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SNIPER GUIDE The sniper is often one of the most over-looked tools in objective based game types. You will often hear comments about snipers being useless or a detriment to the team. There are 2 reasons for this: One is that snipers often don’t use an effective technique to benefit the team, the other is that most people don’t realize what the sniper is actually doing for the team. As a force multiplier the sniper is unmatched. The effect the sniper has on enemy behavior is huge. Let’s look at some of these effects: 1. When there is an open area to cover, an effective sniper will eliminate the threat of enemies using these areas to advance. Once the enemy realizes that there is a sniper covering the area and they can’t locate his position they will almost always abandon that as an option for movement. 2. The sniper has the ability to effectively cover an objective from afar, allowing the team to maintain control of an objective until his teammates can capture it. It is equally important to keep the enemy from capturing or planting as it is for your team to capture or plant. 3. When a sniper has disrupted the movement of a team significantly, their morale and subsequently their strategy will fall. Nothing irritates a team more than being killed and being unable to eliminate the threat. 4. When a sniper has gained the attention of the enemy, they will lose focus on the objective in order to eliminate you. Thus, you have bought your team precious time to capture without the need to actually engage. Another thing to remember is to only use the minimum number of snipers necessary to get the job done. If you have too many, you wont have enough players to capture the objectives. If you don’t use enough, you may not create the desired impact on the enemy. The team leaders should keep this concept in mind at all times, and alter the use of snipers during the game accordingly. ________________________________________________________________ MAKING YOUR SHOTS COUNT The most important thing as a sniper is to hit what you’re shooting at. No matter how sound your strategy, you will be a detriment to your team if you can’t hit your target. Hitting what you’re aiming at involves many factors: 1. Latency 2. Focus 3. Speed 4. Knifing Reflex 5. Hit Boxes 6. Blood Pressure Latency Lag is a huge problem for snipers. If the enemy is in your crosshairs on your screen, but is actually half an inch to the right or left, you will miss them many times. Even if you’re a great sniper, recognize your limitations related to lag and use another class if necessary. Focus Focus is a huge factor. Things like music, stress, or a high level of intensity in game can throw off your focus. If you are too excited you will over swing your target. On the other hand, if you are tired or sluggish you may not have adequate focus or reflexes to maintain control of your crosshairs on the target. Speed In order to hit moving targets or targets that appear quickly while moving between cover, you will have to be fast. You will have to acquire the target, center the crosshairs, fire, and possibly make a follow up shot if you miss or if they are using juggernaut. Without speed, this can’t be accomplished. Knifing Reflex One of the most irritating things you will come across as a sniper is accidentally knifing once you have acquired your target. For those that have been playing for a while, you will occasionally automatically knife when an enemy appears close to you suddenly. When you acquire a target quickly, the scope will make the enemy appear close to you, causing you to subconsciously press down on the stick. The more you keep this in mind, the less it will happen. If you are unable to break this habit, alter your button layout so you knife with another button. Hit Boxes At some time while sniping, you will notice that your bullets don’t hit the mark, even though the crosshairs are centered. On the character models there are little boxes that you have to hit in order to register a hit. Sometimes these boxes are off a bit causing you to miss. Since the update I haven’t found this to be a problem, however. Blood Pressure This can go hand in hand with focus, as a high blood pressure may cause you to lose focus. If your blood pressure is high your hands might shake, and you might be too excited to concentrate. Many times while playing with heavy rock music on and ingesting large amounts of caffeine I have found it difficult to aim properly. _________________________________________________________________ STRATEGY Now that you have an idea of how to hit your target, let’s look at some general strategies. The most important of sniping on objective game types is positioning. In order to protect an objective, cover your team, or shut down an enemy route of travel, you will have to be in the correct position. Covering Your Team In order to effectively cover your team, you will need to be positioned in such a way that you have a good view of their backs or blind spots. Another method of team cover is to focus on a main route of travel for the enemy, and eliminate them as they advance to the objective. If you find many enemies making it past your position without being harassed, it’s time to move. Protecting an Objective Covering an objective is very important. To do this effectively, you have to stay alive or you risk losing your position as well as losing the objective. That being said, maintain an adequate distance from the objective, but not so far away as to cause your team to respawn too far away. If possible, you will want to be able to cover a main route of travel, as well as the objective itself, just in case they make it through. If an enemy has reached the objective, shift your focus to them and maintain focus on the objective itself, due to the fact that during the time it took you to eliminate the threat on the objective other enemies may have made it in as well. Blocking main routes of travel From time to time you may need to shut down a route of travel away from your team or the objective. In order to do this, set up in such a way that you can engage the enemy as they move away from you. This may seem counterproductive, but this will cause the enemy to have to turn around to engage you, buying your team precious time if you miss. With any of these strategies, be sure to use cover and concealment at all times. If the enemy sees you as you move, they may be able to eliminate you before you get a chance to set up, practically removing you from the fight altogether. _________________________________________________________________ PERKS/EQUIPMENT Now let’s look at the perks. Often your perks will depend on your personal preference, but sometimes you will need to chose them based on your strategy. Claymores These are useful if you are blocking a route of travel. Since you will want to engage the enemy as they move away from you, they may have an opportunity to sneak up on you, so set these up accordingly. Be sure not to make the lasers too visible. Remember, just because they blow up doesn’t mean the enemy is dead. Even if it shows an enemy has been killed, you still need to check your six to ensure there are no other enemies that came with him. If all your claymores are gone, monitor your blind spots frequently, as the enemy will surely be coming back. Even if you can’t score more kills, you have accomplished your goal due to the fact that the enemy has shifted its focus to you. Stopping Power Unfortunately this is almost a requirement. I find that without this on it can take the intervention 2 or 3 shots to kill someone, and you can forget about the silencer. Juggernaut Don’t use it. Sleight of Hand Pro This is a must in my opinion. Sniper rifles tend to reload slowly, as well as shotguns if you so chose to use. FMJ This perk has some use if you are playing on a map with dense cover. If you must use this, make sure your shots count when shooting through cover. If you waste time trying to kill someone through cover, you are letting the enemy advance and giving away your position. Extended mags This is a great perk for snipers. Naturally reloading can get you killed. Remember, your goal is to stay alive and continuously harass the enemy, so plan ahead and bring more bullets. _________________________________________________________________ WEAPON CHOICE The weapon you chose depends on your preferences for the most part, just make sure the rifle you use will get the job done. There are some differences between them: Barrett .50 This is a powerful semi-automatic weapon. The killing power is great, and the ability to make quick follow up shots is extremely useful. The only problem people maybe have with this rifle is the aim. It will take some time to get used to, but once you get it figured out it will be as accurate as any. It is also effective at short range no-scoping. The distinct sound of this weapon may give away your position quickly. Intervention This is a quick and powerful weapon. Your movement is better when carrying this weapon, it is extremely accurate, and it seems to have the same killing power as the .50. It’s downfall is the bolt. Follow up shots are slower, and reaquiring a target is more difficult due to you taking your eye off the scope to chamber another round. WASR/M21 These are weak rifles compared to the former. They offer good accuracy, as well as the possibility of one shot kills with stopping power, but I would recommend using the .50 if you need a semi-automatic. _________________________________________________________________ THE ACOG SCOPE There is a lot of talk about the acog scope since the update fixed the hit box problems. This can be useful in short-medium range combat, but at long ranges the movement of the reticle, and the fact that the reticle disrupts your vision at long ranges, makes this scope not so desireable for long range engagements. That being said, if you plan for combat at these ranges it may be more beneficial to go with another class.
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