CoD Vanguard players demand serious change to “random” Mortar Barrage killstreak

The Mortar Barrage can be incredibly powerful in CoD Vanguard, but issues surrounding the placement of the killstreak are causing a lot of frustrations.

CoD Vanguard’s Mortar Barrage killstreak enables players to toss down a flare canister on the map, marking an area for a targeted explosive strike. Not only can these blasts eliminate all players standing in the selected location, but they can also zone enemies away from key objectives and funnel them into designated kill zones. 

Thanks to its low cost and large area of effect, the Mortar Barrage has the potential to become a popular killstreak among the playerbase. After all, this explosive barrage can be incredibly powerful in the game’s objective-based modes like Headquarters and Domination.

However, many Vanguard players are avoiding this killstreak entirely due to the issues surrounding its placement on the map. 

Vanguard players call for Mortar Barrage changes

Unlike previous Mortar Barrage killstreaks in the CoD series, Vanguard tasks players with throwing out a flare canister to call in a designated strike. While this may seem rather simple at first, the locations the canister can be placed are rather sparse. 

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In fact, many Vanguard players have voiced their frustrations over trying to use this killstreak to full effect. During a brief clip posted to the official CoD Vanguard Reddit page, stCourtney showed just how infuriating this killstreak can be. 

The player can be seen desperately trying to place the Mortar Barrage canister on Demyansk, only to be killed by an enemy soldier. StCourtney tried several times to launch the barrage, but their attempts to place the Mortar Barrage were constantly thwarted.

“Why can’t your dude just get a map out and scribble an X on a location which would then instruct an off-screen mortar team to bomb that position? Instead, you’ve got to lug that piece of sh*t around and end up throwing it somewhere f**king random,” said DJ2608.

Some commenters noted that crouching and sliding enable the Mortar Barrage to be placed, while others state that standing still and looking up improves the success rate. However, due to the janky nature of this streak, many players have ended up avoiding the Mortar Barrage altogether.

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“I’ve managed to place two, and neither of them were in spots that were beneficial for the team,” noted r0llinlacs420. “It was just the first random spot it would work. And one of them got me a bunch of team kills.”

Whether Sledgehammer will change the way the Mortar Barrage is called in remains to be seen, but for now, it seems the CoD community will be avoiding the Mortar Barrage altogether.