Guild Wars 2

I can’t get the mortars to turn, or fire, in this mission. Help?

Not really sure how to explain this, but here’s what I did: ran to the gate, gate closed in front of me, ran from there to the mortars, killed all three mortar crews. From this point on, I have way too many bandits at the gates for me to solo, so I assume I’m supposed to use the mortars. And one of the mortars is interactable, the one on the far right. But:

1. There is no way to see the bandits from the mortars, so I’m not 100% sure I know what I’m supposed to do with it. And …
2. When I interact with the mortar, my button bar changes to mortar controls: 1 = turn left, 2 = fire, 3 = turn right, 4 = change ammo, 5 = release the mortar. So far so good. But none of the buttons do anything. Or, at least, if they do, I can’t prove it, because when I press button 2, whether quick-press, or press-and hold, the button icon goes through the cool-down animation, but nothing happens.

This quest is bugged for me too. In my case, the cannons work (kind of, they have VERY BAD jumpy camera action) and I can use it to destroy the mortars, I even get the sound for completion of that objective, but the bandits at the gate are invulnerable no matter if I use the oil or try to kill them without it. I have tried to kill the gate bandits before I do the mortars, same deal. Always invulnerable.

I did this quest just last night. I managed to run into the keep before the gates closed, and was able to use the cannon on the battlements to take out the mortars (although it jumped around a LOT, like the others above me mentioned). I couldn’t use the boiling oil above the gate to kill the bandits however, because Tsubaki mentions, they’re always Invulnerable (no doubt because the bandits can’t “reach” me and so the game makes them invulnerable). Eventually I just jumped down and killed them all in battle, but it was tough going on my Mesmer, and she’s level 49! I would have never managed this back when she was level 16-18.

It seems to me the easiest way to correct this situation is to make it so that the gates do not close until the player is inside. Once that happens, they can use the Cannon to take out the Mortars, but they need to do it quickly because the bandits at the gate will eventually batter it down. (Currently the gate is indestructible.) Now the player needs to run back down and fight the bandits, but they have the help of 3 Lionguards, so it should be a manageable fight.

The gates definitely close wayyy too fast.

In any case, the way I got past this mission is by missing the gates, fighting the bandits on foot both at the gate and at the mortar site.