Are the handgun and fire lance good for anything?

[Paragon]

Title. I can't see a reason to take the handgun over any of the other options for weapons and builds, and while the fire lance is interesting its a spear. Without spearwall.

EDIT: Since this thread somehow still has not died, I decided to follow up with my own experience as the OP of the thread: Handgonnes are really good versus stacked up enemies. While they don't do as much single target damage as a throwing weapon, and don't have range like a bow or crossbow, they can do a huge amount of damage spread across many targets, something invaluable in later fights.

I didn't think it was useful before as I was a new player in the early game, and fights were rather small. The multiple hex targeting of hangonnes were not useful then. But as you fight more and more enemies per combat they start pulling weight. They can also roll certain effects multiple times, such as fearsome or poison.

The ineffectiveness of the gun versus certain enemies is mitigated by the fact it shares a mastery perk with crossbows. A handgunner can easily become a crossbow man when needed, even mid combat if you desire.

It is also very easy to use in combat versus many enemy types, just wait for them to stack up in front of you, then move up and smatter them since your fire cost is only 3 AP. I never thought of the double handgonne strategy, but it sounds disgusting enough to try, if expensive.

[Cat®]

Imagine a weapon that could do 490 damage split over 7 characters. That's the handgonne.

[Uncle Khai]

That’s kid toys! Just sell it

[Draba]

The handgonne is extremely good in big fights.
Good raw damage when hitting multiple targets, and paired with new fearsome living things rout fast.

[RamboRusina]

I haven't seen handgonne have famed version but you can switch between Xbow and that for your ranged depending battle since they use same spec. Firelance is great early game but again haven't seen famed version so definitely falls of already mid game.

[Cat®]

As a random heads up; I found a brigand champion with a named handgonne. For some reason while the guy was named Jeff the Manhunter or something, the name of the weapon was not "The Manhunter's X", it was a random southern name. Which means this filthy bandit stole some poor alchemist's gonne and possibly also his title. Personally, I'm glad he's dead.

[Heron]

Firelance is an early game gimmick. Handgonne is a tool of destruction.

[NM9G]

The fire lance second ability scales off of ranged skill, so it can be good for when an archer gets into melee combat. People already pointed out the fearsome synergy with handgonne, overwhelm is also an okay choice for a them.

[Paragon]

I suppose yeah its a good sec for a crossbow if you can afford the fatigue and bag slots. My concern at first was its lower damage and fire pattern being niche for a main weapon, but as a crossbows secondary there should be situations where they are very useful.

Too bad the fire lance is just useless though.

[Draba]

Originally posted by Paragon:

I suppose yeah its a good sec for a crossbow if you can afford the fatigue and bag slots. My concern at first was its lower damage and fire pattern being niche for a main weapon, but as a crossbows secondary there should be situations where they are very useful.

Don't even need to have both on hand, you usally know before the battle which one will be more useful. When in doubt use the crossbow and rest can be nets/whatever.
Tons of perks are the same for them and neither crossbow nor gunner needs much anyway, plenty of leeway for utility.

[Jmac]

Hangonnes are key to battles with over 12 enemies.
Its amazing at AOE beast slaying,
its amazing at AOE large battles and can really turn the tide against 2nd line troops.
It took me 60 days to buy one and I bought a 2nd immediately as it was to good not too.

[Daergar]

95% of my fights for the past 200 days have not been done without my two handgonners in the 12-bro lineup.

They're just ridiculous with crippling strikes, executioner, overwhelm and fearsome.

My next run will hands down be a 16-bro lineup with three to four handgonners (they can always switch to crossbows when so required). The sheer fun of completely shredding the core of the enemy formation, applying a ton of injuries, overwhelm and morale debuffs before they have a chance to act, and setting up your melee damage dealers for even more executioner damage is just too much to miss out on.

tl;dr Handgonnes are sexy-time, not a gimmick.

[Flyan!]

No spear wall on the fire lance is rough sometimes, but getting to take about a quarter to half 1-2 enemies health early game is better than spear wall.,

[ByTheNumbers]

Lets just say my first few encounters with the southern city armies during the crusade event did not end well for me in large part because of their handgonne units. Ripped me a new one.

[lubed_assassin]

firelances are great for manhunters. you whip them and your front line gets like +15 ratk, if you invest a in a couple of they can really turn the tide in the begining with the low morale enemies. Theoretically they can do a lot of damage if you stacked perks on them but u know how that goes... whats the point lol.

[Vensalir]

I found firelances useful against animals and low-level bandits and nomads in the early game, but I feel its utility drops a lot by midgame.