Gunner

Introduction:

Gunner is a heavy metal armor class, which means that they don’t have a ton of movement speed, but this also lends to the fact that they have the widest range in the game at ~30 meters. This class is sadly only available to Castanic Females, High Elf Females, and Elins… _{…I’d totally dig a Castanic Male or Aman Male Gunner, ngl.}

That being said, don’t get me wrong– this does not mean you’re a tank, nor does it mean that you can’t move fast when necessary, especially with all of your new Apex Skills. If you build her right, a Gunner can be devastating, invaluable damage in a group setting, and a tricky opponent in PvP.

As a disclaimer, almost all of the things discussed in here are purely for a PvE setting, as I’m unfortunately not well versed in PvP. We will still go over the effects certain attacks have on other players, however, if you’d like to forge a rotation and setup of your own.

So! Let’s Go Over Your Arsenal:

Scattershot: Your Bread and Butter. It’s a shotgun blast that I think extends about 20 meters. The bullet in the middle often times deals the most damage, and crits the most often.

Rolling Reload: Becomes “Dashing Reload” with the Modular Weapon System active. Automatically resets your Scattershot cooldown while also serving as your I-Frame. The newest Apex Patch automatically gives you two uses, while previous patches relied on a % Chance to reset Rolling Reload after the first use. When the Modular Weapon System is active, Rocket Reload also triggers the new buff, Expedition, which increases your in-combat movement speed after you use it for a few seconds. Rolling Reload/Dashing Reload can also be used to cancel all animations except for Balder’s Vengeance.

Arcane Barrage: Your major damage dealer outside of Enrage Periods. You’ll want to land this hit as close to your target as possible, despite the detonation of Arcane Barrage having a wide AOE. This way, your robot companion, HB, aka Best Boi™, can follow up your shot with mortar fire, as long as it’s within 40 meters of you. In PvP, this can stagger and has a chance to knockdown, I believe. Range is 22 meters.

Replenishment: Flip your gun like you’re Revolver Ocelot. No, seriously, do it– doing so generates Willpower, and has a 50% chance to either reset the cooldown of Arcane Barrage, Scattershot, or both. And I mean… It looks cool.

Mana Missiles: Press and hold the skill button to charge up your shot, giving you a dance of 5 missiles that extend up to 30 meters. Simply tapping the button gives you two missiles. This has a new damage buff as of the Apex Patch called Missile Reinforcement, where using Burst Fire before using Mana Missiles can give them extra damage. Mixing this with the Carving Mana Missiles Glyph packs quite a punch. This is a guaranteed knockdown in PvP as long as a missile hits your target.

Arc Bomb: One of Gunner’s guaranteed Stuns. This also deals a fair bit of damage to your target, has a range of 14 meters, and takes a good half-second to cast, then bounces towards its target after it’s thrown. The stun duration can be increased via Glyphs. Arc Bomb can be struck with other attacks while active, making it detonate prematurely while also tripling it’s normal Crit Rate, giving it roughly the same damage as a Time Bomb.**

**Note:** If it seems like it takes a while for you to hit Arc Bomb with moves like Remote Trigger and Detonate, you may have higher ping, making it difficult to prematurely detonate certain moves with others. That’s perfectly okay– I have high ping too on a good day, and frame drops on others. Premature detonation is a useful tool, sure, but not 100% necessary.

Time Bomb: Trap Skill + Decent damage dealer. Gains Remote Trigger as of Apex Patch, where Time Bomb is now a three part combo. Tap the button once to fire a normal Time Bomb— deals damage, slows any enemies in it’s circle and knocks them into the air upon detonation. Tap the button again to fire a second bomb, and a third time to fire a laser to detonate both bombs prematurely, dealing heavy damage. If left alone, Time Bomb will detonate after 2 seconds, and has a firing range of 20 meters.

