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.
As someone that almost exclusively uses snipers against bugs and bots alike, and plays bugs probably 90% of my time, I could not disagree more. This diligence is definitely not as punchy as the CS, but it's great for groups of chaff. The CS is amazing, and I'm consistently getting 500+ kills and out performing the rest of my 3 man team. With the way I play them, the eruptor and diligence are nearly interchangeable, and I get a ton of kills either way.
How? My loadout is a jump pack and either a commando, EAT, or quasar. My strategems are usually a 500 kg for emergencies when my AT is down and an orbital Gatling for helping manage big breaches. For reference, I only play on difficulty 8-10, depending on how casual my group is feeling on any day.
Step 1: Find bugs/objective
Step 2: Jump pack on top of a rock, or a building if one isn't available. Worst case scenario where you can't find solid high ground, use the jump pack often to reposition to a clear line of sight with plenty of time to stand and shoot.
Step 3: Use your sniper for its optimal use. Diligence? Closer range picking off hunters, scavs, and warriors. CS, the more powerful option imo, target warriors (one shot head), hunters (one shot head and body), and medium targets (hive guard and alpha commanders, both 3 shots head). This thing feels like the old breaker, but at range. It just destroys. If you're using the eruptor, shoot it into groups. Don't focus alpha commanders too much, let the shrapnel deal with them.
Step 4: Profit. Use your primary to deal with patrols before they can get close enough to breach, use your secondary revolver to kill alpha commanders and hive guards rapidly and while saving ammo, and use your anti tank to deal with any heavy threats ahead of time. Anything gets close enough to breach, drop a Gatling barrage on the breach use AT or 500 kgs to kill stray heavies.
I usually finish a mission with no deaths, and always with by far the most kills while running this loadout. Snipers cannot deal with all threats, but they're excellent at thinning out enemy groups with very high ammo efficiency.
And I'm not even mentioning bots. Against bots, all the snipers kick ASS. My CS is one shotting entire patrols of devastators from miles away, my eruptor clears patrols of all kinds easily, and the AT options are so much more consistent against bots. Bots are too easy with snipers. And definitely run the revolver for a low ammo pocket sniper that can deal with rapid hunter packs and charging alpha commander patrols alike.
TLDR: Snipers are really good, they're my main choice, and I'm out performing everyone else. If it's against bots, they're even more incredible.