Quote Originally Posted by Kitru View Post
Given how gunblades are used in game by the Garleans, I would expect it to be a DoW class that uses combo melee attacks as its baseline functionality with the non-combo attacks being ranged (think Dragoon but Heavy Thrust and Phlebotomize have a 20y range) in order to force melee to be the primary combat methodology. I'd expect to see some degree of magic-martial fusion as well; probably something like the blue fire and/or cross-slash that Gaius uses. They'd probably have slightly worse damage than the other mDPS, since they wouldn't be as screwed by short stints of being out of melee as the pure mDPS, but better than the ranged deeps.
Though this be an old topic, its ideas seem relevant for future content (especially if 4.0+ takes us to Ala Mhigo). And I personally think gunblade would be the ideal weapon for a hybrid melee/ranged DPS class, such as Soldier or even Red Mage. The latter could take on the magical aspects you mentioned, albeit with more classical flair rather than Gaius's magitek.