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What is this damage? Snipers are not what i thought they were.


Kaedusz

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Am drunk a little so excuse the rambling.

 

Sniper/GS is the only class i have played post 6.0, since returning to the game 3 weeks ago(first few weeks were leveling), and some things make me scratch my head.

 

Am i missing something from the mix maxing shenanigans post 6.0. because on my new gs/sniper, i have to use a tactical and drop all alacrity and accuracy in order to squeeze out a 50 k from Ambush/Aimed shot.

 

Do i need more weapon expertise/ armor pen affinity or *** is going on here?

 

Mercs doing 40 ks from heatseaking missiles left and right and without tactical, i thought snipers would be doing more damage than this. if i am not paying attention , a sorc can take half my health with his 1,2,3 burst. Not to mentioned pts. An assassin can *********** destroy my hp, if he opens on me and i don't have cds and breakers, or don't wanna bother tryhard him atleast a little.

 

If you relax for just a sec, that's it, you are deleted. Playing a sniper is a tryhard parade.

 

Marksmanship seems more like a sustained damage spec, tbh, not a burst spec, when compared to assassins,sorcs, pts, etc.

 

Was wondering what stats should a min maxed sniper have(marksmanship)?

Edited by Kaedusz
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I'm not entirely sure it's you. I levelled up my sniper alt to 75 and geared myself in optimized gear and found myself getting wrecked in PVP. I went with engineering and the damage felt too weak and the survivability was pretty meh. I don't think the class is at the same power level it was at 70. I think the class may have been left behind in the 6.0 arms race.

 

I will admit that I don't play my sniper often, but perhaps some players with more experience at 75 could confirm my suspicions. It seemed to me like it wasn't worth playing over the other choices for PVP.

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Marksman does play differently now based on how you gear. First, definitely take 105% accuracy and as close to 1213 alacrity without going under as you can get. I'd recommend around 3k-3.2k critical rating, and the rest into mastery.

 

You were used to seeing bigger ambushes more consistently in the past because with the 5.0 era set bonus laze target gave you two charges when activated and had double duration, making the majority of your ambushes in pvp autocrits.

 

This set no longer exists, and was replaced by a weaker version called Precise Targeters. Precise Targeters gives you 3 INITIAL autocrits on ambush, but after those have been used, activating laze target gives you only 1 charge on ambush. The only benefit of this set is you aren't punished for holding laze target past CD if you are stunned or waiting for a burst window, but overall it's a real downgrade and you will have less autocrit ambushes over a 5-10 minute game than you would've with the 5.0 set bonus. Combined with B-O Targeting tactical you can actually hit people for 85-90k a few times per game, but once you've used the initial charges the set offers a nominal dps boost vs no set bonus with slightly easier energy management and a lower CD on laze target.

 

Established Foothold is the overall best sniper set right now for damage, and synergizes much better with Agitating Energies than B-O Targeting tactical. You can still hit 70-75k ambushes with your 1 charge of laze target and the 15% damage boost while Entrenched. Thus, we give up a lot of our 5.0 era burst-focus to gain significant sustained damage with some burst. Marksman with Agitating Energies is basically a much stronger version of virulence for pvp without the dot spread.

 

The Repositioning Set offers no dps boost (unless paired with B-O Targeting) but is the most survivable set, and is good for solo ranked if you are the focus target, and perhaps regs if you are having a tough time surviving - you need to be alive to deal any damage at all.

Edited by EnzoForMe
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You were used to seeing bigger ambushes more consistently in the past because with the 5.0 era set bonus laze target gave you two charges when activated and had double duration, making the majority of your ambushes in pvp autocrits.

I am not used to anything, The last time i was an active pvper in this game was when i was a merc before the big buff for mercs. The buff that gave them epic self heal and reflective healing shield.

Edited by Kaedusz
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Gearing matters a ton with marksman.

