Guild Wars 2

“Mortar Shot: Reduced the damage by 28%.”

What the crap A-net! Why? It did not need a nerf. Now there is no reason to use mortar kit at all. The only reason I will even have it equipped is for Orbital strike, and the rare need for 1500 range against a near stationary target.

Yeah that nerf pretty much killed it for me. It really wasn’t doing too much damage when I was using it earlier. I 100% agree it didnt need nerfing.

This is so laughtable… It makes NO sense at all. Bombs deal (f.ex.) 1200 dmg, nades 900, mortart 700. That’s so low, NO ONE will use it.

I haven’t been using the mortar auto attack because i said “it doesn’t work with the 10% explosive trait, the damage is too low, but once it works, i’ll use it”. And now the nutbreaker …

I really don’t get it why. It makes no sense whatsoever. If it’s about the projectile finisher, please, make it 20% and buff teh damage again. This is just stupid, makes me angry and sad. You ruined it already again. Congratz T_T

god forbid an elite kit should do damage

What the…. Anet pls revert this nerf. Mortar is actually our last left high range weapon. We need something to deal damage, it don’t even have a burst skill like rangers long bow “rapid fire”. It’s whole damage comes from the AA and it really wasn’t that great.

Xyonon.3987:

You ruined it already again. Congratz T_T

Sums it up perfectly.

“JON”
“What is it, Izzy”
“PEOPLE AREN’T USING GRENADES 24/7, WE GOTTA DO SOMETHING”
“Mein Gott, nerf the mortar launcher asap, I want that garbage nerfed into the ground and don’t come back until Grenades are the only viable option again”
“RIGHT AWAY SIR”

This is a really disappointing action by Anet. Why was mortar shot nerfed when the projectile already has a tremendous arc to it? It’s easily dodged!

Kodama.6453:

What the…. Anet pls revert this nerf. Mortar is actually our last left high range weapon. We need something to deal damage, it don’t even have a burst skill like rangers long bow “rapid fire”. It’s whole damage comes from the AA and it really wasn’t that great.

Our damage comes from everything EXCEPT the aa …

… except for mortar … there every skill is kitten now.

I was critting for close to 4K per attack in PvP. From 1500 range that was too strong. It was stronger than grenades and rifle. Only the bomb kit outdamaged it before the nerf.

Xyonon.3987:

Kodama.6453:

What the…. Anet pls revert this nerf. Mortar is actually our last left high range weapon. We need something to deal damage, it don’t even have a burst skill like rangers long bow “rapid fire”. It’s whole damage comes from the AA and it really wasn’t that great.

Our damage comes from everything EXCEPT the aa …

… except for mortar … there every skill is kitten now.

It’s the last long range weapon and the other skills are doing damage close to nothing. That’s what I meant, so they nerfed an already weak long range damage…

It would be nice if they actually provided justification for nerfs like this.

and it’s useless again

Of all the things they could have nerfed, they nerfed this? By 28%? Guess I’ll switch to ele and continue to enjoy as-yet unnerfed burning, because it’s really pretty galling that this still stands while mortar gets the nerf.

Phineas Poe.3018:

I was critting for close to 4K per attack in PvP. From 1500 range that was too strong. It was stronger than grenades and rifle. Only the bomb kit outdamaged it before the nerf.

How many stacks of might did you have on yourself? ô.o
And as already said it should be dodged easily at this range. Well, not as easy as grenades before the patch, but still….

Rest in pieces

This is almost as big as a nerf as when nades were reduced by 33%.

Honestly I’m not even surprised right now, that 47% higher damage than rifle was too good to be true but whatevs. Engies will find a way. Engies always find a way.

They should focus more on fixing things than making our elites useless.

Wait a moment…. I did some math…. does it mean the AA of mortar is actually as “good” as rifle? >__>

1,47*0,72 = 1,0584 soooo …. just 5,84% better than rifle? On an elite kit? Without another damage skill on this kit? I thought our weapon sets are this weak because kits are there to compensate that. ô.o

So mortar gets nerfed, but them 12k burn ticks dont, okaaaaay

Here’s to the (faint) hope their next step is to make Mortar Shot’s Projectile Finisher trigger on everything hit by the AoE.

