Are Sharpshooters looked down upon?

[Quadruplesword]

I bought Killing Floor about 3 days ago, and been having a blast with it ever since. I played mostly on a clan server and the people there were very enjoyable to play with, they were very friendly and played like teammates, handing out money when someone asked for it and coming to the aid of injured teammates, and not accusing the team of incompetence when they died or insulting other people for dying.

I mostly played a Sharpshooter and although the people I played with didn't make any comments about it, I keep getting the vibe, from both youtube videos and forums, that the Sharpshooter is thought of as "the noobs' way out" and looked down upon by most people. It makes me uncomfortable playing as the SS, because the people might be saying to themselves "Oh great, it's THAT guy" but not explicitly stating it in text / voice chat to be polite.

What are your opinions of sharpshooter players? When I was playing, I always tried to stay in the back of my squad and aim for priority targets with my crossbow / LAR, like husks, sirens, and scrakes, and took care to go for headshots. At the end of a wave, I would always ask if anyone needed cash because all I needed to buy was ammo, since the medics in our squad did a good job of keeping me patched up. If I knew I was standing in front of people, I crouched so as to not block their view. I healed people when it didn't endanger me or my teammates to do so, and I kept a constant eye on the berserkers in our group incase they got overrun with crawlers.

 

[Pendragon]

I really don't think the sharpshooter is looked down upon. At least when the Sharpshooter is playing there role and taking out the potentially dangerous specimens before they reach squad's holding position. I personally like having a sharpshooter on my team when I am playing no matter what perk i may be using its always handy to have someone take or at least weaken the large specimens before they reach our position.

 

[Spicy]

When I was playing, I always tried to stay in the back of my squad and aim for priority targets with my crossbow / LAR, like husks, sirens, and scrakes, and took care to go for headshots. ... If I knew I was standing in front of people, I crouched so as to not block their view. I healed people when it didn't endanger me or my teammates to do so, and I kept a constant eye on the berserkers in our group incase they got overrun with crawlers.

Sounds like you were doing your job and then some.

 

[Quadruplesword]

Sounds like you were doing your job and then some.

Thank you

 

[Double_Deagle]

I mostly played a Sharpshooter and although the people I played with didn't make any comments about it, I keep getting the vibe, from both youtube videos and forums, that the Sharpshooter is thought of as "the noobs' way out" and looked down upon by most people. It makes me uncomfortable playing as the SS, because the people might be saying to themselves "Oh great, it's THAT guy" but not explicitly stating it in text / voice chat to be polite.

That bolded part. That will never happen on the internet. Believe me, if they wanted to insult you, they would just do it.

Sounds to me like you were playing well, and there were no problems. Don't make yourself feel bad over something that isn't even happening.

In game, the only "classicism" I've ever seen has been towards firebugs, and even that is very rare. Basically no one has any problem towards any class as long as it's well played. Just don't worry about it and do what you enjoy.

 

[Nanostrike]

Sharpshooters are looked down upon when there are too many of 'em and/or they aren't doing their jobs.

Sharpshooters can either be a "Heavy Hitter" (Use a Crossbow, target dangerous specimens like Sirens and Scrakes), or a "Sweeper" (Use the Lever Action, Handcannon, and 9mm, kill as many Crawlers, Stalkers, and Gorefasts as possible).


Also, I tend to look down on any poor Sharpshooter that's using the joke-of-a-gun called the M14EBR. It's so bad right now that the Lever Action is better...

 

[Ibin.]

Sharpshooters are a case by case basis. If you are a poor sharpshooter then yes, you will be looked down upon. BUT if you are a good sharpshooter then you will be praised. Or at least not payed attention to.

You have to do what the class is intended to do though, which you are so good job on that. A good M14 user will take out every ZED with ease and still have the most kills (not that it matters). Be warned though the M14 is very unforgiving.

EDIT: Oh and never play on a high level server as a low level sharpshooter. You will be looked down on and booted quickly. As for levels I would say level 0-2 Normal, 3ish Hard, 4-5 Suicidal (lvl 4 if you know what you are doing), and level 6 HoE.

 

[Deadbolt]

I think that the only time that the sharpshooter was looked down upon was when the xbow was super OP and 5 out of 6 people on the team were sharps. Now it is mostly fine whenever someone is sharp. Other than that some people look down on the m14 sharpshooter, I know I do when the player doesn't use the gun correctly, but that is about it.

 

[9_6]

That was 2 versions ago and is fixed now.
You and your m14 should be safe from rageboners by now and crossbows have never really been that hated.

 

[CandleJack]

It's always the bad players that are looked down on.

Also the people who say Berserker is a sh!t perk that shouldn't be used on Suicidal and HoE or beyond wave 5. These people annoy me to no end.

As a HoE runner i prefer it when people don't play Sharpshooter, simply because Sharpshooter isn't cohesive with my main HoE strategy.

But when you camp, you love Sharpshooters that are competent.

I kinda see it as being a bit pointless to play Sharpshooter if you cannot kill a Scrake or FP safely, but if you can them you're looked up to as a source of inspiration.

 

[Lewt]

To answer your question, if I have absolutely 0 information to go off of about a person, except for what perk he's using, yes I think less of sharpshooters. Not so much that I don't give them a chance, but still watch them to be sure. Every sharpshooter I've played with for months does something to irk me, where the occasional demo, support spec, medic, and commando do things right (haven't seen any firebugs except for myself so who knows).
There isn't much I can think of that I like more than a GOOD sharpshooter though.

Long story short, sharpshooter used to be overpowered, it isn't anymore, some people think it's perfectly fine and some think it's underpowered. But when players who never visit the forums or do anything but play public servers think "nerf" they also think "useless".

