Curse

Zinger314 · May 14, 2006, 12:38 AM // 00:38

Ritual Lord, plus Shelter, Union, and Displacement Spamming, will make your team (or Alliance) INCREDIBLY resilient to damage.

Ritual Lord: For 30 seconds, your Rituals recharge 15-63% faster.

At 16 Spawning Power, the percentage is 79%. This causes your 60 Second Rituals to recharge in 12 Seconds, and your 45 second Ritualist to recharge in 9 seconds.

Ritual Lord is found after your Faction's Mission (i.e. VERY LATE into the Factions campaign. Sadly.)

Therefore, you can effectively Spirit Spam without having to deal with something messy like Oath Shot. (And gives the spirits the necessary HP to boot.)

The Build:

16 Spawning Power (12 + 1 + 3)
13 Communing (12 + 1)

Ritual Lord: For 30 seconds, your Rituals recharge 79% faster.

Boon of Creation: For 63 seconds, whenever you create a creature, you gain 53 Health and 8 Energy.

Shelter: Create a level 7 spirit. Non-spirit allies within its range cannot lose more than 10% maximum Health from a single attack. When this spirit prevents damage, it loses 34 Health. This spirit lasts 56 seconds.

Union: Create a level 7 spirit. Whenever an ally in its range takes damage, that damage is reduced by 15 and the spirit takes 15 damage. The spirit dies after 56 seconds.

Displacement: Create a level 9 spirit. Attacks made by foes within its range are "evaded." Every time an attack is evaded this way, this spirit takes 43 damage. This spirit dies after 56 seconds.

2 Free Slots (Options explained below)

Resurection Signet: (Or Free Spot in Alliance Battles)

There's the key to Ritualist Domination. Right in your grasp.

The trick to a Ritual Lord is to stand as far as you can away from combat and still have your spirits affect your party.

Boon of Creation is your Energy Management tool. Cast it first, then begin casting Shelter. CAST RITUAL LORD DURING SHELTER (Ritual Lord is a no castime skill, and thus it can be cast during other skills). Cast Union and Displacement. Then repeat the Shelter/Union/Displacement spam (make sure you constantly refresh Boon of Creation and Ritual Lord!)

Make sure you always cast Shelter BEFORE Union in order for the effects to be counted correctly!

The end result of this build is that your party will ALMOST ALWAYS take no more than 30-38 Damage Per Hit and will avoid ALMOST EVERY ATTACK.

In Alliance battles and certain missions (Amatz Basin, etc.), the effects are even better. All 3 spirits affect allies, as opposed to only party members. Thus, even 1 Ritual Lord can turn the tide of battle.

Now, you DO have some freedom with the build, however. Hence, the free spots...:

Armor of Unfeeling: For 10-30 seconds, you have 10 base damage reduction while casting Binding Rituals.

Pointless in PvE, excellent in PvP. A flat-out damage reduction give you MUCH more protection than any amount of Armor. Sadly, it isn't as active as often as you would hope...

Mighty Was Vorizun: Hold Vorizun's ashes for up to 15-51 seconds. While you hold his ashes, you gain +15 armor and +20 maximum Energy.

So-So in PvE, great in PvP. Can't go wrong with additional Armor and Energy, although you lose any Fast Cast/Recharge mods on your weapon...

Feast of Souls: Destroy all nearby allies' spirits. For each spirit destroyed in this way, all party members are healed for 104 Health.

Overpowered in PvE, excellent in PvP. This makes Heal Party look like a farce. Chances are, Shelter won't die before it recharges. Therefore, you can just pop it, at the least, and give your party a nice, shiny heal. You can even use it early to give your party a godly Heal. I need to get into an Elite Mission to try it out...

Signet of Creation: All spirits and animated creatures in the area gain +7 Health regeneration. After 30 seconds, those spirits and creatures are destroyed.

Good in PvE, good in PvP. Gives Union and Displacement a few more procs before they die. It doesn't Hurt.

Mantra of Resolve (with 3 Inspiration): For 42 seconds, you cannot be interrupted, but each time you would have been interrupted, you lose 9 energy or Mantra of Resolve ends.

Not needed in PvE, but you may want it for PvP. Mesmer interrupts can't harm your Binding Rituals, but Warrior and Ranger interrupts can. Interruptions to Binding Rituals do not trigger Ritual Lord's Recharge reduction, thus, it's really bad to be interrupted. Don't worry about the low Rank: You'll have Energy to spare if you manage Boon of Creation properly.

Now you know the Power of the Ritual Lord. Fear it!

If you have any questions, contact me in-game, Syria Metaphysical (I'm the Ritualist with the sexy 15k Kurzick dyed black.

)

Nightwish · May 14, 2006, 07:53 AM // 07:53

IMO rituals recharging 79% faster is not the same as 79% recharge reduction..

