What is the point of the Sharpshooter class?

[wilky]

They lack mobility. They miss when they fire with the Sniper rifle (both normal shot/overwatch), and they can't kill anything with the Pistol. Can someone help me understand the redeeming value to bringing along a Sharpshooter to a mission? So far, just feels like a liability. :(

[Perquisitore]

They get better later on when they get more skills. I like their "faceoff" skill, for example.

[Crypto Gamer]

The above assumes WOTC.Only played commander and Legend.

They are kinda weak early on,but get much more powerfull(scale well) at higher ranks just like in Xcom 1 snipers are almost useless at low ranks.

Like magazine upgrades+scope+killzone.

Sharpshooters too can use armors well with free action grapling hook to get to elevation(+20 aim),they have better natural aim scaling than every other class.With aim stat stacked can hit/reach 100% to high cover targets.Some class skills buff elevation stuff further.

Faceoff is good finisher,in many situation pistol with bluescreen and fanfire can terminate robots incredibly well especially with chosen pistol wich also pierces 5 armor.
Eventually pistol is 1 action,not 2 so can fire twice,or fire once then faceoff.
Can also spread debuffs pistol also benefit from ammo like venom,unlike anyother secondary weapon.eg poision 2 troppers(-30 aim+health dot+1 dmg from weapon).So they unlikely to hit.

Also Sharpshooter with Chosen sniper rifle(1 ap to fire) and death from above+some team help can kill half the map on turn 1....on Legend.

I had endgame sharpshooter kill 8 enemies in 1 turn,grenades removed cover and woundd enemies,then sharpshooter death from aboved them all.
You can also use serial for a killing spree with normal sharpshooter rifle but you are limited by mobility due to 2 ap cost.

Reaper sneaking in,revealing objects,sniper can kill it from like 60 tiles.Can fire at objects with 100% chance.No other class can do it.Like chosen avenger defence generator,you can snipe it basically removing the "timer".

Usually during most council missions snipers are not as good,but you can still killzone a flare where reinforcements will drop.

[Dallas S]

They're like the best base class at max level.
Especially with wotc, you'll be killing like 4 guys per turn with just a sharpshooter alone.

[Rhalius]

Sharpshooters take a little time to really get going, once they get squad sight they get amazing range. Accuracy also improves as they get a few promotions.
Perception PCS should be a priority for them, since they stay more in the back the other PCS options aren't as helpful on them.
I tend to give them armor piercing rounds.

Face off and fan fire are very good attacks. Initially pistol shots don't do much, but plasma pistols get pretty good and also, they do not require reloading. Snipers can always fire their pistol.
Getting a free pistol shot that does not cost a turn is also pretty great and the cooldown is not that bad.

Cover area is pretty great too, shooting at everything that moves in a wide radius. It works really well when springing an ambush. Put the sniper in cover area to take shots at every enemy there, and have a grenadier start it by tossing a grenade at them.

Scope, free reloads and extended magazines are what you need to put on their sniper rifle.
The scope helps with accuracy obviously, the free reloads also let them fire their sniper rifle more often since they'd still have two actions required to fire the sniper rifle.
And the extended magazine really helps with cover area too.

Pistol is also pretty great against lost, of which there are many. Especially if you have the faction order that makes all hits on lost instant kills, a single sniper can clear out a pretty much infinite amount of them.

Of the four basic classes, my snipers tend to get the most kills out of all of them. Early on not so much, but they catch up. Put them on high ground if possible.
They can also take out mission objectives from great distances, those tend to have 100% chance to hit. Also works for explosives.

Whenever your group is unfortunate in uncovering a pod that is far away, not able to get a good shot at it, the sniper usually can take a pretty good shot, especially from high ground. They give good cover fire when you send others more forward. Just make sure to send the sniper after the others fast enough to reach the evac if need be.

[TheSuit]

It matters there are 2 Sharpshooter builds - Pistol and Rifle.
If you are playing non modded - Sharpshooter Pistol is amazing for Lost missions especially with "Faceoff" ability - to take 1 shot at every enemy in LoS.

Then there is Pure Sniper with Kill Zone + HIghground + Squad Sight

The further you keep your sniper away from the action the "larger" the kill zone that appears. So you modify your sniper to have a very high magazine capacity means every single move enemy takes the sniper will shoot at them.

Which is amazing against Alien Rulers \ Chosen and high enemy density areas.

Also Overwatch suffers a penalty to Aim keep that in mind.

[Mansion]

Sharpshooters pair amazing with rangers that have concealment. Sharpshooters can stay out of enemy range while a range spots for them. Since the ranger has an ability not to lose concealment, the sharpshooter can just shoot down enemies while they cannot react. In base assault missions this is amazing since you can take as much time as wanted

[Enigmatic]

Early they have use with squad sight. Utilize Hunker down and you can get them in good positions as well. You can throw them in good cover. Hunker down and even send aid protocol. Put them more forward then next turn you can keep them there for a turn or two while the rest push up and getting two sniper turns where you can engage almost all enemies in sight.

