Guns Of Icarus Online
Main => The Classroom => Guides => Topic started by: OnlyMan. on June 06, 2014, 05:42:22 am
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Here are some pro-skills for being an amazing mortar gunner.
1. Don't fire mortar before gat, unless your captain asks you too. The best way to utilize mortar is when hull armor is down.
2.If your captain asks you to fire the mortar with gat, try to aim at guns/engine. These are brought down very quickly by the mortar.
3.The only rounds you should be taking are greased, lesmock or burst. In my opinion, greased is the best, and really the only one you should use aboard a metamidion, however, its all up to your captain. If its not one of those three though, you should really inquire about why that is.
4.Assuming your mortar is on the left, as it should be, bring chem. As a mortarist, you are also in charge of the balloon. Chem is the best way to prevent your balloon from catching on fire, as the time it takes you to empty your mortar magazine, is roughly the same time as your chem lifespan.
5.Lead your shots. Mortar rounds are heavy and slow, so they will drop. Remember to compensate.
6.DON'T WANDER AWAY FROM YOUR MORTAR. When the hull goes down on the enemy ship,you only have a short window to spam your mortars out. Dont be that guy.
7.Keep your gun reloaded at all times. Youre going to need every last one of those mortars. If you kill the enemy before the magazine is depleted, reload anyway. You'll need it.
I hope that this has helped some of you. The gat mortar combination is the backbone of the metamidion. Being a good mortar gunner, will equal mucho wins. Its also a good selling point for anyone that's trying to join a competitive clan! Happy gunning!
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For everybody that uses the gat mortar combo I have a secret to tell you. Burst ammo does more damage than greased in the mortar!
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The mortar should also be used against ships you know one volley of gatling won't strip (esp if you don't have a buffed gat).
Though that is moot, as you should be using buff hammer 100% of the time as a mortar engie on a metamidion.
Also with burst rounds, you generally only need half the clip to down a ship (as long as its not a galleon), so feel free to help disable while the gat is still shooting.
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For everybody that uses the gat mortar combo I have a secret to tell you. Burst ammo does more damage than greased in the mortar!
True, greased ammo reduces damage by 20% and also reduces projectile speed by 20%. On the other hand, it takes almost twice as long to empty a clip with burst rounds (8.4 seconds for Burst vs 4.6 seconds for greased)
Burst ammo damage per clip is 1764
Greased ammo damage per clip is 1411
If we include reload time and time needed to empty the clip, we get the following DPS:
Burst: 210
Greased: 316
Of course, the reload time shouldn't play a role as the enemy ship is probably going to be destroyed after one volley
Hull health of all ships for reference:
Galleon: 1400
Goldfish: 1100
Junker: 400
Mobula: 700
Pyramidion: 700
Spire: 750
Squid: 850
What plays a role however is the time it takes to rebuild the armor again, and that's where the burst rounds have a disadvantage.
These are the spanner hits it takes to rebuild the armor on the different ships according to Mattilald Anguisad's rebuilding reference:
Pyra Armor: 9 Buffed Armor: 10
Galleon Armor: 10 Buffed Armor: 12
Junker Armor: 9 Buffed Armor: 11
Squid Armor: 4 Buffed Armor: 5
Goldfish Armor: 6 Buffed Armor: 7
Mobula Armor: 8 Buffed Armor: 10
Spire Armor: 6 Buffed Armor: 7
I think one spanner hit takes one second (not sure though), that means that theoretically the armor of the Squid, Goldfish, Mobula and Spire could be rebuilt before a burst mortar clip could be fully emptied.
Still, I am not entirely sure whether greased or burst are in fact better. Greased has an upper hand in fast, close-range engagements I'd say, but it strongly reduces range and and accuracy due to the slower projectile speed.
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Explosive does no damage to guns/engines, so mortar is practically useless on armored ships. Lesmok is incredibly bad on it, heavy does a better job at max range shots. Greased has many negative side-effects, burst is relatively more reliable and generally better, but by far the ideal ammo for mortar is default.
