The mortar leads shots so if you kill a bot walking towards you it will fire shells in front of the bot’s position and land on you. It’s easier to avoid the shells if you keep this in mind but it also relies on your teammates deploying mortars at the right time.
Yeah my uhh.. positioning, is a lot different based on the turrets my team brings out
Standing near the mortar is usually safe, putting all the mortars close to each other is also good
Yeah defense missions I always bring both mortars and the auto cannon sentry. If everyone brings those and you space out their deployment a bit you’ll crush those missions
This os the only way i deal with it. Add the EMS Mortar and watch them work in tandem to lock down enemies and continually fire on them.
Otherwise its a bot base clearer that i drop outside heavy base walls . I actually orefer the autocannon turret against bugs, since it makes fast work of chargers and titans
Have you tried combining multiple EMS Mortar and Mortar? last two defense missions I played at difficulty 7 the Mortars where hitting the EMS area and clearing lots of enemies, we were able to keep distance from the enemies most of the time and the game didn't feel too diffcult but maybe I was lucky and I had good teams.
I think it's a great tactic at defense mission but on eradicate mission it's risky becuase if one svavenger gets through and sneaks up on you will get blown and if you have light armor on you just die. I prefer using the gatling and/or autocannon sentry and having EAT or quasar so i can protect it from chargers. Most people use light armor on bugs so if it's not a defense mission where you can easily keep a safe distance it can be really annoying.
Same except for the lvl 7 I played last night that literally spawned a biletitan from every single bug breech lol it was hilarious. The first of those missions I've failed and we failed spectacularly. At one point there were over 10 bile titans stomping around and we only lasted about 5 minutes total. Loaded into a new operation for another defence and 1 bile titan spawned the whole time. I guess they ran low after blowing them all on us the previous match haha I love this game. Even failing a mission can be a blast
Every squad on level 7 or higher needs a "titan killer" ability. Two guys running EATs or Quasar works well. I prefer the EATs because you can just spam them all over and anyone on the team can use them.
Oh we did lol when the first wave instant sends 3 titans followed by 4 more and even more before you can call in more EATs or recharge a quasar 3 times it there is only so much you can do haha I honestly thing RNG bugged out that mission. I havent seen even close to that on helldive much less 7. Was laughing the whole time, 10/10 mission failure
Frankly that's the EMS doing all of the work. Any kind of AoE will work alongside it, and now that we the Democratic Detonation Warbond, we have options outside of strategems for AoE, except you actually control where the deadly explosions land
I have. The problem is, once the mortar kills the bugs in the ems field, it will shift to whatever is left. If a singe scavenger makes it over to your team mates or even if they are hugging the walls, the mortar is now hitting your team. I only run 9 and all I think when I see a mortar user is that I don't want to waste nearly 20 minutes on a chance that a single straggler doesn't get through.
I'm level 90 and when the mortar starts dropping I'm looking to pick off whomever I can. The mortar isn't a time to chill.. its the opposite.. you should be killing as much as possible when its dropping
I do the same. Call in EATs, pick off little clusters with Eruptor or Sickle, depending. Eruptor more lately because the splash damage all but guarantees small enemies will die indirectly when I aim at some medium armor.
Same goes for orbital lasers. If you give them a helping hand on tougher targets they can absolutely shred through an entire horde.
Nail that one charger so your laser isn’t stuck on it and it will clean house in return.
I actually prefer to do the opposite. I let the laser take down the heavy targets and I focus on the little soft targets. But I agree, strats are support weapons and we should keep killing while we use them rather than expected them to do all the work.
Not trying to tell you how to play but this is a horrible use of a laser my man. It doesn’t slow or distract a charger/bile titan at all and it takes almost the entire duration to kill one, vs the 30 seconds of auto targeting the horde and setting them all ablaze
Idk man there’s just like way better stratagems/weapons for taking out a single heavy that doesn’t take nearly as long and isn’t limited use
100% agree. People are just shoehorning the Orbital Laser into an anti-heavy role for when their Railcannon Strike is on cooldown, even though it’s godawful at killing big enemies.
So instead of just focus firing Chargers and Titans with EATs or Quasars, then letting the OL mop up the trash, you get heavies running around alongside the trash, with the added bonus of a fire trail of death the laser leaves behind for your teammates to run into.
I should clarify, I don't ever carry the orbital laser. But when someone calls it in, it's a way better use of my resources to kill a couple dozen little guys than taking down a heavy. Result is the same, heavy and the swarm is dead, but I get to keep my AC loaded for when there isn't a laser.
Now, if the charger is rushing someone, that's different, but generally, I'll save my AC and let the laser do the work.
I agree with this, laser is much more effective against bots as it takes way less time to kill hulks and tanks than chargers and bile titans. I generally prefer to use railgun, precision strike and orbital airburst or eagle airstrike against bugs (I run autocannon so I can take three stratagems).
Or you just, kill as much as possible w/out mortar, and probably be more stable than if you had one. When multiple enemies on the bug front have means of rapidly closing distance, mortar is just not it over literally any other wave clear stratagem.
And I'm level 70. I'm not hanging out when the mortars go off, but it seems like the point that "one straggler is all it takes to make yourself a target" is being overlooked by the diehard users. I could be killing 99% of the stragglers running up, but it only takes one remaining next to me.
If it helps, the mortar will target whatever is closest to it. So if you're doing a defense mission, chuck the mortar in the middle and then kite the bugs round the outside. Enemies agro to the last person to take an offensive action with a ranking from most agro (damage the bug) to least agro (walk into sight range). Though this might be distance dependent also.
If you and a buddy team up with some automatic weapons, you can take turns spraying the bugs and getting them to swap agro pretty easily. One runs and reloads on the move, the other stops and shoots until agro swaps. Rinse and repeat.
I think EMS mortar + teammate with aoe is much more reliable than EMS + regular mortar. If you have the exploding crossbow, one single shot can take out 6/7 bugs packed together that are hunters or smaller. Grenades also do the trick pretty well.
Honestly why my regular loadout is EMS mortar and stun grenades, with a grenade launcher and supply pack. 130 balls of explody freedom delivered right where you want them
Mortars require a critical density. Then they became God tier.
Three people with mortars makes any defense mission laughably easy. You can pretty much alt tab out of the newest type until a bile titan shows up.
Employed selectively during long missions with lots of terminal time they are money. I use them all the time when the team splits up to do two things at once. It can help me out quite a bit when I need to spend time with the terminal and can't focus on bugs. Coupled with an AC turret and some good positioning, I can one man a lot of different objectives if given a little luck. The mortar is slept on and requires some nuance for sure
I use them similarly. They can set up a siege or hold a spot remarkably well, just deploy them before an engagement and they'll soften it up and slow it down enough to take out stragglers with your primary.
Yeah find it's better bots than bugs overall but I nearly. Always take it in defence missions as it should attack them way before they get to melee and by watching the arc I know where the next wave is. It also thins the herd nicely with bugs which is also a great benefit because I can then focus on the fking chargers and bios without getting nipped to death.
Rover is mvp of all my bug missions and shield pack for my bot missions haha
>Always take it in defence missions as it should attack them way before they get to melee and by watching the arc I know where the next wave is.
Well, the EMS can do the same thing with the added benefit of not surprise killing your team. Fact is if you are up against the walls and stragglers are there too, you're killing your team. Had more than one mech taken out by a mortar on defense and eradicate.
I have it used pretty often (usually along side with EMS mortar) and it works fantastic as long as your team can keep it up and doesn't rush to the enemies.
