Spirit Born Sword: Melee Ritualist Reborn, By Lord Helmos

[Lord Helmos]

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/192/spiritbornswordvx3.jpg

Attributes:

Sword: 12
Restoration: 7 (6+1)
Communing: 7 (6+1)
Spawning Power: 14 (10+4)

*OR

Sword: 11
Restoration: 9 (8+1
Communing: 7
Spawning Power: 14 (10+4)

*NOTE: This setup sacrifices a minimal amount damage to boost your effective heal to 93 HP from wielder's boon. This varation allows more survivability.

Equipment:

Weapon: Zealous Sword of Enchanting, inscribed "Guided By Fate" (+15% while enchanted)

Secondary Weapon: Any Spawning Power Wand.

Shield: Any Max Shield or +5 Armor Spawning Power Offhand. +30 Health on the shield or offhand is ideal (Shield for more defense, offhand for more energy). If using a shield, +45 health and -2 damage under an enchantment mods are ideal. I would recommend a shield for the best survivability (Jacqui's Aegis is the best shield to use for this build).

Armor: Superior Headgear of Spawning Power (1+3), Minor rune of communing, Minor rune of restoration, All Ghost Forge or Emissary Armor (+15 while holding a weapon spell.) One superior vigor and one attunement rune should finish the setup.

NOTE: The zealous mod and ghost forge/emissary armor are required for the build. With a shield you can effectively push your AL into the 80-85s, which will allow you to survive on the melee front.

Skills:

Final Thrust
Protecter's Strike
Flurry
Wielder's Boon
Vital Weapon
Sight Beyond Sight
Spirit's Strength <3
Rez Signet

OR (For Aspenwood or Alliance Battles)

Final Thrust
Sun and Moon Slash
Protecter's Strike
Flurry
Wielder's Boon
Vital Weapon
Sight Beyond Sight
Spirit's Strength <3

*OR (With an experienced Monk)

Final Thrust
Sun and Moon Slash
Protecter's Strike
Flurry
Vital Weapon
Sight Beyond Sight
Spirit's Strength <3
Rez Signet

*NOTE: Drop restoration and run 12 sword, 16 spawning. The restoration rune can be replaced with an attunement rune. Running this setup for the final variation unlock's the build's best damage potential.

The Way of the Sword:

This build works by using Flurry in tandem with Protecter's strike in order to unleash the maximum amount of DPS possible with spirit's strength on. Although damage is slighly reduced by flurry, the bonus damage from spirit's strength is unaffected, so you don't lose much. By spamming protecter's strike on the target with flurry on, you can get an unreal number of hits landed in a short amount of time. The massive cluster of strikes on the enemy will deal a ton of pressure and build up final thrust for the fatal stroke. For alliance battles or monk supported variations, sun and moon slash adds a double stroke and deals almost as much as damage final thrust. In the final variation of the build, nothing is going to live through protecter's + sun + final. Sight Beyond Sight will act as a cover enchantment for Spirit's Strength, and grant you immunity to blind. Flashbots will be shocked when you carve them to bits despite being pelted with 5 Blinding Surge attacks.

NOTE: I have tested this build with 16 spawning power and 10 sword. The damage is about the same, but critical hits from the sword and the damage boost from final has shown me that having max swordsmanship over spawning power is the ideal choice. If you max both in the final variation, you become very very scary. Also for a better heal, you can run 11 sword and 9 restoration. The 93 pt. boost from Wielder's Boon is so good that you will even be able to psuedo monk if you are shutdown by melee hexes.

NOTE: I understand the debate about using Flurry with Spirit's Strength. After testing, I choose to use flurry since it can be maintained indefinitely (without dying in frenzy's case). Also the damage loss, as stated above, only applies to the sword damage and it isn't much. With Flurry and Protecter's strike being upkept, the amount of DPS that can be dealt is quite reasonable. In fact, even with Flurry, the attacks of this build outdamage an Illusionary Weapon mesmer and most melee warriors.

Start the battle by casting Spirit's Strength and Vital Weapon. Spirit's Strength will last a long time with an enchantment extension weapon. As the enemy nears, it's best to wait for an overextender. Punish the enemy by throwing sight beyond sight up as a cover enchantment and nailing blows with Flurry and Protecter's strike. The zealous mod will renew your energy and when final thrust is available bring them down quick with a sweeping stroke. This build does lack a snare, so a water ele or a crippling slash warrior are great assets to this build. A Burst Sin is also good for shadow prisoning the enemy while you lay down damage.

In moments of danger, use Wielder's Boon as a cheap heal to keep yourself alive while you back off. Also remember to cast Vital Weapon on your monk or squishies to protect them from spike attacks.

Remember to renew Vital Weapon and Spirit's Strength they come to an end. You will hit with pitiful damage otherwise. Also remember to always cover spirit's with sight, losing it after a recast can seriously hamper your ability to deal damage.

Overall, this build can deal about 45-70 dmg a hit constantly under a 25% increase in attack speed. With protecters strike being spammed you can deal almost 90-140 dmg double hits every 3 seconds, not to mention the devastating strikes you deal in the interim. Final deals about 130 on its own and also with sun and moon, its almost a sure kill melee spike. The auto attack will always deal the maximum damage to a monk under protective spirit, rending the skill useless against your onslaught. Guardian and Shield of Absorption are still threats however.

This build has upsides and downsides, the major one being it lacks a snare and can be kited. However if your enemy ever stops to cast, you will punish them in a short time. They will be taking at least 90-140 damage every second they stop running from your wrath. You also have less durability than a warrior but deal much more damage. This build will eat a warrior and even a dervish alive in an exchange of blows.

Also there will be times when someone with a silver of life runs from you at the last second. Rather than chasing, switch to your wand set and wand them. Spirit's Strength deals damage regardless of the weapon you use, the last thing they would expect would be to get dropped by a 60-80 dmg wand strike.

Things to Beware Of:

~Full rends such as gaze of contempt will devastate this build if they hit you just after you recast Spirit's Strength. In such a cast, support the party with vital weapon and wielder's boon. Try to sneak Spirit's Strength in while the render is being harass and then tear him to pieces.

~Insidious Parasite, Faintheartedness, Price of Failure, Reckless Haste, Empathy, Diversion, Spirit Shackles, Spoil Victor, Spiteful Spirit. Any hex that screws with your attack speed, ability to land blows accurately, or deals damage while your strike will punish you hard. Edenial also messes with this build by shutting down protecter's strike for spamming. Make sure you call these hexes for removal immediately and DO NOT kill your friends with SS.

Final:

The upside is that ritualists look extremely cool swinging around that giant soul sword. And yes, that sword hurts, it hurts a whole lot.

In conclusion, this build is designed to deal constant pressure. It has the capability to deliver a spike kill, but more importantly it will let you constantly tail someone with some extremely nasty pressure damage. In terms of a spike kill, nothing will beat Lyrtho's insane spiritual assassin, to which I give much /congrats to. In fact I started playing spirit's strength religiously after watching that insane video, trying to figure out what I can do with such a devastating niche spell. This is my contribution.

