Guild Wars 2

I would like to speak about this elite skill.

Let’s be clear about the current situation :
Nobody uses this skill. Unlike the Elixir X which is sometimes viable (despite the RNG) in some builds, I’ve never seen this skill being used efficiently in PvE, PvP or WvW. The last fix about its range hasn’t improved anything.

Why ?

• You’re immobilized as long as you use the mortar. In this game, where “dodge” is the key word, being stuck like this means you’re almost dead.
• The mortar itself is too weak, and its hit-box too big. It’s annoying when it suddenly disapears, and you still have 75% of your hp. A piece of cake for AoE spammer in WvW for example.
• No crits, no synergies with other engi traits (except Elite supplies). For example, you can’t trigger Shrapnel or Explosive Powder
• Even when you find a good spot, with a good vision on the ennemies, the mortar rounds often hit walls or ceilings. Casters don’t have this problem. In WvW you can’t destroy sieges weapons on walls because of that (El can do it without any Elite..)

My propositions :

1. Reduce the hitbox of the mortar and make the mortar AND the player more tankies (something like the buff for rams, but not that strong)
2. Increase the damage, and make more synergies with the other traits
3. Make the base range 1500, and increase even more the damage with Elite supplies.

But I’m not sure if this would make it more viable, or if this skill needs a total rework…

What do you guys think about it ? Other suggestions ?

The problem with mortar elite is that ‘nade kit with Grenadier trait does more damage, is more reliable, has greater range (or the same, thinking mortar range is 1400, ’nades are 1500 with trait), and you can move whilst spamming ’nades. IMHO the mortar elite should be a counter siege elite, where used to repel enemy sieges. Range would need to be increased to 2000, and camera angling while using mortar would have to be expanded to encompass more area so your vision doesn’t get blocked by the wall your standing on. Also damage should be increased, but its also probable that ‘nades are just too strong, and the mortar elite might not be able to have too much else without risking it being over powered. If it got these buffs that I mention, it might be able to hold off sieges by itself or with another engi and mortar, and that wouldn’t be balanced. That is the hard part about balancing this skill. Its static nature means its got little uses out on the field, and has maximum effect as a counter siege option, just can’t make it too strong in this regard. This is of course for WvW… I don’t particularly care about much else, so more opinions are needed.

Nah nades aren’t too strong, it’s just mortar that sucks.

There are quite some racial elites that are better then Mortar, and racial elites are designed to be worst overall.
Mortar is without contest the worst profession elite, and it more often gimps the user (infact in almost all situation) then that its a beneficial.

There is so much wrong with Mortar that really fixing it would mean practically redesigned the Elite from the ground up.

The projectiles are to slow, damage is to low, cant crit, terribly synergy with everything, massive drawback with being immobile, easily destroyed, ineffective projectile pathing, gets outranged by mobile weapons (rifle warrior, lb ranger, nade engineer), long cooldowns and to top it of it has a freaking deadzone at melee range.

Honestly, i’d like to see Charzooka take the place of Mortar and Mortar made the Charr racial elite. But Charr players will probably complain about their race being nerfed, and i cant blame them.

to be fair alot of its problems could be solved with a toughness boost and making it work more like the asura “ridable” golem so anyone can use it still but your actually not making yourself as vulnerable as it does at the moment.

as for its damage, i have to agree that for something that makes the user immobile and has a minimum range and not exactly a great max range based on these other 2 facts it doesnt even come close to being worthwhile.

except when the mystic forge is tossing out terrible items then you just stick a mortar down and its satisfaction kicks in

I am in full agreement that this skill must be changed.. Or perhaps even replaced. Here’s my breakdown- pros and cons…

Pros

• Gives stability

• The cooldown timer is the same length as the use timer- This allows you to use it again immediately. Granted of course this is assuming that neither you nor the mortar are destroyed/slain.

• The no.5 skill is a good AOE knockback that can break up cluster of mobs/players if need be.

Cons

• Can’t Crit- To my knowledge this is the ONLY profession skill in the game that cannot crit. If this was just on a simple utility skill, I may feel to let this pass, but this is an elite skill. So… why can’t it crit?
• Projectiles are inaccurate- It seems like they are very inconsistent where they land. And because of the ridiculous arc that they travel, they are slow and easy to dodge. In a lot of dungeons that I’ve tried to use this thing, they end up hitting walls or ceilings instead of their targets.
• All other skills are pretty weak- The heal skill is hardly worth having and it doesn’t even count as a water field. In fact, the heal skill shows that there is a combo field in play, but nothing ever happens.
• Weak power- Speaking of weak, if I have 3249 attack power before I use the mortar, I drop down to 2573 attack power when I’m using it (That’s a 700 DROP). The mortar has the highest decrease in attack power compared to the other kits (which are not that bad… and even the Charrzooka doesn’t drop that low).
• The hit box is large- causing it to be damaged at a higher rate than normal and AOE’s being able to hit it even though it is outside the circle.
• Has a minimal range- This is crippling as enemies come closer. You could release for a moment to CC some, but that isn’t going to last long and this is a huge hindrance to the player.
• Global cooldown- When one skill is used, all other skills are on a global cool down timer, something that I do not see in any other profession. (This was actually part of a patch to keep players from queuing too many skills for the mortar. It couldn’t keep up with it unlike all other skills in the game and would constantly glitch it’s firing cycle.)
• You are immobile- In a game that’s all about mobility with dodge mechanics, this is pretty crushing. It doesn’t take long for the mortar to be destroyed in any area of the game (PvP, WvW, PvE, ect.). And even if the mortar was invincible, you would take plenty of damage very quickly.
• For a mortar, the range is short- Even with the trait to increase it’s range, an engi running around with nades can do so much better. Even if they aren’t traited, that 100 range difference isn’t going to make much of a difference, granted they have slightly less dps due to one less grenade.
• Overall contribution to a party is low- As stated in the previous point, a engi going with nades can do so much more than an engi trying to use a mortar. Nades allows mobility, a fair amount of damage, a lower arc hence not hitting walls, way better accuracy, and a fair amount of conditions. And since it is a kit, we can get all the perks of kits and synthesize it well with plenty of major and minor traits. I know this elite skill was probably intended for an engi to use at a distance to support the rest of the party, but… It just can’t. I tried using it in fractals once and it just can’t be used.

With all these cons ( and probably a few more I missed) this “elite” skill can’t be trusted or used effectively in this game. If GW2 was a more traditional MMO where you just stand around and pop off skills, it would have been fine, but the mortar simply doesn’t fit. Even in WvW where it could be useful just doesn’t work out. Since range distance takes into account both the horizontal and vertical axis, using it from the walls can be null, and as other posters said, can be destroyed by a simple fire storm from an Ele. Trying to use it as a means to clear the walls is pointless as well. The walls that are targetable just makes the shells disappear with no effect (this goes for nades as well).

(ran out of room, continuation of previous post)

What should be done about this? I propose two things-

1. Change the mortar into a Kit like the Charrzooka- I know in the past folks had wanted sniper kits or a kit that resembles the Charrzooka, and personally, I’m on board with that. The Charrzooka is a really solid elite skill, but instead of following it verbatim, I say we tweak it just a bit. Since Engis switch between their kits alot, it would be best to instead activate the elite skill and let have a duration like Elixir X does. During that time, engis can switch to their main weapon or other kits and may return to the elite kit while it is still in an active state. Even if the “charges” route was followed, we would be given mobility, a better damage output, and an overall contribution to the party. I’m not sure all the details in my head what weapon this elite kit would use, but as long as it replaced the mortar, I would be happy.
2. Change the mortar to a more powerful turret- I know turrets overall are still a bit buggy, but it would allow those wanting to spec into turrets more to have a turret that was more focused on damage unlike supply drop which is more supportive in nature. It would provide a bit more variety at least.

In conclusion, the mortar is an elite skill that just doesn’t work with this game. Trying to rework it would be a futile attempt and Engis will be stuck to using mostly Supply Drop and when Elixir X can be viable in a build just like the OP said. I would really like to know the reasoning behind the design decisions for this “elite” skill, because frankly, I just don’t see how it can be.

If this skill were turned into an elite kit with a lot of improvements I could see it being used in some circumstances. It is also more likely to see improvements that way, as the existing art, sound, and animation assets could still be used. Making a completely new skill from scratch would take quite a while.

