In search of [your help] for my Derv, 20k prize.

Welcome, to my personal thread for my Dervish & her build search

I tried something like this on guru before, but failed horribly. I suppose I did not give enough information as to what I wanted, this is quite long, so to entice you guys, there will be prizes.

Read on to find out more.

About me & what I’m looking for;

I’ve played guild wars for approximately a year straight; have played all characters from monk to tank & nuke, but have only found Monk & Assassin to be the most viable.

Cut down to 3-4 characters, and trying to deck out my dervish. But before I deck out any character, I make 3-4 builds that I will LOVE to play. Dervishes? Aren’t really my thing. Let alone dervish builds. Sure, I’ve seen all the normal builds people always use. But have yet to see something unique & viable. Me? I PVP some, but I am NOT looking for PVP builds, I have made those for my dervish. I am strictly looking for PVE builds.


What I don’t like;

• Forms(Avatars) I like to look at my character when I play.

• The two elite scythe attacks[wounding strike, reapers sweep] (Unless used in a way I might have never seen before)
• Leveling up multiple titles to use a build
I love PvE only skills if they are useful, and most of the time greatly powered, but leveling hard titles or (multiple titles) will get annoying. Please (obviously) limit your PVE only skill use per build to 3 (since its all you can put in), and please, do NOT have me get a title over r6 (r4 kurzick/luxon) to be USEABLE. Also, please do not have me have to max more than one or two titles over r6 to be useable.
• Things I’ve seen before. Don’t give me PVX builds, or common builds. I want unique, builds that make me think. I am not asking for a super build that impossible to create, or some secret hidden build, I want a build not many people have thought of using, or thought of it being useful.
• Using the dervish as a tank and/or pure self healer. These are the only builds I’ve been able to see. I have made derv healers, but not affective PVE derv healers.

You may;

• Use PVE Skills [Read above]
• Design the build to be around any secondary character
• Use any type of weapon
• Have it be anything [interrupter,damage,condition spam] Please no TANKS.


Requirements;

• Follow what has been said above
• Energy management/and or adrenal management for your build
• Unique builds are appreciated & desirable, things I never would have thought of, but please don’t make me a 55 PVE derv.

I would much rather prefer a build that only a dervish could make viable, or a build that favors dervish, else I could make a PVE build that could go on any character based around summoning and stuff. Please make a dervish build, so when i play my dervish, im really playing a dervish.


Need to know more to make me my perfect build? Read below.

To make a build I’d like, you probably need to know what I usually do in the game.
Firstly, I have all three campaigns. Secondly, I don’t PUG & only go with heroes + my friends and + their heroes

We usually hm/nm uw/fow/dungeons including orr, ooze, and slavers.

My derv will also normally have judges insight on itself; no earth/cold/etc changes in weapon PLEASE.

We usually bring;
Two damage dealers [us]
N/mo Supportive BLOOD
Me/N Interr/Blood
N/mo Supportive BLIND CURSES [not physical support curse]
N/RT & Mo/me and/or RT/mo Hero healers
Optional; Smiters for hard hitting areas that are susceptible to HOLY damage.


First prize is 20,000g (20k) in game gold.
Second prize is 5,000 (5k) in game gold.
These go to the people who have made the best builds.

Time allotted; til I find my build(s) & test them.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. ; Angie

I will search forever if i have to, but i am CONFIDENT that there is a dervish build out there for me.

I play my derv more than any other character. No idea how original this is, probably not especially but it’s one of my favourite non-tank, non caster Derv builds.

D/no class

Scythe Mastery 12 +1 +1
Earth Prayers 12 + 3

Victorious Sweep
Eremites attack
Mystic Sweep
Zealous sweep
Heart Of Fury
Aura Of Holy Might
I Am The Strongest
Vow Of Strength (E)

Runes
Superior Vigor, Major Scythe, Sup Earth Prayers, Attunement/Vitae as you like.
Insig
Survivor, Radiant or Windwalker insignia as takes your fancy.

I also run a Zealous 15^50 +30 scythe.

Variants:
Swap out HoF for Asuran Scan (for Boss takedowns)

Go D/W
Swap out HoF for Signet of Strength (for even more damage).
Swap out one of the scythe attacks for wild blow (critical hit + stance removal).

Quote:

Wounding Strike (E)
Mystic Sweep
Lyssa's Assault (or Victorious Sweep or attack of choice)
Asuran Scan
"I am the Strongest!"
Great Dwarf Armor
Mystic Vigor
Faithful Intervention

12 in scythe and mysticism

ive been vanqing with this with h/h with lots of success, its been a fun build to play. Depending on the area im in ill swap some of the PVE skills or perhaps 1 or 2 of the attack skills.

i usually dont bring a res but i bring res scrolls if things get real nasty

Agreed with Perfected Shadow above about the elites.

