Why does this happen?

I tried big berta and whenever I hit someone with the area damage (they're aren't in center) I would do like 100-200 damage. Whenever people shoot big Berta at me and I'm caught in area damage, it hits me for 1500 damage. Why the heck does people big bertas do such insane damage? Was I just using it wrong? I scrapped my big Berta as it wasn't giving results like these guys mortars were before

 

Anticipate where they are moving and lead your shot so you hit then in center. Practice makes perfect

 

I know the feeling. Got hit a couple times today, unassumingly with Big Berthas, on took over 1k damage and the other blasted through my Tesla Shield and took the guy I was trying to shield and me out. Meanwhile, even leading shots, I usually get a couple hundred points, if that much, on the unfriends.

 

I agree the area damage even at extremity of berta is too damn high....

 

The area damage of big torpedo is too damn high, leave Big Berta alone

 

We are taking about berta here, this thread is about berta. Not trying to be rude, but this isn't a thread about big torpedo(although i hate big torpedo more than berta and i totally agree with you)

 

Torpedoes are fine. Terrible projectile speed, straight line, relatively easy to see coming. They're about 1000% more fair than mortar spam of any flavor. Mortars have enormous AoE, tons of damage, can be fired over walls to hit targets with no chance to retaliate, and their only real downfall is that there are a few select spots in a couple stages where they can't be used because of overhangs. Oh noes.

 

I don't even know how it works. My Berta says 550 damage in inventory but never lands for more than 200. Maybe I'm just bad at aiming but yeah, I feel ya.

 

Try it with frost

 

I think big berta is fine as it is. If you can't dodge mortars, just install a turbo in your ship. If you still can't dodge mortars, pay attention to the waves. If you still can't dodge mortars, then obviously you're doing something wrong. Big berta is the easiest to dodge out of all mortars.

 

Sure, _A_ mortar is easy to dodge. MortarS, on the other hand...there's very little to be done when you see the whole area light up like a Christmas tree the moment one person on your team gets spotted. No weapon but mortars can inflict that kind of damage over any kind of distance while completely ignoring obstacles, negating requirement to actually land a proper hit, AND being able to leave you completely safe from any return fire by not leaving a clear line of fire behind itself.

 

This problem can also be solved by not running in on your own. And big bertha doesn't have that range, not even with range perks. Those are longe range mortars you are talking about.

But still, don't rush in on your own, don't seperate too much from your team, then this won't happen. You could also try approaching enemies with the behind of your ship, that way it's easier to get away whenever you receive the focus.

And even so, the longe range mortars are the problem, not big berta.

 

One speeder spots your team. The rest of their team drops mortars everywhere, including Big Bertas, because walls are a non-issue for mortar fire. Your team scatters, but still takes a solid chunk of damage because mortar AoE is just silly. Now, your team is broken up and damaged, while the enemies can just float in and pick them off or continue raining mortars at their leisure (oh, by the way, you're still not sure where anyone but their speeder is). Unless your team is also fat with mortars, what recourse do you propose for this (increasingly common) scenario? "Stay together" is terrible advice when mortars are falling, and speed and maneuvering space are both finite. In most maps, mortar spam is going to win 70% or better of the fights, just because there's so little that can be done about it. Sure, you can dodge, or mostly dodge, a couple...but eventually one is going to land squarely on your head (or at least very nearly so), just because there's only so much room to maneuver, and if like most people you run with your team, an opponent leading them could very well drop one on you completely by accident. One way or the other, there's no weapon which benefits from stacking a team with it the way all varieties of mortars do. It's not any one flavor; they're all very nearly equally problematic when there are enough on a team.

 

And thus big berta is not overpowered, nor is any other mortar. It's just lots of mortars at the same time are dangerous. So, can we at least agree that big berta isn't overpowered?

 

"One isn't disproportionately powerful compared to others of its class" and "the whole class isn't over-tuned" are significantly different statements, of which I only agree with one. Big Berta isn't ridiculous compared to other mortars, but the whole class of weapon benefits disproportionately from stacking. Ships are incredibly unwieldy, by and large, so with very few exceptions mortar spam is dominant until significantly higher level (because limited maneuverability means limited capacity to dodge), where speeders, nitro, and the like become much more common. That seems like the sort of issue that a dev would want to balance, unless (bafflingly) they think that the current lower level dominance is somehow balanced by their much more limited usefulness at high level.

 

Ironically, ships gets slower at higher mk levels. We just use turbo to compensate, but even then, most of us are still slower than we used to be. And yet we're better at dodging mortars despite the slower ship.

 

Nitro. Overboost. More slots for the 'nice-to-haves' at higher levels. It's not surprising at all. If I had 3 yellow slots on any given boat, I'd never have to worry about mortars either. Even shooters and defenders have more blue slots later on; enough to normally be able to afford a turbo slotted into one of them. It's not really a matter of 'skill' when the options are "paper ship with one shot of nitro" or "slightly less fragile ship with middling speed." At that point, you just do what you can with what you've got. One way or another, at low level, you can escape one mortar, maybe two if you're lucky. more than that and you're getting hammered no matter what. High level, on the other hand, has better speed despite a lower raw speed stat, thanks to all the speed buffs + extra slots for speed boosting gear.

 

Before anyone gets the wrong idea. I didn't make this topic to whine about mortars. I was wondering about the damage difference in our big Berta's lol

 

I am using an mk5 shooter with just 1,1 speed. No yellow slots for me. And I have zero trouble dodging mortars, most of the time even taking zero damage. Of course I don't really like mortar rain, but with my dodging ability I can survive long enough for the rest of my team to take out those mortar spammers. If I with 1,1 speed without a single yellow slot are able to dodge those mortars... Then what's your excuse?

 

.98 speed. Get caught on the outermost rings, still take 200 damage because, again, mortar splash is silly. Extra speed, like you have, would make all the difference there.