I: Basic boring snipering
I: Becoming a sniper
The first step to becoming a sniper is obviosely pressing "2" at the class select screen. You start out with a zoom sniper rifle, an autorifle,a useless piece of garbage called a nailgun, and the trusty old crowbar. As a sniper, you want to be the first out and in your spot so you can suprise your opponents. It is alot more useful to be in your spot with you gun trained on your opponents, than climbing a ladder while they take pop shots at you. It is your own characteristic if you want to help your teammates or shoot as many people as possible. Finding a spot a usally pretty easy. It is usually suicide to use the sniper nest, so you must find your own spot. A dark corner, ontop of a building, peaking over a hill, or just an all around obscure place. Once you find a place, the next thing you should do is find another one. You should displace as much as possible. If someone gets of bead on you and you off them they are going to be looking for revenge, so high tail it to another spot and off them again.
Most of the time you will be a defensive weapon. You sit, and make sure that your team mates get across the bridge without getting sniped and you make sure that no bad guys get across. If you don't have patience you might as well quit sniping now. You will have to wait sometimes for a while to get action. But when it comes you better be ready. Everyone but you hates a sniper. Even your own team mates get mad when you shine the dot on them to find a spy. If you keep sniping someone over and over they will make one goal, and one alone: kill you. To this point you must be alert. Turn your volume up so you can hear grenades. Your other job is to warn your teammates of incoming bad guys. If a scout gets past you tell your teammates "Scout coming in front of base".
Aiming is very important if you are a sniper. Set your mouse sensitivity to where you feel comfortable. In teamfortress the bullet goes where the red dot is. Try and anticipate your opponents next move. If he is going in a certain pattern than chances are he won't stop. It hard to do at first but you will get the hang of it. Those are the basics for being a sniper. Oh and one more thing. Don't ever whine about ping. Do what you have to do, and get it done without wining.
II: Advanced Tactics
The first thing you must know when you learn the basics, is HIDE YOUR LITTLE RED DOT. It is a dead give away that you are there, and most of the time where you are. Whatever level you play on, always hide your dot. The element of suprise is powerful, and believe me when you don't see a red dot, and you get shot, it's annoying. One shot one kill is my way. I like to sit and charge up that bullet until it good kill a HW in one shot. It makes me laugh when I'm sniping people and all the sudden a red dot shoots me and I don't die. Always charge your bullet, it works better trust me.
Bullet placement is also a tricky yet useful thing. If a big fat HW guy is trotting across a bridge, go for a head shot. If a scout is jumping around like rabbit, shoot him in the leg, your teammates will appreciate it.
You are sentry guns worst nightmare. If your team is having trouble with a sentry, take it out. Odds are, if you get the right angle and are far enough away you can shoot. Have a HW guy cover you while you get a bead on it, charge your gun, then bam. It be dead. Everyone will love you. Engineers will hate you. If you are on blue, and another blue person is running in your base from the red base, shoot him. No questions asked, just shoot him. If he is a spy, he will die, if he is really blue, he will just lose armor. You not going to make any friends this way, but you'll ruin a couple of spys day.
The enemies sniper nest is your friend. If you can reach an enemy sniper nest without being noticed, you are on your way to wreak some serious havoc. As soon as the enemy comes out, shoot them. They'll think you shot them from somewhere else most of the time. It's quite amusing to look on as soldier blasts his rockets off into your teams sniper nest just as your shooting him. They'll figure it out sometime, but by then you will have racked up some serious kills.
III: Tricky tricks are for snipers
Let the soldiers have there rocket jumping. Let the demoman have his detpack. We snipers can launch our teammates greater distances than any of these can do. This has to be the coolest trick for snipers I have found out. What you do for this trick to work is: you must a teammate on a tower ledge or upward sloping hill. Charge you bullet up pretty far and then shoot them right in the head. They will flying for a very great distance. You can lauch snipers onto enemy roofs for sniping. You can lauch engineers onto enemy roofs for sentry builing. You can even give a HW guy a faster way to the battle. This trick is class sensitive though. For example: a scout will fly very far, but a HW guy will go about half as far. This can be very useful for getting the flag also.
Are you having problems with a ultra-accurate, super sniper? I have the answer right here. Don't be a sniper. Be a spy, HW guy, or medic. It is very fun to throw a hallucination grenade up in the sniper nest, or maybe even a mirv. But by far the most rewarding, is poisoning a sniper. Get in his nest and give him a little bit poison while he is aiming. If you keep doing this to a sniper his usefulness will become non-existent. He will get mad and switch classes. This is when you should change back to being a sniper. After you snipe him once or twice though, he will become a sniper again, and the cycle is repeated.
IV: Level specific tricks
2fort- the basic level for all team fortress combat. In this level you can launch people from the waist high ledge directly to the left or right of the sniper nest in the battlements. Remember to charge your bullet and shoot them in the head. In this level, there is curious spot to hide you dot if you are on blue team. Stick your red dot in that red skulls eye and nobody knows it is there. Watch out for shadow snipers in the first level and those water soldiers who wade and launch rockets out at you in the pond.
Citadel- this is one of those levels where it cool to be in the enemy sniper nest. Get on the enemies roof, and shadow snipe. Wait till someone comes out the door, then shoot them. There is a not very effective but sometimes suprising sniper spot, right above the symbol in the entrance to each base. If you snipe from here you are easily seen though. You can also shadow snipe in the darkness while entering your capture point.
Enemy Lines- this in my opinion is a snipers heaven. I have learned to snipe here so good. I know all the best spots, and this is where I learned how to launch people. Have someone go half way up the hill on your side, then launch them. They will fly all the way up ontop of the enemies sniper nest. This is a great sniper and sentry spot. Do it someone by suprise and see their reaction. A great sniper spot in this level is somewhat obvious. Ontop of the hill in between the barb wire, to the extrem right or left. Bend down and start sniping. For some reason nobody notices you rack up kills.
V: Credits yada yada
Author: Cledus
I hope this guild has helped you become a better sniper. And a smarter one.
Cledus's guide to becoming a successful sniper
II: Moving up/ advanced tactics
III: Tricks and other assorted annoyances
IV: Level specific tricks
V: credits
Thanks to: All snipers I played against, Gridlock and his cool sniper site and Team Fortress in general.
I don't care if you post this guild anywhere else as long as it is shown that I am the author, and has the website
www.planetfortress.com/nest somewhere on it.