How to be a sniper

[Dowly]

Ok, I've "sniped" since Delta Force and I still see the same mistakes made.
1. If you get sniped, NEVER go to the same area, hoping to get revenge. You just get sniped again.
2. Never EVER use the obvious spots. Towers, tops of the hills, etc. the first thing any competent sniper checks.
3. What you want to do? Get kills but die, or get kills and dont die. That's the difference between medium range and long range snipers.
Med.Range are those who are near the combat, maybe get a kill or two and die.
Long range snipers are those who kill a sniper or two from the enemy side, but never die.

Add your tips!

Edited to add: What not to do and do when under Sniper fire:
1. Dont run from cover to cover, he sees you, he waits you to poke your head up from behind the new cover.
2. If you get shot, leave the area. Sprint out, then walk, remember, human eye catches motion. The sniper is looking for you.

[Aktungbby]

Never RUN you'll just die tired!

[Oberon]

Don't get confused between cover and concealment.

If you can see the enemy, he can see you.

Sniping a buttoned up tank doesn't work.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Don't let the calls of 'camper' from the dead and dying get you down.

Move after each shot, seriously. Especially in games like battlefield where if it isnt set to show the player who killed you, it will pan over that direction. But seriously, the tips you wrote down are pretty much spot on.

That and knowing the difference of when to wait for the perfect shot and when to squeeze off the shot because you are losing your opportunity fast.

Also survey the area you are going to be sniping, and if bullet travel is a thing, take shots at static objects to get an idea of how long it will take for your rounds to travel that distance. Helps with leads if you need to.

[Red October1984]

Originally Posted by USNSRCaseySmith

Move after each shot, seriously. Especially in games like battlefield where if it isnt set to show the player who killed you, it will pan over that direction. But seriously, the tips you wrote down are pretty much spot on.

That and knowing the difference of when to wait for the perfect shot and when to squeeze off the shot because you are losing your opportunity fast.

Also survey the area you are going to be sniping, and if bullet travel is a thing, take shots at static objects to get an idea of how long it will take for your rounds to travel that distance. Helps with leads if you need to.

Somebody has definitely played a round of Battlefield.

I don't play many things online....but for a while when we got our new(er) ISP, I played a lot of Battlefield 3.

Just some things I picked up from there...

Moving=Important. If you're in a game with a bunch of sore losers, smartasses, etc. They'll come after you with all the firepower they can if you don't move. There's a map in Battlefield 3...Kharg Island....it's got an abundance of hiding spots in the mountains.



On the left side, near the boundary in that empty space, is a long ridgeline with ditches running perpendicular to the ridgetop. Usually I get in a small buggy (USMC) or an F-18 (for an improvised HALO jump), and I drop in there and pick a ditch. It gives you a huge view of the entire combat zone. For a while there, I got dang good as a Marine sniper. I'd get 4-6 kills in a game and maybe die once or twice....but even in one of the biggest maps with a lot of brush and concealment...they will find you....and they will kill you. I shot a guy at something like 593 Meters (remembered because it was my longest shot for a while, eventually broke it) and he came back with a T-90. He just started pumping rounds in my direction until he found me.

There's one other map that has a similar possible setup. Operation Firestorm. You can hide out on a mountain, along a ridge and there are even some buildings (but I'd be careful...T-90s and stuff)

Urban sniping hasn't lasted long for me because there's always some guy with a rocket who figures out where you are and blows a hole in the building.

Something I found invaluable is being able to eyeball distances based on your mil-dots/dashes in your scope. That saved me from wasting ammo and possibly giving away my position to dial in my shots. I always hated playing as the Russians because their starting sniper rifle didn't have Mil-dots/dashes.

So...basically this...

1. Movement
2. Accuracy
3. Proper concealment
4. Common Sense

I say common sense because as Dowly said....there are many obvious spots. And the obvious spots will kill you. The small pile of rubble has done better than the water tower.

[Gargamel]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

Don't let the calls of 'camper' from the dead and dying get you down.

This.

Fixed, defendable positions, be it a chokepoint, bunker, or sniper's nest, are an essential element of warfare. If the territory you can cover from these positions holds an advantage for you or your team, do it.

[Dowly]

I'm quite surprised how little whining there is about sniping or generally defending an area in Battlefield 4. So kudos for that to the community.

EDIT: Example of a great defensive position is in BF4's Zavod 311/331 (whichever). Is it US' first flag, with the tower, F? Anyways, in that map,
both sides do lots of helidrops on each other's first flag (F and A). Usually the attackers on F go to the tower and either look through the windows
or go all the way to the top. Unfortunately for them, the tower is visible from the US spawn and the small buildings at spawn are good places to
sit in and wait for any attacker to raise his head enough to get shot through the window.

Flag A is very similar, just no tower. I always get a medium range scope (x4) and sit near the Russian spawn that has great visibility towards A.
Last night, joining midgame, I ended up with 19/3 stats simply defending A as a short/medium range sniper.


I have to disagree about relocating after every shot. Of course, there are situations where that is necessary, if for example the game has a killcam.
Doing so unnecessarely heightens the risk of being visually spotted.

Originally Posted by Dowly

Ok, I've "sniped" since Delta Force...

Ha, brofist!
I ceased trying to educate people on this subject though.
Only time it did work out was during my ArmA-time where I was running 1-week sniper courses that covered... pretty much everything necessary/useful in correlation to ArmA.
In all other games, non of the real stuff really applies besides the common-sense basics (which are being ignored anyways as you pointed out).

In the end, be glad when they do the same mistakes over and over again... more kills for you!