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Lyssa's Assault- This attack strikes for +5...17 damage if it hits. If you are under the effects of an Enchantment, you gain 3...10 Energy. (Scythe Attack)
E: 10, R: 8, Linked to Scythe Mastery
At 16 Scythe, this does +21 and you gain 13 energy. You should pretty much always be enchanted, so it's a little extra damage that pays for itself. This is hardly essential though, it's just what I like using. If you are indeed using Reaper's Sweep below, you could try Chilling Victory here for a nice damage spike after Reaper's, particularly against multiple opponents.
Reaper's Sweep- If this attack hits, you deal +10...34 damage. If your target was below 50% Health, you also inflict a Deep Wound for 5...17 seconds. (Scythe Attack) *elite*
E: 5, R: 8, Linked to Scythe Mastery
-At 16 Scythe, this does +42 and you deep wound for 21 seconds. As such it's a pretty powerful attack, but depending on the situation feel free to swap this for another elite, such as an Avatar. Balthazar is very useful for survival, particularly against melee opponents due to the holy damage and extra running speed. Lyssa is good against spellcasters, particularly those with long cast times. Dwayna is great if you're under attack by mesmers or hexing necros, or just as a powerful source of healing. Melandru can completely disrupt condition-based builds if you can afford its high casting cost, and it's good for tanking too. Grenth can cause some major problems for prot monks, enemy dervishes, etc. I often find I prefer having a strong and unconditional melee attack instead of a Form, but when the situation calls for it, make use of them.
Mystic Sweep- If this attack hits, you deal +5...9 damage for each Enchantment on you (maximum 30 bonus damage). (Melee Attack)
E: 5, C: 3/4, R: 4, Linked to Scythe Mastery
At 16 Scythe, this does +10 damage per enchantment. So it takes 3 of the 4 enchantments in this build to obtain its max damage. There's not much to say about this skill, it's cheap and fast to recharge. Try to avoid wasting it if you've unenchanted or only have 1 enchantment active, the energy cost then isn't worth it. Also notice that it has a casting time despite being a melee attack. This means that if you use it shortly after a regular attack you can 'cancel' the animation after the attack, and get in Mystic Sweep sooner than normal. Basically it means you can get in an attack faster than they might be expecting. Use this often as long as you've got enchantments, it's a good source of damage.
Mystic Vigor- For 20 seconds, every time you successfully hit with an attack, you gain 1...6 Health for each Enchantment on you (maximum 25 Health). (Enchantment)
E: 5, C: 1/4, R: 15, Linked to Mysticism
At 13 Mysticism you get 6 health for each enchantment. It provides some basic healing, and is actually quite effective if you're hitting several targets at once. It counts as an enchantment for itself of course, as well as providing some extra power for Mystic Sweep. And of course it can easily be maintained permanently, and is quite cheap to use for a 20 second duration (especially considering 13 Myst means 4 energy back when it ends, hehe).
Heart of Fury- For 5...17 seconds, you attack 33% faster. When this Enchantment ends, all nearby foes are set on fire for 1...3 seconds. (Enchantment)
E: 10, C: 3/4, R: 30, Linked to Mysticism
At 13 Mysticism it lasts for 18 seconds. As well as providing an enchantment for Mystic Sweep and Vigor, attacking more quickly is of course going to activate Mystic Vigor more often. Plus more damage is always a good thing, hehe. Can't be maintained, but use it when you have the energy to spare, it's a big help.
Heart of Holy Flame- All adjacent foes take 15...51 holy damage. For 30 seconds, your attacks deal holy damage. When this Enchantment ends, all adjacent foes are set on fire for 1...3 seconds. (Enchantment)
E: 10, C: 3/4, R: 15, Linked to Mysticism
At 13 Mysticism it does 54 damage, with 4 seconds of burning when it ends. Try to avoid using this until you're actually in melee range of enemies, the 54 damage isn't affected by armour and it'll hit everything around you. As well as once again providing an enchantment for the two Mystic skills, this forces your damage into Holy and thus circumvents just about any armour bonus, making you considerably stronger against something like a Warrior without weakening you against Rangers or Eles like an Elemental mod would. It's also extremely useful against undead and minions. See my tip lower down about how to deal with minion masters, hehe. Try to let Holy Flame finish before you re-apply, otherwise you won't get the burning.
