The Dervish Party Healer ver. 1.0

[tarutaru]

Well, we all know by now that the Dervish are going to be nerfed...HARD.
Their damage-dealing capabilities are unmatched, imo, and a few choice skills are broken beyond belief.

And on that note, I thought to myself, "Self, after the nerfbat strikes, what will be left? Can I look at the by-passed skills and make a competant build out of them?"

It was then that I discovered the healing power of the Dervish. People keep talking about this w/ the Paragon, but I believe many are quick to overlook the Dervish's party-aiding abilities. Obviously they cannot replace Monks, or Ritualists for that matter, but I think I've stumbled across a pretty viable 8v8 build here:

Dervish/Monk
Mysticism - 16 (12+3+1)
Earth Prayers - 10 (9+1)
Wind Prayers - 10 (9+1)
Protection Prayers - 3

1. Pious Renewal (5/.25/3) - For 8 seconds, whenever an Enchantment ends on you, you gain 0...2 Energy and 0...20 Health.

2. Vital Boon (5/1/8) - For 20 seconds, you have +40...88 maximum Health. When this Enchantment ends, you are healed for 75...135 Health.

3. Initiate's Blessing (5/1/8) - For 20 seconds, whenever you lose an Enchantment, one ally in the area is healed for 5...41 Health.

4. Life Sheath (5/1/7)

5. Reversal of Fortune (5/.25/2)

6. Guardian (5/1/2)

7. Signet of Piety (0/1/20) - Lose one Enchantment. Target ally is healed for 30...114 Health. If an Enchantment was removed in this way, this Signet recharges immediately.

8. Mystic Healing (5/1/2) - For each Enchantment on you, one party member is healed for 25...73 Health (the same party member cannot be healed more than once).

* * * * *

I included skill descriptions b/c most of you probably haven't got them memorized yet. Essentially, throw enchantments 1-6 on yourself, and re-cast them whenever one ends. Once the battle gets going, and if you stagnate you casting of them each by 1-2 seconds when first applying, you'll have a constant stream bursts of energy throughout the entire battle. High Mysticism and Pious Renewal means that whenever one of the short enchants ends, you gain 10 energy and about 70 health. Every spell on your belt only costs 5 energy, so once you get the ball rolling, you'll have more energy than you'll know what to do with! Hence, your aid abilities then kick in. Whenever you're not casting enchantments on yourself, keep clicking on Mystic Healing. MH is like a free, one-second-cast, spammable Heal Party (when you factor in the mysticism energy gains). If one party member in particular needs healing, use Signet of Piety for a one-second-cast, spammable 120 point heal.

Just keep casting the enchants on yourself (each with nifty side-effects of their own), pop 'em of for quick individual heals, and give nearly your entire party 70 health every 3 seconds or so. Seems good to me.

Thoughts?

[Akirai Annuvil]

Wouldn't it be smarter to dump Vital Boon and Earth Prayers completely, and stuff thos points in Protection Prayers? Also although I like the build, I don't think it's going to be very useful, just think how often do you use heal party? Almost never because the uses are so limited (and because the costs are so high, but still I'd rather cast a high-level RoF or Life-Sheath then a medium level MH).

Still certainly not a bad build and since AoE is more used with the crap load of Dervishes around I guess that it might turn out better than I think it'll be :)

[Bobross]

Wouldn't it be smarter to dump Vital Boon and Earth Prayers completely, and stuff thos points in Protection Prayers? Also although I like the build, I don't think it's going to be very useful, just think how often do you use heal party? Almost never because the uses are so limited (and because the costs are so high, but still I'd rather cast a high-level RoF or Life-Sheath then a medium level MH).

Still certainly not a bad build and since AoE is more used with the crap load of Dervishes around I guess that it might turn out better than I think it'll be :)

Disagree completely, I think you're better off taking out protection prayers entirely, why waste the time on a useless guardian and RoF (with few points in prot prayers),

when you could be casting,

Dwayna's touch, for another great self/other heal,

Armor of Sanctity or Mirage cloak, for some spammable self protection.

or Meditation for another self heal/energy management.

