i still dont like them..

Yeah this one can be really nasty when coordinated properly. The current Shadow Step Skill of choice is AoD which has the range of the entire radar to operate, well out of range of most casters that could shut down this spike with enchant stripping. The popular conditions to drop are bleeding, burning and weakness with this. With AoD, since it is an enchant a lot of times it looks like the dervish just dropped a smoke bomb and didn't even move but all the sudden the other team just starts dieing. I'm going to build a variant for PvE which will rely more on the degen conditions and the damage dropping enchants to end enemies. The only problem with it is how to increase the damage output enough to where you can do a one off kill when you hit Mystic Sandstorm, otherwise you are an incredibly potent source of initial damage for your party if they can keep up with the range on your AoD. The goal would be to create a build capable of solo farming a lot of different types of enemies, ala trapping, except with the initial Mystic Sandstorm damage and the DoT conditions. I am a farmer, but even without farming any build that can solo kill mobs so quickly is worth experimenting with. I don't think it can be done but it's worth a shot and it'll be fun to play around with. My EDA build makes things easy mode so I'm trying new things to increase the challenge level.

EDIT: Here is an interesting question. I'm not sure how or even if this would work, and it probably won't. If one of your enchants in a Mystic Sandstorm Build is Mystic Corruption even though it gets removed as soon as you hit Mystic Sandstorm would it's effect still apply to those conditions applied at the instant of it's removal. I doubt it but if anyone could test this it would be nice. Sometimes there are weird mechanics we know nothing about in this game.

When used in conjunction with Mystic Sandstorm and an enchantment that spreads conditions on removal/ending like Aura of Thorns, the conditions are lengthened. hope that answer your last question

When used in conjunction with Mystic Sandstorm and an enchantment that spreads conditions on removal/ending like Aura of Thorns, the conditions are lengthened. hope that answer your last question Well sort of. The only real sticking point I have is that as soon as I hit mystic Sandstorm then Mystic Corruption will also end. Since all the conditions are being applied in the instant of Mystic Corruption also being ended I'm not sure if the conditions will be lengthened or not. If so that's groovey if not well not so groovey.

they do, thats what i was saying before. corruption works upon Sandstorm Sweet. That works then. Sorry I wasn't even sure on how clear my question was myself, hence the reiteration. But that means after the initial 130 damage there will also be 4.5 seconds of burning and 20 seconds of bleeding. That's not too bad. the only bad thing is Mystic Corruption pushes your recycle rate on your attack series to 30 seconds instead of 20 but You could probably offset this with a lesser sandstorm drop once they come after you. You wouldn't have the Mystic Corruption but the last little oomph to the conditions and damage should be enough to finish a group off barring some nice monk support in the group.

i'd say that the reroll time is crucial to the build once the other teams catch on. usually, the spike isnt as affective once they say, "oh poop, Mys Spike". i'd say the build without Corruption is fine as is, unless you have less dervs running the spike, then you may need that lil' oomph! Well this would actually be a PvE variant. That's why I'd opt for Mystic Corruption over say Staggering force. Weakness isn't nearly as useful in PvE as it is in PvP whereas few mobs have effective condition removal so lengthening the conditions will help there more. It's more an issue of damage output and whether or not one Mystic Sandstorm will be enough to finish off a group before they can get to you and proceed to beat you senseless. You'll get 193 damage in the initial hit, minus armor negation, then bleeding and burning both for 4.5 seconds that's -10 degen so 90 damage over the 4.5 seconds and then 93 damage over the remaining 15.5 of just bleeding. That comes out to only 376 damage over the 20 second duration of damage. I doubt that will be instantly lethal but that's a pretty significant hunk of damage to start off with and with AoD that could be a really nice and easy pull.

EDIT: and yeah Signet of pious light for team back up healing. I edited it out by accident when I was doing the damage calculations.

[skill]Aura of Displacement[/skill][skill]Aura of Thorns[/skill][skill]Heart of Holy Flame[/skill][skill]Mirage Cloak[/skill][skill]Mystic Corruption[/skill][skill]Signet of Pious Light[/skill][skill]Mystic Sandstorm[/skill] Optional slot either a res or if you trust your monk [skill]Staggering Force[/skill] but isn't that about 60 energy cost to put up the enchants initially and then shadow step? the dervs i played against during HA simply used death's charge. the enchantment bomb build i use in pve has avatar of lyssa, giving me the + energy i need to put up all the enchants.

but isn't that about 60 energy cost to put up the enchants initially and then shadow step? the dervs i played against during HA simply used death's charge. the enchantment bomb build i use in pve has avatar of lyssa, giving me the + energy i need to put up all the enchants. If you use attunements, + energy armor (guessing), + energy weapon, you can pull this off. Mystic Sandstorm removes all enchantments, and when enchantments are removed, Mysticism comes into play. Health + energy + doing damage is good.

I've never tried to use AoD with Mystic Sandstorm, does the damage inflicted come before the end of AoD?

I've never tried to use AoD with Mystic Sandstorm, does the damage inflicted come before the end of AoD? maybe it goes by order? so the 1st enchantment put on has the effect 1st, and down the line? just a thought...

I've never tried to use AoD with Mystic Sandstorm, does the damage inflicted come before the end of AoD? it all happens at once you shadow step into the middle, hit Mystic Sandstorm inflict the AoE spike + conditions then poof your back in the middle of the of your team. Because MS rends all enchantments at the same time everything happens at once.