Guild Wars 2

To me it seems so:

better range
bigger aoe
fields
elite skill without annoying long recast

I have always liked ground targeted aoe skills – and from what I have seen Mortar will be my choice….

It won’t replace it. Grenade kit should still be superior damage, particularly if you’re running a hybrid or condition oriented spec.

While mortar is still useful, I doubt it’ll be able to outdamage the grenade kit, except for perhaps outside certain combos like a coordinated multi-orbital strike setup.

The mortar build as a bit more of a utility weapon. It looks like it still has decent damage, but it’s there to provide utility for your allies with a heal, fields for combos, and disabling/weakening your opponents through poison and chill fields.

Grenade kit should still be the go-to damage kit.

grenade kit is a very strong direct dmg kit for zerk PVE. with the traits aswell it will be very strong at mid range (100% flight speed increase) for pvp also.

the mortar kit will be the go to kit for WvW wall fights / zerg fights as u keep the distance and with the aoe fields u can tag a lot of ppl with the poison and attack siege etc.

even if u only use the mortar kit for F5 in PVE and stick to grenades etc its still a DPS gain.

ofc if u truly understand the nature of engie u will understand that kit swaping in combat to use certain skills at the right time makes a BIG difference. for example.

smoke bomb from bomb kit followed by the mortar blinding light field can give u around 9 seconds of blind AOE field on a target in PVE. if used at the right time u can negate a MASSIVE chunk of dmg from bosses.

anyway where was I. a yes will it make grenades outdated? nope it will compliment grenades.

we will now have access to long range (mortar 1500) mid range nukes (grenades 900) and close range havoc (bomb kit / rifle blunderbuss and jump shot ! )

im a PVE zerk engie so im all about the direct dmg. I don’t really do spvp and I do WvW during the WvW seasons.

im very happy with the changes. and yes I am very happy with 900 range grenades, it meens we finally get the speed buff +60 aoe range to grenades we needed for so very long. and the mortar kit takes over for WvW wall fights (this was the only good thing about grenades 1500 range)

also b4 the patch on Tuesday try and hit a moving target at 1500 range with grenades.
whats that ? u cant hit the target cos the nades are to slow and they are moving all over the place :O
whats that u find nades only effective in pvp when thrown at your feet against players in melee range :O

yes its a very good change. that 100% speed buff is insane.

/rant over

We will use both together ofc:-)

Rozbuska.5263:

We will use both together ofc:-)

Well, we can, but we would have to give up either Shrapnel or Siege Rounds (probably the latter). Guess focusing on one of them will work better.

Manuhell.2759:

Rozbuska.5263:

We will use both together ofc:-)

Well, we can, but we would have to give up either Shrapnel or Siege Rounds (probably the latter). Guess focusing on one of them will work better.

Siege Rounds > Shrapnel for sure. 40% longer fileds on mortat its massive

For most of PvE Siege Rounds + Kinetic Charge beats Shrapnel.
We’re looking at potentially 12 might stacks + massive burst damage vs. slowly stacking up bleeds. Only in very long boss fights Shrapnel should be better.
For WvW roaming shrapnel might be the better choice because of the cripple.
Also ppl tend to move out of incoming orbital strikes ;-)

Why would it? Grenade is a normal kit, while mortar is an elite kit. You will use both Grenade kit and mortar kit at the same time.

Rozbuska.5263:

Siege Rounds > Shrapnel for sure. 40% longer fileds on mortat its massive

I wouldn’t be so sure. That bleeding is also getting further empowered by vulnerability, after all.
And it gets some nice added bonuses if we also go for the firearms line, with a juicy 33% bleeding duration increase and a 10% increased crit chance on bleeding foes as minor traits.
Anyway, this will be useful mostly in hybrid and condition builds. A power build wouldn’t get much use by Shrapnel.

Manuhell.2759:

Rozbuska.5263:

Siege Rounds > Shrapnel for sure. 40% longer fileds on mortat its massive

I wouldn’t be so sure. That bleeding is also getting further empowered by vulnerability, after all.
And it gets some nice added bonuses if we also go for the firearms line, with a juicy 33% bleeding duration increase and a 10% increased crit chance on bleeding foes as minor traits.
Anyway, this will be useful mostly in hybrid and condition builds. A power build wouldn’t get much use by Shrapnel.

You need only one stack of bleeding for that 10% boost and that you easily have from Sharpshooter or even grenade 2 will keep it perma. Before Sharpnel wasnt even worth as adept trait and that little bit of cripple cant save it:-)
In pvp with build without Mortar I can imagine that but Mortar will be simply too good now even in condi builds.