AV mana turret needs to go.

Turrets are "vehicles" and as such render on 300m+ ; also can not be stunned/blinded - the more you know
They can be seen albeit its very very hard on 400m+

Another problem is that since some of the last patches I usually can't see any rockets at all - they just don't render.
Or they just float infront of the user. Stupid bug

I also thought that, until I knew where the hits were comming from. Have my ammo sundie blow up and me starting to move towards the hill. And only when the infantry (Striker squad) started rendering, the turrets rendered. I didn't record it tough. And I need to do some testing to confirm or denie it. And I will do so tomorrow. Since it's quite late now and I'm quite tired.

As much as I love my AV turret (thing's brought in thousands of certs for me), it's gotta be nerfed imo.

Along with UBGL. But that's a whole different nerf thread entirely.

I have used this weapon a bit and i'll make a few points.

1.Tanks render at further distances because they are "LARGER" the infantry can see you but you can not see them as they are "SMALLER"

2.It takes multiple hits from one to get a tank to even half health at most times the tank has already went searching for the one hitting them and with 1 shot ends the AV turret.

3.Snipers can with 1 hit kill the Engineer with a head shot if you are taking hits from an AV turret yell to the snipers nearby to take them out.

4.Steering the missile is not as easy as you make it out to be unless you are out in the wide open and there for open game not only to av turrets but also aircraft and heavy Assaults. It takes a bit of skill to use it well timing your distance as well as whether its moving or not.

Now i can give you many more reasons but i think these points are pretty clear and self explaining. I can make a much stronger case for the nerfing of infiltrators then you ever could come up with about av turrets. the tanks have a short respawn timer as well as the resources to get another one pop up quick. I do not think the developers had in mind that you should be able to ride around forever in a tank. And they thought that other players should have a chance against them.

What chance does an Engineer have if you can see him using his AV turret? Slim? None? And its their job to stay back repair vehicles and resupply allies unless he is further in field repairing maxes. A tank takes multiple hits and can hide and get repaired. The engineer on the other hand is quite squishy and easily 1 shot will put them to the redeploy screen quick. Now i'm sure your next argument is "but what if there are several engineers doing this????? It doeasn't take as many then". To that i say i have not seen it. Its not the cheapest weapon to purchase. It costs 1000 certs or 700 sc (7 dollars) so not every one out there is running around with one.

The tank or vehicle costs what? resources that gradually build back up? A respawn wait timer? Unless you count certs put into the vehicle. But then again engineers put certs into their AV turret as well. Even in huge battles you may see a handful of engineers using an AV turret. Most of the time its AP turrets. And i've been in many battles from large to small. And i almost always play infantry. And i can honestly say i see very few people using AV turrets. Snipers cloaking coming up behind you to knife you or smg you? Or those cloaking when spotted and moving to a new position to shoot from? I see those far more often.

It needs to be a short range, like maximum shell travel is 200m then it poofs. Just last night at hvar I watched like 4 lightning tanks die in less then 3 seconds, wondered wtf was so bad *** that I wandered over there in my Vanguard to see if I could handle it...I to died in less then 3 seconds.....kill message was none other then MANA AV. Ofc I saw nothing, only died. THe non render of them is stupid to. Inviso rockets.

I swear, every time I pull my Vanguard I recement why I rarely even get in it. I never seem to accomplish much with it. It either flips or an ESF shows up, or some random ghost LA blows my **** to bits, or another tank comes outta no where and kills me.....Tanks seem to be pretty well pointless to pull.

C4 needs to be made to not throw so far, it should more or less kinda be shot put, or just dropped and be limited to only Engi and HA. LA get their Nade launchers but no C4.

The rendering has always been sketchy at best, not only for the rockets but for the turrets too. Often only the tripod will render, making it all but impossible to see especially when it's placed on a hill or behind some obstacle.

All in all it was a huge mistake to add a weapon to the game that's clearly broken because the engine can't handle it. Worse, instead of changing it to work with what the engine can do (namely 300m or so) they just left it that way knowing that it was completely broken. The fact that it does more damage per shot than almost any other infantry AV weapon is just an extra slap in the face to every ground vehicle in the game. It's just ridiculous.

No.

Well what most of the people complaining seem to be mad about is that an anti-vehicle turret is good at killing vehicles. Real shocker.

