How to fix the Crusaders Sentinel Armor (Turret)

[cruezis]

I think that everybody can agree that the Sentinel Armor is by far the worst armor for the Crusader. Not only does it have the lowest defense of the three, but it also has a very lackluster skill: The sentry turret. But what does make the turret so much worse than the other skills?

The answer to that question is fairly simple: the turret doesn't bring much to the table.
It deals low damage, gets killed easily by enemies and costs way too much focus on each use. And if that wasn't bad enough it is also highly immobile, meaning that if it survives a fight it is basically useless. A well placed rocket barrage can wipe a whole pack of enemies and even chunk bosses. The jump gives you great mobility and crowd-control. The turret just can't compete.

I have three suggestions on how to fix these problems and make the armor a viable choice:

1. Lower the cost of the turret down to 50 focus instead of 60.
   
2. Give the turret a refractor field (shield bubble against ranged attacks) with something like 1000 to 1500 health.
   
3. Allow players to pick the turret back up, refunding focus in relation to how much time the turret has left.

How would these changes make the armor more appealing?
The reduction in cost would allow a basic character to put down two turrets at once instead of having to wait for more focus (you only have around 100 focus without investing into more talents).

The shield would make the turret itself tougher, while also making it a nice support skill, both for solo play and coop. This would push the turret further into a support role, which I think is a good thing, as it would make it more unique than just piling damage onto the skill. The turret shouldn't do the work for you, but instead give you options on how to handle certain situations differently.

Being able to pick turrets back up (or teleporting them back to the ship) would further solve the focus problem and would allow players to use the turret more often, without feeling bad for wasting focus on smaller groups. I would suggest a 50% refund right after using the turret, which goes down the longer the turret has been active. So if the turret has been active for 30 out of 60 seconds the refund would be halved to 25%.

If these changes would prove too strong they could easily be balanced by tweaking the numbers on any of the qualities of the turret. You could increase the cost again, lower the refund or nerf the shield health.

What are your thoughts on these changes? Do you think that it would make the turret more appealing? Would you consider the armor as a viable choice? Or would that make the armor too strong?

Edit 1:
Any feedback would be appreciated, especially from moderators or someone in contact with the developers.

Edit 2:
I have some more suggestions on how to make the abilities more diverse, but I didn't want to bloat the post, but since it already came up in the discussion I might as well list them as well. Namely giving all three abilities three modes:

Jump:

1. The normal jump.
   
2. A line charge on the ground, which knocks back enemies in a line.
   
3. A fire aoe around the character (discharging the thruster onto the ground below the character.)

Rocket Barrage:

1. The normal barrage.
   
2. An anti armor setting, which turns it into a targeted skill with high armor penetration.
   
3. Fragmentation rockets with a huge aoe that deal small damage, but very high suppression.

Turret:

1. Bolter Turret with high suppression
   
2. Flamerthrower turret with good aoe.
   
3. Rocket Launcher with high armor penetration.

You could select these modes with three small buttons next to the ability hotbar itself, but I guess that would take a lot of time to properly implement.

[Limoskina]

This turret is so slow, need more targeting speed.

[Stundorn]

I like playing with sentinnel armor and use the Turret.
With Assault Armor and Jump i'm killing a bit faster if it comes about groups of small and Medium enemies, but the Turret helps more against bosses I'd say.

[Entarion]

Used the turret on bosses in the beginning myself but now if the boss notices the turret for like a sec the turret is dead lol

[Order]

I would personally like a Tarantuala Buff but more like that i gets a "Special" Version instead of a Standard one that everyone uses. Why not drop down a Tarantula with a Bolter on the left and a Rocketlauncher on the right side? Single Target Burst and some AoE. That and a little HP Buff would totally work for the Game. As of right now it only is good for certain Missions where you need to defend ... otherwise it lacks the Punch in most Situations and, as you said it already, you dont have much armor / resistance as the other armors.

[rasabt]

i've rather the problem that turrents not selfdestruct, hence after a shortwhile i cannot use the skill anymore unless i bring enemies to said turrets and let em destroy the turrrets.
and yes, keeping them alive is horrific.

[cruezis]

Originally posted by Order:

I would personally like a Tarantuala Buff but more like that i gets a "Special" Version instead of a Standard one that everyone uses. Why not drop down a Tarantula with a Bolter on the left and a Rocketlauncher on the right side? Single Target Burst and some AoE. That and a little HP Buff would totally work for the Game. As of right now it only is good for certain Missions where you need to defend ... otherwise it lacks the Punch in most Situations and, as you said it already, you dont have much armor / resistance as the other armors.

I agree with that idea, but it would require more reworking of the ability itself. I have some more suggestions on how to make the abilities more diverse. I didn't want to bloat the post, but since you already mentioned it I might as well list them as well. Namely giving all three abilities three modes:

Jump:

1. The normal jump
   
2. A line charge on the ground, which knocks back enemies in a line.
   
3. A fire aoe around the character (discharging the thruster onto the ground below the character.)

Rocket Barrage:

1. The normal barrage
   
2. An anti armor setting, which turns it into a targeted skills with high armor penetration.
   
3. Fragmentation rockets with a huge aoe that deals small damage, but very high suppression.

Turret:

1. Bolter Turret with high suppression
   
2. Flamerthrower turret with good aoe.
   
3. Rocket Launcher with high armor penetration.

You could select these modes with three small buttons next to the ability hotbar itself, but I guess that would take a lot of time to properly implement.

[Darth Revan]

Originally posted by Stundorn:

I like playing with sentinnel armor and use the Turret.
With Assault Armor and Jump i'm killing a bit faster if it comes about groups of small and Medium enemies, but the Turret helps more against bosses I'd say.

Thats my experience as well, take the attention of the bos so he follows you, run around, shoot at the boss until he is close enought to run away again, repeat that and let make the turret the rest. :) At least if it is a boss who kills you too fast in melee range.

[cruezis]

Originally posted by PooF:

Lol there is some usless ♥♥♥♥♥ around. They couldnt even tie their shoelaces they are that vacuous.

I am sorry to hear that you are frustrated with the game, but please try to be constructive in a discussion thread. Insulting people and only complaining, without offering solutions, gets us nowhere.

[CockaDoodleDoo]

Originally posted by cruezis:

I agree with that idea, but it

Turret:

1. Bolter Turret with high suppression
   
2. Flamerthrower turret with good aoe.
   
3. Rocket Launcher with high armor penetration.

You could select these modes with three small buttons next to the ability hotbar itself, but I guess that would take a lot of time to properly implement.

They are looking into this Mojo tells me.

[CockaDoodleDoo]

Originally posted by cruezis:

Originally posted by PooF:

Lol there is some usless ♥♥♥♥♥ around. They couldnt even tie their shoelaces they are that vacuous.

I am sorry to hear that you are frustrated with the game, but please try to be constructive in a discussion thread. Insulting people and only complaining, without offering solutions, gets us nowhere.

Im frustratied with who cant figure out solutions to simple problems in this game. Id be ashamed to post such things.

[cruezis]

Originally posted by PooF:

Originally posted by cruezis:

I am sorry to hear that you are frustrated with the game, but please try to be constructive in a discussion thread. Insulting people and only complaining, without offering solutions, gets us nowhere.

Im frustratied with who cant figure out solutions to simple problems in this game. Id be ashamed to post such things.

Let's not get off topic, please... You are free to think of the game and the dev-team whatever you like, but I would appreciate it if you didn't derail the post.

Cheers