Analyzing the Gunner

Gunner is an amazing class. So much so that most players don't even reach the full potential playing it. Why? Because you don't need to do much to go 30/10 in a public game.



CLASS OVERVIEW

HP: Tied for 1st (Tank) before upgrades. Still second highest after Tank passive.
Range: Very Strong Close/Mid, potent at long (covered in weapons)
Pro Kill Power: Strong
Turret Kill Power: Strong
Bot Kill Power: Medium
Speed: Medium (slow when minigun is spinning)
Size: Side of the Barn

Basically, slow movement when spinning the minigun and being a large target are the only major weakness this class really suffers. I think it's also important to not that Gunner is the only class that can completely neglect 3 of the 4 upgradeable skills and still stay competitive late in the game.



MINIGUN
The go to weapon for the class. It's both overpowering the class and holding back it's true potential at the same time.

STRENGTHS:
- Amazing kill power (especially fully upgraded)
- Amazing Range (Gold Accuracy perk usually required to reach bridge to bridge on Ammo Mule III)
- Ridiculous crit output (typically when deployed)
- Very forgiving in moderately laggy games (still damages pros where most other guns would fail completely)

WEAKNESSES:
- 5 second reload time. This -should- be a hindrance, but typically the gun keeps people at mid range (or better yet, dead), so it's actually pretty rare to catch a decent gunner in his reload.
- Mediocre against bots (yet still easier at mid/close range then doing grapples or using the mortar)
- Terrible against turrets
- Wind up time to reach full DPS*

The wind up time -should- be a very important hitch to how this guns works. The LT fire keeps it spun up at the cost of speed for the gunner. However, in many cases the slow wind up time still does enough damage to kill Pros quickly.

Examples:
- Tanks and Support WITHOUT rate of fire endorsements that are spotted mid coming in to close range vs a gunner will usually die before the shotgun or jet engine can finish the job.
- Assassins that face stab a gunner will likely die to a few shots as the gun spins up (even if they avoid the stomp skill by jumping)
- Assault will only win with the assault rifle alone with the right endorsements to boost it

Yes, all of these classes have other options to deal with a gunner in closer quarters. The problem here is that in MOST cases these classes have to do more then the gunner to win vs the gunner simply doing Aim and Shoot... even when his gun just started spinning.

tl:dr for Minigun:
- is good at doing too much
- spins up to full damage too fast
- can kill most pros in under 2 sec from crits (usually deployed)



MORTAR

STRENGTHS:
- Best non-skill turret killing weapon (only airstrikes trump it)
- Excellent range (exactly what a mortar should be)
- Respectable bot killing power (long range only)
- Will trigger sniper traps from a safe distance

WEAKNESSES:
- Terrible damage without passive skill upgraded
- Terrible damage at close/mid range (mortar shot must split from passive)
- Strange angle of shot (hard to shoot down over edges)

It's a shame so many gunners lean so heavily on their minigun. While it won't wrack up pro kills, as far as team play goes, this is your best bet to knock down a base's turrets. Combine with juice or a rate of fire endorsement, gunners can even drop rock turrets being overhealed if left unaccosted. No other class can so lazily kill turrets except support's airstrike.

In combo with the close/mid range power of the minigun, the mortar actually gives the gunner the best over all offensive power in the game.

tl;dr for Mortar:
- Great weapon ignored by newbies favoring the minigun
- Overall the best turret destroying option (except maybe airstrike)



SLAM (X Skill)

STRENGTHS:
- Potential instant kill from directly above (Pancake!)
- Knocks threatening close range pros away (tanks, assassins, support)
- Respectable damage once upgraded
- Slows victims

WEAKNESSES:
- Shockwave can be jumped over and completed avoided

Cooldown could be considered a weakness, but that's usually only the case in games with several assassins coming for you or they jumped over it.

Because the minigun can kill so quickly even without wind up, the only real encouragement to up this skill is to kill people in 1.5 seconds instead of 2. Someone hit by this is usually dead in a few more bullets even at rank 1.

tl;dr for Slam:
- Great skill all around
- No real encouragement to upgrade it unless you want to be THAT lazy about shooting people



DEPLOY (Y Skill)

STRENGTHS:
- Adds a 2-3 sec snare effect to the bullets
- Adds a crazy amount of crit (leading to crazy fast kills)
- Can't be headshot (upgrade 3)

WEAKNESSES:
- Tank can't move, making him an easy target
- Upgrade 3 actually LOWERS damage

This is the skill. This one right here. Upgraded to level 2... that makes the class a killing monster. This is the skill that lets a tank sit on the upper ring in SteelPeel and absolutely murder the other team shooting in to the base. This is the skill that lets them murder someone from half way across the map because they strayed 3 steps too far out of cover.

