Chapter 3: Turret Traits and Detonation
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As a turret engineer, there are several traits you can pick up to improve your use of turrets:
Accelerant-Packed Turrets (Explosives IX) Recommended: Superbly awesome for turret engineers. if you run full turrets, you now have 4 area crowd control abilities attached to each turret, with a radius close to 80 or 100. This means people using the maximum range of their melee attacks will be able to destroy turrets and not get knocked back.
Metal Plating (Inventions III): Greatly increases turret survival ability. Simply that.
Autotool Installation (Inventions X ): If you are not using toolkit with the power wrench trait, this trait is utterly useless, and even then, still bad.
Rifled Turret Barrels (Inventions XII): Great for engineers that nest up. If you have this trait, you probably have Metal Plating as well. Turret damage, however, is already good enough without this. As for range, its nice but not really needed.
Deployable Turrets (Tools V) Recommended
This is by far the most important trait for turret engineers. It is one of the reasons why in PvE playing a turret engineer works well for me. In my opinion, this is a must for any turret engineer and without this, you lose way to much.
By having this trait, you gain the following:
-Turret placement range is increased to 900. This means your effective range is 900 + whatever the turret’s range is.
-Able to place turrets on higher grounds you normally can’t access. A blessing in WvW.
-1 extra blast finisher and tool belt use per turret except the healing turret.
When you throw a turret, you gain the detonate turret skill for the thrown turret. If used before it lands, it will use it and revert back to normal. Once the turret lands, you will gain the skill again.
This means a full turret engineer will have a minimum of 7 blast finishers guaranteed if used right.
So you see how I can have water blast finishers without destroying my turret? Note that this requires some serious timing if you place turrets close to you. If you use it too early, you will use your tool belt skill instead, which is not cool. If you do it too late, you will end up detonating your turret. If you focus on doing this only, you are basically doing nothing.
If you have this trait, you also have Tools minor trait Adrenaline Pump. This means you also get 10% endurance back each time you use deploy your turret. Sweet!
As far as where to place and how to place turrets, which really are the most important parts to all of this, I will address that later if wanted in a future chapter.
If this matters at all to you, when throwing a turret, it will face the same direction you are facing when it lands. If you need an overcharged ability to fire ASAP, our character should be facing your target by the time the turret lands.
Detonate Turret
This, by the way, works:
-On turret position for knock backs due to Accelerant-Packed Turrets.
-On engineer’s position for blast finishers. I can put all my turrets somewhere at base and have 4 blast finishers ready at any time, instantly.
-Does not destroy turret until about 3 seconds later. This is good for the Flame Turret in which if destroyed during Smoke Screen, it will still provide the smoke field.
-Will end turret firing queue. Or at least it should. Sometimes they still fire after ‘death’. This also means if a turret fires at an enemy, and you detonate it, it will still hit. To effectively nullify the attack, you must pick it up.
-Infinite range, and works whenever you are stunned and such much like Surprise Shot.
Chapter 2: Toolbelt
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When using a turret build, you will definitely have at least 5 points in TOOLS for the minor trait “Adrenaline Pump”. If not, close this browser now and think about what you have been doing all this time.
Contrary to what people believe, the engineer toolbelt is VITAL to its success as a class and that those who don’t abuse it enough will not make the most of the engineer class, at least as a turret engineer.
Due to this minor trait alone, which again only requires 5 points in TOOLS, you will restore 10% of your endurance when you use a toolbelt skill. I will explain why this is so awesome for the turret engineer in the later chapter.
Surprise Shot (Rifle Turret): A personal favorite of mine and my most highly abused skill. It deals really nice damage with a critical damage build, up to 2,000+. It is a 100% chance projectile finisher.
-It is instant cast, can be used while stunned, launched, pretty much in almost any state except when jumping, death, downed, disconnected, transformed into a moa by pesky mesmers, etc. You get the idea. It really is the a surprise shot. Due to its nature you can apply some damage while doing anything.