Very disappointing Anet.

WOWWWWWWW!!!!!!!! IT DIDNT NEED A NERF!!!!!!

Within only a couple days? I would like to know Anet’s reasoning.

ejax.5170:

Within only a couple days? I would like to know Anet’s reasoning.

Their communication is shocking. IIRC the lead dev no engi doesn’t work on other classes so he should be able to write a few words on it.

Kodama.6453:

Wait a moment…. I did some math…. does it mean the AA of mortar is actually as “good” as rifle? >__>

1,47*0,72 = 1,0584 soooo …. just 5,84% better than rifle? On an elite kit? Without another damage skill on this kit? I thought our weapon sets are this weak because kits are there to compensate that. ô.o

yup, it’s slightly better than rifle aa.

but guys seriously, the aa is still about the same as the grenade aa … oh wait no it’s lower … and nade aa is medicore … hm …

I’d suggest to increase the damage of the aa at 900+ range like mesmer GS and ranger LB. This way we can use the fields in melee and still have a good LONG range weapon.

Phineas Poe.3018:

I was critting for close to 4K per attack in PvP. From 1500 range that was too strong. It was stronger than grenades and rifle. Only the bomb kit outdamaged it before the nerf.

I had 2-2.1k on Marauder/zerk on a power build.

Please, share with us your magical secrets.

Why not give (traited) mortar shot ( 1.14 * hipshot) the same damage 3 normal grenades would do before the patch (1.22*hipshot) ?

PistolWhip.2697:

Phineas Poe.3018:

I was critting for close to 4K per attack in PvP. From 1500 range that was too strong. It was stronger than grenades and rifle. Only the bomb kit outdamaged it before the nerf.

I had 2-2.1k on Marauder/zerk on a power build.

Please, share with us your magical secrets.

I was running Explosives/Inventions/Tools. Not sure. Nothing special, really. I didn’t think it was that far-fetched a statement to make. Now it does less damage than grenades, which when you think about it—given that it has more than 1.5x the range of grenades—that’s how it should be, with bombs on top most of all.

S’long as that Projectile Finisher attribute gets set up to actually trigger in its AoE, I really won’t mind. :P Mortar has tremendous utility with its assortment of Fields and the one Finisher, and that vast selection of tricks has always been my favorite part of Engineer. The loss of damage hurts, but we have plenty of crazy stuff to make up for it.

Range shouldn’t be an argument here, rangers got long bow range 1500 too and it is outdamaging mortar kit a lot, and it has a high burst skill like rapid fire on it.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want the same damage for mortar kit like the rangers with their long bows. I just want 1 viable long range AA, is that really too much to ask for?

False information, please forget about this.

Toolbox.9375:

S’long as that Projectile Finisher attribute gets set up to actually trigger in its AoE, I really won’t mind. :P Mortar has tremendous utility with its assortment of Fields and the one Finisher, and that vast selection of tricks has always been my favorite part of Engineer. The loss of damage hurts, but we have plenty of crazy stuff to make up for it.

You are making sense. Its nerf on a skill that they could have introduced like this. It had sub par DPS before it does now but its the potential for CC and combos that was the draw in the first place.

BTW your name is very appropriate for this post. I shall borrow it. You have so many tools in your tool box why limit yourself to just a screw driver?

So first off some questions:

What exactly about the damage was imbalanced?

For what game type was this imbalance present?

Second here is some input:

The mortar kit is exciting and brings flavor. It is our elite kit, and by nature, an elite ability should be exciting and meaningful. Up to the launch of the game, we have mostly used Supply Crate because of its immense utility with very niche situations for Elixir X. The Mortar was rarely used due to the fact that it had low health and was hard to place because it could easily be destroyed. That all said, we finally have an alternative to use an elite that has potential, and it should be encouraged for use rather than giving us reasons to not want to use it. As for it’s elite status, you can get far more damage out of the grenade auto attack (which is 3 blasts giving a chance for burning, bleeding and cripple each as well as 3x vulnerability)… It should be something that can be challenged with out elite slot.

