Guild Wars 2

Hey guys I have been busy lately trying out different mantra builds and I just want to know that I will do my best to theorycraft both a 1 vs 1 Mantra Build and a tournament viable Mantra build since I have been really enjoying it!

Here is a duel video in which you can see me using a prototype of the 1 vs 1 Mantra Build:

Mantra Mesmer Dueling:
(#1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byXIn0YVqHE
(#2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p64UlTGUsM

Sensotix’ Mantra 1 vs 1 Build:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETu0-4Az0C4

As soon as I am finished with the theorycrafting of both builds I will do a video about each of it so make sure to subscribe to join Sensotix’ Army and to keep updated with all the new builds tipps & tricks!

Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialSensotix

I will upload more videos which will all be linked in this thread showing you the Prototypes of both builds so you guys can tell me what you think of it

Prototype 1 vs 1 Build (Tell me what you think of it):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQJARWl4zionRTlGb9ICqCYHpHmGrtalegbXosB-ToAg0CnI4SxljLDXSuscN+Y9B

Certainly a lot of DD burst (pure glass based on stats) but the people you went up against didn’t seem all that great. You’re very susceptible to conditions so I was scratching my head with the first fight against the Necro.

With the Mantra changes coming up, I’m sure we’ll see more theorycraft builds focusing around them.

Keep it up!

Well its a berserker build with the two mantra traits. Yes you got a ton of damage, but you’ll spend so much time channeling you’re gonna croak. It get very boring, very fast.

For me the issue has always been human error. You forget to channel that one mantra you need at the moment and then you’re standing there with your pants down.

hmm as i said i will try my best to improve this build
obviously its not good for tournaments since pretty much everything can kill you easily so i will work on smth that will make you survive longer but also helps you get time for channeling mantras..also i wont go with 4 mantras since the channeling takes waaay too much time

Seems like people think mesmer is only a berserker glass cannon class. Mantras are really good if you go more hybrid. Anyone can chain together videos of you owning people and edit the ones out where you get rolled over and over and over because you’re too squishy or someone dodged that greatsword predictable sequence.

Hm, in my view – mantras have one big handicap. They are limited and have “long” uploading times. This effect will make them weak against all good players.
Not only the fact, that an enemy can see what u got left on your buffbar is crap – even more it´s quiet hard to recharge all mantras in a fight.

When i see a player charging their mantras i give them hell. because it´s like a cc from your own. he is forced to finish the cast when he needs the effects and dodging is impossible in this action – so he receive a huge amount of dmg.

Without skill changes mantra builds are just ineffective compared to alternative specs.

Vash.1920:

Hm, in my view – mantras have one big handicap. They are limited and have “long” uploading times. This effect will make them weak against all good players.
Not only the fact, that an enemy can see what u got left on your buffbar is crap – even more it´s quiet hard to recharge all mantras in a fight.

When i see a player charging their mantras i give them hell. because it´s like a cc from your own. he is forced to finish the cast when he needs the effects and dodging is impossible in this action – so he receive a huge amount of dmg.

Without skill changes mantra builds are just ineffective compared to alternative specs.

I disagree. You are assuming that everyone plays like you and nakedly charges mantras. Mantras can be charged in combat in stealth, with stability, with distortion, when the focus is off you, or after stunning someone. There are traits that let you get a kitten nice heal off too when you charge one. Not every class has direct heals outside of a heal skill. You can also charge them as a tactic to bait other interrupts out so you can just heal later. You can charge them with the toughness trait (400 toughness is a lot…the whole chaos tree is 300 toughness…). Mantra of concentration can be 2-3 stun breaks on a 20 sec cooldown, or it can be used to stomp, res, or channel another ability (such as a mantra, confusing images, elite skill). These aren’t builds you’ll find on the internet!

Soyboy.3548:

Mantras can be charged in combat in stealth, with stability, with distortion, when the focus is off you, or after stunning someone. There are traits that let you get a kitten nice heal off too when you charge one.

This is true, but then you’re using your skills to avoid a flaw in the mantra design – not to gain an edge in combat.

Personally, I rather focus on the actual combat and defeating my opponent than finding a way to safely channel the mantra.

I have been messing around with mantras (WvW). I am no expert, but I enjoy the challenge.

First, what drew me to mantras in the first place is the condition removal from “mender’s purity” combined with ability to frequently activate “mantra of recovery”. They work well together because 9/10 times that you want to cleanse a condition, you could also benefit from the heal.

