I saw Lemon's guide to knifing on here and thought I'd put my own together but for sniping as that's what I'm best at in the CoD series.
I know a lot of people find sniping satisfying but wish they were a bit better at it, well now you can be...
(I'm using MW2 for all examples in this guide as that's what most people are playing at the minute)
The Shots
When sniping in a CoD game there are 5 different kinds of shots that you'll need to master to be able to handle any situation thrown at you.
1. The Hardscope
Hardscoping is traditional sniping - pull up your sights, aim, fire. Simple as that. It's effective at long range or on closer enemies who aren't shooting at you. A lot of mobile snipers look down on hardscopers and see it as a dirty word but that's generally the hardcore fanboys. If you want to be a succesful sniper hardscoping is just as important as any of the other shooting techniques. Why try to quickscope across Wasteland? lol
2. The Drag Shot
The drag shot is where you roughly line the enemy up in your crosshairs, pull your scope up, fine tune your aim, fire then drop your scope straight away. You should aim to have your scope up for no longer than around .5 seconds as it restricts your view, you lose sight of your radar and won't see grenade indicators/enemies in your peripheral vision etc. Effective at close to medium range.
3. The Quickscope
The quickscope is the most effective and most important shot to master if you want to become a good sniper in the CoD series. The quickscope is where you line your target up (if they're stationary) you'll have to aim just in front of a moving target so that they're in the crosshairs once the scope is fully up, then you shoot and drop your scope instantly once your scope is up. In doing this you're getting your shot off as soon as physically possible whilst maintaining maximum accuracy. Effective at close to medium range.
4. The L-tap/Halfscope
The L-tap/halfscope is the same basic process as a quickscope but you shoot before your scope comes fully up. You lose a lot of accuracy in doing this so it should only really be done when you don't have time to pull your scope all the way up. Effective at close range.
5. The Noscope
The noscope is where you fire from the hip without touching the left trigger at all. The bullet could end up anywhere between the four white dots on your screen so it isn't adviseable unless the enemy is VERY close to you. There are tricks you can do in CoD4 and WaW for almost perfect hip fire accuracy with rifles (I can go into details if anyone wants me to) but no one's found any for MW2 yet.
Your Setup
In MW2 you'll notice that 90% of snipers use the same setup. The intervention w/ FMJ, Sleight of Hand Pro, Stopping Power Pro & Steady Aim Pro. Personally I preffer the barrett .50cal because it's better in every way (semi-auto, more bullets in the clip and the scope comes up slightly faster) a lot of people tend to use the intervention because they've seen whoever on YouTube using it. The choice is yours though.
Perks wise this is pretty much what you need to use. Sleight of Hand Pro makes your scope come up roughly twice as fast, Stopping Power Pro makes it a one shot kill anywhere except limbs, without Stopping Power Pro you need to hit them from the bottom of the rib cage upwards to get a clean kill and Steady Aim Pro makes the white dots that mark your bullet spread slightly tighter, therefore making it easier to line your targets up before you scope in.
Your secondary weapon is purely personal prefferance. Personally, I tend to go for either akimbo magnums, akimbo rafficas, akimbo desert eagles or the SPAS-12. The akimbos all come out almost instantly, including the rafficas even though they're machine pistols, another FAIL by Infinity Ward, which is great if you get caught off guard, but the SPAS-12 can be almost like carrying two primary weapons and is pretty much unstopable if you have the time to pull it out.
Controller Sensitivity
Your controller sensitivity is one of the most important things to get right if you want to be a proficient mobile sniper. The best thing to do is disregard everything anyone has ever told you about 'the right sensitivity' and find the one that works best for you because in the end that's how you're gonna do the best. I'd advise you to use a custom setting above 5 or you just aren't gonna be able to twitch aim fast enough if two guys come at you from your right and left but beyond that it's entirely up to you.
DO NOT CHOOSE 10 JUST BECAUSE A LOT OF THE GUYS ON YOUTUBE USE 10.
For referance, I switch between 6 and 8 depending on how I'm playing that day, I venture up to 9 occasionaly when I'm really in the zone but I never go to 10 because I lose some accuracy.
