Quote:
Originally Posted by Leet Tankur
meh i still love war
hate dervs :P
Right, and this really helps the discussion.
I've been used to being disappointed by Anet with my main being my Derv. Here are the specific things related to dervs that I think anet should look at in future skill updates:
Scythes- As mentioned before, aside from Avatars, generally Sins with high critical strikes warriors with Warrior's Endurance, or Ranger's with high expertise can all abuse scythes and their attacks.
Solution 1: a combination of reducing the effectiveness of expertise, critical strikes, and strength attributes with scythe attacks. And reserve the scythe's ability to hit 3 foes specifically for Dervs.
Solution 2: Again, reserve the scythes ability to hit 3 foes for Dervs only, but also STANDARDIZE the scythe's damage. This may be impossible to do, as I personally would be pissed that my gold 9-41 req9's would become obsolete over night. But in the best interest of the game, scythe's really should be somewhere like 15-35 or 20-30.
Mysticism- Avatar of Melandru should NOT cost 25 energy in PvE.
*Solution 1: The best case would be to move it to 20 EN for both PvP and PvE. The abuse of this skill in the beginning of NF made Anet nerf it into oblivion. If the pve/pvp skill split is utilized, they could at least reduce it to 20 energy for PvE
*Solution 2: Reduce it to 15 energy. Make it similar to Avatar of Dwayna. You gain 100 health and everytime you use a skill you loose 1 condition and deal 5...20 earth damage to all adjacent foes. This would fit in with the AoE use of the derv and put the skill in a more usable format. The fact that it is earth damage (affected by armor) and taking away the complete invulnerability to conditions may make this skill viable again. Just for the record, I see the earth damage as balanced because it only applies to directly adjacent foes and is not very significant.
Mysticism - Arcane Zeal - Currently with this skill you gain ONE ENERGY (max 1...6) per enchantment on you when you cast a SPELL. This skill COSTS 10 energy and only lasts 10 seconds. Dervish heals are not strong enough to devote a bar full of enchants and spamming Mystic Healing to have any legit effect on the team. Mystic twister does not have a low enough recharge (12 s) to synergize with this skill currently. The only niche build this has is for orders' dervs, and if you've ever actually TRIED the build Anet, its nearly useless unless your whole team is physical (even then, you'd probably get more out of having another physical).
*Solution: Rework wind prayers while making sure it does not become another aspect of dervs that other classes abuse to be more effective with this skill
*Solution 2: Reduce the energy cost to 5, make the energy gain 2 per enchantment, but keep the 1...6 cap, so that the energy gain is standardized and cannot vary from high to low. This will allow usage with less enchantments while keeping it from becoming extremely OP, and allow more build diversity so that you don't have to devote 5 or 6 skills on your bar for enchantments. For precedence, look at Pious Renewal, it is 5 energy, and gives 0...2 energy and 0...8 health when an enchant ends. Arcane Zeal is simply the opposite, when casting.
Wind Prayers - Grenth's Grasp - An elite enchantment that can be easily stripped and only causes cripple for 3...13 seconds when you use attack SKILLS is pitiful. Granted it is only 5 EN and has a 20 sec duration, this skill was obviously kept weak for fear of other classes exploiting it. Too bad anet was looking at the wrong skill line (*cough* scythe mastery). This skill is a pathetic excuse for an Elite version of Harrier's Grasp (which doesn't even need attack skills, they just need to be moving).
*Solution: 10 or 15 EN 1/4 cast 20 Recharge (30 second recharge for PvP)
For 10 seconds, everytime you cast an enchantment, foes in the area are struck for 10...30 cold damage and loose one enchantment.
This version would definitely be abused in PvP, and would need some serious PvP/PvE skill split to see the light of day. The truth is though, it is easily countered by a team spreading out, so it really introduces a need to play more thoughtfully instead of simply being OP'd. And remember, unlike the old Grenth's Aura builds, this is an ELITE SKILL that only activates on casting enchantments, so it should not be watered down to the level of that skill (2 second cast).
*Solution 2: 5 or 10 EN 1/4 cast 20 Recharge
For 10 seconds, everytime you cast an enchantment, foes in the area are struck for 10...30 cold damage and crippled for 5...10 seconds.
This version keeps the old crippled effect of Grenth's Grasp, while suiting it to the use of the Dervish. I do not believe this version requires the PvP split, as cripple is quite common in most PvP. I will suspect the cold dmg negligible. I do not know exactly how much damage this will do to caster classes on average, but I'd guess low 20's, and 15's on melee, and 10's on rangers. This new version of the skill might even introduce a serious reason to use Extend Enchantments.
Earth Prayers - Vow of Strength - Okay, so they changed this skill last year...now it gets even LESS use. Not only is it stupid and impossible to use in PvP b/c you're doing it wrong if the enemy does not have any conditions (not to mention most scythe attks cause conditions or rely on them), but even in PvE poison, burning, etc... are common and you're VERY lucky to get the +41% damage. The only skill that gets RID of conditions from enemies is crystal wave/teinai's crystals. Ive said it before, it doesnt matter if you can get +41% damage AND use attacks if you're getting the +41% between 0 and 10% of the time. Waste of an elite.
*Solution: 5 EN 1/4 cast 12 sec recharge
Elite Enchantment. For 6 seconds your next scythe attack does +5...36% damage and this enchantment ends.
This change to VoS still allows you to use attack skills in conjunction with the skill, and restricts it to scythe attacks so that it cannot be utilized by Dervish secondaries. This change also takes advantage Mysticism and the long dead concept of enchantment cycling.
Alot of the issues surrounding dervs are related to the fact that they have the least amount of skills and build options, being the latest class introduced along with paras.
Here are some of my skill ideas that should have been present in derv skill lines.
