Mortar sentry is garbage now?

[Yossarian22]

Trying to do the daily challenge today of killing 75 enemies with mortar sentry, but it seems awful now with an incredible short range? When I used it earlier this month it'd shoot relatively far, but now it does nothing till bugs are 50ft away and can easily destroy the sentry since it shoots so slow for such a short distance. Was there an update that gave it bad range? Or is there an atmospheric modifier that affects its range drastically that im not aware of?

edit: i switched planets and the mortar performed far better. I don't know if it was an atmospheric modifier on the first planet I was on today, but easily finished the daily challenge in a single mission of killing 75 enemies with a mortar sentry when I switched to a different planet. The mortar shot far and well.

[Yossarian22]

it seemed the planet i was on initially today, had atmospheric interference that affected the mortar. I switched to a different planet, and the mortar was shooting as far as I'd normally expect, and did fine and got the 75 mortar kills for the challenge in that one mission alone.

[Silverlight]

Originally posted by Valhalla Awaits:

Originally posted by Silverlight:

If there was a nerf to mortars that would make sense

They were pretty much the best item in the game and the only reason we couldnt use them is because the playerbase has very low situational awareness.

No, they were only viable on defense missions and low difficulty missions. They were just terrible teamkilling weapons dropped by newbies in every other situation.

(This applies only to standard mortars, EMP mortars are viable everywhere.)

No mortars are pretty much better than anything else and always have been. Huge ammo reserve and they clean flatten breaches, chargers and even bile titans.
Bots don't even have a chance.

People just have no coordination and can't handle them.

[2D > 3D WEEB 4 LIFE]

Originally posted by Sasha Mason:

Is the minefield actually good?

I'd say that mines are better against bugs than bots in general but it's possible to set up defensive zones around choke points by placing them well.

[FkYoSht]

Imagine using any other sentry over the auto cannon or EMS mortar

[Sasha Mason]

Originally posted by 2D > 3D WEEB 4 LIFE:

Originally posted by Sasha Mason:

Is the minefield actually good?

I'd say that mines are better against bugs than bots in general but it's possible to set up defensive zones around choke points by placing them well.

Yeah figured.
Bug eradications dont seem nearly as chaotic, with bug breaches clearly showing spawns.
Bot drops are jus all over the place and the bots oftentimes dont really follow you much.
I might give it a try next time I'm on a bug mission again.

[Sasha Mason]

Originally posted by FkYoSht:

Imagine using any other sentry over the auto cannon or EMS mortar

*Me who regularly uses the mortar on bot missions and gatling on bug missions*

[Qua2ar]

Originally posted by 2D > 3D WEEB 4 LIFE:

Originally posted by Sasha Mason:

Is the minefield actually good?

I'd say that mines are better against bugs than bots in general but it's possible to set up defensive zones around choke points by placing them well.

They don't actually do alot of damage and they get triggered by ragdolling dead enemies.
1 mine does 150 damage
A single hit from the mortar sentry does 400.

[Key]

Originally posted by Sasha Mason:

Originally posted by Key:

Yup, we're finally at the point where "skill issue" has no meaning.

It does, though.
Any sentry is capable of teamkilling and you can bet that I have managed to also teamkill (or get teamkilled) with each and every type of sentry there is.

Be it autocannon sentries turning towards a direction I didn't think they would, gatling sentries non-stop firing and killing me while they are turning towards a new enemy, mortars because I hang around too close to the enemy, you get the point.

But it's almost *always* a skill issue.
Placed the turret in a bad spot, or with mortars, simply ended up getting way too close to the enemy. Adapt and you'll be fine.

Ah yes, never get close to any enemy because someone may have placed a mortar turret, and it may randomly shoot at you, brilliant. Good luck doing that on any mission above difficulty 7 when there are enemies that litterally jump at players.

Thank you for proving that anyone that opens with "skill issue" never adds anything meaningful to follow that up.

[Echo2Omega]

The mortar has a 125m range.

It will attack the closest target.
It is good against stationary targets.

[Sasha Mason]

Originally posted by Key:

Originally posted by Sasha Mason:

It does, though.
Any sentry is capable of teamkilling and you can bet that I have managed to also teamkill (or get teamkilled) with each and every type of sentry there is.

Be it autocannon sentries turning towards a direction I didn't think they would, gatling sentries non-stop firing and killing me while they are turning towards a new enemy, mortars because I hang around too close to the enemy, you get the point.

But it's almost *always* a skill issue.
Placed the turret in a bad spot, or with mortars, simply ended up getting way too close to the enemy. Adapt and you'll be fine.

Ah yes, never get close to any enemy because someone may have placed a mortar turret, and it may randomly shoot at you, brilliant. Good luck doing that on any mission above difficulty 7 when there are enemies that litterally jump at players.

Thank you for proving that anyone that opens with "skill issue" never adds anything meaningful to follow that up.

I stand by what I've said and will continue to bring mortars.

[Hand's Hermit Permit]

Mortar is incredibly good. Against bots park it in a low/covered spot like a small crater or divot, or even behind a large rock or building because it can shoot right over easily. Then bots wont find it. It will long-range abuse any bots you have. Highly effective against patrols, large enemy bases, and teammates.

It works best when you clear out the things that are nearby. Clear all single-target annoying stuff that's coming at you so the mortar can target enemies that are far and in more hardened positions.

I get mad actually that it's so good compared to other stratagems. Makes me wonder why I'd take something like gatling when it's so prone to just hyperfocus on the first thing with armor and just become a ricochet friendly-fire machine, and then just get killed because it's in LoS of bots with rockets anyway. With mortar it doesn't matter if the enemy is armored, it's still going to do some damage to it, and if you place it right it doesn't have to get blown up. Just make sure to clear out fabricators because sentries love to target those and get nothing done.

[Sasha Mason]

^ not to mention that the mortar has no issue taking out Hulks and Tanks as well.
There's like, just about nothing it cannot deal with and it can be hidden behind a wall or in a ditch, avoiding the issue of getting shot at by rockets which almost every other sentry has.

[Key]

Originally posted by Sasha Mason:

Originally posted by Key:

Ah yes, never get close to any enemy because someone may have placed a mortar turret, and it may randomly shoot at you, brilliant. Good luck doing that on any mission above difficulty 7 when there are enemies that litterally jump at players.

Thank you for proving that anyone that opens with "skill issue" never adds anything meaningful to follow that up.

I stand by what I've said and will continue to bring mortars.

I'm not saying don't bring mortars, I'm of the school of thought that this game is built around chaos, sh*t like the mortar make the game fun.

People just need embrace the fact we don't have control over everything in this game, by design. It's the reason enemies right behind you make no sound, it's the reason arc weapons hit players, the reason the 380HE exists, it's straight up an RNG cannon.

Chaos is fun. These are the Magicka devs for God's sake. I've seen Arrowhead play that game, they spent half the playthrough killing eachother with stupid spells.

[The22nd]

Originally posted by Sasha Mason:

Originally posted by Rincewind:

Anywhere else its just a TK machine and wasted stratagem slot.

Skill issue.
I almost always bring one on bot missions and it works out fine for me.

Skill issue? It teamkilling people is completely out of the users hands 🤣

[Aestrea]

The mortar needs line of sight to the target OR a line of sight of the player to the target. It doesn't JUST randomly fire at targets within it's 135m range. This is also the reason (stupid) players die to the mortar, they turn the corner and see the enemy and the turret locks on.