Tactics
In my experience, the single most important thing when sniping is to learn to use cover effectively and to lure your enemies in to exposing themselves while you stay behind cover and keep at least half of yourself concealed. This gives you a huuuge advantage over the other player.
Another tactic that I've found to be very important is to constantly keep moving but carefully. If you get a kill then either that guy's going to come back for you or someone else is gonna have seen the dot on their radar and come to find you so move on.
Get good with your knife and secondary. They will save your life.
This is a bit of a more advanced one for once you're confident with a rifle and can start thinking about other things whilst sniping... Learn to recognize what weapon the enemy is carrying and act accordingly. If he's got a shotty, keep you're distance and don't rush the shot you've got time to play with, if he's got an assualt rifle then you're gonna need to take cover then pop up and quickscope him taking cover again to buy youself some time if you miss. If he's a sniper too then kill him in some fancy way and don't hesitate to teabag his corpse.
And lastly... Know when to run from a fight. If you aren't that confident yet and you spot a couple of guys trying to rush you don't think you're being a pussy by finding a way to sneak out of there. You'll most likely die if you stay and if you run you'll escape with your streak in tact and you'll be able to keep helping your team. ...Unless of course you chose the SPAS-12 and you have time to pull it out.
How Do I Practice?!
The best two ways to learn when you're starting out are (1) to go into a private match with some friends and all use sniper rifles. You'll get the hang of roughly aiming before you pull the scope up pretty quickly. ...And (2) to play in public lobbys but play a bit more defensively and stick to the outskirts of the map, not getting too close to the action, remember to keep moving and use cover. If you're playing an objective game - focus more on defending objectives than capturing them.
Advanced Shooting Techniques
Collaterals
Oh noes! There's two guys running at me down this narrow corridor! Get behind cover, pull up your scope and wait for them to line up then... BOOM! Double kill.
A lot of people have trouble with collaterals but they're easy really, it's all about the timing.
Jump Shots
Jump shots are another great way to kill people whilst making yourself very hard to hit. Get behind cover, jump, pull your scope up, aim, fire. These take a little while to get used to but they're easy enough once you do. One thing that helped me when learning was to pull my scope up before I jumped for the first few.
The Pop Shot
The pop shot is good for when you've tried a quickscope or drag shot and missed, then dropped behind low cover and the enemy is in the open. Next you pull your scope up below where you think where the enemy is and go from prone to crouching, with a bit of practice and luck you should be aimed roughly at the guy and you can just treat it like a drag shot from there.
Flashy Stuff
The next step for a lot of people once they can hold their own is to start learning trick shots and stuff like that. They can be a lot of fun and make you feel like a badass (:P), don't fall in to the trap of spending entire matches running around trying to hit 360s and stuff though, you'll just end up going 3-30 and helping your team lose the match.
Anyways...
The Long-Range Noscope
In CoD4 and WaW it's fairly easy to hit long range noscopes because Grizz found a few glitches that give you close to perfect hip fire accuracy (as in the bullet will go straight, it won't magically hit someone where ever you aim lol).
CoD4
The G-shot (Grizz shot) is the best way to noscope in CoD4, to do a G-shot you strafe, it doesn't matter which way, then wait for your crosshairs to pull back together, then shoot and the shot will be insanely accurate. Double tapping switch weapons (Y/triangle), knifing or going from prone to standing also work to reset the crosshairs.
WaW
The best way to noscope in WaW is to crouch or jump as you shoot, it seems to be slightly less effective than the G-shot in CoD4 but it definitely works.
The Swing Shot
The swing shot is where you fling your aim to the right or left before taking a shot then readjust the aim as you pull the scope up. It makes the rifle tilt to the side and generally looks awesome. It also works really well if you spin either 180 or 360 and overshoot the spin then pull your scope up as you readjust on your target.
The Wall Bang
Wall bangs are always good for a laugh. It's basically just shooting someone through a wall. This can either be done randomly (never works, very frustrating) or if you miss someone just move behind a thin wall and aim at where you think they are. Takes a bit of practice but makes you feel like a pro.
180/360/720
Does what it says on the tin really, spin then shoot. I don't really go for spin shots much as they're a bit pointless but nothing says 'pwnd' like spinning around before you kill someone.
The Master In Action
Click to watch this video on YouTube
There are examples of pretty much everything I mentioned in this video.
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