Wrangler
| Wrangler | |
|---|---|
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| Kill Icon | |
| Basic Information | |
| Used by: | Engineer |
| Slot: | Secondary |
| Released: | Engineer Update |
| Availability: | Unlock, Drop, Craft, Purchase or Uncrate #18 |
| Tradable: | Yes |
| Giftable: | Yes |
| Craftable: | Yes |
| Nameable: | Yes |
| Craft No.?: | No |
| Medieval: | No |
| Available Qualities | |
| Loadout Stats | |
 The Wrangler |
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| “ | Everyone loves remote control toys. But the problem with most of them is, unless you manage to remote control one directly down someone's throat, they're pretty useless as weapons. But what if we were to tell you that we fixed that obvious design flaw?
— Blog post highlighting the Wrangler
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” |
The Wrangler is an unlockable secondary weapon for the Engineer. It appears to be the remains of a wooden pistol grip implemented under an early-80's single-button style team-colored joystick, with a small, rectangular radar dish protruding from the front.
When in use, the Wrangler allows the Engineer to manually take control of his Sentry Gun. Upon doing so, the Sentry Gun loses its default autoaim and automatic firing abilities. Instead, the Engineer can direct the building to fire in any direction with the primary fire button being used to fire the turrets. If the player utilizes manual control over a level 3 Sentry Gun, the alternate fire button is used to fire rockets. When firing either the turrets or rockets, the Sentry Gun has no maximum range; however, the rockets suffer from damage falloff based on the Engineer's distance to the target.
The Wrangler produces a semi-transparent shield around the Sentry Gun that absorbs 66% of all incoming damage. This shield will last as long as the player keeps the Wrangler as their active weapon. When coupled with a level 2 or 3 Sentry Gun, having the shield active will enable it to survive Taunt attacks that would normally destroy any building, such as the Pyro's Hadouken or Soldier's Kamikaze.
In addition, the firing rate of a manually-controlled Sentry Gun is doubled, and its missile launch rate is increased. A laser sight is emitted from the Sentry Gun, which follows the Engineer's crosshair. The laser sight has a minor auto-aim ability; upon aiming at an uncloaked and undisguised enemy, it will focus towards their center, provided the Engineer keeps his crosshair on them. Other players can see this laser, and use it to quickly ascertain the location of the Sentry Gun.
Upon switching to another weapon, or should an Engineer with his Sentry Gun under manual control die, the Sentry Gun is rendered inoperative for three seconds within its shield. Once three seconds have passed, the Sentry Gun will resume normal operation, and the shield will disappear. If the Sentry Gun is sapped while it is in operation, all cooldown effects caused by the Wrangler will be removed.
Being stunned by the Sandman leaves the Engineer unable to fire, but keeps the Sentry Gun in the Wrangled state, effectively disabling it.
The Wrangler allows an Engineer to get to high places through the use of a Sentry Gun jump.
The Wrangler is automatically given to any player who obtains 17 Engineer achievements.
Contents
Demonstration
Crafting
Blueprint
| Class Token - Engineer | Slot Token - Secondary | Scrap Metal | Possible Results | |||||||||||||||||||
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Related achievements
Engineer
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Update history
July 8, 2010 Patch (Engineer Update)
- The Wrangler was added to the game.
- The Wrangler no longer shows the Shotgun's ammo count.
- Fixed a bug where Wrangled level 3 Sentry Guns would still fire rockets when they were out of ammo.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed team kills with wrangled Sentry Guns.
- Fixed Engineers being able to build level 3 mini-sentries using The Wrangler.
- Fixed Engineers being able to build level 3 mini-sentries for real this time.
March 10, 2011 Patch (Shogun Pack)
- Fixed the "Best Little Slaughterhouse in Texas" Engineer achievement not counting Wrangler and Mini-Sentry kills.
October 13, 2011 Patch (Manniversary)
- Wrangler taunt now performs the Pistol taunt animation
Bugs
- Various bugs exist with both the shield and laser effects, causing them to get stuck in position or behave oddly. This includes:
- The laser emitted from the Sentry Gun while using the Wrangler may travel through some walls and occasionally move back and forth very quickly.
- Picking up a Wrangled Sentry will leave the Wrangler shield visual effect in place for a short time. Also, upon deploying the sentry and Wrangling it, the laser will emit from strange points, such as enemy Sentry Guns. This can be fixed by switching to another weapon then back to the Wrangler.
- Using a Wrangled Sentry while the Sentry is built on a moving platform will result in the shield being left behind when the platform and the Sentry move.
- There is currently a glitch which causes the targeting laser of the Sentry to be emitted from the eyes of allies when the player aims at them. This can make it somewhat harder to aim at enemies. The glitch is only present on the player's screen; no other players will see the effect.
- Using the Wrangler to kill enemies with Sentry Gun rockets will produce the level 3 Sentry Gun kill icon instead of that of the Wrangler.
- The right half of the kill icon is cut off when displayed.
- Once a Level 3 Sentry Gun is directed to fire rockets, it will not play the normal rocket reloading animation.
- The Wrangler will increase the kill counter on all Strange wrenches (except the Southern Hospitality, which counts only melee kills) if the Engineer kills himself with his wrangled Sentry Gun.(NOTE as of the January 11, 2012 Patch this bug has been fixed)
- It is possible earn the Achievement Pownd on the Range if the Engineer kills himself with his wrangled Sentry Gun outside of the normal range.
- If pointing the Sentry Gun at a far distance, the laser will appear to move rapidly away from the player's crosshair, but the Sentry Gun will still fire at the player's crosshair
- There is no animation for when you shoot a rocket with the Wrangler.
Trivia
- The Wrangler appears to have been designed by the Engineer's grandfather, Radigan Conagher. The Wrangler shares this origin with the Frontier Justice, the Gunslinger and the Southern Hospitality, This is shown by a hidden link on the Engineer Update page.
- To Template:W is to professionally handle animals, often directing them to perform certain actions.
Gallery
RED first-person view.
BLU first-person view.
See also
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