Rt Build Ideas ...

[GormWolfblade]

Something to specualte on. Since Ri have blindfolds anyway, shouldn't there be a skill that lets Ri/W immune to the condition Blindness? either a passive ability or a skill at least :grin:

[Seyfert]

lol something to think about, im more looking forward to see a ri/w try to swing a sword without decapitating a nearby ally

[HonshuHigamori]

To try and steer this away from the, frankly, stupid discussion about how Ritualists should be immune to Blind (Please see Cripple X's post in the following thread: http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=382216 ), I'd like this thread to be more about what sort of advantages a Ri/W would have.

Now, we already know that the general gist of the Ritualists gameplay is that he is empowered by how close he is to his summoned Spirits (Though certainly, I'm sure that isn't all there is to the class, but it's about all we know for sure so far). A question I pose is how would this help a Warrior secondary? The closest thing I can imagine is a sort of caster protecter, using his Spirits as his "ranged attacks" and using good ol' fashioned head-smashing when enemys attack the caster lines, but other than that I'm at a bit of a loss.

Though I'm sure that it'll be a more viable concept once we see all the skills Ritualists have, for now I can't see very much being special about the Ri/W.

[Erasculio]

Now, we already know that the general gist of the Ritualists gameplay is that he is empowered by how close he is to his summoned Spirits (Though certainly, I'm sure that isn't all there is to the class, but it's about all we know for sure so far). A question I pose is how would this help a Warrior secondary? The closest thing I can imagine is a sort of caster protecter, using his Spirits as his "ranged attacks" and using good ol' fashioned head-smashing when enemys attack the caster lines, but other than that I'm at a bit of a loss.

Though I'm sure that it'll be a more viable concept once we see all the skills Ritualists have, for now I can't see very much being special about the Ri/W.
Good points. I wonder, though, how the casting of these spirits will be. For now, when I think "spirit", I see the ones the rangers have, big and imobile things that take a long time to be summoned. A Ri/W would have to cast there, close to the enemy if he wishes to be nearby said spirits, and then charge in...I somehow don't see that as working very well.

(Granted, I know next to nothing about the Ritualist, and nothing about his spirits, so the above is very likely wrong - that's just guessing with the current information we have.)

Erasculio

[tarutaru]

okay, so, we all remember the spirit spammer groups of the old days.

so, it is my personal belief that 8 Ri/R will become the new FotM build, eventually phasing out iway.

Think about it, it seems like Ritualist Spirits combo'ed with Ranger ones, using some of the new-fangled Ritualist skills that take advantage of spirits in the area, and u have major combo potential. Add in the fact that the 8 could clump together with Healing Spring, using the skills to syphon health from nearby spirits, then send spirits into attack mode and blow them up a-la-carte. Dunno what the skills are like yet, though. But, it seems this could very well spend doomsday for iway if they would never be able to get through a wall of 50 spirits >_<

[Vexed Arcanist]

and you think the Ritualist Primary beats out a Ranger primary with expertise? We shall see....

[stueyman]

it may very well, the ritualist primary attribute makes their spirits more durable, effectivly making the wall you put up substantialy stronger. in any case, i'll wait till next weekend to test theories like that.

another obvious option is a beast master, using the Ri primary to buff your pet. beast masters certainly arent popular right now, but the class seems to encourage its use, another thing on the list of things to test

[stueyman]

i'm really surprised no one has posted somthing of this sort yet. when i heard they had the 'restoration' attribute, my first thought was; "ooh, i wonder how this will effect my monking." the skill that really caught my eye (though it may verywell be a spawning magic skill) was 'shelter,' a spirit that protects allies from taking exessive damage. AoE prot spirit anyone? O_o
also, i assume our local mod is a carrer monk (thus the avatar) who is also our resident specialist on the ritualist... with a nda to follow T_T, so i'm assuming that the potential is certainly there. thoughts?

[SepticFlesh]

Yhea I dunno... It could be good. But I think the idea of the ritualist was so you didnt have to have monks. Either way im certainly not making another monk primary or secondary haha

[Chaotic one]

im ganna change from Mo/R to Mo/Ri asap and perhaps use the resturation magic, if anything ill start to unlock skills :)

[TBMarauder]

Yes, admittedly the potential is there, and not just in the Healing/Protection lines. Who says the x/Rt / Rt/x have to be a defensive party-buffer/shielder? As is also known now, they can have a damage-filled skillbar, too!

[stueyman]

x/Rt / Rt/x
busted. everyone is calling it Ri. this is inconcequential though, but is that the abreviation GW is using? :P

[aeonbahamutzero]

i wonder if the ritualist will have any decent energy management skills or if they have to rely on their secondary. i bring this up because most monks use their secondaries for energy manegement, so i wonder how a M/Ri (or is it Rt now?) would fare (btw yes i do know that monk energy mangement skills like peace and harmony exist) i'm sure we'll find out this weekend. *obesively counting down the hours* :rolleyes:

[Xandlyn]

I need to see a full list of skill types and play around with them a little before I actually decide what would be a good secondary. Turst me though, first though that came into my mind was a Mo/Ri. But I want to play Ri as primary...so as for secondary I guess I will be trying out a few combos this weekend. :grin:

Is it Friday yet? Man...longest week ever!!

[Bravo]

Is it Friday yet? Man...longest week ever!!

/agree

busted. everyone is calling it Ri. this is inconcequential though, but is that the abreviation GW is using? :P

exactly what I was thinking too.

[sir lockt]

Hi everybody,

This morning I started a Rt/Mo character. I would like to post my findings.

As you can see in my choice of taking a Rt/Mo I wanted to focus on healing (restoration it is called for the Rt) With some arena runs I tested several skills out. But first a general impression:

The ritualist is certainly a good alternative for a monk. It has the capability of healing fast and massive. Only the way of healing is different: spirits. Spirits in the spawning attributes are very divers from damagers to healers. They arent much a traget atm but they will be soon, because they are awesome. You can use spirits for direct healing or making your restoration spells more efficient. The ritualist plays nice and because its versatile it will be a good replacement for standard monking. A ritualist can be as damaging as an ele and very good in healing.

Ok the skills I used:at 13 restoration and 12 spawning power

1) Spirit Light 10 energy,1 sec cast, 4 recharge. Sac 10% health and heal for 141 health. If a spirit is closeby no health is sacced.

Very good basic healer. Little expensive but comparable with heal other when a spirit is closeby.

2) Mend body and soul 5 energy 3/4 cast, 3 recharge
Heal 75 and remove one condition for each spirit closeby.

Basic healer very good combination of orision and condition removal if a spirit is closeby. As you can see spirits are important for this class

3) Blind was Mingson 10 energy 2 cast 30 recharge
Carry the ashes of mingson for 54 secs. If you drop it all adjacent foes are blinded for 9 secs

Very nice for selfdefence.. but also for the next skill

4) Soothing memories 5 energy 1 cast 5 recharge
Heal 88 and obtain 3 energy when carrying an item

So in combo with Mingson very cheap

5)Preservation 5 energy 3 cast 45 recharge (ELITE)

Create a lvl 9 spirit that heals every 4 seconds one ally for 101 hp. Spirit dies after 60 secs.

6) Recapuration 15 energy 3 cast 60 recharge

Create a lvl 9 spirit that gives all nearby allies +3 health regen. Spirit dies after 41 secs.

Dont need to say much about this. Its a constant healing for all members very nice

7) Flesh of my flesh 5 energy 5 sec cast

Lose half current health and res one death ally with your current healt and 18% of its energy lvl.

Besides this the ritualist has some weapons skills in its arsenal that can heal, do damage or protect. In general a very very versatile class, but relying heavilly on spirits, maybe thats its weakness to...

Hope you enjoy your ritualist... certainly I do!

[gismo]

I've had 3 really fun hours playing around with the ritualist tonight. I think the ritualist has some very near possibilities. Maxing out restoration and healing was fun but not near as fun as maxed restoration and maxed protection. :laugh: I left spawning at 0 some and some I had it pumped up. I'm still not 100% on my understanding of it yet.

I bet you could make some killer combos with the rit/mo but too bad most all the skills are locked for now. I'm gonna wait till ch. 2 is released before I spend faction points on skills. :cry:

[Dukan]

Something I found interesting in the Communing attribute line are skills that buff or nerf weapons.

These are with 13 points in communing:
Dulled Weapon 10/1/20 - Hex Spell. For 18 seconds, target foe all nearby foes cannot achieve a critical hit.

Guided Weapon 15/2/45 - Weapon Spell. For 10 seconds, target ally's attack skills ignore Blindness and cannot be "blocked" or "evaded."

Vital Weapon 5/1/20 - Weapon Spell. For 30 seconds, target ally has a Vital Weapon and has +179 maximum health.

Wish I had more faction so I could unlock some more of these. Guess I better get busy in those arenas.:laugh:

[glitched]

I bet you could make some killer combos with the rit/mo but too bad most all the skills are locked for now. I'm gonna wait till ch. 2 is released before I spend faction points on skills. :cry:
I believe it was said that all unlocked skills with the new profs. would carry over to Factions. You should be fine.

[TBMarauder]

I believe it was said that all unlocked skills with the new profs. would carry over to Factions. You should be fine.That is 100% correct. :)

All Rt and A unlocks (incl. Skills, Runes, Wep. mods etc) earned this weekend can be accessed ON THAT SAME ACCOUNT, once 'GW: Factions' is released. :cool: Have fun out there!

[big big hans]

i played the rit too and i find that mesmer no longer scares me with backfire

[Tanamoril]

I took Lively was (I forgot name, it functions like a rez orb) instead of your ashes one. It works really well as a res. It's also extremely funny to cast it just before you die, people will move on to the next target while you immediately res.

[Fownkaymownkay]

Guided weapon FTW! W/Ri could destroy a Signet of Midnight mesmer..




FM

[TBMarauder]

busted. everyone is calling it Ri. this is inconcequential though, but is that the abreviation GW is using? :PYeah, bit of an oversight there. :p

[Deldda Kcarc]

Rt/Mo is temporarily my favourite profession combo, replacing R/Me. Rts seem so much more competent than Mos at condition and hex removal. Though, from what I've unlocked so far, their raw healing power is a weaker and unfocused. Still, I only have about 20 skills unlocked, so there are a zillion possibilities I've overlooked.

[Tanamoril]

Lively was Naomei is the BEST Rit skill EVER. It's just like a rez orb. And casters don't need melee attacks anyway. It's hilarious when some warrior or assassin is hitting on you, you just get the spell off before you die and they run away.

While you res.

[chin]

Well, post builds you think would be powerful..
go here for skills.. i dont think the skills have the max dmg for them.. so just imagine the max dmg ;)
http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=382867
Format:

Rt/X
X/Rt
Essential Attributes..
Attributes+Runes=X
(12+4=16)

Skills
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Why this build is good, what it does in a team/ by itself..

This is my AshSpike Build :D

Rt/Me
12+4=16 Channeling
12+1=13 Spawning
3?+1=4 Communing

Grasping Was Kuurong- get ashes, drop, does dmg
Cruel Was Daoshen- get ashes, drop, does dmg
Explosive Growth- next creature you make, does dmg to nearby enemies
Anguished Was Lingwah- makes a creature
SPIRIT, Channeling or Communing- any spirit of those attributes
Gaze From Beyond- takes off health of spirits, and does damage to an enemy (spike spell)
Rupture Soul- if still living, use this on your spirit to do more dmg to nearby foes
Ress Signet

Basically its 8 Rt/Mes (no reason for mesmer)or 6 Rt/Mes and 2 Monks doing a semi-spike. MUST BE COORDINATED!!
1. they all run in with both grasphing was kuurong and cruel was daoshen. They drop the ashes right in the middle of enemy party.. or they choose a target.. or something along those lines..
2. Then they use explosive growth and do anguished was lingwah, this makes a spirit.. and does damage to everyone near the spirit when its created :D
3. Make any spirit you can..
4. Use Gaze From Beyond, this will do massive damage to the enemies :D
5. If your spirit is still living, use rupture soul to finish the enemy

This is a HORRIBLE build by itself.. it needs to be done with atleast 4 people to have enough damage to do anything.. its played as a team spike/aoe pressure build, or I tried to make it that way atleast..

Thats all folks, give me your builds now, and rate my build please :D!

[Zingeri]

The Ritualist primary attribute is interesting. It gives 4% more health to creatures created (or animated).

Therefore, if you do the math, a Rt/N with 16 in Spawning Power and 12 in Death Magic could create MUCH more durable.

16 Spawning Power is a 64% HP Increase.

We know that a Necromancer with 16 Death Magic can animate lv. 18 Bone Horrors/Fiends with 440 HP. However, a Ritualist with 16 Spawning Power and 12 Death Magic can animate lv. 15 Horrors/Fiends with 623 HP. Yikes. Step aside Warriors, we now have your new tanks.

That isn't everything: The Ritualist also has nice complementary abilities for a MM. The most notable is Explosive Growth, which pumps out a 65 damage AoE per minion creation. Others include Attuned Was Sonkai, which will halve your Energy consumption, and Boon of Creation, which gives you 50 health and 9 energy per minion creation (Nice synergy, eh?)

Therefore, do you think the frequency of Necromancer MMs will begin to die down?

[Killa Pinged]

dont forget armor class and dmg output or the minion healing and we haven't even seen the new necro skills you may have somthing there but dont count them out yet.

[JeanDeathwish]

If I recall correctly armor per level is:
4 for horrors
3 for fiends
So you might get ~200 hp more but you have 12/16 armor less. A level 14 horror has about the same armor as a level 18 fiend so they might help tanking but will deal less damage.

But consider this... with Attuned Was Songkai and Boon of Creation while casting horrors your actually GAINING energy and the extra damage can come from Explosive Growth. Signet of Creation + Death Nova anyone? After 30sec you have a nice perfectly timed spike that deals high AoE damage! Rt/N will be very powerful. Will be my starting character =P

[Deldda Kcarc]

The ash spells I'm studying closely at the moment are:


Resilient Was Xiko. Hold Xiko's ashes for 17 seconds. For every Hex or Condition you are suffering from while holding the ashes, you gain +2 Health regeneration. (5/1/10) This combined with Soothing Memories makes a very resilient healer indeed.
Mighty Was Vorizun. Hold Vorizun's ashes for 54 seconds. While you hold his ashes, you gain +15 armor and +20 maximum Energy. (5/2/30) Again, combines well with Soothing Memories.
Tranquil Was Tanasen. Hold Tanasen's ashes for upto 17 sconds. While you hold his ashes, you have +22 armor and cannot be interrupted. (10/3/20) Like Mantra of Resolve but without the energy penalty! On the downside, it's an elite.

[Ice Blessings]

Hmm intresting, but is starting health more important? or damage? How about a Necro that summons high level spirits + a Rt who casts the AoE Damage thing? If both worked together, they could make a deadly combination of necro armies, imagine the carnage? Step aside 8vs8, here comes 8vs50!

~Ice~

[chin]

i can see it now..

Destruction
Binding Ritual. Create lvl X spirit. this spirit is alive for 30 seconds.. foes in the area suffer 4 dmg for every second this spirit was alive
this is with 12 channeling
with 16 its probably 5 dmg.. so thats.. 150 dmg.... time that right and thats a spike finisher right there o.O

[JeanDeathwish]

Ancestors' Rage spike with an assassin to shadow step in at the last possible second ... SURPRISE! (or if that "Ride the Lightning" spell holds true that would be better)

[Seeker of Something]

Destruction
Binding Ritual. Create lvl X spirit. this spirit is alive for 30 seconds.. foes in the area suffer 4 dmg for every second this spirit was alive
this is with 12 channeling
with 16 its probably 5 dmg.. so thats.. 150 dmg.... time that right and thats a spike finisher right there o.O

You should be able to use Rupture Soul to trigger it on demand, not to mention increasing the damage and throwing in a blind for anyone who survives.

[SepticFlesh]

You should be able to use Rupture Soul to trigger it on demand, not to mention increasing the damage and throwing in a blind for anyone who survives.

Yhea thats what I have been doing paired with soul vortex or whatever it is before I use rapture for a huge spike. I have been looking at a few other skills to add into that combo/change round but I dont have the faction to unlock them yet so you will just have to wait.

[CKaz]

The Ritualist primary attribute is interesting. It gives 4% more health to creatures created (or animated).


So first it sounds like helps the pet, maybe the minions.
Now suggesting it includes the minions, and possibly not a pet?

needs lookin at

[Dukan]

i can see it now..

Destruction
Binding Ritual. Create lvl X spirit. this spirit is alive for 30 seconds.. foes in the area suffer 4 dmg for every second this spirit was alive
this is with 12 channeling
with 16 its probably 5 dmg.. so thats.. 150 dmg.... time that right and thats a spike finisher right there o.O
It's 5 damage at 14 points. I've been trying it out. I was taking on the IWAY Warriors in the Zaishen Challenge... me and my henches got beat (strange, because I beat them earlier today). But, as the warriors and a couple wolves were walking away, in a close group, my Destruction Spirit expired. Boom! 6 or 7 -150's went floating up. :grin:

Spirit Burn is a nice little addition to the Channeling lineup. 5/1/5, at 14 Channeling it does 47 lightning dmg. + 29 if there's a spirit in the area. Gives the Shocker Ritualist some decent spam.

[Necromas]

If I recall correctly armor per level is:
4 for horrors
3 for fiends
So you might get ~200 hp more but you have 12/16 armor less. A level 14 horror has about the same armor as a level 18 fiend so they might help tanking but will deal less damage.

But consider this... with Attuned Was Songkai and Boon of Creation while casting horrors your actually GAINING energy and the extra damage can come from Explosive Growth. Signet of Creation + Death Nova anyone? After 30sec you have a nice perfectly timed spike that deals high AoE damage! Rt/N will be very powerful. Will be my starting character =P

Don't forget the massively reduced damage and armor penetration.

