Curse

Nessaja · Jul 24, 2006, 11:35 PM // 23:35

The ritualist really seems to be a class that you have to find your own build to fit your playstyle. I tried some healing builds on this forum already and it just didnt cut it for me (generous was mr t with infuse for instance). And even though I totally see the potential of those builds, it just doesnt fit my playstyle.

Today I finally found something that does fit my playstyle, and I figured I might aswell share it to give others ideas.

I sticked with one theme, if you have spirits around you, you can do things. No ashes in here because I like the well roundedness of wands/focus or a staff. And also no skills that require/work best with an item to hold because of this.

Lets start with the attributes:

Restoration 12+1+3
Spawning Power 12+1

Skills:

Mend Body and Soul Target ally is healed for 90 Health. That ally loses one Condition for each allied Spirit in your area.
Spirit Transfer The Spirit nearest you loses 79Health. Target ally is healed for 3 for each point of Health lost

Either:

Spirit Light Sacrifice 10% Health. Target ally is healed for 162. If any Spirits are in the area around you, you don't sacrifice Health.

Or:

Weapon of Warding For 11 seconds, target ally has a Weapon of Warding that grants target ally +5 Health regeneration and a 50% chance to "block.

Rupture Soul Target allied Spirit is destroyed. All nearby enemies are struck for 128 lightnign damage and become blinded for 11 seconds.
Preservation Create a level 11 Spirit. Every 4 seconds, this spirit heals one non-Spirit ally in the area for 122 Health. This Spirit dies after 60 seconds.
Recuperation Create a level 11 Spirit. Non-Spirit allies within its range gain +3 Health regeneration. This Spirit dies after 47 seconds.
Life Create a level 11 Spirit. When this Spirit dies, all non-Spirit allies within its range are healed for 5 Health for each second this Spirit was alive. This Spirit dies after 30 seconds.

Last spot:

Resurrection Signet Resurrect target party member. That party member is returned to life with 100% Health and 25% Energy. This Signet only recharges when you gain a morale boost.
Flesh of My Flesh Lose half your Health. Resurrect target ally with your current Health and 21% Energy
Draw Spirit Teleport target allied Spirit to your location.

To motivate my skill choice somewhat, Mend Body and Soul, though overall a very weal heal, is a spammable heal and it is perfect for condition removal.
Spirit Transfer is a spike heal that will always work well because you'll always have a spirit down with the 3 spirits in the build.
Spirit Light is a moderate heal, works well if there are spirits down, and has a low cooldown.
Rupture Soul is a great defense against Assasins and Warriors, in addition it can be used on the life spirit if you want to trigger it immediatly. Multi purpose, also does a lot of damage.
Preservation, Recuperation and Life are the spirits in this build. they heal for a lot netto, and make your life easier.
The last spot is either a Res Signet for TA/RA, Flesh of My Flesh as a hard res for missions, or draw spirit for alliance battles.

Comments appreciated ^^

Nessaja

unmatchedfury · Jul 25, 2006, 12:06 AM // 00:06

spirit light i find has far too much mana cost for it to be usefull.

if you need a massive nuke heal the transfer works fine if not much better.

i also like rupture soul alot. it has quite a few usefull qualities in pvp not so much in pve but still can be usefull vs large amouts of melee monsters (eternal forest)

Nessaja · Jul 25, 2006, 12:30 AM // 00:30

Well spirit light does heal for 162, and has a low cooldown, ofcourse transfer works much better, it's one of the best heals in the game. However, transfer also has a huge cooldown, and enemies won't wait for that. In the mean time you need to be able to heal aswell and spirit light really is the only candidate if you want to semi-spike heal with it aswell.

Rupture Soul is awesome yeah, 11 second blind and a way to trigger life is great. Especially in faction battles with draw spirit it works great.

unmatchedfury · Jul 25, 2006, 12:37 AM // 00:37

spike healing is hard to keep up with for that mana cost being a rit.

useually if you need that much heal it doesnt really matter preservation is horrible in AB because of the randomness of it,(completely losing efectiveness in big gruops) while being quite good in RA or TA.

recuperation is the larges range regen spell in teh game and i think one of only 2 area regen spells, gotta love it for countering (or atleast helping) wiht poision arrow rangers

TeeGee · Jul 25, 2006, 08:25 AM // 08:25

The build seems good and stable but it lacks one important thing - energy managment. U r using lots of 10 energy spells and u must spam them. I would suggest changing Preservation for Spirit channeling (as good as mantra of recall and preservation isn't that good). Also u can try using Attuned was Songkai as elite and Soothing memories instead of Spirit Light - less heal but spammable and free with ashes.
I like the idea of adding Rupture Soul - like healer with nasty suprise :P

Dahnel · Jul 25, 2006, 09:16 AM // 09:16

This is the restoration build i run with which is becoming the standard for me lately.

