Guild Wars 2

Disclaimer: Taking this build to PvP is probably a bad idea, as most people expect a Mesmer with more burst damage.

Sustain/Bunker Mantra of Pain Mesmer

To start, I’ve been trying to theorycraft a sustain/bunker Mesmer for a while now. On a whim I thought, “Mantra of Pain is bad, let me try to make a build with that.”

Things that I have found in my previous attempts at a bunker Mesmer.

• Healing power on a Mesmer is bad.
• Restorative Mantras makes Mantras heal as much as Warrior Shouts and Guardian Meditations
• Mantras are a long cast instead of instant link Shouts and Meditations, which is why this is not widely used.
• Staff is great because of Phase Retreat and Chaos Armor.
• Mantra of Pain/Power Spike has a 1 second CD for both mantra and charges, making it spamable.

When looking at these there is an important mechanic that ties them together:

• While channeling a spell with a cast time, most spells without a cast time can be cast without interrupting the channel.

Basic use, While channeling Mantra of Pain I can cast Power Return (Mantra of Recovery charges) without interrupting the channel.

But lets face it, that is boring.

So, what does a Mesmer have access to without a cast time?

• Staff 2 – Phase Retreat
• Staff 4 – Chaos Armor
• Torch 4 – The Prestige
• Utility – Decoy Interrupts Mantras
• Utility – Mirror Images
• Utility – Signet of Midnight
• Utility – Feedback
• Utility – Blink

Note: While Mirror Images can be used, I feel Signet of Midnight and Feedback are much more useful due to the lack of Shatter synergy in this build.

So here is what our typical playstyle will look like.

• Always be spamming Mantra of Pain.
• If charging the mantra, use abilities listed above.
• If spamming Power Spike, use abilities with a cast time.

There is a learning curve to playing this build and managing your instant abilities vs your abilities with a cast time, however once you get the hang of it, the build has a lot of potential.

Also, you will never die. Pretty much ever.

Imagine a Guardian that gets a Meditation heal every 4 seconds. Guess what, that’s you now.

Not to mention your actual heal, or regen from Phantasms, that’s all just icing on the cake.

The Damage

Congrats, you now live forever, but what are you going to do to be useful. Well, we obviously spam Mantra of Pain, but beyond that mostly just put up Phantasms and Staff Auto. To be honest, if you can manage than along with juggling the fact you should always be double casting (1 cast time, 1 instant speed) then your going to be doing quite a lot.

Remember, this isn’t a glass cannon build, nor is this a bursty shatter build. But if you are always double casting you will have good consistent output.

Trait Choices

I’ve messed around with a few different setups, but 0/6/4/4/0 seems to be the most solid.

Dueling – I, VII, & XI
options – II & X just as viable as I & VII if not better.

Chaos – III, & X
options – II if jumping off cliffs a lot, V if you take X in Dueling

Inspiration – IV & X
options – none

Dueling – We really just want Harmonious Mantras for more Mantra of Pain spam. Deceptive Evasion goes with everything, but if you want to try something without it, this might be the only build ever where Protected Mantras is pretty good, so give it a try. Far-Reaching Manips for longer Blinks, Phantasmal Fury for more damage.

Chaos – Nothing new here, Dibilitating Dissipation makes more since if you take Deceptive Evasion. Master of Manipulation for more Blinks.

Inspiration – A big part of why I made this build was to have Mender’s Purity and Restorative Mantras together. They are pretty core to why this build can bunker as every other Mesmer build is notoriously vulnerable to conditions. Don’t forget the heals affect nearby allies as well, imagine a whole group of Mesmers in the build in a heal ball.

Why run this build?

Still trying to find where this build would be most effective. There is a lot of potential here. PvE group healer? Multiple bunker Mesmers healing each other in a PvP group? Let me know your ideas, I’m still testing it in various places.

Stats? I’m still experimenting with Stats, but prioritize Power, not Condition Damage. Even through we are running staff and will often spam Winds of Chaos with Power Spike, most of our damage is coming from Power. Adjust your gear to your content. If you need to survive, try Soldiers/PVT gear. If you need more damage, go Assassin’s/Berserker as I don’t think we do enough condition damage for Rampager or Carrion. Celestial is also worth trying.

If you do want to try and push Condition Damage, try Runes of Balthazar, as the AoE Burning when you heal every 10 seconds is pretty fantastic.

Closing notes

This is my first attempt at a Mantra of Pain build, if anyone else has ever experimented with this, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Mostly to know that anyone else was crazy enough to try a MoP build like me. :o)

-ICEveverfrost.8567

So, for anyone that actually read the whole way through this huge post. Thoughts/ideas on how I can make this better?

Can you make this build using the That_Shaman calculator dulfy has for Heart of Thorns?

http://dulfy.net/gw2traits

http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgMCXAP8BKQ~

Picked Deceptive Evasion over Harmonious Mantras here but I think either could work. You get plenty of shatter fuel from Phase Retreat and phantasms, Deceptive Evasion just gives you more. It depends on how good/needed the new shatter traits in Inspiration are.

It’s worth noting that I spent tonight testing this more in sPvP, and it did extremely well bunkering mid. That said I was mostly fighting condi Necros and Mesmers and didn’t have to fight any Engis or Medi Guards. So I’m not sure how it would hold up vs the meta though. That said, I had no problem constantly cleansing condis off.

Edit: Tried some more in dueling. Medi Guard puts out more pressure than it can handle, and Thief has too many interrupts that always land because Mantras are the easiest thing in the world to interrupt. That said, beat everything else I fought.

I run a bit of a variant of this in WvW: 0/2/6/6/0

Basically a Celestial PU-Power build with pretty nice sustain using GS & Sw/To and Pack Runes. Uses only MoP for damage & heals, and Ether Feast as burst heal.

In Dueling you take Phant Fury of course. Chaos is also pretty standard DD & PU, and whatever floats your boat in the middle. ;-)

Inpsiration is also pretty set with MP, RM, and personally I chose the AoE Condie Clear on shatter GM. This is a nice instant way to clear Poison before using EF, or clear an Immob.

Naturally you rely mostly on Stealth to recharge your MoP for more heals, so be sure to unload it before you stealth. ;-)

I’ve been running this with a mostly Celestial setup, using food to further augment Precision and Power. The damage is not half bad for the huge gains in sustain. It’s my current answer to deal with all the Thieves and Pew Pew Rangers in WvW. Higher sustain opponents tend to end in a draw, you just can’t put enough pressure on them to outdo their healing. Maybe a pair of Doom Sigs would help.

You’re very capable of fighting Condition using enemies like Thieves, Engies, and even Necros. You have a lot of condie-clears & stealth, and decent enough damage output to whittle them down.

Overall though, I was mostly trying this out in anticipation of the upcoming changes. At that point I would add RI into the mix for even more healing (on shatter), and perhaps focus less on Phantasm damage and more on either shatter or condie damage.

It’s working nicely in WvW though as it’s a pretty flexible build. While roaming I’ve had lots of 2v1s where I was not only frustrating the kittens out of the attackers, but also managed to down one of them many times. (Occasionally even able to get the stomp off with via F4. ) It’s also nice in group fights because I can at least contribute a little with GS, and AE condie clears & heals. (While still maintaining the ability to solo roam in a Power build.)

http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgMEmALkA-Q~