 

I don't even get excited about 75k ambush anymore. I only giggle slightly at 80k +, and I only screenshot when it hits over 100k.

 

I'd say my "average" ambush hits for 65k or so on an unguarded target. You have to make sure to use penetrating blasts to sunder the target. Use target acquired for additional armor pen when possible.

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I have 3 snipers and a GS at 75 and i play Virulence with all of them.

I've only started acquiring gear for my main one.

I never worry about large crits, i enjoy wearing people down & I get beat up pretty good by better geared players but i can still hold my own most times. I just enjoy DoT specs more for some reason.

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Wanna survive as a sniper in Regs?

 

-Marksmanship

 

-Repositioning set

-Weapon expertise amplifiers

-286 augments

-B-0 Differential Targeting System

-Use those goddam advanced kyrprax stims you cheapskates

-Seismic Grenades (personal preference, my guildies mock me for having the audacity to use them).

 

-3.2k crit

-1.2k alacrity

-105% accuracy

-Rest into Mastery

 

Combat Proficiencies are personal preference but I run with Ballistic Dampers, Vital Regulators, Lumbering Impact, Seek Cover, Reestablish Range, Series of Snares, Tactical Retreat, Pillbox Sniper and Over-prepared, and I occasionally swap these out to try out different ones but not often.

 

Majority of snipers run with Established Foothold set, which is alright if you have the support of a good team to keep you alive, but the mobility that Repositioning offers with 3 rolls is borderline OP (and it was before they nerfed Imperial Preparation so it no longer resets roll).

 

Benefits of having 3 rolls with Repositioning set?

 

-Roll mitigate’s damage, so if you see a class hardcasting a burst attack then roll and laugh at them, Repositioning lets you do that 3 times in a row if need be.

-Sniper is often a focus target in regs so the increased mobility is amazing when trying to create distance between yourself and a melee class (or even to catch up to someone running away).

-The use for objective play is excellent, especially for Huttball or rushing Voidstar objectives after a door explodes (I’ve snowballed Voidstar matches by triple rolling to the next door and the enemy team can’t catch up in time to stop me for all of the doors).

 

Biggest hit I’ve ever done was a 100K ambush and that was with Repositioning set and I regularly hit 60k-80k ambushes so don’t believe you have to run Established Foothold or Precise Targeters to hit those numbers.

 

Make sure you use Diversion not only to knock other Snipers out of cover but also on yourself, the accuracy debuff is excellent when you’ve got a melee class focusing you.

 

Ballistic shield I tend to use if I feel like I’m gonna take a lot of damage in a short amount of time or my teammate is getting heavy focus but I wouldn’t consider it a vital tool in a Snipers arsenal.

 

Don’t use Suppressive Fire unless you’re interrupting a cap or trying to counteract a Juggs/Mercs reflect, otherwise it’s a complete waste of energy.

 

Target Acquired is handy if the other player pops accuracy debuffs.

 

With all of that I can easily control most other players in 1v1’s with only really good Operatives giving me hassle, and with the 3 rolls I can escape if it turns into a 2v1 that I’m clearly gonna lose.

 

Ofcourse I’ve been playing Marksman Sniper since launch so a lot of the times I find myself instinctually reacting to situations in PvP matches rather than thinking about what to do next, a lot of it is to do with skill with the class.

Edited by Spintrec
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Wanna survive as a sniper in Regs?

 

-Marksmanship

 

-Repositioning set

-Weapon expertise amplifiers

-286 augments

-B-0 Differential Targeting System

-Use those goddam advanced kyrprax stims you cheapskates

-Seismic Grenades (personal preference, my guildies mock me for having the audacity to use them).

 

-3.2k crit

-1.2k alacrity

-105% accuracy

-Rest into Mastery

 

Combat Proficiencies are personal preference but I run with Ballistic Dampers, Vital Regulators, Lumbering Impact, Seek Cover, Reestablish Range, Series of Snares, Tactical Retreat, Pillbox Sniper and Over-prepared, and I occasionally swap these out to try out different ones but not often.

