Curse

Saphon the Patient · Dec 22, 2006, 11:20 PM // 23:20

Firstly I apologise if I have chosen the wrong location for this, but I felt that since the point of devising this build was to find some way of reviving interest in Ritualists, or more importantly, how they can work together effectively - sort of a case of "the total is greater than the sum of the parts" - it would be best placed in this thread. Also, it should be noted that this has not been rigorously tested, primarily due to a lack of both ritualists and mesmers.

With these disclaimers aside, I shall proceed with the build.

Character 1

Profession: Rt/Me

Name: Spirit Lord

Type: PvE

Category: Support
Attributes: Communing 10 + 3 + 1 , Spawning Power 11 + 1 , Inspiration 10

Skills Set :

Ritual Lord {Elite}
Boon Of Creation
Shelter
Union
Displacement
Shadowsong
Spirit Of Failure
Power Drain

Summary :
Providing both protection for the other relatively weak characters, and blinding enemies who stray to those protecting the group. Inspiration magic used for energy management, with the option of assisting in interrupting casters.

Character 2

Profession: Rt/N

Name: Xinrae's Binder

Type: PvE

Category: Aggressive Support
Attributes: Communing 12 + 3 + 1 , Spawning Power 3 , Blood Magic 12

Skills Set :

Xinrae's Weapon {Elite}
Mighty Was Vorizun
Binding Chains
Pain
Blood Ritual
Mark Of Subversion
Life Siphon
Res Chant

Summary :
Xinrae's Weapon is used to disable the spells of enemy casters, being cast on the IW Mesmer ( Character 6 ) or the Channelling Ritualist ( Character 3 ) depending on which is chosen to aggro in the circumstances. Mighty Was Vorizun can provide an energy boost and extra armor to reduce damage. Binding Chains is intended for containing moving foes, as with Crippling Anguish and Ethereal Burden in the Mesmer Builds. In this sense this character can perform a very defensive role. The Blood Magic Skills can add to the heavy degen which is applied to enemies by the Degen Mesmer ( Character 5 ), and provide extra energy to the other members of the team as and when needed.

Character 3

Profession: Rt/E

Name: Caretaker's Channeler

Type: PvE

Category: Offensive
Attributes: Channeling 12 + 3 + 1 , Earth Magic 12 , ( 3 elsewhere )

Skills Set :

Caretaker's Charge {Elite}
Cruel Was Daoshen
Glyph of Lesser Energy
Spirit Boon Strike
Renewing Surge
Wielder's Strike
Spirit Burn
Magnetic Aura

Summary :
One of the primary direct damage dealers of this build, this character can cast Cruel Was Daoshen and spam Caretaker's Charge and Renewing Surge, particularly when under the influence of Xinrae's Weapon. They can provide healing for the spirits involved in protecting the group by using Spirit Boon Strike appropriately. Wielder's strike is useful for extra damage when under the effects of Xinrae's Weapon, and when in proximity to spirits, Spirit burn is also effective. Magnetic Aura gives the character some added protection from Melee combat and reduces the impact of melee fighters on the health of the Union / Displacement combination.

Character 4

Profession: Me/Mo

Name: E-Surge Spiker

Type: PvE

Category: Offensive
Attributes: Domination 12 + 3 + 1 , Inspiration 9 + 2 , Fast Casting 8 ( optional runes ) , Protection Prayers 5

Skills Set :

Energy Surge {Elite}
Spiritual Pain
Backfire
Empathy
Power Spike
Power Drain
Shatter Hex
Protective Spirit

Summary :
This character's aims are twofold - to shut down problem casters, probably monks, and to do zonal damage. Power drain allows for reasonable energy management against casting groups. Against other groups, the other characters are more relevant. Empathy allows this character to have some impact on melee fighters. Protective Spirit is intended for emergencies and for self protection when spiking against offensive casters.

Character 5

Profession: Me/Mo

Name: Degen Illusionist

Type: PvE

Category: Offensive/Support
Attributes: Illusion 12 + 3 + 1 , Fast Casting 12, Protection Prayers 3

Skills Set :

Crippling Anguish {Elite}
Conjure Phantasm
Conjure Nightmare
Ethereal Burden
Clumsiness
Sympathetic Visage
Ancestor's Visage
Rebirth

Summary :
Applies heavy degeneration to specific targets. This character can also provide a method of controlling enemy group's energy via Sympathetic Visage and Ancestor's Visage - most relevant when the Illusionary Weaponry Mesmer is "controlling" aggro. Ethereal burden provides some limited energy management.

Character 6

Profession: Me/W

Name: Illusionary Weaponry Mesmer

Type: PvE

Category: Offensive
Attributes: Illusion 12 + 3 + 1, Fast Casting 3 , Tactics 12

Skills Set :

Illusionary Weaponry {Elite}
Illusion Of Weakness
Soothing Images
Ethereal Burden
Shields Up
Bonetti's Defence
Flurry
Disciplined Stance

Summary :
Deals direct damage to targets in melee when possible, using stances to minimise damage taken in melee combat and providing some protection to the team from ranged attacks where necessary. The important thing to note is that Illusionary Weaponry is vulnerable to enchant removal, so it should be covered by some other enchant provided by the healer monk. Repetition of this enchant removal should be limited by Xinrae's Weapon which would be cast on this character as they were taking aggro.

For the purpose of controlling the length of this post I will simply state that a standard bonding monk providing life barriers on team members, and a healing monk with an enchantment such as Watchful Spirit would be used to support this team.