It’s role would be as a heavy-hitting, long range weapon kit. It would be similar to grenade kit but with more focus on power via a single projectile; while grenades are left to focus on conditions that use multiple projectiles. You would still be immobile during it’s use, but it as actually more mobile than before since it is a kit. The damage that the kit can inflict is balanced by the engineer having to be stationary.

The changes that I recommend are:

• Fix the bugs.
• Has a default max range of 1500.
• Improve the 5 skills.
• Allow it to turn immediately.
• Cannot be destroyed, as it is now a kit.
• Does not grant stability. [Permanent or quick access to frequent stability is too overpowered for a weapon kit with a 1 second cooldown].
• Affected by relevant traits.

Other things to consider:

• Remove the global cooldown on skills. The cooldown may be necessary for both technical and balance reasons; otherwise give the skills a short casting time like grenade kit.
• Lower the projectile arc and/or increase projectile speed. This may not be necessary depending on the strength of the improved skills.
• Giving it some sort of 5-10 cooldown when swapping out. This may become complicated when considering different types of crowd control and not being programmatically identical to existing kits.

The end result is that the elite skill actually gets used, but is not overpowered in pvp situations.

Nades and Mortar definitely fill the same role as sit-back-and-bomb weapons, and the Nade kit does it better. It synergises better with its own talents, has a more practical range trait, you can still move while doing it, it doesn’t have a cooldown…

I don’t think that the Mortar works well as a Turret item. It doesn’t have the set-and-forget quality of the other damage turrets, and its synergies with the other turrets hamstrings its range of balancing.

If I was gonna make changes, I’d do:

- Base Grenade Kit range reduced to 900. Traited range 1000 or 1200, I’m not sure which; probably 1200.
- Mortar changed to a Kit. Base range 1500. All skills immobilise you during their animations.

I think the Mortar is actually improved quite a lot recently. It’s a very niche weapon and probably will always be, but to be honest I can see it work well in the following situations:

1. Keep defence / offence, where you have a fixed position.
2. World bosses / single room bosses. Again, no or little movement.

Nothing wrong with having a weapon for that, tbh.

That being said, there’s a few things which need to happen:

• Damage needs to go up, a lot. However, I can see this being a problem on a 1400 range base weapon with full AE on all attacks. As a compromise, my idea would be to add a barrage of 5 shells to all skills, and in fact change the fifth to be a channeled 25 shot barrage over 5-7 seconds. But, all skills would land randomly in an area twice the radius. They’d be amazing for saturating an area, but useless against single or few targets. A specialized weapon for zerg or boss fights.
• Crits. Come on.
• The healing shell needs to show it’s healing numbers.
• The healing shell needs to heal significantly more.

@Kamehameha.9276 : increasing the range was one of my first ideas, but in the end it would be really bad for the game itself, as you said. I can already see the multiple exploits in PvE & the new OP unreachable spots in dungeon or WvW..

I don’t really care about the global cooldown (it forces us to make choice ; dps ? support ? condition ?), but this Elite has to do MUCH more damage.

My idea is to make it a real mortar… Unlike the grenades which are spammable with low cd, but with low damage (without HGH I mean), I would like the mortar to be something with one big explosion, with huge damage and moderate cd.

For example, the skill coefficient for damage of #1 should be at least increased to 2,250 (don’t know the current value, but it’s way lower than that), just like Big Ol’ Bomb. It’s very hard to hit someone with a mortar (for the reasons listed above), and when it happens, it should be worth it.
Something like “hey, I’ve been hurt by something very powerful, what is it ? Oh a mortar engi, we need to focus him before he kills all of us”

But this alone won’t solve anything, the others problems listed here need a fix too

Mortar is a totally broken skill since day 0… maybe because the idea behind it doesn’t fit with the game ?

@ Roy- Interesting suggestions. I still don’t like that you are immobile during it’s use. I know skills like 100b on the greatsword requires you to stay in one place during it’s use, but you are still able to dodge if you need to get away. Also 100b does a ton of damage in a wide cone to make up for this fact. I just don’t see that one particular part of your suggestion working out.

