We should use this thread to discuss the issues of Turrets for Engineers and maybe get the dev’s some attention to these issues so we can get some answers.
I have played an Engineer since the first ever beta event. I fell in love the day I logged on the Guild Wars 2 site to find that Charr Engineer all pretty and gold on the page. From that point on I knew that Engineers would be my thing.
I love different play styles in the game and how easy it is to switch out skills and builds. But by far my favorite play style is turrets and it’s the only build I like to run. (I love dual pistol conditioner, but I strongly hate lobbing grenades. And I don’t think you need either of these builds to be truly “viable”. Viability comes down to the player). That said I think there are a couple issues with Turrets, and scouring through the forums, we all know that Turrets feel like the elephants of our class.
Some recommendations are:
1. Turret scaling for power: I realize that they scale with condition damage, but considering we have a flame turret, overcharged rocket, and overcharged riffle turret that applies conditions, that’s 3 conditions that are included: Blind, Bleed and Burn. That’s a great addition to turrets, but judging from what I see, I think it would be beneficial that they benefit from power.
2. Turret aggro: Enemy aggro for turrets should be tuned down a lot. There’s nothing more frustrating then having an enemy (cough boss cough) be able to one shot your turret, purposely. If there are other players attacking the enemy, the boss shouldn’t charge to a poor little turret.
3. Turret cool down: I think if turrets are destroyed or picked up early, their cool down should be reduced by a percentage based on how long the turret was active for. There will still be a cool down, but it will be more beneficial and flexible.
4. Turrets and AoE: I think it should be a baseline effect that at least in PvE, turrets take 90% less damage from enemy AoE abilities. There’s nothing more frustrating then having all your turrets be destroyed instantly.
5. Turrets and the relationship with the Toolkit: I absolutely love the idea of the Toolkit. I’m actively watching my Turrets and guarding them from enemies that do attack them, all while healing them with my wrench. However I find it’s an issue with the fact that the Toolkit uses up a utility slot that can be replaced with another turret. If you are an engineer maximizing a turret build, there’s a 90% change you have that Toolkit. I think that the Engineers should have access to a new weapon: the 1h Mace. With a 1H mace, the wrench functionality can be re rolled into a Mace + Shield combo. This is not a huge issue for some people, but I know some find the Toolkit as a negative utility slot that can be replaced with a turret. I wouldn’t know the best way to go about it but I’m sure that people can come up with some sort of solution. The truth is though I love the Toolkit and would be sad to see it go at the same time.
The reality is these are some QoL changes, and also some balance changes. I think this is really important and should be addressed for players who love the turret play style and optimize their builds for that role. Part of the reasons I mentioned above are reasons why there are so many players overlooking the beauty of turrets.
So what do you guys think. Is there anything else that you can think of? Try to leave everything constructive, with reasons based on your experience and plausible solutions to make this easier for the devs, no QQ.