Curse

Rehteah · Sep 20, 2010, 12:53 AM // 00:53

Hello, I am a novice player, and I'm having questions about tweaking my current build for some of the GW quests. I'm not a great player, so I get nervous joining groups and mostly just play alone. I use the below build that I made out of trial and error... it's not the best but I'm comfortable with it and it works for most missions.

My problem is that it's not effective in certain areas like Sparkfly Swamp or in the Factions campaign because of the types of monsters. I'm not so great at math for figuring out builds, etc, so I was looking for tips on the best way to make my build more of an all-purpose when I play alone.

My Build is:

Scythe Mastery: 11 + 3
Earth Prayers: 6 + 1
Mysticism: 12

Balthazar's Rage
Eternal Aura
Zealous Renewal
HoHF
HoF
Victorious Sweep
Zealous Sweep
Conviction

Weapons:
Shezel's Reaper (Main)
Balthazar's Fury
Undead Scythe (Blank inscription)
Ebon Bronze Scythe of Warding
Barbed Ancient Scythe

Voodoo Rage · Sep 20, 2010, 01:21 AM // 01:21

Sparkfly Swamp is one of the most difficult explorable areas in the game mainly due to the large patrol routes of some of the mobs which tend to sneak up and overwhelm you while you are in the middle of a fight. I don't play dervish that much so I'm not the best at critiquing that build but I do know that 90% of this game is how you set up your heroes to protect and complement you. You should look at PvXwiki.com for some good ideas for setting up a team but personally when I'm playing a melee character I like to bring:

A smiting monk (http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Build:Mo/any_PvE_Smiter)

A minion bomber necromancer with protection support (http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Build:N/any_Minion_Bomber)

A Signet of Spirits Ritualist (http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Build:Rt/a...Channeling_Rit)

You'll get a billion opinions on that but that's what I like.

fr.aodhan · Sep 20, 2010, 01:51 AM // 01:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rehteah

My problem is that it's not effective in certain areas like Sparkfly Swamp or in the Factions campaign because of the types of monsters. I'm not so great at math for figuring out builds, etc, so I was looking for tips on the best way to make my build more of an all-purpose when I play alone.

The majority of failures come from bad support characters and running into multiple groups of enemies. While it might seem that getting your build right is of primary concern, more than anything else you bring to the table your intelligence as a human. Forget trying to do it all - plan it all and let your companions do more of the work. However, there is something to be said about what you're running.

Quote:

Scythe Mastery: 11 + 3
Earth Prayers: 6 + 1
Mysticism: 12

You will very likely suffer for having a superior rune and your Mysticism is a little high for what you're doing. Mysticism shines when you're using an avatar or juggling enchantments, but at the moment most people choose to focus on Scythe Mastery above all and keep Mysticism around 6.

Quote:

Balthazar's Rage
Zealous Renewal

These give you health and energy for each hit while enchanted, which is a good idea in theory. Balth's Rage assumes, however, that you'll be low health every 20 seconds. Leave the healing up to your healers, who are much better at it. There are better ways than Zealous Renewal to keep your energy up. For instance, you really should be running an elite skill - since you seem to enjoy energy management, consider Zealous Vow.

Quote:

Victorious Sweep
Zealous Sweep

Same here. Sensibly, you're trying to keep up your energy and health. I understand that you'd like an all-purpose build, but you're better off focusing on an all-situation damage-dealer. Find a way to manage your energy then build from there.

Quote:

Eternal Aura

Eternal Aura is good when you want to keep up an enchantment or avatar. This can help you keep up HoF. HoHF, Zealous Renewal, and Balth's Rage are maintainable at any level of Mysticism, so you're really bringing EA for one skill. Unless you're fighting undead, this seems like a waste.

reaper with no name · Sep 20, 2010, 04:09 AM // 04:09

Also, get Asuran Scan. Trust me; you want it. It's not like you'll need Heart of Holy Flame, so you can replace that.

gremlin · Sep 20, 2010, 10:00 AM // 10:00

When you say you play alone I assume you mean with heroes henchmen etc not solo, if so I would first ask how do you begin combat.

One of the problems of playing this way is that you run in with a scythe and the party follows if your target moves to the back of the mob and you follow them your squishy party members can quickly get into trouble.

I am thinking that maybe your tactics need thinking about as much as your build.
So watch patrols put your party some way back from the mob and then use a bow to draw some of the mob to your party, then swap to scythe.

Check your hero skills and weapons and improve where you can set their attitude so your keeping your healers out of trouble where possible.

all I am saying is look to the way you fight as well as the build you use.

Nijntjuh · Sep 20, 2010, 03:43 PM // 15:43

Is it just me or am I missing an elite skill in this build I think its normal to atleast have an elite while playing to those areas.

On you'r build I see balthazars rage might seem like a good skill but the healing occurs when the enchantment ends which is kind of conditional and thus small chance it will actually trigger when needed.

Eternal Aura: A skill which is commonly used for the avatars to avoid there recharge time besides this the skills has almost no use except for being an source of armor of ignoring dmg for derv. Imo It should be avoided if not running an avatar is it has high recharge high cost and minimal return if not running avatar.

