Guild Wars 2

ok so i just saved 30 skill points to get the mortar and was really disappointed with the range. It’s a mortar and I can throw grenades as far. It should have double the range it has now.

I thought it was going to be like the fixed mortars that are around. Anyone else feel the same?

Mortar is very bad sadly. Damage is poor and scales poorly, has a dead zone and poor range for what the skill is aimed at doing.

Grenades when traited go further and do more damage if they hit.

I was also disappointed when I unlocked the skill after I had kept those 30 SP. I think that as it is now the range is too low (around 1400 right) but I also think that the same range of the fixed mortar perhaps would be too much. Maybe a range of 2000 would be a little more appropriate for a mortar?

It can’t be like a fixed mortar because that will be totally op.
We do have a trait to increase the mortar range but is currently bugged, we will see how much range it will increase.. 20-25% would make the mortar pretty good even with the low damage it have.
Grenades are simply op atm.

MeVe.2856:

It can’t be like a fixed mortar because that will be totally op.
We do have a trait to increase the mortar range but is currently bugged, we will see how much range it will increase.. 20-25% would make the mortar pretty good even with the low damage it have.
Grenades are simply op atm.

What is a ‘fixed’ mortar though? the only broken thing about it is the trait that increases range.

Apart from that, it is working ‘as intended’, I.e the mechanics are fine. Maybe damage is too low but that isn’t ‘broken’.

I’d ideally honestly make it scale with your stats, since its a turret for… God knows what reason, it doesn’t take into account your own stats, well I would change that and make it indeed notice your power and malice and expertise. That way, it would be a huge damage boost, and if that isn’t enough, give it more of a damage boost.

This is an elite skill, an ultimate, and it is hamstringed by 0 mobility, and a dead zone. If this doesn’t hurt to get hit by, then its simply a huge waste.

Lyuben.2613:

MeVe.2856:

It can’t be like a fixed mortar because that will be totally op.
We do have a trait to increase the mortar range but is currently bugged, we will see how much range it will increase.. 20-25% would make the mortar pretty good even with the low damage it have.
Grenades are simply op atm.

What is a ‘fixed’ mortar though? the only broken thing about it is the trait that increases range.

Apart from that, it is working ‘as intended’, I.e the mechanics are fine. Maybe damage is too low but that isn’t ‘broken’.

I’d ideally honestly make it scale with your stats, since its a turret for… God knows what reason, it doesn’t take into account your own stats, well I would change that and make it indeed notice your power and malice and expertise. That way, it would be a huge damage boost, and if that isn’t enough, give it more of a damage boost.

This is an elite skill, an ultimate, and it is hamstringed by 0 mobility, and a dead zone. If this doesn’t hurt to get hit by, then its simply a huge waste.

Indeed. It is an elite skill, it needs more damage and/or more range. Right now it doesn’t work well at all.

Good to know, as I’ve been saving up for it. Maybe now I won’t, at least until it’s fixed/changed/working as intended. .. Why do I seem to say that about Engineer so often? Hmmmmmm.

Maybe in the mean time I’ll get the Charzooka, just for giggles.

since when is 6k Damage in dungeons weak…..

Tigger.8035:

since when is 6k Damage in dungeons weak…..

Since when is it 6k damage?

I’ve only ever seen grenade barrage go upwards there.

What else do you think I’m talking about.

the 1 skill breaks the 1k Mark tho

Borishnikov.7368:

Indeed. It is an elite skill, it needs more damage and/or more range.

To me that’s the biggest problem with Mortar. It’s meant to be an Elite skill, but it’s less useful and less powerful than a utility slot kit.

Tigger.8035:

What else do you think I’m talking about.

the 1 skill breaks the 1k Mark tho

So where does 6k come from?

And remember the horrid fire rate, dead zone and slow flying speed… that 1k is terrible considering all the other factors.

The range, aoe radius on basic attacks, and really long ‘hangtime’ is what hurts it.
I saved up to unlock it for fun, and realized it’s just that. For fun. Not as effective as regular skills.

Lyuben.2613:

Tigger.8035:

What else do you think I’m talking about.

the 1 skill breaks the 1k Mark tho

So where does 6k come from?

And remember the horrid fire rate, dead zone and slow flying speed… that 1k is terrible considering all the other factors.