Point Blank: Gunner’s only Melee skill. Swing your 3-4 foot, 400lb gun at any enemy within 7 meters, staggering them, then fire your gun again to stagger them once more while moving yourself about 8 meters away in any direction. I personally purely use this as movement tech to get myself out of sticky situations and AOEs, like S-Bomb in RK-9, for example. Since Point Blank is a two-parter, you can change directions with your second shot.

Rocket Jump: Movement Tech/Attack. Fire at the ground to move yourself 16 meters in any direction. You are immune to knockdown while you’re in the air, and I believe anyone standing near your blastoff point is briefly staggered in PvP. As of Apex Patch, this gains the buff “Rear Attack/ Back Blast”, where you gain 5 seconds of free back damage upon landing on the ground, like Archer’s Find Weakness/Velik’s Mark. This is incredibly useful for when a boss or opponent turns to face you, robbing you of your back damage. Pair this new buff with your harder hitting moves like Bombardment, Obliteration, and Balder’s Vengeance, and you can chew through a boss’s health bar from the front, if necessary.

Burst Fire: Surprise! You have a mini gun. Press and hold the Skill button to expend your Willpower and gun down your enemy. Burst Fire is both penetrative, up to about 3 enemies deep, and it slows, slowing down your target as they take each successive shot. This skill also has the ability to increase in crit the longer you fire. With the Modular Weapon System active, Burst Fire becomes Targeted Burst Fire, and your Modular Weapon System tacks on extra damage per every… 2 shots, or so? It also makes you go “pew pew”, and I’m still delighted by that.

Blast: Your basic, single shot attack. While it alone doesn’t deal much damage, nor does it have a kind of built-in combo, it does have the Swift Blast Glyph that gives you a 15% chance of increasing your attack speed by 15% for 10 seconds, which can help you rattle off your damage that little bit faster. It also makes you go “pew pew” and becomes Detonate when the Modular Weapon System is active 😀

HB: Your robotic best friend. You can summon him by pressing the skill button, and once it lands, the resulting explosion both deals damage and is a knockdown in PvP. Firing Arcane Barrage gives it a target to fire at upon detonation, making it follow up with 5 successive mortar shots. HB can be made either Empowered via glyphs, increasing it’s damage by 100% and allowing it to heal you if your health is under 100%, or Keen via glyphs, giving it 100% crit, but it no longer heals you. HB will follow you just about anywhere, making it the perfect companion for players who are loners (like I was for a hilariously long time). HB unfortunately cannot go over ledges nor fly, however, but it typically will catch up with you if you move 80 meters away from it, unless you teleport or otherwise die. You can also use the Stay/Follow Command to fix it to one place, making it both a kind of turret and a safe zone to pull yourself to. It will always face you if told to stay in place, and it even has cute idle animations ^//^

Recall: HB is secretly Scorpion from Mortal Kombat, and at your command, will do it’s best “Get Over Here!” Impression and pull you to it from anywhere within a 40 meter radius. You can use Recall even while knocked down, or during other skills. This is also the only move that can cancel Balder’s Vengeance. Recall does work with most gates and some semi-permeable walls, as well as making you pass through most enemies, but use it at your own peril– you can accidentally pull yourself out of a fight! Recall also functions as a pseudo I-frame, where instead of actually making you invincible, it makes the damage you take equal 0, legend has it. This means that certain attacks that require you to use your I-frame, like Lakan’s Soul World Wave, or Argog’s Hunt, will not work with this skill.

ST: Surprise! You have an actual turret. Unfortunately, it doesn’t hit anywhere near as hard as any of your other moves, and is very, very easily destroyed. Range is 18 meters, but it acts as a good dousing rod for certain enemies and bosses, however, as it will aggro and fire in the direction of any enemy within it’s circle, no matter how high or low that enemy is. Works well for guarding ladders from invading players in Corsair’s Stronghold– if it starts firing, there’s someone near, or climbing the ladder.

