Quick Scoping/Sniping

Difficulty:

Practicability:

Description
Quick Scoping, also known as Quick Sniping/Zooming/Shooting/etc., is an advanced technique used only for sniper units with scopes (only paper units have scopes). When units shoot their long-range weaponry outside of scope mode, there is a short delay before the ammunition is fired. Also, when one fires ballistic ammunition outside of scope, the bullet takes time to travel to the enemy as well, giving enemies a short moment to dodge it. Quick Scoping gets rid of such delays and also bypasses the delay encountered before firing as soon as when one enters their scope mode.

This technique is most useful and effective for units with an innate skill known as Precision Shooting (as translated in SDGO NA) or also known as Sniper Precision. One may also attach an external skill called Sniper's Manual (aka Sniper Precision) through accessing their factory after purchasing it in the shop or by obtaining it through random mission item drops. The combination of this skill with one's scoped shot allows critical hits at any given time when an opponent is hit. When an opponent is shot with the skills activated in scope mode from either the front or the sides, a blue critical hit marker activates (dealing 150% damage), as shown in the image to the right. When an opponent is shot from the back utilizing both its skill and scope, a red critical hit marker activates (dealing 200% damage).

The video to the left will demonstrate how useful and effective Quick Scoping can be in PVP.

Method
Just before explaining the method, it is worth mentioning that you may prefer to swap the default auto lock-on button (right mouse button) with the scope zoom-in button (shift button). This places the new auto lock-on button, the shift button, right below your left pinky finger, making it easily accessible, while zooming in will be much more convenient with it being the right mouse button (RMB). I personally use this method and have found it to be much easier to perform Quick Scoping with.

The steps to perform this technique goes as follows:

(1) Make sure you are on your scope-weaponry (usually W3) and lock-on to your enemy using your RMB (or Shift) button.

(2) Press space (to jump) and immediately release as soon as it has been pressed. The units will only do a small hop and will not use their booster.

(3) As soon as the unit reaches its highest hopping point and is about to come back down from that small hop, zoom-in quickly (shift or RMB button) and fire right away (left mouse button).

(4) After shooting, press the zoom-in button again (shift or RMB button) to exit scope mode.

In summary:

(1) Default Control Configuration: W3 → RMB → Space → Shift → Left Mouse Button (LMB) → Shift

(2) Adjusted Control Configuration (as mentioned above): W3 → Shift → Space → RMB → LMB → RMB

Note: Not all units will have the same Quick Scoping reaction as another. For example, it will be much easier and faster to Quick Scope with Duel Gundam Assault Shroud (AR Rank) compared to Launcher Strike Gundam (AS Rank). This is due to the shorter animation a unit requires to position their gun to shoot. Thus, it is advised that you try each unit in practice mode before going to battle if you are expecting the same result with all the scope-weapon units.

Quick Scope Combo
This is a more advanced skill you will be able to perform once you are feeling very comfortable performing Quick Scoping as a stand-alone technique.

Most paper units with scope will have a 3-hit melee combo. There are some exceptions, such as Super Gundam, who has a 1-hit tackle melee. Such units cannot use this combo.

The combo consists of hitting the opponent 2 times with melee first. Then, instead of knocking them down with the last (3rd) melee hit, it is substituted for a Quick Scope shot. In other words, Melee → Melee → Quick Scope Shot. This will allow for a critical hit finish, dealing massive damage to enemies.

Refer to the PVP demonstration video above at time 1:11 or at 2:38.

Ballistics vs Beams
To be quite frank, Quick Scoping with ballistic ammunition (such as Railguns and Shell Bullets) is more advantageous in battle compared to beam ammunition. The greatest advantage ballistic weapons hold is the ability to deal splash damage. In other words, even if the ballistic ammunition hits right beside an enemy (but not directly), the splash will damage the enemy and knock them down (with the exception of some units who require a double knock down, such as Perfect Zeong). Beam ammunition cannot do this: it's either a hit or miss. Ballistic ammunition's splash can also penetrate very thin walls an enemy is hiding behind and damage them.

Other than the splash advantage ballistic ammunition holds over beam ammunition, they are both the same. Just remember that ballistic ammunition is weakened by the skills Trans-Phase Armor & IFBD and beam weaponry is weakened by skills I-Field, Mini I-Field, Laminate Armor, & IFBD.

Agility: does it make you Quick Scope faster?
The answer to this question is no. Agility reduces the delay between melee attacks or shots, as well as reducing the time required to initiate a unit's booster. Since Quick Scoping does not require a full initiation of a boost, but a small hop only before the booster, agility has no effect on the time it takes to hop.

