Playing around with my Dervish, and I think I've got something good here.

So, it seems like the Avatar of Lyssa never really sees much love around here, and I really think that's a shame. I find it to be one of the more underrated elites the Dervish has, and I've been having fantastic luck with it. Running this build:

Avatar of Lyssa, Mystic Vigor, Zealous Renewal, Heart of Holy Flame, Pious Fury, Twin Moon Sweep, Aura Slicer/Victorious Sweep, Chilling Victory.

I very, very rarely have trouble keeping my health at a respectable level, especially with a vampiric scythe, nor do I ever have energy troubles, save when I can't hit due to block/miss. My damage is also increased dramatically due to being able to spam ZR/HoHF and tear them down immediately with PF/TMS. That combo ensures I never run out of mana, keep everything adjacent perma-burned, and keep myself at near full HP at all times. TMS especially brings the build together, acting essentially as a reset for my mana and HP, since on teardown I steal mana from adjacent foes and get back a huge chunk of health when combined with MV.

So, thoughts? Suggestions? Like it? Dislike it?

http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:D/any_Ava..._Lyssa_Dervish, it gets some love to say the least.

Heh this was the very first Dervish elite skill I got.

Used it for awhile until I got some other Avatars, which I used for a long time.

It has potential, in bar compression, since you dont have to take as many feeder enchantments to fuel your teardowns. That and it steals energy, so you don't necessarily have to take zealous renewal.

Perma burning is an interesting attribute, but pressure builds are less effective in HM (especially now with the HP boost).

I ran a teardown Grenth's avatar build for a LOOONG time and took it through every part of the game; it worked great.

But, I recently realized the potential of the Vow of Str/Sand Shards/Twin moon combo...and I can't go back. Add in Shuddering force for cracked armor and wheeee...

I'm sure your build would work in a pressure sense though. Maybe add reap impurity over chilling?

*Staggering Force

http://www.gwpvx.com/Special:PvXDeco...ame=&Go=Submit
I've been using this for quite a while.

I don't think it's possible to ever justify using Avatar of Lyssa when Pious Renewal is available. In any event, the build Cuilan posted does the same thing OP's build does, but 1000x better.

Whenever I need extra energy, I use Eremite's Zeal.

The nice part of this form is the extra speed. It works nice with a couple of tearings to spam the 6s recharge flash enchantments.

Unfortunately, it can be so fast that triggers the scattering behavior in enemies.

Lyssa's strength isnt that it generates energy, it's that it steals it. remember when they had to nerf "Fear Me!"? well, take any 2 or 3 flash enchants that recharge in 6 seconds or less and you basically have oldschool fear me, but that does PBaoE. It's better in pvp then pve but try it in RA or fort aspenwood, you'll have their monks sweating, even if they can block your scythe.