Gunner's gatling gun is pretty bad

[PartyMaster]

Does anyone else think that the gunner's gatling gun severely lacks in firepower? I get that it has an insane amount of ammunition, buy when used on like one swarm of h3 or h4 glyp. warriors or praetorians you literally have to get a supply drop more than 90% of the time. I feel like it needs a slight damage buff. The revolver is amazing for damage and kicking everything in the teeth but the ammo capacity is extremely low. Satchels are just amazing for anyone to have... Love those things. Gatling gun tho....not the best thing ever and I feel like thats what makes the gunner, THE GUNNER.

[Dwarfurious]

Definitely on this train. While the damage total of the gatling gun is technically the highest its only just so, and the gun has multiple limitations compared to others to intentionally make it less effective and sometimes it just doesnt FEEL that powerful.

[EGGZxOVERxExZ]

Agreed

[Aatrax]

I agree and disagree. I feel like the gatling gun does sufficent damage but, only after a few seconds of warming up and reducing the bullet spray accuracy. I feel like an accuracy tweak might be more beneficial than upping damage.

[holy-death]

I feel it has good enough firepower, but it eats through ammo fast. I wouldn't mind either a slight damage buff or more ammo - with damage buff you won't need as much ammo as you do need now, and with more ammo you won't run out of it as fast.

[Nicolas Rage]

Maybe add penetration so it goes through a smaller enemy to hit one more, and does like 25% damage when it hits a preatorian in the shell?

[PartyMaster]

All viable options. I feel like a damage buff would be enough because the amount of ammo that's actually stored in that gun is pretty dang significant.

[AMURKA]

Wouldn't be so bad if the guns aim mechanics were reversed. It should START out accurate, and then get more inaccurate when it gets hot. Makes more sense too.

[Phispi]

totally disagree, it seems fine to me, never have problems with hordes or so, just dont keep holding the trigger

[KrysisMode]

Far as I can tell the gatling works just fine, the problem is alot of people hold the trigger down and waste a vast majority of their ammo or even try and break through armor plating from the front. Effective mook clearing device and lets you save the revolver's ammo for high value targets you want dead much quicker.

I've seen good gunners and I've seen bad gunners. The biggest difference was what weapon they used when. Bad ones used up their entire dakka supply spraying and praying. Aiming is a bit goofy though, I get the logic is you wrangle the gun the longer you shoot it until you get pinpoint aim (somehow, ballistics need not apply here) but it really limits it to a close up gun with less effective range than a shotgun till it's spun up.

I think it's intentional but not positive yet.

[Zenthar]

I feel like the damage is fine the problem however is it starting accuracy is so terrible that unless you are holding the trigger down more than half of your first few bullets aren't going to hit anything. So the only time your damage is useful is when you were burning through an entire clip in one go. I'm not really sure what the intent was for having the accuracy reversed by starting inaccurate and growing more accurate, it should be the opposite.

[Rev]

Originally posted by Zenthar:

So the only time your damage is useful is when you were burning through an entire clip in one go. I'm not really sure what the intent was for having the accuracy reversed by starting inaccurate and growing more accurate, it should be the opposite.

Its not inversed, at least as I see, it gets more accurate because the idea of a minigun is FOR sustained fire... miniguns typically have zero recoil, dont they?. Its what makes them such effective weapons in the first place.

As for Dakka control... as soon as that crosshair shrinks... start giving out small bursts of fire at a time.. because, IIRC theres a few frames where it wont increase immediately. use this to not only control your ammo. But also make sure your heat is balanced.... trying to unload a fully upgraded mag will 100% the heat before you get to even 50% of the way down.

Control, control, control. I typically only use my Minigun on the swarms, when theyre within 3-5 metres... that initial inaccuracy kicks major butt....Then jump over the Big dudes and magnum them from behind.... and ONLY exclusively unloading absolutely everything ive got all at once with no care into the rear of Goliaths... the team NEEDS that level of dakka vs those guys. Using the C4 against them, if I have it, too, helps a lot. I go all in on those guys, if I have to use my pickaxe for the rest of the wave so be it. That goliath comes near me its gonna know about it!

[Chibbity]

Miniguns do have recoil, although they are typically mounted to a vehicle or defensive point so none is felt by the operator.

In reality a man portable minigun would be almost impossible for a normal sized person to operate effectively in a real combat scenario. (That's assuming we ingore it's weight and need for an external power source.) However Dwarves are strong and stout so we'll assume he manages to lug it around and hold onto it while it's firing.

The real issue with miniguns in video games is they are hard to balance as they are actually quite OP in real life lol. I suppose you could say that they aren't the most accurate or long ranged guns, but with the sheer amount of lead you'll be putting on to the target, it hardly matters. Spin up time is a movie/video game myth as well, in reality an electric motor provides almost instant power for full RPM's.

As far as the OP; Yeah Gunner's minigun needs....something. I'm not sure what, but it's what makes him the gunner and as is, it only feels as powerful if not a little less than what other classes have.

[0ptimistPrime (the Gray)]

I agree with the OP. The Gunner seems to be lacking in *something* in relation to the minigun.
In just about every mission that *I've* played, Engineers seem to get the highest kill count. My first thought, upon seeing this, was, "Well, maybe the Engineers are better at trash clean-up and the Gunners are filling the role of picking off bigger and badder enemies?" But the more I play, the more it seems that the Gunner is either equal to- or slightly less effective at killing bugs compared to the other classes.

If the developers' goal was to make all four classes relatively equal in combat effectiveness, and to provide each class a non-combat utility, I really do think the balance is struck rather well right now. I think Engineers are slightly more effective in combat, and Scouts have a minor edge in non-combat utility, but they are all quite viable and valuable. You could have a full group comprised of any one single class, and still have a good chance of succeeding your mission.

But it just feels like the Gunner is meant to be a killing machine, and his minigun feels very underwhelming -- even fully upgraded. That's not to say that it is not useless, but I feel like it's.. lackluster?... it's missing something. Maybe an ammo boost, maybe a small damage boost, or maybe an accuracy boost while it's "spinning up." I dunno.

[KrysisMode]

I have to ask something, what range do you guys use it at and for what targets? Personally I'm prone to using it at short to medium-short range where the spread isn't nearly as crippling and on hordes of non-bullet proof targets. If I'm seeing a praetorean or dread I'll pull out the revolver as the high damage is alot more useful on those, same with long range targets since like any pistol it's getting pinpoint accuracy if you wait a second to steady it. Perfect for spitters and cave leeches.

Long as I've stuck to the ranges I set myself it pays off well, same with avoiding using it on armored targets where the mass volume of fire will be negated in favor of using it on hordes of light targets and sweeping it like a fire extinguisher. Only thing coming in better in crowd sweeping is the flame thrower but that thing's power is offset by being even more ammo hungry than the minigun and short ranged.

[PartyMaster]

I'll usually use the minigun on small mobs and the revolver on far away ceiling bugs or pretorians. But even using the minigun on small mobs, it feels ineffective as it should be. Killing a glyphoid warrior feels like it takes too long. out of the like 1,200+ shots I have in the minigun with the 800 round ammunition feed, it takes like 50+ shots to burn through 1 warrior