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What pantaleon said ...
This is the reason why burst is worse in the mortar.
The only viable option for mortas is greased for me.
Lesmok cant instagib the enemy due to the decreased clipsize and burst with its decreased Rate of Fire costs you time.
Greased is the best option.
You still get your instagib on the enemy but you get it much faster. Sure if you miss some shots you wont get the instagib against goldfish or galleon but everything else is easy to kill in one go as long as your captain keeps you close an steady. And thats where the metamidion wants to be. Close enough to the enemy that the mortar can do his job as fast as possible.
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I'd generally recommend greased.
With a metamidion, you're going for the rapid kill, and you don't have to worry about anything but the hull itself.
Using the Wilson's Notes in game and the hull damage modifier for explosive weapons, we can see that:
| Regular | Burst | Greased |
| Dmg/Shot | 126 | 126 | 100.8 |
| Clip Size | 12 | 14 | 14 |
| Shots/s | 1.82 | 1.547 | 2.912 |
| Total Dmg | 1512 | 1764 | 1411.2 |
| Dmg/S | 229.32 | 194.92 | 293.53 |
(*DPS does not include reload)
So let's say you're taking on another metamidion, both on equally skilled ships, and the only difference is mortar ammo. Both armor's go down at the same time, both mortars start firing at the same time. It's going to take you around 3.6 seconds to finish them with burst rounds, while it only takes about 2.4 to finish them with greased rounds. With regular rounds being in between the two.
When it comes down to killing someone fast, greased is the way to go. There are some exceptions, such as ships with extremely high hp like the galleon, or ships that are more difficult to hit. These generally rely on the skill of the gunners. Lesmok can certainly help with scoring hits on ships like the squid, and burst rounds will let the mortar have more room for error when trying to take down a galleon. Although I'd still recommend greased for ships like the goldfish and squid. Even though they have high hp, they rebuild that armor very quickly, and you want to have a high dps to deal as much damage as you can in that short of time.
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And while the mortar doesn't do significant damage against guns, it does have a good chance for causing fires. This fire damage can be significant, although it's unlikely to do any real damage against weapons or engines without using most of the clip.
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Armor buff has no effect on rebuild time.
I'd say burst is better than greased for ships with high armor, e.g. junkers and galleons, and if you're cool with prefiring. Otherwise greased. It's all subjective though, the mortar does massive damage (enough to kill most ships) with any ammo.
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Did i miss the bugfix for increased rebuild due to hull buff? Thaught that was still a thing ...
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"Fixed issue with buffing changing rebuild time" - 1.3.6 changelog (https://gunsoficarus.com/community/forum/index.php/topic,3895.msg67884.html#msg67884)
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also burst mortar does a decent job damaging components enough to slow reload times and firing arcs
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I am distrustful of both greased and burst. To me the most important thing about shooting a mortar is maximizing the damage you deal in those few seconds while the enemy hull is down. Since greased lowers the bullet speed you waste a few precious milliseconds watching the bullet cover the distance between you gun and the enemy ship. This time is doubled if you are the type to fire a "test round" to validate your trajectory will hit the hull before dumping the clip. Burst on the other hand slows down your rate of fire tothe point that it does less DPS than vanilla over a shot period of time (like the time it takes two engineers to fix a goldfish's hull).
For my money lesmok is the way to go. It gets the mortar shell on target quickly and accurately and with a refire/dammage rate at least equivalent to Vanilla. I fully admit greased will outperform it at point blank range. However if I am at a range where I am guaranteed a hit, I swap back to vanilla rounds and get a few extra shots per clip.
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Explosive does no damage to guns/engines, so mortar is practically useless on armored ships. Lesmok is incredibly bad on it, heavy does a better job at max range shots. Greased has many negative side-effects, burst is relatively more reliable and generally better, but by far the ideal ammo for mortar is default.
