Feedback:User/Sec Qr Euin/Dervishes as a Profession
Dervishes as a Profession
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| User | Sec Qr Euin |
| Categories | Mechanics → Professions |
For a while, the precarious balance of this class has been tolerable, as the meta still served as a playable venue for this class in both PvP and PvE. Since there has not been a serious skill update in ~120 days, the meta has become static and therein, stagnant. What's more is that it is Dervish unfriendly on both accounts.
I am a balanced UW clearer and an RA/ABer. In the UW, the Manlyway, Mobway and Dayway dominate and have no roles for Dervishes to fill, and are actually unable to adapt their rigid team builds to a Dervishes play style, shutting them out entirely. What rubs me the wrong way most on this account is that the latter both of these rely on Crit Scythes to operate, and the Physicalway build - allowing Dervishes to fill up to three spots - that is theoretically just as capable is nowhere to be found ; Sins have become the preferred scythe-users over the class the weapon was made for. More on that in the other instance: PvP.
Currently, and for the past ~120 days, the meta has become a block-stacking versus hex-stacking, with little to no successful variance. Since the Dervish was built as an Enchantment-reliant melee class, we are susceptible to BOTH of the above (and nearly every other counter in the game, since we are effectively both casters and melee), making us the lepers of the current PvP meta. In fact, the only institutionally successful scythe builds I've seen (ones that have remained irksomely consistent) are the Crit Scythes and the Expertise-driven Scythes, again creating a market for characters preferable over Dervishes, with the Dervishes' own weapon.
The reason for Dervishes being built the way they are occurs to me, yes. The profession was built to be a versatile class, one that could fill a great variance of roles, both caster and melee, at need. While being great, in theory, trying to make Dervishes do too much has rendered them inferior to the classes whose roles we are "able" to fill, who outclass them by miles. Dervish backliners, while maybe being fun from an ingenuity standpoint, will never replace a dedicated monk (or combination therein). Dervish frontliners are fragile; our capabilities can be classified three ways.
The first is Enchantment-defensive, typically based on Earth prayers, making an effective Turtle, but also hampering that character's offensive capabilities, still tied to the same energy pool keeping them self-reliant, that they can hardly pump out suitable pressure DPS, much less killing power.
Second is Enchantment-offensive, based off of Mysticism, frequently an Avatar Form and/or heavy Scythe Mastery, increasingly more prevalent mixed with Wind Prayers (for run skills and access to Chilling Victory), the type which everyone complains about as overpowered, when really its capabilities stand SOLELY on whether or not the foe has sufficient Enchantment Removal, wherein that Dervish becomes a monk with a hammer, being degenerated or kited into uselessness. A great example is Faintheartedness, which may as well be renamed Cerebral Palsy, when applied to Dervishes, and since this type of Dervish relies on all of its skills to be offensively-viable, that Dervish does not have Wind Prayers's excellent hex removal skills and (based off the class's construction) certainly not the Enchantments to be feeding to such spells.
The last is the Enchant-less Dervish, of which I have personally never seen take off in any meta and have seen few successful constructions. Such a Dervish relies on a sort-of blitz strategy, which can prove effective against certain enemies in PvP - since they see a Dervish and expect to be able to blight its Enchantments until it's useless - but has a mere handful of tricks, little to no support from its primary Attribute and a couple, relatively long-casting spells with which to keep itself alive, relying on a firm support from its back and midline in sync with it to keep the enemy on the defensive in order to remain alive. Herein, they are not terribly different from Warriors, in that they become stance-reliant instead, even to the point of spamming Pious Haste to keep Enchantments off of them in order to effectively utilize their Forsaken Insignias, yet Dervishes are still energy-reliant in this state without the convenience of the Warrior-class's Adrenal skills.
As a Dervish-loyal player, one that has spent a net worth of over a million platinum collecting scythes, it is terribly disappointing to see my class fall into this pit. I realize I may fall into the ranks of the Balance-Seekers, who engage endlessly in a Sysiphus-like struggle to call out and extirpate the imbalancing elements of the game, but the prolific nature of an entire class falling out of favor (to me) makes necessary a response at least of this magnitude.
In several discussions, I've come to what I feel like are two possibilities: either the Dervish class was poorly designed/nerfed into uselessness (no offense intended, on either account) versus the other healthy profession, allowing the Dervish's roles to become overshadowed by other professions (A/D,R/D,Rt/D) far better at their potential job, OR they are one of the only balanced objects in the GW meta(s) and the imbalanced nature of the remaining classes, those which can take advantage of multiple, gaping exploits in their skills or some synergies which work similarly (those attainable by Dervish primaries all but closed up), allowing them to displace the Dervish in both metas. I realize this calls for drastic change, but I feel such a measure is necessary.
In an interview with James Phinney, seemingly before the release of Prophecies, he stated that the goal of profession design was to create professions that are balanced and fun. Balance is still relative, but they are certainly fun, so lets call that a 'check'. They should be distinct from others; okay, well we're Enchantment-reliant and this makes us different enough. Is this necessarily 'good'? Well... I don't personally think so, but that's not the point. 'Check'.
"Professions will be interdependent, but that interdependence will come without making those playing any particular profession feel useless or like a second-class citizen". THAT is where I make my distinction. I can't bring my Dervish to HA, she's 50/50 in RA/Codex and I've never seen one in a serious GvG match. Utilizing any of the above forms of Dervish primary play as a frontliner with a scythe either requires quite a bit of assistance, such as a KD warrior (or two) or a very talented/ingenious monk, both which make the Dervish a liability to such (or toolbox, at best) to such a team, rather than a boon. In high-end PvE, our coupled caster-melee weakness simply makes us too unpredictable to put as a dedicated tank or frontliner, without very seriously stressing the monks or having a team built around our class and I've already made my case against the Dervish backliner.
Dervishes are GW's second-class citizens; please stop nerfing our Scythe attacks and Enchantments because other classes abuse them, nerf the Gimmicks. Please address this, at the VERY LEAST in GW2.
Thank you, very much for your time and effort,
Sec Qr Euin.
