I’m noticing a distinct lethality increase for machine gunners since SotMG patch released. They sight up faster, from father away, with greater accuracy. I always mentally classified machine gunners as the big mid-range threat. The changes make them feel like a sniper, without any of the sniper’s weakness.
Success for clearing an open room objective feels like a coin toss based on gunner density. The first objective room in the new Clandestine Gloriana is a great example. If the Director decides to throw a lot of gunners in the mix, chance of failure goes WAY up.
Second, I’m ok with the stated logic behind these changes, but the Law of Unintended Consequences is huge and ugly in this case: because their spread is tighter, gunners are now more dangerous at much further ranges, to the point that many builds (and Ogryn’s as a whole) are completely at their mercy. There’s not a lot of counter play – “where is that coming from? where is cover? too late I’m dead” – and overlaps too much with the sniper’s role. “Challenging” is fun, frustration is not.
In my first post I described gunners as a midrange threat. If that is in fact the intended role for these enemies, then there should be a maximum range limit on their targeting and engagement, i.e. make them close a little more distance before unloading.
Reduced engagement range would restrict the amount of space a gunner could effectively cover, in turn giving players a bit more of chance to see and react to the threat, while not affecting the danger presented by the bullet stream.
Only problem with Gunners right now is spawn density. We’re playing on an older version of the spawn director which spams Dreg Gunners with the new Gunner buffs.
Once that gets changed they’ll be fine again.
As for Ogryns: they’re an actual class you have to think about playing now instead of just walked forward which I am all for. Positioning is now huge for Ogryn which is exciting to see.
Really wish they’d just make another post for missed patch notes instead of making addendums on existing posts. I get so confused on if things are acknowledged or not.
Partial agreement. Reduced density would certainly help, but it’s the playstyle of gunners that’s the problem. Gunners are not snipers, yet now I see them mowing down players while sitting next to snipers, e.g. on distant ledges, at max range across open areas. They are intrinsically not designed for max distance engagement.
I know because when I noted the change, I respec’d my Veteran and Psyker for ranged killing, and it was still an utter nightmare to deal with.
(Sidenote: All feedback is from perspective of Auric Damnation and Maelstrom.)
Again partial agreement. Positioning was always huge for Orgyn. The problem now is the effective lethal range on the gunners put Ogryn in a position to be thinking about corner cover constantly; they simply cannot get caught in the open, or they will be deleted.
Case and point: try playing Ogryn on Clandestine Gloriana without dying in the first objective room. You’ll hide around that center console literally the entire time.
I’m not disagreeing with you, but as someone who has struggled in this room I’ve found success proactively rooting out shooters by roaming the back of this room (left as you come in). Main spawns seem to be left and right from when you just come into the room; watch the lines of fire there and you can get the jump on them!
The other tip I have is clear out that back corner, and any packs of gunners before starting the event.
Also I’ve been experimenting with using suppression to disrupt gunners – if that doesn’t get them the Ripper knockback does the trick until I can close or my teammates can kill 'em.
That outside area after the turbo tram, that’s another shooter’s delight…
Since it seems like trappers and digs are acting like older versions of themselves, there was a time in the past where we were getting swamped with (albeit less powerful) Dreg Gunners and almost no Scab Gunners, and it seems like that behavior is repeating.