-It is non-reliant on facing direction. Not only can you do it during almost anything, but it not matter where you are facing either. You can be on the run while applying damage. This actually applies to all turret toolbelt skills. I’m not sure if it works for other toolbelt skills, but I definitely know it doesn’t for many.
Rocket (Rocket Turret): Unlike its rifle counterpart, this one is quite lacking in its use. Great long ranged damage dealer.
-It deals damage to ONE target only, which seems like a bug to me but it never says it does damage to multiple enemies and such.
-Despite that, it has a radius of 260. This is great for hitting things behind thin walls or edges.
-Due to its radius of 260, you can actually fire the rocket from 1460 units away (theoretically, maybe a little closer) and still hit the enemy.
-Just like Surprise Shot, you can use this while facing any direction.
-Can deal stupid amounts of damage. I’ve hit 3-4k’s with it when it crits.
Net Attack (Net Turret): Contrary to what it says on the description, the range is longer than 600. Its more like 800 if your target and yourself is standing still. For moving targets stick to its current range.
-This isn’t really related to the Net Turret alone, but did you know that underneath each skill it will show a red bar if you are out of range for the target. So yea, you can use that if you don’t know if it will reach or not.
-Due to its slow projectile speed, if used when someone evades it can still hit.
-For a clean shot, jump as soon as you use it. This will also help you hit enemies on higher ground. This actually applies to anything, really.
Rumble (Thumper Turret): The turret engineer’s stun break (not that I ever needed one, actually). Its a combo finisher. It grants one second of stability, even longer with boon duration. It deals minor damage and is a blast finisher.
-Stun break works immediately, as well as cooldown. If you get stopped as soon as you use it, you won’t get the stability, but the window is so small that it shouldn’t be a problem.
-Blast finisher applies immediately on use.
-Can be used while on the move
Throw Napalm (Flame Turret): Kind of useless to post its use here since it is going to be changed to a fire field, which is super mega awesome, and you’ll get to see why. But for now:
-Deals AoE damage and applies burning to all targets it hits. Max of 5 I believe.
-Can be thrown in any direction, while on the run.
-If using static discharge, this will fire where you are aiming at the moment.
Regenerating Mist (Healing Turret): Great for quick deployment of water fields for whatever you need. You must, however, pretty much spam any combo finishers to make use of it.
-Water field lasts for one second, animation also lasts almost as long, which is terrible. It should be instant cast with no animation but whatever I guess.
-Can be canceled midway to make yourself spew out mist for fun. Repeat every 3 seconds. Amaze your friends.
Hello, and welcome to my guide for using turrets.
Let us venture into our mechanical wonderland!
Note: Most basic information can be found on the wiki. Please check that out before coming here.
Chapter 1: Overcharge
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Automatic Fire (Rifle Turret): Use immediately as soon as you place it down. Do not ever use it again until a new rifle turret is placed. This overcharge lasts roughly 10 seconds on activation.
-If used after it fires once, you may (probably will never) get the attack speed bonus for the turret until it is replaced.
-If used as it fires it’s first shot, it will retain the attack speed bonus permanently, however, every 10 or 11 seconds it will have a delay as if it didn’t have the speed bonus, then resume firing.
-If used as it fires it’s first shot, it will causing up to at least 3-4 stacks of bleeding at most.
-A side note that many people don’t know: Rifle Turret has a 20% chance to be a projectile finisher regardless of overcharge. Overcharge will cause it to have a firing rate of 1 per second, which can be great for many things.
-Causes projectiles during the overcharge to become piercing, though this is common knowledge, many people miss this.
-If used for and it doesn’t fire for 5 seconds, then starts firing for 5 seconds, it will only have bleeding shots or whatever it will do in the future for the remaining 5 seconds of overcharge.
