Curse

samcobra · Jul 05, 2006, 02:14 PM // 14:14

I have been playing a ritualist since the day factions came out. Unlike many people, I love my ritualist and use her to great avail. However, I have found that one particular type of skill is not very effective.

Yes, i'm talking about weapon buffs. While it is true that there are a good set of restoration buffs that protect you, such as weapon of warding, shadow, and at times resilience,...

I still find that the rest of the weapon spells are not quite that great. Furthermore, the two weapon elites, weapon of quickening and spirit light weapon are quite sub-par. Weapon of Quickening's advantage of course over any other reduced recharge is that it can target an ally. However, it is rare when you would keep track of another's recharge situation in play.

Spirit light, is bugged as well. It just sucks. It runs off quite prematurely, doesn'nt heal for enough, and has all sorts of playability problems.

Please everyone else share your opinions on weapon spells and post any ideas or other comments about them, including possibly what could be done with them in the next chapter.

Jetdoc · Jul 05, 2006, 06:20 PM // 18:20

One of my favorite ritualist skills is Vengeful Weapon. Not only provides decent healing to a target under attack, but also causes armor-ignoring damage to the foe striking it.

Tainek · Jul 05, 2006, 06:27 PM // 18:27

I Find the Only Weapon Spells worth using are:

Guided Weapon (PvP)
Weapon Of Warding (Pve&PvP)
Resilient Weapon (Pve)

Guided Weapons Can be useful to assist a warrior before a Adrenaline Spike, even if the recharge and cost is nasty

Weapon of Warding is Great in PvE, and good in PvP, while costly, it works out pretty much even to guardian, and is very useful vs Enchant Ripping teams+Iway where OoA and Enchant rippers run rampant

Resilitent Weapon is very effective when used on a tank, having a good duration, and makes a good difference

frojack · Jul 06, 2006, 10:13 AM // 10:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jetdoc

One of my favorite ritualist skills is Vengeful Weapon. Not only provides decent healing to a target under attack, but also causes armor-ignoring damage to the foe striking it.

Another nice aspect of it is that because the 'Vengeful' repercussion is in fact vampiric, it goes through stuff like Prot. Spirit and Shelter

.

Dodo The Extinct · Jul 06, 2006, 04:22 PM // 16:22

Don`t forgot Weapon Boon, that one sucks too :P

ID_Roto · Jul 06, 2006, 04:29 PM // 16:29

My only problem is that their recharge time is annoying. I want to cast three or more on a few allies then go back doing my other skill combo and... I can't do that.
The only difference in Vengful and RoF is that Vengful heals but you still take the damage, RoF dampens the damage and heals. Both good, but only one is deadly.
There are some good weapon buffs, the big nice thing is that the cannot be striped. Just other weapon buffs seem... "Who thought up these in the first place?!"
I enjoy playing my rit, I'll find out if I can find better combos with these buffs, just only wish recharge time was lowered.

Pick Me · Jul 06, 2006, 05:30 PM // 17:30

If you don't like the recharge time, use Serpents of Quickness or Archane Echo, or Echo, etc.

There are spells that duplicate, instantly recharge or reduce the recharge time of spells.

This is one way to balance spells out, by increasing recharge time on good skills.

Dodo The Extinct · Jul 06, 2006, 09:33 PM // 21:33

I don`t think we should have to go to such measures as copying skills or reducing recharge times in order to make a skill useable. The point is that most of these skills are sub-par by themselves, and there are barely any combos that involve them.

HaloGrunt · Jul 08, 2006, 12:48 AM // 00:48

when vengeful weapon is combined with ancestors rage and "vengeful was khanhi" it can do a nice bit of damage. acually, i have a build that uses that.

August August · Jul 08, 2006, 03:09 AM // 03:09

^ I will certainly have to try that combo.

I mostly use Vengeful Weapon due to both it's usefulness and the fact that many of the people in the PUGs I have been in really dislike weapon spells becuase of the fact that they overide weapon mods and upgrades temporarily and Vengeful is like RoF, it's an 'lightswitch' spell.

Tainek · Jul 08, 2006, 08:41 AM // 08:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by August August

^ I will certainly have to try that combo.

I mostly use Vengeful Weapon due to both it's usefulness and the fact that many of the people in the PUGs I have been in really dislike weapon spells becuase of the fact that they overide weapon mods and upgrades temporarily and Vengeful is like RoF, it's an 'lightswitch' spell.

