DLBlue

I've said this before and I will say it again... no self respecting recon uses anything but his knife

=D

EDIT: And RDX of course

__________________
---Bellicosity---

daithi1

Whats a Zelll...ur? Must be some sort of dohicky for active caa...mooo, which is really just a space filler.

Aerosecurity

lol, i am waiting to unlock the lambert on BOOOOMMMM. I don't think it's very good, but it's better for short range combat, which is usually what i get myself into.

Usually, I'll stick to taking on targets that are within 100m of me, so i don't have to worry quite as much about bullet drop. but there was a few times on the server when i was about 200m away trying to snipe people, and i tried using the bullet drop thingy, but still wasn't getting headshots.
Just need practice i guess.

__________________
umm... hello?

Bagheera

Here's my take on it. For those times when you have to take those crazy shots at targets hopping and sprinting horizontally from you, you have to take body shots. With a stock rifle, an assault guy who is quick with his med kit can take 3, yes count 'em 3 shots, because you have to keep pace/fire faster than his medkit can heal. With a Zeller, it's always 2.

Here's my rifle usage breakdown;

Sniper suppression - Stock, because if I'm suppressing a team of snipers (2-3) they're usually using Zellers, and I can headshot all three usually before they can bodyshot me to death, thanks to the stock rifle's faster reload times and fatter clip.

Cover fire - Stock, because it reloads faster and has a fatter clip. I use this when I'm covering more than one squad moving in towards a goal.

Death from above (or sideways, or whatever) - Zeller, after a certain point, most people are running around wounded, and the Zeller will finish off most targets with a bodyshot, whereas with a stock rifle you'll still need 2 shots on wounded people (if it's a bodyshot)

Explosive suppression - Zeller, which I use both on titan offense, and vehicle heavy maps. On vehicle heavy maps, I know that enemies will be laying tons of explosives. On infantry heavy, I go stock.

Lots of headshot opportunities - Stock, because a headshot is a headshot. I use the stock on maps where there isn't alot of movement, and people are just hunkering down and firing, which gives lots of opportunities for easy headshots, and laying down 5 headshots per clip instead of 3 is just plain fun. In addition, you can lay down 3 per clip with a stock rifle faster than 3 per clip with a Zeller.

Titan defense - Stock, (see lots of headshot opportunities above.) Fantastic for defending a hall. Just hunker down BEHIND the wall strut BEHIND the console, not in front of it, and you'll be out of 'nade range. Lay down RDX in your blind spot. A lone recon sniper with RDX, APM's, and a good steady shot can resist 2-3 pushes of a full squad. With a supply box handy, this can be indefinite. Also good for sniping enemies out of the catwalk. They hate this.



Rule of thumb loadouts for Bagheera;

Infantry Heavy - RDX, APM, Heavy Armor, Stock Rifle
Vehicle Heavy - RDX, Camo, Light Armor, Zeller (RDX and Camo is to take out vehicles, not infantry)

TG_JBRanger

Brilliant post! Thanks.

__________________

Aerosecurity

Excuse me, but, every shot is a headshot opportunity, unless their butts are sticking out around the corner.
If they are jumping around and doing crazy stuff, then you have no business firing in the first place (unless he is pissing off your teammates and it's in everyone's best interest to take out +70% of their health).

My Philosophy is: If they aren't going to die in one shot, don't take it at all (with the exception of it benefiting your team or you are ordered to).
Otherwise, you alert them to your position, and they tell their friends over VOIP, and then they know too, and now you get no kill and you have to move or you are screwed.

And btw, shooting explosives is completely overrated unless someone plants RDX on a flag. Otherwise you're stuck there waisting your ammo taking out one explosive at a time (they usually come in groups of 5), 3 shots with the zeller per clip + reload + 2 more shots, and now you're stuck with one round left in your gun.
It's much better to just have one of your engineers equip the defuser. One, it takes 1 second per explosive, and you don't have to reload, and you don't use any ammo.
Now, counter-point: The zeller is fantastic for taking out sentry guns and SL assets (drones, and spawn beacons when they are in view). but again, unless you are running around with your squad, this alerts everyone of your presence and you have to move from your spot (or hide for a while).

