Mantra Builds
“LOL you’re that one n00b theef that once made a post about mesmers dodge-rolling, rite? Water u doin in the mez 4ums?”
Now that that’s over with…
… How are mantra builds, in terms of competitive ability (tPvP)?
I want to start playing my mes a bit more, but I want to have a bit more of a unique build (that’s always been my thing, particularly among thieves). I’ve heard that Fay plays mantras, but I have yet to see any big talk about mantras anywhere on the forums.
Help would be much appreciated.
Mantra focused builds are poor.
That being said, mantras are great. I like to call them the ‘spices’ of our utility skills. Each one provides an interesting little bit of utility, and what they provide is extraordinarily potent. If your build needs a bit of potent condition removal, you can take the mantra for that. If you just need some on-demand interrupts, there’s a mantra for that. If you want to turbocharge mender’s purity for condition removals, you can take the mantra for that.
They are slow and the trait support for them is not (usually) great in PvP, but when added tastefully to a build that is lacking just that little something, they can really improve it.
Agree with Pyro. Mantra-focused builds are only pretty good in WvW because of the raw aoe healing they can put out, but you won’t get much of anything else besides.
You might be able to make a bunker-ish build with mantra healing for tpvp… but it won’t be great. It probably won’t even be good- by having to trait so heavily for essential mantra traits, you won’t be able to use your traits to buff phantasm damage, or otherwise. The majority of your damage will come from auto-attacks, and we all know how poor mesmer auto-attacks are damage-wise.
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My friend was claiming his condi + mantra build was pretty good, but idk how accurate of a source he is….
That being said from my experience mantras are great, but like in GW1, I only take one for my build.
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Mantras are good depending on what you want to do. A four mantra mes is usually about as laughable as a 5 signet warrior. If you want to do an interrupt build. Bam mantra of distraction!
If you want a good healing/condi clear build then mantra of recovery/resolve is your bread and butter (maybe take MOP over one depending on the situation.) But for the faced paced combat system that is GW2 pvp a mantra build needs some serious work (from ANET) to be more viable the cast times are still a little too long since many professions/builds can down you in your cast time. However the only situations I can see mantras truly being useful is in interrupt builds and focusing on restorative mantras.
I tried, dude. I tried so hard to make a full mantra build work in tPvP.
Not only is the playstyle so obscenely different that it takes a lot of practice, but it doesn’t feel very rewarding compared to other builds.. For me, it just wasn’t very fun.
Ive been able to manage two-mantras (MoPain + MoRecovery for heals in a nice Retaliation Bunker), and even 3 mantras (was painful at first.. oh-so-painful..) but never a full set. But like Pyro said, the mantras themselves aren’t bad, but a build focusing on them usually ends up being sub-par in competitive play.
I know the feeling of wanting to try unorthodox setups, and there are a lot of interesting traits that haven’t entirely been experimented with yet (Have yet to see a viable Signet Mesmer.. Lockdown builds are starting to make a slow rise) Even if you don’t go with a Mantra Mes idea, theres still quite a few options for a rather unique playstyle.
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I have a mantra build, that work ok in SPvP and in WvWvW. Not as good kittenter/phantasm in SPvP, but imo shines in WvWvW and ok in PvE.
I tried shatter buid, it is very good for close range, but clones die too fast if u are in zerg. And shatter is too popular.
Hybrid build – but confusion was overnerfed.
So, i came back to mantra – but all mantra build will have a huge problem – mesmer have a really great utility skills. All zergs need a portal and veil from u, null field, etc. And.. U will have no place for that skills. Mantra build work only on selfish u =)
PS sorry for my English
I tryed many variations of this build and it worked pretty well. Originally played it in PvP, mostly soldiers gear while trying to squeeze in as much precision as i could through rampagers jewel.. anyway i 1v4’ed the MISTS npcs; ranger, guardian, thief and necro lol
general idea is keep using mantra of pain (main source of damage that stacks with staff auto attack very well) and healing mantra to get small 2500 heals (the runes help out significantly with the long cast on the healing mantra)
you can use mantras and use staff teleport (this makes the cast time acceptable)
..HAVE FUN..
(edited by Hurtappl.6405)
here is a different variation that i liked..
ya get all those passive conditions
Thanks for the replies all!
I’ll still probably try to run a build with 2-3 mantras (includes the heal), but the information here has been extremely helpful, thank you.
Thanks for the replies all!
I’ll still probably try to run a build with 2-3 mantras (includes the heal), but the information here has been extremely helpful, thank you.
…no, heal must not be mantra =)
Originally I didn’t care for mantras, but now that I’ve looked at them I myself am considering using them.
One in particular: Power Spike. This is for two reasons. The first is because the added DPS of power spike is surprisingly effective. Sure it only has a base power of 324, which is nice but isn’t super strong, but the main advantage of using Power Spike is that it is extra damage added on to whatever you are doing. So when you immobilize someone and use blurred frenzy, you can fire off two power breaks to nearly double the damage done in that time. It is great for spiking down opponents, as the name implies.
The second reason is that, in PVE I will undoubtedly go 20 into inspiration to give focus reflecting abilities, but in situations where reflects aren’t useful I will get restorative Mantra’s. 2640 Heal with every mantra chant. Now, the big thing with this is that Mantra of Pain has a 1 second recharge. With a 1 second recharge on the first Power Spikes and a 2.75 second activation time, you get that 2640 heal every 5 seconds. This is really good as far as healing goes, letting the heal from the mantras match the heal from personal healing skills in the long run. It is a great support feature for what is essentially 1 skill and 20 trait points, letting it be thrown on to nearly any build.
I’ll probably be avoiding the other mantras for the most part. Usually what they do, the mesmer has something that already works better. They have plenty of good stun breakers, plenty of good stuns, and also decent condition removal. You can make a case that when traited up, the mantras can be quite powerful. But I’ll probably stick to decoy and arcane thievery.
I run a 4 mantra build in tpvp and I really like it. I specced into chaos to get some toughness, use runes of ogre and switch between zerker and soldier amulet depending on if there are a few thieves on the other team, honestly, haha.
It’s a REALLY different style of play but I really like it and think it plays pretty well. I think people really hate it because mantras are slow, which to be fair, they are. But, if you run the build right, you don’t really need to recharge them during a fight and probably shouldn’t too much. That’s when it gets tough. Recharging the healing one is fine, but any of the others it just isn’t really super doable.
But, for pvp, the daze mantra and stability one are pretty valuable as I can stop a stomp (unless they have stability) or a heal and I can gain stability for stomping opponents. And those two are usually always up which provides 8%+ damage.
Again, it’s a very different style of play and it’s hard to get used to which is another reason why I think a lot of people don’t run it. It can be a bit glass cannon-y but if you learn to play well, using your distortions, blurred frenzies and dodges, it really doesn’t feel too bad. I’d suggest trying it out but keep in mind it’s very different than a full shatter or phantasm build! Good luck.