Curse

RitualEros · Nov 27, 2006, 09:41 PM // 21:41

I was wondering if anyone had feasible builds for Meloni. I believe she has great potential... obviously I am just unable to tap into it. She dies so fast.

Francis Crawford · Nov 27, 2006, 11:55 PM // 23:55

I've been wondering the same thing. For now, I've made her D/W and given her tactics skills.

One possibility in some team builds -- makes no sense for me, as I'm caster-heavy -- is to make an Orders necro out of her. I can't convince myself she'd do it quite as well as a true necro, however.

I also imagine it would be to her advantage to have a Boon/Protection monk in the party.

(RoF for the energy recharge.)

Indeed, with Extend Enchantments/Aegis, she might be an OK Protection monk herself, boonlessness notwithstanding.

RitualEros · Nov 28, 2006, 03:28 AM // 03:28

Dervish have great skills, the problem is that most of them require precise chaining in order for them to be effective. So, I guess what I am looking for is an AI friendly build for her.

ZennZero · Nov 28, 2006, 04:02 AM // 04:02

This is pretty simplistic, but I made her a D/E with points in water magic. Conjure Frost is a nice damage buff and some of the enchant-heavy water spells complement mysticism pretty nicely.

gilgameshx · Nov 28, 2006, 06:38 AM // 06:38

Since I couldn't afford much skills, I made her a D/ME. Gave her Sand Shards, Signet of Midnight (E), and Epidemic. She does it fine, just don't know how much damage she is doing. It's good against melee attackers because they end up getting blinded and she will still continue to do damage to nearby foes.

[skill]Sand Shards[/skill] [skill]Signet of Midnight[/skill] [skill]Epidemic[/skill]

My Sweet Revenga · Nov 29, 2006, 12:55 AM // 00:55

When in doubt, give the hero power drain and build something from there ^^

Guildmaster Cain · Nov 29, 2006, 01:40 PM // 13:40

I posted the Blinded Justice Dervish before, for farming purposes. Its the same as above, Signet of Midnight combined with Sand Shards. Only problem is that your healers will remove the blind probably. Since I figured that, I never bothered testing it on Heroes.

FrogDevourer · Nov 30, 2006, 03:15 PM // 15:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by RitualEros

Dervish have great skills, the problem is that most of them require precise chaining in order for them to be effective. So, I guess what I am looking for is an AI friendly build for her.

Don't try to be subtle with the hero AI. Use a D/W with unlinked stuff skills Wild Blow, Distracting Blow, or You're all Alone, and Watch Yourself (be sure to abuse paragon echoes). Add scythe attacks with no drawback (read: no attack based on enchant removal), one IAS stance, and one energy management skill (ex: Zealous Renewal). Self-sufficient, lots of damage, takes care of a lot of annoying things (Battle Scars, Kiters) and will do AoE damage and interrupts... The dervish is not my favourite hero, but this build sure gets his part of the job done.

strcpy · Nov 30, 2006, 10:12 PM // 22:12

Though some of these skills are end game you can unlock them with faction. This is the Melonni I use with my necro.

I use the bonus icy scythe for a weapon

scythe: 15 (sup scythe mastery + hood)
mysticism: 11
earth prayers: 8
water: 7

skills:

reaper's sweep[e]
Mystic regeneration
Vital boon
Heart of Fury
Conjure Frost
Conviction
Faithful Intervention
rez sig

She will not cast Faithful intervention on her own, I just cast it when I walk out of a building. She rarely goes below 50% health so it is nomrally up. I check every once and a while though.

Conjure Frost isn't really needed, could swap for a different scythe attack. If you have an ebon scythe replace Reapers sweep with Ebon Dust Aura (my ele has Melonni set up that way) and conjure frost with a scythe attack and you get blinding in there also. I can not make up my mind which AI build I like better. I have a few others I use from time to time too, a /w and replace conjure frost with wild blow - who cares about loosing adrenaline when you do not use it and at 41 damage the crits add up.

She doesn't cast the self heals as often as I would like but she still normally outlives Koss and has a good damage output - especially if enemies clump up (conjure frost adds quite a bit of damage output when hitting multiple enemies).

I do not see chaining as a requisite here and it tends to work much better than trying to force a warrior build on a low armor front line melee.