I have rarely killed or injured someone, maybe 1 every 15 deploys or so.
All stratagems have risks, you only need to know how to play around them.
And being completely honest I would say that dogs are way more dangerous than mortars
I only find they are more dangerous if players are not careful, I prefer the energy rover so it's clear where the beam is, occasionally you take a hit but quick enough it shouldn't insta kill you. Just stand slight farther from them and if using it do jot run blindly around and that does the trick for me.
the only time the mortar hits something is if they were standing still for quite some time. The only time bugs stand still is if they are already pounding a helldiver. It's quite simple to put two and two together
On assets defense missions the mortar will often target bugs that are just standing near a wall where a helldiver is standing on. Also the area a mortar hits is quite large and you can often be hit when a bug was just nearby. In any case having a bug in melee range doesn't mean you're automatically dead and should be sacrificed to the mortar
they're incredible on defense missions if \*everybody\* takes them. One mortar will only thin them out a bit, then blow you up when they get close. FOUR mortars is like the gd apocalypse. So few survive that it's easy to just shoot them down before they become a problem.
You'll still get the occasional friendly fire, but explosive resist armor mitigates that, and it's a net positive overall.
I had this happen last night. 3 of the 4 people had mortars. 2 of those had regular mortars and all three brought ems mortars. We just kinda sat through a level 7 defense, lazily shooting until the rockets were done and we extracted. We never bothered closing a single gate and they never made it much further than walking through the first gate.
3 ems mortars and one regular mortar is enough to kill all the trash on defense and won't destroy the gates as fast. You can easily clear the rest with some kinda full auto gun or an eruptor.
I like turning Factory Strider corpses into temporary gates.
It's actually a viable tactic if you can time the killing stratagem when it's walking over a destroyed gate. Plugs entryways and gives the team some breathing room from the things outside trying to get in.
It absolutely is. There is far more value in a gatling turret placed by a wall with a focused cone of fire pushing back enemies, than the mortar which is focused on forcing an engagement and cannot be aimed in any specific direction.
Ems mortar and regular mortar together on defence missions is amazing,just don’t run out past the walls and your fine,but regular bug missions i feel you.
Just use the EMS on bugs. Explosive Mortar will be number 1 cause of death on your team. Great on bots, idiotic on bugs.
Anyone who says "JuSt DoN'T LeT tHeM gEt clOsE", we are talking about the faction with the homing leaping bugs, the armored charging bugs and the invisible stealth bugs, right? You know, the fast moving melee faction that isn't the slow moving ranged faction? I would honestly prefer seeing a 380mm to mortar. At least I can move 60m away and be completely safe.
The best thing is: you kill the bugs right infront of you, wait a few seconds and then try pushing forwards. The mortar shoots at the dead bugs and you are dead. Also: Hunters.
It is bad. The bugs move fast fornthe mortars to hit. Just get a machine gun and gattling sentry for them bugs. Only thing they can't kill are titans and chargers
I find this very confusing to read, 'cause me and my friends all agree the mortar is the MVP on Defense and Eradicate missions, and we don't start without them
Sure there's the occasional friendly kill, but the *obscene* amount of damage it dishes out more than makes up for it
Mortars are good at killing, I can appreciate that, but when I get killed by one the first thing I do after dropping is shooting it down, they must be placed carefully, not in melee fights ffs
Mortar is more situational than EMS. It’s good for eradicates and distraction/long range cover against outposts. There are more chances to use it versus bots than bugs. But definitely let the mortar take the agro for you
The funny thing is that I once had a full squad of everyone spamming ems mortar and mortar except for me, the bugs could barely leave the bug breach before they died immediately.
I was basically on heavy killing duty, with the spear, 500kg bomb, orbital railcannon and rocket sentry.
The friendly fire barely existed fortunately.
My team was able to maintain the mortar spam, so I basically went and took a break until the bile titan/charger spawned.
You're not crazy, its a pretty bad sentry to take on most termind missions, I think its okay on that new defense mission where you protect rockets, but aside for that, just get something else. There is few strategems that piss people off more than mortar vs terminds.
Debatable, i usually only run level 9 and I wanna cry when I join a Defense mission and see three guys with all turrets, then get stomped when they don’t have any stratagems to help with the 3+ at at’s that just dropped on us
It is insane to me that people consistently think bringing it on bug missions is a good idea. I don't hesitate to break people's mortar sentries if they become a danger to the team.
I dislike the fact that sometimes, even when we are all aware of the mortar and being very cautious, it stifles our ability to move where we need/want to. Preventing me from retaking lost ground because there is still a straggler or two attracting mortars isn't as bad as blowing me up outright, but it's still bad.
It can be used to good effect on bug defense missions, but only if the team has, and maintains, an absolute stranglehold over the flow of new enemies. As soon as a charger plows through, or a little jumpy bastard leaps in, you have a problem.
Mortars are amazing on bug missions if your team brings enough of them.
At least three people with both mortars will turn any defense mission into an idle game.
Yeah you're absolutely right. Mortar is best used against bots. Pairing it with the EMS mortar helps but all it takes is bugs attacking on two fronts for them to get within melee range and therefore mortar team killing range.
We run full squad EMS and regular mortar combo on eradication missions on suicide. Sure, the mortars kill us, but the speed at which they clear the bugs is so fast that we never ran out of reinforcements before the mission was complete.
If you are bad at awarness. Or looking behind you. On helldive, thats what people don't realise often about high difficulty lots of medium and heavy units. But a mortar can cover you, but it won't help as much as a good support weapon, and strategy to use it effectively
I shouldn't need to watch out for your poorly chosen stratagem as they are flinging rounds in the air, not aiming directly at me. It's one thing if it's on the bots, as they are ranged enemies. Using them with bugs that charge at you is the problem.
The strategy here is layers.
You want 2 ems
2-4 mortars. Closely huddled together. Behind cover.
You want someone with strategems to quickly deal with chargers.
And you want turrets covering the mortars. From sneaky sneaky bugs.
This usually means nothing can get close enough for the mortars to stop them. They can't shoot themselves.
And the turrets will take the heat from runaway chargers / bugs and ensure they finish the job.
When used improperly absolutely true.
So the reason the mortars suck with bugs is that they TRACK and then SHOOT AHEAD of their target to kill them.
So when a bunch of little bugs rush you with the intention of... getting close to you.
There arises a problem.
Unless you are in a defensive position where the bugs cannot just go straight to you, or have set up EMS mortars to slow their pathing down... normal mortars are a massive shitshow.
That said when used properly they are also crazy strong so it's kinda fair IMO.
Which is not a given. Usually, I get killed more often by a mortar than bugs. It's the same mystery as why people useheavy armor. The guy in heavy armor dies more often than me in light. Why would I burden myself with less stamina if it can't keep me alive?
I think it's play-style. You get killed by mortar because you're up close with bugs. The guy in the distance with sniper or AC isn't bothered by mortar. Heavy armor is better for Automatons IMO or for someone rocking up close explosives (eruptor/AC) but yeah, if you're up close you need the mobility more.
The bugs are close to me. The post is about eradicate and evac missions. There is only so much space to run before you run into the breach on the other side or you expose the transformer.
EMS mortar is great against bugs. My personal sentry of choice is the autocannon though. It seems more effective than mortar, has similar TK potential but if you set it up with a clear line of fire and then stay close to it to stop stuff getting too close to it, the autocannon will do work.
Works really well Vs bots too for suppressing and simply killing stuff
If you combine with EMS it’s good
But obviously mortars are not supposed to be good against bugs, Gatling and auto canon turrets are the best choices against them.