Faithful Intervention- If damage drops your Health below 50%, Faithful Intervention ends. When Faithful Intervention ends, you are healed for 30...126 Health. (Enchantment)
E: 5, C: 2, R: 20, Linked to Mysticism
At 13 Mysticism this heals for 134 health. You should always apply this skill before entering battle. It provides an enchantment towards the Mystic skills, but doesn't have an accompanying energy degen or time limit. It also helps significantly against spikes, and can give your healer some extra time to help if things aren't going too well. I'm not sure I'd recommend reapplying during battle, 2 seconds is a reasonably long cast for a frontline character and there are more effective ways to heal. Still, you can do so if you don't think you're likely to be interrupted and you're not getting pounded on too quickly (since Mystic Vigor heals you while you're attacking, casting this temporarily stops you from regaining health).
Optional (Res, in this case)- I stuck a Sunspear Rebirth Signet here because this is intended to be a primary Dervish build that any secondary can use. If I'm capping, I'll usually stick a capture signet here instead. You could go D/Mo and stick a proper res spell here, or if you don't think you need a res at all then feel free to stick something else here. Sometimes I like to keep Lightbringer's Gaze here, a shadow step, or an interrupt. Play around and find what suits you.
Equipment: Your scythe should be ^50 or 'while enchanted', whichever you happen to prefer. You should pretty much always be enchanted, and Faithful Intervention helps to keep you above 50% health. For mods it's mostly personal preference. I use the Hand of the Forgotten (end-game green from NF, 15^50 with Sundering and Fortitude), but there are a number of mods that work well. Vampiric or Zealous are quite good because you can hit multiple enemies, but unless you are they're kind of a waste (so maybe take two weapons and switch). Sundering leads to more damage of course, and Fortitude is always helpful to keep you alive. Defense, Shelter or Warding mods work fine too, depending on what you're up against and what your preference is. Scythe Master isn't particularly useful, and steer clear of the elemental mods as Holy Flame will override them anyway.
As you've probably guessed from skill descriptions, I use a Scythe Mastery headpiece and a sup Scythe Mastery rune, as well as a minor Mysticism. If you'd prefer more health feel free to ditch the sup rune, but I survive okay with this build so the extra damage suits me better. Getting up to 13 mysticism is fairly important as it increases the energy return to 4 every time an enchantment ends, this build goes through enough enchantments that it comes in handy. As always take whatever Vigor rune you can afford, and the other rune slots should probably be Attunement. For insignias you have a couple of choices. I like using either Radiant for extra energy, or Windwalker's (for extra armour for each active enchantment). Blessed isn't too bad either, but Windwalker's will usually do a better job. The build goes through a moderate amount of energy so Radiant can come in handy, but it's hardly essential and the extra armour is great too. Stick with whatever you prefer.
I've more or less explained how the build plays already, but I'll just recap. Faithful Intervention well before you enter battle. You can cast Mystic Vigor slightly before entering battle too, but I usually don't. Run in and pick your target, preferably so you'll be hitting several people at once. Fire off Heart of Holy Flame for some AoE damage, then Mystic Vigor (if you didn't earlier), then Heart of Fury. Then just attack your targets and spam your attack skills as long as your energy is holding out okay. Reapply enchantments as they run out, but try to make sure they do run out so you get the benefit from Mysticism (as well as the AoE burning from Fury and Holy Flame). It's not exactly a hard build to play, you pretty much just run up and smash people.
If I have any specific tips or alterations that I remember, I'll post them below.
-For a nice combo against a minion master, sub in Banishing Strike as a scythe attack and use that while under Heart of Holy Flame. For minion targets you'll do double base damage + 21 to each of those, plus 90 holy damage to all nearby for each one you hit. So if you hit 3 minions, they'll take the double damage from the actual attack, and all nearby minions will take 540 damage as well. Minions tend to clump together, so you can pretty easily take out a MM's whole attack force in one hit, while also doing 270 unblockable damage to any non-minions that are 'nearby'. I had some fun with that in AB recently, hehe. Banishing Strike is also very effective against Rit Spirit Spammers, as you'll catch the Ritualist in the 'nearby' range too.
-Fairly obvious, but Crippling Sweep is a fairly good duration cripple for kiting targets.
-I mentioned it already, but Reaper's Sweep followed by Chilling Victory makes a pretty good combo, particularly against several opponents at once.
-If you're teaming with someone using a hexing build, Rending Sweep isn't bad as an enchant removal.
-If you stick on Wounding Strike as your elite, and Reap Impurities as a scythe attack, that can make quite a nice self-heal.
Any questions?
MultiQuote
) and that when you do use the attack skills you're getting the damage bonus to everything you're hitting. To me it seems fairly worthwhile, I doubt you could afford the energy needed to use a 5 energy attack skill on every swing, anyway. At 16 scythe mastery you don't need to be using attack skills to do significant damage, like an Assassin would.