Explosive damage has a chance of adding fire stacks.
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Lesmok isnt viable atm.
With the extreme decrease in clip size you cant kill the enemy in one clip. Lesmok is currently just not viable for the mortar.
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My team already had the mortar with burst because we were flying junker and the two top deck guns were mortar/Artemis. Knowing burst was a good ammo for the mortar we just never analyzed mortar ammo choices. Then suddenly everyone was bringing blenders and we realized that while burst helps with component break, against blenders you have to maximize the damage as your window is so small. We kept bringing burst as it was indispensable on the Artemis, but we just left vanilla in the mortar.
My takeaway, it's situational regarding whether you're fighting a dps build or a disable build.
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Lesmok isnt viable atm.
With the extreme decrease in clip size you cant kill the enemy in one clip. Lesmok is currently just not viable for the mortar.
Lesmok Mortar can deal up to 1008 with one clip, not to mention it can always be buffed (and most of the time will be buffed). That's more than enough to kill most of the ships, especially considering that the DPS on lesmok rounds is higher than on burst rounds (262.08 DPS vs 209.92 DPS is quite significant).
To be honest efficiency of certain ammo types on mortars depends on how are you going to use it, and which ship are you going to fly with and against. Greased rounds provide highest DPS, guaranteeing a successful kill most of the time even if there's 2 engineers repairing the hull on enemy ship, but can be used effectively only on a very close range. Lesmok rounds on the other hand can shoot greater distances, which can get the enemy off-guard, and of course because of the increased projectile speed and lift they're also more accurate against ships with small hull hitbox, like squids or junkers. Burst rounds have the lowest DPS of all three, but can deal more total damage, so they are much more forgiving of missed shots compared to the other two, and their range is kind of a middle ground between greased and lesmok. Also, with one burst shot dealing 27 damage to the component it can be useful to slightly damage, or even disable enemy's guns, reducing their effectiveness by reducing their health.
Speaking of which, there's that one thing with burst rounds that kinda intruiges me, and since this is the perfect thread for it, I'll let myself ask you this. Artemis' AoE range is 3.5, 5.25 with burst rounds, and it is often mentioned that Burst rounds on artemis are effective because you can hit multiple components because of its wide AoE range. Now, with that being said, Mortar's AoE radius is 8 by base, so it already is significantly more than Artemis', and this AoE applies to Normal rounds, Greased rounds and Lesmok rounds alike. Why increase it to AoE radius of 12 with Burst rounds, giving you Lumberjack's AoE all the same, if according to the effectiveness of Artemis 5.25 is enough to deal damage to multiple components? Wouldn't it be better to rather stick to Greased rounds, significantly increasing your DPS while still having as much potential to kill Galleon/Goldfish, and still with the same disable power, or Lesmok, for increased DPS (less than greased, but still better than burst), but also greatly increased range and accuracy?
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Here are some pro-skills for being an amazing mortar gunner.
1. Don't fire mortar before gat, unless your captain asks you too. The best way to utilize mortar is when hull armor is down.
2.If your captain asks you to fire the mortar with gat, try to aim at guns/engine. These are brought down very quickly by the mortar.
3.The only rounds you should be taking are greased, lesmock or burst. In my opinion, greased is the best, and really the only one you should use aboard a metamidion, however, its all up to your captain. If its not one of those three though, you should really inquire about why that is.
4.Assuming your mortar is on the left, as it should be, bring chem. As a mortarist, you are also in charge of the balloon. Chem is the best way to prevent your balloon from catching on fire, as the time it takes you to empty your mortar magazine, is roughly the same time as your chem lifespan.
5.Lead your shots. Mortar rounds are heavy and slow, so they will drop. Remember to compensate.
6.DON'T WANDER AWAY FROM YOUR MORTAR. When the hull goes down on the enemy ship,you only have a short window to spam your mortars out. Dont be that guy.
7.Keep your gun reloaded at all times. Youre going to need every last one of those mortars. If you kill the enemy before the magazine is depleted, reload anyway. You'll need it.
