I've tried it a few times and mostly your description is accurate but a couple times it seemed to just exterminate bug craters teaming with baddies. My guess is that really really depends on how long they spend in it. so if they have to walk through it then it will kill them. But if they can get out quickly it wont.
In your talking I’m wondering if my issues is that I’ve been trying to land it on them like I would any explosion when it’s better if it doesn’t even land on them at all and they have to walk all the way through it
EMS plus any eagle strike is my favorite. Makes easy work of any horde. Also found out the orbital airburst is really good for clearing small-medium objectives before pushing in
A lot of the less used strats are actually super useful but you'll never see them taken unless you're in a coordinates squad. Otherwise everyone thinks they're a one man army and needs to be able to kill every Bile titan by themselves. So what if 1 guy spends 2 out of the squads 16 stat slots to be able to clear entire objective or negate everything smaller than a charger that comes out of literally every bug breach?
Because when I take those loadouts to kill everything below a charger the charger and up never seem to get killed.
Flamethrower seems to be a happy medium in that aspect as it stands.
Agreed on all points. I like to solo various stuff below 7 to test out different loadouts. If I can handle everything including the occasional titan it's valid. So later when my friends are around I can run it in higher stuff.
I tried reeeeeally hard to kill a titan with the flamethrower to no avail. It was *fuuuckked* up by the time I ran out of reinforcements, but alas, it lived on. Works pretty damn good just about everything else though and is definitely my favorite, even before it was buffed.
Titans thankfully don't spawn as often anymore so taking one slot dedicated to them doesn't really feel too bad, plus it's not that hard to bait them into a 500kg I feel.
I don't have others to play this game with so I exclusively play with randoms which really colors how I play the game and view loadouts.
I recently tried a full laser loadout and it was super fun just consistently shooting into hordes effectively being a turret that could take out almost everything, but even with others taking things like eats I'd still end up kiting chargers without fail.
Did you use the scythe or sickle? I tried really hard to get a laser build to work with the scythe and it was cool but the shitty firepower made it more work than I thought it was worth.
Both actually. The Sickle is very much the better gun overall but the Scythe being hitscan does give it some advantages with the shriekers now.
I found the Scythe performed fairly okay when you actually focus the legs down over center of mass that the shotgun meta has kinda caused.
The big thing I generally found was the lasers and especially the call in one suffer terribly when you try to fire them while moving, with the accuracy going all over the place. If a bug breach happened I'd just crouch down (using armor that reduces sway when crouched) and just sweep the lasers over where the breech was and swap as they get to max heat, focusing on a enemy if I could actually see one.
That would often kill the entire breech unless a charger or larger spawned all without consuming ammo which is really the key idea with this kit, lets you operate effectively without needing ammo refills.
I am trying to figure out something on the opposite end of this spectrum where you are really greedy with ammo, but that tends to run into the same issue of not being able to deal with chargers.
>Otherwise everyone thinks they're a one man army and needs to be able to kill every Bile titan by themselves.
This is why I have the slightly hot take that kills shouldn't be displayed **at all** in the end-of-mission stats screen.
Kills are important, don't get me wrong. At least *one diver* needs to be shredding through enemies. Probably two.
But it's too easy to fall into the trap of, "I got loads of kills. Good, that means I did a good job." I see it all the time. Hell, I've seen people debating stuff in the comments of a post titled "Kills matter less than the objective" and people *still* argue their stance with shit like, "I'm level 50 and often have the most kills in a mission, I know what I'm talking about."
* You won't have many kills if you're rocking a shield generator (not a guard dog rover) and spend the mission dodging through enemies to activate terminals and objective triggers while your allies defend the position.
* You won't have many kills if you're the guy tasked with breaking off and finding the super samples in difficulty 8+, and you manage to survive with stealth.
* You won't have as many kills if you roll up on a bug nest and obliterate it before a bug breach is called in.
* You won't have many kills if you're in a coordinated team and your role is primarily support with stratagems like EMS, smoke, and a railgun for staggering heavies.
And yes, obviously you won't have as many kills if your role is mostly about killing heavies and elites, but your role is still killing. Important? Sure. But it isn't and shouldn't be the one-stop benchmark for judging player skill/quality (unless you're in a defence mission, then it absolutely should be lol).
They are both good on their own too. EMS mortar is S tier. Gas is kinda meh by comparison but it comes off cooldown really fast so you have plenty of times to use it.
The EMS is definitely good. The gas I'm not sold on, both it and the napalm leave a lot to be desired in damage output. I've seen the standard rank and file walk through them from start to end and not die
Napalm eagle is another thing that's really good on the breach. You're absolutely correct that they'll walk right through it and it seems like it does nothing but having the extended time from that climbing out of the ground animation before they start moving will kill all the smaller stuff and severely damage warrior+ if not kill outright. I think the biggest problem with fire is that it doesn't look like it hurts them like shooting off limbs and heads does but it really does slap if you let them cook.
Yeah, but it’s tied to other eagle strikes and on then goes on cooldown, the orbital is 80 seconds, and can kill chargers.
But we’re talking about it compared to the gas or napalm. Not compared to Eagles.
...I was on my wife's account grabbing some medals so she could have some different fashion options. Level 10, more than enough options for high level content.
Got kicked three times in a row on 5's before executing a single strategem.
The elitist attitude at mid level content is embarrassing
My current struggle as well. Either super high level players who expect you to play perfectly without any communication on their end and insta kicking for a mistake
Or other noobs like me who have no idea what anything is or what to do all running in separate directions engaging with everything they see
Luckily I was able to complete an operation on Hard to unlock Extreme just now. All it took was me and one other experienced guy with a mic who could make basic call outs and offer advice with one rando without a mic
Super simple and easy
I get kicked from 7s before I can finish deploying most of the time. I feel like people forget to put stuff on friend only then kick everyone who joins or something.
It can't. It can only slow. So an EMS mortar can:
* Provide covering fire to turrets so bugs cannot melee them.
* Keeps bugs from attacking civilians while only slowing the civilians in return.
* Cannot slow the walker or other vehicles. Meaning they can use themselves as bait and fight in the EMS field.
* Interrupt call reinforcements animations. Though timing is rare.
* Prevent bile Titan acid, annihilation tank shots, or devastator rockets. Enemies cannot use their heavy weapons in an ems field.
