*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.
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)
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!
Like I said in the other thread very good post :-)
/voted for guide
Quote:
Originally Posted by StevenBrouwer
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.
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.
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)? 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.
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 :)
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.
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
Linear Mode