Lucky crits can drop a tank in under 3 seconds despite him railing gunning your face. The snare is what keeps lower health classes from escaping around the corner so those extra 2 bullets can finish them.

tl;dr for Deploy:
- Upgrade 3 is kind of silly
- Crit bonus adds INSANE damage boost
- Snare effect from bullets is overkill combine with the damage



GRAPPLE (B Skill)

STRENGTHS:
- Easy ring outs fully upgraded
- Kills most light classes at level 2
- Second grapple to clear out black jack packs

WEAKNESSES:
- Close range only
- Heavily subject to lag (like all grapples)
- Terrible damage at level 1

The only real flaw of this skill comes from no one ever getting close enough to use it. Tanks will only get that close if they snuck up on you. And only level 2 is needed to kill assassins if you can grab them first.

Typically, though, this skill goes completely untouched because that minigun, once again, is the go to weapon for EVERYTHING. So no one gets close enough to grapple, unless they jumped you, and that usually means you're now dead.

tl;dr for grapple:
- Sucks at level 1
- Actually really good at level 2 and 3
- Almost pointless because you're never close enough to pros use it (let alone upgrade it)



PASSIVE (Skill)

STRENGTHS:
- Makes the mortar go from junk to amazing
- Makes the minigun go from dangerous to lethal

WEAKNESSES:
- Required upgrade for gunners to not be a crappy versions of assault

This upgrade is overpowered just in the sense that it completely trumps the rest of the skill choices for gunner. It buffs his regular guns so much that Slam is an over-glorified panic button, Deploy is just to pwn newbs even HARDER, and the B grapple is just for the lulz.

tl;dr for Passive:
- Required to make gunner good
- So good by itself, makes his other 3 skills mostly ignorable



CONCLUSION

GUNNER:
- is the easiest class to play
- is the easiest class to wrack up kills with
- has the smallest cash investment required for increasing skills vs effectiveness in combat
- is the only class that can kill from half way across a map with minimum aiming skill with both weapons (compared to sniper, tank rail gun, assault grenade launcher, and assassin shurikens)
- has the safest and arguably the best way to kill turrets (except airstrike)
- has the best all around weapon for killing pros
- really isn't hampered by his weaknesses (slow reload, slow movement speed, mild difficulty with bots)

And most importantly...
Every other class requires twice as much skill to square off against a gunner 1 on 1. No, not 'sneak up on him' because every class is potentially boned if you sneak up on them. I'm talking about when you know the gunner is there, he knows you're there, and that terrible dance begins to try and kill each other.

Support are stuck trying to trick him into walking into turret range (which he shouldn't, because of mortar) or somehow getting close enough to get an airstrike to hit him. Trying to get behind him with the shotgun is an option, but screw it up and you're slammed away and gunned down.

Assassin... back grapple him. Face stab -might- get it done if you can somehow do it without getting slammed/shot first. But it's usually a 50/50 chance for the assassin if the gunner lives through the grapple. If he finds you before you close in, better run half way across the map and pray he doesn't deploy snare you.

Assault has some great potential with his bombs and sneak attacks from above. A fully upgraded charge grapple is a great choice too. However, assault is going to have to use his gun, possibly his bomb/and or grapple, and even through in some flight just to counter act what the gunner does with... gasp... aim and shoot.

Tanks. Avoid the rail gun and don't let the slow space potato get to close range against you. Tanks are just free kills if you don't lose track of them and can get in to mid range where minigun > rail gun.

Snipers are the closest thing gunners have to a true counter other then a better gunner. Look at the bulk of the players though... aiming with a sniper takes true skill. I can't do it, my friends can't do it. Decent gunners don't just stand still when they know a sniper is there. God help the sniper if they catch him mid range when his scope isn't already on the gunner's head.


tl;dr version:
Gunner is the best class in the game. He can murder pros, wreck base defenses, and is only mildly hampered by bots. He has the second highest HP in the game (after upgrades). Gunners need the least amount of cash put towards skills to be a killing machine.

1 on 1 other classes have to work twice as hard and use more of their skills to win against a gunner doing nothing more then move-aim-shoot.

Watch the score boards of your next few games. It's rare a gunner isn't 1st or 2nd spot for kills (and usually cash too). Even more so when it's lower level players (the gunner is usually the only possitive K/D).

Gunners carry their team. The team with the most gunners will usually win.

Much more kill power. Much easier to play. (compared to the other classes)

Assassin called, she wants a word with you.

Assassin can be a killing machine without spending ANYTHING. The katana helps, but you don't NEED it to excell as an assassin.

