Derv Balance

First the roles. As I see it, dervs best fit these roles in these situations:

-PvE henchy-hero party – low- durability high-damage dealing fighter. The goal of this role is to help kill mobs fast.

-PvE human PUG party, not in end-missions – medium durability, medium-AOE damage dealer. The goal of this role is to spread melee damage, body-block foes, support the main tank (if there is one), and not cause to much energy stress for the monk.

-PvE human party for high-end mission / area – high durability condition spreader with low-damage. The goal of this role is to shut down melee mobs, ranged non-spell casters, and Shiro.

-PvE human party warrior replacement – ultra-high durability condition spreading tank with really low damage. The goal of this role is to replace a warrior.

-PvP melee shut-down – low- durability condition spreader with medium damage. The goal of this role is to shut down those stupid thumpers.

-PvP generalist - medium - durability medium-damage dealer w/ deep wounds. The goal of this role is to laugh at anyone who tries to put conditions on you while you apply and re-apply Deep Wounds

-PvP ganker – medium durability low- damage high mobility. The goal of this role is to survive while ganking deep in enemy territory.

What does high-durability mean? What does condition spreader mean? Here is how I’m looking at it.

Ultra-high durability: 7 skills for defense. Typically Mystic Regeneration, Vital Boom, Conviction, Avatar of Balthazar, and either Signet of Pious Light or Pious Restoration. You can go complete-tank by adding Armor of Sanctity and Aura of Thorns. You will have no attack skills, but you can have up to +79 armor (including Windwalker inscriptions), +12 or +15 regen, and a spike heal of over 200hp. And 20 points of damage reduction. This is the Dervish Pure Tank. Note that some people may find other ways to make this even more defensive by substituting other profession skills. Funny thing about this build is that mobs go out of their way to NOT attack you because their AI sees you as you are…really tough target. You got to use body blocking with this.

High-durability: 5 skills for defense. Typically Mystic Regeneration, Vital Boom, Conviction, Avatar of Balthazar, and either Signet of Pious Light or Pious Restoration. Max +79 armor, high regen, and a high spike heal.

Medium-durability: 4 skills for defense. Mystic Regeneration, Vital Boom, either Avatar of Balthazar or Avatar of Melandru, and either Signet of Pious Light or Pious Restoration. High regen. Either immunity to conditions or high armor. Spike heal.

Low-durability: 2 – 3 defense skills: Mystic Regen, and one other defensive oriented enchantment (an avatar, Vital Boom, Signet of Pius Light, etc depending on how you play). The point here is to still have a minimum of +6 health regen for 20 seconds.

In all the above, the there is Mystic Regen. That’s because its such an incredibly good skill I cannot see a reason to not take it. I believe this is the best heal-over-time skill in the game, even if you only bring two enchants.

Now, what does condition spreading mean?
-In a General PvP build, or in general play, it means Avatar of Melandru, Wearying Strike, and possibly a crippling skill like Aura of Thorns. Applies Deep Wounds.
-In the role as a melee shut-down derv for PvP and/or high-end missions, it means Ebon Dust Aura to apply blindness and Staggering Force (better though if you have an earth-damage scythe so you have the option to not bring Staggering Force). This, combined with Wild Blow and Mending Touch, will protect your party in higher-level missions and EASILLY kill Shiro . ( I can’t believe so many people complain about how hard it is to kill Shiro!)
-It also means using Aura of Thorns to cripple and cause bleeding.

OK. About damage:
-Low damage: Mystic Sweep.
-Medium damage: Mystic Sweep, Heart of Fury, and one more attack skill (Chilling Victory, Victorious Strike, Crippling Sweep , Rending Sweep)
-High Damage: Mystic Sweep, Heart of Fury, Wearying Strike, and one more attack skill (Chilling Victory, Victorious Strike, Crippling Sweep , Rending Sweep)

Notice that Mystic Sweep is in every category. That’s because it rocks.

That’s it. This is how to build a balanced derv. Any comments?

high damage=Reaper's Sweep
they get below 50% health and they're good as dead.

^^^Thank you for replying.

If you compare the damage output of Reaper's Sweep, to the overall elite combo (and it is one of the few attack combos the derv has) of Aura of Melandru (AoM)+Wearying Sweep, you will see there is really no comparison. Reaper's has an 8 second recharge and only gives deep-wounds if the target is below 50% health. The AoM+Wearying Sweep combo puts the derv in a state for one minute, where you have +200 health, immune to conditions, and are able to hit with Wearying Sweep EVERY swing. Each hit with Wearying does the same amount of damage as Reaper's, and applies deep wounds condition regardless of the targets health.

The only downside to this is that you are 1 minute in state of AoM, 1 minute not in AoM. Lets say you cannot live with that. You can still take Ebon Dust, Wearying strike, and the assassin Signet of Malignence, and apply two great conditions (deep wounds + blindness) NON-STOP.

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Ebon Dust Aura is an elite so you can't take it with AoM.

thing about Reaper's is thatit alsodoes~+40 damage

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