With latest patch of Anniversary , finally sharpshooter tree getting some love after patch 13 & patch 14 which both decimated the sharpshooter class, as one of the major bulletins of Anniversary update is Sharpshooter tree rework.
As for the Sharpshooter, the tree before was too spread out , essential things too spread out, now shortcuts were introduced thankfully, yet tree has became longer, which again essentials are hard to get, while also many many nodes got nerfed ,although some were average.
New build is just stack collection and very niche, each build specifies certain weapons you must go with, also limits playstyle forcefully by stacks gaining and stacks removing on certain actions, which quite makes the sharpshooter main job is maintaining stacks rather than perform the role required.
This list is everything nerfed from Patch 13 and never been back:
| Nerfed Stats: | Veteran (Before patch 13) |
|---|---|
| Pre Patch 13 | Vet had 7.5% toughness on kill, now 5% |
| Pre Patch 13 | Vet had 40% Ammo , now 0% |
| Pre Patch 13 | Vet had 200 Toughness by Default, now 100 |
| Pre Patch 13 | Vet Cohesion was 1-2% Ammo on kill , now 1% |
| Pre Patch 13 | Vet Default Nades was 4, now 3 |
| Pre Patch 13 | Vet had 15% Weakspot Bonus , now 0% |
| Pre Patch 13 | Scavenger minimum was 1 round per kill, now decimal calculation applies |
| Pre Patch 13 | Bolter Blessing (Pinning Fire) Tier 4 20% Power → 5% Power Stack |
| Patch 14 | Ulti Ability cooldown from 25 Seconds → 35 seconds (Was 25secs before path 13) |
| Volley Fire | Vet Ability/Ulti was 50% Base Ranged Damage, now 25% Ranged 25% on Weakspot |
| The Bigger they are… | Buff Vs Ogyrn and Monsters reduced to 25% from 75% |
| Sustained Fire | Vet lvl 30 Feat , 60% Toughness Replenish & Magazine Reload (Removed) |
| Unwavering Focus | Toughness Damage Reduction With Ulti Activation (Removed) |
| Max Ammo increase you can get is 25% now, was 40% by Default | |
| Camo Expert | Standing Still reduces your targeting/Reduces your Aggro (Removed) |
| Ability Refresh does not refresh ability modifiers (bottom tree upgrade) | |
| Demolition Team | Used to give Grenade to everyone on Coherency, now only gives the player himself while in coherency. |
These are things that did change before latest patch of anniversary and still in effect
Scavenger Comparison between Old and New:
New Bolter
80 Ammo Bolter Ammo Pattern: 11110
you will get 1 bullet per first 4 specials, and then get no Ammo on the 5th.
1% is 0.8 Ammo
so it does deduct the 0.2 from each of the first 4 specials, so you are strictly getting 1% ammo.
Old Bolter
115 Ammo Bolter Ammo Pattern: 22222 (Constant 2 rounds per kill)
Any Special you kill, you always get two rounds.
1% is 1.15 Ammo
and we are getting 2 Ammo per kill ,which is 1.7%.
which so we are now getting nearly 60% less ammo than before.
Volley Fire, or the Augmented Version “Executioner Stance” got hugely nerfed, as now it require Weakspot hits for damage rather than plain damage bonus, therefore for weapons as shotguns, braced autoguns etc. they suffer from the situation, also the weakspot damage buff is quite little nearly 12% extra damage, because it adds the 25% weakspot just to the weakspot bonus, a detailed test is available at another post.
Also that Refreshing does not refresh any extra abilities that do activate with the ability itself (Ability modifiers ,the orange ones).
| Nerfed Stats: | Veteran Patch 14 → Patch 15 |
|---|---|
| Confirmed Kill | on Specialist or Elite kill 25% toughness instant, and 25% over 10 seconds → instant gain 10% and 20% over 10 seconds. Old Overall: 50% → New Overall 30% |
| For the Emperor | Combat Ability gives you and players in coherency 20% Ranged & Melee Damage for 5 seconds. → now gives 10% Ranged & 10% Melee Damage. |
| Marksmen | Combat Ability gives 50% Weakspot Power. → 20% Weakspot power |
| Bring it Down | old name was The Bigger they are…, Damage to Monsters and Ogryns 25%. → 20% |
| Close Quarter Killzone | 30% Close Range Damage on Combat Ability → 15% Damage now |
| Trench Fighter | 15% Melee Attack Speed → 10% Melee Attack Speed |
| Duty and Honour | Voice of Command Ability Modfier, Over Toughness 100 → 50 |
Sadly, with each update sharpshooter becomes more frustrating to play with rather than to enjoy, with nearly zero consedration of what is happening, many abilities requires switching between main and secondary weapons, while many sharpshooter weapons take time to draw, as example bolter, Lucius helbore series, or guns that require aiming down and require critical rate to build up, therefore it makes many abilties quite useless to use.
The nerf on “Marksmen”, just throws the whole tree away, executioner stance gives 32% extra damage on weakspot, marksmen did give pure 50% extra on weakspot, which made going certain builds with executioner stance worth it.
Nerf to Confirmed Kill is quite huge, veteran is mostly using ranged weaponry, and many of ranged weaponry isn’t meant for weakspots, as in shotguns, braced autoguns, autopistol and so on, with only two toughness regeneration abilities per whole tree, this one got nerfed really hard.
New Keystone of sharpshooter build is based only on weakspots, which makes again the same issue, you are locked to certain weapon choices, keystones are way to harsh to obtain or use.
Spotting keystone of Voice of command is good, yet demotes spotting, I cant really spot every specialist or enemy i see for my team, i need to just spot HVT and leave my team to uncertainty, as we are already suffering from that you can only have 1 active spot at once.
| General Nerfs | How it Affects Veteran |
|---|---|
| Reduced explosion damage on Monstrosities. | Nades Nerf |
| Reduced Bleed Unyielding armour damage modifier from 1.0 to 0.75. | Nades Nerf |
| Removed one health crate and one ammo cache from the pickup pool while raising the amount of big ammo packs spawned. | Nerf to Field Improvisation Talent |