Whenever I test this out in the VR, I notice it takes up to 4 hits just to kill stuff at the ranges I'm used to 1-shotting it with the bolt driver at. I know some would say "just move in closer" to which I say: ....Well, why don't I just Directive grind the Impetus instead? ...infact I'll probably be doing that anyway but that's beside the point.... The point would be.... which will likely happen first???? get 1000 kills with absolutely awful semi auto sniper as a player who was terrible with them in CSS... ? blow 1000 more certs go for the Impetus + LA80 instead for directives instead of Impetus + SPR? ....expect that Wrel's video about KDR will successfully convince the Devs to change how directives are awarded?
Short answer; there is no real way to make it less painful. Long Answer; The semi-auto snipers are some of the worst weapons in the game. The only attempt SOE made at fixing them was so small that they may as well not have touched them. The frustration I had auraxiuming the Impetus made me very bitter about the game for a long time, the SPR was only slightly better because I could sit farther away. If you really want the directive and don't like the semi-autos do yourself a favor and stick with the bolt-actions. The SAS-R, Bolt Driver, LA80, Longshot and Railjack will get you the Moonshot no problem. Any certs you spend on those weapons are well worth avoiding the frustration of trying to work with the semi-autos.
This is a GREAT weapon if you actually use it like a sniper rifle and not some bastardization of a battle rifle or some other half-***** substitution. I can't really blame people for doing this, because it does require you to lose a habit or two that's been driven into you by pretty much every FPS in the last decade, but they're making their weapon suck, and it's giving one of my favorite weapons a bad reputation. I don't expect you to go out and develop a skillset for the weapon, but you'll probably find it a lot less painful to use if you slow down with it. Hopefully that will help get you to a place where you'll be dropping targets with no more than 3 rounds, which is a nice comfortable place to be. Look at it like this: This weapon is not a battle rifle, A DMR, or any thing else. It is a Sniper Rifle. This weapon is your Bolt Driver's sibling. The process of making a shot is the same, and you know how to do that. The only difference is that you know you'll be making follow-up shots, but even so they should never be rushed. Each shot, whether it's the first or the last, should be given the same weight and attention you would a round from a OHK rifle. The basic methodology of a SASR: Pacing and Placing > Spam. First, The rate of fire is a trap! It can be fired rapidly, but that doesn't mean it should. It gives you room for emergencies or luck plays but shouldn't be the norm. When fired rapidly your dealing with heavy recoil and accuracy loss. Luck becomes more important than aim. You miss more, you fire more rounds to make up for them, your already low TTK goes further into the gutter, and you might even run out of breath. At that point everyone probably knows where you are if you manage to kill your target. However, the Gauss SPR has the potential to kill any infantry target with 2 rounds. Though 3 rounds is a nice competitive average. If you're using the weapon properly, you should never need more than that. Opening with a headshot is sniping 101. If you've used a Bolt Driver, you've got this down. Then just finish with 2 easy body shots. That's probably going to be your average engagement, and actually is a pretty comfortable way to do it. But to stress the point of accuracy of bullet count, even if you were to take a second to aim your follow-up for a second headshot and you're STILL dropping your target faster than 4-5 rounds of rapid. Veterens can make their kills faster than most automatic infantry weapons this way. Hope this helped some. Good luck.
Gauss SPR? Forward grip, 8x scope and double tap. It´s one of my favorite NC rifles. And for closer combat, maybe try one HS and one consecutive BS, for quick elimination. But in the end it´s really about headshots.
Nothing you said makes the weapon better at all and it most definitely isn't great. Even if you use it as sniper rifle it's absolutely awful, terrible bullet velocity, terrible damage... It's just an awful scout rifle.
If you're having trouble, use this: Advanced targeting implant + forward grip. that's literally all you need to create the greatest semi-auto sniper rifle ever.
I'd like to hear more about why you prefer the semi-autos to bolt actions. If you lead with a headshot, why bother with the SPR? Now you have to keep shooting when the target would have been dead had you stuck with the bolt driver.
