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Sniper Powerset
alexofspades
Posts: 287 Arc User
It's such a waste that so many cool Sniper Rifle cosmetics are wasted on a single power - a power that also underperforms and has little practical use in endgame, unfortunately. If Sniper Rifle was buffed, it would become more useful... but unfortunately, it would still be a bit boring on the gameplay side (just mashing the same button).
So here's a Sniper Rifle powerset idea - a bundle of powers that synergize with each other, but also synergize with other Munitions powers. Why? Because everyone thinks snipers are cool.
• Rangefinder
Animation: Aim down sights with your sniper rifle. An energy-color laser emits from the underside of the barrel, representing a laser attachment.
200ft, Maintain, 5 energy/sec
Effect: For every 1s you maintain this power, the targeted enemy receives 1 stack of Zeroed. Zeroed increases your Critical Chance against that enemy by 8% and stacks up to 3 times. This attack deals no damage, and thus can be used on stealth, as well to pre-stack Concentration/Chilled Form.
Advantages: Spotter (0 pts). Change animation to use Binoculars instead. (I know, I know...)
• Bolt Action
Animation: Tilt the Sniper Rifle diagonally, pulling a lever back and forth with a loud, mechanical sound.
Self-buff, click, 25 energy, 1 second cooldown
Effect: Gives you a buff called Chambered Round, which forces your next Technology power to apply or refresh Zeroed. If your last attack was a critical hit, your next Technology attack after using Bolt Action will have its charge time reduced by 50%.
• High-Explosive Shot
Animation: Kneel down, then fire a loud shot with considerable muzzle flash and recoil. An explosion happens on the target.
100ft, 1.5s charge time, 35 energy.
Effect: Deals Crushing damage to your main target and applies Armor Piercing. If this attack is a critical, add an AoE explosion to the target (10ft).
Advantages: Plasma Round (2 pts): Applies Burn Through instead. HE Incendiary (2 pts): Deals Fire damage instead of Crushing, and applies Clinging Flames.
• Quickscope
Animation: Spin and land with the rifle tilted diagonally, then shoot.
100ft, click, 25 energy
Effect: Deals Piercing damage to your main target. If this attack is a critical, the bullet ricochets and chains to another target, up to 5 targets.
• Headshot
Animation: Current sniper rifle animation.
100ft, 3 seconds charge, 65 energy
Effect: If this attack crits, deals extremely high damage (bonus severity?). If it fails to crit, deal lower than average damage.
Advantages: Punisher (1pt): Headshot is no longer affected by Bolt-Action. Instead, it has its charge time reduced by each stack of Furious you have.
----
Attack Rotation
Single Target: Rangefinder to prestack and apply Zeroed -> Explosive Shot for Armor Piercing -> Bolt Action -> Headshot -> Bolt Action -> Headshot -> Bolt Action -> Headshot (repeat until armor piercing expires, then explosive shot again)
Mobbing: Rangefinder -> Explosive Shot (to debuff and AoE)-> Quickscope on strongest target (to chain) -> Bolt Action (to reduce Explosive's charge time)-> Explosive Shot
---
Synergies
By utilizing Headshot's Punisher advantage, it becomes a DPS gain to utilize Two-Gun Mojo instead, bridging the dual pistols and sniper sets. Get Furious through 2GM, apply Armor Piercing with Frag or Burst Shot, then Headshot until you lose your Furious stacks.
You can also, additionally, utilize High-Explosive Shot with the Plasma Rounds advantage to apply Burn Through debuff, which is highly sought after for Pulp Fiction Ray Gun builds.
---
Conclusion
This new powerset gives Munitions a new way to prestack at the cost of one power slot, and gives Sniper Rifle a way to take down multiple mobs as well as a more engaging, three power rotation on single targets.
So here's a Sniper Rifle powerset idea - a bundle of powers that synergize with each other, but also synergize with other Munitions powers. Why? Because everyone thinks snipers are cool.
• Rangefinder
Animation: Aim down sights with your sniper rifle. An energy-color laser emits from the underside of the barrel, representing a laser attachment.
200ft, Maintain, 5 energy/sec
Effect: For every 1s you maintain this power, the targeted enemy receives 1 stack of Zeroed. Zeroed increases your Critical Chance against that enemy by 8% and stacks up to 3 times. This attack deals no damage, and thus can be used on stealth, as well to pre-stack Concentration/Chilled Form.
