Mordecai is the only character in the game with skills dedicated to Sniper Rifles, so it comes as no surprise that he has a class mod dedicated to their use. This is one of his best DPS builds and my personal favorite build in the game. It boasts increases to sniper rifle critical hit damage, and most of mordecai’s sniper rifle related skills, and a possible buff to sniper rifle accuracy or sniper rifle ammo regen.
Pros:
-Boom! Headshot: Sniper Rifles can deal the highest damage per shot of any weapon in the game via critical hits.
-Sniper Rifles are the most accurate weapons (while ADS) in the game.
-Critical DPS: The combination of accuracy, critical hit damage, and fire rate of semi-auto sniper rifles yields extreme lethality at any range.
Cons:
-Some enemies have no critical hit zones, and as such cannot be crit; greatly lowering damage potential of sniper rifles against them.
-Sniper Rifles have a penalty to their hipfire accuracy which makes them only decently accurate from the hip.
-Most sniper rifles are mediocre elemental weapons, and the few exceptions do not include a corrosive sniper rifle. This makes armored enemies a bit harder to deal with than would otherwise be the case.
The build:
I will give two builds, the first is a fairly standard Sniper build with significant Bloodwing support. The 2nd version is my personal favorite build; a pure DPS build that eschews bloodwing support in favor of maximum DPS, and can freely swap between Sniper and Gunslinger coms.
Standard Sniper:
http://talent.87bazillion.com/hunter.php?550555553555555000000
The why:
Sniper Tree: 30 points
-Focus: Buffed by the com and improves accuracy and reduces sway.
-Caliber: Sniper Damage. Also buffed by com. Must have.
-Killer: On-kill weapon damage and reload speed, very good skill.
-Loaded: Sniper Rifle magazine size, of course we want that.
-Carrion Call: Buffed by the com, reduces Bloodwing’s cooldown whenever we score a hit with a sniper rifle (crit or not). Also buffed by the com, a few shots is enough to get bloodwing back from full cooldown, and it works while he’s out doing his thing. This means constant bird spam!
-Trespass: This will help with getting 1-shot kills with crits, and overall tends to do more good than harm for sniping. Bypassing shields and the small bit of bullet damage are nice, but DoT does not benefit from shield bypass and shielded enemies cannot be made to flinch.
Rogue Tree: 33 points
-Swift Strike: More bloodwing damage, why not?
-Swipe (3/5): These points could go in a number of places. This gives more ammo/health/money drops, alternatives include going 3/5 in Out for Blood and maxing this, or moving these points into Lethal Strike for the powerful melee attacks (or maybe both).
-Fast Hands: Nice reload speed buff, Sniper already get a hidden reload speed buff from proficiency, tied to the fire rate buff, but it’s 1/3 as potent, and so maxes at just +34%, less than every other weapon type gets, hence reload speed buffs are especially valuable to sniper rifles.
-Out for Blood: Bloodwing will heal us for a % of the total damage he has done when he returns to us, this is where we get out health sustain from. Even at 3/5 this is frequently enough to fully heal us, so it might make sense to put the 5/5 elsewhere.
-Aerial Impact: Daze can really help alleviate frustrations due to enemies messing up your aim by hitting you, in addition to significantly lower the danger of problem enemies. So it’s nice to have, and this where we get it.
-Ransack: On-kill chance to drop loot. This loot comes from a unique loot pool with a high average quality, but a decently high chance of a ‘blank roll’, where nothing drops. More loot? Why not?
-Bird of Prey: With the heavy bloodwing investment, this skill is a no-brainer. The more times bloodwing can attack, the more everything he will do for us.
Gunslinger Tree: 5 points
-Deadly: Might as well get a little bit more damage out of our critical hits (this effect is additive with our other critical hit buffs, hence is really just another drop in the bucket.
Full DPS Mord:
http://talent.87bazillion.com/hunter.php?550555550500535500055
Sniper Tree: Same as with standard build.
Rogue Tree: 18 points
*Now only Swift strike, Fast Hands, Ransack, and 3/5 Bird of Prey (or 3/5 Out for Blood as an alternative)
Gunslinger Tree: 20 points
-Deadly: More crit damage is always welcome.
-Gun Crazy: For when we swap to Gunslinger and pistol it up.
-Hair Trigger: Also for when we swap to Gunslinger.
-Relentless: This actually works for all our guns, and the Killer Shot effect works for all our bullets, including our sniper rifles, and since the Killer Shot effect is bullet damage, it significantly increases the damage of some of our shots. This is an on-kill skill.
Gear:
Shield:
As Mordecai has no specific synergy with specific shields, user preference is the primary determinant of shield choice. However, given the Sniper build’s tendency to prefer fighting at range rather than up close. Short recharge delay shields are often desirable, and hence an Anshin ANS2-550AWE Alacritous Ambush shield is one of the best choices for this build (the delay is less than 3 seconds). A Torgue Alacritous Muscleman shield can be a good alternative as the increased maximum health synergizes well with Bloodwing’s significant healing which scales with his damage done.
