Guild Wars 2

How many time before every inge realize it ? How many time before everyone start to fear a nerf ? Except if we consider this as THE way Anet choose to fix the class.

Any build you choose, thanks to the new mortar, you can complete it with this :
- not so bad aoe direct damages, because of a very short cast time
- really great cc alte zones (poison blind freeze) to take back ground control
- very long range but also efficient in short range
- double blast from tool belt if traited, which allow precast and so improve autocombo, great damage also which allows nuker builds (FYI : + barrage + rocket)
- long water field (6s) if traited

When I saw it first, I though EMK would just be sometime useful in WvW zerg.
Now I think Mortar is half what inge will BE in WvW zerg, it provide the basis of what we love there : aoe, aoe, aoe, cc zones, cc zones, cc zones, water field, blast combo and direct damages.

It also work very very well in sPvP. Because ground control is still a very good thing there, and because you can now make a strong 1v1 build, while still being very versatile by just taking this as your elite skill. Any SD build (+ all new procs) + Mortar is OP !

Oh you.

Its a good tool with setups for blasts (without a lot of blasts its performance drops and a long delay 2x blast when traited in a mediocre tree on a 40 sec cooldown is nothing particularly mind blowing). Its a field dispenser and it does that job nicely. Another water field never hurts and with the removal of the poison from nades it provides us with access to two fields otherwise unavailable and the bugged version of flash shell is good for area denial when node fighting. As a condi build it offers little offense but as a power build it gives you the ability to plink down stationary targets like carts or cannons at the old nade distance. At closer ranges you should probably be in another kit most of the time after deploying the field you need.

Now on the other hand all of our elites have their uses. Elixir x is going to be vital for denying warriors the ability to rampage channel heroes in stronghold, crate have been buffed to a great extent (unless im running in a large group in wvw its my main choice) with 75% of the power behind the old elite having been redeployed to a separate skill with less than a third of the recharge and the other part having been buffed with overcharges and a third of its cooldown shaved.

Im not saying mortar is bad because its fine, but its not objectively better than the other elites and that’s good. If people start shouting op just for kittens and giggles then why, we might end up with another 28% nerf (considering how fast we got the first one).

EDIT: To be honest i joke a lot about kneejerk nerfreactions but similar to mtd it feels like a nerf planned long before hand but lost in the patch considering how they nerfed the rest of the skills in both duration, cooldown and effect.

a great gift? A GREAT GIFT?! this kit ist total garbage, lets compare mortar kit with old grenade kit
Mortar: only good for direct dmg builds, Grenades: nice for condi, hybrid and direct dmg builds.
Mortar: just 1 stack vuln/attack, Grenades: 3 stacks
Mortar: 1 attack = 1x chance for shranpel, 1x chance for sharpshooter, Grenade: 3x chance per attack
Mortar AA around 30% weaker as Grenade AA
And at least, mortar takes our elite slot→ no crate
So the mortar is much worse than the old Grenade kit

It would be fine as a normal kit. Dps isn’t as good as bombs damage or condition-wise, and grenades process traits and sigils far more times. It gives some fields and a blast finisher, two when traited (but even then, you could get more blast finishers via thermobaric detonation or more damage from shrapnel and some other kits). It has more range, but the attacks aren’t either fast or large enough to hit someone, unless he’s engaged with someone else.

But it isn’t a “normal” kit – it uses up an elite skill slot. Problem is, there is nothing elite about the mortar kit.

No, Mortar is not garbage by far. It is only a matter of being used to it but it is a great tool. It has good damage, it can be usefull as fighing entry for far , as a support weapon … and , in my opinion with nades it is really strong .

In 2.5s, you drop 3 fields, poison/blind/freeze which ticks every seconds, can 7 times.
Persistants fields with ticks were always much more valuables than instant hit of the same effect, because it continue to proc even when you are disabled or when you left the area, it provide ground control.

And this, this is good for any build, power, condi or any support thing. Because the main interrest come from effects, not damages. With nades, freeze&blind are an instant hit since forever.

Also, I understand miriforst answer, since he explain how the others elites have also new interrests, because you have to choose betweens elites, this is how he mitigate my own fervor about mortar. But mov, why do you ever feel the needs to compare nades to mortar while you can take BOTH, and cumulate theirs CDs ? (Instead of spam 1 with your nades when you run out of CDs, OMG)

And I will just recall that it also come with a 6s water field, which have a great use at least in WvW, and with a tool belt skill which can almost double the damages of barrage, and that both can at least auto-combo water-blast in all mode with all build.

It’s a weaker version of the old Grenadeer Grenade kit. Sure it doesn’t take a trait, but instead it will take your Elite slot. So no Supply Crate.

If i had to choose i’d take the old Grenadekit back, even if it meant having to trait for it again. I’d have a kit which does poison, blind, chill, a solid bleed and works great for both power and condition builds. Without losing the very useful Supply Crate.

Thinking it’s a gift to the whole profession is just ridiculous. Maybe it fits your playstyle, but i feel it was to the detriment of Engineers.

I don’t think anyone can say it’s a detriment to the Engineers. Chances are grenades might have been tweaked in the patch even if they had left the Mortar as it was before (stationary, not a kit, etc), which I think noone ever used except in very specific situations. Now we have three Elites that can somewhat compete for the Elite slot depending on the role your Engineer wants to fulfill.

You don’t have to look at the Mortar Kit as a DPS kit, it’s a support kit. Poison, blind downstates, chill dangerous targets, heal allies, all the while keeping access to some nice long-range finishers (talking about Orbital Strike here) while standing at a somewhat safe 1.500 range. In PvE you gain access to decent duration pulsing Poison and blind for trash-mob killing, and have something to DPS with while closing in to the enemies. Yes, poison grenade was much better than Poison Shell pre-patch, but it would be insane against non-moving enemies if it didn’t get the field component removed.