People ask me a lot why I am not in love with Mag Lock since it is only one point and a great skill.
They misunderstand.
I LOVE Mag Lock…but it is a situational skill.
At the game’s highest levels the Turrets simply don’t kill much unless you are playing the UCP where the Turrets CAN become killers.
What the Turrets ARE good for is:
Battlefront bonuses
Slagging
Distraction
Blocking
Channelizing
and somewhat, Protection
In most situations in the game I want my Turrets on the GROUND doing all of the above, and they are easier to ensue they go exactly where I want them…on the ground…without Mag Lock specced…and I can use the point elsewhere .
Buuuut there are a LOT of scenarios where I want PROTECTED distraction and slagging and maximum length of Battlefront bonuses …and I want to ensure the Turrets do NOT get destroyed. It is those scenarios where Mag Lock is invaluable…Terra, and BA REX, come to mind.
My rule of thumb is: know the encounter and decide just how you are going to employ your Turrets ahead of time. If unsure…ALWAYS spec Mag Lock. It’s only one point.
Maglock to me is a major game changer, even more now that double turrets fits grenade builds aswell. Like, there’s some letdown taking it like, it seems that sometimes enemies " bores " your turret when you have it specced, but it gives you fundamental advantages:
instant deploy upon hitting a wall, without maglock you have to wait for it to land on the floor
you can deploy on basically everything in the map that isnt a enemy, so you can be more… creative(?) drawning a immaginary line to delineate the battlefield between your two turrets
You can throw your first turret where enemies can’t shoot at it( ex, a hidden spot in the floor ) and the second can be used as a enemy bite and slag dealer that you can deploy infinitely as long as your first one is alive in that safe spot
So yeah… for my Axton playstyle Maglock is essential, as I need the turrets to act as a slag dealer and for Battlefront, but also to controll the field and enemies, and maglock is very important there because it extends by quite a lot your possibilities… cannot see why one wouldn’t grab it xD
If I want my Turrets on the ground for blocking and a little protection. I simply find it easier and more precise NOT to use Mag Lock. Blocking doorways and gateways etc. there are a lot of encounters at the Peak specifically where I want the Turrets blocking, distracting and soaking up punishment.
Biggest is distraction though. The easiest way to get enemies to notice the turret is to keep it on the ground…in their face.
But generally I agree…it’s only one point and the advantages too good…why not!
It may be considered cheese but I enjoy doing it sometimes, but another cool function is “pinning” : dual Phalanx-equipped turrets immobilizing a target.
But for my money, Maglock is on 100%. It’s the versatility that it provides.
I might post a few turret damage progression and damage formulas in maximum a week if all goes well.
Until then know that with both rocket pods and dual guns (slag turret) the First turret deployed has a damage penalty of 1 / (1 + 0.15 + 0.15) = 0.76923 to both its bullets and rockets before vs slag multiplication that ‘amplifies’ this penalty .
The second turret deployed (gemini) doesn’t suffer from these penalties, does full damage and thus hits slightly harder than the first …
But since one cannot really boost turret damage like it can be done to deathtrap with (very likely bugged) ROID + splash damage interaction … this DPS difference between the two turrets usually isn’t very relevant …
I go back and forth on maglock. I often spec into Nuke because I’m daft (actually I just like the knockback effect and instant aggro draw) and nuking the ceiling somewhere is kind of a waste. I don’t normally spec the DoubleUp/Gemini build.
But it is dang useful when using that build, for strategic placement.
One problem with it is that using maglock causes the turret to have two hitboxes (the turret itself, and the base it’s maglocked to.) Those hitboxes can overlap. I’ve witnessed spiderants spew web glop at my poor turret and pseudo-b0re it. You see and hear all the glicthing-b0re-like effects: the turret’s health bar going down instantly (naturally) but you also hear an audio glitch where the game plays the web-hit sound a zillion times in a nanosecond, like b0re does when it goes through multiple hitboxes.
I can’t say if I’ve noticed this with other enemy projectiles, even just bullets. The spiderant glop projectile has some properties that interact strangely with the turret hitboxes is what I’m guessing.
After normal mode the killing effectiveness of the turrets drops rapidly. In TVHM you can still get a few kills…in UVHM and onward…lol…the turret just isn’t a killer. I frankly don’t even consider actual damage numbers from it in UVHM. Although there is one quirk in turret damage at the Peak IIRC. Turret damage is unaffected by the Peak’s damage reductions…so it’s actually a little better at the Peak then expected.
But it still has some EXCELLENT features if exploited properly.
If you want Turrets that kill…download the UCP patch from Shadowevil.
Skills like Laser Sight and Phalanx Shield got very nice buffs along with a BIG buff to actual turret gun and rocket damage.
The changes add a whole new element to Axton’s Combat Power…not to mention it’s just fun as hell!
You see and hear all the glicthing-b0re-like effects: the turret’s health bar going down instantly (naturally) but you also hear an audio glitch where the game plays the web-hit sound a zillion times in a nanosecond, like b0re does when it goes through multiple hitboxes.