Am I the only one who thinks the AI Engie turret is weak?

I mean, you have something that's purpose-built for defending against infantry, but one hit from the stock rocket launcher carried by the most popular infantry class in the game will kill it and the Engie behind it.

Is there anyone else here who thinks that the AI MANA turret isn't good at what it's supposed to do?

Am I the only one who thinks it's a little ridiculous that the anti-vehicle MANA turret is better against infantry than the anti-infantry turret?

I thought they changed the dumbfire launcher thing or something, I haven't been killed by one in a very long time.

Also the AV turret is ******** in every way, not a very fair comparison.

Stick AI turret in a door.
Run outside room.
Wait for heavy to shoot rocket at turret.
Shoot heavy in the back the head.

The turret can withstand a titan AP round if it doesn't hit the barrel, other explosives are the same. It does no damage unless it hits that tiny part, save for the phoenix, which is honestly one of its few saving graces. High bullet resistance, functionally immortal unless you get headshot. It's free and can lay out ten seconds of constant and withering fire. Pulse fired it has incredible range as well.

No, it isn't underpowered. You need to know where to place them. Where you can't be flanked easily or have teammates watching your six, not in the middle of a field. Hop out if you see a rocket go in, hop back in or redeploy the turret if it dies at no cost.

If an enemy is in front of you you WILL win an engagement at any range and most likely take no damage.
And a VERY high chance of not dieing to a direct rocket or shell hit.

It does good damage at a long range plus a invulnerability shield with great coverage.

All you need to do is work on your propositioning, Its just VERY situational.
Even just dropping it as a piece of cover ahead of time can be very useful.

Also of note: it stops any vehicle in its tracks. It will explode, but it stops them. Handy for cheaply halting GSD sunderers from breaching as even a moment can be enough to seal their doom. Use in enclosed rooms as makeshift cover. Use as bait as many enemies can't resist killing one they see unattended. Hide behind an enemy's turret so they get friendly fire warnings while trying to kill you (frequently making many stop firing and attempt a flank). The possibilities are endless.

People carry around the AV turret because it's broken. At AI work it's pathetic if the target sees you. I frequently matador AV turrets since you can see them coming, juke at the last second, or any number of little things.

If it actually worked like it's supposed to (and IIRC did at launch) it would be UP, as it is it's actually pretty good, at least in an environment where you can't be flanked.

The AI turret st high up there in the simple idea with a lot of potential.

- It is able to fire up to 10.5 seconds uninterrupted (more with good bursting).
- It is the only deployable cover in the game (the AV turret can take a shot but not absorb them)
- It has unlimited ammo
- It has unlimited drops/uses
- If you are above infantry you are shooting at you are basically invincible to everything except rockets

My only complaint is the VS one fires bullets, I mean jeez why not throw rocks like an ape.

tldr use the AV turret outdoors, use the AI one indoors

I believe the AI turret only takes damage from the front if its' hit on the barrel. I've had situations where I've deployed the AI turret and had numerous heavies fire rockets at me, hit, but I'm still there and mowing them down. Those heavies need to land a very precise shot to take out the AI turret.

It used to suck. A rocket anywhere would blow it up and it always malfunctioned. But in its current form its not bad as its destruction hitbox is quite small... more often then not an incoming rocket will just harmlessly hit the shield leaving the engi untouched.

Place it well and you can lock down a room/stairs pretty good and it provides good defense should the enemy coming in the room happen to be in a MAX suit. You can do some serious damage as opposed to being instagibbed.

Well... the TR and VS ones anyways. Never been too fond of the NC one though... the head is very exposed. Seems the medic reviving the engi who just headshot gets more action than the engi himself.

They need to normalize coverage a bit--The shapes expose different amounts of your head and should have been re-evaluated with the NW patch.

Other than that, they're great cover and I'm always amazed at their pinpoint accuracy and fast TTK. I still carry it over the AV mana turret in most situations. I usually have a squad with lots of heavies and AV MAXes, and with the new tank mines you can hop on tanks and sticky mine them if you want to go for maximum rage.

I actually carry AI turret more often than AV; it's TTK is good, it has high accuracy and it has good sustained fire even without cert investment.

It's a suppression weapon for closing down avenues of infantry advance. Most effective when your flanks are secure, and you position it with enough time to react to incoming infantry.

There was a thread a while ago about other uses for the AI turret; tank trap, cover, distraction, step-ladder, etc.

My biggest complaint about it is how annoying it can be to place - which is extremely annoying in time-critical scenarios.

They're overpowered if anything, although TR's has significantly worse coverage while VS and NC's are very hard to get rockets into.

They definitely have been pretty poorly implemented and could use some attention regardless of whether they're OP or UP.

You're better off ignoring the machinegun part of the AI turret and simply using the AI turret as deployable cover.

The only thing bad about the AI Mana is finding a place to put one down. So damn many players run in front of you around choke points that it isn't worth staying in one. But if you find a good spot and players mind fire lanes then it is really hard to weed those things out.

It is also a GREAT idea to just plop any Mana turret on landing pads when your team is using it as an AA nest. It'll kill anyone that goes for road kills. Like others said, they make great cover, the NC version mostly from you being able to fire over it and not hit the shield at all.

What is the damage profile of the AI Turret? I cannot find it for the life of me.

My only problem with the turret is that unless you hit the barrel, your shots miss it seems. Pain is the *** when trying to kill one.

But they are fine otherwise. You set one at the top of some stairs, for example. Use them for crowd control and dictating where the enemy moves. but like most things in this game, it works better when you have more than just one.

They're excellent for jumping on top of, in the spawn room.

I routinely forget about the thing and the enemy routinely reminds me of its usefulness. It could maybe use some touch ups, but it is far from useless.

Find a set of stairs the enemy needs to go up, pop two or three down, have medics and MAX's behind you. There, you can kill a ton of people as they try to attack you.