Guild Wars 2

I like the mortar. could it use a little love and maybe longer range sure. My favorite thing I love about my mortar it is an elite skill that can be use by other players as well.

For example, in our group, our necro is heavy condition damage. We come across a boss that uses conditions to heal. If our necro goes in the fight he is just healing the boss and that is not good. However I drop my mortar and he can now add direct damage as long as we keep agro he can pound the boss for 120 sec and then I can drop another for him. My group and I are finding many ways to use this mortar; the elite skill anyone can use.

Last night I went on my first WvW run last night and it was a lot of fun. I had a lot of LoS issue while defending a gate with my grenades & rifle. I just couldn’t get the right angle to lob nades down on the attackers. I had to move right to the side of the wall where I can get sniped easily. I finally purchased, equipped and tossed out the mortar just to see if I had any better luck. I was able to launch attacks further back and at extreme angles. It wasn’t slaughtering players, but it pushed back two dozen enemy opponents from the gate. I guess it did it’s job.

Kreit.4709:

OP, before post pointless wall of text try to play not only in PvE. Mortar is one of the best elite skills in WvW, especially it’s 5 skill in siege. How can you even compare damage skill only (granade kit) and skill, which can knock from the wall 10-20 ppl?

Unfortunately, MMORPG’s are quite complicated so you might have to read a paragraph or two if you want to join a discussion in a meaningful way.

Any skill comparison is apples to oranges at some point, so you just have to exercise your judgement based on the facts you do have. For myself, the fact is that I use supply drop 99% of the time and Mortar makes an appearance in just a few perfect storm scenarios, and even then its usually just because I’m so tired of Supply Drop that I take advantage of any opportunity in which Mortar could potentially be used, even if Supply Drop is still stronger. From what I have observed of other engineers, they play the same way. I’m sure Anet has metrics for how often each skill is being used, and I would guesstimate that for every 1 time Mortar is used, Supply Drop is used over 100 times. I don’t see how anyone can think this is acceptable. That kind of imbalance in skill usage indicates that the underused skill is either underpowered, poorly designed, or both.

The trick at this point is to figure out how to make the skill more useful more often while preserving game balance. How do we fix Mortar so that it is useful more often than <1% of the playtime in one mode of this game, and how do we make the changes in a way that it doesn’t become overpowered in those situations in which it was already being used? I think the discussion about whether Mortar needs changes or not is settled at this point, and its time to move on to a discussion about what changes are needed.

I think its telling that you think Tornado and Whirlpool are so awful, when we as engineers have access to those exact skills and find them more useful than Mortar most of the time. I use Elixir X in all game modes around 10% of the time, which makes sense because about 10% of the games content is underwater. In underwater combat, the Supply Drop doesn’t spawn all the turrets so Elixir X (Whirlpool) is our best option, and you don’t see us complaining about it. At this point Engineer and Necromancer are much squeakier wheels than Elementalist, save for their downed state which needs immediate attention.

Oh, and you were right about Elixir X not being the only stability source, because we also have Throw Elixir S, a 60s cooldown skill which has a 50% chance of granting 4 seconds of stability, so I stand corrected. I should have said Elixir X is the only dependable source of stability.

Note that 1400 range means you can’t hit the ground from the top of some castle walls. If you set up right on the edge (where the enemy can easily target you), you can hit the ground directly under you in some places, but if you set up back even a little you can’t see the ground in range.

Please make the mortar longer range.

Zair.4102:

Note that 1400 range means you can’t hit the ground from the top of some castle walls. If you set up right on the edge (where the enemy can easily target you), you can hit the ground directly under you in some places, but if you set up back even a little you can’t see the ground in range.

Please make the mortar longer range.

If it was a kit, allowing you to quickly swap it out and put away with no cooldown, could you see yourself using it with the same range and damage it has now?

Don’t forget you can switch out your selected traits while out of combat. Use what is useful for the situation you are in. Don’t get caught in open field combat with Mortar equiped to be sure (hate when I forget to switch back to supply drop after a siege). I run around with an ele almost all the time so I set up the mortar in range of the entire side we are sieging and he calls out targets which I blast off the wall with 5 then cripple/slow and he kills them. When everyone gets the point and stops getting near the edge we work together to kill siege close enoght to hit with splash damage of wall hits but not readily visible.
For gate defence I use the flame thrower for attacks through the gate and when they aren’t pressed up against the gate I go outside and taunt them into attacking me and getting inside the siege range since mortar and grenades can barely if at all be used to reach the ground.

I like the mobile kit idea. I wouldn’t use it except in the same situations I already use the immobile one.
I also like the increased range even if it was for less duration it needs the range more than the duration.
I like the mechanical suit idea, but think that should replace the Elixer X instead since its two random abilities that are each useful in different situations is annoying and thus underused.
I like the idea of a artillery barrage targetable sky drop ability with just the 5 ability but on a shorter timer.

I kind of think they originally meant the ability to drop a mortar like the ones purchased in keeps and towers but the ability to place it anywhere led to too many balancing issues