| With a new week comes a new competitive analysis. This one focuses on the many different avatars available to Dervishes, delves lightly into lore concerning Guild Wars gods, and reveals why Melandru Dervishes are so popular compared to those that are based upon other avatars or that use different elite skills. |
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| Gods of Guild Wars |
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| Five main gods represent different aspects of life to the people. Balthazar is the god of war, Grenth is the god of death, Dwayna is the god of life, Melandru represents nature, and Lyssa is the patron of mind and spirit. |
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| The Dervish, introduced in Nightfall, is a spiritual disciple able to turn into living representations of each god. Using these Avatars, the Dervish has carved out a niche in the GvG world as a tough melee flag-stand character. Despite many other decent elite skills to choose from, the emerging standards for most Dervish Skill Bars are based on an Avatar. |
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| The Avatars (Besides just Melandru) |
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| Avatar of Grenth |
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| This was the most popular choice for Dervishes when Nightfall first came out. This Avatar readily countered the massive amount of Monk Enchantments and the popularity of Searing Flames (powered by Fire Attunement) at the time. Teams had to bring proper Condition removal, though, because Blinding this Avatar was top priority for most defenses. However, this elite skill became a casualty of its own popularity, and the design team decided to scale back its duration. They also boosted skills like Mirror of Disenchantment to give teams more options for removing problematic Enchantments (like Aegis and Attunements). Avatar of Grenth still has its utility but doesn't last as long anymore and is an immediate target for Blinds and snares. |
