Graze

Graze	Mastermind: Sharpshooter	Tier 4
	Basic (4 pt): Snipers that hit their target deal 20% of the damage dealt in a 100cm radius around the bullet trajectory.
	Ace (8 pt): If a bullet would headshot-kill someone, the graze skill will deal 100% of the weapon's damage instead of 20%.

Mechanics

The basic and aced versions of this skill allow sniper rifles (and only sniper rifles) to deal minor damage to surrounding targets should the bullet hit a target. If this occurs, the bullet's trajectory projects a cylindrical hitbox the size of 1-metre around it, dealing 20% damage to enemies caught within it.

The aced version improves this by granting headshot kills the ability to deal full damage to all surrounding opponents within the bullet's trajectory. This has no cooldown, and will proc whenever a headshot kill is made.

Strategy

The basic version of Graze allows sniper rifles to deal minor damage to enemies around the bullet's travel path, so long as the bullet actually hits something. However, considering that sniper rifles already have the innate ability to penetrate armor, kill multiple cops in one shot, and bypass shields, basic Graze's damage is rather mediocre and can usually be overlooked, especially due to the high amount of skill points required to invest in it. Should the player be considering to invest in basic Graze, they should focus on dishing out a high damage-per-second, softening up enemies constantly and supporting teammates who are at the front lines doing most of the actual killing.

Aced Graze is a worthy investment of skill points for a sniper-focused player who is experienced at landing headshots: weaker semi-automatic rifles are granted more leeway for the next shot by weakening surrounding enemies, while extremely powerful single-shot Sniper Rifles become capable of clearing entire rooms with only a handful of shots.

Due the the increased likelihood of eliminating multiple targets with a single bullet, ammo conservation is even less of an issue, especially if the user has aced Ammo Efficiency. This is true for most sniper rifles due to their typically low ammo pickup.

As Graze essentially widens the bullet's hitbox on hit, it is obviously most useful for situations where multiple enemies will bunch up together (such as within corridors and cramped hallways), and flat areas where enemies will likely be approaching from a single spawn point. Heists where it can prove extremely useful include Cook Off, Panic Room, Day 1's streets/Day 2's server room of Hoxton Breakout, or the labs of Boiling Point. By contrast, it is best to spend skill points someplace else if the heist takes place on open ground with few enemies spawning in a straight line, or if the player will often look downwards to face enemies instead of straight at them.

Prior to Update 229, one of Graze's unfortunate drawbacks was that it also affected any Civilians that happened to be in the crossfire, be it escaping during an assault or when tied to the ground. This was especially problematic if the heist involved breaking into civilian-heavy areas, such as GO Bank or First World Bank. If possible, be sure to lead civilians away from highly-contested areas, or risk unintentionally killing high amounts of civilians during an assault wave and extending any hostage trades in the future.

Another drawback to Graze and especially the Aced version is how its damage cannot exceed the max health of the target you killed. For example, shooting a low health enemy such as a light ZEAL on Death Sentence who has 480 health will only deal 480 damage from the hitbox generated from the Graze skill. So, a weapon like the Thanatos may possibly have its fullest damage potential hampered by one weak enemy tanking the skill's effects.

Trivia

• Graze is the only Tier 4 skill that affects a single weapon type, with neither the basic nor aced version offering its bonuses to any other weapon class (unlike the shotgun tree or pistol tree, for example).
• Despite the skill title, in order to activate Graze's effects one must land a solid hit on an enemy due to how the game's hit detection system works. As PAYDAY 2 currently does not track glancing hits, any and all damage dealt are considered direct, therefore making grazing an enemy technically impossible.
• Originally, Graze could hit civilians within its radius, killing them instantly, but this was removed in Update 229. This made the skill particularly risky on crowded maps.
• It would require 240,000 damage in order to one-shot a DSOD Minigun Dozer with the damage from Graze basic.