Arcane Orders Dervish

This discussion is a continuation of one started in the Imbagon thread. However, since it only deals with the topic of the Arcane Order's Dervish, I figured a new thread was appropriate.

So I've been testing various Order Dervish builds on my heroes and seem to have settled on one that works rather well.

I tried that Pious Orders build that someone recommended in forums (see the Imbagon thread). It was bad. Really, really bad. The hero stripped enchantments at complete random, including the elite one, and rarely had energy at all.

With that in mind, I went back to my original build and changed a few things. Dervish heroes don't seem to use Watchful Intervention really well, so I simply removed it. Also, Dwayna's Touch is mainly there for a self but heroes will use touch spells to heal others, running all over the place and often getting killed. :p

[build name="Arcane Orders Hero" prof=D/N Mysticism=10+1+1 EarthPrayers=7+1 WindPrayers=9+1 BloodMagic=10][Arcane Zeal][Dark Fury][Order of Pain][Mystic Healing][Mystic Regeneration][Vow of Piety][Faithful Intervention][Resurrection Signet][/build]

By dropping Wind Prayers to 9+1, I was able to raise Earth Prayers to 7+1. This gives Mystic Regen +3 health regen per enchantment. Since the hero alone is capable of providing 6 enchantments, Mystic Regen provides nice healing to cover the health sacrifice costs of the necro spells. Also, it counters a huge amount of degen. With Vow of Piety and Mystic Healing, the dervish provides respectable party-wide healing as well. For example, with 6 enchantments on the hero, Mystic Healing gains one net energy and heals 6 people for 45 health. Not bad! On a side note, the main reason the Resurrection Signet is there is because I couldn't find anything better to complement the other skills on the bar; in that case, an extra res is always nice, but you could swap something else in such as an enchant strip from the Necromancer line or Imbue Health for a strong spike heal.

The hero seems to keep Order of Pain and Dark Fury up abut 80% of the time. Considering heroes won't recast the enchantments until the previous cast goes away (unlike humans, who can start casting before the previous enchant ends), this is really all I can ask for. Also, after watching this hero's energy a bunch during battle, they seem to have no problems at all keeping enough around to spam their spells.

One other thing, in my original post I advocated Survivor's Insignia's for this build. Windwalker Insignias are actually better for a few reasons. First, since the health sacrifice costs are percentage based, higher max health means higher sacrifice costs, which in turn means more healing needed. Second, Windwalker Insignia's give a +5 armor boost for each enchantment on the dervish, up to +20 armor. This dervish will almost always have 4+ enchants on her, which means her base armor will be 90, making her a lot less squishy.

As for how effective this build is at buffing your physicals, I went to the Isle of the Nameless and tested various classes with and without the Orders Derv around. This is their average DPS over a 3 minute period.

Class	DPS W/O Derv	DPS W/ Derv
Paragon	35	46
Assassin	65	75
Warrior	49	67
Ranger	36	42
Dervish	57	71

Builds Used:

[build name="Cruel Spear Para" prof=P/W spear=11+1+1 com=8+1 lead=11+1][Swift Javelin][Cruel Spear]["Go For The Eyes!"][Anthem of Flame]["There's Nothing To Fear!"]["For Great Justice!"][Aggressive Refrain][Signet of Return][/build]

Not exactly a high-DPS build, but this just happens to be what I'm using on my Para right now. I used Shouts and Chants as if I was supporting a party.

[build name="Moebius Blossom" prof=A dag=12+1+1 crit=12+1][Golden Fox Strike][Wild Strike][Death Blossom][Moebius Strike][Critical Eye][Critical Defenses][Dash][Resurrection Signet][/build]

This was a PvP toon so I could not use Critical Agility, which would have given me a 33% increased attack speed and considerably increased DPS.

[build name="Cleaver" prof=W str=12+1 axe=12+1+1][Cleave][Dismember][Cyclone Axe][Executioner's Strike][Flail][Enraging Charge][Lion's Comfort][Resurrection Signet][/build]

With Dark Fury, hitting Cyclone Axe with 3 adjacent foes gave 6 strikes of adrenaline. Attack spam ensued. :p

[build name="Barrager" prof=R exp=12+1 marks=12+1+1][Barrage][Sloth Hunter's Shot][Distracting Shot][Savage Shot][Antidote Signet][Favorable Winds][Lightning Reflexes][Resurrection Signet][/build]

The DPS report on this build is likely artificially low, since Master of Damage only counts single-target damage. Actual damage output when hitting multiple targets is far higher than reported.

[build name="Reapers Sweep" prof=D/Mo scyth=12+1+1 myst=12+1][reaper's sweep][mystic sweep][victorious sweep][aura of holy might (luxon)][heart of fury][conviction][mending touch][sunspear rebirth signet][/build]

With 2 enchants ending every 6-7 seconds, energy was not a problem. Again, remember that reported damage is single-target and scythes can hit up to 3 targets. Also, while it doesn't say it, Aura of Holy Might changes your attacks to holy damage which means Order of Pain does not increase the damage. The DPS increase with the Orders Dervish is therefore solely from the enhanced energy gain, which allowed for more attack spam. Note that holy damage does double damage to undead, which means this dervish build would absolutely tear them up.

Conclusion

Since an Arcane Orders dervish greatly increases melee DPS and provides rather good party healing, it seems a fine addition to any physical-heavy party. It's not surprising that the melee classes that use adrenaline benefit the most, but even non-adrenaline classes seem to gain quite a bit.

-Jonathan

Just noticed that Conviction is useless in the Derv build I posted since it has no points in Earth Prayers. Oh well, I usually use Faithful Intervention in that slot anyways, to provide an extra enchant to fuel Mystic Sweep and to help against spikes.