Guide [Special] The Second Wave: New Alterations

[Thekillerpenguin 1,731]

 

It's been around 3 months since the first batch of Alterations came out. Some of them have seen changes during this period, and others have had their viability altered by the changes in the statistics of their underlying turrets. In any case, the community has had a chance to play around with and formulate an opinion for virtually all of the starting set. Now, we've received a second array of Alterations to try out. I'll try to cover them in detail here so you can decide on whether or not to purchase them in the future.
 

 

What are Alterations?

 

I've covered this topic in my past article on the first set of Alterations over here. If you haven't read that yet (you should) and are too lazy to click that link, Alterations are modifiers to your turret that you can equip and unequip at will. They are separated into modifications (M0-M3) like other equipment, but they are not discarded if you upgrade your turret or buy another Alteration, so you can use a M1 Alteration on a M3 turret if you want. This somewhat offsets their high cost, since they are a long term investment.

 

Now that most of the turrets have 2 Alterations available, you can mix and match them as long as the Alterations are not in the same "slot". You can't equip two M2 Alterations at once, but you can equip both a M1 and a M2 Alteration at the same time. Now, you may not always want to do this, since some of the combinations are less than advisable, but you'll end up with a pretty different turret that may be pretty fun.
 

The Second Wave

 

Well, time to cover the new Alterations. I'll go over them in similar detail to the previous article. I've yet to try any of these myself (not even on the Test Server, since these haven't been released for open testing), so I will do the best I can with the statistics provided. All turrets barring Twins, Ricochet (these two because of an upcoming splash damage rework), and Striker (because it's new) have received new ones.
 

Firebird: High Pressure Pump (M1)

"I work well under pressure." - Firebird

"Hey, that thing's patented!" - Freeze

"What patent?" - Firebird

 

This is basically the same thing as the earlier High Pressure Pump for Freeze. Actually, it is the same thing, decreasing the cone angle by 70% while doubling the maximum damage range. Heck, even the icon is similar.

 

So, since we're familiar with this Alteration's effects on Freeze, it should be easy to extrapolate its effects on Firebird. The increased maximum damage range ensures that the turret will be more powerful within its effective range, not dropping off as quickly. The downside is that the reduced spread makes it less capable of attacking multiple targets or attacking targets on different elevations. The former is especially notable given that napalm/liquid nitrogen don't pass through tanks anymore; if you want to light up multiple targets, you will have to catch them both within the initial spray angles.

 

Given that crowd control is less of a thing for Firebird and Freeze now, you can use this without too many drawbacks. If you're on a larger map or are using a slower hull, the increased damage range will make your damage output much more consistent at a distance. This also affects the heating rate, so you can keep other Firebirds or Freezes at an arm's reach while not sustaining as much damage yourself. The decreased cone angle will hurt if you're trying to roast a target and their pet Isida, but otherwise, it's a good pick.

 

You can try combining this with Compact Tanks for the ultimate single-target roasting machine, capable of setting opponents ablaze at a good distance. They work well separately, though, so try them out for yourself.

 

I'd give this a good rating.

 

Freeze: Corrosive Mix (M2)

"Wait, if acid corrodes tanks, how am I holding this stuff?" - Freeze

"T͝ÈRRU͝T SIHT̀ ƠT ̷E̷N͡OD̢ ̛N͠EEB͝ ͝S̨AH͝ T͞A̧H̛W̡ ́FO̴ ͡E̕VOR҉ṔPAS̢I̵D̀ YLHGU̴OR̕OH̵T̢ I" - Atnas

"Huh? What up with my snow cone....aaAHHHHHHMYMOUTHBURNS!!!!." - anonymous tanker

 

This Alteration radically changes the way Freeze works by completely eliminating the freezing effect and increasing the damage by 10% to compensate. It turns Freeze from a liquid-nitrogen-spewing monster into an acid-spewing monster. I'd have thought that acid would have a corrosive effect similar to that of Firebird's burning, but since it apparently doesn't, I guess the tank manufacturers are using baking soda in the armor plating or something.
 
I don't think any of you have used Freeze without the freezing effect, so this should be something radically different. Your targets will no longer be constricted or immobilized when you attack them, which means that those of you using Freeze as a defensive weapon will be less effective. The increased damage is helpful if you use Freeze as an offensive weapon, as it makes Freeze more powerful than Firebird (836 vs 760 damage per second at M4) if you don't count Firebird's afterburn. Another thing to note is that the lack of freezing will most likely render you unable to cool down burning teammates. You'll have to test that out for yourself, but I think that will be the case.

 

You can try combining this with the High Pressure Pump for a damage-oriented Freeze.
 

If you're a Mammoth-Freeze sitting on the flag in CTF, or a Wasp-Freeze who loves to ensnare and circle-strafe opponents, this is probably not an Alteration for you. You're losing the slowdown that is useful for snagging enemy flag carriers or for annoying your opponents when circling them. If you use a Viking-Freeze in Polygon CPs, I think you'll appreciate the enhanced damage. I'd give this a good rating.

 

Isida: Support Nanobots (M2)

"Don't shoot, I'm a medic...wait...Y̨ÓÚR͠ B̕L҉O͠O͏D ĮS̸ ͢D͡E͘LI̴C̨I̛O͜US̴" - Isida

"Medics are noncombatants who aren't supposed to be...my god, is he drinking that guy's blood?!" - Geneva Convention

"If neutering Isida's range wasn't enough, now you can neuter its damage. Perfect for mults and pacifists." - TKP

 

This Alteration makes Isida more of a battle medic than an offensive tool. It adds an extra four seconds (!) to the energy capacity, which makes for a grand total of 13 seconds of continuous use when combined with the baseline 9 seconds. That's a long time. It also doubles the self-healing to 20%. Nice. But this comes at a 15% penalty to healing and a whopping 30% penalty to damage.

 

If you use Isida mainly to heal teammates and farm XP, this will come in handy. The extra capacity makes up for the reduced healing rate if you're going around to patch up teammates in your base, and you can sustain, say, a Vulcan that's under fire for a much longer time. You can also latch on to enemies that are engaging your teammates for some free health. But that's about as far as this Alteration will benefit you.

 

For offensive purposes, the doubled self heal sounds really nice. If you do the math, however, the benefit is less impressive. A standard M4 Isida will self heal at a rate of 62 health points per second. Not very noticeable. A M4 Isida with this Alteration will self heal at a rate of 86.8 points per second. More noticeable, but not as significant as you think. It takes a M4 Wasp about 32 seconds of leeching to fully replenish its health with the standard Isida, and this Alteration cuts the time to 23 seconds. Still kinda high. You can replenish a little more than half of your health if you unload the entirety of your expanded energy capacity, but that takes 13 seconds. Your target would more than likely have died before that would happen, or alternatively you would have been destroyed because your DPS is abysmal.

 

Speaking of damage, a M4 Isida with this Alteration only deals slightly more damage per second (432) than a Thunder. (425). For reference, a M4 Twins will deal about 814 damage per second at point blank range. And while an Isida with Support Nanobots has 13 seconds of energy, Twins has infinite energy. You're not going to survive.

 

You could combine this with the Broadband Emitters for a super easy healing Isida, but I consider that one to be the worst Alteration in the game, so I wouldn't recommend it.

 

I'm not sure why Isida has received rather poor Alterations so far, but in any case I wouldn't recommend using this if you have any interest in attacking your opponents. You can be an effective medic, but you will most likely be trampled when you go into combat. Pending feedback from others, I'd give this a meh rating.
 

Hammer: High Capacity Drum (M2)

"BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM" - Hammer

"You can make room for a larger drum if you remove the safety. If it doesn't fail, you'll never need it." - anonymous engineer

"Hey, this isn't legal!" - the state of California

 

Drum magazines are designed to hold large quantities of ammunition in real life. The standard Hammer's magazine of 3 shots is quite disappointing (the designers must have wasted a lot of space within the drum), and this Alteration brings it up to a respectable (and terrifying) 5 shells. That's enough to kill 2 light hulls back to back or to take down a Mammoth. To balance this, the reload time is increased by 35%.
 
