Gameplay FAQ
General
Why should I play this class?
Gunslinger is a very mobile, fun and consistent damage class that requires good positioning and cycling through her weapon stances: Handgun, Shotgun, and Rifle. The weapon swapping mechanic enables her to have 16 skills at her disposal. In order to play Gunslinger effectively, you need to be able to reposition quickly using your mobility skills, swap stances to deal damage and be quick on your feet to adapt to any situation. Many of her skills have long cast times and a few animation locks, which also requires you to have good understanding and forward planning of the boss’ possible movements and patterns to land everything.
How does my identity work?
Gunslinger is characterized by its signature weapon wheel, each stance having a defining trait that changes your playstyle. Handgun skills are mostly utility and mobility, while Shotgun and Rifle skills are mostly damage skills for mid and long range.
Important: The tiny grayed out squares represent abilities that are not available, while the colored ones indicate an ability that is ready to cast.
How do I decide on a build?
Both have their strengths and weaknesses. It’s a matter of personal preference.
Here’s a short summary of the builds. For further information, read their respective sections of this document.
Peacemaker
The Peacemaker engraving provides additional effects when swapping weapons. A Peacemaker build uses all three weapons for maximum output, swapping between stances to use up to 7 damage skills.
Pros:
- High skill expression
- Mobile and good, consistent damage
- Good utility
Cons:
- Expensive due to gems and tripods
- Squishy character
- Learning curve with three stances
Time to Hunt
Time to Hunt builds are often considered easier to play, since the main effect of the engraving is disabling the Shotgun stance. There are two builds: Swiftness and the Specialization builds.
Pros:
- Swift: high APM, cheap to build
- Spec: Burst, easy to play
Cons:
- Expensive with up to 7 damage gems
- Swift needs high uptime
- Spec has a lot of downtime, less utility
What are my Party Synergies?
Synergies are a buff your party benefits from. These only apply to your party and not the entire raid. Consistent synergies are up for most of the fight while Burst synergies are much more infrequent.
Weakness Exposure
Consistent – 10% Crit Chance
Skill
- Spiral Tracker
- Dexterous Shot
- Equilibrium
What are the key pieces of my build?
With three stances, Gunslinger has access to 16 skills, 12 if you play Time to Hunt.
Due to this, you need multiple tripods and a lot of skill points to upgrade your core damage skills and utility skills.
Why is Yearning important?
It’s considered a part of a build despite not being on your character.
Swamp of Yearning is used by supports and gives +8/10/12% Damage and Attack/Move speed to the party. This is a Relic Set they use that has a golden ring.
Peacemaker
Is PM3 Meta?
After the January patch, PM3 and PM1 builds are very similar. We recommend running builds with Peacemaker 3, as SmileGate’s balance philosophy tends to kill Class Engraving Lvl 1. There is no need to rebuild to PM3 if you have PM1 right now, however in the future PM1 might become obsolete.
What is 7M and 6M?
“7M” and “6M” were coined to describe gunslinger builds based on how many damage skills they use. What the M stands for no one really knows, but who cares. Most people accept that it means “maxed” referring to these skills being at least level 10 and up to level 12.
The current default and meta setup for gunslinger is 7M, meaning 7 damage skills with the rest of the points spent in utility.
6M was the previous meta, where we had 6 damage skills, before certain buffs made us swap over to an extra damage skill, and is also recommended to people who are missing skill point potions.
Minimum skill points to play 7M?
Following the previous topic, many people ask how many skill points you need at a bare minimum to play 7M.
The technical answer is 396 as it allows you all 7 skills at level 10+ with enough for the 3 skills at lvl 4s you need.
The actual amount that is recommended is 402, as this allows 4 skills at lvl 12, 2 skills at lvl 10 and either 1 skill at lvl 11 or a 4th lvl4.
What’s with all this 93-97% Shotgun Crit stuff?
Simply put, having very high crit is the best way to build, mathematically. Even if you overcap slightly on Shotgun crit from synergies it’s still worth it to guarantee crits on Shotgun, and Rifle will benefit from said additional synergies.
This said, you should avoid overcapping shotgun crit from your own stats/synergy, so going slightly below crit cap is fine, and in some cases it might even result in more damage. If you want to know more info, check the calculator in the stats section where you can input your stats and vary them to see how much dps different crit/spec ratios will give you.
SRF or PS?
PS.
Bullet Rain or SRF?
Recently, an increase of SRF users especially in Korea has gotten people talking about it as an option over Bullet Rain.
In truth this most likely comes from Trixion testing, where its possible to get more returns from SRF than BR. The issue is that SRF is a lot more awkward to use and way less consistent/flexible than Bullet Rain, and as such is not really recommended.
Salvation vs Nightmare? Weapon Quality?
Nightmare is more raw damage than Salvation from 0 quality to 100 quality.
The difference is small and the brunt of the difference comes from the way the bonuses are calculated independently of the weapon quality.
If you want slightly more damage, you can utilize the Nightmare set at whatever your weapon quality is.
The attack speed bonus is not factored into this equation, because it’s difficult to quantify but it’s very important to consider.
Overall Nightmare is somewhere in the 5% damage gain over Salvation, maybe less maybe more depending on set levels and weapon quality.
Can I use Swiftness as PM?
Yes, but it’s not generally useful. A little CDR won’t make a big difference and only make gameplay harder since you have less time to juggle all your cooldowns, but it’s a nice quality of life stat that some people like to run with.
Recommended on bracelet if you choose to take a bit of swift.
Do I need to run Life Absorption on Quick Step?
The short answer is no. Once you’re comfortable enough with Gunslinger, the attack speed from Life Absorption is not necessary. However if you have a spare tripod and the SP to run it, it’s pretty good.
What you should be careful about is how you use Quick Step. If you force yourself to use Quick Step for the buff before your damage skills, most of the time the attack speed buff does not make up for the skill’s cast time.
Time to Hunt
Is TTH worse than PM?
After January Patch, TTH and PM perform very similarly. Spec TTH is much easier to play, and Swift TTH is a piano build that requires good uptime.
I want a laid back and cheap alt to play, is TTH for me?
Swift TTH is cheap, and relatively simple but fast paced, Spec TTH is expensive but relatively chill and laid back. Do with this information as you will.
Can I use Double Class engraving?
Peacemaker should be at least Level 1 for both Swift and Spec TTH.
So do I use Conviction/Judgment or what?
For Swift TTH, if you opt for the Dominion Fang relic set (which you should), you have to use Conviction Judgment to maintain buff uptime.
Due to Spec TTH’s naturally high downtime, the Conviction/Judgement rune set can be used to gain cooldown reduction for your Rifle burst. However, this requires close micromanaging of said runes. People often simply opt to run Quick Recharge runes instead for less thinking.
Salvation or Nightmare? Weapon Quality?
Nightmare is more raw damage than Salvation from 0 quality to 100 quality.
The difference is small and the brunt of the difference comes from the way the bonuses are calculated independently of the weapon quality.
If you want slightly more damage, you can utilize the Nightmare set at whatever your weapon quality is.
The attack speed bonus is not factored into this equation, because it’s difficult to quantify but it’s very important to consider.
Overall Nightmare is somewhere in the 5% damage gain over salvation, maybe less maybe more depending on set levels and weapon quality.
Can I go 50/50 Swift Spec?
This is not really recommended, as this middle ground loses you the benefits of running Dominion Fang while also losing a ton of spec in the process, losing even more damage, so unlike Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana, you get the worst of both worlds.
Gameplay Tips
Focused Shot
The Double Tap tripod basically applies a mark to the boss with the 2nd shot that causes the 3rd to do extra damage. Landing the 2nd and 3rd shots are the most important. If you think for whatever reason the skill will not finish its full cast, don’t use it.
You can precast the skill at the boss’ new position if they are moving or coming out of an invulnerable status with this in mind, as long as you land the last 2 shots.
The skill’s animation can only be canceled by spacebar, so use it wisely. The last shot of the skill has a recovery animation, which you can cancel with the dodge ability to continue dealing damage.
Target Down
With Large Magazine the last shot has increased damage. There is a timer for each cast, when it runs out the skill will be canceled. If the boss teleports or becomes untargetable after you cast the skill, just wait till the last moment of the timer to cast a shot. This will let you still land most of the shots and not waste the skill entirely.
The Steady Aim tripod says “on direct hit”. That doesn’t necessarily mean the center of the boss’ silhouette; you should aim between the head and back indicators or the boss’ feet.
You can cancel the skill by weapon swapping or walking.
Sharpshooter
Guardian’s Breath has a fire damage over time effect. When you land the last hit you cause the target to take a large amount of damage, so always make sure you hit the 7th shot.
This skill can be canceled by weapon swapping.
Dual Buckshot
This skill is a combo skill that has two casts.
The skill can be canceled by weapon swapping during the first cast. The second cast can only be canceled with your spacebar. The Final Strike tripod makes the second cast of the skill do more damage. Sharpshooter and Dual Buckshot have similar cooldowns, and are often used back to back.
Keep in mind that the two skills have slightly different ranges. The first cast of Dual Buckshot has a shorter range than its second cast, which is similar to the range of Sharpshooter.
Catastrophe
The Quick Aim tripod only affects the charging speed. It doesn’t affect the speed of the skill when you tap it. The ideal use of this ability is in melee range of the boss. Double-tap the skill to cancel the animation.
If done correctly, you will not see the range indicator. Tap once, then tap once more during the part of the animation as your character is about to touch the ground.
Tap once, then tap once more during the part of the animation as your character is about to touch the ground. Eternal Calamity explosions are affected by Shotgun and Rifle bonuses from Peacemaker. Especially if you have Peacemaker Lvl 3, be in Shotgun stance above 50% and Rifle stance after 50% during the explosions.
Meteor Stream
You can weapon swap during Meteor Stream’s animation. This is mostly for TTH to apply the Rifle bonus from Peacemaker. With Bombardment Support, you have to weapon swap just before the particles hit the enemy. With Meteor Fall, you need to use your spacebar to cancel AFTER the projectile launches and weapon swap during the spacebar animation.
I hope this was helpful to you!
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