Currently playing a Jabba's Realm campaign online and our team comp is Vinto, Shyla, Verena and MHD. We are halfway through the 2nd story mission and our Imperial player is a big fan of keeping his distance from us to make us waste actions to come to him if we want to attack, a very strong strategy that I have used myself against the Rebels and one that is amplified in effectiveness by the Prepare the Ambush class card. Unfortunately we are lacking a strong long ranged character to counter this strategy, as we have 2 pistol users, a melee user and a non-combatant. With Verena having already committed to Point Blank Shot, it seems Vinto (me) is our best hope for having a character that can deal damage at long range.

Here is our current team stats, not counting rewards from the current mission before we go to our upgrade stage.

https://boardgamegeek.com/article/26196068#26196068

I'm wondering how I should go about upgrading Vinto to be a sniper. We won the first story mission and got the extra xp, so I know I will have at least 11 xp to spend in the campaign. I have Shot on the Run and will have 3-4 XP after this mission (my guess is 3). I was originally going to save up for Rapid Fire, but now I'm wondering if I should go for Sharpshooter first instead. My original plan was to go Run > Rapid Fire > Sharpshooter and then either get Battlefield Experience and Dead On if we got an extra XP or just get Merciless if we didn't, would that build work for a long-range character? What weapons and upgrades I should be holding out for in tier 1 and 2? Or would it be better to make MHD the sniper because of Ready for Service?

Also, we currently have Hera&Chopper or Alliance Rangers available as choices for our next side mission, I was originally opting for Hera thanks to her low cost and awesome abilities, but would regular Alliance Rangers be worth taking as allies if we need long range characters?

Vinto with Shot on the Run, Merciless, and Sharpshooter is a pretty terrifying sniper. In the campaign I played he was using the DL-44 with the Tactical Display, and by the time he had those 3 abilities (only 7XP), he could kill a Dewback or Royal Guard pretty much anywhere I placed it by moving, dealing 1 damage with Shot on the Run, and then finishing it off with a Merciless-empowered attack. I imagine that with a long-range weapon and Dead On, he could be quite effective at sniping. So a final build might be Shot on the Run, Merciless, Sharpshooter, Dead On, Battlefield Experience (12XP).

I would definitely take Hera over Alliance Rangers. She's very good at only 4 points, and her accuracy buff might help with sniping things. 9 threat is just too much to give the Imperial if you're only getting regular units, in my opinion.

yeah, I was just starting to think that Merciless would actually make more sense on a sniper than Rapid Fire.

So I should get Merciless first and then Sharpshooter you think? I already have Shot on the Run so I'd have the combo primed and ready.

Verena's got the DL-44 already, I wonder if I'd be better off picking up a rifle or if Verena should be looking for a better pistol to use.

12 hours ago, Tvboy said:

yeah, I was just starting to think that Merciless would actually make more sense on a sniper than Rapid Fire.

So I should get Merciless first and then Sharpshooter you think? I already have Shot on the Run so I'd have the combo primed and ready.

Verena's got the DL-44 already, I wonder if I'd be better off picking up a rifle or if Verena should be looking for a better pistol to use.

Yeah definitely go for Merciless. If you're going to be moving to trigger Shot on the Run anyway, that 4 damage you get is basically a second attack (on the same target, of course, but still really good). And if you're shooting at something twice and not using Shot on the Run, you can almost always use Merciless for the second attack if you need it.

Merciless is amazing at taking out mid-sized units in the middle of the campaign. And it's very good against Villains, which you will face often if your opponent is using Nemeses.

Sharpshooter should probably be your next pickup after Merciless though. Everything about it is great for Sniper Vinto - the bonus accuracy lets you make crazy shots, and the increased range on Shot on the Run and Boltslinger really expands your options. It's a bit like getting Reach and Cleave on a melee weapon, which (you'll know if you've ever had it) feels really good.

DL-44 is quite good on Verena (I'm assuming she took Point Blank Shot), and if you're using Vinto as a Sniper you probably want something like the EE-3 or A280 instead. He doesn't have any particular synergy with Pistols.

Thanks, I'll totally take your advice.

Oh, just to clarify - when I said "Sharpshooter should probably be your next pickup", I meant that after Merciless, you should get Sharpshooter.

Well, I'm just telling you what seemed to work well against me when I played against Vinto . If something different seems better for your situation, don't hesitate to do that instead! One of the cool things about Vinto is that he has several good build paths.

Note that what Vinto purchases affects the imperial player as much as what the imperial uses affects Vinto's purchase.

Merciless against high-health figures, Rapid Fire against swarms.

Once Vinto takes Merciless, IP should probably use as much low-cost 3-health figures as possible. If Vinto takes Rapid Fire, then probably at least 4 Health is preferred.

Slightly off topic, but this thread is helping me realize what a killer combo Loku and Vinto could be.

I really hope my Rebels never come to that conclusion.

1 hour ago, a1bert said:

Note that what Vinto purchases affects the imperial player as much as what the imperial uses affects Vinto's purchase.

Merciless against high-health figures, Rapid Fire against swarms.

Once Vinto takes Merciless, IP should probably use as much low-cost 3-health figures as possible. If Vinto takes Rapid Fire, then probably at least 4 Health is preferred.

That's true, but one advantage of Merciless is that the Imperial player is often given mid-to-high-health figures as reserved groups.

You can also pretty well count on at least one boss fight per campaign, (and maybe more). Merciless is pretty invaluable on those, as it basically adds a Best Case Scenario red die to his attack once per activation. Seeing as that adds 3 damage without eating into any of his other surge abilities, it's basically like a Super Focus.

.. Provided Vinto has not been withdrawn by that point...

3 hours ago, a1bert said:

Note that what Vinto purchases affects the imperial player as much as what the imperial uses affects Vinto's purchase.

Merciless against high-health figures, Rapid Fire against swarms.

Once Vinto takes Merciless, IP should probably use as much low-cost 3-health figures as possible. If Vinto takes Rapid Fire, then probably at least 4 Health is preferred.

If Imp starts taking squishy cheap dudes that just benefits us since we have Verena. That's one of the reasons I'm sort of wanting to go sniper, Verena is already strong against large numbers of weak opponents and both her and Shyla are close-in fighters, so our team has a hole in the long-distance single-target damage dealer department that Vinto seems best qualified to fill.

3 hours ago, subtrendy2 said:

Slightly off topic, but this thread is helping me realize what a killer combo Loku and Vinto could be.

I really hope my Rebels never come to that conclusion.

Why? What Combo could they do?

2 hours ago, Eyfrosyne said:

Why? What Combo could they do?

Well, I think that Vinto's sort of disposition towards a halfway decent sniper meshes well with Loku's sniper support abilities pretty well.

Specifically, one such example might be Loku's Combat Spotter and Set Your Sights ability lets Vinto attack a figure that could be behind another figure (without the strain from Thread the Needle) to deal an attack that deals +4 damage that isn't even on the dice. That's huge for boss characters, particularly boss characters that would otherwise be able to hide behind figures )like Vader).

Also, I think Combat Spotter could mesh really well with the Rapid Fire ability, allowing for the possibility of dealing damage to even more units than general, though that's not a reliable effect as it requires some particularly specific placing. Still, would be fun if pulled off.

Anyway, fortunately for the Imperial in this case, Loku isn't an option for this particular campaign.