Curse

Valerria · May 01, 2006, 06:21 PM // 18:21

Soothing: all foe's adrenaline skills take twice as long to charge. Imagine a Eviscerate taking 16 hits, Backbreaker/Final Thrust taking 20 hits.

Recuperation: all allies and their pets get +3 regen (12).

Only two class comboes can spam these spirits: Rit/? or R/Rit with Oath Shot.

The direct damage spirits I feel are too unfocused to be helpful in a team setting, so I'd opt for the defensive spirits.

Patrograd · May 01, 2006, 06:55 PM // 18:55

Its a little early to say, but I have a feeling that these spirits are going to see more PVE and HA/arenas play than they are high end GvG. The impression I have, which is admittedly an early impression, is that the spirits are very easy to interrupt, and very easy to kill, and even easier to just avoid. OK, so the ritualist can use draw spirit to move them around, but even so, I dont believe at this stage we'll see them much in GvG. Time will tell I guess.

icemonkey · May 01, 2006, 07:25 PM // 19:25

I can see them being useful. and I can see that usefulness being like a house of cards where everything just comes tumbling down at the slightest disruption, leaving you SOL

Shadow song, looks great
put near the back of your back line and warriors running around there are not doing much, this spirit will out last any condition removal be cause it can put blind on virtually every second or so. Its a long cast time but you can run waaaay back, cast it then draw it forward to where you want it, even when you want it. However it is fragile and if its down you cant get it back up instantly

There are a lot of spirits like this, soothing, the evasion one, the 10% damage spirit. Its just that if you are depending on spirits to protect you from warriors you may be making a mistake. If your ritualist gets tripped up or stopped for whatever reason, you are gonna be unprotected until he can get his stuff working again. This is probably too great of a liability for GvG

that red guy · May 01, 2006, 07:26 PM // 19:26

The damage spirits could be used in a preasure build, spirits will be like wards helpful but they sort of make you stay in one place to get the full advantage

and you can always just kill the enemy spirit

Valerria · May 01, 2006, 08:54 PM // 20:54

For the flag stand or to defend NPCs I think defensive spirits can be very helpful. There're several elite skills that enables the caster to spam spirits if they're killed. Ward of Stability and Mantra of Resolve will guarantee no interruption.

minor · May 01, 2006, 11:13 PM // 23:13

Unnatural signet Target foe takes 15..63 damage. If that foe was a Spirit, this Signet recharges instantly. Several seconds to cast spirit and this will kill it pretty quick. i believe there are several other skills to counter spirits; as well as normal attacks, but this signet is just pure hate. Its tied to mesmer domination, if spirits become common this will too i think. If you get a bunch of defensive spirits up far enough back they might work for awhile; still its kinda iffy.

JR · May 01, 2006, 11:16 PM // 23:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Valerria

Ward of Stability and Mantra of Resolve will guarantee no interruption.

Barring skills with a Blackout effect, which will interrupt through anything.

tomcruisejr · May 01, 2006, 11:23 PM // 23:23

Gaze from Beyond (availability)
Description: The spirits nearest you loses 10-34 Health. Target foe is struck for 3 lightning damage for each point of Health lost.
Energy Cost: 5
Activation Time: 1 Second.
Recharge Time: 15 Seconds.
Linked Attribute: Channeling Magic. Increases health lost and damage dealt.
Skill Type: Spell.

+ the ritualist spirits with defensive/offensive effects + ranger spirits = deadly

lilnate22 · May 01, 2006, 11:44 PM // 23:44

i personaly use my sprits as suicdie bombers.
i spam all my sprits and use doom+sprit rift to warm thins up and when i see a certin spirit is about to die smack rupterd soul (not sure if its actual name but it kills sprit+deals dmg+blinds foe) smack that on and whola! high damge ritualist baby!

i call it a atomic ritualist.... pritty good combo test it ur self and find out!

Teh Mighty Warrior · May 02, 2006, 01:35 AM // 01:35

I think, rather I know, that ritualist's will be a HUGE bonus for HA. Not neccessarily up to Halls, but definately at halls. I'm actually considering making a holding build with a ritualist involved. Shelter+Union+Displacement, if the ritualist can keep these spirits up, nothing will be dying anytime soon. I've already been thinking about it, and it has some potential. Definately going to try it out as soon as I get 2-3 hours of spare time.