Advantages: Spotter (0 pts). Change animation to use Binoculars instead. (I know, I know...)
• Bolt Action
Animation: Tilt the Sniper Rifle diagonally, pulling a lever back and forth with a loud, mechanical sound.
Self-buff, click, 25 energy, 1 second cooldown
Effect: Gives you a buff called Chambered Round, which forces your next Technology power to apply or refresh Zeroed. If your last attack was a critical hit, your next Technology attack after using Bolt Action will have its charge time reduced by 50%.
• High-Explosive Shot
Animation: Kneel down, then fire a loud shot with considerable muzzle flash and recoil. An explosion happens on the target.
100ft, 1.5s charge time, 35 energy.
Effect: Deals Crushing damage to your main target and applies Armor Piercing. If this attack is a critical, add an AoE explosion to the target (10ft).
Advantages: Plasma Round (2 pts): Applies Burn Through instead. HE Incendiary (2 pts): Deals Fire damage instead of Crushing, and applies Clinging Flames.
• Quickscope
Animation: Spin and land with the rifle tilted diagonally, then shoot.
100ft, click, 25 energy
Effect: Deals Piercing damage to your main target. If this attack is a critical, the bullet ricochets and chains to another target, up to 5 targets.
• Headshot
Animation: Current sniper rifle animation.
100ft, 3 seconds charge, 65 energy
Effect: If this attack crits, deals extremely high damage (bonus severity?). If it fails to crit, deal lower than average damage.
Advantages: Punisher (1pt): Headshot is no longer affected by Bolt-Action. Instead, it has its charge time reduced by each stack of Furious you have.
----
Attack Rotation
Single Target: Rangefinder to prestack and apply Zeroed -> Explosive Shot for Armor Piercing -> Bolt Action -> Headshot -> Bolt Action -> Headshot -> Bolt Action -> Headshot (repeat until armor piercing expires, then explosive shot again)
Mobbing: Rangefinder -> Explosive Shot (to debuff and AoE)-> Quickscope on strongest target (to chain) -> Bolt Action (to reduce Explosive's charge time)-> Explosive Shot
---
Synergies
By utilizing Headshot's Punisher advantage, it becomes a DPS gain to utilize Two-Gun Mojo instead, bridging the dual pistols and sniper sets. Get Furious through 2GM, apply Armor Piercing with Frag or Burst Shot, then Headshot until you lose your Furious stacks.
You can also, additionally, utilize High-Explosive Shot with the Plasma Rounds advantage to apply Burn Through debuff, which is highly sought after for Pulp Fiction Ray Gun builds.
---
Conclusion
This new powerset gives Munitions a new way to prestack at the cost of one power slot, and gives Sniper Rifle a way to take down multiple mobs as well as a more engaging, three power rotation on single targets.
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Comments
This adds not only another set to tool around with and have fun in-game, but it's a freakin' sniper rifle man. Come on, a tool that is used by expert marksmen that know how to execute their foes perfectly from a distance, -with style-.
I highly support this. I would love to see this in CO one day.
The Rifle abilities in general in Guild Wars 2 can be a good inspiration.
Overall, different bullets could be a thing, fire to set target on fire, ice for cold, etc.
Well this would allow freeforms more wiggle-room, right now i see 3 possible builds out of just these 5-6 abilities, it'd certainly work like a charm perhaps. Plus i'm sure that they could make an AT with all of these abilities including grenades and such
I LOVED Deadeye in GW2. Perfect execution of the concept. Very fun
Rangefinder
Tbh imo, the numbers on this don't seem like they'd be taken into consideration. The devs seem like keeping crit rate increases from powers pretty small, I believe due to the many existent sources of large amounts of crit chance already in game. Namely, if you examine Furious which only gives an extra 3% max it becomes hard to imagine getting a max 24% buff to crit chance from a power. The current AO that focuses on crit doesn't give near as much either without you needing to be near death & it's effect is only like 12 seconds long with a long cooldown. My second concern is the range. Even sniper rifle only has a 120% range & it isn't a maintain & can be easily interrupted which I believe is the intended tradeoff for just that extra 20ft. I can't imagine even a non-damaging power if it's beneficial having a 200ft range. That's all just my opinion upon giving it some deep thought though. When I think on it, not too many things can close in on you very effectively as is at 100ft. With all that in mind...
