Curse

Kaleban · Feb 23, 2011, 05:33 AM // 05:33

So here's the build I've been using since the update. I've tried several others (various Avatars, Onslaught, VoS, PR spam, etc.) and while it may not have the best DPS, it seems to really cut through mobs in HM PvE.

Haven't taken it into PvP yet, would definitely need some tweaking.

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Aura Slicer
Reap Impurities
Twin Moon Sweep (can sub out for Wearying Strike or Irresistible Sweep depending on need)
Heart of Fury
Heart of Holy Flame
Grenth's Aura
Avatar of Grenth [E]
"Save Yourselves!"

Atts are:

Scythe - 11+1+1
Wind - 10+1
Mysticism - 10+1

So the idea is condition spamming, along with respectable damage and life steal. The third attack skill is a teardown, which removes HoHF which applies Burning and Disease.

While it may not have the big yellow numbers of VoS builds, I have to say that it really works well when vanquishing or attempting missions in HM. Has very little synergy with physical team builds due to AoG and HoHF, but I think that might make it more adaptable.

Any ideas on how to further refine it? Better attack skills or more optimal attribute assignments?

xhappy feetx · Feb 23, 2011, 06:25 AM // 06:25

Yes, incorporate Rending Aura and Wearying Strike as that will give you deepwound and considerably more damage.

Kelfer · Feb 23, 2011, 11:04 AM // 11:04

Quote "So the idea is condition spamming, along with respectable damage and life steal. The third attack skill is a teardown, which removes HoHF which applies Burning and Disease."

Nearly right. Grenth causes disease, whilst HoHF is causing the burning

Ascension · Feb 23, 2011, 09:18 PM // 21:18

Kelfer, Avatar of Grenth inflicts disease on adjacent targets when you lose an enchantment. Consequently, losing HoHF will inflict both burning and disease.

I think the concept of lifesteal and condition spreading; it's something I may try soon.

I I Dreamweaver I I · Feb 24, 2011, 05:13 PM // 17:13

How about considering Balth rage instead of HoHF for burning as will also help with adrenaline ?

Bandwagon · Feb 26, 2011, 04:59 PM // 16:59

Cracked Armor + Grenth Aura seems anti-synergistic as one makes your armor sensitive damage improve, while the other converts your armor sensitive damage into life steal.

Balth Rage is pretty neat-o for charging Heart of Fury immediately assuming your hitting the target with an energy tear down skill and striking two foes (or striking 1 foe two times). as the poster above me described, I would think it would be more useful then HotHF.

Kaleban · Feb 28, 2011, 11:37 PM // 23:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bandwagon

Cracked Armor + Grenth Aura seems anti-synergistic as one makes your armor sensitive damage improve, while the other converts your armor sensitive damage into life steal.

Balth Rage is pretty neat-o for charging Heart of Fury immediately assuming your hitting the target with an energy tear down skill and striking two foes (or striking 1 foe two times). as the poster above me described, I would think it would be more useful then HotHF.

I'll try running it and see. My thinking though was that HoHF's Burning lasts longer, and has the Holy damage packet on cast, and since both have the same recharge, that over time you'd do more damage with HoHF, especially given that adrenaline gain with a scythe is not terribly difficult lol.

I was also thinking of subbing in Banishing Strike for the third attack skill, and put Pious Haste in for Heart of Fury. This would give an energy based attack and IAS that would help in areas with Adrenaline denial, such as EVERY HM Iboga area lol.

I guess it depends on preference. But it could work well, flash Balth or HoHF, use PH, then go to work! PH when tearing a chant at 11 Mysticism would last exactly 10 seconds, which would sync up well with the recharge on either HoHF or Balth.

FoxBat · Mar 01, 2011, 01:24 AM // 01:24

As far as I can tell, Grenth's Aura doesn't actually interact with your damage at all. It just looks at the total damage result after armor calculations, subtracts its fixed amount and adds the same as life steal. It neither helps you "ignore" armor, nor un-synergizes with cracked armor in any way. It might have interacted badly with the old damage multipliers, but those were all hit with the derv update. As far as PvE is concerned though, all the skill seems to do is self healing, which is pretty bad in a full team compared to even a few seconds of cracked armor, burning, adrenaline, or whatever.

Edit: if your damage ever drops under grenth's aura value, then it *will* help you out. Hitting 9 on your scythe and then getting that dropped to 5ish after armor for example, grenth's effectively raises your minimum damage. The issue though is that this is all calculated after damage buffs are taken into account too, so a single strength of honor or GDW will keep you from ever hitting that floor that grenth's successfully pushes in PvP.

Banishing strike is a terrible skill, drains your energy for near nil DPS gain, even under SoH. You're way better off sticking in aura of holy might over that.

