Acid Mortar Slotting question

Hello all. I got by bots/traps mastermind up to level 45 (5 more till my first 50!) and I've never figured out how to slot acid mortar. Right now it just has 3 recharge in it but is there a better way I could slot it to make it better. I mostly use it if there's a boss or something for the debuff but I heard people talking about slotting it with damage procs. Is this a good idea?

Acid Mortar is worth 6-slot IMO.

The goal is to get recharge down so you can overlap two AM for a while. The debuffs from each mortar STACK!

You want to get some accuracy into it. It does make a big difference if you are fighting something +2 or higher.

You can get several damage procs for AM. My Ice/Trap Corr went with chance to hold originally and it helps. The funny thing between Corr and MM Acid Mortar is that MM's AM takes Target AoE set while Corr's takes single Range Damage sets. Don't ask me why.

You can put Chance for Negative Damage from defense debuff sets. MM can use chance for energy from Positron set. Once you are lvl 50, you can try chance for knockdown for some controls.

I haven't played my trapper for so long. Can AM take Accurate Defense Debuff sets? That would be full of options then!

Those procs are good fun when your AM gets a bunch of fulcrum shift stacks on it and those procs hit for big damage.

But, if you slot three damage how do you cap recharge and still get reasonable accuracy?

deerrrrr.... I didn't mean damage, I meant recharge. oops =)

But still, you answered my question.


Yes, fulcrum shift does hit your acid mortar. Hell, it even hits my FFG =)

Now, does global +acc work on the accuracy of AM, or no? If its a "pet", I guess it wont work, then boy how do you cram in everything? Accuracy, recharge, hell, endurance AND procs? I mean you can dump in the Posi, Achilles, Lady Grey and Shieldbreaker set ones, right?

I haven't tried putting damage procs in AM, but considering it's a single target attack and fires at a slow pace, I'd say damage procs are kind of silly in it, little bang for big bucks. As I recall, the procs are all just "minor damage" which generally is pretty minor. Putting them in something like Caltrops would better because they have a chance to hit a whole group.

I haven't checked into all the possible procs but I'd aim more for "effect" ones rather than damage. Or you could just slot up the defense debuff (after the recharge) with generics which is dirt cheap and will help you take down your foe much faster. I once fought Black Scorpion and had a chance to get two AMs out - it was pretty sweet.

But, as with everything, do what you like! I slotted a minor energy damage proc in my Bots/Dark's TarPatch. Same deal as above, "little bang for big buck", but for some reason it seemed to fit my toon and I get some sort of satisfaction seeing it in there.

No one's mentioned it, but you should put the Achilles Heel chance for -resist in there somewhere.

From what I know and have tested before, Acid Mortar:

1. It's AoE attack with about 4' radius. The mortar shoots 10 times I think. The firing rate is about once in 4-5s. 4' radius is pretty decent when foes are nice and tight.

2. I totally forgot about AH proc. Yeah, I have it on my Ice/Trap corr and back when AH proc has perma duration, you could literally stack two AM debuffs + two AH debuffs. That was a lot of debuffing!

3. Proc damage doesn't get damage buff but benefits from resistance debuffs. And proc damage is affected by the "rank" of the pet too. Your boss pet's proc damage is higher than yours and your minion pet's proc damage is the lowest.

According to City of Data, its an 8' AoE, about the same as most melee PbAoEs so decent but not fireball level, and it fires every 5.5 sec (so I misremembered it).

Sort of a tossup then whether to damage proc that or Caltrops, AM fires more often but Caltrops is more stackable.

Once combat get started the chances of everyone staying all grouped tightly for AM to reliably AoE all over them is... well, a little unlikely in my experience/opinion, so I'd still go with putting procs in 'trops (is that like fox in box?). Assuming I was going looking to use a damage proc anyways; remember, minor damage is minor after all. Achilles Heel is another matter.

Then again, it's good to know that about AM and I am rather 'trops-philic as a general rule anyway. Thanks for passing that on about AM.

Actually, i have a bots/traps lv. 50. And I have it slotted with both Accurate Defense Debuff IO's that do Acc/end/recharge. With both on the highest level u can get them, it puts those three attributes at roughly 39%. A little low on the recharge, and i wish the others could be higher, but the other 4 slots i have an achilles' heel -resist in there, as well as three damage procs in it. And let me tell you, i luuvs my acid mortar. Not only does it add some nice numbers (may actually do more damage than a teir one robot in large groups), it has the ability to debuff somethings resist by 40%, and it actually takes aggro every now and then even in heavy fire battles which means my bots get spared from taking that damage. I dont have tactics, and i find its accuracy to be pretty good, considering there is no such thing as toxic defense in the game. If something has aoe defense acid mortar might miss a bit more, but it only takes hitting once to knock out some defense to make acid mortar hit easier the next time. And acid mortar has an 8 foot radius and fires every 5.5 seconds. Meaning it fires its procs almost 2x as fast as caltrops, AND its -resist, especially with achilles heel, can increase its own procs damage. I've seen it hit harder than my assault bot's single target attack, and the most damage i've seen it do without outside assistance was 171 damage to a +1 minion.

But yea, thats my suggestion for slotting. The extra damage procs also help if ur bots are down, because the acid mortar can attract a little attention and provide some cover in order for u to resummon. And as for recharge, I have hasten on my bots/traps, and just got 30% global recharge, and probably 66% of the time i have out two acid mortars at once. It will probably go up more once i get more recharge bonuses.

As for the knockdown proc, mids is saying it only has a 20% chance, which isnt any better than a damage proc. Damage procs hitting can also provide valuable damage mitigation in defeating an enemy, and knockdown doesnt always last that long. But your mileage may vary.

On one MM I have AM slotted with 3 recharge, 1 acc, 1 Achilles heel, 1 def debuf

The other traps MM I have 3 recharge, 1 acc, 1 Achilles heel, 1 damage proc (forget which type, it was a recipe that dropped after a mission).

I've seen the AM with the damage proc deal a killing blow every once in a while - gratifying. For me the answer to the question is 3 recharge, 1 acc, 1 Achilles Heel, 1 your choice.

I think how you slot the AM depends on what you're looking for overall. Given what the AM is for, I aim (pun intended) for the highest accuracy, debuff, and recharge speed (not caring so much about damage) along with valuable global set bonuses.

I slot mine with 5 Analyze Weakness IO's (excluding the Chance for ToHit proc), which cranks up the defense debuff, recharge and accuracy to the point where it is always available when needed and *will* hit and seriously debuff (non debuff resistant) the toughest targets. Adding one Achilles' Heel proc -resist is icing on the cake. The +10% regen, +3% damage, and +11% (!) accuracy with 5 Analyze Weakness IO's is nothing to sneeze at, either.

I'll throw out my slotting:

One achilles heel -resist proc. Invaulable.
Three Touch of Lady Grey and two Shield Breaker, priority on recharge and accuracy.

This gave me 5% in recovery bonuses. Very nice if you're avoiding stamina.