Curse

Liquidus · Jun 16, 2006, 01:55 AM // 01:55

I play team arena quite a bit, and another type of difficult team to play against (other than hex heavy teams) are ones with a Rit casting spirits everywhere. Let's say the opposing team has a monk, mesmer, rit, and warrior. When I'm playing on a balanced team, I usually have our mesmer on their monk, and our warrior taking out one of their casters. But if the opposing team has a mesmer AND a rit, I'm not sure what our warrior should really do.

I don't use an interupting ranger on my team, so I can't interupt the spirits. I have heard that our team should stay mobile, continously drawing the battle away from the spirits, but I havn't had the chance to really try that yet.

So, I'm looking for any suggestions, what classes or builds are your top priority targets in TA, especially, when a Ritual Lord Rit is involved?

NatalieD · Jun 16, 2006, 02:24 AM // 02:24

I would say put your mesmer on the monk and your warrior on the ritualist (casting spirits = long periods of not kiting), but have the mesmer keep an eye on the ritualist as well. Boon of Creation is highly vulnerable to enchantment removal, and losing that energy gain will cut into their spamming ability. If your mesmer has Blackout, and it seems like most TA mesmers do these days, you can use that to interrupt a spirit even if the ritualist is using Mantra of Resolve. Obviously you can't go around interrupting every spirit that way, but try to figure out which ones are hurting you the most and single them out.

Diversion is also good - with a moderate amount of Fast Casting and decent reflexes, you can cast it like you would an interrupt, and have it land right as they finish the ritual cast. I'm not certain whether Ritual Lord reduces the delay on a diverted skill, but I don't think it does.

You can have your warrior bring Distracting Blow, Shock, or various hammer skills and use them to interrupt spirits. The knockdowns are especially good because of the aforementioned Mantra.

sno · Jun 16, 2006, 05:12 AM // 05:12

since ritual lord uses a %, diversion doesn't have as big of an impact against rits as you might imagine. I recommend keeping the warrior on the rit, and to rush in as fast as possible, and don't give the rit a chance to set up. If you let him get all his spirits down, and let them play the match the way they want, they'll usually win. Rit teams have a lot of potential defense, but it rests on the fact that the rit will be able to get off the spirits. If he gets interupted every time theres no hope for him

Irresistable blow kd's through displacement doesn't it? I'm not sure how it's worded and i don't have time to check. If it does, it'd be a superb skill for that situation.

Liquidus · Jun 16, 2006, 06:40 AM // 06:40

Thanks for the replies, charging in would definitely stop the amount of spirits they are casting. Unfortunatly the irresistable doesn't kd. Displacement makes everyone evade, and irresistable can't be evaded, so it would just do normal damage I think.

NatalieD · Jun 16, 2006, 07:34 AM // 07:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno

since ritual lord uses a %, diversion doesn't have as big of an impact against rits as you might imagine.

I had heard from someone that Ritual Lord only reduces the base recharge time, not the time added by Diversion, but... that was just something I heard somewhere. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if it's total bull-redengine.

And yeah, Irresistible Blow just hits normally through evasion. It only causes knockdown if it's blocked.

shadex · Jun 16, 2006, 03:14 PM // 15:14

Rit Lord reduces final time, not base. So if you have diversion up for say 60 seconds, on a 60 second skill, it's 120 seconds recharging, with rit lord at 50% it's back down to 60 seconds.

Divineshadows · Jun 16, 2006, 05:50 PM // 17:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Liquidus

I don't use an interupting ranger on my team, so I can't interupt the spirits. I have heard that our team should stay mobile, continously drawing the battle away from the spirits, but I havn't had the chance to really try that yet.

Moving the battle is key if they get too many spirits down. This is especially true if they use wanderlust and/or disenchantment (very frustrating for boon monks and prodigy eles alike).

Here are my favorite counters to Ritual Lord teams:
Blackout
Gale
Shock
Hammer Knockdown
Shove
Disrupting Stab
Horns of the Ox
Disrupting Chop
Distracting Blow
Distracting Shot and Savage Shot (mantra of resolve is anti-energy management so breaking their energy doesn't take too long)
Drain Enchantment (on boon of creation)

And it just so happens that many of these skills are great to have against enemy rez sigs as well

.

If they get displacement down, then casters should wand when they are not being forced to kite and not casting. Shadowsong needs to be dispatched quickly as well.

remmeh · Jun 16, 2006, 05:58 PM // 17:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by sno

Irresistable blow kd's through displacement doesn't it? I'm not sure how it's worded and i don't have time to check. If it does, it'd be a superb skill for that situation.

Irresistible knocks down on block, not evade. Displacement causes evade ):
the simplest thing to do against a team with a spirit ritualist is just to rush them and keep laying on the KDs. if you interrupt a spirit with a KD, it will recharge at its normal rate (that is, its recharge without ritual lord). so KD on shelter -> shelter is gone for 60sec.

all the counters in this thread work pretty well. i'm a fan of watching for Boon of Creation to go up, and then Drain it right away. Blackout etc. works too, but that only shuts them down 7sec at a time... where if you drain Boon they aren't going to be doing much spamming for the next 45s.

Yanman.be · Jun 16, 2006, 06:07 PM // 18:07

Kd on evade==> grifon's sweep or Leviathan's sweep ( I think )

Divineshadows · Jun 16, 2006, 06:13 PM // 18:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by remmeh

Blackout etc. works too, but that only shuts them down 7sec at a time...

Blackout while they are summoning a spirit.

remmeh · Jun 16, 2006, 06:19 PM // 18:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Divineshadows

Blackout while they are summoning a spirit.

too bad Blackout doesn't disable the spirit like an interrupt. it merely cancels the action of trying to cast a spirit... so after they're not blacked out anymore, they can just summon while your blackout recharges...

edit: Psychic Distraction will piss em off pretty good too.

Divineshadows · Jun 16, 2006, 07:20 PM // 19:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by remmeh

too bad Blackout doesn't disable the spirit like an interrupt. it merely cancels the action of trying to cast a spirit... so after they're not blacked out anymore, they can just summon while your blackout recharges...

Yes, but it can stave off the summoning of a key spirit such as shadowsong until someone else on your team has a knockdown or interrupt ready.

Quote:

Originally Posted by remmeh

edit: Psychic Distraction will piss em off pretty good too.

Works straight through mantra of resolve

. However, I am not too fond of this skill even in 8v8 much less 4v4 because of its drawbacks and ties up the elite I would rather use for expel hexes on a dom mesmer.

remmeh · Jun 16, 2006, 07:28 PM // 19:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Divineshadows

Works straight through mantra of resolve

. However, I am not too fond of this skill even in 8v8 much less 4v4 because of its drawbacks and ties up the elite I would rather use for expel hexes on a dom mesmer.

after all it's much easier just to drain boon

Van Goghs Ear · Jun 16, 2006, 09:18 PM // 21:18

death's charge + shove assassin = one of your best friends vs. rits. if you miss displacement and shadow song goes up next, use shove to kd and interrupt it. With my shove assassin, I can ususally prevent a rit from ever getting a spirit off.

shock warriors can rock a rit too. Also, interrupt ranger with seeking arrows ftw.