I’m not sure what 343 were thinking with the mantis anyway, its made every game on Valhalla… I mean Ragnarok (?) feel like a game of heavies.
That said, at least on slayer gametypes you can earn ordnance to help you destroy them. I just played a game of CTF and was utterly bemused as to why the mantis had been kept on the map for that gametype. There is no ordnance on CTF, therefore whichever team wins the mantis fight ends up at an insane advantage.
This is not a whine at being destroyed for a game, the players on the other team were pretty terrible and I took two overkills using a DMR, the problem is they had a mantis for the entire second half of the game that just played defence and with no regular weapon drops for something like a laser or even a railgun it made it completely impossible to get anywhere near the enemy flag. With a full team with mics then yes, it is possible to destroy it, but playing with a load of randoms who wont push past the mid point of the map the game is essentially over.
I just think the mantis needs reconsideration for gametypes, especially those which have no ordnance drops.