This Alteration makes Hammer very powerful for extended combat. A weakness of the standard Hammer is its small capacity; you can knock out a light hull or a medium hull in one mag, but afterwards you'll be vulnerable for about 4-5 seconds as the turret reloads. The High Capacity Drum extends your killing power significantly, giving you extra leeway against medium hulls and allowing you to massacre light hulls. Nice. However, the reload time is increased to 5.4 seconds at M4. For comparison, it takes 5 seconds for a M4 Shaft to reload from empty. That's a long time, and it's enough for you to be destroyed by a crafty opponent with no chance of fighting back.

 

The effects are interesting in the sense that the larger mag allows for more success in serial engagements, increasing long term ability, but hamper you for much longer during reloading, impeding long term potential as well. You'll have to try it for yourself to see how it fares, I guess.

 

Try combining it with Slugger if you have the cash. Slugger increases Hammer's effectiveness at a distance significantly, but it is still hampered by a small capacity, since not all targets will go down in 3 shots at the distances that Slugger is good at. With a 5 round mag, you should be able to use a Slugger-equipped Hammer as a battle rifle.
 
Something to note is that you won't be able to manually "reload" as easily as you can with the standard Hammer. If I fire a shot or two with a normal Hammer and want to top off the mag for another engagement, I can just fire off the last few shots and hide in cover as the turret reloads. With this one, you will have to empty more shots to trigger reloading, and the reloading itself will take much longer. Still, the ability to unload 5 shots in rapid succession is a great benefit. Nothing without protection or Double Armor will survive that.

 

I'd give the High Capacity Drum a very good rating simply because of its incredible lethality.

 

 

Smoky: Precision Targeting System (M2)

"I am become death, destroyer of worlds" - Smoky

"Wow. And he accused me of copying him." - Thunder

"Slow and steady wins the race...kind of" - Turtle

 

If the Lightweight Ordinance Loader for Thunder makes it a pseudo-Smoky, the Precision Targeting System makes Smoky a pseudo-Thunder. It increases the reload time by 40%, which amounts to slightly under 2 seconds at M4 (1.96, to be exact). For comparison, a M4 Thunder with the LOL (nice abbreviation, I know) has a reload of 1.92 seconds. Wow. For once, you can have a Thunder that shoots faster than a Smoky.

 

To compensate for this desecration of long-standing tradition, the PTS increases Smoky's minimum damage by a whopping 50% (420 to 630 at M4), the maximum damage goes up 20% (650 to 780 at M4), and the critical damage is also buffed by 20% (710 to 852 at M4). The end result is that Smoky becomes less effective at close range, as the increase in maximum damage isn't enough to counter the reload increase, but it becomes more effective at a distance due to the massive increase in minimum damage. The Garage's claim of Smoky being a long range weapon is a lot more accurate (ha) if you use this.

 

Smoky's damage has generally been considered to be good, but one thing it lacks is significant burst damage outside of criticals at close range. This Alteration adds some of that in through the increases in damage. Due to the recent update granting critical hits zero damage falloff, crits are now highly effective at a distance. When you tack on the increased critical damage granted by the PTS, you can deal damage worthy of Railgun at any distance. Nice.

 

You can try combining this with Assault Ammunition for a long-range oriented Smoky. Assault Ammunition's primary drawback at the moment is that the removal of critical hits negatively affects your damage per second at a distance since normal shots are subject to falloff. Adding the PTS to this helps mitigate some of that damage loss, but it won't be as powerful as the PTS alone. On the brighter side, the PTS weakens the long-term usefulness of the critical hits, so you may not be losing as much if you can consistently hit you targets with the enhanced normal shots and don't care too much about burst damage. Still, the fun of Assault Ammunition is being able to knock your opponents around like a ragdoll, so the reduced rate of fire might cut that down a bit.

 

Overall, I'd give this a good rating.

