Originally Posted by Kaleban

So I started a Dervish after having used an Assassin as my primary since Factions came out.

I've since learned all the horror stories of how Dervish(es?) are less effective as a primary with their own weapon than other characters, such as Rangers, Assassins and Warriors.

Being something of a purist I find it impossible to play a scythe wielding 'sin, a dagger using ranger, etc., etc.

And from my own play experience, I've come to a few obvious conclusions about the class, and of course welcome any feedback if my ideas are wildly off base.

1. Aura of Holy Might - it makes no sense that a skill like this should function as a normal skill, whereas a skill like Critical Agility functions off of the Sin's Critical Strikes. It should be changed to function exactly like CA, but based off of Mysticism.

2. Mysticism - the primary benefit of this attribute is extremely impotent when compared to that of the Paragon, so much so that it makes me wonder if it was ever truly playtested. Indeed, based on the difference in how shouts/chants and enchantments work, it feels like ANet mixed up the primary attribute functionality. Since enchants generally last longer than shouts (for example compare "Go For the Eyes" with any enchant), it would make more sense that Mysticism would grant the health/energy bonus when an enchant is cast on the Dervish, either by him/herself or from another source, rather than waiting for them to end. Especially given that the Dervish is a frontline melee combatant, it makes no sense that he must constantly cast enchants while trying to maintain a decent attack rate, when the Paragon can insta-cast shouts and chants while maintaining a high attack rate from the midline. So basically, switch the functionality of Leadership/Mysticism.

Alternatively, grant an energy bonus when an enchant is cast (either self targeted, on another or by another), and grant a health bonus when an enchant ends. Whichever way it is handled, I believe the energy bonus should be on the front end of enchanting, not the back end. This would give greater utility to skills like Zealous Renewal, which might incentivize Dervishes to use lesser utilized skills in a more broad role.

3. Scythes - I like the wide damage range, however, I think it is slightly rediculous given that the Scythe is the only weapon with an inherent AoE effect, that ANY class can utilize it. This should be changed in one of two ways:
A. - Only Dervishes are able to utilize the ability to strike 3 targets at once or...
B. - Link the number of targets able to be hit adjacent to your target to Mysticism, say 1 adjacent target for every 4 levels in Mysticism. So at 0 to 4 Mysticism, a Scythe would only hit the target, 5 to 9 1 adjacent target, 10 to 13 2 adjacent targets, and 14 and up 3 adjacent targets (for a total of 4).

The only reason I can see this as being unfair is the comparison to Dagger Mastery giving a chance to Double Strike to any profession, but that's only a percentage chance whereas Scythes hit adjacent no matter what, so that mitigates the argument somewhat.

4. Enchantment Cycling - if the functionality of Mysticism cannot be changed so that energy gain is frontloaded, and the concept of a Dervish is a warrior focused on the maintaining of enchants, then the way Dervish enchantments work needs to be changed. Either recharges need to be changed to be much shorter, so that the skills that work by removing enchants can be used more often, or, and this is my personal opinion, Mysticism enchants when cast by a Dervish need to "recycle" (much like CA for sins or Aggressive Refrain for Paragons) whenever any enchant ends on the Dervish. Obviously, this would require some rebalancing of certain skills, notably Heart of Fury (perhaps inflicting Dazed so that a Dervish would have to choose when to end it, or Cracked Armor).

5. Skill Rebalancing - Some skills just make no sense. Take the Avatar of Grenth and compare it to Fox's Promise. AoG is a Form that requires the target to be enchanted to work (i.e. stance tanks could circumvent it), attacks do cold damage, negating the benefit of physical curses like OoP, and lasts for 90 seconds at 16 Mysticism, so a 30 second cooldown. FP on the other hand, is an enchant that lasts for 21 seconds at 16 CS (although with CS usually running at 13, that gives 18 seconds, but take into account an enchanting mod, and the duration exceeds the recharge), does not modify the damage type, and works no matter what, as long as one does not miss (i.e. Blind).

So FP costs less, can last indefinitely (given a high CS attribute, nearly a necessity), and works universally against both enchanted and stanced foes. The only downside is that it works only with dagger attacks, while AoG works with any weapon, but seeing as how the prevalence of blocking leans towards stance tanking/blocking, AoG is largely useless. Also, its much easier for an enemy to identify AoG than FP, given the visual effect.

These are just a few of my observations, and its not enough to dissuade me from playing the Dervish, but it certainly is disheartening.

Originally Posted by shoyon456

Change to Mysticism:
The main problem here is the failure of enchant cycling. So while it would be impractical to completely get rid of it because the class was based on it, change the effect to something along the lines of "Every time you use an attack you gain 1...3 energy (1 every 5 ranks) for every enchantment on you, and everytime an enchantment ends on you, you gain 1...15 health (1 per rank as it is now)."

This would put less emphasis on the cycling, but still make enchantments integral. Doubt many will like it though, as it is a drastic difference to the current mysticism and people dont like drastic change, particularly anet. The other foreseeable problem is the combination of this effect with Zealous Vow.

Originally Posted by Ferminator

*sigh* i will say it again. If you tie AoHM to mysticism, the many dervishes who dont use mysticsm wont be able to use AoHM. It is a good idea but it is easily flawed because mysticsm is unnecessary for energy management in builds like zealous vow. I for one barely use mysticsm anyway.

EDIT: this also goes for the idea of tying the amount of foes u can hit with the scythe to mysticsm. some dervishes dont use their primary attribute!