[Guide] The New MANA AV Turret - A text based review

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by Cyridius, Feb 13, 2013.

  1. Cyridius

    http://dk.reddit.com/r/Planetside/comments/18guxr/the_av_mana_engiturret_a_textbased_review/

    So, with the new Engineer turret out, I decided to trial it for the 30 minutes. Deciding 30 minutes wasn't really enough to get a feel for this weapon, I took a leap of faith and I bought it.

    I'm having mixed feelings about it.

    While the turret in of itself is really fun to use, and it does have utility, it is probably the most vulnerable you will ever be in PlanetSide 2. Tanks, ESFs, Liberators, and most of all, Snipers, will kill you without hesitation.

    With that reasoning alone, people who enjoy their Kill Death ratios(Unlike me), will probably want to steer clear of this machine.

    The AV MANA turret is a strange creature. With it's guide-by-wire mechanism, I've run into a number of problems.

    The first and foremost is that you feel like you're working in a 2D plain. Your depth perception is nil, and it is only through experienced usage and timing that you will be able to tell how far your missile has traveled.

    Secondly, is that your projectile velocity is simply too low. You'll be sitting there for a long period of time waiting for your missile to hit your target - if you intend to sit back far enough that you wont be the first target a tank or sniper registers as a primary threat.

    Linking to the first and second problems is the utter lack of zoom. Your accuracy is going to be for a large part, a total guessing game. The lack of ability to cert into a zoom for the turret makes it impractical at extreme ranges.

    *However*. The turret makes up for those short comings with its sharp turning and damage.

    The missile will turn on a dime, you can track moving targets with extreme effect, even shooting down ESFs and Liberators, provided in the case of ESFs you fire the target with proper lead.

    Couple this with the very significant damage, which is equivalent to a Decimator. You will kill Prowlers directly in 5 shots frontal armour, and you will take 2/3 of their HP off per hit with rear armour. You will kill a Sunderer sans Blockade in 5 hits aswell, and you will be able to effectively scare away Liberators provided you get sufficient hits on them.

    The certifications are also what I would dub as straight upgrades. Given that every time you fire a rocket you hit immediate overheat, reducing the cooldown time will lead to a flat increase of DPS. A rocket can last up to 18 seconds on screen before disappearing, allowing you to have 3 separate rockets on screen simultaneously aiming towards one target, though in effect you only have one due to the different distances of each rocket, making it impossible to have serious double or triple hits.

    The turret is highly situational. The rampant presence of Snipers in this game is what is holding it back from being a fun and useful tool to use.

    However, having put 700 SC and 300 certs - the total cost of certing into the turret will leave you at a 1,050 cert deficit, 2,050 if you bought the turret using certs - into the thing already, I'm going to keep using it to try find a use for it in standard gameplay. I'm only going to cross my fingers and hope that in the future SOE improves the turret in terms of both survivability and the other aspects mentioned here.

    Suggestion; Wait it out. Don't buy this yet, it's a fun weapon to use but unless you have more SC than you can spend, do not buy until it has been buffed.
    • Up x 3
  2. Eclipson

    I play this game for fun. I could care less about K/D. Thats why I got this weapon. It is extremely fun to use. I plan on making an anti vehicle load out for my engineer soon.
  3. FateJH

    Aw! When you said "text-based," I thought you were going to use ASCII art.

    I'm completely serious here.
    • Up x 3
  4. ChironV

    I polishes my Bolt Driver. Sooon my precious, soooon.... Muha ha ha ha....
  5. GamerOS

    I'd buy it, just to change things up if you know what I mean, downsides be damned!
  6. PineSG

    So how would a nest of these be?
  7. Gavyne

    There are people in the other threads saying how overpowered this thing is, and I think the OP here listed some good negatives. They're all part of the balance, you can not have something like this without the negatives listed in the original post. So yes, it's situational, and it's likely fun and even more so for those that don't mind dying. Seeing different feedback probably means this thing is fairly balanced. And no I wouldn't wait for this to get buffed up more, it likely won't get buffed up more than what it is.
  8. Wasdie

    It really sounds like the stationary AT placements in Battlefield 2 and 3. They are really powerful, but you are extremely vulnerable in them. A great trade off.
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  9. Xaturas