__________________
umm... hello?

Zoopy_T

Does no one defuse with RDX anymore? One RDX defuses everything its blast radius.

Aerosecurity

Oh cool! I didn't know this! (i usually have RDX equipped incase of enemy armor right infront of me) Thanks for the tip.

__________________
umm... hello?

TG_JBRanger

Not to argue or anything but what are you doing that you need to stay in one spot? You SHOULD be working with your squad, otherwise you might as well play some other server. This IS TacticalGamer!

Your other points are not conducive to helping your squad either. While providing overwatch with your Zeller, you can see much further than your squad mates and thus take out sentries, APM's, etc. It's not the Zeller's best use but it is using it to help your squad who were otherwise about to go willy nilly into a potential killzone.

Also, about not shooting so as to not give away your position.... try shooting them and then let your squad do the cleanup. This makes their job MUCHO easier with players already at or around 10% health.

__________________

Aerosecurity

Oh, don't worry, I completely agree with you. I'm always trying to stick with my squad, and i do use the Zeller quite a bit for that stuff, it's just that one of my pet peeves is when I pass people with a sniper rifle and I hear them use up their entire clip and i don't see any kills come up for them, or they end up needing 3 to 5 shots to kill one person.

I very often find nothing that i can successfully kill from my position, so i'll usually call out potential targets and enemy movements relevant to my squad and team. I still don't think shooting at explosives from across the map is worth the effort. Sure you may clear up some mines, but by time your team moves forward enough for it to become a problem, the other team would have already replaced them (and possibly spot you and have you eating rockets in a relatively short period of time).

Well, okay, the reasoning behind everything i have said is because i'm not a sniper. I can't kill anyone further than 200m away (well, except that one time i got my first 200+ meter headshot... but in the end, it turned out to be a teamkill). I prefer to refer to myself as a marksman. Ask me to drop a guy rocketing my team from 80 meters away, i can do it in mere seconds (pop-up-head-shot). But ask me to do any of those things you are talking about (hitting people bunnyhopping and doing crazy things), then I'll probably be more likely to miss and hit my teammate who is sneaking up behind him (trust me, this has happened to me before).

__________________
umm... hello?

Anospa

I've found myself revisting the Zeller lately. Keep in mind though, this is only on pubs, and only trying to do long range shots using the range finder effectively for 1 hit kills. Its not easy, I'll admit that right out. I've changed my tatics from taking a sure shot into the body to now trying to only go for the head, no matter what. Its gotten suddenly more difficult in the fact that I'm trying to hit moving targets in the head more often than just quickly taking the two chest shots. Been trying to get better at the harder angle shots as well, and can be difficult at times.

As for explosives, I usually have RDX already placed, so sadly can't defuse stuff a lot of the time. On another note, I made someone TK an enemy the other night by shooting out a motion mine.

__________________


"Brittle?! Dude you just took a localized tactical warhead to the face." -Eroak

Reaperassault

Woot, I had some Rubix guy (big competition team) shoot one of my motion mines and I teamkilled about 4 people plus me, that was a great day since he was on our side

__________________

Bagheera

Although I read what you posted later, and agree with you about running with the squad, I do have to address what is written here.

First off, going ONLY for headshots, and saving ammo for nothing but, smacks of sniper elitism. We're not Tom Beringer here, waiting for that ONE perfect opportunity. I'd rather get 2-3 kills per clip (some headshots, some multiple bodyshots), and happily run through several clips doing this. Suppression is key to being a good sniper, and what type of suppression per map determines your weapon (Zeller vs. stock.)

The stock rifles are just as good as the Zeller in taking out SL assets, as well as taking out sentry drones, and vehicle and infantry sonar. Often, I find myself taking out these assets from at least 100m, sometimes up to 200m (sentries can be taken out even farther, even with stock rifles.) Sentries take only one bullet with stock or Zeller. Stock is better here in my opinion, because even in a firmly entrenched situation with two support guys, you can quickly nail both sentries, and have enough bullets in the clip to then nail the support guys coming out to replace the sentries. Often, when I know there's a support guy hiding somewhere, I'll shoot his sentry just to get him in the open to lay another sentry, where I can nail him.

