Guide to playing as a dervish

From Guild Wars Wiki

Note: This article is geared towards new players. Please keep its contents to those which new players can reasonably understand and use.

[edit] Overview

[edit] Attributes

[edit] 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.

[edit] Mysticism

The Dervish primary attribute. A Dervish gains +1 health per rank and +1 energy for every 3 ranks in mysticism each time an enchantment ends on him/her.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Wind Prayers

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

[edit] Equipment

[edit] Weapons

As a Dervish you will probably prefer to have a scythe with the "Guided by Fate" inscription. This inscription will give you additional damage when enchanted.

[edit] Understanding the Profession

[edit] Melee

When it comes to attacking, a good dervish player can hit up to three people and not care when they hit back. Crippling Sweep is a good combo opener that hits everyone in front of you with a crippling effect which stops them from scattering as quickly. Tie that in with Mystic Sweep and watch your foes scream in pain. Reaper's Sweep is a great elite skill that will inflict a deep wound to any foes with under 50% health and deals 40 extra damage at rank 15. Pious Assault is an attack that allows you to do 20 points of extra damage and inflict a Deep Wound for 20 seconds at rank 15, as well as causing you to lose an enchantment.

Beware blocking, however. Groups of low-level ranger mobs using Lightning Reflexes can be vexingly time-consuming for even a strong Derv build to kill, unless you specifically bring one or more skills that penetrate or disable blocking and/or stances. (The Warrior skill Wild Blow is good for that purpose.) In PvP, blocking can level the playing field between Warriors and Dervishes significantly.

[edit] Enchantments

Enchantments and their effects are a dervishes best friend. Why would you want to remove an enchantment from yourself you ask? Almost all of the dervish enchantments have an effect when the enchantment is removed from you. Balthazar's Rage deals holy damage to all adjacent foes when you activate it and when it ends you gain health proportional to the amount of hits you did to the enemy while enchanted. Vital Boon boosts your max hp 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. Enchantments have so many versatile effects on a dervish that picking your favorites may be too hard!

With the use of removal of enchantments, the Dervish has access to many different combos that can be used depending on the situation. Skills like Meditation can give a quick healing or energy boost if needed. Twin Moon Sweep Is rather useless by itself, but when used with Vital Boon as explained earlier, you get two hits, healing from the sweep, and healing from the Vital Boon! An 8 skill bar slot can quickly become so much more with the right combinations.

[edit] PvE

In PvE, Dervishes are generally found in a melee role, along with the Warriors. Though suffering from a slight lack of armor akin to the Assassin, Dervishes have many tactics to mitigate damage to themselves and keep them alive in the front line. Skills such as Armor of Sanctity, Mystic Regeneration, and Vital Boon, are three examples of skills that can be used for protection, regeneration, and self heal while in such a state. Due to the innate ability of the Scythe to strike up to three opponents in melee, and with the dervish's number of increased attack speed (IAS) and cancel attacks, there is an extremely high potential for damage, especially from critical hits. Another useful tactic of the Dervish for PvE is to be in the center of a mob and use PBAoE skills such as Balthazar's Rage, Heart of Holy Flame, and Zealous Renewal, to cause a large amount of unblockable damage. One very often build used by dervish's is a 130 hp build. They lower their health to 130 by using 5 superior runes. Then by using a monk's Protective Spirit skill they only take 13 damage from attacks. They use skills like Mystic Regeneration to provide health regen and Essence Bond and Balthazar's Spirit to gain 2 energy whenever they're hit. If playing in PvE with a Form Elite, it is a good idea to bring the sunspear skill Eternal Aura, as it allows (with high enough Mysticism) to keep forms active indefinitely...

