Spirit's Strength Builds

Might there be an alternative to Rits having to deal damage with Spirits or with Channeling? The new elite Spirit's Strength might open up some possibilities for Rits to have an even greater diversity of builds than we currently do (for pve, of course).

Spirit's Strength: For 15...51 seconds, your attacks deal 1...25 more damage while under the effects of a weapon Spell.

I'll be combining this skill with Vital Weapon for all builds just because it lasts 30 seconds regardless of points in communing and only costs 5e.

Build # 1: Whirling Ritualist (Rit/Derv)
Spawn 15, Earth 10, Scythe 10, Commun 1

Spirit's Strength {E} - + 31 dmg, lasts for 60s (or 78s w an enchant mod), recharge 45s
Wielder's Remedy/Mirage Cloak
Vital Weapon
Vital Boon
Conviction
Signet of Piety
Mystic Sweep
Wearying Strike/Eremite's Assault/Lyssa's Assault (or whatever u like)

Wearying Strike might be a good fit b/c it will deep wound for 8 seconds (longer w a cruel mod of course) and with Wielder's remedy on you, you can cast Vital Weapon (5e, 12s recharge) to remove the weakness from yourself. If you won't use wearying strike, then wielder's remedy can be replaced with Mirage cloak for evasion. Mystic sweep should do + 32 dmg on top of the + 31 dmg from Spirit's Strength if you can maintain your 4 enchants.
Conviction gives you +24 armor, vital boon will heal you for 158HP every 20s or if Sig of Piety is used you get a 248HP heal. Vital wpn + vital boon will give you +129 max hp making you a lower priority target.
Always cast Spirit's strength first before battle, then cover w Wielder's remedy, conviction, and vital boon. Don't forget to throw on vital wpn before attacking (and recast it when it expires) or you won't get any benefit from Spirit's strength.
With the + armor and + max hp and decent heals built in, you shouldn't go down fast when going into melee range. You also have condition removal if you go w Remedy or evasion if you go w Cloak. (If you know the enemies are going to try to blind you for sure, then and only then would I suggest Sight beyond Sight instead). The dmg output appears promising, due to Spirit's Strength adding + 31 dmg to your aoe (3 targets?) sycthe attacks.

* Edit * : Use the + 15 while affected with a weapon spell armor. With Conviction, your armor should be at 99 AL and with vital wpn and vital boon your max HP should be around 585. Still not a tank, but at least not squishy.

If you don't like going into melee range, then you might prefer Build # 2, the Bowalist:

Spawn 15, Marksman 10, Wilderness 10

Spirit's Strength {E}
Vital Weapon
Kindle arrows/Apply Poison
Dual Shot
Screaming Shot/Hunter's Shot
Focused Shot/Marauder's/ Savage/(whatever u like)
Troll Unguent
Flesh of my Flesh

+ 31 dmg from Spirit's and 17 dmg from Kindle should add some oomph to your Dual Shots. Screaming shot used on new targets to inflict bleeding (if not using Long or Flatbow), Troll for healing. I run a Brutal wpn and Barrage Rt/R with Pain and Bloodsong that does great dmg to multiple targets, but this build should do far higher single target dmg, especially on high armor targets and is far more mobile.

ther'd actually be some damn nice Rt/W builds if weapon spells stacked but alas they dont...

I think perhaps this could work pretty nicely with a Rt/P.

You stay out of harms way and you get the nice attacks from the Spear Mastery line, which, of course, is the weapon of choice here.

I was just thinking about Barrage, but it's an elite. Imagine the onslaught

Just sit back and wand them to death!

Did you read this yet?

I like the ranger idea, got to try it out.

Although I think the Dervish version deals more damage in a whole, but since you're still kinda squishy (especcially if enchants get removed), it looks like Rt/R would be a better supportive damager (less damage taken, less pressure on Healer)

Still, haven't tried it.. Rt/D works

And the Rt/P looks nice too... ahh so much to do

Rt/P doesn't work very well because when used without an attack speed buff
most weapons attack too slowly.
THe only weapons that attack fast enough to take advantage of the + to dmg are
sword
axe
dagger

the dagger is best because it combines with the armor ingore of the dagger attacks, the lead attack,fox fangs, horns of the ox and falling spider combo hits for 70-80 dmg each time. also double attacks are quite nice.

