Gunners, underpowered or under appreciated?

I will admidt now, i havent played gunner, and i do main as a sniper so putting the pain on these guys is one of my favourite passtimes.

However, they do appear to be a class greatly under used, now my money would be on the gunners vunerability to sniper fire being the main cause for the low numbers of this class, i also think that the gunners difficulty versus snipers does cause alot of rage towards snipers that finds itself changed into "Sniper is OP!".

I believe that the gunner, although incredibly powerful at certain tasks such as turret beating is really underpowered in other departments, theyre completely outdone at pushing bots by tanks, sins and snipers, their suppresion and pro killing skills are really wasted when you put them against an assault or snipers who can really do zoning, this leaves a very cool class very much in a grey area of what to do, hes FAR to vunerable to sins and snipers when it comes to wading into the thick of combat, hes to slow to chase anything down and to inaccurate to fight at long range, even with the mortar as a secondary weapon, its hard to time and has a relatively long flighttime.


So, here are a couple of thoughts and suggestions that i think may improve the gunner without making him super OP.


1. A mobility skill, the gunner is slow, his body shape, weapons and skills all point towards him being at the forefront, mowing down pros with his minigun and pushing towards the enemy base, and yet... Hes slow, unwieldly, and he dosent have the HP to handle the damage from the other longer ranged classes, not just snipers but tank railguns, assault AR etc, etc.

I understand that the gunner already had such a skill but it was deemed to powerful so they removed it? If this is correct then i do not understand why they did not simply tweak it down, the class really really needs it.

2. When a gunner deploys with rank 3, he gains the face mask making him immune to headshots, thats all well and good, unfortuneately hes then locked in place, vunerable to bodyshots, 100% trapped, if he tries to move the mask will slide up before he is able to move and he will be headshot, if he stays the bodyshots will whittle him down till hes dead.

My suggestion would be to make the mask stay down for perhaps 4-5 seconds after mobility is regained to allow the gunner to run for cover, Infact i would not be opposed to a gunner gaining immunity to headshots completely at level 3 passive, it would not only be a massive buff to the character, allowing him to more effectively push lanes against the snipers, but also create a more reliable counter to the sniper class, his range short enough to keep him balanced against sniper without making him to powerful.



Im sure theres lots of other tweaks the class could undergo to make him more favourable to play, feel free to suggest them here, this is just my 2 cents on the class.

I used to play gunner a lot, but ever since the jumpjet nerf.. ugh.

I still play him occasionally and still do well, it's just not as much fun as it was before so I have little desire to.

I also love the idea of permanent faceshield at deploy lv3.

Rate of fire + clip size + grenade spam = awesome.

He was fine before the jumpjet nerf. Now he's lost most of his limited mobility so he's pretty easy to kill. He does have a lot of firepower. Anyone stupid enough to get into his range dies in less than a second. Anyone decent can still top kills with him but would probably do even better with another class.

I don't like the permanent headshot immunity. That'd be like giving snipers backstab immunity

The best buff I've seen posted was to give back the no cd jumpjets at level 3.

Gunner certainly hasn't aged well when the game first released.

Everyone would suggest gunner to new players because of how easy he was to pick up but his role hasn't grown in comparison to how players' skill may grow.

A new mobility option may help. Console wishlist talked about throwing bots with grapple. I'm not sure if that was serious but it was lulzy.

I think the headshot immunity would work if they left it at that, he is slow enough with short enough range on his main weapon that snipers who are aware of their surroundings will have plenty of time to clear out the way, remembering that this would be a level 3 skill, whic means it would probably be fairly late game, a gunner would have to sacrifice alot of firepower if he wanted to get that skill fast.

By the time a gunner has got the skills neccesary to be a threat to the sniper, the sniper will have plenty of options available to him, flak 3, trap 3 etc.

As I said I main as a sniper, been playing sniper pretty constantly for the last 80 or so levels, and I do feel guilty when poor old gunners come stomping out of spawn only to be killed over and over, no other class has to go through that, once the sniper has pushed up to the enemys base the gunners may as well stop playing right now, and thats not because sniper is super crazy op like so many would like to suggest, its because gunners are just underpowered.

If they felt the need to take away gunners jumpjet completely im sure it was for good reason, i didnt play early enough beta to see that skill in action, however a tweaked down version, that would allow the gunner to cross SHORT distances very quickly would seem to be a suitable buff as well, maps like grenade where the gunner has to try and dodge from cover to cover, i suspect that even the very best gunners on that map will struggle horrendously, allowing them to quickly cross LoS would be an excellent buff.


((Also note that i am suggesting implementing one or the other, NOT both, because they would just be op ^^.))

The reason they gave was that PC controls gave jumpjets too much precision. Problem is that PC also allows for much better aim so even if gunner is in the air a lot, they're still an easy target.

I do well with every class but gunner.. I kick *** with assault.. can easily go 30+ kills on a long game..

but good god.. gunner seems so weak compared to every other class..