Second, I the more mantra’s you have, the more you have to charge. I could never get a full mantra build to work. I’m running Mantra of Resolve plus one more (situational) Mantra. For my other utilities I’m using Decoy and Blink for the stun breaks, general utility, and synergy with mantras. I’ve been kicking around the idea of dropping in MI for some quick shatters.

My general question for you (Sensotix) is why the Greatsword and MH Sword? They are great weapons, but in my mind, they don’t have particularly good synergy with mantras. If you are going GS and Sword/Pistol (and no Mender’s Purity) what do the mantras add to what seems to be a full burst build? What am I missing?

As noted, I am not an expert.

Dawdler.8521:

Soyboy.3548:

Mantras can be charged in combat in stealth, with stability, with distortion, when the focus is off you, or after stunning someone. There are traits that let you get a kitten nice heal off too when you charge one.

This is true, but then you’re using your skills to avoid a flaw in the mantra design – not to gain an edge in combat.

Personally, I rather focus on the actual combat and defeating my opponent than finding a way to safely channel the mantra.

Don’t use a mantra then. I find it worthwhile for the 2.5k heal, toughness, and the utility after. I also find leaving stealth early usually a bad idea due to the revealed thing.

yeah that’s exactly how i see it..and of course i got owned in duels with my mantra build i just wanted to show you guys how strong it can be
i see it more like a challenge and i like challenges because most of the classes became faceroll in gw2

Sensotix.4106:

yeah that’s exactly how i see it..and of course i got owned in duels with my mantra build i just wanted to show you guys how strong it can be
i see it more like a challenge and i like challenges because most of the classes became faceroll in gw2

challenge or self inflicted handicap? Interesting vid though. It’s amazing how viable the GS is in pvp now. I am curious why you go GS 4,3,2 instead of GS 2,3,4 since GS 2 stacks 6 might giving your iZerker a nice buff.

Helios.3598:

Sensotix.4106:

yeah that’s exactly how i see it..and of course i got owned in duels with my mantra build i just wanted to show you guys how strong it can be
i see it more like a challenge and i like challenges because most of the classes became faceroll in gw2

challenge or self inflicted handicap? Interesting vid though. It’s amazing how viable the GS is in pvp now. I am curious why you go GS 4,3,2 instead of GS 2,3,4 since GS 2 stacks 6 might giving your iZerker a nice buff.

The greatsword is THE easiest weapon to interrupt in the entire game…let alone dodge. It’s really only good against bads.

First of all, thanks for posting your vids. It’s great that you are testing so many builds and encourage other people to do so. Can’t this thread be fused with your already existing one. though? It would be a lot easier to follow your new videos and projects that way and it would also encourage people to discuss mantras in the already existing two mantra threads. That would be great .

The build looks reasonable for an offensive mantra build. But you linked a different build/weapon set than you are using in the vid. Not sure if that is on purpose?

Your video shows that one of the two quite obvious mantra play styles (damage = keeping the mantras as long as possible because of empowering mantras vs. support = recasting the mantras with restorative mantras) has a great initial burst/lockdown potential. But that is basically it. I would be a lot more interested in more “realistic” settings (e.g. tPvP) where you might face more than one enemy. You also only recharge inbetween fights or when your target is already downed. By that you basically avoid dealing with the most prominent problem of mantras: recharging. I personally would be very interested in a vid showing whole tPvP or even sPvP matches. Any plans on doing that?

i am actually planning on recording whole tournament matches because i got a better graphics card now so my pc can handle recording while playing 5 vs 5
and about fusing the threads..yes i would do that but i really wanted to have the opinion of other players when it comes to mantras thats why i opened up an extra thread
I linked a different build in the description because it is better but i didnt have footage recorded for it yet

and concerning the “gs is only good against bads” ..why is supcutie using gs in tournys then?…gs can be really great in duels as well also against good players (helseth is also using gs btw) because you can interrupt when u directly shatter after the mirror blade hit the enemy
i am putting out the phantasm first because of the cripple so i can hold them on distance longer

Mantra of Resolve is fantastic and completely takes the bite out of conditions. I know this is more of a PvP thread, but in WvW it completely shuts down necros and engineers (especially with the cooldown reduction trait).

The problem with mantras is that it’s incredibly difficult to use more than one in any given build and keep them charged (at least for me). It’s relatively easy to find openings to charge Mantra of Resolve repeatedly, but any more mantras after that and I lose too much dps.

Soyboy.3548:

Dawdler.8521:

Soyboy.3548:

Mantras can be charged in combat in stealth, with stability, with distortion, when the focus is off you, or after stunning someone. There are traits that let you get a kitten nice heal off too when you charge one.

