I have been using this build quite a bit for the later (about the last 1/2 of the game) stages of PvE. It's a lot of fun, and just wipes out mobs of the strongest baddies... I say for the later stages cause it's just ridiculous overkill for early on.
Dervish / any (Assassin is cool, see below)
Weapon:
You don't use ANY scythe attacks. You can use any old scythe you have, or better yet, consider a Totem Axe or Fiery Flame Spitter for the extra energy.
Runes / Inscriptions:
Superior Earth
Major or Superior Vigor
Minor Mysticism
Minor Scythe
5 Radiant inscriptions. One for each piece of armor (adds 8 energy total)
Attributes:
Mysticism - 12
Earth - 16
Note: If you really want to be able to "plink" between casting skills, put 9 in Scythe Mastery and only 15 in Earth and carry a scythe instead of the energy axe. Still works just about as well, and there may be times when that one more 6...41 damage smack with the scythe is just what is needed to finish a bad guy off.
Skills:
Avatar of Balthazar
Vital Boon
Dust Cloak
Zealous Renewal
Heart of Holy Flame
Mystic Sandstorm
Eremite's Zeal
Sunspear Rez Sig (or whatever rez you like if Monk secondary)
How to use it:
Cast Avatar of Balthazar and Vital Boon before you agro... Really, if the group isn't very large, you may want to skip the Avatar and save the energy.
Run into the middle of a group of bad guys and let as many as possible group around you. You have TONS of armor and health because of the first two skills, no need to get panicky.
Cast Dust Cloak, Zealous Renewal, and Heart of Holy Flame. These are all enhancements, and do a BUNCH of damage as you cast them. Don't forget also, that these three also cause degens on bad guys or buff you when they end or are REMOVED as well.
So far you have hit all "nearby" bad guys with a combined total of probably 150 on each foe from the three enchantments. Now it's time for the coup d' grace.
Cast Mystic Sandstorm. This will do 37 damage to all nearby foes TIMES the number of enchantments you have on you. Since you have 4 enchantments going at this point, that's going to cause the max 130 spike holy damage (holy due to Balthazar, so it ignores armor) to each of the bad guys, PLUS they are ALL blinded for 8 seconds and set on fire for 4 seconds when Mystic Sandstorm removes all enchantments on you and triggers their end effect.
Assuming that anything is left alive at this point, put Vital Boon back on and start a sequence of casting an enchantment that does damage, followed by Eremite's Zeal that removes that enchantment - causing more blindness or fire on the bad guys, and giving you enough energy to do it again... Just repeat this with the 3 enchantments that cause damage. Since you have 3, one of them should be recharged and ready to fire at all times.
Unless you have agro'd like 20 monsters, you and your teammates should have killed them all before you need to think about backing off, regening and starting the entire process over.
Variant:
I mentioned the Assassin secondary above. This is really fun, and very effective for the BIG groups or other situations where you are in for a longer fight.
Attributes:
Put whatever points are left in Shadow Arts
Skills:
Aura of Displacement (elite from Factions, in Ferndale) - Replace Eremite's Zeal with this
Faithful Intervention (Replace Balthazar's with this)
How to use:
With this approach, put Faithful Intervention on between fights and leave it on. Then, it's best to pre-cast the 4 enchantments before you agro. Wait for your energy to build back up a bit, then cast Aura of Displacement to "shadow step" directly to one of the bad guys in the middle of the group. Then cast Mystic Sandstorm to do all that cool spike damage and trigger the degens from the other skills. Now click off Aura of Displacement, and you will warp back to where you were when you started, out of danger. Let your energy regen, and repeat as needed.
Counters:
This can get a bit dicey if you run into a group that strips enchantments, although not as bad as other builds, since removing the enchantments still causes the degens, and the blind for 8 seconds should let you get away if things go sour. Being interrupted a lot (some big groups of rangers or mesmers) can also mess up the cycle.
Enchantment Spiker
jsmorley
kirch1jt
there are many versions of this build since the NF preview. With that said, enjoi it, it is fun to play
jsmorley
Quote:
Originally Posted by kirch1jt
there are many versions of this build since the NF preview. With that said, enjoi it, it is fun to play
I haven't really been through the builds posted here, so this may be a duplicate. Sorry. 
