New Dervish and Player

Use to play back in the day and am returning to have a little fun. Sadly, it was so long ago since I played that I either remember far too little or what I do know was likely patched or changed. I'm going to be mostly playing by myself. Was wondering what's a recommended survivable (while still being effective) build? Would /Mo (sorry, it always seems to be used) be most applicable?

Edit: Would the 130hp builds still be applicable?

Edit(2): http://gw.gamependium.com/tools/builds/show/3366 Thoughts on this?

The 130hp builds are for farming, not for general play. Dervishes don't rely on a secondary too much, the most effective would probably be /E for conjures to boost damage, or /W for their skills that apply to physical or melee classes.

Dervishes have strong survival skills available such as Conviction and Mystic Regeneration, making /Mo pointless.

As for a build I would go for something like this:

Reapers Sweap, Mystic Sweap, Eremites Attack, Heart Of Fury, Aura Of Holy Might, Asura Scan, Mystic Regeneration, Zealous Renewal.

Reapers Sweap can be swapped with Wounding Strike.

I'ts a pretty generic D/any build, I made sure Mystic Regen was in there because you wanted some self-survival.

Gotcha. Thank you.

Edit: Noticed your examples build after you editted. Double thank you!

The build you linked to is pretty weak due to awful energy management with expensive skills.

On PvX, try the attack spammer build with Zealous Vow and Save Yourselves.
http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Build/W_Attack_Spammer
Drop Aura of Holy Might for By Ural's Hammer when playing with an AP MoP nuker. Protector's Strike is often used on this build because it goes with the spam theme.

You'll notice it'll be hard using other builds after trying it.

After almost a year of playing the dervish (and constantly searching for a dervish build that another class doesn't do better), the closest thing to satisfactory I've found is this:

Zealous Vow
Aura of Holy Might
Heart of Fury
Asuran Scan
Protector's Strike
Mystic Sweep
Eremite's Attack
"Save Yourselves!"

With buffs like AoHM and Asuran Scan, attack speed matters more than +dmg, which is why Protector's Strike is there (even at 0 strength, it is the best attack skill a dervish can get). HoF is there because IAS affects attack skills (and you're going to be forced to autoattack anyway while the attack skills recharge). Zealous Vow, of course, is the only way you're going to be able to fuel that many attack skills (well, unless you have a ER healer constantly spamming shield guardian on you or something).

The advantages of this build are that it is good with a scythe (it's dps actually exceeds a Vow of Strength dervish), can spam SY! (and possibly keep it permanently maintained, depending on how many enemies you're hitting), and do both without having to deal with a movement penalty. Technically speaking, scythe sins and scythe warriors can beat the build in damage, but a warrior needs Flail to do so (forcing a movement penalty), and a scythe sin can't take SY!.

I use a similar build to reaper's, though I use Victorious Sweep instead of Eremite's (since monsters rarely ball up the way I want them to), and I don't run SY! on my bar (as I always play with a friend of mine who is a Paragon, and he uses it) but instead use some other PvE-only skill - usually Pain Inverter, EBSoH, or sometimes Radiation Field. It's usually a skill I swap around depending on where I'm going/what I'm going to be doing.

It's definitely a very strong build, and is the best I've come up with yet. And I've also been experimenting with various builds trying to find something that works well. I absolutely destroy HM with this build, it's awesome.

I do use the same build as Reaper, but I use chilling victory instead : it just fills this little downtime between your three attack skills. HoF is nice too, but I find it difficult to cast ZV, AoHM, HoF and scan before a fight, as I'll usually run out of energy.

AoHM is nice for UD filled areas too, you can sometimes hit for 400 and more. I just did vloxen today and hit the undead boss for 530 dmg twice with SoH. Bam, headshot. If you can run SoH on a hero, go for it, it's insane.

As Cuilan said, drop AoHM when playing with a MoP nuker. The holy dmg negates the skill. I usually pick whirling charge instead, your derv will seem to be on cocaine and spam SY every second.

This may seem a long post, but I'd have a question too : so far, only ZV has been a good e-management skill for me. Is there any other skill that would work great?

Quote: Originally Posted by scratchdude I do use the same build as Reaper, but I use chilling victory instead : it just fills this little downtime between your three attack skills. HoF is nice too, but I find it difficult to cast ZV, AoHM, HoF and scan before a fight, as I'll usually run out of energy.

AoHM is nice for UD filled areas too, you can sometimes hit for 400 and more. I just did vloxen today and hit the undead boss for 530 dmg twice with SoH. Bam, headshot. If you can run SoH on a hero, go for it, it's insane.

As Cuilan said, drop AoHM when playing with a MoP nuker. The holy dmg negates the skill. I usually pick whirling charge instead, your derv will seem to be on cocaine and spam SY every second.

This may seem a long post, but I'd have a question too : so far, only ZV has been a good e-management skill for me. Is there any other skill that would work great? Attacker's Insight. But that's really for fueling a couple of expensive, long recharge skills (like chilling victory). Other than that, there really aren't any good energy management options for the dervish (zealous renewal, for example, fails utterly because it can only give you a max of 15 energy after you subtract the spell's cost, and gives it to you all at once at the end, long after you needed it).

If energy is a problem, consider radiant insignias, or a +5 energy inscription. I myself wouldn't, because I tend to cast my enchantments and AS so as to make sure I have enough by the time I start attacking the target (or conversely, I could just attack once and then use AS).

The problem with not using AoHM is that the only reason to do so is in a MoP party. But, a scythe user has no business being in a MoP party in the first place, because an HB+WA warrior is far, far better in that circumstance. It would be like a Fevered Dreams Mesmer and a Vow of Strength dervish in the same party. Their strengths wouldn't synergize at all.

Also, keep in mind that MoP parties have to worry about things like AI scattering from the AoE.

Well, I really don't care about redundancy much (as in, I don't care if another class does it better. If I wanted to play one of those, I would, however I rather don't), and for me to carry SY! is redundant.

I've just never been a fan of Eremite's. 90% of the time you're not going to be hitting multiple targets because monsters like to run around, and I find the time spent trying to ball them up would be better used just hitting the damn things. I'd rather have the unconditional extra damage and healing.

I'm also not a huge fan of Protector's Strike. I tried it out, and it very noticeably dropped my damage output.

The best energy management for Dervish is having a hero with prots. It'll trigger your Mysticism.