Guild Wars 2

in a little game called guild wars back in the past there was a class called the dervish . and in that game the dervish wore cloth armor from head to toe dressed like a druid or grim reaper , and like a grim reaper wielded a scythe . the dervish would spin and turn and slash with their scythe and killing very fast and deadly within its path .

and now imagine that class brought to gw2 .

so lets get this thing jump started , we want the dervish and its been long enough !!!

what kind of role would the dervish play ? off tank ? melee cc based ? how would it fit in todays guild wars 2 game ? i would expect it to be a blend between some of the warrior and thief class in how it would go about its fighting , nasty as a warrior but nimble like a thief . and with it be a cloth wearer it would need to generate buffs to help sustain it in a fight like a guardian so , what are your ideas about the class ?

To be honest, parts of the role of the Dervish still exist within the Guardian, as Guardians partly specialize in enchantments and support. But yes, some things are still missing from the good old Dervish. The most obvious being Scythes, which have been mixed into certain staffs. But I also feel “Enchantment Tear-down” isn’t properly represented in GW2 the way a Dervish did it. I also feel there should have been a proper light armor martial class. Lore-wise Dervishes may not exist anymore. After the silence of the 6 gods, dervishes may have started to feel betrayed (As Dervish is influenced by the 6 gods and prayer.) and the art was lost.

Anyhow, I’m not sure if Dervish could even function in GW2’s combat system. It would be very active and require a learning curve to even survive. With constant skill usage and enchantment removal you would have to multitask. And dodging is a whole different story aside from that. And if 1 enchantment goes down or you can’t dodge….I don’t think your light-class armor is going to save you. The point being…Dervish would need some serious reworking to adapt to GW2.

Dervish Concept – New Name: Zephyr

Lore

The Zephyr is a trained warrior of the group of nomads called the Zephyrites. While they are a peaceful group, a number of Zephyrites of Elonian descent and Dervish origin have been training with scythes and working on how to utilise the magic of the Aspects as a substitute for the blessings lost from the Exodus.

Profession Mechanic – Aspect

Each Zephyr has in their possession a shard from the main Aspects: Sun, Wind and Lightning. While these don’t provide any passive effect, the Zephyr can channel these powers to provide short-term, unique bonuses. Using a skill ends the channel and places it on cooldown based on how long it was channeled for. When an Aspect gets placed on cooldown, there is a global cooldown for all Aspects of 1 seconds. Players can move while the Aspect is being channeled.

Aspect of the Sun (AotS) – While being channeled, all nearby enemies are Blinded and Burnt. Pulses every x seconds.
Aspect of the Wind (AotW) – While being channeled, all nearby allies gain increased movement and attack speed (around 10 – 25% of Quickness).
Aspect of Lightning (AoL) – While being channeled, increases Endurance regeneration and reduces cooldown recharge by 10% and 5% respectively.

Certain skills that, if used to disrupt the channel, also have additional effects.

Profession Weapons

Scythe

A weapon of Elonian origin, this is a relic of these warrior’s past.

1. Slash: Strike a foe > Slash: Strike a foe > Zephyr Strike: Strike a foe and gain swiftness.
2. Renewing Slash: Slash an enemy. If this skill interrupts an Aspect channel, heal for an amount based on how long the channel was being done.The longer the channel, the larger the amount and placing this skill on cooldown.
3. Wind Scythe: Swing your scythe. If this skill interrupts Aspect of the Wind, this skill is unblockable and places this skill on cooldown.
4. Purifying Scythe: Swing your scythe: if this skill interrupts Aspect of the Sun, this skill consumes any Burning condition to deal extra damage and strips 2 boons and placing this skill on cooldown.
5. Storm Scythe: Swing your scythe: if this skill interrupts Aspect of Lightning, this attack channels, striking the target and all nearby foes 4 times in quick succession, stunning all foes in range on the first strike, and placing this skill on cooldown.

And so on, and so on…

Profession Heals

Renew Aspects – The more aspects not on cooldown, the larger the heal. Refreshes the cooldowns of all Aspects.
Signet of Aspects – Passive: Heals the player and removes 3 conditions whenever an Aspect is consumed by a skill. Active: The next Aspect to channel within 10 seconds also provides healing and condition removal for all nearby allies every second for the duration of the channel. The cooldown of this skill is based on how long the Aspect was channeled for. The longer the channel, the longer the cooldown.