[Necromas]

You should be able to use Rupture Soul to trigger it on demand, not to mention increasing the damage and throwing in a blind for anyone who survives.

Actually, with rupture soul, your not really increasing the damage because the spirit will only have been alive for like 10 seconds.

[UUHHWTF]

First you use anguished was whoever and carry the ashes to the people and drop them. then use displacement, shelter, union, and shadowsong to make your group nearly impossible to hit.:afro:

[Niphe]

I've been playing most of the new builds, and the one that amazed me the most was the Rt/Mo healer, man this thing can change the tides of any battle. I think it might be to0o over-powered.
One of the skills is Wepon of Warding( i think) and that skill is way to leet. It is spammable, it gives 3 pips of health gen, and gives u a 50/50 chance to block attacks.
however it seems like 100%, all those anoying A/Wo and R/A can't touch me.
With that build i was able to paracticly solo a team in TA or RA after my team died, and i was able to rez them all.
Also did anyone notice befor the last "please exit guild wars a new.....blabla", Flesh of my Flesh could rez under Frozen Soil. ^_^ it was sweet.

[JasonLa]

I've gone up againts and had rt/mo on my team also. I think if played right they are hard to beat but not impossible. I can't say for sure yet if I think its way overpowered but I think they may tweek some things a bit after seeing results of the weekend.

[Mawgleah]

This is one of the reasons for having events like this one. You can rest assured that once this event is over, skills will be examined and tweaked if necessary before the final release. AND you can rest assured that even after release, skills will continue to be examined and tweaked if necessary. ArenaNet does this all the time to insure as much balance as possible in the game.

[chin]

well.. kill it at 29 seconds.. and that adds like 120 more damage :D
so thats like a 350 dmging spike o.o.. and its aoe ;)

[DutchSmurf]

Try killing the spirits, doesn't take long and reduces their healing.

[Frizzy]

It wouldnt feel overpowered if everyone in the beta test wasnt using melee based assassins or still using war monks. The thing is dead meat against interrupts (long casting times) degen, hexes, and conditions. Don't forget, elementalists are powerful against ritualists.

[Zero Infusion]

that pre-made Rit is by no means overpowered, a good Boon prot is 10x more effective

[Forgotten Legend]

finally, i don't have to use a monk to heal.

[Tristam Green]

Mesmers for the win. Can take down a Ritualist like there's no tomorrow. Can't wait to see the Mes's role in Factions.

[tetracycloide]

I've been playing most of the new builds, and the one that amazed me the most was the Rt/Mo healer, man this thing can change the tides of any battle. I think it might be to0o over-powered.
One of the skills is Wepon of Warding( i think) and that skill is way to leet. It is spammable, it gives 3 pips of health gen, and gives u a 50/50 chance to block attacks.
however it seems like 100%, all those anoying A/Wo and R/A can't touch me.
With that build i was able to paracticly solo a team in TA or RA after my team died, and i was able to rez them all.
Also did anyone notice befor the last "please exit guild wars a new.....blabla", Flesh of my Flesh could rez under Frozen Soil. ^_^ it was sweet.
that skill only seems overpowered because most of the people playing are assissin style melee fighters who miss fairly often on their own. once things settle down i'm sure any good mesmer will be able to put a rt/mo healer in their place. there are a lot of ways to hurt someone that would not fall into the blockable attacks category as well.

[PenguinPunter]

It wouldnt feel overpowered if everyone in the beta test wasnt using melee based assassins or still using war monks. The thing is dead meat against interrupts (long casting times) degen, hexes, and conditions. Don't forget, elementalists are powerful against ritualists.


Don't forget, I consistently dominate ritualists with my ranger's interrupts. :happy:

[Drec Sutal]

Honestly, I played A/W once since it came out... I was on a team with 4 pre-made builds. We fought a team with 4 premade builds. Since then i've played prot boon monk, and have avaraged 6-7 wins per loss. No Rt/Mo outheals my boon prot, much what my boon heal... I'm sticking with the prot because of all the A/W i've seen... Aegis + gaurdian = 1/4 damage, + healing with boon.

[Captain Baltimore]

Ok this is just a experimental build and because it involves Ritualist skills il just post it here move it if you whant.

Sword/Axe/Hammer 11+1+3
Tactics 10+2
Strenght 6
Communing 9

Skills
1 up until 4 whatever you whant damaging skills
(for sword take 1 Server artery 2 Gash 3 Galrath slash 4 Hundred Blades)
5. frenzy (yes i am actually using it but you can take something else)
6. healing signet (yeah yeah i know but its healing :P
7. Brutal weapon
8. rez siggy

Strategy: ok this is how it works first cast Brutal weapon on yourself and start bashing on your enemie while using frenzy this whill kill them in a matter of seconds most of the time because of the verry verry high DPS normally around the 60 dmg per strike, Around the 100 when you are using the right attacks i think but its a good straightforward damaging build for RA or TA and it might be usabell in Tombs/Heroe's

[Nightfall Crescent]

after having bad luck finding a healer i started a Rt/Mo. And yes they are good. IF you can keep your spirits alive and IF you don't get 3 A/W hacking away on you and IF you don't come up against a real monk with full divine favor/ healing prayers who will still out heal you.

[pifou]

Is the ash triggered if you kill the rit while he is holding them ?

[Shutter]

Yep, ashes trigger if you die while holding them. Which makes Lively Was Naomei a fun back from the dead rez.

[Haradrim]

I was in CA and was in a match where my team was dead, i had used my rez and the other team had a Rt/Mo and an E/A left.. i was trapping and killed the rit/mo.. either they were really a just a bad player/first time with the class or something, but all i did was trap the spirits and the rit was in the way, casting.. she dropped like a war trying to kill a mes..

[Veregre]

I dont think so. I play a MM as my primary, and i dont think a Rt/N would have the energy. Soul Reaping is critical. Although, i will be makinh a Rt/N just to see. . .

[Chthon]

I dont think so. I play a MM as my primary, and i dont think a Rt/N would have the energy. Soul Reaping is critical. Although, i will be makinh a Rt/N just to see. . .

indeed. I fear this build would be unable to produce fiands &/or horrors at a reasonable rate...

However, what about the red-headed stepchild of the undead minion family, bone minions? If the on-creation effects were doubled....

[wind]

The Ritualist primary attribute is interesting. It gives 4% more health to creatures created (or animated).

Therefore, if you do the math, a Rt/N with 16 in Spawning Power and 12 in Death Magic could create MUCH more durable.

16 Spawning Power is a 64% HP Increase.

We know that a Necromancer with 16 Death Magic can animate lv. 18 Bone Horrors/Fiends with 440 HP. However, a Ritualist with 16 Spawning Power and 12 Death Magic can animate lv. 15 Horrors/Fiends with 623 HP. Yikes. Step aside Warriors, we now have your new tanks.

That isn't everything: The Ritualist also has nice complementary abilities for a MM. The most notable is Explosive Growth, which pumps out a 65 damage AoE per minion creation. Others include Attuned Was Sonkai, which will halve your Energy consumption, and Boon of Creation, which gives you 50 health and 9 energy per minion creation (Nice synergy, eh?)

Therefore, do you think the frequency of Necromancer MMs will begin to die down?

Hoo haa ... jeez, MM has all of a sudden become more complex. :shocked:

[Radical Dreamer]

I tried to cast spells on the spirit they cant be used as corpses , the new wepon skills dont work on them and I also belive that you cant enchant or hex them nor do conditons work, all need more testing though.

Could someone retest these to confirm?


I was sad when I found out, I hope I'm wrong
but on the upside no conditon or hex'es!

[AzureDragoon]

I used a weapon spell to add I think around 14 damage to my pain spirit :grin:

[Phoebus]

The max hp of a minion is not a critical statistic to a minion master, a minion's damage and the master's ability to heal & summon more minions is.
Ritualist make very poor minion masters.

And Weapon Enchants do work on spirits, I'm using Vengeful Weapon to heal my spirits.

[Radical Dreamer]

The max hp of a minion is not a critical statistic to a minion master, a minion's damage and the master's ability to heal & summon more minions is.
Ritualist make very poor minion masters.

And Weapon Enchants do work on spirits, I'm using Vengeful Weapon to heal my spirits.


Thank goodness for that I have noticed that pain has two damage numbers (one is 0) A wepon skill could be very usefull like the one that does extra damage ; )

[Hyoga]

I dont think so. I play a MM as my primary, and i dont think a Rt/N would have the energy. Soul Reaping is critical. Although, i will be makinh a Rt/N just to see. . .

Soul Reaping becomes a lot less critical when you bring Boon of Creation with you.

You gain more energy than you spend for each minion you animate.

[manveruppd]

There's a nearly identical thread in the Necromancer forum. Mods, could we have a merge, please?

[Zingeri]

There's a nearly identical thread in the Necromancer forum. Mods, could we have a merge, please?I made different threads in each form for differing opinions.

[My Sweet Revenga]

I don't see how you could manage the energy demands with this without soul reaping. Let alone how slow you would move across a map if you needed to lay spirits down..... oh wait spirits require energy too..... and I'm not sure if boon of creation is the answer. At 12 attrib boon of creation only returns 7 energy. You use 10 energy to activate boon of creation to begin with. Raising a minion costs 25 energy. An interesting possibility if the energy management can be worked around....

