sniper rifle or shotgun

[sandytaxman]

In boarding parties and ground combat, I have a soldier at the end. Should I use a shot gun or a sniper rifle? Also, what is the ideal position for the shotgun? If I shoot with a shotgun, which position should I aim for to get hits on multiple NPCs?

[Trese Brothers]

Originally posted by sandytaxman:

In boarding parties and ground combat, I have a soldier at the end. Should I use a shot gun or a sniper rifle? Also, what is the ideal position for the shotgun? If I shoot with a shotgun, which position should I aim for to get hits on multiple NPCs?

That depends on the Talents you are using.

Snipers cannot fire from the first rank unless they are the only man standing.

Shotguns can never fire from rank 4.

[JimmysTheBestCop]

I love a snubber in spot 3. I dislike all rifles, personal preference.

[Tuidjy]

The best shotgun (in the game, not real life) is much better than the best rifles, be they assault or sniper. Unfortunately, the best positions from which to use a shotgun are one and two, where, against Xeno, a shotgun user is too exposed.

So I end up using my shotgun user mostly from position 3, although he starts in position 4, and if necessary, can do quite well from positions 2 and 4. Of course, from position 2, he mostly retreats with an attack, and from position 4, he uses buffs, debuffs, and grenades, not his gun.

I even usually have a Talent for position 1, but when he is there, chances are I am unhappy with his positioning, and will use the less damaging Covering Fire, rather than going for massive damage.

[Tomcat]

Shotguns have more dps as they get multiple rounds.

Snipers can hit the backline where you may face enemy snipers who have good accuracy.

Also, if you have enough equips that buff penetration, you probably should consider machine guns over snipers.

[JimmysTheBestCop]

Shotguns with talents can hit all 4 spots.

[Gilmoy]

LMG/HMG/snubber have the huge advantage that they can choose to do an AoE attack, which pays 2x Initiative to hit two targets. Against humans and terrox xeno, one good double-shot can nigh-kill enemy positions #a and #b (dealing 120-150 damage to each). Then you can base an entire strategy around always squeezing in one double-shot at the very end of round 1, which usually ends the fight in round 2.

Against jyeeta xeno (and the Vatborn Abomination), this tactic ceases to work, because they have so many more hp. You might need two double-shots, in rounds 1 and 2, in which case you're probably better off using four single shots to kill 1 jyeeta dead at a time.

Sniper rifles are forbidden by game rule from AoE attacks. They never hit 2 targets.
You pay the ghastly high Initiative cost for one strong hit per round.

Against terrox xeno, a sniper rifle is probably not efficient enough to warrant using.
Your kills-per-round (more precisely: kills-on-round-1) are simply higher with an AoE attack.
Against jyeeta xeno, sniper rifles might still not be viable. They can't one-shot jyeeta, and I don't think 1 sniper rifle shot can out-damage two rifle shots with Puncture Points (which stacks +radiation damage with itself).

LMG is fast enough that you can frequently roll 21+ Initiative and get three shots in 1 round without going into penalty. That's 1 shot + 1 double-shot, which is wondrous when your 1st shot is Aggressive Advance for +25% Damage. But LMG's light punch means even three shots might not score outright kills vs. terrox.

HMG is slow enough that you probably will never get three shots in round 1.
And after the round 1 AoE shot, you will probably be in initiative penalty for the rest of the fight.
But its higher damage and piercing% means that one AoE shot probably wins the fight. Early in round 2, it's 4-v-2, and your HMG is batting clean-up at the end of round 2 again.

Snubber is in a sweet spot between LMG and HMG: more damage than LMG, with a more generous Initiative range than HMG, both to get a 2nd shot per round, and to avoid Initiative penalty. Also, snubber enables some decent talents in positions #2 and #1, so you don't fear moving forward.

My own preference is to buy 1 each of LMG/HMG/snubber :)
Then I have the same rifle gal switch between them every few years.
Currently she uses the HMG, because she can't avoid Initiative-penalty with a snubber, so she might as well hit for more damage.

~~~~~~~~

Addendum: Let's quickly doodle the math for Initiative to do a buff-and-AoE and avoid penalty.
- If you go to -10 Initiative or lower, you're in penalty next round.
- Penalty means you get max. 8 Initiative in that round.
- We wish to use an attack-and-buff, and then a 2x Initiative AoE attack. That's 3 attacks.

Hence, you must roll [ 3 * (weapon's Initiative) - 9 ] or higher to avoid penalty.
That means you must actually roll for your round-1 Initiative roll, including all of your gear and round-1 buffs:

21+ Initiative with a_ 10-Initiative LMG. A champion-of-3 will have final Initiative this high.
24+ Initiative with an 11-Initiative LMG
27+ Initiative with a_ 12-Initiative snubber. Now you're looking at champion-of-20 or so.
~~~~~~~~
27+ Initiative with an 18-Initiative sniper rifle, just to shoot twice normally (and avoid penalty).
~~~~~~~~
33+ Initiative with a_ 14-Initiative HMG. A rifle Captain could do this fairly regularly.

Note that my rifle gal's 23 Init means she could avoid penalty with an LMG, but both the snubber and HMG almost always put her into penalty. I used all 3 for 10+ fights vs. terrox each, and I concluded that I'd rather have the HMG, because I'd rather be in penalty and hit harder on round 1, and if I'm in penalty regardless, I'd rather do an HMG's higher damage.

If I had 25-26 Initiative, the snubber would start to look more appealing.

I have a Salvage tier 7 sniper rifle in storage, but I never use it. I don't have sniper talents to make best use of it, and I have too much success vs. terrox xeno with AoE attack talents.

[_] Somebody should accept that challenge, and fight terrox and jyeeta with a Sniper Captain, just to say you did it. It's almost surely sub-optimal! That is the fun!

[ptirodaktill]

Sniper rifles rules in early game. At lockers 1-4 weapon they are really good against both human and filty xeno`s.
But once you get to contact weapons there is no reason to use sniper rifles anymore, as you effectively oneshot stuff with plazma burner that don`t work with sniper rifles =(