Curse

Scrimbul · Mar 23, 2007, 05:12 AM // 05:12

D/W

[skill]Dragon Slash[/skill] [skill]Sever Artery[/skill] [skill]Gash[/skill] [skill]Pure Strike[/skill] [skill]Heart of Fury[/skill] [skill]Featherfoot Grace[/skill] [skill]Healing Signet[/skill] [skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

Attributes:

12 Swordsmanship
9 Tactics
9 Wind Prayers (5 + 3 + 1)
9 Mysticism (8 + 1)

Blessed Insignia (+10 armor while under an enchantment, partially makes up for the 10 AL it is missing that the Warrior has) and between the vigor rune and att runes put in a Rune of Clarity which will reduce Blindness and Weakness and stacks.

15^50 Furious Sword of Enchanting (+adren and + enchant)
Tactics Shield of Fortitude with the "I Can See Clearly Now" mod for reduced 20% blindness

What you have here is the Dslash warrior with different trade-offs. You no longer need a cancel stance, you are not quite as vulnerable to blindness in the four-man arenas. Looking at this build there is probably very little point to running this in the HA and GvG arenas over the classic Dslash but in TA, scrubfest and PvE it puts out quite a bit of damage.

The dervish has four pips of energy regen. this means you can drop Sun and Moon Slash and put in Pure Strike or Jaizhenju strike. It's spammable even before you have your adrenaline charged and is unblockable since you're never *in* a stance, the enchantments give you both your speed and IAS at the same time.

Your Featherfoot Grace reduces ALL condition durations by 50%. This STACKS with your runes and insignias, making blind damn near worthless on you except to disrupt spikes.

Your spike potential is lower but your pressure potential is higher. (Pure Strike spam)

You aren't suffering from the nasty Double Damage effect that Frenzy has, but on the other hand you are going to have a 30 second cycle on Heart of Fury and a 20 second cycle on Featherfoot Grace. Because with the 20% mod their durations top out around 16ish seconds you're better off casting them together with Heart of Fury *after* Featherfoot so you keep your speed and can keep pressuring but the enchant stripping will set off the 2 second burn on your quarry and any pursuers.

You can drop Healing Signet for another utility skill, most likely nothing more than 5 energy because your 25 energy 4 pips pool is allocated to Pure Strike spam outside of renewing Featherfoot Grace and Heart of Fury just before a push.

So yes, it is Dslash, but the tradeoffs are different. Higher pressure, lower spike, same weaknesses.

Thoughts in different game modes?

Coloneh · Mar 24, 2007, 06:11 AM // 06:11

would work way better on a warrior

Scrimbul · Mar 24, 2007, 06:26 AM // 06:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coloneh

would work way better on a warrior

I thought that too, but they don't have the energy pool for spamming Pure Strike. Being able to use Pure Strike to attack before you've fully built up energy is really a matter of preference, you could easily put in Sun and Moon slash if you wanted.

But the Warrior also doesn't have the energy pool to keep the enchants running on cycle, Pure Strike or Sun and Moon slash. It might work better with Zealous but I doubt it.

It's just different. The warrior has more spike potential but the dervish is less vulnerable to a ranger, mesmer or other melee class tabbing through looking for Frenzy. The dervish is also far less susceptible to blind, being capable of a rune/insignia loadout that the warrior is not. Ever had an elementalist blinding flash you and laugh because the duration has a 75% reduction? Babysitting this derv with a blindbot is a joke, and you aren't as dead in the adrenaline poolwater due to aegis chains or something when you have an energy based attack.

The only reason it would work better on a warrior is the crits and spike potential. If you want pressure though the dervish can actually keep it up longer, especially with Featherfoots reducing damage by ALOT when cast on cycle. Short duration degen like burning, poison, disease and bleeding all have less of an effect, and in the four man arenas you won't always have these removed before they do damage. In a GvG you would, so for GvG and HA the dslash warrior is best run as a warrior.

But four man arenas are still every bit as much about pressure when the opponent is too noob to be 321 spiked by elementalist spells and BoA sins. A real dervish would be preferable to this build of course but it's vulnerable to a hell of alot more kinds of shutdown than even this guy is compared to the warrior. Plus who wouldn't want the HP and energy returns for the enchants ending on top of the four pips you already have?

Stormlord Alex · Mar 24, 2007, 03:08 PM // 15:08

This build... Nice try... but no.

A warrior can output much more damage than a Dervish with a sword, a Dervish can do a hell of a lot better with a scythe.

