Feedback:User/Erasculio/Fine-tunning the dervish

Fine-tunning the dervish
User	Erasculio
Categories	Mechanics → Professions

The dervish update was great. I was very fond of how ArenaNet began the related Developer's Update by clearly defining the new dervish role: while warriors are balanced fighters and assassins were made to be experts at single target damage, dervishes were (re)made with the purpose of doing multiple small packages of damage in a large area. The new Flash Enchantment system, allowing dervishes to truly juggle enchantments for offense and defense, is also a great new mechanic that helps to make the profession more unique.

My only concern, though, is that while most dervish skills have been made to work using a teardown combo, there are still multiple enchantments with long durations meant to be kept, as opposed to be removed and thus trigger some useful effect. Having to manage both teardown enchantments and enchantments meant to be kept is a nuisance, especially when trying to make builds which need constant enchantment removal, such as any Avatar build.

One example is the Aura of Holy Might skill: currently it's not a flash enchantment, it has a long duration but a long recharge (30 seconds), and it relies on frequent teardowns in order to be effective. A build which uses the skill effectively would need a strong skill bar compression in order to have both fuel enchantments and teardown skills, while being careful to not recast Aura of Holy Might above the other enchantments, as accidentally tearing it down would prevent the skill from being used effectively for a long time. That kind of situation, in which players need to use both fuel enchantments and enchantments which are meant to be kept for a long while, is the kind of issue that the update helped to reduce but didn't completely solve.

I would suggest, then, changing most of the dervish enchantments so they could be useful as fuel enchantments, even if some were more useful than others for such role. I wouldn't expect Aura of Holy Might to be as useful as a fuel enchantment as, say, Aura of Thorns, but I would expect it to work better than it does today in case a player has no other fuel enchantment available and needs to use a teardown skill. I suggest making this change mostly by giving all enchantments some kind of end effect, as well as modifying some to be flash enchantments and reducing the recharge (and duration) of a few of them:

• Aura of Holy Might: reduce the recharge and the duration significantly, or reduce the recharge and the duration slightly and make it a flash enchantment. It does not need an end effect since it already has one (it triggers itself when it ends).

• Armor of Sanctity: I would actually keep this one as it is. It's horrible as a fuel enchantment, but its effect is so powerful than I believe it's worth using anyway.

• Fleeting Stability: split for PvE (since knock down prevention by itself is very strong there) and add some kind of end effect (something weak, like small earth damage to nearby enemies) so it has at least some usefulness as a fuel enchantment.

• Mirage Cloak and Mystic Regeneration: same as Armor of Sanctity. I would keep them as they are – they have extremely powerful effects, so being of little use as fuel enchantment is actually a way to keep them balanced.

• Sand Shards: reduce one strike (next 1...3...4 strikes) and give it an end effect (earth damage to adjacent enemies).

• Veil of Thorns: give some kind of end effect. The easiest effect would probably be just small earth damage, like most suggestions above, but the skill would be interesting if it were given some new functionality (attacking melee foes are interrupted or crippled, for example).

• Vow of Strength: it's actually one of the worst offenders on this list. It's an elite enchantment, but it's neither a flash enchantment or a good fuel enchantment. I would suggest either making it a flash enchantment or giving it some kind of useful end effect (weakness on adjacent foes, for example).

• Intimidating Aura: it's also one of the worst offenders on this list. Mysticism has many skills which rely on frequent teardown combos (the avatars), but the line itself has very few good fuel enchantments, so those skills almost force a player to spread attribute points into Earth Prayers or Wind Prayers. Intimidating Aura also has the issue of giving health, but when it ends the lost health may cause a player to go into negative health and thus die in a single hit. I would suggest reducing the duration a bit (the skill is rather powerful, and it can lead to a dervish with very high health together with some other skills) and adding a healing end effect.

• Meditation: another bad enchantment; it's not a flash enchantment nor does it have any useful end effect (unlike Aura of Holy Might, it doesn't trigger itself when it ends), yet it relies on frequent teardowns. I would suggest reducing the energy gain (so it doesn't pay for itself), turning it into a flash enchantment and making it trigger itself when it ends, or turning it into a flash enchantment and giving it some other kind of end effect (a small healing, maybe, to fit with both the Mysticism theme and its old functionality).

• Mystic Vigor: another example of an enchantment that is only useful as long as it's kept around, and thus goes against the idea of juggling enchantments. I would suggest giving it some weak end effect (the simplest thing would make it heal a bit – as much as it gives per hit).

• Vow of Silence: its effect is so powerful that it doesn't need anything else.

• Watchful Intervention: not much that could be done here, since this enchantment may target allies, so I would keep it as it is.

• Featherfoot Grace: it gives a speed boost, but it requires the character to stop moving in order to be cast. Either give it a small end effect (lose one condition, maybe) or turn it into a flash enchantment, so it's slightly more viable as a fuel enchantment.

• Grenth's Aura: I would switch the life stealing effect from when the enchantment is cast to when the enchantment ends, since today this is a skill which should never be teared down.

• Grenth's Grasp: another enchantment that has its entire benefit linked to its duration, I would change it to have an end effect (such as transfer one condition to adjacent enemies when it ends). Same with Guiding Hands and Harrier's Grasp and Harrier's Haste.

• Onslaught: another enchantment that doesn't work as part of teardown combos, but then again it's so powerful that it doesn't really need any help. I would keep this one as it is.

• Vow of Piety: this one is one more extremely poor enchantment – as its article describes, when it renews itself it jumps to the top of the enchantment stack, effectively preventing the dervish from using any teardown skill without removing this enchantment. Since it relies on enchantments ending, it's a somewhat annoying skill. I would suggest changing how it works so it triggers some kind of effect when an enchantment is lost (avoiding the renewal effect that makes it jump to the top of the enchantment stack, and keeping in line with the Pious skills) and making it trigger itself when it ends (effectively giving it an end effect).

• Zealous Vow: I would give it some kind of end effect (adjacent enemies lose 1...3 energy).