So, I’ve run into several newer players over the past few days (some in-game, some on forumside). These players were just getting their feet wet, and drawn to the cloaker class. So, I did what any experienced player should do, and offered some help. By no means is the cloaker class restricted to sniping, but those guides are for another day. This guide will focus solely on our role as the sniper. The Mindset Planetside is a unique game with a unique combat system. When sniping in a typical FPS, the sniper wants the enemy to think, "Where did that shot come from?" However, due to killcams, bullet tracers, and our cloaking noise, this is not a realistic goal. What a Planetside sniper has that other snipers do not can be summed up in two words: mobility and cloaking. Our goal is not to make the enemy think, "Where did that shot come from?" Rather, our goal should be to make the enemy think,"Where will the next shot come from?" We are a class that fights with our brains, not our giant muscles and machine guns. If the enemy is smart, we outsmart them. It’s never a bad idea to take a few seconds to analyze your surroundings before you head into combat. Team orientation is another important part of our role. A team-oriented, forward-thinking sniper is vital to many team-based operations. It is important to remember that you shouldn’t be sniping to farm mindlessly. You should always think to yourself, “What targets are the highest priorities?” or “What targets benefit my team most?” rather than “What targets are the easiest kill?” Communicate with your outfit/squadmates! Target Priority Is also very important to remember. This relates to team orientation, in that you should trust your squadmates’ ability to take out fodder. Unless you are asked to snipe at a group of enemies for morale or suppression purposes, your mindset should always be “What target is the biggest threat to my teammates?” and focus on taking them out. If there is a sniper giving your teammates hell, then they should be placed at a higher priority than the fodder-like Light Assaults standing around on the ground. If an engineer is suppressing an area with a turret, take him out so your team can advance. If the enemy is trying to form an armor column, set up shot within line-of-sight of a vehicle terminal, and prevent them from doing so. If a medic is reviving half a platoon of troops, do your best to take them out. Together with team orientation, target priority is what separates a useful, reliable, forward-thinking sniper from an accurate farmer. Situational awareness is our most important tool. If you run in front of a ScatterMax, odds are, you will die. If you run in front of a Jackhammer-wielding Heavy Assault, odds are, you will die. Being aware of our surroundings is a very important aspect of sniping, as it is the key determinant of our survival and effectiveness. If you are isolated in a ‘hot’ area, then playing it safe is likely to give better long-term results than grabbing a couple last-second kills before a gank-squad of heavies starts coming after you, and you are unable to escape. It is also better to let a target walk away unscathed, and live to take that shot later, than to kill your target while revealing yourself to 8 countersnipers that you can’t handle. The Mechanics Once you get yourself into the proper mindset, you can practice the mechanics of sniping. Above all else, discipline is the most important thing to master when shooting. It’s far better to have both the enemy and yourself alive, than for just the enemy to be alive. Avoid taking shots you aren’t confident in. If you are aiming for a moving target, there is no harm in taking multiple confident bodyshots rather than banking on headshots you aren’t comfortable with. Positioning is another key aspect of sniping. You’ll want to be higher than the enemy (although eye-level shots are easy to learn with a little experience, so don't rule them out). However, it is important that you pick your positions carefully. Avoid hilltops, obvious roofs, ledges that leave your back exposed to countersnipers, or any area that restricts your mobility. It is vital that you do not ‘skyline’ when sniping, meaning you should never stand on top of a hill or other object with your back against the sky. This makes your silhouette easy pickings for other snipers. When moving from cover to cover, use your cloak. It never hurts to lay some mines down in your general vicinity to act as early-warning alarms. Use your best judgment of the situation to determine if radar devices are appropriate to use (does the enemy already know you’re around? If so, knowing where they are is important. If not, radar alerts every enemy who can see the minimap of your presence). You are relying largely on being undetected, so do whatever it takes to keep from being detected. (Pro-Tip: ESFs with max rank Stealth, Afterburners, Racer Chassis, and Ejection Systems make excellent tools for dropping onto hard-to-reach prime locations. Wraith-enabled Flashes also make great insertion tools.) The basic steps of a well-placed sniper shot are as follows: cloak, position, aim (remember to take into account your range and elevation, hold your breath, and adjust for bullet drop), decloak, shoot, recloak/move away, repeat. When moving between shots, it is important that you sidestep, rather than backstep. Moving to the side upon cloaking ensures that a survive-able countersniper’s bodyshot does not turn into a non-survive-able countersniper’s headshot. Getting greedy and going for more shots will end in you being either jumped or countersniped. No matter how bad you want to grab that extra