Best and Worst Sniper Rifle

[Heatmaker]

Title says it all. Excluding stock as stock is clearly the best
Mine:
Best: Hitman's Heatmaker. The sniper is not made to bodyshot in the first place, and the Focus can be a great boost to your team
Worst: Classic. No headshot until fully charged? Terrible! And there really is no point of its only postivite effect

[Starnana]

Best: The Sydney Sleeper
Worst: Sniper Rifle

[Oliver #MAGA]

Best:
The Bazaar Bargain is great both for casual and pro players. While I mostly recommend it for more experienced players, I like how it rewards players for doing what they're supposed to do.

Worst:
The Classic is by far the worst weapon in the game. It's completely outclassed by every other sniper rifle, and it leaves you with only your secondary and melee. This isn't good, especially not for the Sniper because he mainly relies on his primary. At least the Pomson leaves you with an effective sentry, the Bison leaves you with a rocket launcher, and the Caber leaves you with a grenade launcher.

[Mailer]

Originally posted by Starnana the Edgehog:

Best: The Sydney Sleeper
Worst: Sniper Rifle

Still don't believe it? The "Sydney" in the name implies that the city is where the rifle originates from, and Australia is the world leader in technology.

also it has a cool firing sound

[Hmoorkin]

Best - bazaar bargain, rewarding highly for just having skill
Worst - classic, the lowest damage output, good only for bodyshots (Sydney sleeper still does better but you have to scope) and dealing with overhead enemies.

[spengie the strange engie]

Originally posted by Shin Mi Amor los Tucanes:

Best:
The Bazaar Bargain is great both for casual and pro players. While I mostly recommend it for more experienced players, I like how it rewards players for doing what they're supposed to do.

Worst:
The Classic is by far the worst weapon in the game. It's completely outclassed by every other sniper rifle, and it leaves you with only your secondary and melee. This isn't good, especially not for the Sniper because he mainly relies on his primary. At least the Pomson leaves you with an effective sentry, the Bison leaves you with a rocket launcher, and the Caber leaves you with a grenade launcher.

Most people barely even acknowledge the existance of the classic

[Vlad the Impala]

Originally posted by MC Machina:

Best: Hitman's Heatmaker. The sniper is not made to bodyshot in the first place, and the Focus can be a great boost to your team

Wonder why they specifically made fully charged bodyshots deal 150 damage in the first place. Wonder why bodyshots do damage in the first place.

Best: Machina, because you can bodyshot and leave unbuffed demomen at 2hp, overhealed scouts can't be disconnected from medibeams for too long and soldiers get effectively grounded if they eat a charged bodyshot without overheal.

[big rig]

Best: Machina & Bazaar Bargain.. Bonus damage + penetration @ max charge can be insane and works normally even without max charge. Personally, I don't find the ability to not be able to shoot from the hip to be much of a negative (if at all). Much easier to use too if you're having an off day. Bazaar Bargain gains faster charge on headshot kills and you don't lose heads for missing (as of Gun Mettle) anymore, so its perfect for verteran sniper players.

Worst: Classic. If you want to focus on headshots, use the Bazaar Bargain. If you want to focus on constant movement, then use the bow. If you don't want to unscope, use the Hitman's Heatmaker and charge focus. If you want to focus on bodyshots, use the Sydney Sleeper. It just feels like a weird combination of these primaries and doesn't offer much good from any of them.

[Mailer]

Originally posted by Staplerfahrer Klaus:

Originally posted by MC Machina:

Best: Hitman's Heatmaker. The sniper is not made to bodyshot in the first place, and the Focus can be a great boost to your team

Wonder why they specifically made fully charged bodyshots deal 150 damage in the first place. Wonder why bodyshots do damage in the first place.

Best: Machina, because you can bodyshot and leave unbuffed demomen at 2hp, overhealed scouts can't be disconnected from medibeams for too long and soldiers get effectively grounded if they eat a charged bodyshot without overheal.

Exactly. I feel like people who diss the Machina are just in denial of its strength.

[Hmoorkin]

I don't understand why people consider machina the best. It has upsides only at full charge, in most of cases quickscope is more effective. Also, can't say about others, but I use noscope to finish off enemies and to defend myself at medium range when SMG is not so effective.