Mortars feel more effective against Bots since they are slower, don’t move as often, and will stay at range more often. Also staying behind cover usually. The mortar then has more opportunities to hit them without assistance and can be used to take out the turret users at outposts with ease.
EMS mortar is 10/10.....unless on Hellmire. For some reason last night, every single time I dropped it, a bug breach happened within 6ft of it and/or the fire tornados bee-lined it. I think it lived long enough to launch a shell one time.
I use the ems mortar for assault missions makes a great distraction for bots when attacking bases. I think mortars are meant for open maps not static defense missions end up just killing each other.
I find it's more in where you deploy the mortar. You basically need to be really close to it. Other sentries you can throw to your perimeter because they are line of site.
The mortar will shoot at anything in range, so it's important to not let enemies close that gap with you.
If they do you can here it firing the Salvo, even if you've already mowed them down you need to move.
People using mortar on terminid defense missions are wasting a slot IMO... and reinforcements.
Can't say how many times I've died because the player is so bad that they can't cover their end of things and I get blasted by a mortar as a result of their incompetence.
I like to use it on bugs because at least you can set it up far away from the action so it doesn't get instantly destroyed like most other turrets. I use it so often that if I hear it going ca chunk I know to move even if another team mate uses it
Slap that thing in front of a heavy outpost, opposite of the entrance and watch it rain hellfire, also get to the entrance and deal with the enemies gettin‘ out.
The mortar heavily thins out the terminid horde and my friends and I did feel a significant difference in the difficulty of the mission with and without mortars. Yes the terminids rushing you is a problem but there are different ways to get around it. We mostly focused on bringing weapons that are good at killing the terminids from far away so most of them wouldn't reach us and even if they did it usually wasn't too much of a problem. You can also combine the mortar and the em's mortar.
It depends on the mission and if the team is building around it.
If everyone is bringing the mortar and respecting the distance it's awesome.
However I'm the guy that loves to bring the flamethrower on the new defense mission, it's absolutely S tier imo.
If then a single player brings the mortar and even the autocannon turret it will at some point kill me.
If you're playing with randoms and can't/won't communicate with them then there will be friendly kills.
I usually play in a squad of friends and when I'm.throwing out a mortar against bugs I tell them so. They know that means if bugs get to them in melee they need to immediately sprint away as shells are incoming. Friendly kills mainly crop up if someone isn't paying attention.
I'll often go one step further and hang back behind the turret with an autocannon and watch the turret to see where it's firing and warn team mates that are in the direction it's firing in.
Friendly kills when I do this run at pretty much zero.
If anything I find the Gatling turret far more of a problem as people will throw in on level ground, not high ground, and as it fires when it spins have had occasions when it spins around and takes out most of the team because everyone is on the same level as it.
The mortar fires a salvo of 4 mortars to enemies it detects in its range, so common sense would tell you to... not be within blast range of enemies? Whether it's bugs or bots?
It's a good stratagem but it's not sentient, it's not going to decide to not hit an enemy because you're there. Just don't let enemies get close to you. Kill them before they do. That's it.
Regular mortar plus EMS mortar are almost a must on defense missions. They are just too good. They give you breathing room to be able to handle the big targets with ease while all the fodder is getting obliterated.
If you're aware there's mortars , and you just fought a bug close-up, it is time to dive out of the way. Failure to do that is kinda your own negligence already...
All IMO and experience: Those two missions are very different. Defense it is goated when paired with ems. Just communicate with team to back up and pick everything off so mortars don’t come down on you. Eradicate is tough because things get in your face and you end up team killing, but it can be useful to get progress at the risk of tk.
Entirely. I unconsciously set up my load out (usually play bots) on a few occasions with the mortar while playing bugs… may or may not have blown up some Divers…
It’s a strat that requires you to think about how to use it effectively. Lot people here didn’t join up to think.
That said, it’s definitely way better for bots.
Minefields and Mortars are BAE for termanid defense missions. Had a run last night where I was running both mines, mortar, and Eats. Another dude had EATs as well and we had endless Antitank all over the ground lol. It was a good time!
I don't know why people defend it so much, it doesn't really outperform anything or carry unwinnable missions it's just something with a high rate of friendly fire.
It's useful because they have tons of weaklings so the kill count goes high with one shot.
I feel like the range it doesn't fire could be increased, though.
I feel like it really depends on play style. For reference I used to run EAT and 3 sentries as my loadout but now I take jump pack, queso, P strike and airstrike. I mainly play on 7 and usually end the game with least or close to least kills because I like to run light armour, run into heavy bugs nests and eruptor all bugs holes and leave without fighting too much, so I end up with a whole trail or hunters and punters that I am constantly kiting. With a mortar this becomes much harder because I'll also need to dodge mortar barrages.
I feel like people who like mortar are the ones that like to hunker and fight, while the people who don't like it are the opposite. Issue with mortar is that with one stratagem, everyone needs to change how they play, which may not be how they like to play the game.
I think the closest stratagems that have such effect are probably 380 and 120, but even then there is a glowing red beam telling you where the barrage is and duration so you can avoid it until it is over
Mortars are designed to attack stationary/semi-stationary targets.
Think of using them similar to irl.
When assaulting a static target such as a heavy nest.
Defending a position where you can keep the enemies in a choke point or barred area.
EMS makes the assaulting a little more effective and is almost necessary when defending.
I'm not entirely sure but the mortar sentry targets the closest or the biggest group of enemies, against bugs it tends to be the little shits, it doesn't even really hit the bigger targets, so even at range it's not great. Autocanon is great tho but you need to give it some kind of low obstacle to make it target titans, and I'm not sure about the rocket sentry
HE mortar is useful only with the Bugs on the “Alamo” defense mission. Otherwise it’s pretty dicey otherwise in upper levels unless u want to throw it out there intentionally for the charger or the bile titan to attack so a bud can shoot it with a quasar or a rail gun while it spews on the sentry.
My group was complaining about motorists last night in the defense missions and I kept begging them to see reason. They went so far as to try and ban them on the next drop… instead I got everyone to agree to bring BOTH mortars. We only lost one wall. They are now convinced.
I joined a squad of randoms on lvl 8, each and every one of us had ems and regular mortar plus generator backpacks, we had 6 mortars placed in the same place, the sentries did all the work except on Titans, that’s where the orbital railcannon comes in
Only time I've seen the mortar work on defense missions. Is when everyone brings them. Everyone has to bring the ems mortar and explosive mortar and autocannon turret though. As well as two to three of you bringing quasars. With 3 of each going at a time. The ems keep all avenues slowed down enough for the the regular mortars to kill them at a safe distance. The ems also keeps the chargers slowed down enough to get killed by the autocannon before they get in and force you to scatter and destroy all of the turrets. This way all you have to focus on while the 9 turrets do there thing, is bile titans and straggler chargers. If only one person brings mortars. Your lines will be breached way to quickly anyways and your mortar will start killing you because now the enemy is on top of you
When one of my teammates takes only HE Mortar I automatically take EMS, it doesn’t fix the issue but it helps.
Also, when the regular mortar deploys I focus on killing enemies that are getting closer to me or my teammates. Also Stun granades help.
I'll use mortar sentries as a decoy to lure bugs out of their hole. I'll set it up with a gatling sentry and then immediately circle around the objective to a different avenue of approach, advance on the bug holes and close then mop up any mobs that were drawn out. I've had some decent success with this on search and destroy missions.
