As a Sniper main, I am always incredibly wary of suggestions to rework their entire kit. When played properly Sniper is nowhere near unplayable on Monsoon, and I feel that many players simply do not "get" how Sniper is played. The Sniper is certainly not a top tier pick in this game, and they require practice and stable 60 fps to get the most out of the kit, which is no fault of the character. That said, there are certain things that beginning Sniper players need to know in order to "get" how the Sniper works:
1) The reload mechanic is there to balance the Sniper's combination of ridiculous damage modifiers and best damage progression per level in the game.
2) The Sniper is, in fact, very mobile as a class. They have the same base movement speed as the game's melee classes (1.4, whilst other ranged classes have 1.3 to start with). Military Training is also a fantastic mobility skill due to the distance it covers.
3) The Sniper's major weakness is lack of crowd control/crowd DPS, and unlike Bandit this is harder to remedy with items due to their slower rate of fire. Because crowds are most commonly caused by a) staying in one place and b) increasing difficulty, the Sniper should always be played with a speedrun mentality in mind. They have the speed and damage to do this reliably for the first three levels, and you'll only need a bit of item luck once you hit 4th level.
4) The Sniper's best skill is Snipe, their "auto-attack." 250% damage, 400+% damage or so on a perfect reload, can be fired almost as fast as you can jump (estimated by one Reddit player to be every 1.4 seconds). It's a "spammable" version of Bandit's Lights Out ability.
5) The Sniper's next best ability is the jump button. You should always be jumping as the Sniper when you aren't using Snipe or Steady Aim. Jumping does these very important things for you:
a) Allow you stay mobile and thus kite enemies efficiently and effectively. Since you can reload in midair, there is no reason to ever reload on the ground when there are enemies closing in on you. Due to the way Snipe and reload mechanics work, jumping barely lowers your overall DPS.
b) Stay safe while reloading. The jump button is the best dodge skill in the game; most enemies cannot hit you in midair, and every character has this fantastic ability.
c) Allow you to hit a perfect reload every single time. Without any Jetpack items, Soldier's Syringes, or frame drops, the height of your basic jump is the exact timing of a perfect reload. This is one of the most important things to master as a Sniper, and anyone who suggests Sniper buffs or reworks who hasn't mastered this needs to do so and rethink their stance.
d) Due to the aforementioned points, Sniper can deal well with smaller crowds using a combination of Snipe and jumping, as long as their damage is enough to thin out their numbers consistently.
6) Steady Aim is a situational skill, and knowing when to use this over Snipe + jump is another important metric of your ability to play Sniper well. Steady Aim's ability to kill crowds is highly dependent on the distance between you and the mobs, the type of enemy in front of the crowd and how much armor it has, if that enemy or anyone behind it has Spotter buddy trained on it or not, and if you have powerful damage boosting items such as Crowbar. You should NEVER have to use Steady Aim without a perfect reload shot ready.
7) As much as players loathe drones as a crutch, there is something to be said for how drones perfectly compliment the Sniper's playstyle of kiting enemies. Sniper drones benefit a lot from their fantastic damage progression, and Laser, Missile, and Flame drones are better crowd control than most items are for Sniper.
Your suggestion is fairly interesting, but to me it feels too far removed from how Sniper currently is, and I honestly think current Sniper is in a fine place. Sniper is not a class everyone can play well, and that is fine.
If I were to make a change to Sniper, I'd change how Spotter works. I'd make it so that it will always train on the closest enemy to your character within a certain radius. Otherwise, it works the same and will target bosses and elites first. This change will make Steady Aim a much better crowd control skill since you can now probably kill more than one or two mobs. For Ancient Scepter, I'd change it so that rather than the trained mob, the other mobs within a small radius are slowed down instead and the trained mob moves at normal speed. This will change how you use Spotter (best used up close --> best used at a distance); the trained mob is now more likely to get ahead of the crowd and thus Steady Aim is a better option.
Last edited: Jan 15, 2015
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