Sniper Rifle Accuracy Varies Wildly

[dirtyklingon]

seems to be more of a hitbox and delay issue than an accuracy issue.

bolt action rifles have a noticeble delay from when you click to when you fire, which isfurther impacted by unscoping as soon as you click for example. it's a bit tricky to account for at the best of times.

further more hitboxes on mobs don't always line up with their model.


as well i've noticed that there seems to be a hard distance cap on hitting things. it doesn't matter if you've got a hs lined up on that rocket raider, if you're too far away it's just not going to register a hit at all. you can even line it up on his body and it won't do anything.

[Weirdkid]

I haven't had this issue. But I've only been using unmodded bolt action snipers. There are times when I'm right next to an object when I fire and it hits that object instead. I just take a step over and fire again.

[Dazz]

I use this one and its dead-nuts on every time. Not enough dmg to take out dark matters over in San Fran, but it will one-shot, one-kill the heck out of almost any other non-boss humanoid with a clean head shot.

[Zewks]

Notice the same thing here when sniping. Its most obvious when you go to snipe an enemy who isnt aware you are even there, who is just standing there. You line up your shot, calm, precise, steady... bam.... total miss. Even thought your crosshairs were dead center.

On a side note, the frustration of sniping missing despite my aim being true lead me to sometimes pull out another random weapon to use out of frustration. In groups, im finding that sniper rifles are sub par. Both in efficiency AND in damage. Why snipe and get headshots for 4000 when there are other automatic weapons than can score just as much damage with just body shots hitting multiple times. Ive got an auto pistol that hits for about 600 per shot. Its pretty accurate too. I can easily get 10 rounds to hit for a nice 6000 total damage in the time id get 1 head shot. In the fast paced forward motion of groups, especially in dungeons, your group often moves forward killing stuff so quickly that you barely have time to snipe more than a few times anyway.

Im only around EGO 300, but it seems like for group play, sniper rifles are both sub par in damage, and in efficiency. For solo play, its great, 1 hit, 1 kill. With the added number of enemies and increased health however, the slow rate of fire of a sniper rifle is pretty much making you the weakest link in the group. Before you sniper fans scream at me for even mentioning this, I encourage you to just try out some of the other weapons, specifically some of the high damage automatic weapons. You will be amazed at how much damage they can do, and how efficient they are at killing...

For now, my opinion is that sniper rifles are for solo play only, and for the situational "guy is way over there launching rockets and no one else can hit him" situations in groups. Arkfall event? Be ready to be at the bottom of the damage list, and not be that big of a contribution to the overall success of the event.

Id like to hope it gets better later in the game, but im not keeping my hopes up.

[Solpel]

yup, both sniper rifles and launchers are rather gimp right now in game.

Sniping doesn't do near enough to make up for the ease of killing with lmg/smg/assault and completely useless in mid/close range scenario's(which is 95% of the time due to draw distance). Lets not even get into the instant mob awareness even if you're a long ways off.
Launchers suffer similar issues, while they work fine in mid/close range scenario's their damage is horrible.

Both weapons also have some of the lowest ammunition maximum's, which would be fine if you could one shot anything more then the weakest enemy(and for some enemy types you can't even do that with a bolt action). The grenade launchers also have low ammo, but they've got the punch needed where the ammo amount feels right.

[Dazz]

yup, both sniper rifles and launchers are rather gimp right now in game.

Sniping doesn't do near enough to make up for the ease of killing with lmg/smg/assault and completely useless in mid/close range scenario's(which is 95% of the time due to draw distance). Lets not even get into the instant mob awareness even if you're a long ways off.
Launchers suffer similar issues, while they work fine in mid/close range scenario's their damage is horrible.

Both weapons also have some of the lowest ammunition maximum's, which would be fine if you could one shot anything more then the weakest enemy(and for some enemy types you can't even do that with a bolt action). The grenade launchers also have low ammo, but they've got the punch needed where the ammo amount feels right.