100% faster recharge = half original recharge time

50% recharge reduction = half original recharge time

Putting it this way,

100% faster recharge by RItual Lord will cut the timer on spirits recharge to half at best, e.g. 60s to 30s, 45s to 22.5s.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

carbajac · May 14, 2006, 09:39 AM // 09:39

I don't know the math, but this is what I do know. I use Dissonance which lasts for 26 seconds at 16 Communing and has a recharge of 60 seconds. Ritual Lord, at 12 Spawning Power, allows my spirits to recharge 63% faster and Dissonance is always recharged before it dies. So, my guess is that Dissonance recharges in about 20-25 seconds.

TeeGee · May 14, 2006, 09:46 AM // 09:46

Yeah I saw that build in GvG (sometimes HA) and tried to play it myself. Its REALLY effective but has two issues:

1) This Rt can't play monk role so u need to drop one attacking character to include spirit spammer. This cripples your offensive power but improves defensivea lot. Therefore it's usefull in HA in holding situations but in GvG it might be not worthy.

2) Real issue - this build is BORING-AS-HELL to play and takes absolutely no skill (in fact it might be good beginners build). U just cast Boon of creation and then just start pressing 1,2,3,4,5... move to another position and 1,2,3,4,5... and so on. It might be funny at beggining but after few tries u just gonna hate your role.

Well ofcourse its matter of personal preference, but thats what I think. Anyway build is great and really effective.

Xasew · May 14, 2006, 11:49 AM // 11:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nightwish

IMO rituals recharging 79% faster is not the same as 79% recharge reduction..

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

You're wrong. The rituals do recharge in 9-12 seconds.

Zinger314 · May 14, 2006, 03:01 PM // 15:01

Yes, Ritual Lord does indeed work. I would not post this build if I had made THAT big of an oversighty!

Quote:

Originally Posted by TeeGee

1) This Rt can't play monk role so u need to drop one attacking character to include spirit spammer. This cripples your offensive power but improves defensivea lot. Therefore it's usefull in HA in holding situations but in GvG it might be not worthy.

True. However, most teams have an auxiliry healing spot (Healing N/Mo, E/Mo, etc.), so the Ritual Lord Ritualist can take that spot.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TeeGee

2) Real issue - this build is BORING-AS-HELL to play and takes absolutely no skill (in fact it might be good beginners build). U just cast Boon of creation and then just start pressing 1,2,3,4,5... move to another position and 1,2,3,4,5... and so on. It might be funny at beggining but after few tries u just gonna hate your role.

It's like Monking, except less stressful. I don't mind.

Plus I get the ability to show my team that I'm saving their behind.

"I have Shelter on me!"
"I have Union on me!"
"I have Displacement on me!"

Nightwish · May 15, 2006, 06:19 AM // 06:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xasew

You're wrong. The rituals do recharge in 9-12 seconds.

So Ritual Lord actually reduces recharge time in % rather than speeds up recharge rate as per description?

Thats actually good news for me, since RL works better than I expected.

lightblade · May 16, 2006, 10:53 PM // 22:53

Ritualist can heal, but cannot replace monk...

Ritualist can nuke, but cannot replace elementist...

Ritualist can summon, but cannot replace MM...

Zinger314 · May 16, 2006, 11:56 PM // 23:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightblade

Ritualist can heal, but cannot replace monk...

Ritualist can nuke, but cannot replace elementist...

Ritualist can summon, but cannot replace MM...

This isn't designed to REPLACE a primary healer, but it will migitate a TON of damage, making your healers happy.

Also, Ritualists CAN outheal Monks with this method if use properly. How? With Feast of Souls.

106 Heal Party? Hell Yes.

Rebirther · May 17, 2006, 12:16 AM // 00:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightblade

Ritualist can heal, but cannot replace monk...

Ritualist can nuke, but cannot replace elementist...

Ritualist can summon, but cannot replace MM...

I think you mis understand the role of the ritualist....

1/ Rits "obviously" cannot replace a monk, the role of rit is support mainly but have the ability to play on the offense, rits are best suited for defensive support, either running restoration or communing with spawning. using either the build listed in this thread or a strong restoration alternative.
2/ Ritualist cannot nuke, they can deal spike dmg. (rits dont have many aoe so cant be considered as a "nuker")
3/ Rits summon spirits.. not creatures (unless /n is secondary), and effective rit/n minion bomber is just as effective as a primary MM.

lightblade · May 17, 2006, 09:34 PM // 21:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zinger314

This isn't designed to REPLACE a primary healer, but it will migitate a TON of damage, making your healers happy.

Also, Ritualists CAN outheal Monks with this method if use properly. How? With Feast of Souls.

106 Heal Party? Hell Yes.

400+ Heal Party?

Stack enchantments -> Release Enchantments !!!!

Zinger314 · May 17, 2006, 11:36 PM // 23:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightblade

400+ Heal Party?

Stack enchantments -> Release Enchantments !!!!

