Curse

Alazardragoon · Apr 24, 2009, 03:57 AM // 03:57

I just came back to GW after about a year brake. I decided to try to play a Dervish as my main class. I understand what people have said about it and I can get by it. I would like to ask a few questions about the class maybe things have changed in the year I have been gone.

Tip #1

I went to PvX wiki and I did not find any good PvP builds for Dervish Except one.

http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Build:D/an...Strike_Dervish

This is the only PvP Build I could find that looked good. If anyone here has a good AB Build and GvG build for Dervish please let me know.

Tip #2

Whats a good way to get Sunspear or Good Reputation farming for Dervish in the PvE Campaign?

Tip #3

Why do I hear so much that Dervish Sucks, I mean There are contradictory arguments about this, some people tell me that Dervish is a very versatile class to play that can do many things other classes can't yet others tell me its worthless for anything outside farming and running zones. What do you guys think about Dervish?

Would like to get explanations about all of these questions ^^ Thanks guys

Catchphrase · Apr 24, 2009, 11:44 AM // 11:44

Dervish is decent at best on his own in AB, since you move from places to places frequently, your enchantments won't be lasting its full duration in your skirmishes. Not certain about GvG though since I suck at it.

Vanquishing is the best and first way to go since you're technically not only doing your reputation but also your cartographer and vanquisher titles together. Once that is accomplished, try doing dungeons or submitting mission books to cover up the remaining reputation points.

JR has started a very spot on thread on dervish recently . Read it up and decide for yourself.
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10369118

Cirian · Apr 24, 2009, 09:27 PM // 21:27

I'm not a major expert on dervishes, but they're not the best with their own weapon and their magic is convoluted to get results with, so I think dervishes are a labour of love to play as primaries.

PvP wise, I had some half-decent results as a D/W going the "forsaken" route (no enchants, Forsaken insignias). Dervs can make good use of Wild Blow, Rending Touch and Pious Assault, as well as Frenzy and Pious Haste. I was trying "You're All Alone!" as the elite - quite interesting overall, but they don't match a warrior.

With some support in the form of fast expiring enchants (guardian, patient spirit), a dervish would have more energy to spam their attack skills to improve their performance. The irony though is that a W/D, R/D and A/D all have the ability to use a scythe and fuel their attacks skills as part of their primary class - just by speccing high Strength, Expertise or Critical Strikes respectively. I think Mysticism would have been better if it extended enchantment duration instead of returning energy and health, but there you are.

In PvE you get heroes, and here I think there's a great opportunity to get the most from Mysticism. Just by taking a smiter and a heal/prot monk with fast ending enchants like reversal of damage, reversal of fortune, patient spirit, guardian, life sheath etc, you can get a nice steady flow of energy on your dervish. Add some other smite skills like Judge's Insight and Ray of Judgement, and you'll have quite a lot of power. Maybe add an orders necro too and some splinter weapon - basically you have to think of a dervish as a base platform for a team to stack buffs on, and there's quite a lot of choice.

Dervs do really well when they have outside help designed to buff them.

My 2c.

reaper with no name · May 11, 2009, 04:17 PM // 16:17

There is some contradicting information out there about dervishes and their versatility, and much of it comes from what people mean when they say "versatile".

For example, when one guy says that something is versatile, he might mean that it can do a lot of different things.

However, some other guy might mean that one particular something can work well in a variety of situations.

It's a subtle but important difference.

Dervishes are versatile in the sense that they can do many things. [Imbue health] lets you heal people. Skills like [Heart of Holy Flame] and [Staggering Force] change your damage type. Then there's skills like [Fleeting Stability], [Mystic Twister], [Mirage Cloak], [Attacker's Insight], [Rending Touch], [Vow of Silence], and [Pious Concentration]. All of this makes a dervish versatile in one sense. However, most of the skills that make a dervish "versatile" would only be useful in specific instances. They are limited to gimmick builds.

Now, consider the warrior. He's tough as nails and strong as an ox. He can take it and dish it out better than the dervish. Those traits are always going to be useful. So, in that sense the warrior is more versatile than the dervish.

