Guild Wars 2

So I decided to look at the prospects of a mantra mesmer. Two matches on PvP and I already had fun playing with it. Against those that use conditions, I find myself spamming those condi cleanses every time. The daze helps me get the upper hand and the heals come to me quickly every 8-10 seconds or so.

My idea is that I focus on surviving easily while I use the Empowering Mantras (Domination XI) to deal damage to my opponent. I initially went with berserker amulet but without the toughness, I fell easily and my manta utility skills essentially became unhelpful. However with soldiers, I can survive nicely while wear down my opponents. I don’t essentially shatter but when I need to, I can.

However, two matches with mantras on doesn’t mean I generally know fully and here’s where you guys might help me with it. What are its strengths? Its weaknesses? What parts helps the team as a whole and what parts hinder it? If you like the idea and have thoughts of improving it, what weapons/traits/utility skills/sigils/runes/amulets would you use?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJARWl0npIt1oxRNcrNSqxcqnI9ABMRp7o7CA-TZxFwATLDA4QAY4CAg4JAoa/BA

This is my mantra build (not my main, but one I stitched up) from the last two matches.

If I’m going to go Mantra build I’m going to maximize max DPS. So no decoy and take another mantra, the stun break/stabos one is my choice.

Then for the stealth/disengage whatever sword/torch. Staff isnt giving you anything for your +12% (or +16%) bonus damage. Then I’m going to want some major spike damage. Phantasms are great, don’t get me wrong, but we can do better than that with the 4x Mantras + Empowering Mantras. So drop Empowered Illusions and take Halting Strike. You want to make the most out of those 3x MoD’s, Illusionary Wave, and f3 interrupts. Then finally Mental Torment. A three clone shatter are are going to crit for 3k each. You think a shatter burst is nasty? Combine your standard GS 2, iZerker, 3x clone shatter, + MoD interrupt. Good times ;D. Finally drop Mender’s Purity for Compounding Power. Your cleansing mantra is more than enough condi removal. You shouldn’t be trying to tank/eat condi’s anyway. As for compounding power, all those +% damage stack up, giving an “offense is the best defense” approach.

Also altered ammy, runes, sigils. Runes can be anything but the more power/damage/crit the better

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8fl0npIt1oxKNcrNipxgqyI9DBkRpHZ8FA-TpRBwAX3fYxBBQzRAgcZgHXAAAPAAA

I agree with Ross here. I’d have done similar changes to get the most out of the mantras and traits. But I think 1v1s might be really hard with this build for the lack of defensive utility. If you can get the dmg down, then it should be fine. But look out for surprises. But for team fights your dmg and offensive utility with that mantra build could be devastating

Would Mantra of Pain not be a good substitute as well?

Also, how well would this translate in WvW?

I just tryed that build in WvW, but I dropped mental torment in favor of shattered concentration. It works good in team fights, if you aren’t focused and taking npc camps goes in no time. NPCs died after initial rotation with one phantasm and shatter already^^

However, mantra of pain is not that good imho. The damage is pretty lame, even with the mantra traits. You can use it in zerg fights, to tag many targets or to use it in combination with restorative mantras for the AoE heal. Other than that the mantra of pain I find really weak.

So over all I’d rate the build with a very high and quick dmg potential, especially if you set the damage up with vulnerability on your foe. But the defensive abilities of that build is very weak and I struggled even against scrub GS/Hammer warriors. Another moditation guardian just destroyed me. But any time I could surprise my target, I could destroy them quickly^^

This is how I would suggest this build for small groups in WvW:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8fl0npIt1oxKNcrNipxgqyIdANkRpHZ8FA-T1SBwAcVq84CAYWJ4VlBdVSdT9HU6GWcQA0cEA4t/AgHAApAMXZE-w

EDIT:
I would suggest this build (with shattered concentration) for people who run in small groups in WvW. You offer AoE condi cleanse, AoE stabi (yes short duration, but still good for stomping), very good and easy to play dmg output, and boon strips. But, as mentioned, it has just a low defensive potential.

My take on this one, OP – you could certainly go all ham as others have suggested; this trait spread certainly lends to that. However, if you want to be more tanky/survivable as you’ve said, keeping soldiers amulet isn’t a bad idea.

I would experiment with using pack runes vs hoelbrak. You’ll have a few things with that minor change that you don’t have now: 1) access to fury, 2) access to swiftness and 3) more base precision. More fury and precision now mean the somewhat mediocre damage you were doing before is now a little bit better. Tack onto that a small change of swapping mantra mastery for maybe phantasmal fury and now your phantams do that much more potential damage.

