Sniper SmokeScreen, Enforcer Turtling, and more!

A longer backflip distance wouldn't fix the issue I mentioned AT ALL. As I've said TIME AND TIME AND TIME AND TIME AND TIME AND TIME AGAIN, Sniper's biggest fault is that he REQUIRES lots of space to fight, but sometimes (OFTEN times), the game forces you to fight large mobs in small spaces, like any of the myriad of tiny ledges in the Arctic stage. More piercing wouldn't fix this either, as the issue here is being exposed to enemy attacks every second ON the second, and Sniper has to sit STILL to do any decent damage.

 

Better piercing would still be a huge QoL increase for sniper though, especially if that nigh useless default attack could. That one bullet you manage to fully charge against 30 enemies would feel a lot better if it actually killed them all.

What if sniper drone could attack/be affected by arms race?

 

Oh, no doubt. I'd love to see Sniper have some more piercing, especially on Steady Aim. It's a bit annoying to fire into a large crowd and only have, like, 3 or 4 mobs hit at all. I mean, I guess it's just a very minor gripe, but still one I'd like as a QoL improvement.

That'd be interesting, but I wouldn't call that a good fix. That's more of an item-related fix. I want to see Sniper able to deal with these situations by himself without the help of an Item, just because practically every other character CAN and it's ridiculous.

 

mh, attacking drone would be interesting, if it would level up with your character.
but it would still not fix his problem to deal with the "endgame", large masses of enemys who can shoot back, while he cant avoid them like other classes

 

UPDATE: Added someone's suggestion that PROTECT AND SERVE should be able to cancel immediately.

I agree so hard that my approval turned into a goddamn DIAMOND. It's bad enough that Protect and Serve has hitbox issues, but then you have to WAIT to CANCEL it? Thereby FORCING you to take damage from enemies behind you? ESPECIALLY if it was an accidental press!? That's even more bullshit than the Sniper's issues, and boy do I love gripin' about my Sniper...

 

Sniper is my main. I love him, but he needs something a little extra.

AGREE WITH YOU GUYS:
Move his charge shot up to his basic attack, keep perfect reload.

MY TwO CENTS:
This is the extra ability he is lacking, which also fits with his concept:
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HOVER PLATFORM - ~10 sec cool-down. While in mid air the sniper deploys his hover platform. The sniper may remain stationary as long as he pleases. Floating comfortably to line up his boss shots over the heads of all those Parents. The platform disappears when the Sniper moves off the platform, and the ability goes on cool-down once the platform is gone.

This platform allows you to line up your epic boss shots easier; escape shitty situations to take a breather and wait for your Backflip to come off cool-down; save your coop allies with a handy place to stand; grants you the ability to reach chests you wouldn't be able to without a Jetpack, giving you a much needed edge on items acquisition; and making sniper more viable to play and have in your coop team.

(The hover platform could also have a descent rate, slowly lowering to the ground over the duration. Allowing even more skill and versatility when lining up your shots. Most of the time when I play sniper, I am cursing that there isn't a platform at a certain location. Never again if I get to bring my own. I can be proud of my skill, even if eight Parents spawn two inches from my face.)​

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SHOT PENETRATION:
Many people complain about how his charge up shot does not penetrate everything in the universe. Perfect Reloads penetrating everything is interesting. However, seeing how easy it is to line up a Perfect Reload, that would be way too powerful.

My suggestion: Utilize his targeting drone (which is already awesome). If the shot is going to hit your "target droned" enemy, it will penetrate all enemies up until the shot connects with your "droned" target, without damage tapering off. Then the usual tapering occurs for all enemies beyond your "target droned" enemy. Reducing the damage for each enemy hit after the "droned" target. This allows the player to utilize more skill, when lining up shots. Skill is what the Sniper is all about, not bongo-jumping up and down, pooping mines.

"Target drone" the slow boss; lure away the mobs with you; backflip; charge up; snipe through the mobs, dealing full damage to the boss and the mobs, allowing you to do what you were meant to do.

(Also, I am pretty sure that the sniper will crit EVERY SINGLE ENEMY in his charged up line, if one enemy in that line is targeted with the drone. I could be wrong though.)

 

How about dropping an explosive, like a grenade, when using backflip?
Something else I've thought of is allowing the Sniper to temporarily use his drone as a floating platform. It could last for only a few seconds or until using an attack.

 

hover platform sounds interesting - but still...how should he deal with larger groups that can shoot or outrun him?
he would still die, he could avoid them, but he could not shoot back like all the other classes.
the target droen idea sounds interesting, way better than the slow-effect that it currently has.

