Lone Gunman

The Lone Gunman -- Skillset Strategy

The aim of this character skill track is to create a self-sufficient sniper. As much as possible, you should be able to go out, find your sniping position and get kills without ever putting yourself in range of the enemy's weapons, or even tipping them off to where you're hiding.

Start the track at Battle Rank 2, as that extra cert point, which takes takes you up to 5, lets you pick a 2 and a 3-point cert. There's no good reason not to start at Battle Rank 2--all you have to do is go in to the VR Training rooms and examine a few vehicles and weapons to get the experience needed for that first level!

Battle Rank 2
Medium Assault (2), Sniping (3)

When playing a weapons specialist, whether a sniper or any other form, you have to take Medium Assault first. It is simply the gateway to all other weapon certifications.

Once you have medium assault, you can take sniping. This gives you your trusty bolt driver, your standard weapon from here on out.

Equipping Yourself
As a starting sniper, you can only really do one thing well--shoot things at range. Close up, almost everyone will have the edge over you, so there is relatively little point in even preparing for most contingencies at this point.

Fill your main slot, slot 2, with a bolt driver. Fill a good portion of your inventory with extra ammo, and then take a few med kits for emergencies. This is pretty much going to be your basic load-out.

Slot 1, will only take a pistol or a grenade. It probably won't save you, but a frag grenade might just give you that last extra chance if someone closes on you. Alternatively, a jammer grenade can send enemy fliers that have found your position out of control.

Take the Remote Electronics Kit as weapon slot 3. It doesn't take up much space, and you'll really appreciate it being there when you stumble across a deserted tower that would make a great forward resupply point.

Don't even try putting an assault rifle or shotgun in to your inventory or any of your inventory favorites. You won't be able to cycle it out fast enough to use.

If you want, create an additional inventory favorite or two that are based around standard assault weapons. These will give you options if you re-spawn somewhere that is under attack and need to do faster, less accurate damage. Again, don't carry the bolt driver. You can't swap it in and out fast enough; it'll just take up space.

Finding a Spot
A large part of successful sniping is finding a good location to snipe from.

You need somewhere that gives a good field of fire in a target rich environment, otherwise you'll have nothing to kill. You need somewhere that offers a degree of concealment or you'll be quickly found and killed. You need somewhere that's hard to approach, so you know when enemies are coming and have a chance to run. If you are lucky, your position should be hard enough to approach that they would rather try and avoid your fire than take the trouble to take you out.

Generally the best spot for all of the above is on a ridge surrounding a base. This will give you a field of fire that actually looks inside the walls and lets you get a bead on all the people who think they're safe and are standing still. If you crouch down, you can hide a lot of your body just behind the ridge, giving you a degree of concealment. You have the height advantage, so that when you need to escape, they have to run uphill while you get to run downhill. Finally, if you're shooting over a wall, they have to go all the way around to an exit before climbing the hill to come after you.

Just remember, because it's such a good spot, people learn to scan the ridgelines as soon as a sniper starts up.

Finally, no matter how great your spot, try and limit yourself to a maximum of three shots from any position before finding another one. If you linger, they will come.

Taking the Shot
First, crouch. Unless you are crouching, you won't have any accuracy.

Next, select your target. Ideally pick someone who is as lightly armored as possible. This means leave MAXs alone and absolutely avoid vehicles. If you can, look for someone in a stealth suit as they have no armor. You can find them by watching for them turning semi-visible while running, watching for where they stop (and go invisible again) and then shooting that spot.

Learn to track smoothly. It's a hard skill at first but if you learn to move your mouse really slowly and smoothly, your sights will remain much more accurate, letting you get shots in much more easily.

Limit your shots to stationary targets at first. It takes luck and practice before you can hit a moving target.

Keep your shot clean. Whenever possible, wait for your sights to converge again, giving you the accuracy that you need.

To help with all of the above, look for choke points. If you see someone running around near a door, the odds are that they will try going through that door. When they hit the door, they have to pause for a moment while it opens, giving you your shot. Rather than track them, target on the door. Then all you have to do is make a minor correction when they get there.

Another great set of choke points are the vehicle pads. People stop at the terminal, out in the open, to select a vehicle, and then they stop beside the vehicle while trying to get in.

Should you not be able to find a choke point, you can always make an educated guess. By watching where someone is running, say along a wall for example, you can aim at a spot that you think they are likely to pass through. Once you pick that spot, you can wait, let your crosshairs stabilize and then pull off a completely accurate shot as they run by. If you are lucky, they will be so surprised that they will stop to figure out where the shot came from, and you'll have your second shot.

Let the bad shots go. It's much better to let a shot go and wait until you're sure of a hit than to risk revealing a good position.