 

Vulcan: Modified Firing Rate (M2)

"Da ka da ka da ka da ka da ka" - Vulcan

"Gotta go fast" - Sanic

"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." - Benjamin Franklin

 

Vulcan is a gatling gun. It takes some time to spool up and spool down before and after firing, respectively, and this contributes to its weakness against surprise attacks and enemies popping out of cover. If you've ever wanted Vulcan to be more like an assault rifle or a proper machine gun, this Alteration is for you.
 
This Alteration cuts the delay before firing and after firing (normally 1 second for each) by half, increasing your ability to react to changes on the battlefield. If you're ambushed by a Firebird while spewing lead downrange, you can spool down in half a second while you rotate your turret, spool up in half a second, and start firing in about a second in total. In addition, it increases the time before overheating by 50%, significantly increasing your suppression capabilities. This comes at the cost of a 25% penalty to damage, which hurts a lot given Vulcan's recent nerf. A M4 Vulcan with this Alteration has a lower damage per second than everything except a Shaft in arcade mode or Railgun, which brings its utility into question.

 

It's hard to give this Alteration a fixed role. While it certainly is useful for those on the move, the enhanced time before overheating allows you to pour more damage onto a target, just over a longer period of time. It's better for fighting people entrenched in cover, but also requires a constant line of sight to make full use of the enhanced overheating delay and to compensate for the lower damage. I guess you need to try it for yourself. If you don't feel like just buying it outright (I'd be cautious too), wait until the next time the Test Server is up for open testing.
 
You can combine this with Faster Horizontal Tracking to, again, make it more like an assault rifle. Your rotation speed will be faster and you can spool up quicker, good for fast paced gameplay, but you will lack the damage and auto aim of a standard Vulcan.
 
I'd give this a ok rating. The benefits are noticeable, but the damage is embarrassingly low. You may be better off using another turret instead of adding this to your Vulcan.

 

Thunder: Armor-Piercing Ammo (M1)

"POW...POW...wait, where's the kablam?" - Thunder

"waw copycat" - Smoky

"Uh, could we use your splash damage if you're not using it?" - Twins and Ricochet

 

Continuing the trend of Alterations stripping the unique qualities from the turrets, the Armor-Piercing Ammo is similar to the Assault Ammunition in the sense that it's a type of ammunition that takes away one of the primary benefits of the turret. It takes away the splash damage, but unlike Assault Ammunition, you don't get to knock Wasps senseless. So what's the point? Well, you don't have self damage either.

 

Thunder's primary strengths are its high damage at medium to long range and its splash damage. It's excellent for crowd control and ranged engagements, but outside of that, not so much. Most other turrets are more powerful in close quarters. The Alteration takes away its splash damage in return for increased close quarters effectiveness, but I don't think that's a worthy trade off. You are no longer shooting yourself in the foot when you try to engage an opponent at close range, and you can achieve Thunder's maximum damage potential if you stuff your turret into your opponent's face, but you'll still end up losing to Firebirds, Freezes, Isidas, Hammers, Ricochets...etc. The only turrets that you could beat with it are Railgun, Shaft, and other Thunders (assuming they aren't using this Alteration too), and you're unlikely to be encountering them in close quarters very often.

 

You might be thinking that this is a straight upgrade if you're only engaging single targets, but in reality you can take advantage of Thunder's splash damage even against lone enemies. If they're hiding in cover, you can shoot a wall behind them or rock your tank to shoot the ground. If you miss a target slightly for whatever reason, you can often still damage them with the splash. It's almost indispensable to me.

 

You could combine this with the Lightweight Ordinance Loaders to spec your Thunder for close range combat, but I still think that it wouldn't particularly excel up close. You could use it in the same fashion as Smoky, but in that case, why not use Smoky?

 

Overall, I'm not seeing much utility from this Alteration. I personally really love Thunder's splash damage, and I wouldn't ditch that just so I can use it in barrel stuffing range. It's equivalent to cutting off your feet to prevent yourself from stubbing your toes. You don't get any additional benefits from it, so I would avoid using it. Maybe you will find it better than I do.
 
I'd give this a meh rating.

