A Basic Guide To The Dervish
Bandwagon
Basic Guide to Playing the Dervish
This guide is intended to be an updated model that more accurately reflects the state of the Dervish Profession as of the February 22nd 2011 update, as well as provide a means to assist players new to the profession.
Article Contents
1. Dervish
2. Game Terms and Game Mechanics
3. Attribute Synopsis
4. Weapon Stats
5. Runes and Insignias
6. Secondary and PvE-Only Skill Options
7. Some Example Dervish Builds
8. End Notes
(1) Dervish
Serving the gods as holy warriors, dervishes stand confidently in the whirlwind of conflict. Martial techniques perfected in the deserts of Elona allow a Dervish’s scythe to lash out quickly at multiple opponents, surrounding the holy warrior with a swath of destruction. Initiates often learn spells of self-protection, prayers that rush a combatant into battle, and invocations that empower attacks with elemental fury. Masters of the profession can assume the form of a god, enacting divine will with holy blessings. Keenly aware of the conditions of a fight, a Dervish can reap great benefits by using multiple Enchantments. Wandering the savannahs and deserts of Elona, the faithful Dervish chants prayers to the earth and wind... and the fury of the sandstorm answers in response.
— The Guild Wars Nightfall Manuscripts
Source: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Dervish
The Dervish is a frontline (melee) profession that uses a combination of spells and martial Scythe skills in order to overcome and decimate his/her opponents. The Scythe, the signature Dervish weapon is among the most deadly melee weapons in the game, with its high damage and ability to strike one to three targets with a single swing.
This profession, unlike the warrior uses spells almost as much as they use attack skills through the use of quick casting and rapidly recharging enchantments. Many of these enchantments provide effects while active, an effect when cast, when the enchantment expires, or a combination of any three of these categories. Furthermore the profession boasts the ability to prematurely remove these enchantments to fuel powerful skills using Tear Down skills (more on this later in Section (2).
This Profession is highly reliant on enchantments, however, unlike other Enchantment reliant professions (see: Elementalist), many of the Dervish’s enchantments are meant to be removed prematurely, and their enchantment recharge times and heavy reliance on skills that prematurely remove these enchantments reflect this. The Dervish as a frontliner is meant to deal large amounts of pressure damage to several enemies at once, compared to a warrior or assassin which are more potent at dealing damage to single targets more effectively.
(2) Game Terms and Game Mechanics
Game Terms
Throughout this guide I will be throwing a few terms around that many may not be too familiar with in the context of Guild Wars, this section is here to give everyone some insight:
Tear Down: Refers to any skill that requires the removal of an enchantment. The skill may require enchantment removal to take effect or it may receive an increased effect if the removal condition is satisfied. Many Dervish skills use this mechanic to force their enchantments to end prematurely.
Flash Enchantment: Most spells require the user to sit and stay idle for anywhere between ¼ of a second to 4 seconds. Flash enchantments, though spells, are the exception. One can cast a flash enchantment whenever they want instantly, even while moving or attacking, however the flash enchantment will not cast during the activation of another skill or if the user is knocked down. It is important to note that once you cast a flash enchantment, all other flash enchantments are disabled for 1 second to prevent large spikes of damage being dealt through frequent flash enchantment activation.
Game Mechanics
Obviously, the Dervish is a frontliner, but unlike the other frontliners the Dervish is heavily reliant on spells (enchantments specifically) and using these spells in combination with other skills to dole out harm.
Birds fly, fish swim, Assassins use attack chains, and Dervishes use Tear Down skills, its the heart and soul of the profession and to not use it is selling yourself out short. Many Dervish Tear Down skills, when combined with the appropriate enchantment can outperform other professions (most notably the warrior at the time of this writing).
Lets take a look at a few Dervish Skills, just for comparison.
Crown of Thorns: 5e 10 second recharge
Initial effect: Cripples nearby foes, End Effect: inflicts Bleeding to nearby foes. (Duration for both conditions is governed by Earth Prayers)
Wearying Strike 5 adrenaline
Effect: Removes a Dervish Enchantment. Removal effect: Inflicts Deep Wound (based on Scythe Mastery), if no enchantment was removed in this way, instead you suffer from Weakness.
These two abilities when paired together effectively outdo the popular sword warrior archetype by replicating the common Sever Artery (inflicts bleeding) + Gash (inflicts Deep Wound) combo and even cripples the opponent (and surrounding opponents) to boot. Such a combo would require the Warrior to devote another skill (Hamstring) to the attack sequence or devote an elite (Crippling Slash) to achieve the same results, but the Dervish can achieve the same effect with less resources (and with enough in Mysticism, you will barely spend any energy performing this combo).