    And here am I sitting with 50 certs praying that they won't nerf it before I get 1k certs to buy it (I seriously thought about buying it, but I rather save the SC for future camos, cosmetics).
    Seriously when I tested it shoot at my vanguard *** and got enforcer like dmg, I was like, woah its portable enforcer with guided missiles, there will be a massive QQ on forums soon.
    And I tell you there will be a massive QQ soon about it.
  10. Cyridius

    Either way, this should be waited out. If I recommended purchase of this and it got nerfed next patch I would be a total dick. I personally believe the turret has crippling weaknesses in terms of vulnerability to snipers, and that it renders like a vehicle, and should only be purchased when you have pretty much everything you need.
  11. Cyridius

    This would probably be the most accurate comparison.
  12. Linedan

    I can think of a few spots where this turret would be helpful.

    First, employ it en masse. (Hey, you're in TE, you know about application of force en masse...see what you guys do with Annihilators. :) ) Five or six of these things at once is going to work, because one person is not going to last long enough to fire five or six from a single launcher (probably).

    You're going to need to employ it in a situation where you can keep yourself alive for multiple shots. Possibly at long range. I can see it being extremely useful in an ambush situation because two hits to the rear will take out an MBT. You'll need to be behind a rock or in some situation where you can place it, fire, and run like hell. After all, it doesn't cost resources and you can replace it somewhere else. Throw it up on the edge of a pad at a tower and you can snipe tanks with it at medium range (it might not depress enough to hit stuff closer than that).

    I can't see it being a game-changer unless it's used in numbers. But with some smart use in groups, this is gonna be fun.
  13. JP_Russell

    Don't think I like the idea of the turret being balanced by having high damage with high vulnerability. The mana turret's greatest flaw has always been that you're too exposed while using it, in my mind, so I'd much rather the AV version be relatively weak at damaging vehicles while providing more frontal coverage than it does currently. What's more, giving the engineer a high-damage, ranged anti-vehicle option with unlimited ammo seems unwise even if they are vulnerable while using it. I don't like it.
  14. Inu

    Time for sniping time?
  15. Nephera

    man wait till people start using these for ambushes.
  16. Cyridius

    What I can say about these is that they're harder to aim than it looks. Co-ordinated ambushes that are effective would need alot of skill to pull off.
  17. absolute86

    I'm really hoping they don't nerf this into uselessness.. I know everyone's going to cry and whine about it, but this thing looks perfect. The eng needs his portable cover next (more so than the useless standard turret provides anyway).
  18. Gavyne

    Something this game needs, much more so lock-on auto shoot & forget rockets. I really personally would've rather them released annihilators like guided missiles, rather than air & land lockons.
  19. minipancho94

    personally im kinda bummed it isnt a lascannon knock off, that said, im hoping for more turret varients in the future. would love an autocannon and a lascannon knock off at sometime. an all rounder like an autocannon would be amazing, and a lascannon knockoff would be great for long range engagements, just give it an incredibly long reload to nerf its extreme power.
  20. Zotamedu

    I jumped and bought it because it seemed like a nice addition to my demolition engineer.

    The people who scream OP should sit back and relax for a while. Here's the list.

    1, It takes ages to deploy so you need to be in a place where you are not spotted by the tank and you can't play hide and seek like a HA can.
    2, This thing is a huge target and every sniper in the game should rejoice. As soon as I placed it I heard sniper bullets passing my head. The only thing that kept me alive for so long was the fact that the base I was firing on was under heavy assault so the snipers couldn't work in peace. In the end, one single bullet to the head ended my fun.
    3, Aiming is tricky, very tricky. I only managed one hit and that was a Reaver stupid enough to fly straight at me. Infantry was extremely hard to hit at range so I'm guessing the blast radius is pretty small. Someone should check that out. You are also pretty limited in how much you can aim to the sides so you can't really guard a huge area.
    4, Did I mention that you are a sitting duck with large blinking arrows pointing straight to the head while you are using it? Which will be neat for when I'm playing HA because sniping turrets with my Decimator is great fun. At least this doesn't have the big glowing shield which makes it a lot harder to spot at a distance.

    I don't regret putting down the certs for it. Not yet at least. It's a very situational piece of kit and I think it will be best used in a defensive manner. So far, the crybabies have nothing to worry about. I do think it has some real potential when used properly and when used improperly it will be even more of a death trap that the Phalanx turrets...
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