Guild Wars 2

By this i mean that instead of a simple overcharge button we get access to a control panel that replaces our weapon skills like a kit when the turret is deployed.
In this “kit” we can place the self destruct (and make the overcharge the toolbelt ability to benefit from our PRIMARY ATTRIBUTE) plus some additional utility for our turrets.

The developers stated that they didn’t want the engineer to just pop his turrets and win without any skill required. I say fine, then implement more depth to them so that we can place them and win, but with skill.

Outside of the self destruct, some basic skills shared by the turrets can be a skill that disables the turret for X seconds but regenerates its health while its down or a undeployment skill that after a cast and/or delay the turret is packed into a bundle that you or allies can pick up and relocate the turret with. This allows you to pick up the longest recharging turret as a bundle when moving between fights, but you will still pick up the short recharging ones as you can only carry one at a time, unless you have a friend helping you out.
Another interesting skill would be a skill making them shift their focus unto the target you use it on, maybe with some additional effect based on turret.
As for pve and to some extent pvp, a shielding ability that allows you to make your turret imune to damage as long as you channel the skill in melee would allow you to take of pressure from your turret at the cost of leaving yourself open, making careful prioritizing a necessity. You can then go ahead and add a grandmaster trait that allows you to gain stability/protection while channeling it and merge some other turret traits.

Now for the real fun, what about mortar?
since it does not really work as a regular turret, what if the skill would be replaced with a control panel allowing you to designate areas for mortar strikes with smoke at a shorter range while not in your mortar (allowing you and a friend to work together
to increase its potential). Different smoke could do different things, landing a ice mortar at a blue designation could blind, a crippling mortar could cause immobilize for a short duration if in a red field. Grey smoke could make the regular attack do double damage and black smoke designation replaces the knockback with a launch or knockdown. The effect will have a fuse time before going off so that you don’t simply designate exactly where the shots land but vice versa. Oh and please increase the range already. The mortar should have a long range while the control panel skills have less range.

PS Now that the rocket turret overcharge is a single rocket it would be interesting if it actually was aoe as stated and that it was aoe targeted by the player, giving it a proper missile platorm feeling as well as increasing the possibilities for more skilled usage (blocking a bottleneck against charging enemies etc.).

Well its not going to happen, but still?

…okay, I’ll straight-out admit that I’m a little confused as to what your goal is with this one.

Do you mean: Each Turret’s Overcharge is replaced by a Control Panel, which switches our Weapon Skills to control skills for the Turret, so each can be micromanaged? I think that’s what you’re saying.

I’m going to proceed assuming I’m correct. So far, I…hum. I actually don’t think this is a bad idea, though the individual skills of each turret may need refined.

The Mortar application seems like it’s probably too complex, however.

Anymras.5729:

…okay, I’ll straight-out admit that I’m a little confused as to what your goal is with this one.

Do you mean: Each Turret’s Overcharge is replaced by a Control Panel, which switches our Weapon Skills to control skills for the Turret, so each can be micromanaged? I think that’s what you’re saying.

I’m going to proceed assuming I’m correct. So far, I…hum. I actually don’t think this is a bad idea, though the individual skills of each turret may need refined.

The Mortar application seems like it’s probably too complex, however.

This about roughly sums up my opinion on this.

Instead of complicating mortar, I would just extend the turret idea to it. Make it so you place the mortar in a secure place, and you’d use the mortar “kit” to control it. The mortar would have the range we think mortars should have (2000+), but you personally would still have to get 1200-1500 units from the attack site to use abilities.

The downside, of course, is that this version of the solution would make it maybe a little too similar to just any other weapon—but honestly, if ANet isn’t interested in rewarding us for using a stationary weapon, then reducing said penalty is the sensible choice.

Really, mortar is just hard to work with. It doesn’t honestly need any mechanical changes, it just needs to be worth using.

Mortars… and by extension Ballista and Catapults… need to be ground targeted. I place my cursor on the target, hit fire, and the thing just shoots. Add whatever delay is appropriate, but this mini-game crap is annoying.

As for the Turrets, I love them, so anything that makes them better, allows me to keep them up and running, and makes my survivability higher, I’m all for it.

Drakkon.4782:

Mortars… and by extension Ballista and Catapults… need to be ground targeted. I place my cursor on the target, hit fire, and the thing just shoots. Add whatever delay is appropriate, but this mini-game crap is annoying.

The mortar in question is the Engineer elite skill “mortar,” which indeed IS ground targetted, but does not have the range or power of ‘real’ siege weaponry.

Weirwynn.2390:

Drakkon.4782:

Mortars… and by extension Ballista and Catapults… need to be ground targeted. I place my cursor on the target, hit fire, and the thing just shoots. Add whatever delay is appropriate, but this mini-game crap is annoying.

The mortar in question is the Engineer elite skill “mortar,” which indeed IS ground targetted, but does not have the range or power of ‘real’ siege weaponry.

Ah, since it’s bugged, I haven’t bothered to equip it in a very long time. I prefer Supply Drop. 3-4 turrets, 10 bandages, and a stun/interrupt. I love it more.