Snipers blow chunks in Helldivers 2, and here's why.
The Diligence does a pathetic 165 damage and basically isn't worth using, especially since it can't penetrate armor. It probably is similar to a 5.56 rifle which means it should be medium armor penetrating at least. It's literally outperformed by almost every other weapon in the game for either penetration, damage, or both.
The Diligence Counter Sniper does 200 damage, which is OK, but still pathetic. Penetrates medium armor, but is embarrassed by the fact that the Senator does the same 200 damage and penetrates heavy armor. I've got a news flash for Helldivers devs - there is no universe where a revolver does more penetration than a fucking sniper rifle. The Counter Sniper is probably a .50 BMG rifle or similar, and if I shoot a Charger or Hulk in the face, it should immediately sit right down on its ass. The Senator, since it fires a slower round, should be the one doing medium penetration.
The Eruptor is pay-to-win, since it's the only usable sniper rifle in the game, but it's crippled by short range(the round explodes after a short distance) - so why bother putting a sniper scope on it at all? It's the only rifle capable of clearing out medium bugs just fine, but not due to precise sniper shots - due to exploding rounds. The rounds bounce off Bile Titans unless you hit them juuuust right - but it can one-shot a Factory Strider from beneath(as it should). It's utterly incapable of damaging a Charger at all, unless for some reason the Charger is heading away from you.
Here's how sniper rifles should work: the recoil should be horrendous unless you're prone. The Diligence should penetrate medium armor. The Counter Sniper should penetrate heavy armor. The Eruptor should penetrate heavy armor, stun, and clear the surrounding area with the explosion. There is very little, if any, armor that we know of that can stop a .50 BMG, so there's basically no bug or bot that should be able to take Counter Sniper rounds or greater and keep walking.
Sniper rifles are meant to be slow firing, high damage weapons that reward precision, and penetrate effortlessly. I should be able to find a spot, see a long distance with the scope and ping for my team, and land shots in critical hit points at range and bring large enemies to their knees while my team is working on crowd control. Unfortunately, most of the sniper rifles in this game are fucking useless, because the devs feel like you're supposed to bring a rocket launcher instead of a precision rifle.
Signed, the teammate who wants to play as a sniper, but can't, because there are no good long range rifles in the game.
I also posted this rant to Steam Community if you want to discuss there.
yeah tbh I think OP's playing the wrong game if they're looking for a sniping experience. Sniping usually involves staying a long ways away from the action, HD2 has enemies constantly spawning on or very near your position. The only way to effectively snipe when that happens is to get really really good at repositioning to higher ground really quickly, and sometimes that isn't really an option, jump pack be damned, depending on map conditions. In fact frequently, even if you are on higher ground where bugs shouldn't be able to get to you, they will often phase upwards through the terrain to reach you.
On bots, sure, they can engage from longer distances, but the same problem applies -- they drop in pretty close, making whatever advantage you have from distance, disappear.
Yeah, with the spawn distances and the amount of enemies, there's very little space for a true sniping experience. Plus with the destructible environment, high ground is very rarely guaranteed. Plus, the camera shake mechanics aren't the most conducive to sniping. I do think that if OP wants a more sniper-ey experience, they're in their right to request it since it's a PvE game and the most important thing is to have fun. Maybe they could introduce some more variety into the sniper lineup, like different types of rounds. Or maybe a new planet that's got lots of close spaced high ground where staying at ground level means you get boxed in by enemies
Shit, I hope we get programmable ammo for the AMR. Being able to select explosive rounds vs heavy penetrating rounds vs EMP/stun rounds would be rad.