Regardless of whether you kill or wound someone with the first shot, they're going to know where you're shooting from, especially with the Zeller and its fancy tracer that gives you away, no matter what. This is why I countersnipe with the stock rifles. Often, there will be a couple of enemy snipers laying down their fire on my squad trying to cap a flag or silo, and I simply look for the white tracers from the Zellers, and take them both out without them knowing where I came from, as they're busy looking through scopes.

When I die from a sniper or from anybody, I always call it out to my squad and CO, especially if it's another sniper that did me in, and sometimes even ask for a UAV. Any sniper who doesn't constantly move (even while 'camping') is a dead sniper.

As far as bunnyhoppers and crazy runners, those shots have to be taken, regardless, because by taking a shot one of two things happen;

1) They die
2) They get scared, hunker down, and become easy prey for my roving squad

If you don't take a shot, this happens;

1) Nothing. They succeed in whatever their goal is, and you sit there 'waiting for the perfect opportunity', while your bullets grow cold in the clip.

Now, before anyone says "but not on TG!", I've seen it happen everywhere, TG servers included. Some of us even do that initial 'hop' as a quick panic reaction. Of course bunnyhoppers ruin your accuracy ratio, but what's more important, taking out that lone bunnyhopper that's capping a flag/silo, or waiting for that perfect shot? Regardless, I've managed to maintain a 60% average right now, and that's laying down some serious numbers of bullets, even going for impossible shots. When I'm conservative, it goes up to the 80's, but honestly who cares? (86% was my highest so far, and that was during a hectic run and gun game with good ping.)

Sometimes as a recon, you find yourself far in advance, or far behind your team and squad. Hey, it happens. We're always looking in all directions while our squads are looking forward. Often, the front lines shift behind you, making you in the rear, the front line. When that happens, and suddenly I'm camping what used to be friendly, now an enemy flag/silo, all of a sudden there's a grip of motion mines around the flag that my boys in armor are rolling into full steam ahead. So, I ignore the infantry, and start blasting motion mines with the Zeller, giving my boys that speed advantage and allowing them to blast in there full speed ahead, instead of having to hang back and be conservative, and thereby becoming tank shell/Pilum/Rorsch bait instead.

Same goes for blasting explosives with RDX vs. Zeller. If I'm already up close and there's a chance I won't get blasted first, I'll use RDX. If I'm far away, or several of my lads are already closing in on it, I'll blast with the Zeller and clear the path for them. It's an on-the-fly decision.

Aerosecurity

Heh, okay, i have to apologize. I very often find myself saying things that are not coherent and quite often contrary to popular belief.

Like I said, I'm not a sniper, i can't take long range shots, and I often find myself mere 30 meters away from the enemy, making it impossible for me to take body shots (unless i know they are going to die). Typically, i try to stay between 20 to 80 meters from my enemy. At this range, it is ridiculously easy to constantly get headshots (because they're head fills up 1/8 of your scope and you don't need hardly any lead).

And yes, i do take shots at hoppers and people going at crazy angles, and can usually get a nice body shot on them to let my squad members clean him off (or more often, my squadies start shooting at a hopper, and i finish him off). But, when playing on TG servers, I usually run into TG players, so, when they spot me, they kneel, and *POP* I headshot them. It's just that simple for me.

Bagheera, I am not against your style of play, and I'm not trying to promote my style of play. I'm just stating that this is my style of play, and it works for me. Yes, it may seem like my style is a bit off, but remember, I'm not saying everything I do, this is actually a very condensed version of my total activities. I am very much, in fact, like you when it comes to sniping, and my views of how sniping (in theory) should be, but my style is more of an Assault/Support/Infiltration role rather than Sniper role. (the 3rd and 7th can vouch for this as they have often found me deep in their territory with a medic kit :P). I've only started playing BOOOOMMMM (recon soldier) a few weeks ago, and learning a lot about being a recon guy, but, I'm still that medic deep inside that everyone knows and loves.

__________________
umm... hello?

Bommando

The soldier in your sig has 11 total kills with sniper rifles. Do you snipe with an alt soldier? I ask because I see a lot of people give expert advice and make claims of awesomeness without the credentials to back it up. I don't know how someone with 11 sniper rifle kills could say they "usually" do something with a weapon when they've spent only a few minutes with it.