Is it just me or do sniper/precision rifles suck?

[Joseph Sneed]

Of all the guns in game this type by far feels the least fleshed out to me with only 4 in the sniper class and 2 in the precision class not counting iconics.

Honestly the sniper class off the bat kind of suffers from the fact that most of the combat in this game happens at mid range or closer with not many situations where you have a good vantage point to work from. With their small capacity and very high recoil there isnt really enough wiggle room with this class at closer ranges to make it work.

The Achilles and SOR both have issues that make them kind of not work too well as DMRs. The issue with the Achilles is that while it kind of does everything from being a close range shotgun to a long range sniper it simply does not really pack the punch to take down enemies efficiently often requiring at least 3-4 shots to bring down a target unless you land headshots only. Considering it only gets like 12 shots to a mag means you are not getting more than a few targets per mag. Honestly it just does not seem to be doing the needed damage to work in a direct firefight. The SOR while also somewhat underpowered damage wise is slightly better in this regard than the Achilles but suffers from sniper level recoil making follow up shots to actually down the target difficult. The best DMR isnt even part of the DMR class being the Kyubi. The Kyubi while doing half the damage of the SOR has twice the capacity and almost no recoil making it far more serviceable in the role even if the damage leaves something to be desired and it cant mount long range scopes.

Am I crazy or does this weapon class just kind of suck compared to every other class in game?

[valium]

The sniper rifles are meh, the SOR kind of sucks, but the Achilles built for Bolt is an absolute monster and probably the best weapon outside of builds centered around overclocked smart SMGs.

[Mander]

Depends.
Precision rifles are terrible, even if they should not. The direst offender here is probably the SOR-22: called the elephant gun, it is basically a confetti shooter…
But some sniper rifles are pretty damn good, especially the Nekomata, IF you have a complementary build fully developed in the tech tree too. I’m using one for my VH run as a sandevistan/ sniper and I’m one shotting everything.

[Amanoob105]

My first playthough of this game I went Heavy into the Cool attribute and always had a sniper rifle on my person from the first moment I could get ahold of one. Only downside to using them was, they're kinda loud . So on the rare occasions I could shoot my targets at range this was less of an issue, but the rest of the time only that first guy went down before anyone knew they were in trouble.
Then I got my hands on the Overwatch and never looked back.
Heads that landed under my crosshairs had a bad habit of popping, more and more so as the game went on.

I mixed it up with a cyberdeck so if someone was being a pain to hit, their legs would suddenly stop working and just as they brought their heads back up to try and spot who did it....that melon did pop.

Precision rifles on the other hand? Yeah, they kinda suck. At least the Power ones, after giving up with them I never bothered to try the tech ones.
Sure they were pretty accurate, but if you wanted anything you were shooting at to die you were better off backing away and using a sniper rifle or getting a bit closer and using a revolver you put a sight on.

[Zero McDol]

Sounds to me like you're not making the weapons work for you, OP.

Imo, the weapons are fine, but it's how their applied which determines what does and doesn't work for each individual player.

[Izzy Wit Da Uzi]

Nekomata tech sniper is the best sniper rifle. The rest are kinda underwhelming.

[Joseph Sneed]

Originally posted by Izzy Wit Da Uzi:

Nekomata tech sniper is the best sniper rifle. The rest are kinda underwhelming.

Yeah the Nekomata is the only gun of ether class that feels halfway decent to me not counting iconics. I wish there was a variant that took a slight hit to damage to greatly expand the magazine and reduce the recoil a bit. Honestly that is what the Achilles SHOULD be imho rather than this odd shotgun sniper that doesn't do a ton of damage.

[valium]

The Achilles does A LOT of damage, but it was clearly built around bolt and/or charged shots. Trying to use it as a semi-auto shotgun is not going to perform nearly as well. It was my fastest Adam Smasher kill outside the smart SMGs.

I would say the Rasetsu is the best sniper rifle, it can kill 2 people per shot, and they dont need to be standing in a line. The downside is it is pretty far into the game, unless you rush both the DLC and it's storyline. Second would be the Osprey, but that is only technically a sniper rifle. It is more of a rocket launcher.

[Mewsha]

No, but I think they both have a lot of junk/gimmicky weapons compared to other categories. However, they both have some of the most powerful weapons in the game.

