A sniper chat thread! Good... now I have some questions/concerns and general yap regarding the topic.

At the moment I'm ~36 levels into my 2nd Prestige and I'm used to playing a lot of custom assault based classes (early on AUG running Ninja, Ghost and Warlord w/ a suppressor and red dot, etc) and I do extremely well with them as I'd like to think they're pretty creative. Obviously this isn't a problem since I can run through levels fast but I wanted to try branching off into sniper since I'm getting a little too good with assault (plus getting new cool challenges is fun).

My build with sniper is as follows:
* Dual Pythons for while on the run from location to location and up close combat. These are subject to change.
* L95 Extended Mag. (on the L95 I really don't like the variable and ext. mag. is surely a plus). Early on (later I use the G11 as I find it is excellent although the variable can be a little tricky to get right, still an plus over the Low Power on the G11 which blows).
* Semtex & smoke
* Claymore for protection while I'm busy taking targets out.


Scout (non-Pro yet)
Ninja
Ghost
and I realize I could take Marathon and be like every other sniper out there but Ninja and ghost make it good since I'm fairly volunterable when on the run or scouting the map for a new vantage point.

I'm not dead set on any of the perks except Scout, of course, so if anyone has any suggestions feel free to toss them my way since I am relatively new to playing sniper. I do find Ninja and Ghost keep me alive since my dmg potential (not output) isn't very high when I'm running around the map.

An obvious problem I have with sniper is that I'm used to getting a mess load of XP. But just last night I got 10 head shots in a row. It's nice but it isn't like the XP I'm getting over on assault. And if I get killed a few times by counter snipers or assault classes, I'm not exactly gaining a crap load of XP by setting off cool kill streaks. Is that a normal tradeoff for sniper? XP gain? Or with more headshots does the XP make up for the fact that you aren't capping things much in games like domination?

I find that in domination I can still cap as long as I'm dualing my Pythons (secondary) but obviously that isn't as accurate as using a rifle primary.

Also I'm totally finding myself using my secondary as a standard weapon and my sniper rifle only when I find a good spot to hide. Is that a bad way of looking at playing sniper?

Are the tradeoffs I'm speaking about normal? Give some scenarios you encounter while playing Sniper too or some advise for me you may have. Or just shoot the breeze. I'm digging the class but finding the lack of XP to be a pain. I do wish there was an alternative to the Pythons I could use to make myself a more effective run-and-gun sniper. XD But I guess having the best of both classes would unbalance the game.