[Emurinus]

Best: Machina. 150 HP lost is already crippling, but 173 almost breaks damage thresh holds and can even stop Heavies in their tracks. Being able to overpenetrate targets on a charged shot also makes it very useful for Medic picking. Tracer rounds are lughable as a downside and noscopes aren't that important to Sniper.

Worst: The Classic. Having to hold down the button to charge it already makes it pretty bad (it doesn't even have a toggle option like the Medigun) and only being able to headshot on full charge makes it a direct downgrade to every other Sniper Rifle, even the Huntsman. Noscope headshots are not worth playing passively.

[Mailer]

Originally posted by Death By Random Crits:

Best: Machina. 150 HP lost is already crippling, but 173 almost breaks damage thresh holds and can even stop Heavies in their tracks. Being able to overpenetrate targets on a charged shot also makes it very useful for Medic picking. Tracer rounds are lughable as a downside and noscopes aren't that important to Sniper.

Worst: The Classic. Having to hold down the button to charge it already makes it pretty bad (it doesn't even have a toggle option like the Medigun) and only being able to headshot on full charge makes it a direct downgrade to every other Sniper Rifle, even the Huntsman. Noscope headshots are not worth playing passively.

It's unfortunate, the Classic could at least be some fun to use if it weren't for the awkward charging/firing mechanics.

[Vlad the Impala]

Originally posted by XmypkuH:

I don't understand why people consider machina the best. It has upsides only at full charge, in most of cases quickscope is more effective.

Because it's generally better to go for a high percentage shot that will still deal enough damage to kill the target than a quick low percentage shot that deals either minimal or no damage if you don't hit a significantly harder target.

The 15% bonus damage on charged shots is a significant enough bonus that it's basically banned in all leagues now, while nobody uses the heatmaker or bargain despite the best snipers in the game being in play at plat/prem/invite. Seems like top snipers will go for charged bodyshots if the situation calls for it.

Also, can't say about others, but I use noscope to finish off enemies and to defend myself at medium range when SMG is not so effective.

Hold down M1, press M2. You now have all of the benefits of the noscope, despite being unable to "noscope".

[Emurinus]

Originally posted by MailDaemon:

Originally posted by Death By Random Crits:

Best: Machina. 150 HP lost is already crippling, but 173 almost breaks damage thresh holds and can even stop Heavies in their tracks. Being able to overpenetrate targets on a charged shot also makes it very useful for Medic picking. Tracer rounds are lughable as a downside and noscopes aren't that important to Sniper.

Worst: The Classic. Having to hold down the button to charge it already makes it pretty bad (it doesn't even have a toggle option like the Medigun) and only being able to headshot on full charge makes it a direct downgrade to every other Sniper Rifle, even the Huntsman. Noscope headshots are not worth playing passively.

It's unfortunate, the Classic could at least be some fun to use if it weren't for the awkward charging/firing mechanics.

The only way I could see the Classic being more useful is giving it a toggle option in the Advanced Options, and perhaps a faster charge time.

Other than that, there's not much else to change it that doesn't break it.

[Mailer]

Originally posted by Death By Random Crits:

Originally posted by MailDaemon:

It's unfortunate, the Classic could at least be some fun to use if it weren't for the awkward charging/firing mechanics.

The only way I could see the Classic being more useful is giving it a toggle option in the Advanced Options, and perhaps a faster charge time.

Other than that, there's not much else to change it that doesn't break it.

What about giving it the ability to deal mini-crits on headshot while charging (much like the new Sleeper), or being able to headshot after the rifle is 50% charged? A faster charge rate would be nice but I'm concerned it would be enroaching on the Sleeper's role.

also the ability to fire mid-air would be a nice QoL change

[Emurinus]

Originally posted by MailDaemon:

Originally posted by Death By Random Crits:

The only way I could see the Classic being more useful is giving it a toggle option in the Advanced Options, and perhaps a faster charge time.

Other than that, there's not much else to change it that doesn't break it.

What about giving it the ability to deal mini-crits on headshot while charging (much like the new Sleeper), or being able to headshot after the rifle is 50% charged? A faster charge rate would be nice but I'm concerned it would be enroaching on the Sleeper's role.

also the ability to fire mid-air would be a nice QoL change

A faster charge time wouldn't step on the Sleeper's toes, especially since Sleeper can minicrit-headshot without charging.