Derv PvE skillz Help

Caden

Caden

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jan 2009

Gods Umong Mortals

D/A

Hi all,

I am an xped player when it comes to GW and dervs, but for some reason i cant seem to stay alive for too long, i am currently running my own Avatar of Balthazar build, i dont wanna get rid of that so i also use vital boon to get some extra health and i chose Monk as my 2nd prof so i could use protective spirit for some gr8 health regen.

so basically im asking is there a other skill for D/Mo or and other skill from another prof that can benefit me even more?

Slasher of Darkness

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Aug 2008

Lots of places~

D/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Caden View Post
Hi all,

I am an xped player when it comes to GW and dervs, but for some reason i cant seem to stay alive for too long, i am currently running my own Avatar of Balthazar build, i dont wanna get rid of that so i also use vital boon to get some extra health and i chose Monk as my 2nd prof so i could use protective spirit for some gr8 health regen.

so basically im asking is there a other skill for D/Mo or and other skill from another prof that can benefit me even more? What I bolded, not rly true. Avatar of Balthazar is not good at all, vital boon is decent, and you should NOT use protective spirit on your dervish bar. Get yourselves some decent monk hero builds so you wouldn't need to carry ANY heals on ur bar, ur job is to blow stuff up. Word of Healing Hybrids are great for that.

Celtus

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2009

D/

Prot spirit doesnt mix well with avatar of balthazar and vital boon..you increase your armor +40 with AoB so youll rarely be hit for more than 10%. Vital boon increases your max hp so its also counterproductive to prot spirit's effect..

id try to give more advice but im in a hurry now . .

Verene

Verene

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jan 2009

[SOTA]

D/

Yeah, AoB isn't that great, there are better avatars. I prefer AoL for the increased damage against casting foes and the extra energy available.

The only thing I use my secondary for (I also run D/Mo) is Mend Condition, so I can clear my own conditions instead of weighing down one of the monks.

These days I use Zealous Vow to power my attacks, it's great and it makes it much easier to afford to keep Heart of Fury and AoHM going more often, and I can justify taking some of the more expensive attack skills. I right now have Mystic Healing on my bar, but that's because I was doing Gate of Pain the other day and that environmental effect is annoying.

~ Dan ~

Forge Runner

Join Date: Dec 2006

D/

Experienced dervish player who uses AoB and protective spirit? Hmm.

Fill your bar with 7 offensive skills, and either another one or a rez, and stick monks or N/Rt's in your party. Survivability sorted then.

EDIT: Basically, what Slasher said.

paddymew

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2008

D/

Two words:
Reaper's Sweep

IronSheik

IronSheik

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2008

Wolfenstein: Goldrush

Zombies Go Nom Nom [Nom]

N/

In any form PvE/PvP (Minus RA, but is that really Pvp?) a frontliner should not be keeping themselves alive. If you die, it's your monks fault.

And as others said, avatars =/= experienced player. A DPS dervish should not be running any type of avatar, (This includes Lyssa/Grenth).

Ginger Hunter

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2008

England

HEH

A/D

If your looking for survivability, i used to run an extend enchantments + SoA and mending touch. Throw in wounding strike, eremites attack, mystic sweep and chilling victory, and the in final slot slip aura of holy might in.

Used to work when i first rolled my dervish cant say if its all that effective still tbh.

reaper with no name

reaper with no name

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2009

FaZ

D/

You fail to understand the monk-warrior dynamic.

Warriors (melee) are far better at dealing damage than monks (healers). Monks, on the other hand, are much better at keeping people alive than warriors. Therefore, ideally, the warrior should be focused on doing damage and the monk focused on keeping the warrior alive.

If you're having problems staying alive, it's because A) monsters aren't dying (you're not doing your job) or B) the monks aren't keeping you alive properly (they're failing to do their job).

The solution is to get better monks and focus more on offense.

subarucar

subarucar

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jul 2006

New Zealand

None

Quote:
Originally Posted by IronSheik View Post
If you die, it's your monks fault. Please don't tell people this, they decide to run halfway across the map, agro everything, then rage at the monk when they die.

reaper with no name

reaper with no name

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2009

FaZ

D/

True. So add "don't be stupid" to the list of things to do.

