Trying to get better at sniping, could use some advice

If you find any good tips, maybe you can help me out. My sniping needs work, putting it nicely.

Quick-scope and stagger powers work best. on the FQI, Sabotage can "prop" up the enemy for a shot either on initial cast or during backfire. The SI is a little better at this with energy drain being more reliable. Aside from that, it's just precision - which I lack.

Situational awareness is key, as you can be flanked easily on the small maps. Sounds like gold shouldn't be a problem for you.

The Salarian Infiltrator, if I had to guess, is my most played kit. His survivability is much greater than the QFI, because a properly specced Energy Drain is near immunity.

Valiant is a fine choice to work on your aim, but truly if you are playing on PC and want to get better at sniping, there are 3 weapons to practice with.

Mantis/M98 Widow/Claymore

All of them punish you for missing, making you more patient despite feeling pressure when you force yourself to get gud. Also, you get to practice Reload Canceling, the nectar of the gods for these weapons. People talk all the time about how RC boosts the Claymore. These people haven't used the Widow in a while.

Personally, the Mantis is the best balanced gun in the game. It is absolutely Gold viable, it is not terrible on Platinum although it is not a world-beater. Use it on Bronze and Silver and no one will look at you funny, and then when you dominate with it on Gold in a PuG you get the hatemail adoration

Ok here we go. First make it easy on yourself, FQI or SI, single shot SR of your choice. Load up bronze or silver. Practice centering from the hip like putting the enemy in the certain of the monitor where when you scope it's just fine tuning to get the head. I'll line up with the neck or upper torso before I scope in personally. Second thing is kill stuff in cover, it's easy to line up and kill, also prioritize guardians, pyros, etc stuff that's easy to hit the head and kill to deplete the budget. I would solo for a while doing that. Kill a few things check your surroundings, pay attention to audio cues basically just have awareness instead of staying scoped in. Play the hell out of it though, muscle memory will eventually make you a better sniper where you can adjust faster in scope, seeing a lot of enemy movement will help you anticipate where your reticle needs to be. If you're still struggling put a damn hole from a hole punch in the center of your screen to help you line up out of scope better.

A few annoying fucking things that aren't your fault. If you're shooting at an enemy and another is close to them sometimes auto aim will split the difference on console. If you have the reticle aligned right on the enemies fucking head and they're in standing cover auto aim will put you to the side of the cover. If you're aiming down range at something and a swarmer is on the ground beside you auto aim will sometimes pull the scope downward.

As far as phantoms which are in my experience what most noob snipers struggle with the most. Throw a projectile in her general direction with her hit box up, she will bubble up, then shoot her in the face. Don't panic.

Just play Gold and use one of the easy Winfiltrators with a hitscan stagger power - QFI and Sabotage or salarian with Energy Drain. Cloak with Y, scope in with LT, hit RB, pull RT. Stupid easy.

Don't miss.

I am not dissing your post, but what you suggested also will not work. What you describe requires at least some auto-aim, and PC does not have it. Locking on to a target with your reticule is enough to make the cast power work on the target, but will not correct targeting aim to get the automatic bodyshot that I believe your recommendation describes.

I never played enough on PS3 to really know this, but I do know that what you describe won't work on PC and for the OP that is something to consider.

Where did I say you were dissing my post?  I was being a smartass and agreeing that Xbox controls wouldn't work very well on a mouse and keyboard.   :rage:
If it requires more aim on PC... well, I'm sure OP can handle aiming at a staggered target without much difficulty.






















Was it the face??   :rage:   I think this emoji is hilarious.  I'm going to start using it more.   :rage:

Vanilla human infiltrator with a Widow is my bread and butter. There's good advice in here already but there are a few things I think I can add.

For quick scoping on PC remember that you will zoom in on the centre of your screen. This works best if you're not in hard cover as that can mess with your orientation. (I think that's right... I might come back to this).

Practice. The Widow and Javelin are good starting sniper rifles because they will punish you for missing, but pack enough punch that you don’t always need headshots. Once you start to get more comfortable I recommend the Mantis for practice as it is more dependent on headshots (I often see an improvement with my other SRs after a round or two with a Mantis).

Play on a difficulty where you're going to be competitive. You won't get much practice if you don't have anything to shoot at or are on the ground all the time from looking down scope too long.

It's worth repeating that using stagger/freezing/stasis to help you line up shots is a time honoured tactic.

Don't overlook the value of marksman and adrenaline rush sniper builds. The second shot they afford can be helpful when learning to use single shot snipers (and TSol BW is great).

Have fun!

Geth Infiltrator with the Javelin. Headshots are entirely optional. You also have proximity mine for staggering and built in wall hax.

Every build is my build.   :rage:




















Seriously I fucking love this face.   :rage:

Pretty much.  I can think of only one kit where I'm not using your build as a baseline.

Against Collectors you will have a field day

They have these big, juicy heads, makes me feel like Moby :rage: