I cant help but be annoyed by the fact that Kats seem to totally ignore the lodged crystals and take no damage...
TORTOGUN
Tortodrone gun damage testing and initial notes/impressions
Magnus
Sealed Sword
Wild Buster (3* piercing dmg claw-gun)
all weapons are 3*, level 1 w/ no heat
equipment gives both gun and sword dmg VH, no ASI
tier 2 beast training dummies
Magnus: 66
Sealed Sword 1st hit: 80
Sealed Sword last hit: 100
Wild Buster "melee": 35
Wild Buster bullet: 53 (88 total with the melee hit)
Wild Buster charge
shoots an invisible bullet traveling at a moderate speed. When it hits something or reaches (its short) max range, it spawns 6 small "bombs" in random spots around it. Each of these bombs has roughly a 1.5s fuse before exploding, dealing some initial damage and spawning a shard at each bomb's center. These shards last about 3 seconds and deal damage and knockback on contact.
charge initial damage (up to 6 hits?): 63
shard contact damage (up to 3 hits): 41
notes about the claw-gun:
2-shot combo
each shot has two hits: a melee-range hit then a ranged hit right after
you move forward slightly during each shot
firing rate is very slow, between the rate of magnus and autogun
you run at full speed while reloading and charging
2nd shot does considerable knockback
the melee hit does gun damage
melee range between heavy and normal swords; left-right range is the same as normal swords
there's an unusually large amount of (cancel-able) lag after the first shot
other notes about the claw-gun's charge attack:
you can not charge twice in a row: you'll fire the 2nd shot (and reload) if you hold the fire button
the shards can land around corners
charge rate is normal
initial explosions can hit any number(?) of times, but the shards can only hit up to 3 times on impact
large amount of animation lag after firing, BUT it can be canceled very early
unconfirmed stuff others have said:
the initial invisible projectile can travel over/under some enemies(?) as well as some barriers such as shadow-fire
impressions
poor normal shot damage (rate), but then again I think anything that isn't Archeron, WRH, or Blitz charge to be poor damage. It does great knockback though, so you might be able to use it in a pinch to get stuff away from you, possibly making it a complete replacement to a sword side-arm for gunners. I can't give that strong of an opinion though since I haven't been a dedicated gunner. The charge seems great though: the almost complete lack of lag (if shield-canceled) and full movement speed while charging means it's almost free damage when you're otherwise not doing other actions while on the move.
Conclusion: if you aren't pressed for weapon slots, it may be worth carrying around for a bit of extra damage
You can use the charge spam and shards to pin large enemies like Lichen Colonies against a wall where they won't do their aggressive dash attack toward you. The shards in the ground seem to act kind of like navigable blocks and enemies will attempt to move around them if possible, or get trapped if not.
The more I use this line of guns, the more I like and enjoy using them.
I've managed to do OHKO (one to three at a time. I count charge attack + normal attack as a combo.) reliably for the jellies family and puppies in solo (tier 2 S4). Zombies should work the same. I'm not sure about fiend family though...
The real function of the normal attack: push the monster to where the shards are gonna land. I also use it to push the monster to where the shards are after shards has landed for extra damage besides the killed ones in the first wave of bombing.
Not just pushing them there BEFORE they land, but pushing them after they get bounced out.
Try 'catching' a monster after the shards land on them and immediately start a new combo (melee range, to push them), I can almost guarantee it'll die.
@Sieran
We have already seen Lumber Tennis. Anyone up for some knocker pinball?
Edit:
Hey everyone in this thread.
I just came from a rather epic tortodrone run.
2 normal tortodrone guns and 2 volcanic pepperboxes.
We had the first drone dead in about 15 seconds on elite and the second one at about 25 seconds. We probably got lucky with our shard wall, but it was a rather gruesome time for the drones getting a dose of their own shard medicine.
Against kats and trojan:
Just go near a wall, release charge and lure them to lunge toward you. Kats are OHKO, trojan dies fast enough (I used 4* elemental)
As always, push the mobs to the shards.
Against fixed target:
Aim slightly off target, stand at projectile maximum range and release charge. Usually OHKO as long as you have two shard near the target.
Against devilite:
Release charge far away, lure them to attack (adjust your distance so that they stand on shard landing area).
Against gorgo:
Release charge even further away. They automatically bump into the shard wall.
Against greaver:
Release charge anywhere, stay in your shard wall of protection and keep spamming.
Against lumber:
Just release charge and stay far enough so that they move into the shard landing area. Usually dead in 2 charge.
Against jelly cube:
Release the charge point blank so that they try to attack you. They lunge forward to your shard landing area.
Lichens: just use it.
Haven't yet tried gremins.
The mechanics of this gun seems pretty universal against any monster. It's usable against all families but not the most effective for certain enemies.
I found another suggestion that looks like where the devs might have gotten the idea from-
http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/75040
Notice the cannon suffix on the 4* variants?
you really mean they followed one of earthbound's suggestions? well that's a miracle. the guy has come with a number of wacky ideas.
Wait, I thought the inspiration for the new guns were... tortodrones themselves. They lunge and shoot crystals. Their most prominent attack are their shocking barrage of crystals.
Or if we want to credit players for everything, I'll now suggest that we have an ice maul that shoots out destructable walls, a fire mace that causes fire from the ceiling to fall down, and a weapon that spawns tentacles (a new status) that holds enemies (like ice, but not ice) and has a charge attack that deals damage only when the enemy has this status.
Well of course they're based on tortodrones. But a ton of players also suggested things like them.
Now we just need a tortodrone-based bomb that does that stupid OP ground pound of theirs.
I'm suspecting it's definitely a bug. Silkwings and Greavers seem to be unaffected by this. All other enemies, however, are affected by it. Seems to follow along the floor rather than being intentional so... Bug Report please.
Anyhow, I'm really loving the charge on this gun. It seems more like a utility gun than anything else, the charge is quite useful especially with the short cool down between Shielding and the actual action.