I haven't invested a single cert or SC in implants, I still can afford to run regen rank 2 or any other implant at all times, as well as craft new implants while doing so. In no way implants are pay to win. It may take you a week or two to get the implants you want, and if you're in a hurry you can waste certs/SC on them. Maybe it's different for snipers, who - rightfully so - usually have low SPM, if it affects implant drop rate at all.
I am a an auraxium member, which means I make moar exp everytime I get some, but not more often. I already have most lv2 implants and 2 Lv3, only by crafting them and playing. No certs/SC put in, I just loot them. So you can make them easily. But, I think you were outplayed in this particular situation. Truly, your only way out for you was to change the way the fight was happening. If it all comes down to who holds breath longer, and you are not that guy, you have to change the way the fight occur, close the distance, or things like that. I know it's easier said than done but it's the only way.
That makes them hard to aquire not pay to win. The paying aspect simply skips the hassle of earning them, you could argue that is pay to win but in any case an implant doesnt guarantee victory, its not like the 'Premium Ammo' in world of tanks. Also how would you know the diff between some1 who earns theirs (like me and you), and some1 who buys all of them? Heck you could have faced off against a BR20 who just earned their first implant and charge. If they are giving an unfair advantage above what is intended then they need to be looked at but i dont believe them to be p2w, infact very few of them offer any advantage at all beyond your own awareness.
I agree with zaspacer, longer hold breath can help a lot in antisniper duty, though maybe not much in duels proper. Good snipers tend to be really mobile and literally blink for a fraction of second to fire and bail from the spot asap. If you want to assassinate such a guy, you pretty much have to be already aiming where you expect him to show up and hope for the best. You won't nail him down if you are counting on being fast enough following 'normal' sniping procedure, because if he makes a prepared shot with minimal exposure, your shot needs to be even faster which pretty much requires preparation in advance too. Obviously longer hold breath improves your chances of hitting the window of opportunity.
Well at least the dual gave the sniper infiltrators something to do in-between waiting for actual players to stand still.
Yep those 3 characters are mine, including a few other deleted ones. My sniper kills: SASR = 2166 Bolt Driver = 590 Parallax = 1189 XM98 = 611 And probably another 1000 or so on other characters that were deleted due to the 3 slot limitation. You have (rounded up) 2000 kills with the Parallax and 900 with XM98. I don't really consider the specter a real sniper but if you want to add it, its 865 more. I do have more time played as infiltrator than you, albeit only a little I got a bit missled by the 111 score per hour i guess. We all spam recon darts. my point isn't to bash stats here, if it was my goal, I would point them out one by one as I am known to do in some threads. All I'm saying is that, take it from a player who's been more successful overall. I don't really know how to say it else. Then again, you can keep on whining about implants, but it won't change much. It's a short and easy way to get the point across. I could go on a 10 000+ word guide on what's what, and the reasons behind every choice I make or every statement I say. But that would be long, painful, and I don't feel like doing so for someone I don't know. Instead, I prefer to give the result, and just link it up to some stats that say "That guy might have an idea of what he's saying".
actually i have nano cycled several of the rank 2 hold breaths that he used in his example. i want the radar immunity implant for my heavy assault, being able to tank hunt without being detected by any forms of radar! it almost seems like cheating. but back to the core argument: it is a basic combat principle that the person who fire accurately first is more likely to win. the hold breath implants are like training wheels, yes they would be good early on while you are still learning, but if you intend to do anything against upper tier players those implants are at best going to just burn your energy. OR you could pick up an SMG and actually help your team.
I would disagree with the OP, sniper duels are won by the other player making mistakes. Either they stand still too long or cloak and move predictably and you get that magic hackusation for killing someone cloaked. Conversely, they are lost when you make a mistake. Most duels end before they begin- sniping someone who isn't paying attention and let's themselves get spotted and sniped. Hold breath is for farming bads who stand still in a more efficient manner. It's not for countersniping, and certainly not p2w
Dang OP I don't even hold my breath at all. If you play with sniper rifles enough you would know that the rifle sway is the same exact pattern all the time, it is so easily countered. If you can move your mouse down during sustained fire to counter kickback then you can move your mouse in a figure eight while aiming.
