Guild Wars 2

While I love the concept of turrets, I feel they’re extremely underpowered.

Their damage is pretty low, their health is laughable (even with traits), and their recast times don’t really allow an Engi to move them around as needed.

I dunno if there’s something I’m missing or if turrets simply aren’t viable at the moment, so I’d like to know if any of you uses them in PVP and if they work for you.

They are incredibly weak and disable tool belt while active to top it off. I can’t actually remember a time when a turret load changed the outcome of any node fight I’ve been involved in on my engineer or otherwise.

The exception is maybe the healing turret(does it even count?) heal + regen + water combo field w/built in blast finisher and can be traited for aoe kb. Its even on a shorter CD than almost every class heal while being far more effective, arguably the best heal utility in the game.

I’ve considered messing with net turret but it doesn’t filll a need that can’t be somewhat replicated by shield, rifle, a replacement gadget utility, or even kit skill like chill grenade/glue bomb.

By constrast a necro with a similarly immobile full pet load out defending a node is almost unassaultable 1vs1.

Yeah, turrets just don’t compare to pets/minions at all, that much is true. Whether they should or shouldn’t is the question. I think at the very least, like many have said they should be more durable considering the CDR many of them are on. If not that, decrease the CDR. They’re just not worth taking at all for anything outside of PvE.

When comparing a full pet load out with a full turret load out essentially the difference between class unique mechanics is deathshroud vs disabled tool belts and no weapon swap. That comparisons seems like it would hardly indicate some inherit advantage for engis over necros that justifies a weak turret.

Tried them 1-2 times in sPvP and then stopped since everyone recommended some other stuff. Now trying full elixir and crit with rifle and rifle skill cd reducing traits… don’t like to switch between kits and rifle all the time and want to go full rifle and elixirs only.

In PvE and WvW I liked the turets so far which is fine for me. Don’t need to change the build a lot then which would cost me money there.

By using Turrets, we sacrifice mobility and hope to get some survivality and firepower. However, in the current Turrets rate of fire / damage / health combined, getting Turrets is amazingly weak. Turrets need following fixes :

1. Rocket Turret’s CD is absurdly long. Around 60Sec. Totally unviable in current sPvP system.
2. Net Turret’s rate of fire is too low. 1 shot in 10 Sec? Really?
3. Manually picking Turrets up should give more than 25% CD bonus. How about 40~50%? Considering there is no Turret deploy CD reduction trait, it is valid suggestion I think. However, Healing Turret can be abused by this, so you should find a way to prevent that.
4. All Turrets are too weak even after investing 30 points in Invention trait tree. Turrets should have more HP and defense.
5. Almost all Turret Toolbelt Skills have too long CDs and too negligible effects. Considering the fact that if we deploy Turrets then we cannot use its Toolbelt Skills, Turret Toolbelt Skills need some up-tune.
6. Thumper Turret’s range is pathetic. I tried using it in sPvP and WvW, but both attempt miserably failed. Give it more range, otherwise it should have some kind of multi target CC(like slow).
7. In PvE situation, Turrets have ultra-high priority in aggro table. By applying this system in PvP might help Engineers. For example, how about annoying Mesmer’s illusions and Ranger’s Pet attacking Turrets instead of Engineer himself? Even for short duration. Think about this. It would help Engineer’s survival a little.

Asking for the Net Turret to fire faster would be absurd. By simply going down the power trait line you can easily have 4 second immobilizes every shot. Having a 40% uptime on immobilize, without even touching the activation, is already really strong and you want more?

Turrets themselves aren’t weak, but I do think that turret builds are pretty weak. They could probably use a good overhaul to some of the traits to find a way to make a build centered around them a bit more viable.

As to turrets themselves, Healing Turret is clearly fine, I don’t think anyone can argue about it being viable. Net Turret is situational but incredibly abusive in the right situation. With just this ability you can immobilize someone for 16+ seconds, immobilize is the strongest condition in sPvP by far. Rifle Turret sees a lot of use in Static Discharge burst builds simply because of the tool belt ability. Thumper can be somewhat meh but I’ve seen it used to great effect on the midpoint at Khylo.

The other turrets have some interesting tricks to them and I could easily see a creative player getting more use out of them but I haven’t seen them much in Tournament PvP up to this point.