More freedom really. You can engage targets in more ways depending on the situation. I don't like being limited by BASR chamber time, even if it is a OHK. When I'm on a roll I can drop 5 targets in nearly half the time the bolt driver takes to do the same. Then you didn't actually read what I wrote, or at least didn't attempt to understand.
I find that the semi sniper rifles are awesome! They trade that OHK potential for much needed CQB firepower. You can still be effective at medium to long range and even rapidfire enemy flankers at close range with a little luck. I do understand why people have a disconnect between bolts and semi's. It was something I struggled with in BFBC2, but quickly learned how to effectively use them. Plague Rat I like Your style
I know I already replied but I want to go into more detail than I was willing or able to earlier from a cell phone in quiet corner of a Christmas Party. A bolt action is a very specialized weapon. A single round that, when fired, either kills an individual infantry target- success- or does not- failure. It's a tool that does the single function for which it was designed remarkably well, but it hold little weight beyond that beyond that, and that's fine for someone who doesn't really care about engaging outside of that OHK vs infantry scenario. But to me that feels restrictive. I don't like to be shoehorned into one single type of engagement because the situation and combat flow are constantly changing, and I prefer to have a little bit more capability to adapt to it without having to re-deploy or run back to the nearest sunderer/terminal. With the Gauss SPR the OHK is out of the picture, but in return I the ability to make quick follow ups, do more raw damage per magazine should I need it, and the ability to put it on target in a timely fashion. Against individual infantry the BASR wins. No contest really. One bullet means the TTK is instant. Whereas my average double-tap time on my Guass SPR averages between 2/3 and 3/4 of a second. But against multiple targets I can drop one and have rounds aimed and headed downrange before the BASR has even finished it's chamber time. I began to value this after watching many secondary targets get away unscathed during chamber times. Even if I don't get the kill on the secondary having the window to get the that extra shot usually results in critical assist xp a few seconds later, and I made an engagement that much easier for a friend. For me that's a Win-Win. At times I even make wounding targets my priority. Sometimes wounding 10 is more disruptive to enemy momentum than killing 5. They either stop to hide and recover, or press on with only enough health to survive another bullet or two. Not a lot of glory in it, but it's actually pretty gratifying to watch the effects. Then there's MAXes. I hate the way it feels to engage them with a BASR, and I know many don't bother beyond harassment, especially if they have an engineer on hand behind cover. But in terms of raw damage output the Guass SPR can do more total damage per mag and get it on target in less time. I've scrapped MAXes before with both rifle types and I just find it to be less rarity and more reality with the SPR. So I just all around find the SPR allows me to engage in the battle in more ways than the BASRs, and I just care more about that than picking off individual targets with OHKs.
Except if you go with Tsar/SAS-R/Ghost. You can line 2-3 shots in reasonable time on target OR one-shot them in the head. I have the same dilemma how to make 99SV less painful. I still don't know which TR semi auto sniper sucks the least to auraxium (I'm only left with 99SV, TRAP or KSR). Maybe senpai Mustarde can help if he reads this?
Eh, the SAS-R is only a tenth of a second faster on the chamber time over the Bolt Driver. It's not a big difference. The refire is still longer than a second, which while absolutely understandable on OHK weapon, still presents a big limit for working beyond that narrow BASR tactical niche. I always felt the lack of sway (once they removed it) was more of a selling point on that one anyway. As far as what rifle to work with for your directive I'm no Mustarde, but it might help to ask yourself which of those weapons you might realistically use again. Lets face it, on the path to 1000 kills you're going to build some measure skill with it, so it might as well be something you might use again if the situation arises. When I play TR I tend to use the TRAP as a alternative/replacement for the auto-scout. Since our arsenal doesn't have a lot going for it in terms of combat savy weapons beyond SMG range, that might be something worth considering. But if you're not feeling that, I'd say go for the KSR over the 99SV if it's not going to start making regular appearances in your loadouts. It's just simpler to build familiarity with the KSR since you don't have to worry about sway, and therefor don't have to get comfortable placing multiple shots during the 4 second steady window. It's not worth putting in the effort for a skill if you're never going to use it again.