headshot, remember that mobility is more important. The Tools A large part of being an effective sniper is finding a weapon that works for you and your playstyle. The basic snipers include a long-range Semi-Auto Sniper Rifle (SASR), a mid-range SASR, a mid-range Bolt-Action Sniper Rifle (BASR), and three long-range BASRs (along with a directive BASR and an empire-specific sniper rifle. Neither of which will be discussed here). Each of these rifles also includes several options in terms of optics as well. With such a wide array to choose from, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Take a deep breath, head into VR Training, and test the waters a bit. Let’s talk about the SASRs first. There are two of these per faction, one designed for long range, and one designed for mid-range. The mid-range SASR is able to equip optics with 1x-4x magnification, whereas the long-range SASR can use optics with 6x-12x magnification. These rifles are designed for a faster-paced, more aggressive player. They cannot one-hit-kill (OHK) an enemy, even with a headshot. They also have a fair amount of recoil per shot. However, their follow-up shot capabilities make them ideal for finishing off enemies at a distance, or for more aggressive mid-range confrontations. Once the recoil patterns are learned and able to be compensated for, the SASRs can unleash a small hail of high-damage rounds able to reach out and touch someone, however, these aren’t normally the most ideal weapons for many sniping situations, as they have a steep learning curve and can be extremely punishing if shots are missed at closer ranges. The other class of sniper rifle is the BASR. These weapons are known for their ability to OHK with a headshot out to a certain range. These rifles are also able to (typically) kill a target with only two bodyshots near their effective range. Each faction has four of these as standard issue. The mid-range BASR can use optics with 1x-4x magnification, and has the slowest bullet velocity, along with the shortest effective range (able to OHK with a headshot out to 200m). However, this rifle has the fastest reload speed and follow-up shot capability of the BASRs, making it an effective tool for the aggressive sniper. This rifle is ideal for dropping mobile targets with two bodyshots in rapid succession. This rifle is well-suited for environments like tech plants that have battles taking place primarily at closer-medium ranges. Because of their slower velocity, they will have substantially higher bullet drop at range. The three long-range BASRs are divided into three ‘tiers’. These tiers tend to be based upon the velocity of the rifles. The Tier 1 rifles have the slowest velocity of the three. They also have the fastest reload and refire time. They are superior at taking out multiple medium-ranged targets in rapid succession. However, they have the highest amount of drop of the ‘tiered’ rifles, along with a OHK range of 250m with headshots. The Tier 2 rifles offer a longer reload time, along with a bit lower refire-rate than the Tier 1 rifles, but they have a faster bullet (and as a result, less bullet drop). The Tier 2 rifles also have a OHK range of 250m with headshots. The Tier 3 rifles are the slowest in terms of reload speed and refire time, but have the fastest velocity (and the least bullet drop) of the three tiers. They have a OHK range of 300m with headshots. All BASRs are also able to equip straight-pull bolts, which allow the sniper to chamber the next round without leaving the scope, but often promote tunnel-vision habits in newer players. These are to be used responsibly, and the user should never forget to remain greedless. There is no stat-based drawback to equipping them, but it is important that a player remain situationally aware and mobile, rather than stationary and in ‘farm mode’. Finding the right rifle for your playstyle is vital, and finding the right optic to use is just as important. Try the optics and rifles out in VR Training, and ask for the help of some veteran players. Spend some time getting the feel for the mil-dots of the scope and learning the bullet drop at different ranges with different rifles. Most veterans agree that, rather than trying to master every sniper rifle at once, it is best to pick a rifle and learn it inside and out. A large part of successful sniping comes from muscle memory, so sticking to one rifle at a time promotes a higher success rate than swapping around. Never forget, practice makes permanence! It’s important to learn good habits and stick to them, rather than practice the same bad habits continually. Credentials and Thanks! To start off, I’d like to give a huge thank you to those of you that helped me proofread this, and those of you that offered your input. First, I’d like to thank my fellow GOTR members: -Bulvej -FroZown -UnknownShooter -Geminosus I’d also like to thank you forumsiders for helping me out as well: -MarkAntony -ItsDangerous -Geekrider Lastly, I’d like to list my credentials. This is only for the sake of the “Why should I listen to this guy?” argument, and my ego is set completely aside. -Ranked 3rd worldwide (2nd on Emerald) for Parsec VX3-A kills -Well over 700 hours as Infiltrator -All Auraxium medals were obtained using the Infiltrator class alone -Have a sniping KD of around 9 (I’m actually proud that mine isn’t in the 20s (and no disrespect to those that are), having a sniping KD of 9-10 reminds me that I’m not here to farm and grind kills uselessly. It reminds me that I play for my team, regardless of my stats). Have a c0ld, c0ld Day! -MisterFr0st