~Now my ritualist friends.... go unleash hell,
Helmos (Xarcena Amaris) :grin:

[StevenBrouwer]

I was trying this after i saw it in the other thread.
2 things i was wondering about:
1) why use a shield when tactics or strengt att is zero, does it do anyhting then?
2) Do other people in your team appreciate it?

I like the build, its great fun the rt really fight cool with a sword very nice and thx!

[Lytel]

1) why use a shield when tactics or strengt att is zero, does it do anyhting then?
If you don't meet the requirement it will still give you some armour, just not the full amount (I think it's maybe half or less).

[Akirai Annuvil]

Like I said in the other thread very good post :-)
/voted for guide
2) Do other people in your team appreciate it?
Depends on the team; last nights rit meet featured two people running Spirit's Strength (not this exact build I think), and they were quite effective down in the UW, Normal Mode. In a normal PuG though, probably not.

[AntonTheMesmer]

I tried this specific build before and love it also.
Haven't tried any sort of Spirit Strength build among PUG's but it got approved by a couple of guildies and friends while helping them out in a mission or two.
Found that when running with heros/hench that protection specced monk works wonders in covering up SS, making it hard to get stripped unless the culprit takes them all off.

[StevenBrouwer]

I actually had a different 2nd question, but I forgot it at my first post ><... Anyway: Protectors stike, I dont get it. Do you guys mean this skill (klik (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Protector%27s_Strike))? Because I somehow believe you guys don't use this one, but some other. Since it's strength att and because the "way of the sword" desciption makes me believe you guys mean another skill.

[Akirai Annuvil]

Protectors stike, I dont get it. Do you guys mean this skill (klik)? Because I somehow believe you guys don't use this one, but some other. Since it's strength att and because the "way of the sword" desciption makes me believe you guys mean another skill.

Look at the activation time of Protector's Strike and you'll know why people use it for SS builds. It's near instant, and Sun & Moon Slash, followed by a Prot Strike can easily deal around 150 damage in .5 seconds :)

[Slygar]

but prot strike only gets +10.. I much prefer Seeking Blade, which only takes 1 more second to charge, and can't be blocked.

The build I've been using in RA is:

Barbarous Slice
Gash
Seeking Blade
Final Blow
Spirit's Strength
Resilient Weapon
Sight Beyond Sight/flurry
Rez

Been working great so far, alternating Pure/Jaihenzu. And I way prefer Resilient Weap for the Regen and armor to Vital.

[Lord Helmos]

The difference with protectors strike, as pointed out by Akirai, is the attack speed. Protector's strike hits 3 times faster than any slash attack in the game. If you have flurry on and use it right after normal blows you deal double strikes that can deal over 100 dmg on their own. Toss in sun and moon and final thrust and you can spike down a target in under 2 seconds.

I mean sun and moon + protector's right after can deal three hits in .5 seconds. With spirits strength on and +25% IAS from flurry you have to think about the insane damage over time your dealing.

Imagine getting hit three times for 70 dmg each and then taking a 130 dmg final thrust right after that? Not alot stands up to this kind of punishment.

Also if the enemy tries to throw up prot spirit the flurry of attacks deal the maximum amount of damage possible under prot spirit and still overpower the spell with a chain of attacks, rather than a single large blow that the spell is designed to stop. Protecter's strike is one of the best to use because it doesn't take you the whole 1.33 seconds to swing the sword like seeker's or barbarous does.

[lavenbb]

IIRC if you don't meet the req of the shield you get +8 armor. Not much different from a +5 armor off-hand, so it's pretty much an aesthetic choice.

But then, you could look a little more resilient while holding a shield and people might just be less likely to spike you while you're doing your thing :P

[Lord Helmos]

Overall the armor bonus runs at:

60 AL, +15 Armor with a weapon spell, +8 with a shield:

83 AL vs all sources, which isn't that bad. With vital you are running about 550ish health.

It also helps to have the -2 damage while enchanted mod on the shield.

However, your damage output is way higher than a warrior and does not require any adrenaline save for final thrust or sun and moon. The adrenaline gain is also insane with protecter's strike and flurry active. You can have final thrust ready to go in under 2-3 seconds.

If you want to run another weapon spell that requires more energy, such as resilent, the +12 +5 armor offhand is not a bad choice. However, you really won't have energy problems as long as you are attacking, since the zealous mod pays for flurry and protecter's.

[cinders]

I love the opening image.

Now I have to run out for ANOTHER set of armor.

<sigh>

[deadendtony]

Looks very nice, you are very clever. I wonder how mesmer's Illusionary Weaponry build compare to this. I also love the opening image.

[Riuku Fierente]

must... resist.. the urge... to make rit... :)

[Lord Helmos]

Looks very nice, you are very clever. I wonder how mesmer's Illusionary Weaponry build compare to this. I also love the opening image.

I also run an IW mesmer as well. The two builds have their ups and downs. The IW mesmer has less survivability, but the upside is that you can use a burden spell to snare the enemy. The damage from IW is much less than a spirit sword, but cuts through any sort of evasive stances or spells, since it's spell damage.

A spirit sword counts as melee damage, which means that evasive stances like whirling defensive will stop the attack save for sun and moon slash. However, you are dealing over +33 armor ignorant bonus damage on top of a sword with 11-12 mastery. You will be dealing way more than an IW mesmer.

If you take this build up against a warrior, you will destroy most tanks. From doing so, you can see that the damage applied from spirits cuts through the 80 AL and +20 vs. physical damage a warrior is made to withstand.

The downside to the build is you have no snare, so enemies can kite you. Hamstring is a good choice to bring if you can afford to drop wielder's boon.

Also I did try running the builds with

11 Sword
14 Spawning
9 Restoration
7 Communing
2 Tactics

This gives you 2 bonus points for your shield, which might help a tiny bit. Also a 93 point spammable heal you can use on yourself and party members and and a +103 HP buffer. This gives you incredible durability, and you still retain the ability to attack at over 40% IAS (flurry+protecter's spam) with 100 dmg dual strikes and insane damage from final thrust. You can outdamage a warrior, outheal a warrior, and also support teammates if hexed.

Another upside to spirit swording is that Sight Beyond Sight grants you a cover enchantment over a mesmer, who will have a hard time covering IW without saccing an important part of their skillbar for something like SV or channeling.

Also you can run through 200 blinding surges, a valley filled with shadowsongs, or even trade blows with an ebon dust dervish and still maul them with your immunity to blind, which is one of the number one melee shutdowns.

~

For those people skeptical about a melee rit, try making a pvp version and messing with it. There are many variations of the build that can work for you, some using other weapons like warmongers for interrupts.

This build is also usable with an axe. You can throw in dismember for the ability to deep wound enemies or even run into PvE with cyclone axe, spirits, and splinter weapon to deal massive amounts of AoE that would make a dervish's jaw drop.

To me I see alot of potential in spirit's strength. It's my all time favorite skill. There are so many tricks to using it. Even if the enemy runs you can pull a longbow out and shoot them for a 50 dmg arrow with no points in marks.

[Nochtflamir]

Looks cool, I know what my next character is gonna be now:smiley:

[Lord Helmos]

Another thing to remember in 4v4 is that you can vital weapon your whole team before the match. There are alot of augury of death spikes and high damage builds like the Lyssa's attack spammer D/W.

