Curse

Terakhan · Dec 08, 2006, 09:58 AM // 09:58

As I see it, the vermin have 5 points in their favor that need to be overcome to farm them:
1. Numbers
2. poison
3. bleeding
4. Shreader's Seeping Wound
5. Knockdown

Here is my idea thus far to counteract these and allow dervishes to take them down with the best wamos or eles:

16 Mysticism
9 Earth Prayers
9 Scythe Mastery

Avatar of Melandru (eliminates 2,3, and 4 at once)
Fleeting Stability (eliminates 5 as long as you keep it up and don't let it end itself)
Mirage Cloak (partially deals with 1)
Armor of Sanctity
Veil of Thorns (combined with the above two, this will hopefully take care of problem 1)
Chilling Victory (If you have your health high enough, Shreader is the only one who this won't work on, but he will still be nailed by the burst from the others hit by it)
Zealous Renewal (AoE damage and energy recovery)
Mystic Regeneration (just to cover any damage or conditions that get through)

Help testing it (I havent gotten my dervish to Senji's yet) or advice to improve it would be appreciated.

Also, I prefer pure builds, so please don't recommend skills from a secondary unless there is no other way.

Nechtan Thaumaturge · Dec 09, 2006, 08:42 AM // 08:42

I haven't gotten my Dervish there yet either, but based on my experience farming Vermin as an Elementalist, I might make a couple of suggestions.

You've got a lot of protection going for you but comparatively little damage; so, I would recommend tipping the scales in that direction. The skill I have my eye on for replacement is Avatar of Melandru, the main reason being that you're really going to rue that 120 seconds of downtime in a run like this. Mystic Regeneration all by itself will negate the bleeding, poison, and Seeping Wound if you run another 3 enchantments or so, which should be easy to do.

As far as dealing with the damage caused by the Vermin attacks, I can usually survive fine with Armor of Earth; so, I would recommend a comparable solution. With 70 AL base and a +10 AL inscription, you might be able to get by using only Armor of Sanctity. In fact, I'm thinking that Armor of Sanctity then Staggering Force plus Twin Moon Sweep, or something like that, would work well. You can permanently weaken the Vermin and take about 15 less damage from their attacks, plus you get an extra two damage sources. If that's not enough, then adding Mirage Cloak should lock it.

Also, there's a concern #6, which is scattering. If you take the Vermin one group at a time or do the majority of your damage via a scythe, you should be fine. So, I would pump up your Scythe Mastery and take a few skills from that line. Heart of Fury helps out with your damage output and feeds Mystic Regeneration, as well -- just make sure to invest a fair amount in Mysticism.

So, here's what I would suggest -- totally untested, no guarantees.

Fleeting Stability
Armor of Sanctity
Staggering Force
Mystic Regeneration
Heart of Fury
Mystic Sweep
Twin Moon Sweep
Reaper's Sweep {E}

Earth Prayers: about 10
Scythe Mastery: 14-16
Mysticism: about 9

The energy requirements might be the downfall of this build; half the skills cost 10 energy, and you're going to need to re-cast the core skills every 15-20 seconds. However, with a Zealous modifier and some careful management of your enchantments, you should be able to get by. Good luck.