This is absolutely not true. The Paragon Studios dev team "left" snipe in Issue 23. Issue 24 was in beta, and there are clear indications in the code and data that the snipes were not going to be "left" in the state they are currently in, had the studio not been shut down. For example, the sequencers data contains half-finished moves called "QUICK SniperBlast" (Q_SniperBlast, Q_SniperBlast2, A_Q_Sniperblast and A_Q_SniperBlast2) for the real animations to be used in Quick Snipe, rather than the unfinished hack that exists in Issue 24 Beta with the blast firing on frame 0 and having broken FX and bad synchronization for multiple powers.
The current animation tweaks are more in line with what would probably have hit the Live servers when Issue 24 was finished, so I am pretty sure the animation tweaks are going live regardless of what happens to any other changes.
When it comes to snipes, I am treating this Beta as a direct continuation of Issue 24 Beta. They were definitely not finished.
First off let me say a big thank you for getting this game back to us and in better shape than it was when it left. There's SO many new shinies to play with all due to the behind scenes coding your team has been able to understand and bring forth. I've had so many fresh things to play with across all the ATs so again thanks for that. I haven't gotten into speaking on the stuff that was worked on that wasn't available on live because I didn't have a true understanding on all the things you folks added on to so no finger pointing from me.
Speaking on my experience I stumbled upon the insta-snipe not on my first favorite character to play because on a dom I never took snipe. But on my blaster I noticed when I hit BU or Aim I'd get this yellow ring around my snipe. So all it was was a little curiosity and the willingness just to ask in help what the deal was. Our community being helpful that it is responded and my mind was blown I could add snipe to my dom and my favorite character now has a fresh feel to it.
The to-hitt really isn't all that hard to get and for a supposed intuitive game getting insta-snipe was pretty fun to get. If the intention is to dumb it down to make it available to all then maybe I'm suggesting that there's really an unknown about the snipe since it didn't make it to live originally and there's not really any explanation about how to achieve it easily available for the unwashed masses. I'd say spread the word about it's ease of attaining and change that kismet to say it's actually +to-hitt.
Now if the intention is to nerf damage to bring things in line I'm not with you on this. If that's the case we should have a look at Titan Weapons uber stomp which with a good fury bar hits 16 good guys (or bad guys if you're one of those hero types) for 300 damage every 5 seconds or blaster nukes that charge by every mob and hit 16 enemies for 450 damage. I don't like going down the nerf rabbit hole, I'm so happy to find something fresh on my favorite AT on a power I never adjusted into my chains.
Hope the discourse continues and thanks for listening!