Giving each person on your team +103 health each can stop your mesmers and eles from getting sin-spiked. Your monk will also much appreciate the damage buff. At least upkeep vital on you and your monk if you have spare energy.

When im really mauled with a high damage team and I have a ZB on my side, I throw the 93pt wielder's boon on the monk and take the chance that he ZB's me if he can make it. Throwing a 103+ health buff and +93 on a monk at the last second can really change the flow of the battle.

Another thing to watch out for is other allied ritualists bringing weapon skills like vengeful weapon, weapon of remedy, and weapon of shadow. The last thing you would want is for them to kill your long lasting weapon spell while you are in the middle of a battle. It's worse if you are in range of an interrupter than can stop or disable vital weapon before you can recast it.

~Ty to Bellisima for putting the guide information on the page front :smiley:

[selisia the white]

This build is astonishing even beats the bloke who invented duel 55/ss farming UW ;)

/CONGRATZ!!!

[Ekamdu]

hmmm not astonishing at all, has been around for months
lots of different versions aswell, sword, axe, spear, scythe, daggers...

in my opinion the scythe rules most...

btw, i dont think this guy deserves any credit at all... he just copied a build used everywhere...

[Lord Helmos]

hmmm not astonishing at all, has been around for months
lots of different versions aswell, sword, axe, spear, scythe, daggers...

in my opinion the scythe rules most...

btw, i dont think this guy deserves any credit at all... he just copied a build used everywhere...

Credit is not the reason to write a guide. It's simply a documentation of my personal experiences in using a weapon rit, experimenting with axes, scythes, swords, and daggers.

It's not expected that this particular variation will work for everyone. However, it is a documentation of what I thought worked best for myself, and what I have been effectively using.

The point of writing guides is to put down experience and experimentation in a form that other players can convientely use in order either:

A.) Get a general idea of how a weapon ritualist can be used effectively.

B.) Get an idea of what skills my possibly synergize well with spirit's strength.

C.) To give players wanting to trying something unique a baseline from where to start their own experiments.

D.) To show the pitfalls and upsides I've experienced trying something like this.

This is not the first time a ritualist has ever been used on the front line; or even the first time melee casters have been played with a degree of success.

There are people who have come up with very good ritualist builds concerning melee, namely Lyrs who has be credited with his awesome spiritual assassin on my guide.

I'll show my arguement against this kind of comment as follows:

Take the BoA sin for an example, everyone knew the skills but its not just the skillbar that makes you a good player. Skill lies in how you effectively use those skills in order to outflank and outsmart the enemy.

Just because a melee rit has been used before isn't justification for saying its wrong to write a guide on it.

No where in this guide do I want people to look and say, "hey look that build belongs to him." I don't think "who" a build belongs to is important and I care nothing for credit.

I simply want to provide information to people wanting to try something new and unique, as well as share my own experiences in using something like this.

The ritualist has a very strange niche in the guildwars world. This is another very interesting route one can take with a ritualist.

Another reason I wrote this is because I very much enjoy playing a melee rituatist; as well as surprising people with a ton of melee damage dealt by a "spirit spammer."

Why post stuff like this? I mean if you aren't going to offer some sort of insight, constructive criticism, or a helpful comment, why post at all?

[traversc]

What do you think about the sever/gash combo instead of protector's strike/final? Or instead of sun and moon/final?

I think it is a bit stronger.

[Lord Helmos]

I tried the sever + gash combo and the damage is good because of the DW.

However if you go axe, dismember and protecter's strike is also an easy way to sink in the DW as well. By using DW this way, you lose the bleeding but also dont have to worry about losing some IAS by not bringing protecter's strike to spam for dual hit combos.

A devistating combination would be to drop your wielder's boon for:

Dismember, Executioner's, Protector's, and Flurry.

You could hit with dismember to deep wound, executioner's for a massive damage spike, and then protector's right after for an additional attack. This combo will actually do more than a sword based one. If you want you can also bring executioner's over protecter's. You will lose some pressure damage but will have a massive spike that can be used to kill more easily.

[Wethospu]

I tried this build and worked very well. I used the most aggressive one. :azn:
Anyways, are you recommending sword build or axe build?

[Lord Helmos]

I tried this build and worked very well. I used the most aggressive one. :azn:
Anyways, are you recommending sword build or axe build?

It think its really player preference since both work well. A sword allows for a nice unblockable double strike with Sun and Moon and final as a follow up for solid damage.

However PvP-wise, the best combo would be:

Dismember
Executioner's
Protector's
Flurry

If you want the most amount of damage possible I would recommend going axe, because of the deep wound. The melee spike under these four skills is absolutely insane.

For more conditions you could also go

Sever Artery
Gash
Protector's
Flurry

However the downside to this path is you don't get a damage bonus from sever artery.

I would say try both ways to see what works best for you. I tend to alternate between sword and axe myself. TA and RA wise, I find the axe combo more damaging. However, the sword allows for more solid damage without relying on any conditions.

Either way its going to be painful for the enemy.

[Lord Helmos]

Did some more testing in AB...

Dismember
Executioner'
Protector's
Flurry
Wielder's Boon
Vital Weapon
Sight Beyond Sight
Spirit's Strength

It was a slaughterhouse, warriors, sins, dervs, monks, everyhing. Just with dismember and adding DW to the build... its just death everywhere. Damage wise, axe wins out for the DW. I'll have to see how the sword variation works, but axe is looking really good right now since dismember is so spammable. You charge it rediculously fast with prot strike and flurry.

You can even drop exe for a rez sight and run 14 spawn, 11 axe, 9 resto, and 7 comm for your good heal.

[MaximumSquid]

Nice presentation. . . reminds me of some of the things I used to post on the MtG forums before the angry mob formed :laugh:

I prefer axe on Spirit Warriors, but the your mods intrege me. . .

Protector's over a Deep Wounds? Hmmmmm. . . I must go see about this

[Lord Helmos]

I was thinking about some practical uses to this build in a GVG/PvP setting and this is what I found to work with gruesome effectiveness:

Rt/W:

Dismember
Protector's Strike or Wild Blow
Flurry
Rush
Vital Weapon
Sight Beyond Sight
Spirit's Strength <3
Rez

Axe: 12
Communing: 7
Spawning: 15
Tactics: leftovers

We ran this variation in TA and GvG with gruesome effectiveness. It's like having a frenzy warrior that doesn't have to risk double damage to deal constant pain. The strikes hit for 60-70 with just flurry. Protector's strike is always my love, but it can be subbed for wild blow to deal stance breaking critical damage vs. Aegis and Guardian.

This build deals insanely nasty pressure. Deepwound plus 60-70 dmg strikes with protector's spam is insane. You will be able to drop a caster in under 3 seconds. Rush also builds almost instantly and gives you a nice speed boost to chase targets.

Try it, its much fun. You will :heart:

[Dreikki]

Hah, this build got into community news.
http://guildwars.com/community/news/

I'm planning to try this build tomorrow.

[CKaz]

I for one really appreciate posts like this, many thanks OP :)

Looking forward to mixing it up with my Rit

Posts like these are very useful - my mains are Ele, Warr, Nec and some scattered use, one doesn't have game time to dig everywhere all the time :)

[Lord Helmos]

Community news! Hahah sweet :grin:

[StickyPanda]

Congratulations on making the community news.

