Gunslinger guide for Embers of Rage
Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2016 2:09 am
Here's a quick guide to Gunslinger. It does lots of damage but doesn't have much defense. I find it to be the most fun of the ranged physical classes but it is very linear so it is not for everyone.
Races
Pick whatever because none really have any synergy with this. I went with Orc because I hadn't won with Orc before and it worked out alright.
Stats
Dex > Cun > Con/Str > Str/Con, unless using PES in which case Str > Dex > Cun > Con (after getting enough stats for talent unlocks), and unless using Arcane Might in which case Dex > Cun > Mag > Str/Cun
Category points
Inscription slot -> Automation -> Inscription slot. Automation is only good for Net Projector and Sawfield so taking it at level 10 is a waste.
Inscriptions
You don't need a second Steam Generator since you only have one useful sustain. Movement and Heroism Infusions are good choices for your fourth and fifth slots, and Regeneration is good too.
Prodigies
Good prodigies are Pain Enhancement System, Arcane Might, Vital Shot, Spine of the World. Cauterize is decent as well if you can get it. Be careful of oneshotting yourself with Vital Shot, consider autocasting Heroism to stop this. Arcane Might is better than you'd think because you don't have an important third stat, it's like a weaker PES with better uptime.
Class categories
Gunner Training: 5/0/0/0 early, 5/1/1/4 core, Double Shots luxury
Steamgun Mastery needs no explanation.
Double Shots is pretty bad for damage and the stun is low, but it can stun multiple targets. I didn't use this much.
Uncanny Reload doesn't help much when you have Movement Infusions and other ways to increase movement/reload speed.
Static Shot is good for the AoE and it can destroy shields and such which is nice.
Gunslinging: 3/0/0/0 early, 5/1/1/5 core, Startling Shot luxury
Strafe is great, it lets you kite melee enemies and dodge projectiles. Reloading is nice too.
Startling Shot is alright against melee enemies for the knockback. Also good for prepping your big hits (Vital Shot and Saw Shell).
Evasive Shots would be nice if Gunslinger had a reliable way to dodge, but it doesn't.
Trick Shot is great at clearing rooms and for getting enemies outside LoS by using walls.
Bullet's Mastery: 1/3/0/0 early, 1/4/0/0 core, Percussive Bullets and Combustive Bullets luxury
Overheat Bullets does lots of damage but it's slow. Very strong early but falls off.
Supercharge Bullets lets you hit multiple enemies and increases armor penetration. This is your best bullet enhancement.
Percussive Bullets is unreliable but stunning is good so take it if you want.
Combustive Bullets does okay damage but who cares when your regular shoot talent does thousands of damage late game?
Avoidance: 5/0/0/0 core, 5/4/3-5/1-5 luxury
Automated Cloak Tessellation is great because the flat damage reduction applies after damage resistances.
Cloak Gesture is good if used with Arcane Eye or similar. Even without vision you can use it for defense against ranged targets at 4/5.
Embedded Restoration Systems is alright if using Cloak Gesture, but it may cost too much steam for too little benefit. You can hide behind corners to trigger this but I really don't think it's worth the steam.
I never tried Cloaking Device but has crazy high stealth power so it looks alright since it has the potential to save you when you're trying to kite a dangerous foe. Could be nice if you're pinned or something but usually I'd rather use the turn moving than using this.
Elusiveness: 1/1/3/1 early and core, everything luxury
Slip Away is similar to Vault, gets you out of corners and hallways nicely.
Agile Gunner is alright but I don't think it's worth the steam until you get a very good Steam Generator, since you only have one. If you find yourself having a lot of excess steam then it should be a decent choice. I would not take more than 2/5 in this talent
Awesome Toss gives you breathing room to reload or run. Its damage is great and it lets you spend the turns you would have spent shooting on other stuff.
Dazzling Jump is like Disengage + Heave + a slow. It's great for escaping from melee foes, usually it will give you enough space for Awesome Toss to defeat your foe.
Automation (locked): 1/1/5/5 early, 1/1/5/5 core, nothing luxury
Pulse Detonator is slow and doesn't do much even if it hits. Waste of a turn.
Flying Grapple just does low damage and pulls. Waste of a turn.
