The Ovissian Gunner, one of Star Wars: Battlefront 2's newest Resistance reinforcements, is ridiculously overpowered, able to take down enemy units and heroes in a matter of seconds. Many in the Battlefront community are calling for a nerf, but the Ovissian Gunner should stay "OP."
Added in Battlefront 2's The Rise of Skywalker update, the Ovissian Gunner is an Enforcer-class reinforcement for the Resistance faction. Ovissian refers to the Gunner's species, which she shares with Star Wars Episode 9's Boolio. Equipped with the Sentry ability-like Z-6B Rotary Cannon and an ever-grinning alien face, she was a welcome replacement for the Wookie Warrior - a generic Enforcer unit on multiple light-side factions - but it turns out the Ovissian Gunner may have been a little too unique.
Soon after the update dropped, Battlefront 2 players began sharing clips of the Ovissian Gunner dominating opponents. Her Rotary Cannon has an extremely high fire rate and accuracy that gets better the longer players fire, drilling opponents with massive damage. Making the weapon even more deadly is the Gunner's Defensive Stance ability, which prevents the Cannon from overheating and grants health to the Gunner and nearby allies for every shot landed. Pair this with a Star Card selection that enables players to have a 420-point health pool and more, plus the fact that she costs half as many Battle Points as heroes and her maximum health doesn't deplete like theirs, and the Ovissian Gunner is better than many of Battlefront 2's best hero characters.
The Ovissian Gunner needs a damage nerf in multiplayer modes like Capital Supremacy and Galactic Assault, where she's unmatched at defending objective points. But in Battlefront 2's four-player Co-op mode, her overpowered nature is borderline required for success. In Co-op, players either have to defend multiple command posts from a massive onslaught of aimbot-accurate enemy AI or, when attacking, capture single command posts among several. The defense objectives are significantly more difficult than the attack, since losing just one of the command posts means players are pushed to defend another set. In almost every case - especially when paired with random online teammates - the only way to win as a defender is to wait until pushed to the final, single command post, and then defend that point with every power available. Even then, holding the last post for a whole eight minutes can be an impossible task - that is, without the Ovissian Gunner.
In fact, it's almost like DICE created the Gunner as a Co-op unit first and then didn't properly balance her for multiplayer. She's better at defeating enemies and staying alive than almost every unit in the game. That makes for a broken opponent in online matches but a vital ally in Co-op, taking what would otherwise be a hopeless struggle and making it Stormtrooper-blasting fun. If DICE decides to nerf the Ovissian Gunner, she should only be affected in multiplayer. That, or Co-op mode needs a major balancing rework.
Star Wars: Battlefront 2's The Rise of Skywalker update released on December 17, 2019.