~ Dan ~

Forge Runner

Join Date: Dec 2006

D/

Or add "use hench/heroes" to the list.

wilebill

wilebill

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Dec 2005

Mt Vernon, Ohio

Band of the Hawk

W/Mo

One word, Sabway! For your heroes. Then carry an additional healer hench, an ele hench, couple caster hench. Stick some stuff on your bar. Lots of stuff works. Wow and there's skillz too! Heck, I've even got a derv pet build that works. Berserk wildly across the map mindlessly blowing stuff up.

J I L T

Academy Page

Join Date: Feb 2009

Mo/

Taking like 7 offensive skills as any class just isn't very smart. First of all if you're a derv taking 7 attack skills or whatever you're getting very little to no benefit from your primary attribute meaning there is basically no point in even being a dervish you might as will be an assassin or warrior. I'm assuming from the skills you mentioned you're more concerned about defense anyway so I'd recommend switching your secondary to elementalist and using some earth magic skills. There are some earth enchantments that can give more armor than avatar of balthazar, are maintainable without the use of another skill, can fuel dervish skills that get stronger for each enchantment and even saves your elite. Monk is a excellent choice too you can make great use of all the enchantments like you could spam patient spirit for just 1 energy or even gain energy if you use pious renewal. There are so many possibilities with a monk secondary especially with extend enchantments.

Slasher of Darkness

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Aug 2008

Lots of places~

D/

Quote:
Originally Posted by J I L T
View Post
Taking like 7 offensive skills as any class just isn't very smart. First of all if you're a derv taking 7 attack skills or whatever you're getting very little to no benefit from your primary attribute meaning there is basically no point in even being a dervish you might as will be an assassin or warrior. I'm assuming from the skills you mentioned you're more concerned about defense anyway so I'd recommend switching your secondary to elementalist and using some earth magic skills. There are some earth enchantments that can give more armor than avatar of balthazar, are maintainable without the use of another skill, can fuel dervish skills that get stronger for each enchantment and even saves your elite. Monk is a excellent choice too you can make great use of all the enchantments like you could spam patient spirit for just 1 energy or even gain energy if you use pious renewal. There are so many possibilities with a monk secondary especially with extend enchantments. I disagree. As a dervish, you got the most powerful weapon in the game..scythe. Your job is to blow stuff up, maybe with 7 offensive skills he meant, as I take, 3 attack skills, asuran scan, AoHM, IAS and...that's 6 slots filled with offesnive power, last 2 slots i bring utility in the form of e-management through Attacker's Insight and as a slot-filler...Faithful Intervention. And I use that bar, I see me constantly doing 100-200+ => Blowing stuff up.

J I L T

Academy Page

Join Date: Feb 2009

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Slasher of Darkness
View Post
I disagree. As a dervish, you got the most powerful weapon in the game..scythe. Your job is to blow stuff up, maybe with 7 offensive skills he meant, as I take, 3 attack skills, asuran scan, AoHM, IAS and...that's 6 slots filled with offesnive power, last 2 slots i bring utility in the form of e-management through Attacker's Insight and as a slot-filler...Faithful Intervention. And I use that bar, I see me constantly doing 100-200+ => Blowing stuff up.

Even if you use 3 enchantments that doesn't mean you're getting much from mysticism. I mean aura of holy might is something you want to keep up as much as possible and has a long recharge and the other 2 also have long recharges. If you're a derv you should be using several enchantments that can be applied and removed quickly and repeatedly. I'm not saying a derv can't or shouldn't be dealing good damage but if you're not making good use of enchantments then why are you a primary dervish in the first place? That's like making a monk to use smiting builds that don't have any skills that target allies. You just waste a primary attribute.