Good guide. I generally prefer counter-sniping myself (can't be bothered to move into a good spot as a sniper), so here's some more things I see often in enemy snipers: - Naturally every one of your shots should come from a (at least slightly) different position. If you shoot twice from the same place I'll nail your head while you're still cloaked before the third shot. - I actually prefer when the enemy sidesteps between shots because I usually go for the head and overshoot if they turn around. Also, most players will sidestep sprint in the SAME direction each time. I gotta admit I'm guilty of this myself (I'm a right-stepper). All I gotta do is place my crosshair to either side and shoot which actually gives me a slightly longer time to react to the other sniper, though I mostly get bodyshots with this method. So if you sidestep, don't forget to mix it up. - Lastly, I can often count on enemy snipers shooting like clockwork, especially when they're with their team (who's gonna wait for the sniper to decloak instead of shooting his teammates? well, me), though lone snipers sometimes fall for this as well when they're viewing a target-rich enivronment. Basically you pick your target, you shoot, you cloak/move, you pick a new target, you shoot, you cloak/move etc. This allows me to pre-hold my breath between your shots and drastically reduce the time you have to get out of my crosshairs, especially if you don't move very far between shots. So try to be unpredictable not only in positioning, but also in timing. Oh and one last thing: You may want to include a short summary on implants in your guide. For example, newer players may find a rangefinder helpful when judging how much to aim up while others may like the implant that tells you when you're spotted.
When it comes to implants, I thought about including a section about them, but ended up omitting it. Almost every implant is useful in its own way when it comes to sniping (just about everything spare for EOD HUD), so including a section on them would be almost as long as the guide itself. Thanks for the helpful input!
So I read this guide trying to find stuff I could "correct" or offer alternatives when suddenly my name appears in this little list. I don't actually remember helping you out but thanks anyways. Feels good to get recognition like this. All in all it is a solid guide and a definite must read for people new to sniping in this game. That is because the cloak changes sniping a lot compared to other games. (my experience before this being mainly BF2 (dragshooting FTW!) with some BF Bad company 2 and BF3) Now when it comes to priority I have this system I set up: 1. enemy snipers: this is because they have three main characteristics. 1. My teammates usually cannot engage them effectively and get annoyed by them. 2. They might actually pose a threat to me. 3. Most of them don't read guides like this and sit still and don't cloak (not that cloaking while sitting still would prevent me from headshotting them) and are therefore easy targets (it's like target practice in VR) 2. Engineers on turrets. Same as snipers: Teammates usually can't engage them effectively (range or protection from the shield), they might pose a threat to me (AV turrets at range mostly) and they are easy stationary targets. 3. Medics: These goddamn necromancers will undo all your good work while sniping in seconds. The only problem is that medics usually have enough common sense to move around all the time. So I would recommend prioritizing the ones sitting still (even if they aren't rezzing anyone currently). Honestly I feel that one should first get comfortable sniping slow moving targets and people sitting still before going for moving headshots. regardless of priority. 4. Light assaults sitting in trees etc. These can be a real annoyance to your team and usually sit still in their spots which makes them an easy target. And in the same category i would put Heavy Assaults espeacially when they are trying to ADS their rocket launchers without heavy shield. Threat to team: Check! Relatively easy target: Check! These guys are the perfect stepping stone from non moving targets to moving targets. 5. Maxes: Shoot at these for fun if you don't have any other targets. You might get a kill every once in a blue moon and at the very least you'll annoy them. They also make for good target practice. I honestly don't have anything to criticize in this guide. I agree completely. Except maybe that once you are good it doesn't matter if you are up against 8 countersnipers while skylining yourself. (that is how powerful the cloak is if used correctly) But this guide is meant for beginners so that doesn't actually count. Like Nadeah I would suggest including implants in an extra part of the guide. I just roll with hold breath since I am good at finding target rich environments and it gives me more uptime to snipe. All in all an awesome guide. Have a like!
I posted a version of this guide in its infancy stage a while back, for proofreading/content purposes. You were one of the commenters that offered some input that was helpful, so I decided to give credit where credit was due. Keep Sniping the Good Snipe -MisterFr0st
How dare you call into question my use of lilac! xD I posted the same guide on my outfit's forums, then copypasta'd it here about 10 minutes later. The shade of purple on the outifit site is darker and more bold, but here, it appears to be a lighter lilac. Too late to edit it now xD
Don't forget.... https://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/proper-sniper-etiquette-ps2-edition.119515/
Looking at the age of that thread, I would suggest that no one reply to it. It would be a quick way to get it locked.
