After obtaining the Auraxium medal for the 99SV, and getting half way through the KSR-35 as well as getting some experience with the VA39 Spectre, I have some suggestions to make these rifles actually worth the time, and less frustrating to use effectively. Primarily the 99SV, and VA39 Spectre suffer from these three issues: Low muzzle velocity for a sniper rifle. Slow recoil resettle Cone of fire that expands too fast for the rate of fire these weapons have to remain on target effectively. As it stands right now, these are the worst default weapon types because they require too high of a skill cap to use effectively, especially for new players. Combined with the fact that they only get optics of 6x ~12x magnification it makes them significantly harder to use than a bolt action rifle. I personally would buff these two rifles accordingly: Increase the muzzle velocity enough to lead easier at medium to long ranges probably by 25 to 50 meters per second. Quicken the recoil settle so follow up shots are easier and more natural. Reduce the bloom per shot expansion from 0.8 to 0.6 (or lower) so that it can be fired quickly without missing half of the magazine. All of these buffs can also be applied to their low-optic capable sister guns: KSR-35, Phantom, and Impetus. What do you all think? Are these rifles in need of buffing, or do you believe they are fine where they are?
Even if you're skilled enough to hit things with them, for me, the big problem with the SASRs is entirely the existence of bolt-actions. To kill anyone, you have to expose yourself for much longer than it takes for a BASR user to spot and headshot you, and you can't just ADAD to make yourself a hard target, because your moving accuracy is so bad. You can be successful with a SASR in situations where enemy snipers don't exist, but that's a huge limitation. As for how to fix it, I'd probably start by buffing the recoil decrease. Anything that reduces exposure time would be helpful. It wouldn't hurt to give the 6x+ rifles better velocity, too, since they're a bit worse off than the low-zoom ones.
This is true, but you're discussing the wrong weapon in the wrong thread. Please keep it about the rifles themselves.
Oh i apologize, i forgot the Gauss SPR existed. So the NC have 2 Semi-Autos and 5 bolt actions. I've never played around with the Gauss SPR, but seeing the stats of the weapon on the wiki, it's just the NC's 99SV/Spectre. We'll throw that in the list as well. Thanks for bringing that up.
I've hears that semi auto sniper rifles have some role in the game but they don't seem to do much more damage than the semi auto scout rifles so I don't know what it is. It is a real ball ache trying to get kills with one and I have upgraded to a cheap bolt action for VS and TR at the earliest opportunity. Get rid of them entirely except maybe that harms asymmetrical balance and disadvantages NC (becasue NC get the best starter sniper, VS get the best default LMG and TR get the best default carbine and pistol).
The short range SASRs are in a really weird place IMO. We already have semi-auto scout rifles that do the job better and have nicer attachments.
All Semi auto sniper need to be buffed. From an NC standpoint this is the Gauss SPR and the Imputus I believe. And as all sniper rifles are the same for all factions bar the skin, i guess the TR and VS versions need to be buffed as well.
Buffing Spectre? Are you nuts? This thing already has no bullet drop, which makes its actually quite enjoyable and powerful
The Gauss SPR, 99SV and VA39 Spectre are ALL getting the Ballistic Computer soon, and this thing makes them Insanely powerful.
No bullet drop and no sway at extreme ranges? Yes please (will be using the spectre more when the next patch is out)
i auraxiumized the phantom a while ago which basically is a no-sway-spectre with lower zoom and no scope sway and it was a real pain. Sure, i will try the spectre one more time but i can't imagine it working good now only because it does not have sway anymore.
