The argument against Snipers

From its onset, Team Fortress 2 brought a different style of gameplay from other shooters. While other shooters focused on varied equipment for a single character, Team Fortress instead, focused on varied characters. This design philosophy brought the world 9 unique and memorable classes. Scout. Soldier. Pyro. Demoman. Heavy. Engineer. Medic. Spy. Sniper. Each class had their own perks built into the characters themselves, and in the different weapons they wielded. Each one granted a much different gameplay to the FPS world, new strategies that have not been seen elsewhere. All except for one. The Sniper.

Now, before I continue on, this isn’t a rant that snipers are overpowered, or that I have a personal grudge against them (which I do, but that’s still beside the point). This is to explain why Snipers have no place explicitly within the Team Fortress world.

Let’s get started, shall we?

For those who are not as acquainted with Team Fortress 2, here is a quick rundown of the current 9 classes.

Scout –

The Scout is a fast, skirmish character. He runs the fastest of all of the classes, and has the ability to double jump, being able to perform the second jump in midair. He is armed with a sawed-off shotgun that excels at close range.

Soldier –

As Valve would put it, the Soldier is the bread and butter of any team. The Soldier packs a rocket launcher, dealing large amounts of splashed damage over any distance. However, the Soldier’s rockets move rather slowly, and the Soldier himself is the second slowest class.

Pyro –

The Pyro is a multi-purpose character, useful for both offense and defense. He is armed with the Flamethrower, a weapon that ignites enemies hit and does heavy damage at close range. The Pyro runs at a moderate speed and has a decent amount of health, with his short range being his only weakness.

Demoman –

The Demoman is an area-of denial character, able to bombard contested points and fortified positions with his Grenade Launcher and Stickybombs. However, both of his weapons are incredibly self-damaging, and very subject to the forces of gravity.

Heavy –

The Heavy is best known for his intimidating Minigun, which shreds anything that dares come close. However, the Minigun is incredibly inaccurate at longer ranges. The Heavy himself boasts a large amount of health, at the expense of being the slowest class in the game.

Engineer –

The Engineer is a novel concept; he does not directly support his team, rather, he constructs a variety of buildings that can provide fire support (the Sentry Gun), replenish ammunition and health (Dispenser), or move teammates quickly from one part of the battlefield to another (Teleporter). The Engineer has as much health has the Scout, and only moves at an average pace.

Medic –

The Medic’s job is as one would assume, healing allies. Team Fortress’ spin on this is that the Medic can “overheal” his target, granting them temporary bonus health, or even deploy the “Ubercharge”, an effect that renders him and his patient invulnerable to damage for a period of time.

Spy –

The Spy is a saboteur class, able to disable and drain an Engineer’s buildings, turn invisible via cloaking, and is even able to instantly kill any class with a melee hit to their backs, known as the “backstab”. However, the Spy’s weapons do considerably less damage compared to other classes’ weapons, and the Spy himself has as much health as a Scout.

Sniper –

The Sniper is exactly as one would imagine the class to be. The Sniper’s weapon is the only weapon within the game to be able to scope, and be able to deal large amounts of damage (most often lethal damage) when landing a shot to the head.

Descriptions aside, let’s move on to the actual reasons.

Reason #1 – Anything that the Sniper class can do, any other class can also do.

The most obvious objection to this is “What about that giant Heavy and Medic train barreling down the map?”. One would think that a Sniper who can reliably pick off the Medics should solve the problem. While this is true, this also brings up another issue that will be brought in a separate reason. Apart from playing Sniper, it is just as simple enough for your own team to bring forth a Heavy and Medic train of your own. Combined with the fact that the Heavy is naturally slow, even slower while firing his Minigun, should make him an easy target to focus fire upon. Aside from focusing either the Heavy or the Medic, the Spy also makes a wonderful counter against them. Regardless of the target’s current health, a Spy’s backstab will instantly kill his target, rendering the Medic’s overheal useless against Spies.

Reason #2 – Inefficient counters against Snipers

Having very little health, Snipers will often stay in the back of teams, avoiding direct combat. This means that if the Sniper is landing shots, if any at all, the team is being granted free damage. This is also known as Risk vs Reward. All other classes have risks they must take into consideration when fighting, the Sniper has only two acknowledgeable risks: Spies and opposing Snipers. This Risk vs Reward imbalance is due to the innate weapon designs of all of the other classes. No other class has a precise weapon that deals constant damage over any distance, only the Sniper does. This is made worse that the Sniper is granted increased damage with headshots. Of course, one would argue that the counter to Sniper would be to bring out another Sniper. This quickly devolves into a mess of Sniper duels on both teams, which you could go and play any other FPS out there to enjoy.

Reason #3 – Maps are intentionally designed against Snipers

All official Valve maps have been designed specifically to avoid granting Snipers an advantage over other classes. This is evident in that very few maps have long straight stretches, which would be most advantageous for Snipers. Maps that do have said stretches quickly devolve into Sniper duels.

Reason #4 – Sniping skill does not add to Team Fortress’s gameplay

A skilled Sniper would not make Team Fortress stand out from the other FPSes, as all of the other classes require a skill not seen elsewhere. For example, the Soldier is unable to kill any class with a direct hit from a rocket. However, they can launch the target and immediately follow up with a second rocket while the target is in midair, usually resulting in a kill. Similarly, the Demoman’s projectiles fly in a ballistic arch, requiring the player to lead his targets in order to land direct hits.

Reason #5 – Snipers have the worst Skill vs Reward ratio

While playing any other class, you’ll always be able to deal some amount of damage. This is embodied in the design of the Heavy, as one only needs to point in the general direction of the enemy to deal damage. Snipers however, will only grant results on successful hits. Meaning anything other than a direct will do absolutely nothing. With any other class, if you’ve aimed in the general direction of the enemy and left-clicked, you’ve contributed to the team effort. Yes, I’m staring at you, single-digit score Sniper.

From the reasons given above, I have long since come to the conclusion that the Sniper class is an irrelevant and unneeded class in Team Fortress 2, where if removed, would have zero repercussions.

And ya’ll well damn straight know that they’re the single largest anti-fun measure in the gaming world.

Editor's note: This blog is by Sean Chen. I have posted it in its entirety in his stead, without proofreading, additions (with the exception of this paragraph), or editing.