Dervish tank build -- suggestions?

Mystic Regen
Conviction
Vital Boon
Faithful intervention
signet of pious light
heart of fury
mystic vigor
avatar of balthazar

I'm not sure about the attributes, cant currently get on GW due to the computer I'm on.

They would generally be spread as follows:

Scythe Mastery: 12 + 4 (superior + Hood)
Mysticism: 10 + 2(Major)
Earth: 8 + 1(Minor)



Running the build:

Equip a +15 staff.

Cast Faithful intervention, wait for energy to regen, since faithful intervention lasts forever.

Cast avatar of balthazar, Mystic Regen, and Vital Boon.

As You are about to engage the enemy, throw up Conviction, and Heart of Fury. Equip scythe.

Engage the enemy, casting mystic vigor when possible.





Any tips??? I think it has too many enchants and is unmaintainable, but I don't know which enchants to remove. Most of them seem maintainable because most all of them are 5 energy enchants.


Thanks!!!


~Mason

Armor buffs don't stack beyond +25 armor. However single skills can exceed that limit. Thus with AoB + Conviction you're getting +40 armor. You'll want to throw out Conviction because it's wasted in that sense.

However people will tell you that Conviction > AoB for many reasons. Just wait.

And with scythe mastery that high you should take some scythe attack skills. Drop Faithful Intervention and Signet of Pious Light. With that many enchantments that amount of healing is over-kill. Mystic Regeneration with two other enchantments is enough healing.

I apologize in advance, because this might sound mean. your build is terrible.

1. its trying to be a tank. you don not tank in guild wars except in a few select areas and these require specific builds, not a crapload of armor.
2. you dont have a rez. get one.
3. your using an avatar without eternal aura, never do that.
4. you need scythe attacks. 3 should be good. your build has no DPS
5. armor dosnt stack, MercenaryK explained it.
6. Avatar of Balthazar is a subpar skill. the buffs it provides are not useful. try dawanya, melandru or lyssa.

Insignias: All Stalwart & Attunement

D/E
Earth Prayers 9
Earth Magic 10-12
Rest in Mysticism/Scythe Mastery

[skill]Zealous Sweep[/skill]
[skill]Mystic Regeneration[/skill]
[skill]Vital Boon[/skill]
[skill]Stoneflesh Aura[/skill]
[skill]Obsidian Flesh[/skill]
[skill]Ward Of Stability[/skill]
2 Free

It's not a damage dealing build. It's designed solely to take the hits while your party does the bombarding/hexing/etc. Not great, but should get the job done.

Tanks Are Bad, and they are never worth party slot. not even in elite areas.

stop trying to be tank (bad) and start being damage dealer (good)

Quote: Originally Posted by masonthesurfer Dervish tank build

Quote: Originally Posted by dan-the-noob

Quote: Originally Posted by Sister Rosette *bla*
[skill]Ward Of Stability[/skill]
*bla* prefer [skill]Fleeting Stability[/skill], but you're right. If you really want to tank, Obsidian Dervish is just great.

@OP, as said. Don't tank in general PvE. If you like avatars (wich are good due to eternal aura) use one of the following setups:

[skill]Avatar of Melandru[/skill][skill]Wearying Strike[/skill][skill]Imbue Health[/skill]Eternal Aura[skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

[skill]Avatar of Dwayna[/skill][skill]Eremite's Attack[/skill][skill]Mystic Sweep[/skill]Eternal Aura[skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

[skill]Avatar of Lyssa[/skill][skill]Heart of Fury[/skill]Eternal Aura[skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

Fill in some other skills (and not 4 defensive skills), and you'll be doing fine

I will explain why tanks are baed, even in PVE.

AI targets the lower AL, then the lower Health. Thus, tanks can only be good if you plan to do tank-nuke-heal, which is very fragile in Hard Mode, as a single error of a mob sighting one of your softies will degenerate into complete wipe, cause your tanks have big AL, while your monks/eles don't, and mobs will come after your softies, letting your tank with no damage alone.

Your monks are here to heal and protect you. And they do that really better than you. Logically, you shouldn't need so much armor and defense skills, cause theirs are better (provided they have a good skillbar). However, any armor/health coming from your equipement is welcome.

Your warriors and paragons have "SY!" and many shouts giving defense to the whole party, minimizing the need of a dedicated tank. Giving AL to all your party is largely superior than stacking defense skills on one character. Monks as well have aegis, eles have wards. Any defense skill that can affect multiple people is one hundred better than self-centered defense. Any defense skill affecting the whole party is ten thousand times (*999999999) better than a self centered defense skill.

Thus, some dervish non-self targeting healing skills are good. For example, Watchful Intervention is superior ro Faithful Intervention, for the reason you can put it on your monks and not only on you so they will have an emergency heal. Imbue health can also be good for this reason.

But you should really go offensive, with attack skills, that will trigger any weapon spell / shouts /necro enchants your friends rit and paras and necros would put on you. If you take defensive skills, take some that let you do your job of slaughtering better: Melandru in conditions heavy areas with blind and weakness that could stop you from executing mobs (like plants in Vabbi that blinds you), Dwayna in Hex heavy areas (like in Realm of Torment), Lyssa to improve your killing ability.


Killing mobs fast is the best protection you need.

EDIT: it is unclear to me why you want to tank. Is it to solo farm? Is it because you die in PVE? If you die in PVE, the issue might not be that you lack defense, but more that you monks/support character skillars need improvement.

Quote: Originally Posted by Celestial Beaver