Curse

Sable Phoenix · Jul 10, 2006, 06:15 PM // 18:15

I've heard that Ritualists can be better nukers than Elementalists. I find that a little ironic, but anyway. I like nuking, I made my Elementalist/Mesmer to nuke, and it's come to light over the course of the game and from other people's investigations that the nuking Elementalist is actually pretty poor at its job (lots of DPS). So I figure, I like the Ritualist a lot, and if it can do my Elementalist's job better than my Elementalist, I'll just switch out main characters and get my nuking fix with my Ritualist. The class is more flexible anyway, and the Necro is very versatile as well, so I can always do other things when I don't want to nuke.

Anyway, just like it says, I'd like to know the best ways to build a nuking Ritualist/Necromancer. If I should switch to a different secondary to do so, let me know that as well. Since you can't actually get skills from the missions and quests in Factions (stupid stupid game design), it gets REALLY expensive REALLY fast to try to get buy all the skills for a particular class, so I'd rather just buy only the ones I need. Any help would be appreciated!

Pick Me · Jul 10, 2006, 07:43 PM // 19:43

I think there was a thread about a 400+ damaging Channeller somewhere (maybe page 2 or 3)

I think there is a build around Explosive Growth, Rupture Soul, Ritual Lord (e), Destruction, etc.

Use RL + EG + Destruction + Essence Strike and you can continually cast lightning damage on an enemy until they are dead.

Have fun!

Felessan · Jul 11, 2006, 09:57 AM // 09:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pick Me

Use RL + EG + Destruction + Essence Strike and you can continually cast lightning damage on an enemy until they are dead.

Have fun!

Continually cast essence strike? If I have interpreted this correctly, you say Rit lord affects essence strike?

Just a bit confused here

because I thought RL only works on rituals.

Pick Me · Jul 11, 2006, 02:48 PM // 14:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Felessan

Continually cast essence strike? If I have interpreted this correctly, you say Rit lord affects essence strike?

Just a bit confused here

because I thought RL only works on rituals.

Sorry for the confusion.

If you read the description of Essence Strike, as long as there is a spirit in the area, you gain x amount of energy. Essence Strikes takes 5 energy to cast. At max in Channelling, you gain 7 energy per cast. Which means you gain more energy than it takes to cast Essence Strike.

Ritual Lord recharges Destruction faster. Since Destruction is a Spirit, it acts as your energy gain from Essence Strike.

So when Destruction ends, it will already be recharged, thanks to RL. So you can continuously cast them over and over again.

Hope that clears up the confusion.

Shiraishi · Jul 12, 2006, 03:04 AM // 03:04

Before you get your hopes up, allow me to explain why a ritualist does not make a better nuker than an elementalist.

1. Spirits. Elementalists don't need spirits nearby to do a lot of damage. Ritualists do.

2. Energy issues. I've seen elementalists with up to 100 energy. Just like all the other casters, ritualists are limited to 60-something energy. And when you start using massive spirit spikes, you can deplete large amounts of energy in a really short amount of time. But because elementalists have attunement enchantments, they gain energy back every time they use spells. Ritualists' only equivalent gives you energy only when you create creatures (spirits/minions). Your best bet is to use Inspiration magic to get energy back, but elementalists too can take advantage of it, still making the elementalist superior.

3. It's mostly conditional. For a ritualist to do tons of damage, usually certain conditions need to be fufilled. You have to be holding an item, you have to be targeting a spirit, you have to be really close to a spirit, you have to have a weapon spell on you, etc. The only requirement for an elementalist to bomb someone is that they have a few seconds and enough energy to cast the spell.

Now I won't lie to you; ritualists have the potential to do tons of damage. But they also have the potential to be great healers, and great protectors.

The point is that the ritualist is a profession that does nearly everything indirectly. They're built around having their most strength when certain conditions are met.

They're not inferior, just different. But that makes it impossible for ritualists to replace elementalists or monks, because even though they are capable of the same or more net damage or healing, they can't perform such tasks with the same ease of elementalists and monks.

When it comes to nuking, an elementalist is best suited for the job. And when it comes to ritualist spikes, a ritualist is best suited for the job.

Don't get nuking and ritualist spikes confused.

Now as far as suggestions for a Rt/N, I've always been fond of the ritualist (exploding) minion master.
What you do is dump all of your attribute points into Death Magic and Spawning Power. Then get Animate Bone Minions, Boon of Creation, Explosive Growth, Death Nova, Signet of Creation, and the last three skill slots are up to you.

Boon of Creation will give you energy and health whenever you create minions, Explosive Growth will do AoE damage as the minions are created, the two Bone Minions will double the health and energy benefits of BoC and double the damage caused by EG, Signet of Creation will set a 30 second timer on the minions, and Death Nova will serve as the bomb that goes off after 30 seconds.

If the enemies manage to stay fairly close together, and you make sure to put Death Nova on all the minions before they die, you'll do massive amounts of damage with this build, even though you're limited to 8 minions.

When performed correctly, we're talking about 140 lightning damage to up to five foes upon creation of the minions per corpse, potentially decent amounts of melee damage while the minions are alive, and between about 70 to 540 damage inflicted to nearby enemies when the minions explode.

Pick Me · Jul 12, 2006, 02:25 PM // 14:25

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