Razah's Skill Usage.

So I got me a Razah last night, finally! Ok, so some will say "I got him the day DoA came out"...yea ok, fine, but I've never wanted to put the effort into doing DoA and couldn't be bothered to save up until now. Anyhoo, I decided to try him with some skills last night and now I'm after some input...

1. Cruel was Daoshen. He stands there and just holds them. He doesn't do anything else...so is this the same with all ashes? I seem to recall one of the Rit heroes in Cantha (Prof. Gai?) would use Attuned was Songkai...and cast spells while holding them. So does this occur with all item spells, or just some?

2. I did manage to try Razah with a sprit spamming build last night which went really rather well. He puts Spirit's Gift, Rit Lord and Boon of Creation on when necessary and just keeps pumping the spirits out. Has anyone had any good or bad experiences with Razah + Spirits?

3. Restoration. Has anyone tried him with a Restoration build yet? When I go Restoration I like to use Protective was Kaolai, Life and Feast of Souls...if I put those on him I'd guess he'd either drop Kaolai straight away or just hold them and do nothing, and destroy life as soon as it's made. Again...Anyone with any good / bad experiences with Restoration Magic?

4. Weapon Spells. Does Razah put weapon spells on the right people? Eg. Splinter Weapon on warriors / Rangers etc.. Weapon of Remedy on people who are taking Damage, Weapon of Warding on people being attacked?

5. Channeling. What sort of energy management is good for Razah here?

Also, if anyone has tried him with some more...weird...builds I'd like to hear them
I'm going to continue testing him tonight whilst capping a few elites.
Thanks for any input.

I got him the day DoA came out! Nah... I don't have him at all, these are responses based on how the AI, in general, uses skills, particularly enemy rits and the hench rits.

On Channeling... Essence Strike is good energy management, Razah, like all heroes, likes to use skills on recharge, leading to maximum energy gain from Essence Strike.

Assuming he's the same as the ritualist hench, he's a pretty good judge of when to use Weapon of Warding - only real problem is energy, he (well... Gai and Aeson) will spread it around as long as you are being assaulted. Not too bad though, WoW is one of the truly great Restoration skills. Splinter Weapon... from what I've seen from Wardens, they'll cast it on themselves first and foremost, maintaining it as best they can, before buffing party members with it. Not a problem if you make him carry ashes.

On ashes... They'll cast them at the most appropriate moment (read: as soon as the battle begins) then maintain holding them as best they can. Gai only ever seems to drop Attuned when he dies...
It appears that AI will drop damaging ashes spells if an enemy comes within range, there's no way of telling them to drop (apart from if you had them use a shadowstep skill). Why he appears to hold Cruel without casting, I don't know... Maybe he ran out of energy? Every other rit in the game can cast and hold. Maybe you need to cane him?

As for weird builds... He does OK as a Spirit's Strength assassin (tried him as a PvP char), he's pretty consistent at using weapon spells and keeping SS on himself.

Build goes something along the lines of...

[skill]Golden Fox Strike[/skill][skill]Fox Fangs[/skill][skill]Nine Tail Strike[/skill][skill]Wielder's Boon[/skill][skill]Vital Weapon[/skill][skill]Spirit's Strength[/skill][skill]Sight Beyond Sight[/skill][skill]Resurrection Signet[/skill]

10 + 1 + 3 Spawing Power, 12 Dagger Mastery, 6 + 1 Communing, 6 + 1 Restoration.

A decent build, given his henchman love for auto-attacking. The only niggles are that he likes to spread Vital and Boon around, you may have to disable and use them skills yourself.

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