Avison · Mar 01, 2011, 03:42 PM // 15:42

Hmm, I just got an idea for a build. Does Wearying Strike still give you weakness? If so you could aoe distribute that very frequently... hmm.

Ghull Ka · Mar 01, 2011, 05:27 PM // 17:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avison

Hmm, I just got an idea for a build. Does Wearying Strike still give you weakness? If so you could aoe distribute that very frequently... hmm.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Wearying_Strike

It does, but:

- In order to gain Weakness, you have to NOT teardown an enchant, which could be hard to depend on.

- If you gain Weakness, you also do not deliver a Deep Wound to your target.

If you're thinking of using Grenth's Fingers to distribute this Weakness, I would recommend just dropping Enfeebling Blood on a hero instead.

To distribute WS's weakness via Grenth's Fingers, you'd use a slot on your skillbar for a melee attack which doesn't hit very hard, doesn't deliver the deep wound which makes it attractive, and is hard to deliver on demand since you have to remove all Dervish enchantments before using it. All this for a 10s Weakness that you must then deliver with GF.

A hero with Enfeebling Blood is easy to find (everyone uses necros) and requires only a 5 point Curses investment to get the same 10s duration (and no time spent having it on yourself and transferring it), and the heroes are very good at delivering it to key targets.

Sorry if I misunderstood you, I just wanted to try and contribute.

Str0b0 · Mar 04, 2011, 11:59 PM // 23:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bandwagon

Cracked Armor + Grenth Aura seems anti-synergistic as one makes your armor sensitive damage improve, while the other converts your armor sensitive damage into life steal.

Balth Rage is pretty neat-o for charging Heart of Fury immediately assuming your hitting the target with an energy tear down skill and striking two foes (or striking 1 foe two times). as the poster above me described, I would think it would be more useful then HotHF.

I use a similar build, although a more tankish variant, cracked armor isn't necessarily a bad thing. While it may not provide much benefit to the dervish using this build in HM your party will be happier, particularly the ele's.

Bandwagon · Mar 08, 2011, 12:54 AM // 00:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by FoxBat

As far as I can tell, Grenth's Aura doesn't actually interact with your damage at all. It just looks at the total damage result after armor calculations, subtracts its fixed amount and adds the same as life steal. It neither helps you "ignore" armor, nor un-synergizes with cracked armor in any way. It might have interacted badly with the old damage multipliers, but those were all hit with the derv update. As far as PvE is concerned though, all the skill seems to do is self healing, which is pretty bad in a full team compared to even a few seconds of cracked armor, burning, adrenaline, or whatever.

With that said, Cracked Armor doesn't hinder / become irrelevant for the build. I retract my statement.

sportacus · Mar 11, 2011, 04:06 AM // 04:06

I just want to mention that when using the Grenth skills' life steals as the primary source of damage (compounded with the -dmg), Scythe mastery isn't really all that necessary, imho.
I think something like twin moon sweep and auro of holy might could be swapped out for something else, perhaps to make use of a secondary profession a bit more.

Bandwagon · Mar 11, 2011, 07:57 PM // 19:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by sportacus

I just want to mention that when using the Grenth skills' life steals as the primary source of damage (compounded with the -dmg), Scythe mastery isn't really all that necessary, imho.
I think something like twin moon sweep and auro of holy might could be swapped out for something else, perhaps to make use of a secondary profession a bit more.

Nope, Scythe Mastery is still quite necessary. Without scythe mastery your gimping your scythe skills (Wearying Strike / Irresistible Sweep, Reap Impurities as examples). In PvP, you usually don't have buffs like Str+Honor, orders, etc etc, but in PvE you will (or at least should), and it will negate the damage reduction from G-Aura, this makes your scythe swings hit for near full damage assuming you placed points into the attribute.

The marginal gain from +1 or +2 in Mysticism and Wind Prayers that you gain by dropping the scythe attribute, or the inferior utility skills (in an age of 7 heroes) that you could spec into with a secondary swap come up short in comparison to speccing into Scythe Mastery.

Assuming I am removing a flash enchantment every ~5 seconds, I would never swap out AoHM unless there is heavy enchant denial, No secondary skill can match the aoe non-scatter packet damage produced by this effect passively (Unless your refreshing AoHM, you don't have to stop attacking).

Since Twin Moon activates Aura of Grenth + Avatar of Grenth twice, and does this irrespective of your scythe mastery level I see little reason why you would remove it.

In terms of secondary use.....what secondary use? Anything a Warrior secondary offers a Derv primary has access to, Ranger/Assassin utility is useless, Monk/Rit is unneeded. Ele+Mesmer+Necro Cast time skills = no attacking during those periods (greatly devaluing the use of your primary), Paragon skills in general are underwhelming (and costly on non paras). Your better off sticking to your primary, the age of secondary use, at least for dervishes is pretty much over in PvE.