Self-Destruct: Gunner’s secondary stun move. HB and your ST will explode at your command, stunning enemies within a 4 meter radius. As of Apex Patch, HB’s summon button automatically switches to Self Destruct after it’s summoned. This command works as long as you are within 40 meters of HB or ST, and can even be used while knocked down or using another skill.

Modular Weapon System: Surprise! You’re now a Gundam for about 30 seconds. Your Modular Weapon System grants you extra damage, extra speed, extra animations, and a new skill!

Balder’s Vengeance: You have a Rail Gun. Argument Over. Gunners have a third bar, called Willpower. To use Balder’s, you need to fill your Willpower bar completely by using your skills, and once it’s full, you can unleash all of your fury in a single, high damage, high crit blast that has a range of 30 meters, and is a knockdown in PvP. With the Modular Weapon System active, this skill gains an extra 20% damage as your Modular Weapon System fans out to spread your deadly blast into 5 devastating lasers.

Bombardment: Your Willpower for Free Card. Fire 11 shots into the air and rain them down on your enemy in a wide AOE. You can aim and fire Bombardment 25 meters away from you. As of the Apex Patch, Bombardment no longer requires Willpower to fire, and if the shot is perfect and all 11 hits land on your target, it will nearly fill your Willpower bar. Bombardment becomes Obliteration upon activating the Modular Weapon System. Upon firing Obliteration, you become invincible and lift into the air to unleash a Hail Mary a set distance from where you’re standing, replenishing your Willpower bar as long as several of those hits land. All attacks after casting Obliteration have double the chance to crit, and are free back damage for a few seconds. Damage during Obliteration triples if a missile hits Arcane Splash. I think this move staggers in PvP, and causes knockdown when using Obliteration.

**Note:** Bombardment Cancel, Willpower, and You!: As it turns out, Gunners can passively generate Willpower, now, as long as a certain exploit isn’t patched. Aiming and firing Bombardment, then canceling before it’s fired with either Rolling Reload or Recall grants the buff, One with the Gun, and allows a gunner to build Willpower passively as long as they’re outside of a fight. I’ll expand on why this is super useful in a note on Gunner Rotation.

Gunner Rotation:

So, like I said, gunner is a bit versatile in this regard. There is a general consensus on a few things that I’ll mention here, but if anyone else would like to pitch in, feel free 😀

I like to think I know my stuff, but if there’s something I’m missing, please do let me know.

For my rotation, it looks something like this:

Mana Missiles**

(See second Note below)

Scattershot

Rolling Reload

Arcane Barrage/Scattershot/Arcane Barrage Detonation

Time Bomb/Remote Trigger Combo

Replenishment

Burst Fire

In this rotation, you’re looking to see if Replenishment resets both Scattershot and Arcane Barrage. If it did, repeat from Arcane/Scattershot/Arcane Detonation until it doesn’t, follow up with Burst Fire, then start over with Mana Missiles. Each time you repeat your rotation, ending in Burst Fire and starting again with Mana Missiles, Mana Missiles will have increased damage. There are a few things that you can do if one or neither of the two moves don’t reset, however:

If Arcane Resets Only: Use Rolling Reload to reset Scattershot once you arrive at this step, then continue from there with Arcane/Scattershot/Arcane Detonation.

If Scattershot Resets Only: Restart your rotation at Mana Missiles, then Replenish again once it’s time to use Arcane. If you’ve sacrificed your goat to RNGesus like you’re supposed to, then you should get the reset, and can carry on from there. If not, Burst Fire and start once more.

**Note:** The reason we’re breaking up simply shooting Arcane Barrage like this is because we lose precious DPS time by waiting for Arcane to hit it’s target if you’re far away, and being Melee range gets rid if any extra crit granted by your Spiteful Crystal, where you gain either extra crit/damage from landing shots at range from the back or side.

So, we’re filling up that time with extra damage, and I’ve found that the easiest way to do this is to use Scattershot.

