Curse

tarbok1 · Jan 25, 2007, 12:42 AM // 00:42

Which is the best PVE character, most chance to survive everytime of encounter? I like the high armor of the warrior, but find them boring in combat. I haven't really tried dervish, but seems to me they can be very sustainable.

Discussion?

fieldsleeper · Jan 25, 2007, 03:10 AM // 03:10

well from my experience,
the warrior will out survive do to numerous defensive ability's
but unfortunantly to solo either is dependent on the secondary class in my opinon, the dervish gets health from many of its abilitys but to solo would need intense energy management while the warrior also requires a little bit of help when soloing from his secondary.

Coloneh · Jan 25, 2007, 03:34 AM // 03:34

dervish can easily survive better, but you sacrifice some offence for more defense

Faure · Jan 25, 2007, 09:42 AM // 09:42

I'f played both a lot (Dervish being the last one) and I liked the Dervish the best. In my experience more damage (i've never seen soo many yellow numbers flying arround my screen (except AoE-skills)), better defense (warrior isn't good at hp degen vs dervis mystic regeneration), and above all: more energy and 4pips regen, instead of 2.

I would say the Dervish is more versatile, capable of dealing huge damage with one build (not using attack skills), but still able to tank with another build.
Also the vampiric/zealous weapons are a pro on the Dervish, since you can hit up to 3 targets in one normal attack.

And last and least: I like the armor better

.
Only pro for the warrior are the more beautiful weapons.

RotteN · Jan 25, 2007, 09:48 AM // 09:48

i never liked dervish in pve, i deleted my pve dervish. I do play dervish often in pvp, but that's different alright.

i've been playing warrior since, well, forever

so i guess my answer would be warrior !!!

Tingi · Jan 25, 2007, 12:00 PM // 12:00

Yea warrior tbh is more stable in PvE than a Dervish

XvArchonvX · Jan 25, 2007, 05:02 PM // 17:02

Dervish are far superior tanks unless you are facing very heavy enchant stripping (i.e. Chilblains, Well of Profane, or just huge mobs with lots of enchant strips). A sample skill bar of a good tank build would be something like:
[skill]Reaper's Sweep[/skill][skill]Twin Moon Sweep[/skill][skill]Heart of Fury[/skill][skill]Mystic Vigor[/skill][skill]Conviction[/skill][skill]Mystic Regeneration[/skill][skill]Vital Boon[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

Healing Hands wammos have nothing on dervishes. Even without many attack skills dervish still do high damage just by virtue of wielding a scythe (which can have very strong critical hits and does mini AoE damage without causing enemy scatter).

Even when there is disenchantment, Conviction still gives a benefit with or without enchantments and having Vital Boon stripped will heal you. Take also into account that Dervishes have more health and you have an excellent tank. Another way to counter the enchant strip problem is to use a Form when going into enchantment hating areas such as Balthazar's Avatar or Dwayna's Avatar.

With all this said, not every dervish is a good tank. There are still idiots out there who go running around with 7 attack skills and a res on their bar, then scratch their head when they get killed so fast Assasins are laughing at them. Just remember that in PvE Earth Prayers is your friend and you'll be fine.

strcpy · Jan 27, 2007, 06:46 AM // 06:46

In my experience they are about the same. Warriors tank by mitigating damage, dervishes tank by out healing it.

80% of the game is 6 of one, half a dozen of the other - you will tell not much of a difference if they are played correctly. 10% of the game favors Dervish (heavy degen and armor ignoring), 10% favors the warrior (spike damage which armor reduces). For a high level survivor you really need to understand this anyway, know when to rush in and grab the first aggro, send someone else in, or get your support cast to pre-help you out (prot monks mostly). As a high armor warrior if you rush a group of mobs that cast heavy degen and armor ignoring damage you are dead, as a dervish go get spiked and you are dead.

However, since you asked this question I would add the following - warriors are comparatively easy to play. They fit a well known play style and niche, if you are familiar with video games in general you are familiar with a warrior. Also it is the older character, there are more builds available on fan websites.

If you group with humans most groups will know how to deal with you as a warrior, with a Dervish you may end up needing something a human decides you do not and wishes to teach you a "lesson" by letting you die.

I've never had an easier time at any of the parts of the game that allow a full party of AI (including Tomb of the Primeval Kings) as with my Dervish - AI doesn't have a preconceived notion of what is correct and what is wrong and wants to "inform" you of their ideas the hard way. If you work with a guild, friends, or AI then this shouldn't be a problem, if you PUG everything there will be people who do not like the way you run your character - this may very well bite you with a warrior, but since it is an accepted role in most games few have a problem with protting and healing a warrior tank where they may get fussed up about casting the same spells on a Dervish.

tarbok1 · Jan 27, 2007, 08:58 AM // 08:58

First off thanks kindly for the responses. I've been reading the warrior and dervish forums, along with browsing all others. I'm leaning towards warrior mostly because I find the dervish has to refresh his enchantments so frequently, that it annoys me. I don't mind casting one or two enchantments in a row, but I find all I'm doing with my dervish is watching my enchantments, refreshing them, and then cycling again. The warrior I like because when I'm on trivial content I can basically send him in and watch stuff die, silly in a way. I like being able to do spike damage as well, not to mention seeing damage being mitigated has always been a favorite of mine.

I've managed several toons to 20, but tend to lose interest at that point. Warrior once in the original game, necromancer, and ranger as well. I've done paragon which I find to be a good class, but I'm not into the entire group support thing I like to see numbers of my own. Elementalist was good and the builds were fun to mess around with, but I found myself sticking to a searing flames build which bored me to tears. That and everytime I encountered a group of mobs with my henchmen, I'd tend to be degened to death in a few seconds.

I guess what I am really looking for is a class that can "tank" when needed, shows a solid line of damage that I can see with my own eyes, not have to calculate later, and enough HP/abilities to keep them from dieing immediately from any mesmer I encounter. To me that is a warrior currently, but I tend to change classes two or three times a day.

strcpy · Jan 30, 2007, 09:31 AM // 09:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by tarbok1

I guess what I am really looking for is a class that can "tank" when needed, shows a solid line of damage that I can see with my own eyes, not have to calculate later, and enough HP/abilities to keep them from dieing immediately from any mesmer I encounter. To me that is a warrior currently, but I tend to change classes two or three times a day.

You can do what I did - I ended up getting enough slots to have one character of each class. I kept getting one to 20, deleting it, starting another, and repeating that cycle over and over. Each time I remade on a class I had played till 20 I cursed (back then, there was no way to add slots and getting to 20 in prophecies isn't terribly fast for a casual player). I can't say how many times I got to Thirsty River and the dopple left in the Desert only to delete and start another character. Heck several to the Fire Islands and deleted.

Personally I've only really liked four characters: a warrior, a necro, an ele, and a Dervish (with enjoyment increasing, Dervish being my favorite). They have several titles and have been through much of the games. The others get play time when I feel like one - my mesmer still isn't off of Istan and is level 15 though this is (I think) the fourth Mesmer I have rolled. Though it can be fun to play a shutdown Mesmer from time to time