How do you counter a 'good' CQC sniper?

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by DarkStarII, Mar 29, 2016.

  1. DarkStarII

    Like the ones that seem to never miss. I've gotten to the point where I just leave the area when they show up. I have tried everything from a heavy with a pump-action shotgun to a stalker, with stalker being the most effective but somewhat inefficient.
  2. TOXIC_MACHAMP

    You dont
    • Up x 1
  3. Booface

    I dunno if I'm good enough to say I never miss, but I do like to snipe at short range. I can speak to what usually frustrates me. I'll exclude other short range sniper infiltrators, because that's not really a productive answer.

    First, I can't do anything to MAXes in close quarters. At long range I can at least plink them for 5 minutes and eventually wear them down, but up close I would need a Hunter with explosive bolts, and CQC sniping is too pistol dependent to allow that. If you pull a MAX, I've got to either run or go change classes/loadouts.

    Also, one of the Heavy shields lets them tank a headshot at fairly close range. I think it's resist-shield at one of the higher ranks but I could be wrong. Either way, it's a bad situation when you headshot a Heavy at close range and it just plinks, and now he's just unloading at you with an LMG or autoshotty. Sometimes you can recover with a quick pistol draw, or a follow up shot if you're using the faster bolt-action, but it's still a panic moment that relies more on him missing his shots.

    Motion darts or sensors are a big deal. Short range snipers don't handle getting swarmed nearly as well as other classes, because you've got a slow fire rate, small magazine, long reload time. So light me up on radar and take away my room to maneuver.

    Close range infiltrators, either Stalker or SMG, can be a problem. Not necessarily because you can't outshoot them (headshot with a bolt-action still works as well as on anyone else), but because they can wait to hit you at the worst time, and short range sniping depends so much on timing. I'm usually paranoid about it and spam motion darts and take an EMP bandolier just to deal with Stalkers and SMG infiltrators. EMP resist implants or Sensor Shield implants make it even worse.

    Also any weapon with a 0.75 ADS modifier and someone who ADAD strafes really well can be frustrating. You can get them some of the time, but eventually you'll miss your shot and eat a wall of lead.
    • Up x 2
  4. Reclaimer77

    Report them for hacking. :D
  5. Liewec123

    MAX! :p
    though thats about all i can think of, godly cqc snipers are immortals, just look at elusive1
    • Up x 1
  6. Pfundi

    You take a weapon with 30+ rounds, 700+ RPM, semi decent hipfire, attach a flashlight and then you search but you move like youre having a heart attack. Looking down lets the target your head is change size. ADADing makes hitting harder. Never ADS, never stand, never walk a straight line. Then you kill him once, he just respawns, and destroys the fun of everyone else again.
    .
    Long story short, go find another fight.
    • Up x 1
  7. Rikkit

    Smoke!
    Get some smoke in the area (underbarrel atachment or LA-grenade) as there are no Nightvision optics available for BA-rifles...
    But keep in mind, that you light up like a christmas tree, if you stand next to a medic shield bubble.
    Oh and spamming explosive rounds helps a lot. The screen shake drives me crazy, when there are too many rockets and tank shells around.
  8. Bindlestiff

    Agree.
  9. Poppington

    Every heavy shield, if mostly full (in NMG and Adren's cases), will make you effectively immune to 1 shot kills from any BAS - especially the CQC ones.
    • Up x 1
  10. TheDarSin

    Maxes are a bad suggestion lol. I love hunting down maxes with the SAS.

    If you want to counter a good CQC sniper, the best thing to do is to pull a counter CQC infil. I usually go against targets I can see first and targets of opportunity. Find the CQC sniper and surprise him. Most likely he's going to have his hands full with targets he can see. Also don't stand near crowds. When I look for targets I tend to run towards the chaos and where there's lots of targets.

    Last but not least, have good audio. Listen to the shots and his cloak to pinpoint his location to flank him. Don't come at him from the front shooting at him because most CQC infil have tons of experience fighting people head on and are just hopping you engage them from the front. I don't know how many times I've shot at an enemy just to goad them into trying to land the shot on me. Once I have that split second of immobility it's usually enough time for me to line my shot and shoot them.