The D/W, if anything, is worse against conditions than a warrior - a standard D-Slash war has a free secondary, *cough* Go /Mo for Mending Touch. Removing > Reduction

The IAS here... is in fact, worse than Frenzy for the simple fact it cannot be kept up indefinitely. While HoF is down, your damage sucks even worse. The drawback from Frenzy isn't too big if you ain't an idiot with it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrimbul

The only reason it would work better on a warrior is the crits and spike potential.

You forgot more damage on EVERY swing too.

It truly seems the only reason you're running Dervish is for the extra energy for Pure Strike... Why not simply run a Zealous sword on a warrior? :P

Turbobusa · Mar 24, 2007, 06:11 PM // 18:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrimbul

I thought that too, but they don't have the energy pool for spamming Pure Strike. Being able to use Pure Strike to attack before you've fully built up energy is really a matter of preference, you could easily put in Sun and Moon slash if you wanted.

Then why use a dervish over a warrior?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrimbul

The only reason it would work better on a warrior is the crits and spike potential. If you want pressure though the dervish can actually keep it up longer, especially with Featherfoots reducing damage by ALOT when cast on cycle. Short duration degen like burning, poison, disease and bleeding all have less of an effect, and in the four man arenas you won't always have these removed before they do damage. In a GvG you would, so for GvG and HA the dslash warrior is best run as a warrior.

I still cant see the point. Insignias deal with short duration conditions, mending touch for long duration ones.
Ho and you always want pressure when running Dslash. the only "spike" with a sword (=I can think to) is sever/gash/final, but you dont want to have final along with Dslash.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scrimbul

Plus who wouldn't want the HP and energy returns for the enchants ending on top of the four pips you already have?

Well I prefer my +20 against physical. Dont wanna start another hp vs armor discution, but in arenas condition degen is easily dealt with mending touch (god bless mending touch) so I dont really need +hp.
The zealous mod keeps your energy up so you can activate/cancel frenzy ad libitum.

This build works, but it sure works better on a warrior. +damage from your +1+1 runes, armor penetration on skill activation...

Polynikes of Sparta · Mar 25, 2007, 09:56 PM // 21:56

Strength with Dragon Slash gives armor penetration. Higher Swordsmanship = higher damage. Warriors have higher armor. the only Dragon Slash build I would run is a Wammo:

[skill]Dragon Slash[/skill][skill]Sever Artery[/skill][skill]Gash[/skill][skill]Sun and Moon Slash[/skill]OPTIONAL[skill]Flail[/skill][skill]Mending Touch[/skill][skill]Rebirth[/skill]

For the optional slot, I tend to bring one of these:
[skill]Enraging Charge[/skill]OR[skill]Standing Slash[/skill]OR[skill]Galrath Slash[/skill]

Attributes-
Swordsmanship-12+3+1
Strength-12+1
Protection Prayers-3

Armor-
Max Armor with either Sentinel's Insignia, Survivor Insignia, or Sentry's Insignia.

Weapon-
Sundering or Furious Sword of Fortitude or Armor with 15^50 or 15^stance inscription.

Shield-
Max Armor Strength-linked shield with either -2(stance) or -5(20%)

Now, if you can tell me how your build is better than this one, I will believe that yours is better. But you just cannot beat a (+42, 13% armor penetration, 5 adrenaline gain) Dragon Slash. Flail can be kept up indefinitely with little to no bad effects. Self-condition-removal FTW. AND a hard, wipe-restoring rez. beat that, LOL.

~Polynikes

Coloneh · Mar 26, 2007, 02:51 AM // 02:51

ya, drop strength to 8+ 1 and raise tactics to 10 and add in healsig and then that build(post above) is alright. without healsig its crap

Polynikes of Sparta · Mar 26, 2007, 11:03 AM // 11:03

zomg, here we go with unneeded self-heals argument...

~Polynikes

Stormlord Alex · Mar 26, 2007, 12:22 PM // 12:22

Self-healing really depends on who you're playing with IMO.
With guildies or hero/hench were I know I can rely on them to heal me, I'll eschew Healsig/Lion's in favour of another utility or damaging skill.
With a PuG... I rarely leave home without a self-heal. Can't trust a bunch of randoms to keep me alive with just Healing Breeze...

Polynikes of Sparta · Mar 26, 2007, 09:05 PM // 21:05

no point to this thread anymore, we got the point across to the OP.

~Polynikes

Coloneh · Mar 26, 2007, 09:12 PM // 21:12

yup. im not going to argue about the self heal. its been argues a million times, and every monk knows which side is right.