Skills every Ritualist Player should master

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great posts so far, and as a rit at heart, i know i have to put something =D


Rits have probably some of the most efficient energy management skills in GW. If you time these with the conditions to meet them, you will stun any caster in the game with your stamina. Just remember that many of the more popular ones will destroy your energy pool in a mater of seconds if you're not careful.

A problem I see many rits encounter is with Attuned was Songkai (AwS). This is an EXTREMELY powerful managment skill, but since it is an item spell, it causes your max energy to decrease. Doesn't sound bad, right? When you drop 12 en lower and have little energy to begin with, you are sitting there like a target. IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW MUCH YOUR ENERGY COST DECREASES IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANY TO BEGIN WITH! But if you cast this before you cast anything else, you have 45 seconds of half cost euphoria.

Another small problem is with the newly released Reclaim Essence. This skill has massive potential ( i personally use it a lot with life at the last second for good results) but has a minor drawback, especially if any of your teammates happens to be a MM. Reclaim essence says "targeted" summoned creature, but I have found when i even have spirits down, you can eat up a MM's spirits if you just randomly press it hoping for your spirit to be autotargeted.

My last thing to remember ( this goes out to the healers in the crowd.) If you're using resilient weapon, watch what you do with mend body and soul. If your tank has bleeding on him or even poison, do not use mend body and soul on them! +6 health regen and 24 AL outrageously counters the -2 to -4 degen and puts the condition in your favor!

After reading the posts above, newer rits must know we are one the hardest classes to control, but also becoming the most powerful. For the old proph players celebrating their 2 year right now, they will know that we are becoming "the new mesmers"

This is turning into a Ritualist bible, someone should compile it all into a book >.>



P.s. i'll add more when i get home

If the Necromancer forum has a stickied thread called "Necromancer Basics," I don't see why this unappreciated profession shouldn't have a similar thread.

Be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Make your builds focus on your strengths to make you a unique and useful player, not a discount version of another class. Attempting to replace a mm, ele or monk will only lead to never finding a groups.

For restoration rits: You have many useful weapon spells, such as weapon of warding that provide unstrippable protection for long periods of time. You have numerous spirits that provide party wide benefits, like recovery. You tend to have good energy management.

You do not have the ability to effectively heal spikes. You do not have effective hex removal without a secondary class. You can't prot stack a tank like a monk.

For channelers - You have attractive weapon spells, such as splinter weapon and warmonger's weapon, that can create all sorts of chaos. You have excellent spiking skills. You tend to be a bit heartier than other classes as you can easily bring one or two nice defensive skills from other lines.

You do not do as much DPS with direct damage spells as an ele, nor do you do as much AoE DPS. Your energy management is inferior to an elementalist's, meaning you cannot spam skills thoughtlessly. Your reliance on spirits may make you less mobile. Your direct damage spells lack a secondary effect useful for shutdown, like weakness from enervating charge.

For communing rits: Your spirits can provide insane DPS and shutdown an area very effectively. Your spirits can provide ok passive defense for short periods of time, and are especially effective at preventing spikes during a short window. You have vital weapon.

Your spirits take a long time to set up, making them pointless in an area where you need to be moving a lot. Spirits are easily killed even with high spawing power. You cannot sustain your group defensive spirits for long periods of time. You generally will have massive energy issues without an energy elite. Your recharge times suck.

For rits in general: You are not a tank, as fun as spirit's strength is. You are not a monk, and shouldn't think you can completely replace one. A monk cannot completely replace you, either. You are not a minion master, as fun as it is to blow up minions all day long. You are not an ele, and shouldn't stand around spamming damage spells (of course, neither should an ele, but that's another story). You're a rit, and you kick all sorts of ass in the right hands, and you're one of the most versatile classes in the game, albeit one of the worst understood.

I like the ideas here. Good guidelines for both new and experienced rits. Stuck like a traffic jam [irritatingly and with much cursing].

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A little add in

E. Item Considerations

Just takes note that we can see which type of Ashes a Ritualist can hold in hands by looking the skin


- A red mixed with black squaring box is an offensive items, generally create damage around the taker

- A yellow urn represent a defensive or support items, boosting your ritualist and self care

- The last one is only "Lively was Naomei". The color is gray with a form of a big urn. Meaning its a resurrection item.

Vital Weapon:

I found that vital weapon is a great spell to keeping allies alive.
- It doesn't conflict with any other classes' ability to heal or other spell triggers (such as being triggered only if no enchantments on player) because it's a weapon spell.
- At 5 energy and 1 casting time it can act as an emergency heal if it hasn't already been cast on the target at the time. It can boost a player's hp by 150+ at 12 communing.
- Allies with a larger hp are easier to heal and allows for more efficient use of healing spells. It can help extend the life of the shelter spirit by adding about 15 hp to the requirement for it's trigger. This means that shelter will be alive longer for the more damaging spells.
- At ~30+s duration with a recast of 2 at 12 communing. It's great for triggering the effect on armors with +15 armor when affected by weapon spells.

Attribute Points, Spirits, and Spells

First--great thread. This post is kind of a catch-all.

I love my rit, and I love mixing the skill bar--a little of this, a little of that.
But choose your attributes, weapons, and skills wisely.