@Sarrs- I would rather not put a decrease in range for the nades. It’s a fairly pivotal skill and at that range which helps being on par with staff Eles. On that note, that is why I suggested that the mortar skill be replaced due to that the mortar just doesn’t fit in the game. However, if Anet did go with your decision, I would rather have the nades traited up to 1200 to be on par with other AOE’s.

@Carrigan- That’s one of the issues though. Anet has consistently wanted flexibility for builds, but the mortar is so particular that it really doesn’t have a place at all. Even in WvW for defense and offense, the way they handle range really hurts the mortar’s capability. When traited, we get 1500 range. The problem when using it let’s say from a wall is that the range takes in not only horizontal distance, but vertical distance as well(Why couldn’t we use the GW1 range mechanic? I don’t know…) . Plus, the shells have a much lower arc when firing from a higher position which leads to shells hitting your own walls/structures. Then, as stated before, the thing dies quickly. I do agree with your suggestions on how to buff it. I believe the caltrops could still stay as that is a nice long cripple AOE, but it needs to be buffed in some way as well.

@ Markus- I agree. The mortar has had consistent issues since launch. As I stated in my post, I just don’t see it fitting in the game unless it is buffed in some way to balance out the fact we have to stay in one place to use it. Really, the mortar already has the potential to do more damage. As I said in my post, if I have 3249 attack power not using the mortar, then I use the mortar, my attack power drops down to 2573. That’s a 700 loss in attack power. On top of that, the thing doesn’t crit. I believe from simply looking at it from a damage stand point, if they removed that ridiculous drop in attack power and allowed the mortar to crit, it may be actually viable in some circumstances. But as we have all discussed here, there’s a lot more that really needs to be done to make this skill a worth while elite.

I’ll just regurgitate what I think would change mortar for the better.
-Indestructability
-Cooldown reduced to 60 or 90 seconds
-Remove stability on use
-When in use, camera zooms out similar to when fighting SB
Now mortar is actually somewhat valuable, being able to use it for it’s #2-#5 and can be relocated more often all while still keeping its deadzone, forcing you to move when people are smart enough to get in close.
I chose to remove its stability so that you can’t just hang around the mortar and negate certain attacks. It also allows people to forcibly knock you off the mortar.

On the topic of range, the engine apparently have some kind of limitation around 2100 units.

The mortar should be a vehicle, some kind of crappy mini tank that can move and still use mortar skills. The range should be 2k yes, it’s a MORTAR. Also the damage should be better aswell vulnerability should be applied too. And fix them lags… finally…

DragoTheWise.7256:

@Sarrs- I would rather not put a decrease in range for the nades. It’s a fairly pivotal skill and at that range which helps being on par with staff Eles. On that note, that is why I suggested that the mortar skill be replaced due to that the mortar just doesn’t fit in the game. However, if Anet did go with your decision, I would rather have the nades traited up to 1200 to be on par with other AOE’s.

I have no strong feelings one way or the other about which range would be used. The main draw of the Grenadier trait, as far as I can tell, is that it increases the number of grenades thrown, not the range.

I do think that the Mortar can’t work with Grenadier 1500 range, though.

Even with 3000 range the mortar would still be silly atm…

Xyonon.3987:

The mortar should be a vehicle, some kind of crappy mini tank that can move and still use mortar skills. The range should be 2k yes, it’s a MORTAR. Also the damage should be better aswell vulnerability should be applied too. And fix them lags… finally…

That’s just lead to players finding ways to exploit the range.

Carighan.6758:

Xyonon.3987:

The mortar should be a vehicle, some kind of crappy mini tank that can move and still use mortar skills. The range should be 2k yes, it’s a MORTAR. Also the damage should be better aswell vulnerability should be applied too. And fix them lags… finally…

That’s just lead to players finding ways to exploit the range.

Could you clarify on this? At present time an Arrow Cart in WvW has a range of 2,500 (2,800 with trait). And the actual Mortar in WvW has a range of 9,400.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mortar_%28siege_weapon%29

Personally I feel that a range increase for the Mortar Elite to 2,000 (2,500 with trait) would not be so bad. I don’t see where exploiting the range would come into play.

