Guild Wars 2

I keep changing my build up and yesterday I decided to completely re-work things and go full mantra. I have looked at the (very few) mantra builds I could find and none of them are quite the same as what I ended up with so I would like some feedback on this one.

I mainly play WvW and on a lower ranked server so I am usually outnumbered. Therefore I always need to be tanky but I want to also be able to burst people down quickly.

So here is the build.

Sword/Torch + Staff

30 – I / IX / XI
30 – VI / X / XI
10 – IV

armor is 1/2 knights 1/2 soldiers with melandru runes
trinkets are 1/2 zerker 1/2 cavalier

sigil of battle on staff and bloodlust/energy on sword/torch

skills are mantras of recovery, resolve, distraction, concentration + Mass invisibility

food is superior sharpening stones and lemongrass poultry soup

once i get up my stacks of bloodlust I’m running around about:

3580 attack (4% for each readied mantra)
38% crit chance 65% crit damage
2760 armor (9% reduced damage per illusion)
30% cond duration
17,668 health

has anyone played a similar build before and if so are there any advanced tactics I should know about when to use mantras etc?

are there any alternate weapon choices I should consider?

the only drawbacks in theory I see are lacking swiftness and kind of low health pool. also the healing from the mantra is not much but I do get the passive trait in Chaos that gives me regeneration at 75% health, plus I get regen/prot/swift from getting hit with chaos armor on which I have 3-4 sources of if I use my leap finishers wisely with staff 5. any tips on maximizing the trait and armor regen?

skill rotation suggestions?

thanks for your time!

Hmm. Questions. But first, a few notes:
The key difficulty for mantra builds is the charging time. During that time, you are exceedingly vulnerable. In my opinion, there are two main ways to compensate for this:
1) Kiting. The ability to CC the opponent, and the ability to move quickly in combat. You don’t have much of either. You have a)Phase Retreat and b)Mantra of Distraction. While nice, it won’t be sufficient for most classes.
2) Stealth. Recharge your mantras while invisible. For such a build, PU is inevitable.
Now, back to your build. A few questions:
1) Why the torch? Your build isn’t condition based; nor do you have PU. In contrast, the focus would give you a)swiftness and cc [ability to kite, and allow you to safely recharge mantras].
2) 30 in dueling is questionable to me. It doesn’t seem to match other potential benefits of other lines. I see 16% damage and DE for your shatters- yet for this you sacrifice a great deal of survivability.
In short, your numbers look nice. I’m just worried about the play mechanics of such a build. That said, I’d love for you to create a video and prove me wrong.

Here’s a mantra build I’ve tried, with WvW roaming specifically in mind:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW7fl4zKqnRzgGb9IhpHB33A/UBoT6Rpf9qB-jECB4iCy0CwkIAECQZSFRjtsuIasKZER1qbYSBAx0I-w

Here, I chose stealth to support mantra casting time.

3 condi-removal every 11.5s from heal. 2 condi-removal every 24s from torch. Net:~20 condi/60s. If facing a condi-class, can switch out the signet for power cleanse; 6condi/22s; for a new total of ~38condi/60s. Which is quite nice, I must say.
Stun→ confusion+might stacks. 4 stuns/45s. Bountiful Interruption, in combination with PU, leads to nice boon generation.
1950 toughness, 1625 vitality, 2211 condi damage (w/ 5 might from BI + stacks), 70% condi duration.

Solstice.1097:

skills are mantras of recovery, resolve, distraction, concentration + Mass invisibility

The only problem I see with this, is keeping up with all your recharges. Even though you are a mantra build in game play it is extremely difficult to keep up with all of them. I had the same problem with my build and when cut down to only the essential mantra’s I performed much better. I usually keep a max of two including the heal, but if you can make more work go for it

Thanks for the feedback. As far as the choice of torch I am often fighting heavily outnumbered it is very hard to give up the invisibility. Focus would fill the gaps of missing swiftness and CC’s but at the expense of invisibility and blinds.

Since I posted this I swapped out my chestpiece for clerics, and 2 of my accessory jewels for clerics, and I also moved the 10 extra traits to the healing tree and chose the increased movement speed per illusion so my healing power went from 0 to around 240. Not huge but definitely makes a difference.

I really am trying NOT to use my mantras unless needed because I want to have them charged as often as possible for the extra 16% damage because when I have might stacks and full mantras I hit like a truck. (3580 attack + 16% = 4153 attack + stacks of might on top of that).

I really just want to be able to burst someone down, gtfo, repeat.

The 30 in domination and dueling is for max power/crit and mantra traits since I am going basically a full power build.

Your suggestions sound like they would make the build more versatile and better in many situations, but for fighting 1v5 for example do you think the same is true?

Just as a head up, the way you are calculating damage based off of ‘attack’ and the % boosts is completely wrong. Go take a look at the damage page in the wiki for more information.

At any rate, something you mentioned is really the biggest reason the mantra offensive build simply isn’t good in pvp. You’ve filled your bar with mantras, and yet your damage depends on them not being used. Basically what you’ve done is you’ve sacrificed your heal skill and all 3 utilities for 16% damage, and that’s not a good trade.

hard to argue with that

i started with tanky armor and runes which is essential for WvW on my server.

from there the only way I can find a powerful enough build to quickly down someone is by putting 30 in domination and dueling for the stats, then picking the best trait combos out of those lines.

any suggestions how else to have as high of a burst capability while wearing tanky armor and runes?