[edit] PvP

Dervishes provide much damage, and can stay alive for long periods of time, but if any other character has enchantment removal skills, the Dervish is of no use, because most builds include enchantments. A good idea is to bring Avatar of Dwayna, since it removes a hex and heals you whenever you use a skill. The Dervish is a versatile profession, but in PvP it is recommended to bring healing spells such as Mystic Regeneration and enchantments, such as Mystic Vigor, combined with Vital Boon and Faithful Intervention to stay alive and have massive amounts of regeneration. Also, bring attack skills such as Mystic Sweep to deal much + damage, and if you take Avatar of Melandru, take Wearying Strike, such as the condition won't be applied to you, and if you take AoM, bring skills that transfer conditions from allies to you, to control some part of degeneration.

[edit] Staying alive

A Dervish lacks the armor that a warrior has, but can still keep itself on the front lines with all the available self-healing spells it has in its arsenal. With no shield or innate defenses dervishes can die quickly. A dervish can find this in his earth line. With skills such as Mystic Regeneration, Vital Boon, and Conviction, foes will be hard pressed to keep you down. If you know that you are going to fight a lot of attackers consider Mirage Cloak. Another nasty combo is Armor of Sanctity and Veil of Thorns to massively reduce all incoming damage. Also skills like Avatar of Dwayna and Pious Restoration can be used for strong hex removal, or Avatar of Melandru for strong condition protection.

[edit] Playing in a Party

[edit] What to avoid

• Consuming enchantments which would be more useful if they were left active. These are monk skills like Mending and Strength of Honor.
• A good hint is to not use spells that take up all of most of your energy as it leaves you in a vulnerable state.
• Recasting enchantments before the end, for sometimes the energy boost from Mysticism is needed.

[edit] Play Styles

[edit] Melandru Dervish

Also called the "Tree", this play style focuses around the elite skill Avatar of Melandru and Wearying Strike to create a powerful melee spiker with immunity to conditions and substantial health.

[edit] Balthazar Dervish

Turns the Dervish into a tank for use in PvE using Dervish skills. Usually combines the elite skill Avatar of Balthazar with Dervish healing abilities such as enchantments from the Earth Prayers line and scythe attacks that heal upon striking such as Reap Impurities, Twin Moon Sweep and Victorious Sweep.

[edit] Lyssa Dervish

Focused around Avatar of Lyssa, this build gives the dervish a boost in damage and energy, making you a powerhouse of enchantments. It would work well with many enchantments, such as Dust Cloak, Heart of Fury, Heart of Holy Flame, and Mystic Sandstorm. It is often used to hasten Sunspear point farming in this way. Avatar of Lyssa also synergizes well with Radiant Scythe.

[edit] Choice of Secondary Professions

Monk, Ritualist or Paragon is often used to provide a reusable Resurrection skill.

• Warrior
  • Access to utility skills such as Wild Blow, Distracting Strike, and Rush.
• Ranger
  • Apply Poison will help to poison up to 3 foes with your scythe.
• Monk
  • Can cast quick, energy efficient enchantments that protect the Dervish, such as Reversal of Fortune that give the Dervish a Mysticism bonus as well
  • Smiting Prayers such as Reversal of Damage and Judge's Insight can add more damage.
  • Can be used in the 130 hp dervish build
  • Draw Conditions synergizes very well with Avatar of Melandru.
• Necromancer
  • Mysticism works well on an orders spammer, and orders are particularly useful as fuel for enchantment consumption skills.
• Mesmer
  • Traversion of the IW mesmer; less damage but more resilient.
• Elementalist
  • Elementalists have enchantments like Conjure Flame and Armor of Earth that dervishes can make use of.
• Assassin
  • Access to shadow steps and Dash for mobility, and Disrupting Dagger for an interrupt.
• Ritualist
  • Great for weapon spells to empower your attacks. Splinter Weapon combined with the dervish's ability to hit multiple targets is a deadly combination.
  • Using Vital Weapon with Earth prayers and Victorious Sweep and Chilling Victory can be fairly potent due to the very high health and healing, it is especially effective with Avatar of Melandru .
• Paragon

---

Guides for all Professions
Core: Warrior • Ranger • Monk • Necromancer • Mesmer • Elementalist
Factions: Assassin • Ritualist        Nightfall: Paragon • Dervish