A little help for a noob?

I'll be completely honest, I have never been the best at GW and I know I won't ever be the best. Terrible with making builds and what not. Well, before the update, I was doing pretty well with this build: OgCikysMFgBd99dBWehd1D6eBA

But now that I started playing again, I found out that build is pretty useless. Anyone mind giving me some INCREDIBLY noob-friendly assistance in getting a build that doesn't throw me in front of a bus, or to put it realistically, get me KO'd in a matter of seconds from Acolyte of Balthazar?

For anyone wondering, I am using this build right now: OgCikysMBftcBd9cNeZfVe1DCA

I used that to get Banishing strike from the acolyte, but he downed me AND all my heroes about five times before he finally died. I am a level 20 Derv/monk and I can change to Derv/para.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

PS. I apologize if this isn't the proper section.

1: Do not use a Signet of Capture to capture anything except for elite skills. It is just a waste of time.

2: Banishing strike isn't really all that great, there are ways that you can pump your damage far above the small amount that it gives.

3: Leave healing to your healers, a dervish's job is to do damage.

If you need some help or want to play with me sometime, I'll be happy to tag along.

http://www.gwpvx.com/Special:PrefixIndex/Build/

Look through them, choose your favorite and then start experimenting.

I'm still getting used to my Dervish but I would definitely get use to the dynamic of throwing up a flash enchantment and then using a powerful attack skill to strip the enchantment. Right now you only have a single flash enchantment and a single enchantment stripping skill (something that is not really that spammable either, being a high adrenaline cost). I would try experimenting with other flash enchantments and powerful attack skills like Pious Assault or Eremites Attack. I'd like to see multiple flash enchantments being constantly applied during battle to fuel scythe attacks considerably more powerful that what you are currently wielding.

I'm not a big fan of Avatar of Grenth in general PvE. I think it's niche is more in PvP but people may give other opinions. Try experimenting with other Avatars, trying to exploit their various strengths. Personally, I almost exclusively use a Pious Renewal based build but that really requires Aura of Holy Might which you might not have unlocked yet.

As Twistedboy stated, drop all the healing stuff. Your job is to blow stuff up.

That all being said, if you are dying in normal mode, I'm willing to bet that your overall weakness is not bringing enough damage to the table to clear mobs out quickly. You really should only have one dedicated healer and maybe one more hero that's more of a healer hybrid. If your whole team is loaded up on heals, that just means fights get drawn out and everyone runs out of energy. Check PvXwiki to get some ideas of team builds. Things like minions, spirits, and interrupting mesmers can do wonders for you. Also design your team to make you the star. You should have a hero keeping Strength of Honor on you (you will use shift to permanently disable the heroes control of that skill and then manually apply it to yourself when you map and if it gets stripped). Somebody should also be casting Spinter Weapon on you nearly constantly. These two skill alone will make mobs blow up under your onslaught.

By the way, this Dervish subsection in this forum has lots of individual threads on various build concepts. It doesn't get much love on PvX but before I transitioned to Pious Renewal as my elite of choice, I did a lot of running around with Avatar of Lyssa and something along the lines of:

OgCjkqrK7SxXjejX0XZXihSXPXA

Not saying that's the greatest build or anything but that's essentially how I like to play, lots of flash enchantments and then tear them down as fast as I can.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/b...t10472307.html

Shameless plug for the Basic Guide to the Dervish, we have a build section with some builds you can use to wet your appetite with.

Dervs rely on flash enchantments and enchantment strips, passive attack skills are not going to go far with this profession, Warriors can, Dervishes can't. Your much more effective using flash enchantments and tear down skills.


With the Dervish Update, the only secondary skill that makes sense for a Dervish is the Warrior skill "Save Yourselves!" which provides unparalleled defence for your team for 4-6 seconds.

You can do more damage now with the dervish. After the update, I was able to rid all the acolytes and captured their elites. Before that I had trouble. You may want to get a build that focus on damage and self heal and then leave the heroes healing to the hero healers. Get a long bow to pull the other mobs and try as best as you can to get rid of them before going for the boss. The acolytes tend to chase you farther too so if you find you have pulled more than you can handle, run. Flag yr heroes away and run. The acolytes may follow you out the farthest, giving u the chance to kill it without having to worry about the rest..

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