It's called teamwork!!
Even a little bit helps. Do you know the biggest disadvantage to using these powerful alpha builds. Maneuverability. They work well in the right situation, but their advantage isn't insurmountable. The reason why it seems like the PPC stalker and pop-a-phracts are OP is the predictability of engagements. If you notice, there are locations where the pilots always go. They want height advantage and easy cover. If you fight them at range, you will lose. It's easy to manage high heat builds at a km away. It isn't when the enemy is all over you. This is where they show their true weakness. Personally, I've been having great success with my Jager-s and K2.
- Know your a maps - This seems like a no brainier, but I watch people walk into no mans land time and time again, only to die by sniper fire. On most maps it's pretty easy to close distance while remaining in cover. Ironically enough, these are the same tactics you use to avoid missile spam. They work equally as well avoiding high alpha builds. It seems people have forgotten that lesson. If you take the regular route to engagement, don't be surprised when snipers are waiting for you.
- If you fight fire with fire, you might get burned. - With the growing popularity of long range combat, I've seem game play shift to a sniper vs. sniper style. The problem with this is that if the enemy has more snipers or have slightly better aim, You're probably going to lose the fight. Take the war in Iraq as an example. When enemy combatants fought head to head with American solders, they were out trained, out gunned and overall out matched. Their campaigns didn't see real gains until they started using IEDs on the battlefield. You saw similar tactics in the Vietnam war and even in the American revolution. It's some real Sun Tsu ****, but The Art of War is time tested.
- Know your enemy - The two main sniper weapons are guass and erPPCs. It is my personal opinion that guass snipers are far more dangerous than their counterparts. Due to ammo restrictions, they are more likely to pick their shots more carefully. Also due to the lack of heat generation, when engaging at close range. They are far better at defending themselves. With this in mind, your best bet is to encourage them make bad shots. The lights and mediumsexcel at this with their ability duck in and out of cover.All the while, your heavy hitters can close distance. PPC users are at such a huge disadvantage at close range, it isn't even funny. Even with this disadvantage, you see most of them continuing to alpha strike in hopes to catch someone running by. They are plagued by frequent shutdowns, giving you more then enough time to move to their 6 and do you unmolested damage
- For the love of God, keep moving - My general purpose anti sniper build is my Jager S. It's equip with 4 AC5s, 2 med lasers and several tons of ammo. While I don't move very fast, I focus on shooting while moving. Because my rate of fire is much higher than and alpha sniper, I can land many shots while moving to more cover. These snipers have become very bold. Many will stay stationary while firing just until the point of overheating. if they even seek cover at all. With the ability to lay down suppressive fire at long range. Some simply just soak up damage and out DPS the enemy. Use this to your advantage, It's much harder to hit a moving target and many snipers will pick easy targets over moving ones. As for the pop-a-phracts. They normally have a target before they jump and engage. A moving target means they have to worry about vertical as well as lateral aiming. Making their shots that much more inaccurate.