In my couple of hours testing the Mortar elite, I personally felt the damage to be completely reasonable and justifiable. In WvW I was able to use it effectively against enemy zergs, however it was balanced because the radius of the projectile would only hit a few players and never usually the maximum of 5. In SPVP, it was and has been incredibly hard to successfully land the shots unless you are aiming directly at your feet in which case you wouldn’t want to be using the Mortar kit anyway. In PVE, the splash damage saw more targets and it felt great to use. However it still runs into the same issue where it can sometimes be hard to actually land the shot, which made it so that when you actually did land the shot and saw the damage you were excited by the numbers and it felt meaningful to use.

A % damage nerf is never fun. I’m not sure why the decision was made to nerf the ability but I feel like other alternatives would be better. Why not reducing the attack speed of instead of nerfing the Damage? Why not reduce the damage but as a trade off we get a faster projectile speed? When we get a new ability, its disheartening to see it be a pure numbers nerf rather than giving it a chance to still excel.

I think the overall support, offense, and defense given by supply crate + grenade kit or bomb kit or both is far superior than what Mortar offers. Hell before the nerf it was this way, but the physical damage of the auto attack made it a bit more bearable. Especially since the main way you want to use mortar kit is #1 through combo fields. Now I see no reason to go mortar kit over the typical meta. Grenades and/or bomb kit excel in everything mortar kit tries to do. In condition pressure, physical dps, and overall support. It did before the nerf, like I said earlier, but it wasn’t that bad. Not its so bad that there’s no reason not to go supply crate.

I would’ve been ok with it if 10 or 15%. But 28%? That’s a lot.

Did you hear that? That was the sound of my mortar SD build dying off in the distance. Just when I thought it might be useful in teamfights.

Toolbox.9375:

S’long as that Projectile Finisher attribute gets set up to actually trigger in its AoE, I really won’t mind. :P Mortar has tremendous utility with its assortment of Fields and the one Finisher, and that vast selection of tricks has always been my favorite part of Engineer. The loss of damage hurts, but we have plenty of crazy stuff to make up for it.

Crazy stuff? Ah, surely you mean the water field and combo finisher. Not like Supply Crate has that.

Whats that? Supply Crate can overcharge now? The overcharge includes a water field? It can then be detonated for a blast finisher?

Well at least we get 5s of frost armor on a 40s cooldown and a 2s poison field. That is obviously worth the elite slot.

Kodama.6453:

Range shouldn’t be an argument here, rangers got long bow range 1500 too and it is outdamaging mortar kit a lot, and it has a high burst skill like rapid fire on it.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want the same damage for mortar kit like the rangers with their long bows. I just want 1 viable long range AA, is that really too much to ask for?

I felt that mortar slighly did more damage than rangers LB (was hitting 3.6k AA LB vs 4k AA mortat autoattack crits against low armor targets).

FWIW, it is still not receiving the +10% correctly from Explosive Powder. The tooltip updates, but actual damage dealt is not correct (I was doing 600-670 with and without Explosives line). You can test this on dummies in Silverwastes. So, actual nerf might be more along the lines of 10-15% not 27%.

Maybe they are adjusting it before the fix is applied. They did fix Shrapnel after all. They also still have to fix the projectile finisher and MK#1 will be pretty neat to use.

Shifu.4321:

Kodama.6453:

Range shouldn’t be an argument here, rangers got long bow range 1500 too and it is outdamaging mortar kit a lot, and it has a high burst skill like rapid fire on it.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want the same damage for mortar kit like the rangers with their long bows. I just want 1 viable long range AA, is that really too much to ask for?

I felt that mortar slighly did more damage than rangers LB (was hitting 3.6k AA LB vs 4k AA mortar autoattack crits against low armor targets).

