After the new knight of fate came out I was looking for more classes with Durable. I found the Gunner specialization from the Ace book, and was confused. The left side of the tree to me doesn't fit with what expect for a ship gunner. 2 ranks of Durable and 2 ranks of enduring, these can quickly turn them in to tanks but I don't understand what gunner would have them.

Does anyone have any insight in to these strange talents for the specialization?

Don't forget that Gunners can also be good with Gunnery-type weapons on the ground. Say, by lugging an E-Webb into battle. In that case, being able to hold your ground against the enemy in order to lay down fire is pretty useful—and something that both Durable and Enduring are well-suited for.

I view that role more to the heavy role versus that of a gunner.

I view the Gunner as shipmen who fire the big guns on the cruiser or the turrets on the small ships. So real life comparison the Navy sailors who shoot the destroyers guns, or the Airmen who fire the machine guns on the flying fortresses.

Gunner can do both, switching between ground and vehicle roles. Remember that not only do ships have guns, but ground vehicles, and a lot of Alliance combat landspeeders are modified civilian vehicles, with open gun turrets and the like.

You could also say that a Gunner may see a lot of ship-board action during boarding action and the like.

Debilitating Shot, Overwhelm Defenses ×2 and Exhaust Port are the only "Vehicle/Ship only" talents in the Gunner tree. 4 out of 25 that only work at Vehicle scale...

3 hours ago, damnkid3 said:

I view that role more to the heavy role versus that of a gunner.

I view the Gunner as shipmen who fire the big guns on the cruiser or the turrets on the small ships. So real life comparison the Navy sailors who shoot the destroyers guns, or the Airmen who fire the machine guns on the flying fortresses.

Plenty of situations where that would still apply.

Remember, vehicle gunnery isn't restricted to starships. Tanks, walkers, airspeeders, landspeeders, even fixed heavy gun emplacements would work.

Easy to say "I don't see why I'd need to be physically tough" when you're wrapped in 5000 tons of starship. Not so easy when you're in an open-topped repulsorcraft "tank destroyer" type vehicle...

I've always thought of the door gunners from helicopters. They're constantly getting shot at. ****, gunners flak armor is almost tank like in its own right.

On 7/17/2018 at 11:14 AM, damnkid3 said:

I view the Gunner as shipmen who fire the big guns on the cruiser or the turrets on the small ships. So real life comparison the Navy sailors who shoot the destroyers guns, or the Airmen who fire the machine guns on the flying fortresses.

Yep, Gunners Mates (Guns). They do shoot the 5" guns on the ships, but they're also the guys who are in charge of the ship's armory, where the heavy small arms are: the grenade launchers and machine guns. They're the guys on the ship most trained on those. (On aircraft carriers or gator freighters where there's a contingent of Marines, the roles will be a little different. I'm talking about frigates, destroyers, and cruisers.)

Thanks guys everyone for your responses on this topic it help me understand the thought behind it.