[Guide] How to Avoid Death by BASR and Other Sniper Avoidance Tips

Some relevant video footage on how to handle snipers.

Switching empires for reconnaissance is something that I do not consider "fair" gameplay. But seeing as you do not actually mean that, I can understand the sarcasm/joke in there. Sniping just random targets in an inefficient shadow of what it is supposed to be. Snipers should aim for high priority targets before taking pot shots at anything they see. Can it be undone by a Medic? Yes, that is why you have to shoot them first. I was ambiguous as to whether or not it was LR sniping or mid-range CQC sniping. You just assumed that I meant LR sniping as that is the most common. Seeing as you probably play medic most of the time, you are a huge help to the team by shortening the time spent getting back to the battlefield and reviving the Heavy soldiers that are MAXes. You are a support class, so are snipers.

Snipers take out HVTs and whittle down normal infantry forces. Medics keep infantry forces up and aim to be the last man standing at the end of the day. Are there KDR padders in the ranks of snipers? Yes. Are there farmers in the ranks of Medics? Yes. It all comes down to preferred play style. Even so, this thread was created to give meaningful advice on how to not get shot by snipers. You have to keep moving, and be aware (I should have added the last one... OP can only be edited within thirty minutes of posting).

I personally find LA and HA classes that just throw themselves at the enemy (LA skirts around but still the same basic purpose) less than useful. The definition of insanity (props to Vaas for this) is to do something multiple times and expecting a different result. I play LA and I skirt around the edges of the battle taking down targets as I see fit (hence Assault) instead of going in guns a-blazing. That is my style of play and I expect the same result each time, death. Either to me or to my enemies. Its an interesting playstyle to say the least. Anyway, that carried on longer than I expected but I find the comment interesting as this a guide for avoiding snipers, not how to snipe.

OHK's within 300m, we're not just dealing with the odd sniper here anymore, there's going to be loads of them.

We open a new era of Campside 2. The only saving grace is there's no prone.

yeah, and all snipers gib you the moment you start to hipfire. If you are hipfiring chances are you are indoors or in a maze of buildings and cover where snipers don't have good LoS. And if you slow down aren't you also easier to hit by pray and spray weapons too? They have it much easier as they don't require headshots and the barrage of bullets doesn't care about individual near misses, number of bullets and probability take care of everything. The only thing that is legitimately problematic is terminal use and that's why as a sniper I don't use sniper bait terminals for anything but replenishing my warez with E double tap.

Yes, you bring up an excellent point. This is where I really regret not mentioning situational awareness even though I would imagine it is implied. If you see corpses in front of a terminal, assume that terminal is not safe. If you are the first sniped, at least your body might serve as a warning. Normal battlefield conditions such as gunplay also slow you down, but not always enough to make you an easy OHK. Even so, a true sniper will aim to kill HVTs and not common combat classes. But your point is valid and a very good one.

EDIT: Thanks for being relevant to the discussion instead of complaining as many others have.

I made a comment in another thread, even quoted favorably by SOE that to figure out how to beat something, is to play it. You haven't done this. If you did you would know that a silencer at 300M means you're mortar firing those rounds because of the excessive drop it puts on them.

People don't like snipers for the same reason they don't like A2AM. It causes stress and panic. Many simply don't like the sense of dread either one of these mechanics evoke, even though the effectiveness of such isn't as great as the psychological effect. So they go back to what modern NA/EU/AU culture has taught them, blame the system instead of adapting.

There are sheep and there are wolves. Wolves thrive in the emotions and adrenaline of a hunt. Sheep panic and run. Which do you all wish to be?

I now just believe that snipers are just trolls because they know full well how cheesy it is and how people will get pissed off.

So about 3 medkits and a revive to get within firing distance of a sniping location, before they are able ohk him post-patch. Also, his zig-zaging was when he was being fired on by a Sunderer, and didn't do squat for him the first time he was killed, when he was shot by a sniper.

I see this progressing in one of two directions. Either the influx of render range snipers will cause SOE to realize what a bad idea this was, or the PS4 launch will give rise to a new wave of sniper complaints about how it's too hard to land a headshot at 300m and that they should be able to ohk on bodyshots too.

This is not good gameplay and why the 300M thing is "mentally deficient".

And because of how pissed off people get, makes them effective weapons. If everyone held their discipline and didn't panic, those weapons wouldn't be nearly as effective.

