Opinion on the "new" USF mortar?

How do you feel the new USF mortar?

I played some USF games lately and I had the feeling it couldn't hit anything in all the games I did.
I had it quite close from a buidling and ask to fire at it and simply missed it half of the time. I mean it wasn't even able to touch a building at mid range and on vision.
I had it just behind my rifles and firing at volks/sturm standing on no cover/red cover on a road and it didn't kill/damage anything during all the fight.
I had it firing at garrisoned building and it simply never kill any model on the building. It took 3-4 barrages to get the squad half life inside.

Those are only examples, moments I saw in live being like "what are you doing fu.king mortar!!". I thought it could simply be bad luck but in fact, in a 10 games raw I didn't feel any moment the mortar performed well enough for the investment. I get it several time to vet3 indeed but it never had a critical impact, just doing some AOE damage randomly during the game lenght till vet3.

As opposed, I also played some Ostheer games and used the mortar and regularly kill 1-2 models per shell and some time almost all the squad.

I'll say "as usual" the Ostheer mortar performs well and it can't be bad luck if when I play Ostheer my mortar does well and when I play USF it doesn't...

I personally came to the conclusion the USF mortar became quite useless unless having some lucky moments, only good for smoke shell.
So I went back for the pak howi and get this impact a support weapon should deliver when you use it.

Now I know the USF mortar was overperforming before, I was playing intensively Ostheer during all that time but I have the impression it went from OP to useless...

I've tried to use 1 or 2 mortars yesterday. On big city maps they feel more useless then small 1v1 maps with few garrisons. They are good to keep early HMGs at bay, but in mid-late game they .. hm .. i don't know, it is just waste of MP to get mortars mid-late game, better invest in Scott

I believe the mortars lethality is fine, however it's range is too small. While the auto-fire range could be left as in, the player controlled barrage should be the same as other mortars.

It's what it was supposed to be before Relic decided to screw with it's stats.

If you want a real mortar it can't be in T0.

And yes, it's meant to be useless in bigger maps because balance is all about 1v1s and 2v2s, not 3v3s and +, that's also the reason why Axis have dominance over the mid-late game while the Allies have dominance in the early-mid game.

How do you feel the new USF mortar?

I played some USF games lately and I had the feeling it couldn't hit anything in all the games I did.
I had it quite close from a buidling and ask to fire at it and simply missed it half of the time. I mean it wasn't even able to touch a building at mid range and on vision.
I had it just behind my rifles and firing at volks/sturm standing on no cover/red cover on a road and it didn't kill/damage anything during all the fight.
I had it firing at garrisoned building and it simply never kill any model on the building. It took 3-4 barrages to get the squad half life inside.

Those are only examples, moments I saw in live being like "what are you doing fu.king mortar!!". I thought it could simply be bad luck but in fact, in a 10 games raw I didn't feel any moment the mortar performed well enough for the investment. I get it several time to vet3 indeed but it never had a critical impact, just doing some AOE damage randomly during the game lenght till vet3.

As opposed, I also played some Ostheer games and used the mortar and regularly kill 1-2 models per shell and some time almost all the squad.

I'll say "as usual" the Ostheer mortar performs well and it can't be bad luck if when I play Ostheer my mortar does well and when I play USF it doesn't...

I personally came to the conclusion the USF mortar became quite useless unless having some lucky moments, only good for smoke shell.
So I went back for the pak howi and get this impact a support weapon should deliver when you use it.

Now I know the USF mortar was overperforming before, I was playing intensively Ostheer during all that time but I have the impression it went from OP to useless...

got 5 month to give opinion on "new" USF mortar.

because US mortar was meant to fight garrisons and put smoke in early game, to counter MG's in buildings, unlike other factions mortars, note also that US has pack howie, which is a rampage to infantry so they already have two indirect units

It's new range is just pathetic. Yet I don't feel USF is lacking in its early game even with the USF mortar in it's current state. However, I do think the range needs a slight increase at the least. I mean, even if its role is to fight garrisons and dispense smoke on top of these garrisons, it doesn't need to be so close to them that the garrison can actually spot it lol.

I am honest to you, I didn't notice the new USF mortar that much as I have only played a few game since WBP.