You can keep mender’s purity but I think switching that to compounding power is better for your damage. A couple more thoughts – as this seems to be more of a tanky phantasm build, maybe DE isn’t needed. Since you’ll be charging mantras so much, you could experiment with protected mantras. Lending to that suggestion, swap mantra of distraction for mantra of concentration. This gives you even more stun breaks and access to stability while charging your mantras. My final advice would be to swap the ice sigil for hydromancy on the staff. Since you’ll be fighting on point with this build, I think you’ll get a lot more mileage out of that. Also if you end up ditching DE, you could go with sigils other than energy.

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

Would Mantra of Pain not be a good substitute as well?

Also, how well would this translate in WvW?

The question is, what’re you going to give up for it. Sure it’s going to have its desired effect at stacking bonus damage into the mix. But MoD’s controll is essential to your survival in this guild imo. So that leaves either condi cleanse, or stun break, and you don’t want to be caught by a stun or imob in this glass machine.

Anyway I ran this in pvp the other day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2IIEvGe-Yg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woyVNo50iDU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHUe00t9gxg

TyPin.9860:

I agree with Ross here. I’d have done similar changes to get the most out of the mantras and traits. But I think 1v1s might be really hard with this build for the lack of defensive utility. If you can get the dmg down, then it should be fine. But look out for surprises. But for team fights your dmg and offensive utility with that mantra build could be devastating

That’s something I’m kinda aware of, but not fully aware till you said about losing to a “scrub GS/Hammer warriors”. xD So what I learned right now is that mantra builds are very offensive in nature with plenty of fun utility. The only problem is that unless someone runs Mantra of Concentration, there’s no defense against stun attacks like the hammer warriors.

Honestly, that’s one of the few reasons I shy away from having 4 full mantras and kept a stunbreaker myself such as Decoy because I felt like I won’t have a good answer to those kinds of situations. Besides, a full 12% increased damage from having 3 readied mantras felt good enough for me.

skcamow.3527:

I would experiment with using pack runes vs hoelbrak. You’ll have a few things with that minor change that you don’t have now: 1) access to fury, 2) access to swiftness and 3) more base precision. More fury and precision now mean the somewhat mediocre damage you were doing before is now a little bit better. Tack onto that a small change of swapping mantra mastery for maybe phantasmal fury and now your phantams do that much more potential damage.

At the time I created the mantra build, I debated for some time whether to run the Runes of Hoelbrak or the Runes of the Pack. Both are resounding good, however the reason I chose Hoelbrak is because my precision felt low. 24% may not be a good probable chance to make use of the critical hits. Maybe the Fury boon gives it a boost of 44%, which is nice because I’m somewhat on par with berserker stats when it comes to precision, but my critical hits are somewhat low. I don’t know if the 170% dealing additional damage would make any impact. (The stats are based on my build on my original post when using Pack instead of Hoelbrak.)

As for the phantasmal fury, honestly I wouldn’t mind which means my phantasms do the damage and I don’t need to worry about dealing extra damage. I chose Mantra Mastery over Phantasmal Fury because now it’ll take me every 8 seconds to spam my Mantra of Recovery and more cooldowns all over my mantra skills. Significant imo, though my two fights I found myself taking a total of 6 seconds to ready all of my mantras in the middle of the fight. I felt that it wasn’t healthy for me doing that.

skcamow.3527:

You can keep mender’s purity but I think switching that to compounding power is better for your damage.You can keep mender’s purity but I think switching that to compounding power is better for your damage.

Ross also suggested that and I’m not shy from moving my traits from Inspiration to Illusiosn for that Compounding Power if I needed to.

skcamow.3527:

A couple more thoughts – as this seems to be more of a tanky phantasm build, maybe DE isn’t needed. Since you’ll be charging mantras so much, you could experiment with protected mantras. Lending to that suggestion, swap mantra of distraction for mantra of concentration. This gives you even more stun breaks and access to stability while charging your mantras. My final advice would be to swap the ice sigil for hydromancy on the staff. Since you’ll be fighting on point with this build, I think you’ll get a lot more mileage out of that. Also if you end up ditching DE, you could go with sigils other than energy.

If I continue using the mantra build, this might be the time for me to practice a mesmer without DE. I’ve been using DE for a bunch of times and very rarely run around without DE. I usually keep Mantra of Distraction as to get an offensive attack because with Soldiers set, you’ll be doing less than significant damage and against people like Engineers and tanky Warriors, your damage may not change the overall fight at all. And because I would keep the Mantra of Distraction, Decoy helps me with a stunbreak and also gives me stealth to help me plan out wha tto do next.

You actually got a great idea with sigils if I don’t run DE. I’ll actually keep that in mind if I’m going to take DE out.

@Titus.2085:
I Just be aware that I was running with mostly berserker gear. So maybe with a more defensive gear you can compensate for the lack of utility. However, your damage will be lower too.

The good thing of the stun breaker mantra is, that it has more stun breaks and is also good for stomping with some secs of stability. However, it does not allow easy repositioning during the fight, what decoy and blink do allow and what makes mesmer strong in PvP.