Net Projector owns, it increases your damage by like 70% or more. Open with it in every fight you won't win in under two turns.
Sawfield is your best non-shoot damage talent. Its description is misleading, it actually does the damage it says it bleeds for as flat damage each turn, then does a smaller bleed as well. Great at getting enemies around corners and dealing with groups.
Generic categories
Physics: 2/2/1/0 for Fatal Attractor, more for Steam Powered Armour
Chemistry: 5/1/1/5 for Unstoppable Force Salve and Explosive Shell, more for Life Support Suit
Take 4/5 Theraputics instead if you get Brass Goggles, or 3/5 if you don’t get Unstoppable Force Salve recipe.
Steam Power is good, most notably boosts Automated Cloak Tessellation
Engineering: 0/0/0/0 core, Last Engineer Standing luxury
Emergency Steam Purge owns early but scales poorly. Make sure you can refund fully if you use it early.
Innovation sucks.
Supercharge Tinkers is worse than Steam Power, and what’s even going to crit? With only one Steam Generator you cannot afford this talent.
Last Engineer Standing prevents you from oneshotting yourself (actually Vital Shot might still oneshot yourself even with this) and also makes you get critically hit less often. Obviously this is very good but you have to waste three points to take it and you usually have better places to spend generics. If you're a Yeti you can probably afford this because it requires less investment in its racial category than Orc and Whitehoof.
Combat Training: 5/1/0/0/0 core, more in Armour Training and Combat Accuracy as needed
Armour Training is good but don't bother getting it past 1/5 if you want to use the Life Support Suit.
Combat Accuracy is nice early but you shouldn't need it late so be sure you can refund. Also the Headlamp tinker gives a bunch of accuracy making this less important. I didn't need it late even on Insane.
Blacksmith (locked): never unlock, Craftsman’s Eye would be luxury if it wasn’t locked.
Survival (locked): never unlock unless you really know what you’re doing, Charm Mastery would be core for experienced players if it wasn’t locked.
Charm Mastery is good, the rest of this category is a waste of points. You want five Inscriptions though and you already are somewhat tight on generics.
Yeti Tissue rewards
1) Conditioning, go 1/5/0/0 immediately
2) Chant of Fortitude
3) Dream Walk
4) Charm Mastery or Premonition
You can replace Premonition with Track or Arcane Eye, which are great for scouting and may help when using Cloak Gesture. Also the order isn't very important but I highly recommend getting Conditioning as soon as possible since you have no good way to deal with stun, confuse, etc.
Tinkers
Steamguns: Explosive Coating early, Acid Groove, Viral Injector, Crystal Edge, or Winterchill Edge later. Silver Filigree and Razor Edge don't work on ranged weapons.
Ammo: Explosive Shell early, Saw Shell later for big damage. Most shells are pretty good so go ahead and experiment with this slot.
Armor: Ablative Armor, and if you don't find its schematic, Spike Attachment.
Hands: Fatal Attactor, if you don't find its schematic then Toxic Gas Canister or Voltaic Sentry are decent replacements.
Head: Focus Lens to boost sight range or Headlamp boosts accuracy. Nothing here is very good so it doesn't matter much.
Belt: Fungal Web or Thunder Grenade.
Feet: Rocket Boots for quick reloading and as a weaker second Movement Infusion. Moss Tread is good too but I don't think it's needed thanks to Strafe.
Artifacts: I heard Payload got buffed so maybe it's good now, but when I used it it was garbage. Steam Powered Armour and Life Support Suit are both excellent and you should pick your favorite of the two. Hands of Creation is pretty bad compared to Steam Powered Gauntlets and I haven't tested Rogue Gallery.
For some reason steamgun drops seem worse than sling drops on average so don't hesitate to craft a good sling into a steamgun if you find one. The only artifact steamguns I'd consider using late game are Murderfang's Surekill and Glacia.
Strategy
Gunslinger is pretty straightforward. Just use Net Projector on your unfortunate victims then blow them up with Saw Shell or just regular shots. Trick Shot, Static Shot, and Sawfield are good against groups and at hitting enemies around corners. Use Rocket Boots or Movement Infusions to reload very quickly, and carry an extra pouch in inventory for a full "reload" that only takes a turn. Strafe away from melee foes so you don't die, and also use it to dodge projectiles. I don't really have a lot to say about strategy because Gunslinger is a very linear class, but I can answer any questions you have.
