PAX WEST 2017 Blade and Soul Gunslinger Class Preview

We got our hands on the Gunslinger class in Blade and Soul early at PAX West 2017. Find out about this class in this brief overview!

Get your free gear pack at http://www.bladeandsoul.com/en/game/rise-of-the-gunslinger/

If you ever thought your martial arts needed one hundred percent more guns, the Gunslinger class in Blade and Soul is just what you need.

The Gunslinger is the third new class being introduced to Blade & Soul since its launch in the West, bringing the game up to a total of ten classes. It’s a very mobile and flashy ranged damage dealer that draws inspiration from both “gun fu” and “gun kata” films which combine martial arts movements with impossible looking gun techniques to tear down the bad guys with a hailstorm of bullets.

The gunslinger is available to Yun and Jin races. It dual wields pistols and also utilizes a grappling hook to get in and out of the action. Instead of mana or chi, Gunslingers use ammunition – your right click fires out bullets, and your left click serves as a reload. You’ll have a few seconds before you need to reload, and getting into the rhythm is easy – but you won’t want to forget, because the game won’t automatically reload for you.

There are two specializations for Gunslinger – Flame and Shadow.

Flame specialization focuses on explosions and high burst damage, and features an explosive round mechanic. These rounds charge up when you use abilities and are expended with finishers.

The Shadow specialization focuses on sustained damage. Instead of Explosive rounds, Shadow builds Dark Light stacks until it reaches Lightspeed. Lightspeed can then be used to unleash a long steady stream of bullets in any direction on your right click, which gives Shadow a controlled burst.

Another unique mechanic of the gunslinger is their ability to deploy a skystone, a floating platform on the field, which they can leap up to and DPS for a few seconds out of harm’s way.

The class plays really fluidly and has nine iframes which makes them slippery, but it can also make some combos difficult to execute.  This is one class that is going to shine in PvP for sure – but if you’re more of a PvE fan, don’t worry. The gunslinger also has an ability called Alpha Call which takes your party’s buffs and resets all their cooldowns. It’s on a five minute cooldown because of how powerful it is, but you can imagine how much gunslingers are going to be in demand for that buff reset.

The Rise of the Gunslinger update arrives on September 13. In addition to the new class, the update also introduces a crafting system revamp and a new tower of memory event. Blade & soul is also running a special update registration event which includes an exclusive Dead Reckoning Outfit and an additional character voucher.

The team also teased future updates, with the Fallen Aransi school update scheduled next bringing new raid content and new legendary content. A full sized expansion with an increased level cap and new continent is planned for release this winter, so there’s plenty of new content coming – making it a great time to try out Blade & Soul or return to the game.