Guild Wars 2

Hi,
I was just wondering … am I the only one who finds Mantras useless? I mean, they can be nice, but their preparation time is so long, that in PvE, most enemies are dead before you can even use them. That means you have to prepare them before going into combat, and that means you can use them once per battle. Also, for a mantra that needs long preparation, they just aren’t that good. 20 second cast for removing 4 conditions? nah.
Result: I never use them. Is it just me? Didn’t I get how to play them?

It’s just sad that from the 30-or-so skills you can buy, 6-or-so just fall away. If you then count away skills against projectiles, not so many skills remain for the mesmer to use.

If traited… mantras can be situationally useful. I’d argue with a coordinated team. No matter how many times you get a “free cast” with your mantra there’s still the rub that you reach a point where you are pre-casting… i.e. can do nothing other than channel to prepare that spell.

In a game that promotes active combat/gameplay… the mantras don’t really seem to fit (in my opinion).

Mantra of resolve is very useful in PvE if you remember to pre-cast. However, in PvP where you want to remove conditions asap a 20 second cast while in the middle of combat effectively renders them useless.

It’s 4s cast to remove 4 conditions. 6 if you got the trait for triple-use.

Mantras have problems in that with all traits, they’re very powerful. Hence without them, they’re very weak. The disparity is too large.

Generally speaking though, in PvE specifically, I find the daze and cleansing mantras to be quite good. There’s always elements in bossfights which cause you to not attack for 3-5 seconds, and hey, you can recharge a Mantra!

Carighan.6758:

It’s 4s cast to remove 4 conditions. 6 if you got the trait for triple-use.

Mantras have problems in that with all traits, they’re very powerful. Hence without them, they’re very weak. The disparity is too large.

Generally speaking though, in PvE specifically, I find the daze and cleansing mantras to be quite good. There’s always elements in bossfights which cause you to not attack for 3-5 seconds, and hey, you can recharge a Mantra!

I haven’t tried any of the manta traits yet, maybe that is the problem. I will have a look at them, though, thanks!

I disagree. I think when Anet buffed mantras to x2 casts by default, they made them really good. Mantra of Distraction provides you with 2 on demand interrupts per fight. Combine this with traits such as inflicting daze causes vulnerability and interrupting causes vulnerability and you’re laughing. Very rarely will you see me in PvE without MoD.

People are quick to discount Mantra of Resolve as being bad without comparing to what other classes have to offer in the condition removal department. MoR is actually an okay skill, but it would benefit from being buffed to 3 conditions (considering the only thing it does is remove conditions). The instant cast lets you get rid of your conditions immediately, unlike other classes who have to wait out the cast animation whilst their condition stack eats their HP away, and the 1second cooldown is icing on the cake.

Mantra of Pain needs work. This is a utility skill but the only thing it does is deal damage. It needs to apply vulnerability or something.

Mantra of Concentration just cannot compare to “Stand Your Ground!” (Guardian). This mantra is terrible right now. 2 seconds isn’t even enough to use Finish Him in PvP. So what if it instant casts? The whole point in stability is to prevent my key skill being interrupted. That means I will be applying stability before I start the skill. In PvE it is completely pointless because mobs have such drawn out animations before their stuns you can easily dodge / interrupt them.

I find the first two mantas I mentioned to be very strong pickups even without any mantra orientated traits. The latter two are just… meh. I use MoC in WvW but only because we don’t have access to any other form of stability.

Mantra traits also need work. For example, Restorative Mantras only heals when you charge the mantra, not when you use the Power X skill. This makes no sense. By design, mantas are meant to be used outside of combat. I don’t know if they intend you to use this in a heavy mantra build and walk around mid combat charging them or what, but I am not seeing the appeal in this trait at all.

I’d really love if Mantras recharged themselves (simultaneously) while out of combat. Over the duration of 3-4 times the charge time, while still giving us the option to charge them manually. If you activate the charge it’d take 4s to cast in or out of combat or if you’re out of combat and not activate the charge then 12-16s later all your Mantras are fully charged on their own.

MoPain can probably be fixed if it is made AE, no?

ChaosStar.3162:

Mantra traits also need work. For example, Restorative Mantras only heals when you charge the mantra, not when you use the Power X skill. This makes no sense. By design, mantas are meant to be used outside of combat. I don’t know if they intend you to use this in a heavy mantra build and walk around mid combat charging them or what, but I am not seeing the appeal in this trait at all.