Grenade Mod:
Again user preference prevails, though at typical sniping ranges, I find Longbow to be the most useful, but against enemies that will bum-rush you, preemptively placing a Proxy minefield can also work well.
Weapons:
Ahh Sniper Rifles…such wonderful precision killing tools, but just what sort of Sniper Rifles are available to us? There a few Sniper Rifles are so good at their jobs that they deserve specific mention.
-Hyperion purple PPZ semi-auto snipers with barrel5: These are, imo, the best general purpose sniper rifles in the entire game (there’s a reason the perfect parts version of one of these is my personal holy grail). They are the only semi-auto snipers that exceed 98.0 accuracy, with mat3 versions being 98.5 or 98.6 with the accuracy accessory. This means they are accurate enough to be able to reliably crit anything at any typical range of engagement, this also means they have reasonably good hipfire accuracy, which is a nice bonus. They have good damage per shot, though not the highest, even among semi-auto snipers, and good fire rate (again not the highest). They are also very stable and hence easy to control even when fired fairly rapidly, which makes spamming critical hits easy, and results in very high effective DPS against anything that can be crit with reasonable ease.
-Volcano: Maliwan’s legendary sniper rifle is the penultimate incendiary sniper rifle in the game, a repeating sniper with above par fire rate and no damage penalty for being elemental. The legendary part is a supercharged version of the regular incendiary accessory for sniper rifles which always procs, and can have a large blast radius if enough tech is available when the weapon is fired. This makes it a far better DoT stacker than any other incendiary sniper rifle in the game, and in fact, it is the best DoT stacking sniper rifle in any element, and is thus very useful against enemies that are more easily killed with DoT than with impact damage, especially if said enemy is also difficult or impossible to crit.
-Cobra: Torgue’s legendary sniper is, to explosive semi-auto snipers, what the Volcano is to incendiary repeating snipers. It is a superior explosive sniper rifle in almost every respect. It doesn’t have the damage penalty for being elemental, and always procs. It’s one downside is the significantly reduced fire rate (about half what it would otherwise be for PPZ versions, a bit less severe for LB versions).
-Orion: S&S’s legendary sniper rifle is a superior semi-auto shock sniper, it features a further increased magazine size (16-18 depending on materials), no damage penalty for being elemental, and the shots always proc. But the most interesting feature of the weapon is the ricochet mechanic: The first time your shot strikes a surface it will split into 3 or 4 (4 if proc was x4) new bullets that while reflect of the surface hit a different angles, and still do full damage. With practice, this can be used to hit the same enemy with multiple bullets with each shot (though it is hard to get critical hits this way). This is most useful against enemies that are hard to crit, and also greatly improves DoT stacking potential as each bullet counts toward building and maintaining the DoT stack. As a result, the Orion is perhaps the single best Craw Maggot killer in the entire game (only the Nemesis can really give it a run for it’s money).
-Bessie: Jakob’s pearlescent sniper rifle is the ultimate one-shot, one-kill sniper rifle. It has a +300% player critical hit bonus in addition to the typical +200% weapon critical hit damage bonus that repeating snipers have, which explains the +500% critical hit damage on the gun card. It has a perfect 100.0 accuracy when fired while ADS, hence unlike with most other snipers, barrel4 is preferred. It can do the most damage in a single critical hit of any sniper rifle in the game with a guncard damage of 1913 for a level 68 barrel DVL with 3-shot mag and damage accessory, this in addition to the extra player critical hit bonus. It also has increase bullet velocity, making long range shooting against moving targets easier. It is otherwise a fairly typical Jakobs ZZ sniper rifle with high accuracy, low fire rate, it always has a unique version of scope4 (2.4x zoom), which is exclusive to the Bessie, and responsible for its unique characteristics.
Other legendary sniper rifles:
-Cyclops: Atlas’ legendary repeating sniper rifle has a special version of scope5 which gives the highest zoom in the game and increases projectile velocity. Provided you manage to obtain a barrel5 version, this weapon can be a pretty good sharp shooting tool, though it is outclassed by the Bessie in this role, but unlike the Bessie, can be elemental. It is otherwise a typical Atlas sniper rifle.
-Penetrator: Dahl’s legendary semi-auto sniper rifle will appear green, blue, or purple in rarity instead of orange because the legendary part, a special version of barrel1, does not actually increase the weapon’s rarity as it should. It can be identified by the Penetrator title, and it’s above par fire rate. It is fully automatic, meaning you need only hold down the trigger and weapon will fire as fast it can, this coupled with its high fire rate (and the +102% fire rate buff from sniper rifle proficiency) make the Penetrator a critical DPS machine, but it is also very ammo hungry as a result. It has an increased magazine size (+3) over other Dahl sniper rifles, bringing the mag size to 8 or 10 (with mag5). Because the barrel is the legendary part, the Penetrator has mediocre accuracy, either 94.3 or 95.4 (with accuracy accessory), which makes it ineffective at long range and makes it’s hipfire poor outside of close quarters.
-Invader: Also known as the Hyperion Executioner, is their legendary semi-auto sniper rifle. It has greatly reduced damage per shot, but fires rapid 5-round bursts while ADS. As a result it can be a very ammo hungry weapon. It is extremely stable during its bursts which makes it easy to land perfect 5/5 critical hit bursts. The legendary part is a special version of mag5, which always has a capacity of 15 rounds. It’s fire rate during bursts is comparable to a Dahl Penetrator, hence the Invader has reasonably high critical DPS.
-Skullmasher: Jakobs legendary repeating sniper rifle is essentially a sniper rifle version of a Masher revolver. It fires 6 projectiles with each shot, but has reduced damage per projectile, though total damage is still higher than it would otherwise be. The legendary part is a special version of barrel4, which has lower accuracy to compensate for the increased damage potential. This weapon’s interaction with Carrion Call is noteworthy, as each pellet counts as a hit with a sniper rifle. Therefore a single well-placed shot can immediately bring bloodwing off cooldown (6-hits with com buffed Carrion Call>28 seconds off cooldown) and make him available to use again immediately. As a result of the reduced accuracy, this weapon has quite poor hipfire accuracy, and hence should only be used ADS except at point blank range.
-Surkov: Vladof’s legendary repeating sniper rifle has a special version of barrel2. As a result it’s accuracy is rather poor, however, it has massively increased fire rate, rivaling LB (body2) semi-auto snipers, with the higher damage per shot of a repeating sniper rifle. It is also quite controllable, particularly with a good stock, and thus can take good advantage of its high fire rate.
There are a few unique sniper rifles that are worth a brief mention:
-Kyros’ Power: Dropped by Kyros, this unique Atlas sniper rifle is like the Cobra’s repeating cousin, it features slightly increased damage instead of usual penalty for being elemental, but is otherwise a typical explosive Atlas sniper rifle. Kyros does not respawn after the relevant quest is completed, hence in order to farm him for one with good parts, you must not complete that quest.
-Reaver’s Edge: Dropped by Reaver, this Dahl sniper has a special scope with higher zoom than even scope5 (but still less than Cyclops), that also grants +2 magazine size. It also has it’s own materials, which adjust some of the handling characteristics slightly. It can spawn with the Penetrator barrel, leading to the rare Reaver’s Edge Penetrator, which can have a maximum magazine size of 12, though the high scope zoom is a major liability on a Penetrator.
-Whitting’s Elephant Gun: Given as a quest reward from killing Skagzilla by Whitting, it also has a chance of being dropped by Skagzilla in PT2.5. It has no scope, which is also the unique legendary part. It grants significantly increased damage, and a modest buff to fire rate. The gun also has its own materials, which are similar to Jakobs ZZ (mat2), and hence it is quite accurate at 98.3 (98.5 with accuracy accessory). Most of it’s parts are fixed, but the body and accessory are not. A level 68 DVL example with the damage accessory has the highest gun card damage of any non-rocket launcher weapon in the game at 2003, beating out even the Bessie. Because of not having a scope, judging exactly where your shot will go while ADS can be difficult due to (visual) sight drift.
Regular purple sniper rifles come in two main types: repeating and semi-auto.
-Repeating Sniper Rifles:
Repeating snipers are pump action manufactured by Atlas, Jakobs, Maliwan, and Vladof; and have a revolver-style cylindrical magazine of 3 or 6 shots. They have much lower fire rates than semi-auto snipers, but higher damage per shot (roughly 20-50% more, depending on body) and a bit higher weapon critical hit damage bonus (+200% except for low accuracy Gamble title examples which have +250%). The best parts are either barrel4 or barrel5, the latter usually being preferable due to the importance of accuracy over the bit more damage of the former. An accessory should be present; this is always the case for an elemental example. For non-elemental examples there are three accessories, a damage accessory, an accuracy accessory, and a reload speed accessory, typically the damage accessory is preferred, but all three have benefits over the others. Stock5 is the ideal stock, and scope choice is entirely depend on user preference unless it is elemental, where scope3 (TV scope) is ideal for the tech bonus. All three bodies have their merits, GGN is the most common and provides balanced stats, VRR is lower damage, faster firing and has a tech bonus, and DVL is slower firing with higher damage (this is typically prefered for one-shot, one-kill style sniping). The 3-shot mag gives highest damage, and the 6-shot mag with markings on the cylinder is superior to the other 6-shot mag (without markings), these can be identified by the numbers in the name of the weapon, a ‘5’ or ‘9’ in the second # place indicates the better 6-shot or 3-shot mag respectively, note that “50” is stock 5 with inferior 6-shot mag, “5” is stock1 with better mag.