Really? Didn’t test it directly, just got numbers told by a friend using long bow. Did you stand at max range for max long bow damage? I’m maybe terribly wrong at this term. But still 28% less damage mking it as effective as rifle aa is just too much…. nerf it a little bit less pls. >__<

digitalruse.9085:

FWIW, it is still not receiving the +10% correctly from Explosive Powder. The tooltip updates, but actual damage dealt is not correct (I was doing 600-670 with and without Explosives line). You can test this on dummies in Silverwastes. So, actual nerf might be more along the lines of 10-15% not 27%.

Maybe they are adjusting it before the fix is applied. They did fix Shrapnel after all. They also still have to fix the projectile finisher and MK#1 will be pretty neat to use.

If this happens, then it’ll be a more reasonable 18% nerf, though I feel 10-12% should be the max.

I am just heartbroken about this.

This has me very upset. I am not pleased with you right now A-net, not pleased at all.

I am…I think the words are…monumentally kittened….

I LOVED the mortar kit the way it was. I felt effective. I felt useful, more useful than I ever have on Engie before.

There is NO JUSTIFICATION that is acceptable for this nerf. NONE! If a Dev wants to dare have the audacity to come in here and TRY, go ahead, we want to hear it.

edit: Engie is about the only class I’ve played since the beginning…and this nerf..just literally took all the desire to play today out of me…I was so excited to get home and keep working with the mortar kit and a build around it….now…well..guess I’ll go back to retooling my flamethrower build…but..yeah…not feeling it.

Shifu.4321:

If this happens, then it’ll be a more reasonable 18% nerf, though I feel 10-12% should be the max.

I meant to take a before shot of the damage before patching, but forgot. So I can’t crunch the numbers on what exactly the real loss is or will be. =/

a-net adds a good thing, a net makes it viable to show how awesome it is, a-net nerfs the hell out of it cause screw you, you aint getting anything good here on a-nets watch. Finally had a viable ranged kit option (in pve) cause i dont like the nades and what does a-net do? Nerf the kitten out of it of course….

Kodama.6453:

Range shouldn’t be an argument here, rangers got long bow range 1500 too and it is outdamaging mortar kit a lot, and it has a high burst skill like rapid fire on it.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want the same damage for mortar kit like the rangers with their long bows. I just want 1 viable long range AA, is that really too much to ask for?

Ranger longbow is in the 2250-2300 ballpark. Zerk Mortar also was stronger and I’m pretty sure faster.

Yes, seems like I had false information here, sry for that. But the nerf is still really hurting, just a little bit less would be really nice.

OMGimAnoobLOLOL.4730:

Kodama.6453:

Range shouldn’t be an argument here, rangers got long bow range 1500 too and it is outdamaging mortar kit a lot, and it has a high burst skill like rapid fire on it.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want the same damage for mortar kit like the rangers with their long bows. I just want 1 viable long range AA, is that really too much to ask for?

Ranger longbow is in the 2250-2300 ballpark. Zerk Mortar also was stronger and I’m pretty sure faster.

Faster? Lol, no. Neither was it stronger, plus it can be dodged/ avoided much more easily than Ranger LB AA, especially since you don’t actually need to dodge it, but rather just step out of the AOE field.

But even if it was stronger, or faster than Ranger LB, who cares? Why must no other ranged weapon be stronger, or as strong as ranger longbow?

what bothers me is, that mortar aa gets nerfed, even though i have to aim the attack, time it right to hit my target to get that damage, meanwhile, i can roll dual pistols get redic Burning/poison damage, with only having to get close. Thats what i dont like, burning damage is insane right now, yet the only attack that was nerfed was our mortar, which is easy to dodge, seriously as slow as mortar flies its easy to move out of the way or even take advantage of.

The grenade kit was nerfed even harder than this back in the day, and it’s still here, years later.

Just sayin’. This thread is nothing new.

It is a 100% projectile finisher…It isn’t meant to be doing damage.

See: ele staff earth auto-attack.

Use it for what it is meant for: stacking chills (ice), poison (poison), and removing condis (light). Also, poke damage from forever away.

If you want damage, use nades. They are super-duper strong now.