Which is more fun? Ranger or Gunner?

[Geistritter]

I personally never got bored of Ranger; it was just my first class to hit the level cap, and thus the only one I didn't want to play anymore out of a lack of progress. I found I missed it when I went back to it to get Gunner, though, especially once I learned I had extra PP due to my unit set because of the update.

Gunner can be entertaining, and Satellite Aim is quite powerful, but it's generally a one trick pony, and even though I don't need a replacement for Weak Shot, I absolutely hate Chain Trigger, and not Step Attack drives me fricking nuts. Ranger's more fleshed out, though its damage ceiling is lower than Gunner's, not counting Weak Shot.

I also miss my Launcher a lot. I'm sorry, baby - it wasn't you, it was me.

[njdss4]

Gunner is incredibly inefficient. All of its shots root you, which I find ironic considering it is supposed to be a "mobile" fighter. All of its mechgun PAs have terrible hit paths (other than Dead Approach, I guess) and bad aoe range. Chain Trigger only works with your party and is basically impossible to use on moving targets. On bosses though, you can be as clingy as saran wrap without much fear thanks to the air dodge. For levelling though, I resorted to grenade shell spam (which is 33% wider aoe range than Reverse Tap) with a rifle to keep myself from going sick.

on the other hand, seeing how long I can stay airborne with auto -> auto -> grenade shell after getting some levels in PP Restorate is kind of a fun metagame

tl;dr - GU is great at bosses. For everything else (which is 95% of your time at least) it is all style and no substance.


disclaimer - I never bought into the Matrix shenanigans, but I gave it a chance until lv40 and still prefer the much more straightforward life of RA

Brilliant post. This is exactly how I feel about Gunner and Ranger. Being rooted for basic attacks with mechguns is stupid and dangerous, the PAs mostly require you to be in melee range which is the opposite of what a ranged class should be, the Matrix style moves are flashy yet not very useful, and the mechgun damage is severely lacking when you're not using Chain Trigger.

Ranger may be deemed more "boring", which I still disagree with, but it's undeniably more reliable and efficient damage.

[Maximum Burst]

I enjoy playing Ranger more. I think twin machine guns' shift action should have been the same as the other guns and the side-jumps replace dive roll. I found it troublesome to be restricted to only a certain chain of PAs. The twin machine gun PAs all have situations where they can be very effective, so I thought it would have been nice to be able to have access to the ones you need like with rifle and launcher.

[Galax]

Brilliant post. This is exactly how I feel about Gunner and Ranger. Being rooted for basic attacks with mechguns is stupid and dangerous, the PAs mostly require you to be in melee range which is the opposite of what a ranged class should be, the Matrix style moves are flashy yet not very useful, and the mechgun damage is severely lacking when you're not using Chain Trigger.

Ranger may be deemed more "boring", which I still disagree with, but it's undeniably more reliable and efficient damage.

For the slowmo matrix PAs/Dodge, there is seriously nothing saying you have to use Messiah Time or the third dodge...except the insane invincibility framerate that let me slowmo out of a Vol Dragon flamethrower. Gunner is not limited to mechguns, I think I've said that two times already, you can use rifles too - You're not even forced to be rooted. That being said, there are, as stated above, times when the Mechgun takes priority in combat, becoming extremely useful. Satellite Aim, like Aerial Shooting, like Dead Approach, like Reverse Tap, are (imo) clearly NOT meant to be used one at a time. You need to combo them, like you do with ANY weapon. Take Gunslashes for an example - what are you going to do, sit there and spam the basic slashing/shooting? No, you're going to slash slash pa pa slash pa. But what PAs should you use? You find a combo that suits your style, and you use it. I'm personally a fan of full melee combo, triple slash PA, Rage Dance, Thrillsplosion. Could also replace Thrill with Serpent Air.

Now, yes, Gunblades can also be used to spam a single PA (aiming shot, thrillsplosion, rage dance...in fact this works with almost every Gunslash PA afaik) so maybe it's not the best example. What about Rifles and Launchers, then? Going to put Divine Launcher in all three slots? Maybe just put Sneak Shooter everywhere? No, you're not, you're going to find a combination of three that work well together or theme a weapon. That's what you should do with mechguns, because that's how weapons work - I see a lot of complaints about a single PA here and another one there. Don't like that PA? Don't use it, you don't have to. Don't like the slowmo? Don't. Use. It. It's not that hard.

tldr? I see complaints about singular parts of Gunner. When it comes to weapon selection, by all means, go back to Ranger or what have you. When it comes to most everything else....There's a solution built into the class, or just flat-out common sense.

[Coatl]

When it comes to melee weapons I don't "settle" for 3 PAs.
I put all my PAs in a combination I like, using 2-3 different weapon palletes.
Though Messiah Time sucks so only 5 PAs in Gunners Case.

[Galax]

^I don't use Messiah Time myself, but I can't deny the invincibility frames of the third dodge. I also don't settle for three, I was giving an example.

[Dinosaur]

I'm reading some reoccurring complaints about Twin Mechgun that seem invalid.

Can't attack while moving/rooted during normal attack

You can attack during shift-dodge.

No step-attack

Aerial Shooting and Dead Approach. Aerial Shooting is even chargeable for crazy damage and leads to a free aerial follow up.

Bullet-time dodge is useless

Tons of invincibility frames for evasive purposes. Shift-dodge can be spammed without ever using the third dodge leading to infinite air time. It also enables Gunner to reach heights that other classes cannot via. Jump > charged Aerial Shooting > triple shift-dodge(Trick Rave aerial guard cancel was taken out).

Low damage

Gunner has the most consistent damage output than any other class in the game due to PP attack restore and a 25PP staple damage PA(Satellite Aim). Gunner's true damage potential is also realized when Gear is full. If you want burst, Chain Trigger is there, too(and you don't need to go out of your way for a 100 chain ender, even a 20 chain ender is fine...)

Poor mob clearing capabilities

This is the only one I can somewhat agree with just because Twin Mechgun doesn't have a giant no-brainer AoE move(reverse tap being the closest thing at 35PP...). However, it can certainly be more consistent than HU or FI due to PP attack restore keeping your PP pool healthy. Once your PP is depleted, you can go for three normal attacks then start your PA string to wipe out an enemy, rinse and repeat.

I don't blame people for these complaints though; Twin Mechguns are a very particular weapon that requires its own unique playstyle.

[Galax]

Eh, if mob is used as in "a large mob of people (or monsters in PSO2s case)", then no, it's not the weapon of choice. You should probably pull out your Rifle at that point and then use Grenade/Diffuse Shell. If mob as in...monster, then I don't see that being true, but perhaps that's just me.

[IHeartRice]

It's all a matter of personal preference and/or playstyle...

Prefer to manually align your shots with enemy weak points for amazing damage? Do you also want the ability to support your team with enemy debuffs, traps, and status shots?

You may like Ranger more.

Like a mobile gunfighter similar in vein to Gunslinger from DMC3/DMC4?

You may prefer Gunner.

It also comes down to whether you prefer a Launcher or Twin Mechguns.

[Dan Maku]

People who think Gunners are stuck when firing need to check and see if their shift key is working properly.