Guild Wars 2

Well the title pretty much says it all. I never use them, and i have never seen anyone use them. The way they work is just so clumsy. First u need to charge them, and in return u pretty much don’t get allot. In the time that u wasted charging your mantra, auto atk would have been more useful. Anyway i was wondering if anet had any plans on a rework or something.

Mantras do not so bad when played in an appropriate build.

I’d rather see some of our numberless bugs fixed before the devs try to generate more of them.

I disagree.

Mantras seemed useless to me until I forced myself to use them. The long cast time is a disadvantage but they have enough advantages to make them useful. Especially if traited – I would almost say mantras can be overpowered in the right build.

If you are frequently stopping during a fight to recast them you have the wrong idea. (Unless you are using the trait to heal when you cast one, then the more the better. They can be cast while you move, just don’t dodge and you’re set. The actual use is instant cast so can be used when dazed, knocked down, dodging, casting something else – at any time you want it, basically. Or while recharging another mantra.

Anything a Mantra can do, another utility can do better. I still shake my head in thought of the fix in Alpha when they added a second charge to Matras and then Nerfed the effect each charge did. With the ~1 second gap between charges it got worse instead of better. Especially if you used Healing Mantra’s in the inspiration line.

The whole mechanic needs to be redone.

Rather have persistent effects that allow you to modify your playstyle such as …
Mantra 1: +20% Condition Duration / -20% Boon Duration
Mantra 2: +20% Boon Duration / -20% Condition Duration
Mantra 3: +20% Shatter Recharge / -20% Elite recharge.

ect, ect.

Personally I started liking mantras more and more the more I used them, to the extent where I practically run mantra build 24/7.

Though they might need a few small tweaks (The charging system could still be improved with regards to zone transfers & possibly specific skillsets for underwater/above water still breaking them) they are very useful in the right hands.

If the majority of mesmers would want them changed and Anet would comply, I wouldn’t want them to add passive effects in any case. That’s too similar to the signets.

Tried the mantra builds, it was decent but had a steep learning curve. You really have to know exactly when you should be casting/using them, and it’s not always obvious. Also boss fights were rather difficult where the constant need to dodge aoe’s and hard hitting attacks made it fairly difficult to charge mantras, bringing down the overall effectiveness of the build. Not to mention the overly long cooldowns before being able to charge them again which I found silly considering they already have charging times where the use of most skills are disabled. If you get used to it they’re okay, but i think they’re more of a either you hate them or love them skill set.

I think the real problem is they’re not that useful by themselves and untraited. I cannot think of any reason why I would use any of the mantras over say, feedback/null field/decoy/mirror images/blink. Mantra of Resolve maybe if I know I’ll be having a condition-heavy fight, but everything else if not traited for it…meh.

I’d be interested if they change it to a less trait dependant standalone aoe ability for group support perhaps, something akin to the guardian’s Empower. Remove charges, give them cooldowns like normal skills and make them channeled cast. For example the mantra of pain can be changed to an AoE debuff where enemies in 900 radius take 10% more damage or allies do 10% more damage for the duration of the cast+few extra seconds after. Cast times can be increased to 5 or 6 seconds with immobility to compensate for the buff. For others like mantra of distraction, debuffs such as random chance to daze/confuse enemies per 2 seconds in a smaller area would be great. Mantra of concentration…reduction of skill cooldowns for allies in the area while casting?
It would fit into the controlling aspect of mesmers and give mesmers more (indirect) stuff to do in things like sieges in wvw.

Taldren.7523:

Anything a Mantra can do, another utility can do better.

Please elaborate on why you think this is so. Allow me to copy paste a post I made in a mantra thread recently.

I’d like to know exactly why we think mantras are so bad?

Mantra of Distraction is one of the only skills in the game that is an instant activating interrupt, and you get a second shot just 5 seconds later.

Mantra of Resolve removes 4 conditions untraited, which gives it 4 times the power of Smite Condition. Look down the list of condition removals and you’ll quickly see many of them are loaded with secondary effects and high cooldowns. MoR drops the secondary effect in exchange for instant cast and the removal of more conditions. Comparisons to Null Field are thrown around without apparently realising it only strips one condition per second allowing it to strip 5 in total on a 45s CD, and Arcane Thievery is capped at 3.

Mantra of Concentration is two stun breakers in one skill, and it has a 2 second cooldown. Two stun breakers, one utility skill, two second cooldown. And if that isn’t enough, you’re actually immune to new CCs for that 2second cooldown anyway. It’s just somewhat overshadowed by our other stun breakers such as Decoy. The only change I’d make is buffing the stability to 3 seconds so that, you know, it’s actually long enough to do something as simple as Finish Him…

Mantra of Pain and Mantra of Recovery are the only ones which really need a functionality adjustment. The former doesn’t actually bring any utility despite being labelled a utility skill, and the latter needs a significant buff to its heal or a secondary effect. The problem with buffing the heal is the issue caused by Harmonious Mantras.

The only reason mantras are so unpopular is because their recharge time is effectively directly proportionate to the length of fight, and thus their power diminishes for each second you spend in combat. Outside of running a glass cannon “Kill or be killed” build, mantras become problematic. By giving them a secondary method of recharging which does not involve a 4 second channel, their usage would fly through the roof because they actually ARE good skills. They certainly do not need a complete redesign which involves scrapping their concept all together.

I fail to see how “anything a mantra can do another skill can do better”. Taking aside their clunky charging mechanics, Power Cleanse is arguably our best condition removal, Power Lock is our best interrupt the best interrupt in the game whilst Power Break is our shortest cooling down stun break and only source of stability. Mantras are good skills. They just need a secondary method of recharging so that they do not become increasingly useless as the fight goes on. This could even be in the form of a trait. In the previous thread I suggested such a trait were a major T3 Chaos trait, allowing it to give this somewhat mediocre line a new niche and encouraging it to be picked up in builds designed to survive long drawn out fights, which is exactly where mantras currently falter.