New sniper rifle weapon and gear suggestions

[cyborgk]

Hello everyone, I have noticed the quite significant lesser amount of non-weapon locker (from salvage, contacts, and story) sniper rifles compared to pistols, shotguns, etc... and was thought they deserved to get some love too. Basically, in their current state, snipers are a much worse weapon compared to machine guns. In addition to having nearly less than half the weapon variety, a 15 INT machine gun, the Titan HG, with better accuracy (14 vs 13 from a dragon sniper), can hit for up to 170 dmg, while the highest base damage a sniper can output is 124 at 18 INT. Also, a machine gun has a slight range and speed advantage, as some sniper talents can only be used a range 4 and require stealth mode to use. Combined with limited jobs for snipers, it's a very niche and hard to play role which could be made much more viable with these new weapons.

These would be middle to end game weapons, I have the following six rifle suggestions:

XK1 Thunder
Initiative cost: 18
Damage: 75-130
Accuracy: 10
Pierce: 110%
Parry: 0
Source: Contacts, level 7
Special: Only available from Rychart contacts
 
XT2 Swift
Initiative cost: 13
Damage: 85-105
Accuracy: 14
Pierce: 85%
Parry: 5
Source: Contacts, level 8
Special: Only available from Alta Mesa contacts

XT3 Enforcer
Initiative cost: 18
Damage: 85-140
Accuracy: 16
Pierce: 120%
Parry: 0
Source: Contacts, level 9
Special: Only available from Cadar contacts

Mensin Stream
Initiative cost: 16
Damage: 75-120
Accuracy: 15
Pierce: 105%
Parry: 0
Source: Contacts, level 8
Special: Only available from De Valtos contacts, +5 stealth dodge

Mensin Striker
Initiative cost: 17
Damage: 85-135
Accuracy: 16
Pierce: 115%
Parry: 2
Source: Contacts, level 9
Special: Only available from De Valtos contacts, +3 stealth dodge

Orion TXM Annihilator
Initiative cost: 20
Damage: 90-170
Accuracy: 17
Pierce: 130%
Parry: 0
Source: Story/Contacts, level 11/level 9 (if there is a room for a story weapon)
Special: (If not a story weapon, only available from Steel Song contacts) -4 stealth dodge


To supplement these new weapons, I suggest adding additional sniper focused gear:

Depleted Ammo
Rare Military Salvage Gear
Type: Offensive Mod
Cost: $95.0k
Level: 7
Bonus: +25 Bio-Poison damage, +3 initiative, -10% resistance to debuffs 

Vitaline Targeter
Rare Military Salvage Gear
Type: Personal Enhancer 
Cost: $110.0k
Level: 8
Bonus: +20% ranged damage, critical, and armor piercing

Melios Matrix
Rare Military Salvage Gear
Type: Personal Enhancer
Cost: $105.0k
Level: 8
Bonus: +6 stealth dodge, +15% armor and accuracy, +2 quickness

Delton Silencer 
Rare Military Salvage Gear
Type: Offensive Mod
Cost: $90.0k
Level: 7
Bonus: +40% ranged accuracy, +10% critical, +3 initiative 
 
As always let me know if I missed anything or have any questions/feedback!

Thanks for reading!

-CyK
       

[fallen]

If it helps, you can check all of the salvagable gear on the wiki:
startraders.gamepedia.com/Weapons

Cool additional ideas! I've taken a note in our new gear area of the backlog to check this thread again.

[cyborgk]

Sorry, when you say new gear, does that include new sniper weapons, or are they not a focus at this time?

Thanks

[fallen]

When I say gear I mean weapons, armor, gear.

[cyborgk]

Ah, thank you for clarifying!