D/N, Any suggestions?

I just bought Nightfall and made a Dervish. Foolishly, I didn't think out any plan for my PvE build and just chose Necromancer as my secondary... In hindisght this seems like a bad combination and a poor diecision on my part. But I am curious if anybody has any good D/N builds that works for PvE. At least I won't be a cookie cutter D/Mo or D/E

I've played a necro secondary on a number of different classes, but not on a dervish (yet.) Here are some necro ideas that I've found generally useful:

Broadly put, you want to use your secondary class to augment what your primary class is good at and shore up its weaknesses. One thing the Dervish skill set is weak on is a way to dump conditions, Avatar of Melandru being the only option. A cheap no-attribs necro skill that meets this need is Plague Touch. Plague Sending (Prophs) and Plague Signet are also useful choices.

Many of the necro curses are ranged, and don't require line-of-sight. These can be used to pull targets and attack in situations where a Dervish would usually be at a disadvantage.

Mark of Pain is a nice "crowd control" skill for melee primaries, especially when you're attacking a boss along with his minions.

Some nice necro enchantments that are generally useful are Order of Pain, Demonic Flesh, and the elite Tainted Flesh. (Be careful about causing disease when fighting humans.)

With just a few points invested, skills like Vampiric Gaze, Well of Blood, and Soul Feast, are very useful for helping keep your health up.

If you have access to the Prophecies necro skills, check out Spiteful Spirit, Spinal Shivers, and Virulence.

My dervish is currently trekking through Prophecies to the Southern Shiverpeaks specifically to cap Virulence. Cause any condition on your primary target and hit them with Virulence. Your primary target will be in serious trouble, and all of his buddies will be suffering from (and spreading) -4 health degen. (Again, be careful about causing disease when fighting humans.)

Hope you found some of these ideas useful. Good luck!

well i just thought of this using grenths balance b/c dervs have huge health also you will be able to change right after 3rd mish so dont sweat it youll do fine(you done want too many secondary skills anyway)

only thing you should really be using is plauge touch. dervish primary is pretty self-sufficient. maybe greneth's balance with vital boon, sinse the avatars suck, but i would prefer to have reaper's sweep.

I wouldn't say the avatars suck, they just have niche builds with a minute long down time.

But I do agree, dervish is self-sufficient, more so while still on pre island and you can change it almost right after you get off.

Plaque touch would be the only thing I would simply because it is effective without wasting attributes.

found this build on wiki a while back. for me it is my best dmg dealing build atm, can kill any lvl20 monster pretty much with 1 wearying strike + signet of agony.

attributes: blood - 3
death - 11
scythe - 12+1
earth - 7+1
mysticism 4+1+1 <-- personal preference that i have mysticism hood

wearying strike
signet of agony
plague touch
contagion
dark aura
mystic regen
armour of sanctity
res

try to keep your enchants up at all times. spam sks 1-2 and use plague touch to dismiss the conditions. massacres pve mobs easily.

You can use Grenth's Balance or Plague Touch since those two skills are unlinked. Secondary isn't really important to a derv. I don't even think any of my builds use their secondary at all so I usually just go /monk for the res.

Btw, that build above could work though obviously since he can't change professions yet he won't be able to get Mystic Regen (its not available till Gate and Mouth of Torment).

Quote: Originally Posted by Ishtar Serket

I've looked at the D/N as well.

I've thought about Order Of The Vampire (e) and Order Of Pain. Both enchantments allow you to do nice additional damage and when it ends in 5 seconds, you get enery gain and health gain. But when I look at the cost 17% sac vs the health regain with Mysticism, it doesn't seem to be worth it.

Mark Of Pain is nice, Barbs, Insidious Parasite, Demonic Flesh, enfeebling blood, Blood Renewal, and Plague Touch are good as well.

I don't know if Death Nova will do anything if removed, if not, at least its an enchantment that you can use quick enough with 0 in death magic.

Plague Touch is basically a must if you choose to use any necro skill.

As Wonder Llama, I would suggest Mark of Pain. Even at fairly low Curses it still deals some nice damage, my only concern would be scattering and the semi-high energy cost, but with the "down-graded" mob AI in normal mode, I guess it's worth a try.

Quote: Originally Posted by dan-the-noob

try using BiP or BR to keep ur energy up and mys regen for hp. for attacking chilling vic and vic sweep (and maybe wearying strike) as they will help to inflcit the most dmg (for a non elite derv skill).

Quote: Originally Posted by h2oski

Just use Plague Touch and the rest are D skills.

Same old, same old, except with Wearying Strike and Plague Touch. One of the best combos I've seen on a derv.

~Polynikes

not worth it. just use reaper or wounding since they are the only decent elites apart from EDA. wearying + plauge touch is to much energy.

Quote: Originally Posted by Coloneh

+dmg, deep wound, and weakness on two non-elites for 10 energy... u say that isnt worth it? plague touch beats mending touch in oh so many ways. its also a utility skill, not just there for WS.

~Polynikes

its still a combo thats not worth it when your elite should be giving a deep wound anyways.

Quote: Originally Posted by dan-the-noob unlock in pvp and buy from kamadan :P You can do that?!

They must have changed that since I had left, I never knew you could actualy unlock a skill and then go buy it on an RP character.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ishtar Serket The original poster talked only about PvE so it doesn't sound like he has played remotely enough PvP to get the faction needed to buy it. Also not really the only way to get it but I figured he wanted to save money. Other ways are to get another character to buy the skill in Torment and either have his Derv use a skill point up and buy the skill at a skill trainer or get a Derv tome and get the skill that way. I've got some faction left over from my time spent doing Hall of Heroes in Prophecies, and I also like to do Zaishen when I'm bored too... So i'm not completely hopeless. I also have no clue what the hell skill tomes do, nor do I have any idea on how to get one since I've never seen one drop in normal mode before. BTW: Thanks for the input guys my Derv is level 17 now, doing some quests out of Sunspear Sanctuary. Dervish is pretty self-sufficient without a secondary class.