It gives you a 20% resistance to weapon damage the only issue is ONLY GUNSLINGERS/SNIPERS WEAPON DAMAGE. EVERY one else is Elementalforcemindbullets and we don't reduce that.

Now i can do GOOD Damage and top DPS charts, but it is almost always inspite of the system not because of it.

True dat, cover needs to be buffed/reworked. Right now snipers/gunslingers are at a significant disadvantage.

^^^ this. Sniper is one of the worst implemented classes in an MMO I have ever seen. Also after looking at some up an coming patch issues, BW is oblivious to the problem and is out of touch with the player base.