Explosive Rockets (Rocket Turret): Keep note of the distance between your turret’s target and the space between it. Give it at least a 400-500 range maximum when in a small tunnel as the projectile will fly in a huge arc above it. When using on high ground, it will still travel in a ridiculous arc, same as low ground. This is great for reaching over small ledges when your target is above you.
-If used when not firing, the overcharge lasts almost 4 seconds, enough so it won’t fire 2 in a row. If it doesn’t fire at all during that time, you waste the overcharge.
-Don’t be discouraged at it’s weird arc of firing. When it fires at a moving target, it will look like the rocket will totally miss, but if the target doesn’t move too far of a distance (up to about 400, from my experience, which is quite far) and they don’t dodge during that time, it will still hit the target.
-(unconfirmed)This can actually critically hit? I remember some instances where I was dueling a friend of mine and sometimes this would hit him for 6,000+ yet it wouldn’t appear in my combat log.
Electric Net (Net Turret): Should be used immediately. It does not benefit from a attack speed bonus regardless of description. If used between shots, you better hope it fires in the next 4 seconds or you waste the overcharge.
-Deals minor damage, which is nice I guess.
Thump (Thumper Turret): Can be used long before it has a target, as it’s overcharge duration is close to 10 seconds. If it fires during that time, it will use its overcharge ability.
-A trick to using this is to hear or see the thumper turret’s handle, located on the top of the turret. When it starts to spin, it means it is ready to fire again very soon. You can also listen for the ticking sound it makes.
Smoke Screen (Flame Turret): Should be used immediately when placed within attack range. The overcharge duration is also a short 4 second duration.
-Do not pick up your turret during its smoke screen. It will disappear with the flame turret.
-Your flame turret will not attack since it is using Smoke Screen instead.
Cleansing Burst: Most people will use it as soon as the turret is deployed and then detonate it. I will address how to keep your healing turret out while keeping the blast finisher and all your other turrets ALIVE in a later chapter.
-Again, just like the thumper turret, you can look for a visual cue on your healing turret to time the overcharge, but a bit different. Look for the handle to slow to a stop instead of starting up.
-Cleansing Burst will leave a water field for 3 seconds, period. If you pick it up during that time the water field will stay for others to use.
(edited by WEXXES.2378)
Turrets really only need to have their size reduced to their current visual size. Right now they are basically dolyak sized, and this makes it really painful against AoE.
On the other hand, because of that AoE, toolbelt heal ranges are also ridiculous, but who really depends on that range anyway…
Turrets are really fine the way they are at the moment except the bugs and issues.
I run a full turret, no kit build for WvW, PvE, and sPvP with the same exact traits and I do just fine, if not better than some others. If you want the best damage, go nades for sure. If you try to make turret damage on par with that, it will be overpowered.
If you use it, sometimes the turret will stop firing at all for a good 7 seconds+ if you use it. It won’t use the overcharge, yet the overcharge effect (not the smoke screen, all turrets have an animation queuing an overcharge).
If you also use the overcharge during flame turret deployment at a long range using the trait, it will not do it at all and it goes on cooldown, every time.
“What’s more is that the team is also working very kitten finding a way to make it so that every profession has access to every weapon and their own weapon skills for those previously locked weapons.” – article from somewhere
Welp, time to see how this works out:
Sword (Main hand only)
1 Taser
Plung your sword into the enemy, electrifying their vitals and dazing when it ends.
Channel Time: 1.5s (Can move during channel)
Range: 150
Daze Time: 1/4s
400 damage (per second) base
2 Unstable Field
Create a ring of unstable energy around you. Foes that enter it will be knocked toward the center.
Cool down: 12s
Duration: 2s
AoE: 300
Knockback: 160 (just in case!)
Cast Time: Instant (will not break channeling)
Other: Unblockable
Combo Field: Lightning
300 damage base
3 Rusty Saw
Spin around with a rusty saw blade, applying torment and poison to nearby enemies
Cooldown: 10s
Cast Time: 1/2s
AoE: 225
Torment(x5): 5s
Finisher: Whirl
200 damage base
lawl
Does anyone find it even useful?