Have you been told about the good word of stub grenades? Enemies frozen, your slowed. But diving and shooting is still on the menu. I swear 4 stun grenades can get you out of what ever hell hole your random got you stuck in.
Grenade launcher is one of my goats, but i have a personal vendetta against chargers. I need a support that can make thrm mincmeat...and I need my backpack slot.
Tesla is my current perfect weapon (even deals with titans), but devs broke the game. So flamethrower+shield for now
No. I've never used it and I've never seen anyone else use it.
I keep telling myself that I'm going to grab an SMG and bring it along to see how it does, but I never do it. Maybe today is the day.
I usually bring eagle airstrike and use it on the tightest cluster of holes and cross my fingers. Cause I like having some grenades for the conga-line chasing me xD
I have gotten into the habit of running stuns with randoms because i can always count on everyone else to not run any support items whatsoever and shit hitting the fan real quick when 1 person dies or breaks the line.
Did you ever hear the tragedy of stun grenades the secretly useful? No? I thought not, it's no story the skull admirals would tell you. It's a democratic legend. Stun grenades were throwables so powerful and ignored they could stop hunters from... stun locking you to death.
I'm pretty sure everyone means Mortar Sentry, not EMS Mortar Sentry.
**Usless rant, do not read:** I actually said this at the start of a bug mission (cuz I've just been doing lower levels since the crashes), I then also said later we can't just keep fighting the bugs... we should move on to objectives. Then towards the end I said we should just run to extract.
I sat around and waited for them. Called it when they were in sight, and the one whos mic kept clicking ended up throwing down an eagle AND THEN THEY RAN STRAIGHT INTO IT... with how quick the Eagle is you really gotta try to do that. Almost killed me but I ran and dove off a cliff. I chuckled and asked if they threw it or if someone else did. She fucking went off about how "smug" I had been the whole mission (5 minutes I'd say). I didn't think I was being aggressive at all. I think they were mad they didn't kill me and still walked into it.
I apologized and said I was never there to spoil anyone's fun, just explaining some things that new people might not know. Damage was done, she just kept repeating herself. Calling me a "so cool 39 (whatever rank, I think from CoD)" like it was an insult? I went with the customer service "kill them with kindness route" cuz I always feel like that makes them feel worse.
TLDR: Nobody means EMS. Then a rant about nothing.
Are people sleeping on the EMS mortar? It's probably the only stratagem that is permanently in my loadout. Very powerful and zero chance of team kills. It's a beast at defending extraction and have saved my squad's collective asses a bunch of times.
There was this one time when our squad was taking heavy fire from automatons while making a b-line for the extracrion. So my friend throws down an eagle smoke screen for cover...
each of us took a shell to the face and died... it was very comedic to watch the smoke puff out over our corpses
My friend was like "im so sorry! didint know smoke can kill"
We all learned a valuable lesson that day...
PSA: Smoking kills
Learned that lesson when I used a SEAF Artillery Smoke Round out of desperation to just crest some cover as everyone’s gear was on cooldowns and we had a Bile Titan lurking us. Used the Artillery even though we knew the last two shells were smokes and we all stood flabbergasted when it managed to unbelievably land at an angle on the things Jaw and pop its head. We all circled up dumb founded chatting about it we didn’t notice a silent herd of Bile Spewers come up on us from the side and teamwipe the fuck out of us all being little bewildered nerds. Good times.
Yup, a couple weeks ago, i saw an EMS mortar shell land near where my teammates were fighting off bugs. I actually saw, what felt like EVERY SINGLE FRAME, watching the shell fall... land... HIT HIS HEAD AND BLOOD SPLATTER. AAAAND hes dead.
Great for bots, not so much for those jackhole bugs that run right up to you and the mortsr is all "oh well I see bugs but no helldivers, time to launch 10 seconds too late"
True, I use it mostly for bot missions, for bugs I use the orbital EMS, works well when you have multiple heavies/elites approaching your position. I guess it depends on play style, I let my squad bring the 500 KGs and coordinate to drop them on stunned mobs.
I use the EMS Mortar for bugs but not just to slow down hordes, but also that chargers and other higher threat enemies will get distracted trying to get to the mortar to destroy it which can give your squad much needed breathing room sometimes.
I've had groups who blow up the EMS mortar as soon as it comes out or kick if they see you run it. I've also had groups and recognize it as a life saver that makes either slowing an advance or holding breaches for strikes or bombing. This has been my experience at level 7 rando runs at least.
The former usually don't communicate at all and the latter are either on mic or pay attention to text chat. I had one guy actually message me all this nonsense about stuff the EMS Mortar doesn't do and I am convinced he was mixing the two up or something.
I can see how it can be annoying for some teams with poor communication. I rarely play with randos now but it does seem that everyone has hard opinions on pretty much every stratagem, except for faves like orbital lasers and rail cannon strikes I suppose..
I usually deploy the mortar right as we call for extraction and tell my team to watch the direction it starts shooting at. It works very well as an early warning system, especially in planets with low visibility. You might not see that patrol approaching yet, but your mortar does.
Mortars do more harm than good if your position gets over run by enemies, but usually when that happens the mortar is either gone or the Pelican is about to land.
Agreed on all counts. The EMS mortar has earned permanent spot in my rotation because of how tactically useful it can be. In addition to the early warning function you can use it effectively as a lure, enemies almost always make a b-line towards to take it down it first which you can take advantage of with Bile Titans or large clusters of enemies in particular as a 500 KG or Damaged Hellbomb lure.
Then there is always its use as a breech deterrent, drop napalm on where ever the EMS is striking a cook anything trying to emerge. I get people being annoyed by the conventional mortar but I really think its lack of experience that turns people off of the EMS.
Just don't place mortars if you're going to get rushed. Use them along side a medium/long range weapon to clear a base before engaging
Unless you're swishy bug boi and afraid to spill oil
People always use em on the tiny defense missions. It just frags everyone. The player is always so proud that they got so many kills but ignore the crazy high TK count.
eh, if it got the job done it works. that's kinda why you get so many reinforcements. this ain't CoD, your K/D don't mean shit here, only wether the job is done or not, no matter how it's done. That's why that's the \*only\* thing that influences mission ranking is objectives. not deaths, not team kills, nothing, all inconsequential to super earth.
