Yeah, well, today, I thought I would add special abilities to them, which would increase their powers.
Gunslingers have a unique ability called Quickdraw: if their weapon is holstered (you have no aiming crosshairs if you have no weapon out, thus, a holstered weapon is unaimed), if it is rapidly drawn, the weapon will have a 5-second kill-or-stun (50% chance of instakill, 50% chance of stun) guarantee so long as the blow connects. This is a ridiculously strong ability, but it does require good aim, and also for the gunslinger to be a bit exposed. (Drawing your weapon isn't instantaneous--it's based around speed, but it's still something that takes time, during which the gunslinger is vulnerable.)
Gunfighters have bullet time, which works differently depending on single-player, co-op, and multiplayer versus. In single-player, it slows the whole game down except the player character by 50%. In co-op mode, it slows down everything except the player's team by 25%: less of a bonus, but gives a reward to the whole team. In multiplayer mode, bullet time reduces the speed of everything by everyone by 50%...except for characters who have bullet time. The person with bullet time active has their bullet time bar drain. If you possess the ability bullet time but aren't the one activating it, your bullet time meter won't recharge, but also won't deplete. This system prevents the stacking of bullet times to be one after the other.
A guard has the weak ability to see through stealthed characters. This makes them decent at hunting snipers, but is mostly used to detect ninjas and blowdarters. This not being a unique ability, and also being a weak passive ability, is one reason why the guard class is under-utilized.
SWAT have the ability to activate a shield of invulnerability that lasts two seconds. This ability, understandably, takes a fair amount of time to recharge. However, it's activatable and de-activatable at will: you can activate it for one second, deactivate it, and then reactivate it for another second. However, activating the shield drains a minuscule amount of the bar by itself, and when the amount reaches zero, it takes a REALLY long time to recharge, so this ability is not easily spammable. It is, however, useful for nullifying an attack in a split second for a skilled player, making the SWAT ridiculously hard to kill. (Except by abilities that bypass invulnerability; instakill abilities and area of effect abilities take priority.)
The sniper has a motionless stealth mode, where they are invisible if they do not move for 30 seconds. They also gain a multiplier: dealing 1x damage under a minute without motion, and then a multiplier by the number of minutes once at one minute: 1.5 minutes does 150% damage, 2 minutes does 200% damage, etc. Furthermore, if they are in motionless stealth mode, their first shot in initiating combat (stealing from GGO) cannot be detected nor blocked. Even abilities normally able to block bullets, like slicing bullets, cannot interfere with this shot. (It can still be dodged, though.)
Duelists have a rapid speed burst for two seconds, which recharges with time. (So, a sprint.) This works similarly to the SWAT one, which makes it easily exploited, but not infinite. This is how duelists use melee weapons effectively.
It should be noted: gunmen have a wide variety of weapons they can equip, but they mostly lack status ailments to inflict. Other classes have a very narrow amount of weaponry choice (only so many types of bows, only so many types of arrows, only so many types of throwing stars, etc.), but have a greater number of things their weapons can inflict.
Repeating crossbowmen have a unique ability called zen: a choice between passive health regeneration OR a 25% bonus to strength(attack) and defense. This does drain a meter, though; it's not always active.
Arbalesters have the same 2-second shield as SWAT do, but because SWAT have a greater range of weaponry they can use, the Arbalester's version recharges faster, albeit still slowly enough to not be infinite.
Longbowmen can see through stealth. This makes them the best anti-sniper: able to shoot from long distances, yet able to see snipers, means they can easily pick off a sniper with one or two shots before a guard could even be in range.
Compact bowmen have the unique ability of far shot: this ability drains a set amount of their action bar, which slowly recharges with time. What it does is, for a single arrow, basically turn the compact bowman into a sniper, giving one guaranteed long-range hit. Given the drain on their action bar, though, and no increase in damage, this means that they don't have enough shots to kill someone at that range, and even if they did, it'd require draining so much that they wouldn't be able to do it again for at least a minute or two.
Woodsmen have motionless stealth, allowing them to ambush people. They are also the archery class that has bullet time. Furthermore, they have a set number of med kits that they can use on people (including themselves), healing damage and status ailments. (Another reason the class is so popular!)
Yeomen have a relatively weak ability of multishot, able to shoot up to five arrows at once, effectively a shotgun of bows. However, given their ability to inflict status ailments, and how five arrows at close range is pretty much lethal even without status ailments, this is a rather effective crowd control ability. Like far shot, it is activated and drains a set amount of the action bar.
Ninjas have the broken mastery of stealth: they can throw smoke bombs, which expose stealthed units. (This is a free action.) They can also use an activated stealth mode, which progressively drains their stealth meter until it's empty. Furthermore, they have a special ability that combines the two (stealing from Team Fortress 2): if the ninja is in the smoke, and is hit with a SINGLE attack that deals over 50% of their total health (not current, as in half of 32/100 being 16, TOTAL as in 50/100), yet the ninja survives (so if they have 60/100 health, the only way for the ability to activate is if they are dealt 51-59 damage), then they have an auto-activating ability: they instantly enter stealth mode with a full stealth bar, and the cloud of smoke dissipates, meaning they don't instantly expose themselves.
Jugglers don't have a special ability beyond their juggling: they're strong enough without it.
Bombers have the special ability to lay landmines, but these take a long time to set up and drain the active bar. Mostly, bombers just use their various bombs to inflict status ailments. (Acid, magma, etc.)
Javeliners can see through stealth, and have a 1-second version of the invulnerability ability, same way as the SWAT do.
Throwers have bullet time.
Blowdarters, though, are the absolute nightmare of players. (Think a hybrid between the doctor and the spy from team fortress 2, and you'll understand why it's so dreaded.) Blowdarts, obviously, deliver a ton of status ailments, even capable of debuffing enemies. But what makes the blowdarter such a nightmare is that they have certain darts that buff teammates, their syringe can heal teammates, and worst of all, blowdarters have BOTH FORMS of stealth mode: if they stay motionless (like snipers and woodsmen), they become invisible for free; they can drain their action bar by using an activated stealth mode which (like ninjas) they can MOVE in.
Try shooting an invisible medic, who probably has a teammate or two also protecting them, and you can understand why this might be a bit of a difficult task. It's not all bad news, though, since blowdarters cannot buff or heal blowdarters, and their healing syringes only come in a set amount before needing the action bar to receive a new set. (E.g. 5 available, used all, use some of action bar akin to the compact bowman/yeomen abilities, and then having 5 more.)
I really want this game to be made, now.
It sounds ridiculously awesome.