Currently running low tier maps in order to complete the atlas quests for passive points while pathing to towers and avoiding the good nodes like bosses etc. My question is when should I start activating my towers. I currently have 5 towers in a circle available (so the nodes in the middle will benefit from all 5 towers). A lot of people recommend waiting until tier 13+, but I don't feel like my toon can push that high in it's current gear and I'm lacking the currency for the necessary upgrades. Should I activate them once I hit the highest tier that I can consistently clear instead to get upgrades?

Tl;dr My gear is trash and I'm starting to hit my peak at lower tier maps, should I activate my towers now to farm currency for upgrades?

So I like to save the beefed up maps (bosses, corruption, delerium, etc) that are in tower clusters for later but ill run the ones that aren't in proximity to multiple towers to help gear up. You can activate towers now, and just not run the maps until t13+ and the buffs from towers will still be there afaik (I could be wrong about this so check elsewhere to make sure). That said, I don't think there will be a shortage of nodes on the map. I'm not sure if anyone has found the end of the map or if there even is one.