Being the mortar gunner aboard a metamidion

[Deltajugg]

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?

[Knickers]

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.

[Alistair MacBain]

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.

[Crafeksterty]

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.

[Alistair MacBain]

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.

[GeoRmr]

Lesmok ... is inferior to default ... due to the extremely low rate of fire.

It has the same rof as neutral rounds.

[Alistair MacBain]

K then i mixed things up .

[Arturo Sanchez]

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.

[Alistair MacBain]

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.

[Crafeksterty]

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.

[Sammy B. T.]

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.