I hope that this has helped some of you. The gat mortar combination is the backbone of the metamidion. Being a good mortar gunner, will equal mucho wins. Its also a good selling point for anyone that's trying to join a competitive clan! Happy gunning!
Does this mean that you should never shoot the mortar until the gatling gun takes down the hull? I don't think the gatling gun alone is enough to take down the armor itself.
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A gatling gun can take down any armor except the galleons by itself. And the junker is a bid tricky due to its slim profile.
Yes at a certain lvl you will most likely start to time the mortar a bid earlier to fasten up the hullstrip but for the start just wait.
You dont want your mortar left with shots when the armor goes down. You want to have enough (~6) shots left when the armor dies to killthe enemy right away.
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If Burst does more damage than greased, then DEFAULT is the best ammo for the mortar like i suspected.
Lesmok, burst and greased all change how the gun fires and the dps is always at a weird use.
Like greased is fast to use but its harder to hit with, so one has to be closer than usual to be able to hit with mortar
Lesmok is a bit slower and has less shots but you will be able to hit easieer and from a longer range.
And burst is just like default but fires much slower, its only good versus component but damage wise its the same as default but dps is decreased.
So what happened to default guys? I mean i dont tend to have any ammo on my mortar.
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Ive never seen burst as a possibility for mortars unless in the rare case you happened to fight with a carro mortar pair.
Burst is just inferior to any other ammo regarding the mortars job.
Lesmok was strong and still is nice for a few setups but often inferior to default or greased due to the extremely low rate of fire. You got enough shots to instagib a ship ... You just dont have the time to unload them before the armor comes back up in most cases.
I prefer greased due to its high rate of fire. It allows you to instagib a ship in almost every case. Neither burst nor default can do it that fast. Havent got the math available anymore but I did it in the past.
The range disadvantage is almost not existent (~40 m if I remember correctly) and doesnt matter at all if youre flying a metamidion.
Default is decent aswell and handles almost every other situation where greased isnt an option. Its nice if you happen to be out of greased range.
If you dont trust your crew well then don't fly. Easy as that. If you can't trust your crew in a situation where the difference of greased/lesmok/default matters then youve done something wrong. A pubmatch isnt won by ammo choice.
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Lesmok ... is inferior to default ... due to the extremely low rate of fire.
It has the same rof as neutral rounds.
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K then i mixed things up :D.
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Pretty solid tips from OP
Only thing to amend I guess is instead of waiting for hull break(ppl are so slow to react-a full second of hull break and then they shoot, then that full second or two where the mortar arcs and hits. Thats alot of wasted time), a good mortar gunner should feel out when the hull is near hull break and begin firing.
Because if that gat runs out of ammo and that mortar aint shooting to shave off that last bit of hull armour. Welcome back to square one.
As a rule of thumb I generally just say, fire whenever you got arc and when the balloon aint being hurt. The reload time of a mortar isn't that long and no matter the skill of the engie of the enemy ship, a broken hull will not fully recover if pounded relentlessly. At best a full crew tanking will buy seconds b4 death due to the nature of cool downs and how rebuilds only restore hull to a sliver of hp.
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If youre just spamming youre shots you wont kill in one clip each.
If you really want to get the perfect timing then start shooting after 2-3 seconds of good gat hits.
Good hits from the gat mean armor hits. Not balloon or components.
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OOoo now i see why the burst is so good then.
It gives more ammo + less firing rate. Which allows for firing the mortar way early without loosing too much ammo for when the armor is broken.
But i still think firing it at the brink of armor break is better with good dps.
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Basically
Burst is best for overall damage maximization, because the extra shots and lower ROF are great for firing before hull is down
Greased is best for perma hull damage maximization , because the faster DPS allows you to quickly get as much damage during the armor break
Lesmok is best for range damage maximization, cause it lets you shoot further with crazy accuracy for a mortar.