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Is it prudent to fully charge my sniper rifle in most cases? If an enemy gets up close, am I better off trying to scope-n-shoot, no-scope, or try some other weapon?

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scope-n-shoot does not work w/ headshots. – Joe the Person Nov 9 '11 at 2:40
when they are close: jarate + kukri or run and find a better spot to snipe from. – Colin D Oct 8 '12 at 19:44

5 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

It depends on the particular target you are going for.

For a Heavy, often times you need to charge up, even if you are going for a head-shot.

If, however, you are going for a faster enemy (e.g. a scout or medic), your best bet is to go for one uncharged headshot, or two quick body shots.

And finally, charging up when you don't have an enemy in sight is usually a good strategy, because you can usually one-shot any non-uber'd enemy with a full-charged head-shot.

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Is the ramp up on charge linear? – Jeffrey Jul 7 '10 at 19:57
Yes, I believe so. – John Gietzen Jul 7 '10 at 19:59
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This is off-topic, but in response to John's final thought: My only issue with charging up w/o an enemy in sight is that it often makes me overly prone to enemy snipers. Thoughts? – Jonathan Mabe Jul 7 '10 at 20:13
@Revoked And to enemy spies of course. Also on a cramped map you might be charged and not notice an enemy solider/demoman rocket/sticky jump across the map to near you – RobV Jan 11 '11 at 14:28
up vote 1 down vote

I would say do a quick scope uncharged headshot if the scout is going to get close to you, I would go for that than regular body shot.

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up vote 6 down vote

This info from the TF2 Wiki seems pretty relevant to your question.

The only classes that you can't kill with a zero charged headshot with the sniper rife are Solider, Pyro, Demoman and Heavy, with each of these requiring 17%, 9%, 9%, and 50% charge for a one shot (headshot) kill.

Also worth noting that you can oneshot kill (bodyshot) a Scout, Engineer, Medic, Sniper and Spy with a 100% charge if you think it's a better bet than the head.

All of this goes out the window if a medic is charging, but the above link has info on that too.

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Or the on the offical wiki if you don't want your eyes to bleed from ads. – Thomas McDonald Jul 15 '10 at 13:31
up vote 1 down vote

It is for this reason that I personally prefer to use the Huntsman. It has a faster charge up, but smaller zoom.

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up vote 5 down vote

Personally I no-scope when they are really close or it's a scout. Otherwise I try to scope them with a headshot. I'd say I get fairly decent results, but not great.

I'd love to see some other sniper responses here, as I'm not totally confident that's the best method.

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That's pretty similar to the approach I take, but I seem to have about a 10% shot of taking down a scout once he sees me. I just feel like a sitting duck. – Jeffrey Jul 7 '10 at 19:55
Agreed, if a scout gets close to me I'm about the same ratio – Jonathan Mabe Jul 7 '10 at 20:10
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That's what your SMG is for, or jarate and knife if you're brave – RobV Jan 11 '11 at 14:29

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