[NoXy]

k here is what i've been running in CA/TA :
-Painful Bond
-Shadowsong
-Pain
-Blood Song
-Mantra of Concentration/Mantra of Resolve
-Ritual Lord
-Boon of Creation
-Rez Sig

12 (+1+4) = 16Communing
10 (+1) = 11 Spawning Power
8 (+1) = 9 Channeling Magic
2 Inspiration Magic

Ritual Lord get your recharge time down by -60%. Enjoy recasting your 3 spirits every 18/24 seconds. Painful Bond the target under fire for huge damage. Sure ppl can runaway once they see the hex but they got hit already. Some nuker is wasting his energy on your spirits ? recast them for some good frustration. Warriors are in front line as always ? let them be blinded, maybe they like it... Mesmer trying to counter you ? hm, impossible. Energy drain ? 2 bad you regen like crazy for each spirit cast.

easy counter : direct Elem dmg or degen on the ritualist (and not the spirits), trapper.
I admit it's difficult to get the boon on the right target at the right time but not impossible.
In general I'd say there are many builds possible with Rit, it's only a matter of time to unlock/discover them. Interesting profession :-)

[RedHed]

used a almost identical build day one of factions preview, had some success with it. quite fun

[TBMarauder]

I am creating this thread mainly to merge all the Rt build-type threads that have been created but, also so you can post up any build ideas you come up with, from now until 'GW: Factions' Spring 2006 release and beyond ...

Have fun. :)

[Niphe]

Try the spirits, doesn't take long and reduces their healing.
If i see a person my spirit i do one of two things: 1. if they are melee Dmg, just cast Wep. of warding and go. 2. if they arn't melee, wait till they get it down to low health then us consume spirit for the Heal.

Mesmers for the win. Can take down a Ritualist like there's no tomorrow. Can't wait to see the Mes's role in Factions.
Yes, mesmers are very anoying, but i set up spirits in the back, so the mesmer would have to charge me, and in doing so, he will prbably get owned by my other teammates.

Don't forget, I consistently te ritualists with my ranger's interrupts.
Again cast Wep. of Warding on yourself, and the arrows can't do anything.

IF you can keep your spirits alive and IF you don't get 3 A/W away on you and IF you don't come up against a real monk with full divine favor/ healing prayers who will still out heal you.

I mentioned the spirit conflic above, and as for the A/W s lol Wep. of warding, then watch them get fustrated. i soloed 4 A/W s and rezed my team for the win once; and about the monk, i faced many boons ands healing monks, and won, because they can keep themselves and there team up at the same time.

The Rits do have some flaws, but over all +3 enrgy to every one in the area, big heals,Anti-melee skills,Condition removers, and hex remover in one build is powerfull.

[Uzrahil]

Its not too overpowered...spirits aside, I think the max a rit can heal is like around 100 with that 10% life sacrifice skill. Compared to a monk, its not much. Like another person said, a boon healer with high healing and divine favor can own ritualists in healing. Probally why rits are only supposed to take some pressure off monks.

*Hmm didn't notice the post above me. Well I guess it just depends on your team you're with then.

[Loquetus]

ritualists are fun to tackle with my necro (hp degen + vamp gaze)

(atleast the rt/me)
and the rt/mo..... pretty easy to kill once you get rid of the spirits

[Dukan]

How about a Shocking Life Stealer? No spirits required.

Assuming 13 points in related attributes...

Ancestor's Rage 10/2/8 - Spell. All foes adjacent to target ally are struck for 82 lightning damage. (channeling)

Channeled Stike 10/2/12 - Spell. Target foe is struck for 77 lightning. That foe takes an additional 29 lightning damage if you are holding an item. (channeling)

Cruel was Daoshen 15/2/45 - Spell. Hold Daoshen's ashes for up to 51 seconds. When you drop his ashes, all nearby foes are struck for 112 lightning damage. (channeling)

Nightmare Weapon 5/1/10 - Weapon Spell. For 12 seconds, target ally as a Nightmare Weapon. Target ally's next successful attack steals up to 41 Health. (channeling)

Spirit Rift 15/2/5 - Spell. Open a Spirit Rift at target foe's location. After 3 seconds, all adjacent foes are struck for 94 lightning damage. (channeling)

Vengeful was Khanhei [E] 5/.75/20 - Hold Khanhei's ashes for 10 seconds. Whenever a foe strikes you in combat while you are holding Khanhei's ashes, you steal 29 Health from that foe. (Restoration)

Soothing Memories 5/1/5 - Target ally is healed for 82 Health. If you are holding an item, you gain 3 Energy. (Restoration)

Rez Sig

Maybe a Mesmer secondary with Arcane Echo for a double dose of Daoshen. Now, if I could just get the faction to unclock more of these skills, I'd be testing it. :undecided:

[ihihih]

there are some new skills, hexes, spells from both assasins & ritualinst that can stop blocking or evading,...BUT Anet didnt unlocked them. So, how are we supposed to examine the new balance without some basic skills unlocked?

BTW, can we can stack weapon spells or not? If we can, weapon of warding is much better than guardian.
:undecided:

[SoulsOfEternity]

I must say I've had a ball playing the Rt/Mo. During the day I play on a satellite connection and it gives me a very bad reaction time, at the best mostf of my commands I give to my character take 2-3 seconds to happen. The Rt/Mo makes life so much easier with the spirits, and the fairly short cooldown on preservation makes it a nice spirit that I can keep up fairly well.

Spirit of light heals at max 162 I think, with 16 restoration, personally I prefer soothing memories since it heals 100 at 15 restoration and it only costs 2 energy ( if you bring along ashes of some sort, which I do, Mighty Was Vorizum or something like that, tis a nice energy boost!)

And as for the mesmers and interupters, when I go into CA I use a nice build, R/A Me/x Mo/x and of course Rt/Mo (which is me :tongue:.) With this I usually don't lose. As a group we would usually stop ourselves so we wouldn't overload with faction. Crazy fun. Monk of course would be a prot/heal monk kinda, and I would bring Union Preservation and Recuperation. So much fun, anywho I don't think Rt/Mo is overpowered, as I've ran into them, rly easy to beat...just kill the spirits, don't even really need your major damage dealers to do it, me and the monk would kill the spirits while the R/A and Me/x would take down any targets they chose. Now what I wanna see is a communing Rt/x with displacement, shelter, union, and Ritual Lord. So much protectiveness.

[Zooz]

I've mainly played Rt/Mo too. I'm new so i can't really compare, but it seems to heal very well. However, it's very squishy when under attack, and it runs out of energy constantly without that energy-regeneration Necro skill of which i forgot the name running on it :P
With that extra regen, though, it heals so much it seems a bit overpowered to me. We've won some pretty difficult battles with that healing power... :P

[Lady SDevil]

I don't find the Rt/mo to be overpowered. It should be noted that I normally play a monk, so a Rt/Mo might seem overpowered to one who doesn't. A Mo/Rt (yes I unlocked some skills), is almost a better combination than Rt/Mo, but in a way, it's still not as good as having a full skill bar of monk healing.

I think we will see a lot of spirits for awhile after chapter 2 comes out. Mostly it will be Rt/? and ?/Rt carrying one of the healing spirits to go along with their other spells. Nice, class, but it will in no way replace the monk.

I think we might start seeing N/Rt, R/Rt, and Mo/Rt a lot though.

Very nice job Anet!

[Tinarto]

ritualists are fun to tackle with my necro (hp degen + vamp gaze)

(atleast the rt/me)
and the rt/mo..... pretty easy to kill once you get rid of the spirits

Dunno, as a Rt/Mo, Weapon of Warding + Healing Breeze and then Orison as necessary was awfully fun. Add in a Recuperation spirit or whatever the +3 spirit is and I've never had problems regenerating through a 10 degeneration.

I was considering seeing if there were more regenerating skills so I could have more than one person at max regen ( : Unfortunately, I have work this afternoon : (

[Chthon]

If I recall correctly armor per level is:
4 for horrors
3 for fiends
So you might get ~200 hp more but you have 12/16 armor less. A level 14 horror has about the same armor as a level 18 fiend so they might help tanking but will deal less damage.

And that armor difference turns out to be pretty important if you do the math. The base damage monsters have to deal to kill these minions is nowhere near 64% more. In fact, the improvement in actual durability, as measured by the before-armor damage the monsters have to dish out to kill the minion, is very small.

According to SonOfRah, the damage calculation is

ReceivedDamage = BaseDamage x 2^(((BASELINE - EAL ) + GSM ) / 40)

If we ASSUME the attacker is a lvl 24 caster (a 13 mastery warrior/ranger monster is about the same); there's no armor penetration, armor ignoring, critical hits, or holy damage involved; and the inherent minion degeneration is exactly offset by healing (in reality this won't happen & the necro minions have an edge over rit minions in this department... but I don't really want to do that extra math), this simplifies to.

