Late to this thread, because I generally try and stay away from them as much as possible, due to way the topics usually flow.

Before I came to TG, I mostly played with my roommate, and went sniper 90% of the time and was a bit less of a lone-wolf than most stereotypical snipers. After finding TG, I still stuck with sniper for quite a bit of time, sticking with squads and whatnot, but could definitely notice that I wasn't nearly as effective as I could be.

Taking the aiming skill and knowledge of the game mechanics from sniping to assault really helped me to excel and up my skill level. My accuracy stats were always very high due to a lot of time played as sniper, but my assault kit started picking up quite a lot of play time and pretty sure now its moved ahead. Yet, this whole time, my accuracy has remained a steady number hovering around 33%. I've looked in the past, and nearly everyone I've run into or been shown a stat page of barely peaks above 25%. My K/d used to hover around probably a very low 1.1-something back before TG. Since getting here over a year ago, I'm pretty sure its around a 2.5-3.

What I'm saying is that the strengths and skillset that one needs to be a good sniper will definitely carry over and add to assault in a very strong way.

Recon is definitely my favorite kit and I play it at every opportunity I can.

My personal opinion, snipers are useful 60% of the time, and really should only have a few (no more than 3) per team on most maps. I know I've personally stopped a cap out or prevented the enemy team from gaining bleed on maps like Tunis countless times with RDX/APMs and hanging back at eastern/junkyard. A recon with lambert could also have done this and stuck with his squad, but hanging back with the sniper will also take you out of the immediate battle and be able to take some work of the CO.

As a sniper, you have to keep yourself updated to whats happening on the map. Your minimap is an indispensable tool. The main things to look for that wouldn't already be spotted: empty buggies, signaling an enemy squad has possibly just rushed past or snuck by unnoticed; enemy armor spawning in the UCB and then disappearing from the minimap, this signaling that its now occupied and moving out into battle. These things can also be done by an astute assault/support/engineer.

There are only a few maps/flag areas that I would personally rarely play a sniper. People can argue that other kits can fill a sniper's role with ease, and in some instances, its true. But, can you justify positioning yourself away from your squad/team and committing to that role when you know that you'd be more useful back with the others? The simple truth of the matter is that the sniper loadout is specialized to fulfill this role.

This is targeted specifically to you Uranium:

Stats do play an important role in these types of discussions. You mention Crux calling you out months ago for having more time played and thus having a stronger opinion and perhaps more truth on his side of the argument. The simple fact is, having more time clocked in any type of thing in life will generally garner an individual more experience and knowledge about whatever it may be, video game, carpentry, etc. Someone brought up your stats again and made a comment, and perhaps not entirely a just one. Stats only tell the figures, not the actual experience. Statistically , I have a K/d ratio in this game of 1.61. In TG-reality, my K/d should be somewhere between a 2.5-3. Perhaps you only have a fraction of play time compared to me, but maybe you've had a history in other games and your skills have carried over, I'm not sure, rarely have I played with you. You have less than half the amount of posts than me; does this mean I have more to say or more worthwhile things to say? Hell no! It means I have a boring job and way too much free time here!

All things considered, there's a fair amount of good info in this thread, not entirely sure how much of it is useful. I'm slowly piecing together info/experience of mine and others in the hopes that I can put together a workable TGU sniper/Recon course. If anyone wants to help out or thinks they have some good info, shoot me a PM and I'll gladly listen to what you have to say and share.