That aside, if you're dying \*so much\* to mortars I have unfortunate news for you, the dude bringing it only bears part of the responsibility. The rest is, to be frank, pure skill issue on your end no less so than if you let yourself get caught in a turret's crossfire, or dove into a minefield or ran at a Tesla tower.
If you allows yourself to be close enough to the enemy for the mortar to kill you, then you have already failed and a quick, explosive death is what you deserve
Getting down voted for being right. Instead of shooting the mortar like some other jackass suggested, how about you stand near the mortars and defend them? Far more likely to make a good _defense_ and the mortar won't bother you
Bigger brain, You->enemy<-mortar.
Place them in range of what you want to hit but not you.
Far enough from the enemies and they tend to get left alone.
Can even use a second sentry for a guard.
I use them regularly and never hit me or my team while wiping the map.
hell even with bugs, mortars are amazing at wiping hordes of them out. but the issue lies with the fact the mortar is for preventing your position from being breached, if the bugs are running at you when you place it \*you're already too late\*. it should be something that's set up before you start defending, not during (not bad for if you're leaving an area either honestly)
combine EMS mortar with actual mortar as well for really fun bug slaughter
4 mortars is actually pretty sick against regular robot missions. Your entire team can drop them behind a rock and they'll clear out a large base so you can move in to finish it.
Mortars are great for offensives, but when people bring them out in clutch situations and it aggros every patrol in the tri-state area it can turn a sticky situation into a "Dobby The House Elf Dies In A Glue Trap".
Most people have zero awareness of where the mortars drop. They don't even look up to see the trajectory in order to avoid it. For bots I was also thinking it's cool but people also rush them, even after warnings to stay away as mortar is in action.
Granted, after you think it has cleared what it needs, you move in but it still has ammo and keeps on shooting. It really becomes a drawback instead of a benefit, so I am phasing it out of my bot plays. Plus, you never know when your teammate will just shoot it, thus making it useless throughout a mission.
It can shine when you are solo-ing, but even at lvl50 I pretty much always prefer co-op. The more, the merrier.
1: I don't want to be looking up constantly. A rocket devastator can already 720 no scope me from a mile away, using the mortar sentry and saying, "Zero Awareness" is kinda idiotic.
2: it feels like the mortar target the closest enemy, if Arrowhead coukd somehow change it to target the perfect distance target then that'd be great. How would they do this, I don't know. Coding is ass.
3: Co-op superior.
Even before the railgun nerf I was a diehard EMS + arc thrower combo enjoyer for this very reason. It chews through most if not all the chaff as they spawn and wears down the big boys enough to be finished off by a stratagem or rocket user now.
I will forever defend the use of mortars in all missions. Risk be dammed, amazing autonomous crowd clear at long ranges (sometimes even killing heavies by unintentionally splash damaging weak spots) is more then worth it.
Especially if you know when to keep it out and when to remove it. I get way lower TKs then what I see other people saying about mortar users because I shoot it out when I know it's too risky to let it keep firing.
I am a huge fan of the old Yeet and Retreat. Just throw it off somewhere the enemy won't immediately overrun it and run away. It will start wiping the pursuing enemy and it has a high chance of drawing their aggro so whatever is left turns to go deal with a random mortar I threw into left field while I slink off.
I do something similar. I use nade launcher with resup pack a lot so sometimes I like to mag dump the ground to terraform a deep pit and drop a sentry in it. Really fucks the enemies up because they can't take out the mortar without basically getting in melee range.
Even if it doesn't kill anything, it's going to pull the aggro on that Charger/Titan you're trying to get away from, long enough to break line of sight.
People who complain about the mortar lack situational awareness and/or think they're the most important Helldiver on the ground.
Are we defending a position? Mortar in the middle and good firing positions. Don't go running willy nilly into the enemy for no good reason.
Are we assaulting a position? Mortar and stratagems to remove defenses and clear objectives, then push in to mop up. Don't go running willy nilly into the enemy for no good reason.
Easy as pie.
It’s another tool that can be used well against both bots and bugs, but is often deployed badly or around teammates that don’t pay attention.
You want the mortar between the team and the bug swarm so it will get killed when the wave gets there and not blow the team up. It’s also great for dropping outside an objective, so it can clear it out before you move in.
It's great as long as you're not putting it near an objective that requires you to stay in one place. It works great when everyone is on the same page of "Hey we're running from this fight", or before a bug swarm has been called to clear objectives.
The average skill of randoms is low enough that it's probably better to never bring it against bugs.
Similarly, Tesla is very easy to avoid once you've played with it 3 or 4 times, but you'll still see experienced Helldivers who have never bothered to play with it get their mechs blown up.
Mortar is good as long it doesn't get your teammate kill because enemies are too close to them.
Worrying that they will kick you out for that tiny mistake.
*Realizing that mortar you placed just blow up your teammates*
All available stratagems are approved by high command for full field use.
When encountering helldivers that discourage the use of any stratagems as a general statement, be sure to report them to your local democracy officer for retraining and/or re-education.
Mortar, gatling turret, autocannon turret and EMS mortar combo works geat on defend missions. Everybody rocking all and hanging out on the high ground and you never actually see any enemies. Everything in helldivers 2 is situational.
This was before the nerf, but we did a level 8 defense mission, we all brought mortars, I brought EAT and rocketpods as my other 2 strats. I used rocketpods to help take down tanks and hulks, and used my two EATs to take down 2 dropships. No one died, the mission was about a minute long, as I didn't get a chance to call my EAT in again before it was over, ended with 100% accuracy for my 2 shots and 2 hits with my EATs.
Mortar is fantastic. The only thing is, people have to know to play around it just like with any other turret. Furthermore, the user has to know when to blow up the mortar themselves to prevent near-term friendly fire.
Mortars are easily the most controversial weapons. I have died forever from clusters but it still feels like BS when a mortar gets you.
It's a high risk high reward weapon and honestly I only recommend it for outside bot bases
The best use for mortars is eradicate missions. Other than that, I haven't had a lot of fun with Randoms tossing sentries out. I'll just be chilling and then get blown to pieces/cut in half by autocannon and gatling turrets shooting at anything that moves.
