Dervish



The Dervish is a melee profession first introduced in Guild Wars Nightfall. Dervishes are clothed in robes, which include bracers over each hand and hoods that symbolize their humility to the gods. Described as "a scythe-wielding holy warrior", they are a close-range profession capable of hitting multiple opponents and utilizing enchantments to deal damage, inflict conditions, and protect and heal herself/himself. Many of their abilities strike multiple foes, allowing them to be a fierce combatant on the battlefield.

The Dervish has the ability to temporarily transform into 'the physical embodiment of a god'. This consists of five Elite Form skills, each referring to one of the five Gods of Tyria. Each form is incredibly useful in combat, but can only be used for short periods at a time. Dervishes also possess skills that allow them to be fair party and self-healers, as well as other abilities that add damage. With a strong offense in spells and damage, along with healing spells supplemented with the ability to turn into the avatars of gods, the Dervish is a powerful profession.

While the Dervish can use enchantments to topple opponents fearlessly, professions adept at interrupting, stripping, and preventing the casting of enchantments can shut them down. Necromancers with skills such as Well of the Profane or Chilblains, Interrupt Rangers, Mesmers and other Dervishes are foes to be wary of, especially in PvP. Additionally, although a Dervish's protective enchantments and forms can be used to make them very difficult to defeat, without them a Dervish's armor rating of 70 does not allow them to tank on anywhere near the same level as a Warrior when these protections are removed. Like Assassins, Dervishes must exercise more caution than Warriors when charging into battle.

Scythes deal an impressive 9-41 damage - the highest of any weapon in the game - as well as strike multiple opponents adjacent to the Dervish. Similarly, most of the Dervish's skills only affect those adjacent to her or him. Thus, movement and location upon the activation of a skill are incredibly important.

The primary Dervish's base armor provides 70 armor, +25 health, +5 energy, and +2 energy recovery. A starting primary Dervish begins with 25 base energy and 4 energy recovery.

The Dervish's primary attribute is Mysticism, which provides health and energy whenever an enchantment ends on you.

Attributes

 * Mysticism (primary attribute) : You gain 1 Health for each rank in Mysticism and 1 Energy for every 3 ranks in Mysticism whenever an Enchantment ends on you.
 * Mysticism skills
 * Scythe Mastery: With a damaging skill list capable of striking multiple enemies, Scythe Mastery increases the damage you do with scythes and your chance to inflict a critical hit when using a scythe.
 * Scythe Mastery skills
 * Wind Prayers: With an movement-manipulating skill list, Wind Prayers increases the effectiveness of speed-enhancing stances and cold spells.
 * Wind Prayers skills
 * Earth Prayers: With an amplifying skill list, Earth Prayers increases the effectiveness of defensive enchantments and earth spells.
 * Earth Prayers skills

Profession Combinations
See Secondary professions for a Dervish

Related Articles

 * Skills quick reference
 * Skills by category
 * Armor types
 * Armor crafting quick reference
 * Collector armors
 * Collector weapons
 * Unique items quick reference
 * Scythe
 * Form
 * Effective dervish guide
 * Dervish dance information
 * Dervish quick references (category)
 * Dervish elite skill locations

Trivia

 * The Dervish may be inspired by Sufi Muslim ascetic orders, roughly equivalent to monks, better known by the Persian name Darvish. For more information, see the Wikipedia article Dervish.


 * The Dervish of the Mevlevi order are sometimes referred to as "whirling dervishes" due to their practice of whirling as a ritual. This act is similar to the in-game dance of the female Dervish.


 * The Dervish's appearance is likely based on the Grim Reaper's hood and scythe and a Persian dervish's clothing combined. Their appearance also loosely resembles Zasalamel, a fictional character from the video game series, "Soul Calibur".


 * Much like druid, monk, knight, and paladin, the word dervish has acquired certain connotations in the context of roleplaying games that have diverged from the word's original meaning - more specifically, RPG dervishes are generally agile warriors.


 * The area-of-effect damage of the Dervish was originally intended for Factions profession that was scrapped in favor of the Assassin's chain attacks. The only skill used from the original project is Death Blossom.