Snipers blow chunks in Helldivers 2, and here’s why.
The Diligence does a pathetic 165 damage and basically isn’t worth using, especially since it can’t penetrate armor. It probably is similar to a 5.56 rifle which means it should be medium armor penetrating at least. It’s literally outperformed by almost every other weapon in the game for either penetration, damage, or both.
The Diligence Counter Sniper does 200 damage, which is OK, but still pathetic. Penetrates medium armor, but is embarrassed by the fact that the Senator does the same 200 damage and penetrates heavy armor. I’ve got a news flash for Helldivers devs - there is no universe where a revolver does more penetration than a fucking sniper rifle. The Counter Sniper is probably a .50 BMG rifle or similar, and if I shoot a Charger or Hulk in the face, it should immediately sit right down on its ass. The Senator, since it fires a slower round, should be the one doing medium penetration.
The Eruptor is pay-to-win, since it’s the only usable sniper rifle in the game, but it’s crippled by short range(the round explodes after a short distance) - so why bother putting a sniper scope on it at all? It’s the only rifle capable of clearing out medium bugs just fine, but not due to precise sniper shots - due to exploding rounds. The rounds bounce off Bile Titans unless you hit them juuuust right - but it can one-shot a Factory Strider from beneath(as it should). It’s utterly incapable of damaging a Charger at all, unless for some reason the Charger is heading away from you.
Here’s how sniper rifles should work: the recoil should be horrendous unless you’re prone. The Diligence should penetrate medium armor. The Counter Sniper should penetrate heavy armor. The Eruptor should penetrate heavy armor, stun, and clear the surrounding area with the explosion. There is very little, if any, armor that we know of that can stop a .50 BMG, so there’s basically no bug or bot that should be able to take Counter Sniper rounds or greater and keep walking.
Sniper rifles are meant to be slow firing, high damage weapons that reward precision, and penetrate effortlessly. I should be able to find a spot, see a long distance with the scope and ping for my team, and land shots in critical hit points at range and bring large enemies to their knees while my team is working on crowd control. Unfortunately, most of the sniper rifles in this game are fucking useless, because the devs feel like you’re supposed to bring a rocket launcher instead of a precision rifle.
Signed, the teammate who wants to play as a sniper, but can’t, because there are no good long range rifles in the game.
I also posted this rant to Steam Community if you want to discuss there.
They’re not called sniper rifles. They’re categorized in your loadout as “Marksman rifles”. Important distinction. Marksman rifles are usually in lighter calibers than true “sniper rifles”, as they’re meant for shorter ranges.
The AMR, as someone else mentioned, is an anti-materiel sniper rifle. Now, I agree that the counter sniper should have heavy pen and the diligence should have medium, because it would make them both more useful on bugs and bots alike (though mostly bugs, they’re already great on bots). But they should absolutely be doing less damage than the AMR, and that’s gonna be a hard balance to strike – how would you be able to justify the AMR’s existence and use if a primary weapon could do what it does?
OP completely fails to recognize the AMR’s existence, but seems to think the Marksman Rifles should themselves be absolutely devastating to CHARGERS. If the Diligence Counter-Sniper is, in OPs world, supposed to be a .50 BMG, one can only assume the AMR should be at a minimum a 20mm cannon, at which point the Autocannon has to go up to, what, 50mm? And things like the Recoiless Rifle and other dedicated anti-armor weapons should just gib a charger with a single body shot.
Apart from ignoring that the AMR is exactly the weapon he wants, and his mistaken identification of DMR-style weapons as “Sniper Rifles,” OP just doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He states “There is very little, if any, armor that we know of that can stop a .50 BMG” which is just so hilariously wrong that that statement alone should flag the whole post as nonsense. We’re not just talking about plates that can fit in a human-sized plate carrier chest rig, we’re talking about alien bugs the size of an up-armored garbage truck. We’re talking about literal walking tanks, and for that matter actual tanks.
Yeah, I didn’t want to say it quite so harshly, but while I would welcome a heavy penetrating primary rifle that can punch holes in those armored up garbage trucks, I can’t help but think it would just negate any reason to bring the AMR. They’d have to give the AMR a buff it frankly doesn’t need (really, it’s good where it is) to keep it relevant – and then yes, indeed, it might as well be firing 20mm.
also yeah even a bullet that can (or should) punch holes in bug armor should not be capable of penetrating literal, actual tanks; as tank armor has outgrown what is capable of being penetrated by something man-portable (or, well – shoulder-firing, closed breech guns, to be more specific) since the 1940s. An overambitious ant, yes, sure, punching holes through thick chitin I can believe; but not engineered thick steel plate.
Yeah super weird take. The diligence and CS have been buffed over what they used to be, and they were absolutely viable before. The senator having heavy pen is kinda weird, but it only has 6 rounds to balance that out. A heavy pen 15 round mag would be kinda silly. Plus they’ve stripped armor from devaststors making them easier to kill than ever, and basically every strategem has armor pen now.
OP if you wanna feel like a god and solo everything with a primary, play on 3 or lower. Otherwise bring AT or aim for the face. Or bring the fire breaker to bugs, that legit kills everything smaller than a titan.