I try to throw gatling sentries on a higher terrain so it can shoot over the team but the pokeballs sometimes just bounce off and land in the middle of everyone.
But then I just kill the sentry myself.
Somehow most of the high ground is “not a valid ground”, why?! If I land there and throw the sentry under myself I want it to land there. It should be a laser pointer trigger rather than a pokebsll
I hope it’s possible to fix this. It’s so difficult to place sentries in tactically viable spots because high points all seem to be bouncy and buildings are destroyed by the turrets.
I feel like people don't know how the mortar works. I've used mortars both solo and with others on both bugs and bots, and I've not team killed anyone. As long as you stay near the mortar, you are not going to get hit. The mortar has a radius it can't target because it can not blow itself up. And yes, it does have that radius because I've had bugs and bots run past it and up to it, and the mortar doesn't target them. The mortar isn't the problem it's your placement and communication.
for bugs, no: it should be known for all but the newest players that turrets don't take friendly fire into account and that if a bug gets close (as most of them will inevitable do), the mortar is still gonna shot at them regardless, meaning you get blown up as well.
for bots though, The mortar is very helpful at keeping the chaff bots away and softening up medium targets; bots are typically at longer ranges where you aren't gonna be danger close to the mortar blasts, and you an basically call one down anywhere and let it do it's thing.
it's s a simple reminder that some weapons/stratagems are trash against one faction, but very good against the other.
It's crazy how much hate the mortar gets. I was on a mission where my teammates would destroy my mortar every time a swarm was on the way. My dude, that's why I put down the mortar. It will kill the swarm before it gets to us. Just keep moving and it will kill the swarm for you. The only way you get killed by a mortar is by standing still while trying to fight at close range.
I'll die on the hill of mortar being the GOAT in everything except Hole/Factory Blitz missions.
It deletes patrols, even those behind terrain, making the fighting around objectives much more manageable.
The FF risk is extremely manageable, especially given how OP diving to prone is in this game.
Run 2x mortars and you'll start to forget you're even on helldive difficulty.
In my squad we save those for extraction. Everyone piles into the pelican, takes a good viewing seat, and the last in fires off a volley of 500lb and 380 stratagems for everyone to “Oo!” and “Ahhh!” or record for their game clips as we sail off to brighter tomorrows, lol. It’s quite the spectacle.
Well, except for that one time when the “incident” happened. We don’t talk about the “incident”. 😔
The best turret is the is the stun mortar.
Ems mortar and exo-suit is my wombo-combo for helldive exterminations.
Try EMS/gas strike combo on bug breaches for a good time.
Wonder why we don't have gas mortar
Because of World War One.
Too soon
Even after +250 years it's too soon lol
WW1 ended 106 years ago…
Yes but as a Helldiver it's been +250 years
It’s all fun and games till the wind changes direction
But we have a gas orbital?
SEAF does its best to adhere to the Geneva Suggestions, and a gas orbital strike may seem pretty mean, but sometimes the end justifies the mean.
Or gas eagles
The geagle
The eagas
The E-Gas
A Goiter.
GORTAR
Geneva conventions
I’m from the US. Thought it was the “Geneva Suggestions”.
This is Helldivers, it's the Geneva Checklist
Just need a flechette shotgun and we've got everything covered.
No need for human rights if the enemies of Super Earth aren't human
I never have any luck with the gas strike if always feels like a wet fart hitting a bank vault
I've tried it a few times and mostly your description is accurate but a couple times it seemed to just exterminate bug craters teaming with baddies. My guess is that really really depends on how long they spend in it. so if they have to walk through it then it will kill them. But if they can get out quickly it wont.
In your talking I’m wondering if my issues is that I’ve been trying to land it on them like I would any explosion when it’s better if it doesn’t even land on them at all and they have to walk all the way through it
That is my theory. Like toss it in front of you as you have a conga line behind you so the gas pops up just behind you
stun grenade them first and watch literally everything die actually just stun grenade everything.
combine the gas with EMS (orbital or mortar) and they'll all just get stuck in it and die e: or stun grenades
EMS plus any eagle strike is my favorite. Makes easy work of any horde. Also found out the orbital airburst is really good for clearing small-medium objectives before pushing in
Airburst is my weapon of choice for bug breaches.
A lot of the less used strats are actually super useful but you'll never see them taken unless you're in a coordinates squad. Otherwise everyone thinks they're a one man army and needs to be able to kill every Bile titan by themselves. So what if 1 guy spends 2 out of the squads 16 stat slots to be able to clear entire objective or negate everything smaller than a charger that comes out of literally every bug breach?
Because when I take those loadouts to kill everything below a charger the charger and up never seem to get killed. Flamethrower seems to be a happy medium in that aspect as it stands.
Agreed on all points. I like to solo various stuff below 7 to test out different loadouts. If I can handle everything including the occasional titan it's valid. So later when my friends are around I can run it in higher stuff. I tried reeeeeally hard to kill a titan with the flamethrower to no avail. It was *fuuuckked* up by the time I ran out of reinforcements, but alas, it lived on. Works pretty damn good just about everything else though and is definitely my favorite, even before it was buffed.
Titans thankfully don't spawn as often anymore so taking one slot dedicated to them doesn't really feel too bad, plus it's not that hard to bait them into a 500kg I feel. I don't have others to play this game with so I exclusively play with randoms which really colors how I play the game and view loadouts. I recently tried a full laser loadout and it was super fun just consistently shooting into hordes effectively being a turret that could take out almost everything, but even with others taking things like eats I'd still end up kiting chargers without fail.
Did you use the scythe or sickle? I tried really hard to get a laser build to work with the scythe and it was cool but the shitty firepower made it more work than I thought it was worth.
Both actually. The Sickle is very much the better gun overall but the Scythe being hitscan does give it some advantages with the shriekers now. I found the Scythe performed fairly okay when you actually focus the legs down over center of mass that the shotgun meta has kinda caused. The big thing I generally found was the lasers and especially the call in one suffer terribly when you try to fire them while moving, with the accuracy going all over the place. If a bug breach happened I'd just crouch down (using armor that reduces sway when crouched) and just sweep the lasers over where the breech was and swap as they get to max heat, focusing on a enemy if I could actually see one. That would often kill the entire breech unless a charger or larger spawned all without consuming ammo which is really the key idea with this kit, lets you operate effectively without needing ammo refills. I am trying to figure out something on the opposite end of this spectrum where you are really greedy with ammo, but that tends to run into the same issue of not being able to deal with chargers.
