Guild Wars 2

All of them.

Its no secret that Mantras need more than just a .5 cast time decrease. I say, make the offensive AND defensive Mantras have a small AoE ring (about the width of Staff elementalist’s Lava Font, I’d assume). This would increase their usefulness dramatically, and I doubt it’d make them overpowered.

… Except maybe Mantra of Recovery.

May make the daze OP (not that I wouldn’t mind, just being realistic), but everything else, yeah that’d be a great buff.

Interesting and pretty good idea. Yeah except the healing one (should have to trait specifically for that one).

This would immediately make Mantra of Stability and Mantra of Distraction much more exciting skills to use. Being able to break stun on friendly targets and apply a 1 second daze AoE (with a 15 second cooldown) would be really awesome.

Not sure about the other mantras though. A Mantra of Resolve AoE is already covered by Null Field and a Mantra of Recovery AoE is kind of already covered by the Restorative Mantras trait. Not that I would complain if they did receive some AoE ;-)

Not sure about Mantra of Pain. Mesmers don’t have a massive choice of AoE attacks, so it might be a cool way for Mesmers to get more DPS in large WvW zergathons. But they would probably need to increase the cooldown from the current 1 second, otherwise you’d have a decent AoE available every 4-5 seconds.

Simonoly.4352:

otherwise you’d have a decent AoE available every 4-5 seconds.

Soooo, we’d be on par with every other class in the game is what you’re saying?

Pyroatheist.9031:

Simonoly.4352:

otherwise you’d have a decent AoE available every 4-5 seconds.

Soooo, we’d be on par with every other class in the game is what you’re saying?

Hah, indeed. Actually, considering it would be a PBAoE sourced from your target that could only hit 2 or 3 times between charges, the original recharge time would probably be fine.

I feel mantras should be listed as shouts so we can get the benefits from runes as well. That would make them a lot more attractive to me.

Totally agree, it’d bring them up to where they need to be instantly.

i’ve never used mantras in wvw as the whole charging thing and all that maybe aoe would be ok but with the new mesmer changes our whole condition builds are destoyed soo im a little lost atm. i dont know if mantrs can be useful in wvw vs a giant zerg. anyone using a manta build in wvw?if yes could it be viable?

If they did change to pbaoes, kamikaze zerg-bombing with Mantra of Distraction would be glorious!

While it seems crude on first glance, it really isn’t a bad idea. MoRes being a Healing skill should probably remain as it is (I don’t feel it needs such a huge buff anyway), and I don’t think MoRec would overlap with Null Field very much: presumably the pbAoE is much smaller and the way the two skills work are really quite different. MoP, MoC and MoD would definitely benefit greatly from being AoE, especially in PvE where Mantras are generally situational to the point of uselessness.

mantras arnt terrible as is, its just there are better options, you only get so many slots.
Mantra of Pain is nasty on a berserker mesmer when traited for 3 tics. Can throw out iBerserker/mirror blade/mind stab and weave the 3 tics in and down people stupidly fast.

The reason mantras arnt as popular is because they dont do something spectacular. They are very straight foward and as boring as auto attacking.

Btw, favorite is mantra of pain with the mantra healing trait for dungeons, 2600 aoe heal for no investment in healing power is awesome ;-)

skcamow.3527:

May make the daze OP (not that I wouldn’t mind, just being realistic), but everything else, yeah that’d be a great buff.

We already have a trait for a fairly wide-radius AE Daze, and no one ever even takes that. :P

I don’t think they should automatically be aoe, but having a trait for it would be nice, maybe replace one of the less used traits for it? Seems like a good idea to me

You know what would be a really good start to help Mantra’s out .

Let me dodge or enter/exit water without “interrupting” the charge.

I see a lot more pros in this than cons, and even those few cons are debatable.

MoPain – Would make a nice AoE without needing any other tweaks. The dismal damage would suddenly seem not so bad.

MoRecovery – Should probably remain untouched, its pretty solid as is.

MoDistraction- Seriously, should be an AoE. Such a ridiculous cooldown for a single target daze isnt justified even if it’s instant.

MoConcentration- Our only method of Stability; decent enough if traited for 3 uses, but even then its still rather situational. Would be much more appealing as an AoE

MoResolve- NullField, Arcane Thievery, and even the Disenchanter tend to outshine this, as all the other utilities also affect enemies in some way. This could work as an alternative team condition cleanser, and thus be worth taking outside of a mantra build.

…Now that I think about it, an AoE buff would make all of the above viable even in non Mantra-specific builds

Nay of the Ether.8913:

I don’t think they should automatically be aoe, but having a trait for it would be nice, maybe replace one of the less used traits for it? Seems like a good idea to me

Seriously, no!
One of our huge issues is how much we depend on a handful of traits.

We don’t even have group healing without traits!

Carighan.6758:

Nay of the Ether.8913:

I don’t think they should automatically be aoe, but having a trait for it would be nice, maybe replace one of the less used traits for it? Seems like a good idea to me

Seriously, no!
One of our huge issues is how much we depend on a handful of traits.

We don’t even have group healing without traits!

Actually.. that’s an interesting idea. What if one of our Mantra traits (Mantra Cooldown or Protected Mantras, I’m thinking) was a general effect of charging mantras, and we got Mantras become AoE as a trait in it’s place?

Well, I could see it work as a GM trait, but only if some of the others are removed or merged.

Thing is, despite the changes to multiple charges, HM alone is still a really really powerful trait, and using a Mantra without it (unless you just want the charge for AE Heal spam) feels… weak.

And that’s such a common theme with our abilities. With the 3-4 traits affecting them they’re really good, but without them, they’re really weak.

And that’s just… wrong. I should, as a non-Mantra-spec person, still run into situations where I swap in Mantras because they’re the optimal way to interrupt / cleanse / whatever.

Signets feel more balanced in their trait loadout, offering things such as -CD or Condition Cleansing. Secondary benefits or Opportunity Improvements.

I don’t even mind strong traits, so long as they don’t affect the main use of the ability, because that should be balanced even without traits. As an example, giving me Quickness every time I successfully charge a Mantra (exactly so much Quickness that I shave 2,75s off the following ability uses, negating the Mantra time) would be kitten powerful, but not interfere with the Mantra’s main use.