I know what you're saying, b/c I used DMR and Obir almost exlusively for a year back in APB days b/c I felt HVR was "too easy". But here in this game we have much more meaningful falloff values and also much more subtle differences in TTK. That was my main point afterall. The BASR's with straight pull bolt are actually quite good at landing 2 body shots and that's not something people can just MedKit cheese their way out of. When the shield is gone, the next shot with a BASR is an insta kill nomatter what. Infact that's my new fav tactic with the SASR against higherBR squirrely players, is drop an EMP nade and then not even having to worry about getting headshots unless it's a frikking overly-Meta'd H.A. The reality of the Semi-Auto sniper from my testing, is that even with the perfect grip & implant, it's still gonna be a 4 shot kill on a moving targets at the range it's intended to "shine at", and maybe more if they're smart enough to be poppin Meds. My biggest beef with the SPR as it stands right now, is that damage is the ONLY thing it does right now. And again, with the falloff it has, it's not enough damage to even be a good pick-off fire support weapon. Our job is to be the spotters who weaken and distract the target for our allies. Which means the only place SPR is ever going to shine, is in Assists. But the directive demands we get last hits instead and that's just coutner-intuitive to our support role. Can we agree on that much?
Sorry, man, I can't really agree. I've never really had trouble getting the kill shots on my SPR. I mean there's a window between first shot and kill where you can lose it, but it's not something that happens all that much unless I'm intentionally wounding and that's not my primary MO. But I've been using this gun a long time so I'd like to think I have the technique down. That reality you're looking at is pretty much a baseline performance. 4 body shots is kind of riding the skill floor, even on a moving target, which is why I’ve been suggesting how to do better than that, otherwise it’s like never taking a car out of first gear. And that’s it really. It’s not a pick-up-and-go ‘steady, lead, shoot, pass/fail’ BASR experience. The semi-auto has more involved in the process of making kills that the player needs to regulate, a technique to learn. There's always room to do better and I'm quite fond of that. But it's fire rate gives it a fast iteration time on correcting mistakes so the learning process is actually a bit more forgiving. I can completely respect not wanting to deal with all that BS, but I don't think that makes it a bad weapon. Anyway, how do you get around NW when you do the SAS-R 2-body-shot thing? I’ve tried it as a novelty but ultimately decided I’d rather slam my head in a door than run that loadout after every guy wearing nanoweave took a third shot past 25m, or a second if I EMP’d. I had to play it real close, and that’s too long of a kill time for me at those ranges. I’m pretty sure I ended up with more pistol kills... Though if you’re having success and fun with that then definitely go for the Impetus to help get your directive. You should be able to adapt that to the Impetus pretty easily and almost certainly make it a less painful grind. At those ranges you shouldn’t have a problem rapidly landing the four shot despite the accuracy loss, and that should give you a nice .5-.75 kill times with body shots alone if you can avoid oversampling. You could probably get a nice chunk toward your directive from any base fight that way.
This is exactly what I'm saying is wrong with the weapon... It can't be a high skill index weapon that you can just SnowFlake-Shield with the tired old Lrn 2 Play refrain. There's no room for it to be that. It's beaten in every single category there by BASR's like LA80 / EM4. Even the SASR was raining headshots for me last night on full speeding targets when my FPS stayed above 30. The SPR nomatter how you use it, is going to be more effort and more time spent tunnel visioned, for a slower "reward". Hence why I'm saying it needs more roles than just "killing a dude the same way every other gun kills a dude". So while I hadn't quite made my mind up yet, you've now succeeded in convincing me to not even unlock it now. I'm going LA80 instead and this thread can go into the ether now. Next time you feel a weapon's use revolves around telling someone learn to play, think about how it automatically frames the discussion into an Argument. You could even be right... but that's not helpful for a thread like this. Thx & Bye.