Other then that and a few other rather large misconceptions about how other classes handle gunners...

Good guide! It does outline the gunner quite well.

Maybe now il actually get some good gunners on my team that arent sitting at base come OT, waiting for the juiced enemy to arrive and turn them into scrap metal.

Might want to make a section outlining how gunners behave during OT, since saving all that money by not upgrading several of your skills, means that juice station is calling.

True, but the average player, and this means the people that go 1:1 or worse as assassin, are at least inclined to improve their skills to make it easier to play. On the gunner side, most people seem to catch on to upgrading their passive and then forget they have money to spend until someone finally kills them.

Poor glitchy assassin also sees a lot of players using the speed exploit and abusing the current overpowered reload dash on the dagger (actually confirmed by the devs as doing too much damage). When that gets brought back in line, the sword will probably feel like a must again for games with gold armor endorse gunners and those pesky high HP tanks.

Not really meant to be a guide. That's generally how I see most other classes try to fight the gunner. He's such a beast of point, shoot, win that it takes a lot more effort to drop a decent gunner then any other class running solo (no bots, turrets, or other pros for backup). To a certain extent, a game needs to keep the average Joe in mind for class balance. Gunner right now is the easy mode for raking in the kills compared to those same players trying ANY other class.

The Juice station, or the bot spawners. I love Bouncers. I love 'em so much I just want a bunch of 'em to keep me company. (Or to soften up the other team's base while I saunter behind.)

I'm not the greatest gunner in the world, but I'm working on my mortar skills. It didn't take long to find out how devastating it is to turrets, but now I'm trying to get better using it to nail pros behind cover with the AE splash or hordes of Blackjacks marching down the lanes. The mini's awesome, and the dual-mini is amazing - but only at mid-close range.

I'll sometimes up Slam if I'm bored - but there's nothing like slamming the Assassin coming for you into a Ring-Out.

Gunner's a solid class with two natural predators - the Assassin (or at least the GOOD Assassin) and the Sniper. (See again, the GOOD Sniper. I tried my hand at it tonight, and felt horrible at it.)

But a good player from any class can take out any other class. Assault's bombs can be used to blow you out of the ring if you're close to a ledge - ditto for his charge. I'd imagine a Tank can do the same. But I'd definitely agree that it's the class with the lowest learning curve, leading folks to get up to speed more quickly.

Said it before; saying it again.

Gunner is Assault but Heavy.

So it's a bigger brother of the most versatile class with more Health and a bigger gun but slower, with somewhat less versatile skills. Look at it the other way, the Assault is the little brother of the Gunner, with more speed, lighter weapons, and broad range of skills.

IMO, while Assault feels like a class that's easy to play but hard to master, Gunner is a class that is easy to play and easier to master. When I tried out Gunner it felt like EasyMode. I don't think the class or guns are 'overpowered' in any way though, I can beat a typical Gunner most times just by getting around them... the AR and Minigun seem well balanced.

Speed exploit? That thing actually helps? Anyone i see using it usually runs face first into something that kills them or flies off the edge. Ive only used it once just for the giggles, and killed myself shortly afterwards cause it was annoying.

I go katana anyways. Just saying that dagger isn't that much worse. High HP tanks are a must avoid no matter what weapon your packing if your a sin.

Not meant to be a guide? But its built in such a nice guide-like format. Coulda fooled me.

Gunner playstyle and usefullness to the team doesn't really evolve as you get better at him, learning how to use his skills does little to improve his ability to gun someone down, which is the only thing gunner excells at really. While learning how to effectively use other classes skills makes a massive difference in how you play them and the impact you have on the team.

Gunner is easy to use, easy to master. But is a class that revolves around one big gun in the end. A pretty simple class.

He is pretty fun sometimes too.

As someone who came from playing Super Smash Bros. Melee competitively, followed by SSB Brawl, I'm a little paranoid of a class seeing too much use for that very reason.

We already see it to a certain extent with Assassin. Players get killed by them repeatedly and think it's so easy to do. Obviously that rarely works out when they play the assassin themselves. In the case of SSBM, that would be fox. A character that has a high level of technical mastery to actually be a dominating force. It took 5 years I believe for Fox to move up from the middle tier to his spot as top tier because it took that long for players to learn all his tricks and get use to the 1 frame twitch reaction of playing him.

The Gunner on the other hand is easy to use and easier to master. He's SSB Brawl's Metaknight. He's easy to kill... if you can actually get a hit in. His weapon is fast and powerful, forcing you to tread much more carefully then you would against other characters with easier to exploit openings. And when you get too many of them on the screen at once, the game stops being fun because of the constant tornado (minigun) spamming.


