Guild Wars 2

Tried Druid with Clerics gear at first. Seems like the scaling with healing power is pretty bad.

Tried using Soldiers gear after with much better results.

Plus how often do you overwrite Chaos Armor with Chaos Storm/Phase retreat or Staff 4 because you want to swap weapons.

The whole point of not being 20% CDR is that you should be able to go a bit over 20% if you do your rotation in a specific way, but if you are forced out of your optimal rotation you end up a bit below 20%.

8 seconds of Chaos Armor being what I’d usually get at best, 40% CDR was nuts if only 5 seconds, it was still 25%. They didn’t really think that through did they.

Now at 2% per tick, 8 seconds of Chaos Armor gives 16% CDR and at 5 seconds 10%. This is way too low, lets look at 3%.

3%
8 Seconds: 24% CDR
5 Seconds: 15% CDR

Well look at that, that almost looks balance Devs, wouldn’t you say.

Even if someone does get another full duration leap through a utility, that’s still only 11 seconds for 31%, and hey if your investing that much of your build into getting that, I’m fine with it.

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.

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?

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.