Rt/A has the worst defensive abilities. I've seen a couple of rits using their normal wanding to deal damage, but I don't think it's worth it, considering just as what unmatchedfury ahs said, even with the dagger attacks you're dealing 70-80 damage per hit, which is nice.

I ran this in Dahjkah Inlet challenge mission and got to 6th on international daily best score ><.

Flurry
Dismember
Executioners Strike
Critical Chop
Sight Beyond Sight
Vital Weapon
Spirits Strenth
Rez Sig

Attributes where something like , 12 axe, 15 spawning...7 communing ? ..lol dont quote me on that though. I had origionally had Cyclone axe in their too but wanted to drop it for some deep wound goodness from Dismember.

So how does this build comapre to a primary dervish, assassin, ranger, or warrior?

I haven't capped the elite yet but it looks interesting. Obviously, I wouldn't expect the damage numbers to match, but how powerful would you define this build as in comparison to its primary counterpart?

(Example: Daggers with this combo do about 75% the damage of a primary assassin... I'm making this up)

Basically with the RT/A build in RA

Opposing A/W burst of agression Shadow prison-40-55 damage Horns of the Ox

Me Rt/A using Horns of the Ox-80 to 90 damage each hit..then with the blades of steel ill hit 100-120 each hit

I've tried using Spirit's Strength with a Paragon secondary and found that against 100AL targets the spear attacks were doing 70-90 points of damage and regular attacks 45-50.

That was with lvl 14 in spawning as I haven't unlocked a +3 spawning rune for my PVP players yet, and I didn't put spawning to a natural 12 so that I could put some points in other attributes as well as the 12 for spear mastery. It's possible with spawning at 16 I could do almost 100 damage against 100AL targets?

Quote:

I've found it works best with a Rt/A in Random, simply because of the attack speed daggers have. I was easily outdamaging the monks and their ability to sustaining the healing. Throw in some kd or interrupts, and they had no chance.

We ran some Rt/W even in GvG and their pressure is pretty phenomenal.

Usually it's

13 Spawning
12 Axe
9 Tactics
2-3 Communing (don't remember)

Dismember
Crit Chop
Flurry
Sprint / Rush / Watch Yourself! / Heal Sig (depends on rest of the team/role you want. Usually we use them with running support from Paragon like Godspeed or Lead The Way!, or something like Crippling Anthem so that they don't have trouble catching up to targets)
Vital Weap
Sight beyond Sight
Spirit Strength
Rez Sig

We use it on a team with OoP/DFury spam usually so that their enchants are nearly impossible to remove without something like Gaze of Contempt which isn't seen much. They're immune to BSurge which is really important in the current meta. With +12 OoP/+27 Spirit Strength you have +39 (42 with vamp) damage every hit which is like spamming Exec Strike. Normal auto-attack in Flurry is around 45-55 damage with just Spirit Strength on 60 AL with crits in the 80s. On 100 AL it's more of a 30-40 damage range, which is still very good considering you're Flurrying. When you add OoP you reach something like 50 DPS on 100 AL and around 70 DPS on 60AL. And you spike REALLY hard.

You're really not a softie at all with full ghostforge armor (+15 AL in weapon spell) and a +16AL shield. You have 91 base AL, +75 health while enchanted and -2 physical damage taken while enchanted. If you use WY!, you can easily have 108 AL (if we use more than one we'll usually have one using WY!). Hammer warriors are really not more resistant than you are.

If you want to use that in RA bring Healing Signet. You have no way to snare/catch running people, but you kill really fast and most warriors will rush for you thinking you're a spirit spammer and you'll very easily outdamage them and tear through their armor before they hurt you all that much.