Here is another example most suited for PvE.
The first two skills you received were Vital Boon and Pious Assault, though the former is of no real special interest, the latter is pure PvE gold, assuming Scythe Mastery is at 14 (12 in the attribute plus +1 Scythe Hood and +1 Scythe Rune) you can output +19 damage to your target, 29 armor ignoring damage to ALL adjacent targets and activate the end effects of your enchantment, the beauty of this is that you can do this every four seconds, so long as you supply enough enchantments to feed this powerful skill. Name any other skill that can be spammed with this amount of gusto and receive as much "bang for your buck".
There are many more examples throughout the Dervish profession, I could waste my time citing all of them, but that will do you, the reader a disservice, rather go out and experiment with the various Tear Down and Flash Enchantments available to you, they truly are worth it.
(3) Attribute Synopsis
The Dervish sports four distinct Attribute lines:
Mysticism: The Dervish’s primary attribute, Mysticism provides a 4% discount on the cost of all Dervish enchantments and +1 to the Dervish’s Armor Level so long as the Dervish is enchanted per point spent.
This is a very important attribute and should always be included in every Dervish build as it supplies many of the powerful skills available to the class. Of note are the Improved Attack Speed (IAS) stances Heart of Fury and Pious Fury, and the unique Dervish Avatars which provide significant boons to the player. Mysticism assists the Dervish in maintaining their energy through the discount in enchantment cost, furthermore it provides bonus armor to the profession which makes him/her more resilient.
Scythe Mastery: Scythe Mastery increases the Dervish’s proficiency with the Scythe and grants an increased chance to critically strike with this weapon. The attribute line also sports many of the powerful melee attacks that the Dervish will rely on in order to output tremendous damage to the enemy. Many skills available in this attribute line are fueled by adrenaline (similar to Warriors and Paragons).
Earth Prayers: Both Earth Prayers and Wind Prayers offer utility for the Dervish. Many skills in the Earth Prayers line support self preservation in the form of bonus armor, health regeneration, blocking or healing. Examples include Mystic Regeneration, Conviction, Mirage Cloak and Vital Boon. However the attribute also sports a myriad of offensive utility such as Mystic Sandstorm, Sand Shards or Vow of Strength. Many of the skill in Earth Prayers are Flash enchantments that the Dervish can use to power his/her various tear down skills.
Wind Prayers: Focuses on mobility and inflicting the Crippling condition onto enemies, many skills in the Wind Prayers line are more disruptive and offensive in nature in nature then the “tankish” Earth Prayers line, sporting skills such as Lyssa’s Haste, Grenth’s Fingers, Harrier’s Haste or Onslaught. Many of the skills throughout Wind Prayers are flash enchantments that provide “food” for the plethora of Dervish tear down skills available.
It should be noted that most Dervish builds feature a combination of Scythe Mastery, Mysticism, and either Earth Prayers or Wind Prayers (exceptions exist where builds only sport Scythe Mastery and Mysticism however) as sporting all four attributes in one build can cripple the overall effectiveness of the skills used within.
(4) Weapon Stats
The Scythe is truly unique amongst the martial weapons in Guild Wars. It is capable of striking up to three adjacent targets within one strike. All bonuses and detriments, particularly those from attack skills, will be applied for each target struck. For example: If the Dervish wields a Vampiric Scythe and strikes three targets at once, the weapon will steal health from each target struck.
Basic Properties of the Scythe:
-9-41 Damage assuming max stats
-Slashing Damage (can be modified through weapon mods / skill use)
-They have an attack rate of 1.5 seconds
-Critical hits scored with a scythe are less damaging then other weapons. The Scythe deals approximately 10% bonus damage with critical hits as opposed to roughly 40% on other weapons.
Source: http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Scythe
Even though Scythe bonus damage is decreased slightly, it is important that the reader does not assume that critical hits with a scythe are by any means weak. Critical Hits in GW forces the weapon to ALWAYS deal maximum damage to the target (so in the scythe's case, 41 damage, as opposed to an average hit of 25). Since scythes have a large damage range from 9-41, scoring an automatic 41 on your base damage combined with any other enhancements and the 10% critical damage modifier is nothing but a gain.
For more information regarding Critical Hits,
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Critical
Positioning is important with the Dervish as he/she will be able to maximize the weapon’s usefulness when striking multiple foes as opposed to a single foe. Furthermore, many Dervish skills require adrenaline in order to use. If the Dervish strikes more than one foe with his/her scythe, they will receive additional strikes of adrenaline which will grant more frequent adrenal skill use (and there for more damage).