ReceivedDamage = BaseDamage x 2^((72 - ARMOR) / 40)

We care about base damage, so

BaseDamage = ReceivedDamage / (2^((72 - ARMOR) / 40))

Finally, the minion is dead when ReceivedDamage = Life, so (based on the assumptions above) the Before Armor Damage It Takes To Kill You (BADITTKY), or in this case to kill your minion, equation is:

BADITTKY = Life / (2^((72 - ARMOR) / 40))

Lets apply this to the minions:

lvl 18 horror (16 death)
---------
440 life
72 armor
440 BADITTKY

lvl 14 horror (12 death, 16 spawning)
-----------
623 life (380 + 64%)
56 armor
472 BADITTKY

That's only a little over a 7% increase in the base damage it takes to kill the bone horror!
You'd essentially be trading the increased damage, better verata's, and easy energy management of the traditional minion master for a 7% increase in actual hardiness. Not so attractive now, is it?

Now, let's do the fiend

18-fiend (16 death)
---------
440 life
54 armor
322 BADITTKY

16-fiend (12 death, 16 spawning)
----------
623 life
42 armor
370 BADITTKY

That's almost a 15% increase in BADITTKY -- a lot better than the bone horror, but still nowhere close to the 64% durability improvment you'd think the huge life bonus would be worth.

In short, the 64% increased life figure is very deceptive. After the decreased armor is factored in, 12-death-&-16-spawning minions gain a very small increase in hardiness over 16-death minions, with major decreases in other important areas.

But consider this... with Attuned Was Songkai and Boon of Creation while casting horrors your actually GAINING energy and the extra damage can come from Explosive Growth. Signet of Creation + Death Nova anyone? After 30sec you have a nice perfectly timed spike that deals high AoE damage! Rt/N will be very powerful. Will be my starting character =P

I'd imagine animate bone minions would be the way to go, persuming the on-creation benefits triggered twice. If you had both attuned and boon up, your cost would be cut to 13 (I'm guessing attuned rounds up), while you'd gain 18. Explosive growth would trigger twice, for 130 AoE dmg per cast. Add death nova & taste of death/signet of creation to make what I suspect would be an effective minion bomber.

[Nariya Chantain]

Managed to score 17 consecutive wins in the random arenas with my Ritualist earlier as the only healer, which I reckon is fair enough proof that they're a viable monk replacement. What I've seen of a monk and a ritualist healing together, though, suggests that it's a hard combo to beat. The ritualist keeps the overall healing happening, while the monk is far more responsive to damage spikes.

I am loving playing them. I haven't got round to playing assassin all weekend as I was having too much ritualist fun.

I don't think they're overpowered, that said. A good monk can manage to keep an awful group alive, sometimes. A good ritualist will struggle and probably fail to keep a bad one going, from what I was seeing...

[hjrrockies]

The positive side of the Ri is the powerful spirits. The negative side of a Ri is also the spirits. With spirits that can funtion as extra targets and have very game-changing effects, they are a powerful foe. But, they are so dependent on these spirits, that if they are against a smart group, and they kill the spirits, they are totally useless, just dead weight on the team. A good team with an Ri/Mo would focus on protecting the spirits, while slowly dealing damage to the other team. An Ri/Mo is only overpowered if his/her group can protect the spirits.

[SoulsOfEternity]

Ritualist is so cool :wink:.

I was thinking of a nice protective build, I saw someone say Displacement, Union, Shelter, but I don't think all at once would be good. I was thinking more along the lines of Ritual Lord, Displacement, Union, and Shelter. Should be enough to have one positive buff on the entire team pretty much forever, right?

If you have 16 communing that would bring the level and hp on the spirits to a fairly high level. And mebbe 14 or 15, depending on how much life you plan on sacrificing, Spawning which would be a big boost to life. I think this would pretty much completely cover the team in a protective way.

At max the spirits are 15 energy and I think one is 10 energy so it would take a lotta energy but I think it'd be cool to see. And if you were going to run a Heroe's Ascent build with 8 ppl you could bring a communing Ritualist and a restoration Ritualist to help with healing, along with a prot/heal monk. Be so much fun, that'd be 3 people, then I think me and some friends were talking about 2 R/A condition stackers with one frag mesmer. Still only 6 people, mebbe a KD warrior? Anywho the R/As would attack whomever was Fragged and with a nice TS combo the person should die pretty fast. If the ranger was blinded the communing Ritualist could bring guided weapon so one of the R/A could attack the blinder. Then there's Distortion, yet again though the communing Ritualist could slap guided weapon on a R/A and that R/A could bring Wild Strike then hopefully finish off the person before Distortion comes back. Anywho I've wanted to see something like this in action, however I used most of my faction to unlock the restoration part of the Ritualist so therefore I don't have much for the communing part.

Boy I can't wait for the expansion!

[Ellix Cantero]

and about the monk, i faced many boons ands healing monks, and won, because they can't* keep themselves and there team up at the same time.


A *good* boon prot monk can. There are a lot of boon prots in the RAs this weekend, but not many good ones.

I've been on probably 5 teams so far that have gone 15+ wins in a row. 4 of those times we had a premade Rt/Mo with us (the other time we had zero healing, just lots of killing). Ritualists are going to be great for the game. When you see a ritualist on the other team (at least once the game comes out and people don't have to use premades) you won't know initially what their role within the team is, unlike primary monks. They can also do a pretty decent job of heavy protection/light healing as a secondary (I'm tearing things up with my restoration weapon spell/fast casting fomf me/rt).

[QuixotesGhost]

Personally I think Soul Twist {Elite} has some potential.

-Destroy target allied Spirit, the next spirit you cast, casts 66% faster and Recharges instantly.

I'm thinking this with a bunch of things that trigger on spirit death or spirit creation.

Boon of Creation
Rupture Soul
Destruction
Explosive Growth
Ect.

Woah! Think about useing an assasin teleport skill and throwing down a 1 second Dissonance into the enemys backline :shocked: Or dropping a Shadowsong right into the midst into an Enemy Ranger Spike Team.

Damn that's gonna be my first GW:F PvP character.

The Rt/A Soul Twist Teleporting Offensive Spirit Bomber.

[Alaric Surion]

I played a Rt/Mo for a good part of the weekend. To me i dont think its leet in anyway, even with the weapon boost/regen/healing, it cant compare that to a lvl 20 monk.

With both a spirit and spell up u get like +6 health regen when even a basic healing breeze can give u up to +8 or more depending on healing prayers.

His spells are good, i had a warrior and 2 assassins on me at one point and managed to keep myself above 3/4ths health for most of the fight, thats nothing that any good monk couldnt do.

My biggest problem with him deff was the energy problem, more often then not i found i couldnt keep the team alive after a lot of fighting due to just having no energy left.

Itll be an interesting class when it comes out, but i dont think itll be anywhere near what a monk can do for healing and i dont think it should be, i love how diverse it is and i think it should stay as is.

[Chthon]

Managed to score 17 consecutive wins in the random arenas with my Ritualist earlier as the only healer, which I reckon is fair enough proof that they're a viable monk replacement. What I've seen of a monk and a ritualist healing together, though, suggests that it's a hard combo to beat. The ritualist keeps the overall healing happening, while the monk is far more responsive to damage spikes.

I am loving playing them. I haven't got round to playing assassin all weekend as I was having too much ritualist fun.

I don't think they're overpowered, that said. A good monk can manage to keep an awful group alive, sometimes. A good ritualist will struggle and probably fail to keep a bad one going, from what I was seeing...

My experience with the rt/mo was very much the same. Once I got paired with a monk, and a warrior and ele who were smart enough to stay near the spirits. We went on a 10+ roll of very easy flawless victories (I lost count how many) until the monk had to leave. After that, and a couple more very hard-fought victories, a competent team put us down. However, whenever I wasn't teamed with a monk, I had a very hard time keeping the spikes under control. Often I had to choose between leaving a teammate at dangerously low health while I re-cast the spirits, or healing that teammate, but leaving myself no energy to replace the expiring spirits. Two other problems I encountered were: 1) a lack of adequate rapid self-healing. When an enemy that wasn't an A/W's locked onto me, it could be very hard to stay alive. (For the A/W, I cold just pop out the 50% block weapon spell). 2) stupid teammates who won't stick near the spirits.

[plagatus]

Wepon of Warding( i think) and that skill is way to leet. It is spammable, it gives 3 pips of health gen, and gives u a 50/50 chance to block attacks.


Wild Blow ftw

[Rane-]

Rt/Mo's are nowhere near overpowered. Rather they are in need of some serious boosting. Their different playstyle atm is just no match for good old monking. That said ANet have definatly made huge strides in the right direction about lessening the 'mandatory monks' requirement. They just need to keep going.

Anyone who really thinks that Rt's are overpowered healers either doesn't coordinate attacks with the team to take down spirits, doesn't bring rupts/snares/nrgdenial, is playing unmodded A/W (the new W/Mo Paladin), or all 3 :rolleyes:.

[Tohoya]

My idea for a defensive, prot monk like spirit spammer:

Hoping that this will take the slot of a prot monk, and hopefully will render ranger spikes a little less powerful.