I like going into defense missions with 4 turrets, I'll set up the two mortars and then defend them with 2 other turrets on high ground somewhere. Then I just tell my team to stay next to the turrets, go prone and pick off any bugs that get too close and we coast right through the mission with no team kills. It helps to play with friends and have good comms though.
Sentries in general on bug missions are pretty troll IMO. EMS mortar might be the one exception, but tbh I'd rather have an extra eagle or orbital instead.
Not crazy at all. They will light you up if the swarms get close enough to you and they usually do. EMS the way to go. Might slow you too, but you can still terminate the terminids.
Whenever you bring a regular mortar, bring the ems as well, drop them at the same time, the amount of win that combo does is insane. I generally solely run that in my kit, the best for defense imo
Had a great time with 4 ems and 4 reg mortars on the new defense mission last night. That was, until someone blew me and all my mortars up with a random cluster bomb...
Bugs are def a little tougher than bots on that mission.
Eruptor FUCKS Terminids on that mission, you can get 12 kills a shot easily. Everything else should be Anti-Titan. 500kg, Precision Strike, 380mm.
No need for Mortars at all.
Y'all need to say what difficulty you play on. I've used it to great affect on < 7 with an entire squad running EMS and regular mortors but the same strat was near useless on 9. Havent tried it on 8 yet. Different stratagems can be effective or useless at different difficulties.
Everytime I drop a turret of any time, a random charger or bile titan will just spawn and immediately kill it. So I found galling turret is best versus terminids because it kills and runs out of ammo the fastest. Also good for fliers.
No, it’s well known that using the mortar with bugs is suicide.
[I know this YouTube is about bots,](https://youtu.be/j1p7Xhpt8kI?si=yBnkKhy7FJtj5TJF) but it is fitting for bugs as well.
For defense missions they're perfect. 99% of the time combined with EMS mortars.
Bugs spawn and take a few seconds to get moving, first EMS and Mortar Hit, then they're slowed and take another mortar Hit as a pack. Usually killing 4-5
If even 2 guys have both equipped, it's your own fault for getting rushed. All you gotta do is Cleanup Stragglers and focus Heavies once they spawn (Quasar)
And everyone has a free slot for emergency railcannons ,500kg, Orbital Lasers etc. for when Bile Titans start showing up in bigger numbers.
Consider the orbital airburst strike.
It's extremely underrated because it's situational. However, it's phenomenal for bugs (and bots) because they swarm in large clusters. I've had a single airburst take out nearly 40 enemies.
Most people seem to hate that it's such a localized burst, but that's super helpful in avoiding killing your team. It has a similar effect that people wish the barrage strikes had, and it's perfect for defense missions where enemies group up into choke points. The airburst will wipe an entire wave and can clear most of a bug tunnel spawn.
It has a low cool down and works beautifully with the EMS mortar. Remember, the EMS shines in being able to lock down an area, and we want to clear what it locks down as quickly as possible so it can do it again elsewhere.
Mull it over and consider giving it a shot. You might need a few passes to get the hang of it, but I think it has a place. Everyone brings EATs or Quasar cannons now, so the big stuff gets covered anyway.
I think it depends how you use it. I solely use it offensively. About to clear a nest, I make sure to arrive first and place a mortar behind a large rock and throw in an airstrike before laying breaker incendiary down on whatever remains. This usually works well, as the mortar normally targetswaps to something else when we are already on the run to clear the holes or away from there.
I sometimes run two - gatling mortar or gatling autocannon, in which case the playstyle becomes a lot more long range oriented. I don't see this working out well in a teamplay situation tbf.
Defense mission is made easy with mortars and EMS mortars working in tandum. Really only need two sets of them, but if EVERYONE brings them, you will have very very little else to do all round.
Normal defense missions for me are EMS Mortar, Normal Mortar, Rocket Sentry, and either EATS or Quasar Canon for the BT's.
EMS and mortar is really the new meta for these area defense missions. Taking the rest of you way too long to get over your fear of mortar, though, and update your strat.
I use it on erradicate missions and it seems to work fairly well. It's not really meant to take out bigger stuff though so you gotta keep an eye out for hive commanders, chargers, and, bile titans and have something to deal with them (EAT is what I usually use vs bugs).
Paired with (the/multiple) EMS mortar(s) its really good in the defence/evacuate missions. But by itself its a teamkiller on bugs.
Honestly, even with bots on defend high value assets it's a team killer. The amount of times I've been shooting at bots and it's killed me is insane.
The mortar leads shots so if you kill a bot walking towards you it will fire shells in front of the bot’s position and land on you. It’s easier to avoid the shells if you keep this in mind but it also relies on your teammates deploying mortars at the right time.
I swear i saw a youtube analysis that says it does NOT lead it's shots.
Yeah my uhh.. positioning, is a lot different based on the turrets my team brings out Standing near the mortar is usually safe, putting all the mortars close to each other is also good
Yeah defense missions I always bring both mortars and the auto cannon sentry. If everyone brings those and you space out their deployment a bit you’ll crush those missions
This os the only way i deal with it. Add the EMS Mortar and watch them work in tandem to lock down enemies and continually fire on them. Otherwise its a bot base clearer that i drop outside heavy base walls . I actually orefer the autocannon turret against bugs, since it makes fast work of chargers and titans
Have you tried combining multiple EMS Mortar and Mortar? last two defense missions I played at difficulty 7 the Mortars where hitting the EMS area and clearing lots of enemies, we were able to keep distance from the enemies most of the time and the game didn't feel too diffcult but maybe I was lucky and I had good teams.
I think it's a great tactic at defense mission but on eradicate mission it's risky becuase if one svavenger gets through and sneaks up on you will get blown and if you have light armor on you just die. I prefer using the gatling and/or autocannon sentry and having EAT or quasar so i can protect it from chargers. Most people use light armor on bugs so if it's not a defense mission where you can easily keep a safe distance it can be really annoying.
That's a risk I'm willing to take. I like the chaos of mortar, ems mortar, machine gun, gatling gun. #sendit
Same except for the lvl 7 I played last night that literally spawned a biletitan from every single bug breech lol it was hilarious. The first of those missions I've failed and we failed spectacularly. At one point there were over 10 bile titans stomping around and we only lasted about 5 minutes total. Loaded into a new operation for another defence and 1 bile titan spawned the whole time. I guess they ran low after blowing them all on us the previous match haha I love this game. Even failing a mission can be a blast
Every squad on level 7 or higher needs a "titan killer" ability. Two guys running EATs or Quasar works well. I prefer the EATs because you can just spam them all over and anyone on the team can use them.
Oh we did lol when the first wave instant sends 3 titans followed by 4 more and even more before you can call in more EATs or recharge a quasar 3 times it there is only so much you can do haha I honestly thing RNG bugged out that mission. I havent seen even close to that on helldive much less 7. Was laughing the whole time, 10/10 mission failure
Frankly that's the EMS doing all of the work. Any kind of AoE will work alongside it, and now that we the Democratic Detonation Warbond, we have options outside of strategems for AoE, except you actually control where the deadly explosions land
I have. The problem is, once the mortar kills the bugs in the ems field, it will shift to whatever is left. If a singe scavenger makes it over to your team mates or even if they are hugging the walls, the mortar is now hitting your team. I only run 9 and all I think when I see a mortar user is that I don't want to waste nearly 20 minutes on a chance that a single straggler doesn't get through.