I would say:
Onslaught[E]
Attacker's Insight
Chilling Victory
Lyssa' Assault
Mystic Sweep
Dwayna's Touch
Aura of Holy Might
Faithful Intervention

11 Scythe, 10 Wind, 10 Mysticism
+1+1 scythe,+1 wind, +1 mysticism
Full survivor,1 vigor,1 vitae.


However taking Wounding Strike instead of Mystic Sweep and Mystic Vigor/Balthazar Rage instead of Onslaught would work much better imo.

Forgot: zealous/vampiric scythe of enchanting with +5e.

You could always play more of a utility role while still dealing damage, instead of playing a pure damage dealer. In fact, if you're not willing to play with Wounding, Reaper's, or Lyssa, I'm fairly certain that's the only other viable non-Orders role. So, why not try a Ebon Dust Aura build? You render melee useless, and can still deal decent damage. Go D/P, get yourself an Ebon Spear of Enchanting, and start experimenting with skills. I can tell you that you'll want:

Ebon Dust Aura
Heart of Fury
Aura of Holy Might
Resurrection Signet

Then, look through the Paragon skills and see which ones are cheap enough in terms of energy and adrenaline so that you can constantly spam them, and thus, keep blind on your enemies indefinitely.

Wounding Strike(sorry for using the elite you didnt really want,its just the best other then Avatar of Lyssa for pve,and since you said you like to look at your char i figure you would prefer WS over Lyssa if you had to use one of them.)
Mystic Sweep
Lyssa's Assault/victorious sweep
Heart of Fury
Asura Scan(at any rank)
I am Strongest(if your norn rank is above 5,if not use attackers insight or By Ural's Hammer here.)
Aura of Holy Might
full survivors insigs,sup vigor(or best you can afford/want to buy),minor scythe(or major if you want,no sups though since you dont have much self support) 3x vitea,or 2x vitea and a minor mystic.
Attribs 12+1+1 scythe 12+1 or if using the Attackers Insight variation,11+1 mystic,11+1+1 scythe and 6 wind.
Recomended scythe would be a zealous/15^50/20%enchant scythe.Also recomend keeping a staff with 20%enc and 20+energy for casting enchants in areas with energy denial.

Adding another vote with Perfected Shadow about the elites. I like the look of my dervish too, but I'm willing to deal with it to get the ridiculous effects of the avatars. Anyway. I'm making this up off the top of my head so feel free to point and laugh if it fails. I'm thinking of this in combination with your team's necro conditions as well.

D/Me
Scythe Mastery 12+1+1
Illusion Magic 9
Mysticism 9+1
Wind Prayers 3+1

Fevered Dreams [E]
Pious Assault
Crippling Sweep
Attacker's Insight
Heart of Fury
Mystic Corruption
Aura of Holy Might
Res Sig/some other attack like Mystic Sweep

Probably need a zealous scythe for this one.

wait, run this by me again. Am I correct in making the following statements?

1. you want to do damage
2. you want to be effective at doing damage
3. you want to do damage effectively as a dervish in a way that is best done by a dervish
4. you don't want to use scythe elites or avatars.....
5. you don't want to use builds other people use

You've really eliminated all builds by those criteria (multiple times). Dervishes are great at doing damage effectively, but the way they do that is with scythes and by getting big boosts from forms or scythe elites. There are other ways to use a dervish (things like Ebon Dust Aura with bows or spears, or AoLyssa dagger dervs, or all sorts of wacky caster builds), but with the exception of avatar-based builds, none of them will do it better than another profession. You can't use Vow of Strength with your necro build (I'm not sure how you're getting blind out of a N/Mo, but I assume you mean weakness) thanks to your party's conditions. Onslaught is usable by some builds, but not that great. So basically you've eliminated all dervish elites and then said you wanted to use a build that a dervish runs best. These things are incompatible.

I'm rather confident there isn't a build out there that will satisfy all of your requirements.

However, I do like Judge's Insight a lot, and it synergizes very well with a scythe. Add that to the conditions already existing in your build, and I'd be very tempted to use Wounding Strike. Couple that with Aura of Holy Might (fits your holy damage theme), Malicious Strike (fits your conditions + sundering theme), and Mystic Sweep (will go well with your enchantments needed to power Wounding Strike). Tag on Heart of Fury (yay efficient damage), and you're left with three slots to customize (really two as you should have a Res Sig). Iron Palm might be fun... KD is pretty sweet and your conditions would power it nicely. A shadow step might be fun -- this allows you to not tank but jump into a pack of aggro'd monsters for quick damage. Also an appropriate utility skill... disrupting dagger, a snare, or your favorite PvE skill would fit in here as well.

At any rate, you've gotten some ideas here, from both me and others, but I suggest you slightly rethink your plans a bit. What is important to you... doing something novel, doing something damage-efficient, or doing something best done by a dervish? You can get two of the three, but not all three in one build.

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