Arent Spirits Bad?

MelisandeUtamaiden

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Dec 2006

R/D

Why Do People Use Spirits? Do They Affect The Whole Party Or Only The Bad Guys? If Thye Affected The Whole Party, Then Why Do People Use Them? Wouldnt It Be Bad For The Rest Of The Party?

Kuldebar Valiturus

Kuldebar Valiturus

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Nov 2006

Garden City, Idaho

The Order of Relumination (TOoR)

R/

The descriptive icon is misleading. I have always assumed that the description only applies to enemies or friendlies depending on effect. But, now after a further look:

Quote:
Spirits created by Nature Rituals (sometimes referred to as Nature Spirits) have the appearance of a diminutive Druid. They are totems that emit environmental enchantments affecting all creatures, allies and foes alike, with the pointed exception that they never affect other spirits. Thus it is often a good idea to place beneficial spirits far in the backline so most of the enemies are out of the effect range, to plan the team build to be minimally affected by any negative effects of the spirit, and to use beneficial ones against enemy builds that can't take advantage of the benefits. It appears I was mistaken. Spirits DO PASS on positive effects to the enemy. :/

MelisandeUtamaiden

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Dec 2006

R/D

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kuldebar Valiturus
The descriptive icon is misleading. I have always assumed that the description only applies to enemies or friendlies depending on effect. But, now after a further look:



It appears I was mistaken. Spirits DO PASS on positive effects to the enemy. :/ Wow, so I guess I shouldn't use them anymore? :/

shanaya

shanaya

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Nov 2005

Scouts of Tyria

R/

You need to use them selectively. For example, if you put up the spirit Symbiosis every creature in range, allied or enemy, that has an enchantment on them will get a boost to their maximum health. If you know you are in an area where the mobs don't use enchantments much (and in PvE there are LOTS of areas like this) then you can give massive maximum health boosts to party members with no disadvantages. Very nice if you are a dervish with 3 enchantments on full time, for example.

MelisandeUtamaiden

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Dec 2006

R/D

Quote:
Originally Posted by shanaya
You need to use them selectively. For example, if you put up the spirit Symbiosis every creature in range, allied or enemy, that has an enchantment on them will get a boost to their maximum health. If you know you are in an area where the mobs don't use enchantments much (and in PvE there are LOTS of areas like this) then you can give massive maximum health boosts to party members with no disadvantages. Very nice if you are a dervish with 3 enchantments on full time, for example. What about PvE farming? Right now I usually use winnowing, which I thought only affected bad guys. Sometimes I use Quickening Zephre, but wasn't sure who it affected. Should I look for a new skill to replace one of those or would it be okay?

TeZ-VeHHeRz

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Mar 2007

Kiss of Norfetu [KISS]

E/

Spirits are there specifically for you to apply different affects, surrounding you from your own choice, to be most suitable to your fighting/killing tactics.

a famine spirit, for example, lets a creature lose health if reached 0 energy. a party of a monk and a ranger uses a special strategy. when the ranger casts the spirit, the monk abuses the newly changed effect to cast energy draining spells and techniques to drain the surrounding mobs energy. even though both the ranger and the monk planned that no one in the party is going down to 0E since the monk will use protection spells + healing. So both planned to not get down to 0E, and instead make the "bad guys" reach 0E, a fighting strategy.

Admael

Admael

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Sep 2005

California

Xen of Heroes

Quote:
Originally Posted by MelisandeUtamaiden
What about PvE farming? Right now I usually use winnowing, which I thought only affected bad guys. Sometimes I use Quickening Zephre, but wasn't sure who it affected. Should I look for a new skill to replace one of those or would it be okay? Everyone is affected by winnowing and quickening zephyr. This is because any nature ritual, whether friendly or hostile, will affect everyone within range. From winnowing, anyone who takes physical will take 4 extra damage, same with quickening zephyr, anyone who casts a spell will cast it with increased cast time and increased energy cost.

ArKaiN

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jan 2007

Lotus Branca[Lbr]

Mo/Me

Goes like this: Are you a Ranger? Then your spirits affect everyone. Ritualist? Then they either affect allies or go pew-pew at bad guys.

moko

moko

??uo??o??