When people make a topic to get ideas I'm pretty sure they don't want 15 different people agreeing with each other so I usually try to give a different point of view. Besides the guy who made the post didn't mention one damage skill so he's probably either dealing good damage already or doesn't care about having 200 dps. Not to mention he specifically said he had trouble staying alive so why does everyone start talking about builds loaded with damage?

~ Dan ~

Forge Runner

Join Date: Dec 2006

D/

Quote:
Originally Posted by J I L T View Post
Taking like 7 offensive skills as any class just isn't very smart. First of all if you're a derv taking 7 attack skills or whatever you're getting very little to no benefit from your primary attribute meaning there is basically no point in even being a dervish you might as will be an assassin or warrior.
Whoa whoa whoa, stop there.

Who said 7 attack skills?

- Asuran scan = offensive
- Aura of Holy Might = offensive
- Heart of fury = offensive
- Rush or similar is also always useful

So now you have a rez, and 3 attack skills. That's a fully offensive bar.

Quote: Originally Posted by J I L T View Post
Even if you use 3 enchantments that doesn't mean you're getting much from mysticism. I see you're overly worried about energy management with a lack of 5 earth enchantments on your bar for mysticism.

Tip: take zealous vow. There you go, blow stuff up with no energy problems and no need for mysticism.

Also, you do realise monk enchantments give you energy? I've been running the discordway lately with a friend, and being the only melee in our team i'm the main target for prots. Energy galore without having to take defensive shit myself.

Quote:
Originally Posted by J I L T View Post
Not to mention he specifically said he had trouble staying alive so why does everyone start talking about builds loaded with damage? Because he seemed to think it was the dervish's job to load his bar with defensive crap to keep himself alive. It's not.

Mischievious

Mischievious

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Aug 2009

Texas

Legion Of The Hopeless [LoST]

Rt/

Asuran Scan, Reapers sweep or Wounding strike, lyssa's assault, deathly chill, heart of fury, attackers insight, natural healig or something else.

Bloody Dominator

Bloody Dominator

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2009

Belgium

Sent Fromhell [SFH]

D/

Dump prot spirit, take Armor of sanctity, would wok better with AoB. Take Aura of Holy Might and 3 attack skill and ur set.

J I L T

Academy Page

Join Date: Feb 2009

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by ~ Dan ~
View Post
Whoa whoa whoa, stop there.

Who said 7 attack skills?

- Asuran scan = offensive
- Aura of Holy Might = offensive
- Heart of fury = offensive
- Rush or similar is also always useful

So now you have a rez, and 3 attack skills. That's a fully offensive bar.


I see you're overly worried about energy management with a lack of 5 earth enchantments on your bar for mysticism.

Tip: take zealous vow. There you go, blow stuff up with no energy problems and no need for mysticism.

Also, you do realise monk enchantments give you energy? I've been running the discordway lately with a friend, and being the only melee in our team i'm the main target for prots. Energy galore without having to take defensive shit myself.


Because he seemed to think it was the dervish's job to load his bar with defensive crap to keep himself alive. It's not. I just used 7 attacks skills as a generic term for all damage skills. It doesn't matter if it's 3 attacks, 1 hex, 1 ias or whatever taking a bar with almost nothing but damage is complete overkill. Think about it like this how often do you fail something because you can't kill something? Never right? How often do you fail because of death? Even if you never fail anything ever because you use discord you're still way more likely to fail because your defense is nonexistent. How often do you see a super enemy monk keeping all it's allies alive indefinitely? How often do you see eles dealing hundreds of damage per second and killing half the party with 1 or 2 spells? In Gw offense will always outclass defense even without pve skills. You're overcompensating for something that does need it just because you like to see huge numbers.

I'm not overly worried about enchantments or energy I'm just making a point is all. There is no advantage to being a primary dervish if you don't use enchantments. If you just want to swing a scythe fine whatever but you're better off being an assassin for more frequent critical hits or a warrior for armor penetration. It's the exact same concept behind the 3 necros in your precious discord and sabway. And yeah all enchantments give you the energy and health but monks aren't your personal life lines. There are 7 other people besides you can get those enchantments and being the only melee doesn't make you a more likely target either unless you run way ahead of everyone and you're the only one in agro range.

