Sniper Class

A Bisarme sniper, punching holes into Captain Kidd with an Adamantiumized Titan Mining Laser.

The Sniper class stays level-headed with high range, sustained damage output, boasting the highest range bonuses out of the classes and the use of the Sniper Analysis mechanic, which gradually increases damage and critical hit damage to a target the longer the sniper maintains hits onto it. At full analysis, a sniper can deal massive and energy-efficient damage to a target at ranges well beyond most opponents can reasonably deal with.

The catch, however, is that analysis only progresses at a near-standstill, where a max speed of 40 or under must be maintained in order for analysis to be built. As such, snipers can leverage their high range (and slight innate visibility reduction) to develop analysis on targets from a safe distance, or rely on the protection of squadmates like Fleet Commanders or Berserkers to take the vanguard.

That's not to say they're entirely helpless if shot at -- Snipers often make use of heavy fighter hull types, and can attain respectable durability higher than Speed Demons or Seers. A sniper would rather not be seen or shot at if they could help it, but a sniper in a heavy fighter can sometimes fight at arm's length before it starts to hurt.

Some snipers go the extra mile and fly light fighters to leverage the extra augmenter slot to reach even higher damage ceilings, but forgo the hullspace and beefier resistance profiles that come with heavy fighters. This is usually unwieldly for solo play in terms of loot room and head-on encounters, so LF snipers are usually accompanied by supporting allies such as Engineers (healing drones, tractor beams that assist with weapon energy consumption) or Fleet Commanders (auras boosting damage/energy charge).

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A quirk of how Sniper's class skills scale is that because it increases raw damage at a steeper rate than other classes, Sniper has one of the highest Damage Per Hit (DPH) ceilings alongside Seer, leading to the class's reputation of being a one-shot-one-kill class.

Certain combinations of DPH-optimizing methods (multifire, the Kalthi Wrathful Warrior's Kalthi Railgun Protocol super, high DPH weapons like the Stygian Fist) can achieve highly specialized setups that can hit for millions of damage at a time in the right conditions. However, this is often at the detriment of overall combat functionality (extreme downtime, >100m Effective HP enemies, situationally low chances of actually landing the shot), so most snipers aim to gear towards a balance of damage and rate of fire bonuses for a more consistent performance.

Skills

Zen Skills

Zen skills cost (1 * Level) skill points per level, up to a max of level 50.

Zen of Heavy Fighters: Specializing in heavy fighters.

• Per level:
  • +1% Shield Max in Heavy Fighter
  • +0.20% Damage in Heavy Fighter
  • +1% Capacity in Heavy Fighter

Zen of Sniper: Mastering Sniper.

• Per level:
  • +1% Damage, +1% Electric Tempering

Class Skills

Combat Focus 1 Your focus is in combat. 4% Shield Max, 3% Damage	Combat Focus 2 Your focus is in combat. 4% Shield Max, 3% Damage	Combat Focus 3 Your focus is in combat. 4% Shield Max, 3% Damage
Sniper Class 1 30% Damage, 5% Electric Tempering	Sniper Class 2 10% Physical Damage, 10% Damage	Sniper Class 3 Allows the use of Sniper Analysis.
Stalking Stalk your enemies. 40% Tracking, -20% Visibility, 20% Damage	Sharpshooting Take aim at your opponents when you have a steady shot. 40% range, 7% Critical Percent, 33% Projectile Velocity, 33% Knockback	Efficiency Efficient shooting is a sniper hallmark. 30% Damage, -10% Rate of Fire

Advanced Subskills

General Skills

Combat Skills

Sniper Skills

		Shake it Off	+500 shield charge and +500 energy charge while in stasis
		Centered	+500 shield charge and +500 energy charge (Effect is canceled on firing or taking damage, requires 15 seconds to reapply)
		Strategic Deployment	50% speed out of combat.
		Resilient	You and your possessions (Combat Bots, Drones, Fighters) take 20% less damage from any indirect Damage.
		Bot Ph.D.	They call you Doctor Robot. +8 combat bot slots, +2 max number of combat and wild bots, combat bots inherit an additional 10% of the stats from your skills. (Not all skills apply).
		Droney	You really, REALLY love drones. Drone Controllers get +100% tweaking on non-Engineer classes, and +15% tweaking on Engineer.
		Big Banker	+1 Capacitor slot
		Long Scope	+10% Sniper Analysis power increase, +10% Sniper Analysis charging time
		Quick Scope	+20% Sniper Analysis charging rate
		Grooved Bores	+10% Damage with physical weapons, +25% Tracking. +25% Projectile Speed (scaled inversely with ship speed)
		Marksman	+10% Damage if attacking from more than 2,000 distance, +15% Stealth