In typical forum side manner:

I suck at using this weapon and it kills me alot.. therefore nerf it NOW...!

More seriously Id prefer it if it had a 'shield' like the AI turret so I could Identify friendly turrets from enemy ones.. (they would also show up further)

Id like it to have less health (1 shell should kill it.. even from a prowler or lightning)

I would prefer if it was shorter range (and not because I'm bad at hitting it with it )

Does anyone have faction stats for these things? Im going to guess that Vanu do best with the thing (prowlers and Vanguards are easier targets)

Well, this thread got a lot more attention then I ever thought it would for a rage thread. I was expecting a few and for it to fall off the main page. Thanks for all of the replies so far; there are some really thoughtful ideas out there about how to make this more balanced/fair/whatever you want to call it.

I hate this thing and went over the top by asking to have it removed. SOE will never remove it, so since it's here to stay, a re-work/nerf is certainly in order at this point. It seems that most people gripe that it simply does not render appropriately and I agree this is a big part of the problem. Pikachu, I like your laser beam idea, but I fear SOE will never figure out how to make something like that render correctly.

The rendering issue needs to be fixed in general for all aspects of this game, but in the current state of the game, something more needs to be done. Making it unguided after 300m with a maximum range of 400m-500m would be a good start(not trying to take credit for this idea, but I like it). This gives a moving vehicle a chance to evade instead of being hit consistently from something they are not rendering. Decreasing its damage per shot at the same time would also be helpful; engineers are support, so let them support the AV game, not dominate it.

On a completely different wavelength, what do you all think of a cool looking re-skin of the turret that makes it 2x-3x bigger then it currently is? Maybe making it 2 tank rounds to kill would balance out being easier to see/hit. I'm sure one of you artists here could come up with something good.

I like the ideas in this post, but don't assume anything about my ability to use the turret. I never said I struggle with the weapon, I actually said it was the lamest way to get kills(hinting at my use of the weapon).

You know what happens when you assume don't you?

I also don't understand why a prowler can't OHK the turret, seems unfair when both the Maggie and Vannie can.

*Stop* asking for things to be removed. They never will be, it would be too much admin work for SOE to replace Station Cash. There's still an overabundance of armor, so it cant be too terrible. They just need to fix the rendering...AGAIN. I don't think they can though.

For the record I've been a victim of this, not just a user. And yea you still can't tell where they're shooting from half the time. Fix the rendering before any other adjustments!

OP I completely disagree with your call for nerfing the av mana turret.
-unless at extremely close range the turret will damage a vehicle but NOT kill it.
-the rocket leaves a trail right back to the launcher making the engineers life expectancy quite short if he shoots right away.Unlike an infiltrator that shoots from great distances .....leaves no rocket trail....who's invisible and can kill in one shot.
-the rocket must be guided the full distance to the target maximizing the engineers exposure, and it has no shield
-the turret can only be set up on very level ground making placement difficult at times
-guiding a missile that doesn't lock on and is not fire and forget takes skill especially at long distances.Most targets don't sit in one place very long..

1) all 3 factions have it

2) snipers, base stealthers / LAs need something to kill (I am short of sayin 'a role' here)

3) to help those who are dumbfounded, add thick black exhaust smoke to the rockets that lingers around at least 5 seconds, maybe that would help noticing AV rocket spam and the counter can be deployed (snipers, ESF, fast vehicles)

lol seriously? I see good engies massacre fools with the default.

all three factions had shotguns too.

I find it funny that they nerfed the phoenix -one shotting infantry, but this magic missile turret still does.

Shhh....
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

This is completely backwards. At close range an AV turret is an amusing joke at best and not a threat. At long range it's an inescapable and invisible source of death.

Mind boggling that infantry posses weapons that outrange tank main cannons, making them the ideal choice of anti-tank, and not true conventional methods such as aircraft, anti-tank gun platforms, or anti-tank tanks.

Since the last patch, they have a chance of the platform becoming completely invisible when the projectile is fired and / or having an invisible projectile (now at all ranges, including 5m away!)

No. Stop.

This is how you break things. AV turrets aren't overly effective at >200m unless you are on a biolab landing pad.

500 meters for guidance, the rest of it becomes dumbfire because it's "out of range".

Exaggerate much? I seriously doubt any of this is true. And not sure what class you are talking about but its either placed or drop i've found no option to throw it.......