[Dagren Stormfist]

Finaly got my ritualist geared for this build, and it's awesome! A lot of fun, effective too! Thank you for the guide! I just hope the skill doesn't get nerfed.

[Ekamdu]

Credit is not the reason to write a guide. It's simply a documentation of my personal experiences in using a weapon rit, experimenting with axes, scythes, swords, and daggers.

Ok, sorry then... I'm just used to people taking credit for other people's work... thats all.

The point of writing guides is to put down experience and experimentation in a form that other players can convientely use in order either:

Thats probably what I don't understand, I don't believe in "reading experience", i believe that players would learn and understand a build way better by playing it themselves, and making mistakes.

This is not the first time a ritualist has ever been used on the front line; or even the first time melee casters have been played with a degree of success.

I know, i have about 4 builds of casters using melee with a degree of succes.

Just because a melee rit has been used before isn't justification for saying its wrong to write a guide on it.

I never said that.

Another reason I wrote this is because I very much enjoy playing a melee rituatist; as well as surprising people with a ton of melee damage dealt by a "spirit spammer."

Yeah i love the melee ritualist aswell, but spirit spammer got a bit too common for my liking. (i hate common builds)

Why post stuff like this? I mean if you aren't going to offer some sort of insight, constructive criticism, or a helpful comment, why post at all?

And again, im sorry. I thought you made the guide to get credit for something you didn't make. Wrong thought.

[Wethospu]

I tried Axe build but used Penetrating Chop instead of Executioners for more often spike. I don't know if it is better or not but it worked. :grin:

[Dagren Stormfist]

Would switching Sight Beyond Sight to Wielder's Remedy be a good idea?

Enchantment Spell. For 10...26 seconds, whenever you cast a weapon Spell on an ally, that ally loses 1 Condition.

With an cheap, spammable weapon spell like vital weapon not only will you have an faster recharging cover enchantment, you can easily take off any conditions on you or allies.

EDIT: Thinking about PvE mainly here.

[Akirai Annuvil]

Hey congratz on making the community news :) Way cool.

With an cheap, spammable weapon spell like vital weapon not only will you have an faster recharging cover enchantment, you can easily take off any conditions on you or allies.
Well the only condition you'll probably wanna get off of you is Blind. All the others aren't that much of a hazard, and in some cases more easily applied than removed (poison comes to mind). Also isn't Wielder's Remedy like a 1 second cast time? 1 second is a lot... though it's not like enemies kite in PvE anyway. I'd say both are good/viable. Try it out and see which you like better ^^

[Lord Helmos]

Ok, sorry then... I'm just used to people taking credit for other people's work... thats all.



Thats probably what I don't understand, I don't believe in "reading experience", i believe that players would learn and understand a build way better by playing it themselves, and making mistakes.



I know, i have about 4 builds of casters using melee with a degree of succes.



I never said that.



Yeah i love the melee ritualist aswell, but spirit spammer got a bit too common for my liking. (i hate common builds)



And again, im sorry. I thought you made the guide to get credit for something you didn't make. Wrong thought.


Np bro, no animosity intended :D

[Dreikki]

I just tried this build.

Seriously, it's awesome.

Only if I could bother getting my pve ritualist trough elona so I could gear him like this. And ofc, If I could change his retarded name. >.<

[evil goblin]

This build sucks against any team with a monk in pvp. In pve you would do more damage and live longer with the rit/sin build. Good try and thanks for playing but you lose.

[Lord Helmos]

This build sucks against any team with a monk in pvp. In pve you would do more damage and live longer with the rit/sin build. Good try and thanks for playing but you lose.

Thats a wide generalization. Also it depends on the monk and how skilled each player is. A simple build does not make a good player. I've met infusers with the hands of god and infusers that constantly heal people over 50% for no reason.

It also depends on your team, your generalization seems to sprout from RA experiences. I don't know about you but I organize with guildies and we build off of each other.

You can rely on one build to remove hexes, interrupt, spike, deal pressure, remove conditions, prot, and heal at the same time.

I don't know about you but using rush on an axe spirit warrior, I have no problem ripping a part a migrained monk or outpressuring a thumper who overextended on my own healer.

The damage im outputting is extremely high for something that can be upkept indefinitely. Maybe try TA for a few rounds and find some friends to work you into a more successful team and you will have less of a problem.

Lately with a cripslash warrior or hammer, deal dual pressure with a spirit warrior has brought me some pretty good outcomes.

Also in PvE I brought a friend running 16 channeling who upkept splinter weapon on me while I ran cyclone axe. Vizunah square was a pile of bodies in 20 mins.

One single build doesn't make a team and I find uses for my spirit warrior. You can't depend on RA and random pugs to decide what builds are good and whats not. You haven't even scratched the surface of the game.

[Dagren Stormfist]

I like the dagger animations of the ritualist and got some nice daggers from a guildie, so I decided to try Spirit's Strength with them:

Black Mantis Thrust
Wild Strike
Death Blossom
Shadow Refuge
Vital Weapon
Spirit's Strength
Sight Beyond Sight/Wielder's Remedy
Res

I'm not sure if the attack chain is the best, I just took what recharges the fastest. Blossom does nearly 200 damage to most mobs. Shadow's Refuge works as an self heal and as a cover enchantment too.

12 Dagger
15 Spawning
5 Communing
5 Shadow Arts

Yeah, this is for PvE. I dont PvP much. Works okay I think, I just feel so darn slow after having used Flurry on /w :laugh:

[laugm]

oh well i tried the sword (survival build) with 11 sword for higher restoration in a hero battle just now....and i got a win in 3-4 minutes or so(with sousuke using water/fire and tahlkora and dunkoro)

the damage was scary(the other guys melonni went toe to toe with me during my initial split and died in 4 secs(she had signet of pious light too))
but then again my opponent was a curse mm apparently........:cloud9:

[Lord Helmos]

I have alot of fun with the 11 sword, 9 rest, 14 spawning, 2 tactics build in PvE. It stands pretty well on its own on the front and deals enormous damage. Usually I have Tahlkora run an SoR + glyph monk, which pretty much allows you to tear through anything.

[Dagren Stormfist]

I have alot of fun with the 11 sword, 9 rest, 14 spawning, 2 tactics build in PvE. It stands pretty well on its own on the front and deals enormous damage. Usually I have Tahlkora run an SoR + glyph monk, which pretty much allows you to tear through anything.

I've been running an all out offensive Spirit's Strength build without the heal, is the damage drop noticeable if I drop axe a little to get the heal? I really do like the Dismember - Protector's -> Executioner's combo.. Maybe I should switch to a sword and get the heal? I've been doing fine so far without it, but I always feel bad for fully depending on the healers. :undecided:

[Lord Helmos]

The drop in damage isnt too bad for an axe. The chain is so threatening because of the deep wound. Even with 11 axe, 14 spawning you will still chop through things relatively fast. At 12 axe and 15 spawning.... the damage is crazy.