11+4 spawning
10+1 communing
10+1 restoration

Shelter: allies within range can’t lose more than 10%. Prevents about 11.5 attacks. 10e, 5c, 60r
Soothing: all foes take twice as long to build adrenaline. Dies after 39 secs. 10e, 5c, 60r
Union: reduces damage by 15. Prevents about 23.68 attacks. 15e, 3c, 60r
Recuperation: all allies gain +3 health regen. 15e, 3c, 60r
Signet of Creation: all spirits gain +6 health regen; die after 30 seconds.
Ritual lord: For 30 seconds, rituals recharge 63% faster. 10e, 30r, 0c
Boon of Creation: For 51 secs, whenever create a creature, +7 energy, +51 health. 10e, 2c, 45r
Explosive Growth: For 51 secs, whenever you summon a creature, 5 foes near it are struck for 56 damage. 15e, 45r, 2c.

Ritual lord, by my calculations, increases about 4.8% every point put in it. That means that by 15 spawning, it reduces stuff by 77.5%. In other words, 60 recharge spirits recharge in 13 seconds. Given that quick turn-around, I'm not sure I need signet of creation. Maybe I should nab one of the more offensive-minded spirits off of communing, or perhaps disenchant?

I am also contemplating dropping restoration entirely and going /Me for mantra of resolve, since interrupts will be so prevalent with my huge casting times. I think I could afford to drop Explosive Growth, and maybe even signet of creation, for something like feast of souls.

/E with glyph of renewal may work as well. It would work better against one-dimensional builds, allowing me, for example, to recast shelter against multispike, soothing against IWAY, and union against ranger spike. OTOH, if there's a team that's using a variety of attacking methods and I want to keep up multiple spirits at a time, spirit lord would be a better choice. Plus, it would preclude the afforementioned resolve, which upon considering seems very important.

[SirBlack]

Wild Blow ftw

It would hit through Weapon of Warding but won't remove it. I don't imagine getting that win just by spamming Wild Blow...

[Teufel Eldritch]

Try killing the spirits, doesn't take long and reduces their healing.Don't kill the Spirit of Restoration. :wink:

[Acel]

Anyone thought about using Necromancer base Soulreaping attribute with Ritualist spirit exploiting skills(eg. rupture) yet? Since you get energy from the spirits when they die(solves your energy problems)

[Nariya Chantain]

My experience with the rt/mo was very much the same. Once I got paired with a monk, and a warrior and ele who were smart enough to stay near the spirits. We went on a 10+ roll of very easy flawless victories (I lost count how many) until the monk had to leave. After that, and a couple more very hard-fought victories, a competent team put us down. However, whenever I wasn't teamed with a monk, I had a very hard time keeping the spikes under control. Often I had to choose between leaving a teammate at dangerously low health while I re-cast the spirits, or healing that teammate, but leaving myself no energy to replace the expiring spirits. Two other problems I encountered were: 1) a lack of adequate rapid self-healing. When an enemy that wasn't an A/W's locked onto me, it could be very hard to stay alive. (For the A/W, I cold just pop out the 50% block weapon spell). 2) stupid teammates who won't stick near the spirits.

As you say, looks like we had exactly the same experience. :smiley:

Landing a new spirit of Preservation (not sure that's the right one - the 5 energy elite skill that lands heals every 4 seconds) was generally easy enough, but the spirit of Recuperation (the +4 health regen) was very hard to do during a combat. The fact that the main powerful heal cost 10 points was a little harsh too. I think with a bit of energy management (maybe Offering of Blood - but then you'd lose the spirit elite), the preset ritualist would be much more effective.

Also, I had to swap in res signet for flesh of my flesh. I'm forseeing FomF being much more of a PVE skill. It hurts too much, both of you being down on hit points, and it's hard to heal it back up again.

One thing I noticed is that Ritualists seem to be better at self heals than monks, though as you say they're still not much good for emergency heals. All of their regular spells can be used on themselves, unlike the monk, whose most powerful healing spells are other ally...

[lumimantteli]

I've been playing most of the new builds, and the one that amazed me the most was the Rt/Mo healer, man this thing can change the tides of any battle. I think it might be to0o over-powered.
One of the skills is Wepon of Warding( i think) and that skill is way to leet. It is spammable, it gives 3 pips of health gen, and gives u a 50/50 chance to block attacks.
however it seems like 100%, all those anoying A/Wo and R/A can't touch me.
With that build i was able to paracticly solo a team in TA or RA after my team died, and i was able to rez them all.
Also did anyone notice befor the last "please exit guild wars a new.....blabla", Flesh of my Flesh could rez under Frozen Soil. ^_^ it was sweet.

yep, Weapon of Warding, 50% chance, yea right. I have shot less distracting shots on healing touch and hit more, than i have on Weapon of Warding. Over the whole weekend I never succeeded in distracting that skill. Or anything under the effect of it. Really broken if I say so. :angry:

[Frits Bolkestein]

I must say the Ritualist is amazing! The MM ideas sound great, as well as the channeling builds - I must say the potential for damage on this character is fascinating. Too bad I was away for most of this weekend.

However, an interesting combination:

Echo + Vengeful weapon (5/0.25/3, steals around 65 health at... restoration 15 or so, can't remember exactly)

Vengeful steals health whenever you take damage, meaning almost ANY type of damage. I haven't tested indirect sources like backfire but for most other damage types it workes brilliantly. Quite spammable with channeling and echo and it dishes out hurt and heals at the same time.

You'll have around 6 of these in 10 secs, meaning an attacking warrior will have suffered around 400 damage while dealing very little in return. Lovely.

Also, recuperation seems huge for any spirit summoning ritualist. It looks rather dull at firrst but a lot of the powerful spririts (AoE prot spirit, the kd spirit, the amazing shielding hands-like AoE spirit, 100% evasion spirit etc) lose health when they're doing their thing. This spirit seems a very decent way to keep 'em alive especially combined with the 'health-regen-for-spirits-but-fatal-after-30-secs-signet' for when the going gets tough.

[aeonbahamutzero]

has anyone thought of any good skill combos with any other classes besides monk and necro? i've been trying to think of a few but it seems more effective (at this point in time) to be a pure Rt.

[Hurricane Six]

I dont think they are overpowered A good interupt could take me down very easy as for mesmers i didnt have any problem with them it was the ele that was really gettin me One thing i really like about them in pvp is that in a match u see monk everyone goes after them with a Rt u dont know what youre gettin

[byootrcr]

Mesmers for the win. Can take down a Ritualist like there's no tomorrow. Can't wait to see the Mes's role in Factions.

Gawd, i hated playing against mesmers this past weekend. Energy denial, health degen, backfire, among other things really pissed me off. i was using the premade template rt/mo and mesmers always had me useless

[CHIPS]

I noticed a reduced number of interrupters and hexers during the PvP weekend. Everyone was trying out the new classes, so the "classic" builds was on vacation. So it is hard to say that Rt/Mo was overpowered, since usually the matches goes as Rt/Mo vs A/W. We will need more interrupters and hexers playing during the next test to find out. Only if they find it hard to stop Rt/Mo, then we can say Rt/Mo is overpowered, and need to be tuned down.

[SoulsOfEternity]

Well there were alotta hexes and stuff missing during the event, but me and some friends were doing Team Arenas and Idk if we ran into any hexes and whatnot but we still did extremely well.

And I think I read somewhere that the casting of spirits aren't effected by Power Leak and other interuption spells, but I know from experiencing it that they are effected by the ranger interupts, quite annoying.

However I don't think the Ritualist is overpowered, it was just a lack of understanding in my opinion. Whenever I ran into an opposing Ritualist my goal was to destroy their spirits while keeping mine up, usually ended up working somewhat well, since no one ever attacked my spirits :undecided: maybe 1 outta every like 10 people would attack the spirits.

I hope the Ritualist stays as is, was so much fun, oh so much fun.

[ubrikkean]

obviously anet isnt stupid enough to make a class unbeatable; this build is simply a nice alternative to using a monk to heal, especially since 1) a lot of people didnt know during the weekend that rt/mo was a necessary target, so they werent attacked, and 2) it doesnt rely on enchantments, which is a huge bonus that a lot of people dont think about.
many people seemed to think of it as overpowered because it can keep itself alive for a long time, and give a decent healing job to a team.
my favorite thing about playing it though is that i dont get screwed over just because a skill is disabled or a spirit is killed, the skills are good in conjunction but can work fine alone too.

[Da Si]

The Spirits for the Ritualst aren't affected by Mesmer's Power Leak/Spike/Block Interrupts because they aren't spells, they are "Binding Rituals", similar to "Nature Rituals" for Ranger. However Cry of Frustration should still work I think...

And I think something that people are forgetting is that Assassins and Ritualists aren't the only ones with new skills; the old characters could be getting some good counters to the new professions/combos that currently are looking "unbeatable". And as some people have said, without customization of builds, no one will know for sure how well anything works.

