Remember: the only (Marine) Assaults that the devs are considering giving the ability to cap are those without a jetpack. Boom, there goes that mobility. Swooping Hawks and sniper rifles: well.. see the RTP, https://www.eternalcrusade.com/rogue-trader/88-cloudsweeper I could see that turning into a Stalker lasblaster, instead of a CQC- 3-shot thing. Swooping Hawk Background: "Striking from high above their targets, minimal chance of being shot at" etc.. Of course, the stalker bolter is quite removed from the 1-headshot-kill sniper rifle anyways.
I'm guessing groundbased assaults can be considered melee focused tacticals as opposed to the tacticals that currently carry boltors and stalker boltors being more ranged focused. That I can live with. It ends up coming down to a play style decision, not a "which is mechanically more superior". Not so much the shenanigans swooping Hawks would have and probably will have with any sniper esque weapon. I can only see myself accepting that If I can spit at them they explode into gore so there's a reason to imploy such a strategy. Not just because it'll help K/D.
We will have Rangers, as Elite classes, I can't recall if it's before or after launch. Swooping Hawks don't tend to have very powerful weapons, Lasblaster, Hawk's Talon and Sunrifle, either you grab high rate of fire, or exchange that for higher strength. If we go off the table top anyway. Guess we'll see what happens in the coming months!
i think behaviour may invent some new weapons for eldar or at least new varriants with approve of GW for sure
You wait until the Dark Eldar arrive. Jump-pack heavy weapons units. The Swooping Hawks shouldn't be too much of an issue, the Hawks Talon is 24" Assault 3 so it's more like a recoil-less machinegun than a sniper rifle. That said, the Stalker's been interpreted as a sniper-bolter again so you never know, they might give the 'Hawks a marksman variant.
An Elite or Hero Swooping Hawk Exarch would be pretty cool - with a Sunrifle I like to envisage it as just a giant death beam sweeping across the map