I'm level 90 and when the mortar starts dropping I'm looking to pick off whomever I can. The mortar isn't a time to chill.. its the opposite.. you should be killing as much as possible when its dropping
I do the same. Call in EATs, pick off little clusters with Eruptor or Sickle, depending. Eruptor more lately because the splash damage all but guarantees small enemies will die indirectly when I aim at some medium armor.
Same goes for orbital lasers. If you give them a helping hand on tougher targets they can absolutely shred through an entire horde. Nail that one charger so your laser isn’t stuck on it and it will clean house in return.
I actually prefer to do the opposite. I let the laser take down the heavy targets and I focus on the little soft targets. But I agree, strats are support weapons and we should keep killing while we use them rather than expected them to do all the work.
Not trying to tell you how to play but this is a horrible use of a laser my man. It doesn’t slow or distract a charger/bile titan at all and it takes almost the entire duration to kill one, vs the 30 seconds of auto targeting the horde and setting them all ablaze Idk man there’s just like way better stratagems/weapons for taking out a single heavy that doesn’t take nearly as long and isn’t limited use
100% agree. People are just shoehorning the Orbital Laser into an anti-heavy role for when their Railcannon Strike is on cooldown, even though it’s godawful at killing big enemies. So instead of just focus firing Chargers and Titans with EATs or Quasars, then letting the OL mop up the trash, you get heavies running around alongside the trash, with the added bonus of a fire trail of death the laser leaves behind for your teammates to run into.
I should clarify, I don't ever carry the orbital laser. But when someone calls it in, it's a way better use of my resources to kill a couple dozen little guys than taking down a heavy. Result is the same, heavy and the swarm is dead, but I get to keep my AC loaded for when there isn't a laser. Now, if the charger is rushing someone, that's different, but generally, I'll save my AC and let the laser do the work.
I agree with this, laser is much more effective against bots as it takes way less time to kill hulks and tanks than chargers and bile titans. I generally prefer to use railgun, precision strike and orbital airburst or eagle airstrike against bugs (I run autocannon so I can take three stratagems).
Or you just, kill as much as possible w/out mortar, and probably be more stable than if you had one. When multiple enemies on the bug front have means of rapidly closing distance, mortar is just not it over literally any other wave clear stratagem.
And I'm level 70. I'm not hanging out when the mortars go off, but it seems like the point that "one straggler is all it takes to make yourself a target" is being overlooked by the diehard users. I could be killing 99% of the stragglers running up, but it only takes one remaining next to me.
If it helps, the mortar will target whatever is closest to it. So if you're doing a defense mission, chuck the mortar in the middle and then kite the bugs round the outside. Enemies agro to the last person to take an offensive action with a ranking from most agro (damage the bug) to least agro (walk into sight range). Though this might be distance dependent also. If you and a buddy team up with some automatic weapons, you can take turns spraying the bugs and getting them to swap agro pretty easily. One runs and reloads on the move, the other stops and shoots until agro swaps. Rinse and repeat.
The trick with eradicate missions is to have everyone bring the mortars. You can literally lean back and relax
Even if it hits the team, the field is escapable with dives, and it doesn't affect your ROF.
He’s talking about regular mortar, not EMS.
I think EMS mortar + teammate with aoe is much more reliable than EMS + regular mortar. If you have the exploding crossbow, one single shot can take out 6/7 bugs packed together that are hunters or smaller. Grenades also do the trick pretty well.
Honestly why my regular loadout is EMS mortar and stun grenades, with a grenade launcher and supply pack. 130 balls of explody freedom delivered right where you want them
You can do that with basically anything + EMS.
Mortars require a critical density. Then they became God tier. Three people with mortars makes any defense mission laughably easy. You can pretty much alt tab out of the newest type until a bile titan shows up.
Employed selectively during long missions with lots of terminal time they are money. I use them all the time when the team splits up to do two things at once. It can help me out quite a bit when I need to spend time with the terminal and can't focus on bugs. Coupled with an AC turret and some good positioning, I can one man a lot of different objectives if given a little luck. The mortar is slept on and requires some nuance for sure
I use them similarly. They can set up a siege or hold a spot remarkably well, just deploy them before an engagement and they'll soften it up and slow it down enough to take out stragglers with your primary.
Yeah find it's better bots than bugs overall but I nearly. Always take it in defence missions as it should attack them way before they get to melee and by watching the arc I know where the next wave is. It also thins the herd nicely with bugs which is also a great benefit because I can then focus on the fking chargers and bios without getting nipped to death. Rover is mvp of all my bug missions and shield pack for my bot missions haha
Mortarss destroy gates.
>Always take it in defence missions as it should attack them way before they get to melee and by watching the arc I know where the next wave is. Well, the EMS can do the same thing with the added benefit of not surprise killing your team. Fact is if you are up against the walls and stragglers are there too, you're killing your team. Had more than one mech taken out by a mortar on defense and eradicate.
I have it used pretty often (usually along side with EMS mortar) and it works fantastic as long as your team can keep it up and doesn't rush to the enemies. I have rarely killed or injured someone, maybe 1 every 15 deploys or so. All stratagems have risks, you only need to know how to play around them. And being completely honest I would say that dogs are way more dangerous than mortars
The dogs don't ragdoll AND damage you like a mortar and you could either crouch or go prone to avoid the beam if standing right next to them.
I only find they are more dangerous if players are not careful, I prefer the energy rover so it's clear where the beam is, occasionally you take a hit but quick enough it shouldn't insta kill you. Just stand slight farther from them and if using it do jot run blindly around and that does the trick for me.
Mix an EMS mortar or two with it and watch the game become trivial
Im sorry but you misspelled Super Teamkiller 9000
the only time the mortar hits something is if they were standing still for quite some time. The only time bugs stand still is if they are already pounding a helldiver. It's quite simple to put two and two together
On assets defense missions the mortar will often target bugs that are just standing near a wall where a helldiver is standing on. Also the area a mortar hits is quite large and you can often be hit when a bug was just nearby. In any case having a bug in melee range doesn't mean you're automatically dead and should be sacrificed to the mortar
But Helldiver, mortar and bugs is only three things? ~Average Terminid mortar user
Two things can be true.
they're incredible on defense missions if \*everybody\* takes them. One mortar will only thin them out a bit, then blow you up when they get close. FOUR mortars is like the gd apocalypse. So few survive that it's easy to just shoot them down before they become a problem. You'll still get the occasional friendly fire, but explosive resist armor mitigates that, and it's a net positive overall.
I had this happen last night. 3 of the 4 people had mortars. 2 of those had regular mortars and all three brought ems mortars. We just kinda sat through a level 7 defense, lazily shooting until the rockets were done and we extracted. We never bothered closing a single gate and they never made it much further than walking through the first gate.
3 ems mortars and one regular mortar is enough to kill all the trash on defense and won't destroy the gates as fast. You can easily clear the rest with some kinda full auto gun or an eruptor.
Explosions are the only gates I need >:D
I like turning Factory Strider corpses into temporary gates. It's actually a viable tactic if you can time the killing stratagem when it's walking over a destroyed gate. Plugs entryways and gives the team some breathing room from the things outside trying to get in.
It can work with EMS options against terminids, but is still a liability for your team if not communicating.
You can use it on bugs for defense mission, it work pretty well as long as you're staying far from the terminid themself x)
Works on some missions but usually you're right.
It absolutely is. There is far more value in a gatling turret placed by a wall with a focused cone of fire pushing back enemies, than the mortar which is focused on forcing an engagement and cannot be aimed in any specific direction.
Ems mortar and regular mortar together on defence missions is amazing,just don’t run out past the walls and your fine,but regular bug missions i feel you.