FoxBat · Nov 30, 2006, 11:00 PM // 23:00

I just give her Balth's avatar, 4 scythe attacks including the cripple one, whatever enchants seem appropriate, and I monk with AoE zfire smite. The constant enchant spam keeps her healthy and plenty of mana to power scythe spam. Cripple and speedy balth form is enough to keep enemies from running far from the AoE, but I put glyph of lesser energy and 2 ice snares on Sousuke's otherwise SF build. I bring mostly AoE damagers (cynn, ghenz, olias as minion nuker) so I don't need to worry about focusing fire, and everything's snared so crippled runners don't get far and also aren't attacking your party.

Anyway you can't go too wrong with Balth's form, not hard to use. Just skip all the uberwammotank builds filling the Dervish forum, go with some modest brainless defense and scythe attacks. And bring a prot monk in some form (hint: Khim is actually prot once you arrive in Kourna, even though it says "healer")

Francis Crawford · Dec 01, 2006, 01:22 AM // 01:22

Which henchie monks are enchant-heavy? Those would be the ones you'd want to take when you have Melonni.

Similarly -- do hero monks use RoF well?

Ensign · Dec 01, 2006, 11:00 AM // 11:00

Reaper's Sweep, Chilling Victory, Wild Blow, Distracting Blow, Vital Boon, Mystic Regeneration, Heart of Holy Flame, Ressig is the most robust bar I have for Melonni ATM. Simple skills that the AI uses well and beats down with.

Peace,
-CxE

Darkpower Alchemist · Dec 03, 2006, 08:41 AM // 08:41

Actually,melonni does well with an avatar on her bar. Used her to get to ToA. It was a massacre all the way there with us running Avatar of Melandru.

Poison what? Poison who? not with us using melandru

RitualEros · Dec 04, 2006, 12:57 AM // 00:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Poison

what? Poison who? not with us using melandru

That has a catchy ring to it

Thank you all for your help.

Evilsod · Dec 04, 2006, 03:34 AM // 03:34

How about giving the useless paper armour tank Vow of Silence? At least that way she invunerable to spells, then its just onto keeping her alive against physical attacks.

I'm really not finding much use for the Dervish hero though. Even the Paragon hero has actually got a use in the form of They're on Fire assist with 3 Searing Flames eles.

ogami_ito · Dec 04, 2006, 04:22 AM // 04:22

If in general world PVE, I almost alsways take Meloni. My character is also a Derv. I also take a MM Necro with Order of Pain, and sometimes a healing prot monk with Healing Light, Dwana's Kiss, and Aegis.

Melani is almost always D/P, equipped with 2 scythe attacks, 1 Avatar, "go for the Eyes" (5 command gives about 50% to crit for the minions and otehr non-spell casters) Mystic Regen, Vital Boom, Sig of Pious Light, res sig. He never dies.

Basically, if fighting multiple mobs, Melani's powers "Go for the Eyes" every-other attack. Meloni, my own Derv, and the Derv Hench are doing a lot of scythe crits. The Minions are doing lots of crits. And the healer hero is adding enchants and efficient heals. Monk enchants Melani (and my own Derv) with say Reversal of Fortuen, its 3 free energy (4 for my character because my myst is higher). Aegis and Order also add usefull enchants that affect all 3 Dervs at the same time.

Moa Bird Cultist · Dec 05, 2006, 11:28 AM // 11:28

Most all of my builds for her have been D/Mo with an equal spread of mysticism, earth prayers and smiting prayers. Given her a +energy+enchants sword and a smiting focus. Then just spec her with holy damage enchantments, vital boon and signet of pious light. I use soj as the elite and sometimes throw in symbol of wrath for good measure. Not the most efficient build, but it works.

Cebe · Dec 05, 2006, 02:28 PM // 14:28

Although I only use her when I have to I make her D/N and give her Mark of Pain, Plague Tough and Grenth's Balance. I'm using Grenth's Balance as I currently have no dervish and have capped no derish elites yet.

lundis · Dec 12, 2006, 08:29 AM // 08:29

i give her the same build as i use with my dervish:

vow of strength [elite]
mirage cloak
mystic regeneration
vital boon
heart of fury
and the rest= optional

i think the attributes are:
13-15 scythe mastery
14 earth prayers
and the rest in mysticism (10 or something like that)

melonni is very good at using this build BUT DO NOT give her any enchant removing skills.

ump · Dec 15, 2006, 05:34 PM // 17:34

Melonni was dying a lot until I gave her Conviction (+24AL), Vital Boon (self-heal, but also ensures I get the AL instead of health regen because the enchantment is always on), and Victorious Sweep (healing scythe attack). I don't remember the rest of the skill bar at the moment but I would guess Reaper's Sweep, Chilling Victory, Zealous Renewal, Imbue Health, and Rez Signet.