OK so I have been running a lot of different types of condition builds in WvW and I’m getting a little tired of it. I want to try something more power-focused but I don’t like being too glassy. So I came up with this:
I might swap a few of the berserker trinkets for some more defensive stats like PVT or cavalier.
The main idea is to have good direct damage and crits without sacrificing too much toughness. GS does what it does best, high ranged damage. Pistol + sword inflicts lots of damage, vuln. and a bit of daze. There is a general focus on phantasms over clones and shatters are mostly for vuln. spikes with Diversion, spike damage with MW or Distortion for survival.
The build is meant to be used mostly in smaller battles or duo-roaming, possibly circling the edges of larger battles for stragglers to pick off.
Restorative mantras + Mender’s purity should hopefully turn healing and condition removal into a natural part of the flow of combat, negating the need to “stop and heal”.
Mantra of pain has a natural CD of 1s (3/4s traited lol) and the active skill pain spike has the same CD, meaning it can be spammed reasonably quickly, then channeled immediately as an extra minor heal.
Mantra of distraction exploits the vuln. stacking from domination minor traits.
Blink is for chasing and escaping.
Time warp for mantra spam and because it’s a great skill.
Other skill options:
Mantra of Concentration – the build lacks stability and stun breakers and this brings both. The CD is long though, and the stability is short.
Mantra of Resolve – along with Mender’s purity and Mantra of Recovery this should take care of most conditions. Also AoE!
Ether Feast – The main reason to bring Mantra of Recovery is that with MP traited it gives you 2×2 condition cleanses to top off your heal. Basically Mending (warrior heal) only better. EF offers a much larger direct heal, even with 0 clones active. Power Return, however, will pretty much never be interrupted.
Phantasmal Disenchanter – more regen uptime, condition cleanse and boon strip. May be superior to Mantra of Resolve.
Null field – this build has a lot of combo finishers but no combo fields apart from Time Warp. NF could make up for this, but Chaos Armor or a short retaliation seems like the only semi-useful thing you could get out of this.
Alternative traits:
Domination:
There is a lot of daze going on, so Halting strike might be an option instead of empowered illusions. However, daze does not guarantee an interrupt and I prefer a passive damage increase even if it comes from clones. Could potentially make Magic bullet more of a spike skill, which sounds kind of fun.
Nothing really seems to be able to compete with GS trait.
Dueling:
Mantra Mastery is not super essential (and completely wasted on MoP), but don’t neglect the 2 seconds shaved off the mantra heal.
I struggled with Blade Training for a while, but eventually decided that since the IL/swap mechanic are so horribly broken, all I’m getting for that trait is 2.5 seconds shaved off BF. Oh, and 50 precision yay.
Protected mantras could potentially be a better choice than Mantra Mastery since RM rewards spending and recharging your mantras whenever you can.
Inspiration:
Compunding Celerity could do a lot of good here, since the build is rather lacking in mobility and escape options. CC with 3 clones is basically swiftness, but anything that makes you highly dependent on keeping up a large number of clones needs Deceptive Evasion IMO.
Obvious weaknesses:
Mantras are very vulnerable to interrupts for several, obvious reasons. Keeping range, or at least keeping yourself standing and un-dazed/stunned when channeling mantras is key. Dazing before – or even during – the channeling should help.
The build lacks stealth, blocks and doesn’t have a lot going for it boon-wise. Staying near phantasms to keep up regen and pumping out heals with mantras is probably the only way to outlast a sturdy opponent.
Thoughts? The mantras are mostly an experiment right now, but I’d like to try and see how much good you can do with Restorative Mantras. It seems like an excellent trait in a smaller group that can stick to the same range and each other.
(edited by calavel.6249)