ZoGoNDragoN.4873:

By using Turrets, we sacrifice mobility and hope to get some survivality and firepower. However, in the current Turrets rate of fire / damage / health combined, getting Turrets is amazingly weak. Turrets need following fixes :

1. Rocket Turret’s CD is absurdly long. Around 60Sec. Totally unviable in current sPvP system.
2. Net Turret’s rate of fire is too low. 1 shot in 10 Sec? Really?
3. Manually picking Turrets up should give more than 25% CD bonus. How about 40~50%? Considering there is no Turret deploy CD reduction trait, it is valid suggestion I think. However, Healing Turret can be abused by this, so you should find a way to prevent that.
4. All Turrets are too weak even after investing 30 points in Invention trait tree. Turrets should have more HP and defense.
5. Almost all Turret Toolbelt Skills have too long CDs and too negligible effects. Considering the fact that if we deploy Turrets then we cannot use its Toolbelt Skills, Turret Toolbelt Skills need some up-tune.
6. Thumper Turret’s range is pathetic. I tried using it in sPvP and WvW, but both attempt miserably failed. Give it more range, otherwise it should have some kind of multi target CC(like slow).
7. In PvE situation, Turrets have ultra-high priority in aggro table. By applying this system in PvP might help Engineers. For example, how about annoying Mesmer’s illusions and Ranger’s Pet attacking Turrets instead of Engineer himself? Even for short duration. Think about this. It would help Engineer’s survival a little.

8. Turrets do not scale with your gear. I honestly need some explanation as to why this is the case for not only turrets, but minions and ranger pets as well. I mean, it might at least help turrets compete with grenades.
Specifically I’m talking about their damage. Since I first heard about the engineer, the first and only thing I wanted to do was use turrets (Hell, it’s the only thing the website images advertise about them). Then, as I’m on my way into my 70’s I see that the damage in my rocket turret’s tooltip is not changing with my new gear.
I don’t understand it; how does Anet expect me to rationalize an ability that is used almost solely for damage (rifle, rocket, flame and thumper, specifically), but will not get any better from the moment I hit 80 to 5-6 months of upgrades onward?
Yes, their condition damage does scale and for the most part, they have some sort of utility added on (knockback, knockdown, and blind). However, bleed (on a 30 second cd/much easier to stack with a grenade build) and burning (unstackable) are easily accessible with other utilities. This goes for their utilities as well. Blind, knockdown, and knockback are all found in other weapon kits (elixir gun excluded). Why drop a turret that can knock down one target at a time (assuming it’s still up), when I could drop a Big Ol’ Bomb with an AoE knockback? The answer would be much easier if the damage would at least increase higher than when I was wearing 75 blues.
I really hope this is in for a change. I would desperately like to switch back to turrets. I once read a thread where someone compared the turrets to dots, in that they are only there to increase your own damage, not deal the majority of the damage on their own. I appreciated his or her attempt to rationalize the way turrets work, but there’s still one difference; dots have always scaled with your gear.

I have had a lot of luck using the flame, rocket, and rifle turret to protect points. Most people ignore them and chase me so i mix dodges and shield abilities to keep safe and let my turrets wear them down. With supply drop and the extra turret damage from traits I have a pretty good time with my turrets. Think I’m going to try rifle and elixirs though.

Lantz.7240:

I have had a lot of luck using the flame, rocket, and rifle turret to protect points. Most people ignore them and chase me so i mix dodges and shield abilities to keep safe and let my turrets wear them down. With supply drop and the extra turret damage from traits I have a pretty good time with my turrets. Think I’m going to try rifle and elixirs though.

Yes, that’s awesome, and I want to do that as well, but principle simply won’t let me. We aren’t even a month into this game. Two months from now, those players (yourself included) are hopefully going to have much better gear, and their abilities (assuming they’re using damaging utility skills) are going to be stronger. Meanwhile, your turrets are going to be doing the same damage and will have the same defense they did two months prior.

Spracket.9604:

Lantz.7240:

I have had a lot of luck using the flame, rocket, and rifle turret to protect points. Most people ignore them and chase me so i mix dodges and shield abilities to keep safe and let my turrets wear them down. With supply drop and the extra turret damage from traits I have a pretty good time with my turrets. Think I’m going to try rifle and elixirs though.

Yes, that’s awesome, and I want to do that as well, but principle simply won’t let me. We aren’t even a month into this game. Two months from now, those players (yourself included) are hopefully going to have much better gear, and their abilities (assuming they’re using damaging utility skills) are going to be stronger. Meanwhile, your turrets are going to be doing the same damage and will have the same defense they did two months prior.

Since he’s talking about protecting points I assume he’s talking about sPvP. The gear is not going to get any better than it is now so your point would be moot.

