Amazing Dervish... D/W

Quote:

Quote:

I’m don’t want to get into the discussion about whether or not a scythe build will do more damage. And the “tone” of that discussion is not very productive. I personally think that this build is not that great in most forms of PvP because a) it needs to almost completely fill up with enchants to be effective, and b) PvP almost requires a little more self-utility than this (running speed boosts, interrupts, condition removals, hex removals, etc). I think this is probably a very viable build for RA, and I’m thinking of some very cool variations that can be used in Hero Battles.

The problem with it in PvP as I see it is not so much the damage output and lack of utility as is the problem of keeping enemies in range of your “build-up” enchants. This is because you stop to cast while opponents are still moving…that ¾ second makes a big difference. And its difficult to get more than one opponent in range at a time. This is not easy in PvE as well. In PvE, for this build to really shine, you need to hit more than one mob at once at least.

I sort of tried this out in PvE yesterday, in the Barbarous Coast. Again, I don’t know if a scythe would do more damage, but this build was…FUN! Corsairs died very quickly.

I did not really use the ops exact build. In part because I did not want to buy new armor or runes…so my build is not optimized. I feel the build really needs a melee sword AND shield that both give + 5 energy. I used a wand and focus which gave a lot of +energy (because I was not going to put new insignias on my armor), but the problem with this is that without melee auto-attack, it is more difficult to get in range.

My non-optimized build had this
Myst 12, Earth 11, Wind 9

Arcane Zeal [e]
Vital Boom
Aura of Thorns
Heart of Holy Flame
Mystic Regen
Staggering Force
Mystic Twister
Mystic Sandstorm

To the OP: In PvE, use Arcane Zeal. REALLY! Every time a monk casts Reversal of Fortune on you, you get an extra 4e from mysticism, returns energy. So if a monk placed RoF and say, Aegis after you used Arcane Zeal, he just gave you 3 energy up front, pluss 8 energy when those two spells end. When you follow this chain, Mystic Twister…which does 100 damage to 5 - 6 enemies in the area, essentially only 4 or 5 energy. There is NO downtime…You run through every spell except Mystic Sandstorm in before Arcane Zeal ends, and when it ends, you get 4 energy back, giving enough to hit your Mystic Sandstorm. The whole set is ready to re-run in 15 seconds. So you are constantly activating the enchants.

The energy flow chain looks like this:
Arcane Zeal [e] -10, Vital Boom -5+1 Aura of Thorns -5+2 Heart of Holy Flame-10+3 Mystic Regen -10+4 Staggering Force -10+5 Mystic Twister -10+5 (+4 for end of Acrane Zeal) Mystic Sandstorm -10 = -40 energy in 10 seconds (not counting energy regen...later sets are slower because 15sec recharge on some enchants) This is the same net energy as using Glyph of Lesser Energy, ASSUMING monks don't add to your energy pool and efficiency by putting their enchants on you.

In a set, it does about 250 damage to adjacent enemies, plus 100 damage to up to 6 enemies in the area, + adjacent enemies are on fire for 3 seconds (51 damage), bleeding and crippled for 10 seconds (60 damage), and weakened. If Mystic Twister hits adjacent enemy, and the enemy mob did not move away from you, then on the first pass you outputted 350 damage in 10 seconds, plus another 100 damage over the next 10 seconds.

Now for some variants… I have not tried these, but I think it would work.
Replace one of the above enchants or Mystic Twister with Vow of Piety. Vow of Piety is only ¼ second cast and 5 energy, so if you replace, say Staggering Force, you probably can get all the set through (the first run anyway) before Arcane runs out. So when you hit Mystic Sandstorm, you heal 7 party members 40 hp. Meh…

BUT, replace Mystic Twister with Mystic Healing. Take a +20% to enchant time weapon. As I calculate it, before Arcane Zeal runs out on the first set, you should be able to cast Mystic Healing once. Then, instead of doing Mystic Sandstorm, re-cast Arcane Zeal, then cast Mystic Healing 3 times or so before Vital Boom ends. Mystic Healing essentially costs 0 energy with 5 enchants and if you have 6 enchants, you gain energy with each cast. You have now healed 6 party members, 3 times, for 60-70hp each time…or a total of 1080 – 1260 hit-points in 10 seconds, for 0 (or positive gain) energy. If you don’t see a good clump of opponents to Sandstorm, then let vital boom end, re-apply for 0 net energy, then re-apply Mystic Regen, then cast Mystic healing another 3-4 times.

BTW, with the above builds, its good if monks can cast some enchants on you now and then, as each time those enchants end, you get 4 energy and some health

Quote:

Quote: