My name is Yuxan, from the Absolum Guild and this is my experience with the Imperial Sniper Agent. On the program: background, type of game and specializations.
background
The imperial agent places you within the secret services of the empire where you are an agent called to evolve within the imperial hierarchy. Without revealing yourself more, know that the scenario of this class is particularly skillful and addicting.
The great dilemma
When you reach level 10, you have a particularly cruel choice between two completely different types of game that will define your entire gaming experience. You have the choice between two advanced classes (be careful, any choice will be final!). You can either:
- Go on the path of the secret agent where you will be a stealth fighter combining melee and blaster shooting with the possibility of specializing in the care of your playing partners.
- Specialize as a sniper to play a distance oriented role (and only dps) or official damage supplier.
Gameplay style
The Imperial Agent offers you a particularly innovative style of play with its cover system. Your affinity with this specificity will depend on your fun with this class. All the gameplay will consist in judiciously using this cover on which your main damage techniques depend. If you can't stand it, you'd better go your way.
Two types of cover coexist, the cover which makes you roll to take cover behind a natural shelter or the one which consists of placing you behind an energy barrier.
After the first hours of play, we realize that hedging can often be a brake because of curious latency and placements that can be unwise. We quickly find ourselves in the middle of an extra pack or with our backs to a Republican who will make short work of you ...
Once this is assimilated, the principle is to stay away from combat either via his partner who acts as a tank (Kaliyo at the start) or via his colleagues Cac or tank.
The melee should be avoided as much as possible to avoid the damage taken (intermediate armor, the damage is quickly substantial) and especially to keep its cover (and avoid ending up having to scamper like a rabbit if it falls).
Fortunately, you have various controls and bumps to get you out of this kind of situation.
Then a panel of spells is offered to you which will expand as the levels progress and if at the beginning, only techniques with a casting time (sniping and ambush) are your main sources of damage, will come then add pipelines and instant fire on special activation.
Be aware, however, that the class reveals its full potential in the last levels and the first 35 levels can seem long. Tell yourself that the end will be all the better, the last 15 levels will teach you new techniques which are an integral part of your cycle such as the series of shots, the continuity (an instant fire after an ambush or two sniping shots) or the strike. orbital (a rather devastating and even profitable multi-target technique in mono).
Specializations
At level 10, as soon as you choose your advanced class, you have access to three talent trees that change the way you approach the class and each have their own characteristics:
- Ranged shooting that will maximize single target damage and critical damage (static)
- Engineering that will especially maximize the multi-target potential via grenades and probes (quite mobile)
- Fatality which is damage-oriented over time, (+ mobile).
Of course, it is quite possible to mix the different trees for specific needs, for fun or for optimization research.
The distance shooting specialization turns out to be the most practiced in pvp and the most suitable fatality in pvp. However, each has its own specificities and is found to be viable in different circumstances. Thus, it is better to avoid stereotypes and we can very well see specializations in a more versatile way:
- Mobility and the dowries of fate can prove invaluable in a pve fight while on the move
- Ranged shooting can be a valuable specialization in pvp where it will have a particularly devastating turret role.
- Engineering (the more specific) is more useful in hybrid templates. I practiced it little but its heavy context in aoe can clearly have an application in pve
The Empire Needs You !
So much for this first part which, I hope, will have made you want to try this advanced class which is the least represented in the game.
With picky and demanding gameplay, only the best will persist but the distinction in an mmo pays off and I can assure you that at maximum level you will be a staple in your party due to its rarity and effectiveness.
To be continued ….
