Mantra Changes

Alongside recent changes about the DiabloWiki.com - Demon Hunter Demon Hunter's Hatred regeneration and how damage is calculated across all classes, Bashiok recently responded to a question about the DiabloWiki.com - Monk Monk's Mantras, specifically why they need to be refreshed instead of simply toggled.

In order to give players an incentive to refresh their Mantras (which, if you didn't know, currently function almost identically to Auras), there has been talk of implementing short term bonuses to Mantras when the player first activates them.

Official Blizzard Quote:



I thought one of us had already posted on this but I'm having trouble locating it... NO MATTER!

We're toying around with making mantras more of an active ability currently. Right now it's just a really short duration buff, which isn't very cool, as stated. What we think will be cool, is that when hitting the button to cast a mantra you get a super-mega buff (or effect) for a short time, and then the buff would lower to its normal levels after.

You can see that design currently on a couple skill descriptions on the site, they're just not reflected in-game.

Keep in mind it's still all of course in testing.

This gives mantras a more 'use oriented' flavor. So while it's a short duration that's OK because you want to hit the mantra button more than once every two minutes, it becomes an active skill. So far we think it's working pretty well.

What we don't want is to have long duration buffs or toggles, because then it may as well be a passive. We want our active skills to be active, and so hopefully this change achieves that.
As with the reworking of the Demon Hunter's Hatred regeneration, the Mantra changes are up on the Monk's official skill page, but the change has not been implemented in the current build of the beta. If they were implemented, the skill descriptions would be changed to match the current ones on the Diablo III site:

Mantra of Evasion - Recite a Mantra that grants you and all allies within 40 yards a 30% chance to dodge attacks. Lasts 120 seconds. Dodge chance is doubled in the first 3 seconds.

Mantra of Healing - Recite a Mantra that causes you and all allies within 40 yards to gain increased Life regeneration by 106.4 Life per second. Lasts 120 seconds. Life regeneration is doubled in the first 3 seconds.

Mantra of Conviction - Recite a Mantra that causes all enemies within 20 yards of you to take 20% additional damage. Lasts 120 seconds. Additional damage is doubled in the first 3 seconds.

Previously the sections about the first three seconds weren't included in the skill description, and the change to the other mantra, Mantra of Retribution, is currently unknown. Each skill currently has a cooldown of 30 seconds, so this change would most likely make it advantageous to simply use the Mantra every thirty seconds.

These changes have also raised questions about the DiabloWiki.com - Wizard Wizard's Armors and the DiabloWiki.com - Barbarian Barbarian's Shouts. Although the Barbarian gains fury from some of his shouts, the Wizard currently gains no bonus from refreshing her armors, and it seems as though a similar incentive could be used for both classes. If that happens, and when the Mantra change is implemented, you can be sure we'll let you know.

So what do you think about the Monk's Mantras? Should they just be passive skills? Should you just toggle them on and off? Or do these changes provide enough of an incentive to refresh the Mantra every 30 seconds? Be sure to discuss your opinion in the topic below.

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