Guild Wars 2

Description

Tyrian Dervishes are an off-shoot of traditional Elonian Dervishes. This particular order fled north by ship, predicting Joko’s successful reign. Their ship wrecked at sea, however, scattering them across Tyria, where they have formed various orders and learned from all races. Though secretive, their existence was eventually discovered by the Order of Whispers, who have taken an interest in their unique talents.

Armor – Heavy

The new Dervish order is one that places its faith in steel. While this armor reduces their speed, they use its weight to add force to smooth, graceful dances.

Available Weapons

2-Handed
Scythes
Greatswords
Staff (Melee)
Hammers
Longbow
Shortbow

Main-Hand
Sword
Dagger
Axe

Off-Hand
Sword
Dagger
Axe

Profession Mechanic – Dances

The Dervish cannot swap weapons, as they are limited to one-weapon set (like the Elementalist and Engineer). They can, however, swap between three Dances.

Each weapon has its own three dances with their own unique names. Each dance, like an attunement swap, is also associated with 5 weapon skills.

The fun of the Dervish, however, comes in the form of its secondary activation – the Crescendo. These are powerful skills, like Burst Skills, that only become available if you stay in a Dance for a long enough duration, as it requires that you build up a Tempo. Thus, unlike the Elementalist, the Dervish encourages lengthy, informed decisions over rapid swaps. And unlike the Warrior, the Dervish encourages patience over reckless abandon. Swapping Dances, of course, resets any progress towards a Crescendo skill, even if you’ve completely unlocked it.

Unique Attribute

The unique attribute of the Dervish is Rhythm. This speeds up the acquisition of Tempo while in a dance.

Utilities

Signet

Shout -
Dervish shouts are based on Tempo. They consume it and a boosted by your current percentage of Tempo with effectiveness ratios to produce powerful support effects.

Song-
Effectively a channeled shout, an Aria has the Dervish sing, much like a Mesmer’s Mantra. Unlike a Mantra, the Dervish can use other skills while singing, but they can be interrupted at any point, along with any other skill the Dervish might be using.. Songs are devoted to powerful non-boon support effects, much like Ranger spirits, though they only last for a few seconds or until interrupted.
Example
Song of Might and Malice (Elite) – Sing a Song of Power over the next 5 seconds, granting allies in the area (including yourself) 300 bonus Power and Condition Damage. (May need adjustment)

Vow-
Vows, now a form of personal strength as opposed to religious statement, are an effect with a pre-requisite. If the Dervish fulfills the requirement within a time limit, they get a powerful bonus. If they do not, they gain no benefit.
Example
Vow of Strength (Elite) – Make a Vow of Strength. If you deal x damage within y seconds, you gain doubled Power for z seconds. Failure to meet your vow results in no benefit.

Enchantment
Enchantments are Boon modifiers. They each effect all boons – boosting their benefits and giving you a special effect when a Boon begins or ends on you.
Examples
Fire Enchantment – Gain an enchantment of Fire, causing each unique Boon to grant you 20 Power and Condition Damage. Deal damage in an area when you gain or lose a unique boon.
Water Enchantment – Gain an enchantment of Ice. Each Boon on you grants you a very small amount of healing over time. When you gain or lose a unique boon, heal allies in a small area.

As someone who mained a Dervish from the day Nightfall dropped, I can’t say I like the idea of giving a Dervish a bow.
That being said, I’m all for bringing back the spin-to-win Sandman.
Here’s my take based on your proposal:

Arias were more of a Paragon thing.
Vows should be a double-edged sword – abilities that limit you in one aspect of combat while empowering another, and are mutually exclusive, meaning only one vow can be active. Recasting a Vow could reverse the effects.
Signets should provide instant benefit, either offensive or defensive, at the cost of removing a boon or two.
Auras should be brief area effects that apply a boon or condition.
Enchantments should be personal auras that empower your direct strikes or auras, but are consumed by them.
I like your idea for the stance bar, they could be something like:
Dancing Winds – increased effectiveness of movement and attack speed modifiers, be it increasing your own speed or your allies’, or decreasing your foes’ speeds.
Dancing Sands – increased effectiveness of conditions and boons.
Dancing Blades – increased effectiveness of direct weapon strikes.
Dance of the Mystic – increased effectiveness of direct healing and defensive abilities.
And of course, we can’t forget the Avatars – the iconic elite skills of the Dervish. Big, bad, and broken. (can you tell I’m a bit biased?)

Although your idea of the Dervishes’ unique resource (Tempo) is interesting, I would say that Momentum would be a better word to use, especially considering that if you’re using a scythe, using your momentum effectively is part of knowing how to wield it. It’s not a stop-and-start weapon like a sword, and if you look up videons of traditional dervish dances, they know how to manipulate their momentum pretty well.
I think the system should be set up so that successful attacks and dodges increase momentum, being CCed or interrupted has a momentum penalty, and each dance having its own momentum finisher to “end” the dance and pour your energy into a high-profile ability that breaks up the flow of combat for a few seconds, so as to differentiate it from the Adrenaline system that Warriors use.

I like where you’re going with this, and I would absolutely love to see Dervishes make an appearance in GW2.
I want to feel OP again!

While those are really cool ideas, it is extremely unlikely that we will ever see a Dervish as a playable class in gw2 due to their lore.
You see, Dervish is a champion of the human gods. Their powers come directly from them. Thus they are human exclusive. Making Dervish as a playable class in gw2 would make as much sense as making an “Iron Legion Engineer” class that’s not exclusice to the charr.
That’s why anet is not doing it and instead integrated many of derv’s elements into the guardian, and gave all humans the ability to become avatars.

Show me where you’re seeing the Dervish being rolled into the Guardian. Guardians are Monks, who where phased out because they exist primarily as a support role and don’t have much versatility outside that, and ANet wanted each class to be able to perform any combat role. So they gave monks heavy armor and greatswords.

While I agree that the human gods are fairly insignificant to the other races (Norn being the only other race that openly acknowledges their influence to any degree), ANet could spin this by implementing one race-specific class to each of the playable races – Humans get Dervishes, Norn get Shamans, Asura get Alchemists, Sylvari get —-—weavers (not sure what to put there, something plant-related), and Charr get —-—bane (something referencing their disdain for gods).

I’m not saying that Guardian is Dervish, i’m saying that some elements of the class were included into the Guardian ie. hard hitting melee fighter that is more supportive than the warrior.
Same goes with the Ritualist for example. Mesmer’s phantasms are loosely based on the spirits, which is why it is extremely unlikely we will see RTs in GW2 (plus the lore reasons – their magic is obsolete)

And then, like you said, to make it fair, ANET would have to include a special class for each of the races. That’s five new classes in total with unique skills, traits, animations etc.
Thus, once again, extremely unlikely that we will ever see this kind of system in Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 3, perhaps, but as it is, it just seems like way too much work that could be put elsewhere.

Tomas.5029:

While those are really cool ideas, it is extremely unlikely that we will ever see a Dervish as a playable class in gw2 due to their lore.
You see, Dervish is a champion of the human gods. Their powers come directly from them. Thus they are human exclusive. Making Dervish as a playable class in gw2 would make as much sense as making an “Iron Legion Engineer” class that’s not exclusice to the charr.
That’s why anet is not doing it and instead integrated many of derv’s elements into the guardian, and gave all humans the ability to become avatars.

My Dervish is a different form conceptually, as it is similar to the Guardian’s philosophy of inner power – though I’ve also considered a form inspired by the Watcher fan concept class that draws on Norn ideals to watch animals and learn dances from them (slotting three that suit their needs). But, in essence, this Dervish order is one that is disillusioned with the human gods and puts its faith in more practical sources.

As for Arias being a Paragon thing, this was something that I thought conceptually fit my version of the Dervish, and it is something that seems to work well into their playstyle. Though the Dervish hasn’t been well-integrated into other class concepts – much of its identity remains uncovered in the current game – Paragons are more than a little bit similar to the existing Warrior and Guardian classes.

Then perhaps the class should renamed since it strays so far from what actual Dervishes stand for?
Reaver perhaps?

This is actually a pretty sound concept, and sounds fun to play. Far above the usual profession suggestions. I loved dervish in GW1, but always figured they would be conceptually impossible in GW2. But this… this actually sounds like something Anet could potentially do. Wouldn’t get my hopes too high, though.

I wouldn’t mind seeing Ritualists and Dervishes, but don’t think it is likely.

Dervish would undoubtedly be a medium class if it were to make it into the game, as it was in the original Guild Wars.

Warrior and Paragon were the only “heavy” classes with 80 armor (by default) in Guild Wars, and there were a total of ten professions (five with light armor- 60, and three with medium armor – 70)

Since Guild Wars 2 is lacking a third heavy armor profession however, I would find it more likely that they would add a third heavy class to even things out a bit.

That being said, I would expect a heavy armor class, capable of wielding polearms, scythes, halberds, great axes, etc. and it would give tribute to the dervish in many ways without being a true dervish. It would also have a different name…. like Zealot or something.

I don’t think it’s likely either, but if they ever release an actual expansion for GW2, we can get our hopes up again.

By actual expansion, I mean something like the expansions for GW1 with a sizeable chunk of PVE content, some new stuff for each of the existing classes (maybe the expanded weapon sets), new zones, and hopefully new professions.

And you think that this is “too much work that could be put elsewhere”? Why not spin the lore so that the next dragon was winning the fight (launch event) until the dervish/alch/shaman/etc (heroes who bring back lost knowledge or something) came along to turn the tide for the Tyrians? Seems like a fair way to add new professions.

Also, it’s not like they’re really adding any meaningful content right now. Honestly, I’d settle for a new weapon type or two and more diverse PvE AI/mechanics.

Edit: I don’t like how they burned every possible route for expansion they had by cutting off Cantha and Elona before the events of this game even occur. We should at least try to take back the crystal desert now that Zhaitan has been stopped with the end of the first story arc. The humans haven’t been completely eradicated from Elona, so the “dervish” could still be possible from a lore perspective where we get a break from fighting dragons and go to free Elona from the iron fist of Palawa Joko.