It feels like there’s something off on the gunners and reapers the last few weeks.
They don’t stop shooting when you get into melee anymore, gunners can now shoot from a kneeling position, and all three can turn on a dime while still shooting.
Furthermore, it feels like both have gotten MASSIVE boosts to their melee stagger resistance, with the reaper reacting to blows that knock crushers out of their overheads by… tilting their head slightly to the side and continuing to shoot. Less egregious, but gunners also won’t stop shooting or lose their aim for anything less then full ragdoll stagger; it feels like the counterplay for these enemies- aggressive melee - no longer disrupts them in the least, which feels wrong
I’m also experiencing stuff like this. Most notably, a Reaper nearly murdered me on my Zealot. I closed to melee to keep it from shooting at me - then it opened up on me while I was actively chainswording it. Of course, since I was so close (again: actively hitting it in melee), there was absolutely no way to avoid the gunfire, so it proceeded to absolutely shred my Toughness and Health in about five seconds until Until Death triggered.
So, I tried to dodge around it to get out of the line of fire - and it proceeded to spin around its axis like some clock whose arm is a machine gun, so it could keep shooting at me while, again, I am frantically hitting it with a chainsword in hopes this Chaos Obliterator who somehow successfully disguised himself as an Ogryn will die before I do.
That was the most memorable example, but it wasn’t the only one. I distinctly recall Gunners used to stop shooting when you closed to melee with them, but I’ve had multiple instances where they opened up on me unless I staggered them. Which is very difficult while using a weapon with low stagger power. Also, a chainsword or Evicerator’s special attack does NOT consistently do this; I have very much been locked into the sawing animation with a Gunner who stares into my eyes and proceeds to unload on me while I can’t get away.
While this may be very thematically appropriate for a follower of Nurgle to do, I can’t help but think it’s counter to the intended balance design.