The Laser Rifle

[WildFire]

I'd love to know if the developers had any plans for changing the sniper rifle, but as of now, the sniper rifle is the sniper rifle, and might not be changed.

 

[Buhlitz]

The old sniper had a hit widow 20x larger than the current one. Your strange parallel universe in which that takes more skill to hit with is a scary place.

Maybe he was referring to the fact that you had to manage the charge in between jetting, which admittedly was harder to do than it's current state.

 

[juhben]

Actually it's not overpowered, it's powerful but not overpowered, the old sniper is better than the new one in many ways, but the old one don't need bullets...
I liked the old one because when you are sniping in the air you will charge it and then you'll stop in the air and aim, when you hit it 100%, the target is crashed like a thrown Melon in 5 story building.

 

[snob]

I don't believe it would be beneficial to implement a charge mechanic with movement locks without a distinct change to one of the laser rifle's traits, given some careful consideration. Otherwise it just acts as repercussion only with no merit over the current way of firing.

The current traits that I think would have to be subject to change with the implementation of a charge mechanic would be: ammo capacity or lack thereof, damage output and output over distances, charge delay etc.

 

[BestCharmie]

All I can say about the new LR is....It's getting harder -.-......maybe it's just my ping(190-500) or is it just I'm not used anymore? Eh. Training makes perfect (I never use practice xD)

 

[LindN]

Old LR was way easier to hit with than the new one. With the old one, I could snipe every capper out of the sky on Moonshine whereas I can't hit anything with the new one.

mjeeee

new:
can be shot a looot more often
does not punish misses as much
harder to hit with
don't have to take in leading factors, the only leading you do is compensating for ping kind of leading

old:
can be shot less often
punishes misses
easier to hit with
needs a lot more leading and have to get the correct position to get full damage
you can see the beam, you'll never be surprised when hit and can start changing direction to get less damage or even make him miss

 

[Volt Cruelerz]

mjeeee

new:
can be shot a looot more often
does not punish misses as much
harder to hit with
don't have to take in leading factors, the only leading you do is compensating for ping kind of leading

old:
can be shot less often
punishes misses
easier to hit with
needs a lot more leading and have to get the correct position to get full damage
you can see the beam, you'll never be surprised when hit and can start changing direction to get less damage or even make him miss

Uh.. The charging one was removed long ago and that is not what I was talking about...

 

[Gheist]

Uh.. The charging one was removed long ago and that is not what I was talking about...

Which one are you talking about then, when you're talking about the "old LR"?

 

[mausgang]

Actually it's not overpowered, it's powerful but not overpowered, the old sniper is better than the new one in many ways, but the old one don't need bullets...
I liked the old one because when you are sniping in the air you will charge it and then you'll stop in the air and aim, when you hit it 100%, the target is crashed like a thrown Melon in 5 story building.

That very one-hit issue is why the old LR is overpowered. No other weapon in Legions, with the exception of the Cluster, can kill an opponent in one hit. The old LR, however, allowed a good sniper to dominate a player from across the map, rather than only at close ranges, so it was in dire need of a nerf on damage. However, despite the energy loss, it is a better dueling weapon. The dueling has been evened out, and the energy drop doesn't hinder a player as badly as would be thought.

 

[LindN]

Uh.. The charging one was removed long ago and that is not what I was talking about...

wait, you're talking about the updated sniper on IA? it's exactly the same as the current one if i'm not wrong?

i'm actually hitting easier now as the game is more stable and i won't get ping switching all the time

 

[WildFire]

However, despite the energy loss, it is a better dueling weapon. The dueling has been evened out, and the energy drop doesn't hinder a player as badly as would be thought.

That is very very debatable, as I disagree with you. It is very hard to duel with the sniper rifle, and I tend the only way of surviving is hiding behind stuff. The grenade basic spells death to me if they get a close hit. Obviously the new sniper rifle is alot easier to duel with than the old one, but there are still some difficulties with it.

The energy drop hinders, or rather, completely makes the idea of sniping chasing possible. When I watch a new legion player, I used to watch Phan's snipe video occasionally, and loved the way that he chased with the weapon. Trying to emulate him now is very hard, Overdrive sniping is something of the past, and I have a feeling that the developers might be thinking of changing it slightly. Of course as Ghiest would put it, I'm making assumptions, but I hope, right ones

 

[LindN]

dueling with sniper is = chainwhore until he's close enough to death that one sniper hit will kill him

and since the only chaingun-sniper class is outrider it means you're at a disadvantage from the start.

so yeah, a bad dueler, though a great defender/chaser and even offense (though needs support from someone with a rocket launcher)

 

[WildFire]

a great [defender/]chaser

That's where I disagree, read my above post.

