Sniper rifles vs MAX

Is it worth it to keep spamming MAX units with sniper fire? How much damage do they do exactly?
And while we are on the topic..do sniper/scout rifles do much damage against ESF?

Go to the VR training and shoot your faction's Max so you can see its HP bar.

From experience its only a nuisance when I'm using ZOE dual vortex and sniping vehicles in the distance. After a short while I will need some repairs and if the team is bad this is some downtime as I unsuccessfully try to find an engineer, but meh, you won't really get any satisfaction sniping Maxes as an infiltrator. As in, I doubt you'll actually kill a Max.

Real Max sniping is effective with the Lancer, Vortex, or AV Mana turrets, but it's still rather difficult to get a Max kill unless the Max overextended without a nearby engineer.

Unless you've got support and others firing on too, you're just risking yourself by exposing your position.

I was able to solo a ZOE using my NC sniper. But the Max was solo running between bases and trying to kill me with 2 flak cannons.

If you land headshots you do quite a bit of damage. Still gonna take at ~10 rounds to kill one though.
Even if you don't kill it, you still lower his health and make him run away.

I love it when snipers take pointless shots at my MAX. If I'm outside, there's a decent chance I'm wielding AV - I'll send you running while you take maybe 2 bars of health off (and I almost always run auto-repair) that'll be back to full in ~20 seconds.

Others have said it pretty well. Headshots deal a good amount of damage to them, but you risk exposing yourself since it will take around 10 shots. If you can headshot them and you don't mind risking giving yourself away, then sure, go for it. You will be softening him up for someone else to kill.

Also, I've heard of sniper squads focusing fire and dropping MAXs like nothing.

If you can get headshots then he'll notice it, if you cant though theres no point unless others are focusing him.

Bolts do like 5-10% dmg to maxes with kinetic , kinda higher when I roll with flak but not sure.
Tho if you're in a good location with an engineer , snipers are the least of your worries.

With the top damage bolt action @ 100m, you're looking at 19 body shots or 10 headshots. If they have maxed KA, it brings it to 25 body shots or 13 headshots. Thats is a long TTK. Its not worth it at all if you're there only source of damage, especially if they are running in a squad. Because you will just give your position away and have squad members come down on your position from the flanks while you're focussed on the MAX. Best thing is to focus on support personnel. If you're running with a semi-auto sniper rifle, it may be a different matter as you can put a load of lead down range faster.

Generally speaking, unless you -know- for a fact that MAX is hanging on a sliver of health left, it's a waste of time to open fire on them as a sniper. As was already mentioned, sometimes you'll get groups of snipers focus firing one together, and it's impressive but also very rare.

As an NC MAX I'll generally shrug off one or two hits from a sniper rifle, then just casually put up my aegis shield and regenerate my health while someone else kills the infiltrator because they gave away their position. Unless I'm rolling with Ravens of course, at which point I quickly send him scrambling for cover.

For most situations I run with one of the semi-auto snipers, and they're actually pretty nifty against a MAX. If you're looking to solo it from full health it generally takes 10-12 headshots to kill it depending on range, unless it has kinetic armor. So while dropping it in a single mag isn't exactly practical unless it's a ZoE that doesn't turn it off (amazingly common, but those blasted crab hands held up like that can and do block headshots if they're not firing) you can still do a stupid amount of damage to it in a fairly short amount of time. Hopefully though, you won't be the only one shooting at it.

Interestingly enough, sniper rifles actually bypass more of the MAX's damage reduction than standard weapons. For example, at it's minimum damage range the Semi-Sniper will kill a MAX in fewer rounds than the semi-scout at it's max damage range, despite both of them doing the same 334 damage.

Wouldn't it be interesting if the new upcoming bolt action had an even higher degree of armor penetration?

A semi-auto sniper with consecutive headshots can deal a pretty decent amount of damage close range. Now you generally shouldn't even try unless he isn't paying attention to you.

Please keep doing it ... lets me know where you are so I can come say hi.

There are moments where and when you can take a shot at a MAX and they have no hope of retaliating.*

Personally, in those moments, when I feel the urge, I'll take a shot or two.

You never know how much health they've already lost.

My favourite moment was Commy+Knifing a ZOE MAX - to finish it off. Didn't know it was wounded, didn't really care.

Took a gamble - which was fun - and it paid off! The best part was avoiding the Magrider behind it. Felt really cheeky!



*..and there are times when, if they choose to retaliate, they'll be ignoring your C4 dropping friends. Like everything, you gotta read the situation and act in a manner you deem is best.

It's lower priority than killing medics and infantry, but suppressing MAXes by damaging them at range is still fairly valuable (especially if you know it's a MAX who's skilled and accurate.) You'll do alright damage (not great, but noticeable) and either they'll be forced to back off (in which case they're effectively suppressed) or they'll run the risk of death if they don't.

Keep in mind your surroundings though, because if it's just you vs. him on the battlefield he can close on you pretty quick if you haven't controlled the situation (chose a good spot to snipe from where it's hard for him to MAX-Charge and reach you.)

Yeah, focused sniper fire from a group can be unexpectedly devastating to ESFs and MAX since they tend not to anticipate taking that much damage that quickly from small arms fire. In general, however, you are almost always better off going for the MAXs support troops (medics and engineers) only firing on the MAX itself if you want to get their attention/disorient/pester them.

To a certain extent the same goes for harassers. On more than several occasions I have ended harassers, ESFs, and MAXs with the Commissioner for similar reasons but to do that you typically want to be dangerously close. Since I play mostly LA the Commissioner is frequently my go to for harassers and low flying ESF- get in close enough and fire fast enough and you can do enough damage to catch them by surprise, again because as hardened targets the tend to expect to take many hits from small arms fire so when each *plink* is taking ~200-300 damage you can sometimes catch them sleeping.

One thing I learned in this game is SHOOT EVERYTHING. Within reason, of course. Don't go giving away your position needlessly, but if you can damage it, shoot it. You never know just how low an enemy health bar is until you take a pot shot and score an easy kill. Worst case scenario, you get free assist xp a few moments later.

Regarding MAXes, I feel like a lot of the reason MAXes are so powerful (ZOE in particular) is because people just don't bother shooting at them very much. People seem to have a "well, I can't kill it by myself, so I won't even bother" attitude. I've survived long periods of time as a ZOE max with just a few bars of health because people will just turn and run instead of choosing to die with dignity.

So, yes. Snipe those MAX suits. You may not solo them, but you'll weaken them and earn some assist xp.

While you shouldn't expect to get lots of kills on maxes by sniping them, by repeatedly hitting them, you'll either force them to retreat back into cover, you might pick off enough health for a single rocket to kill them, or you may just happen to kill one who is very low on HP, it's worth your time if you don't have any other targets. I'm not going to say don't bother shooting at them.

wut a badass