For me, the Mortar would do well with the following fixes/buffs:

- Increase range to 2,000 (2,500 with trait)
- Fix the arc bug so it can be used on towers in WvW
- More attack power (needs at least +700)
- Ability to crit with the mortar shells
- Reduce hitbox on Mortar
- Increase health on Mortar

I saw mortar for the first time in PvP not too long ago, actually. The Engineer parked themselves on a ledge and mortared away with the help of permastability. They actually made it very annoying/difficult to contest and cap the mid point, especially if you were fighting other players in addition to the mortar pressure.

Imagi.4561:

I saw mortar for the first time in PvP not too long ago, actually. The Engineer parked themselves on a ledge and mortared away with the help of permastability. They actually made it very annoying/difficult to contest and cap the mid point, especially if you were fighting other players in addition to the mortar pressure.

Did anyone have the idea to simply take out the engineer on the ledge? As I recall you have equal numbers on both sides in PvP and a mortar is meant to apply pressure and it sounds to me that the opponents were simply not used to anyone using that particular Elite and got ‘annoyed’ because it forced them to change their tactics.

Aveneo.2068:

Imagi.4561:

I saw mortar for the first time in PvP not too long ago, actually. The Engineer parked themselves on a ledge and mortared away with the help of permastability. They actually made it very annoying/difficult to contest and cap the mid point, especially if you were fighting other players in addition to the mortar pressure.

Did anyone have the idea to simply take out the engineer on the ledge? As I recall you have equal numbers on both sides in PvP and a mortar is meant to apply pressure and it sounds to me that the opponents were simply not used to anyone using that particular Elite and got ‘annoyed’ because it forced them to change their tactics.

Yes, upon finding out that my ranged attacks were doing nil damage, I attempted to reach the ledge. I tried it once, failed, and then decided my time would be better spent helping at the other two points because even if I did get to that ledge—and did enough damage to kill them or force them down—I would have to rinse and repeat the process throughout the match. The other people on my team reached the same conclusion.

Thanks for the condescension, though.

Imagi.4561:

Aveneo.2068:

Imagi.4561:

I saw mortar for the first time in PvP not too long ago, actually. The Engineer parked themselves on a ledge and mortared away with the help of permastability. They actually made it very annoying/difficult to contest and cap the mid point, especially if you were fighting other players in addition to the mortar pressure.

Did anyone have the idea to simply take out the engineer on the ledge? As I recall you have equal numbers on both sides in PvP and a mortar is meant to apply pressure and it sounds to me that the opponents were simply not used to anyone using that particular Elite and got ‘annoyed’ because it forced them to change their tactics.

Yes, upon finding out that my ranged attacks were doing nil damage, I attempted to reach the ledge. I tried it once, failed, and then decided my time would be better spent helping at the other two points because even if I did get to that ledge—and did enough damage to kill them or force them down—I would have to rinse and repeat the process throughout the match. The other people on my team reached the same conclusion.

Thanks for the condescension, though.

As I recall, the Mortar has a rather low amount of ‘health’ so I find it odd that you were not able to remove it with ranged attacks. In WvW a few stray hits were often enough to destroy it and force me to run for my life. I assume the ledge itself wasn’t bugged or something? Because if it is, you might wish to talk to ANet about it.

However, it is good to hear you actually made a tactical decision to continue pressing the point and just accepted the risk of mortar fire.

Truthfully, to me your first post sounded more like general whining because someone used a previously unused skill and you were not accustomed to it. If my response forced you to clarify, I’m happy I was condescending enough in order to get to the truth. As such it is good to hear that it actually caused you and your team to discuss strategy in either going after the mortar or taking the fire while trying to focus on the center point.

After all, better to experience something new once in a while than to just do the same-old like a bunch of zombies every single match right?

Mortar is great! xD

/\ dat full-signet elem….

Mortar needs quite a few things. Skill lag fixed. Significant damage increase. Ability to fire at point blank. Significant damage increase…

Aveneo.2068:

Imagi.4561:

Aveneo.2068:

Imagi.4561:

I saw mortar for the first time in PvP not too long ago, actually. The Engineer parked themselves on a ledge and mortared away with the help of permastability. They actually made it very annoying/difficult to contest and cap the mid point, especially if you were fighting other players in addition to the mortar pressure.

