Good Bye, Ritualist...

It's a shitty update lol I must say too, signet of spirits maybe fun to play with but then it will get dull in the long run. Alot of useless ritualist skills need to be buffed too. At least signet of binding was pretty nice to play with watching enemy spirits become yours.

I am only satisfied with the short casting time for spirits. But what's with Signet of Creation! If the casting time for spirits are already updated 3/4 a second or just a second why would we even need Signet of Creation. :/ Lol I was asking myself the same thing.

But what's with Signet of Creation! If the casting time for spirits are already updated 3/4 a second or just a second why would we even need Signet of Creation. :/ I dunno. Being able to summon three diferent offensive spirits with one skill and having a compressed bar for other skills perhaps?

I dunno. Being able to summon three diferent offensive spirits with one skill and having a compressed bar for other skills perhaps? Spirits suck by default, add to that that it is an elite, on top of that you need spawning power to have a decent health level, you do the math.


Problem is simple, most useful ritualist's skills are: OoS, warding, Splinter, Ancestor, Kaolai, Xinrae weapon.
Outside of these lies a desolated waste. Is signet of spirits so good to justify taking it instead of Xinrae or OoS? No.
In the rare case I want to be useless and carry spirits I will run Assasin Promise which to be honest it's not good but doesn't suck as much as the other alternatives.

Spirits suck by default, add to that that it is an elite, on top of that you need spawning power to have a decent health level, you do the math.


Problem is simple, most useful ritualist's skills are: OoS, warding, Splinter, Ancestor, Kaolai, Xinrae weapon.
Outside of these lies a desolated waste. Is signet of spirits so good to justify taking it instead of Xinrae or OoS? No.
In the rare case I want to be useless and carry spirits I will run Assasin Promise which to be honest it's not good but doesn't suck as much as the other alternatives. So before this update ritualists went 12+1+1 channeling, 12+1 resto, 3+1 spawning.

Now they go 12+1+1 channeling, 11+1 resto, 6+1 spawning.

That will give same weapon of warding duration, for example.

Of course necros or other professions can't match it now.

In exchange for that balancing, spirits gained 4 levels.

For example, bloodsong used to be level 8 at rank 14. Now its 11. That means 18 more base armor and 60 more base health.

The same for all other spirits.

Additionally they cast a lot faster.

Seems a decent exchange - buff to spirits, giving the ritualist better options, especially in the offense while nerfing weapon spells for non-rit casters.

So before this update ritualists went 12+1+1 channeling, 12+1 resto, 3+1 spawning.

Now they go 12+1+1 channeling, 11+1 resto, 6+1 spawning.

That will give same weapon of warding duration, for example.

Of course necros or other professions can't match it now.

In exchange for that balancing, spirits gained 4 levels.

For example, bloodsong used to be level 8 at rank 14. Now its 11. That means 18 more base armor and 60 more base health.

The same for all other spirits.

Additionally they cast a lot faster.

Seems a decent exchange - buff to spirits, giving the ritualist better options, especially in the offense while nerfing weapon spells for non-rit casters. no before the update you could stick with 12+1 (or 12) restoration and 12 +1+1 channeling and 3 in spawning

Now you need 12 in restoration and 8 in spawning to achieve the same duration weapon of warding used to have (with 8 in spawning is a bit less, you need 9 to gain a little benefit)


A necro will simply laugh at the lower duration, 2 seconds duration less? No problem, they will cast weapon of warding twice (in pve), they got unlimited energy, same for eles. Meanwhile ritus have not the luxury of an efficient energy management primary, they are forced to allocate points to spawning therefore sacrificing flexibility (for example points in smiting prayers)

Weapon spells for spirits is hardly a good trade off, even with the update spirits are worthless, the mechanic itself is flawed.

Is signet of spirits so good to justify taking it instead of Xinrae or OoS? I would say, you're right and I would certainly go support if partying with ppl (weapon spells ftw.) But I like blowing up things with offensive spirits when I am running with h/h. And this update makes that easier.

I found a combo that heals party members for 300 health every 10 seconds.

Yay.

Instead of complaining try playing it and look for new things. You don't like any thing you find? Play another class.

Good job Anet. Not exactly the way I woulda buffed them, but its great now. Not PERFECT...but with no doubt better.
You're a mesmer. Try to play a rit for 2 years, experience the majority of the contents and titles while customizing same rare items to suddenly stop playing the class because A-net decided ritualists are not worth having, or because some 2 years old GvG balances done because of a now deleted mechanic were not regressed.

Wow 300hp every 10 seconds, useful especially when a paragon reduces 80% of the damage and an ele can push out consistent heals without recoil or when a monk can do prot as well, and each of the aforementioned can assolve a subfuction as well.

If you don't like what they did with how fast you can summon spirits now, I suggest you go PvP. Spirits there summon slow like you're used to, and perhaps will still have a use, somewhere.

I'm still not crazy about how ANet has been sacking Weapon Spell time and giving Rits an attribute to boost them. It's clear that ANet sees it as a problem that other professions are rolling Rit for their secondary and still getting decent use out of them, so they want to limit the duration that those last. Unfortunately, it hurts Rits too, because it forces them to invest in a line that, in some cases, is useless to them otherwise.

What I really haven't liked is that when they do these kinds of buffs and nerfs, they seem to be done in such a way that only Rits that carry high levels of Spawning Power are truly unaffected by this, or even buffed. Meanwhile, Rits that can't get good mileage out of the attribute line continue to suffer. They will have to reconsider the way primary attribute works.

Loads of problems with balancing the game was always created by the fact secondaries could use other professions skills just as well.

Maybe shifting some skills around the attribute lines and buffing some spawning power skills is still required, but spirits are more viable at least now.

We will have to see how this work, but with signet of spirits some of the spawning power enchantments became more attractive. A lot more attractive.

Lets give it some time and test around.