Is there a viable Dervish Sword/Shield build?

I was recently having a conversation with a Guildmate of mine, and the topic drifted towards Dervish builds employing weapons other than a Scythe. Both of us have seen the Lyssa dagger builds, but could not figure out/have not seen one using a Sword and Shield.

Yes, I understand that builds using weapons other than the Scythe generally = fail, however I was just curious if anyone knew of or could generate a somewhat decent sword build. I am a huge fan of interesting builds, like Spear wielding assassins and the like, and realize many of them are usually little more than gimmicks. However, I was really just looking for something fun to break up the monotony of title grinding, farming, skill capping, etc.

well if you were to use a spear? maybe...as it employs a shield ^^ you could run [skill]ebon dust aura[/skill]

or for swords - maybe your all alone with wild blow and some bleeding / deep wound?
<<<modded of all alone war? maybe

just a thought that may be worth considering...

did you have a general purpose for this build??

[build prof=D/W WindPrayers=10+1+1 EarthPrayers=5+1 Mysticism=7+1 Tactics=9 Swordsmanship=9][Drunken Blow][Desperation Blow][Savage Slash][Signet of Mystic Speed][Fleeting Stability][Onslaught][Resurrection Signet][/build]

Well............. It sucks. But it's a dervish.... With a sword.... Which is what you wanted....

I wouldn't really recommend using it... Cuz well it sucks.


I think.... Something like.... This would be better:

[build prof=D/W EarthPrayers=8+1 Scythe=12+1+1 Mysticism=5+1 Tactics=9][Desperation Blow][Drunken Blow][Distracting Strike][Fleeting Stability][Ebon Dust Aura][no skill][no skill][Resurrection Signet][/build]

Kinda like the W/D Steady Stance warrior.... But a dervish. So yeah.

A self heal is always nice. Eh.

Thanks for the responses guys. Yeah, I imagine most of the builds will end up being impractical, or sucking lol. However, I really just wanted something to try out for fun when I want a break from the standard Scythe builds. More of an intellectual experiment than anything else. Okay, and I admit, my female Dervish happens to look pretty cool holding a sword.

Quote: Originally Posted by Ronthulhu

If you're taking Fleeting Stability, you probably should fill one of the empty spaces with a self-rend skill. If it synergizes with the build well, even better.

Quote: Originally Posted by Sirius-NZ

Add me then bug me whenever i get on i will make one for you that doesnt suck xD
IGN:Age Of The Poon

you can always just use a caster sword with something like Mystic Sandstorm spiker...

I used this sword-Lyssa build for a long time in nightfall. I liked the look of Dervish with shield and sword. It reminded me of a samourai. Scythe builds will outdamage this build for sure. Shield gives you better armour to compensate a bit. The natural fast attack rate of a sword does suit Lyssa builds.

[build prof=D/W swo=10 tac=9 earthp=7 mys=10][Soldier's Strike][Standing Slash][Silverwing Slash][Heart of Fury][Avatar of Lyssa][Conviction][Mystic Vigor][Faithful Intervention][/build]

This dates from before eotn and is probably in need of some updating. We didn't even have eternal aura back then. I've switched to scythes for my Lyssa build. But it worked all throughout nightfall for me so yes it's viable.

note : Distracting blow etc are nice too. However a sword with heart of fury hits fast enough that 1/2 sec skills are not really needed.

^I think that build should have Sever, Gash and SnM to be honest. I wouldn't consider a Derv build with any weapon other than a scythe seriously though, but I guess it could be fun for PvE since you're not penalized as much for running bad builds.

If you do make a D/W build with a sword... you will probably want to use energy intensive skills so you can use a dervishes 4 pips of regen to your advantage.

If you think about how bunny thumpers, A/D, and D/A worked well, and the reasons why, you can figure out what the builds do to make them good.

The bunny thumper takes advantage of having a pet and being able to spam KD using a rangers IAS and run buffs.

The A/D takes advantage of crit strikes to pop crit hits with a scythe.

The D/A takes advantage of the 4 pips of regen and lyssa to spam attacks for high damage.

A D/W would want to do the same thing as the D/A most likely. Use attacks that require energy to use in order to deal damage. You would probably want to use AoL as well but AoB might be good as well because that long lasting speed buff is really attractive. You will want to bring some form of KD (most likely bull's strike) since you will be using mostly warrior skills.

I just wanted to thank everyone that posted here for their suggestions. I plan to take everyone's various bits of advice and see what I can come up with. You can't really know if it works till you try it, so here I go.

Thanks again.

i'd add Sever artery, gash, final thrust maybe with some enchants. A dervish can handle energy attacks so you could use those as well

[build prof=Dervish/Warrior][Hundred Blades][Mystic Regeneration][Mystic Vigor][Mental Block][Great Dwarf Armor][Rending Aura]["Save Yourselves!"][Mystic Healing][/build]

Zealous +5e sword for e-management
vamp +5e sword if you have plenty of energy and need more health (shouldnt because of mystic vigor heh)

Get someone to take symbiosis for more health, QZ in order to spam 100 blades (and thus get more health).

Spam save yourselves and mystic healing while hundred blades is recharging. With QZ and 3 alliance rank, you should be able to keep up save yourselves almost 100% of the time.

sword mastery att doesnt matter.
10-11 earth and wind
Enough in mysticism to get +5 health per enchant on mystic vigor

The concept:

Basically, every time you hit something, you get 25 health. Notice that it doesn't matter how much damage you do. That's why sword mastery spec doesn't really matter.

Let's say you hit 5 enemies with 100 blades. You hit each of them twice, yielding 10 hits. 10 times 25 is 250 health! for only 5 enemies! every 8 seconds!

Notice this is also more than enough adrenaline to power save yourselves.

With QZ, the recharge of 100 blades becomes 4 seconds, exactly the same as the duration of SY with 3+ alliance rank.

The enchantments are mostly to help in tanking with armor buffs, health regen, block chance, etc.
With a prot monk, you should be able to tank almost any area, even in hard mode. As long as you keep up SY, it should be pretty easy to keep aggro on you.

EDIT:::
Notice that this build is extremely vulnerable to enchant removal. Consider having your prot monk bring spellbreaker.