SWTOR: Meet the Sniper (PVP)

Alright so my main character on SWTOR is a Sniper and I've really enjoyed the playstyle despite it being a bit odd for me to play a ranged class in an MMO as I am typically an assassin. But yeah, the sniper is a heavy ranged DPS class that utilizes a cover system to demolish opponents in both PvP and PvE without taking any damage, ideally. The particular specialization I chose to pursue is the Engineer, a spec that focuses on explosions and other area of effect skills (AoE).

The sniper's role in PvP is definitely in the vein of covering your teammates as well as blowing up high priority targets before they have a chance to do their thing. An Engineer is focused on putting a dent in a large number of players to change the tide of larger fights by using things like grenades, probes, and even an orbital strike to inflict massive damage on other players. Snipers also have some damage mitigation skills that allow us to either absorb damage with a shield or dodge it altogether which makes us viable even at close range. Our ideal distance is between 20 and 30 meters since most other classes need to be closer than that to do the majority of their skills. We're also given skills that slow other players down or immobilize them completely in order to kite (the act of maintaining distance from a target by use of slows and strategic movement) melee classes that can close distances quickly.

Despite the value of our ranged combat, Snipers can still be useful at close range if we use our skills properly while paying special attention to the placement of your area skills. If you see a warrior or two...or three (there are lots of warrior classes) coming at you its not a bad idea to pop whatever defensive buffs you have and put area skills down right over yourself. Nothing is more hilarious that watching three frustrated melee classes chase you around in a circle while being hit by an orbital strike, burned by a probe, and having grenades chucked in their faces every few seconds. Snipers can be extremely effective in a sort of one vs. many scenario provided the player knows what they're doing it is possible to drop three or more people at once as an engineer due to the extremely high AoE damage you can put out.

I'll just briefly mention the other two specializations you can choose from. First you've got your basic marksman spec which, as the name implies, is entirely focused on ranged skills and your fundamental sniper skills. The spec's main benefit is that it powers up critical hits on a lot of your skills and offers a very high amount of chain-able skills such as instantly cooling down "Series of Shots" and allowing you to use two more without a cooldown. So basically that means you can put heavy dps on a target for a solid 20 seconds without consuming much energy. My favorite part of the marksman tree had to be the skill "Followthrough" which, again as the name implies, follows up one of your snipes or ambushes with a powerful shot that takes no time to prepare and does extremely high critical damage. This spec, as well as the other two, is very viable for PvP and PvE alike.

Next is the Lethality spec. This is a tree focused on dealing damage over time with your poison skills and is widely regarded as the "best" spec for PvP, an opinion with which I strongly disagree. However, this is still a great spec for dealing with a lot of the heavier classes under the label of "tank". It's very possible to tag a target with multiple DoT (damage over time) skills which just pile up damage and is very difficult to out heal or even get away from. If a lethality sniper has you in it's sights then you better focus on killing it quick.

Engineers like making things go boom and so do I. It's a perfect fit. That's pretty much all I've got to say about Snipers for the time being. I'll probably do a Meet the Operative after I finish mine and they get nerfed.

Thanks for reading!

-Fest