Its no secret that a lot of the community REALLY doesn't like sniper with good chunk of the criticism being directed at quickscoping for both negating is close range and tunnel vision weaknesses.

Now i've seen a lot of unhinged solutions for this such as the rifles having extreme reverse fall off at close range or making the delay to quickscope headshot take nearly a full second but i prepose a simpler solution. lower the rifle's base damage from 50 to 45 which in turn would lower quickscope damage to just 135.

Personally I think its fine for sniper to be able to instantly dome light classes. scouts have insane mobility, spy has his cloak, an engie out in the open is dead either way, and sniper duels are so integral that i don't think messing with them in any way is a good idea. but this WOULD prevent you from quickscoping medics who are a key pick for snipers as well as do thinks like quickscope bodyshoting soldiers or just double quickscoping heavy's.

Now obviously damage calculations would need to be tweaked so that fully charged headshots/bodyshots still deal the same damage but in theory this nerf should make sniper less oppressive in the hands of skilled players forcing them to hardscope more without making the class even more polarizing for new players.

This doesn't change whether or not a scout dies at close range and basically changes nothing

I'd say base dmg should be 33 and headshots should be 100 dmg

This would still make sniper the strongest long range class but wayyyy closer to other classes when it comes to power at range

we should put a cage on his little mundy while we're at it

yeah I change like this would need to paired with some other nerfs like at the very least making most rifles fire traces (the classic and Sydney would be exceptions). as for the issue of close range headshots maybe having them do 15% less damage at close range meaning quickscopes would only deal 115 combined with the pervious nerf. enough to still be impactful but doesn't completely negated his weakness to flankers.

I'm playing safe with my nerfs since while i do think sniper is definitely overtuned I've seen people REALLY go overboard with gimping him. I still want him to be fun to play and not be complete dogwater.

Jesus jane

instead of nerfing sniper try buffing your play

I like this idea. But I think a proper nerf of sniper should be a collection of little nerfs. Add to this a minor damage fall-off on close range (like to 30-40 damage) and deacresed reload speed and sniper would become less opressive but still keep its quirks

Tracers won't do anything cuz you already know where the sniper is going to be (hint: look at a sniper meta spots 2011 youtube video). The only problem with sniper is that every one of his non-smg secondaries is broken beyond belief.

Tracers would still be useful for CONFIRMING a sniper's location as well as which targets they're going after and their general skill level. TF2 is a game that prides itself on information so the long range class that can also insta kill you not providing and sort of information or basic penalty for missing a shot outside of an easily missable dot is... questionable to say the least.

and by your own logic such a change wouldn't seriously nerf sniper's viability so i don't see the harm in adding it

Where did you get the idea that tf2 prides itself on information?? Never heard anyone say this. Anyways you can confirm where the enemy sniper generally is even without tracers by checking if he's alive and looking at your team's frontline. Imagine you're pushing upward 2nd and your team has secured the tunnel and the rocks above. There is only 1 meaningful area the sniper can be at so he will shoot you from that general direction.

this is kinda poop

they should buff sniper