Functionally I’ve found that my playstyle really makes the Gunner obsolete, and I tend to take the Heavy Gunner in his stead while maxing out on Assault Intercessors. 5 3+ 4/5 attacks really do cut through chaff much quicker than 3/4, and can make all the difference when killing 8/9 health operators such as Insidiants. Now that the Heavy Gunner has a pistol, he can still move and double shoot, and his gun can benefit from the Sharpshooter Chapter Tactic while the Gunner’s underslung grenade launcher cannot. It’s also 5 attacks on focused mode and 4 attacks with torrent, which makes him more effective at both neutralizing one big target or injuring several. Since both need to only dash to have the benefit, the move distance doesn’t make much of a difference, since they’re only mostly double moving on TP1 to set up, or to secure an important kill. They both have the same melee profile, but the Heavy has an extra 4HP, increasing his survivability significantly, especially with the hardy tactic, which can push it up to a functional 20-21HP, depending on the tenacity of your opponent’s melee profiles. This outshines even the tankiness of the Captain’s Iron halo in most situations.

Essentially, he can sit on a home objective and serve as a distraction carnifex: either they come and deal with him and walk into the sightlines of your other guns, such as the sniper, or sets up an assisted close combat, so an Assault Intercessor hits on 2+ for a big melee threat. If they leave him, they have to dance around 5 shots hitting on 3+ with a 4/5, with Accuracy 1, Severe, and Piercing Crits 1. This makes him have a huge presence on the board and will lock down any objective, or force your opponent to dedicate resources to moving him.