[Ice Blessings]

I think that a Monk will still and always dominate the PvE games. Why? Monks can easily and swiftly outheal any Ritualist. Now here is where I am concerned at. Because monks still have their ability to over heal (which they should), then I still believe people will most definatly or rarely be yelling out "LFG for Ri!" when they see that Ri's can barely keep anyone healed.

Although I do love some of the skills a Ri offers, a monk puts it to shame. However, I will not say ban the class or kick it out, no, because it most definatly does what its intended to do.

There is a skill (forgot which name) that lets you cast a spirit which gives every party member in the area 3+ Regen. Okay, so your thinking, thats fine, but whats your point?

Well you know those annoying monks that give everyone +4 mending, the entire team? They can cast this baby making it +7 Mending for everyone!

Thats 14 hp a second, and if you get conditions, they will not hurt you (inless they exceed 7+ degen). Therefor, they can become stronger.

Also, guess what? Enchant Bonders are campers, they rarely heal because their too busy maintaining the enchants, meaning that what to seems to be "useless monk" over there, can throw down some useful stuff like the spirit that gives someone 100+ Hp every 4 seconds. (God, I hope they Devs fix who it heals, or its useless or shouldn't be considered a elite).

Other than that, I would never use a Ri to heal my team because they simpley cannot heal enough, but for monks, they can most certainly use the skills to boost their already healing level up a notch which i'm proud to announce.

I can't wait till spring 2006 ^_^

~Ice~

[Erasculio]

I think that a Monk will still and always dominate the PvE games. Why? Monks can easily and swiftly outheal any Ritualist.
You are forgetting one thing: it's hard to get a Monk in most places, many Monks just stand in AFK mode at Outposts, Monks often leave groups without explanation, etc, etc...

Stereotypes FTW, ok, but between a very efficient and less practical approach, and a less efficient, but a lot more practical (guess how many Ritualists we will see around once Factions is released) approach, which one would you prefer?

Erasculio

[HonshuHigamori]

I disagree, actually. I am of the belief that Ritualists can very much so rival Monks in terms of healing, but simply are a bit too "fragile" and easy to render less useful, through the destruction of a Ritualists spirits.

In PvE, where mobs are not smart enough to slay the Spirits (Or if they are, a good Warrior should be taking up their attention anyway so they shouldn't even get *near* the spirits), I expect the might of a healer Ritualist to come full circle. Indeed, there will of course be the veritable cavemen of the new chapter of Guild Wars, too stuck in their old ways of "Monk = healer Elementalist = Nuker Warrior = Tank", too foolish to consider the full amount of options available to them, who will shun healer Ritualists. Despite this, I do not consider Ritualist healing anything less than fully on par with Monks, provided their Spirits don't get mauled.

[edit] And of course, do keep in mind that there may yet be Ritualist healing builds which will not require Spirits to be strong. Remember that spell, Soothing Memorys? Perhaps with that, alongside Weapon buffs, things like Wielders Boon and the like, Ritualists will not even *need* Spirits if they make a build based around their Weapon buffs and their spells improved by holding an Item.

[Ice Blessings]

If Ri's COULD effectively heal as good as a monk, what would be the point OF a monk then? Other than having divine favor? It would be a replacement, which anet said themselfs they did not want, so I still do not see why people would take a Ri for a primary healer inless they could not find a monk.

Your also forgeting that Ri's will just not rush in and overtake monks. People who love "healing" will be a Ri, other than those who favor offensive players. And because most likely they already HAVE a monk, they cannot be on a Ri and a monk at the same time, so where is the population increase?

~Ice~

[HonshuHigamori]

If Ri's COULD effectively heal as good as a monk, what would be the point OF a monk then?

An alternative. Just like a Marksmanship/Beastmaster Ranger, Energy Surge Mesmer, Blood Nuker Necro, offensively built Warrior, or any other of the numerous builds meant for damage is an alternative to an Elementalist for damage. The point is, a Ritualist gets to the same end (Keeping people healed) in a different way (Utilizing Spirits, Weapon Buffs, etc) than a Monk, and gets to the same end just as well. Do you understand?

[aeonbahamutzero]

enchants can be removed. weapon spells cannot. weapon of warding was used to great effect during the PvP event from what i heard.

[Akkarin]

I still remain of the opinion that Ritualists are going to knock out the protection monks. Healing isn't really their cup of tea, if I read the Rt the right way. KD's, blindness, damage reduction... to me it's clear they are going to protect and the monks will be more inclined to heal properly.

[Artemis Shadowhawk]

Alright everyone. I have decided to play a Rt/x once Factions is released; however, I am still undecided about my secondary profession. I have come up with three appealing options:

Rt/E:
Earthbind with Knockdown and Aftershock.

Rt/N:
Explosive Growth with Bone Minions

Rt/R:
Spirit spammer

Now remember that I need a character I can play through the entire game. Not just an uber build that relies on skills near the end of the game. I am leaning towards the Rt/E and Rt/N. Mostly towards the Rt/N as the Rt/E is spread out among too many attributes. I think the Rt/N is also a rather versatile option. Here is a basic outline for a build:

Rt/N:
Spawning, Death Magic, Communing
Boon of Creation
Explosive Growth
Death Nova
Animate Bone Minions
Taste of Death
Ritual Lord
Pain
Union
Verata's Sacrifice
Blood of the Master
Signet of Creation
Ressurection Signet
[note- Obviously too many skills currently. The build needs definition still.]

So if you guys have any advice on which of the three options to play, or advice on builds for the other two or advice for the Rt/N, I'd appreciate it a lot.

Thanks in advance.

[JeanDeathwish]

Rt/R might be nice. Not because of more spirits but because I think Weapon spells are perfect for pets. There is is difference between Ranger spirits and Ritualist spirits. Generally Ranger spirits are cast before the battle and off to the distance while Ritualist spirits are likely to be cast during battle or in a place where that battle would take place. And seeing as most spells that are effected by spirits are usually nearby or in the area range, Ranger spirits wont really cut it. Also, there are alot of Ritualist spirits!

Rt/N is great too because of the minion possibilities. But other than that, curses and blood dont really complement the Ritualist that well. Unless your running life stealing build with some of the weapon spells but then you should be N/Rt.

Rt/E is good for some serious lightning damage. Glyphs would be great with spirits and so would wards.

I still dont know what Im going to be... leaning towards Rt/R (always wanted a pet) but /Me and /A have entered my mind too. Need to see the new skills for the other professions first before I make my decision.

[Fenix Aurion]

Yeah, I'd have to go with R/Rt. You can create a really good Beastmaster build with this using weapon spells.

[MaximumSquid]

Yeah, I'd have to go with R/Rt. You can create a really good Beastmaster build with this using weapon spells. Sounds like a fun PvE idea.

A build running Defiant Was Xinrae, or Vengeful Was Khanhei would probably also be a fun PvE build to go with.

[Artemis Shadowhawk]

I was thinking of using a Rt/R with a pet and Ancestor's Rage. That would pack a hefty punch.

However, on to topic of Rt/N, I could easily run a healing build using restoration and blood magic. Also, I think there is some possibility for a life stealing build using Nightmare Weapon, Vengeful Weapon and Blood Song along with Blood Magic.

I do not want to run a R/Rt. I really want my primary to be Rt even if it's not optimized, but simply because I want to see all the new armors and things like that.

So if anyone could post an actual outline for Rt/R, that'd be awesome.

[Artemis Shadowhawk]

Rt/N:
Restoration, Channeling, Blood
Vampiric Gaze
Nightmare Weapon
Vengeful Weapon
Soothing Memories
Blood Renewal
Offering of Blood [e]
Well of Blood
Flesh of my Flesh

Why heal when you can steal?

[Artemis Shadowhawk]

Rt/N:
Spawning, Death Magic, Communing
Animate Bone Minions
Death Nova
Taste of Death
Verata's Sacrifice
Boon of Creation
Explosive Growth
Ritual Lord [e]
Ressurection Signet

The destruction of creation

[Ice Blessings]

Strength of Honor + Some Weapon spell that lets me hit 10+ and melee the enemies as a monk ;)

~Defender~

[Artemis Shadowhawk]

I don't really know what that means, but I'm assuming you're thinking of a Ritualist/Monk? And you'd be using Strength of Honor and Brutal Weapon? Then you'd tack on around 20 damage in melee combat. I don't really see the point or use. A Mo/W can deal much more damage with just smiting.

Finally, I don't remember seeing Rt/Mo in the title of this thread.

[JeanDeathwish]

Brutal Weapon
Give target ally a Brutal Weapon for 5-17 seconds. The bearer's weapon strikes for +5-13 damage as long as the bearer is under no Enchantments.

Strength of Honor + Brutal Weapon wont work.

Ritual Lord
For 30 seconds, your Rituals recharge 5-63% faster.

Ritual Lord wont work with minions. Just Binding Rituals.

I should say that we are not exactly sure when skills will be made available to us during PvE so builds might be limited. Also, for example, if I wanted to run a Rt/R pet build in Factions PvE and decided Ferocious Strike would be a good elite I would be very disappointed when I get Factions because there is a new set of elites for all the current classes. For PvP we can use all the elites but this is a PvE thread.