I found with a sword you get more reliable and steady damage because of the base 11-22. They also seem to crit more because due to axes having a low integer of 6. However its really all preference, they both work well. The disember + prot + exe combo is much better for a spike kill. I would def. go axe over sword in PvP, but sword can still be just as effective with sun and moon slash dealing an unavoidable 90-100 dmg attack.

[Elligon]

i once ran a testing build similar to this but it was with a scythe and i was abble to keep dmg at an easy 150-200 dmg only problem was energy management and it didnt tank much and it was easy to kite it. not to mention the scythe is the slowest wepon easy to mention the scythe (1. 3 seconds a hit). so i just gave up. and dagers sux alot with around 17-45 dmg.
oh but thx u guy spiked my intrest with finishing my build.

[jewishninja]

hey, i love this build but i don't have nightfall....is there another build like this that will work for me. i only have prophecies and factions.
thx.

[halfthought]

hey, i love this build but i don't have nightfall....is there another build like this that will work for me. i only have prophecies and factions.
thx.

no, not really :undecided:

[jewishninja]

dang it....ok. if anyone can think of a good build will they post it up?

[ChaosTrance]

There are loads of good Ritualist builds, look at some of the stickies to find them. Good luck with your rit!

[jewishninja]

sry....i feel like a total noob for asking a question like this but what are stickies?

[kagie]

stickies are threads which are always above. You can always easily find them that way. stickies are also mostly very good threads.

[jewishninja]

man i can't wait to get nightfall and try this out....dang it stupid money!!!!

[Lord Helmos]

Lately I've dropped Final Thrust when using the 14 (Spawning), 9 (Resto), 11 (Sword), 7 (Communing) spread for sun and moon slash in my PvE build. The dual attack deals just about as much as final, us unblockable, and with prot strike at the end can deal 3 slashes in half a second. Of course for pure aggression, its always nice to have both on a bar.

Rush also works nicely for a speed boost when you can drop your wielder's boon in a TA setting.

My Current PvE Bar is looking like:

Sun and Moon
Protector's Strike
Flurry
Wielder's Boon
Vital Weapon
Sight Beyond Sight
Spirit's Strength
Flesh of My Flesh

My Current PvP Bar is looking like:

Dismember
Protector's Strike
Flurry
Rush
Vital Weapon
Sight Beyond Sight
Spirit's Strength
Rez Siggy

12 Axe, 15 Spawning, 7 Communing. I use an axe for PvP because of the crazy spike damage sinking the deep wound off dismember can be with protector's strike. This build can easily kill a caster in a matter of seconds and spread deepwound quickly, due to the quick charge on dismember. Paired up with a hammer warrior or thumper, this Spirit Axe becomes quite fun.

[beldeti]

I just ascended my rit/mo yesterday and tried this out after changing to rit/war. Great fun, watching a lil' blindfolded lady wielding a huge spirit sword :)

Still trying to find a Jacqui's Aegis though, or at least a -2 dmg while enchanted inscription for a shield I've been making to be a Jacqui's clone. Right now am using a motivation shield because it has the -2 dmg/+45 hp while enchanted -- still works :D
Thanks for sharing the build!

[Lord Helmos]

Yay for the Spawning Power buff! This might actually make Resilent Weapon a viable skill for powering Spirit's Strength. :cloud9:

Whatever buffs or nerfs get thrown around, you can be sure I'll find a way to keep rit's dangerous with a blade.

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/4787/spiritstancedme8.jpg
One soul, one sword.

[Akirai Annuvil]

Ooooh very nice picture :) Res Weapon will probably combine well with Wielder's Boon for a self heal too which is very nice ^^

[beldeti]

Love the photo! Got a fellblade too but it's req12, better for my warrior. My rit has with her a brute sword :)

Using your build, was able to bring her up to the Bone Palace, to get armor with insignias. Now with the armor update, I'm bringing her back to Cantha and proceed from Senji's Corner onwards.

[Akirai Annuvil]

Whirlwind Attack
Cyclone Axe
Flurry
Vital Weapon
Vampirism
Sight Beyond Sight
Spirit's Strength {E}
Rez Signet

Spawning Power 11+1+3
Axe Mastery 12
Communing 6+1

New build, basically Vampirism is a constant self heal which adds some damage and you use the Warrior AoE attacks for a lot of AoE damage (depending on SS rank around +50 armor ignoring AoE with Whirl Attack).

PvE build for quite obvious reasons :P

[Chaos Archivist]

Wow,this build is awsome! Finaly,a Decent Melee Rit build..
I just happened to have a gold Celestial sheild with the -2damage when enchanted mod on it in storage.
And I thought it was junk when I got it:duh:...lol
I cant wait to get to Elona on my rit,so I can get the Elite

[ce shogun]

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/1933/gw599nf5.jpg

Kamadan. Jewel of Istan

spend the last point and get +7 armor and put in a insc. to get +10 armor

put in a dye and U ready to go..

[Dark Green]

But you can get +8 armor from a max shield when you don't meet the req...

[ce shogun]

Vs warrior or Assassin its.. +17 armor

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/
The Axe is a primary weapon that usually causes slashing damage (with very few exceptions that cause piercing damage).
A Sword is a right hand weapon that causes slashing damage (or, in a few cases, blunt damage).
There are piercing and slashing daggers available.

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Inscription
Focus Items +12 energy "The Riddle of Steel" +10 armor
(vs slashing damage)

got 4 shield ..piercing slashing blunt and vs. fire (F1-F4)

[Zalis]

But you can get +8 armor from a max shield when you don't meet the req...

This guy's right. You know that, right Shogun?

[egizzle]

Well, my version of that build is pretty much alike. All the same weps, and stats. Just different Skills. The skills i use are as follows:

1. Flurry
2. Standing Slash
3. Hamstring
4. Distracting Blow
5. Wild Blow
6. Spirits Strength
7. Vital Weapon
8. Generous Was Tsungrai

In this build, its pretty simple. Start out with flurry, then use hamstring so they wont be able to run away from you. Use distracting blow to interrupt one of there actions. If they are using a stance, like whirling defense, use wild blow. Once u have enough adrenaline, i use flurry again, and standing slash. (Note that whenever attacking always use flurry) Since standing slash does more damage in a stance, and +33 more damage they would take alot.

[Hee Haw]

Vs warrior or Assassin its.. +17 armor

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/
The Axe is a primary weapon that usually causes slashing damage (with very few exceptions that cause piercing damage).
A Sword is a right hand weapon that causes slashing damage (or, in a few cases, blunt damage).
There are piercing and slashing daggers available.

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Inscription
Focus Items +12 energy "The Riddle of Steel" +10 armor
(vs slashing damage)

got 4 shield ..piercing slashing blunt and vs. fire (F1-F4)

Nobody's disputing that. I think the point is that if you want a +10 vs [damage type] shield, you're better off using a max rated shield than one from Kamadan.

For instance, a shield from Shausha at The Command Post would be:

Armor 16 (or 8 without meeting req.)
Health +30 (with Handle of Valor)
Armor +10 vs Slashing (with Riddle of Steel Inscription)

So, you'd have +18 armor vs slashing weapons instead of +17, and +30 health instead of +10.

It would, of course, cost more.