Or with Squad sight you can keep them somewhere safe and get a second shot on an enemy in a tough position to flank,

Lategame they can be broken. Death from above is basically broken.
Pistol destroys lots of lost if you hit the low HP ones first.

They are better then Reapers late game. Reapers really only end up being good recon units in late game. They still have lots of use but not nearly the damage potential

[Karasukan]

Sharpshooters are OP with Hunters handgun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m0QqFwuZBE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXodt-EOmcI

[wilky]

Well, I've hit a roadblock. I've been reloading the same mission for almost two hours now, and I still can't find a way to complete it. I already recovered the quest objective, but for some reason it also wants me to kill every last enemy on the opposite side of the battlefield, too. Except that I can't. I'm like 12 turns deep into this mission by now, and none of my soldiers are capable of hitting a single shot. And to rub it in my face even worse, the enemies aren't even bothering with cover. At least one of the two of them is standing out in the open every turn, but I keep missing every 70% shot. I've tried everything (e.g., I've tried both Pistol/Sniper regular/overwatch shots from an elevated position with my Sharpshooter... he's currently 0-for-this-mission). I've tried running from them, since I can't hit them, and luring them into like an overwatch ambush. Still nothing. I mean, if I can't hit an out-of-cover enemy with a normal shot, then there's no way an Overwatch shot would ever work, right?

On this current turn that I've been replaying for the past 30 minutes, the most damage that I've managed to do on any single attempt is 2 (with five squadmates), and yet the enemy is able to hit me despite being behind full-cover at elevation! I'm even getting shot on the roof when the enemy doesn't have line of sight on me (I'm getting shot through the building). There is simply no way to progress.

[Dallas S]

Originally posted by wilky:

Well, I've hit a roadblock. I've been reloading the same mission for almost two hours now, and I still can't find a way to complete it. I already recovered the quest objective, but for some reason it also wants me to kill every last enemy on the opposite side of the battlefield, too. Except that I can't. I'm like 12 turns deep into this mission by now, and none of my soldiers are capable of hitting a single shot. And to rub it in my face even worse, the enemies aren't even bothering with cover. At least one of the two of them is standing out in the open every turn, but I keep missing every 70% shot. I've tried everything (e.g., I've tried both Pistol/Sniper regular/overwatch shots from an elevated position with my Sharpshooter... he's currently 0-for-this-mission). I've tried running from them, since I can't hit them, and luring them into like an overwatch ambush. Still nothing. I mean, if I can't hit an out-of-cover enemy with a normal shot, then there's no way an Overwatch shot would ever work, right?

On this current turn that I've been replaying for the past 30 minutes, the most damage that I've managed to do on any single attempt is 2 (with five squadmates), and yet the enemy is able to hit me despite being behind full-cover at elevation! I'm even getting shot on the roof when the enemy doesn't have line of sight on me (I'm getting shot through the building). There is simply no way to progress.

The problem is you're reloading the same turn over again. The random seeds are already pre generated. So reloading and making the same shot over again will always result in the same result. You need someone else to shoot or move first then try that shot again, or reload from the beginning of the mission, or cut your losses and run now.

[wilky]

Originally posted by Psychotron69666:

The problem is you're reloading the same turn over again. The random seeds are already pre generated. So reloading and making the same shot over again will always result in the same result. You need someone else to shoot or move first then try that shot again, or reload from the beginning of the mission, or cut your losses and run now.

Yeah I know how save scumming in XCom works; this is actually my third XCom game (I played Chimera before this). I was varying my moves with each successive reset.

Anyway, I finally escaped the turn and the mission. Since everything was missing anyway, I finally decided to Hunker Down with all five squadmates, which also caused both enemies to miss their shots. And then I allowed my Sharpshooter to take a shot point-blank (gravely wounded is actually doing me a favor) and the other squaddies were able to hit four consecutive shots all of a sudden.

I don't think I'm ever gonna bring a Sharpshooter out on another mission, though. These clowns are gonna be my Covert ops team. (Until that backfires and I get ambushed, I guess... at least I blocked the "Spider and Fly" dark event earlier in this campaign.)

[Enigmatic]

Sharp shooters can be pretty useful. Level them up on lost. The pistol can be pretty nice since it has no reload once you get lasers.
But yeah Early probably weakest tied with a grenadier that is out of grenades.

There are moments earlier in campaign is almost designed to have you lose or have captured soldiers even fail missions. If you save scum to win every mission. Later in campaign you'll find it gets easier if you have a 'flawless' run up to that point.

I save scum find early in campaign it's the most needed when small blunders lead to huge slow downs later. But the game does help you out with recruitment of experienced troops on bonus missions.

[Create@Review(Ravire)]

As mentioned above sharpshooters are weak early on. But late game it becomes a hey I want this guy to be destroyed or hey take out this squad and all the sniper will say in response is do I have enough ammo for the kills?

[Enigmatic]

You don't always have a high spots to stash snipers though. I'd avoid bringing too many in one squad. Rangers and medics you can't have too many of really.

[tulle040657]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BqxN7m3HEU&t=5s