Gunner (Long War)

The Gunner class is similar to a suppression specialized Heavy in vanilla XCOM. Their signature ability is Suppression, and they are the only class that can use the Light Machine Gun and Squad Automatic Weapon line of weapons. Suppression is improved over vanilla, working to restrict the target's ability to use rockets and grenades as well as its vanilla effects. To compensate, the Gunner loses the vanilla Heavy's rockets.

Primary Weapon: SAWs, LMGs, Assault Rifles

Secondary Weapon: None

Abilities

Rank	Ability
Specialist	Suppression Suppress an enemy, giving them -30 Aim and reduced range on AOE abilities.
	-1 Mobility
Lance Corporal	Holo-Targeting Shooting, flushing or suppressing enemies also confers a +10 Aim to any allies' attacks on those enemies.	Flush Fire a shot that causes enemies to run out of cover. The shot is easy to hit with, but does reduced damage.	Covering Fire Allow reaction shots to trigger on enemy attacks, not just enemy movement
	'	'	Aim +3
Corporal	Ranger +1 damage with primary weapon.	HEAT Ammo Your primary weapon does additional damage against robotic enemies.	Shredder Ammo Any unit hit takes additional damage from all sources for the next 4 turns.
	Aim +2, Will +2	'	'
Sergeant	Danger Zone '	Executioner '	Tactical Sense Confers +5 Defense per enemy in sight (max +20).
	'	'	'
Tech Sergeant	Double Tap '	Rapid Fire Take two shots against a single target in quick succession. Each shot carries a -15 penalty to Aim.	Ready For Anything If the unit fires without moving, it automatically enters overwatch.
	'	'	'
Gunnery Sergeant	Will to Survive Reduces all normal damage taken by 1.5 if in cover and not flanked.	Resilience Confers immunity to critical hits.	Bring 'Em On '
	'	'	'
Master Sergeant	Mayhem '	Sentinel '	Extra Conditioning Confers bonus health based on which type of armor is equipped. Heavier armor increases the bonus.
	'	'	'

Stat Progression

Rank	HP at level	Total HP	Aim at level	Total Aim
Specialist	1	1	3	3
Lance Corporal	0	1	3	6
Corporal	1	2	3	9
Sergeant	0	2	3	12
Tech Sergeant	1	3	3	15
Gunnery Sergeant	0	3	3	18
Master Sergeant	1	4	3	21

Tactical Advice

Role: Medium Range Offense / Offensive Support

The Gunner is akin to the vanilla Suppression Heavy, but with a key difference: the Long War Gunner has mediocre aim, compared to the vanilla Heavy's abysmal aim, meaning that unlike the vanilla Heavy she can put out reasonable damage with the machine gun when nothing needs suppressing.

In a sense the Gunner's first "perk" is their ability to use SAW and LMG-type weapons. SAWs have higher damage and larger magazines than assault rifles, with a mobility penalty. LMGs are even more restricted on mobility, but have even higher damage and larger magazines, have extended range, and suffer no aim penalty and can crit when taking their reaction shot at a target that's being suppressed. A major decision when building a Gunner is deciding if they will use a LMG or SAW-type weapon. SAW gunners have more mobility but shorter range, so will value some mobility and defense as well as offense. LMG gunners will be more interested in offense. Note that Suppression works at the LMG's full range.

Gunners have a lot of flexibility in their builds, with many viable combinations. Several strong utility perks are available, including Holo-Targeting and Shredder Ammo and of course Suppression. Gunners can make Suppression area effect with Danger Zone and make it inflict damage with Mayhem. Some strong offensive perks are also available in Double Tap, Rapid Fire and HEAT Ammo.