Weapon Mod Choices:
Scythe Snathes
• Sundering – A max Sundering Mod provides a 20% chance of ignoring 20% of your opponent’s armor when struck. Compared to Vampiric, this snathe is much less threatening as the bonus is governed by RNG (random number generator). The 20% (equivalent to roughly 40% more damage dealt to the target) armor ignore only effects the base damage of the scythe, meaning, assuming a max (9-41) customized (+20%) scythe with a +15% damage mod you will deal 33.75 damage average, with a 40% boost triggered on every fifth attack that constitutes a damage increase of approximately 2.7 per strike, compared to the flat +5 damage from Vampiric, Sundering offers very little.
• Vampiric – Each target stuck by your scythe will have five additional health lost and transferred to you. The only downside is the -1 health regen, easily healed through by players and heroes/henchmen. This is the most damaging Snathe mod available and should be taken whenever attacking.
• Furious – Furious is redundant given with proper positioning you can gain two to three strikes of adrenaline per hit.
• Zealous - If you're good at hitting multiple foes, a Zealous Scythe, especially with an IAS, can give a very nice energy return back. This mod however is redundant if you are capable through your build choices and skills used of managing your energy effectively.
• Elemental - Ebon (Earth Damage) and Icy (Cold Damage) mods are very useful for activating the effects of some skills. Fiery and Shocking mods are less useful. Only use this mod if you are using skills reliant on the type of damage your weapon is dealing
• Condition Lengthening Mods – never use these, period.
Scythe Grips
• Fortitude – Provides a maximum of +30 Health to the user, compared to +5 Armor, this mod is generally inferior (though better than most of the alternatives). Think of it like this, with +5 armor, you will take less damage from each hit, actively granting its benefit. A bonus+30 health only truly grants the user its benefit when they are at 30 Health or less. If you find yourself at this level of health more often than not, the trouble is not your equipment choice, it is either your teammates, or somewhere between your chair and your keyboard.
• Enchanting – Can be of potential use, however most Dervish Enchants are short lived and are meant to be short lived to fuel self enchantment removal skills.
• Defense - Defense mods actively reduce the non-armor ignoring damage you take. The +5 Armor can (and most often will) provide more survivability to the user then a Fortitude Mod ever will. (+7 vs Elemental or Physical are also options, though Defense does not require keeping multiple sets in your inventory).
• Scythe Mastery – See: Condition Lengthening Mods, if you find yourself with a salvaged Scythe Grip of Mastery, consider it Merchant food.
(5) Runes and Insignias
Players seasoned to Guild Wars gearing will know that one should always sport runes to improve the effect and damage of their skills, so I will not bother describing why you should apply runes to your Dervish’s armor. It is important to note when runing your Dervish that you should steer clear of major or superior runes unless they allow you to meet important breakpoints of the skills that they effect, as the large reduction in health usually offsets the benefits gained through one or two additional points in a certain attribute.
If blind (a potent form of melee shutdown) becomes a problem, a Rune of Clarity may well be worth the investment. A Vigor rune (quality dependent on one’s budget) should be allocated to a spare rune slot on your armor. All spare rune slots should be devoted to Vitae unless extra energy is required to quickly cast and use various high energy cost skills in quick succession. It is important to note that if you plan to run multiple builds that feature different rune requirement spreads to add the runes to your gloves, headpiece and/or boots as these pieces are cheaper to create then the legs and chest slots.
Insignia choice is a source of debate across the forums. Many swear by the extra health granted by Survivor Insignias, but for general and HM (Hard Mode) content, bonus armor, pound for pound mitigates more damage, and keeps you alive more effectively than bonus health (which only provides a buffer before you are defeated) for the majority (and most threatening) forms of damage in PvP and PvE. This is especially important as a frontliner, since the Dervish will usually be in the thick of things and will generally be more susceptible to damage.
Dervish exclusive insignias include Forsaken and Windwalker insignias. Windwalker insignias provide +5 armor (to a maximum of +20 total) for each enchantment on the Dervish, in builds and teams relying on heavy enchantment use, this insignia has the potential to mitigate a huge amount of incoming damage (+20 armor on medium armor targets constitutes approximately a 29% reduction in damage from armor sensitive sources) keep in mind that it can be extremely difficult for the player to sport four separate enchantments to maintain this bonus. Forsaken Insignias provide a flat +10 armor while you are not enchanted, rarely will this sort of playstyle be deemed effective on a profession so reliant on enchantments, however niche exceptions do exist.
For general use the universal Insignia, Blessed Insignia provides a flat +10 armor while enchanted. Since it is very rare for a Dervish to NOT be enchanted, this bonus will almost always be constant.