I personally use the +45 hp/-2 damage while enchanted shield with Spirit Strength Warrior builds. I find that the health bonus (I'm always enchanted in combat), combined with the bonus from Vital Weapon, keeps me from being targeted much at all. That's worth more to me than +10 armor vs [x] in most cases.

[Redwinter]

and remember, you can always bring more shields than you have weapon slots. As a caster, I often go in with:
[1] +5 energy spear, +30 health & Shield (-5/20% & 30 health).
[2]+15/-1 wand & +15/-1 focus for emergency energy.
[3]20/20/20 staff for high pressure situations.
[4]-5 energy spear & -5 energy/+5 armor offhand (that I don't meet req for) for lowering energy).
Vampiric Flatbow in inventory for longer range/harassment
+10 vs. Fire shield/+30 health shield in inventory
+10 vs. Ice shield/+30 health shield in inventory
+10 vs. Earth shield/+30 health shield in inventory
+10 vs. Lightning shield/+30 health shield in inventory
+10 vs. Blunt shield/+30 health shield in inventory
+10 vs. Piercing shield/+30 health shield in inventory
+10 vs. Slashing shield/+30 health shield in inventory
-20% to cripple/+30 health shield in inventory. (For lava)

I bring all those shields as a warrior/paragon, as well. As battle opens, I tab through the enemy to gauge what heavy damage my enemies are likely to inflict, and switch accordingly. Two eles using fire attunement? Fire. Warrior & dervish? Slashing. Necro? Ice.

[Akirai Annuvil]

and remember, you can always bring more shields than you have weapon slots. As a caster, I often go in with:

In PvE I consider that list too big, but for PvP, yes those are the required items for good performance.

[Lord Helmos]

Lately I've dropped Vital Weapon and I'm going with 14 spawning, 11 axe or sword, and 11 restoration. After the spawning power buff, resilent weapon can last 21 seconds and makes you extremely hard to kill. Also with so many points in restoration, wielder's boon is unreal.

For axe, I found agonizing chop and dismember to work really well in pvp. It has a nice damage bonus and with dismember so spammable you can use it as a sinker skill for the deep wound or to kill stuff like zealous benediction.

The downside is losing the anti-spike potential from vital, but I like resilent more since it's so useful in so many situation. Shadow Prison sins are having a hard time killling me because resilent activates off their hexes, most usually fail the spike and I can outheal it with wielder's boon.

[Lord Helmos]

Here's another fun build variant I came up with for melee rits:

http://img392.imageshack.us/img392/6697/spirittwisterjy0.jpg

Rt/W

Equipment

~Zealous Axe of Enchanting inscribed "guided by fate" (15% while enchanted).
~Shown with Jacquis Aegis, but any +30 health, -2 while enchanted tactics shield works. +45 health shields while enchanted work well too.

Runes and Inscriptions

~Headgear of Spawning Power with a Superior Spawning Rune.
~Minor Restoration.
~Superior Vigor or Major.
~All Ghost Forge inscribed Armor.
~All Attunement Runes or Vitae, player's choice.
~Sunspear Rank of at least Castellan (R8).

Attributes:

10 Axe
11 Restoration
15 Spawning Power

Skills:

Dismember
Whirlwind Attack (PvE Special)
Cyclone Axe
Wielder's Boon
Resilent Weapon
Sight Beyond Sight
Spirit's Strength {E}
Flesh of My Flesh

Storm Warning: heavy winds up to 65-90 Mph on the rise, all mobs should stay indoors:

This is a PvE variant of the spirit born melee ritualist tailored to handling large mobs. The build works by alternating between cyclone axe and whirlwind attack while in a large enemy cluster to deal crazy amounts of AoE damage. On average, every 1-3 seconds you will be dealing up to 65-90 damage to all surrounding enemies, thus becoming a hurricane of death.

The good part about this build is that whirlwind attack scales based on sunspear rank alone, so even without ultra high axe mastery, you can milk alot of AoE damage out of it. Resilent weapon lasts for 21 seconds with the new spawning buff and when assaulted by hexes or conditions you can gain upwards of 105 base armor while under fire AND +5 health regen, making you one beastly spiritual tank.

Not only are you naturally resilent, but with wielder's boon scaling with high restoration magic, you are packing a 107 point instant heal that you can use for cheap to stay alive. Sight beyond Sight will protect against any sort of blinding the enemy might throw on you and also act as your usual cover enchantment for Spirit's Strength.

With your zealous axe, you should be drowning in energy after a cyclone axe and the adrenaline gain from multiple hits charges whirlwind attack near instantly. Dismember is for a nice unconditional deep wound to take out tougher targets or an annoying spellcaster.

Overall, in mob heavy areas in like Vizunah Square or Warden Infested zones, you can deal massive amounts of damage as the enemies fold around your party.

[Lord Helmos]

For those of you who prefer a blade:

http://img66.imageshack.us/img66/6734/resilentreaverrn7.jpg

Rt/W

Equipment

~Zealous Sword of Enchanting inscribed "guided by fate" (15% while enchanted).
~Shown with Jacquis Aegis, but any +30 health, -2 while enchanted tactics shield works. +45 health shields while enchanted work well too.

Runes and Inscriptions

~Headgear of Spawning Power with a Superior Spawning Rune.
~Minor Restoration.
~Superior Vigor or Major.
~All Ghost Forge inscribed Armor.
~All Attunement Runes or Vitae, player's choice.

Attributes:

10 Sword
11 Restoration
15 Spawning Power

Skills:

Barbarous Slice
Gash
Sun and Moon Slash (or Final Thrust)
Protector's Strike
Wielder's Boon
Resilent Weapon
Spirit's Strength {E}
Rush, Rez, Flesh of My Flesh, or Sight Beyond Sight (Optional Slot)

~SAFE MODE~

Barbarous Slice
Gash
Protector's Strike
Wielder's Boon
Resilent Weapon
Sight Beyond Sight
Spirit's Strength {E}
Rush, Rez, Flesh of My Flesh, (Optional Slot)

No risk, no reward:

This is a high risk build based on the Spirit Born Sword. I found that protector's strike helps to build barbarous slice fairly quickly even without an IAS. Although losing flurry does hurt the build, this also allows the melee rit to impose a vicious attack chain that includes:

Barbarous Slice, Gash, Sun and Moon Slash, Protector's Strike.

The resulting damage from the combo scales from 70-88 damage from barbarous slice, bleeding, another 70-88 and Deep Wound with gash, two 55 damage swipes from sun and moon, and protector's strike added on top of that to add a triple hit at the end of sun and moon.

When in FA or alliance battles it is advisable to bring Rush as a run skill to keep up with the enemy. However, be aware that barbarous slice loses it's ability to bleed targets while stanced.

The high risk comes from the lack of a cover hex for Spirit's Strength, so being shattered will hurt the build a lot. However, you can substitute sun and moon slash for sight beyond sight and still have a very solid sword build that can still deep wound the enemy with the bonus of having immunity to blindbots.

Resilent weapon gives you up to 105 armor when active under a hex (with your shield and insignias factored in) and with restoration so high, wielder's boon grants a 107 point spammable heal. When facing Shadow Prison assassins, it is likely that their spike will be unable to kill you.