I’ve seen other gunners managing to throw moves like Arc Bomb or Time Bomb in, THEN detonating Arcane Barrage, but I personally don’t feel I’m skilled enough for this, since the timing for the combo we’re doing is already tricky. For the most part though, most end-game gunners that I’ve talked to agree that filling that pause in your DPS with extra damage is pretty vital to your overall output.

If you feel confident enough to put Arc Bomb or other moves into the rotation at different points, or even want to just put Arc Bomb back into the rotation I mentioned here, please feel free, as it alone actually deals a decent amount of damage.

**Note:** Because of Bombardment Cancel, you can actually start your rotation with Burst Fire, and build up orbs of Arcane Splash immediately in a fight. This allows you to gain your stacks of Missile Reinforcement immediately as well, and allows you to promptly burst your Arcane Splash orbs with the successive shot of Mana Missiles. The rest of the rotation is unaffected by this change, but getting Burst Fire out early can even help with an Enrage Rotation setup, as Arcane Splash orbs can be destroyed by Obliteration.

In my experience in using this trick, in the opening seconds of the fight, I can spawn about 4-5 orbs using Burst Fire alone. Then, if the Boss is Enraged immediately, I can quickly follow up with the Enrage Rotation described below, dealing massive amounts of damage. This will mean that you’ll have to spend a few seconds flipping your gun before a fight, but the payoff is worth it.

How to Use Bombardment Cancel:

Press the Bombardment skill button once to activate the aiming circle. Press it again to fire, but before your character finishes spinning around and points their gun in the air, use Rolling Reload or Recall to cancel the animation. You should see the buff, One with the Gun, appear on your buff bar after doing this, with a timer of 60 seconds. You have exactly that long to fill your Willpower bar before you either reset the timer by using the exploit again, or allowing your Willpower to rapidly degrade, emptying your bar.

Enraged Boss Rotation:

It’s time for your big guns! Whenever a boss’s health bar starts glowing red, they are Enraged, which means that they’re faster and hit harder, but, I believe their Endurance takes a dip, which leaves them vulnerable to your heaviest attacks for 30 seconds. That means you have exactly that long to blow them sky high! Let ’em have it!!

Power Brooch

Bombardment

Modular Weapon System Activation

Obliteration

(You can end this long animation early by using Balder’s Vengeance about halfway through, or using Dashing Reload, and HB joins in on the fun with this one, too! :D)

Balder’s Vengeance

Resume Non Enrage Rotation until Replenishment

Burst Fire until Modular System Ends

Since the Modular System lasts for about 30 seconds, that’s the perfect time to activate it and lay waste to the boss’s health bar. You can repeat this roughly every minute, save using Balder’s Vengeance if you have the Energetic Balder’s Glyph, which has a cooldown of around 2 minutes. You’ll probably be a few seconds behind in the Enrage by the time it’s up again, but you should probably be getting off at least two shots of Balder’s in your average boss fight if your DPS overall is good. Modular System is about half that time, and so is Bombardment, so they can be used every Enrage period.

Enraged Rotation – Balder’s Vengeance:

Bombardment

Modular Weapon System Activation

Obliteration

(You can shorten this long animation by using Burst Fire about halfway through, which will drop you to the ground.)

Resume Non Enrage Rotation until Replenishment

Burst Fire until Modular System Ends

Blast Attack Speed Buff + Gunner Rotation

Now, I mentioned above that Blast, your basic attack, has a Glyph that gives you a chance to increase your Attack Speed. This actually helps with the trickier part of the rotation, the Arcane/Scattershot/Arcane Detonation, if you so choose. I believe it’s 4 Glyph Points to use it, so if you’d like the occasional boost in attack speed, feel free. That rotation, as I understand it, however, would look like this:

Mana Missiles

Blast

(15% Increase in Attack Speed Buff would occur here)

Scattershot

Rolling Reload

Arcane Barrage/Scattershot/Arcane Barrage Detonation

Time Bomb/Remote Trigger Combo

Replenishment

(Restart from Arcane/Scattershot/Arcane Detonation if both reset)

Burst Fire

Edit: As of Patch v92.01 of June 8th, 2021, the Stigma system on console was introduced. I won’t go into detail about what the Stigma is or does here, but it does allow players to tack on extra stat effects without compromising gear slots. If so desired, Stigma can be used to further increase attack speed permanently, rendering the use of the Blast Attack Speed Buff unnecessary, at least in my opinion.