Gunner really doesn't have enough disadvantages to make up for how easy to play and good he is at everything. Hell, he can solo a base's defense and get the bots to the ball without even having to use a skill! Quickly too, since he's not hampered by cooldowns or low damage vs turrets (or the risk of being shot by them to hurt them quickly).

I play Gunner quite often but there is also a huge difference in skill levels between most Gunners. I do agree that they have some big damage advantages but even as a Support or Assault I just have to think about how to approach them for an easy kill. For an Assassin or Sniper this is even easier.

I guess if you wanted to balance their damage a bit you could increase the spool time for their Minigun (a skilled player pre-spools with the left trigger anyway) and halve the mortar rounds per 'clip'. They would still be very strong but would require a little planning when getting into a fight.

My k/d with assault/tank = around 1/1
My k/d with assassin= I never play it
My k/d with Support= around 1.5/1
My k/d with gunner= probably 5/1 honestly

It is an easy class to play. I upgrade my gun as quickly as possible and get a lot of kills without doing much.

Increasing time for spool up does seem like the simplest solution. It would force the gunners to lose some speed in a head on fight in order to maximize there damage. This would also make a tank, assault, or shotgun support closing in a much scarier thing for gunners with no spin up going. Might even encourage them to grapple more

A small reduction in mortar clip size would actually help too with how easily they can beast turrets solo. But rate of fire working for support next patch may balance that itself.

A lot of the potency comes from deploy too, but the gunner does make himself pretty vulnerable, so it's usually a fair trade. I'm still iffy if the snare effect deploy adds is overkill combine with the crit though.

I'm actually curious to see if the RoF issue for Support will end up being a buff instead of a nerf. I do know that as a side effect their Shotguns will become absolutely deadly at close range though.

Regarding deploy I think that the snare effect is a fair trade for losing all mobility. It's not like the Gunner can move to pursue their target if they hid behind a wall or something. More often than not a player caught out in the open is going to die to a Gunner regardless but I think that the snare effect is a plausible advantage to becoming stationary. The crits are just a bonus. The headshot visor is a joke and any above average Sniper will have you down in a 4-5 shots anyway.

What's intersting is that I almost never deploy as a Gunner and tend to use my Mortar 90% of the time anyway. I only use the Minigun to finish off an enemy or when I know I will be getting into a fight at close/medium range.

Gunner isnt that amazing cause hes limited to movement. The strafe and movement of the assault is amazing. I'll take anyones gunner with my assault. Gunner 3 might be OP but it can be stopped by any smart player.

I main Gunner and feel I am pretty good at it. I generally play with friends in a party of 4-6 people, and am nearly always MVP.

I've tried two different endorsement sets over the time I've played, with varying results.

Gold: Speed
Silver: Armor
Bronze: Accuracy

With this set, I was as fast as a Support or Assault, assuming they had no speed boost themselves. On some maps, I was often in mortar range of the enemy turrets before their second set of bots had spawned. At long range, railgun Tanks, gunners built for damage, and snipers were my only issue, but thanks to my speed, I could quickly take cover if I felt I was losing a fight. Medium range nothing seemed to be able to take me out reliably except for other gunners. Up close, only tanks, really sneaky shotgun supports, and the occasional assasin backstab could kill me. I always leveled up my passive first, then turret mode, then ground slam, and never put points in grapple. I always spent money on buying and leveling up one longshot turret, and would buy 5-6 bots throughout a typical match, though I wouldn't do either of these until I had dual miniguns. I also generally had enough cash for at least 2 juices in OT, if it got that far. I think my overall speed helped me earn more money by virtue of getting to coins on the ground before they disappeared.

Gold: Accuracy
Silver: Rate of Fire
Bronze: Clip Size

This was a big change of pace. Now my only weakness at long range was snipers, and a REALLY good railgun tank with cover to hide behind. On the other hand, the faster classes suddenly became able to use hit and run tactics on me more easily at medium range. My slower speed made me susceptible to Support air strikes, Assaults who used the grenade launcher well, and Assassins with shuriken launcher. It's not that they killed me easily but they would stall my push by forcing me to pursue them while they healed up, or do enough damage that I had to retreat myself. At close range, I now dominated everything except the occasional backstabby assassin. Even tanks usually died before they could finish a charge attack. My overall spending habits were the same in regards to bots and turrets, but I found myself with less cash in OT, and I feel it's because a lot of the coins dropped were too far away for me to easily get.

Overall, my k/d and other stats were pretty close to the same, and which of the builds I use at any given time is decided by the enemy team's composition. If they have a lot of tanks/gunners, I use the second set of skills. A lot of assassins, supports, snipers, I go with the speed setup.