I have to agree with you there. Sniping is entertaining when you sneak up on a quest target and pop a few bad guys before you really enter the fray, but after you've gotten a couple, the waves come and sniping is pretty useless.

[Zewks]

I have to agree with you there. Sniping is entertaining when you sneak up on a quest target and pop a few bad guys before you really enter the fray, but after you've gotten a couple, the waves come and sniping is pretty useless.

If im solo, ive actually learned to handle the normal quest waves of enemy with sniper rifles. Solo, enemies often die from 1 head shot, so If im skilled enough at the time, I can handle things decently. Its when the health of the enemies gets scaled, that sniping becomes rather inefficient. Almost makes me wonder if a lower damage non-bolt action sniper rifle would be better for group situations. Sure, you arent head shotting things for 3k damage, but you can fire round after round without the delay of a bolt action. I might give that a try.

[Ikagawa]

If im solo, ive actually learned to handle the normal quest waves of enemy with sniper rifles. Solo, enemies often die from 1 head shot, so If im skilled enough at the time, I can handle things decently. Its when the health of the enemies gets scaled, that sniping becomes rather inefficient. Almost makes me wonder if a lower damage non-bolt action sniper rifle would be better for group situations. Sure, you arent head shotting things for 3k damage, but you can fire round after round without the delay of a bolt action. I might give that a try.

The semi-auto rifles eat into your meager supply of rounds too quickly.

[Shima]

Notice the same thing here when sniping. Its most obvious when you go to snipe an enemy who isnt aware you are even there, who is just standing there. You line up your shot, calm, precise, steady... bam.... total miss. Even thought your crosshairs were dead center.

On a side note, the frustration of sniping missing despite my aim being true lead me to sometimes pull out another random weapon to use out of frustration. In groups, im finding that sniper rifles are sub par. Both in efficiency AND in damage. Why snipe and get headshots for 4000 when there are other automatic weapons than can score just as much damage with just body shots hitting multiple times. Ive got an auto pistol that hits for about 600 per shot. Its pretty accurate too. I can easily get 10 rounds to hit for a nice 6000 total damage in the time id get 1 head shot. In the fast paced forward motion of groups, especially in dungeons, your group often moves forward killing stuff so quickly that you barely have time to snipe more than a few times anyway.

Im only around EGO 300, but it seems like for group play, sniper rifles are both sub par in damage, and in efficiency. For solo play, its great, 1 hit, 1 kill. With the added number of enemies and increased health however, the slow rate of fire of a sniper rifle is pretty much making you the weakest link in the group. Before you sniper fans scream at me for even mentioning this, I encourage you to just try out some of the other weapons, specifically some of the high damage automatic weapons. You will be amazed at how much damage they can do, and how efficient they are at killing...

For now, my opinion is that sniper rifles are for solo play only, and for the situational "guy is way over there launching rockets and no one else can hit him" situations in groups. Arkfall event? Be ready to be at the bottom of the damage list, and not be that big of a contribution to the overall success of the event.

Id like to hope it gets better later in the game, but im not keeping my hopes up.

You're not wrong, however snipers do have their place in group play as well. There was an event I was doing in SF yesterday where it was basically 'hold this city' against swarms of dark matter (heavily shielded high health opponents who also have special npcs that put up big damage resistant shields). Now as a sniper in one corner of a building facing the courtyard that most of the players were down in 'agroing' everything I was able to pick of a ton of targets that were not going down fast from ranged users and are dangerous in melee (due to the amount of them in the area all focus firing you with their amazing accuracy).

I think in a group situation where the sniper is truly sniping from cover not in the same area as the rest of the group they can really shine. But in like an arkfall? Yea, you're absolutely right.

[jnt]

I routinely get 1 shot kills just hitting the top of the skull from stationary targets. If you have problems with moving targets then you're going to want to take elevation changes into your aim. Aim low if the target is heading towards you, more if you're elevated, etc.