Gunner Glyphs, Cooldowns, and Racial Buffs, and Passive Gunner Buffs:

Here, we’ll be going over the Glyphs I’ve set for the class in PvE and some of my reasoning as to why. We’ll also talk about the benefits of being Castanic, High Elf, or Elin, and the extra buffs Gunners benefit from during combat.

Blast: None, however you can sacrifice those 4 Glyph Points here for a 15% chance at increased Attack Speed.

Bombardment:

Hastened Bombardment: Increases Casting Speed by 20%. A must-have for Enrage Periods.
Carving Bombardment: Doubles the Chance to Crit.

Scattershot:

Brilliant Scattershot: Reduces MP Cost by 50. This actually isn’t 100% necessary, unless you find that you’re constantly having Mana problems, even with a Battle Solution. I would recommend getting Dyad Niveots that replenish your MP over time in this case, specifically ones for your armor. I personally make use of Glisteningly Hardy, Brilliantly Hardy, and Cunningly Hardy Niveot Structures. A Glisteningly Poised Niveot works here, as well.
Empowered Scattershot: Increases skill damage by 25%. The more damage, the merrier, right?

Point Blank: None.

Burst Fire:

Affirmative Burst Fire: Reduces Willpower Cost by 10. Fire for moderately longer, and get those crits in! The Penetrative power of Burst Fire still works on all enemies, but the slowing effect unfortunately does not work on Bosses and Elite Monsters.
Longshot Burst Fire: Increases range by 5 meters. This means that if you stand at the very edge of it’s attack, you can Burst Fire during the Avenging Talons Superior Guardian Legion Mission when Magnuut uses it’s Chained Aerial Attack. Nothing’s getting away from you!
Glyph of Power: Increases skill damage by 15%. Hit ’em harder!
*Restorative Burst Fire*: Recovers 1% of total HP on each hit. This is 100% optional, and mostly relegated for long battles of attrition, like Guardian Legion Missions, where you can easily take damage. Gunners can eat a bit more damage than most ranged DPS, but if you feel you can’t survive certain boss attacks for too long, having this glyph can be a literal life saver. This absolutely will not heal you 100%, at best restoring about a quarter to a third of your health if near death.

Time Bomb:

Empowered Time Bomb: Increases skill damage by 25%. Knock ’em up, then Knock ’em dead. Unfortunately, the knock up and slowing effect does not work on Bosses and Elite Monsters.

Arcane Barrage:

Ardent Arcane Barrage: Generates an additional 15 Willpower on each hit. Until an Enrage rolls around, you’ll be conserving your Willpower and using it sparingly. Even though Bombardment replenishes a decent chunk of your Willpower, there isn’t a 100% guarantee you’ll land the perfect shot every time. Having an existing pool of Willpower to pull from is also important.
Empowered Arcane Barrage: Increases skill damage by 20%. Gotta have all the extra damage in the world!
Swift Arcane Barrage: Increases Attack Speed by 30% until Arcane Barrage Detonates. This is where you’d still have some extra attack speed if you didn’t use the % Chance in Blast. This will also make it easier to use moves like Scattershot once you have the timing down.

Mana Missiles:

Carving Mana Missiles: Triples the chance to crit. Pairing this with Missile Enhancement makes Mana Missiles a viable damage dealer aside from Arcane Barrage, which is your main.

Arc Bomb: None.