6) Secondary and PvE-Only Skill Options
In general the Dervish after the February 22nd 2011 update are effectively self sufficient using just their primary skills, however the possibilities exist to add some off attribute skills to provide secondary profession utility. Remember, if you do plan to use your Dervish’s secondary profession, keep in mind that the Dervish should be killing things with his/her scythe, if you want to be a spell caster, be a spell caster.
Warrior: The Dervish features a plethora of skills that mimic the utility offered by a warrior (the warrior’s Wild Blow vs the Dervish’s Irresistible Sweep, both remove a stance from the target), however in PvE, the PvE warrior skill “Save Yourselves!” is tremendously useful at providing large party wide protection. Since the Dervish can gain a potential 3 adrenaline per strike, it allows him/her to keep the expensive shout up more regularly. Of note is the rise in Sword Dervish builds in GvG that are becoming quite popular as of late at the time of this article’s creation.
Monk: Offers little use for the Dervish unless he is in need of a reusable resurrection skill.
Ranger: Antidote Signet is the only real viable possibility for the Dervish to use since it is a cheap, quick recharging condition removal signet that requires no attribute investment.
Mesmer: Offers very little for the Dervish, the Mesmer skills are balanced around caster classes and have long cast times, both of which defeat the purpose for bringing a frontline melee character.
Necromancer: Many skills that the Necromancer offers can be mimicked with the Dervish’s enchantments (Plague Touch vs Grenth’s Fingers, both transfer hostile conditions to nearby foes, but Grenth’s Fingers is an AOE enchantment that casts instantly and can be used to fuel enchantment tear down skills).
Elementalist: The addition of an elemental mod on one’s scythe combined with an elementalist conjure skill may prove useful in order to augment your damage, be aware that the avatar skills convert your damage into another damage type and as such provide anti-synergy.
Ritualist: Provides access to a hard resurrect, furthermore spirit spamming skills can be accessed to allow the character to beat troublesome solo missions and EOTN type quests. Otherwise this secondary can be ignored without major repercussions.
Assassin: Shadowform combined with the Dervish’s ample running skills allows the Dervish to zip through maps at blazing speeds (and survive) rivalling Assassin primaries. Otherwise this secondary should only be chosen if you want access to Shadowsteps.
Paragon: Offers very little for the Dervish, it is best to skip this secondary entirely.
The Dervish have two PvE Only Profession Specific Skills, these skills are not linked to the Dervish’s four attributes, rather they scale based on the player’s rank in the Sunspear and Kurzick/Luxon Title Track.
Eternal Aura (Sunspear Skill) – This enchantment has no set duration, but while it is in effect, the user has +100 to his/her maximum Health, When the enchantment ends by any means, it will resurrect all party members (even the Dervish if he/she died while Eternal Aura was active) in the area with 40-50% Health and 20-30% maximum energy. This basically grants the Dervish (or any Dervish secondary) the ability to mass resurrect their friends, in order to force the skill to resurrect your party members, you will have to use a tear down skill.
Aura of Holy Might (Luxon/Kurzick Skill)- A long lasting enchantment that deals 20-25 holy damage to all adjacent foes whenever a Dervish enchantment ends on him/her. – use this skill with heavy tear down builds to deal large amounts of aoe damage.
(7) Some Example Dervish Builds
A quick note: These are not the “best” or most amazing builds available to the profession, the class most definitely has a lot of potential and room for variation so I will leave build forging up to the player.
Quote: Dervish/Warrior
Mysticism 10+1
Scythe Mastery 11+1+1
Earth Prayers 10+1
Vow of Strength | Eremite's Attack | Twin Moon Sweep | Heart of Fury | Whirlwind Attack | Staggering Force | Balthazar's Rage | Extend Enchantments
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How does it work?: Extend Enchantment on Vow of Strength so you can keep it up indefinitely and go to town on your opponent! Use Eremite Attack (with a cover enchantment so that it doesn’t remove Vow of Strength) and Whirlwind attack on balled up foes to deal huge amounts of damage to everything around you. Quote:
Mysticism 9+1
Scythe Mastery 12+1+1
Wind Prayers 9+1
Onslaught | Rending Aura | Balthazar's Rage | Twin Moon Sweep | Mystic Sweep | Radiant Scythe | "You Move Like a Dwarf!" | "Save Yourselves!"
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Use Onslaught to power up your attack speed and strike your opponent quickly with adrenaline attacks. Radiant Scythe manages your energy and allows you to use Mystic Sweep and an energy PvE skill of choice with almost no energy detriments.
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