Guild Wars 2

Currently Mantras do not go into CD until the final charge is used. This means that the time between the use of the first charge and the use of the final charge is effectively added to the CD of the Mantra.

For Mantras that rely on short CDs as their selling point against equivalent skills (e.g. Mantra of Recovery, Mantra of Resolve), you’re basically highly encouraged to use all the charges of a Mantra in quick succession, if not back to back (as is the case with Mantra of Recovery): if you wait too long between the first charge and the final charge, you’ve effectively lost the reason you used the Mantra over an equivalent skill and have played sub-optimally.

Even for Mantras that do not have equivalent skills, the way it works now still means that you are punished for using your charges smartly. It creates an unnecessary dilemma between conserving charges for use at the optimal moment and spamming charges to get more uses over a period of time. Not to mention it is annoying having to discharge used Mantras, wait for their CDs and recharge them again between battles.

So basically I’m suggesting that Mantras start counting down their CD when you use the first charge instead of the final charge. It would make careful, smart use of Mantra charges much more viable and greatly improve the quality of life of Mantra users.

Honestly, I want Mantras to return to a single-charge principle. And remove HM, then rebalance that single charge since no one has a second charge no more (because honestly, that was the main issue with the old skill).

Mantras should be something which is “inverted”. Instead of a normal skill where I have the cast-time, then the skill goes off, I have the skill go off ASAP but then in turn pay a longer cast time later on before I can re-use it.

In fact I’d go so far as to say there should be no CD between use and recharge, but once recharged, there should be a delay before I can even use it.

That awkward moment when you have two charges but try to only use one so you get the +4% damage from Empowering Mantras (Dueling XI). And then you’re stuck with the OPs issue. You’re stuck with one charge. If you use it, you’ll lose the +4% damage; if you preserve it, you’ll face a “long” CD soon.

The solution would either to make mantras one charge only (as Carig said) or somehow let us gain the second charge back …

^^ allow regen of charges over X amount of time.

Freakfire.7248:

^^ allow regen of charges over X amount of time.

That just completely undermines the concept of Mantras though, an ability which trades longer cast time for having the cast time after the ability usage, not before.

What you describe would feel more like a Signet really.

I mean alternatively, rip out Mantras entirely and put in “Illusions”, give positive benefit A for X seconds, then negative effect B (related to A) for Y seconds or immediately in the case of Illusion of Life ofc.

Well I was just thinking of way to actually make them work as of now since they really are not great, except for very specific builds.

Making charges regenerate encourages people to not discharge the final charge of a Mantra so it could regenerate instead of having to channel it again, so that is not an option.

Automatic recharging would need a completely new system. Like … no manual charging. Remember the Mantra’s CD, add 5+ seconds to it, half the sum and that’d be an passive recharge of one mantra charge. Ofc this would need to be tested throughly. But you’d need to change “all” mantra related traits then, increase the CD between charges, change the complate skillsystem to add this functionaly and add a visual indication for charge timers … lots of work, which might even totally fail in the end.

But to leave the current system as it is (next to somehow give us at least a single step towards “stability while charging” (stability, aegis, defiant, distorsion, dodge, weaponswap … anything)) a single “make single charges rechargable with a reasonable channel and CD” functionality might work.

Ditch the “two charges per cast”, make it “single charge per cast”. 1.5s per charge. Keep the CD of charges (HealingMantraCharge and MoPCharge is another issue). Half the CD of castings. Adding another charge needs to be rightclicked manually (due to lack of controls). And you wouldn’t have to change much. I’d even ditch all my shatter skills to get mantral shortcuts there (and at least get max 3 charges).

I’ve always felt that mantras should be channeled shouts. Take Mantra of Recovery, for instance. When activated, a mesmer will be able to move but otherwise enter an animation lock and say, “Health! Vigor! Recovery!” This will cause three pulses with the first being an aoe heal, the second granting aoe vigor and the third, aoe regen. Because they would leave mesmers vulnerable, they can be a bit more powerful than regular shouts. They should also be labeled as shouts and/or receive the same benefits from the soldier runes.

Crossplay.2067:

I’ve always felt that mantras should be channeled shouts. Take Mantra of Recovery, for instance. When activated, a mesmer will be able to move but otherwise enter an animation lock and say, “Health! Vigor! Recovery!” This will cause three pulses with the first being an aoe heal, the second granting aoe vigor and the third, aoe regen. Because they would leave mesmers vulnerable, they can be a bit more powerful than regular shouts. They should also be labeled as shouts and/or receive the same benefits from the soldier runes.

That’s an interesting and logical take on Mantras.