Reload immediately. Most shots won't kill immediately; you'll need a second shot. Get into the habit of reloading the instant your first shot is fired. That way you're ready to take the second shot, and finish them as quickly as possible. If you're lucky, a lot of marks will be so surprised by getting hit in a place they thought they were safe that they'll rotate on the spot, staying nice and still, looking for who shot them rather than moving to cover.

Finally, remember the 3-shot rule. If you fire more than that from any one position, they will learn where you are and send someone to kill you.

The Not So Lone Gunman
One of the weaknesses of the sniper rifle is that it rarely kills on the first shot. A fun way to solve this is to take another sniper with you.

If you are careful, you can both talk coordinate on your targets, aim your shots and both fire at the same instant. Two sniper rounds hitting at the same target at the same time will almost guarantee a kill.

Battle Rank 4
Medium Assault (2), Sniping (3), Advanced Mobile Station (2)

The Advanced Mobile Station
One of the problems with being a sniper is that you are, by definition, a long way from anyone else (or at least you should be). Being so far away means that you are also far away from resupply. Plus, when you get killed, you likely have a long walk back to a good position.

An AMS lets you choose your own respawn and resupply point. Try to place it well back from the ridge you are shooting from. It is much better to have to run for thirty seconds than have the Reaver that just came to kill you knock out your AMS, too.

Finally, AMSs give you the ability to swap weapon configurations. If you have someone in a MAX who was sent to kill you, you can keep respawning with endless supplies of frag grenades and jammers until things are evened up.

Battle Rank 6

Targeting Implant
The obvious implant for a sniper seems to be the zoom implant. While the implant makes an incredible difference for most weapons, some snipers will tell you that it is a waste when your main weapon already has an 8x zoom. In most situations, 8x is plenty and it is not worth the loss of a precious implant slot for 12x. Remember, while zoom gives you range, it reduces your field of view. 8x already reduces you to 1/8th the field of view while 12x limits your field of view by another third again .

A much better choice for a sniper is the targeting implant. Being able to see exactly how healthy someone is, before you take your shot, gives you a massive advantage. Now rather than taking a shot and desperately hoping to get a second one in, you can finish off the wounded targets in a single shot. That instant kill won't give them a chance to figure out where you are to come after you.

You also get the advantage of knowing that, if the first shot did less than half damage, you need at least two more to finish and it is better to abandon the kill than try and beat the odds.

Battle Rank 7
Medium Assault (2), Sniping (3), Advanced Mobile Station (2), Reinforced Armor (3)

You remember all that advice about never carrying a second weapon, back at Battle Rank 2? Reinforced Armor allows you an extra large slot so you can finally hot swap weapons, and you can now take a decent assault rifle or shotgun, which will make the task of taking you out close up a lot bloodier. Plus you get extra inventory space so you can pack extra ammo, more grenades for emergencies and an extra med pack or two.

One tactic that some players have used successfully involves equipping two bolt drivers. As you can currently change weapons faster than you can reload a bolt driver, this lets you get a second shot off just a little bit faster.

Battle Rank 10 And Beyond
At this point you should have a really good feel for where you want to go. If you want more suggestions though:

Mosquitos
The Mosquito, despite its use as a light fighter, is really designed as a scout aircraft. One of the main tasks for a sniper is scouting out a good position. A Mosquito lets you fly fast and low over the area, finding out where troop concentrations are, the best suited terrain is and where you might want to set up to take advantage of it all.

If you manage to park your Mosquito inside your AMSs cloaking field, life becomes a lot tougher for Reavers sent to kill the sniper on the ridge. Now you die, respawn at the AMS, jump into the Mosquito, fly out and shoot down the Reaver.

Other Weapons Certifications
Once you have your Reinforced Armor, you can start carrying the heavier weapons whenever you have the certs free. A flier coming in on your position? Swap to a Phoenix and shoot him down. Infantry rushing you? Mini-gun them.

Engineer and Medic Skills
If you end up as a non-lone gunman, being able to heal the people who are covering you and repair their MAXs is invaluable. Add to that the ability to repair your AMS when it gets attacked, and you can stay in the field longer.

When you get Combat Engineering, you gain the ability to protect your position with boomers, mines, turrets and motion sensors. Now no one can sneak up on you without your knowing it and, even when they do come in close, even the ground around them attacks them.

Implants
Consider Darklight for dealing with stealth suits sent out to kill you. The main drawback here is your sight range.

Otherwise, surge lets you run away faster (and run up steeper hills, getting a better position) and all of the health/shielding implants let you survive if an enemy sniper sets up to take you out as you snipe at his base.

--Kukido