Gunlancer, question about playstyle (aka mentality/approach)?

Class Discussion Class Discussion
1

Hi!

So I’m a brand new gunlancer, I just hit lvl 50 not long ago and he’s my first character. I picked the advanced class because its playing style seemed fun in those char creation videos. And it is. My worries come when it comes to group play such as guardian raids. I don’t like tanking roles because I don’t have personality for it (read: the stress of not allowing mistakes kills me… that’s how it is in other games). I googled extensively and there was a clear trend “Lost Ark has no trinity system, tanking isn’t necessary etc”. Ok, fine. So I kept playing. But now it’s becoming increasingly obvious Gunlancer was made to be a tank. When I say that I don’t mean “tank as in absorb damage” but rather “all the duties the tank role is supposed to do”. Like positioning the boss, interrupting moves, protecting & saving party members (only one skill for it but it’s there). The back jump and reduced speed while bubbled both point to the tanking job.

So my question is this:
What are the duties of a gunlancer in groups?

I like how the class plays solo and it seems like group content is only 2% in this game so it might be foolish to reroll because of it. I’m not a bad player but I SUCK when it comes to timing skills or aiming them. So there will always be something I will do wrong. For example, in T1 guardian raids I was the only one who died max times (3 or 4 times). Plus I like learning stuff from experience, meaning, wading in until I learn. If it seems too hard only then I go watch a video guide. People hate that. If we all started at the same time (we were all noobs) I would be among the best players but my low self esteem is preventing me to thrive in toxic interations. I don’t want to spend countless hours learning mechanics via YouTube just because someone wants a fast zerkfest. One more thing, it seems actual fights are different than YouTube guides. The last boss in the first category, Valkros or something like that, does NOT wag his tail left & right before swaping with his tail!

2

There is no real aggro system in this game.

So you dont need to be worried about such stuff.

your only real “tanking” task would be - if you have aggro - to not run around like a headless chicken so the rest can bring on the dmg…

Just enjoy the game, I’m playing only with randoms, and even in late t2 people constantly run out of my heal, avoid my fieldbuffs, even dodge my buffs because they think its an enemy attack (main is Bard).

Only thing you can learn is to counterattack guardians attack, thats something you actually even get credit of others if you are able to do it well, but even that is - yet - not a big deal of a mechanic. and thats also a mechanic everyone needs to learn forlater (way later) raids.

Also dont overthink … I was also worried about the group play, at the end its just daily stuff done in 5-10min. Abyss is something different there its important to know the mechanics otherwise = team wipe.

1 Like
3

Thanks. That helps a lot. Rofl at your comment people think it’s an attack.

4

So gunlancer tanks without really tanking. You have the skill to take aggro interrupting a lot of abilities, you have good counters and a few of them and the tools to sit in the bosses face for prime positioning to counter. Pretty much you are just controlling the fight to make it easier for the team.

5

Okay so one of my buddies plays gunlancer as his alt and holy poop does he deal a lot of stagger damage.

I know Barricade is meant to be a super awesome engraving to help pop off damage wise. Essentially, the theory is you sit in your bubble, face tank everything while doing the dps.

6

Well dont face tank everything lol, chip damage you can but avoid any like telegraphed attacks that are feasible to dodge or the shield will break pretty quick.

7

Haha for sure. I play gunslinger and bard and the gunlancer seems like it can just eat damage compared to them.

Love the bubble aesthetic tbh. Also saw streamer who sat in bubble and just kept doing this AOE explosion attack that kept resetting.

8

In chaos dungeon on last stage u can spam it with the cooldown ether :slight_smile:

9

I also noticed guardian fights are a lot easier with proper spec stat rating. Definitely a good thing to have it above 700. Yesterday I noticed one reason why I was (:crossed_fingers:) dying so much. It was due to lack of mobility. All other classes have dash. As a gunlancer you get a back step that’s half the range with skills that have long animations so by the time you are able to react it’s already too late. Not enough specialization to fill your gauge + lack of mobility = death. Seems like the whole class was designed around the shield. I can’t imagine how it must be for lone knights. :face_with_spiral_eyes: I have read people saying “learn boss patterns” but that’s bull****. Guardian bosses use their skills randomly. Sometimes they will spam one skill over and over again. Or a video guide says to watch for “stomping front legs” (Vertus I think?) but then it stomps its legs the whole time like it couldn’t pivot without that. :thinking: Yeah, definitely a bit of a learning curve.