Mortar 5 skill….

mine is hitting around 1100 – 2000 in WvW. I dont know if it should hit harder or not but i feel fine with it.

my mortar does 952dmg on heavy target golem ( nr 1 skill )

though the grenades can be traited for longer range + got more dmg cant see why mortar should be so weak

while my grenade did 382 + 579 + 585 and it applied x3 vulnerability and it recharges alot faster the ( this is the nr 1 skill )

It does have one major benefit over the grenade kit, and that is that it gets treated as an actual siege weapon.

That means it has some benefits and some disadvantages aside from the range.

The first is that it does not require line of sight to its target like grenades do. You don’t have to stick your head over a rampart in WvW to nail a location.

The second advantage and first disadvantage are related. It doesn’t combat flag you or your target by itself. That means if you aren’t combat flagged you can regen hp. The bad part is so does your target unless someone else has him in combat.

The third advantage is that retaliation procs damage the mortar and not you. However, since you can’t heal the mortar and its got substantially less hp than you, this can also be a problem.

The fourth advantage is the hilariously strong knock-back on number 5. I really would like to see what several coordinated mortars could do to a group trying to siege gate.

draculthemad.6273:

It does have one major benefit over the grenade kit, and that is that it gets treated as an actual siege weapon.

That means it has some benefits and some disadvantages aside from the range.

The first is that it does not require line of sight to its target like grenades do. You don’t have to stick your head over a rampart in WvW to nail a location.

The second advantage and first disadvantage are related. It doesn’t combat flag you or your target by itself. That means if you aren’t combat flagged you can regen hp. The bad part is so does your target unless someone else has him in combat.

The third advantage is that retaliation procs damage the mortar and not you. However, since you can’t heal the mortar and its got substantially less hp than you, this can also be a problem.

The fourth advantage is the hilariously strong knock-back on number 5. I really would like to see what several coordinated mortars could do to a group trying to siege gate.

ye it does have some benefits though i still think the NR 1 should be Little stronger

It hits pretty hard, its not going to 2-3 shot someone like a ballista or finish them off like an arrow cart, but it really should not be at that level.

Its enough that no one can really heal through it, and without requiring line of sight, that is all it really needs.

The range needs to be upped a bit. In WvWvW I can place the mortar on the walls and I wont be able to anyone due to the range. The only people I can hit are those that are up close to a dooror wall.

The other issue with the mortar is that I can place it down and have a team mate start using before me. I am then unable to use it for the duration. Cant it be like normal siege weapons where the person who bought the weapon has priority over the usage.

Missywink.7162:

The range needs to be upped a bit. In WvWvW I can place the mortar on the walls and I wont be able to anyone due to the range. The only people I can hit are those that are up close to a dooror wall.

The other issue with the mortar is that I can place it down and have a team mate start using before me. I am then unable to use it for the duration. Cant it be like normal siege weapons where the person who bought the weapon has priority over the usage.

when elite supplies gets fixed you’ll have your wish

As a couple other posters have mentioned, Elite Supplies is bugged and does not increase mortar range. In addition to the low-end damage, I’d take Supply Drop or Series 7 Golem (Asura damage golem) as an Elite skill any day of the week, in any setting.

If Elite Supplies buffed it to around the 2000 mark it would be OK.

If Elite Supplies buffed it to around the 1600 mark (just above Grenadier, I think), it might need a small damage boost, but it would be at least usable… maybe.

You have to realize that this is an Elite Skill that is overshadowed by many of our abilities already in terms of damage, range, and utility/support. Supply Drop is beast and always has been. I don’t care for Elixir X, but some people swear by it and that’s cool… it’s at least viable, in other words. Mortar cost 3x as many skill points to unlock and offers no damage or range advantage over, say, traited greandes and no (significant) utility or support advantage over, say, Elixir Gun or Supply Drop.

It needs a little help.

Not to mention, when defending a point with it in WvW, it often collides with the wall I’m using for cover.
I can rarely go further back to prevent that from happening, because then it won’t reach anything at all.
So between having to go very close to the edge to get a few shots off, and getting hit by all the AoE, and also not being able to get a lot of my shots off because it collides with the wall, I’m not really happy with the place the Mortar is in right now.

I have fun using the 5 button to knock a mass of enemies off a wall from the knockback.

2/3 of the engineer elites are just a big disapointment in sPVP. One is a potion that gives you one of two other classes elites (and not even very good ones at that) and mortar is short ranged, low damage, and buggy. If I try to spam the 1 shot on an area my shots start to glitch out. The only thing it does that is any good is the 5 knockback. Its only decent at killing necro mm if they arn’t looking at you. But necro MM is generally bad itself.

