Curse

alex1tmac · Aug 28, 2007, 01:38 AM // 01:38

Hello, I just bought Nightfall to add to my Prophecies account. And i made a dervish and enjoy it so far, but am wondering if anyone could offer me some advice, which skills own face, which skills suck, ect.

I plan on keeping this character as mainly PvE, and have yet to acquire a secondary profession.

Much thanks, Alex.

Coloneh · Aug 28, 2007, 02:57 AM // 02:57

well ill give some advice, but make sure to look around the forums.

1. tryto build mostly with just dervish skills, theyr pretty self-sufficent.

2.as a general rule stick to Mysticism(intervals of 3), Scythe Mastery(obviously), and Earth Prayers (8 or 9)'

3. meet your new best friend: [skill]Mystic Regeneration[/skill]

alex1tmac · Aug 28, 2007, 04:09 AM // 04:09

than you for the quick response, and thanks for the mystic regen tip, ill get that one right away.

now i just need to pick a secondairy profession.

MrFuzzles · Aug 28, 2007, 05:58 AM // 05:58

Like coloneh said, dervish is pretty self sufficient. It meshes pretty badly with secondaries.

I initially went warrior just for wild blow. Scythes have the highest crit in the game, and the dervish has no stance enders themselves. Distracting blow can get handy if you absolutely need an interrupt.
Monk for healing is not that hot since you have plenty of healing and protection in earth prayers and mysticism. Tho hex removal is handy since a dervish only has some pretty awkward options for doing that himself; one of them is elite, and one is in wind prayers which is mostly the pvp/utility line. Dervs also have no condition removal.

Other than that, I can't really think of anything that synergizes well in general. There might be that odd assassin skill, a couple of necro skills, but overall you will be using 100% dervish skills for most of the time, and only switch secondary when you absolutely need that one or two certain skills from another prof.

As for own/suck, here's imo:
I'm a religious [wiki]armor of sanctity[/wiki] user. It's basically shielding hands 24/7. It casts fast and has a 5e cost. I usually use it together with [wiki]aura of thorns[/wiki].
[wiki]heart of fury[/wiki] is one of the better IAS'es in the game for the sheer fact of having a decent duration, being in a line which you'll already probably be using, and being completely unconditional. The burning at the end helps to nudge you over if you're juuuust this close to killing something.
[wiki]ebon dust aura[/wiki] for utter melee/ranger 24/7 shutdown. Can even be kept up for bosses since you'll be constantly applying and re-applying it. Note it only triggers on an attack skill, and not an attack.
[wiki]mystic sweep[/wiki] and [wiki]eremite's attack[/wiki] are some commonly used skills in damage builds, as they are the only dervish attacks with a 3/4 cast time. You can queue these up after a regular default attack for basically a double hit. Works great together with [wiki]avatar of lyssa[/wiki] since it gives you the chance to actively try and catch skill activations.
If you like avatars, [wiki]eternal aura[/wiki] is a near must-have pve skill. It's the only possible way to keep avatars up 24/7.
Dervish has a lot of "lose one enchantment" skills, but don't shun them thinking "well I want my enchantments!". Keep in mind that you *want* to end some enchantments (like aura of thorns), and you can also end enchantments as they are about to end anyway. Like with armor of sanctity and mystic regeneration, these have fairly fast recharges, so you can "afford" to end them prematurely if you really have to, and they will always be guaranteed recharged if they are blinking.

Some skills I (and many others) have yet to see the real use for. Feel free to play around with them and prove us wrong.
[wiki]sand shards[/wiki], even tho it triggers once for every foe you miss, the damage is just so low and the criteria is just so situational that this skill only allows you to deal a tiny amount of damage for a few seconds every 3 hours.
[wiki]vow of piety[/wiki], only real use I can think of would be if you had one or two monks spamming reversal on you. Even then, you have no control over what it heals, making it rather novelty based. It's cheap and fast to cast/recharge, but if you want a dummy/cover enchantment, there are better options.
[wiki]Test of faith[/wiki], sounds really good on paper, but if you manage to get a monster or player down to half health, do you really *need* to remove his enchants in the first place? Slow recharge and high'ish energy cost to make the damage desirable.
[wiki]irresistible sweep[/wiki], if blocking is a problem, I'll bring wild blow or [wiki]guiding hands[/wiki]. If I'm making a build where I want to rend my own enchants, I'd rather bring [wiki]eremite's zeal[/wiki], [wiki]meditation[/wiki], [wiki]twin moon sweep[/wiki], or [wiki]signet of pious light[/wiki]. I just personally don't see the use in rending an enchant and spending a skillslot just for *one* hit that would otherwise miss.
[wiki]grenth's grasp[/wiki], it's a good skill, but with [wiki]harrier's grasp[/wiki] it's not really needed. The only difference is that you get to cripple foes standing still. Which you can also just do with [wiki]crippling sweep[/wiki] and [wiki]aura of thorns[/wiki]. Also plus points for allowing you to spam cripple I guess, but I've never found a practical use for it where harrier's grasp couldn't do the job just as well.