And even you do draw a lot of damage why do you not take 1 skill to keep yourself alive? I mean what is your thought process? "I'm going to take lots of damage should I bring a heal or defensive skill of any kind?" "No because then my 200 dps will go down ever so slightly and even though dervs have 3 attributes including their primary attribute dedicated to defense I should only be attacking because that's what the build I copied from pvx says." It's like you're bragging and think you're right because of a lack of common sense.

~ Dan ~

Forge Runner

Join Date: Dec 2006

D/

Quote:
Originally Posted by J I L T View Post
I just used 7 attacks skills as a generic term for all damage skills. It doesn't matter if it's 3 attacks, 1 hex, 1 ias or whatever taking a bar with almost nothing but damage is complete overkill.
It's not overkill, it's necessary to do your job. Your job being melee DPS.

Quote:
Think about it like this how often do you fail something because you can't kill something? Never right?
No, wrong. I take it you never play HM? If you're not killing anything, eventually you will wipe, guaranteed. But if all the foes are dead because you're DPS'ing properly - who is going to kill you?

Quote: How often do you fail because of death? Proper healing and prots + death pact signet solve this.

Quote: Even if you never fail anything ever because you use discord you're still way more likely to fail because your defense is nonexistent. Let me tell you something. I recently switched from sab's to discord simply because you have great dps in the form of discord whilst leaving alot of spots for utility (defense). Before that with sabway, I never ran defensive skills on my pve bar, and vanquished cantha with H/H because I/we killed everything before it killed us.

"offense is the best defence". Stop being bad. (and FYI, our defense is existent, just in the form of partywide heals, blocks - wards, aegis - condition removals etc, and not on my bar)

Quote: How often do you see a super enemy monk keeping all it's allies alive indefinitely? The only time that happens is if it's a HM monk boss. I do my homework, and bring a BHA ranger hero.

Quote: How often do you see eles dealing hundreds of damage per second and killing half the party with 1 or 2 spells? I pull, with prot spirit on me. I wait ahead of the team for meteor shower and shit to be wasted on me, then pull back to heroes. That problem doesn't exist for me. And no amount of defense is going to stop a HM ele boss one shotting who he wants if you can't pre-prot PS. Again, do your homework if you're in HM - bring a ranger for him and shove a BHA in his face.

Quote:
In Gw offense will always outclass defense even without pve skills. You're overcompensating for something that does need it just because you like to see huge numbers. So what's your point? You admit offence outclasses defence, so use it. You're saying things die fast enough that you can use your dervish to spam earth enchantments. Here's an idea - DPS instead, and things die even faster.

Quote:
There is no advantage to being a primary dervish if you don't use enchantments. - Runes: higher scythe mastery means more damage with a scythe than another class could attempt, minus maybe A/D.
- The fact that with my dervish skills I can use whatever secondary profession I want for whatever reason. Another class choosing derv for my skills will be hindered. (except again, A/D)

I can't stress this enough: Monk enchantments give you all the energy you need. That's me exploiting mysticism right there, without taking defensive enchantments myself. I am still benefiting from my primary attribute but with an offensive DPS bar.

Quote:
If you just want to swing a scythe fine whatever but you're better off being an assassin for more frequent critical hits or a warrior for armor penetration. And if you want to sit ther spamming earth enchantments to enjoy mysticism and staying alive, just go AFK and let heroes kill everything instead, since you're useless to your team.

With your attitude people will tell you time and time again: Guildwars is a team game. Bring monks in your team.

Quote:
It's the exact same concept behind the 3 necros in your precious discord and sabway. And yeah all enchantments give you the energy and health but monks aren't your personal life lines.There are 7 other people besides you can get those enchantments and being the only melee doesn't make you a more likely target either unless you run way ahead of everyone and you're the only one in agro range. I think what you fail to realise here is I only play with 1 human + heroes, or H/H. If I want to be the target of prots, I will. If I want to keep all the aggro on me away from the team, I can. All anyone else needs is the odd PS, or an aegis.