This build will destroy most warriors foolish enough to duel you. Also in fort aspenwood it is capable of soloing and capturing every single luxon outpost and mine at the start of the game fairly quickly once they send their turtles.

If you choose not to use sun and moon slash, final thrust can also be used effectively with the build. If sight beyond sight is brought instead, barbarous slice + gash + protector's strike is still a damaging combo that will bring any full life caster down within a few seconds. Also when using only Slice + Gash + Pstrike, using Pstrike right after the gash instantly sinks in the deep wound. This is useful when scoring a spike kill on a target at half life.

EDIT: There was someone earlier in the thread that was advocating barbarous slice as a good skill for a spirit rit, I want to credit that guy whoever he is.

[JuNz]

=====EDITED=====

Found out it's GPB dyed Black.

hehe...

cHeeRz for a Gd BlAdE~
:wink:

P.S: do correct me if i guessed wrongly >.>...

[Lord Helmos]

=====EDITED=====

Found out it's GPB dyed Black.

hehe...

cHeeRz for a Gd BlAdE~
:wink:

P.S: do correct me if i guessed wrongly >.>...

Hehe nice guess, but its a colossal scimitar dyed black and held at an angle :grin:

[JuNz]

doH... *smackshead*...

hehe...u gt me fooled there xD

[yakslappin]

*drools* wow it works awsome!.. I wonder how well it would work with assassin skills..

[Nochtflamir]

Finally got mine leveled and capped SS, I love the build, it does very nice damage and is fairly resiliant...I just have to pay more attention to keeping enchantments up. :)

[liljay]

i found something like this on pvx last night and tried a few things and found a build that worked good for me. ive not tried prot strike+flurry yet tho.
i didnt see much need for sight beyond sight in pve so dropped that.

Jaizhenju Strike
Savage Slash
final thrust
mend body n soul
Wielder's Boon
Vital Weapon
Spirit's Strength
flesh of flesh

ill try prot stike and furry later today :D

[AntonTheMesmer]

has anyone tested how the change to vital weapon affect the generic spirits strength build yet?

My other reason for favoring it was not only the hp boost, but also the duration of the weapon.

[Lord Helmos]

Actually lately I've been running this in AB:

Spawning: 14 (major)
Sword: 10
Resto: 11 (minor)

Standing Slash
Sun and Moon
Flurry
Rush
Wielder's Boon
Resilent Weapon
Sight Beyond Sight
Spirit's Strength

cxx[]=================>

In regards to the nerf to vital, yeah it hurt. For that reason I changed to resilent and started using standing slash as a spammable damage skill. Noting that it deals 78-90 with flurry on, its a good choice. Also because its not energy based, I can upkeep resilent weapon more easily even with its 10 cost.

***

Now storytime in AB, were were in Grenz Frontier and a team of two dervish and one sin are coming after me, im standing alone in the monk shrine. The sin shadow prisons me, which activates the armor bonus on resilent weapon and hits me with a combo that deals almost nothing through my warrior level armor. The regen from the weapon kills his conditions and at this time I had been shooting people with a longbow, so I had max adrenaline. So I hit him with standing slash then sun and moon and normal attacks. He drops to about 20% life and tries to run with FN. But I wand switch to Alem's remedy and nail him with a 50 dmg wand strike so he drops dead.

At this time the two dervs are approaching, one is a melandru dervish and the other one is a balth. They both rush the shrine and kill the monk, but during that time I'm able to drop the balthazar to about 50% health. The balth turns around on me while the mel is about to run to the next shrine. However, I smash him with standing + sun and moon, where he then runs to try to cast vital. But I switch to a longbow and shoot him in the back with a 35 dmg arrow, *thud* hes gone.

I used rush to catch up to the the melandru, who decides he wants to turn around and try to mess with me. Im at about 60% health, but I just wand switch to alem's remedy and recast my weapon and wielder's boon for a 117 pt. heal. Then I weapon switch by to my zealous vertebreaker and wail on him for energy.

So this flashbot coming from the mob behind him his me with Bflash, but sight is up and I just hack down the melandru, who thankfully didn't bring mystic regen. I out-damaged him through the mystic vigor and when his avatar ended I hit him with sun and moon.

By this time I'm hit with a lightning hammer, which deals horrendous damage and drops me to 50%. But the blind bot constantly blinding flashing me is just pumping the regen on resilent weapon. By this time im tanking 3 people from the mob and it finally takes one more lightning hammer and a quickshot ranger with conjure arrows to finally kill me.

Pretty mean for a "caster" class. :laughing:

1 sin and 2 dervish down before they finally take me down. Thats not bad at all.

[looah]

Im just wondering how well would this work for a A/RT lol since i love assassins but considering there isnt a real IAS skill for Assasins would it hurt? APART fromt he critical agility which is only PvE anyway.

[Lord Helmos]

Im just wondering how well would this work for a A/RT lol since i love assassins but considering there isnt a real IAS skill for Assasins would it hurt? APART fromt he critical agility which is only PvE anyway.

I am thinking that with the new weapon of aggression skill from EoTN, Rt/A spirit daggers is going to be really vicious. I can also see assassins abusing this skill as an IAS skill for their spikes. A non strippable 10 second IAS for a sin with only 7-8 points needed in channeling?

Hmmmm... no I'm not going to say it...

[Lyr]

I am thinking that with the new weapon of aggression skill from EoTN, Rt/A spirit daggers is going to be really vicious. I can also see assassins abusing this skill as an IAS skill for their spikes. A non strippable 10 second IAS for a sin with only 7-8 points needed in channeling?

Hmmmm... no I'm not going to say it...

Yeah, I've been drooling over Weapon of Aggression for my Rt/A since I first saw it. What's really nice is that Izzy says he is thinking about switching the skill to Spawning Power line. This will make it much longer lasting for Rits and not usable for Assassins :grin: . I hope he does it.

[AntonTheMesmer]

Weapon of Aggression:cloud9:

Nice AB story. :D Put a nice smile on my face. :)
Looks like I'll have to give resilient weapon a chance after seeing people prefer it, and especially now after such a delightful anecdote.

[looah]

Hey i just tried the axe melee ritualist and it truly out damages my ritualist asssassin! which is sad cos i love asssassins.

The quickest and most consistant spike i could do with my rit/a was 150 in 1 second but that is only like 1 small nuke. And this was using nightmare weopon instead of SS.

[PriestessOfSorrow]

Are there any viable Rt/P builds?

I assume the ghost forge insignia works better with a chant now?

[AntonTheMesmer]

I assume the ghost forge insignia works better with a chant now?

A bug that actually changes the requirement to work with chants instead. :)
So far the only fix to this bug is to buy the insignias from vendor again.

[StickyPanda]

So what's everyones new spirit strength sword rit(PVE) with all the GWEN skills?

[spaggage]

Wow, just wow, I love this build, it a totally different playstyle for me as a Rit. 10 outta 10 most definately. PS Lord Helmos, love your guides, if it wasn't for your farming guide, i wouldn't have a Rit.

[King Smoked Ham]

Nice Going :smiley:
It's a good idea!

[qowsqlb]

I'm running an axe variant of this build and love it.