Did anyone have the idea to simply take out the engineer on the ledge? As I recall you have equal numbers on both sides in PvP and a mortar is meant to apply pressure and it sounds to me that the opponents were simply not used to anyone using that particular Elite and got ‘annoyed’ because it forced them to change their tactics.

Yes, upon finding out that my ranged attacks were doing nil damage, I attempted to reach the ledge. I tried it once, failed, and then decided my time would be better spent helping at the other two points because even if I did get to that ledge—and did enough damage to kill them or force them down—I would have to rinse and repeat the process throughout the match. The other people on my team reached the same conclusion.

Thanks for the condescension, though.

As I recall, the Mortar has a rather low amount of ‘health’ so I find it odd that you were not able to remove it with ranged attacks. In WvW a few stray hits were often enough to destroy it and force me to run for my life. I assume the ledge itself wasn’t bugged or something? Because if it is, you might wish to talk to ANet about it.

However, it is good to hear you actually made a tactical decision to continue pressing the point and just accepted the risk of mortar fire.

Truthfully, to me your first post sounded more like general whining because someone used a previously unused skill and you were not accustomed to it. If my response forced you to clarify, I’m happy I was condescending enough in order to get to the truth. As such it is good to hear that it actually caused you and your team to discuss strategy in either going after the mortar or taking the fire while trying to focus on the center point.

After all, better to experience something new once in a while than to just do the same-old like a bunch of zombies every single match right?

Actually, my original post was providing a counterpoint to all of the “mortar is pointless and useless” posts in this thread. I didn’t think I would have to provide an exposé of the issue/match in question in order to make that point clear, but I suppose some people require additional explanation so that they don’t make unwarranted inferences about me—that I was “whining,” for instance.

Most people who want to “get to the truth” just ask.

Imagi.4561:

Actually, my original post was providing a counterpoint to all of the “mortar is pointless and useless” posts in this thread. I didn’t think I would have to provide an exposé of the issue/match in question in order to make that point clear, but I suppose some people require additional explanation so that they don’t make unwarranted inferences about me—that I was “whining,” for instance.

Most people who want to “get to the truth” just ask.

No, your original post made it sound as if you were whining about permastability and mortar being annoying because you were not used to it but didn’t bother to do something about it. As such I made a mild jab in order to get you to clarify. Nowhere in your post did I get the impression that you were actually in favor of seeing mortar be made into a more useful elite; just that you found it annoying and complained about permastability.

Please learn to read instead of immediately being on the defensive and lashing out by calling them condescending when they provide an opinion.

Thanks for sharing ,Imagi, but this is one small (and very rare) instance. We engis hope that the mortar can be better, but there are so many issues surrounding it, the mortar just isn’t that viable. The best it can be is just a small annoyance and nothing more, and for an elite skill, this is fairly disappointing.

Now, to expand this discussion a bit, I watched the Engi stream today. When the elite skills came around all the guy could say about the mortar was “It has some interesting tricks, but the fact that you are immobile in use, it isn’t that viable for me.” First, I would like to know what “interesting tricks” he was talking about, and second, if they know the immobile on use is an issue and somewhat opposite to the style of gameplay for GW2, why not fix it? When the next stream came around, I was half-hoping that they would have mentioned something about the mortar, but they didn’t. Of course, what they talked about on the Round Up stream wasn’t the entire list, but I have little hopes of any changes.

@Aveneo- your propositions could be a good route to take. With the increase in range, it would make up for the fact that we would be immobile.

Let’s keep up the good discussion folks as I would hope some good would come out of it to be reflected in the game

Total overhaul required.

Aveneo.2068:

Imagi.4561:

Actually, my original post was providing a counterpoint to all of the “mortar is pointless and useless” posts in this thread. I didn’t think I would have to provide an exposé of the issue/match in question in order to make that point clear, but I suppose some people require additional explanation so that they don’t make unwarranted inferences about me—that I was “whining,” for instance.

Most people who want to “get to the truth” just ask.

No, your original post made it sound as if you were whining about permastability and mortar being annoying because you were not used to it but didn’t bother to do something about it. As such I made a mild jab in order to get you to clarify. Nowhere in your post did I get the impression that you were actually in favor of seeing mortar be made into a more useful elite; just that you found it annoying and complained about permastability.