 

Railgun: Faster Horizontal Tracking (M1) and High-Caliber Ammo (M2)

"Woo, my time machine worked!" - Railgun

"Hey, that's patented!" - Vulcan

"Hey, that's my line!" - Freeze

 
Unlike the other turrets, Railgun has received two Alterations in this set. I guess the developers just really like Railgun. The first, Faster Horizontal Tracking, is similar to Vulcan's initial Alteration. The second is new, increasing the damage in exchange for a longer reload time.

 

Let's get FHT out of the way first. It increases rotation speed by 35% while reducing the upwards and downwards auto-aim angles by 30%. Unlike Vulcan, Railgun's auto aim angles are already very unimpressive, so the effects are smaller but just as significant. Most people "rock" their tank to hit targets at high or low elevations when using Railgun to compensate for the base auto-aim angles. You will need to do this more should you choose to use FHT, and the overall potential is still narrowed, so it's best used on flat maps like Desert. I personally wouldn't choose this Alteration, as you can make up for Railgun's low rotation speed by turning your hull in conjunction with it, but it's mostly up to you.

 

High-Caliber Ammo returns Railgun to its statistics before the October global balance update, more or less. It deals an additional 40% damage on all shots, which is compensated by a 50% increase in reload time. It should feel very familiar if you have used Railgun at all before the balance update, and the enhanced damage can come in handy for general purpose combat and kill stealing. The baseline Railgun cannot destroy medium hulls in 2 shots and cannot destroy light hulls in a single shot, but this one can, if you are lucky. However, if you don't get lucky, the longer reload time will punish you. In addition, the overall average damage per second is reduced slightly, so take that into consideration.

 

I'd give the FHT a meh rating and the HCA a good rating.
 

Shaft: Assault Emitters (M1)

"Can I have a refund?" - Shaft

"lol" - Wasp

"lol" - Jade

 
I had high hopes for this Alteration, but it's a bit lackluster. Intended to increase the lethality of arcade shots for self defense (or offense, if you're into that), it increases arcade shot damage by 25% and the reload time by 20%.
 
Now, 25% may seem like a lot, but when you consider that arcade shots aren't very damaging, the increase isn't that significant. A M4 Shaft deals 700 damage on arcade shots, and an extra 25% of that garners a total of 875 damage per shot, comparable to Thunder. This is not enough to 2-shot a light hull. The reload time per arcade shot is increased to 3 seconds, which is significantly slower than Thunder. Its main benefit is that you can destroy medium hulls in 4 arcade shots instead of 5 and that stealing kills is easier. Unfortunately, a standard Shaft will be able to shoot 5 arcade shots in the time that an Assault Emitters Shaft can shoot 4, so the actual time to kill won't change. The benefit is that you won't have to expose yourself for as much when firing those 4 shots.

 

The Alteration increases the overall damage per second of arcade shots slightly, but the shots to kill against light hulls, who you will often be engaging with arcade shots, is not affected. You'll still need 3, and those 3 shots are going to come more slowly, making it counterproductive. In addition, if you try to pull off the 1-2-punch of a fully charged shot plus an arcade shot (a common tactic versus medium hulls), you will need to wait longer for the finishing shot, not to mention that it will take longer for the turret to reload fully after a successful snipe (6 seconds vs 5 seconds at M4).

 

The effects bring the stats more in line with Shaft's statistics in what I believe was May 2015. The arcade shots reloaded in 3 seconds and the arcade shots packed more of a punch, which is the same as what this Alteration does to the arcade shots. While the extra damage was useful for self defense and kill stealing, I much prefer the current slightly-lower-damage but rapid shots. They finish targets off very quickly and have an equivalent damage per second while not sacrificing the reload speed of scope shots.

 

You can try combining this with Heavy Capacitors if you want an overall damaging Shaft, but be aware that your Shaft is going to be painfully slow when sniping and sluggish outside of that. I'd rather use Heavy Capacitors by itself; you can't afford to waste time due to the incredibly long charging time, and retaining the rapid arcade shots as a backup weapon is nice.
 
