the expert rifleman trick...

One question Mr.Redalibi, have you ever used the Rifleman/Sniper tree?

The way you talk about pulling off a "Hot shot", as if it's easy to do tells me you haven't even begun to see what it takes to get the damage needed to do 800 damage per free fire hit. It also tells me you're most likeley a Martial Artist, with low Ballistic defense and Ballistic Resistance.

You say it's possible to kill someone in 4 to 5 seconds, but you haven't thaught of what the sniper has to do prior to actually firing the weapon, he has stealthily to get into position, activate an ability that will give away his cover for a moment and then quickly move into the concealment position, after this he Lines Up His Shot giving away his position once more, then finally he begins to charge a Sniper Shot, followed by whatever attack he may wish to use after, and believe it or not yes, they do have a chance to fail. I would say all of the above combined takes about 20 or maybe more seconds to prepare before actually firing the shot. The damage boost you're talking about lasts maybe 10 seconds at most. If the Sniper that uses this tactic misses a single shot against you, you're more than likeley to live.

Go load the Rifleman tree, try it out for yourself. Then load up Spy, sneak into a crowd of reds without a team, disable a shield and sneak attack them, then load SMG's, see what it takes to get someone Dazed and pull a Redux, then see how easy it is to get someone Off-Balanced/Dazed/Staggered and then land double state specials on them with an MA.

I know performing a "Hot Shot" is far from the easiest of the bunch.

A Rifleman has his weaknesses and strengths just like any other load, keep on your toes and get him in interlock.

I think you have said it best. It's not that easy to kill someone when Power lowers your accuracy and you have a higher chance of missing. I've missed many Sniper Shots and I always have to get into a new position (if the targets don't realize where I am while visible, giving chase). However, because of Power and Line Up The Shot... If I don't miss, it's going to hurt. Regardless of most people's loads, their health goes down typically  by two-fifths and sometimes more than that. That's with the first hit. But there's time invested prior to that and if I miss, that time is all lost.

Generally speaking, people hate Snipers as much as I hate the Zerg loading nothing but Kung Fu and SMG Specialist. Some people pick their loadouts based on what everyone else is doing. Proof in the loadouts that you see nowdays versus the ones you used to see all the time. Remember the abundance of Ballistas before CR2?

I was always a Gunman first and foremost. I will play as a Duelist/Sniper if I can help it, because it's my strongest IL build as a Gunman. If I want to PVP and live, I'll load up my pure Sniper load as it works well when I am taking on a small force. I can kill one without dying, which is something that doesn't always happen with my IL build. It's no worse than the craze of everyone going MKT or Master Assassin because they've been punted a few times and went "Wow, that's a lot of damage!"

 Months ago, everyone was an Expert Rifleman. They stopped when they saw how tedious it was.

Don't change Sniper/Rifleman. It's fine.