    To conclude, you got to out-infill them and flank them. CQC infils have tons of experience fighting non infils but less experience fighting other infils.
  11. Call-Me-Kenneth

    whether you can survive a head shoot with nmg or not in no way is the answer the op is looking for.

    hes asking for a counter, and the only counter play is numbers and communication, that will shutdown the sniper. another option is counter sniping, while hes shooting on friendlies you can pick him off, do it a few times and you effectively forced him to leave.

    if you are solo only a light can outflank and deploy his own cover with smoke, the point is to make his cone of fire as wide as possible. if he has to cover a wide area chances are you will get the opening burst on him.

    but in all fairness, just leave when in a low pop situation the rifles reveal themselves to be atrociously superior to any other infantry gun in game, and they demand very little out of the operator in terms of skill. so you'll just get pissed for no reason.

    not to mention, that any sniper who knows hes being hunted will change his gameplay from trying to get one shoot kills while exposing himself, to body shoots with no chance of counter fire. you cant possibly win against that.
  12. ZDarkShadowsZ

    If in the event I encounter a 'good' CQC sniper, I simply don't put myself in their CQC range.
  13. Trudriban

    I love how the best answer to "How do I stop this meatbag from 360 noscoping me" is "literally be iron man"
  14. TheRealNattyIcePS4

    Shoot him first or hope he misses
  15. Naaahhhhh

    1) choose heavy with active overshield. You survive one head shot and the time to kill for the cqc sniper is above 1 sec. enough time to kill him.
    2) start adad dance with cqc lmg
    3) success
  16. Demigan

    Have them fix the background issue's that make dragshots far more dangerous than they should. I've proven in Elusive's CQC video's that he fires at (frame by frame) inconsistent moments and still gets consistent hits, I've also shown that drag shots can have up to 3 different impacts on screen, meaning that something on the background of PS2 can't handle drag shots and will increase the area where a bullet travels (essentially making a long horizontal slug).

    If that's fixed and you still meet some good CQC snipers (and no doubt there will be a few) then your option is to use things like "bigbutt armor" and blow them up until they leave, or leave yourself.
  17. Ryme_Intrinseca

    SMG infil with motion sensors and EMP.

    Once you have eyes on the target I would advise against ADSing unless they haven't seen you. Try to close to hipfire range running in zag zags with cloak up. If you are forced into an ADS duel by circumstances then with an SMG you at least have a fighting chance (0.75 ADS+strafe).
  18. Jake the Dog

    I've actually picked up doing this with my TSAR-42, it can be pretty brutal, I've been seeing it alot more recently though, alot of people using things like the TSAR and SAS-R
  19. TheFlamingLemon

    The average human reaction time is .25 seconds. If they're consistently killing you while you're going side to side in such a way that thy couldn't hope to react in time to get that headshot, they're probably hacking.
  20. Stigma

    CQC boltaction (which is one of my more common playstyles) is an an all or nothing gambit.

    Obviously if you hit - your target is dead. Conversely - if you miss, you are likely dead, unless the target is long range or you have immediate cover to duck into (and even then it's often not enough against someone with high-tier aim).

    So in short - countering them is ... I guess the best advice (assuming you aren't also infiltrator) I can give is the following:

    1: Rush them hard. CQC BASR infils need anticipation and set-up time to work. Once in a while you can get a lucky 180 on an enemy you don't suspect, but for the most part those tend to fail even in the hands of the most experienced experts.

    2: move erratically. A lot of CQC BASR depends on predictability. To score a very accurate hit you not only need to aim well, but also predict movement well. Trying to headshot with a single bullet against an opponent that is moving like a spazz is almost beyond human ability since people in PS2 have no momentum and can change momentum immediately. Even if you enter a room where you know a CQC BASR infil is deep cloaked you are pretty safe as long as you move erratically. You need luck to land a headshot under those circumstances. Smart infils will not panic and wait for a better time.

    3: sensor implants: A CQC BASR will need to rely heavily on sensors to do well. Without anticipation a BASR is woefully underpowered compared to anything automatic. Either deny them their sensors (hard to do), or if you are hunting one specifically run sensor implants and walk. Sure you are slower - but if you use corners well you can close the distance and take your foe unaware. That's their greatest weakness.

    Personally - Some of the greatest foes I have faced as a CQC BASR infil are very aggressive shotgun LAs. They often aren't even that great players according to their stats - but heaving to deal with a player that rushes close without regard for their own safety is a pain in the butt - because it nagates most of the fairly sparse benefits a CQC BASR player has to work with - which is anticipation, distance and time.

    This mostly applies to hunting down a nemesis - because CQC BASR players are rare for good reason - and the counter strategies to them are often at odds with what are good general strategies for dealing with anyone else. I feel almost bad about describing the counter to my own playstyle, but I think I have been fairly honest about what I have written so far...

    Stalkers can work against anyone - since it's all about total surprise. I don't think I'd recommend it as a counter strategy though simply because you can't really hunt specific targets with stalkers. That is all about being opportunistic and taking easy chances that happen to come your way. You rarely get to choose who walks into your trap - and half the skill of a stalker is to know when to spring the trap and when to pass the opportunity for a better one. It is too passive a playstyle for me personally.

    -Stigma