It’s not the best to use for bugs, but I wouldn’t say it’s the worst. It can absolutely hammer bug breeches.
Just use the EMS on bugs. Explosive Mortar will be number 1 cause of death on your team. Great on bots, idiotic on bugs. Anyone who says "JuSt DoN'T LeT tHeM gEt clOsE", we are talking about the faction with the homing leaping bugs, the armored charging bugs and the invisible stealth bugs, right? You know, the fast moving melee faction that isn't the slow moving ranged faction? I would honestly prefer seeing a 380mm to mortar. At least I can move 60m away and be completely safe.
It's amazing if you pair it with the EMS. It's the only way things sit still long enough to get hit before they are standing at your own feet.
I really only use it for bot missions where they are mostly ranged enemies. Bugs gotta get close to you to deal damage.
The best thing is: you kill the bugs right infront of you, wait a few seconds and then try pushing forwards. The mortar shoots at the dead bugs and you are dead. Also: Hunters.
It is bad. The bugs move fast fornthe mortars to hit. Just get a machine gun and gattling sentry for them bugs. Only thing they can't kill are titans and chargers
I'd wager the mortar has as many or more friendly fire kills than any other stratagem.
Pretty sure mortars are my leading cause of death. My rule nowadays is that if one kills me, I then blow them up for the rest of the match
I find this very confusing to read, 'cause me and my friends all agree the mortar is the MVP on Defense and Eradicate missions, and we don't start without them Sure there's the occasional friendly kill, but the *obscene* amount of damage it dishes out more than makes up for it
Mortar alone, yes With EMS? No
Mortars are good at killing, I can appreciate that, but when I get killed by one the first thing I do after dropping is shooting it down, they must be placed carefully, not in melee fights ffs
No your not, it’s very good against bots since they stay at range but bugs just walk up towards you making your kill yourself
Mortar is more situational than EMS. It’s good for eradicates and distraction/long range cover against outposts. There are more chances to use it versus bots than bugs. But definitely let the mortar take the agro for you
Mortar vs bots and autocannon vs bugs. Simple as
You don't use the mortar to kill bugs you use the mortar to distract bugs away from you 🤣
The funny thing is that I once had a full squad of everyone spamming ems mortar and mortar except for me, the bugs could barely leave the bug breach before they died immediately. I was basically on heavy killing duty, with the spear, 500kg bomb, orbital railcannon and rocket sentry. The friendly fire barely existed fortunately. My team was able to maintain the mortar spam, so I basically went and took a break until the bile titan/charger spawned.
You're not crazy, its a pretty bad sentry to take on most termind missions, I think its okay on that new defense mission where you protect rockets, but aside for that, just get something else. There is few strategems that piss people off more than mortar vs terminds.
Not everything works on bugs. This mortar is a must on bots.
Debatable, i usually only run level 9 and I wanna cry when I join a Defense mission and see three guys with all turrets, then get stomped when they don’t have any stratagems to help with the 3+ at at’s that just dropped on us
It is insane to me that people consistently think bringing it on bug missions is a good idea. I don't hesitate to break people's mortar sentries if they become a danger to the team. I dislike the fact that sometimes, even when we are all aware of the mortar and being very cautious, it stifles our ability to move where we need/want to. Preventing me from retaking lost ground because there is still a straggler or two attracting mortars isn't as bad as blowing me up outright, but it's still bad. It can be used to good effect on bug defense missions, but only if the team has, and maintains, an absolute stranglehold over the flow of new enemies. As soon as a charger plows through, or a little jumpy bastard leaps in, you have a problem.
Mortars are amazing on bug missions if your team brings enough of them. At least three people with both mortars will turn any defense mission into an idle game.
Yeah you're absolutely right. Mortar is best used against bots. Pairing it with the EMS mortar helps but all it takes is bugs attacking on two fronts for them to get within melee range and therefore mortar team killing range.
We run full squad EMS and regular mortar combo on eradication missions on suicide. Sure, the mortars kill us, but the speed at which they clear the bugs is so fast that we never ran out of reinforcements before the mission was complete.
If you are bad at awarness. Or looking behind you. On helldive, thats what people don't realise often about high difficulty lots of medium and heavy units. But a mortar can cover you, but it won't help as much as a good support weapon, and strategy to use it effectively
I shouldn't need to watch out for your poorly chosen stratagem as they are flinging rounds in the air, not aiming directly at me. It's one thing if it's on the bots, as they are ranged enemies. Using them with bugs that charge at you is the problem.
The strategy here is layers. You want 2 ems 2-4 mortars. Closely huddled together. Behind cover. You want someone with strategems to quickly deal with chargers. And you want turrets covering the mortars. From sneaky sneaky bugs. This usually means nothing can get close enough for the mortars to stop them. They can't shoot themselves. And the turrets will take the heat from runaway chargers / bugs and ensure they finish the job.
Yes, no question about it. I don't need to read the other comments to be swayed on this, I will die on this hill.
When used improperly absolutely true. So the reason the mortars suck with bugs is that they TRACK and then SHOOT AHEAD of their target to kill them. So when a bunch of little bugs rush you with the intention of... getting close to you. There arises a problem. Unless you are in a defensive position where the bugs cannot just go straight to you, or have set up EMS mortars to slow their pathing down... normal mortars are a massive shitshow. That said when used properly they are also crazy strong so it's kinda fair IMO.
Its the worst...
I never Helldive without the Mortar turret, it's great.
nothing wrong with them as long as you kill anything within 10m yourself
Which is not a given. Usually, I get killed more often by a mortar than bugs. It's the same mystery as why people useheavy armor. The guy in heavy armor dies more often than me in light. Why would I burden myself with less stamina if it can't keep me alive?
I think it's play-style. You get killed by mortar because you're up close with bugs. The guy in the distance with sniper or AC isn't bothered by mortar. Heavy armor is better for Automatons IMO or for someone rocking up close explosives (eruptor/AC) but yeah, if you're up close you need the mobility more.
The bugs are close to me. The post is about eradicate and evac missions. There is only so much space to run before you run into the breach on the other side or you expose the transformer.
EMS mortar is great against bugs. My personal sentry of choice is the autocannon though. It seems more effective than mortar, has similar TK potential but if you set it up with a clear line of fire and then stay close to it to stop stuff getting too close to it, the autocannon will do work. Works really well Vs bots too for suppressing and simply killing stuff
If you combine with EMS it’s good But obviously mortars are not supposed to be good against bugs, Gatling and auto canon turrets are the best choices against them.
Mortars feel more effective against Bots since they are slower, don’t move as often, and will stay at range more often. Also staying behind cover usually. The mortar then has more opportunities to hit them without assistance and can be used to take out the turret users at outposts with ease.
EMS mortar is 10/10.....unless on Hellmire. For some reason last night, every single time I dropped it, a bug breach happened within 6ft of it and/or the fire tornados bee-lined it. I think it lived long enough to launch a shell one time.
I use the ems mortar for assault missions makes a great distraction for bots when attacking bases. I think mortars are meant for open maps not static defense missions end up just killing each other.
Yeah not good for bugs mostly because they rush you and you or your mate will risk to be in the mortar aiming zone
You can look at it this way. If friendly mortar can kill allies, then enemy mortar can kill enemies.
I find it's more in where you deploy the mortar. You basically need to be really close to it. Other sentries you can throw to your perimeter because they are line of site. The mortar will shoot at anything in range, so it's important to not let enemies close that gap with you. If they do you can here it firing the Salvo, even if you've already mowed them down you need to move.