Suggestion:
Assault Rifle - New Advantage
Rangefinder(3) - Critical Severity increases 5% every period, and Critical Chance increases slightly every period as well.(Maybe 1% or 2% each period.)
This is actually the inverse of Pulse Beam Rifle's effect. As to not clone PBR, the effect shifts to increasing crit severity mainly with a more Furious inline boost to crit chance which I personally think is more likely to be considered. This in effect gives the illusion that you've zeroed in your range & are now able to land cleaner & more damaging shots more often. That seems to me more or less you're idea behind this.
Bolt Action
This too I believe would work better as an advantage & could be more focused in design. The charge reduction alone could be a big deal.
Suggestion:
Sniper Rifle - New Advantage
Bolt Action(1) - After landing a critical strike, applies Chambered Round to self. While under the effect of Chambered Round, the charge time on your next Sniper Rifle shot will be decreased by 1.5 seconds.
Sniper Rifle has a 3-second charge which is rough & it has no built in charge time reduction effect unlike its functional clone Focused Shot from the Archery Set. Focused shot builds stacks of reduction over time but that effect doesn't fit well thematically with sniper rifles because snipers rarely get time for multiple shots. This advantage would enable that quick extra shot before needing to reposition or escape. I suggested the flat reduction because focused shot's buff is a built-in effect & is consistent as long as you can avoid getting hit whereas this is an advantage & requires a crit hit to activate. It guarantees at least a 50% charge time reduction on activation vs FS's potential 45%. I think that's a fair tradeoff.
Headshot
Again, would make a great advantage.
Sniper Rifle - New Advantage
Headshot(2) - Critical hits gain an additional 50% Critical Severity.
Big burst damage from crits in exchange for a rank. Its 50% plus your default 50% or more if your geared or spec'd for crit severity would do some really nice damage despite being totally reliant on regular crit hits.
My own additions:
Sneak Changes
- Sneak grants you 20/25/30 Aggression Stealth & 300/325/350 Perception Stealth based on Rank. (Same as now)
- While sneaking, your single target damage is increased by 15%/30%/45% based on Rank. (Evens out the bonuses. Currently, melee damage gets 20/40/60 while ranged damage gets 10/20/30. That makes it not as ideal for ranged toons by comparison despite the concept of being in stealth being far more practical & useful being used by ranged toons.)
- Upon taking an offensive action, sneak is deactivated for 4 seconds. During that time, your threat generation is increased by 50%. After 4 seconds, you automatically restealth.
The major changes here is a shift from melee focus to a balanced focus & the removal of the effect that extends the restealth cooldown timer every time you continue making offensive actions. Once your stealth is down it will now reliably return every 4 seconds unless you take damage. The tradeoff will now be increased threat generation from your attacks for those 4 seconds. Depending on the situation, you may still need to stop taking action those 4 seconds to avoid stealing aggro. I think that basically achieves the same thing the last penalty was going for. It gives you incentive to not keep attacking and/or find cover for those 4 seconds. You could potentially use a treat wipe to save yourself though.
Shadow Shot
- Ranged Damage, Assassin Shot
- 100ft, Single Target
- 3 sec Charge Time
- Shares a cooldown with Shadow Strike
- This power deals <value> Piercing Damage.
- When used in stealth, this power ignores 50% of its targets all damage resistance.
- This attacks gains an additional 100% Critical Severity upon critical hit.
This is basically a one-off version of sniper rifle that does heavy damage on crits & ignores some the the target's defenses when used while in stealth. It would far out-damage sniper rifle especially on crits but the range is 20ft shorter & it shares Shadow Strike's long cooldown. By default, it would only do half the potential damage of Shadow Strike on a normal strike. That would make it super weak when not in stealth. When it crits though, its 100% additional crit severity plus your own normal crit severity rating could have it easily out-damage Shadow Strike. Critical Severity is 50% by default so that's 150% minimum. The long cooldown & lack or reliability with crits on charge attacks means it won't crit that often though even if you seriously invest heavily in crit chance.