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Do mortars do anything?

bizorkbizork Member Posts: 66 Arc User
edited September 2012 in The Academy
Would someone tell me what mortars are good for? I am a Tactical Officer so I can't make them, but my away team officers do. I have never seen mortars do anything except shoot balls of energy into the ceiling, or straight up into the sky if outdoors. The turrets, med generators, and shield generators are all useful, but mortars? meh.
Post edited by bizork on

Comments

  • ankokunekoankokuneko Member Posts: 318 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    What goes up, must come down (in this case in a big blue explosion that does a lot of damage in a large radius)
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  • grouchyotakugrouchyotaku Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Mortars are nearly useless against mobile fast moving targets. But against fixed targets (e.g. turrets) and slow moving targets (e.g. Borg Drones) ...
  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,251 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I find morters are great more so when you drop 3 at once and all hit. You can wipe out whole groups of NPC's at once.
  • agentorange886agentorange886 Member Posts: 21 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Mortars do heavy AoE damage, the difficult part is getting your targets to stay clustered long enough for the projectile to fall back down, meaning someone who can tank (preferably melee) needs to hold aggro. Unfortunately STO is very noobish in that it allows DPS to also hold aggro which is useless especially when doing ranged DPS.
  • grylakgrylak Member Posts: 1,594 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Mortars also have a longer range than turrets and do not need line of sight. So you can drop them around a corner before you run into battle and they will still hit (even going into the next room if set up right).
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  • unangbangkayunangbangkay Member Posts: 10 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Mortars will hit their target even indoors, so you don't have to worry about firing into the sky or ceiling.

    That said, they're quite useful in some instances, such as killing turrets and protecting devices in the Cure Ground or fighting Armek in same. Most of the time though most teams and enemies move too fast for a mortar to be truly useful, and in some cases their role can be replaced by a timely Transphasic Bomb or Mine Cluster.
  • bumperthumperbumperthumper Member Posts: 513 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    grylak wrote: »
    Mortars also have a longer range than turrets and do not need line of sight. So you can drop them around a corner before you run into battle and they will still hit (even going into the next room if set up right).

    This.

    The non-line-of-site factor is the largest benefit of Mortars, since it opens up different tactics. You can place a mortar behind a shield and it'll still fire at it's target. If you put a turret behind a shield, it can't shoot through it, since it depends on a line of site attack.

    Think of them as chess pieces. The turret would be along the lines of a queen, while the mortar would be along the lines of a knight, since it can "hop" over obstacles.
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  • darkjeffdarkjeff Member Posts: 2,590 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    Note that they also penetrate shields. Set up a melee BOff to tank, and boss fights go by quicker once it starts to rain mortar shells.
  • bizorkbizork Member Posts: 66 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I finally figured out what the blue reticle things are that appear on the ground! Another couiple of years and I might know what's going on.
  • uxvorastrixuxvorastrix Member Posts: 21 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    I'll take mortars over turrets anyday. The enemy will wipe out a turret before it can fire a second time, where-as I can hide the mortars around a corner and pummel the enemy for a while before they figure out where I am.

    Before walking up to a doorway, set up the mortar against the wall closest to the room. Set mines in doorway, turret just back from doorway, then set up your crew back by the mortar and slaughter any that come out of the room.

    Occassionally walk into the room, fire once, then retreat to keep the baddies coming out to their slaughter.
    D&D DM/Player since 1982 - all versions except the despised 4e
  • futurepastnowfuturepastnow Member Posts: 3,660 Arc User
    edited September 2012
    To make mortars effective, you need to stun/hold/root enemies long enough for death to fall on them. You can set up your science boffs to complement your engineers in this way.
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