 

[LindN]

That's where I disagree, read my above post.

chasing/defending with sniper is nothing like the old way you did it, it's mainly CG dependant, hit once with sniper, perhaps twice if you've got the energy stored and then just chainwhore. sniper isn't a weapon on it's own

it's also a great initiating weapon, getting a shot off on a capper on the way in can ruin the whole route unless he used zero RJ's.

 

[WildFire]

sniper isn't a weapon on it's own

Hmm, I agree that it is a good weapon to keep the cappers away, but what happens when you mix in some light offence?

Chaser Chaining is not fun, and In fact it can be near damn hard with the sniper class. You can't use rockets to boost your speed, resulting in an increased cone of fire, resulting in less hits, so its just better to use the sniper rifle. Because lets face it, it was designed for chasing when you can shoot further and more accurately than the rocket launcher

 

[Gheist]

The LR is a support weapon. You're not meant to be able to duel with it just like with a RL or CG, while at the same time having that insane range and damage output. Hit an incoming capper/LO once, maybe twice, then switch to your RL/GL/CG. Same goes for chasing. Don't rely solely on the LR. The switch to the LR is quite fast. So use your other weapon, deal damage with it while regenerating energy, then switch to the LR and get your hitscan kill (you really don't need much energy for a capper that ate some splash on the stand and maybe even used OD).

 

[Propkid]

First I'd like to say that even though the old sniper rifle was OP, people still used Gunner/CGS/RLS more frequently for non-defensive tasks.

The LR is a support weapon. You're not meant to be able to duel with it just like with a RL or CG, while at the same time having that insane range and damage output. Hit an incoming capper/LO once, maybe twice, then switch to your RL/GL/CG. Same goes for chasing. Don't rely solely on the LR. The switch to the LR is quite fast. So use your other weapon, deal damage with it while regenerating energy, then switch to the LR and get your hitscan kill (you really don't need much energy for a capper that ate some splash on the stand and maybe even used OD).

Legions is getting a new game mode (arena). At some point in the future TDM, DM and Rabbit will be implemented too (I hope). Why are we still balancing a weapon based purely on its usefulness in objective (CTF) based game mode? Saying that the (new) LR was made for CTF ('not made for duelling') is the same as admitting that it is underpowered.

Don't get me wrong, but I liked the old sniper rifle. Yes, it was quite OP in CTF, especially defence, but it did just fine in TDM/DM. The charging-laser gave it away quite nicely so the weapon ended up being risky to use but rewarding. Oh and short-range sniper duels were just sweet...

 

[Gheist]

A) Leejunz is CTF.
B) The "You're not meant to be able to [close- to mid-range] duel with it just like with a RL or CG, while at the same time having that insane range and damage output [and it being hitscan]." part applies to all game modes. Just think about it.

 

[Propkid]

A) Leejunz is CTF.

People keep on asking for/suggesting new modes...

B) The "You're not meant to be able to [close- to mid-range] duel with it just like with a RL or CG, while at the same time having that insane range and damage output [and it being hitscan]." part applies to all game modes. Just think about it.

Penalizing the LR-using player with his other weapon being CG made it more challenging to use LR in non-CTF modes since the majority of fighting in those modes was close-mid range and RL/GL won in the majority of cases. It can be argued that the sniper was OP regardless of the game-mode, but even if that was the case the gun wasn't imba enough to deserve such a nerf (in DM/TDM context ofc, in CTF the current sniper works perfectly fine by me).

If it was possible I'd opt-in for the sniper being different in CTF and other modes. The way it is right now won't get it much users besides CTF and maybe occasionally Arena LR-teams, so there's room for trying out new ideas.

 

[Gheist]

Leejunz wasn't, and won't be, CTF only. But CTF is its core game mode, and you shouldn't expect that to change.

If you're not comfortable with the CG in a duel, don't use it. The RL and GL are available in combination with the LR too. Also, keep your distance if you want to use the LR's strong side effectively.

Anyways, weapon balance discussions are silly and absolutely useless at the moment. Specs will disappear, loadouts will be customizable, and the game will change in several other already announced ways. Doesn't make much sense to make sure that all the pictures are hanging straight if you're planning on ripping open the wall they're hanging on anyways.