Sniping tips.

[Jaged]

I just cashed in anti vech to try sniping. I am not that good. I can hit still targets with ease but as soon as they start crawling I have trouble. I try leading on them but the COF never collapses far enough by the time they get there. How on earth does a sniper hit a fast moving target such as a running cloaker, or even a guy in reinforced?

[Dryoc]

Lead them... That means put go way ahead of where they will be so that when they run across your reticle your COF will be very very small.

[Jaged]

But when I go that far ahead they always change direction before they get there. Than I have to move my cross-hairs again and watch the COF bloom like a virgin.

[ghost018]

Location is key. Don't pick somewhere obvious like a tower roof or facility wall. Trees and rocks make great nests. Depending on how far away from a target you are, you even have to shoot early. Sniping in this game is amazing. The feeling of accomplishment you get after fragging a distant moving target is like no other.

ghost

PS: w00t, I'm a Vet now....
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[Ghost06]

As a rule of sniping, try to always get to your intended target area before the zerg does. Put yourself in a position that isn't *too* hidden, but easy to defend, with a good route of escape.

Your meaty targets are other snipers unaware of you, and anything stationary and not a MAX suit or vehicle.

[Warborn]

Originally posted by ghost018
Location is key. Don't pick somewhere obvious like a tower roof or facility wall. Trees and rocks make great nests. Depending on how far away from a target you are, you even have to shoot early.

Eh... I don't completely agree. One nice thing about being in an obvious position like a tower top is that you can let the enemy snipers expose themselves by shooting you (note: don't try unless you have Medical).

Furthermore, locations away from walls or the tops of towers have a lot of other hazards associated with them. Not only that, but it's always a good idea to try and snipe someone while exposing as little of yourself as possible. When you're in a tower, you're usually shooting down on someone, and that let's you make yourself a smaller target, while making the target more exposed in turn.

[niplan]

Don't think your safe ontop of a mountin. >=) some craaaazah tank drivers like to get up there, and make the snipers go "SQEEEEEESH!" hehehehhehe

[JF-Wolf]

I think its just easier to get the guy who is very far away and standing still (trying to have a more accurate shot) then it is to shoot a guy who is running away. Some times you can just follow the guy who is running and when they stop for some reason then you can shoot them.

[sniper4evr26]

yes i used to be a sniper and maybe got a few kills from it. but i realized that i really suck and need some practice. unfortunately i didnt have that time or patientce to practice so i dropped the cert and got into infiltration but i might go back some day. weird story huh..
by the way, that sig is gonna get removed :D

[ThundaHawkPS]

Having notched about 80% of my kills from the bolt driver (4000-ish) I think I can offer some tips.

"I try leading on them but the COF never collapses far enough by the time they get there. How on earth does a sniper hit a fast moving target such as a running cloaker, or even a guy in reinforced?"

Patience is the key. Try not to jump the gun, and try to make your cursor movements as gentle and smooths as humanly possible. Don't quote me on this, but slowly strafing while sniping actually HELPS acuracy at times (due to the fact that gentle strafing doesn't affect your aim while mouse movements do).

Hitting moving targets is down to prediction. Most new players don't have this down, so they end up "tracking" their target too closely or too far. You are a sniper, and as such you have a huge frickin scope. Use it. Monitor the direction/speed of your intended target and keep in mind their range. Practice guessing alot and make sure your reticule is set-or-almost-set when the target does cross your crosshairs.

So yeah, just a few pointers from a sniper vet.

[JetRaiden]

if you're in an empty nme base you should equip the bolt driver. its a 1 shot kill on infil.

But i tossed sniping i was basically defenseless against MAXes and vehicles. so i traded it for spec assault.

[00AgentDuck]

Yeah I don't like sniping as much, I like the enemy to see me when I kill them. Once inside a base I had a bolt driver and I found a max. This guy had the worst aim ever so I could reload and shoot him with my bolt driver until he was dead. Very fun:D .

[Slice]

I've noticed something that helps out snipers back when I had the cert: Get range mod implant. Sure, it may not seem like much, but when you have zoomed to 12x, the crosshairs actually close faster. Now, im not saying the difference between a max and an infiltrator in the speed of the crosshair closing, but it still closes faster. When I realized this, my kills with the bolt driver skyrocketed.

[Skullhead]

Here's a good tip. Look around after every shot (in 3rd person view highly recommended) have darklight or listen very carefully. I can't tell you how many times I ran up to a sniper and killed him.. Heck I even ran over a sniper when he pry even saw me and he was just standing still.

ALso have 3 medkits, you can survive on 2 after a sniper hit (2 will allow a sniper to hit you again but you will have lower health than before.)

Look left and right and don't let the magriders run you over.

[Everay]

get darklight, hit t, then hold the + button so its far from you, then hit t again and snipe, after a while hit t and bring on darklight, to check around, ive cought alot of infultraters that way, and dont forget to change your position, and if your around alot of friendly troops, look around for infultrators, youll save alot of peoples asses that way, i have

[FlakMan]

I've bagged 5 running cloakers today (http://planetside.station.sony.com/strategy/lone_gunman.jsp) with one of my other characters.

[Happy lil Elf]

Become somwhat psychic. Leading targets in PS is not like many other games where you can track them and then fire. You basically have to know where they're going ot run and fire at that spot just before they get there. Strafing helps because it prevents your crosshairs from opening wider than a retiring hooker but even using that trick it takes awhile to get used to.

Pick a good spot. Depending on what you're trying to do this can mean many different things. but generally something relatively concealed with a decent escape route. Don't snipe from the top of hills. You stick out like a sore thumb to everyone and reavers love ramming snipers off of hills (at least I did when I had a reaver). Have a medical app or carry stim packs. Engineering and a BANK also helps but it's more of a nice thing to have than a necessity. Have either Darklight or Audio Amp and check for cloakers often.