[PukingDog]

thanks for the nice guide Lord.

i tried it out yesterday evening, and i was purely amazed :blush:

Just awsome.

Lots of fun in pve.

trying go get used to it a bit before i try it in ab.

a true death machine haha

[Reverse Vision]

Hello guys. I started to experiment with this build two days ago.

I sprinted to play the sword build without looking at the later pages but I found two skills (that are already mentioned here) and with those I actually managed to get 10 consecutives in RA. It's dead hilarious to wand people to death. And ofc as a tactic start with wanding so none will know how deadly you are before you get full adrens from wanding.

My build was.
Barbarous Slice (not in the first page, I added this skill because I got rid of flurry)
Sun And Moon Slash
Final Thrust
Protector's Strike
SBS+SS+Weapon of Aggression+Resurrection Signet

And I'm thinking of changing to this
Barbarous Slice
Gash
Sun And Moon Slash
Protector's Strike
SBS+SS+Weapon of Aggression+Resurrection Signet

Reason for changing: missed/protted thrust is baed and deep wound adds some pressure different way than pure damage.
With 9 in Channeling (and 10 in sword I get 14.52s unstrippable IAS from WoA). It's great to feel efficient frontliner. Theres even more tactics for this build and these builds are even scaryer now when we're intoduced w/ WoAggr. More posts please and especially related to tactics and working stuff..

Also, I'm interested in spear versions. Share please :P

EDIT: Typo + note.
Note: I found very little use for Sight Beyond Sight in euro RA. Only two times in 5 hours. Once to act as a cover enchantment (mesmer was trying to remove Spirit's Strength) and once because I faced a blindbot. :8 nice skillslot

OH! And one thing. I played without Zealous sword. Not major energy problems. I used vampiric/furious instead.

[Divinity Archer]

Also, I'm interested in spear versions. Share please :P



I second that ^^

Edit:

I tried a bit myself, and I like it so far.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/4272/gw052bq9.th.jpg (http://img441.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gw052bq9.jpg)

The DPS is very good, would be good when soloing with H/H.

[Lightow]

Warmongers is good with high channeling/spawning but weapon of aggression just doesn't last long enough (even with high channeling) so I still stick with vital weapon some times. As far as Spear attacks, use Swift Javelin, Wearying Spear (Weakness doesn't affect you much as long as you have 10+ in spear mastery) and Merciless Spear.

I love going SS with a spear since I'm still a spell caster and hate getting in the front lines. Too messy for my taste. :tongue:

[Divinity Archer]

Warmongers is good with high channeling/spawning but weapon of aggression just doesn't last long enough (even with high channeling) so I still stick with vital weapon some times. As far as Spear attacks, use Swift Javelin, Wearying Spear (Weakness doesn't affect you much as long as you have 10+ in spear mastery) and Merciless Spear.


Weapon of aggression lasts just as long as warmongers :wink:
Also, with vital weapon, I need to put points in communing, won't my attributes get too low?

I need all the tips I can get ^^

[Lightow]

Well, I just dump channeling altogether.

7+1 Resto
7+1 Communing
11+1+3 Spawning
10 Spear Mastery

Spirit's Strength
Vital Weapon
Wielder's Boon
Sight Beyond Sight / "I Am the Strongest!"
Swift Javelin
Wearying Spear
Merciless Spear
Death Pact Sig / Res Sig

Template Code: OAmkAehH5WqDyeeGPV24bI8QO5C

Use a shield of enchanting/fort with a -2dmg while enchanted mod. Spear can be enchanting/fort, with a 15^50 mod. Armor can be a mix of survivor/radiant/Ghost Forge.

[Divinity Archer]

- 2 (+1) Restoration magic
- 12 (+2) Spawning Power
- 6 (+1) Channeling Magic
- 11 Spear Mastery

[Barbed Spear][Disrupting Throw][Merciless Spear][Spear Of Fury][Weapon Of Aggression][Sight Beyond Sight][Spirit's Strength][Flesh Of My Flesh]

I've been using this build with a lot of succes lately, with a few good heroes you do a lot of damage.

If you have a hero who can inflict cracked armor on your enemies (Weaken Armor for example) you can replace Merciless Spear with Chest Thumper.

[Chest Thumper]

[dark3]

Spear is pretty nice for single target damge but alas can't compare with the incredible amounts of damage a SS rit can pull off using Cyclone axe+Whirlwind or such... I wish we had something similar to volley in the spear line... :sad:

[T Dub]

does this work good in PVE??

[Divinity Archer]

Spear is pretty nice for single target damge but alas can't compare with the incredible amounts of damage a SS rit can pull off using Cyclone axe+Whirlwind or such... I wish we had something similar to volley in the spear line... :sad:

Well, I tried sword for a while, and the biggest downside for me was the close combat and the damage you'd take while fighting. It's just not worth it for me. I tend to like the spear more, mainly because it's ranged, and single target DPS works fine in most cases when you're with heroes and henchies.

does this work good in PVE??

It does for me.

[dark3]

Well, I tried sword for a while, and the biggest downside for me was the close combat and the damage you'd take while fighting. It's just not worth it for me. I tend to like the spear more, mainly because it's ranged, and single target DPS works fine in most cases when you're with heroes and henchies.

Uhm well with axe I use a little different build, actually. I put [[Great Dwarf Armor] in place of [[Sight beyond Sight] and [[Vital Weapon] in place of [[Weapon of Aggression].. the ias comes from [[Flurry]. That way I got +24armor(add that to +15 from Ghost forge and +8 from shield and you got a nice +47AL) and +150-170hp.. both things help quite a lot ;)
For really heavy melee areas I either switch to ranged or add in the mix [[I am unstoppable] or [[Feel no pain].


Ah, if you got a high norn title, I suggest you add [I am the strongest] in the mix. At r10, it adds 160dmg over 20secs, which equals to -4degen :wink:

And, yeah, I LOVE pve-skills :grin:

[Chareos Rantras]

Excellent guide!!!!!! :grin:


And guess what??!!!

I made myself a melee rit. She got al her skills when she was lvl 5 (i love tomes :wink: ) and now she's well on her way to lvl 20.

I'm still in need for the right weapon mods and Jacqui's aegis (cause it's good and soooo beautiful).


cheers!!!!


Chareos Rantras

[Erring Ryft]

Yay, now my rit can run straight into battle alongside pew pew Gwen!

Heck...figured I'd add a picture too...of her holding a cheaper alternative of a sword she looks awesome carrying but no one ever sees in combat since they all look the same under a weapon spell...:rolleyes:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3082/3119793041_b22feed9e1.jpg?v=0

BTW, Helmos, I blame you for causing my temporary defection to the Luxon side in order to gain what I consider to be the only good-looking Rit armor...

[Tenkuninja]

heres my spear build that i found really good for pvp

same stats and armor as Helmos

Wearying Spear
Spear Of Lightning
Barbed Spear (optional)
Disrupting Spear (optional)
Spirits Strength
Resilient Weapon
Wielder's Boon
Res Sig (optional)

use wearying spear to trigger res wep's bonus armor and regen, and wait till you are unweakned before using spear of lightning

btw thanks to helmos for showing me how fun spirit's strength can be :D