The Fanatical Swordsman

Hello, my fellow Gunslingers! Wanting to know what Patch 1.2 will do for the Gunslinger class? Well, look no farther, the following are the changes coming and my thoughts.

The original link is here. This is from the Public Test Server, so take them that way…in progress!

General Smuggler

• Dirty Kick can now be used while moving.

Finally, this has been needed for a while, and it will make the talent Dirty Escape much more useful, as we would always spend the first second of that run speed buff stuck in one place. This has also not been a problem with Agents, so this is needed balance.

• Players can now “Crouch” (but not roll into cover) while immobilized.

OH, THIS IS SO WELCOME! I can’t even tell you how many times I have been rooted by a jump from a Marauder or Juggernaut, only to have another jump me and root me right after that, making it so I couldn’t use any cover skills for upwards of five seconds, which is a year in PvP-time.

• Smugglers can no longer be pushed out of cover via the “cover integrity” mechanic, which has been removed from the game.

What is this Cover Integrity mechanic? Here is the answer from one of the forums about Snipers:

“Explanation for this from ‘Bonklers’ on PTS forum – In some instances, when you hope into real cover and your cover absorbs damage for you, you get a buff called “Cover Integrity” which starts with 3 stacks or something and eventually ticks down to one. When the charges are gone, you are knocked out of cover and can’t re-enter for like 6 seconds.”

Gunslinger

• Due to changes to the Gunslinger skill trees, Gunslingers have had their skill points refunded.
• Flourish Shot now additionally inflicts trauma, reducing all healing the target receives by 20% for 9 seconds.

This puts us on par with Sentinels/Marauders, and it really makes sense. It helps pure-DPS classes compete directly against healers. This is great, and I can’t wait to use it! This will be a must-use skill against both tanks and healers now!

• Saboteur
  • Hot Pursuit has been redesigned. It is now located in Tier 4 of the skill tree and makes Quick Shot cost no Energy for 6 seconds after leaving cover.

  This is a really neat idea, and it fits in well with the mobile nature of the Saboteur. Imagine throwing a Sabotage Charge, then popping out of cover and using Quick Shot to blow up the Contingency Charges for free! Some of us already do this if we are pretty full of energy. One thing I am curious about is whether it will only make the first Quick Shot free, or if it will be all 4 we can slip into the time frame of six seconds.

  • Incendiary Grenade has been improved. It now deals more of its damage in the first few seconds and snares affected targets. If the initial hit strikes a target affected by your Shock Charge, that target is stunned for 2 seconds.

  Well, this is now a really useful capstone talent. I still used it in PvP, as it gives a lot of damage around an objective, and it also serves to interrupt people taking them. It is even more useful to use on the run now, since its main issue was that people would run out of it. It now has that stun too, which is really cool! 1v1s will be even easier in Saboteur.

  • Pandemonium is now located in Tier 2 of the skill tree.

  This is a somewhat lackluster talent, but I expect it will be overhauled at some point. Putting it so low gives us some options, but I never took it anyway, so I don’t know how useful it will be.

  • Sabotage’s range has been increased to 60 meters.

  This is really nice, as people were always running out of range of Sabotage and taking my Shock Charge with them, so I couldn’t blow it up and reset the cooldowns on Cool Head and Defense Screen. How rude of them, running off with my equipment!

• Sharpshooter
  • Burst Volley has been redesigned. It now triggers from dealing damage with blasters and increases Alacrity and Energy regeneration for 10 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 seconds.

  From people that got their Gunslinger copied over to the test server, they said they really loved the new Burst Volley! The energy regeneration is what people are really most excited about.

  • Deadeye is now a 3-point skill that provides the same overall effect.

  I like this because one of my builds had only 3 points in this anyway, so now I can get the same effect as five points! That is two points to go spend somewhere else! I’m like a kid in a toy store; which talent do I want to take with those two points?

  • Holed Up is a new 2-point skill located in Tier 6 of the skill tree that reduces damage taken from area attacks by 60% while Hunker Down is active. This change allows the Sharpshooter to remain in cover more often in situations that force other classes to rapidly change locations.

  This is cool for things like the first boss in Eternity Vault which forces Sharpshooters to leave cover to avoid AoEs. Now, we can just sit there and take it. I don’t think people will use this in PvP, but I will probably be forced to try it, since I sometimes have to PvP in my PvE spec.

  • Snap Shot’s tooltip now correctly mentions that its effect cannot occur more than once every 6 seconds. Functionality has not changed.

  This answers one of the questions that some of us had in this thread. Basically, if you went into cover, then left, then went back in, the Snap Shot buff is not there. A few of us had seen something about not being applied more often than every 6 seconds in Beta, but it might have been another talent, so here is the answer!

• Dirty Fighting (Gunslinger)
  • Bombastic now correctly requires Shrap Bomb.

  I actually never noticed that it didn’t! Bug fix. However, this does affect some people that would do a hybrid build for AoEs and Thermal Detonator without taking Shrap Bomb.

  • Hemorrhaging Blast no longer has an Energy cost.

  This is going to really help the energy problems that DF Gunslingers have, which is helped by the talent Fighting Spirit and a good crit rating, but that requires good gear, so this is a more fundamental balance change.

  • Hold Your Ground’s cooldown reduction for Pulse Detonator has been reduced to 2.5 seconds per point.

  This is kinda sad for those that liked a shorter cooldown on Pulse Detonator, as it will only be a 5 second decrease with both points spent. If it makes you feel any better, they are doing the exact same change to Gunnery Commandos and their AoE knockback, so it is not just limited to us. The Devs obviously want to reduce the number of knockbacks that are being used in PvP, making us have to use them more judiciously, which isn’t necessarily bad.

  • Holdout Defense now increases Blaster Whip damage by 4% per point.

  Not sure why this was even put in. Seriously, a 1% nerf to a talent that I forgo for better talents, because it buffs a skill I barely use as a ranged class? Who cares? Even if I normally took both points, I probably wouldn’t notice the difference.

  • No Holds Barred now increases critical chance by 1% per point.

  This is one of largest nerfs, which is a pretty good thing considering how small it is. This change puts it in line with the accuracy buff from the Sharpshooter talent at only 3% for full three points. Will we still take this talent? Yes. Will we notice the difference? Probably not.

  • Reopen Wounds now increases the critical chance of Wounding Shots and Speed Shot by 4% per point.

  This slightly makes up for the above nerf (see, its called balance!) because we now get a whopping 8% crit chance buff for Wounding Shots! Good thing!

  • Wounding Shots now costs 25 Energy (down from 30). The weapon damage component of this ability has been reduced by approximately 15%, but bleeding damage remains unchanged.

  This is another slight nerf, which kinda balances back the crit chance buff from Reopen Wounds on this skill. 15% damage nerf is a large hit, but it does cost less energy, allowing us to not JUST rely on this skill for the big hit-or-miss attack.

Over all, the Gunslinger is in a good spot, and it is getting pretty much only buffs. We are by no means the Flavor-of-the-Month class yet, but we are getting some needed attention, so I am overall pretty happy with things! If you have any thoughts on any of these changes, please post a comment!