That's usually the reason I keep a sidearm on hand. If things get too thick I can switch to a kiting strategy and preserve my last bit of health.

The path of a gunslinger can be very rewarding but only if you are willing to stick with it. It requires a lot of patience.

Great post, very inspiring stuff. I first fell in love with the Magnus line of guns, so much as making me create a (almost) full gunner build. The sheer punch those guns deliver is incredibly satisfying. Soloing my first arena with a Callahan and Iron Slug has been one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had playing this game.

I've diversified a bit and now I run with Callahan, Iron Slug/Shadow Driver, Storm Driver, and a Ash of Agni. I haven't made a full leap yet (I love the aoe fire/shock combo too much).

Love my guns. I wanted an ArgentP and Sentenza the minute I saw them, before I had even started playing the game. When I started, I made a blaster to go with my 2* gear and slowly but surely solo'd my way right through T2, arenas and danger rooms be damned. It felt so right, I couldn't believe how easy everything becomes when you have a decent gun and some patience. I finally made my own Argent/Sentenza and nameless set, and carry around a volt or cryo driver, and I couldn't be happier.

That's kind of the point of guns, isn't it? It's the safe style of play. Kite, shoot, kite, shoot, things die at a medium pace. I use both sword and gun. When I need to thin out the herd a bit, I use the gun. When I want to do some real damage, I use the sword.

As much as you love your guns, even the gunslingers on this forum have admitted they are not as powerful as swords. You kite around in safety, hitting the enemy from a distance, and you repeat this till everyone is dead. It's boring to me, so the gun is back up. That story did not inspire me at all. You learned from someone who knows how to kite. That's good, you should know how to kite. Learning to use a sword without dying, that's a bit tougher.

Play however you want, but everyone praising his tale... that's like admiring someone for taking the easy way out. How about we bet on both black and red when we play roulette too? Don't forget green, we're trying to play it safe guys.

Guns: They're like Divine Avengers, but crap.

i'm a bomber and i dont have a lot of experience in gun. but in theoretical speaking, i'd say try focus fire: gun the mob that is being slashed. and with spare effort, kite the other mobs around. why? cuz lets say a mob has 310 hp, and say that a sword user cuts 100 hp of the mob in each hit. then it takes him to do a 3 hit combo, which risk the opening for mobs, then does a 90 dmg overkill - not efficient. a gunner would save a lot of these inefficiencies. so, try some teamwork, might discover true potentials.

Learning to use a sword without dying, that's a bit tougher.

Only if you have ADD—although in my experience it seems to be a prerequisite for using swords.

Nice to see you enjoy a part of the game so much. Don't let the haters put you off, the guns vs swords debate is a debate of taste, no matter how many facts people drag into it.

Some people are always gonna call you a noob if you don't wear Vog set. Just do your own thing, whatever makes you enjoy the game.

I agree with you, with your reasons for playing solo =p
however, heres the gunslinger's version

I am going solo as i am really affected by sword users throwing my marks away from my aim,
some times attacking without considering that theres a person standing where you are about to knock back the monster to.
(these may be not experienced players but there are enough of them)

bottom line is, bad players are bad players, even if they use an aoe 1hit ko weapon.

on to the gunslinger's argument of fun
standing half a screen away and not getting hit just seems logical to us.
we derive fun from
-aiming, (i shoot at where they dodge to)
-making sure we do not get cornered
-making sure we do not attract too much monster

Swords guns, why does anyone care how someone else plays? its not like you are paying them to play.

I use a Blaster. It kills stuff without them killing me.
...although I do admit I always use my Cutter to take out healers.
I always solo, because then there aren't any sworders or bombers knocking Blast Cubes with their timers on 1 into my face.
The only knockback I'm comfortable with is the one from my Blaster's charge attack.

The game needs some more good gunslingers. My friend loves guns (I have not yet managed to convince him to start using swords, and it took some wrangling to convince him to at least bring a Freezing Atomizer), and things go pretty well with my sword and bomb with his guns. He can kite with his gun on stuff that doesn't auto-dodge; I can kite with or charged sword swings on things that do. He doesn't deal much damage on his own, but if I get the monsters' attention with my sword, we're really dealing one-and-a-half players' worth of damage while being exposed to only one player's worth of danger. When stuff goes badly, he's usually the last man standing since he's not exposed to as much risk when he's sniping from a distance.

An occasional problem is that while he's kiting, it's tough to get mobs off him if they're about to catch him and but quite in range for him to shield-shove (or worse, his shield is broken from a previous mishap so shoving would be extremely risky). Frequently, my attempts to swat it away with a charged attack end up going off just as the mob has already walked past me, and is therefore between me and the sniper... and gets thrown fangs-first right into my sniper buddy's face. :(

Oh, right. The Royal Jelly... That's the reason I keep prodding my friend to take up a sword.

