Dust 514: The Role of the Sniper: Difference between revisions

* You are your team’s best defense against other snipers. This may be your most important role. If you can take out the enemy snipers, or at least make them keep their heads down, then your team can move freely and arrive at their objectives at full strength, rather than having to constantly stick to cover and always arriving a man down. I have had matches where a good sniper prevented me from doing my job for most of the battle, and other games were I have been the better sniper and kept several enemy snipers cowering in their fox holes while also covering my squad.

Find a place with a field of fire which includes several objectives or strategic targets. Make sure you have cover that you can easily duck into. Crouch down to avoid rifle sway, and try to expose no more of your body than you have to in order to see the area you are covering. Be mindful of enemy snipers. Frequently scan other potential sniper spots. Drop the scope and look around you once in a while to make sure no one is sneaking up on you.

I think you can see by this point why I have dumped skill points into Submachine Gun skills. With Submachine Gun Operation 5 and a couple levels of Proficiency you will win in a 1v1 with an equally skilled Assault Riffle at close range. This will allow you to be a [[Dust 514: Marksman, Taking Sniper to the Next level|Marksman]] and run with your squad on the front line using your SMG in close quarters and your Sniper Rifle as opportunities present themselves. At this point you become deadly at any range, and versatile without having to change fittings.

The Scout suit is stealthy and aware. They have a small signature so that when an enemy looks at you their suit is less likely to flag you on their tacnet if you are far away, meaning they will not see your health bars and you will not appear on their team’s radar. They will have to rely on their own eyeballs to locate you. Your scanner strength is also higher than other suits, so when you scan the horizon your suit can identify and flag enemy suits at a greater distance, making enemy snipers easier to locate, or allowing you to paint enemies onto your team’s tacnet radar using your scope. Keep in mind that there are skills and equipment that make you more effective at visual scanning, and hiding from visual scanning.

The down side for the Scout suit is the lack of tank, so if an enemy sniper does get a bead on you, there is a good chance that their first shot will kill you, if it hits. If it misses, your greater speed should allow you to take cover before they get another shot off.

Logi suits have the advantage of having at least two equipment slots. They work as snipers, although their lack of a secondary weapon can become a problem if someone sneaks up on you. One trick is to stand on your Nano Hive and just throw grenades at them. It is also possible to quick scope or even hip fire with the Sniper riffle. To quick scope, center your target as best you can before you switch to the scope so that you do not have to track very far once your scope is up. For hip fire you have to aim without a reference of any kind (unless you stick a dot to the center of your TV screen.) And finally you always have melee. I like to start the match in a Logi suit and setup Drop Uplinks and Nano hives close to my prime sniper positions. Then if I die or happen by a Supply Depot, I will switch to Assault.

The Sentinel Heavy suit has been used by some. Its thick armour and shields makes it particularly good for anti-sniper work. However the lack of an equipment slot is a major detriment, and its slow speed makes getting to a good sniper nest a time consuming process unless a LAV is used. One approach is to start with a Logi suit and setup a Nano Hive, with a Drop Uplink not too far away, and then changing suits at a Supply Depot, or respawning as a Heavy after first death. If you snipe as a heavy you can’t really hide due to the size of your signature radius. You have to relay on your larger effective hit point (eHP) buffer when going head to head with other snipers. So make sure you have cover you can duck into, to give your shields and armor a chance to regenerate.

If I spawn behind the Redline I may stop and take a shot if I see one on my way out, but I will not linger there. If the other team has taken all the objectives and has redlined us, then I have no qualms about sniping from the Redline. In that situation I may be able to thin the line enough for some of our Frontline troops to slip through.

I don’t have a problem with people sniping from just inside the Redline when they have a good field of fire. If you are close enough for a Red to take you out with an assault riffle, then there is nothing cowardly about your position. If you have a field of fire that covers several objectives and gives you a view of much of the battlefield, then your team has nothing to complain about either. One example of such a position on the Manus Peak map is a saddle dip in the ridge line below one of the MCC’s. It and the road behind it are in the Red Zone, but by doing a little rock climbing I was able to take out a sniper from that spot by getting close with an assault riffle. Another example from Manus Peak is on the opposite side of the map, one of the rocky spikes is on a low angle and you can climb to the top for a good vantage point. I think it is just in the Red Zone, but I have had Reds show up and take me out with assault riffles, so I feel there is nothing unsporting about using that spot. (I think these two spots mostly survived the landscaping that came with Uprising.)

Level 3: Sway is manageable but annoying. You can shoot standing up, but crouching preferred.

'''Drop Uplinks''' should be place some distance from your sniping position in a hidden, out of the way place. That way if a Shotgun Scout kills you, you can spawn some distance away, pull your SMG and hunt them down. This distance between you and your uplink has become even more crucial in Uprising, as Drop Uplinks are now picked up easily on enemy radar. You don’t want your Uplink telling the Sniper Hunters where you are. Also, if your Drop Uplink disappears, take it as a warning that there is someone out there.

'''Nano Hives''' should be placed near by, but not in a position where the blue fog bubble will obstruct your vision or give your position away.

'''Silhouetting:''' This is what happens when you stand on top of an object. Don't do this. Never stand on top if hills or flat buildings. When you do this you are totally exposed as everyone else on the map can see a human shaped object with nothing else around it.

   stuff instead of spawning. Log can tank well, too. At proto level its all about logistics  

[https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=81747 Intro to the Scout Sniper (Touching the OTHER redline)]