Races
Pick whatever because none really have any synergy with this. I went with Orc because I hadn't won with Orc before and it worked out alright.
Stats
Dex > Cun > Con/Str > Str/Con, unless using PES in which case Str > Dex > Cun > Con (after getting enough stats for talent unlocks), and unless using Arcane Might in which case Dex > Cun > Mag > Str/Cun
Category points
Inscription slot -> Automation -> Inscription slot. Automation is only good for Net Projector and Sawfield so taking it at level 10 is a waste.
Inscriptions
You don't need a second Steam Generator since you only have one useful sustain. Movement and Heroism Infusions are good choices for your fourth and fifth slots, and Regeneration is good too.
Prodigies
Good prodigies are Pain Enhancement System, Arcane Might, Vital Shot, Spine of the World. Cauterize is decent as well if you can get it. Be careful of oneshotting yourself with Vital Shot, consider autocasting Heroism to stop this. Arcane Might is better than you'd think because you don't have an important third stat, it's like a weaker PES with better uptime.
Class categories
Gunner Training: 5/0/0/0 early, 5/1/1/4 core, Double Shots luxury
Steamgun Mastery needs no explanation.
Double Shots is pretty bad for damage and the stun is low, but it can stun multiple targets. I didn't use this much.
Uncanny Reload doesn't help much when you have Movement Infusions and other ways to increase movement/reload speed.
Static Shot is good for the AoE and it can destroy shields and such which is nice.
Gunslinging: 3/0/0/0 early, 5/1/1/5 core, Startling Shot luxury
Strafe is great, it lets you kite melee enemies and dodge projectiles. Reloading is nice too.
Startling Shot is alright against melee enemies for the knockback. Also good for prepping your big hits (Vital Shot and Saw Shell).
Evasive Shots would be nice if Gunslinger had a reliable way to dodge, but it doesn't.
Trick Shot is great at clearing rooms and for getting enemies outside LoS by using walls.
Bullet's Mastery: 1/3/0/0 early, 1/4/0/0 core, Percussive Bullets and Combustive Bullets luxury
Overheat Bullets does lots of damage but it's slow. Very strong early but falls off.
Supercharge Bullets lets you hit multiple enemies and increases armor penetration. This is your best bullet enhancement.
Percussive Bullets is unreliable but stunning is good so take it if you want.
Combustive Bullets does okay damage but who cares when your regular shoot talent does thousands of damage late game?
Avoidance: 5/0/0/0 core, 5/4/3-5/1-5 luxury
Automated Cloak Tessellation is great because the flat damage reduction applies after damage resistances.
Cloak Gesture is good if used with Arcane Eye or similar. Even without vision you can use it for defense against ranged targets at 4/5.
Embedded Restoration Systems is alright if using Cloak Gesture, but it may cost too much steam for too little benefit. You can hide behind corners to trigger this but I really don't think it's worth the steam.
I never tried Cloaking Device but has crazy high stealth power so it looks alright since it has the potential to save you when you're trying to kite a dangerous foe. Could be nice if you're pinned or something but usually I'd rather use the turn moving than using this.
Elusiveness: 1/1/3/1 early and core, everything luxury
Slip Away is similar to Vault, gets you out of corners and hallways nicely.
Agile Gunner is alright but I don't think it's worth the steam until you get a very good Steam Generator, since you only have one. If you find yourself having a lot of excess steam then it should be a decent choice. I would not take more than 2/5 in this talent
Awesome Toss gives you breathing room to reload or run. Its damage is great and it lets you spend the turns you would have spent shooting on other stuff.
Dazzling Jump is like Disengage + Heave + a slow. It's great for escaping from melee foes, usually it will give you enough space for Awesome Toss to defeat your foe.
Automation (locked): 1/1/5/5 early, 1/1/5/5 core, nothing luxury
Pulse Detonator is slow and doesn't do much even if it hits. Waste of a turn.
Flying Grapple just does low damage and pulls. Waste of a turn.
Net Projector owns, it increases your damage by like 70% or more. Open with it in every fight you won't win in under two turns.