Unfortunately, agility does not speed up the animation for readying a unit's gun/sniper to scope mode either.

Due to these reasons, agility stats do not speed up a unit's Quick Scope potentials. However, bear in mind that as a Quick Scope user, it may be wise to add in some agility points to make your unit a little hastier (for faster booster initiation) to dodge and counter incoming units attempting to melee you.

Hand-held Snipers vs Shoulder-Mounted Snipers
Examples of units with a Hand-Held Sniper are Dynames, Launcher Strike Gundam, Super Gundam, M1A Astray, Zaku II (Magella Cannon), etc.

Examples of unit with a Shoulder-Mounted Sniper are Duel Gundam Assault Shroud, Gundam Throne Eins, Xamel, Zaku Cannon, etc.

Which is better? In most cases, shoulder-mounted snipers have a faster Quick Scoping potential compared to hand-held snipers due to the shorter animation required to ready the gun for firing. However, this has been proved otherwise by some units such as M1A Astray, Hizack Custom, Dynames, Zaku II (Magella Cannon) and several more units; they have the exact same Quick Scoping speed as shoulder-mounted snipers. It is advised to test the unit you would like to Quick Scope with since some units, such as Super Gundam, are very bad at Quick Scoping.

However, the biggest difference between Hand-Held and Shoulder-Mounted is that shoulder-mounted snipers have more leverage around small walls and when shooting down from a cliff. Refer to the video to the side.

Hand-held snipers hold their guns at around their chest to waist level, meaning their shots can be blocked by the edge of the ground when shooting downwards, such as from on top of buildings. On the other hand, Shoulder-Mounted Snipers can avoid such disturbances by shooting from a higher angle, which bypasses walls or grounds that could block the shot.

Thus, I recommend Shoulder-Mounted Snipers over Hand-Held Snipers due to its greater versatility in sniping from various positions and being more successful at it.

Recommended Quick Scope Units
Most of the units that have been mentioned previously in this guide are good Quick Scope units. An exceptional unit is Duel Gundam Assault Shroud (AR Rank) for several reasons: (1) Great defense and HP, in addition to the Skilled Sniper (aka. Veteran Sniper) skill, (2) A mix of beam and ballistic weaponry, (3) Shoulder-Mounted Railgun, allowing for a fast Quick Scope, and (4) Has Ranged Special, in which in most cases, is a lot more useful than Beam or Melee Special.

As of July 25th of 2012, within SDGO NA, some of the other decent or good Quick Scope units that are or were available to consider are: (1) Gundam Throne Eins (2) Xamel (3) Zaku Cannon (4) Zaku II (Magella Cannon) (5) M1A Astray (Space Type) (6) Calamity Gundam (AR Rank) (7) Dynames Gundam (8) Perfect Gundam (9) Full Armor Gundam.

Note: Some units, such as Super Gundam, have a very slow animation to ready its sniper for shooting. This makes it a bad unit to Quick Scope with as you won't be able to do so properly in the first place. Always check the unit if is it capable or not before attempting to Quick Scope in battle.

Final Note
Quick Scoping is definitely fun and challenging at the same time. Although it will feel refreshing to hit an enemy with Quick Scope, as a sniper, it is important to remember not to commit some of the most important taboos and watch out for common mistakes:

(1) Do not knock down an opponent your teammate is hitting with a melee combo (unless you know for sure the enemy is about to special attack your team back). However, do help out a teammate being melee attacked;

(2) Do not knock down an opponent being hit by a Beam Special (unless the special attack is about to end);

(3) Do not always blind snipe when your teammates are in the front lines near the enemies. They could be performing either #1 or #2 above;

(4) Do not Quick Scope an enemy charging at you with an active Skilled Infighter (aka. Veteran Infighter) skill. They will not get knocked down and will melee you to death immediately;

(5) Do not always rely on your Quick Scope nor stay in the back. Once this technique is mastered, it will be your greatest weapon (due to high damage and knock-down ailment), which will steer many new Quick Scope users to rely on it too much and only look for openings to Quick Scope enemies with. This only makes you deadly to enemies when each shot is ready. You want to be deadly and annoying to enemies all the time. It is up to you to find, with experience, a good balance between Quick Scoping, melee attacking, and using your Weapon 2.

(6) Most units have only one shot for their snipers. Use each shot wisely since a single miss can leave openings for your enemies to charge into and kill your unit.

(7) Practice, practice, practice! When you first start out, it may take you more than 200 to 300+ battles to really get comfortable with Quick Scoping. So, don't give up!