Bunker Towers Defeat Themselves And Should Be Adjusted

[HardworkingSlacker]

Bunker Tower Problems + Possible Solution

TL;DR

So I have beaten the game now and managed to beat a few maps with 4+ Mutators and while doing that, I basically avoided building Bunker Towers in 99% of all cases.
This is because I realized that, once you turn up the difficulty, Bunker Towers become a big liability which is due to one simple fact:
Its weaknesses defeat its strengths!
It’s range is too short, its health stat too meager for the front lines and it completely flounders against enemies with high health + regeneration because of its completely random targeting.
It cannot synergize with other towers or walls very well because of its poor range and is almost always an inferior option to the Castle Tower!
To ameliorate these issues, I suggest the following changes:

    
• Lower range reduction (maybe -25% instead of -45%).
      
• No innate health bonus.
  
• Built top of wall: A portion its base health gets added to the Tower’s health.
      
• The Tower locks onto a random enemy until it's dead or has left its radius.

That should address its core problems (read more below) and allow for more synergies while keeping it distinct from the Castle Tower and emphasizing its role as a support tower.

Current Bunker Tower Stats

    
• -45% Range
      
• +75 Health
      
• +Attack cooldown decreases with each consecutive shot for the night.
      
• -Targets Random Units

Core Problem

I have written the range reduction in italics because that's the rotten core of this tower.
-45% range is a crippling weakness and defeats all its supposed strengths.
It needs to be shooting constantly to ramp up its firing rate speed.
For that, it needs to constantly have enemies in range and live long enough to ramp up attack speed.
Since the range is so abysmal, the tower needs to be placed at the front.
There, it usually doesn’t survive very long because of its relatively low base health.
Because of that, it usually dies before reaching any significant attack speeds.
Which brings us back to the core issue: Its weaknesses defeat its strengths.

More Ensuing Problems

When it doesn’t shoot, its attack cooldown increases gradually meaning it can be frustratingly inconsistent and that happens a lot because of its measely range.
It shoots targets at random which is a major detriment when the „Phoenix“ Mutator is active because high health enemies can easily heal off the occasional damage.
It gets hard-countered by anything that outranges it.
Most tower construction spots are too remote from each other; The Bunker Tower cannot reach other towers.
It suffers from the lack of „near-wall“ construction spots; when built on top of a wall, it is vulnerable to enemy attacks.
The remoteness of neighboring towers and the lack of protection by walls are at their worst on Nordfels, Uferwind and to some extent on Wildbach.
Shrines basically are what the Bunker Tower wishes it was.

It’s just worse than the Castle Tower

If you think about it, the Castle Tower is pretty much better in all regards. It has a flat -40% attack cooldown reduction, better health with +150, targets the closest enemies (which usually are the most dangerous ones too) and last but not least has absolutely superior range.
In short, it is more versatile, more powerful, more consistent, more durable and better at synergizing than the Bunker Tower meaning the Castle Tower is almost always the superior choice.

Current Use Cases

You can of course make the Bunker Tower work in some cases.
Durststein is probably the single-best map for it.
There, it can be placed at choke points near the front lines and hidden behind walls and/or natural barriers.
You can also use them on Frostsee because of tighter grouped construction spots allowing them to synergize with shield towers.
There are a few more I could name but the article is long enough already...

Possible Solutions

Below, I listed how I think these issues could be addressed:

    
• Lower range reduction (maybe -25% instead of -45%).
      
• No innate health bonus.
  
• Built top of wall: A portion its base health gets added to the Tower’s health.
      
• The Tower locks onto a random enemy until it's dead or has left its radius.

The improved range should enable the Bunker Tower to cover other Towers in its proximity allowing for more synergies, especially with shield towers.
The health synergy with walls would be unique to this tower and play into its strengths because enemies aggregate there naturally helping it to sustain its fire rate.
Removing its innate flat health bonus would probably be necessary for balancing reasons but also emphasizes its role as a support tower.
The lock-on mechanic would prevent it from floundering against groups of regenerating enemies while still choosing its targets randomly. This addresses a big issue the Bunker Tower has in games with Phoenix + Turtle/Growth/Elite Mutators.
And last but not least, it is still distinct from all the other towers.