Rocket Jump:

Energetic Rocket Jump: Decreases cooldown by 25%. Using this with a high tier Energetic Etching means that you have free back damage about every 7 seconds.

Balder’s Vengeance:

Energetic Balder’s Vengeance: Decreases cooldown by 20%. Originally, without this Glyph, the cooldown time for this skill was 5 minutes, and was later decreased to 4. An Energetic Etching can further decrease this time somewhat.
Empowered Balder’s Vengeance: Increases skill damage by 20%. I said, “Hit ’em harder”, didn’t I?

Replenishment:

Ardent Replenishment: Generates an additional 50 Willpower when the skill is used. Replenishment is quite literally your Willpower Button, besides Bombardment. You’ll be using this skill pretty often in a fight for other reasons, but the extra Willpower to fuel your skills is nice.
Energetic Replenishment: Decreases skill cooldown by 30%. The more often you can flip your gun like you’re in a Cowboy Movie, the more often you can use Arcane Barrage and Scattershot.

HB:

Empowered HB: Increase skill damage by 100%. You can give your best buddy all the damage in the world, if you so desire. This does mean that HB will crit less often, but when it does, it’ll hit like a truck.
Keen HB: HB will have doubled Crit Factor for 1 second, but will no longer heal you. This is a bit more useful if you are trying to Slay at any point. This way, you can keep your health low while also dealing maximum damage, but I otherwise don’t recommend this Glyph.

ST: None. And sadly, you will hardly ever make use of ST.

Recall:

Energetic Recall: Decreases Cooldown by 20%. I call this move my “Oh Sh!t! Button.” If you’re in a bind, or have used up Rolling Reload, having Recall up may be the only thing that can save you.

Self-Destruct: None.

Rolling Reload: None. However, Energetic Rolling Reload could easily come in handy in many situations.

Gunner Races and Their Benefits:

Castanic: With both a passive crit buff for attacking from behind, and a generally lowered Crit Cap, Castanic gunners have some pretty good reasons for picking them in character creation. Rumor has it that their animations are generally slower, however, so keep this in mind if you’re looking to Min/Max.

High Elf: While they might not have the crit of their Castanic counterparts, rumor has it that High Elves have overall faster animations, by comparison. Pair that with their racial ability of Mana Regeneration, and you’ll start to see why High Elf Gunners are also a pretty good choice besides… ahem, some obvious, very bouncy reasons.

Elin: Despite their popularity as a race in general, Elins don’t necessarily have any Racial Buffs that help define them as a good choice, but rather have some of the fastest animations in the game, allegedly. Pairing this with short cooldowns from Etchings, Glyphs, and Stigma can make them a force and to be reckoned with.

Passive Gunner Buffs:

Gunners get a number of handy buffs that help them conserve Willpower between fights, bolsters their damage, and even saves their lives when they’re in peril. We’ll also discuss the benefits of a mount’s passive buff, and how that can further beef up your damage.

Gun Enthusiast: Movement Speed increases by 50% after dealing a fatal blow to an enemy for 5 seconds. All Gunners start generating Willpower after level 10, and landing a killing blow on an enemy grants them 100 Willpower. This makes Ad Fights between bosses very important for Gunners, ironically, along with one other skill we’ll discuss.

One With the Gun: Gunners can store any Willpower they’ve gained for up to 60 seconds, and afterwards it decays rapidly. Damaging an enemy restarts this countdown. This means that it’s in a Gunner’s best interest to at least land one hit on an Ad before a fight to conserve their Willpower for their next encounter. This also facilitates strats like Enraging the boss at the start of a fight, so Gunners can get the ball rolling on damage that much faster. In short, save an ad for your Gunner! They can use it to maintain Willpower.