Rt/x

16 Restoration
13 Spawning power

Vengeful Weapon
Weapon Of Warding
Mend Body & Soul
Spirit Light
Recuperation
Life
Spirit Channeling
Rez Sig

Spirit Channeling is your personal BiP which i chose as a form of energy management since i'm not a fan of the Restoration Elites (well except Khanhei

), spam away with Warding and Spirit Light , stay close to Recoup and Life (mm with thank you for bringing these) for the condition removal from Mend Body & Soul.

edit: woops did'nt read TeeGee's post, but yeah i agree with him

Nessaja · Jul 25, 2006, 04:15 PM // 16:15

Dahnel- Everyone has their own builds, naturally. Like I stated in my first post, after trying a lot of builds this seems to work best for me. If I could comment on your build, Vengeful Weapon is a really weak spell heal-wise.

Weapon of Warding I find more interesting and I might consider that over Spirit Light in my own build. If my understanding about pip regen is correct it would heal 12 health/second and that would be 132 health and 50% block. Not too shabby at all. However, it does take 2 seconds to cast and you can't "spike" heal with it, it's a different type of spell. In addition, if you casted it on one character once it won't do anything anymore for the next 12 seconds where-as spirit light can. I'm aware of the beauty of Spirit Channeling and I might consider it if I actually do run in energy problems.

edit: I realised that Weapon of warding is 4 pips instead of 6, which makes it 8hp/sec and totals at 88 health heal for 10 energy. Healing wise this seems extremely inefficient on the other hand, one could say it's basically the same as guardian for double the duration. Might be worth getting in CA or TA.

TeeGee - Well, the spirits are all pretty much precast, there are really only 3 spells you have to cast during the battle, from which only mend body and soul and spirit transfer are regulars. Spirit Light is only for emergency heals when Spirit Transfer is down and Rupture Soul isnt a spell you spam either.

Preservation has a dual function. It's the only spirit as far as I know that actually lasts for 60 seconds, with 16 restoration/13 spawning, anyway. In order for all my spells to work, I need to have a spirit around the whole time. When I only have Recuperation and Life there is a down time of spirits which limits my healing with Spirit Transfer greatly, I really think it's one of the best heals in the game and not being able to use it leaves you very vulnerable. Also, you have a lot less freedom using Rupture Soul on Life/Recup if you don't have a third spirit. Like I said in my first post if you build your skills around the given that there are spirits on the field you need to make sure that those spirits actually will be on the field.

On the subject of Preservation, other then the benefits it gives as being a spirit. It's a 5 energy cost spell that heals for a total of 60*122/4=7320/4= 1830 granted, only 10-20% of that will actually be effective that's still extremely energy sufficient.

Tainek · Jul 25, 2006, 04:48 PM // 16:48

Weapon of Warding is not a healing spell, its a protection spell. the 88hp healing is nice, but not the primary reason for using the spell

Vengeful Weapon is a lovely spell, its 62 Lifestealing, no other spell has the same efficiency at lifestealing, its primary use is when the team isnt under much pressure, to add some extra DPS

SnipiousMax · Jul 25, 2006, 04:56 PM // 16:56

I wouldn't overlook Generous Was Tsungrai. It synergizes brilliantly with Soothing Memories, giving you a spamable free heal spell. On top of that, if you cast it while you already have the ashes in hand (casting it on top of itself) it is a 5 energy 244 hit self heal.

TeeGee · Jul 25, 2006, 05:28 PM // 17:28

Quote:

TeeGee - Well, the spirits are all pretty much precast, there are really only 3 spells you have to cast during the battle, from which only mend body and soul and spirit transfer are regulars. Spirit Light is only for emergency heals when Spirit Transfer is down and Rupture Soul isnt a spell you spam either.

I understand that spirits are precast but they still leave u with little lessenergy than full. U have to spam healing spells to be effective healer - mend body and soul won't be enough so as u said u have to cast spirit transfer and spirit light when transfer is recharging (ost of time). Thats 3 spells to cast at least frequently - one is 5 energy and other two are 10 - thats 25 energy for only one strike of healing. Also consider that typical monk uses mostly 5 energy spells (or 7 energy if he is boonprot) and that spells are more effective due to divine favor bonus. Still every monk must use some energy managment to be able to cast them all the time (and sometime use sig of devotion).

