Meet the Sniper: A Team Fortress 2 Guide.
The Sniper
Welcome to my first Team Fortress 2 Guide on the Sniper Class. Team Fortress 2 is a free to play game that can be downloaded from Steam. There are 9 classes to play in TF2. Sniper being one of them. Since lots of people tend to play the sniper class I thought I would provide some helpful hints and tips to possible increase the skill of snipers in the game.
TF2 Meet the Sniper Class Video
Class Mechanics
Pretty simple class mechanics.
-Scope the enemy players, headshots are one shot kills.
-Charge up shots by remaining in scopes for longer periods of times.
-Shoot enemy constructions to destroy them.
-Be very mindful of the red dot from your sniper rifle. This will alert enemy players of your location. Try to focus on spots where the enemies cannot see you until you are ready to take your first shot.
Primary Weapon
Currently there are 5 primary weapons for the sniper to pick from. Upon starting a new account the player will only have access to one of these sniper rifles but through playing time or trading the player may acquire more weapons.
The normal sniper rifle can be shot both scoped and unscoped. It provides critical hits for headshots.
The Huntmans (bow and arrow) critical hits on head shots. Certain players (namely pyros) can light their arrows on fire for extra damage. This weapon charges up fast (1 second charge) and you must shoot it within 5 seconds or it begins losing accuracy. This is a medium range weapon.
Sydney Sleeper this weapon applies jarate for 8 seconds upon successful hit (2 seconds less then the Jarate secondary weapon). Jarate causes mini-crits. This weapon does not have an instant kill headshot. But the Jarate is useful for kill assists.
Bazaar Bargin this weapon receives a faster charge every time you get a headshot, but every time you miss it slows down your charge time. A body shot is counted as a miss.
And finally the Machina. Which is my favorite sniper rifle. This rifle can only be shot when scoped. It fully charged shot will kill any player if shot in the head and can pass through players to get multiple kills (I have killed 4 people in one shot). If you kill two players with one bullet, the game plays special sounding music. This sniper rifle also does the most damage out of all the sniper rifles.
Secondary Weapon
At the time of the release of this guide there are currently 4 secondary weapons. These are the sub machine gun, Jarate, Razorback, and Darwins Danger Shield.
The submachine Gun does a base damage of 8 damage per second. It is the default weapon of the sniper class.
The Jarate causes mini-crits when applied to the enemy. It can also be used to extinguish flames on friendly players. It has a splash radius when thrown and can be used to find spies. Cloaked spies with become partially uncloaked and enemy spies disguised as friendly players will become covered in the Jarate. Jarate is probably one of the most underused secondary weapons. With only a 20 second recharge, this is a very powerful weapon. And can change the battlefield very quickly. One simple throw of a jarate on a cart and all the pushers have mini-crits done to them for 10 seconds.
The Razorback is a one time spy prevention device. It will stop one backstab attempt from a spy and afterwards needs to be re-equipped at a resupply cabinet. In my opinion this is overused. A good spy will switch to a gun and head shot a sniper before the sniper knows what is going on.
Darwin Danger Shield, this is used quite often. It gives the wearer 25 bonus hit points. Which for a sniper isn't that useful. As a sniper you usually die from other snipers (1 shot head shots) or spies.
Hints and Tips
-Upon starting a match try to line up a headshot and shoot as soon as the gate opens.
-Jarate can be thrown on enemies before a match starts if they are close enough to the gate. A word of warning you need to throw the jarate on them within 10 seconds of the match starting or the jarate effect will wear off before the round starts.
-Level 1 sentries can usually be taken out with 1 full charged shot.
-See an enemy teleporter? Line up your crosshairs to pickoff enemies and they make use of it.
Have a tip? Leave a comment and if the tip is good enough I will put it up on here...(giving you credit of course).
Class Conclusion
In most games you see alot of snipers. And in reality there only needs to be maybe 2 snipers tops. And the rule of thumb if you are a sniper and you are not topping the score boards you probably want to switch classes. The sniper class is not for everyone. If you cannot take out a heavy or a medic with ease then try another class. Make use of all the sniper has to offer. Do not underestimate the power of Jarate.