Or if you want to make use of an elite: try Arcane Zeal for great energy management. or Avatar of Dwayna.

so much synergy here. The only monk skills I would even consider here are zealots fire and contemplation of purity.

[fang]

the guardian and rof are for cheap spammable enchants. not to protect or so i would hope...

[halfthought]

ok, ummm, who thinks heal party sucks?

[tarutaru]

ok, ummm, who thinks heal party sucks?

Riii.....ght, which is exactly why, oh, I don't know, just about every E/Mo you see in observer mode packing and using it? Or nearly every N/Mo for that matter? Or why several Blessed Light monks in top 10 guilds take Heal Party with them into 8v8? Golly, why would they do a thing like that?

Now imagine a virtually-free, 1-sec cast, 2-sec recharge Heal Party. You're telling me you wouldn't want that with all the splash damage in the current metagame? Of the fact that this build also packs free, 1-sec cast, instant recharge 120-point heals? Maybe just a support character you might want next time you're putting together a new build perchance?

[lavenbb]

but then you'll be a complete HP spam bot, usually HP spammers also have other utility spells. It does look very good though.

[Bobross]

tested a variation today in random arenas...didn't have the elites I wanted unlocked, so used some others instead:

Mysticism 12 - 10+2(major rune)
Earth 11 - 10 + 1 (hat)
Prot 10

1. Pious Renewal (5/.25/3) - For 8 seconds, whenever an Enchantment ends on you, you gain 0...2 Energy and 0...20 Health.

2. Vital Boon (5/1/8) - For 20 seconds, you have +40...88 maximum Health. When this Enchantment ends, you are healed for 75...135 Health.

3. Signet of Piety (0/1/20) - Lose one Enchantment. Target ally is healed for 30...114 Health. If an Enchantment was removed in this way, this Signet recharges immediately.

4. Reversal of Fortune (with points in prot prayers, it works well on myself and party members)

5. Shield of Deflection - worked alright as my elite, but I think life sheath or the energy management dervish enchantment would be better.

6. Life bond - yeah the energy management is good enough for me to bond 3-4 people.

7 Contemplation of Purity - in a pinch, heal myself a bunch and remove all conditions/hexes.

8 res sig - I know as a healer, resing shouldnt be necessary, but I'm still unlocking skills-when I get initiate's blessing, I may try to fit that and Mystic healing in here -and then rearrange my stats.

I won 3 flawless victories in a row, then had to go to work. but it did pretty well overall. Spamming RoF on yourself is nice if you're being focussed on, and it actually gives you 3 energy each time. A ranger tried to e-deny me a few times, with debilitating shot, but it only slowed me down a bit. Never had this much healing ability/energy management/utility as a monk bonder.

[tarutaru]

Very glad to hear that you did so well with it Bobross. I think that if someone can take only half the skills from the original build and succeed so well with it, that it definately means the Dervish are a solidified support class.

I tested the original build in the OP today in Randoms. Now, I thought the build would be good in an 8v8 environment, but I SERIOUSLY overlooked its ability in 4v4. As Bobross stated above, the energy management is just insane. And with 6 enchantments as opposed to his 4, I literally could never get my energy bar down past its half-way point, even if I tried. I was spamming Mystic Healing and enchantments not only on myself but all my teammates, and I just kept seeing little "+8"'s all over my head, watching as my energy bar jerked its way to full. I like your idea Bobross of including CoP and/or Life Bond. Even if I had bonded everyone on the team, my energy I think still would not have run out.

Finally, as an added bonus that I never intended, the enchantment Initiate's Blessing heals one random party member for 40+ health everytime I lost an enchantment, which was happening alot. I could spam Life Sheath on myself and all my teammates, which negated a ton of damage, and I was boost-healing them with the Signet every chance possible.

I really beg everyone to try this before the event ends. And I pray Anet doesn't nerf mysticism too much. I love this build too much to lose it after this weekend.

(P.S. I'll take some screenshots next chance I get and post them here)