No guns can consistently outdamage his regeneration.

No guns can inflict Poison, which WOULD have allowed for outdamaging the regeneration...

Having another player raises the Royal Jelly's maximum health. Therefore the presence of a guns-only player is only making the fight harder since they're contributing neither damage nor poison. :(

A charged attack from a Cold Iron Carver can easily hit him three times for 133 damage per hit (399 damage total in a single spin-- even more for people with Ascended Calibur and/or Wolver series armor)-- this is vital in the second phase where opportunities to hit him are very limited and very brief. A charged attack from a Blaster or Alchemer? ...Unlikely to kill him before he kills you and/or regenerates back to Phase 1.

I think the key is diversification. Being all gun or all sword or all bomb is not always the best thing to do. For example:

For Jelly King, having all guns really sucks.
For Vanaduke, having all swords really sucks.
I can see having all bombs being decent for both of them - but not great.

As for people dying and not knowing what to do, that can work both ways:

You hate swordsmen who knock stuff into you? Well a swordsman hates gunslingers who constantly tries to shoot gremlins and wolvers, making it EXTREMELY difficult for both of us to hit them.

You say you hate swordsmen knocking exploding jelly at 1s to you? Well they hate you make a wolver in attack mode leap towards them because you were spamming your gun.

Oh and the storm driver and hail driver. Gunslingers with those weapons can also get swordsmen killed by stunning/freezing the mobs, causing them to not be knocked back and hits swordsmen who were relying on the sword knock backs.

You say knock backs are bad? Well half the time when I am playing sword, I play as the tank who protects my group by hacking and slashing at the mobs in the front lines to prevent them from cutting off kite paths or swarming the group. DA, like shoebox said, not only does an incredible amount of aoe damage (more than any gun can achieve, even the storm driver) to undead and constructs and knocks them away, preventing them from swarming the group.

This is what I would prefer:

General Use:
Divine Avenger
Gran Faust
Final Flourish
Storm Driver

JK:
Divine Avenger
Gran Faust
Dread Venom Striker
Ash of Agni

FSC:
Drivine Avenger
Leviathan
Argent Peacemaker
Storm Driver

First off, +1 to the OP. Seriously, well written, sir. You rock.

Now, for the standard issue whining. Omg, Wolvers teleport. Fiends dodge like whoa. You can't beat Jelly King with a gun. Greevers are hard. Psh. You can do all those things with guns. As quickly? No, probably not. There's no denying swords tend to do more damage. But to say it takes less skill? Please. If anything, you're only arguing the swords are the easy way out here. As things stand now, guns require patience. For some people, that's not okay.

Guns need some love in this game, somehow, its true. Probably by making new bad guys that react/block sword attacks so you have to shoot them to kill them faster. But as with swords, it's all about using the right weapon in the right situation. T3 Wolvers are actually kind of easy to predict in how they move. You can use the Charge Attack of the Fiery Pepperbox to guarantee more hits, and light them on fire. Strike Needle just hits them harder, though you have to wait for them to telegraph an attack or bark (which prevents them from teleporting) to get hits in. Shadow Driver's richochets bounce around a lot, and Wolvers don't tend to avoid them like they do primary shots, so that's a good way to wear out the pack as a whole. For Fiends, you break it down by type. The best way to fight Greevers is to interupt their attacks. Shield bouncing + Fiery Pepperbox means they hardly hit me unless I'm getting mobbed from every side- bad thing with any weapon choice. For the small, fast throwing Fiends, it's all about the Silversix. It's like a ranged version of Whack-a-mole. If you shoot them as they wind up a throw, they lose the attack. You get damage in, and you don't get hit in return. Trojans are pretty easy, especially when you don't have anything to deal with. Actually, it's pretty funny how a couple of shots into their shield gains aggro like nobody's business. I can be doing no damage, but keep aggro even when a party member is hacking away at them from behind. As for Jelly King? Fiery Pepperbox, and proper use of vials does the trick.

Kiting alone does not a good Gunslinger make- everyone needs to know how to do that. In a party, Gunslinging is less about DPS, and more about party support. Take aggro from Turrets and mobs so other people can hit them without pressure. Interrupt attacks targeting other players. Add more damage without knocking the bad guys out of reach. Targeting healers in the middle of the arena that are hard to close with. These are why I became a Gunslinger. Not getting hit as often is just a nice perk. If you don't want that kind of support in the party, kick us, or go solo. Whatever. It takes new players awhile to realize how to sword and board properly in this game without getting mauled in return. It's then not surprising it takes as long or longer to learn how to be an effective gunslinger. Anyone can pick up a sword in this game and do well. Gunslinging is an art, by comparison. See how easy this elitism thing is? But seriously. Get over the Sword elitism already. It's stupid.