What we are left with is supply drop, which is good, but I dislike it, it dosn’t fit my roamer playstyle at all and I’m not usually specced for turrets.

awalloftext.7130:

If Elite Supplies buffed it to around the 2000 mark it would be OK.

If Elite Supplies buffed it to around the 1600 mark (just above Grenadier, I think), it might need a small damage boost, but it would be at least usable… maybe.

What about the turret range & damage boost trait? The mortar is classified as a turret, so it should affect it as well.

As for the damage – it hits for 505 in an area with it’s default attack every 2 seconds. Thief’s unload does 808 damage on a single target over the course of ~3 seconds and costs a great chunk of initiative. Assuming I’m correct about the trait mentioned above, it should make the mortar into an attractive elite skill in WvW at the very least.

even if they wont buff the dmg even though its needed

The RANGE SHOULD be incr it really really should cant find even 1 reason why not it wouldnt make it OP

Tried out today and felt fairly disappointed. Given what other classes get for 30 skill points I see this as a bad investment.
I know it provides some benefits, but the current state simpyl doesn’t justify both the 30 SP costs and elite skill slot ocupancy. For free this skill would be great, for the price it just doesn’t pay of.

Mortar has worked well for me in those “defend the point” style missions, like certain events. But that’s all I’ve ever used it for.

One thing that might be a good practice while using the mortar is to swap in and out of it. That is, blow a lot of the CDs on it, leave it, use your other abilities, go back to the mortar.

Not sure if they fixed the problem of mortar jacking though… In beta, someone could jack your mortar and you could only access it again if they deliberately chose to abandon it. Might need to test that…

Yeah, they can still jack the mortar, done it my self a few times to check out the skills that it gives (not in the heat of battle mind you…).

Nixxez.8671:

Tried out today and felt fairly disappointed. Given what other classes get for 30 skill points I see this as a bad investment.
I know it provides some benefits, but the current state simpyl doesn’t justify both the 30 SP costs and elite skill slot ocupancy. For free this skill would be great, for the price it just doesn’t pay of.

you say this like theirs an SP cap

Tigger.8035:

Nixxez.8671:

Tried out today and felt fairly disappointed. Given what other classes get for 30 skill points I see this as a bad investment.
I know it provides some benefits, but the current state simpyl doesn’t justify both the 30 SP costs and elite skill slot ocupancy. For free this skill would be great, for the price it just doesn’t pay of.

you say this like theirs an SP cap

Just because there isn’t an SP cap doesn’t mean it isn’t a waste. If you disagree, feel free to give me any gold you have, you can always get more of that too. :p

You can waste an unlimited supply of something? News to me.

incr the range already!

Tigger: considering that SP requires time to acquire, it’s a proxy of the time wasted. Time isn’t unlimited. Unless you teach us how to get SP without wasting time.

Again, as I noted, Gold is unlimited too, so if you think that’s a valid argument, please feel free to give everyone all your gold. It’s not like you can’t get more, right?

It is a valid argument. If I wanted to give you gold, i would, cause it’s unlimited and I could just get it back

Or I could just buy gold, y’know?

and yeah, it’s not like I can’t just get more. It is an unlimited supply amiright? What I choose to do with it isn’t really wasted when there isn’t much to do with it, It’s hard to get, and supply is low.

So deal with it.

30 sp isn’t nothing. Especially with Eldritch scrolls costing 50 (if you want to make exotic stuff) and Blood stone shards costing 200.

Only 1 racial elite and 1 profession elite cost 30 SP. the rest cost 10. If you’re having problems getting that too bad.

I have every Skill available, both racial and elite with 7 SP left over and I’m not even halfway completed with full map completion and I’m not even halfway through Skill challenges.

Guess I’m well off

You do realize buying gems to get gold cost IRL money, which requires time to get too, right? Not everyone has played as much as you, not everyone should be balanced around you. There’re plenty of people who hasn’t reached lv 70.

40 percent map completion

haven’t finished my story quests in orr

Not rocking full exotics

only 1 crafting profession is capped

/age

185 hours and 22 minutes over the course of 22 days.

Don’t think it’s that much compared to alot of people. I still have alot of things to do.

That’s over 8 hours a day, and on a single character (plenty of people have alts).

On which note I’d assume you’re also not working, so that might explain the lack of concept for “time is money”.

In college

But since you’re one of those people who want to have a point all the time.

Consider

The first week the game was released (cause my classes started on the 5th)

Free time on weekends

Also to enlighten you, 30-40 Silver a run not counting loot that’s worth stuff in CoF.

Roughly 70% of a bar a run which, in most cases, is 1 SP a run

But feel free to keep on talking.

> makes response to posters post about wasting SP when it’s so easy to get in their own opinon

> someone who has a differing opinion feels the need to respond and argue.

Typical forum is typical

CoF = lv 70+ content.

Plenty of people not yet lv 70.

See the issue here?

Not to mention not everyone full-time games on weekends either. Many people work, have family commitments, etc.

I don’t think you realize just how many gamers are actually working adults.

plenty of the ones with over 200 hours + played, and those are the same ones with well paying jobs who took time off their jobs on release to play and hit 80 in the first week

and if you wan’t to use that as an example then you might just wanna stop talking.

I don’t invest as much time into this game contrary to what you believe. It takes me roughly an hour and a half to commute to school and the same amount of time to come back, and I have alot of stuff to do before I get into Polysomnography the next year.

I’m sorry that when YOU play the game, you do nothing productive. I manage my time well, and I enjoy the game and make progress when I do play it

So hey, what are you playing the game for? If you log on and do nothing, you yourself are just waisting time.

Mortar should have better range, better projectile speed, and better damage. Even after all of this buffs, I would choose Supply Drop for “0 mobility AND dead zone” for current Mortar. Using Mortar in 1v1 ~ 3v3 situation is a suicide, and even more than 4v4 situation (like in WvW), it is weaker than Grenade Kit. What the hell. Mortar needs immediate and decisive buff.

For relevance, here’s a quick sampling of a granted old survey of WoW, but should regardless be considered.

http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/001365.php

“From the survey data, the average age of the WoW player is 28.3 (SD = 8.4). 84% of players are male. 16% are female. Female players are significantly older (M = 32.5, SD = 10.0) than male players (M = 28.0, SD = 8.4). On average, they spend 22.7 (SD = 14.1) hours per week playing WoW. There are no gender differences in hours played per week.”

Not to mention many/most of us have alts, which would potentially half (or more) the time spent on each character. I don’t have any illusion on how much time you spent; you said so yourself: 185 hours in 22 days. You are quite simply not an average gamer, along with all those who put in 200+ hours.

Continue to avoid

The first week the game was released (cause my classes started on the 5th)

Free time on weekends

and look stupid the more you try to sound smart. It’s quite amusing

I’m not avoiding, they’re just irrelevant. You’ve only explained why it’s plausible for you to play that much. It still doesn’t change the fact that the average gamer is an adult who would be working (hence not having classes is irrelevant) and has family commitments (hence has less free time on weekends).

Again, you are not an average gamer, so personal anecdotes only matter to yourself, not the average gamer.

Oh boy what is the average gamer in your definition. Please tell me.

k lets take your post, since you’re talking about me and no one else.

185 hours over the course of 22 days = a little over 8 hours a day

combine it with the points you feel are irrelevant

and make an excuse to further fortify a point you believe you have.

I’m a casual, sorry.

You know nothing about the average “gamer”

The average person works week days, on average 8-12 hours (that leaves 16-12 remaining and those who work longer hours typically work less days during the week, and majority of time those days are not back to back. This would be people who work in the security field, Sleep techs, and other similar jobs that take place at night), and if he/she has family contributions

i.e Sick family members, raising family members, raising a child.

He or she will do so and is free to do whatever they wan’t in their spare time.
.
I love how you use the model of an average family home owner as a model for the “average gamer” quite amusing like I said.

Let’s see… there’re many sources of what an average gamer entails (largely due to regional differences and difficulty in compiling statistics between them, along with determining exactly what an average gamer is), but for USA: the average gamer is 30 years old:
http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.asp
For UK, the average gamer is 23 years old, and spends 12.6 hours a week playing games:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamer#Types_of_gamers

Don’t forget that your 16-12 hours includes all sorts of little details like sleep, meals, travel time, and other commitments. Also, don’t forget that the working age group is rather much larger than the younger age group, along with the small issue of needing someone of working age to actually fund the game to begin with.

Time for a post that’s on topic.
Yes i agree that the current mortar range is pathetic. Perhaps changing it to a natural 1500/1600 and traited 2000/2100.
Increasing it’s damage and fire speed wouldn’t be too bad either.

Was toying around with another engieer’s mortar tonight and really needs some range/dmg. At this point I doubt ill sink 30 sp into it. Would be cool to have a spread shot with it, that gives a nice “Whoop whoop whoop” and fires 3 shots out at once.