As for gunner skills, the grapple seems completely worthless. If I'm close enough to grapple, I'm close enough to slam+shoot. I probably could have killed 2 people in the time it takes to finish one grapple. The passive skill is a must have, and should be prioritized before spending money on ANYTHING else. The turret mode, I usually upgrade second, but only get the third level if there are a lot of snipers. I'll switch into sentry mode anytime I catch someone in the open, but otherwise, I reserve it for the enemy base. The slam I eventually upgrade, and always to level 3, but sometimes I'll get it before turret mode if there are a lot of assassins.

The best complement to a Gunner push is probably another Gunner, though a good railgun tank can keep the snipers and enemy railgunners back as well. A support keeping you healed is also delicious.

Gunner Pros: Versatile, self-sufficient, easy to use
Gunner Cons: Mobility suffers, hit detection during laggy games punishes the larger characters, large target

1. Gunner is nowhere near metaknight dominance

2. Fox was a top 3 character on the very first tier list

3. SSBM runs at 60 fps. it's hard to do a difficult move in 6 frames in that game. No character has 1 frame twitch reaction.

If it was just everybody in a narrow hallway from midrange, I would say gunner is overpowered. But it's just too easy to flank gunners, and they are useless against snipers.

Great write-up OP! Gunner is pretty much all I roll with atm, so I like learning more about him. I've been using gold RoF, silver clip size, and I sometimes switch between reload, crit, or accuracy for bronze... Upgrade to the dual minigun immediately, then I get my slam up to lvl 3 right after that. Depending on the arena and what's going on, I may upgrade my deploy to lvl 3, for the head shield. I had no idea that lvl 3 deploy reduces your damage a bit, and didn't know about the snare effect either. So what is it, like the bullets will follow them around a corner a bit or what?

I never upgrade my grapple, I have a big fat ZERO in my grapple kills column lol, I just have to manage to do 10 to get the cheev....

I don't just go for kills either, I'm always clearing lanes and destroying turrets primarily, but I don't mind mowing down a few people on the way I actually got the 3-fer achievement while clearing out their base with the dual minigun lol

tl;dr: LOVE the gunner and his dual minigun and slam skill, use deploy consistently, but HATE his grapple

It's been almost 2 years since I last played. You're right. He's more in the range of melee Marth or Ike for free for alls. How easily those two could wrack up the KO's in the 4 way chaos was disgusting.

I could swear the very first list had him mid. He moved up really fast, but it still took a few years after to take the top spot.

Hrm, I thought it ran at 30. Fox and Falco's reflectors could come out at 1 frame and be cancelled by a jump. Even the best couldn't do it reliably, but there were some impressives matches where it happened.

SteelPeel and ammo mule are basically this when your team doesn't have a good sniper to counter a team with 3+ gunners.

I think you're glossing over how big a deal it is that gunners aren't good with bots. They're good at killing people, but not so much at catching runners, meaning that a team that keeps moving and laning will soon be able to force a gunner to fall back, or be able to sneak up on him. A possible exception is on Grenade III, where gunners can really control lanes... but that's just forcing you to change your strategy, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

What's this about deploy level three somehow lowering damage? What are the specifics surrounding that?

The in game description says (paraphrase) "gives the gunner a face shield but reduces damage"

An interesting balance choice, actually. It allows the gunner some safety from headshots to deploy at the cost of some kill power.

I play gunner most of the time. I had 6,500 minigun kills last time I looked.

The Gunner is the most powerful midrange direct combat class but he has weaknesses. Only one very specific assault build will ever give you any trouble once you realize how to defeat them (they have two tricks.... bomb and shoot you or shoot and charge you). Airstrikes, assassins and snipers are your biggest problems.

Let's talk a minute about the gunner's skills. Half of his level 3 upgrades are garbage. I've said this before and I'll say it again. They are a waste of your money; try not buying them for a change. The melee attack is useless except for killing black jacks or for wasting someone's juice. The level 3 deploy upgrade as you mentioned lowers your potential. The developers were smoking some dope when they decided it would lower your damage.

The slam makes up for a worthless red button. At level 3 it always seems to be ready when I need it, and knocks people very far away (usually enough for a ring out). Only one out of say every 50 people I slam will get away. The last one to do it was a speed bug assassin.

Once you learn to use the mortar properly snipers lose much of their power. I hit snipers from across the map quite often. The smart ones run away and the dumb ones look around to see what hit them only to die because the second shot has just landed.

You also forgot to talk about the bot he spawns... the bouncer. It's largely worthless except against supports. Let's also not forget that the tank spawns the same bot..... weak.