Not a rework but a fix is needed and I would say as soon as humanly possible. The tooltip is " Heall allies when you cast a mantrs" and not when you recharge a mantra.

With both Restorative Mantras and Phantasmal Healing bugged with just lose nearly our entire healing support aresenal.

Mantras arent that bad.. i used to think they were aweful because of the long cast time(4s).. but turns out u can cast while moving.. so, if used propertly, they could be very, veery nice..

Mantras are ALL 4s cast to charge, the coldown comes to apply after you used all your mantra charges.

I was suprised about the damage of the Mantra of Pain.

I use Healing Mantra as main healing skill. It’s nice to heal twice, even in midcombat, casting or downed. With the default heal skill you need to cast. Recasting it in midcombat is somewhat of a pain, but it still as a lower CD than the default heal.

The usefullness increases with the trait “remove condition when you heal”. So instead of getting the remove mantra and I just heal myself twice, removing up to 2 conditions instantly.
Furthermore I will get the “heal (allies) when casting mantras” (both in healing trait line). I had it before and found it convient. Unfortunately the heal occurs when the cast is finished, but that’s not a problem. With this the healing Mantra has 3x heal (all about same amount). I remember when I had 10k HP, I healed (thrice) with 1k.
Then I played around with my third utility spell. I’m still not using it efficiently, but when I had “heal (allies) when casting mantras” I used MoPain. Not necessarily for the minor damage effect, but the healing ability + damage every 3s was nice.

tldr;
as the others said. If you trait them, they can be useful. You need to test a bit with your traits as Mesmer

Don’t get that trait for the moment as it isn’t working. It’s bloody bugged.
Mantras don’t heal anyone on casting the mantra.

nidwin.6731:

Don’t get that trait for the moment as it isn’t working. It’s bloody bugged.
Mantras don’t heal anyone on casting the mantra.

they do. “Casting” is the preparation of mantras, not the usage of the prepared skills.

So if you have no mantra prepared, you press the healing mantra and cast 5 long seconds. At the instant this casting is finished, you aoe-heal anything allied (you yourself are considered as “ally”, too)

i actually use mantra of distraction in 90% of my builds. in pvp its just to strong to disrupt enemies (stop finisher, stop the spin attacks from wari, …) and imho u have enough time between battles to recast the mantra.
But I agree, that they could need some kind of rework.

You charge a mantra
You cast the charges

My bad. Me know nothing.

And even if the tooltip is wrong it makes no sense and it’s complete garbage. Because you charge your mantras before a fight starts to be ready and at 100% of your possible efficiency. You’re NOT going to enter a fight with uncharged mantras except if you’re a newbie and forgot it. Mantras should heal when you use them, not when you charge them. It’s already bad enough having our mantras being subpar.

My two cents of course.

nidwin.6731:

You charge a mantra
You cast the charges

My bad. Me know nothing.

And even if the tooltip is wrong it makes no sense and it’s complete garbage. Because you charge your mantras before a fight starts to be ready and at 100% of your possible efficiency. You’re NOT going to enter a fight with uncharged mantras except if you’re a newbie and forgot it. Mantras should heal when you use them, not when you charge them. It’s already bad enough having our mantras being subpar.

My two cents of course.

Well, the fact that you can Trait them for combat charging (+armour, – cast time) means it’s envisioned as something people will do. Also, the fact that you can charge while moving and dodging.

Just running around with 1 mantra with the 4% trait is a decent thing to do.

Mantra of pain could use a little more oomph but if you want to go for a burst build, having mantra of pain is not a bad idea.

3 illusion shatter + iduelist+blurred frenzy all doing 4% more damage then cap off that burst rotation with a double cast of pain.

Untraited, Mantra of Distraction is the only Mantra I find to be playable. Interrupting mobs in PvE is much better than I expected it to be, and obviously I don’t have to espouse the virtues of interrupts in PvP.

Pain doesn’t do enough damage to take a spot on my bar. Resolve is worse than Disenchanter, Null Field, or even Arcane Thievery. Concentration is useless in PvE and underpowered in PvP. Healing does less than Ether Feast.