Now, the reason dervishes suck is because outside of gimmick builds they are usually redundant. A dervish is never going to outdamage or outtank a warrior. It's just not happening. Consider this W/D:

[Warrior's Endurance][Eremite's Attack][Mystic Sweep][Endure Pain][Power Attack][Aura of Holy Might][Flail][Optional]

Assuming this warrior puts a few points into strength, he will successfully be able to outdamage and outtank a dervish no matter what skills the derv takes, because the warrior has access to most of the dervish's best skills (or equivalent versions via his own tree), while having the benefits of strength (which as far as primary attributes go, kicks mysticism down the stairs and steals it's lunch money).

Now, what if the dervish tries to do the same with a D/W? He fails. Unless he wants to give up his scythe, he's limited to strength and tactics. He doesn't get strength as an attribute, though, and strength is where a ton of the good warrior skills are at (coughPowerAttackcough). And all the while, the dervish would have less armor than the warrior and miss out on the armor penetration of strength.

Sure, the dervish can choose another secondary profession, but there just isn't enough synergy to overcome the advantage that warriors get.

Sins, too, can outscythe dervs. In fact, A/D scythe is a popular sin build that easily beats the damage output of a derv. And with skills like [Critical Defenses] and [Critical Agility], the sin can also outtank the dervish at the same time. And critical strikes not only gives a combat benefit (mysticism doesn't), but it also gives even better energy management than mysticism does (or so I've heard; I'm still technically new to the game, so take everything I say with a grain of salt). And once again, many of the best sin skills are in critical strikes, so dervs can't go D/A and expect to compete.

Hell, I've even heard that a Ritualist with weapon spells is better at using scythes than a dervish, and that's just sad.

So, the short answer is, most of the time Warriors and Assassins can use the Dervish's stuff better than he can, so he ends up redundant.

That said, there are a couple of dervish builds that an Assassin or Warrior can't pull off. They are generally either gimmick builds, or involve the avatars.

Here are a couple of examples:
http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Build:D/an...atar_of_Dwayna
http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Build:D/an...ar_of_Melandru
http://pvx.wikia.com/wiki/Build:D/an...Strike_Dervish

Personally, I use this build:
[For Great Justice!][Aura of Holy Might][Heart of Fury][Chilling Victory][Wounding Strike][Victorious Sweep][Save Yourselves!][Faithful Intervention]

Spammable scythe DW (warrior can't pull it off because his crappy energy regen requires that he take [Warrior's Endurance] for his elite in order to spam scythe attacks), and SY! for party support (sin can't use a scythe and get SY!; he has to choose one or the other).

Improvavel · May 11, 2009, 06:50 PM // 18:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by reaper with no name

Snip

While you say loads of true stuff, [endure pain] in the warrior bar? WTH? Endure pain is a self inflicted spike every 17 seconds or so. Much better skills to have in there. [Critical defenses] for assassin is very meh too.

reaper with no name · May 11, 2009, 08:19 PM // 20:19

Eh, I'm no expert on warriors and sins (not an expert on the dervish either, but I at least play one of those). It was just to make a point. Warriors and Sins have skills that they can use to help them tank better than dervishes. I couldn't be bothered to look up better ones.

Holy crap, did we just agree on something? Jeez, we've spent the day arguing over half the dervish section. O.O

Franksalot · May 19, 2009, 07:18 PM // 19:18

Warrior are better tanks in the majority of situations. i'll admit but dervishes can hold their own just as well in some situations and better in others. Basic dervish tank is Avatar of balthazar, combine that with wind walker armor, Veil of thorns and armor of sanctity and you have 110 armor + -20 dmg reduction add mystic regen to that and you've got a very hard foe for any melee mob to take down. Of course you can just be striped but a warrior can can their adren blocked and be degened out, nothing is perfect. Another Example of a Dervish i am currently using to farm scales for the travellers and have made 110k in about 5 hours is Vow of Silence. Combine that with Balth spirit, faithful intervention, Conviction, mystic Vigor, Mystic regen, and then Zealous sweep/mystic sweep for dmg and extra energy management. Perfect for any purely caster based PVP farming, provided they can't indirectly strip and don't have to much indirect AOE. As for putting more dmg out that a war thats easy i've always thought of derv as a light armored frontline DPS char. Agaisnt undead for example the holy dmg you can put out cuts down most mobs with ease. My fav dps build consists of "I am the strongest!" Zealous Renewal, Whirling Charge, Asuran Scan, Zealous Sweep, Eremite's attack and mystic sweep. Not to good in the way of def but alot of fun to spam away with. Though saying that a similar build on a sin with way of the master would have a better output. But none the less there are alot of good dervish builds most who shun them don't know much about them. As with Mesmers, sins and rits their a more complicated class than the simple thick skinned wars for example and take practice But they are by no means useless or unversitile. I'm mainly PVE so not too sure about PVP but i have had quite alot of success with my Derv in PVP whilst putting up with the same crisitism from PVE. Every GW class is good and bad in different situations none are redundant. If they were they would have a mass overhaul or be removed.
So keep swinging that Scythe

