Curse

Ritual del Fuego · Feb 09, 2007, 05:23 PM // 17:23

So I have been playing around with the build "Drunken Dervish". I found it fun to play in PVE so I figured I would post it here for comments or for others to try. Here are the skills:

Attributes: (this is close, I'm going from memory)
Tactics: 10
Scythe: 12 + 1 + 1
Mysticism: 8 + 1

[skill]steady stance[/skill],[skill]drunken blow[/skill],[skill]wild blow[/skill],[skill]victorious sweep[/skill],[skill]"Watch Yourself!"[/skill],[skill]Watchful Intervention[/skill],[skill]Heart of Holy Flame[/skill],[skill]Heart of Fury[/skill]

So the Idea is to cast Watchful Intervention prior to battle. Then you can either cast Heart of Holy Flame and Heart of Fury, or wait until you have enemies within range to deal the AoE holy damage and make HoF last longer int he actual battle. If you cast them prior it can act as a cover to watchful intervention. Then in battle you cast Steady Stance, then hit with drunken blow. While steady stance is recharging you use victorious sweep. By then you should have enough adrenaline to cast "watch yourself", then use wild blow. By then, Steady stance should be ready so you can Rinse and Repeat.

The benefits of this build is that drunken blow can cause huge AoE conditions in a hurry with a dervish while also hitting with a pretty good punch. Victorious sweep can return health as well as do good damage, and wild blow is an automatic critical. Since steady stance is a stance, it casts instantly so you can follow up with drunken blow right away before the enemy has a chance to end your stance, and you gain energy to boot when you hit.

Overall, I found the build to be fun as far as just chewing things up. In AoE situations it really shines. It relies on monking a little because of the lack of self healing, but the damage output is decent and there is very little down time. If heart of holy flame stays up, all your damage is holy so you are hitting armor ignoring damage.

Some possible subs are to insert rez instead of Heart of Fury, or use [skill]desperation blow[/skill] instead of HoF if you are experiencing skill down time, but that wasn't a problem for me. You would of course have to cast Steady Stance first like with drunken blow.

This isn't a build for high level areas where you need more damage mitigation/self healing unless you have a decent monk, but I have run it in the Forest area of Cantha and the Jade Sea and was rolling through pretty easily and having fun just blasting away without worrying about energy since all the attacks are cheap. Being able to spam watch yourself is a pretty nice party buff as well. Any thoughts or comments are more than welcome.

A Leprechaun · Feb 10, 2007, 03:32 PM // 15:32

why are you using heart of holy flame?

Build looks good.

~A Leprechaun~

fenix · Feb 10, 2007, 03:49 PM // 15:49

What? This build doesn't look good. It's terrible. You could get the EXACT results, except MUCH better, with a Warrior, I mean hell, Victorious Sweep is a MELEE attack, so you can use it with a sword/axe.

(Edited: Warriors have 80AL base, so instantly will be better at surviving than a D/W)

Steady Stance wars were one thing...this is just stupid.

A Leprechaun · Feb 10, 2007, 03:52 PM // 15:52

Way to burst his bubble I just said it was good to be nice....

^^
~A Leprechaun~

Batou of Nine · Feb 10, 2007, 07:41 PM // 19:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by talon

What? This build doesn't look good. It's terrible. You could get the EXACT results, except MUCH better, with a Warrior, I mean hell, Victorious Sweep is a MELEE attack, so you can use it with a sword/axe.

(Edited: Warriors have 80AL base, so instantly will be better at surviving than a D/W)

Steady Stance wars were one thing...this is just stupid.

Dude, don't be a troll.

Uh, i think the POINT of this build put on a dervish rather then a warrior is taht the scythe can hit multiple targets...

Meaning his attacks have potential to spread conditions to 3 targets, as well as its spike dmg to 3 targets, spike dmg from Wild Blow critical to 3 targets, and heal potential off of 3 targets. A warrior cannot do that without investing in more attack skills for the AoE potential. All this supplied by the basis of a warrior build, sounds like fun to me!

