I think the Ritualist is almost dead.....

Ritualist's are ok. A bit under-nourished but well enough to survive the winter. Not sure about Channeling out-damaging Air though. Sure, in a perfect world after a while the Ritualist will still keep on blasting while the Ele struggles with energy. Those low-power but consistent spells do add up. We don't live in a perfect world however...
A ritualists most damaging, bread and butter attack is Channeling Strike. An awesome attack spell. However it requires you to hold an item to get 'near' Lightning Orb damage (the damage is lower by default and gets lower the higher the armour value of it's target) and at the same time, lowering the energy, hp, armour, and casting/recharge benefit's you get from weapons.
Plus The Ritualist doesn't really have a spell as durable or as useful as Lightning Javelin or Lightning Strike. Spirit Burn can do more damage but as it's name suggests, requires the proximity of a spirit to achieve this. It also suffers the same 'higher, AL poorer comparative results' problem of Channeling Strike. That's not even taking into account things like knockdown. A Ritualist can not achieve knockdown with channeling. I love my Ritualist but I have to say that I have never, ever been toppled by one before in a match-up and I have had a few.
If my opponent is lucky and I'm not armoured up or using Mirror of Ice/Obsidian Flesh for laughs, he'd be on his arse the whole time anyways. The one thing I've learned about running an elementalist against all the different types of casters is that knockdown owns them all.
Not saying ele's are a lot stronger, not saying anything of the sort. Just that the inability to deliver 1 of the 2 best conditions in the game (the other of course being DW) seriously hampers an offensive casters ability to kill.

...But that's ok though. Ritualists are not Elementalists. That I believe is the point .

Well, when henching in Factions, I always bring along Gai or Aeson, they do make a big different. Come to think of it, I did Tahnakkai temple a few days back, and I think the Ritualist single-handedly saved our butts a few times. I normaly try to solo missions, but I guess now, if I see a ritualist looking for a group, I'll accomodate! I know what it's like as a mesmer to be the underdog.

I'll be running through Factions (Vizunah Foreign onwards) and Thunderhead Keep onwards this week on my ranger, Sailyphe Tosaitii and a relative's Axe warrior if anyone wants a part of my godly orders barrage/triple chop group!

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i personally think that ritualists have endless potential. the only reason not many ppl realise that is because the rits have alot of seemingly useless skills that if put to work with other skills pwn.

ive already experimented with a spirit weapon barrager with little success. most of them didnt work as well as id hoped and still didnt surpass a critical barrager or an elemental one. even so i continue to experiment with spirit weapons for other uses and may have come up with a good interuper.

The ritualist is my primary character; I have just beat Nightfall with her. Ritualists are complex. While a mesmer must know the capabilities of a foe to be effective, a ritualist must know the environment, the foe (to a lesser extent than a mesmer) , and most importantly themselves to be effective.

The interconnection of their skills make them a challenge to play well. That is why the ritualist is dying after the ritual lord nerf (which I think is a bit of an overly harsh nerf). The list of skills that cost 15-25 energy is long and is another large deterrent. Although the ritualist as energy management ability that is on par with the mesmer if a little different.

When I play as a ritualist, I fill any niche the party needs. I rarely have problems getting into groups; I can even be as selective of groups as a monk gets to be. Most groups want protection or healing; In a good group a support healer (heal party etc) and a ritualist as the primary can do well without the always desired monk. If a team needs a tank, tank the ritualist can if more limited and conditional than a warrior.

I tend to avoid channeling when teams need nukers. Against high armor targets wanding with spirits strength and brutal weapon does almost the same amount of damage. I use spirits when "nuking" is needed. A handful of spirits can easily pull down a level 28 critter.

Again, the ritualist is a jack of all trades and rounds a party out nicely. Keep experimenting and we will eventually find something the rit can be better doing than any other class (other than versatility).

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The problem is ritualists aren't really the best at anything. There are better damage dealers, better healers, better protectors etc. You take a ritualist if you can't find a better character. But the ritualist doesn't have a defined role, they are quite good at things that other characters can already do, but don't have any one thing they do best themselves (except for.. spirit spamming in RA l;ol).

They are versatile. I find that a pro not a con. I think other people do as well.
I think the problem lies in some of the players only wanting the best at something, and not recognizing that being good, but not great at everything is a strength.
A class who specializes in an area is going to stuggle in others.
A class that is versatile, may not excel in any area, but will allow the player to stick to that one class while playing any role in the game well enough to get by.
I guess it depends on how many characters a person wants to make. If you only want to make 1, but you want to do just about everything in the game, it's wise to pick a rit or mesmer.

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dead? i love my rit.

someone asked for skill tags, heres some stuff to throw together for no-brainer comm./chan. spirit build.

[skill]boon of creation[/skill][skill]attuned was songkai[/skill] emanagement

[skill]pain[/skill][skill]bloodsong[/skill][skill]anguish[/skill] + [skill]painful bond[/skill] damage

there's the core for you. you can throw in union or whatever the hell you want, dissonance, disenchantment, whatever really. more attacking spirits = better. maybe /me to echo bond if you can work the energy out

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I don't think 1v1 proves anything, and is in fact quite pointless. If you want to prove the usefulness of a rit, don't do it with a 1v1 battle. Do it with a real scenario in PvP or PvE where a ritualist is a better choice than another character.

The only thing I can think of is Soul Twisting Shelter in a hard area of PvE.

Just like to point out that there are millions of people playing this game and Anet probably thought that some of the audience wanted a versatile class and was not interested in being the best at something.

There needs to be balance and having a class that can do almost everything and also be the best at some things is not balanced.

I know some of you don't like that. So don't pick the profession. It's not meant for you. It's versatility was created to try and get Guild Wars to appeal to a broader fan base. There are 9 other professions if you are not happy with what ritualists are.

I'd also like to add from both a PVP and PVE standpoint, that it can be advantageous to have a class using a build that is capable of many roles as support, and also has some of the best self heals+self rezzing abilities,that work through 'frozen soil', in the game.
If you don't want your groups dps or healing to drop drastically when a particular profession dies, it might be a good idea to bring a profession that can step in and switch gears to fill that gap, and that can also heal themselves very well as well as insta-rez themselves.
I hope everyone understands why I think that a profession capable of creating a large number of decent, but not uber, 'jack of all trade' builds can be useful.

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Honestly, I'd say the Paragon and the Ritualist are interchangeable in a team. I, personally love both. I'd say the people who think Rits are dead are the same ones that think Mesmers in PvE are useless.

i see atleast 1 rit in most majour areas i travel to, im huge rit fan just finished my mummy armor hehe, best rit armor IMO ;p

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The Ritualist, just like the Assassin, are fine surgeons tools... in the right hands they are quite deadly. However, if you don't have an intimate understanding of how these professions work, and hours upon hours of logged practice in PvP and PvE.... then you'll quickly dismiss them as "broken" and "unusuable"