Why so few Snipers?

The real reason is because nobody says "Hey I want to play Star Wars. I hope I can be a sniper!"

Who says that?

Jedi yes. Sith yes (thanks to Darth Maul, mostly). Bounty hunter yes. Trooper yes. Smugger yes. Sniper...? Agents in general...? Who the heck was an Agent in Star Wars? They could have kept them almost as they are now but called them "Imperial Officers" or something and they'd be way more popular.


So that's the #1 reason.


Personally I have a Sniper alt and love it. I have a screenshot somewhere of scoring #1 in damage as a level 11. I think that was actually in Huttball too. I just get up on the platforms and snipe nonstop. Even better now that he's level 25 and has that energy regen ability.

But I think a lot of people don't realize you need to ditch to roll-to-cover ability and use only the static screen. And that you should additionally pick it up and put it down periodically to refresh your Marksman tree abilities (damage absorb, insta-snipe...)

Sniper is hugely fun in PvP. I might even like it more than my BH and that's saying a lot. They sure as heck aren't weak.

1. They have two viable pvp specs, not one.
2. Their DPS is still amazing, even if it's not the absolute top.
3. The operatives/scoundrels, the assassins, and the marauders have pretty much the same ability to survive.
4. There are three pvp armor sets to choose from, and you can mix and match them if you wish. How are they horrible?

It just sounds like you don't understand the class much at all.

How you are suppose to play with group when you need to stop for few seconds to pop cover, cast some 1,5 - 2,5 seconds skill then cast 2-3 other skills that are bound to the first one to be effective to maintain burst and still hope that your group or enemies will be near you? Rly, in most cases (WZs) enemies break LoS or they are on top of you if you somehow manage to do significant damage. Cover mechanic is a handicap IMO not bonus.
As some said earlier it really doesn't protects you from anything except few absorbs or CC immunity if you want to waste GCD to cast it. Typical rotation after popping cover uses like 4-5 skills which (depending on buffs/alacrity value) may take up to 6 secs + few GCDs and in that time you will break your root/stun on target, the target will prolly stun you or pull you out of cover and finally will be on top of you doing 10x more damage then you. Not to mention, as said before, that in some cases 2-3 of your abilities will be mitigated.
I play SS gunslinger and what I mostly notice is absorb, absorb, absorb then crit or two for like 2-3k and Return to medcenter. And that's on light armored target FFS! I don't have bad gear for PvP and I try to play with group but I can't expect that my group will stay around me and guard/heal/wait for me to do my job, right? SS/gunslinger is more like turret with no purpose.

The energy regen is.....1 more per second(out of 100).

Wooooooooo

Oh, Hutball protip for snipers:

Don't kill people unless you really have a good reason to. I just shoot everyone down to about 20% health and switch targets. They kill our ball carrier, the ball goes to someone with 20% health, bam, dead, we get the ball back.

Healers I will look for and aim to kill, and ball carriers of course, but most other people I aim to wound and leave mostly dead. My ideal setup is a bunch of bad guys with a sliver of health each. (This also avoids sending them back to their spawn, where they will meet your ball carrier going the other way...)

Yea that is a big problem. They really need to either

1. change damage type the class does
2. up the damage to compensate

Nothing worse then firing off a casted shot only to see absorbed. I run from heavy armor wearers because our damage is mitigated big time because of this issue.

I crack up when I end up in melee range and my shiv ( melee attack ) is doing more damage then most of the ranged shots I have.

Plus the cover system is..wonky. Along with the fact I have to be in cover to do anything worthwhile. Like my knockback, I have to be in cover..while other classes run around and do it, I have to take an extra GCD to get my KB off.

Up the damage, change the damage, increase our max range to 40m, remove cover only requirement on some of our abilities

1. Marks is the only pvp spec. Operatives pull of lethality a LOT better than snipers because of stealth.

2. Their DPS is burst, so no, its not amazing. Its extremely low overralll and inconsistent. ALSO IN PVP it gets mitigated like 2-3 times for tanks.
3. Exactly, the same one with consistent dps.
4. ALL the amor sets look like junk.


But hey, be blind mr wk.

Like I said, it's obvious you don't understand how to manage your energy, and therefore play your class.

Oh, now I get it. The armor LOOKS bad. lol oh well yeah, then I agree. Obviously the class is complete junk because the armor looks bad. Woe is us.

In fact, lethality is complete garbage for Operatives and actually decent for Snipers. Mixing DoTs with a class that relies on burst damage and ability gates didn't go over so well.

The biggest help is getting you out of the rut. When you run your energy down and are regenning slowly, that +1 per second is HUGE. It also keeps you out of the rut a little bit longer.

The Powertech ability that auto-vents 8 heat every 6 seconds is just as huge for the same reason. Keeps their gun out of the "high heat rut" a little longer and gets them out of it much faster than normal. It's a big impact.