But you have a much higher sustain plus your time to engage and disengage is higher than a AV turret engy. And you can fire from any terrain. Number of hits isn't every thing, at anything other than extreme ranges the AV turret is a glass cannon.
I may be biased (you've probably noticed my avatar is a tank) and personally I've had few problems with it because after the first shot that lands on me my AP turret spins that way and I blow it to kingdom come, I actually have never been killed by one yet (due to my playstyle I don't roll with large armor and choose to stay a distance and attack flankers and people like that, but I still think it does too much damage and imo I think their should be a range limit and a slight damage drop. This thing is going to start popping up more just as c4 and AT mines did while it may not be a major issue now people are going to start getting this thing and Im afraid it will make things a **** show. Thats just my 2 certs anyways...
The tank has a staggering number of limitations compared to the AV. Oh boo hoo, I need to grab a flash or an ESF and find a ledge somewhere, big deal. 1) Tanks are large vulnerable targets that load at any range 2) Tank projectiles have drop and cannot be steered 3) Tanks are limited by ammo 4) Tanks most definitely cannot reach the same kinds of places as you can with a turret - ledges and roofs, for instance 5) Tanks have pull timers and cost resources 6) Tanks require support to be effective 7) Tank range is limited by drop 8) Tank effective DPS is much lower than that of AV turrets because of time spent aiming in shots, avoiding damage, repairing, travelling etc 9) MBTs can only be spawned at specific locations Turrets are FAR more overpowered than any tanks.
I singlehandedly wreaked a vanu vehicle zerg earlier today using the AV turret. Set up just north of NS material storage on the arch, facing south so I can hit the vanu tanks as they climb the hill up to the base (and getting some nice rear hits). After they finaly got me I added up the score: 5 magriders 7 lightnings 2 sundies a flash or two (dam things take way more damage then you think) and a couple of infantry. Last night myself and a couple other engies managed to take out over a dozen tanks and other vehicles in a span of 5 min sitting up on one of the cliffs overlooking zuravan.
As the comparison was about the combat effectiveness against vehicles half of those points are not relevant but I will clarify what I was saying: New stuff in bold
Maybe nerf the damage so it takes one more rocket, but give it a scope so it can do it's thing easier?
I'll take reduced damage in exchange for some zoom, as it is hitting a moving vehicle at over 600 meters is pretty dam hard and most of the time I end up playing pixel hunting for the actual vehicle (Is that gray blob part of the building or a tank?). Also a rangefinder would be very helpful.
Looking forward to more of these tank destroyers, but soe could nerf all of it and tanks could just move up to the enemy base, and the game can finally revert backwards to tank vs tank battles bullet drop should not affect a missile There are tanks in other games that got the equivalent of the AV turret as the main gun, where the tank shoots missiles instead of shells
The AV turret proves that the developers learned nothing from the annihilator debacle. Extreme range pin point accuracy rockets shouldn't be in the game. The AV missiles should have a 400m range, just like lock-on rockets.
AV turret does almost no damage to air. I've hit a few libs even mossies, doesn't seem to do much which is odd.
Doesn't help because you are just a few pixles for him as target, he is exactly one pixle (if at all) at that range. Good luck spotting that turret
This turret is balanced because...snipers. I'll say no more Oh but I do think it's ludicrous it drops infantry in one hit. Sure it's a freakin missle, but I was sitting at the Crown and nuking a bunch of doritos(aka spotted enemies) at max render range in one hit. It was stupid easy. I was way more accurate on moving targets than I am as a tank. But I do suck as a tank or sniper or pilot. Engie all the way!
Well the splash damage is really small, I'd say 1.5 meters at most, unless its a direct hit its not gona do much besides let them know you are there.
They already exist and are called "Phalanx Anti-Air". I'm actually rather good in them. Most people don't seem to be able to judge proper amount of lead per distance one needs to give using this (actually using all forms of AA) but once you get it, you can really rack in some serious amount of Cert points now. Being an engineer, if they don't manage to take my gun out it will be back to full health for their next and most likely last pass too. With the AV turret now I am also no longer helpless against tanks that try to kill the AA gun. It's really a powerful combo. Learn to use the Phalanx! (Also set a proxy mine down for the infiltrator that will invariably try to kick you out of it)
I actually killed a few one pixel AV turrets with attached Engineer this weekend It's hard, difficult, but at least when I see them I can take action. Problem is that if the AV turret is invisible then so is his rocket and smoke trail making retaliation again impossible. That said I initially said that I mainly play Engineer but haven't gotten the AV turret. Well I bought it this weekend (early) with 1000 certs and I am already back up on ~1300 certs after this weekend. Now having it, I still think it's too good. I'm not that good with it either since if my target moves unfavorably, I most likely won't hit it over large and very large distances. Also not all cert points are of course from the AV turret or turret alone but I think it's a bit OP right now even considering the visibility issue. I guess we'll see where it goes from here but I absolutely expect this thing to be changed a bit in the not too distant future and I won't cry when that happens. I already got a fair share of certs back out of that purchase. And it's fun sniping people from range. Personally I like the change in my loadout that this turret caused. I used to run around with AT mines, but since having the turret this allows me to run around with AP mines and using the turret if tanks appear so I feel like I've just gotten more options which is always nice.
I got killed by one when i was in my vanguard today, it did two thirds of my tanks health on the rear and killed it outright. It does too much damage their is no denying it, i cant do that much to the back of an MBT with my 150mm AP. They dont have a situtation, the engineer just deploys it and fires a shot then runs off.... thats what happened to me and thats how i see engineers using it when the situation isnt right for them to stand their manning it.
This thing does need to have some sort of nerf so it's not as effective against targets at ranges where the turret is a pixel if not completely invisible. I've also done what Alchonis mentioned, drove up (way) behind some prowlers in my skyguard, hopped out and 4 shots -> 2 extreme menace kills later, I'm back on my way. I'm on the fence here, I flanked the tanks with an AV weapon and wiped them out. Any nerf would have to involve making tanks require 3 hits in the rear to destroy and that's an eternity to be chilling on your turret. The enforcer is great against them, one hit kill; but I think the best counter is another AV turret. When they're at extreme range, it can take some patience to find them but once you Q up the dorito it's game over. Just bring the missile in with a low trajectory and aim for the bottom of the dorito... Boom. With my turret on the crossroads air platform, I took out 8 or so "invisible" AV turrets at the crown (on top of numerous tanks and lightnings). Not a single shot came my direction, they were likely preoccupied by the guys on the hill in-between.