[Goldfish God]

Rangers get Nature Rituals. not sure if those are supposed to qualify for Ritual Lord.

[MaximumSquid]

Rangers get Nature Rituals. not sure if those are supposed to qualify for Ritual Lord.Ritual lord does work with ranger spirits. . .although i'm not sure why you would want to. . . You could just make an oathshot ranger and setup the spirits whenever you feel.

[Artemis Shadowhawk]

And I'm trying to make a Rt/x. Anyone have advice on the builds or any other possible builds?

[Erasculio]

I'll go with a Ritualist/Necromancer just because that's what I feel like doing. An Elementalist Secondary would require too much energy, and I just don't like that profession for secondary. A Ritualist/Ranger would work wonders in PvP and in PvE with a pet, but I'm not too fond of pets (I bet mine is crying now :soapbox: ) and I don't plan to PvP soon. A Ritualist/Necromancer has, other than the Ritualist skills (that I intend to use the most), many different spells to choose from: direct damage, life stealing, degen hexes, anti caster and anti melee hexes, minions, wells, etc...Thanks to that versatility (who knows what I'll need in Cantha), I'll go with a Rit/Ne.

Erasculio

[Artemis Shadowhawk]

I also think I'm going to be playing a Rt/N. This is for a few reasons.

Ritualist and Necromancer seem to be somewhat similar in their respects to summoning spirits and undead. Almost Shaman-like in a way to transcend to the after-life. So, simply just because they go well together.

Rt/N allows for great diversity in choosing to use Minions or Spirits or neither. For example the two build I've posted use completely different attributes on both professions; however, both are effective (in theory).

Rt/N seems like a character that can play through the entire game and fill different roles based on the other members of the group.

Also, as Erasculio said, Elementalist isn't a good secondary and an E/Rt would be a much better choice.

Finally, I already have my Ranger and I can get all the new fun pets with her.

So can anyone think of any other builds? I'm still working on a curses build.

[Tyrandee Aerowind]

a healingritualist can heal just as great as a monk if you have good teamwork.
if the team listens and stays in the area of the healingspirits you can easily heal good.
in the pvpweekend i used a healingritualist with 3 healingspirits, 4 healingskills and a ressig.

the 3 spirits were:

preservation(90 health to one ally in the area every 4 seconds)
recuperation(healtgen)
life(heals when it dies, so when people kill it or the 30seconds run out you get a really good healthboost. also handy for area of effect spells to get a last healingboost if they attack your stationed spirits)

the healingskills were:

weapon of wardening block50% of attacks and get healthgen
wielders boon heal and heal extra when you have a weaponspell up
mend body and soul heal a little and remove conditions when spirits are up
spirit light heal a lot

all these healingskills are quick recharge so you can cast them quick. also if you are in the area of the spirit of recuperation(max is +4 healthgain of i remember correcly and combine that with the weapon of wardening(max +3 healtgain) you get just as lot of healingpipes as a healingmonk can get.

i tried out this build and it works as great healing if you and your allies stay in the area of the healingspirits. that's the catch of a healingritualist. if you have goodteamwork a healingritualist works great.

this is mostly for pvp though, in pve i have to test it before i can make a decision. though to the stationary spirits a monk would probably still be handier in pve. cause of the recharge time of the spirits.

[RedXevious]

Just wanted to get your opinion on which combo would work better.

Personally, I like A/Ri better, but everyone keeps telling me that Assassins are weak as ****, and can be killed easily... Unfortunately, I missed the preview event on the 22nd (or whenever it was), so I don't know much about the two new classes.

Can I get some input?

[Addicted Jay]

I'm planning on trying both builds out first, then deciding whats best, and then playing the full Canthan campaign with him.

[Deadly Hawkeye]

a healingritualist can heal just as great as a monk if you have good teamwork.
if the team listens and stays in the area of the healingspirits you can easily heal good.
in the pvpweekend i used a healingritualist with 3 healingspirits, 4 healingskills and a ressig.

the 3 spirits were:

preservation(90 health to one ally in the area every 4 seconds)
recuperation(healtgen)
life(heals when it dies, so when people kill it or the 30seconds run out you get a really good healthboost. also handy for area of effect spells to get a last healingboost if they attack your stationed spirits)

the healingskills were:

weapon of wardening block50% of attacks and get healthgen
wielders boon heal and heal extra when you have a weaponspell up
mend body and soul heal a little and remove conditions when spirits are up
spirit light heal a lot

all these healingskills are quick recharge so you can cast them quick. also if you are in the area of the spirit of recuperation(max is +4 healthgain of i remember correcly and combine that with the weapon of wardening(max +3 healtgain) you get just as lot of healingpipes as a healingmonk can get.

i tried out this build and it works as great healing if you and your allies stay in the area of the healingspirits. that's the catch of a healingritualist. if you have goodteamwork a healingritualist works great.

this is mostly for pvp though, in pve i have to test it before i can make a decision. though to the stationary spirits a monk would probably still be handier in pve. cause of the recharge time of the spirits.
I agree with you. That's why I wonder if playing Ritualist (healer) will be hard in PvE or not, as you need to keep moving, not much time standing still, so I wish the Spirits can move as well!

[Serendipity]

I have played a bit with the assassin and the ritualist during the beta event.

I don't really see what would be the role of assassin in pve. Think about something like a ranger but with dagger instead of a bow.

On the other hand I can see how a ritualist could be used. Group start fighting some mobs, ritualist put down some spirits to attack the mobs or protect the group.

Honestly a well played assassin can be deadly, but assassins played like wa/mo i have some doubts. And you can't expect new player to master the class in a blink.

[TBMarauder]

In PvE, I think that you'll find that there is plenty of time for your Binding Rituals to recharge (esp. with the elite 'Ritual Lord' equipped).

Even in the hardest of missions in GW:P, there is at least a minute between battles and besides, you don't have to setup ALL of your spirits at every battle.

[casserole]

My first suggestion would be to wait on forming an opinion until the next beta event (3/24?). That way you could try both classes out and decide for yourself.

Now, are you are making a single character using both classes to simply unlock skills as fast as possible? If that's the case, then I would think that Ri/A would be the way to go. The reason being is that you will find it easier to get in groups. EVERYONE is going to be trying the new classes out when GW:F is released. Who can blame them? As a result, monks will be in even shorter supply then they currently are. And what class can fill that role.....the ritualist. If you create a healing/protection ritualist, my guess is that you will have parties asking for your services as much as these parties call for monks now.

[Erasculio]

Well, what do you want to do?

Would you like to move in the battle field from enemy to enemy, darting around killing them before they have time to hit you, flashing around with teleportation spells as the Conditions you have imposed on the enemies cripple them?

Or would you rather stay in the back line, with spirits as your support, either dealing damage (with the ocasional walk in front for that good one shot) or healing your party, using some other effects to weaken enemies and buff allies?

I think an Assassin/Ritualist using the Ritualist weapon spells would be deadly, but it depends of what you want to do.

Erasculio

[Health Influence]

If monsters auto target ritualists first (much like they do to monks) then i will never play one in PvE

imagine the latter levels, where enemy mesmers are aplenty

[Goldfish God]

I'm probably gonna go with Rt/A. I like the female visuals better (the mix of flippy voodoo flailing and belly dancer/shaman clothing) than the Assassin (the whole Naruto "inspired" thing & hunched run kinda annoy me) or male ritualist (a shorta white guy in Bermuda Shorts and oversized turban?!). Though mechanically I don't care much for spirits compared to weapon spells & ash-pots so Ritualist's Spawning primary probably won't have much use for me, while Assassin's primary can easily remain relevant through your weapons.

I think it might be awesome to have a girl in ritualist robes going all mad-flippy slashing with dual-daggers. :laugh:

[Zaxares]

Doing DNKP on the weekend with my monk (we failed, incidentally), I remember thinking "This would be SOOO much easier if we had a Restoration ritualist."

I think that speaks volumes. :tongue:

A ritualist excels at keeping large numbers of people healed for small - moderate amounts. A monk excels at massive healing, but often only for one or two people. A monk and ritualist healer tag team will be VERY hard to overcome, I feel.

[Ice Blessings]

Another great thing about ritiualists tho, is that people will target their spirits, which means less offensive on your team for a short moment.

~Ice~

[Defiled Immortal]

here is how i look at it... ritualist = LONG range AoE type spells.. both prot and healing

Monk = very very concentrated healing and prot... high energy usage but only helps 1 player.. al be it more effectivly...

[Defiled Immortal]

Doing DNKP on the weekend with my monk (we failed, incidentally), I remember thinking "This would be SOOO much easier if we had a Restoration ritualist."

I think that speaks volumes. :tongue:

A ritualist excels at keeping large numbers of people healed for small - moderate amounts. A monk excels at massive healing, but often only for one or two people. A monk and ritualist healer tag team will be VERY hard to overcome, I feel.
you should see it when you have a prot ritualist spamming spirits... a channeling ritualist using the prot spirits for damage. and a healer monk with any kinda offence ontop of that... its scary (this was beta weekend so i think we had an assasin with us to round out the team)