 

Maybe the sniper needs a melee attack.
So, get rid of his current regular attack and replace it with Steady Aim (sans cooldown). Then add a melee attack, like a tactical knife, or something. Maybe a sword cause that would be cool.
The melee attack could work similarly to Acrid's X ability.

 

The Hover Platform is an okay idea, but it doesn't do anything about what I feel is the Sniper's main weakness.

Being able to jump up to a different platform doesn't help him take care of large crowds in tight spaces (again, what I feel is the one impossible situation that makes Sniper almost unplayable solo). It might help on those maps where the tight spaces are in mid-air, but otherwise, I would still MUCH rather he have the SmokeScreen.

Now, in other news...

Now THIS I like, but I think being able to crit on every enemy except the one being tracked would be juuust a bit much.

 

I'm pretty sure too, and I like the suggested penetration tweak. Also would it be really too much to ask if his drone didn't have a million year cooldown?

 

-Give him something like : "Time-Warp Grenade", grenades that create a massive slowing field in an area, but do no damage.
-Make Back-flip reset on kills
-Give him the ability to aim up and down when charging his Take Aim, and give it the ability to fire through walls. If the Engineer's rockets can, why not him. This eliminates the need for him to be on the same level as his enemies, and gives him vastly increased position options.
-Replace the drone wit something more useful/more fun . It's a boring ability that you can't directly control.

 

It sounds like a nice suggestion, but I think the Sniper's inability to aim and punch through walls was most likely a balancing factor, and one I can't say I disagree with entirely. He might be a bit OP if he could shoot through walls and aim.

Granted, it would take care of his inability to fight large crowds in small spaces if he can snipe them from an oddly-located platform, but infinite piercing with no obstructions would remove essentially all possibility of danger to a Sniper. This would make it substantially better than Engi's Thermal Harpoons because the Thermal Harpoons ability DOESN'T pierce enemies, and doesn't NEARLY do as much damage to as many mobs as a fully charged STEADY AIM can do (and if STEADY AIM is made into the Sniper's default attack like many are suggesting, including me, it won't have a cooldown). At best, Thermal Harpoons can one-shot a single weak mob like a Lemurian or a Jellyfish...
I love my Sniper, but I don't want him to be OP or anything, I just want him to be able to function at around the same level as anyone else...

 

@DJFlare84 I totally agree with all of the said suggestions!!

 

Why sankyoh. Anything you'd like to add?

 

hmm... Is there a method for the Sniper to see if he reloaded perfectly? If not, I would welcome a special sound, which would be played if you reloaded perfectly.
Sometimes that reload thingy gets on the edge of the white bar and I'm always not sure if that counts as a perfect reload :/

 

There is, it's a sharp , swoosh sound. It's what I rely on, I don't even look at the bar anymore

 

Like Futurehero says, there's a sound effect that plays when you get a perfect or even a near-perfect reload. It kinda sounds like some kind of warping sound. If you stop the reload bar in the black areas, no sound effect will play. If you stop it in the WHITE area (perfect reload), you'll hear a loud one. If you stop it in the purple area (good reload), it'll be the same sound but not as loud.

And yeah, if you stop it kind-of on the edge of the white area sometimes it counts as perfect or not perfect.

 

I agree with DJFlare, why compare it to thermal harpoons?
Thermal harpoons are SUPPOSED to go through walls like any other missiles.
In addition to that, the Engineer is forced to sit immobile for a long period of time while he fires all his missiles.
It would make more sense to compare to Huntress's T boomerang, which homes in on enemies, can be thrown while running AND goes through walls.

The only problem with this is that the spotter goes to the strongest enemy, and usually the strongest enemy is slow moving or a completely random enemy which is not even close to the front.

 

These are the changes I would personally like the most:

Enforcer (already suggested, just confirming):
Remove the deactivation cooldown: The way it works now is very clumsy and unreliable. There are too many circumstances the shield is useless: Flyers, AoE attacks, enemies still able to move behind you regardless of a wall, hitbox glitches. I need to be able to reposition myself quickly in a game where movement is so important.
The positioning delay should remain though, this is a cool mechanic; it forces you to be tactical and choose the right spot and moment to use Protect and Serve.

Sniper:
Snipe: This skill should just instantly kill 1 enemy if you do a perfect load, except for bosses (and maybe elites). Resize the white area, or adjust the trigger speed to balance if necessary.
Spotter: First it selects the strongest enemy, then keep pressing V to cycle through all the onscreen enemies (from strongest to weakest). Now when you use Snipe you will take out the targeted enemy (if you have line of sight), even if he is standing at the back of a crowd. It fits the theme of the character and enables you to kill key enemies.

Military Training (backflip): Make it drop a stun or slow grenade. This will give him a little bit more time in tight spaces. Adjust the skill cooldown or grenade's stun/slow time to balance when necessary.