Sawfield is your best non-shoot damage talent. Its description is misleading, it actually does the damage it says it bleeds for as flat damage each turn, then does a smaller bleed as well. Great at getting enemies around corners and dealing with groups.
Generic categories
Physics: 2/2/1/0 for Fatal Attractor, more for Steam Powered Armour
Chemistry: 5/1/1/5 for Unstoppable Force Salve and Explosive Shell, more for Life Support Suit
Take 4/5 Theraputics instead if you get Brass Goggles, or 3/5 if you don’t get Unstoppable Force Salve recipe.
Steam Power is good, most notably boosts Automated Cloak Tessellation
Engineering: 0/0/0/0 core, Last Engineer Standing luxury
Emergency Steam Purge owns early but scales poorly. Make sure you can refund fully if you use it early.
Innovation sucks.
Supercharge Tinkers is worse than Steam Power, and what’s even going to crit? With only one Steam Generator you cannot afford this talent.
Last Engineer Standing prevents you from oneshotting yourself (actually Vital Shot might still oneshot yourself even with this) and also makes you get critically hit less often. Obviously this is very good but you have to waste three points to take it and you usually have better places to spend generics. If you're a Yeti you can probably afford this because it requires less investment in its racial category than Orc and Whitehoof.
Combat Training: 5/1/0/0/0 core, more in Armour Training and Combat Accuracy as needed
Armour Training is good but don't bother getting it past 1/5 if you want to use the Life Support Suit.
Combat Accuracy is nice early but you shouldn't need it late so be sure you can refund. Also the Headlamp tinker gives a bunch of accuracy making this less important. I didn't need it late even on Insane.
Blacksmith (locked): never unlock, Craftsman’s Eye would be luxury if it wasn’t locked.
Survival (locked): never unlock unless you really know what you’re doing, Charm Mastery would be core for experienced players if it wasn’t locked.
Charm Mastery is good, the rest of this category is a waste of points. You want five Inscriptions though and you already are somewhat tight on generics.
Yeti Tissue rewards
1) Conditioning, go 1/5/0/0 immediately
2) Chant of Fortitude
3) Dream Walk
4) Charm Mastery or Premonition
You can replace Premonition with Track or Arcane Eye, which are great for scouting and may help when using Cloak Gesture. Also the order isn't very important but I highly recommend getting Conditioning as soon as possible since you have no good way to deal with stun, confuse, etc.
Tinkers
Steamguns: Explosive Coating early, Acid Groove, Viral Injector, Crystal Edge, or Winterchill Edge later. Silver Filigree and Razor Edge don't work on ranged weapons.
Ammo: Explosive Shell early, Saw Shell later for big damage. Most shells are pretty good so go ahead and experiment with this slot.
Armor: Ablative Armor, and if you don't find its schematic, Spike Attachment.
Hands: Fatal Attactor, if you don't find its schematic then Toxic Gas Canister or Voltaic Sentry are decent replacements.
Head: Focus Lens to boost sight range or Headlamp boosts accuracy. Nothing here is very good so it doesn't matter much.
Belt: Fungal Web or Thunder Grenade.
Feet: Rocket Boots for quick reloading and as a weaker second Movement Infusion. Moss Tread is good too but I don't think it's needed thanks to Strafe.
Artifacts: I heard Payload got buffed so maybe it's good now, but when I used it it was garbage. Steam Powered Armour and Life Support Suit are both excellent and you should pick your favorite of the two. Hands of Creation is pretty bad compared to Steam Powered Gauntlets and I haven't tested Rogue Gallery.
For some reason steamgun drops seem worse than sling drops on average so don't hesitate to craft a good sling into a steamgun if you find one. The only artifact steamguns I'd consider using late game are Murderfang's Surekill and Glacia.
Strategy
Gunslinger is pretty straightforward. Just use Net Projector on your unfortunate victims then blow them up with Saw Shell or just regular shots. Trick Shot, Static Shot, and Sawfield are good against groups and at hitting enemies around corners. Use Rocket Boots or Movement Infusions to reload very quickly, and carry an extra pouch in inventory for a full "reload" that only takes a turn. Strafe away from melee foes so you don't die, and also use it to dodge projectiles. I don't really have a lot to say about strategy because Gunslinger is a very linear class, but I can answer any questions you have.