It would be cool if it just shot you up into the air, evading melee attacks. That way the falling damage trait would be useful, lol.
TL;DR: You don’t need much to make this into an awesome (OPTIONAL) TPS experience that would probably be better than Tera.
Now before you jump onto the hate bus and tell me to go play an FPS or w/e, let me say these two things:
1) It’s an option. If you like to play how it already plays, then this doesn’t affect you at all.
2) It actually has some use (concerning skills like Flame Blast).
3) It looks and feels much more in-depth than the traditional bird eye view.
4) It’s so much more fun playing this way, even at level 1.
5) It doesn’t take much to make it work well. Right now, you have to kind of ‘make up’ for the lack of support for this kind of play.
6) It works for all functions of combat, including Melee, Ranged, AoE, Projectile, Targeted Spells.
The great thing about all this is that it works in game already. Here’s what it kind of looks like:
http://youtu.be/HCMYcRM8rtI
(Sorry at the beginning, I accidentally targeted it >_<)
I literally spent hours just killing mobs like this. It was that enjoyable and it feels like something the game was going for in the first place. Oh, by the way, I had skills 1 and 2 binded to Mouse 4 and Mouse 5 as an alternative, which are located on the side of my mouse, so when I was moving around and shooting my hands stayed on the WASD most of the time.
If you don’t like it, again, it’s an option.
I tried playing like this in PvP as well. It still worked well but the only problem would be no cross hairs to help me see where I was targeting in the first place.
So the suggestion is:
1) Have a new function in the key binds called “Third Person Mode”. This mode would bind your camera so you would look around just like in the video above and display a cross-hair at the center so you could aim. This mode can be toggled so you can use the mouse cursor whenever it is needed. This is so #3 is possible, and makes it so that you don’t have to hold down RMB (Right Mouse Button) for the entire time. Another small note would be to allow scrolling so you can zoom out and see things from bird eye view right away if needed.
2) Increase the maximum camera position, so we can move it further to the left so the center area of the screen is visible and not blocked by your character. Or have the camera just positioned better for this kind of play (but seriously, the above zoomed out a little bit and to the left is already good enough).
3) Have a separate key binding set for the Third Person Mode. So you can have your traditional 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 things or whatever key set you currently have for the original, and if you toggle to Third Person Mode, it changes it to a new set, which could be set to Left Mouse Button, Right MB, 1234567 or whatever you want.
4) Have a new function to Remove Target. Basically like a TAB except it clears your target list. ESC is the only way to do this without opening a menu or using the mouse at the moment (I think). That or ESC is fine I guess…
That would be it. Nothing more needed to make GW2 a much more enjoyable experience in a TPV action MMORPG, except maybe a better way to have targets.
Try it for yourself!
1) Set camera position so that your character is to the left (but the slider is pushed to the right)
2) Enable fast-cast ground targeting
3) If you have one of those kinds of mouse, set skill 1 and 2’s alternative to (Mouse 4 and Mouse 5), which is what I did for the video above.
4) Zoom in camera as much as you want. Best experience is all the way zoomed or zoom out by 1 mouse scroll tick.
5) Center mouse in center of screen. You can do this by holding RMB, shooting somewhere into the sky, and position your mouse wherever the projectile ends and hold RMB there.
5) Play! If you need to target something, you can use tab or just let go of the RMB and click. You’ll notice that you will tend to miss a lot of ranged attacks because you actually miss and suck at aiming bow shots (like me sob).
Quick Note: Press ESC to clear target if you want to just go rambo and be attacking where you are facing rather than aiming everything into one enemy.
Quick FAQ:
Q: I don’t see the point in this.
A: To make the game fun for people who are tired of the old school WoW days.
You can talk to Deborah any amount of times you want to maximize Ferocity, Dignity, or Charm. Is that supposed to happen?