Photoloss.4817

Once again DO NOT DO THIS IN PVE!!! It will be incredibly annoying especially underwater and unlike actual stat nerfs cannot be split across game modes either.

The facing requirement still sounds like it will feel absolutely ATROCIOUS in PvE! Please ensure this skill does not simply fail, or spam error messages, when mobs randomly move outside the allowed cone.

Please tell me this is meant to be WvW/PvP-only. The attack already appears to respect line of sight (in most cases?) in PvE so I'd consider that part a bugfix, but the 360° instant damage is invaluable for tagging mobs, drawing aggro from idle open world creatures and keeping up the damage while occupied with other actions (unlike human opponents most AI mobs don't exactly walk behind you reactively but like to dash/teleport at random). Either way this absolutely must not go through for underwater! Mesmer already feels ATROCIOUS since the rework due to Feigned Surge's inconsistent behaviour, Siren's Call's unreliable bouncing and the forced leap on Imminent Voyage leaving Mantra of Pain as pretty much the only reliable ranged damage option while waiting for other skills to come off cooldown. I can see why you want to reign in Mantra of Distraction but still fundamentally think adding a facing requirement when the skill cannot forcibly change your character's facing itself will just feel "wrong". Assuming this change is intended to increase counterplay in competitive modes I would suggest either making it apply a buff+animation to stun the target(s) after a short delay (thus allowing a short window to cancel your cast and not suffer on-interrupt effects) or to simply accept its position as a dedicated "un-counterable counter" by reducing the target count and/or increasing its cooldown in competitive modes to reflect the considerable power such capability represents. In addition the facing requirement would reduce cohesion with the other mesmer mantra skills and even the traited heal all maintaining full effectiveness regardless of your character's facing.