An angry or paniced opponent is making mistakes. Mistakes equate to being mitigated. Having your threats mitigated ensures victory. Think about it. A lone sniper pisses off 12 people. ONE person just rattled 12 people. If they are at 75% effectiveness because they are 'trolled', it effectively turned the battle into a 9v11 for the snipers team if speaking squad vs squad.

Then why can't other weapons do this?

Um im going to separate what you said to try get my point across clearly.

-----If you are hipfiring you are most likely inside a building
Yes thats true and if you are outside the building you are probably ADSing which makes you even slower than hipfiring. I fail to see the point you were trying to make with this.
------If you slow down you are easier to hit with pray and spray weapons too
True. The point i was trying to get across is that everything you do in this game will require you to slow down. I didn't mention spray and pray weapons. Because of this, telling someone to constantly move is like telling him to log out.. there will come a time where you have to slow down

I suppose increasing situational awareness would prevent being sniped. I agree with all other points you have presented and good job making this thread. I usually like to counter-snipe as i find it the most effective due to my knowledge of his location.

300m OHKs were a think from launch through vehicleside where everyone was wearing flak all the way until a few months ago when the meta changed to infantryside.

Funny enough, they were never a big issue. I wonder why they became one all of the sudden..

WTH are you talking about? this is a game, if in a game 80% of the population is constantly pissed by the other 20% THEY WILL LEAVE THE GAME, because games are supposed to be FUN, this is not RL. your not facing a firing squad if you refuse to play, you just leave and go play another game

Anytime i kill Infiltrators while they're stealthed, It is always a guess.

I suggest moving every time you stealth, And not running in strait lines, Just because you can go invisible doesn't mean your safe.

wtf? he pretty much soloed the damn spot and it was not all snipers. He was killed by the sniper only when other enemies already cut into his hp. What was the sniper accuracy in this clip? 5%? All that whizzing bullets and he got hit once when he stopped. And if he ESF-ejected there instead of pushing through hundreds of meters of open terrain, it would be all over in 20seconds.

strawman. The game started with OHK up to rendering range and people complained when the powercreep took it away, permanently weakening already weak class.
Besides, nobody will ever notice render range snipers when everybody will be owned within 100m by the rock steady sas-r and friends. Render range snipers were, are and always will be a marginal thing.

Because they are not specialized for it. Snipers can, as beautifully worded in Taemien's posts, cause people to preform at a lower level. This especially affects aggressive players as now they have to play more cautiously. Can't think of a weapon that makes you want to tear your hair out? Lasher is great at making people panic (not really that good at killing though), MAXes in general, C4, Conc grenades, smoke grenades, and just about every other tool can do this. Snipers are just good at doing it at long range.

The infiltrator isn't as weak as it was before. Nanoarmor cloak was buffed, various suit slots that are very viable for the infiltrator class were buffed or had their cert costs reduced (i.e: ASC), they have access to other weapons besides BA/SA SRs, and they (and allies) can see enemies pinged on by their darts from a further distance while getting exp. from it.

Really? Because when he died at 1:12, he was at full health and got widdled down to 0 by a sniper. I'm not talking about the Infiltrator he was firing on, whose tracers didn't look like they were that of SR. I mean the other Infiltrator who sniped him down from the hill further back, that he later reached. While he did kill all those snipers on his own, a cqc fight between a sniper and full auto weapon has never been a point of contention. The issue is what it took for him to even get within range of firing on those snipers; 3 medkits and a revive.

If you don't move you have more problems than snipers so "moooove, *****" is generally a good idea.
My point is that most people seem to be fixated on a theoretical perfect play that should allow you to always come up on top no matter the situation. Somehow snipers are a bad thing violating this concept, all while harassers, tanks, esfs, liberators and maxes take a dump on infiltrators on a daily basis and we are expected to take it like men. B-b-but cloak! Yeah, it is so good against a hovering scout ESF with 200m radius or a proxy radar harasser that closes the hundred m gap in 3 seconds and with a permanent dot on the minimap you are dead even if you don't know it yet.

This game always will be about managing probabilities, it is your choice to ADS in the open knowing you might get owned by a sniper. If their side has snipers shooting ADSers and other snipers and your side does not then they were simply smarter and it's a l2p issue.

Is sniping is perfectly safe? Don't you have to move when cloak-sniping? Countless infs died thinking they are safe because they cloaked after the shot, only to find their brain splattered all over the place because some smart countersniper shot at their last position.

my mistake, i remembered the situation wrong.