Myrielle
That's what I'm disputing: Your claims of the efficiency of Dervish and I've pulled up the thread the contains the collected wisdom of several testers who studied each ring over a long period and generally controlled situations.
Right now: you not seeing Slash as a true AoE because it doesn't hit as many is a little funny. It hits more than one target since it has a crescent area compared to a uniform circle around the avatar, but there is still an area involved.
i'm not disclaiming slash as an AoE, ok? i just don't see it as a 'true' AoE because the area it hits is just a lot smaller when compared to other 'true' AoEs, (
fire rain, dervish, heavy water balloon, hornet nest)
why did i label those rings as true AoEs? because
1. they all share similar areas of attack,
2. all these rings can AoE at rage rank 1.
although slash is able to AoE at rage rank 1, it's AoE it is significantly smaller compared to true AoEs, since slash's AoE only consists of the area in front of the user, or as you have put it,
crescent area.
while i did say that slash doesn't have as wide of an area as these AoEs, i never said that slash is a horrible AoE. it has a much stronger attack compared to true AoEs, but a much smaller area of attack as compensation. and as i have mentioned, i personally love slash and have it with me all the time, it's strong and versatile. and as i have also mentioned, dervish, in my opinion, should be spammed at rr1 and used in conjunction with other AoEs, and shouldn't be used as the player's sole AoE ring, as it's rr4 would have a pretty big knockback effect.
well, just wanted to get it out there, i just don't want players to downplay dervish just because of the minor push back it has at rr1 while over looking the fact that it has a really good damage and dps as well as a big AoE, which when coupled together, will definitely help clear mobs in smob a heck lot faster.