Sure he could change a few skills for better survival or whatnot...
Saying a build sux without proof, or constructive ideas is useless. If you think the warrior version is better say WHY, don't just say "your build sux!" (10 AL more is not a reason)

Personally, i think this build could be fun. The only problem i have is having to use the elite slot to suppliment a normal skill, hence why i don't ever use the warrior version either. But thinking outside the box to apply this build to a dervish for the multi target potential is nice thinking!

cheers!

Kaida the Heartless · Feb 10, 2007, 07:46 PM // 19:46

Why victorious sweep when Reap Impurities may help better?

Red_Dragon56 · Feb 10, 2007, 11:23 PM // 23:23

Remember this is a PvE build. Not a PvP.

Crazyvietguy · Feb 11, 2007, 12:55 AM // 00:55

Well.. heres my problem. You have no way of removing enchantments. Making Heart of the Holy Flame only useful for the AoE "explosion" and not the burning effect (and dont tell me, well after 30 seconds it activates!.. because.. most skirmishes in PvE last around 10 seconds.. unless you majorly suck. This excludes boss battles).

A solution to this would be to drop [skill]"Watch Yourself!"[/skill] and replace it with [skill]Twin Moon Sweep[/skill] / [skill]Pious Haste[/skill] / [skill]Pious Assault[/skill]

Ritual del Fuego · Feb 11, 2007, 07:22 AM // 07:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazyvietguy

Well.. heres my problem. You have no way of removing enchantments. Making Heart of the Holy Flame only useful for the AoE "explosion" and not the burning effect (and dont tell me, well after 30 seconds it activates!.. because.. most skirmishes in PvE last around 10 seconds.. unless you majorly suck. This excludes boss battles).

A solution to this would be to drop [skill]"Watch Yourself!"[/skill] and replace it with [skill]Twin Moon Sweep[/skill] / [skill]Pious Haste[/skill] / [skill]Pious Assault[/skill]

One reason for using Heart of holy flame was to turn the damage to holy instead of slashing, the initial AoE pop and the burning is just a bonus. You could sub for any other enchantment you see fit (rez if you need it) and keep Heart of Fury instead if that floats your boat. If you are using Windwalker armor it gives you +5 AL having that third enchantment too.

I used "watch yourself" because at the attributes listed it gives you +18 AL which makes up for Talon's observation of the Dervish's Al being less than a warrior, plus it benefits party members in shouting distance. With this build it lasts only 9 seconds but is spammable and can be kept up constantly and since it is a shout I don't have to worry about it being stripped or interrupted.

If you change to Twin Moon Sweep or Pious Assault, you end your enchantments and that wasn't the idea behind this build.

With Pious Haste, it may make you run faster but in PVE this isn't all that necessary and it is a stance so whenever you use Steady Stance Pious Haste would end so I'm not sure how effective that would be.

[skill]Reap Impurities[/skill]is a great option. Following it up after drunken blow would be a great health boost. The two downsides are that it costs 10 energy instead of 5, and it has an 8 second recharge instead of 4. I'll try it out and see how it goes...

Now, as Batou of Nine said, the idea of this build is to be able to hit multiple foes at a time. I admit that against a singular target, a warrior would be a better option, that is why it is a PVE build and not really suited for PvP.

Now, to Batou's point, if survivability is an issue one version I tried substituted [skill]Mystic Vigor[/skill] instead of using Heart of Fury. If you have all three enchantments up you will get +18hp per hit, so if you hit multiple targets, it provides a good health boost along with using victorious sweep.

Anyway, I didn't post this as being the best dervish build out there. It isn't even the one I usually use. Plus, I know it is painful using an elite to suppliment another skill as well. I posted it because I haven't really seen anything like it and thought it might be fun for people to try. I appreciate everyone's comments.