Arcane Splash: Not to be confused with Emerald Splash, Arcane Splash is a new way for Gunners to land additional damage on their enemies, creating a minefield of damage. As of Apex Patch, skills like Arcane Barrage, Remote Trigger, Scattershot, Burst Fire, Targeted Burst Fire, and Bombardment all have a % Chance of spawning an orb of raw Arcane Energy, which can also be detonated with the following skills for additional damage:

Blast
Burst Fire/ Targeted Burst Fire
Mana Missiles
Obliteration

Back Blast/Rear Attack: Have I mentioned that names are weirdly inconsistent in this game? After using Rocket Jump, all attacks on monsters are considered as attacks from behind for 5 seconds. Free back damage, yay! This buff activates as soon as you land, and instantly applies even if an attack is already airborne and hasn’t hit it’s target yet.

Missile Reinforcement: Each successful hit of Burst Fire gives a stack of Missile Reinforcement that increases the skill damage of Mana Missiles. 2.5% extra damage is gained per stack, maxing out at 10 stacks for a total of 25% extra damage. This is why we start our rotation with Mana Missiles, and end on Burst Fire. Each repetition of the rotation gains an extra 25% damage to start.

Skillful Loading: Replenishment decreases the skill cooldowns of Mana Missiles, Arc Bomb, and Arcane Barrage by 1.5 seconds after use.

Emergency Barrier: One free pass on Death. If a gunner sustains a fatal blow, their health drops to 1, and they are shielded for up to 6 seconds, or until the barrier absorbs a certain amount of damage. Cooldown for this buff is once every hour. However, if the fatal blow is higher than the Gunner’s total HP, or was intended as a Wipe, it is highly likely that the gunner will still die, despite Emergency Barrier’s Activation.

Examples of this would be Lilith’s Sleep Mechanic, which Gunners can survive if they can be cleansed in time, versus Lakan’s Cleanse Wipe Mechanic, where the Gunner will die regardless.

Dragon Master and Penumbra Rex: This is a general rule of thumb for all DPS classes, really, but getting yourself a Dragon is nearly invaluable. Whether it’s earned through the Isle of Dawn, or bought in the Tera Store for… a worrying amount of money, a Dragon can further push your damage via the Dragon Master Buff, while dragons like Duskscale offer a secondary buff known as Penumbra Rex. At random intervals, after a successful crit, Dragon Master increases your Crit Power by 1 for 6 seconds, which is a decent boost in damage, while Penumbra Rex activates Draconic Lineage, which increases your Crit Power by 2 for 6 seconds.

It’s an option to consider, and not so much a necessity, but if you’d like a cool flying mount with the ability to randomly grant you increased Crit Power, be my guest. I personally have several characters with dragons for the sake of their Crit Power.

Gunner Positioning:

Here, I’ll help define a Gunner’s place and position in a fight, and why they’ll want to be there. I’ve seen a worrying amount of gunners attacking from the sides or front of a boss, so I figured I might as well help clear up some misconceptions.

Hit them from the Back. As of Patch 89.01 back on January 4th of 2021, all back attacks are indicated with an arrow. Use this to reorient yourself to the back of the boss, and all classes, with the exception of Tanks unless they equip back crystals, deal more damage from the back.

And yes, this does mean you’ll be staring at a boss’s butt for basically the entire fight, but if you hit ’em hard and your group knows what they’re doing, you won’t be looking at it for too long. Unless you’re an Ass Man and that’s totally your thing– no shame here.

Now, if you’re in a pinch, or your back is against the wall, but you want to still hit your target as hard as you can, use Rocket Jump. Like I’ve detailed above, it gives you 5 seconds of free back damage, and sometimes, 5 seconds is all you need.

Otherwise, make a habit of moving to the back of a boss when it’s safe to do so, or about as close as you can get without being flattened repeatedly. Healers can most likely reach you if you’re within 10 meters of the boss, and thus give you the buffs you need to destroy whatever is in your way. It’ll be difficult, I know, but this distance will not only force you to familiarize yourself with a boss’s moveset, it will also teach you how to maintain that distance despite Gunner’s insane recoil.

Written by Loakins (Loakins217#2879)

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