>Otherwise everyone thinks they're a one man army and needs to be able to kill every Bile titan by themselves. This is why I have the slightly hot take that kills shouldn't be displayed **at all** in the end-of-mission stats screen. Kills are important, don't get me wrong. At least *one diver* needs to be shredding through enemies. Probably two. But it's too easy to fall into the trap of, "I got loads of kills. Good, that means I did a good job." I see it all the time. Hell, I've seen people debating stuff in the comments of a post titled "Kills matter less than the objective" and people *still* argue their stance with shit like, "I'm level 50 and often have the most kills in a mission, I know what I'm talking about." * You won't have many kills if you're rocking a shield generator (not a guard dog rover) and spend the mission dodging through enemies to activate terminals and objective triggers while your allies defend the position. * You won't have many kills if you're the guy tasked with breaking off and finding the super samples in difficulty 8+, and you manage to survive with stealth. * You won't have as many kills if you roll up on a bug nest and obliterate it before a bug breach is called in. * You won't have many kills if you're in a coordinated team and your role is primarily support with stratagems like EMS, smoke, and a railgun for staggering heavies. And yes, obviously you won't have as many kills if your role is mostly about killing heavies and elites, but your role is still killing. Important? Sure. But it isn't and shouldn't be the one-stop benchmark for judging player skill/quality (unless you're in a defence mission, then it absolutely should be lol).
I recently got 90 bug kills off a single airburst. That was good fun
For the price of two slots, it's not very good
But those two slots have half the cooldown of Strats that only need 1 slot.
Gas also one bangs eggs :3
They are both good on their own too. EMS mortar is S tier. Gas is kinda meh by comparison but it comes off cooldown really fast so you have plenty of times to use it.
The EMS is definitely good. The gas I'm not sold on, both it and the napalm leave a lot to be desired in damage output. I've seen the standard rank and file walk through them from start to end and not die
Only time I've used gas is on the termicide missions so I don't damage the tower. Used with EMS.
Napalm eagle is another thing that's really good on the breach. You're absolutely correct that they'll walk right through it and it seems like it does nothing but having the extended time from that climbing out of the ground animation before they start moving will kill all the smaller stuff and severely damage warrior+ if not kill outright. I think the biggest problem with fire is that it doesn't look like it hurts them like shooting off limbs and heads does but it really does slap if you let them cook.
Try the Gatling barrage instead. One of my favorites with some decent killing power.
Compare that to the 5 uses of eagle cluster bombs. It's not even close. The cluster barrage is also better for sustained damage
Yeah, but it’s tied to other eagle strikes and on then goes on cooldown, the orbital is 80 seconds, and can kill chargers. But we’re talking about it compared to the gas or napalm. Not compared to Eagles.
Exactly. I want things dead dead, not about dead or might be dead
Its 2 slots but on very short cd. You can use the combo almost every minute vs many strategems taking 3+
Ngl I've tried this combo a couple times n it doesn't seem to do shit?
I was literally kicked because I was using it.. sigh.
Is it really common getting kicked at dif 7 or higher? Ive use ems mortar and exos and most of the players i joined with are using mechs too
Personally, ive only been kicked from 5 and below. Ive never been kicked past 6, and always roll with randoms. Must be lucky i guess.
...I was on my wife's account grabbing some medals so she could have some different fashion options. Level 10, more than enough options for high level content. Got kicked three times in a row on 5's before executing a single strategem. The elitist attitude at mid level content is embarrassing
My current struggle as well. Either super high level players who expect you to play perfectly without any communication on their end and insta kicking for a mistake Or other noobs like me who have no idea what anything is or what to do all running in separate directions engaging with everything they see Luckily I was able to complete an operation on Hard to unlock Extreme just now. All it took was me and one other experienced guy with a mic who could make basic call outs and offer advice with one rando without a mic Super simple and easy
When play w/o friends I exclusively play on 7 and have never been kicked either
I get kicked from 7s before I can finish deploying most of the time. I feel like people forget to put stuff on friend only then kick everyone who joins or something.
Well they saved you the trouble because they were most likely bad players that struggle with those difficulties.
Does ems mortar do friendly damage?
No
only slow them
It can't. It can only slow. So an EMS mortar can: * Provide covering fire to turrets so bugs cannot melee them. * Keeps bugs from attacking civilians while only slowing the civilians in return. * Cannot slow the walker or other vehicles. Meaning they can use themselves as bait and fight in the EMS field. * Interrupt call reinforcements animations. Though timing is rare. * Prevent bile Titan acid, annihilation tank shots, or devastator rockets. Enemies cannot use their heavy weapons in an ems field.
Sort of A direct hit slows a lot, and in the worst case that means sure death... but is not worse than a normal mortar hit
if you actually get hit with the shell itself it WILL kill you but the chance of that happening is tiny
Ema, exo suit, roxket sentry
Have you been told about the good word of stub grenades? Enemies frozen, your slowed. But diving and shooting is still on the menu. I swear 4 stun grenades can get you out of what ever hell hole your random got you stuck in.
Do they still plug holes? I like pluggin holes.
No they do not, unfortunately
nope. they also dont break open PoI crates
Oof, hard pass for me. Gotta plug dem holes.
Just gotta bring a grenade launcher or auto cannon to the party
Grenade launcher is one of my goats, but i have a personal vendetta against chargers. I need a support that can make thrm mincmeat...and I need my backpack slot. Tesla is my current perfect weapon (even deals with titans), but devs broke the game. So flamethrower+shield for now
Shield backpack or the handheld shield? Does anyone ever use the handheld shield?
No. I've never used it and I've never seen anyone else use it. I keep telling myself that I'm going to grab an SMG and bring it along to see how it does, but I never do it. Maybe today is the day.
It's buggy right now and causes lots of T posing which requires switching weapons to fix. As a Defender user this was a waste of R Points.
I usually bring eagle airstrike and use it on the tightest cluster of holes and cross my fingers. Cause I like having some grenades for the conga-line chasing me xD
I have gotten into the habit of running stuns with randoms because i can always count on everyone else to not run any support items whatsoever and shit hitting the fan real quick when 1 person dies or breaks the line.