Megas XLR · May 19, 2009, 07:29 PM // 19:29

Since Dervishes came out in an expansion that focused on PvE, it's understandable that they created a class that works better in PvE than PvP. Sometimes I use my Dervish in PvP for the luls or heroes in HB, but Warrior beats both Sin and Derv for PvP.

In PvE, Dervish does a lot better and can deal out good damage. Some people want to go all out power though, so they usually go Crit Sin Scythe by gaining a lot of damage but losing any variability (Only one build).

reaper with no name · May 19, 2009, 07:59 PM // 19:59

Heh. Funny you should mention luls in PvP with a dervish, because when I bring my derv to use in JQ, I usually use the following build:

[Bane Signet][Harrier's Haste][Mystic Regeneration][Crippling Sweep][Eremite's Attack][Victorious Sweep][Banish][Ray of Judgement]

The funniest part? It works. Just cast RoJ on a quarry, bane signet one guy, and then banish another, and you'll kill two npcs and leave the others easy pickings for your teammates. And in addition, you can defend the quarries by camping the teleports.

Just last night I was mixing it up in melee with a warrior to defend a quarry and he was beating me by a bit. So I RoJed him and killed him. It works surprisingly well against human players that are attacking you, because they get "stuck" attacking you and can't move away easily.

Then during that same match, a rit I was wailing on tried Blind Was Mingson on me. So I used RoJ to kill him. XD

No one expects the RoJ derv. Not even the spanish inquisition.

Megas XLR · May 19, 2009, 11:57 PM // 23:57

Yeahhhh, I ran RoJ at JQ too from a modified RoJ HB Dervish. It was pretty cool to cap some shrines.

fairyblend · Jun 16, 2009, 11:47 PM // 23:47

I have a class dervish, and I encountered lots of players that saying that dervishes sux, and later on i kept on dying a lot of times its because of depression, but when I progressed i found out that its dervish's attacking skills (melee) are deadly if combined with attack speed + DW, in addition to that i can help you manage in PVP. just ask post in Gladiator's Arena and i will thoroughly help you base on my experience. Also Dervishes are useful in Player VS Environment, especially the avatars. not only they are cool looking but they are useful in every situations. if u use the avatars wisely u can go any areas u want to farm or have fun with your friends including gimick builds as an individual u can tank, damage and you party wont worry about you. also you won't have a problem with damage dervish are built to have massive damage with their scythes for just a few sweeps including 80 Armors. i myself already killed 80 armors a lot of times with the use of WS+Wildblow +Chilling Victory, Dervishes has the ability to block spikes that includes magics with self healing capabilities like (faithful Intervention combine it with watchful healing) or vitalboon and pious restoration. i like dervishes because of their ability to fit in within their environments. there has lots to say in dervish but i would like you to explore Dervish as you personal experience. above all that it a fun character to use

Flaming Insanity · Jul 08, 2009, 03:30 PM // 15:30

I havnt tried deverish yet, ( Il be getting NF soon ) but to me it looks like a good general PvE character. You dont have to have an extra-special farming build to progress though the campain ( sorry `bout spelling ) and have fun! although as a deverish you might not amout up to the power a farming assassin or something might have, deveish`s have goood enough skills to work anywhere, so while your vanquishing with that same build you used for farming, the assassin has to go change his build, probably get new weapons, and other stuff.

Drizzitdude · Jul 19, 2009, 06:56 PM // 18:56

In Pvp go either as a D/A ( with the avatar of lyssa as a cheap shot) {was this nerfed?}

Or D/W and make good use of our friend wild blow.

Delehov89 · Jul 19, 2009, 10:05 PM // 22:05

My main is a Derv and I absolutely love him.

Now that I have said that i will say that the Derv is not very good for PvP but the WS build you cited is very workable and can be modified very easily to tanking or spiking depending on your second profession. I personally use Dark Prison and Dark Escape to get around the battle faster and so I can get past the enemy tanks and own the healers or casters.