Please learn to read instead of immediately being on the defensive and lashing out by calling them condescending when they provide an opinion.

Now I was also complaining about permastability? That’s interesting.

I’m actually quite neutral on the mortar; I provided an anecdote to contradict the overarching tone of this thread that no one uses the mortar as it is. If you inferred something else from my post, I apologize, but that was your inference and not my mindset.

Going to post my list of suggested changes again

For me, the Mortar would do well with the following fixes/buffs:

• Increase range to 2,000 (2,500 with trait)
• Fix the arc bug so it can be used on towers in WvW
• More attack power (needs at least +700)
• Ability to crit with the mortar shells
• Reduce hitbox on Mortar
• Increase health on Mortar

I would like to see the mortar deliver something unique.

Perhaps it could be a combo enabler.

• Add a projectile finisher to skill #1
• Add a blast finisher to skill #2
• Add a water field to skill #3
• Add an ice field to skill #4
• Add a blast finisher to skill #5

I think that should offer some interesting team-play options.

Oh… and they should fix the bug where your mortar can get stuck if you press the skills too rapidly. (Although… they may have done that already?)

Would this elite work better if they just replaced it with the ‘Sniper Rifle’ turret you see in some Charr areas? That thing hits like a truck, works well at the 1500-1800 range, and looks like it will point-blank as well (need to test this).

As an added bonus, we get the sniper rifle a lot of us have been pining for.

Another alternative would be to make the turret into an ‘elite kit’ of sorts, kinda like Horrik’s hand (shoulder?) cannon. I suspect this would be a lot harder to make and balance, but it would be extremely cool.

@ Sungak- I had thought about an elite kit that would be like a cannon, but wasn’t exactly sure how the skills would line up. As you pointed it out, it would be difficult to balance. It would be neat to see what comes around if the mortar ever gets replaced instead of being fixed. Good ideas though.

The Lost Witch.7601:

Oh… and they should fix the bug where your mortar can get stuck if you press the skills too rapidly. (Although… they may have done that already?)

They did, by putting in a general cooldown on all mortar skills.

digiowl.9620:

The Lost Witch.7601:

Oh… and they should fix the bug where your mortar can get stuck if you press the skills too rapidly. (Although… they may have done that already?)

They did, by putting in a general cooldown on all mortar skills.

Ah, sweet.

The Lost Witch.7601:

I would like to see the mortar deliver something unique.

Perhaps it could be a combo enabler.

• Add a projectile finisher to skill #1
• Add a blast finisher to skill #2
• Add a water field to skill #3
• Add an ice field to skill #4
• Add a blast finisher to skill #5

I think that should offer some interesting team-play options.

Oh… and they should fix the bug where your mortar can get stuck if you press the skills too rapidly. (Although… they may have done that already?)

This is a good suggestion. I can see how useful a long-range water field could be in WvW or maybe in spvp…

In fact, I think a mortar is considered as a turret by the game. So mortar has the same oversize box

It does have the same oversized hitbox. I’ve ran into the issue several times in WvW when trying to use the mortar as a defensive weapon, but AOEs that shouldn’t be hitting the mortar end up doing so which makes the mortar nearly void.

Been playing exclusively with mortar these past few days in WvW and noticed something odd.

As stated I have stability when using the mortar. But can a mesmer pull me off with Temporal Curtain? It looked like the Mesmer could just ignore my stability, although maybe the boon was stolen (if that is possible) just prior to the Mesmer trying to pull me?

Trying to find out if this is a bug or coincidence or working as intended.

I believe it’s a bug. Something that I missed in my explanation. I’m not sure if it is for every case of knockback or just the Mes pull. I’m somewhat certain in the past I’ve been knocked off the mortar by other CC skills. I might try running a test sometime soon just to see.

I agree that the Mortar is currently in a bad situation and that it needs an overhaul.

The Lost Witch.7601:

I would like to see the mortar deliver something unique.

Perhaps it could be a combo enabler.

• Add a projectile finisher to skill #1
• Add a blast finisher to skill #2
• Add a water field to skill #3
• Add an ice field to skill #4
• Add a blast finisher to skill #5

I think that should offer some interesting team-play options.

