24 replies to this topic

[Eaerie]

Yea first off get the idea of the"one shot one kill" out of your head. you are dealing with big armored tanks. It is almost impossible to shoot a fresh mech and kill it with one shot, unless the opposing player has drasticly reduced his armor.
That said there are plenty of "sniper" builds out there. From the dual guass rifles, ERLL's and AC's. But being a sniper is more about quickly analyzing a mech, determine its week point, either a weak hit location due to previous damage or a certain location that normally packs a large majority of the mechs firepower(good example is an atlas ST, either detroy his AC side or SRM/LRM side relativly easy, or if you see a light mech stopped for whatever reason shoot a leg out) crippling a mech is almost as good as a kill.
I think people get hung up on the whole sniper thing and think to be a sniper you have to pack long range weapons, but i feel in this game knowing how to be stealthy, where and how to move about the battlefield without attracting notice, knowing where to shoot for most effect and then getting back into cover quickly will make you a great sniper as opposed to standing out in the open and trading shots.
But anyway you do it, take your shot(s) and move. Do not sit in the same place for extended periods, you will probably get left out all alone and become easy picking to a light just looking for a tasty,slow sniper mech.

[InspectorG]

As many have said:

+1 there are no real snipers in this game.

+1 One hit kills are very rare.

Sniping in MWO may get very frustrating, the 2 main sniping weapons, ERPPC and Gauss will require learning to lead your target at range, and since different mechs move at different speeds...it may take a long time to get a feel for it.

ACs drop off in their flight. Complicating aim.

Lazers 'insta-hit' but require more 'facetime' which makes you vulnerable to return fire.

I recommend you look into 'direct fire support'. Think of it as supporting the brawlers.

This can be done with about any light(dont sit still and camp unless the action is far away...even then. Try to keep moving). Basically hit and run as well as peek-a-boo.

Mediums: Hunchbacks, Shadowhwks, Stormcrows, Cicadas, Blackjacks, basically anything not an SRM brawler or LRM-boat.

Heavy: Timberwolf, Thunderbolt, Quickdraw, Jager, Cataphract

Assault: Direwolf, Stalker, Awesome, Banshee, Battlemaster, again avoid close range brawlers that rely on AC20/SRM

I dont recommend LRMs because you spend time to get good with them vs other 'beginner' players only to have trouble once you face better players. LRMs are easy to use vs newbs and very hard to use vs veterans.
Might as well get good with direct fire...i dont see the meta shifting from it anytime soon.

TL;DR
Firestarter
Hunchback or Stormcrow
Timberwolf or Thunderbolt
Stalker or Direwhale

MWO has no use for sniping, look into direct fire support

[Wingbreaker]

Technically, in terms of battletech, the answer is yes.

[mailin]

Sniping is all well and good at the beginning of a battle, and when the enemy is distracted. But don't get so focused on it that you lose situational awareness. This is the death of your team mates. So often the lone ECM 3L will go off and snipe from an isolated position while his team mates get torn apart by lrms. Do not fall into this trap. Instead, learn when to go off alone and when you will need to stay close to the fatties for fire support and possibly to provide ECM cover.

The most important thing about MWO is that it is a team game.

[Khereg]

Staying with the original question, if you're new and you want to snipe, I'll add a vote to the Jager crowd. Either the JM6-DD or JM6-S can be outfitted with dual gauss rifles and those will get the job done nicely. The Jager was my first mech purchase nearly 2 years ago (when it was one of the best mechs in the game) and I still pull it out on occasion to decent effect.

The build I use has 5 tons of ammo (50 shots - 25 "dual" shots) and I sport 2 ML's in the center torso in case a light closes in or I run out of ammo (it does happen). You can put this build on either the DD or S variant. No specific smurfy link, but it's not hard to figure out. Requires an XL engine...

One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is the time required to earn your stake to buy and build. The cadet bonus ends after 25 matches and you should have enough to buy your first mech if it's a light or medium. I want to say you'll have $12 - $15 Million c-bills depending on your performance after the cadet phase. If you want to snipe in a heavy or assault, you're going to need some extra play time to earn the c-bills (or just buy with real money if you're impatient ad have the means).

As a new player, I'd suggest staying in the solo queue where your low ELO will keep you matched with more suitable competition. Going with groups or into CW and you're going to find the competition much more difficult, which negatively affects your earnings.

An average player in the solo queue (without premium time or champion bonuses) can expect to earn roughly $75k c-bills per match (down to about $45 - $50k if you struggle, and over $100k if you're a quick learner). For now, let's assume $75k/match. You can generally play about 4 - 6 matches an hour - we'll say 5 on average. That's $375,000 per hour of play time, or about a million every 3 hours-ish.

Now you can look at the price of various mechs and see what kind of time commitment you're getting into to buy something. Keep these points in mind also:

1. The mech you buy won't be kitted out to be a sniper. Assume you'll need to double the base price to get the loadout you want.

2. To be effective, you're going to need to increase the skills on that chassis and to go beyond the basic tier, you're going to need to acheive the basic skills on 3 of the same mech type. You can reuse some equipment from your first purchase to save money, but it still won't be cheap.

3. Finally, to get the most out of your mech, you'll want some modules. For a sniper, the advanced zoom module is a must, and a bargain at only $2 million (most mech modules are $6 Million). Modules can be added, removed, and switched from mech to mech, so you don't need new ones every time you get another chassis.

All told, you may spend upwards of $50 Million to fully level up and have modules for a solid Jager sniper. That sounds daunting, but your cadet bonus will get you off to a good start. Another $37-ish Million will get you there. That's a little over 100 hours of play time. You can see why we call it grinding... And you can see why some people are pointing you to less expensive medium mechs (lights generally don't have the space to snipe, except for the aforementioned ravens, which could also be a good choice for the frugal minded).

Good luck. See you out there.

Edited by Khereg, 23 March 2015 - 01:33 PM.