I just saw so many folks (including some guildies) using the Derv as a tank, wading in with all scythe skills and thinking they were doing great for the first 1/2 of the game only to become useless monk-burdens in the later stages that when I made my dervish I did a lot of playing around with skills and found that this build worked as well for me (for big time damage dealing) as a Nuker Ele or SS Necro.
I'll look around at some of the variations on this. I have probably missed something cool.
I haven't really been through the builds posted here, so this may be a duplicate. Sorry. I just saw so many folks (including some guildies) using the Derv as a tank, wading in with all scythe skills and thinking they were doing great for the first 1/2 of the game only to become useless monk-burdens in the later stages that when I made my dervish I did a lot of playing around with skills and found that this build worked as well for me (for big time damage dealing) as a Nuker Ele or SS Necro.
I'll look around at some of the variations on this. I have probably missed something cool.
CrashDummy
Quote:
Originally Posted by jsmorley
How to use:
With this approach, it's best to pre-cast Balthazar and the 4 enchantments before you agro. Wait for your energy to build back up a bit, then cast Aura of Displacement to "shadow step" directly to one of the bad guys in the middle of the group. How do you use 2 Elite skills? :P
With this approach, it's best to pre-cast Balthazar and the 4 enchantments before you agro. Wait for your energy to build back up a bit, then cast Aura of Displacement to "shadow step" directly to one of the bad guys in the middle of the group. How do you use 2 Elite skills? :P
jsmorley
Quote:
Originally Posted by CrashDummy
How do you use 2 Elite skills? :P
Oops... Yeah, you forget the Balthazar's for the assassin secondary approach. Use Faithful Intervention instead.
Use Faithful Intervention instead.
Polarbear1492
hmm why dont you just drop Balthz and bring Destructive Was Glaive? Dmg+Enchant removal
whobitz
Quote:
Originally Posted by Polarbear1492
hmm why dont you just drop Balthz and bring Destructive Was Glaive? Dmg+Enchant removal
Because it requires an investment in another attribute. Really, that wouldn't hurt too much though. The version I've done with this used [wiki]Mystic Twister[/wiki] and [wiki]Pious Renewal[/wiki] for the elite. It takes tons of energy, but returns a good portion when it ends. I was unaware that Balths converted the damage from sandstorm into holy damage though, so I might test it. Seems it would for the enchantment damage as well, so using something like [wiki]Staggering Force[/wiki] or [wiki]Grenth's Fingers[/wiki] with a wind prayers investment would be better than the skills that already deal holy damage.
The only real problem is finding grouped enemies, as the range isn't great. That's where shadow steps are handy, as non-patrolling enemies often retreat into a clump every so often. You just have to watch for it.
The only real problem is finding grouped enemies, as the range isn't great. That's where shadow steps are handy, as non-patrolling enemies often retreat into a clump every so often. You just have to watch for it.
mkool
Just curious, How do you deal with poisoning, deep wound and so on.?
jsmorley
Quote:
Originally Posted by kuwlij
this build probably gives a nice spike heal but other than that in prolonged fights or with degen, u die. nice concept for a build but let's face it.. 130 dmg alone isn't much of a spike (if enchants are precast).. considering and ele with just bursting flames and inferno (i believe 110 dmg aoe each with max fire) not to mention the rhythm of the build, casting all together (kills energy pool 10e each enchant)then u're a sitting duck waiting for them to recharge. If you dont have good healers u're in for it. balths simply isn't enough to tank when a whole mob targets you.
Overall it's a good concept though, i had posted a build similar to this:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10098031
difference is that this build has self healing as an option. the build relies on having enchants to spam all the time and pious renewal as en elite enchant is important so you ALWAYS have an enchant to spam (recharge in 3 sec) even when all other enchants are recharging. take a look and see if it can lend any ideas for your own build
Massive amounts of degen would be a problem for sure. I haven't run into that much in PvE though, most of the mobs seem to be balanced groups (Anet did that to discourage solo farming) and with the healing that you get from removing Vital Boon with Sandstorm I haven't really had any trouble staying ahead of degens (unless you overagro, but there are NO builds that can 100% protect you from carelessnes or stupidity). One thing I have found is that altering this build to use Faithful Intervention instead of Balthazar's works nice for the longer fights.
