Dusty Dervy

Just been kicking around a tanker build with my Dervish and thought (since someone asked me too) I thought I'd post my favorite build and an alternate. Just a couple D/any that have worked well for me and can be varied as needed. Both PvP and PvE (PvP mostly in Random and usually the last standing if on a losing team)...

Armor is all set with radiant insignias, Sup Scythe Mastery, minor earth/mysticism Sup (or affordable) Vigor and attunement in the blank spots. I Have 509 health and 35 mana...up to 40 mana if I had a +5 energy mod on my scythe, but as of yet...15%^50 for now....does Ebon damage (a must for Ebon Dust Aura).

Scythe Mastery 16 (12+1+3)
Earth Prayers 13 (12+1)

6 left-over

Conviction(stance): e.p. +24 armor if enchanted, +4 regen if not enchanted
Ebon Dust Aura (enchantment) {E}: e.p. 9 seconds of blindness with ebon weapon (works for rangers too...) when you use attack skills (lasts 31 seconds)
Vital Boon (enchantment): e.p. +92 max health....heals for 182 when it ends (lasts 20 seconds)
Aura of Thorns (enchantment): e.p. 9 seconds of crippling, 14 of bleeding when it ends (lasts 30 seconds)
Armor of sanctity (enchantment): e.p. reduces damage by 18 from foes suffering from conditions (lasts 10 seconds)
Mystic Regeneration (enchantment): e.p. +4 regen for each enchantment on you
Victorious Sweep (scythe attack): +33 damage and +83 health if foe has less health than you.
alternates: Chilling Victory or Reap Impurities
Rezzy Siggy

The idea is to keep at least three enchantments up at all times for regen of +12 (10 is max of course, but more counters degen)...with all five enchantments up, you have +20 regen (10 actual, 10 in the bank)...This keeps you at a near constant 10 regen and with Victorious Sweep and Vital Boon you have a potential of several spikes of health...typically around 400 every 30 seconds if you manage your enchantments and energy well.

Using Conviction, you have added armor and if you run out of enchantments, a +4 energy regen...being a stance, it is not as susceptible to enchantment removals and toughens you up to physical damage...with Armor of Sanctity, you can take a bit of a beating.

Damage output with Victorious Sweep is fair and you may choose something else, but Victorious Sweep is cheap on energy and recharges quickly. It also has no enchantment removal, like Twin Moon Sweep, which defeats the point of the build....you WANT enchantments to run their full course...20% Enchantment mods in this case are a sweet addition...currently at health +29 mod, but I'll get there.

While the direct damage output is not huge, you do cause cripple, blindness, bleeding and a great deal for frustration....especially for those who cast degen on you as your health barely dips. You may pick other skills that do more damage, but this particular build is built for low energy usage. With the dervish's mana regen as it is, you can constantly keep the enchantments up...unless there are mesmers....I hate mesmers. Energy denial can potentially swamp this build.

A variation that works well is to change Attributes to:

Scythe Mastery 15 (11+1+2)
Earth Prayers 11 (10+1)
Mysticism 11 (10+1)

Replace the elite Ebon Dust Aura for either Avatar of Balthazar or Avatar of Melandru...for about a minute, you will have awesome buffs in either armor and speed or total health and immunity to conditions (respectivley). The regen on Mystic regeneration drops to +3 per enchantment and Conviction goes to +3. But the buff make up for it. With points in Mysticism, you can now use Mystic Vigor for added health for cheap.

If you choose to add scythe attacks and drop enchantments, do yourself a service and do this with the first version of the build as it will give you a pretty good regen at only 3-4 enchantments. I prefer the first verion because of low energy use and high survivability...

Love to hear your thoughts and suggestions...but keep in mind it is not a high damage build...though I can often out-tank warriors.

13 earth prayers is unneccessary. 8 is plenty. that 1 tick/enchantment extra of regen isnt worth dumping that many points into.

armor of sanctity doesnt make much sense, because if they are blind they cant hit you so your essentially trying to reduce no damage. drop that for something else.

something a little more practical:

16 scythe (12+1+3
9 earth (8+1)
12 mysticism. (10+2)

still plenty of earth power, and with your enchantments coming and going so often you should get plenty of energy gain pretty consistently. and lord knows your gonna need it.

drop aura of thorns for crippling sweep, typically when you need a cripple you need it asap, and aura of thorns has a casting time which means by the time it drops, they are far enough away for it to not effect them. crippling sweep allows you to conserve energy and use the cripple when you need it, instead of just hoping it comes into use.

vital boon and conviction are nice to be sure, but id consider dropping conviction for heart of fury since your damage output is going to be low with that many defensive skills. typically your gonna be blinding all immediate threats, and mowing down squishy casters (unless they have blind) so typically conviction isnt as neccessary as a damage boost. thats a judgement call though really. sometimes i would really love that extra armor, but typically the speed is nicer to drop the blind on multiple opponents.

Well having made a EDA builds myself I agree conviction is better swapped for HoF. I use HoF , not for speed but for the fire afterwards and an extra enchant for mystic regen. Sometimes though it is helpful just to be able to wail normal attacks faster but it won't help your blind speed since it takes an attack skill to place the blind.Still you won't take enough damage to out do your regen in most cases. Aura of thorns works fine for a snare, they rarely run from it and it has a good range, PvE speaking anyway. No mysticism though? Bad idea. You're going to be strapped for energy in a bad way.

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