Guns are underpowered in lockdown. I know that guns are balanced in 1v1 combat when you are playing with the stealth – guardian – striker rules of lockdown, but, that's not the goal of lockdown. Lockdown is all about quickly capturing control points, and holding them for as long as possible. Guns are not good at either of these tasks. Let's examine why:

To capture a control point, you must dispatch any enemies that are in the area, then stand on the control point until it changes to your color. The problem is that guns take about 30 seconds to kill the enemy. It takes much, much longer if it's a guardian. I'll get to that point later. 30 seconds is an eternity in lockdown, and while you are trying to kill that enemy, that control point is generating points for the enemy. Meanwhile, that guy with a sword is taking your control point in 15 seconds or less. So while you are wasting your time shooting at the enemy, the enemy is busy taking your control points.

Let's look at defense. In order to defend a control point you must either kill any incoming enemies or stand on the control point while the enemies are standing on the control point. Guns are not good at killing the enemy quickly, so if you move off the control point and start shooting from far away they will probably control of that point before you kill them.

So, your only option as is to stand on that point and kite them at close range. However, it's extremely dangerous to kite a swordsman or a bomber at such a close range. (It's even worse when they have target lock enabled. Usually kiting at close range will usually get you killed. So, if you kite at close range you'll probably die and if you move off the point then they'll probably grab that point for about 15 seconds (if you manage to kill them “quickly.”) So, gunners are not good at defending a point. They are not good at taking a point.

To make it worse, gunners are shut down by two of the three lockdown classes: guardians and strikers. Gunners are weak against strikers because strikers can close the gap very quickly. Gunners are weak against guardians because it takes too long for a gunner to kill a guardian. If it takes a gunner about 30 seconds to kill a recon, then it will take the same gunner about 1 minute (or more) to kill a guardian. If you are a gunner and it takes you 1 minute to get a control point (because that guardian was shielding on the point,) then you will find the time invested is not worth it.

To recap:

- Gunners are not good at capturing control points (in a timely manner)
- Gunners are not good at defending control points
- Gunners are shut down by strikers
- Gunners are ineffective against guardians

Conclusion: Guns are underpowered in lockdown.

I have thought about it and I propose a solution. It's not to increase damage on guns (because that would make swords underpowered in PvE.) Instead, I suggest that guns do damage to both your health and your special bar. Although this will help gunners shred though guardian shields, it will not solve most of the problems gunners have in lockdown. Instead, it will help gunners generate more threat in a match.

Currently, one of the key uses of guns is baiting an enemy into a fight or to pull them off the control point. But, if a gunner is shooting at you, they will not be doing enough damage to warrant an immediate response. In my opinion, gunners generate too little threat. However, this might not be the case if you know that you are losing boost on every hit, or that those bullets are cutting though your shield like a hot knife though butter. The result should be that gunners will generate more threat, and this will allow gunners to bait enemies more effectively. This will change guns to more of a support weapon. But, never underestimate the power of support. Sometimes it's good support that wins war, not just the one with the highest damage output.