It's me again =D

Also, out of curiosity, does anyone EVER say that a build is great unless it's an overused/wiki build? I'm not trying to say that I think my builds are excellent, but while scanning posts, I've noticed that people always say that the posted builds are fine, bad, okay, etc. When you give players multiple options to perform one task, it is unavoidable that one is going to be the "best." Besides, its getting to be an old game. People are not discovering awesome brand new builds anymore. I hate to say it, but when you try to invent new stuff nowadays it tends to under-perform the cookie cutter builds... because if it didn't, people would already be using it. You shouldn't shy away from using the cookie cutter builds, because if you're skilled at using them you can set yourself apart that way.

That said, I run something similar to your AB build myself and find it to be excellent, with Reaper's Sweep crits climbing over 100 + DW frequently. Admittedly, an Avatar of Lyssa/Melandru build is probably "better," but that's why I rarely play my Dervish anyway.

That said, I run something similar to your AB build myself and find it to be excellent, with Reaper's Sweep crits climbing over 100 + DW frequently. Yep, I just love those times when I get bored and decide to run that with 16 Scythe Mastery . 131 damage Reaper's Sweep followed by a 119 damage Mystic Sweep ftw =D. My favorite moments in the game are when I see someone backing away from the battle due to low health, then I come out of nowhere from the middle of it all and BAM, dead.

And yes, I see what you mean when you're talking about how cookie-cutter builds are popular because they're the best. But what fun is running the same build over and over again?

Being a casual gamer, I like to just mess around and make new builds, throw them away, then make some more. Whenever I find a good one that suits my playing style, I save it and use it whenever I feel like it.

But what fun is running the same build over and over again? I agree in this case, because these builds may not be optimal but still are viable and make sense.. I disagree when someone offers that argument to defend their Avatar of Balthazar/Mending tank (or functional equivalent).

By the way, I would recommend Lyssa's Assault instead of Zealous Sweep. Provided you have over 12 Scythe, it will usually net more energy than Zealous, and also triggers even if blocked or if it misses. Zealous is okay, but isn't guaranteed to pay for itself since its conditional. It can only return 9 energy at best anyway.

For PVE use Eternal Aura to maintain the avatars at all times<_< So um.. where in the OP are any avatars?

So um.. where in the OP are any avatars? Pandra was recommending it in reply to the OP complaining about the long downtime of avatars.

Hola! I've been experimenting with some random build combos and (taking the advice you guys gave me) came up with a few builds that seem to work pretty well for me. Each are based around the same concept, but are suited towards different types of places.

General PvE:
[skill]Wounding Strike[/skill][skill]Mystic Sweep[/skill][skill]Eremite's Attack[/skill][wiki]Zealous Sweep[/wiki][skill]Heart of Fury[/skill][skill]Mystic Regeneration[/skill][wiki]Aura of Holy Might[/wiki] [wiki]Sunspear Rebirth Signet[/wiki]
Scythe Mastery: 11+1+1
Mysticism: 11+1
Earth Prayers: 8+1 (might as well put it up an extra point, in case of Weakness)

Random Arenas:
[skill]Reaper's Sweep[/skill][skill]Mystic Sweep[/skill][wiki]Zealous Sweep[/wiki][skill]Crippling Sweep[/skill][skill]Heart of Fury[/skill][skill]Mystic Vigor[/skill][skill]Mystic Regeneration[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]
Scythe Mastery: 11+1+1
Mysticism: 11+1
Earth Prayers: 8+1

Alliance Battle (normal):
[skill]Reaper's Sweep[/skill][skill]Mystic Sweep[/skill][wiki]Zealous Sweep[/wiki][skill]Crippling Sweep[/skill][skill]Heart of Fury[/skill][skill]Mystic Regeneration[/skill][skill]Watchful Intervention[/skill][skill]Dash[/skill]
Scythe Mastery: 11+1+1
Mysticism: 11+1
Earth Prayers: 8+1

Alliance Battle (aggressive):
[skill]Reaper's Sweep[/skill][skill]Mystic Sweep[/skill][skill]Crippling Sweep[/skill][skill]Death's Charge[/skill][skill]Heart of Fury[/skill][skill]Mystic Vigor[/skill][skill]Watchful Intervention[/skill][skill]Dash[/skill]
Scythe Mastery: 12+1+1
Mysticism: 12+1

Tell me what you think about them . (And please don't reccoment Avatars. I hate the long downtime that they have >.>)

Sorry about the double edit. I thought the new skills would have the pop-up when moused over by changing it to skill=text, but i guess not . I recommends [skill]wounding strike[/skill] for ab. Its not as conditional as reapers sweep with a small energy cost and recharge.

But Ill give reapers a try.=-D

Not a fan of Dash for ABs... I have seen people using it, but I always manage to chase them down (if I'm chasing people down, anyway) by chaining Pious Haste. It depends whether you're using it to retreat (good) or to travel between flags (bad), though.

The other thing is that ... this is just my opinion, but I'm not a fan of "gain x hp if you drop below y% health" enchantments either. I would rather bring something like Imbue Health (it can save your monk's life if they're under pressure), or maybe Vital Boon (since you already have earth prayers) or something... no biggie, but there are at least plenty of other options.

One other thing. What's the point of Wounding Strike? Sure, it causes Deep Wound, but there are other skills that do that, and it has no +damage. Is it really worth the elite slot?

It's popular enough that I suspect there *is* a point, but it just ... doesn't seem like it... Okay, so the thing that I like with Dash is that it's great for short distance running. Say for example, I shadow step to someone but forget to queue up Crippling Sweep. If they're running, then I won't be able to hit the person unless I bring a speed boost (don't have any Wind Prayers and Pious Haste will remove HoF when it ends). Also, in some cases, it does work better for capping, such as starting in mid for Kurz in Grenz Fronteir (it only takes about a 5 second run with no speed boost, and I reach the cap zone by the time that Dash ends).

As for Watchful Intervention, that can save your Monk as well. It makes an effective pre-prot (before matches start, I place it on squishy targets in my team). By pre-protting, it's essentially "free" to use as well, because you use it, regain back to max energy, then when the battle starts, you are free to use the rest of your enchants. Not to mention that it counts as an enchant for Mystic Sweep, Mystic Regeneration, and Mystic Vigor. Also, why Vital Boon? It takes 2 slots to fully utilize, and the healing isn't even that great...

Finally, Wounding Strike. The main reason why I use this is because of the universal rule that "pressuring is better than spiking in PvE". Whenever I see a target who is starting to take a beating, I slap on Wounding Strike and head on to the next target and let the heroes finish him off in a second. Since I'll be changing targets often, the 8 second recharge on Reaper's Sweep isn't very good either compared to the 3 second recharge of Wounding Strike. And for the "other skills do deep wound" comment, what other skills cause Deep Wound without a downside, hmm?

Also, I wasn't complaining about the recharge of avatars >.<. I was just noting that the downtime was the only reason why I didn't like them much.