Alright, I'll try and refrain from repeating what others have said, but as an ELiter main, I'll give my two pennies worth. So, as its been stated, the ELiter definitely takes a bit more time and effort to get down. With that long range leaves little room for effort. It requires a steady hand and a patient user. Thanks to its absolutely AMAZING sub in Burst bombs, it is capable of just about anything from close quarter to mid range, to the literal longest range possible. It's far from an easy weapon to pick up, but if you're willing to put the time and effort into getting the hang of it, you'll be good to go. I honestly don't think I've ever gone in the negative using my ELiter, and if I have, it's no more than once or twice. The Eliter just requires time, effort, and a lot of patience. After you get the hang of it, you'll start getting jump shots down, strafe shots from behind walls and boxes and, just an over all steadier hand in shooting.
The reason I personally chose the no scope variant is simply because I feel the field of view is extremely beneficial over the slight push in range. Granted, that loss in range was noticeable at first. It's really up to you and what you prefer.
So, long story short, if you're wanting to hone your accuracy, are okay with being patient and, have the time and effort to invest in the ELiter, I promise you, it won't steer you wrong.
With that said, Eliter really does work on most if not all maps. It REALLY strives in Moray Towers, Walleye Warehouse, and especially Saltspray Rig. There are only a couple maps that the ELiter struggles a little with, being Kelp Dome and Camp Triggerfish. The latter being remedied after you get jump shots down.
I'll break down the responses to a few parts of this individually. The time it takes and the patience required is part of the appeal for me, and I'm actually not doing bad with it with the time I've spent on it to this point. I'm not amazing with it yet, but I'm getting decent. I know the great eliter users essentially never miss. I'm a long way from that.
The versatility with burst bombs is a great appeal, and one reason I like the main duo of eliter + carbon. They share a secondary and share the case where in many situations, the sub IS the main, so one aspect of play carries over between fast & frantic and slow & patient modes. It can make me think more like a sniper with a roller and attack like a roller with a charger :D
You said you don't go negative with the eliter, one question I've always had for a good eliter (not the GREAT eliters that go 15/0 every round, just a very good one), what's considered a good k/d, and what percentage of shots missed is considered acceptably normal? Yeah the great ones never miss pretty much, but normal, good snipers I'm sure blow some sots. Personally I'll generally go 2/0, 3/1, 5/2 on a good round. 2/2 or so when the team's defense breaks down and our base gets pushed to retreat far back, and I'll go negative on those occasions where the enemy team is just vastly superior and we're effectively spawn camped. In those cases I'll still typically average best k/d ratio of the team, but "I sucked a little less than everyone else" isn't much to brag about :p The amount of missed shots varies depending on just how good at moving the enemies are. Really bad rounds against A+ and S rank players I'll miss numerous times and resort to playing interference in disrupting their path long enough for a ground shooter to mow them down instead.
Jump shots: That one perplexes me. Strafe shots I'm fine with, especially without scope. Jump shots I'm not sure I'll get comfortable wiith (or be able to hit anything...)
Scope: Glad to hear an eliter main pointing to the no-scope as well. I've been so biased toward scope being the better one and the one that sees the most high level play (and the assumption the scope was really required to make the long shots) that I hadn't spent much time with unscoped. My brief time really giving it a shake down really has me leaning toward unscoped. I do miss that little bit of range at times when I'm used to hitting that far wall, but on the flip side I think it's made me get more overall splats by being able to get more aggressive with burst bombs, and more willing to risk getting off the perch and assist a push from the ground. The scope is a fun playstyle, but I was getting the impression there was benefit to going scopeless too...I was hoping going that route wouldn't be a mere "crutch" in avoiding the more masterful variant.
Maps: When playing the scoped version I was always in doubt if the conventional wisdom was accurate that chargers are great on Moray. I do badly every time I take the eliter. I'll get a few splats at center, sometimes, but I never feel truly effective. Then the other day I took the scopeless version (in TW). There was a second eliter on the team, his was scoped. He's a level 50, I'm lvl38. I took the usual perch on the mid ledge, got a splat. He took the perch too, so I moved away down to the wall perches above the bottom ramp. By the end, I'd gone 9/1, he'd gone 1/0. And I used my laser to try to alert him of an incoming ambush up the wall. Then got their sniper on the other sides's perch. By the end we had center and my team was making a push up their ramps. With a scope, I'd have sat uselessly in center on the perch in case of a breakout. Once the breakouts were plugged by the advance I jumped down and joined the advance on the ramps (that's where my single death came from.) I would NEVER have tried that with a scope. Got at least two splats on the ramps and suppressed a flank long enough for one of the shooters to clean up the camper.
What's funny though is, for me, that list of maps is reversed. Walleye is one of the one I don't do as well with eliter as splat charger (though I haven't tried unscoped yet.) And Triggerfish I usually do fairly well with it, though I generally use it to watch the back door on that map until the gates go down. I may not always hit all the way across when enemies now how to avoid it through the tunnels, but it keeps their flank invasion severely repressed for a good while and prevents any kind of stealth flank entirely. In ranked I suppose I'd have to take a more forward position since the gates are down from the start. Kelp dome, that's the thing that made me take the unscoped out for a spin. It was seriously painful with a scope in the round. Tunnel vision is awful there. I was doing better in guarding center with unscoped, and more importantly able to shoot from more places where the scope camera angle sees nothing but railings and grates. I dont know about salt spray. That's a weird one where ranked should be entirely different from TW. Thus far I haven't had saltspray in any rotation when playing ranked.
Anyway, it sounds like you're fairly dedicated to eliter. Are there any situations (maps, modes, moods) that make you say "I think I'll be better off bringing splat charger instead, today!"? a
