Guide to playing as a dervish

Overview
Dervishes are renowned for their ability to frequently deal quick, massive damage to multiple foes with powerful scythe attacks like Wounding Strike, Mystic Sweep, and Aura Slicer. However, in rarer cases, dervishes are also used to fill roles as tanks, utilizing protective enchantments like Armor of Sanctity; runners, most notably on the "Droks run", using skills like Enchanted Haste, Fleeting Stability, and Pious Haste; and even as healers, using Signet of Pious Light, Mystic Healing, and Imbue Health.

Mysticism (primary attribute)
The Dervish primary attribute. Each rank in Mysticism reduces the cost of your Dervish enchantments by 4%. You have +1 armor per rank of Mysticism while you are enchanted.

Mysticism is the dervish's primary attribute, meaning it is only available to primary dervishes. Like many other primary attributes, mysticism is the dervish's energy management. It reduces the cost of your dervish enchantments by 4% each rank and also provides an armor bonus if you are enchanted. Useful skills from Mysticism include some form of IAS with (preferably) Heart of Fury, or Pious Fury at the cost of an enchantment. Bringing an IAS is highly recommended since by increasing your attack speed by 33%, you end up in fact doing 50% more damage over time. Long lasting enchantments such as Watchful Intervention or Faithful Intervention can be used to fuel other skills needing an enchantment to work and can be used as an additional buffer of health in emergency situations. Dervishes' Avatars are unique to them and also tied to the Mysticism line. They both change your appearance and provide a variety of benefits at the cost of your elite slot.

Earth Prayers
Earth Prayers come in two main types, those that protect or heal the Dervish from harm, and those that cause conditions to enemies. Sometimes these are the same, as seen with Shield of Force and Ebon Dust Aura.

While not ideal for general PvE use, Earth Prayers lends itself well to solo farming builds. Survivability is key to successive farming, and Earth Prayers offers many skills in that direction. A good example is the use of Mystic Regeneration in the popular 130 hp dervish build. Using multiple superior runes to lower your maximum health to 130 and combining it with the monk spell Protective Spirit reduces the damage you take to 13. Since you typically have a large number of enchantments on you, Mystic Regeneration provides large amounts of health regeneration. Other skills such as Armor of Sanctity can be used for similar purposes. However, in certain situations, particularly if facing a physical heavy area, the elite skill Ebon Dust Aura can be used to effectively shut down multiple melees with a cast. Be prepared to lineback a lot.

Scythe Mastery
The Dervish's other main attribute. Points into this increase the damage done by a scythe in the Dervish hands. Adding points to this makes Dervishes the deadliest profession in Nightfall, and one of the deadliest in Guild Wars.

Scythe Mastery is the line where most of your scythe attacks come from. As much as possible, you want to have a high Scythe Mastery to not only increase the damage done by your scythe skills but also increase your rate of critical hits. Builds centered on Scythe Mastery elites tend to be very potent damage dealers. Wounding Strike has additional damage and the Deep Wound is covered (meaning that bleeding "covers" the deep wound so that if an enemy uses a condition removal skill, the bleeding will be removed before the deep wound). Please remember that Wounding Strike requires an enchantment on you to inflict Deep Wound. Other useful non-elite scythe mastery skills include Chilling Victory for massive damage and AoE, Victorious Sweep as another source of a fast recharging high damage and a free self-healing skill, and Zealous Sweep for energy management. Wearying Strike is a good non-elite way to inflict Deep Wound.

Wind Prayers
Wind Prayers is a diverse utility line. It contains several move speed boosts, as well as hex removal and heals.

Wind Prayers is a line that deals with IAS, IMS, energy management and party healing. While some builds use the latter with some degrees of efficiency (these tend to be builds already centered on a supportive role, an orders spammer for instance), most offensive builds do not benefit much from party wide healing (again, best to leave that to your healers). Best to look at Wind Prayers for skills that aid you in killing enemies as fast as possible.

Scythe Melee and Utility
The primary role of a dervish player is to deal damage through melee as frontline. Their playstyle is dictated by their weapon of predilection, the scythe. Scythes have the highest base damage of any weapon, but also has a very large damage range and a rather slow attack speed. In addition to that, scythes are able to hit up to two additional foes adjacent to your target. This is an innate ability of scythes that works both on regular attacks and attack skills. Effects that trigger on hit, like energy gain from a Zealous mod or the health gain from a Vampiric mod, but also negative effects such as Insidious Parasite triggers for each enemy you hit. To maximize the damage you deal, it is recommended that you try to position yourself so as to take advantage of your weapon's AoE. Keep in mind though that scythes are two-handed weapons, disallowing the use of a shield. The lack of shield combined with an armor rating of 70 makes the dervish typically less resilient than a warrior.

Dervishes also differ from other melee professions in that many of their skills are dependent on enchantments: for example, Wounding Strike inflicts a Deep Wound only if the user removes a dervish enchantment. The Windwalker Insignia, an optional dervish armor mod, gives additional armor depending on how many enchantments the user has.