400+ Heal Party with Release Enchantments? It's 30 HP per Enchantment...The most you'll get is 120 HP, at the cost of much more Energy than Feast of Souls.

Valkyries · May 18, 2006, 10:57 AM // 10:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightblade

400+ Heal Party?

Stack enchantments -> Release Enchantments !!!!

Oh boy.. here we go...

JoDiamonds · May 18, 2006, 08:10 PM // 20:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nightwish

IMO rituals recharging 79% faster is not the same as 79% recharge reduction..

100% faster recharge = half original recharge time

50% recharge reduction = half original recharge time
(...)
Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

For guild wars math, that's wrong. Anytime they say that something recharges faster, they actually mean it reduces the recharge time that much.

And for what it's worth, 100% faster would actually mean it recharges instantly, not half the original time. If it takes 10 seconds to recharge, and it's 100% faster, well, 100% of 10 seconds is 10 seconds.

Of course, 100% slower does mean twice as long (even though 100% faster isn't the same as twice as fast, or half as long). Math is silly. =-)

Dracil · May 18, 2006, 09:20 PM // 21:20

It works pretty well with two ritualists too. Just have one ritualist go restorative magic, and replace the 3 communing skills with Life, Recuperation, and Spirit Transfer so you don't double up on the spirits, which means you might end up working against each other destroying spirits.

You can actually treat Life rituals as a heal party too if the old one's still alive, because the new spirit replaces the old one, so the old one will heal everyone, especially since the ritual will recharge before its 30 second time limit. And the Spirit Transfer allows for a targeted heal that doesn't destroy everything like Feast of Souls.

I also found bringing Pain with the Feast of Souls to be pretty nice. Faster recharge, only 5E, and won't lose health from special effects, and lasts for a VERY long time (134 seconds) = nice for Feast of Souls comboing

mattrung2 · May 19, 2006, 07:40 PM // 19:40

50 gold says ritualist = the next anet nurf, they nurfed spirit spam once they will probably do i again

Dracil · May 19, 2006, 11:29 PM // 23:29

Not necessarily. At least not for PVE missions where you get swarmed. 10-20 enemies smacking your team at once = spirits pretty much dying before you put up the next one or two. It's kinda why I stopped bringing signet of creation. They often won't last through the casting time. Then again, I also have really bad lag (can't wait to get out of the dorms) where my skills can take seconds (or a full MINUTE) to begin casting.

Minion Masters still work better for that I think.

Zinger314 · May 19, 2006, 11:41 PM // 23:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dracil

Not necessarily. At least not for PVE missions where you get swarmed. 10-20 enemies smacking your team at once = spirits pretty much dying before you put up the next one or two. It's kinda why I stopped bringing signet of creation. They often won't last through the casting time. Then again, I also have really bad lag (can't wait to get out of the dorms) where my skills can take seconds (or a full MINUTE) to begin casting.

Minion Masters still work better for that I think.

Even if the spirits die in 5 seconds, they still prevent the same amount of damage and prevent the same amount of attacks as if they lived longer.

And I have no clue how Minion Masters relate to this topic in any way, shape, or form.

BaconSoda · May 20, 2006, 06:56 AM // 06:56

well, the main point on MM's is that they can make the horrors and minions to tank, whereas the spirits take dmg indirectly. He's basically saying that the spirits take the place of a MM's minions and horrors.

Saider maul · May 20, 2006, 02:00 PM // 14:00

A ritualist is a very powerful healer. strong then a monk as a one shot healer but nowhere near the longevity of a monk. In no way can it replace a healer.

As a protector it is at its most powerful. the dmg reduction of a well spent spiritmaster is unconditionally one of the best means of protection i have ever seen.
Well beyond the means of a monk protector but lack the continual healing ability due to divine/protection heals and divine favor boost.
As a spirit channeler its spikes reach upwards of 400dmg to AOE single bursts.
super nukes but high recharge and not echoable. also high energy demand. (4 spirits x 15 energy each +15 energy to cast spike = 75 energy consumption over time.) is nice support if played right and they do not have a spirit protector in place.

all in all the ritualist by it self is not super strong in every way or weak in anyway. its strength is in what its compound abilities do to support the health of the group,fill in the blank during nukers recharge or allow a one time massive gift heal to allow the monk to regain some energy to continue on.
the ritualist is definatly a background character then when present its effets are definatly felt.
noe running a healer + bonder + ritualist + 5 of whatever else is near invincible because now
the bonder protects the ritualist and a few team mates.
the healer protects the team and the ritualist.
the ritualist is highly protected and now able to cast freely reducing the dmg taken by enemy, protecting the team with buffs,support spiking to keep enemy at bay during nukers recharge, or massive single heals to allow a monk 10 seconds of sold recharge and energy reclaimation. now the other 5 are free to do whatever then have to do without the massive energy consumption required by healers and nukers.

a basic very powerful support character to fill in the gaps.