Assassins don't need buffs. Even after SF is nerfed, they will remain one of the most powerful professions in PvE, thanks to builds such as MSDB and critscythe.
Neither do rits. They use spirit spam and splinter weapon better than anyone else. The main thing keeping them from being overpowered is that they don't stack very well.
Paragons have only one useful build, but due to the way PvE is set up (with only a few roles that anyone can perform), it would be very hard to give them something else worthwhile without taking it away from some other class. Furthermore, the class has a history of becoming overpowered the moment it is given something it can do well.
Why haven't you included Rangers, Elementalists, and Mesmers? Technically, Elementalists don't need a buff, because they have their overpowered ER healer builds, but those are certainly not what the class was intended to do. Rangers and Mesmers each have only a couple of builds that they can do better than other classes, and most of them have questionable usefulness.
The dervish is the main one you got right. There is no reason to use one of them in PvE. But they don't need to be given a total rework; they just need to be made the best with scythes, like they should have always been.
Quote:
Originally Posted by angrimbor
I disagree with your statement that tanks and sins use scythes better than dervs. I run a Conjure Frost/Avatar of Grenth build that has me hitting around 130 with each hit in HM (20 of which is lifesteal). Non-dervish primaries can't run with a conjure, nor do they have Mysticism, which gives powerful bonuses such as the avatars and IAS enchants. Being able to keep up Heart of Fury indefinitely, in conjunction with Grenth and Conjure, certainly has my dervish doing more damage than any A/D or W/D.
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You remind me of myself when I was still a newbie. So believe me when I say I'm trying to help you by telling you all of this. It's for your own good.
See, I thought that build was good too. And then I learned about Aura of Holy Might. Turns out it adds far more damage than that puny conjure could ever hope to. And it did it without forcing me to spec into water magic.
Of course, since AoHM changes your damage type, the conjure becomes meaningless, and should be dropped.
The skill is so effective in fact, that it changes the way you deal damage. Instead of trying to get +dmg, it turns out to be more effective to get in as many hits as you can, because autoattacks with AoHM are as good as your attack skills are now with that conjure (to say nothing of what it could do
with attack skills).
So the best way to deal damage, as it turns out, is to equip yourself with a lot of quick-activation, quick recharge skills, because more hits with an AoHM-enchanted scythe will yield far more damage than any other method, since so much of the damage comes from AoHM to begin with.
But that costs a lot of energy. Where to get it? Zealous Vow is your only option.
So, bye bye to the avatar. And now you have a free PvE-only slot for Asuran Scan (or Save Yourselves, if you were using that already). Even though you lose the ability to maintain Heart of Fury, your dps is still much higher. If you ignore SY and take I Am The Strongest instead for more damage, you can get dps of 180.
One hundred and eighty. Since I doubt you've done the math (I have, which is how I got that number), I'll just say that your number of 130 is probably off. I'm willing to bet it's not the average dps; probably your dps on a crit or what you're used to seeing on an attack skill most of the time. But the
average dps of a zealous vow build is still far better than an AoG build could ever be.
Too bad Warriors get strength and Assassins get critical strikes. And both get a maintainable IAS. Those advantages are far greater than your puny scythe mastery runes.
Oh, and by the way, once you make the jump to Hard Mode, you'll find that the dps of your build will drop significantly (by almost half). When people talk damage on this forum, they are referring to HM, where everything has twice as much armor. So your 130 (if it was in fact your average dps; I sincerely doubt it) would actually be more like 80. But let's pretend you were talking HM. I can tell you right off the bat that there is no way you are getting 130 dps in HM with an AoG/Conjure build. Here's some back of the envelope calculations:
your avg dmg post crit rates will be at most 30 (we'll ignore the negative impact higher-level foes have on your crit rate, since otherwise this would become complicated). HM armor reduces your damage down to 15. With customization and weapon inscription that goes up to 20.
Now, with an AoG/Conjure build, we know you have this:
AoG
EA
HoF
Conjure Frost
We'll assume (to give you the best chance possible) that your other skills are IAtS, Asuran Scan, Mystic Sweep, and Eremite's Attack, and that you are always surrounded by 3 enemies or more, always have 3 enchantments on you at least, that you can spam those two attack skills on recharge (didn't you hear? They give you a lot more dps than Chilling Victory, in spite of it's AoE, because their recharge times aren't 10 sec!). You don't have that kind of energy on an AoG build, of course, but we'll ignore that. This means you get +30 damage every two seconds, which comes out to +15 dps. Now you're at 35.
Now let's say conjure adds +15 (which it won't, because your water magic rank won't be that high, but we'll ignore that too). That's only 50.
IAtS gives you +21 damage (we're assuming full ranks on all PvE skills) on 8 out of 20 attacks. For simplicity's sake, we'll call that +20 damage half the time, which becomes +10 dps. Now you've got 60 dps.
Asuran Scan adds +75% damage to one foe. So 1.75*60 = 105.
Now lifesteal. According to you, that is 20. So, 125 dps.
Now, we have yet to consider your offensive scythe mod. Vampiric scythes add the most dps, so that's +5. Now you're at 130 exactly.
Yay! You did it! Or did you?
Nope, because even with HoF up indefinitely, your attack rate is still one attack per 1.17 sec. So your dps goes down to 111.
Now, keep in mind that I assumed you had infinite energy, max ranks in all the relevant PvE skills, and used the best possible skills (skills which I doubt you were using). And you still couldn't reach 130 dps.
A zealous vow dervish can, though. Probably without even using his third PvE slot for damage.
And a scythe warrior or scythe sin can do even better.
Anyway, more skills means more build diversity and that means they have something more to add to the overall game experience. 