This is true, but then you’re using your skills to avoid a flaw in the mantra design – not to gain an edge in combat.

Personally, I rather focus on the actual combat and defeating my opponent than finding a way to safely channel the mantra.

Don’t use a mantra then. I find it worthwhile for the 2.5k heal, toughness, and the utility after. I also find leaving stealth early usually a bad idea due to the revealed thing.

The build in the OP use neither restorative or protected mantras, leaving you with only the utility and an kitten of channeling.

I dont mind a few mantras. I’ve used builds with the resto healing and pain mantra just to be a healing bot. Its quite fun and only require a single trait to work (10 vs 8 second cooldown on the heal is not really an issue and pointless for the pain cooldown, the toughness is negligable due to not channeling that much). The problem for me is full mantra builds where you have to spend 6 seconds channeling every 10 seconds. Aint got enough stealth to cover that. So easy to make mistakes in the heat of battle. Go ahead and try it, then tell me you didnt left a single unchanneled mantra at any time .

You’re not supposed to go a full mantra build. If you do, it will have glaring weaknesses clearly. Also, no class, especially not mesmer, is supposed to stand around and act as cleric…this game intentionally did not make a cleric class. So trying to make yourself one via mantra is black and white thinking in terms of how heals support a team. You can be supportive without being a complete carebear build. Most people don’t understand this, which is why the “condition meta” is such a big deal. Everyone can spec to deal with any build in this game, but you can’t go all black and white thinking without having weaknesses. If you pack full condition removals, you lack stun removal or interrupts or some other useful utility you wish you had in some situations, etc. Full mantra = channeling all the time. There’s a reason why they are better than the other skills—they have a cost.

I run a phantasm build that utilizes mantras on occasion. It’s not particularly too hard to charge 2 mantras with that playstyle. Unfortunately, I’m not really traited for mantras so my build doesn’t use them as effectively as it could. And, uh, I might recommend staff for a mantra build for the defensive capabilities. I think phase retreat doesn’t interrupt mantra channeling though I might be thinking of blink.

for the planned tournament build i will use a maximum of 2 mantras since i am very vulnerable when i run around casting mantras in a teamfight..
also i will try to get access to stealth so i can channel my mantras
u will see it will be nice!

Added Mantra Mesmer Dueling 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p64UlTGUsM

I’ve begun to dabble with mantras, since I’ve got a solid condi build and a solid power build already.
And the hard thing for me was to not just spam the mantras, still is but I do feel the sting of them, when I have to re-charge, it just makes me a living target. It does massive dmg though, so in that respec it’s awesome

I was thinking of making a healing/support mantra build that can also harass the enemy with interrupts and such. Not really sure how it would work out though. I tried mantas very early on for my mesmer, but I stopped using them for a shatter build. With some improvements coming to them, I’ll probably try to toy around with them again.

i think mantras are a great thing but i will probably only take one or two because i dont wanna end up staying back in the tf channeling all the time

One thing I’m also wondering, if it isn’t better to do 30/30/0/10/0 for condi cleanse on heal. I mean it’s 3 condi’s you can cleanse within 3 seconds, on only a 10 second Cd.. that’s pretty much tbh. Either combine this with resolve mantra or perhaps you could forgo that one and rely solely on heal for condi clearing.

yes but this will actually be part of my tourny build this one is just my 1 vs 1 build now

ahh yeah, ofc, that’s the difference since I solo roam in wvw, so when I get jumped after having killed someone, it can be tricky since I have to recharge so many mantras. But will be cool to see what you come up with

I played a PU build running 3 mantras for awhile. With Mass Invis you can rez amazingly well even at a team fight (you can heal, cleanse and apply stability at will without interrupting your rez), you are a stomp boss (due to invuln, Aegis, stealth and stability all easily accessible). It is wildly survivable even when pressured by 2 or 3. The issues that drove me away from it were:

1) You can’t contest a point well since you are stealth reliant
2) Your damage is underwhelming since you are locked into Chaos and Inspiration

Right now there is too much trait investment required to make Mantras useful. It neuters the damage from Shatters and Phantasm’s leaving you with condi-specs which are just a little to light on damage to make kills in a timely fashion. I think that after 10/15 it will make for a nice team fight piece, but will still be lacking for side-point play.

well i hope the next patch will change more than just what mantras can do because i really have to agree that there is a lot of work needed

Added
Sensotix’ Mantra 1 vs 1 Build:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETu0-4Az0C4