 

Majority of snipers run with Established Foothold set, which is alright if you have the support of a good team to keep you alive, but the mobility that Repositioning offers with 3 rolls is borderline OP (and it was before they nerfed Imperial Preparation so it no longer resets roll).

 

Benefits of having 3 rolls with Repositioning set?

 

-Roll mitigate’s damage, so if you see a class hardcasting a burst attack then roll and laugh at them, Repositioning lets you do that 3 times in a row if need be.

-Sniper is often a focus target in regs so the increased mobility is amazing when trying to create distance between yourself and a melee class (or even to catch up to someone running away).

-The use for objective play is excellent, especially for Huttball or rushing Voidstar objectives after a door explodes (I’ve snowballed Voidstar matches by triple rolling to the next door and the enemy team can’t catch up in time to stop me for all of the doors).

 

Biggest hit I’ve ever done was a 100K ambush and that was with Repositioning set and I regularly hit 60k-80k ambushes so don’t believe you have to run Established Foothold or Precise Targeters to hit those numbers.

 

Make sure you use Diversion not only to knock other Snipers out of cover but also on yourself, the accuracy debuff is excellent when you’ve got a melee class focusing you.

 

Ballistic shield I tend to use if I feel like I’m gonna take a lot of damage in a short amount of time or my teammate is getting heavy focus but I wouldn’t consider it a vital tool in a Snipers arsenal.

 

Don’t use Suppressive Fire unless you’re interrupting a cap or trying to counteract a Juggs/Mercs reflect, otherwise it’s a complete waste of energy.

 

Target Acquired is handy if the other player pops accuracy debuffs.

 

With all of that I can easily control most other players in 1v1’s with only really good Operatives giving me hassle, and with the 3 rolls I can escape if it turns into a 2v1 that I’m clearly gonna lose.

 

Ofcourse I’ve been playing Marksman Sniper since launch so a lot of the times I find myself instinctually reacting to situations in PvP matches rather than thinking about what to do next, a lot of it is to do with skill with the class.

 

I'm working to obtain this set now. How does it work in solo ranked pvp?

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I'm working to obtain this set now. How does it work in solo ranked pvp?

 

In a perfect solo ranked match you will have a knowledgable team that can appropriately support you and keep you healed up, so survivability isn’t as important, in this situation Established Foothold or Precise Targeter might be preferable.

 

However since that is only in a perfect world I would still say Repositioning is excellent for the survivability in solo ranked; I find the 15% damage increase to be negligible if you lack the survivability to last long enough to use it.

Edited by Spintrec
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Wanna survive as a sniper in Regs?

 

-Marksmanship

 

-Repositioning set

-Weapon expertise amplifiers

-286 augments

-B-0 Differential Targeting System

-Use those goddam advanced kyrprax stims you cheapskates

-Seismic Grenades (personal preference, my guildies mock me for having the audacity to use them).

 

-3.2k crit

-1.2k alacrity

-105% accuracy

-Rest into Mastery

 

Combat Proficiencies are personal preference but I run with Ballistic Dampers, Vital Regulators, Lumbering Impact, Seek Cover, Reestablish Range, Series of Snares, Tactical Retreat, Pillbox Sniper and Over-prepared, and I occasionally swap these out to try out different ones but not often.

 

Majority of snipers run with Established Foothold set, which is alright if you have the support of a good team to keep you alive, but the mobility that Repositioning offers with 3 rolls is borderline OP (and it was before they nerfed Imperial Preparation so it no longer resets roll).

 

Benefits of having 3 rolls with Repositioning set?

 

-Roll mitigate’s damage, so if you see a class hardcasting a burst attack then roll and laugh at them, Repositioning lets you do that 3 times in a row if need be.

-Sniper is often a focus target in regs so the increased mobility is amazing when trying to create distance between yourself and a melee class (or even to catch up to someone running away).