 

[HaTeMe]

I bought Killing Floor about 3 days ago, and been having a blast with it ever since. I played mostly on a clan server and the people there were very enjoyable to play with, they were very friendly and played like teammates, handing out money when someone asked for it and coming to the aid of injured teammates, and not accusing the team of incompetence when they died or insulting other people for dying.

I mostly played a Sharpshooter and although the people I played with didn't make any comments about it, I keep getting the vibe, from both youtube videos and forums, that the Sharpshooter is thought of as "the noobs' way out" and looked down upon by most people. It makes me uncomfortable playing as the SS, because the people might be saying to themselves "Oh great, it's THAT guy" but not explicitly stating it in text / voice chat to be polite.
.

People considered SS as the "noobs favourite perk" because M14 used to be a one-hit-kill type of spammage weapon which even took down fleshpounds and scrakes with a few well placed headshots, and Crossbow took down ANYTHING with one headshot if your level was high enough.

Nowdays hes pretty balanced but maybe some people still get negative feelings on the perk because of what it used to be.

 

[C_Gibby]

The sharpshooter is honestly fine right about now, but it seems that there's quite a few people who have yet to realise it! People might bark at you for using the M14 now though, as it has very underpowered bodyshots compared to all the other sharpie choices.

 

[limBo.::.DancE]

What are your opinions of sharpshooter players? When I was playing, I always tried to stay in the back of my squad and aim for priority targets with my crossbow / LAR, like husks, sirens, and scrakes, and took care to go for headshots. At the end of a wave, I would always ask if anyone needed cash because all I needed to buy was ammo, since the medics in our squad did a good job of keeping me patched up. If I knew I was standing in front of people, I crouched so as to not block their view. I healed people when it didn't endanger me or my teammates to do so, and I kept a constant eye on the berserkers in our group incase they got overrun with crawlers.

It sounds to me you are a very good sir with the right attitude ...and learning it well too!

Even if some players think that way, they surely will change their opinion after playing a couple of waves with you (if you keep up the good work )

If they don't... well then their just thinking that way so they can feel better about themselves, they are the real bad players.

Keep it up! Good gaming... and if anytime want to give it a run, just pm me i could use a good SS

Peace

 

[sph34r]

You'll be looked down upon just like any other class if you don't do your job.

The sharpshooter specifically should go for scrakes, husks and sirens, and depending on your team set-up, sometimes fleshpounds. The first and last zeds mentioned here are pretty fatal if applied topically, so if you mess up here you'll be looked down upon more than say, a commando who let a stalker get too close to her pray.

From your post it seems like you're doing everything fine anyway, so I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Undedd Jester]

Holy cow... it brought a tear to my eye reading this thread and finding out that genuine intelligent gamers still exist.

Yeah 6 months ago the Sharpshooter was considered the noob perk cause it could dominate everything with ease. He has since been balanced appropriately and is now a enjoyable, interesting perk to play.

Perhaps he has been nerf batted a little too far, but you most certainly won't lose points learning the perk nowadays.

 

[QuinnyQuinn]

Sharpshooters are largely dependent on a player's skills AND co-operation.

They are not specifically assigned to any roles. Hence they are decent in anything they do. However due to these multiple capabilities, they are also not able to master in any key areas. Hence whether a Sharpshooter is valuable to the team depends on the perk load-out.

If you have a bunch of people who uses the crowd-controlling perks (Commandos, Firebugs are common examples) that can't deal very heavy damage to stronger zeds, you should be the one who overcomes such difficulties. Thus, your weapon load-out needs to have one which can inflict exceptional damage (Crossbow, anyone?). The opposite goes if you have heavy-hitting perks. In that case, use a weapon that you can reload quickly with. The Lever Action Rifle is a preferred choice. Regardless of which weapon you're buying, always carry at least a HandCannon with you. It can help you in tight situation where you require sustained DPS.

 

[Neom.1r]

M14 works perfectly fine.

The only bad thing about having an M14 or a LAR means you don't have an Xbow which is ideally the preferred SS setup. It lets you do your job the easiest, due to the penetration easily killing sirens and husks and letting you hit a Scrake, whereas the M14/LAR setup needs a clear line of sight and/or you to not be harassed while stunlocking a Scrake. You can easily kill a Scrake with 5LAR hs on HoE but getting time with a clear line of sight and not being harassed is a different story...

I play most of my games as M14/LAR and I fit into every team composition.

 

[sph34r]

Eh, LAR/M14 works just as well as xbow/HC, it just depends on the map/team.

 

[FearDE]

It's really hard to say when it comes to Sharpy. Like a lot people said, Sharpy are the class that heavily relay on team and his/her own skill. Team, because there are limits to how much crowd control a Sharpy can do. Skill, because if a Sharpy can not hit a head, whats the point? I don't know what difficulty you play but, right now I am assuming that you play low level since you just got the game. From what I read, you're doing a great job as Sharpy, and I hope you keep up the good work.

One thing that does annoy me about SOME (key word here) Sharpy is the lack of skill to kill Scrake with a crossbow/LAR or they do not know there priority target. I seen these kind of people on HoE.

Another note, when playing on harder difficulty, people that does not have the skill level also play on that difficulty. Which will mostly annoy the Sharpy.

On a different note...
I personally think Support is more of a "fall back safe" class. Don't get me wrong by me saying this, it is not a class that should be looked down on. It only means that lower skilled people can use this class and still do "somewhat" of good to decent job.

Completely off the subject...
I started to call Sharpshooter, Sharpy do to people that think SS as Support Specialist. Since to me, SS is Sharpshooter, and avoid confusion. I call Sharpshooter, Sharpy and Support Specialist... well Support. Even though I only seen this kind of people in mostly in game, but who knows. There might be some in here