When to Use Each Turret

I'll start off simple, what turret do I use for which situation? Well it's basic math. Assume with no gear on and using a low level gun, my Rook Turret (single target turret) hits for around 36-39 each auto attack. My Bishop Turret (the AoE one) hits for 26-29 each auto attack, but also hits multiple targets in a small radius. That means if there are 2 targets within close distance from each other, using the Bishop means you will be doing 17 more damage per auto attack than you would do with Rook. This example makes the answer simple. Use Bishop when there is more than 1 target...right? Usually, but that's not always true. Read my next point to find out why.

There are some cases were it's not as simple as "2 targets, drop Bishop." Sometimes there are burn phases in a fight. Even though you could do more overall dps by hitting two or more targets with Bishop, sometimes you are forced to burn down one particular enemy in a limited time period so you might need Rook for that. Example: when Full-Metal Faust spawns in A9s, if your group is having trouble killing him within the given time limit, then it is best to leave the Rook out and do more single target damage to Faust. That example is a little debatable since the main boss takes reduced damage while Faust is out. Another example is in A8S during the 4 robot phase, while it is best to have Bishop out to hit two at same time, this phase is pushed based on HP%. Pushing an add too early could lead to a wipe. Overall you do have more control with a Rook over a Bishop, and it is something you need to play by ear, but general rule for adds, trash, etc.. is if its more than one enemy, use Bishop.

Stat Weights and Cooldowns

The first thing to know about your turrets is that they don't hit harder when you use cooldowns like Blood For Blood, Hawk's Eye, or Raging Strikes. Even having your Hot Shot buff up won't increase its damage. The only buff you have that increases your turret damage is Hypercharge. Besides that, other abilities that can increase the damage dealt by your turret are ones that directly affect the enemy's damage taken, not buffs on yourself. Examples of this type of ability are Trick Attack and piercing debuffs. I even had the idea that maybe there is this super secret bug that if I pop all my cooldowns and re summon the turret, then it would read of the stats I had at the time of summoning it and it will hit like a truck all fight long! But no, that still didn't do anything. Side note: that used to be a "feature" for SMN pets for a while but they removed that a long time ago, and apparently it doesn't work for MCH pets either.

Next, the only stats that increase your turret's damage are Dexterity and Crit. Stats like Determination do NOT actually increase the damage of your Turret's auto attacks. I did a few experiments were I took my gear off and put on the lowest level gun I could find, and let my turret hit a training dummy 50 times. I was hitting at around 36-39, and never saw a 35 or 40. Then I equipped Det +1 rings, let the dummy hit some more but still no 40. I equipped some more det items but it still hit for 36-39. Finally, I equipped as much gear as I could find with just det. I was up to 30+ Det and still never hit 40 damage on a dummy.

Skill Speed does NOT increase your turret's auto attack either. I experimented again with no gear and the lowest gun at 354 SS (base amount for lvl 60), and my turret was hitting around every 3 seconds. I equipped as much SS I had, got up to 731 and was still hitting around every 3 seconds.

Hypercharge and Promotions

When you use Hypercharge there are 2 things happening. First, the skill itself buffs your turret's damage. Second, the turret is applying a vulnerability debuff which ALSO increases the damage your turret is doing. Your Rook Turret grants a physical vulnerability debuff, and Bishop applies a magic vulnerability. At base stats, no gear, with lowest gun my turret hits on average 36-39 per auto attack. With Hypercharge up + its vulnerability debuff, it was hitting for about 82 per hit. After the 20 seconds are up for Hypercharge (also shown when the turret stops glowing), there is still 6 seconds left on the vulnerability debuff. During this 6 second window it was hitting for 42 damage. This proves the fact that it is not ONLY the vulnerability that increases your turret damage, but also Hypercharge itself. Just keep in mind that whenever there are 2 MCH, if you are coordinating Hypercharges so you're not both using it at the same time, one player's turret will be doing 43 damage (plus stat increases), the other will be doing 82 (plus stat increases) until it's the next MCH's turn to Hypercharge. This is important to understand because if you're in a burn phase, as described before, and you need to focus as much dps on a single target at possible in a 20 second time period, you will need to use both Hypercharges at the same time to get the absolute most group DPS as possible. If you have 40 seconds or more, then continue alternating Hypercharges. Better yet, just don't create a static with 2 MCH if you can avoid it.

When you use Hypercharge, do not change turrets until the buff wears off. The buff will not carry over to your new turret and the Hypercharge would be lost. However, you can toggle Promotion back and forth on the same turret and not lose the Hypercharge.

Your turrets have another use when you use the skill Promotion. It gives a 20 yalm radius buff to friendly players. Rook Turret grants TP regen, Bishop grants MP regen. Now that part is easy to understand, but what exactly is going on when Promotion is active? Here are the facts:

It is a fact that when you are in combat you naturally get 60 TP every 3 seconds (without Promotion), so what your Rook Promotion does is provides an additional 30 TP every 3 seconds also. It doesn't always line up with the base TP regen, but you can see it will jump from 0 to 60 in 3 seconds then instantly jump to 90 after.

With Hypercharge, the amount granted by Promotion doubles to 60 TP per tick, making it go from 0 to 60 and then to 120 immediately after.

So we can say from 1 Hypercharge Rook Promotion that lasts 20 seconds you can get 6 ticks of 60 TP (300 TP total) on top of the base TP regen (which is another 300 TP) granting 600 TP in 18 seconds. This is assuming no one is using that TP in this time period. Obviously if players are attacking, they won't go from 100TP to 700TP in 18 seconds; they'll end up somewhere around 400-500TP. Just remember that there is natural TP regen when trying to decide whether you need to pop Hypercharge for your Promotion or not.

As for Promotion with the Bishop Turret, this is the main one you will likely use in a raid setting. It increases MP instead of TP, which I am told is important to healers for some odd reason. TP users have other ways to regen TP, but MP is more difficult to come by. The MP regen works exactly the same as TP regen in that it ticks every 3 seconds, but the MP amount granted is different than with TP. The tricky thing about MP regen is that it's based on the overall MP of the character. Bishop's MP regen grants a percentage of the friendly player's max MP per tick. Also, just like with TP regen, there is a natural MP regen rate in combat.

When in combat with a healer who has 14055 MP with no Bishop he gained 2% MP per tick which was 281 MP every 3 seconds. With Bishop Promotion he gained an extra 265 which is 1.88% of his MP every 3 second making it a total of 546 MP back every 3 seconds.

With Hypercharge, he gained 281 MP from the natural 2% tick (this is unaffected by Hypercharge) and then an additional 530 MP which is 3.77% of his MP making it a total of 811 MP back every 3 seconds.

So since Hypercharge Bishop gives back 3.77% MP and ticks 6 times before falling off that means a full cast of Hyperharge Promotion will give 22.6% MP back to your healers in 18 seconds. When adding in the in-combat natural MP regen of 2% per tick, this comes to a total of 34.6% mana back in 18 seconds.

Now you know that when theorycrafting how much MP a healer needs for a fight, just remember that a full Hypercharge Bishop Promotion in 18 seconds will give your healers back 34.6% of their MP. Just as with the TP example, you must also take into account the fact that your healer will be using MP during this 18 seconds as well.