Guild Wars 2

Ok since mantras have been suffering so many changes and recently they are a hot topic, I think they deserve a dedicated topic just for them and their traits. This is my thoughts about mantras and their traits in a mesmer daily routine:

Pre-Specialization patch:

PvP: unusable, since (old)Harmonious Mantras competed with DE, with the exception of MoResolve. Despite of not being that good, between null field (standing inside for a 1 cleansed condi /sec)and arcane thievery (cause offensive property, long cd and easly failed -range and LoS) it was the least bad condi clear.

PvE: Mantras hurted in our utility slots, yet they compensated the lack of dmg mesmer have and it was almost permanent mantained (2/3 mantras if we spec into reflect, 3/4 mantras if no relfect needed) so it was a 8/12% or 12/16% dmg modifiers and if we intelligent managed mantras charges we only had the annoying trick of swap in&out a mantra and recharge it again to refill the charges in the dead-times.

Specialization Patch:

PvP: It felt so good. Even without trait ( 2 charges ) we could feasibly use mantras since when last charge was wasted we had it rdy or almost rdy to recharge again. Trait or not was only a matter of how often we recharged them. Yet i agree some became too powerfull cause their innate low cd and start recharging in bg would make them have the channel time as their cd ( unless u spammed them like a monkey).

PvE: Awsome HM trait change. With the Harmonious Mantras merged with the Empowering Mantras opened more choices possibilities and made overall mantras better (33% more, since it became mandatory for PvE). With the dmg modifiers becaming a buff it freed utility slots in our bar.
The bg recharge became a QoL mechanic since we didnt need that annoying trick of swamp in&out mantras to prepare next boss/fight encounter with full charges.It rewarded intelligent play and charges management cause a player who didnt spend all charges in previous encounter just had the 2.75s recharge time to regain the full charges or just had to waste the last charge(s) between fight and instantly recharge again without the need of annoying tricks. For those who spammed like crazy the only difference was they just saved few seconds in the cd time. (just like the-no-more-present-mantra-cd trait Mantra Mastery did).
The only negative about it is the dmg modifiers. 8s of short lasting buff is short and the 5 max stacks (20% dmg) was (and still is) realisticly impossible to mantain ( ~2/3s of it). Yet no one complained. I bet everyone was so happy with the freed utility slots and QoL mantra bg recharge and since pre-update max dmg mod was 16% that no one cared if we couldnt realisticly reach the 20%. Also even after reach 4 stacks they only last for a mere ~5s, oh well, at least it gives us time for a buffed AA chain or a feedback. 2 stacks is the fair amount of HM stacks buff we realisticly have for like 30s of normal fight until our mantras exhaust. After those 30s our dps would drop significantly, even more if we need to recharge them to use them in same encounter.

Present Patch:

PvP: It only didnt went back to pre-specialization update state because in similar builds to past 4/4/0/0/6 builds, we have a new trait called CS to pair with MoD (to make a strong combo)and the trait system revamp opened options to new builds (bunker/sustain?) that may take advantage of HM+mender purity for heal mantra (+ possibly other mantra?) for example. Yet they feel bad again except those cases… Imagine finish an encounter with 1 charge and then roam to another capture point… That mantra effectivness is cutted in 50/66% plus the ultra kitten me sign 2,75s channel time. If it happens to be the heal mantra, doubt that 2k heal will be enough ( it is just a power ele 25might burn tick, kappa).
The dmg mod nerf in HM short lasting buff was never a problem… I guess the way Anet decide to nerf things is already commented in other topics.

PvE: The dmg nerf is so significative to the crippled pve mesmer that 2 stacks of average dificulty mantained HM buff before kinda equals 3 stacks of harder mantained buff in the present. And comparing to pre-specialization it became worst, we can no longer reach the 16% (when using heal+utility slots) of permanent dmg mod since it is capped to the realisticly impossible 15% in the present.
And last but not least, the usabillity of mantras became worst! It no longer rewards intelligent charges management and we can no longer “annoying trick recharge” it since each charge makes the full mantra cd timer goes off ( you will only notice after the last charge is exhausted if u dont swamp in&out the same mantra).
So comparing with pre-specialization, in terms of dmg its worst, in terms of playability its worst if we look to the “recharge” annoying mantra mechanic and kinda equal overall since we have the 2 major mantra traits merged(yet thats a trait benefit not a mantra innate thing).

Sugestion to fix the major flaws of current mantras mechanics/traits:
1) Increase the time of HM buff stacks (15s+ would allow us to keep our normal gameplay while getting rewarded with a decent amount of HM bonus without the need to monkey-spam mantras just to benefit the dmg yet losing mantra effect itself correct use/time. And also would be also viable to use with any mantra and not only MoR or MoP (1s cd between charges). Imagine we have slotted MoD only, since we have a 5second cd between charges, we can only reach 2 stacks for 3s with the current 8s duration time. With this sugestion (15s buff duration) we could reach, with MoD only, 2 stacks for 10s and even 3 stacks for 5s. And it would free us from the mandatoty MoP just for this matter only (HM buff) in the situations we dont need MoP and could use other utility. (this sugestion is mainly noticeable at pve).
2) Revert the background recharge thing but increase the mantra cd itself (cd of mantra channel, and not the in between charges). For normal gameplay it will reward the intelligent management and it would be a nice QoL change to fix it clunkyness; in pvp since the use is more intensive, it will remove the ability to spam and having it always (or almost) rdy. A increment of +10s in each mantra (except MoP) is a nice step to start and check how things become.
For example heal mantra would become 20s CD, it would virtually be the same as now and wouldnt unbalance the pvp sustain since in pvp a player should average blow all 2/3 charges in 10s and would still have 10s of remaining cd (like in present).

For reference, here is the link for old traits: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Trait_Guide_

Great post, great suggestion. I hope our special mesmer-forum-moderator will sent your posts directly to the devs.

Remake the mantras how it was! it was so fluent!

Clarified few things and added link to old traits for those who dont remember exacly their bonus.