Enchantments and Flash Enchantments
Enchantments and their effects are a dervish's best friend. Unlike enchantments from other professions, many dervish enchantments have an effect both when it is cast and when it ends. For instance, Balthazar's Rage deals holy damage to all adjacent foes when you activate it and when it ends you gain adrenaline. Vital Boon boosts your max health while on you and it heals you when it ends. Heart of Holy Flame causes holy damage then sets adjacent foes on fire when it ends.

With the use of removal of enchantments, the dervish has access to many different combos that can be used depending on the situation. Many dervish skills have additional or more powerful effects when an enchantment is removed. For instance, Twin Moon Sweep allows two attacks and a minor self-heal only if an enchantment is removed. Combined with the end effect of many dervish enchantments as mentioned above, this allows for many interesting and powerful combinations. Optimally, try to time self-removing enchantment skills when the enchantment is about to run out (remember that such skills remove enchantments last cast on you). An 8 skill bar slot can quickly become so much more with the right combinations.

Feeders, Teardowns and Conditions
Numerous dervish skills require you to either be enchanted or to lose a dervish enchantment to be effective. To that end, many dervish enchantments have effects on end, adding to the effect of the teardown skill. You can take advantage of easily applied flash enchantments and their end effects to create potent combinations. For example, you can cast Heart of Holy Flame for an initial burst of damage, remove it with Irresistible Sweep, causing an AoE burning, then remove that burning with Reap Impurities for another AoE damage spike.

First Combination


Activate Avatar of Balthazar and run into battle. Use Balthazar's Rage as you run in to get an initial wave of Burning. Once you have enough adrenaline for Twin Moon Sweep, use it to strip off the enchantment, hit your foes twice, and set them all on fire again. As a bonus, when you remove Balthazar's Rage, with Twin Moon Sweep you'll gain back over half the adrenaline needed for your next Twin Moon Sweep.

Second Combination


Use Aura Slicer to inflict Cracked Armor and Bleeding to your target and follow up the damage with an initial hit from Heart of Holy Flame. Get a few hits in on your foe with holy damage on their lowered armor, then strip it off with Pious Fury. When you strip off Heart of Holy Flame, your foes will be set on fire. For even more damage, wait until it almost runs out before using Reap Impurities.

Third Combination


Run into a group of foes and use Lyssa's Haste to interrupt them all. Activate Mystic Twister while enchanted with Lyssa's Haste to deal a large amount of damage to all nearby foes. Then use Irresistible Sweep for strong guaranteed damage and another interrupt!

PvE
In PvE, Dervishes are generally found in a melee role. Due to the nature of scythes, Dervishes are ideally suited for PvE, as you often tend to face bunched up mobs. As a melee class, your main focus should be to deal damage. Even if skills from the Earth Prayers line seem attractive for self-healing and damage mitigation, they are generally not favored as healing you and your party is what dedicated healers are for. Try to focus your build on taking down mobs efficiently.

Playing in a Party
As with most melee classes, don't overextend. Even if you are able to survive with enchantments, someone might remove them. If your monk(s) need(s) to heal you, they need to run, and a running monk is a monk that doesn't heal.

Adjusting your build to your team is also a good idea. Although there are some all-purpose builds, it is usually better to adjust your build to your team. For instance if you are teaming up with another Dervish who insists on using Wounding Strike, try to bring an alternative elite, as having 2 copies of that skill in one party adds little benefit.

Follow targets, but only if you have an IMS (increased movement speed) skill. Without an IMS skill you'll be wasting time and damage that could have been dealt to another foe.

What to avoid

 * Consuming enchantments which would be more useful if they were left active.
 * Using spells that take up all or most of your energy as this leaves you in a vulnerable state.

Enchantment Management
Enchantments are long-lasting spells with varying effects, for instance Faithful Intervention heals you if your health falls below a certain amount. As a dervish they are your life-blood, they keep you alive, increase your abilities or give other bonuses.

As a dervish you will be dealing heavily with enchantments, and it would be in your best interest to manage your enchantments effectively. In this case, managing means knowing when to drop/recast maintained enchantments, what order normal enchantments will be stripped in, energy cost and effectiveness in any given situation. For example, if you use enchantments that cause earth damage, ensure that your opponents are not resistant to that damage type.

Releasing enchantments is fun too, because unlike other classes, most Dervish enchantments not only trigger while active, but have secondary triggers when the enchantment ends. Releasing Heart of Holy Flame with Pious Assault gives a large spike of damage and causes burning on adjacent foes.

Stack, Recast, Cover and Removal
If you have many enchantments active at one time, it is referred to as a stack. It is important to cover critical or desirable enchantments with ones that aren't so important and can be recast easily. Some notes about enchantment stacks:
 * The order in which you have cast them will be displayed from left to right in the Effects Monitor area.
 * Enchantment stripping happens from the rightmost enchantment (also referred to as 'cover'), and goes left - this does only apply if you have not moved your effects bar to another position on the screen, eg the bottom right, where enchantments will be stripped from top left to bottom right.
 * Cast the important enchantments first, then your covers. This way your less important ones will be stripped first.
 * When an enchantment icon in the Effects Monitor begins flashing, it has about 2 seconds of duration left. At this point consider recasting it, unless you want it to end for a bonus.

