I've heard a ton of talk recently about the gunner...

I love how you never stop talking about fighting games, and yet you play with the 360 controller.

The gunner is my least favorite class to play against. I often end up getting taken down by gunner fire while he is still half the map away.

If he's got his back against the wall, and has someone to cover him he gets really annoying to fight against.

The gunner is the best slayer pro in the right hands. Although he doesn't really have any good abilities like the tank/assault/assassin have, it usually takes 2-3 of some of the best players in the game to take me down usually. With any kind of support, or even better, a suport... Gunners can be unstoppable.

The key to playing gunner is using a good accuracy build. I like RoF/Acc/Armor or Acc/RoF/Armor. The first build is better vs. turrets while the second build is better vs. other pros.

Using my RoF/Acc/Armor build, I went 31-5-0 on Lazer Razor. I don't claw or anything. Just normal playing style.

If you are even thinking of playing competitivley, you must run gold armor. You will get ripped to shreds with out it, I know. I used to think "my play style is so good, I don't need armor." Wrong. If you are playing publc games, the above builds are fine.

The gunner's role has sort of shifted. He is perfect to play defense toward the middle of the map. He can jump from walls, push people out of situations, and control bot lanes with one other pro to cover him. The grapple is really good to CC, it kills armorless assassins at lvl 2, which is helpful.

Deploy is fantastic. I am nevered deployed longer than it takes to kill the guy I am activly involved with killing. If he gets away, I undeploy. When he dies, I undeploy. Another pro enters the equation and I have no back up, I undeploy. I am never deployed longer than 5 seconds, never. IF you play this way, deploy is your best and most used skill. This also negates the use of clawing in lots of situations, but knowing how to claw to take on assaults and snipers is really good.

Deploy is also good for killing assassins. If they run at me I deploy and hold A. This emits a constant stream of flame behind you that burns pros behind you. This tactic will not work on good assassins, but poor ones it works like a charm.

I find that Armor, RoF, Accuracy works really well. Accuracy, Armor, RoF is also effective, but you ahve to play more safely with less armor.

My gripes
The Gunner should be able to survive a sword backstab with gold armor. He is a huge dude, with huge armor, If i am going to use Armor as my gold endorsement, I should live. Tanks live with loads of health, so gunners should live with a sliver. I will die most of the time still, but sometimes i will escape.

Speaking of escape, I need a getaway route. I have talked in other places about the Gunner jump ability. Kckzi has also mentioned this. Get rid of the gunner grapple, he has an alt grapple, and let him launch himself straight up. This works well with slam, and getting to bridges. It would have to be tested so that gunners cannot get to places that they should not get to. Maybe flame pads on some rooves or soomething.

without passive, the tank cant survive a backgrapple with gold armor.