The Ritualists..

having played the ritualist for a few hours, ive come to realize something. they do much more healing than monks normally do with all the summons . do you think monks will be useless when factions comes out

I think it will bring a much more unique view on healing, rather than monks alone doing straight up heals, probably won't replace them completely though.

Ritualist seems like monk/ranger/necro in one, but without the expansive abilities of each. Hmmm *ponders*

they problem is you can just run away from spirits, and you can't take them with you

Spirits have limited range. Spirit casts can be interrupted. Spirits can be killed. They're just doing better right now because people don't yet realize how to beat them.

Monks still have better direct healing. Heal Other, Infuse Health, RoF, Word of Healing, Healing Touch, etc.

My current Ritualist healing build does very well (11 consecutive wins, starting in CA, most of them flawless). I often do more damage with it than any other member of my team.

Well how many times have you sat in a mission area waiting for a monk? This will just bring a new healing type character in to the mix so that we aren't always waiting and relying on monks. Should be nice to have a monk and a ritualist in your team working off of each other. I can't wait. :-)

I found healing myself very difficult as a Rt. Maybe because I only played a hour? I'm have 400 hours experience on my monk and I suppose I have to get use to the Rt skills first, overall though, it seems Rt are only strong and effective by linking with the spirits they cast. Take them out, and the Rt is less effective. Monks however, will always maintain their effectiveness without spirits. I love the AoE spirit that gives everyone mending+3.. no more maintain 7 to 8 Mending enchants on everyone!!!

~Ice~

Nah.. I think ritualists provide a protective area for casters/monks..

boon/heal or prot monks still do much more healing in my opinion. Spirits can be killed, and their cast time is long. Monks are totally still useful, plus I think a lot of people will want to play a dmg spirit build instead of heal.

If anything, it makes healers more plentiful, which will really speed up forming teams.

Likewise, I have a lot of experience playing as a healing/support monk.

I found the Primary healing role of a Ritualist to be taxing. While spirits allow you to support and heal your team with far more oomph upfront than a monk ever could (Team Shielding Hands + Protective Spirit + Mending), Spirits are expensive, self destruct, have long animation times, are killable and don't do jack for a team constantly on the move.

I guess a better way of putting is would be that a Monk is like a Sedan. Safe, Reliable, Sturdy, Familiar. While a Ritualist is like a supped up Hot Rod running off Nitro. Shiny, New, Vulnerable, and more than likely to burn out after the first stretch.

Agreed. The Ritualist provides a nice protective area for spellcasters and can also increase the healing/dmg for the warriors.... Imagine...you throw one healing spirit around the spell casters, and one next to the warriors...you help the monk quite a bit...and with the dmg dealing spirits you can also help the team do more dmg and get rid of your enemies faster. A group ritualist are very effective...my guild used a ritualist only GvG build (we won , YAY), 2 ritualists are pure dmg, 4 ritualists heal+dmg, and 2 ritualists heal worked very well...

To the OP, the monk profession wont be useless because the Ritualist is a support dmg+healer...cant work by himself to heal (even with spirits), I too played as a ritualist today and found that healing with ritualist is quite hard a)you dont heal for as much as a monk b)spirits get killed c)some healing requires you to have certain spells/skills on you. Monk is still the healer of the game, but the ritualist is there if you dont like playing monk (expected to heal or protect mostly), the ritualist provides a different style of healing (more closely related to necromancer healing then monk).

~HD

Interrupt>Ritualists
Make the spirits easily interrupted. Jus like traps so that they aren't used during battle. Only before.

I see Ritualists as like the healers of the entire party, something like a constant heal party..
They can heal but in different ways than a monk. For example, if you have a healer Ritualist and a healer Monk in a party, the Ritualist would foucs on affecting everybody simultaneously while the Monk uses WoH or orison of healing to keep those individual party members healthy

Worst Idea ever.

Since oh, a good 4/5ths of their skills rely on mid combat placement you'd just make them gimpy casters that are half as reliable as the core professions. And when they DO manage to get the spirits up and running they just end up getting killed by enemies or autodestructing from their own "This spirit loses a bajillion life each time X affect is induced" clauses.

I had no problems keeping myself alive as a Ritualist, even after my spirits had been hacked to pieces. Had a 45 minute match in CA where my team was chasing some stupid Warrior runner around for ages. Our Ranger left, so it was me (Rt/Mo), a Rt/Me and a W/Mo. I had loads of fun with the other Ritualist on the team setting up spirit blockades to try and stop the runner. Eventually this guy demanded 1 on 1, so our Warrior fought him and lost, then it was my turn. Well, I might not have been able to kill this guy, but he certainly couldn't kill me (Weapon of Warding FTW!).

Great stuff.

one thing that brings the ritualist to the sunshine light is it makes matches longer, there cant be that TOTALLY UBER rush on a single member and just continue with destroying just because of first advantage of team size...

it was SO FUN on my first match with the new professions, i played the ritualist after reading the skills through well and understanding how to make good use of them, though the fight lasted atleast 20mins before someone finally died, it was a balanced fight, and fun. best of all we had to think of a way to trick someone into wasting their buffs and then going for the kill when it was ripe... nothing more satisfying with it ending with everyone commenting: gg.

and we won, thats ultimate best XD

Speaking about interrupting Spirits, I am not sure if this is a bug or not, I use Disrupting Lunge on the spirit to interrupt it but it can skill use the skill!!!! Disrupting Lunge is supposed to disable the skill. I know it sounds funny but A.Net should make it clear that spirit skills cannot be disabled. lol Either this is a bug or...whatever.

I've been playing for a bit and I find Ritualist's spirits too weak. I basically go after the spirits all the time and Rt almost can't do anything. They may want to buff up the spirits a bit.

My only beginning gripe is that Spirits die to fast and easily to warrent the 45-60sec recharges.

This wasn't much of a problem for Nature Rituals because a ranger would primarily set them before battle off of the battle field and forget about them - barely anyone broke for them.

Binding Rituals are much different in application and that SHOULD be taken into account on them. Firstly, alot of the spirits are not just "be there" type spirits - they are actively involved in the fight. Secondly, the Ritualist is pretty bound to his spirits. A ranger who's Fav Winds died says..ok whatever.. a Ritualist that has his spirits killed..well that might make some of his skills useless.

This isn't to say Ritualists Are bad - I rate them high as a support group. They can buff the team, or heal, or use their channeling and spirts to add damage. Its just their spirits dont hold up with their potential.

I just got done with my Smite/Rit and owned in a balanced team of four.

Smite/Rit - Team supportive heavy defensive and offensive capablities all rolled into one character.

I think its going to catch on.

Has anyone made a RT/N Minon Master? With Ritualist's special attribute, the minions would take ages to die, and you could have a lot of minions out at once.

Also, I think spawning power sorta counteracts the weakness of spirit's HP, but they still die too fast, Anet needs to buff.