Sand Shards

Even if you were hitting 3 foes getting a grand total of 75 damage you'd still do more by just hitting them with a scythe... Even behind you and all nearby foes by a single normal swing? I really think Sand Shard is for farming against a mob of melee or something like that.

Even behind you and all nearby foes by a single normal swing? I really think Sand Shard is for farming against a mob of melee or something like that. AoE scatter. you can only hit 3 at a time.

Ok I'm just starting with my first Derv, and I was thinking it would be a really good farming build. You say it can't do much dmg abd it'll only be 25dmg per a miss with Sand Shards. If I'm hitting a group of 3 wouldn't that be 3 misses so 25 dmg x 3 = 75 dmg a swing? Or is that not very high? you must try to miss 3 foes at least, not hit them to trigger sand shards. 75 is fair enough but you must know that if you're blind and the others not, you can have some problems anyway. You need to require at least 3 foes to do a AoE nearby. Like Coloneh said, trigger AoE scatter... it can be used to scatter foes out from the group if we think of that...

[skill]armor of sanctity[/skill]good dmg reducer (the derv's stoneflesh aura, lol) With that build, you would only get a damage reduction from foes suffering from blindness.

With that build, you would only get a damage reduction from foes suffering from blindness. oh yeah sry, but i guess if you have SF eles it'll work, ignore the Armor of Sanctity, brain fart here at work, lol

Even if you were hitting 3 foes getting a grand total of 75 damage you'd still do more by just hitting them with a scythe... Try 225 grand total. Hit hits each foe 3 times, not once - 75 to each.

Now, I wouldn't base a build around Sand Shards, but it can be quite useful. First, it's a cheap, long lasting enchantment good for all those "for each enchantment on you/if enchanted" skills that Dervishes have.

The biggest thing it adds to your build though is the ability to always do damage - they can have ward against melee, aegis, guardian, and whirling defense protecting them while you're blinded and you'll still do damage.

Against a single foe it won't do tremendous damage, but if they were already low on health and attempted to shut you down, or put up defenses to survive, it can make the difference.

While it can be exploited to do very high damage, it's too conditional to base the entire build around it. But heck, blind + 4 opponents = 400 damage per swing, no attack skills. (Twin moon sweeping it would do 800, ect.)

For most situations, yes, it's better to just hit with your scythe... Sand Shards is for preventing you from being shutdown by blinding, or shutout from doing damage through blocking. After all, 14 DPS is better than 0 DPS... heck, 14 DPS is the same as an auto-attacking Assassin on a 60AL target. It's even better on high armor targets like Warriors where that Assassin's is 5 DPS and your blinded Dervish is still 14.

AoE scatter. you can only hit 3 at a time. Wrong. Misses don't count as hits towards the 3 hit limit - you can have an unlimited number of misses, just as long as they're within the arc, or you haven't already hit 3 foes. This does not violate the 3 hit rule since you haven't hit anything.

If you know anything about Guild Wars, you should know that the descriptions are very specific and apply just as they sound. (Ward Against Melee for instance doesn't do anything to Rangers shooting you with Bows.) The wording for how skills work are very precise.

Wrong. Misses don't count as hits towards the 3 hit limit - you can have an unlimited number of misses, just as long as they're within the arc, or you haven't already hit 3 foes. This does not violate the 3 hit rule since you haven't hit anything. That's not true at all. It only triggers when you "fail to hit"; when your target blocks your attack or when a "miss" pops up. Even if you're blinded, you will only be able to miss 3 mobs.

http://scrap.5elements.net/gwscreens/gw277.jpg

3 misses, 12 damage numbers. It could only be 12 if there are 4 mobs in that bunch which take 3 hits each, and they're clearly so close together that they're all within my arc. If I had "missed" all 4, there should be 16 damage numbers (let alone 4x "miss").