MANA AV Turret-underpowered

Engineer here. Am I alone in finding the MANA AV turrents ability to engage tanks successfully to be somewhat lacking? I try to use this a lot, but it suffers from three fatal flaws.

#1 its long reload time. While is somewhat true-to-life if its conceived as a single.(projectile?) that has to be hand loaded for every shot-then yes, one could justify it on that basis. But, this is a problem because of point#2.

#2 No aim point or zoom-besides one tiny white dot-which I might add, is nearly invisible @ 1920X1200 with most effects set to max or high. The fly-by-wire idea is nice-but once it leaves the pipe, for mid range or distant targets its always difficult to actually tell where the projectile actually is. A lot of what I think will be hits-often end up hitting the ground over this.

#3 The real kicker though, how little Damage the MANA AV actually does-especially to vehicles. Which is funny since you would think a heavy shape-charge type missile designed to kill tanks would be more be able to cripple or destroy, if not with ease, then at least present a threat to. -They do not. In point of fact, its hard to destroy even a Harasser with the MANA AV. The only vehicle the turret can actually kill is the ATV, and only if you get a direct hit. The only way you will destroy a tank, is if they sit obligingly while you pile missle after missle into it-and dont fire back while your doing it.


Here is how a 'typical' MANA AV fight vs and 'Tank' type vehicle goes.

-I deploy the MANA itself. Even this part is tricky since there is really no fog-of-war in PS2. Even setting up the AV invites either a Sniper Round(single kill round), a barrage of tank fire, small arms fire, or a airstrike, or some combination of all-of-the above.

-If I survive that stage, then its go time. If the target is relatively close by-a hit is pretty well guaranteed. If they are mid range or distance. YMMV. See point #1

-What happens next is the heart of the matter. My missle hits. The tank, take very slight damage. Zeros on me with uncanny accuracy, and a large heaping of splash damage, and destroys me and my turret with a single shot. I can tell my hits are NOT posing any real threat as the enemy tanks often after my single hit, are maybe 20-30% damaged. IOW, I am getting off-in most cases, a single shot before return fire utterly destroys me. The only time you often get multiple shots is if they engaged with another tank or otherwise occupied running over some hapless infantryman. In the instances where I can score multiple hits-the tanks often shrug off 3 or 4 hits with ease-and then at some point-they will find you and take me out with a single round. Even the sunderer is fairly immune, requiring 4 or 5 hits to destroy.(They usually just drive off) and are fine, whereas most tanks will quickly return fire and destroy any MANA AV with insulting ease.

Now the long cooldown is what really bites. spending literally hundreds of certs to make it fire a little faster, while again, offers some help, a 1.5s redux time will not save you from tanks or vehicles which can pour fire and splash damage on you nonstop until you are dead-which is usually instant.

As for aircraft, well, they are even less bothered by the AV, even though in theory, the MAV was designed? to be used against them as well. Most shots are out of range, and easily evaded-and tracking air is less rewarding than ground. The only thing the MAV is good for vs air is assist kill XP(rarely) or making them evades. Which has some value, but as soon as the nearest tank sees you firing-see above happens.

Thats my 2 Certs anyhow.

PS Would all MAXs and vehicle drivers please stop a) running away from me, or b) running me over while Im repairing plz-N-thanks.

Master baiter here folks.

Assuming you're actually serious, I can only guess you're new to the game and haven't felt the effects of the AV MANA yourself.

I agree completely. AV turret should have a magazine like a striker in which you can launch 5 missiles at once and guide them to the target. What good does it do being able to guide a missile over and around obstacles with a little bit of skill when it doesn't kill right away?

Also needs a bigger gunshield, WW2 Anti tank gun style. Those pesky snipers always try to snipe me when I'm plugging away at tanks from the rear at 800m away.

Agreed, I think it should be buffed to fire bricks of C4.

And maybe add the Vanguard Shield to it, but with double the duration and half the cooldown.

No Im not serious *******, why I took the time to mention any of this.

As a lightly armed, and armored engineer -always exposing himself to enemy fire(and that includes taking fire from MAVs) as well. just to inflict minor annoying damage on vehicles that can return fire FAR more rapidly and without having to maintain a manual hold on said target-yea, I know all about the effects of MAV hits. I've killed light infantry with direct hits with the MAV-so what? I can visually verify the damage the MAVs do(and don't do) by the kill screen. I see that screen a LOT when I MAV, FYI. I get one missile off-and then Im dead +90% of the time, while Im trying to line my second shot My engineer armor stops MAV hits as well as it stops all forms of ammo-which is to say, poorly. So what of it? Clearly you're the new one here. But hey, thanks for playing.....

No way. Vanguard shield glows man. That just gives away my perfect position!

I think Infiltrator cloak would be better.

I will muster all my strength and integrity, and refrain from sarcastic comments here...

MANA AV turrets stack incredibly well with each other; coupled with being able to hit targets well beyond render range makes it an incredibly forgiving weapon. Once you get a hold of the fly-by-wire mechanics the turret employs you will be able to lash out against targets that have no way of returning fire. Not only are you beyond their render range, but the missle itself does not render as well.

I applaud your somewhat honest approach to the weapon itself (probably due to a lack of experience), but as long as the MANA AV remains broken (and it *is* broken, take my word on that) any further buffs to it would make it hilariously OP.

Also, consider this: the turret itself is free once you cert it, it's intended targets (being mostly armour) require resources to pull each and every time. To make it any stronger would be severely unfair to say the least.

