Sniper Global Mechanic Rework for PoE + Vectis (& Prime) unique mechanic proposal.

[BrazilianJoe]

Snipers are underwhelming stat-wise, and underused in the current tight spaces. There is hope things will change with Plains of Eidolon.

But snipers need further tweaks to its mechanics. 

All snipers should have a flat crit chance buff to their base stats, so they become more reliable crit weapons. 

Also, I dislike very much the current timer-based buffs as the core stat improvement for snipers (they would be ok to reward a unique weapon mechanic though). Rather, it should be based on accuracy - consecutive hits - as the core sniper mechanic.

A token-based system should be  set up. When hitting a weakspot, the sniper gains a token. When missing a target altogether, the sniper loses a token. Powers such as nullifying could disrupt tokens as well. 

Different snipers would have a different number of max. tokens, I think it should be a number between 10 and 20.

Different weapons would gain different traits per token gained. I think each sniper should get small increments on 3 weapon traits.

Vulkar would gain 2% status chance, 2% crit chance, and 5% fire rate, with up to 10 tokens.

Old but notable weapons should gain unique mechanics as well. I am looking at you, Vectis (and Prime).

Unique: Vectis never had a unique mechanic. Its defining attributes (before prime) was being a hight crit, fast fire  rate and reload weapon, with a single bullet.

Vectis unique could be a 50% chance to instantly reload and reset fire rate on kill.  

Vectis 3 attributes would be: 2.5% additional chance to unique effect, 5% increased crit chance, 5% increased crit damage per token. Max tokens 100 for Vectis, 20 for Vectis Prime.

[NeoSmile]

 

14 minutes ago, BrazilianJoe said:

Vectis unique could be a 50% chance to instantly reload and reset fire rate on kill.  

Vectis 3 attributes would be: 2.5% additional chance to unique effect, 5% increased crit chance, 5% increased crit damage per token. Max tokens 100 for Vectis, 20 for Vectis Prime.

at max tokens vectis would have an 175% chance to instantly reload on kill. quite overpowered for a quick reload weapon
but the 150% crit chance and 10 times crit multiplyer (unmodded) would be a little overkill and make the prime pretty useless (whilst the regular one already has more popularity)

(btw i calculated as percentage bonus and not as flat. if flat bonus was meant then an 525% crit chance on an 7 times multiplyer would mean an unmodded shot would deal 6971 damage and an 25% chance of 8325 damage)

[kgabor]

Vectis-s reload speed and fire rate is already decent though and RNG inconsistent mechanics affecting it, messing with the pace of using this weapon would just make it worse, not better.

I agree with the no timer based consecutive hit bonus being better though to reward skilled play, the weapons definitely shouldn't rely on these but they would be a nice addition. (especially for stat padders like me who try not to miss headshots)

Tbh. for me it would be fine if they just scrapped the combo system and increased the base damage and crit chance for all sniper rifles to the point their one hit damage would make them worth using over other weapons and would be consistent. (could reach 100% crit chance with just Point Strike, like bows)

A nice unique mechanic i could imagine for sniper rifles would be innate Covert Lethality, basically every headshot would be a sure kill.

[BrazilianJoe]

42 minutes ago, NeoSmile said:

 

at max tokens vectis would have an 175% chance to instantly reload on kill. quite overpowered for a quick reload weapon
but the 150% crit chance and 10 times crit multiplyer (unmodded) would be a little overkill and make the prime pretty useless (whilst the regular one already has more popularity)

(btw i calculated as percentage bonus and not as flat. if flat bonus was meant then an 525% crit chance on an 7 times multiplyer would mean an unmodded shot would deal 6971 damage and an 25% chance of 8325 damage)

Just placeholder values, I don't intend that those would be balanced, it is just a means to illustrate the mechanics. 

 

[13QZXXTTX]

4 hours ago, kgabor said:

A nice unique mechanic i could imagine for sniper rifles would be innate Covert Lethality, basically every headshot would be a sure kill.

I can ACTUALLY play that.  (Actual Bolt Rifle). MOD(like CV) for Sniper yes, but not One-shot Boss Units.

What I think [Vectis Prime] passive might be:

Vectis Prime has 100% Chance to have 3rd "Free Shot" (after the first Two+ shot HIT) (NOT Automatic/Burst) that does NOT consume ammo, and do 50% Critical and 50% Damage. 

Following the "3rd Time the Charm!".

 

If there is no One-Shot Sniper Mod, I would go for "Buff all Snipers" (and Scythe, and WarFrames (Augments too).