Sniper Rifles

[Elogsbobo]

Okay I've use a good amount of weapon types in the game, but I never used a sniper rifle. So I was wondering which ones should I start off with, as well as the pros and cons of each.

[Teloch]

Vectis prime (for ridiculously high damage per shot), OR Rubico (for consecutive ultra crits) 
Lanka requires experience; Vulkar wraith and Snipetron(vandal) are currently unobtainable; regulair vectis and vulkar will not suffice. 

[BiMax]

Lanka -  Vulkar

 

[Stratego89]

For a starter, I suggest the Vectis (Prime). It's the least "sniper-y" in that it's more of a combat rifle than a sniper. It's zoom is short-mid ranged as opposed to the others making it better for the close quarters combat we're all used to.

Rubico is the sniper of the snipers. It's almost dependant on it's zoom buffs, has a strong zoom, and insane damage, with low fire rate and small magazine with a long reload. It's the true one shot one kill of the bunch and has problems in general gameplay compared to the others but WILL kill anything you point it at without issue.

Lanka is the bow of the snipers. It's seriously like a bow with an almost-hitscan arrow with no drop. Daikyu is constantly compared to it. It has great damage to start, but what makes it amazing is it's status. If you couple it's status and crit with headshots on a gas build, crowds are going to die with single shots. It's a charge up weapon so it's fire rate isn't the best but it's not a big issue like on the rubico due to the build I mentioned before (or others like electric) making it crowd-viable.

Vulkar is the runt of the litter I think. Not many people use it, it's stats are pretty average, and the only thing it has going for it is the syndicate mod- which doesn't do much for it outside the proc IMO. It has a really satisfying sound though, I suppose.

[taiiat]

in Alphabetical order:

Lanka deals the most Damage of any Sniper Rifle. period.
pure Elemental Damage, base Electricity.
has 5 Meters of Punch-Through.
must Charge to fire at all, ~25% Charge for quick shots and 100% Charge for power shots.
Optic gives significant Additive Crit Chance.
Optic Zoom of 3/7/12x.
shoots a Projectile rather than being Ray Trace, travels at 200m/s.
large Magazine of 10, average Reload of 2sec.
Shot Combo requires 2 hits to go up a Tier, Reset has a delay of 10 seconds which is very long.
incredibly inaccurate Hipfiring.

Rubico has very high Crit Damage, Optic even further increases Crit Damage.
deals the lowest Base Damage of all currently available Sniper Rifles.
Damage is heavily weighted towards Impact.
Optic Zoom of 5/12x.
Shot Combo requires 1 hit to Tier, Reset has a delay of 2.5 seconds which is incredibly short. fairly small Magazine of 5 and long Reload of 3sec also makes it by default incapable of keeping Combo between Magazines.

will not mention Snipetron Series since they are unobtainable.

Vectis has a singular round in it's Magazine, but a fast reload of 0.9sec.
minimum time between two rounds is a bit higher than other Sniper Rifles.
low Optic Zoom of 3/4x.
Damage is weighted towards Impact with high Puncture and moderate Slash.
Shot Como requires 2 hits to Tier, Reset of 4sec.
can Reload while Zoomed, something most Sniper Rifles cannot do.

Vectis Prime has a Magazine of two rounds.
significantly higher Base Damage than Vectis.
Damage is weighted towards Puncture, with high Impact and low Slash.
Optic Zoom of 4/10x.
Shot Combo requires 5 hits to Tier, Reset of 3sec. (5 sounds like a typo but i don't feel like going to simulation to double check atm)

Vulkar generally staggers Enemies hit.
lowest Crit Chance of all Sniper Rifles.
Magazine of 6 and slow Reload of 3sec.
Damage is heavily weighted towards Impact.
Optic Zoom of 2.5/6/12x.
Shot Combo requires 2 hits to Tier and Reset of 5sec.
has Augment, Lasting Purity. 1.6x Damage while using Optic.
(Vulkar Wraith has higher Damage that is further weighted towards Impact, and a larger Magazine of 8.

- - - - - 

Vaykor Hek, Soma Series, Opticor, Lex Series, Marelok Series, and Magnus can also be used in similar veins as a Sniper Rifle, for note.

Edited March 12, 2016 by taiiat