Mercenary90

Seeing the little sniper thread a few minutes ago...
I decided to make a little guide on Sniper Dueling.

CS means counter sniper(which can be applied to both combatants)
ES means enemy sniper and associated allies (which can also be applied to both combatants)

What is it?
The sniper duel is a situation where two or (though extremely rare...) more snipers on opposite teams know of each other's existence, but either cannot ascertain the other's position and/or be able to kill said sniper(s) on the opposite team, and hunt for each other using both themselves and/or their teammates.

Things to Know

Snipers present a method of dispatching or suppressing of individual long range targets. They do not deal the most damage, but they deliver respectable damage in an extremely short time span, allowing them to damage targets that "pop out" at medium to long range, rather than the LMGs/HMGs, which specialize in killing medium to long range that are exposed and therefore vulnerable, or the assault rifles which deal with both at short to medium range.

The RDX that a sniper may plant on a flag may quickly halt capture attempts.
Even more, the Zeller Sniper Rifle can clear motion mines, causing flags to be made more vulnerable through the presence of enemy armored support.
As a result, eliminating snipers can be extremely beneficial to protecting friendly engineers, explosives, and sanity.

But although the sniper deals a large amount of damage, the sniper cannot deliver instantaneous kills to most undamaged targets without difficult-to-achieve headshots, and are abysmal at stopping moving targets.

The sniper duel results because in 2142, the best methods of killing a sniper are by
1. Rocketing
2. Counter-sniping
3. LMG/HMG Suppression
Or any combination of the three.
Rockets ignore cover and reduce stationary snipers to gibs, counter-sniping provides a quick way to kill or severely wound said sniper, and suppression reduces the mobility of the enemy sniper to aid in friendly rocketeers.
Sniper-dueling is the process through which an alerted sniper is killed by one of these methods.

So how do we go about doing this?


Mobility
The CS must strive to refrain from staying still or becoming predictable, or else the counter-sniper will be either severely damaged or killed, while minimizing the amount of “flesh” available for the ES to hit.
As a result, the CS SHOULD NEVER REMAIN PRONE.
The prone sniper is easily shot, as going prone drastically reduces movement speed, and therefore should never be done in full view of the ES.
Upon detection of an enemy sniper, the CS must firstly seek cover, as cover greatly inhibits the accuracy of an ES by presenting a smaller target without sacrificing mobility. Luckily, 2142 does not allow for bullets to penetrate walls, making cover invaluable against the ES.
However, the CS must also bear in mind that the ES may have the aid of rocketeers or machine gunners, necessitating the rapid changing of cover to avoid suppression, death by rocket, or predictive sniping.
To deal with the sniper, the CS must find cover that allows him/her to “pop” up and quickly fire a shot from a location that the ES does not expect. Using the crouch or prone keys is excellent for such situations, as the CS can stand up and fire before returning to the initial position and then finding different cover.

Shot placement
Aim firstly for the body, then for the head.
Unless the CS had mad skillz, it will almost always take more time for a head shot versus a body shot, and subsequently allowing more time for the ES to aim for the CS's head, causing either mutual death or a ping-contest to determine the victor.
Either way, the likelihood of victory in headshot scenarios is extremely low.

Targeting
First, fire at any exposed med-boxes. Med-boxes allow the ES to heal up behind cover, which negates any progress of the CS without the proper application of rockets.
If the CS consists of a machine gunner, sniper, and a rocketeer near each other, always aim first for the rocketeer.
By killing the rocketeer first, the CS eliminates the Revive-factor, allowing a recently shot enemy sniper to rise back from the dead and shoot the CS in the face. If the rocketeer dies first, either the machine gunner or the sniper must pick up the kit in order to revive the downed rocketeer, causing the revivee to have a different kit, and probably be unfamiliar with it, giving the CS an advantage. Plus, the time taken to switch kits provides the CS with another chance to inflict damage or kill the surviving two members.

Distractions
Sniper duels take up a huge amount of concentration, so having a bumbling ghost recon pop up behind the CS and gifting a hug of sharp, cold, tag-taking steel is generally annoying.
To this end, take time to either set up APMs near probable entrances or plop down a ghost to prevent such occurrences.

“Creeping”
I personally dislike this technique, but I have seen Chris Hooper use it successfully, so I decided to write it down.
Creeping is when the CS finds a piece of cover that the ES is unlikely to see, and to slowly move out of the cover to where the CS presents a smaller target than the ES while still being able to attack the ES. This technique allows for better shots and, at longer distances, does not attract as much attention as running back in forth to evade bullets.

Aftermath
After a while, either the CS or ES has died. If the CS survives, switch positions IMMEDIATELY. There is no doubt that the ES will switch to a more obscure position and fire at your last location, causing much sadness on the part of the CS.

Feel free to tell me if I missed something.

__________________
He was told that he should not kill, and he did not kill, until he got into the Army. Then he was told to kill, and he killed.

LordKelvin

Generally speaking, I have yet to see a sniper accompanied by lackeys or people to support him. There are snipers that support squads, but not squads that support snipers.

That said, some of the points you make are valid and true, although I don't know if all of it would apply to a normal round on TG. I definitely agree with the parts that surprising a sniper is one of the best weapons you have against them, other than random movement and of course, cover. Lastly, I would like to point out to rocketeers that you don't have to actually hit a sniper with them to lock him down. As soon as I see those deadly projectiles flying towards me, I will move ASAP, buying you time.

__________________







Why MTG has lost any sense of balance:
Lotus Cobra

<FHC]==0 HighNoon

I hope this isn't too off-topic but I'd like to add that I often see people popping up from behind cover to fire their rockets. Remember that the rockets fire in an arc, so if you get your range the first time you can fire them over cover without exposing yourself. Popping up from cover more than once to fire rockets at a sniper is a great way to find yourself unable to fire those last 3.

Mercenary90

@Kevin
Yes, most snipers are loners, but I do fondly recall an instance where Guardian, a squad leader, coordinated one of his assault medics to fire his rockets at me while I shot at Guardian.

@High
The curvature of the rockets is very small at medium ranges, so unless you're firing from a very respectable range, the rockets will not be effective without popping out and direct-firing. In addition, if you are at a far enough range to arc-fire rockets, the sniper may see the rockets and run away, or mentally note your position for later head-stealing.

__________________
He was told that he should not kill, and he did not kill, until he got into the Army. Then he was told to kill, and he killed.

LordKelvin

So this is an anti-Guardian guide?

And please, for the love of God, I am KELVIN. Not Kevin. >.> KELLLLLLLLLLVIN.

__________________







Why MTG has lost any sense of balance:
Lotus Cobra

PM07SNV

You should put this in your signature!

__________________

<FHC]==0 HighNoon

I guess it depends on how you define medium range but I'm thinking around 50 meters. I use it all the time, it works great. Have you tried it? As for the sniper running away, that's the case for any rocket-firing. And as for the later head-stealing, well, that has more to do with personal mobility and strategy than it does with rocket firing.

Mercenary90

True.
I've personally never seen the rocket arcing happen, so I expect I'll have to have you try it on me sometime.
Rockets beat running snipers?

__________________
He was told that he should not kill, and he did not kill, until he got into the Army. Then he was told to kill, and he killed.

<FHC]==0 HighNoon

No hehe, I think if a sniper is smart he'll probably be running by the time the second rocket is fired OR he'll have nabbed that headshot the 2nd time the assault medic pops up. Mind you, on TG the sniper isn't going to fare so well because 1 rocket turns to 3 or more.

Saphric

Its usually the second rocket that kills me while Im running away...