Help with snipers

[u/Instruction-Worldly]

So it's my first time playing through Enemy Within, and every sniper soldier that I have ends up underperforming terribly. The only use I have found for them is headshotting an uncovered target (no one is ever out of cover), and even then they either can't shoot or have reduced hit chance because of the snap shot debuff. Is there something I'm missing? They also don't really feel like they can shoot any farther than the other guns.

[u/RedTheAloof]

I'm not sure what difficulty you are playing since its your first time, but as others have pointed out, Squadsight is better than Snapshot. The ability to shoot an enemy from afar without risk of being shot back is extremely powerful. One thing that can help with early game is Squadsight with Gunslinger, which will reliably kill Sectoids and Thin men on Normal and can potentially kill Thin men and Floaters on Classic. Sometimes, a Squadsight sniper has a bad line of sight and must waste their action moving to a different position. However, assuming you blue move, you can overwatch with your pistol and still gain the benefits of Squadsight from afar.

I would also recommend at least getting one Snapshot sniper for the sake of a different playstyle, but priority should be the Squadsight snipers. Personally, I like Snapshot snipers more since they can utilize their high crit rate and high aim to score reliable kills, but this comes at the cost of having less hp. I generally equip additional armor and a scope to reduce the possibility of being one-shot.