Gunners, underpowered or under appreciated?

It is more than just snipers, good tanks can work you over pretty good with the rail gun and assaults can hit an run you very effectively.

It really feels like gunner is in a big support firepower role. He has a ton of firepower, but tends to get torn up unless his team is doing well. Yet as tank or assault, no matter how bad my team is I feel like I can push the enemy towards their base and take control of territory.

Just a bit of that mobility back (maybe a small speed increase and slower draining jump jets for gunner?) could make a big difference. Like others have said, he felt fine before the jump jet change, but after the jump jet change I find myself choosing assault over gunner almost every time.

Pretty honestly, I don't play the Gunner because I feel weak with him. He has no mobility whatsoever, and against multiple enemies, I am useless and not credit to team. I'd be better off as an Assault or an Assassin. The Gunner doesn't feel like he has as much potential and feels like he relies on the team a lot due to his slow speed.

Yeah, I'd say this is accurate. I've had decent games while my team struggled, but for me to really rip off the kills, the rest of my team has to be pretty on the ball. Of course it's easier to be better when your team is too, but I think I agree with the general idea that gunners are punished the worst for being part of a bad team. All of the other classes except for the Support have some kind of escape/defense mechanism,* whereas even the Gunner's defensive strategies (countergrappling, slam) are essentially attacks. So even on a bad team I think the other classes have an easier time escaping/defending themselves on an individual basis, but if that's what it is coming down to your team probably wouldn't win anyway.

If I have any gripe balance-wise with the gunner, it would be that I don't think the player model's size + mobility was calculated as being quite the enormous detriment it ended up becoming in pub play. His skills (with the possible exception of Deploy) are well balanced in relation to other classes, but his size and mobility make him a prioritized and easy to hit target. I have often found that when given the chance to shoot at me or any other class, the enemy will shoot me. And why not? I'm huge, slow, and can put a lot of hot metal in your face at the right range.

* Unless you count firebase humping, which I'm not for these purposes as it's a player strategy rather than a skill by itself.

Glad to see that my guide can be useful

The thing that would solve Gunner's problem is the removal of the maxrange and, maybe, the possibility to headshot.
But especially the first. If the miniguns maxrange is removed the gunner's biggest problem, the sniper, won't be a threat anymore, thus making the gunner balanced.

i like playing gunner, but that sounds a bit silly. a mini gun that can get headshots? do you mean insta kill headshots?

as for the range, i think that would make the mini's OP if they had no range limits.

the reason why the gunners damage has been reduced over range is because it used to not drop off near as much and the gunner was extremely strong, he would drop people across of grenade 3 and the same pace as he would if they were 20metres or so in front of him.

i would like to see some sort of change to the gunner but i doubt it will happen anytime soon

The minigun range on 360 was originally much farther (maybe infinite), which turned out to be a big problem. Gunners with accuracy endorsements could mow down people across the map, especially on Grenade III arena, and especially when combined with the slow effect from deploying. It was incredibly annoying

Headshot. Lol.

Thing is, I still think he relies a lot on his team because he is so slow, when you are slow, you are staying in an area longer, increasing the risks of being shot down. He needs a way to get around faster even if it disables his ability to attack. Even the Tank can go faster using his charge.

The ability to go faster without any negative perks to it while using it would make the Gunner OP.

I propose something liek deploy, except he transforms into a helicopter, and can insta land with slam (doing a headshot to everyone below him).

I want to report your post for being too awesome for this forum Llama

He used to have "unlimited" jetpacks, which granted him a high mobility, but Devs nerfed it because it seemed to be a bit overpowered.

I play Gunner exclusively and 9 times out of 10 I end up in the top two positions on my team and almost always lead in kills for the game and have a 2:1 ratio minimum.