-Semi-auto Sniper Rifles:
These are box magazine fed sniper rifles with lower damage per shot but higher fire rates than their repeating counterparts. They are manufactured by Dahl, Hyperion, S&S, and Torgue. PPZ body is always preferable as it gives nearly double the fire rate for no significant change in damage per shot. As with repeating snipers, barrel4 and barrel5 are best, with the latter giving better accuracy and hence usually being preferred. Mag5 is always preferred and gives 7-shots with S&S versions having mag5 automatically and 9 or 10 shots instead (10 if mat3). An accessory should be present (always is for elemental examples), there are fire rate, damage, and accuracy buffing accessories for non-elemental examples, with damage typically preferred, though all 3 have their merits. Stock5 is again ideal, and the scope situation is the same as with repeating snipers.
Mat2 or mat3?:
The mat2 version of the Sniper com boasts an impressive +72% Sniper Rifles Accuracy bonus. This bonus seems to effect hipfire accuracy much more significantly than ADS accuracy (probably due to the penalty to the former that sniper rifles have). The mat3 version has +23 Sniper Rifle Ammo Regeneration, which is especially handy for the Penetrator and Invader. So long as you are not running into ammo issues, the mat2 version is preferable. The ideal skill to have +4 in is Caliber, as Focus’s effect is very minor, and even at 8/5 Carrion Call is honestly already at overkill status.
Gameplay tips and other information:
This build depends very much on your mechanical FPS skills, as much of its power is derived from scoring critical hits. As such, it can be challenging to play at times, but also very rewarding when played well. Enemies hitting you can disrupt your aim, which can be extremely frustrating when sniping, Bloodwing’s Daze via Aerial Impact, and keeping your enemies at a distance can both help to alleviate these frustrations, though Sniper Rifles, especially the semi-auto examples are still plenty effective even in close quarters.
Given the emphasis of this build on critical hits, it’s worth explaining how critical hit damage is calculated in BL1. Once all buffs that would apply to a non-critical hit are accounted for, we have a Damage subtotal which we will call Hit Damage. This value is then multiplied but the Final Critical Hit Multiplier to determine how much damage a Critical Hit will do. To compute the Final Critical Hit Multiplier, three variables are used: Zone Critical Hit Damage, Player Critical Hit Damage, and Weapon Critical Hit Damage. The first is determined by the enemy being hit, and where on that enemy you are hitting, this number varies substantially from enemy to enemy; eg. bandits have a value of 150%, skags 300%, crabworms have 2900% for their respective critical hit zones. The second is used by a couple skills (Mordercai’s Deadly and Lilith’s Slayer), and also for Bessie’s special bonus (and probably a few other special weapons that haven’t been carefully tested). Weapon Critical Hit Bonuses are present on certain weapons, Repeating snipers have a +200% bonus, except for those with the Gamble title which have +250% instead, and semi-auto sniper have a +180% bonus. Effects of coms which buff Critical Hit Damage actually amplify the Weapon Critical Hit Damage. Hence the Sniper com’s +100% Sniper Rifle Critical Hit Damage effect doubles the Weapon Critical Hit Damage of your Sniper Rifles, bringing repeaters to +400%, Gambles to +500%, and Semi-autos to +360%. To get the Final Critical Hit Multiplier, we add Zone, Player, and Weapon bonuses together and add 1 (100% for the Hit Damage itself). In symbols, if we lets H=Hit Damage, Z=Zone bonus, P=player bonus, W=weapon bonus, and M=com multiplier to weapon bonus, the Final Damage, F, is:
F=H*(1+Z+P+W*(1+M))
The max stat Bessie mentioned above, with the full DPS Mord build with on-kills active scoring a critical hit with a Killer Shot proc from Relentless with 50 sniper prof, and ideal sniper com, will have:
+124% Weapon Damage
+105% Bullet Damage
+???% Zone Critical Hit Bonus (depends on enemy)
+375% Player Critical Hit Bonus (300% from Bessie’s special, 75% from Deadly; its tooltip lies)
+400% Weapon Critical Hit Bonus (200%(1+100%)=400%, due to Sniper com)
With 1913 gun card damage, this works out to:
Hit Damage=1913(1+124%)(1+105%)=8784.496
Critical Hit Multiplier=Z+8.75
Final Damage=76,864.34+8784.496Z
For Bandit: 90,044.084
For Skag: 103,217.828
For Crabworm: 331,614.724
Note that the displayed damage cap is 99,999. (!)