BUT IMO every nerf to the mortar is right. It shouldn't be a unit wiper like it has been before, it should be a counter to MGs and buildings. So keep it weak but give it some extra damage against units in buildings and a precise MANUAL (!) barrage (not auto!).

USF has the best early inf in the game, they don't need more AI.

It sucks, mostly due to the range which is barely greater than an mg. Combined with the stupid long time support weapons take to pack up, it's mostly a waste. I refuse to build them and have ejected them from my strategy. I've found more success getting early grenades and stealing a grw.

The range of the USF mortar is 65 the range of the hmg is 45. That is x142% I wouldn't call that "barely greater".

It's in a great spot, precisely as it should have been from the start. Small range but good rate of fire, especially the barrage. Tiny setup times, smoke. It needs to be microed actively and repositioned often to get good results. I wish all artillery was like that.

all artillery cannot be re-positioned

It's in a great spot, precisely as it should have been from the start. Small range but good rate of fire, especially the barrage. Tiny setup times, smoke. It needs to be microed actively and repositioned often to get good results. I wish all artillery was like that.

This reflects my opinion as well. It feels good, although micro intensive.

It's what it was supposed to be before Relic decided to screw with it's stats.

If you want a real mortar it can't be in T0.

And yes, it's meant to be useless in bigger maps because balance is all about 1v1s and 2v2s, not 3v3s and +, that's also the reason why Axis have dominance over the mid-late game while the Allies have dominance in the early-mid game.

I'll keep the argument next time someone cry about HMG34 being too weak.

got 5 month to give opinion on "new" USF mortar.

Why 5 months? why not 6?

because US mortar was meant to fight garrisons and put smoke in early game, to counter MG's in buildings, unlike other factions mortars, note also that US has pack howie, which is a rampage to infantry so they already have two indirect units

Yes, this is probably the right answer, I should be calling and using it for smoke barrage first and next some extra damage it can deal on auto-fire.

I am honest to you, I didn't notice the new USF mortar that much as I have only played a few game since WBP.

BUT IMO every nerf to the mortar is right. It shouldn't be a unit wiper like it has been before, it should be a counter to MGs and buildings. So keep it weak but give it some extra damage against units in buildings and a precise MANUAL (!) barrage (not auto!).

USF has the best early inf in the game, they don't need more AI.

The barrage isn't accurate, as I say, it wasn't able to land its shells on an big house at mid-range with vision so there is no extra damage vs garrisoned units. The unit actually is really poor vs buidling, it is just a smoke dealer as Barton mentioned it.

I'll keep the argument next time someone cry about HMG34 being too weak.

That its in t0? Mg34 isnt in t0, not when you have to build a tier to unlock it.

because US mortar was meant to fight garrisons and put smoke in early game, to counter MG's in buildings, unlike other factions mortars, note also that US has pack howie, which is a rampage to infantry so they already have two indirect units

What Barton said.

I would only add that USF will have access to 3 indirect fire units when the M8 Scott stops sucking. There needs to be some differentiation so that we don't have cheaper units (mortars) overshadowing units that require specific tech paths (pak howitzer).

I would only maybe consider buffing barrage range. However only if officers don't come for free, and still maybe.

The USF mortar is supposed to be an early-game unit. USF problems are late-game, and USF is a problem early game. Buffing an early-game unit won't make either problem go away.

M8 scott sucks? well, it's not like it's USF first tank choice in the game, but it pretty much well counters infantry, in some game lately i had over 20 kills with it and it only was on the field for some minutes, also it's barrage is good because it can fire barrage on the move

both barrage and auto fire range are : 65

it should be
auto fire :65
barrage : 80

M8 scott sucks? well, it's not like it's USF first tank choice in the game, but it pretty much well counters infantry, in some game lately i had over 20 kills with it and it only was on the field for some minutes, also it's barrage is good because it can fire barrage on the move

The problem with the scott is while the barrage is great, it bugs out (cancels) if you stop scott at any point during the barrage -- it's not possible to fix this bug. Thus, if you start a barrage and the enemy forces you to move while barraging, you need to keep moving.

It also doesn't help that the barrage has a 60-second cooldown.

Why 5 months? why not 6?

because WBP started in late 2016, usf mortar was in the first version of the balance preview mod giving you at least 5 month to give your opinion.

Guess what, your opinion mattered 5 month ago and could have change things but now it's too late