I think they should give tank the slam and gunner the charge, that might help a lot.. but who knows..


that said, ive seen people do really well with him, but almost all of them are mortar spamming. not that its not effective, its just not my playstyle..

he certainly needs more mobility.. I would love if he had a dash of some sort.. or just give him better jumpjets than the tank has.. like twice the length or something..

or pay some support to pocket you and you cant loose

I think good positioning is very underestimated in this game by most players. Gunner, as the slowest class, is punished the hardest for making a misstep, position wise. Other classes (especially Assault or Assassin) have escape techniques which radically alter their position in a matter of seconds, but the Gunner is very sluggish to respond to sudden threats.

I have seen Gunner played well that absolutely devastates people. Mortar spamming from a distant, safe location to keep the lane pushed and enemy Pros under fire is an extremely effective tactic. Ambushing your enemies from around corners with your chain gun is devastating to most classes if caught off guard (the chain gun's DPS is off the charts if all of the bullets in it's wide spread register). Gunners are also an excellent class at pinning enemies into their base to maintain an aggressive position at the enemy moneyball with their deploy ability. Getting on top of the "outer circle" on the enemy's side of Steel Peel and deploying near a corner with friendly support (as in teammates, not just the class) turns the Gunner into a dangerous weapons platform that makes it difficult to bust the contain.

However, in my experience, most players in pubs tend to not play so defensively and step carefully as the Gunner, carelessly running into Sniper fire and overextending themselves to the point where they're easy to chase down when they try retreating from overwhelming firepower.

Personally, I think the Gunner is fine. This game is very new on the market and -- as it has said before -- the metagame needs to have time to develop before we can make any sure calls on balance.

Gunner is weird. He seems to work very well with new players and be effective. It just feels like as you get better at the game, gunner can't keep pace. You end up being able to do far more with the other classes. The limited mobility feels like it creates a lower skill ceiling than the other classes.

I think Gunner overall could use some help, but not necessarily a lot.

A supported Gunner is a pain in the *** to deal with. The raw firepower they pack can be devastating when their poor mobility is compensated for by good team support. If you have a Sniper on overwatch, for example, it makes it easy to zone enemy players into an easily mortar spammed area, while also keeping the enemy at bay, preventing them from attacking the Gunner too openly (or carelessly), allowing him to advance or retreat more freely. A Support healing the Gunner gives him a significant amount of HP to chew through for any class, while also offering the protection of his shotgun if someone tries to bum rush the Gunner from a flank. His deployable Firebase also works as a great "pivot point" for the Support/Gunner team to use as a fallback point.

I loved Gunner in the beta before the jumpjets were nerfed. Now I feel I can be of more help to my team as Assault or Tank.

Especially the Tank beats the Gunner in almost every way:
- long-range hitscan weapon
- better bot pusher
- can deal with Assassins better
- higher mobility with charge (lol whut?)
- heals faster (deploy in a quiet corner for 3 seconds, worth the $150 imo)
- clutch to heal up completely in a tight spot
- can blind/stun enemies, turrets and Jackbots
- it's a lot easier to grapple juiced enemies (thanks charge)
- can survive even a headshot with the right endorsements
- no slowdown when using your main weapon
- no nerve-wrecking reload time
- beard!!!

Then only thing where the Gunner really can shine is taking out turrets from a long distance. If there is a semi-skilled Sniper on the other team however...

Gunner is stupid useful. He has much more firepower than the Assault and destroys any class int eh game besides snipers and assassins(debatable). Just like TF2's Heavy, Gunner benefits greatly from heals and with a Support he can seem extremely broken.

Yes, with good Snipers he can be left completely useless because he has absolutely NO mobility unlike the equally large Tank. I feel that the gunner should get some kind of anti sniper weapon outside of the Mortars. Mortars are just simply not good enough to deal with Snipers a lot of the time. I like the infinite face shield at L3 deploy because it would save him from a headshot and would give him a reason to spend more money. Snipers can still RoF him to death but this would give him a much higher mortality rate.

All in all, Gunner outclasses any other class in kills. That's really not debatable. He can single handedly take down entire sections of a map very easily and out-damage Tanks and Assaults without breaking a sweat.

BTW guys, the game didn't just come out. The PC game isn't a completely different game than the Xbox version. All tactics remain the same. That's why having xbox experience helps so dramatically with the returning players.

My post is from the perspective of a player in random matches. There are very few Supports who will pause to overheal their 3.3 150% health firebase to heaal you up when your health is red. I actively search out players close to me once my firebase is hacked and overhealed and try to keep at least 2-3 teammates overhealed to push. There are too few other Supports doing that...

PS: You have no idea how often I leave the spawn room at the beginning of the match with TWO Supports on the team and they didn't even bother to overheal one other player... :roll:

Sad but true. I'd heal you Jessop :cry: .

Thank you! I'll try to return the favor whenever possible.

Do you play Support? Your avatar, and sig confuse me :?

All i need is some Gunner support

I main Assault but the Support is one of my favorites. I'm still learning how to play Support and will usually only use him on maps with sufficient cover. There are way better Supports out there (at least K/D wise) but he's so much fun to play...

Yes he is

@ coord, give him leg-it and a RPG

@ topic, i would enjoy the headshot immunity

@ tinygod, smash needs to stay with gunner, i heart it