At my skill level and class preference and playstyle, I am finding myself unable to maintain an active Level 1 Implant 100% of the time. Currently I am spending all my non-ESF time without using Implant Energy, so that I can have enough Energy to run Enhanced Targeting 100% of the time I am in my ESF. (which is somewhere around half my time) I appreciate that YOU are able to sustain constant implant usage. And that for someone at your skill level, class preference, and playstyle that Implants are not P2W. But for me, I am unable to sustain constant Implant usage, and I must either pay for Implants usage or spend a chunk of my time not using them in order to store up enough Energy to run a Level 1 Implant roughly half my playing time. I actually don't have a complaint about acquiring the Implants. Though I have not test it, I know that spending time playing will unlock Implants, and I can use those over time to get whatever Implants I want. This is similar to a CCG model like Hearthstone. My complaint is directed specifically at pay vs. play access to Energy resources, and the Energy cost of running Implants. In terms of Sniping duels, I am specifically talking about when 2 (or more) Snipers are zeroing in on each other and trying to knock each other out. This can be 1-on-1 or 1-on-many, but they are all aware of each other and looking to land that kill shot before they can be themselves killed by the other. The person who fires first reveals their position. If I am *really* playing hardball with another Sniper in a Sniper vs. Sniper duel, I will never DeCloak in their field-of-view. In the duel that motivated me to post this, me and the other guy were hunting for each other. I wasn't playing extreme hardball (so I did DeCloak in their field-of-view), and my limited Hold Breath gave him more outs and less narrow variable to juggle in the confrontation. It by no means was a massive decider, but in such a duel where 2 parties are matched evenly in tactics, skill, and weapons, it was a powerful edge to bring to bear. I am not arguing that players can't get access to Implants. I am arguing that some players can only get extended use of Implants through buying Energy. I am not complaining that a low skill player can't use Hold Breath III, I am complaining that they can't use it as long or often as a player of higher skill or who pays. I know solo flying my ESF that Enhanced Targeting is a very big boost to my effectiveness vs. Vehicle and Maxs. In the case of a Sniper vs. Sniper duel, I would definitely use it to give me more trigger time and the ability to Cloak "Tight Aim" camp (Hold Breath and keep target on a specific spot) in anticipation of counter Sniping an Infil who is using Move-DeCloak-Fire-Move/Cloak tactics to limit the time window to be targeted and fired at. Very good to hear Vaphell. Apparently we are the only Snipers who value and sometimes use anticipation aim as a method to counter Snipers employing quick DeCloak-Fire-ReCloak/Move tactics. With that one character, yes. I also have KittensMakingCandles, PlanetTerry, and three other lightly used alts. I know lots of players run alts, so it makes assessing everyone's play stats confusing. I appreciate your trying to help in what you regard to be a matter you feel you have more understanding of. But I do not think you have more knowledge of the Sniper vs. Sniper game at my skill level. I'm very thorough in my study, strategy, and execution. I'm also very open to the tangible input and ideas of others. I have not heard any specific strategies brought to bear in this thread that I either don't already employ, employ better, or are beyond my current hardware setup constraints or skill level constraints. I appreciate the potential results impact of this suggestion. Currently it is not something I have in my arsenal of skills, and is something I recognize is something I should work on in order to up my game. I've tried to work on it a few times, but I need a lot more dedicated Sniper time to get it down. Also, not sure if game sensitivity settings or size of mouse pad area factor in this or not. I know this is a factor in affecting my hipfire/aimed Infantry and ESF aim. Perhaps you can share your settings and mouse pad size situation. I used to work for an SOE sister company and know a lot of people at SOE. One of the only ways that forums can make an impact on changing the game is through a high and consistent volume of complaints on a specific issue. That's just the way it works. I'm "that guy" who spawned and parked that main front, fallback, or 2nd front Sunderer everyone is now using. The guy who swtiched to AA and moved into enemy territory to drive back the ESF/Lib units poaching our units. The guy doing Spotting duty in an ESF to light up enemy weakpoints or threatening spearheads on the flank, and running Picket duty on the flanks. The guy doing Recon Dart duty to light up the path to the Cap or a weakpoint in the enemy Siege. The guy who sits in a Flash with Scout Radar below a Bio Lab so our side has pefect radar and can hold off forces of numbers greter than our own. The guy who switched to Sniper to knock out AV Engineers, AV Infantry, neutralize Snipers playing havoc on our position, or push the enemy Defenders off a Tower face. The guy who spawns a Auto Scout Rifle or SMG and then stealths into entrenched enemy Sniper nests to clean them out. Sometimes I just mess around mindlessly, but when I am not, I will pull a Sniper Rifle, SMG, or whatever else is the tool to get the job done.