Rt spells are more expensive and less effective in healing - no way u can keep healing people in hard situations where even boonprot (having solid energy managment, very solid) is forced to use signets or hoping to get bonus from mantra faster. And thats only in pve - if u ever try playing (maybe u did, I dunno :P) 8v8 like HA and GvG where u have to deal with loads of damage, spikes and e-denial then u would know that energy managment is a must.

Anyway I agree that everyone has build that he is most comfortable with, but that doesn't mean that it can't be improved. Otherwise there would be no reason to posti builds on GW. Also I think that ur build is very good but fitting e-managment would make it more stable. Also preservation isn't needed for spirit transfer. I'm using ST in my build (check it out if u want it's in the sticky) without Preservation and it works well. I love preservation but it just can't be relied on and isn't worth elite slot.

Anyway - cheers for good build and have fun trying all the possibilities of rt.

Nessaja · Jul 25, 2006, 08:18 PM // 20:18

Tainek - after trying it out a little I like it a lot better. I dislike the 2 second cast time but everything else about it is nice and fits in the build. Vengeful Weapon is alright... not for what I'm aiming for though.

SnipiousMax - I've done soothing/generous was mr t before. Yes it's alright, but I like having a staff or wand/focus better. Having ashes in my hands just really limits me, that might be because I do a lot of missions with henchmen aswell. What to take out though? Mend Body and Soul is multi-purpose and more spammable cooldown wise. Spirit Transfer is there for emergency spike healing and Spirit Light(now weapon of warding) is only one spot.

In addition, I don't like the loss of energy and the loss of HCR/HRT and/or +life/energy mods.

TeeGee - I even referred to your build in the original post :P, infuse/generous was T. It's a well thought out build really. I even posted in the topic. What I found however was that the spirits went down when I needed them most, you can time that, but that would mean you arent using either recup or life to its fullest. Especially if you're destroying spirits like I do, to just get rid of the warrior/assasin agro.

Really though, I'm not aiming to be a healer, Spirit Transfer is in there to spike heal every now and then, and mend body and soul is more for condition removal then the actual healing. I passed up on spirit light and use weapon of warding now aswell. I've done your build and even with that one it was more the cooldowns that didnt allow me to heal as much as I wanted instead of the mana shortage. Especially when spirits werent around anymore. Overall when it comes to spike healing, I would rather use a boonprotter, with this build I'm just doing a bit of everything.

Thanks for the comments~~

Dahnel · Jul 25, 2006, 09:17 PM // 21:17

The weapon spells should not be grouped together with the spike healing spells, when your looking at their uses. The primary use for Weapon Of Warding is to take advantage of its anti pressure effects, which is what ritualists do best, relieve pressure. I dare say without some kind of pressure relief you will exhaust yourself very easily when the heat is really on (especially when combined with zero energy management).

Vengeful Weapon could be compared to Reversal Of Fortune in terms how frequently its used and how it affects the flow of battle and is in my build to provide some cover however minimal between cooldowns and to offer a lower energy alternate to overhealing your target. (as Mend Body & Soul can be to Spirit Light).

Like you say , everyone has their own builds and methods... this is just mine and i'm just offering what i incase you could take something from it

Nessaja · Jul 25, 2006, 10:27 PM // 22:27

yeah, the entire build is pretty much anti pressure. I'm playing energy management for monks, basically :X

I wouldnt go as far as comparing RoF to Vengful Weapon, although it's better on low damage hits, it's not as good as high damaging hits, altough it does deal damage, that's really not what I'm going for. In addition, ritualists don't have divine boon, nor divine favor

. And when it comes to preventing damage it seems really energy inefficient. I mean.. Mend Body and Soul already isnt that good if it werent for the condition removal and that heals more then Vengeful Weapon does.

As for weapon of warding, I agree with you. I'm using it now. I just decided that the only healing I'll be doing is Mend body and soul and spirit transfer when it's really needed. Weapon of Warding is about as good as Guardian with divine favor. I really dislike the 2 second casting time on it though, but I guess you cant have it all.

TeeGee · Jul 26, 2006, 01:54 AM // 01:54

If u dislike casting time of weapon of warding then give weapon of shadow a try. Its more effective but has much longer recharge. Very good spell - just need to be used in right time.

ZomgZergRush · Jul 26, 2006, 03:45 AM // 03:45

While you guys are all here critiqueing his build maybe you could mine?