Incorrect, they do not override weapon mods, that would be *Ashes* , and that is only on the caster

TeeGee · Jul 10, 2006, 04:15 PM // 16:15

Hmm... weapon of shadow is decent spell. Like guardian on steroids - for 13 seconds it makes someone pretty much invunerable to attacks and recharge its not that bad. Also it can't be removed by enchant removal. Vengefull weapon is also nice but it's healing power is too weak. Its good for pve and arenas where every dmg that team can dish out helps.

Dscrilla · Jul 11, 2006, 05:36 AM // 05:36

I am trying to come up with a viable healing ritualist. I am thinking perhaps thier primary ability is regen rather than direct heal.

I am trying out a build with Weapon of-Warding, Spirit light weapon, arcane echo, Weapon of shadow, Recuperation, and maybe another spirit and/or heal. Has anyone had good luck with Spirit light weapon?

TeeGee · Jul 11, 2006, 08:17 AM // 08:17

Nah, I don't think so... Spirit light weapon is just terrible. If u want to try effective healing Rt build u can try mine...

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s....php?t=3026383

I can assure U that Rt can dish out a lot of direct healing.

RebelHero · Jul 11, 2006, 08:23 AM // 08:23

The biggest plus on weapon spells is that they cant be removed. The can be overwritten by other weapon skills though. But weapon of warding is effectively HB + Guardian, and it cant be removed by any means by the enemy team.

ZonerZ · Jul 13, 2006, 11:28 PM // 23:28

I think we shouldn't touch the normal skills, but if the elite skills stink they need to be altered. I really don't want to complain about how bad normal skills are because if all skills were equally good the programmers might have well just put one spell in the whole game. Having spells of different value adds an element of strategy to the game you really can't have without sucky ones.

floplag · Jul 14, 2006, 12:01 AM // 00:01

i think many of you are missing the point on these spells.. it isnt to aid your damage, but the other in your party you cast it on in most cases

unless you are a rit secondary as ive seen some good results from Rit seconds using the weapon buffs

Minus Sign · Jul 14, 2006, 11:46 PM // 23:46

I agree that most of the Weapon spells could use a tweek, but the question is how much? The Elites especially need a buff. About half the elites in the Rit line, imho, blow. But, such is often the way with any proffession.

Quote:

Originally Posted by floplag

I think many of you are missing the point on these spells. it isnt to aid your damage, but the other in your party you cast it on in most cases.

I agree that is the point of these spells. I think mesmer in reverse when I consider a Weapon spell. When I think mesmer, I wonder what skills I can bring to the table that will make my enemies easier for my team to kill; to be disruptive. As a team, we win, and through that consideration I tend to shy from direct damage in favor of softening skills.

When I look at the Rit line, most times it is to ask "How can I help my team kill the enemy faster". The difference is subtle, but noteworthy and again I shy away from my own DPS when this is factored in. I mean, I don't want to cast Brutal Weapon on myself. I want to cast it on the Frenzied Warrior who doesn't have agro. This is almost like monk mentality, only from an offensive PoV (aka Offensive Prot). looking at it that way, most weapon spells are quite powerful.

But they do have a hefty drawback.

I can spam hexes on a mob boss or powerful PvP build to just decimate his ability to fight/fight back/protect his team or otherwise participate. I can double up enchantments on a player that is taking heavy damage to reduce the damage he recieves and keep him alive through spike, degen, hexes, what have you.

I cannot stack weapon buffs on a target when they really need it, nor buff a player that has already been weapon buffed by another Rit (this has come up serveral times in PvP and PvE--TOGO!) without stripping what could be a more useful buff.

I consider stacking to be the primary flaw of weapon spells atm, and avoid their use in most cases until it is recitified.

EDIT: considering the fact that Vengeful Weapon is a lifestealing skill, and the lowest cost spell of such in the game atm, I think any buff to it would be overkill. Its not RoF, no matter how much we use it as such.

jesh · Jul 15, 2006, 07:55 AM // 07:55

Brutal Weapon on a warrior or ranger freakin' rocks. Goodbye conjure. The rest are meh besides resiliant/vengeful.

Oso Minar · Jul 16, 2006, 06:49 AM // 06:49

Emissary Armor.
Vital Weapon.