. The best tip Know the Map
No matter how good of a sniper you are, if you don't know the map you don't know how to play sniper properly, Much of being a sniper is knowing your enemy, what they tend to do, and where they are coming from. You can't know any of these things without intimate knowledge of a map. more and more maps that tf2 is putting out have tons of pathways, which leads to people being able sneak up behind you, if you don't know these paths, or the tendencies of the players, you will most likely be killed from behind more than you kill anyone.
Weapons
second, your weapons. you have your primary sniper rifle, your smg, and your machette. One thing if you look at my hlxstats you will notice I have a machine gunner award almost every day I play, and I never have the machette award. Why is this? I hate melee. I can't do it, I try to melee and I wiff every single time. What does this mean for you? If you can do it, more power to you, I have been beaten by random melee crits many times (much to my dismay) I however think the smg is a much more consistent option.
SMG
Why I like the smg. First, it's very accurate, it's like firing off pistol shots really rapidly, so if you are good with the pistol, you will be good with the smg. Second, it's EXCELLENT for finishing off ranged opponents when you didn't quite kill them, I have even been known to rush heavies with my smg in my time. You get a pot shot off at their head but didn't have time to charge up, means they are probably pretty close to dead and can rush them. Most of the classes that are your main enemies will be soldiers and demomen, which I think are notably bad at close range since any damage they do to you, they do to themselves, so get in close, stay in close and you can smg them down.
Sniper Rifle
Sniper rifle. Just incase any of you haven't ever played or never figured this stuff out, the longer you are scoped in the more damage you will do, to a maximum of being scoped in at 4.5 seconds and doing 450 damage with a headshot, see the correlation? being scoped for one second and a head shot will roughly do 100 damage, not enough to kill any class but wound most. This is important to keep an active count in your head, I will explain more on that later. The last thing I have to say initially is don't be afraid to take body shots, ESPECIALLY when counter sniping or sniping someone up close. generally that half a second time it takes for you to find and focus on the head is all it takes for the other person to kill you since you have very little health.
KEEPING A COUNT
It is important to keep a running count in your head. First is because when you are sniping, Snipers and spies are your biggest enemies, and generally if you aren't looking for them when they come up, you're already dead. So why is keeping a count useful for this? If you know spawn times, and you watch the death list, you can very accurately predict when snipers or spies will be returning, which allows you to get TONS of extra points because you know when you don't have to worry about them just as much as you know when you do so you can focus on their medics, demomen, etc. Second, this will help you estimate how much damage you will do when sniping someone, and know when you run or when to stay and brave it out at close range.
SNIPER DOT
your sniper dot is a very very important aspect of sniping. The basics of the dot is keep it hidden, keep it on a section where people won't see it so they won't know you're about to get them, however. This is simply untrue. If you are new to sniping, definately do this. Since you don't know wtf you're doing and you will learn as time goes on what your sniper dot causes. However, for the more experienced players, your sniper dot can be a wonderful form of crowd control. I often use my dot for two things, Attracted targets at me, for instance if I'm in the canyon on warpath I will shine my dot on the opposite wall where it is easy to see to encourage demomen, sniper, and soldiers to jump into the canyon and attack me. I can almost always kill them and stay healthy in the process while also defending a vital point for the team. Second, I use my dot to repel people (I know what, Kinda weird it attracts and repels people) However, When I'm sniping a point and things are getting a little too heavy, I'll shine my dot at snipers and medics to discourage them from being too brave, there is definate skill to this because most times you will not be able to just kill them outright if you're using your dot for this, so you have to always be able to dance. beyond this, I can't really give any major advice about the dot, find your own style and make it work for you. OH, one last thing for all you snipers. WHEN YOU ARE MOVING AROUND CORNERS IN AN ATTEMPT TO QUICKLY COUNTER SNIPER SOMEONE, DO NOT SHOW YOUR DOT ON THE CORNER. The dot will bend around and I will be able to very accurately predict when you're coming around the corner based on the dot being there. Always shine your dot somewhere else when you are moving, either hide it or shine it well beyond your intended target. Learning that fact did wonders for my counter sniping game.
Sniper Damage
Uncharged your shot will do 34-66 damage when not a headshot, and fully charged you do 110-195 damage when not a head shot, which is multiplied by 3 when you get a headshot, with some absolutes tied in there, like a fully charged headshot always does 450 as a headshot, when it's not 100%, the math varies quite a bit.
That is all I have for now, I'll probably edit this when I'm not quite as hung over and not quite as tired, anyone with advice or comments, feel free to respond. Maybe I'll leanr something
RIP TW 1954 - 2008