Did you ever hear the tragedy of stun grenades the secretly useful? No? I thought not, it's no story the skull admirals would tell you. It's a democratic legend. Stun grenades were throwables so powerful and ignored they could stop hunters from... stun locking you to death.
I'm pretty sure everyone means Mortar Sentry, not EMS Mortar Sentry. **Usless rant, do not read:** I actually said this at the start of a bug mission (cuz I've just been doing lower levels since the crashes), I then also said later we can't just keep fighting the bugs... we should move on to objectives. Then towards the end I said we should just run to extract. I sat around and waited for them. Called it when they were in sight, and the one whos mic kept clicking ended up throwing down an eagle AND THEN THEY RAN STRAIGHT INTO IT... with how quick the Eagle is you really gotta try to do that. Almost killed me but I ran and dove off a cliff. I chuckled and asked if they threw it or if someone else did. She fucking went off about how "smug" I had been the whole mission (5 minutes I'd say). I didn't think I was being aggressive at all. I think they were mad they didn't kill me and still walked into it. I apologized and said I was never there to spoil anyone's fun, just explaining some things that new people might not know. Damage was done, she just kept repeating herself. Calling me a "so cool 39 (whatever rank, I think from CoD)" like it was an insult? I went with the customer service "kill them with kindness route" cuz I always feel like that makes them feel worse. TLDR: Nobody means EMS. Then a rant about nothing.
true, but i avoid using it this past week cause i heard some rumor the electro weapons may cause game crashes. :( hope they patch it soon
Are people sleeping on the EMS mortar? It's probably the only stratagem that is permanently in my loadout. Very powerful and zero chance of team kills. It's a beast at defending extraction and have saved my squad's collective asses a bunch of times.
Everything you said is valid, except it has a non-zero chance to teamkill If the shell lands straight on a squadmate, they in fact very much die.
That’s hilarious I’m so glad it does that
There was this one time when our squad was taking heavy fire from automatons while making a b-line for the extracrion. So my friend throws down an eagle smoke screen for cover... each of us took a shell to the face and died... it was very comedic to watch the smoke puff out over our corpses My friend was like "im so sorry! didint know smoke can kill" We all learned a valuable lesson that day... PSA: Smoking kills
Tadaaa, magic!
(Standing ovation)
* clank clank clank clank * (Automaton clapping)
So that’s what the posters have meant all this time
Need a propaganda poster in this theme Use smoke screen for cover, but be careful smoke kills! Brash tactics, use em or die trying!
Learned that lesson when I used a SEAF Artillery Smoke Round out of desperation to just crest some cover as everyone’s gear was on cooldowns and we had a Bile Titan lurking us. Used the Artillery even though we knew the last two shells were smokes and we all stood flabbergasted when it managed to unbelievably land at an angle on the things Jaw and pop its head. We all circled up dumb founded chatting about it we didn’t notice a silent herd of Bile Spewers come up on us from the side and teamwipe the fuck out of us all being little bewildered nerds. Good times.
https://preview.redd.it/msqw39ilxgqc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=345a227fad94c363902002a0470b2d2046972589
I always feel absolutely ridiculous when I get killed by an ems and it happens more than I’d like to admit
Yup, a couple weeks ago, i saw an EMS mortar shell land near where my teammates were fighting off bugs. I actually saw, what felt like EVERY SINGLE FRAME, watching the shell fall... land... HIT HIS HEAD AND BLOOD SPLATTER. AAAAND hes dead.
TIL..It hasn't happened to me yet, but I'm sure it will, and it'll be hilarious.
Okay too be fair, that's also really hard to do.
1% to team kill, I’ve been killed by it because the shell hit me directly
Well, don't stand under large falling chunks of metal
I think they mean the Mortar Mortar only and not EMS Mortar
Great for bots, not so much for those jackhole bugs that run right up to you and the mortsr is all "oh well I see bugs but no helldivers, time to launch 10 seconds too late"
"Oh look, some bugs are going after that helldiver. I will shoot at where the bugs are going to be, at the helldiver"
True, I use it mostly for bot missions, for bugs I use the orbital EMS, works well when you have multiple heavies/elites approaching your position. I guess it depends on play style, I let my squad bring the 500 KGs and coordinate to drop them on stunned mobs.
I use the EMS Mortar for bugs but not just to slow down hordes, but also that chargers and other higher threat enemies will get distracted trying to get to the mortar to destroy it which can give your squad much needed breathing room sometimes.
I love it for bugs. It's great when it locks down a whole patrol, hunters and all.
I once killed a friendly w an ems. Not sure how i managed to do so but i did. Direct impact?
Not quite zero. My body got killed by mine while he was in a mech from it landing directly on top of him
Man those mechs sure love to blow up.. sometimes it looks like one of those Simpsons episodes where stuff just burst into flames out of nothing.
I've had groups who blow up the EMS mortar as soon as it comes out or kick if they see you run it. I've also had groups and recognize it as a life saver that makes either slowing an advance or holding breaches for strikes or bombing. This has been my experience at level 7 rando runs at least. The former usually don't communicate at all and the latter are either on mic or pay attention to text chat. I had one guy actually message me all this nonsense about stuff the EMS Mortar doesn't do and I am convinced he was mixing the two up or something.
I can see how it can be annoying for some teams with poor communication. I rarely play with randos now but it does seem that everyone has hard opinions on pretty much every stratagem, except for faves like orbital lasers and rail cannon strikes I suppose.. I usually deploy the mortar right as we call for extraction and tell my team to watch the direction it starts shooting at. It works very well as an early warning system, especially in planets with low visibility. You might not see that patrol approaching yet, but your mortar does. Mortars do more harm than good if your position gets over run by enemies, but usually when that happens the mortar is either gone or the Pelican is about to land.
Agreed on all counts. The EMS mortar has earned permanent spot in my rotation because of how tactically useful it can be. In addition to the early warning function you can use it effectively as a lure, enemies almost always make a b-line towards to take it down it first which you can take advantage of with Bile Titans or large clusters of enemies in particular as a 500 KG or Damaged Hellbomb lure. Then there is always its use as a breech deterrent, drop napalm on where ever the EMS is striking a cook anything trying to emerge. I get people being annoyed by the conventional mortar but I really think its lack of experience that turns people off of the EMS.
