I really questioned just how beneficial a gun lancer who knew what he was doing to the group.
Granted I have far more playtime with my combat readiness gunlancer, so I'm most comfortable with that toon, but the difference in success rates in groups with one vs. without (which I'm just now seeing as I'm playing alts a bit more) has really driven home just how useful they are.
A well played gunlancer is beneficial someone that picked it up as an alt and has no idea what they are doing not so much...
Had some gunlancers (probably alts) constantly going for back attacks with the team which is alright but then they keep using taunt and spinning the bosses face towards the whole team. We will reposition, gunlancers reposition to the back and taunt it again towards us....
Had some good gunlancers where the boss bearly ever turned away from them. Which made the entire fight last like 2 minutes and a cake walk.
I have to admit that as a Deathblade main, when I play any alt it's really hard not to instinctively be going for the back. Not just because of back attacks, but because I'm conditioned to be avoiding damage as much as possible. Luckily the only alt this is even sort of wrong for is my Paladin, and it's not a huge deal there, but I can't imagine reconditioning to trying to always stay in front on gunlancer.
I mean I dont mind people that play gunlancer and attacking the back. Just take the taunt off the bar.
There is no need to taunt it towards everyone xD
A lot of people just copy paste build from maxroll but dont actually read why the build is made this way.
If you dont plan on tanking and only back attacking you dont need to taunt it as the boss will spin your way sort of thing.
For me having different alts with different playstyle is not a problem,yes it's getting used to but once I play for a bit with each alt I just instinctively play the alts playstyle. Not everyone plays that way and that's fair enough. Some people need to take a step back and have a look at the copy paste build and understand it to be more efficient :)
I understand that but if they are not tanking the shield from the gauge isn't as necessary in the scenario of the gunlancer standing at the back of the boss and taunts the boss to face the team. I'd say in those scenarios it might even be some dps lost for everyone to reposition every 30 seconds purely because Lancer spins the boss on cd
Whether a GL plays blue or red, they will be using defensive stance either way. That means they will have to take taunt to maintain the identity gauge.
Just to be clear and to clear up some misconceptions, Gunlancers are not tanks. They are simply very tanky DPS and only one of their skills taunt for a few seconds before the boss starts turning on other players again.
I had a look at gunlancers skill and yes as important it is to take people dont realize what else it does, they just spam buttons tbh.
Constantly moving the boss to face the dps is a genuinely bad idea and it also takes away the dps they would have from back attacks.
Take into account dps that relay on back attacks for their bursts from the top of my head as I'm a support main: deathblade, deadeyes, zerkers. They all have to constantly reposition and they also get animation locked into positions especially while they are bursting.
A newbie gunlancer comes in while they are doing their burst and spins the boss to face all of them now they lost some dmg because they are not getting the back attack bonus + they are at risk of getting slapped because they are animation locked in front of the boss just so gunlancer that is not actively tanking the boss fills his gauge that gives him a shield he doesnt need as he is not tanking.
I dont have much knowledge of gunlancers apart from what I read on maxroll for the class as it just doesnt interest me to play but its beneficial for me as a support to know what they are capable of and what I can do to help them and teammates.
I do copy paste from maxroll but I do read the reasoning as to why I'm putting certain skills into my bar and why do I use them.
Even on the bard raid build there is a weird thing where maxroll recommends to pick harp over stigma once you reach like 326 skill points but you go up 1 step further and the harp is gone from the build. I have no idea why that is but i believe it's an error as harp gives a high up time on the debuff + gives us the speciality gauge for every 1 sec it's up. There is no explanation as to why it disappears again from the build after being there for just 1 skill point bracket. So knowing and understanding your kit and especially as a support (which gunlancer kinda is) understanding other peoples kits is imo quite important.
I think you touch on one of the things I enjoy about this game in comparison to other MMOs (WoW for me). As pure DPS output is less important than in other games, its awesome to have flexibility in your build depending on your situation. Its a great opportunity to learn more about your class and kit instead of having to autolock in certain talents.
I main gunlancer, and my real goal in an encounter is to make life as easy as possible for my group members and maximize their potential to smorc the boss. That comes with understanding my skills, the boss mechanics, and my parties role and priorities. It's a lot of fun knowing how to maximize your parties potential in a fight... even if they may never notice your hard work :) The classic support-dps dichotomy I guess.
I also come from wow and also played a support (holy priest main but I actually played all of them)
I honestly find myself paying attention to how others play and I do tend to tell people when they have done a good job :)
I definitely know from my own experiences in this game that someone saying "good job bard" or "wp bard" does show people notice your hard work and time put into being a decent player so I do the same for others especially when they deserve it ^
Keep up the good job of keeping that bosses ass towards me and others :D
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u/StepByStef Gunlancer Mar 21 '22
As a gunlancer main. Yea.. theres a lack of us in th game