But if we make Vanguard Shield work right for it and double the duration while halving the cooldown, we end up with 16 seconds shielded, then a 7.5 seconds cooldown.

Maybe if it cloaked when it wasn't Shielded... Would that be balanced?

I agree, the mana AV turret needs buffed immediately.
In order of importance:
It needs the shield from the AI turret
It needs faster projectiles so you spend less time standing on it giving the enemy a chance to return fire
When certed out it should fire twice as fast

OR!

I should be replaced with the un-nerfed TR Vulcan using a heat mechanic instead of ammo.

Oh man,prepare for one hell of a ride.Forumside gonna take this thread apart.

If the numbers work out, I would trade a buff in cool-down to a nerf in the max distance.

They need to buff the strength as well, The mana turret sucks inside combat range. It's an easy one shot for a tank.

If they reduce the range they will need to be strengthen it to be able to fight tanks while taking direct hits

It important to remember it only has single digit kills against tanks globally while having nearly 1km to get those kills in.
I feel complaints are fairly exaggerated and out of (justified) frustration.

But I did just kill 3 Sunderers and and 4 Tanks and 2 lightnings from the edge of Indar Comms array at the Quartz ridge entirly Solo.
Im sure those drivers didn't feel like there where part perfectly fair fight where everyone involved had fun.

Not a chance. You don't buff something because you fix the feature on it which is incredibly broken. They cost 0 resources, spawn unlimited amount of times, have unlimited ammo, do roughly a decimator rocket worth of damage, and have a broken hit box meaning you pretty much have to be above the AV turret to snipe the engineer. If you play smart and flank a tank like infantry should be doing, as opposed to trying to attack it from the front, it only takes 3 shots to down a full health MBT which costs 450 resources. A single engineer should not be confidently trying taking out tanks by hitting the front armor, they should be trying to flank them to deal critical damage. Just because you pull a 0 resource cost turret on your 0 resource cost/ 0 cool down engineer doesn't entitle you to suddenly be able to go head to head with a dang MBT.

I just want a bigger reticule, it's hard to aim that thing, considering the sensitivity of PS2.

Yes you do, The AV turret is at joke close range. It the easiest target in the game. The only reason it can do anything because it works at long range. At close range you don't need a sniper, You just shoot it with your cannon and blow it to peices.

If you take away the only thing it's good at you need to fix it in other areas.

See the striker. They took away what made it good and made no other chances now it's a PoS or the vulcan same thing. The same thing would happen to the AV turret.


If people can't handle the long range with out getting all salty that is fine but you can't just leave it as is.

There is no such thing as an infantry AV weapon with anything over 1.35x zoom. And even then, it's the devs' joke of a soft limitation against infantries having long-range AV capabilities.
Even with its "long reload time," engineers can easily outDPS any HA at range. The only infantry weapon with the damage payload you're thinking about (killing tanks in 1 "shot") is C4. Otherwise, almost nothing that infantries can use will bring out as much consistent, high dps.
And it's simple to aim it; if it's stationary, then it's click-point to hit the target. If it's moving then it's click+lead. I play with an "ugly" 1072x768 resolution on a 15.6" laptop with the lowest graphic settings and have no problems hitting the target at 600m+.

I don't think you realize how big of a chunk 20-30% of a tank's hp is. Also, tanks can fire back at your direction, but they can't hit you if you're beyond rendering distance. Ever pull a tank? Ever hear: plink* plink* plinkplink* boom*?

If they buff it for close range at all they'd either have to make it cost resources or once it got destroyed forced you to go to a terminal to pull a new one. You can't make something which costs nothing, has unlimited ammo, and does a lot of damage each rocket to be super powerful against a MBT which costs 450 resources and has a sizable cool down. If you used one at 300 meters to get a few shots off at tanks before they started firing at you they would still be fine, but if you think you'll just sit in one spot for 5 minutes with an immunity to tank shells... well ya those days will be gone and for good reason. The Striker is a difference circumstance completely because it's a worse form of the Annhilator currently. What made it good was fire and forget and the rockets went through terrain. They nerfed both of those things. The AV turret will still be cheap and have a powerful rocket after this change, but it just won't allow you to sit back at 600 meters away and ruin great open field battles.

You just shoot it, You know why everyone stops using it and start using other AV weapons when the battle gets close???

It's because you can't do **** on a AV turret when the battle gets close cause you will die in seconds.

Ammo doesn't matter there are ammo boxxes every where that is why every one switches off the AV turret. You actually have a chance of shooting and not dieing with the other AV guns.



If people don't like the long range that is fine, but you can't just make it the worse AV gun in that game as well in the process.

An AV Mana-Turret is essentially a no-cost, literally laser accurate, decimator up to vehicle render distance (like 900m).

It isn't that fun to use and doesn't generate that much score/hour, but you can guarantee that everyone on the receiving end of your turret is far, far more frustrated than you are. It is hard to quantify what an AV turret does to a battle because you can't see what the battle would have been like without you there.

Ploping down an AV turret and spamming at tanks 100s of meters away means that you automatically restrict where they can go, and change their focus to you. That is just one AV turret. When you've got 2-3 in a battle from 300+ meters away, you end up with a bunch of tanks hiding behind cover because they're too scared to expose themselves. It is embarrassing and forces tanks out of the one scenario where tanks are supposed to dominate.