Join Date: May 2006

Quote:
Originally Posted by ArKaiN
Goes like this: Are you a Ranger? Then your spirits affect everyone. Ritualist? Then they either affect allies or go pew-pew at bad guys. well this is the ranger forum. ;P and the rit spirits are actually "binding rituals" and not spirits, although everyone calls them spirits -- so he meant ranger spirits only.

they do have their uses in PvE, as long as you know the area. if there are quite a few rangers in your team, and the area you are in doesn't have many rangers, bring FW. for hells precipe, bring winter, etc.

anshin

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2006

R/

get an idea of the range of the spirits and you can control minimaly their effects...

Div

Div

I like yumy food!

Join Date: Jan 2006

Where I can eat yumy food

Dead Alley [dR]

Mo/R

Stuff like QZ and EW are great for trapper farming, because the enemy will be dead before they get to benefit from those spirits once they run into your traps...

Ecklipze

Ecklipze

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2006

R/

The thing you need to consider when using spirits is how much the effects will aid you over aiding your opponents. If the benefits of the spirit proves more advantageous to your team than your opponents, then it is very much worth using.

Eg. A Ranger Spike Team vs. Balanced Team, Ranger Team uses Favourable Winds. Balanced Team has a ranger on their team who benefits from the effect, however R-Spike team has the bigger gain from it.

anshin

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2006

R/

perhaps you don't understand the range thing...

as a ranger... you will amost always or at aleast you should be in the rear of the party attacking at range... with a spirit... place the spirit around an aggro circle behind you and i am 100% sure that your foes will almost never get the spirit's benefits...

milkflopance

milkflopance

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Dec 2006

England

The Cult of Scaro [WHO]

Quote:
Originally Posted by anshin
perhaps you don't understand the range thing...

as a ranger... you will amost always or at aleast you should be in the rear of the party attacking at range... with a spirit... place the spirit around an aggro circle behind you and i am 100% sure that your foes will almost never get the spirit's benefits... A spirit's range is greater than the agro range, about doube i think.

XvArchonvX

XvArchonvX

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

R/

Spirits are necessarily good or bad. They can be excellent skills to have when used in the right condition. Examples of this are Winter used in Hell's Precipice where enemies are weak to cold damage. Favorable Winds is a strong addition to a Barrage Ranger as well since the advantage will likely help that ranger more than the enemy since it a team with a barrage ranger will likely pump out more arrows than the enemy will.

In PvP, spirits can also be very helpful when you have a specific build that takes the change a spirit implements into account. An example would be a team running with Nature's Renewal that is not reliant on hexes or enchantments in order to put an opposing team at a strong overall disadvantage.

The general rule to follow with spirits is to leave them at home unless you have a very specific purpose to using it and your team is aware and/or adapted to deal with it's effects.

malko050987

malko050987

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2007

Arad, Romania

The Arctic Marauders [TAM] - now recruiting!

R/

Yes, the spirit range can be found on wiki. It's a lot larger than the agro bubble.

I don't see the point of setting the spirit back, though. If you have a spirit that needs to be set back so it doesn't benefit the other team more than yours, it shouldn't be in your build.

For team builds where spirits play a major part, you will have more advantage from it than the opposing team, since your teambuild was designed with the spirit in mind.

In PvP, usage of spirits should be carefully considered. If your team is made up of casters who almost never move, stick a [skill]Muddy Terrain[/skill] there, add [skill]Eruption[/skill] and [skill]Ward Against Melee[/skill] and watch the tanks disintegrate (or fight in the shade as your all Ranger team rains arrows on them ). The team must be coordinated for this.

In PvE you can use most spirits freely, since every area has a certain type of enemy in it.

anshin

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2006

R/

[wiki]Muddy Terrain[/wiki] + [wiki]Ward Against Foes[/wiki] + [wiki]Eruption[/wiki] + [wiki]Savannah Heat[/wiki]

this has to be a good combo...

about the spirit range... yeah