I have logged over 800 kills on the Gauss SPR (I'm like BR40 or so iirc, been a while since I logged on). I definitely think it's a harder weapon to learn to use effectively than the NC14 Bolt Driver (NC default SR, and my other sniper rifle which I have a similar numbers of kills with). The Impetus (low-zoom SASR) is imo better than the AF-6 Stalker (SA Scout Rifle), but this is admittedly only based on VR room testing. The main benefit of Impetus over the AF-6 Stalker imo is the perfect 0 CoF while still and ADS, which makes the Impetus effective beyond 100m (while retaining most of the performance of the AF-6 inside that range; this because AF-6 has 0.1 still CoF), damage is also higher per shot, in particular, you can still 3-body shot reg. infantry ditto for headshot+bodyshot at range, neither of which work w/ AF-6 Stalker at range. I would say that the Scout Rifle edges out the SASR within 75m, but beyond that range, the SASR is better, and it gets dramatically better beyond 100m. Turning to the other SASR, the Gauss SPR (and TR/VS defaults): This is a very interesting weapon, it's like have an Impetus that has the nice high-zoom optics of a true sniper rifle, and hence can be used for actual sniping work. It has a very wide usable range, I have logged kills from as short as 30m all the way out to 400m (it's actually better than a bolt for extreme long range because bolts eventually lose 1HK capability, and the SASR retains 2HSK capability all the way out to the render distance; along with MUCH better refire rate). I would say that the Gauss is ideal in the 75-150m range bracket, but retains usability down to 50m and out as far as you care to try. You typically wanna drop cloak, fire 2-3 shots then recloak and move all at once. Ideal scenario is 2HSK, if I believe I may have been spotted and may be at risk of being countersniped, or KNOW that I am, I will only take 2-shots, there is (at typical sniper-countersniper ranges) JUST enough time to drop both shots and get out of the way of the enemy sniper's countersnipe attempt (I managed to get a spree of 10 kills against a group of snipers that were about 125m from me on a ridge, because of this; they weren't respecting the fact that I can snipe w/ the Gauss, and were sitting still, uncloaked like idiots at first, so I naturally punished that hard; I had great cover to work from too). Because 3-body shots can kill 1000hp targets, going for body shots against enemies at longer ranges isn't a half bad idea if you doubt that you can reliably get the 2HSK, as a 3BSK is still doable, but subject to the no nanoweaver/overshield and the like limitation. I often start for the head, but after 2nd shot just try and hit the 3rd (they will likely start to move before the 3rd shot reaches them, but it doesn't need to be a headshot if you landed a one HS and missed other or both previous shots hit the body). When shooting with either SASR, unless you are within about 75m, give time for the weapon's recoil to settle, that's also about the right amount of time for the CoF bloom to dissipate, so you can get multiple, fairly rapid, and very accurate shots that way, it's essential to proper sniping with them, and very helpful for Designated Marksman work (where you're closer to the action and providing more suppressing/supportive fire than a true sniper would (who would hold the trigger until he finds a decent target of opportunity).
This is a preference thing. Some people do better with semi-auto snipers than bolt action. Exposure time is not significantly higher either if you learn to do quick headshot + bodyshot combo. Semi-Auto snipers can also scare some MAXes when you dump a mag into them.
I don't think it's that simple, yes, preference has a lot to do with whether people will 'like it' or not. But there is more going on here than just that. A BASR is hands down a vastly better weapon for killing a moving infantry man beyond about 125m precisely because it can 1HSK (unlike the SASR), and the max range where it retains that advantage is the limit of it's 1HSK range (after which the SASR with high-zoom optics actually pulls ahead!) Beyond that, even if the target isn't moving when you line up the shot and go for it, I've had plenty of instances (especially countersniping), where I got the first hit (often headshot) with my Gauss SPR only to have them move, just as a matter of the usual movement rhythm, not because they reacted to being hit, out of the way of my 2nd shot (and usually they manage to avoid shot #3 as well because that's usually after they've realized they're being sniped at and have started to move unpredictably; if I even take shot #3 in that scenario, I usually just cloak and try to wait their cloak out if I have most of my energy bar intact). If I had taken that same shot with a BASR, usually a kill (is a kill if HS; usually not otherwise). In fact, I don't think there is any single range bracket where the Gauss SPR is a 'competitive' weapon in the sense that it is about as good, or better than, any other weapon at that range (the closest it comes to that is the 75-125m bracket, where it's almost competitive). This isn't a problem imo because that's not what makes the Gauss SPR good...what makes it good, imo, is that it's a very versatile, adaptable weapon, you can use it at roughly 75m like a Battle Rifle or SA Scout Rifle, you can use it at 150-200m like as a decent but not great sniper rifle, and you can even do extreme range sniping (technically it's the best at it, but this isn't all that practical for actually being relevant to making things happen and having an impact on the game). It's a generalist weapon, it's a great weapon for fights where you need to be able to swap between being an actual sniper and lending fire support to your squad/allies (it trades excellence for adaptability). Mind you, I only really started to understand this about the weapon after logging over 600 kills with it, it's a really subtle thing that's hard to pick up on by looking at stats and attachment options, even with a decent grasp of how things are balanced in this game.