I think the Achilles xmod2 is the only precision rifle worth looking at if you're set on precision rifles and playing on very hard. Sniper Rifles have more choices by comparison with the Breakthrough, Nekomata, and Rasetsu all being very strong choices. Do you notice a pattern with those weapons? They're all tech based.

Tech weapons in general are overpowered pretty much because of how easy it is for them to double dip since bolt perks are in the technical tree which we all spec into significantly regardless of build due to cyberware. You get powerful much earlier, and tech bolts are just very strong in this game. Where as smart weapons for example can feel a little underwhelming early on in general. There's just very few tech weapons that don't feel more powerful than other choices until you get to much later in the game. Plus tech weapons shoot through cover. That's an especially powerful ability on weapons with higher range.

[Akira]

To me what really sucks is how a lot of pistols have a GIGANTICLY ABSURD delay between shots. Tamayura and Nue are literally unusable now, back to lauch they shot WAY faster but still had a weird delay between shots.

It's one of many small decisions they took that are just stupid and are really bothersome. Other things include the Kenshi being burst mode only while NPCs fire it semi-auto, Mantis Blades being slow as f0ck while NPCs literally combo with it without Sandevistan, Focus skill having stupid vignette effect (which the default one both standing and crouching are already insufferably exagerated and can't be disabled like Motion Blur, Noise and Chromatic Abherration can), parts and weapons crafted being random colors you can't choose, owned cars not being able to at least change color even though most of them have exact models with many other colors available for NPCs...

There's a ton of stuff that is just plain "why the f0ck devs changed/made this???" Most of them not even linked to balance or RPGish bull, just plain "please let me have fun with the game".

At least we now have mods, but most of them requiring 3 or 4 other mods to even work is also a pain in the as.

[daveyfunk]

The fact that the magnification on the sniper is so poor is the big issue

[Pieshaman]

I have nothing against snipers or rifles.
but in this game situations are just easilier solved with a good pistol.
or assault rifle/smg when it a bigger fight.

the long distance fights are just uncommon in this game, even in the badlands with more space there are only a handful situations I would think of a sniper rifle.

[Velber]

just use a smart weapon, itd be nice if there were smart snipers that did good damage but the only smart sniper weapons they have are kinda weak, unless you use mods like i do to make your own

[valium]

Dogtown solved the problem of most fights being almost entirely close to mid-range. It is actually fun to play a long range sniper in Dogtown.

[Tacticowl]

2.0 made pretty much everything except pistols, melee and (arguably) shotguns suck really badly.

They buffed smgs and ARs in some patch afterwards, but LMGs, Snipers and precision rifles never got the same love unfortunately. Pistols are by far the best weapons in the game now and it's a little boring. Sadly they stopped giving this game any balance changes, despite still desperately in need of it after the 2.0 rework.

Call me crazy but It makes me honestly prefer playing 1.6 for non-melee builds. There's simply more variety in viable weapons and builds. Don't get me wrong I love my katana + sandevistan build, going absolute Metal Gear Rising on everyone, but man every time i try to play with anything else now it just feels... bad. That Stamina drain whens hooting was a really unnecessary addition to the game. You're telling me my chromed up beefcake of a V with maxed out reflex and strength can swing a katana for hours without tiring but cant shoot 10 bullets from an LMG without falling asleep or aiming at the sky, despite the average gang member not having any issues mag dumping me with pinpoint precision with the same weapon?

Naaaaaaaaaah.

Overall I love 2.0 but to me it wasn't the straight upgrade that everyone else felt like it was. Some things were simply more fun in 1.6 in my opinion.

[Akira]

Originally posted by Pieshaman:

I have nothing against snipers or rifles.
but in this game situations are just easilier solved with a good pistol.
or assault rifle/smg when it a bigger fight.

the long distance fights are just uncommon in this game, even in the badlands with more space there are only a handful situations I would think of a sniper rifle.

Not only that, 80% of enemies now have sandevistan/kerenzikov, with no cooldown, no restrictions, no limits. They just keep spamming and dodging bullets for the majority of any fight.

You try to use a semi auto or sniper rifle, chances are you're going to miss no matter how good you are because NPCs since 2.0 can play by their own rules, not the ones YOU are forced to obey.

So fun.