I've given this a meh rating. I have not played with it yet, but I can't imagine it being much better than the stock Shaft.
 

That's about it for this article. If you've got any questions, comments, or reviews of the Alterations, post them below. Have you tried any of these yourself? Do you think I overrated or underrated any of these? Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time.

Edited June 20, 2017 by Hexed

[GoldRock 6,165]

Article on the new alterations, hot off the press. Enjoy!

[Zenyth 6,494]

Too awesome! :lol:

[Strikechard123 241]

Nice, I would like to know if you are going to make alterations for striker :D

[Thekillerpenguin 1,731]

Nice, I would like to know if you are going to make alterations for striker :D

I wouldn't know, since I'm not a developer (none of us Reporters are), but I think they will come in the future. There wouldn't be any reason to give alterations to all turrets except Striker.

[TTK_229 1,080]

hey TKP, you messed up on Isida's alteration. you said "...m4 wasp 32 about 32 seconds of leeching..." .

Edited December 29, 2016 by TTK_229

[TNTRicohat 41]

what should alteration I needs to buy this season ? which turrets alts good to buy?

[TTK_229 1,080]

Triggered warning: may contain extreme triggered-ness

 

*reads Railgun alterations*

You think the devs like Railgun a lot? You THINK? it's ridiculous how Railgun gets all the format battles, all the use in eSports, and everyone saying it's the best turret, when it obviously isn't. Any Smoky user worth their salt will make a fool of any Railgun user. I can't be the only one tired of this Railgun bias. Right?

[GLADIATOR440 61]

Epic. I'm surprised you gave corrosive mix a good rating. It looked like the worst upgrade ever. You only get a 10% increase in damage and the main freezing effect is gone!

Any Smoky user worth their salt will make a fool of any Railgun user. I can't be the only one tired of this Railgun bias. Right?

Railgun is harder to use. It has a charge up time and its auto aim is worse.

[TTK_229 1,080]

Article on the new alterations, hot off the press. Enjoy!

don't wanna

[TTK_229 1,080]

Epic. I'm surprised you gave corrosive mix a good rating. It looked like the worst upgrade ever. You only get a 10% increase in damage and the main freezing effect is gone!

 

Railgun is harder to use. It has a charge up time and its auto aim is worse.

and, of course, since it's harder to use, everybody uses it. Even when it is completely impractical. Makes sense, right? -_-

[Phoenix.Rising 2,519]

Personally I feel freezing effect is better than 10% increase in damage, even in Poly CPs. Tested with it with M4 freeze + viking.

[teejay_tanker 95]

this helped me a lot thank you..

[Ninja 10,468]

Very nice, it'll be interesting to see issue 60 since all the updates are covered in specials.

[austen_pierce 1,948]

Bought the original alts for Twins and Rico and the newer alts for Smoky and Hammer.

 

I have only tried Hammer (5-shot clip) so far but it is amazing.

[AliceTreatPU 92]

Another meh alteration for isida "the meh turret" (compared to other turret)

[austen_pierce 1,948]

^Tend to agree, yet Isida is the turret to equip when your team is on the edge of either taking or losing the lead in team battles. For example - Keep that Vulcan-Heavy alive and it might guarantee your team the win.

 

Now that I think about it, Isida is due for an upsurge in popularity now that Strikers are dealing insane damage on mediums maps.

[heyhey829 1]

Thunder alternation is actually better than you think(^_^)

[herrod 0]

Curious about how you plan to address twins alterations options.  Presently, the option is between removing splash damage or long range capability( which comes with splash damage).  No other options for twins.  My experience with twins has been 2 firing rate reductions and introduction of splash damage, Only improvement alteration is long range firing (firing rate slowed even more) but accompanied by the reintroduction of splash damage.  I see other turrets with a multitude of alteration options........smokey becoming laughably ridiculous with the number of options. Do developers have any plans for improving the alteration options available to twins?  Twins has become severely disadvantaged to the point that it plays as a liability. Take a look at the table of alterations available for the turrets. Thank you for taking time to read my concerns.about the pitiable disadvantage produced by "twins" neglect.