Acid Mortar mobility buff (Traps)

[Ry]

I have to say, Acid Mortar is easily one of my favorite powers in the Traps set. It’s reliable, effective, and adds a lot of flavor to the toolkit. But there’s just one catch...
 

It’s a mortar. And like any proper mortar, it’s stationary. Completely locked in place—trapped, you might say (see what I did there?). But all joking aside...

Once placed, it stays put until you summon a new one elsewhere, which can get a bit tedious, especially in fast-moving or dynamic encounters. Unlike the Force Field Generator or Seeker Drones, the Acid Mortar doesn't follow you around or adjust to new positioning. It feels a bit like the old Gun Turret from Devices before it was upgraded to the mobile Gun Drone, which was introduced on live servers.
 

So here’s a thought: what if our trusty Acid Mortar evolved into something more mobile? Perhaps turning into an Acid Drone (working name, of course)—a flying companion that could move with you, similar to its counterparts in other sets. It would preserve the core functionality of the power while significantly improving its versatility and ease of use.

Would this be a possibility?

Edited Friday at 01:07 PM by Ry

[Psyonico]

Traps is already one of the most powerful sets in the game and I have a feeling if they were to make Acid Mortar mobile, they’d nerf it in some other way, like only allowing 1 to be out…

 

I’d rather have my 3 Acid Mortars on an AV/GM than 1 mobile one for other content.

 

Now, that being said, the devs had originally indicated they were not going to expand “mutually exclusive” powers, but they are doing that in page 2… so maybe that would be the better option?

[MTeague]

I admit, I do tend to solo on my Thugs/Traps MM, because teams are all gogogo like rabid 5 year olds after a big bowl of Choco Frosted Sugar Bombs.  They'd never benefit more than a tick or three from Triage Beacon, never bring new mobs back to my Acid Mortor, and have no interest in even trying to stay near my Shield Generator Drone.  Never mind making effective use of Trip Mines or the like. 

[kelika2]

3 hours ago, MTeague said:

Never mind making effective use of Trip Mines or the like. 

never toebombed?

never got in a mayhem mission where you know ambushes were coming and set up like 3-4 mines and told your pets to stay at the door and piss off all the alarms at once?

[MTeague]

1 hour ago, kelika2 said:

never toebombed?

never got in a mayhem mission where you know ambushes were coming and set up like 3-4 mines and told your pets to stay at the door and piss off all the alarms at once?

Sure.  soloing.

[biostem]

Can you recall target your acid mortar?  How about an option where you can "re-pack" your acid mortar to de-spawn the current one and instantly recharge the power?

[Psyonico]

1 hour ago, biostem said:

Can you recall target your acid mortar?

No, I believe you used to be able to, though…

 

actually, funny thing… Acid Mortar is stationary because it has a mag 100 immobilize on it.  If you and your friends stack Clarion enough, you *can* move it.

 

 You can also see this in action in the first mission of Mender Ramiel’s arc.

[TheMoneyMaker]

Thematically, "Traps" suggests putting down objects that you lure your enemies to so that harm befalls them. Force Field isn't a trap, it's a mobile protection device for yourself. The gun turret of Devices is a mobile weapons platform for a blaster, and if you turned mortar into something similar you lose the feel of a support set and turn it into even more of an offensive damage set... or to offset the increased mobility you lose something in other powers of the set to offset the increased utility, which I'm going to guess would be the high damage from the bombs.

 

I'll pass on changing traps, but I will suggest perhaps a Traps-style Assault set for dominators and/or Manipulation set for blasters. Yes, I know blasters already get Devices, but I could see a similar but different set with some powers inspired by the traps set, including a mobile acid mortar, and the explosives.....perhaps instead of a force field generator have one of those targeting drones circling around and granting the user increased +Regen and +Recovery like a mobile med-bot. Manipulation also typically has some melee powers, so maybe use the basic knife stabby-stabby power to replace one or two things. Likewise on ditching force field for Assault Traps, maybe grant the drones more explosive potential for ranged attacks, etc etc