More than that and I'd start moving into purely opinion matter I think. I think I covered most of the commonly agreed upon stuff.

CoonerTheRed · Aug 29, 2007, 04:55 PM // 16:55

nice post, some good advice up there.

Just a few comments on elites... [wiki]Avatar of Melandru[/wiki], [wiki]Avatar of Balthazar[/wiki], [wiki]Avatar of Lyssa[/wiki], and [wiki]Reaper's Sweep[/wiki] can all be capped early into Kourna (after getting off of Istan) and are all very useful elites. Balthazar makes for a very useful "noob elite" (don't take that as an insult or as an insult to the skill). It makes dervishes very safe and is impressively powerful, especially against later undead. It requires little subtlety to use well. Melandru is great as well, especially when paired with [wiki]Wearying Strike[/wiki]. Lyssa is my personal favorite, but requires a bit of practice to constantly activate the added damage (if you've played an interupter before, you'd probably be good at Lyssa). Reaper's is impressive as well. The main issue with the last two is that they provide no added defense. When you've gotten used to juggling enchantments for defense (like the earth prayer skills mentioned by MrFuzzles), this isn't an issue. Until then, a non-removable defense bonus/condition immunity makes you very very safe.

alex1tmac · Aug 29, 2007, 05:37 PM // 17:37

Thank you for all your help.
I have put together a build, but it isn't very good.
I am constantly killed by skree's.

I am D/Mo
and have,
Scythe Mastery - 7+1
Earth Prayers - 2
Mysticism - 2

Skills are
Eremite's Attack
Mystic Sweep
Pious Assault
Mystic Regeneration
Mystic Vigor
Grenth's Fingers
Heart of Holy Flame
Vital Boon

Any suggestions or comments would be very much appreciated. One thing i would request though, is does anyone know of any enchants i could use just to make mystic sweep, mystic regen, and mystic vigor any better?

thanks

Donni Darkblade · Aug 30, 2007, 03:02 AM // 03:02

I notice that you are using vital boon in that build, that skill has an amazing synergy with [skill]signet of pious light[/skill]: you can cast them both fast if you need quick healing, or you can leave boon on untill it recharges, then cast sig+boon+sig for an even bigger heal. this is also VERY low energy cost healing.

enchants to make those skills better? [skill]heart of fury[/skill] certainly comes to mind. The added attack speed ofc adds to your dps, it's an enchantment that helps both mystic sweep and regen, and it lets you heal with vigor more often since you attack faster.

[skill]avatar of dwayna[/skill] is another early elite you should take note of... it basically gives you immunity to hexes, especially if you have a stance (that way you can remove -speed hexes and such without stopping if you have to run away from enemies) and it also covers most of your selfhealing needs.

you could do like I do
mysticism 12
protection 4 (or more if you have some available)
[skill]reversal of fortune[/skill] in dwayna form will heal you for 51 when you cast it, then prevent all the damage from the next thing that hits you AND heal you for 32hp for the RoF and 12hp+4E for mysticism.
Thats 95 heal+the prevention,and a hex removed for a net loss of 1 energy every 2 sec...

that's one of the things MrFuzzles didn't mention that synergices VERY well (at least I think it does :P)

Dorvan919 · Sep 08, 2007, 12:21 AM // 00:21

hehe u will enjoy being a derv jst like me

my first char is a derv lol. Now your new best mates are enchantments

. If you use them well they give you outcomes and if you don't they won't listen to you. Most of the new dervishes i see always have higher attribute points in Scythe mastery but they don't realise that the most important aspect of a dervish is the Mysticism factor. This can help u get health and energy wen ur enchantments ends.