Energy management
While Mysticism reduces the cost of your dervish enchantments, sometimes you will still need energy. Several skills provide energy gaining abilities, such as Meditation, Zealous Sweep, Zealous Renewal, or Eremite's Zeal. You can also take advantage of the multiple-hit capability of the scythe and combine it with a zealous mod to further help manage your energy.

Increased attack speed
Two sources of IAS for dervishes are found in the Mysticism line (Heart of Fury and Pious Fury), and the third in Wind Prayers (Onslaught). Onslaught also doubles up as an IMS and allows for more bar compression.

Weapons

 * Scythes

For playing as dervish, you'll ideally have multiple scythes. Due to the innate AoE ability of scythes, Vampiric and Zealous mods are often sought: a zealous scythe lets you quickly regain energy while facing multiple enemies and a vampiric mod increases your overall DPS. Some might consider a Sundering mod instead of vampiric, but vampiric deals more consistent damage than Sundering and also typically deals higher damage overall.

Preferred inscriptions include Strength and Honor, Guided by Fate, and, occasionally, Dance with Death (for Dervishes using a maintainable stance, like Enchanted Haste).

The ideal suffix for a scythe is Defense. Unlike a Fortitude mod, a Defense mod consistently decreases the damage you take; in most cases, this stretches your health further than the +30 that a Fortitude mod offers. Furthermore, players using a Defense mod can swap to a High Health Set when at low health for a +30 or +60 Health, as opposed to the +0 or +30 Health gained by a player camping a Fortitude mod. Many players also advocate an Enchanting suffix since Dervishes veritably rely on enchantments, but it is far more efficient to devote a Staff to that purpose.


 * Staff


 * Other Sets

Dervishes, like all players, should also carry a Defensive Set and High-Health set. The Defensive set should include a one-handed weapon of Defense and a shield of Fortitude (preferably inscribed against a damage type, and to be swapped as the incoming damage swap changes). The High-Health set should include a one-handed weapon of Fortitude and a shield of Fortitude.

Armor
Like every other class, try to get max (in this case, 70 AR) armor. The choice of your headpiece's attribute depends on your build, but in most cases it will be Scythe Mastery.

For runes, any dervish with a scythe should include a Rune of Minor Scythe Mastery. A Rune of Minor Mysticism finds its way onto most Dervs' armor sets, since it increases the duration of Heart of Fury and enhances other Mysticism skills. However, since Mysticism has breakpoints depending on your enchantment costs, a Major or Superior rune may be more beneficial. A Rune of Clarity coupled with Vitaes can help round out your armor.

In any build running two or more maintainable Enchantments (or in parties offering multiple enchantments, like Orders or Judge's Insight), Windwalker Insignia is to be preferred. For builds running one maintainable enchantment, Blessed Insignia can be used, instead. Players with a maintainable Stance can also consider Sentry's Insignia. If none of the above fit the bill, Survivor Insignia are usable as a last resort.

Choice of secondary professions

 * Warrior (recommended, PvE/PvP)
 * Access to utility skills such as Wild Blow, Distracting Strike, and Bull's Strike.
 * Access to adrenaline skills, making use of multiple hits from scythes and costing less energy.
 * Fast activation skill such as Protector's Strike, even with no points in Strength
 * In PvE, access to "Save Yourselves!" and Whirlwind Attack
 * Monk (recommended, Arenas/Farming)
 * Condition removal, generally Mending Touch.
 * Can be used in the 130 hp dervish build for farming purposes.
 * Holy Veil for hex-intensive environments where you cannot count on outside removal, like Random Arenas.
 * Draw Conditions synergizes very well with Avatar of Melandru.
 * Assassin (recommended, PvE/PvP)
 * Access to shadow steps and Dash for mobility, Disrupting Dagger for an interrupt, and Iron Palm for knockdown.
 * Dervish/Assassin is a very effective combination for running and survival builds.
 * Daggers can trigger on-hit abilities more often, taking advantage of skills like Mystic Vigor and Avatar of Grenth.
 * Mesmer
 * Hex Breaker to deal with hexes.
 * Elementalist (recommended, PvE/PvP)
 * Conjure Frost, Conjure Flame, or Conjure Lightning to increase DPS (requires the respective elemental damage scythe modification).
 * Grasping Earth for a AoE snare.
 * Ritualist
 * Useful for offensive Weapon spells, especially Splinter Weapon and Warmonger's Weapon, which benefit from the AoE of a scythe.
 * Ranger
 * Apply Poison or Poison Tip Signet will help to poison up to 3 foes with your scythe; useful in pressure builds.
 * Antidote Signet for free condition removal.
 * Necromancer
 * Enchantment removal such as Rip Enchantment.
 * Necrosis for a spamable high-damage armor-ignoring skill.
 * Paragon
 * Song of Concentration for Ghostly Hero in HA.
 * Spear Attacks, typically used with Grenth's Grasp to gain the benefits at range.