Oh, one last thing.

HAH HAH YOU CAN'T BEAT VANADUKE WITH SWORDS. XD

Magnus is the only gun that can consistently hit an auto-dodger like a Wolver or Devilite-- the bullets simply move faster than the enemy can usually react. Problem is, it roots you in place as you shoot. So you better not miss, or there will be teeth marks on your shiny metal butt. :(

I'm loving Magnus tremendously... I've got the set up for Gunslinger Gear (even got a UV: Fire Resist Medium on my Gunslinger Sash, but haven't crafted my Hat yet)... also pack a Cryotech Alchemer, and a Pepperbox.

I'm not *quite* sold on Gunslinging, but I enjoy it a great deal.
I can see how a single Gunslinger on a team can be less than helpful... for solo, it's pretty great though.

The only place I've ever had an issue with going pure guns is against multiple Mender Gremlins... they're pretty difficult to do enough damage to to be able to kill, and unfortunately, there's no way, outside of vials, to poison them.
Magnus knocking them over is alright, but it's so tricky to manage while there are tons of other Gremlins chasing you...

Either way, Gunslinging is absolutely one of the most AMUSING ways to play that I've encountered, so I'm definitely gearing up to be doing it when I want to.

In group play, specialized bombers bring serious crowd control and AOE damage. Specialized swordsmen bring high single target DPS and knockback for disrupting and destroying key enemies. Competent swordsman and bombers take little damage because they are skilled at avoiding attacks and using their shields at the right time to knock away enemies. Both have a place in my delves.

Gunslingers do less single target damage than swordsman and have less CC and AOE damage than bombers. They don't block/distract enemy attacks because they aren't in the thick of things, instead letting their bomber and swordsmen allies take the risks.

Gun-focused players are less skilled than bombers and swordsman, and settle for being worse at everything because they don't have the discipling/competence/etc. to learn to be a skilled bomber/swordsman. As a result, your fellow delvers pay for it.

Guns are a good secondary equip because they are situationally good, and miserable otherwise.
Specialized gunners are a waste of space and will receive a swift kick from any party I ever form.

Thanks Oz.
I actually bought a Shadowtech Alchemer recipe way back early on, though I've never crafted one.
I'll debate using it now. A big part of my issue is that I'm only using 2 weapon slots at the moment, which doesn't seem terribly viable as a gunner (although Magnus + Pepperbox seems to work well enough, the only real tricky part being mass Gun Puppies and multiple healers)

The shield bump to separate is definitely something I'll work towards.
Magnus' ability to knock things down is just golden, IMO, so that helps too.

@ pk ninja:

"I'm tired of people jumping ship on JK runs because of gunners. I've done just fine on every run I've done, and on the last one (where we lost 2 party members because I didn't have a sword) I was the only one who didn't die."

And there is the mentality.

How well you do on a given delve is not measured by how few times you die, but by how few deaths your TEAM has, and how well your team coordinates to quickly and efficiently kick butt. YOU didn't die, your teammates did. If they'd kicked you and replaced you with an equally skilled and geared swordsman or bomber, things likely would have gone better for them.

Team synergy, coordination opportunities, raw damage--guns can't provide these as effectively as their counterparts can. Combined with the fact that the life of a gunner is one that tends to attract less team-oriented players, I don't want to have a gunner along on my delves. It's a reasonable preference.

"If you're having fun, you're winning"

Of course you are having fun hanging back and not dieing. But the swordsmen and bombers who suffer from your lack of contribution aren't.

You're free to gun. It's great for solo delves. But please do understand why you and other dedicated gunners are being kicked from these runs.

Junkyard is a fool. Just ignore him. pk ninja could could just as likely been the only player who didn't die because he was the only smart player as it was because he was a gunslinger. An "equally skilled and geared swordmen or bomber" in this case could easily have been another new player in 2* gear who hasn't learned the importance of shield bumping or not finishing sword combos in most instances. But it's easy to jump to conclusions!

So it's fun taking 3x more time killing mobs that are of no threat to a sword user?

Sword users don't loose that much more health unless they're noobs. Even if the game is a bit buggy and laggy at times.

A weapon is only as good as the player, and a team is only as good as its weakest link.

The way I see it, this is how the two sides view each other:

Sword users: Damn, I'm stuck with dead weight in the form of a dedicated gunslinger. Now all the enemies we spawn will have more hp, and I'll be stuck tanking and doing all the work while they sit in a corner and add 0 damage.

Gun users: Damn, those stupid sword noobs just sit there and take all the damage. Why can't they just be like me and stand away from the monsters, not getting hit.

Sorry gun users, but I'm growing to resent you as well. In just about every situation you are at worst dead weight, and at best, still not as good as an average sword user. You are playing a solo character in a party with 3 other people...