As to the damage, I use the version where I don't precast the enchantments, so I get somewhere around 150 damage on all nearby foes before I even cast Sandstorm for another 130. PLUS - Don't forget that you are blinding and setting on fire all these bad guys as well with the build I posted.
I never said this does MORE damage than a nuking fire ele. I just find it has some advantages because 1) You are a semi-tank helping to protect your casters and monks while doing far more damage than a warrior. 2) Blinding the foes for 8 seconds is a big help to the actual tanks and often makes the difference in a fight that is just hard enough that it could go either way.
Trust me, I love my Fire Ele and my SS or SV Necro characters. I just found that for PvE, where often you are running with Heroes and Henchies, it works better if YOU are the heavy damage dealer as hopefully you are smarter than an NPC and can make better judgements about grouping bad guys and attack timing. So when playing a Dervish character, I prefer to get the enemies down as quickly as possible, rather than just wading in and swinging a scythe and hoping the brain dead NPC's are going to keep me healed AND do the required AoE damage successfully.
I will take a look at your build. Mine is just something I cobbled together after a lot of testing different combinations, but there are always other ways to skin that cat. I'll take another look at Pious Renewal. I tried it in one of my combinations before and wasn't impressed since it didn't seem to return much energy for the price of using your only elite slot, but it may work better in your combination of skills.
Overall it's a good concept though, i had posted a build similar to this:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10098031
difference is that this build has self healing as an option. the build relies on having enchants to spam all the time and pious renewal as en elite enchant is important so you ALWAYS have an enchant to spam (recharge in 3 sec) even when all other enchants are recharging. take a look and see if it can lend any ideas for your own build
Massive amounts of degen would be a problem for sure. I haven't run into that much in PvE though, most of the mobs seem to be balanced groups (Anet did that to discourage solo farming) and with the healing that you get from removing Vital Boon with Sandstorm I haven't really had any trouble staying ahead of degens (unless you overagro, but there are NO builds that can 100% protect you from carelessnes or stupidity). One thing I have found is that altering this build to use Faithful Intervention instead of Balthazar's works nice for the longer fights. As to the damage, I use the version where I don't precast the enchantments, so I get somewhere around 150 damage on all nearby foes before I even cast Sandstorm for another 130. PLUS - Don't forget that you are blinding and setting on fire all these bad guys as well with the build I posted.
I never said this does MORE damage than a nuking fire ele. I just find it has some advantages because 1) You are a semi-tank helping to protect your casters and monks while doing far more damage than a warrior. 2) Blinding the foes for 8 seconds is a big help to the actual tanks and often makes the difference in a fight that is just hard enough that it could go either way.
Trust me, I love my Fire Ele and my SS or SV Necro characters. I just found that for PvE, where often you are running with Heroes and Henchies, it works better if YOU are the heavy damage dealer as hopefully you are smarter than an NPC and can make better judgements about grouping bad guys and attack timing. So when playing a Dervish character, I prefer to get the enemies down as quickly as possible, rather than just wading in and swinging a scythe and hoping the brain dead NPC's are going to keep me healed AND do the required AoE damage successfully.
I will take a look at your build. Mine is just something I cobbled together after a lot of testing different combinations, but there are always other ways to skin that cat. I'll take another look at Pious Renewal. I tried it in one of my combinations before and wasn't impressed since it didn't seem to return much energy for the price of using your only elite slot, but it may work better in your combination of skills.
qvtkc
Quote:
Originally Posted by jsmorley
holy damage (holy due to Balthazar, so it ignores armor)
Holy damage does not ignore armor. Some skills that cause holy damage ignores armor, but there is no armor-ignoring component in holy damage itself. Also Avatar of Balthazar reads "your attacks deal holy damage", so end-of-enchantment effects, Mystic Sandstorm etc. wouldn't cause holy damage.
Other than that, nice concept.
Other than that, nice concept.
SnarkFish
you dont need avatar of balthazar for this as mystic sandstorm deals earth damage and avatar of balthazar's holy dmg isnt armor ignoring even if it does convert the damage
MercenaryKnight
With aura of displacement you don't need to "click it off" mystic sandstorm will cast, take it off for you so once you finish your spike your teleported off to safety. I use this build for some fun pvp moments.