Sniper Rifles

[xXx_mtv_xXx]

Are any of them actually worth using for anything other than mastery fodder? 

I don't see anyone using them...

 

 

 

[GreyEnneract]

Lanka.

Snipers are in the lowest tier of projectile weapons either way though.

[xXx_mtv_xXx]

Looking at their base damage stats I would say they're way too weak to even consider using as a dedicated primary. 

Lanka has 150 base damage which is a joke. Take something like a shotgun which has much higher base damage, shoots must faster and is actually useful most of the time because enemies tend to be in your face a lot. 

[-DragonOfTheWest-]

My most used weapon is a sniper (Vectis to be specific). Snipers are in an awkward place right now. They have semi long reloads and short magazines. But they also have a combo counter you need to keep up to deal the maximum amount of damage (Which is kinda hard with some given there long reloads). I tend to use the Snipetron Vandal these days. It isn't the hardest hitting sniper out there, but it makes up for that with a decent clip size (6) and an average reload speed (2 seconds). The best thing about it though is the 4 meter innate punch through which lets you hit multiple targets at once.

 

Are they just mastery fodder? No.  Are they for everyone? Also no.  If your good with aiming then you can be very deadly with a sniper (especially to heavy units).

Edited June 30, 2016 by williamsos10

[-DragonOfTheWest-]

2 minutes ago, xXx_mtv_xXx said:

Looking at their base damage stats I would say they're way too weak to even consider using as a dedicated primary. 

Lanka has 150 base damage which is a joke. Take something like a shotgun which has much higher base damage, shoots must faster and is actually useful most of the time because enemies tend to be in your face a lot. 

The Lanka has 150 base uncharged damage. It has 525 base damage on a fully charged shot and tends to hit like a semi truck.

[xXx_mtv_xXx]

Well they should make them more powerful to compensate for the small maps and swarms of enemies who like to jump in your face or smth. 

[xXx_mtv_xXx]

Just now, williamsos10 said:

The Lanka has 150 base uncharged damage. It has 525 base damage on a fully charged shot and tends to hit like a semi truck.

So not only do you have to keep your distance, but you also have to spend time charging it? 

Challenge accepted haha so I guess these guns are for those who find the game too easy :D

[-DragonOfTheWest-]

2 minutes ago, xXx_mtv_xXx said:

So not only do you have to keep your distance, but you also have to spend time charging it? 

Challenge accepted haha so I guess these guns are for those who find the game too easy :D

Not necessarily, snipers are for people who favor damage per shot and accuracy over spray and pray. The charge rate isn't really a problem with fire rate mods. And the damage of the Lanka + its 5 meter innate punch through more than make up for the charge time and projectile travel time.

Edited June 30, 2016 by williamsos10

[Eminem2420]

i don't think a damage increase would help them any. I think the main problem is that most encounters are short to medium range engagements.

[(PSN)EVILFLUFFMONSTER]

I have been trying out the Lanka gas build recently, and im loving it on Saryn. I took it to Heiracon to test it out and was impressed that even when the infested were level 120 plus it was taking swathes of them out when that gas proc hits those spores..

Im only at three forma so far and have two slots free, so its going to be pretty awesome when im finished.

[Inarticulate]

12 minutes ago, xXx_mtv_xXx said:

Looking at their base damage stats I would say they're way too weak to even consider using as a dedicated primary. 

Lanka has 150 base damage which is a joke. Take something like a shotgun which has much higher base damage, shoots must faster and is actually useful most of the time because enemies tend to be in your face a lot. 

The Lanka has 525 base damage on a fully charged shot with a 1.5-second charge time. It has a mediocre 25% base critical chance, but makes up for that with a +50% additive bonus to critical chance at maximum zoom.

Compare to the Dread which has 200 base damage on a fully charged shot with a 1.0-second charge time and 50% base critical chance.

[(PSN)watt4hem]

I always bring a sniper when i'm doing a void defense as frost or trinity due to the way mobs just run in a straight line, but other than that sniper won't do any good for me since enemies tend to stick their face up to yours

[Kinetos]

I just want to remove RNG from their damage. 

[Festinger]

Sniper rifles rarely find a place in rushframe, often losing out as a weapon of choice to area guns like staticor, sonicor & synoid simulor, low-cost-when-miss tonkor, or in general rifles, which are less punishing on aiming, as well as being able to rapidly fire.

Counters:
Nullifier bubbles. Those things easily stop your high damage bullets, while those smug bombards (in void) hide him them and literally bombard you with their rockets.
Armor scaling can get really nastly and you may find that you use more shots than you can replenish from drops.
Latency can really affect the performance of landing a hit for non-hitscan snipers like Lanka.

[Alma_Elma]

Personally I use a radioactive Vectis Prime built for crits, and I handle it as a quick-shooting repeater rifle than a sniper rifle (Its more of personal taste). Its pretty good for what it does and its proven itself reliable on most occasions , even while fighting against Sortie 3-grade enemies.

[DxAdder]

They really have no place in Warframe other than maybe Spy or Rescue missions since most of the fighting is done within 50m.

50m for a FPS is iron sights/ 1X scope range, and there DPS is just terrible vs mobs.

 

[TotallyLagging]

Aim sway, inaccurate hipfire, decent crit chance but not consistent enough to allow one-shots on every target, medium-high base damage, low RoF and low ammo pool. They're pretty much garbage and the existence of Nullifier bubbles and damage capped enemies ( Which, thankfully, they've dropped on newer content except on bosses ) doesn't help that.

High damage, high crit weapons with innate punchthrough. That's what every sniper should be. So far only Lanka can be considered 'good' but Lanka isn't hitscan because a projectile launched electromagnetically by what is essentially a mini-railgun is slower than normal bullets. Yeah.

I'm not even sure what they're trying to achieve with the sniper rework. Are they trying to change sniper without making them hitscan bows? Who knows, all I know is they're still terrible and snipers will probably be ignored for another year.

[Voidflow]

I use Lanka over other sniper rifles and basically also over other primaries (My most used weapon so far).  

I don't even fully charge it at some enemies. And gas Lanka is very fun to use.
Atm I'm alternating some builds with argon scope, which makes this weapon even more unique and challenging in handling on its own level.
Basically my weapon of choice for everything (I don't even have corrupted agility mod, still on speed trigger, also no heavy caliber equipped).

I was kind of disappointed with SVandal after such tedious farm and Vectis is strange for my taste.

I think it's just my own personal preference

EDIT: agree on hip fire ... its sucks as hell (for bodyshots !) ... it was much better before buffs 

Edited June 30, 2016 by Voidflow

[(XBOX)Drunken Swede]

2 hours ago, xXx_mtv_xXx said:

Are any of them actually worth using for anything other than mastery fodder? 

I don't see anyone using them...

 

...and with good reason.

Sniper Rifles in Warframe have the least bang for their buck compared to nearly every other weapon in-game. Bows are mechanically similar but due to their near instant 'reloading' and negligable draw time they can pump out far more DPS.

They serve a great purpose, however, for those playing solo during difficult missions that don't involve bum rushes of enemies. You can take down enemies you don't necessarily want getting close enough to reach out and touch you but plenty of Warframe abilities do a better job.

I don't know how they can be improved to be versatile. I do love my Rubico, though.

Edited June 30, 2016 by (XB1)Drunken Swede
Bloody typo!

[Kinetos]

25 minutes ago, (XB1)Drunken Swede said:

 

I don't know how they can be improved to be versatile. I do love my Rubico, though.

Don't need to be more versatile, that's what DMR and Burst rifles are for. Snipers just need to be reliable at doing their one thing really cleming well, and right now they are the least reliable weapons in the game. 

[KnaveOfSwords]

The high innate punch-through some of them (Lanka and apparently Snipetron Vandal) have can make them work well in missions where you'll be semi-consistantly getting lines of enemies coming at you, or paired with things like Vauban's vortex, where it can hit everything that gets sucked in.  Soloing exterminate missions with one can also work, but requires a bit of effort to engage at longer ranges.  But over-all, they underperform due to maps generally forcing short engagement ranges, and fights usually being with large numbers of enemies.  Sniper rifles are, almost by definition, not the right weapon for dealing with a dozen enemies getting in your face.

[Kinetos]

To expand upon my last post, they are niche, and should be. The problem is that they don't fully fulfill their niche. Reliable single target single shot damage. Scope sway, moving innacuracy, these are terrible things for this weapon type, but are the only weapon type to have them. And then there is RNG damage. Multishot, required mod. RNG. Low crit chance, high chance of doing next to no damage even though you overcame scope sway, movement innacuracy, natural innacuracy from 13 acc stat, and enemies that can accelerate to top speed in any direction instantly even though they wear enough armor to build a truck with it. 

Damage is RNG, RNG, RNG, with more RNG, RNG and RNG trying to make it harder to hit targets than you could by single firing an assault rifle. 

You should know that if you put your sights on a Bombard's left eyehole that you will be doing the maximum possible single shot damage to that Bombard, not potentially worthless damage, or damage to the Butcher standing next to him. 

Terrible vs hoardes is fine. If you want to shoot hoardes, bring an assault rifle, machine gun, submachine gun, machine pistol, auto shotty, or flamethrower. 

[(XBOX)Drunken Swede]

31 minutes ago, KinetosImpetus said:

Don't need to be more versatile, that's what DMR and Burst rifles are for. Snipers just need to be reliable at doing their one thing really cleming well, and right now they are the least reliable weapons in the game. 

A good point.

As of right now it's just too much of a chore to forma them up, much less use them in the first place. It's pretty bad when many secondary weapons do a better job at making things die. Generally speaking, of course.

Then again I'd imagine that this issue mainly revolves around how Warframe itself is meant to be played. It's far less stealthy or methodically minded than a game involving space ninjas would be though to. Otherwise sniper rifles would probably be shining beyond existinf as a token weapon class.