Strategy:Dualgunner

Dualgunner

0.9.9.7

No significant changes to the trait

Dualgunner

This trait is the pistol-maniac's dream: the ability to use two pistols at once! This advanced trait requires two levels of Son of a Gun to be completed. Your current pistol and prepared pistol will now both be fired simultaneously for a total fire time of 120% the average of the two. They can be alt-reloaded simultaneously for again 120% the average reloading time. You can also instantly swap your two pistols around for quick access.

A must for Angel of Marksmanship (unless you're looking for a Sharpshooter build). Using two pistols at once greatly increases damage done to any enemy, and paired with Dodgemaster, you can become quite formidable.

I find Dualgunner to be most effective when using two different pistols, a powerful weapon in my prepared slot and a weapon with a preferably larger clip size in my hands. The reason being is that my guns will not run out of ammo at the same time. The bigger clip in my hands just makes it easier to keep shooting even though my prepared, more powerful weapon may be empty. Once the threat has ended, I can then reload as necessary.

Bottom line? Dualgunner is a GREAT trait to have when working with pistols. As much as 2x+ the damage you'd normally deal, and an instaswap thrown into the mix. Nearly nullifies Juggler on almost any pistol build. One downside is the slightly increased fire time and it eats through ammo MUCH faster.17

GinDiamond (talk) 22:46, 14 October 2013 (CEST)

One extremely significant milestone offered by the very level you get Dualgunner is that it allows you to fire two Aimed Shots in one attack. Aimed shots raises your accuracy at max sight range from 74% to 95%, and a single two-bullet volley with Son of a Gun 2 kills all basic formers about 98% of the time if you hit both shots, which is about 90% likely, giving you a total likelihood of 88%. Imps also die to this attack 86% of the time, for a total of 77% of all trigger pulls. After Son of a Gun 3, it always kills formers if you hit, and you can now not only aim two shots faster than you can fire a chaingun, it now kills imps 98% of the time as well. This lays waste to all the early-game enemies, and saves so much health and stress it's not even funny.

Without aimed shots, you're only going to hit both bullets in your volley 54% of the time, which is not worth the time saved whatsoever. If you hit both shots while aiming, the enemy you fired at won't even get a turn anyway because it's dead, so the extra time cost doesn't matter unless you're surrounded. Even then, however, with Son of a Gun 3, you still fire aimed shots in less than a second each, so if you choose to stand and fight, you're better off getting guaranteed kills rather than wasting bullets on missing, and potentially also getting hit by the enemy you could have killed. Missing also increases the likelihood that you'll have to reload, which takes more time than Aimed Shots by this point. Of course, if enemies close the distance and get within 3 tiles of you, you can stop aiming and go wild, using the pistols' fast fire speed to end the fight quickly. This is particularly likely to happen against Demons.

A good strategy to use against Demons in particular is to aim your shots until they close the gap on their own, which they'll do rather quickly, then fire normal shots once they get within the "point-blank" distance of 3 tiles. With Son of a Gun 3, Demons die in 3 volleys 99.9% of the time if all bullets connect, so if you use 3 aimed volleys, you can kill a Demon in half a clip about 73.4% of the time, which could potentially let you kill a second Demon before you have to reload. Demons can die in two volleys 29% of the time as well, and high damage rolls can make up for misses, so the probability of killing two demons in one Dualgunner clip is more likely than you might think.

Naturally, if you get 1-2 levels in Eagle Eye, you no longer need to aim your shots at all and can just freely fire away all these volleys at max speed.

No matter what though, if something like a Baron of Hell shows up to a monster party that you're surrounded by, you should probably run away and get to cover rather than stand and fight. The only Dualgunner mastery that even remotely stands a chance of beating a Baron of Hell in the open without taking a pummeling is Gun Kata, because they can fire two volleys in between dodges, and they get Hellrunner/Dodgemaster naturally.

Ya Girl Juniper (talk) 19:14, 31 May 2023 (UTC)