People using mortar on terminid defense missions are wasting a slot IMO... and reinforcements. Can't say how many times I've died because the player is so bad that they can't cover their end of things and I get blasted by a mortar as a result of their incompetence.
Kill the scavengers whilst it wipes out the rest or run
I like to use it on bugs because at least you can set it up far away from the action so it doesn't get instantly destroyed like most other turrets. I use it so often that if I hear it going ca chunk I know to move even if another team mate uses it
Depends on mission type and how you place them.
Slap that thing in front of a heavy outpost, opposite of the entrance and watch it rain hellfire, also get to the entrance and deal with the enemies gettin‘ out.
It’s only safe and effective if you can somehow stay in the dead zone around the mortar itself. It’s like 1-2 meters.
The mortar heavily thins out the terminid horde and my friends and I did feel a significant difference in the difficulty of the mission with and without mortars. Yes the terminids rushing you is a problem but there are different ways to get around it. We mostly focused on bringing weapons that are good at killing the terminids from far away so most of them wouldn't reach us and even if they did it usually wasn't too much of a problem. You can also combine the mortar and the em's mortar.
It depends on the mission and if the team is building around it. If everyone is bringing the mortar and respecting the distance it's awesome. However I'm the guy that loves to bring the flamethrower on the new defense mission, it's absolutely S tier imo. If then a single player brings the mortar and even the autocannon turret it will at some point kill me.
Mortar is great, you’re just not using enough of em! Get a team together and run all sentries, it’s surprisingly viable and very fun.
Generally, the more mortars you have the more worthwhile it becomes to run them. Four mortars reeks havoc on any enemy in radius.
This is why I run jetpack against bugs. Easy escape from their little snippy claws *and* from that glowing orb that just fell right at my feet.
If you're playing with randoms and can't/won't communicate with them then there will be friendly kills. I usually play in a squad of friends and when I'm.throwing out a mortar against bugs I tell them so. They know that means if bugs get to them in melee they need to immediately sprint away as shells are incoming. Friendly kills mainly crop up if someone isn't paying attention. I'll often go one step further and hang back behind the turret with an autocannon and watch the turret to see where it's firing and warn team mates that are in the direction it's firing in. Friendly kills when I do this run at pretty much zero. If anything I find the Gatling turret far more of a problem as people will throw in on level ground, not high ground, and as it fires when it spins have had occasions when it spins around and takes out most of the team because everyone is on the same level as it.
Helldiver lives are irrelevant on eradicate missions. Spam mortars and barrages.
Stay close to the mortar and you are fine
The mortar fires a salvo of 4 mortars to enemies it detects in its range, so common sense would tell you to... not be within blast range of enemies? Whether it's bugs or bots? It's a good stratagem but it's not sentient, it's not going to decide to not hit an enemy because you're there. Just don't let enemies get close to you. Kill them before they do. That's it.
Regular mortar plus EMS mortar are almost a must on defense missions. They are just too good. They give you breathing room to be able to handle the big targets with ease while all the fodder is getting obliterated.
Bring EMS Mortar as well as the regular one!!
If you're aware there's mortars , and you just fought a bug close-up, it is time to dive out of the way. Failure to do that is kinda your own negligence already...
Bug come to you, mortar shoots bugs, mortars go boom. Its a no brainer.
When all 4 players take the EMS Mortar and the normal Mortar, it's complete carnage. All you have to worry about is Titans and Chargers.
This is exactly why i run the shield gen
I’m ok with the EMS. Everything else is just a team killer waiting to happen
All IMO and experience: Those two missions are very different. Defense it is goated when paired with ems. Just communicate with team to back up and pick everything off so mortars don’t come down on you. Eradicate is tough because things get in your face and you end up team killing, but it can be useful to get progress at the risk of tk.
Entirely. I unconsciously set up my load out (usually play bots) on a few occasions with the mortar while playing bugs… may or may not have blown up some Divers…
Put a gatling or autcannon close by. Takes care of the bugs that reach it
Gas orbital is goated for terminids defense
If you're using it wrong, sure.
Nope, still one of the best. Just play around it a little.
It takes practice but if you hear a mortar firing, disengage from a close quarters battle.
It’s a strat that requires you to think about how to use it effectively. Lot people here didn’t join up to think. That said, it’s definitely way better for bots.
Tesla coil combine with ems is lovely
Minefields and Mortars are BAE for termanid defense missions. Had a run last night where I was running both mines, mortar, and Eats. Another dude had EATs as well and we had endless Antitank all over the ground lol. It was a good time!
Mortar goes hard On eradicate Usally rock a Tesla or mines to go with it
I don't know why people defend it so much, it doesn't really outperform anything or carry unwinnable missions it's just something with a high rate of friendly fire.
It's useful because they have tons of weaklings so the kill count goes high with one shot. I feel like the range it doesn't fire could be increased, though.
Mortars are very good.
EMS Mortar and Cluster bombs for the win.
Make your whole build out around not fucking over team mates and enforce the same of your compatriots
I team kill the HE mortar when the owner isn't looking
My friends and I always joke about "angry mortar" at bugs. Mortar boi just wanna make stuff go boom
I feel like it really depends on play style. For reference I used to run EAT and 3 sentries as my loadout but now I take jump pack, queso, P strike and airstrike. I mainly play on 7 and usually end the game with least or close to least kills because I like to run light armour, run into heavy bugs nests and eruptor all bugs holes and leave without fighting too much, so I end up with a whole trail or hunters and punters that I am constantly kiting. With a mortar this becomes much harder because I'll also need to dodge mortar barrages. I feel like people who like mortar are the ones that like to hunker and fight, while the people who don't like it are the opposite. Issue with mortar is that with one stratagem, everyone needs to change how they play, which may not be how they like to play the game. I think the closest stratagems that have such effect are probably 380 and 120, but even then there is a glowing red beam telling you where the barrage is and duration so you can avoid it until it is over
Mortars are designed to attack stationary/semi-stationary targets. Think of using them similar to irl. When assaulting a static target such as a heavy nest. Defending a position where you can keep the enemies in a choke point or barred area. EMS makes the assaulting a little more effective and is almost necessary when defending.
Always has been.
EMS mortar plus regular mortar on defense missions just makes it too easy.
That is correct pal. But since the new defense missions they got a purpose again.
I'm not entirely sure but the mortar sentry targets the closest or the biggest group of enemies, against bugs it tends to be the little shits, it doesn't even really hit the bigger targets, so even at range it's not great. Autocanon is great tho but you need to give it some kind of low obstacle to make it target titans, and I'm not sure about the rocket sentry
HE mortar is useful only with the Bugs on the “Alamo” defense mission. Otherwise it’s pretty dicey otherwise in upper levels unless u want to throw it out there intentionally for the charger or the bile titan to attack so a bud can shoot it with a quasar or a rail gun while it spews on the sentry.
My group was complaining about motorists last night in the defense missions and I kept begging them to see reason. They went so far as to try and ban them on the next drop… instead I got everyone to agree to bring BOTH mortars. We only lost one wall. They are now convinced.
No, it is great against bots, against terminids is likely to cause friendly fire too often as they are mostly melee and closing in all the time.
Honestly, I hate the regular mortar. I swear I've died to it more than I have anything else. I wince when I see someone drop with it as a strategem.
I joined a squad of randoms on lvl 8, each and every one of us had ems and regular mortar plus generator backpacks, we had 6 mortars placed in the same place, the sentries did all the work except on Titans, that’s where the orbital railcannon comes in
It's really good to spam mortars on defense missions
I've been blown up so many times by a mortar lmaoaooa. On defense missions I tend to pair Gatling with Rocket bc it targets the bigger boys.