Glad you're taking this as I meant it and not as some kind of rant. Well, I won't do much here except tell you a little strategy. You said you don't know a strategy that you "don't already employ, employ better, or are beyond my current hardware setup constraints or skill level constraints." So here's one. And this works for anything. Pick up your empire specific CQC BASR meaning in your case: Ghost (SAS-R or TSR-4) Simply run in a little bit of a hard pattern, towards the person, cloaking and uncloaking as needed. As soon as you see them uncloaking, strafe one way, ADS on their head and shoot (or a quick dragshot would do). If you can do this with sufficient speed, you will win about any encounter you can get, including snipers encounters. This one might be above your skill level to pull off consistently, but I'm sure you can work it out if you're dedicated.
Thanks Jawarisin! I have almost zero experience with <6x Scope BASR's, and this feedback will help me a lot in that area. I will definitely try it out. What is the recommended loadout(s) for the CQC BASR?
But how would you know the diff between some1 who pays and some1 who doesnt? This is what makes it not P2W in any way for me.
Ye some need looking at. I also think the fact that you can swap them out at any time (equip terms are only ever 15 seconds away) is a bad move, PS1 had a seperate terminal for implants that was only available at the sanctuary and Bio labs, this meant you couldnt just swap out your implant for one more fitting of your environment instantly at any fight. I much prefered the old stamina mechanic with the toggle on / off implants aswel but o well.
I don't snipe often, but I never found hold breath implant any use because I only hold my breath to take a shot then release, the sway on most rifles is neglectable to guide the scope to the target- if you use the Railjack, you really don't need hold breath that often. BTW I haven't even bothered recharging the implant ever since the first charge ran out even though I have a stack of 16-20 of them.
I don't think implants are P2W at all. It's true they're a bit harder to come buy ever since they lowered the droprate. But it's still very doable to get them all by just playing. Same goes for energy. Craft a supercharger from implants you don't really like or use. A supercharger should last you a while. And having Hold Breath III is not as big as an advantage in sniper-duels as you make it out to be. Personally I use Battle-Hardened on most of my close-medium range sniperbuilds. Enhanced Targeting on my longrange build.
You probably lost a sniper duel, because he was either more experienced or had better luck. Good snipers dont need that Hold Breath implant, because it usually doesn't need more than 0.5-1 sec to adjust to a headshot, even on 300m distance. Adjust crosshair while breathe in and the shot comes right after - that how it works. If you can't do that right now, get some practice.
I assume since you're countersniping you're using a bolt action, in which case Hold Breath is terrible. You shouldn't be holding breath for more than a quarter of a second to finalize your aim before firing, and you should be ducking and weaving and cloaking between shots long enough that you don't really worry too much about the threshold. The only time you should use a Hold Breath implant is if you're using a semi-auto and doing some sustained fire at close/mid range, which is rare because doing so will usually get you shot. If you lose a sniper duel, it's probably not because of Hold Breath. Now Sensor Shield, that's a game-changer, and you could complain about that. Or EMP Shield, which means you can throw EMP grenades at your feet with impunity and makes you a CQC monster with grenade bandolier and a high-capacity SMG (or levels the playing field when you're forced to use a pistol). Enhanced Targeting is a great optionBut Hold Breath is a crutch and should be avoided at all costs.
