Yeah, my mage is manipulation focused, so the sniper rifle is simply to make sure he's not a one-trick pony. I've been told that there's nothing a sniper rifle can do that a manabolt can't, which is probably true, but I enjoy what I do.
It's not, sniper rifle allows much easier take down of drones and other high object resistance targets then a manabolt(well powerbolt, as manabolt cant affect non living targets at all).
Really if your not a focused combat mage(i mean a one that specializes on combat spells) a gun in general might be a better option then picking up a bunch of combat spells(stunbolt is still worth knowing for most mages, as a back-up if nothing else).
And know i think i "must" go and see what kind of a sniper/mage build i can come up with(not gonna lie, most likely will include atleast a points worth of ware), might end up going with assault cannons instead of sniper as i like the heavy weapons skill more in general.
Yeah, the original concept was a heavy weapon/manipulation mage. However, the prospect of going to jobs with a rifle in a briefcase was too good to pass up (Ranger Arms SM-4). I do have Stunball, too, and use it to great effect, but, you're right, my usefulness against drones is limited.
Essence cost for Betaware Muscle Toner 4 is .56, and cost for Betaware Cerebral Booster 3 is .42, leaving me at 5.02 essence and dropping my magic to 5. I'm only 13 Karma from being able to raise that Magic back to 6. For 30 total Karma, I'm essentially raising my Agility 4 points to the augmented max of 9 and Logic 3 points to 8. Yes, I'd have to initiate up to grade 2 in order to even consider increasing my Magic to 7, but I will do that anyway.
Alternatively, I could just save up to 35 Karma (so, 18 more), and increase my Magic to 7. That would give me +1 dice on my Magic-based pools, but I'd still need to wander around with sustaining foci active to keep my attributes up to my preferred level.