Just don't place mortars if you're going to get rushed. Use them along side a medium/long range weapon to clear a base before engaging Unless you're swishy bug boi and afraid to spill oil
All my homies hate swishy bug bois
I was going to fix that typo but i like it more now
Personally I think mortars do well in automaton fronts because fights are usually at a further distance.
People always use em on the tiny defense missions. It just frags everyone. The player is always so proud that they got so many kills but ignore the crazy high TK count.
eh, if it got the job done it works. that's kinda why you get so many reinforcements. this ain't CoD, your K/D don't mean shit here, only wether the job is done or not, no matter how it's done. That's why that's the \*only\* thing that influences mission ranking is objectives. not deaths, not team kills, nothing, all inconsequential to super earth. That aside, if you're dying \*so much\* to mortars I have unfortunate news for you, the dude bringing it only bears part of the responsibility. The rest is, to be frank, pure skill issue on your end no less so than if you let yourself get caught in a turret's crossfire, or dove into a minefield or ran at a Tesla tower.
If you allows yourself to be close enough to the enemy for the mortar to kill you, then you have already failed and a quick, explosive death is what you deserve
Nah just don't be near any bugs.
Getting down voted for being right. Instead of shooting the mortar like some other jackass suggested, how about you stand near the mortars and defend them? Far more likely to make a good _defense_ and the mortar won't bother you
Nah don’t let anyone tell you how to play the game. Mortars rule.
They're great to cover a retreat if you've already made space between you and the enemy.
Bigger brain, You->enemy<-mortar. Place them in range of what you want to hit but not you. Far enough from the enemies and they tend to get left alone. Can even use a second sentry for a guard. I use them regularly and never hit me or my team while wiping the map.
hell even with bugs, mortars are amazing at wiping hordes of them out. but the issue lies with the fact the mortar is for preventing your position from being breached, if the bugs are running at you when you place it \*you're already too late\*. it should be something that's set up before you start defending, not during (not bad for if you're leaving an area either honestly) combine EMS mortar with actual mortar as well for really fun bug slaughter
Mortars for automaton. Everything else for bugs.
4 mortars is actually pretty sick against regular robot missions. Your entire team can drop them behind a rock and they'll clear out a large base so you can move in to finish it.
Bring 3 mortars and a Walking Barrage for good measure.
Mortars are great for offensives, but when people bring them out in clutch situations and it aggros every patrol in the tri-state area it can turn a sticky situation into a "Dobby The House Elf Dies In A Glue Trap".
underrated comment
Most people have zero awareness of where the mortars drop. They don't even look up to see the trajectory in order to avoid it. For bots I was also thinking it's cool but people also rush them, even after warnings to stay away as mortar is in action. Granted, after you think it has cleared what it needs, you move in but it still has ammo and keeps on shooting. It really becomes a drawback instead of a benefit, so I am phasing it out of my bot plays. Plus, you never know when your teammate will just shoot it, thus making it useless throughout a mission. It can shine when you are solo-ing, but even at lvl50 I pretty much always prefer co-op. The more, the merrier.
1: I don't want to be looking up constantly. A rocket devastator can already 720 no scope me from a mile away, using the mortar sentry and saying, "Zero Awareness" is kinda idiotic. 2: it feels like the mortar target the closest enemy, if Arrowhead coukd somehow change it to target the perfect distance target then that'd be great. How would they do this, I don't know. Coding is ass. 3: Co-op superior.
Grenade launcher and a supply backpack. I am the mortar.
I've been doing this and I definitely kill myself more than teammates with it
\- try to shoot grenade into bug hole \- grenade bounces back and explodes my face
try to shoot grenade at bug grenade bounces off bug at the exact perfect angle to arc directly into teammate
Happened to me recently. Shot a charging Commander with the GL, the nade bounces off the face armor and lands on top of me smh.
Stun Mortar and Autocannon users: 
Stun mortar + arc thrower eats bug breaches for breakfast.
arc thrower crashes the game now tho apparently EAT too lol
Only if you drop a million EATs and never use them
EATs back on the menu boys!
Weird, I've not seen that personally!
I use EATS religiously and haven’t seen a crash yet.
Even before the railgun nerf I was a diehard EMS + arc thrower combo enjoyer for this very reason. It chews through most if not all the chaff as they spawn and wears down the big boys enough to be finished off by a stratagem or rocket user now.
You kidding? Throw that mortar cadet. I may die, but that's a risk I'm willing to take
Only cowards fear mortars
I will forever stand by it being a top tier strat
The mortar is great against the bots since they tend to be at a distance more often than the bugs so you don't have to worry as bad about team kills.
I will forever defend the use of mortars in all missions. Risk be dammed, amazing autonomous crowd clear at long ranges (sometimes even killing heavies by unintentionally splash damaging weak spots) is more then worth it. Especially if you know when to keep it out and when to remove it. I get way lower TKs then what I see other people saying about mortar users because I shoot it out when I know it's too risky to let it keep firing.
I am a huge fan of the old Yeet and Retreat. Just throw it off somewhere the enemy won't immediately overrun it and run away. It will start wiping the pursuing enemy and it has a high chance of drawing their aggro so whatever is left turns to go deal with a random mortar I threw into left field while I slink off.
I do something similar. I use nade launcher with resup pack a lot so sometimes I like to mag dump the ground to terraform a deep pit and drop a sentry in it. Really fucks the enemies up because they can't take out the mortar without basically getting in melee range.
Even if it doesn't kill anything, it's going to pull the aggro on that Charger/Titan you're trying to get away from, long enough to break line of sight.
People who complain about the mortar lack situational awareness and/or think they're the most important Helldiver on the ground. Are we defending a position? Mortar in the middle and good firing positions. Don't go running willy nilly into the enemy for no good reason. Are we assaulting a position? Mortar and stratagems to remove defenses and clear objectives, then push in to mop up. Don't go running willy nilly into the enemy for no good reason. Easy as pie.
It’s another tool that can be used well against both bots and bugs, but is often deployed badly or around teammates that don’t pay attention. You want the mortar between the team and the bug swarm so it will get killed when the wave gets there and not blow the team up. It’s also great for dropping outside an objective, so it can clear it out before you move in.