Trylo · May 02, 2006, 01:58 AM // 01:58

Wanderlust {E}
Dissonence
BloodSong
Pain
ShadowSong
Doom
Painful Bond
Rez

this is my build i use for PVP rit, usually works well as a single foe will come into range adn be smacked with 4 spirits doing 17 damage and one doing 0. 17*4 = 68 spike damage. Painful Bond ~ 16*5 = 80 Spike Damage = 148 spike every 1.5 seconds approx. with KD. Need i say more?

Vermilion Okeanos · May 02, 2006, 03:36 AM // 03:36

spiking build get destroy by shelter, an AoE protective spirit, just spam that and spike group is done cooking.

JR · May 02, 2006, 07:35 AM // 07:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trylo

Wanderlust {E}
Dissonence
BloodSong
Pain
ShadowSong
Doom
Painful Bond
Rez

this is my build i use for PVP rit, usually works well as a single foe will come into range adn be smacked with 4 spirits doing 17 damage and one doing 0. 17*4 = 68 spike damage. Painful Bond ~ 16*5 = 80 Spike Damage = 148 spike every 1.5 seconds approx. with KD. Need i say more?

How is that in any way a spike? Please get your terminology right.

Spike: Killing an opponent as close to instantly as possible, to negate healing or protection.

What you are describing would be "pressure".

Greedy Gus · May 02, 2006, 08:40 AM // 08:40

Char was running a dedicated spirit spammer tonight that was highly effective. I'd say the power lies in shadowsong, which basically makes it very difficult for one of our warriors to go drop union/shelter. If it wasn't there, these spirits drop in 2-3 swings and the spirit spammer would be practically a wasted character against a team who can spare a warrior to go kill spirits for a few seconds.

Patrograd · May 03, 2006, 06:17 AM // 06:17

iB were running a communing rit last night: shelter, union, pain, rupture, boon of creation, doom, ritual Lord (elite). Its all in the positioning of course.

mind you, iB like to run alot of experimental builds :-)

Mithie · May 03, 2006, 07:35 PM // 19:35

Ritualist spirit spammers can go two ways:

Pressure or control.

You can use soothing/shadowsong to control warriors, union/shelter to control spikes, recup to control degen etc.

On the other hand, you can spam pain/blood song to do direct damage or mask a spike.

I haven't seen a good ritualist build that's not gimmicky (i.e. feeding a necrospike with soul reap) that revolves around spirit spamming though.

Viade · May 04, 2006, 12:50 AM // 00:50

Shelter
Union
Shadowsong
Mend body and soul
Spirit transfer (maybe Displacement, or Spirit light)
Mantra of resolve
Inspired hex
Energy drain

Mithie · May 04, 2006, 03:32 AM // 03:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Viade

Shelter
Union
Shadowsong
Mend body and soul
Spirit transfer (maybe Displacement, or Spirit light)
Mantra of resolve
Inspired hex
Energy drain

I would run Ritual Lord over Energy Drain for my elite, and split some off inspiration to put into spawning.

Viade · May 04, 2006, 04:40 AM // 04:40

He is supposed to be working with quickening zephyr

For a ritual lord healer, I'd do something more like:

Ritual lord
Boon of creation
Shadowsong
Shelter
Union
Spirit light
Mend body and soul
... no clue

11+1 communing
11+4 restoration
8+1 spawning power

icemonkey · May 04, 2006, 01:51 PM // 13:51

ok after playing a ritualist for a while, and watching some people run them in GvG, i have discovered that gaze from beyond is either broken, or mislabled. It says foe is struck with 3 lightening damage per health lost, well they are not struck they jsut take. This spell ignores armor, garuntee you a huge damage for merely 5 energy and ~30 life from a spirit you don't even care about. I hope it stays like this, armor ignoring, because this skill really pulls the ritualist together to make him viable on a regular balanced build. Without a cheap high damage spell like this, ritualist may be more likely to only show up in gimmick builds/FOTM builds.

also, skip restoration, its pretty much garbage.