Turret on OP1-8 - some ideas

Borderlands 2 Axton the Commando
#1

Hello, travellers and Gearbox!
Sorry in advance for poor english of non-native speaker.
Well, as you already understand, i would like to speak about one of the most inconsistent aspects of Axton - he’s turret.

First of all, before anybody would like to blame me - no, i’m do not think that Axton is weak.

What i’m really concerned is how turret and turret-based builds works on OP levels.
Let me explain my point of view, and let me not to expand it to size of book (i think, you all more or less met problems, mentioned below):
1)At OP1-8 turret’s damage (full-turret build except nuke) is barely covers enemy’s regen rate.
2)At OP1-8 turret’s shield is as good as absent after 1-2 shots from anything but pistol
3)In BL1, turret was a great supporting tool, dropping an ammo and healing you. In BL2, on OP1-8, it’s barely a distraction, which is eliminated by any badass enemy in seconds.
4)There’s quite a little ways to increase turret’s damage and absolutely non to increase dmg of single turret’s shot.

All of that making turret an uncertain asset. While Axton is “good in everything, best in nothing” character type (which is quite interesting, in my opinion), turret itself cannot be in the same state.

So, my though is quite simple - turret need… nope, not a buff, since it’s probably will not turn the scales. We need just add some synergy.

Well, here’s the list of thoughts-suggestions made by your unworthy topic-starter. All of them are based on the existing skills:

Guerilla - make turret more offensive

  1. Ready - in addition to reload speed, add a reload reduction for turret, i.e. reduce the time between bursts. I think, 0,25 sec per lvl might be more than enough or even a little bit too much. Won’t insist on any number.
  2. Onslaught - , probably, add a small dmg bonus for turret as well. And, to keep up with Axton’s Movement speed, also increase turret’s rotation speed (for faster aiming)
  3. Crisis Management - increase turret’s damage as well on empty-shield condition. I would say, 3% per lvl.
  4. Laser sight - add ability (if at least 1 point spent) to point turret’s target by pressing F (in case Gemini is taken, should work when both turrets are deployed). Such Upgrade make turret’s offensive abilities much more reliable.

Gunpowder - turret is a distraction

  1. Nuke - add Agro-property, i.e. turret is taking all fire on itself (last deployed, if Gemini), until destroyed.

Survival - turret make you live!

  1. Phalanx shield - as soon as Axton looses his shield, turret shield recharged to full. Axton’s shield should be recharged to full before re-applying this effect.
  2. Phalanx shield (alt.1) - some damage made by turret is converted to Phalanx density. Shield can be overcharged (25-30% of overcharge max)
  3. Phalanx shield (alt.2) - any damage dealt by Axton or teammates while they are under Phalanx is partially converted to health (Moxxi says hello). (ratio should be quite low).
  4. Resourceful - add property: each point of skill increases effective cooldown cap for Axton (just to remind - turret CD is capped to 21 sec. minimun since 100% is an effective CD cap).
  5. Last ditch effort - add turret’s damage while in FFYL as well.

I’m not pretend to be gamedesign genius and, probably, half of this tallents might prove useless or overpowered despite the numbers. Also, i’m not even thinking about adding ALL these properties into game.

Will be glad to hear any critics or other ideas for suggestion.

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#2

These are actually some good ideas.

#3

There are some pretty good ideas here, especially the guerilla ones. I personally think that the turret itself could use a few buffs as well, like buffing the base bullet damage, letting nuke and scorched earth be affected by grenade buffs, boosting the health of phalanx, etc. Stuff that would make the turret feel like more than just a slagging distraction

#4

in OP 1 thru 8, I’ve equipped the turrents with mag-lock and longbow and use them mainly as a distraction (tossing turrents up high on walls just out of reach or even ceilings), by grouping the mobs up, then toss some area effect grenades (stormfronts a good one) into it to take advantage of the turrents slag effect, by doing this the turrents seem to last almost their full spawn time before being taken out and can cause a good amount of damage

#5

Well, i agree, this is quite an effective way. But still, in scenario you’ve described it’s more like you’ve worked for turret, not the turret for you.
My main point is exactly about making turret more reliable. As I’ve noticed, mostly any build works for mobbing - it’s more the matter of gear. But building Axton into engeneer (i.e. turret-related build) gives much less profit than grenadier or gun-dmg builds.

#6

Well, in my opinion, straight buff on turret will make Axton a little bit OP, cine you’ll get the buff and you still can get your top-dmg builds like grenadier. That’s why I suggest to buff it via skills - if you want to buff your turret, you should sacrifice some skillpoints on that.

#7

Allowing Nuke and Scorched Earth to get grenade damage would be a nice start. Also, buffing Nuke damage to at least some good grenade like the Meteor Shower or Fastball level is an amazing idea in my opinion.

But there are some good suggestion in here. Cool stuff, but I dont really think this kind of change could be added now. Some scaling problems could be solved, like Mayas, but changing how skills work is out of question this late.

#8

Maybe instead of giving them grenade boost just make it simpler and adjust the coding or however they buff damage and make the number bigger.

#9

Yes, but gearbox managed to patch some core mechanics like AMP on multi-spread weapons and rework skills like DeathMark, so I don’t think it’s so impossible. Most of the mechanics are allready there (or implemented in Pre-Sequel, like targeting of Wolf for Wilhelm) or BL1 (healing for Rolands’s turret ).

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