This is mostly a build for PvE

Edit: Oh right attributes... its late...
16 restoration
13 spawning

Soothing Memories
Mend Body and Soul
Spirit Light
Spirit Transfer
Resiliant Weapon
Attuned Was Some Noob
Recuperation
Flesh of my Flesh

For PvP I'd probably take out Flesh of my flesh and Attuned for Spirit Channeling and Generous was Mr. T

TeeGee · Jul 26, 2006, 10:02 AM // 10:02

Quote:

While you guys are all here critiqueing his build maybe you could mine?

Ahh not really critiqeuing cause I actually like his build. As for yours - very good one. Hmm... u could swithc spirit light for life - SL isn't that good, u have enough healing allready and life would help all that MMs and give u more reasons to use mend body and soul or spirit transfer.

Something like that is slowly becoming standard for restoration rits and that is very good cause now average PuG rit has better build than average PuG monk (Don't u all love that heal party, healing breeze, my energy is 0 from 54! spammers ;]).

BTW: Nessaja I really like ur character looks. Also like it name - she could get along with my Savitri Natarani :P

unmatchedfury · Jul 27, 2006, 01:27 AM // 01:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tainek

Weapon of Warding is not a healing spell, its a protection spell. the 88hp healing is nice, but not the primary reason for using the spell

Vengeful Weapon is a lovely spell, its 62 Lifestealing, no other spell has the same efficiency at lifestealing, its primary use is when the team isnt under much pressure, to add some extra DPS

not only that but if you dont want to waste mana you can cast it on yoru monk/ele thats getting beat by a war/assn without worring about wasting it on a self heal, again its not a a heal spell its an ecellant prot spell / anti physical classes spell.

Oso Minar · Jul 29, 2006, 04:26 AM // 04:26

Haha, well, with all the folks here coming in to post up their Restoration builds, I figure I should be adding my two cents in here.

Dahnel, I told ya before that I liked using Arcane Echo in most of my other builds, and here's just one example. Here 'goes!

Picture: (Halycon Canthan 1.5k Armor, dyed Blue+Green, my first set of armor

)

16 Spawning
13 Restoration

Vengeful Weapon - This is a fantastic spell to cast on Warriors just beginning to rush into battle. I also will cast it on the frontrunners if I don't see many hexes or conditions flying around.
Arcane Echo - This is usually reserved for Soothing Memories, although if we're in an area with a lot of Conditions, I'll sometimes use it for Resilient Weapon, although that leads to mana problems quickly.
Soothing Memories - The is the bread-and-butter, spam-until-your-fingers-hurt spell. Somewhat low healing, but the dual-spamming nature of my build combined with fantastic energy maagement makes up for it.
Spirit Light - This is the "big heal" for use around Recuperation. The 10% isn't that bad if you're not getting hit, so I'll also use it when someone needs a big heal, regardless of spirits.
Resilient Weapon - If someone has a condition on them, cast this. They might whine that they're crippled or whatever, but the +6 regeneration and +24 Armor should keep you snickering in the background with nothing else to do.
Recuperation - It's a great spirit, and in long battles will let you use Spirit Light without the health drop.
Attuned Was Songkai (e) - THIS is why the build works. Try to have this up at all times. The cooldown is longer than it's up, which stinks, but try to learn to just conserve energy in the meanwhile.
Flesh of My Flesh - Just 'cause mistakes happen.

HOW IT WORKS:
Begin by casting Attuned Was Songkai. This will let you cast ALL of your spells for -53% of the base energy cost. Yeah. That means 3 energy instead of 5, 5 for 7, and 7 for 15. Next, either cast Arcane Echo and Soothing Memories (if your team is going down hard initially), or Recuperation, THEN Arcane Echo, THEN the skill you want to copy. If someone gets a condition, hit 'em with Resilient Weapon and forget about 'em 'cause they'll be fine.

Because you're holding an item, you will get 3 energy back every time you cast Soothing Light. And with Soothing Light only casting 3 energy due to Songkai...you got it! Free heals! This is why you can Arcane Echo it and just spam the bejesus out of teammates; as long as you watch to see when Songkai runs out, you can cast it all day and be just peachy. That lets you do other things with your mana, like Resilient Weapons and the occasional Vengeful Weapon for fun.

It's a pretty simple build, one I enjoy. I've actually used it to main-heal groups of 8 through missions. It's mainly for PvE use, though. There's not quite enough Self-healing to really withstand an onslaught in PvP stuff; but I have a different build for that.

Ask nicely and maybe I'll type that one out as well!