The following change could make the Mortar a soft zerg buster in WvW and much more useful via a new Grandmaster trait created for this specific game play-changing purpose:

Carighan.6758:

. . . in fact change the fifth to be a channeled 25 shot barrage over 5-7 seconds. But, all skills would land randomly in an area twice the radius. They’d be amazing for saturating an area, but useless against single or few targets. A specialized weapon for zerg or boss fights.

• Crits. Come on.
• The healing shell needs to show it’s healing numbers.
• The healing shell needs to heal significantly more.

Additionally:

• Allow the elite icon while using the mortar to create something similar to ‘shield of absorption’ around the mortar to be used on a 45 second cool down, allowable through major traits or general usage.

At a minimum:

• Change the shells’ trajectory such that they can be used inside domes- but not tightly enclosed spaces like tunnels.
  —> Allow it to be able to hit World Boss’ heads reliably

• Increase the base maximum range to at least 1500 units, and allow it to be increased to at least 2000 units through traits; make it more synergistic with existing traits, too.
  —> Making it more synergistic with traits would allow people to build specifically towards the Mortar.

• Increase base damage of skill #1 to at least 1.5 times; increase effective durations of other skills to at least 1.25 as long, while retaining current cool downs. OR make the shells fly significantly faster.

• Dodge roll becomes possible while using the mortar

• Remove or greatly reduce the minimum distance of the skills, and most especially for skills #5 and #3

• Increase base Health Pool and Armor value of the mortar by 15% or more

Possibly:

• Slightly change the camera angle while using the mortar

Ultimately, the Engineer and all professions could use new mechanics that allow them to have at least 1 new interesting role in groups. The Mortar is a great avenue to make the Engineer have more diversity in combat and be able to more reliably counter zergs in WvW, and complement parties and small groups in s/tPvP and PvE.

“Dodge roll becomes possible while using the mortar”

No, that won’t do at all. The engineer needs to get up off of that mortar and fight, or get slaughtered for his stubborness.

An easy fix would be to simply turn the mortar into an elite turret, and have it function like the ranger barrage where the shots go “up” and hit the ground targeted without hitting the ceiling.

I have another idea to change this Elite skill…

It might sound strange, but why not make the mortar similar to the mortar in BF4 ?

I’ll explain :

• the skill would have 2 cooldown : a very long (2 min) and a short one (10 sec)
• To use the mortar, you have to deploy it (that’s the long cd), but once deployed, you can still move and use your others skills.
• When deployed, nothing happens…. BUT the elite skill is remplaced by “Fire the mortar”, which is an big AoE with high damage (that’s the short cd). The animation (time to fire the rounds + travel time) should be fast enough to make it usable (I’m thinking of something similar to what we have for grenades).
• Its range would not be bound to the player, but to the mortar itself, so you can’t run too far from the mortar.
• The mortar range would be increased to 2500, so you can still have some mobility
  (EDIT : In order to avoid all exploits, maybe it should, in addition, be limited to 1200 range from the player, so you can’t hit at more than 1500)
• Once deployed, you have only 5 rounds (=5 shots with “fire the mortar”) before the destruction of the mortar and the beginning of the long cd.
• The mortar should be tanky enough to last at least 5-10 sec vs one player. It’s not much, but remember that you are now able to move, and that it makes 2 targets.
• You can still pick up the mortar like any other turret, but I’m still trying to find a way to trigger an autodestruction.
• It could lead to new builds based on power (except static discharge, engi is more about condi)

In sum ; making mortar a passive and controlable long range turret which provides extra damage.

N.B : I’m sorry for the grammar here, English isn’t my native language and I’m too exhausted to find my mistakes…

no please, no more turrets… we know how they are after 1 year of “improvements”.

It won’t be exactly a turret, more like an AoE (well, with my figures, 5 AoE) that you can choose where and when it will land.

No overcharge, no auto-fire, no rate of fire…

Make Mortar into a Mortar Kit instead that allows you to move.

Profit?

Dojo.1867:

Make Mortar into a Mortar Kit instead that allows you to move.

Profit?

That’s a charrzooak. I don’t want a stronger copy of a racial skill.

Charzookas aren’t wielded on your shoulder.