Alright, so I’ve heard a lot of people talking about whether “back dooring” is an intentional part of the game or not, and, personally, I don’t really care, it’s an exploit at this point, and here’s why:
Okay so here you go, one bb dropping the sentry and doing damage…
Now, you’ll notice I’m not using my ult, that’s because this is at level 1.
You may also note that the sentry is staring right at me and not attempting to fire. The thumper didn’t either, the spot is glitched.
And you’ll notice that the enemy team isn’t coming… That’s because I jumped up, hit it once, gave them time to check on it and then jumped back up,negating the “sentry under fire” announcement the second time.
This was also a team of four 100s and a 48.
And i was solo with randoms.
And for those curious, I sat there and got the sentry down to 84 points before a member of the other team on respawn ran by, saw me, and chased me off.
Now I’m going to go take a shower, I feel dirty.
#First:
Yes, I agree, rushing a sentry down should be a viable option. IMO it should require something to tank the damage from the sentry, either minions or a tank, etc., ANYTHING to tank the damage while you assault it, and it’s a legitimate strategy. (this is how rushing any objective has worked in any MOBA I’ve ever played) It actually requires teamwork in order to drop the objective.
However, currently, that doesn’t have to happen, any ranged character can pick a spot, sit, deal damage to the sentry, and not be fired upon, and while we can argue whether that’s intended or should be implemented, the fact that it takes advantage of a buggy UI is the real problem with dealing with it currently.
#Second:
The audio announcement that it’s under fire is busted. It falsely makes announcements, while when it’s actually under fire it does not make the announcement reliably, if at all.
Like this:
“Sentry under fire.” TWO flashes on the indicator, it MUST be a backdoor attack! So I rush back to check on my sentry, but it’s fine. No damage at all. Maybe a stray bullet, sure, but why even announce something so trivial? It does nothing but make me leave the front lines, and it conditions me to ignore her calls in the future, because they “might” be wrong.
#Third:
The visual indicator that it’s under fire is also a problem, while it’s easier to see AFTER your shields have dropped on the sentry (it turns into a big exclamation point) up until the point that it has taken physical damage and you have lost points, the only visual queue it gives is a feint flashing around the sentry icon on the top of your page, which can be practically impossible to see due to how visually “busy” the UI is in this game.
Here, I step out of combat for a second, and notice a Benedict icon on my radar up at the back ledge, this prompts me to run back to check on my sentry. :
That’s assuming that it even flashes at all, because sometimes, it doesn’t:
The announcement is broken, and cannot be relied on to let you know what’s going on. Factor in that the map indicator is out of range when you reach the other side of the map and the only way to know if someone is back dooring your sentry is to either stand there watching for it, or to constantly position check everyone else in the game.
Aside from that, it’s just NOT FUN.
THIS is the garbage my games of incursion are devolving into:
Here’s another prime example: After a good match, we lose after a strong push to even up the sentry score. 30 kills to 10, complete map control, but we lose. If you watch this clip, you can clearly see TWO flashes on the sentry icon at the top of the page and absolutely no audio announcement during our final push on the sentry… I mean, is this supposed to be enough to let me know that there’s a sentry under fire? Most of their team is dead, but one character, sitting behind a rock “wins” them the game.
Me chasing down back-door players who can’t even get a minion CLOSE to my last sentry, but they’re able to kill it anyway, without taking damage from the sentry itself. In this clip, there had NEVER been a single minion into my front sentry area, they’d been shoved into the enemy’s base the entire game, but I’m still losing, because my team can’t win the push race fast enough while OM and Marquis just keep sprinting across map to cheese it down.
Even though I’m slaughtering them, even though they can’t kill or beat me as I’m over leveled from winning fights, they don’t have to fight me, they just ignore me and sprint across the map.
When I run back and kill them, they respawn before I can get back across the map to help my team on the front lines, they effectively pull me off of the front lines, and they get back to the front lines with a numbers advantage before I can return. The respawn timers aren’t long enough to punish them from running that far from base and dying.
#Fix it
Personally, I think the clear solution is to simply make the sentry immune to damage unless anything from the opposing team is within a reasonable distance from it. Be it a minion, or an enemy, as long as ANYTHING is dealing with the sentry’s damage, then it’s fair game. It makes last second rushes still viable, but at least the rushers will have to soak up the damage to pull it off.
Of course whether that’s the route to take or not is debatable. I certainly agree that long-range damage needs to be viable against it no matter what, so I don’t agree that minions should be required, but I do believe one long range character sitting in a corner just clicking a button, under no circumstances, should “win” a multiplayer game.
But honestly, none of that may matter if your team could actually be notified when there’s an issue… seriously, FIX THE ANNOUNCEMENTS AND THE INDICATOR so we can at least tell when it’s under fire.