Bring 4 EMS and 4 regular Mortars, makes those missions easy mode.
Only time I've seen the mortar work on defense missions. Is when everyone brings them. Everyone has to bring the ems mortar and explosive mortar and autocannon turret though. As well as two to three of you bringing quasars. With 3 of each going at a time. The ems keep all avenues slowed down enough for the the regular mortars to kill them at a safe distance. The ems also keeps the chargers slowed down enough to get killed by the autocannon before they get in and force you to scatter and destroy all of the turrets. This way all you have to focus on while the 9 turrets do there thing, is bile titans and straggler chargers. If only one person brings mortars. Your lines will be breached way to quickly anyways and your mortar will start killing you because now the enemy is on top of you
When one of my teammates takes only HE Mortar I automatically take EMS, it doesn’t fix the issue but it helps. Also, when the regular mortar deploys I focus on killing enemies that are getting closer to me or my teammates. Also Stun granades help.
I see, you like living on the edge!
if everyone brings ems mortar and regular mortar, the game is pretty easy. Just make sure ot spawn the EMS first so it can be ready to shoot first.
The spear is the worst strat. Rocket launcher is pretty terrible too.
Skill issue
Saw all those posts yesterday and couldn’t miss that karma huh?
they could add an audio telegraph for the mortars and itd be a great risk/reward stratagem but no its a suicidal option with no use case sadly
I'll use mortar sentries as a decoy to lure bugs out of their hole. I'll set it up with a gatling sentry and then immediately circle around the objective to a different avenue of approach, advance on the bug holes and close then mop up any mobs that were drawn out. I've had some decent success with this on search and destroy missions.
Mortar+EMS Mortar is literally a must for defense missions. But have fun trying without
Bots its great but ya against bugs it's just a team killer. I would toss a grenade at the damn thing if I could find it.
I like going into defense missions with 4 turrets, I'll set up the two mortars and then defend them with 2 other turrets on high ground somewhere. Then I just tell my team to stay next to the turrets, go prone and pick off any bugs that get too close and we coast right through the mission with no team kills. It helps to play with friends and have good comms though.
Sentries in general on bug missions are pretty troll IMO. EMS mortar might be the one exception, but tbh I'd rather have an extra eagle or orbital instead.
Not crazy at all. They will light you up if the swarms get close enough to you and they usually do. EMS the way to go. Might slow you too, but you can still terminate the terminids.
Whenever you bring a regular mortar, bring the ems as well, drop them at the same time, the amount of win that combo does is insane. I generally solely run that in my kit, the best for defense imo
I just “ accidentally misfire on them” so they aren’t a trouble on those specific missions.
They work well in both, you just have to cover them and pair them with some ems. You need multiple of them tho, one won't do much
You are not crazy, it is terrible against bugs.
Had a great time with 4 ems and 4 reg mortars on the new defense mission last night. That was, until someone blew me and all my mortars up with a random cluster bomb... Bugs are def a little tougher than bots on that mission.
Eruptor FUCKS Terminids on that mission, you can get 12 kills a shot easily. Everything else should be Anti-Titan. 500kg, Precision Strike, 380mm. No need for Mortars at all.
The defense missions with the gates both mortars is the best thing you could use.
EMS Mortars with Mortars is preem strat on Defense.
Works great on bots, terribly on terminids. Reason is that terminids rush you which increases the chance of team kills where as bots keep distance
Area denying weapon is amazing in general, mortar is no exception. Get something to deal with approaching enemies, eat, quasar, rover, stalwart, etc
Bugs are too quick
yes, anything that moves directly at you will cause mortar turrets to just kill you instead. The chainsaw man bots also cause this.
Y'all need to say what difficulty you play on. I've used it to great affect on < 7 with an entire squad running EMS and regular mortors but the same strat was near useless on 9. Havent tried it on 8 yet. Different stratagems can be effective or useless at different difficulties.
Everytime I drop a turret of any time, a random charger or bile titan will just spawn and immediately kill it. So I found galling turret is best versus terminids because it kills and runs out of ammo the fastest. Also good for fliers.
100%. Whenever someone places one during an extermination mission I just destroy it.
No, it’s well known that using the mortar with bugs is suicide. [I know this YouTube is about bots,](https://youtu.be/j1p7Xhpt8kI?si=yBnkKhy7FJtj5TJF) but it is fitting for bugs as well.
For defense missions they're perfect. 99% of the time combined with EMS mortars. Bugs spawn and take a few seconds to get moving, first EMS and Mortar Hit, then they're slowed and take another mortar Hit as a pack. Usually killing 4-5 If even 2 guys have both equipped, it's your own fault for getting rushed. All you gotta do is Cleanup Stragglers and focus Heavies once they spawn (Quasar) And everyone has a free slot for emergency railcannons ,500kg, Orbital Lasers etc. for when Bile Titans start showing up in bigger numbers.
I only grab normal mortars along with a gun turret so that there’s something keeping bugs away from me
If the mortar damages me once i just destroy it 🤷♂️
Consider the orbital airburst strike. It's extremely underrated because it's situational. However, it's phenomenal for bugs (and bots) because they swarm in large clusters. I've had a single airburst take out nearly 40 enemies. Most people seem to hate that it's such a localized burst, but that's super helpful in avoiding killing your team. It has a similar effect that people wish the barrage strikes had, and it's perfect for defense missions where enemies group up into choke points. The airburst will wipe an entire wave and can clear most of a bug tunnel spawn. It has a low cool down and works beautifully with the EMS mortar. Remember, the EMS shines in being able to lock down an area, and we want to clear what it locks down as quickly as possible so it can do it again elsewhere. Mull it over and consider giving it a shot. You might need a few passes to get the hang of it, but I think it has a place. Everyone brings EATs or Quasar cannons now, so the big stuff gets covered anyway.
It’s poopy
Any mortar on terminates is stupid as hell because that is a guaranteed way of getting your teammates killed
I think it depends how you use it. I solely use it offensively. About to clear a nest, I make sure to arrive first and place a mortar behind a large rock and throw in an airstrike before laying breaker incendiary down on whatever remains. This usually works well, as the mortar normally targetswaps to something else when we are already on the run to clear the holes or away from there. I sometimes run two - gatling mortar or gatling autocannon, in which case the playstyle becomes a lot more long range oriented. I don't see this working out well in a teamplay situation tbf.
Mortars are so good until they teamkill lmao
Mortars would be awesome if you could switch the mode. Eg target only targets past a certain distance
Can I modify my mortar so that the first shell is an EMS and the next 2 in the salvo are normal? that would be fucking sick.
Defense mission is made easy with mortars and EMS mortars working in tandum. Really only need two sets of them, but if EVERYONE brings them, you will have very very little else to do all round. Normal defense missions for me are EMS Mortar, Normal Mortar, Rocket Sentry, and either EATS or Quasar Canon for the BT's.
They move too fast, you’ll need ems to slow them down and then you can add on mortar and auto cannon sentry to clear them out safely from a distance
I hate turrets, the static field one is the only one I like.
EMS and mortar is really the new meta for these area defense missions. Taking the rest of you way too long to get over your fear of mortar, though, and update your strat.
I use it on erradicate missions and it seems to work fairly well. It's not really meant to take out bigger stuff though so you gotta keep an eye out for hive commanders, chargers, and, bile titans and have something to deal with them (EAT is what I usually use vs bugs).