Blaster Issues - Sniping

What ideas do you have making snipes more useful.

I think the most succinct way to put it is this: Given the chance to cast Blazing Bolt uninterrupted, I should want to do that instead of casting Blaze.

Snipes should be a long range attack, that can be interrupted during casting, but if you have the opportunity to use it, is the best attack to use on a single target. It should do the most damage, the most damage per activation time, and the strongest single target application of the powerset's signature secondary effect.

I think getting snipes to this point will require a buff to their damage scale, a reduction in the activation and interrupt times, and in many cases a buff to the secondary effect they apply.

Currently, time spent animating a snipe is time that can be better spent. That is the core problem.

I would first want to know from the devs what their designed desired use for them is in 2012.

As has been stated the main obstacle to its usage is the insane cast/animation times and the ease of interruption. Dealing with those three issues, devs desire first, is a good place to start.

Double their recharge, triple their damage. Boom they are fixed. They are used as an every spawn opener, they'll one shot a lieutenant without wasting Aim and Build Up, and they are still not likely to be used when the battle comes closer.

No one is likely to use them as their only attack and stay permanently at a safe range as that would make leveling slower than ??/dev.

Agree with above... if it is up, and you are in no threat of being interrupted, it should be the best attack in your arsenal. If that means increasing the recharge time then so be it. I would like to see Snipes get some love.

Until snipes are fixed, *I* won't take them. Datamine point.

So far, all the suggestions I'm seeing here amount to: make snipes do something other than, you know, snipe. Good luck with that. Oh, and tripling the damage so as not to "waste" Aim and Build Up? People would still use Aim and Build Up on such a power. I know I would.

Personally? I like snipes just fine the way they are, long activation times and all (also a datamine point).

I would have the initial burst of damage be non-notify (they may know they've been hit, but they don't know where it came from), and only make the target/group aware of the strike several seconds after the initial shot. You would thus get a "free" attack on a difficult enemy before starting the fight, but still be able to open with something else.

PS I agree they should do more damage.

Snips are going to get a revamp soon.

Is the only answer to these questions these days MOAR power creep. Yup, it appears so.

It's funny, I recently started playing my first decent 50 again, a Blaster, and actuall woke up this morning thinking "You know, when I was first working on learning the game and building Zev, there were threads all over the Blaster forum about how bad Snipes were and what to do to fix them, I ought to start a thread to see if anything has changed in two years."

It would appear that nothing has.

Snipes are still a last pick power, probably because you need to stick a 5 slot Sting of the Manticore in them for 7.5% recharge. The animations and the interrupt times are still a bit too long, the damage and range are still a bit too low. I realize that this is to try to give game balance and work within the necessarily constricted game scale, but overall Snipes just never feel Super Powered and are decidely Un-Heroic.

Actually owning an older 1/2 MOA Sniper grade hunting rifle (MOA = Minute of Angle so 5 shots - 100 yards - Maximum of 1/2 inch center of any bullet to center of any bullet - modern real sniper practice uses 1/4 inch MOA or even better) I have always found even calling these powers Snipes a joke. To put that level of accuracy in perspective, it means that at 100 yards, if for some reason it was necessary, I could reliably shot you in either eye or either ear, depending on where you happened to be facing. There are multiple modern confirmed military sniper kills at over 2000 yards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest...d_sniper_kills

Of course we, as Heroes, are not dedicated to actually killing people, being more concerned with defeating and apprehending them, so they can escape or be released, to kill again and again (Darrin Wade? - but that's another story.)

When a real sniper rifle is pressed into fire fight use (stuff happens,) the precise bullet placement that makes the damage bonus justified is not relevant, and the long range sighting device may actually be a penalty, but they darn sure don't get "interrupted".

The fix I would propose is that inside some minimum range (90 feet?) a Snipe power becomes just another T2 un-interruptible blast with normal Accuracy for that power set. Yes, that would mean that on some indoor maps it would be impossible to actually fire a full power Snipe. Address that issue by coding Snipe powers to treat activation on an unaware target as always being a Max range activation. Spruce up the actual Long Range Un-suppressed Damage so as defeat most Lt.'s with one shot (depending on their resistance to your particular snipe's damage type,) and increase base snipe range to about 200 feet and that's it.

Frankly any improvement in snipe powers will be just dandy as I find using them for a set mule is almost always a good build decision.

But I fear we will see Incarnate slot 10 before anything is done to fix snipes.

Jak

I suggested this elsewhere, but basically I'd like for sniper attacks to have two modes: one as a fast, high damage long range power and one as a higher damage but interruptable power.

• The gist is this: the power is interruptable.
• Once activated, the snipe is still interruptable.
• If interrupted, either by enemy attack or player movement, the power fires a current-damage snipe, causing the power to charge the appropriate endurance cost, and causing the power to go into recharge as it has been used.
• If NOT interupted, the power fires a far higher damage attack (I'm thinking x3 current damage in PvE) that also causes the power to go into recharge- but also causes an unresistable recharge debuff to the snipe power.

Fixing snipes should be really easy. Just make these attacks the equivalent of the high damage attacks that EVERY melee set receives.

1- Remove the interrupt.
2- Set animation to 2 seconds.
3- Set recharge to 15 seconds.
4- Set damage scale to 2.76, or roughly the same as it currently is. (This is conveniently what a 15 second recharge grants.)
5- Leave the range as is.

But what about the sets that don't receive a Snipe? That's simple. Clobberize their utility mez skills so they have a skill that does similar damage to the snipes with a reliable mez effect.

The Paragon team has hinted at love for snipes soon, and I suspect they will do something similar to AS changes for Stalkers.

My two ideas for snipes:

1) Backport the dominator sniper attack adjustments to corruptors, defenders, blasters, and any other AT with a snipe I'm forgetting about. That is, increase damage scale from 2.76 to 3.56, recharge from 12s to 20s, end cost from 14.35 to 18.51. This would probably be the least controversial change.

2) Make all interruptible attacks for all ATs autohit. To-hit rolls only exist to add uncertainty and keep players on their toes a bit. Interruptibility already adds uncertainty, so there is no need for a to-hit roll on top of that. Sniper attack IO sets would need an adjustment, but they're in need of an overhaul anyway.