Vitals
Health: 125
Speed: 100%
Type: Support
Weapons: Sniper Rifle, Machine Pistol, Kukri
Unlockables: The Huntsman, Jarate, The Razorback
Weapons:
Ammo: 1/25
Damage: 34-66 uncharged, 110-195 charged, (headshots do 2x damage), fully charged headshot = instant kill
Best range: Long
Information:
The sniper rifle is similar to sniper rifles in other games – secondary fire to zoom, primary fire to shoot. However to balance the power of the weapon, the sniper rifle is quite weak if you just shoot it. To do serious damage, you activate zoom and a power meter starts charging up (from 0% to 100% in about 3 seconds). The damage the shot does increases with the power meter, so it pays to be zoomed in for a bit before hitting your target. Of course while zoomed in your movement speed is reduced to virtually zero, so you become a sitting target (similar to the heavy’s spin-up delay).
However skilled snipers are rewarded for their accuracy. Shooting an enemy in the head (a headshot) will appear as a critical hit and does double the damage of a hit anywhere else. In addition, a 100% charged headshot will kill any vulnerable target instantly (even 450-health heavies). And on top of that, a headshot scores you an extra 1 point on top of the kill. Hence the sniper rifle is primarily used to pick off key targets, whether they’re attacking (those deliciously slow heavies) or on their way to assist attackers (especially medics). On maps like 2Fort, snipers are also required to out-snipe the enemy snipers to prevent them from harassing their teammates.
Advantages: One of the few weapons effective at long range, potential for very high damage, headshots do double damage, can severely disrupt enemy formations (taking out medics and heavies), fast reload.
Disadvantages: High damage requires time spent zoomed, zoomed mode reduces movement speed to a crawl, necessary zoomed mode decreases awareness of immediate surroundings.
Ammo: 25/75
Damage: 8-12 (24), about 80-120/sec (240/sec)
Best range: Short to medium
Information:
The sniper’s machine pistol (a.k.a. submachine gun) is relatively weak and has a pretty ordinary ammo reserve, but it is the only real machine gun in the game (excluding the minigun and syringe gun). It has a fast rate of fire and so can be quite dangerous if the majority of the bullets hit, but it really is best for finishing off injured targets and has little chance against healthy opponents of any respectable skill. Also ensure that you watch out for ammo to pick up, since you only get 4 clips to fire and you need every bullet you can get.
Advantages: High rate of fire, fast reload, effective backup weapon to compensate for sniper’s short range weakness.
Disadvantages: Small ammo reserve, low damage, inaccuracy increases quickly with distance.
Ammo: N/A
Damage: 43-87 (195)
Information:
“What the hell is a kukri?” you ask? Correctly pronounced khu-khoo-ree, it’s a curved knife that was used by Ghurkha (Nepal and parts of northern India) fighters in the First and Second World Wars, but is a commonly used tool for woodworking, agricultural and other general purpose choppery.
Now that you’ve learnt something, the important part is that is that it functions similarly to most other melee weapons. See Valve’s TF2 Stats for current data on the rate of random critical hits with the Kukri (which it refers to as a ‘Club’ for some reason).
Ammo: 1/12
Damage: 44-58 (153 on headshot), 103-137 fully charged (360 on headshot)
Best range: Medium – Long
Information:
The Huntsman, which is essentially a fancy name for a shortbow, is the Snipers controversial new unlockable primary weapon. To shoot, you may either tap the primary fire button for a quick but weaker uncharged shot, or hold down the primary fire button to charge it for full damage (takes one second to fully charge) and release it to shoot. Like the sniper rifle, damage increases the more you charge each shot, shown via a power meter visible while charging. The arrow flies in a downward arc, more so the less charged the shot is. Charging it for more than 5 seconds will cause the bow to shake and become quite inaccurate as the Snipers arm tires. The secondary fire button will undraw the bow without shooting the arrow, which is useful if you have charged the shot for too long. A headshot will still cause a critical hit as with the sniper rifle, however, random criticals may also occur with the Huntsman (unlike the sniper rifle) and is shown by a glowing arrow. A fully charged headshot is no longer a guaranteed kill, but will bring down all opponents except for a fully overhealed heavy.
When charging your Huntsman’s shot your movement slows down, but not as dramatically as with the sniper rifle. Since the Huntsman has no scope you don’t get a zoomed-in view of your target, but instead have a normal view of your surroundings. The shot is not instant like the sniper rifle either, making long distance shots require a slow or non-moving target, leading of the target, and/or luck. These differences, along with the arced shot path, make the Huntsman a better weapon at shorter range than the sniper rifle. The controversy surrounding this unlockable item lies in the element of ‘luck’ mentioned, as some Huntsman users will simply shoot at a chokepoint repeatedly in hopes that an enemy will walk into the arrows path. However, this can be easily distinguished by the opposing team from the multiple arrows left sticking into the wall. A good Huntsman player must learn to lead their targets, aim higher according to distance, and use their extra mobility to make best use of cover between shots.
Advantages: Increased mobility while holding a charged shot, shorter time to reach a full charge, better view of your surroundings when holding a charged shot, arrows can randomly become critical.
Disadvantages: No scope for zoomed-in view of distant enemies, arrows do not instantly reach their targets and follow a downward arc as they fly, causes less damage overall, and you have a smaller ammo reserve.
Ammo: 1 (recharges in 20 seconds)
Damage: See Information
Best range: Short to medium
Information:
The Jarate (jar-based karate, apparently throwing things is a form of martial arts) is an unlockable secondary weapon for the Sniper. As evident from the ‘Meet the Sniper’ video, Jarate is a jar of, well, urine, which can be used to splash your enemies. An enemy splashed by Jarate turns a yellow hue and takes extra damage (35% more) from all attacks for 10 seconds. Taking a swim in some water will wash away this effect. Jarate can also be used to extinguish flaming friends, or even yourself.
The Jarate gives the Sniper class a good option to support his teammates in ways other than simply killing off key targets. It also makes for a good method of getting assisted revenge kills on your opponents, or getting kill assists in general. Most enemies will run and hide when splashed, helping the Sniper to prevent quick offensive pushes by the opposing team.
Advantages: Easy to get kill assists, helps your teammates push forward or prevent pushes, save yourself or teammates from a fiery death.
Disadvantages: Limits your ability to do direct damage to enemies at short or medium range.
Ammo: 1
Damage: See Information
Information:
The Razorback is the Snipers answer to pesky Spies, who normally pose a large threat to a scope-zoomed Sniper unaware of their surroundings. It is essentially a tribal-painted shield with a trap rigged to it, which causes any backstab attempt to fail and instead stun the Spy for 2 seconds. A Spy stunned by the Razorback cannot attack or switch weapons, and the Sniper will receive an audible cue when their Razorback has been triggered. Once the trap goes off, the Razorback is destroyed and can only be regained from a resupply cabinet at your spawn point. Note that this counts as a secondary weapon, and thus replaces your Machine Pistol (or Jarate) when selected for use.
While this provides a good defense against Spies, make note that it causes no damage and the Spy must still be dealt with normally. Learn to recognize the sound made when it goes off, as you will still need to defend yourself afterwards. The Razorback is not at all hard to notice, and a smart Spy will switch to his Revolver to deal with you instead. When deciding whether to use the Razorback, bear in mind that it only effects Spies and is no use whatsoever against any of the other classes, like the Machine Pistol or Jarate would be.
Advantages: You no longer need to fear instant death from a backstabbing Spy.
Disadvantages: Limits your ability to do direct damage to enemies at short or medium range, provides no benefit against non-Spies.