This isn’t a gear treadmill MMO. Even in WvW it’s pretty easy to cap out or near cap out on your stats early on. Once you do that people aren’t going to keep getting higher and higher stats like other MMO’s.

If a person ignores all your Turrets (like combination of Healing, Net, Rifle, Rocket), then Turrets can do their work pretty well. However, what if that person kills all your Turrets before he chases you? Warrior or Thief can burst a Turret in 2 sec or faster (no kidding). Your Turret’s deploy CD is 30~60 sec, so you are amazingly vulnerable until next utility Turret is up. Compared to that, you can only deal damage to that enemy like 6~8 sec. Think about it. Can you deal enough damage to Thief or Warrior or anyone else with only your weapon skills? I don’t think so……

The point is, if Turret’s HP and defense buffed then we can get pretty good amount of 10~15sec of free damage dealing time. Then enemies will think about going after your Turrets, and Turrets will have some deterent power for defense. For now, Turret’s defense is just a joke.

Jona.6810:

Spracket.9604:

Lantz.7240:

I have had a lot of luck using the flame, rocket, and rifle turret to protect points. Most people ignore them and chase me so i mix dodges and shield abilities to keep safe and let my turrets wear them down. With supply drop and the extra turret damage from traits I have a pretty good time with my turrets. Think I’m going to try rifle and elixirs though.

Yes, that’s awesome, and I want to do that as well, but principle simply won’t let me. We aren’t even a month into this game. Two months from now, those players (yourself included) are hopefully going to have much better gear, and their abilities (assuming they’re using damaging utility skills) are going to be stronger. Meanwhile, your turrets are going to be doing the same damage and will have the same defense they did two months prior.

Since he’s talking about protecting points I assume he’s talking about sPvP. The gear is not going to get any better than it is now so your point would be moot.

This isn’t a gear treadmill MMO. Even in WvW it’s pretty easy to cap out or near cap out on your stats early on. Once you do that people aren’t going to keep getting higher and higher stats like other MMO’s.

I will admit, I did derail a bit into PvE. I’m more concerned with turrets in general. Like I said, it’s more an issue of principle than practicality with me. Maybe it is just me, but I can’t stand the idea of an engineer covered in oranges having 2-3 abilities that do the same exact damage as the engineer standing next to him in blues. It’s even more uncomfortable to me that I really don’t see the reason why this is the case. Why can’t they scale? Would they be somehow overpowered if they did?

ZoGoNDragoN.4873:

If a person ignores all your Turrets (like combination of Healing, Net, Rifle, Rocket), then Turrets can do their work pretty well. However, what if that person kills all your Turrets before he chases you? Warrior or Thief can burst a Turret in 2 sec or faster (no kidding). Your Turret’s deploy CD is 30~60 sec, so you are amazingly vulnerable until next utility Turret is up. Compared to that, you can only deal damage to that enemy like 6~8 sec. Think about it. Can you deal enough damage to Thief or Warrior or anyone else with only your weapon skills? I don’t think so……

The point is, if Turret’s HP and defense buffed then we can get pretty good amount of 10~15sec of free damage dealing time. Then enemies will think about going after your Turrets, and Turrets will have some deterent power for defense. For now, Turret’s defense is just a joke.

You might try out the Accelerant-Packed Turrets trait. If they decide to focus down your turrets first they are going to get knocked down for each one they kill. Unless you are in a coma this should give you more than enough time to either kill them or do enough damage to be able to win the fight when they finally do get to you.

I use turrets in my Spvp setup but typically never more than one. I have tried multiple turret setups but they just don’t work well. Even with the traits in inventions turrets die far to easily. One barrage from a ranger, or meteor shower / lava font from an ele and they are dead. You also can bring enough condi removal / anti CC if you do a multi turret setup.

When I use turrets its typically, net, rifle, thumper or rocket. I like rifle in my tools build for the toolbelt ability with static discharge. It becomes a nice addition to my dps rotation, and having a combo field I can trait into an AOE KB on demand is handy.

Thumper turret is nice CC to toss onto a control point, the same is true of net.

I like rocket for its dps output. If you set it up on top of a building then swap traits you use it for the KD + a nice bit of passive dps. In condi specs with burn duration that 3s burn turns into a 4s and the turret can almost keep burning up on it’s own. The 800-900 base hits are not bad. I can lay down some nice damage while you block, dodge, and kite someone around.

But I can’t make anymore than 1 turret utility work. It might just be me, but I have to have elixir S, and typically, elixir C as well. You can give up one but not both.