[BDMJ]

I really like using audio implant while sniping so I can retain some situational awareness when zoomed. Also having second wind is a life saver if an infiltrator gets through.

For sniping positions find a spot overlooking an obvious avenue of approach to a friendly base. Select a spot that places your rifle barrel parallel to the dircetion the enemy soldiers are moving, then snipe away. Also you dont need to have a closed reticle to score a hit. If you reticle is just barely larger than your target, its usually worth it to take the shot, as it doesn't matter if you hit your enemy in the foot or the head.

[SumYungGui]

advanced regen implant, and the engineering cert with a BANK and one nano reload. always helps to have the edge in a sniper duel. you're not using your stamina for anything else as a sniper, so why not have adv regen? with the BANK you can repair off any damage the otehr snipers do to you then just keep trucking. lately I've been semi-sorta trying the personal shield implant to help me shrug off one extra sniper round, but even in such controlled circumstances the inherint suckitude of the shield implant is making me think twice.

my personal bit of flair is a mosquito to get me into all kindsa wierd sniping positions.

[Kaltagesta]

searhus is the one with the lava right? [im not a n00b, i just never remember the conts names]

anyway, me and my friend were both snipers, and i had a harrasser, and i managed to drive us up a mountain in between 2 bases, all we had to do was turn round to see the other, and the best was, one of them was next to the lava, the other was on the other side of the mountains, so any ground troops had to walk or drive for ages to get round = loads of tme for us to snipe them! it wass great!

and that same time, [we are vanu, one base was TR and the other NC] and we saw a VS max and agile hotdrop onto a tower, only for a TR reinf and max to come out at the top, but the VS were unaware of the others presence. what followed was a classic Benny hill style thing, where the tr were chasing the VS round, and the vs didnt even know they were there! in the end, the tr's kileld the max, and were chasing thre agile round and round the roof, but we managed tosave his ass, geting the reinf first and the max after like 12 shots or something! the agile didnt know how the max died, and never got a chance to thank us, but im sure he was grateful inside....

[TheRegurgitator]

hey jaged want to get together and ill trade in anti vehicle too for sniping we can snipe the same target at the same time for instakill!

[gospadin]

tips for snipers:

1. don't miss

this seems obvious, but if you miss you've not only given away your approximate location, but the target now knows that he still needs you to shoot him twice before he dies. Therefore, he can take all the time in the world to identify where your second shot comes from, knowing the reload on your gun will give him time to get behind cover

If you can hit with your first shot, then the target will spend time scrambling for cover instead of finding you, and if you choose your targets well, it is easy to pick them off before they can even make it behind the tree or whatever

2. location, location, location

I try to avoid sniping in the target's front 120 degree cone of view, this gives me some element of surprise since they won't see the round's origin. If I am picking off a group running perpindicular to me, I start with the ones in the rear, since if I aim for the lead guy everyone behind him will see the orange streak

trees and rocks are your friends, as is distance... sniping from maximum range with 12x zoom in a foggy area is way more effective than sniping from the adjacent hilltop that is the "obvious" location

I usually figure out where the source of our enemies is, then try to find a concealed vantage point about 250-300m from their position in an unexpected direction. With a load of 30 rounds, I can usually get 12-13 kills before having to rearm. I will hit both moving and unmoving targets with near 85% accuracy.

Best sniper spot I ever had was when I dropped out of a gal on a forest planet into the top of a tree. Nobody could figure out where my shots were coming from, though I could only snipe into a few select corridors due to foliage blocking my view. I lasted about 5 minutes 50m from a swarming enemy tower.

3. choose your targets well

Aim for the targets that are the largest threat, then the biggest "reward" for killing them. I rank them in roughly this order:

a. enemy snipers aiming at me
b. any enemy infiltrator
c. enemy snipers aimed at other snipers near me
d. vehicle drivers outside their vehicles
e. combat engineers
f. everyone else

Also, if I get shot, I trust that there will be other high profile targets in my area that other snipers might want to shoot, so I will stay ducked behind the obstacle for a good 15 seconds or so while I heal up. Often times the enemy will get bored and find a new target, giving me the chance to shoot him and kill him before he can reacquire me.

gos

[Revolver]

Ok here's a sniping tip:

1) Go to sanctuary
2) Enter HART building
3) Walk up to a certification terminal and press use
4) Select "Sniping" from the list of certifications you have
5) double-click it
6) Select yes when prompted
7) Wait until the devs realize how useless the cert is and turn it into a formidible weapon.

[Warborn]

Sniping useless? Sniping is incredibly powerful in this game. Sorry, but out of all the weapons, it's probably the most effective in all situations.

[Lonehunter]

Originally posted by Warborn
Sniping useless? Sniping is incredibly powerful in this game. Sorry, but out of all the weapons, it's probably the most effective in all situations.

Explain

Edit: I really want to get sniping now :)

[Ghost06]

First off, there are a lot of enemy snipers in this game. The best way to kill a sniper, is to counter-snipe him. If we didn't have counter-snipers on either of the sides, the infantry (90% of us) would be sitting ducks. They are useful for killing troops unaware of their surrondings, and for slowing down large movements of grunts making their way on foot.

To simplify the above paragraph, the multiple roles of a sniper go as follows:

1. To kill infantry units labeled as "V.I.P." (adv. targetting works good for this)
2. To counter-snipe snipers who may kill a friendly "V.I.P."
3. Picking off caravans of troops whom were too lazy to get a vehicle cert.