Help with Gunners

Tried searching the forums and it seems no one has a problem fighting with gunners. 'cept me!

I play assault / tank most of the time. Just curious if others are having the same problems against gunners as well. IMO, good gunners are so beastly, it's extremely hard to avoid once they have their sights on you.

The best opportunity is if I manage to flank and catch the gunner by surprise, but a good player tend to have pretty good awareness. How do you / your team deal with good gunners?

For assault an unprepared gunner can be taken out easily. Your bomb should lead your attack. Because of the damage fall-off of the riffle try to close in as you attack and keep moving.

When you close in try to bunny hop or use your jets to avoid surprise grapples or slam.*You also must know your enemy. For instance the gunner's health regen is way low. that means any hit to him will stay for quite a while and tapping him keeps his health suppressed.

Try not to chase him though. It may be tempting with your speed but the gunner will be able to spin up in a short bit. Also killing heavies is part of your role but try not to chase them down. You'll get distracted from the other objectives your class must fulfill.

It can be hard at times but keeping that sucker away from your turrets is worth it.



As a tank the gunner is your worst enemy but you can dominate him from a range. Your railgun can take him out in quite a little bit. Its always fun to see a gunner get hit by my rail and then immediately realize he is being out DPS'd. At close range you must have the element of surprise. A spun up gunner can still rip right through you. Your charge makes close range attempts easier.

Never deploy in battle.

*I'd like to take a moment to say that upgrading the fly skill to level 2 increases your flight speed and opens paths on the map. It becomes hard to right you out and your ability to retreat and return to battle is increased.

I find the people who have the most trouble with Gunners are the same who hang out on the ground for no reason. As Assault you should be zooming all over the place and should have no problems with a Gunner. As a Tank you should either surprise them and Charge 3 lolcombo, or use your vastly superior long-range game.

I'll pick the top levels of the map any day as an assault, due to his mobility.

But I think the gunner knows that too. Good ones seem to be able to keep their distance well and run away when needed, perhaps to keep their juice?

I'll try your advice with the bomb. Hope to get that headcrab

Ambush him. Very simple and effective.

If you need help with gunners ask OD. He absolutely pisses me off when I play gunner.

God yes. The man is like some sort of flying death machine as a slower class.

The best advice going against Gunner is to realize a losing battle, because once Gunner has the edge, he will kill even a Tank very rapidly. A Gunner can't give chase, however, even Tank has the edge. Use that weakness to control the terms of battle in both range and timing and retreat ASAP if things are starting to go downhill.

he can't give chase but he can prevent you from leaving quickly just by hitting you with 1 bullet while deployed so you have to watch out for that

Another piece of adice is to avoid an airborne Gunner, period. No tactics, not surprise hits. You run and gun till you are out of range of that flying ball of death.

A sumo slam can kill any class instantly. There are a few gunners who will use this move effectively, but the ones who do know it are deadly in close quarter combat. Treat the Tank and the Gunner in the same motion when they are both in the air, keep a healthy range and fire while you can.

Sounds pretty much like the gunner is a brick wall of death. But I guess for his ability in offense, he trades off options for escape and really has to count on his team for cover.

Really hate gunners who knows how to run away. I don't play assassin, but does she have an easier time against the gunner?

Yes and no.

Yes because as rougeblades has taught me close range shurikens or shurikens from outside his effective range make him irrelevant. Especially if you can tease out his slam and he is not spun up.

No because if he is spun up and you are cloaked close range he will find you and kill you should you not escape.

General Assassin tip: The smokebomb has become relevant in close quarters combat unlike some older guides may inform you. Its not a get out of jail free card but it helps.

Fact: if you smokebomb infront of me, as a gunner, you are dead.Fact: if you smokebomb infront of me, as a gunner, you are dead.

wait people stop shooting when an assassin smoke bombs?

No but the point is to feel when you know you can or can't escape the gunners tracking.

It's called chivalry.

I feel gunners do somewhat better in uncle tully's funland. Are there maps you guys think they perform better in?

Thankfully assault can reach the top of that map where gunners can't. xD

It is a useful follow-up to a face grapple which forcefully causes Gunners standard reply (slam) to fail.
Machine gun wont rev up in time to do any meaningful damage to an Assassin, so the correct reply is either to grapple back or to slam above the Assassin for a one-hit-kill if you can get in place fast enough.

Smashing so far has never happened to me so I am not even sure it is possible to get it off in time, leaving only grapple as a plausible reply. Luckily for Gunner, his grapple actually causes problems for an Assassin, but unluckily Assassin has no problem taking out a Gunner with little health at close range with a few shurikens.

Assassin should always win the fight against Gunner. Even face grapples lead to a certain win.


L. Spiro

Nope, and your entire post was pretty much BS.

Agreed with Vlane. Fighting any halfway decent gunner with grapples is only going to get your *** handed to you. Fight a good gunner and you won't approach him at all.

Two options, 1, shurikens, and two, decloak way behind a gunner and slash-instagrab them. If you don't kill them in the combo then you should be dead if you don't instantly try and retreat. Trying to save yourself with a smokebomb won't do much if you've pissed the gunner off, however.

However this only applies to good gunners which there are very few of.

Apparently I have never met one, since I have always had free reign over them until now.


L. Spiro