Zealious renewal looks good for maintaing energy but really isn't that great as you have to let the enchantment END on you and recasting it will not give you the energy you woul'dve collected If your gonna use it combine it with a skills like twin moon sweep so you can remove it when you want to.
for energy management on dervish I like to take attacker's insight though it basicly gives 2 free attack skills for the cost of 5 energy from which you get 2-3 back from mysticism, Also you are able to combine attacker's insight + lyssa's assault for unlimited energy. Another option for energy management is the Elite Skill Zealious Vow which is one of the better dervish elite skills imo that skill gives you unlimited energy and lets you spam your high dmg skills. Last but not least if aggroing good a zealious scythe does wonders for you getting 1-3 energy a hit.

Heart of Holy Flame: Useless skill imo conversion to holy dmg is only helpfull versus undead in which case you should consider taking an RoJ monk with judge's insight. the dmg it causes is not very high.

Heart of Holy Flame: a MUST HAVE on almost every dervish build its the best IAS you have in the dervish profession line and very effective, not suggesting you use this on a attack spammer build as those use fast activating attacks thus not really needing the IAS.

Victorious Sweep: A decent skill which does normal damage and has the chance of healing you, personally I always have mystic sweep on my dervish bar because of the + dmg and the fast activation time I find victorious sweep attacking rather slow.

Zealious Sweep: Energy Management can work but doesn't seem to cut it when I play with it again slow attack.

Conviction: A pretty good skill for you'r survival but question yourself this, Could you use that skill slot for a different skill which would speed up the killing more and thus killing quicker / taking less dmg?

And I though't I'd share 2 of my favorite dervish builds with you.

Mysticism 9
Wind Prayers 9
Scythe Mastery 12

Eremite's Attack
Mystic Sweep
Protector's Strike
"Save Yourselves!"
Aura Of Holy Might
Zealious Vow [elite]
Faithfull Intervention
[Optional]

Examples for optional: Drunken Master if using alc, Asuran Scan for high damage, Pain Inverter for Bosses and such, Ebon Battle Standard of Honor to increase damage, Or any other OP PvE skill

Second Build:

Restoration Magic 2
Wind Prayers 6
Scythe Mastery 12
Mysctiscm 11

Wounding Strike [elite]
Mystic Sweep
Attacker's Insight
Lyssa's Assault
Heart of Fury
Aura of Holy Might
Faithfull Intervention
Flesh of My Flesh

Can take flesh of my flesh out for example Asuran Scan, Can take Heart of Fury out for drunken master if using alc, Can use Chilling Victory instead of Mystic Sweep. And much more

Cuilan · Sep 20, 2010, 08:28 PM // 20:28

No place for general PvE has a use for Faithful Intervention. Fill up on scythe and wind attributes, but 6 in earth (no minor rune) for Conviction in the Zealous Vow build if you must run a defensive skill.

NuclearSlug · Sep 20, 2010, 08:30 PM // 20:30

Ok, lets keep this real simple. For the most part there are only 3 things to be aware when fighting. Heath, Energy, and Damage.

Health: Let your healers do the healing, don't rely on self heals (i.e. don't bring Mystic Regeneration in PvE).

Energy: this is critical for maintaining a dervish, especially since there are no inherent derv skills that use adrenaline. Zealous Sweep is a good basic energy manager to bring to a fight.

Damage: This should be a cakewalk. Where people get into trouble is when they think bringing 8 attack skills will make them dominate with damage. In reality, you'll never use more than 4 attack skills in a fight. I personally try to only bring 3.

There are a variety of tools, builds, and videos for you to watch. But in the end, you really only learn by playing. However, for a good basic understanding of aspects of Guild Wars, check out Doom Box's channel on youtube.

Here's a decent dervish build I use quite frequently. The video will even give you thorough explanation on how to utilize it.

Best of Luck!

Voodoo Rage · Sep 20, 2010, 09:24 PM // 21:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by NuclearSlug

Ok, lets keep this real simple. For the most part there are only 3 things to be aware when fighting. Heath, Energy, and Damage.

Health: Let your healers do the healing, don't rely on self heals (i.e. don't bring Mystic Regeneration in PvE).

Exactly. The biggest mistake I used to make was loading up too much healing on both my heroes and myself making every fight drag on way too long. The faster the mob goes down, the less overall damage you will take, the less chance your team will have energy problems, and the less chance a roving mob will catch up to you prematurely (like in Sparkfly).

Rehteah · Sep 20, 2010, 10:04 PM // 22:04

Thank you for all the replies!

I made some changes to my hero lineup and it helped me greatly. I'm still sort of getting the feel of management but I've been tweaking my build and trying different things, it's worked a lot better for me!

Nijntjuh · Sep 20, 2010, 10:22 PM // 22:22

I like faithfull intervention and thats just my opinion

Nechrond · Sep 21, 2010, 10:57 AM // 10:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nijntjuh

I like faithfull intervention and thats just my opinion

It's also not as bad as it's made out to be. Makes you harder to spike, works well with all the "as long as you're enchanted" stuff a Derv has, gives the end effect no matter how it ends (not just if it triggers due to damage kicking you under 50%) and is just great when going for Legendary Survivor the manly way.