Terra Xin · Dec 22, 2006, 11:27 PM // 23:27

I have to ask, is this for PvP or PvE. Because you can't possibly take this into PvP. You need more than two people with resurrection spells (btw, your Rt/N can't use resurrection chant, he's not a monk) And rebirth is just bad in PvP... period.

Aside, I would love to see this tested.

Saphon the Patient · Dec 22, 2006, 11:43 PM // 23:43

Apologies for the obvious slip in the Resurrection Chant - I obviously intended the Ritualist's Own Resurrection skill - Flesh of My Flesh.

Further to this, I would presume that at least one of the monks were equipped with rebirth for the purpose of this build ( the bonder ).

It is entirely intended for PvE. I rarely play PvP due to my interest in experimentation with obscure ideas.

I would not dream of using this build for PvP as it would fall foul of huge spikes and Searing Flames Eles' wrath, besides which the spirits would be fodder and the bonder would be a sitting duck.

I think that with sensible, controlled aggroing and good preparation, it could work in PvE play. I designed it with the FoW in mind, but I think it would work ( to a variety of different extents ) in a variety of situations due to the ritualists' versatility in particular.

I would also love to test it out, but it is difficult finding the players

frojack · Dec 23, 2006, 11:58 AM // 11:58

I really like your use of Xinrae's Weapon.

Since the recharge is pretty silly, you might want to consider dropping Blood, and putting the points into Spawning so you can use Ghostly Haste. That should speed up the horrendous recharge of Xinrae's to around 23 seconds. Not great but now you have more chance to gimp thing's like SF and Necro spike, Icy Veins, and degen pressure builds (if they're even still used anymore).

I'd also consider taking Empowerment instead of Pain. Though this one does have a silly recharge on it (Really needs to be 30 seconds).
To account for your lack of interruption, why not go */Me and use Web of Disruption? It has the huge benefits of a 1/4 second cast and it interrupt's everything... Twice. It also has half the recharge of Mark of Sub. and with Ghostly Haste, that comes down to around 12 seconds. Covering Ghostly of course becomes a big deal. I'd consider Wielder's Remedy in the place of Life Siphon. Still you'd need to watch out for mass-removals and Grenth Dervish.
Not sure about Binding Chains. Having spirits around can ruin the benefit. I'm pretty sure their damage triggers removal.
Last thing. I'd switch to Res Sig if your going into pvp.

Despite the vulnerabilities, I really like this character. I'm so lazy. I should really try and come up with a team build myself...

Note: Renewing Memories would be good as the higher the cost of the weapon spell, the greater the saving (in this case the max cost of 25 is given to Xinrae). At 12 Spawning you'll save 29% so it'll wind up costing you about 18 energy to use instead of 25. However the Recharge is what really gimp's Xinrae's. Good for protecting against Quickening Zypher. Bad because you only use one weapon spell, despite the build revolving around it. An option nonetheless...

Saphon the Patient · Dec 23, 2006, 06:27 PM // 18:27

Thanks for the input.

I like the idea of including web of disruption, however I think that Blood magic may be needed, if only for including BR into what can be quite an energy intensive build. This being said, there is definitely potential to make some alterations based around the inclusion of renewing memories to reduce the cost of Xinrae's Weapon.

I agree that the recharge time of Xinrae's Weapon is a bit restrictive. I had considered including something to speed it up, but with this character being a /N for the purpose of including BR, I was a little stuck for choice. Ghostly haste is a natural choice to speed it up, the question would be where is the extra energy going to come from

I think the recharge would be less restrictive in PvE, since in general, one can sit back and allow things to recharge between fights, and the recharge would only become an issue in particularly long fights.

I admit that I had overlooked the problem of spirits dealing damage to kill the effect of Binding Chains. Perhaps there is a better solution to incapacitating an enemy for defensive purposes which does not have this drawback.

This could be in the form of the /Me build you had suggested with Web of Disruption, Renewing Memories, Ghostly Haste, and some mesmer hexes, the natural choices of which, given the aim, would be Ethereal Burden or Imagined Burden, of which the former has obvious advantages in energy management. However, this would be simply doubling up skills elsewhere, so perhaps there could be another use for this character, which made up for the weakness to interruptions... perhaps the character would be well equipped with either Mantra of Concentration or Mantra of Resolve, depending on how many interruptions one was likely to be facing.

How one could then improve the energy management of the team might involve making one of the Mesmers ( characters 4 or 5 ) into a /N with BR instead of their token monk skills.

I will have to think about it, but I am sure one would find out more about the workability of the build by actually playing it, rather than simply discussing it, so I NEED people to get together and try it out

Mika Sophiriel · Dec 23, 2006, 11:23 PM // 23:23

Not enough DMG and requires high level of playing skills

I guess

Can be fun

Saphon the Patient · Dec 24, 2006, 12:13 AM // 00:13

I guess I have discovered over time that playing with ritualists and mesmers effectively generally does require more skill ( compared to the level of skill needed to attain the same effectiveness in action with some of the other classes, particularly Warrior or Elementalist ).

There may be an issue of the amount of damage being dealt, but this is probably more significant in PvP than in PvE. I am not sure exactly what the damage rate of such a channelling rit combined with spirits, an IW mesmer and degen skills comes to, but I suspect it is high enough to be effective in many areas, although probably not in the Realm of Torment :P

It would be perfectly feasible if I had envisaged including an Elementalist, to replace the E-Surge mesmer with one, and revert to some Searing Flames build or other, but in this build I intended to work on harmonising the different styles of mesmer and ritualist, to show their effectiveness, or at least potential, when working in well organised teams.