And so on, and so on…

Profession Utilities

These fall under 4 categories:

Wind Blessing

• Zephyr’s Wind – Grant Swiftness and Vigor to all nearby allies. Consume AotW: Swiftness and Vigour last twice as long. Also grants quickness.
  Sun Blessing
• Purifying Rays – Removes 3 conditions from all nearby allies. Consume AotS: Converts them conditions to boons. Heals based on how many conditions were converted.
  Lightning Blessing
• Thunderclap – Apply x stacks of vulnerability to all foes in the target area. Consume AoL: Stuns all foes in the target area.
  Flash Enchantment – Consumed by Aspect Channels to add additional effects to the channel.
• Zephyr’s Haste: Gain Swiftness for the duration of the Enchantment. Consumed by AotW: Interrupt all nearby foes on activation and increases the effect of AotW by 100% for the first 2 seconds.

And so on, and so on…

Profession Elites

• Avatar of the Aspect: Gain skills and bonuses based on which Aspect channel this skill interrupts. Sun: Support your allies. Wind: Control your foes. Lightning: Deal heavy damage.
• Signet of the Aspects: Passive: Each attack reduces the cooldown of all aspects by 0.5. This effect cannot occur more than 5 times every 10 seconds. Active: Gain the ability to tap directly into the power of Aspects, increasing the effects of the channels by a massive amount for the duration of the buff.

And so on, and so on…

Profession Traitlines

Martial Mastery – Focuses on amplifying the players weapon skills.
Wind Mastery – Focuses on improving the players use of AotW and Wind Blessings.
Sun Mastery – Focuses on improving the players use of AotS and Sun Blessings.
Lightning Mastery – Focuses on improving the players use of AoL and Lightning Blessings.
Mysticism Aspect Recharge is tied to this Trait Line. Focuses on improving the players use of all Aspects and Flash Enchantments.

Dervish didn’t wear cloth armor but medium armor. They had the same base armor (assuming you had max armor) with assassins and rangers.

I’d rather have the avatar of the gods as elite racial skills for the humans and the mechanics dispersed among the other existing professions as utilities and maybe as a new weapon class (Scythe) personally.

umbrablackfell.7849:

Lore-wise Dervishes may not exist anymore. After the silence of the 6 gods, dervishes may have started to feel betrayed (As Dervish is influenced by the 6 gods and prayer.) and the art was lost.

I can’t remember where I read it, but someone on the forum stated that the Dervish class could have survived through adaptation: maybe they would have been able to channel the dragons’ magic and got influenced by it. But it would be quite difficult to put in place, since some dragons did not awake until very late.

My two cents on the question would be that Dervish could have used “forbidden” magic to survive extinction: how about they “worshipped” fallen gods, such as Abaddon, Dhuum, Menzies, or the unnamed predecessor of Abaddon? Even Kormir has she could have had an impact of the whole people after her ascension to godhood.

Dervish could become a darker class, using conditions to gain boons in close combat: for example they would apply bleeding and gain regeneration. They would also apply some boons to their allies.

They could have “mixed” their lore with the Paragon’s lore, as survivors of the Order of the Sunspears. Dervish would now use their signature scythe, but also polearms/spears/javelin, being more aggressive than the gardian and more conditions/boons-related than warriors.

What I liked most about the Dervish was the ability to transform into the avatars of the gods… Wouldn’t it be awesome to see some Abaddon-like (Margonite?) fighter, or the green flames of Dhuum?

Instead of only changing the appearance and some attributes (steal life and immune to X), weapon skills would match the avatar: Dhuum would still use the scythe but with a more Necromancer spirit (or even his GW1 monster skills), Abaddon’s skills would be hand-to-hand combat, with some Thief-like skills (shadow-steps and dark arts… and Words of Madness ^^), Menzies could use swords with fire-themed skills, and Kormir (let’s say) would be obviously spear/shield with more support abilities.

Of course these are just a possibility, or rather a “wish” of a good way to save the lore without completely destroying an amazing class.

TL;DR: there’s always a way to keep the Dervish spirit alive, so let’s pray they get good ideas.

@TheDaiBish: My god, that is awesome. Well tought out, and that could actually be introduced lore wise.

@OP
I was thinking of a system with one active “enchantment” which ends when the next comes up. Gives a passive buff and an effect when it ends. Many skills give you an enchantment, and consequently also end the previous enchantment.

This would allow you to switch between tactics very fast, but for the “bigger” end effect, you would have to anticipate your foes. Spread them out for sustained damage, or use all your enchantment skills at once for burst.

Dervishes could be heavy armor, medium health, because that is an obvious missing combination of stats. Their signature armor is sort of in the game (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/9/90/Diviner_armor_human_male_front.jpg http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/3/32/Dry_Bones_armor_human_male_front.jpg http://wiki.guildwars2.com/images/c/c2/Winged_armor_human_male_front.jpg), but more could come in if they ever decide to make profession-specific armor.
Style is hard anyway, since there are so many armours and styles, and of course new people that never heard of the Dervish before.

It would be absolutely awesome to see more from Nightfall period. The dervish is one of the most awesome things in it, so I’m in!