-The use for objective play is excellent, especially for Huttball or rushing Voidstar objectives after a door explodes (I’ve snowballed Voidstar matches by triple rolling to the next door and the enemy team can’t catch up in time to stop me for all of the doors).

 

Biggest hit I’ve ever done was a 100K ambush and that was with Repositioning set and I regularly hit 60k-80k ambushes so don’t believe you have to run Established Foothold or Precise Targeters to hit those numbers.

 

Make sure you use Diversion not only to knock other Snipers out of cover but also on yourself, the accuracy debuff is excellent when you’ve got a melee class focusing you.

 

Ballistic shield I tend to use if I feel like I’m gonna take a lot of damage in a short amount of time or my teammate is getting heavy focus but I wouldn’t consider it a vital tool in a Snipers arsenal.

 

Don’t use Suppressive Fire unless you’re interrupting a cap or trying to counteract a Juggs/Mercs reflect, otherwise it’s a complete waste of energy.

 

Target Acquired is handy if the other player pops accuracy debuffs.

 

With all of that I can easily control most other players in 1v1’s with only really good Operatives giving me hassle, and with the 3 rolls I can escape if it turns into a 2v1 that I’m clearly gonna lose.

 

Ofcourse I’ve been playing Marksman Sniper since launch so a lot of the times I find myself instinctually reacting to situations in PvP matches rather than thinking about what to do next, a lot of it is to do with skill with the class.

 

Dude, big thanks for this! I just got the 6 piece Reposition set. Amazing!

 

I don't currently have any augs. I have all of amps set to Armor Pen (I did this before reading). My biggest ambush is 93K. Doing much better in PVP than ever before.

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Dude, big thanks for this! I just got the 6 piece Reposition set. Amazing!

 

I don't currently have any augs. I have all of amps set to Armor Pen (I did this before reading). My biggest ambush is 93K. Doing much better in PVP than ever before.

 

You’re very welcome mate, once you’ve got your augments/amplifiers/stats in place then it really comes down to learning the class and finding your playstyle.

 

Armor Pen still offers a good DPS increase (6.64%) but Weapon Expertise offers a slither more (7.42%) so Armor Pen will do you just fine if you want to stick with it and avoid the amplifier grind for Weapon Expertise.

Edited by Spintrec
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hmm from my experience with snipers in pvp

 

they seem hardly take damage at the onset. takes a good 30 sec or more to tough their health.

 

all the while they are repositioning and kiting you keeping you perma rooted/snared

then winning.

 

cant use gap closes on them as they are invulnable to those.

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...

Thanks for all the advice.

When i created the thread i had the crappiest augments and was not even remotely min maxed with other things. As i said i recently started playing the game again, didn't even know how gearing works post 6.0. In other words the problem was i had bad gear.

Edited by Kaedusz
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Thanks for all the advice.

When i created the thread i had the crappiest augments and was not even remotely min maxed with other things. As i said i recently started playing the game again, didn't even know how gearing works post 6.0. In other words the problem was i had bad gear.

 

Here’s a quick “how to gear up” guide I put together when 6.0 was released. It’s a general guide on how to get to 306 the fastest

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=970390

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Snipers sure have lost quite a bit of burst and engi feels like THE way to go in regs, you can't expect one-two shot everyone like before (and it's a good thing!) but saying that snipers have poor survivability for a dps class is :confused: :confused: :confused:

Snipers who make full use of their defensive/kiting kit is absolutely one of the scariest classes to play against. The only twist to it is that once you're out of cover, you lose. Because of all the resists/resets/knockbacks/rolls, dealing with a sniper is a big commitment if you look at it from the other side - and quite typically, it's seen as not worth it if the sniper is any good. The usual reason for snipers focused and dying before making any big impact is either teams being unbalanced (many other classes have it worse) or teammates being lured away from the sniper's nest and sniper having to run around any much.

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