Quote:
And even you do draw a lot of damage why do you not take 1 skill to keep yourself alive? I mean what is your thought process? "I'm going to take lots of damage should I bring a heal or defensive skill of any kind?" "No because then my 200 dps will go down ever so slightly and even though dervs have 3 attributes including their primary attribute dedicated to defense I should only be attacking because that's what the build I copied from pvx says." It's like you're bragging and think you're right because of a lack of common sense. My thought process is that i'm doing my class role for the team. Likewise, my monks or N/rt's or whatever are doing their role for the team. The two roles combined = stuff dies, we don't. Classic combo.

Oh also, I'm curious to know what these 3 attributes are dedicated to defense?

- Scythe mastery? Doubt it.
- Earth prayers? Yeah, that's why it's useless most of the time. EDA can be nice though. And this "ever so slightly decrease in DPS" will be much more than that if you're speccing into another attribute line.
- Wind prayers? Zealous vow, whirling charge and attacker's insight combination make this much more of an offensive attribute line, than defensive. Not to mention the many snares and run stances/enchants it has.
- So that leaves mysticism. Lyssa, Melandru, you're best IAS in HoF, to name a few, means that people speccing in this aren't doing so for defense. Unless you claim + 15 health when an enchantment ends is "defense". And btw, you get energy from any enchantment ending on you, regardless of it's effect, so think before you make such stupid statements.

If anyone is lacking common sense here, it's you. You obviously don't understand the concept of a team game, or a melee DPS role, or the mysticism synergy with your party's monk prots. I don't know what else I can say to make you wake up. Every situation you listed in the start of your post applies to you, but rarely to me, because you're just bad at guildwars.

LAST EDIT: I think i've come to the conclusion that all of your points are based on normal pve experience. In which case, nobody cares, since everything works. But when you want to argue effectiveness & HM; and that DPS'ing on a DPS class is the wrong way to go; or that bringing vital boon and speccing 9 in earth prayers will save your party from a wipe; or that a HM ele is going to wipe your team because you didn't bring vital boon - in such a case, you're just plain wrong.

I've tried to give you my experiences such as vanquishing to show you i've seen it all, and know that I can safely say thinking defensively on your dervish is the wrong decision.

Desert Rose

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2007

In addition to IronSheik list:
AoB doesn't give you an IAS, but an IMS. The avatar is really horrible.

Melandru is very good in Shards of Orr and other places where mobs spam blind/weakness, everwhere else it's medicore.

Caden

Caden

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jan 2009

Gods Umong Mortals

D/A

Hey guys...thanks for the responses, but i like using AoB, and who can say that im not an xped derv if i use Aob. The skill gives me xtra defense and a bit more speed, all i wanted to know is wat can i use to benefit my defense

Quote:
One word, Sabway! For your heroes. i actually use a Sabway, but if they die for some or other reason i wanna atleast keep myself alive to maybe try and do something about it.

and as far as its concerned u need a bar of defense bcoz if you go into a quest or mission with other players then u need to keep urself going...especially in a mission or dungeon, so AoB might not be the best avatar but it helps to keep my derv in a stable position

~ Dan ~

Forge Runner

Join Date: Dec 2006

D/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Caden View Post
all i wanted to know is wat can i use to benefit my defense
And we told you - monks. Don't use your own bar for this, you have classes in this game dedicated to the defensive side of a team.
Quote:
i actually use a Sabway, but if they die for some or other reason i wanna atleast keep myself alive to maybe try and do something about it. Only thing you can do to save things would be to rez them. If you're backline goes down and stays down, chances are you're going to wipe unless you can kill the enemy first, since none of you are going to get heals; and believe it or not, mystic regen won't save you from 8 angry poorly scripted AI foes.
Quote:
and as far as its concerned u need a bar of defense bcoz if you go into a quest or mission with other players then u need to keep urself going... No, you take healers for that. If you're joining a PuG without any, you're probably going to fail anyway unless its all this perma sf shit. Do yourself a favour, just H/H everything, or run with guild groups.