Whether people complain about snipers, shotgun, grenades or whatever, no one has the right to claim they are easy to use until they have played the best players and beaten them with it themselves.
It's simple, really. Sniping in itself doesn't take a ton of skill. Then again nor does shooting someone with a shotgun at close range. Or lobbing a grenade into a spot where you know people will be to get kills.
But, what if you replace the target with the best players out there? It all becomes different then. Suddenly, there isn't anyone where you lobbed that grenade. Before you know it, no one gets close enough for your shotgun to be effective, and no one
ever runs blindly across the road!
See? Easy to do now? Nuh uh.
Sitting in the snipers' house as an Axis and resolutely staying there until you get rushed will get you killed more often than not.
Easy to get the odd kill, but it's not exactly revolutionary, is it? Everyone does it.
Sniping on the move, though, is much more skillful. I've seen someone use the sniper like a shotgun, pretty much. Won't run in and get killed but can use it close up fairly profficiently. It's just a case of double-tapping to mouse keys.
He also knows when to retreat. The trick to the sniper rifle is to keep as much distance between you and the enemy at all times. Some players take this to extremes and just run back to the 88 and wait. The better ones will move back a little, take a shot, move back some more, take another shot and so on.
I tell you now, in my opinion, the smg and mgs don't take a ton of skill to use either. It's all about aiming and shooting at the target. The only skill in shooting these weapons is keeping the kick-back down. Newbies always open up entirely and complain when they don't kill.
The skill in any shooters game is to learn the strengths and weaknesses of your chosen gun and make them work for you.
How to move, where to be, where to expect the enemy, how the enemy work, when to wait, when to run, when to charge, how you charge-run-wait.... the list goes on.
When regular clan matches/leagues start to happen we will soon see who is the most skillful with the sniper rifles, shotgun and the rest. We will soon see that our 3 week assesments of the weapons we see as 'cheap' were wrong all along.
It all depends on you and the target, not the gun.
On public servers 75% of targets are easy meat for the other 25% right now. That will change.
By the way, any Axis side who has more than 25% snipers is easy to beat. Balance is the key.
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