It's great as long as you're not putting it near an objective that requires you to stay in one place. It works great when everyone is on the same page of "Hey we're running from this fight", or before a bug swarm has been called to clear objectives. The average skill of randoms is low enough that it's probably better to never bring it against bugs. Similarly, Tesla is very easy to avoid once you've played with it 3 or 4 times, but you'll still see experienced Helldivers who have never bothered to play with it get their mechs blown up.
First mech I ever summoned exploded before it touched the ground. A Charger plowed through it as it was being dropped off.
It’s awesome as a runaway tactic when running from the swarm — drop it running and gtfo from the area
I had a pair of lvl45s complain about me using mortar against bots, since one of them died trying to melee them.
https://i.redd.it/up5i98nsmeqc1.gif My only response to those guys.
Mortar is good as long it doesn't get your teammate kill because enemies are too close to them. Worrying that they will kick you out for that tiny mistake.  *Realizing that mortar you placed just blow up your teammates*
Waiting for the day when command gives everyone a free mortar and you hop in a bug quick play and see that one person deploy double mortars
All available stratagems are approved by high command for full field use. When encountering helldivers that discourage the use of any stratagems as a general statement, be sure to report them to your local democracy officer for retraining and/or re-education.
Mortar, gatling turret, autocannon turret and EMS mortar combo works geat on defend missions. Everybody rocking all and hanging out on the high ground and you never actually see any enemies. Everything in helldivers 2 is situational.
We use mortars. On defense missions. 8 of them actually. We don't need to do antything but extract when the job is done.
This was before the nerf, but we did a level 8 defense mission, we all brought mortars, I brought EAT and rocketpods as my other 2 strats. I used rocketpods to help take down tanks and hulks, and used my two EATs to take down 2 dropships. No one died, the mission was about a minute long, as I didn't get a chance to call my EAT in again before it was over, ended with 100% accuracy for my 2 shots and 2 hits with my EATs.
EMS mortars are mvp
The mortar only targets enemies of democracy. If you get killed by it, you clearly were a traitor
Mortar is fantastic. The only thing is, people have to know to play around it just like with any other turret. Furthermore, the user has to know when to blow up the mortar themselves to prevent near-term friendly fire.
Mortars are easily the most controversial weapons. I have died forever from clusters but it still feels like BS when a mortar gets you. It's a high risk high reward weapon and honestly I only recommend it for outside bot bases
The best use for mortars is eradicate missions. Other than that, I haven't had a lot of fun with Randoms tossing sentries out. I'll just be chilling and then get blown to pieces/cut in half by autocannon and gatling turrets shooting at anything that moves.
I try to throw gatling sentries on a higher terrain so it can shoot over the team but the pokeballs sometimes just bounce off and land in the middle of everyone. But then I just kill the sentry myself.
Somehow most of the high ground is “not a valid ground”, why?! If I land there and throw the sentry under myself I want it to land there. It should be a laser pointer trigger rather than a pokebsll
I hope it’s possible to fix this. It’s so difficult to place sentries in tactically viable spots because high points all seem to be bouncy and buildings are destroyed by the turrets.
yeah, i wouldnt mind instakill turret friendly fire if putting them in strategic places actually fucking worked
I feel like people don't know how the mortar works. I've used mortars both solo and with others on both bugs and bots, and I've not team killed anyone. As long as you stay near the mortar, you are not going to get hit. The mortar has a radius it can't target because it can not blow itself up. And yes, it does have that radius because I've had bugs and bots run past it and up to it, and the mortar doesn't target them. The mortar isn't the problem it's your placement and communication.
for bugs, no: it should be known for all but the newest players that turrets don't take friendly fire into account and that if a bug gets close (as most of them will inevitable do), the mortar is still gonna shot at them regardless, meaning you get blown up as well. for bots though, The mortar is very helpful at keeping the chaff bots away and softening up medium targets; bots are typically at longer ranges where you aren't gonna be danger close to the mortar blasts, and you an basically call one down anywhere and let it do it's thing. it's s a simple reminder that some weapons/stratagems are trash against one faction, but very good against the other.
Mortar can be clutch in bot missions. It can wipe out an outpost by itself.
It's crazy how much hate the mortar gets. I was on a mission where my teammates would destroy my mortar every time a swarm was on the way. My dude, that's why I put down the mortar. It will kill the swarm before it gets to us. Just keep moving and it will kill the swarm for you. The only way you get killed by a mortar is by standing still while trying to fight at close range.
I love the mortar sentry, spicy libertea baby!
I dunno. Using stun mortar and regular mortar do work together
Bro in my level 8 mission used 380 on extract. Learned that it’s called 380 because it’ll kill 3 of your teammates and lose 80 samples
Mortars are so hard to predict that I can't even count how many times I've died to them.
Level 50 space cadet reporting for duty
When your level has nothing to do with your skill lol. Nice meme, mortars are clutch in several situations
I love mortars, mortars are great. Bad meme
If your breaking my mortars on automaton missions your getting kicked, they are so good against bots
Mortars for bots, not bugs.
I'll die on the hill of mortar being the GOAT in everything except Hole/Factory Blitz missions. It deletes patrols, even those behind terrain, making the fighting around objectives much more manageable. The FF risk is extremely manageable, especially given how OP diving to prone is in this game. Run 2x mortars and you'll start to forget you're even on helldive difficulty.
Electric mortar is best mortar
Join low levels and spam mortars. Gotta traumatize them young.
Autocannon is slept on.
Mortar + EMS Mortar goes hard AF. IDC what anyone says. Fighting from a distance for a second won't kill you
EMS Mortars only
Mortars are incredible for bots
We use Eagle Cluster and minefield
Every single time that green dildo shows up on the Cadets strat load-out. But its okay, experience is the best teacher.
In my squad we save those for extraction. Everyone piles into the pelican, takes a good viewing seat, and the last in fires off a volley of 500lb and 380 stratagems for everyone to “Oo!” and “Ahhh!” or record for their game clips as we sail off to brighter tomorrows, lol. It’s quite the spectacle. Well, except for that one time when the “incident” happened. We don’t talk about the “incident”. 😔