For example, our primary attribute is spawning power. This is certainly necessary if you're bringing spirits, because ideally, they stay live as long as possible--unless you're bombing some of them. I find, however, that I do not max my Spawning Power attribute unless I'm bringing one of those elites.

Instead, I max the other lines, depending on situation: Channeling, Communing, or Restoration. One headwrap for each, with sup runes. I leave Spawning around 10. This gives me the flexibility of one maxed line and two lines around 10, with spare points in secondary profession if I need it. (Or 10 points in secondary for my rit barrager).

Next: Spirit selection: consider, even though it's expensive in terms of energy, bringing Dissonance in places where you need to shut down a caster--especially a caster boss. I took it into the Ruins of Morah and prevented Varesh--and her demons--from dropping those hugely destructive spells.
This spirit's short life seems counterproductive--but the 30 seconds or so that it lives can make all the difference.

The move of Bloodsong into channeling is problematic--that means if you're running mostly resto or communing, you still need to drop points here to see effect. But if you run mostly channeling, this spirit makes the perfect one to bring to get the effects of Essence Strike and other spells that need a spirit nearby.

Bringing Recuperation, Shelter, OR Union--if you're running resto, these are obvious. But bringing one when you're running channeling or communing is still a good idea, to buff the whole party. I did find, however, that I had to give lessons (especially in Factions, where I took the place of many a monk) in staying near spirits. If you have 2 monks and you bring recup...well, they may not notice, but you just made their jobs much easier.

Spells: I find that I really like Mighty was Vorizun. In fact, I carry it more often than I carry other energy-management elites, because of its other benefit-- Armor. If I'm in a ranger-heavy or mesmer-heavy area, Tranquil was Tanazen is nice, because it prevents interrupts while laying spirits. Ancestor's rage cast on a dervish or warrior makes things go boom nicely, and if you feel daring, wade into a melee carrying Destructive was Glaive. The explosion of 120s is quite gratifying.

Anyway. Go rits. This is a great thread.

Just an observation from pugging experience:

Be prepared to fill every niche a team may need. A ritualist is fully capable of doing such. Be flexible and ask the team what they want out of you and suggest what would work best for the given situation. For example, I played as the tank in a hard mode group because no warriors were available. A tanking ritualist requires a good monk to back you up and a tailored skill set for the area, but we did very well.

Use your templates and label them clearly. I change my builds often and rarely do the same thing many times in a row.

I also suggest keeping armor sets (if you can afford it) for each branch of builds you use. Such as using Ghost Forge for melee builds.

This will come with experience.

Man i've been playing a Rt/N and right now he's half way through cantha, and elona. I can't believe after all this time I never thought to try something like this. I've been changing up spirits lately because almost every group i've been in already had a MM. It can get pretty ugly when 2 or more people want the corpses. Nice build anyway. Sounds like fun and I will deffinetly give this a try in the future. At least I have pretty much all the skills needed for it besides the elites.

Instead of Jagged bones, would you recommend using shambling horror since it automatically creates a jagged horror when it dies? One of the problems I see if I were to do that would be that shambling horror as a slow recharge time and it costs 15 energy.

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I've got a rit myself, and i like going resto; and the one skill i never forget is wielders' boon

Awesome thread, though Recuperation should be held as an inferior alternative to Life, given the insane energy cost.


Not to troll, but things worth mentioning:
-Weapon of Shadow shouldn't be used without a recharge modifier like Ghostly Haste or Weapon of quickening. The 20 recharge kills the deal.
-Cyclone Axe, not cycle axe
-You can use spirit's strength with a spear or bow, eliminating the need for melee range. It works rather well.
-Weapon of Fury is underrated. Cast it on Rangers, paragons, and melee to make them jump for joy.
-Spirit Transfer is the only "spike heal" that won't kill your spirit. Combined with Spirit Boon strike to restore the spirit, it makes for an effective spike heal at that.
-Consume Soul is a horrible elite PvEwise since it is touch range.
-Destructive was Glaive will piss off every prot monk you find

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sometimes when im my ritulist, I use "Anguish was Linguaw" before that battle (PvP) or when i get to an explorable area (PvE) so then when i get to my first fight a get a spirt (not pain) and smun it, then i go somewhere else and drop my item and out comes a 2 lv higher pain spirit. and when im running
away cuz i aggrod or sumtin I use "anguish was Lingaw" and drop it so then a spirt comes out and monsters attack it insted of me.gives me a 5 second head start depending on health and monsers

My 0.2 cents.
If you play a communing spirit spammer, some advices:

*You are extremely sensitive to interrupts.
A good way is to bring displacement, put it in the back line, then start to spam in the midline. As your binding rituals are not spells, many mesmers interrupts won't work, and displacement will stop physical interrupts. Another way is to bring mantra of concentration/of resolve, but you sacrifice a skill slot for a self-protecting skill that might not be always useful.

*You are sensitive on energy, but also have great e-management.
As a spirit spammer, boon of creation is gold. But you need some Spawning power and also it can be removed. There are many other options, like Siphon spirit, or Signet of Spirits, or Attuned was Songkai. Bringing Attuned was songkai and boon of creation let you spam 25 energy spirits with no problem at all.

*Bring only one long duration weapon spell.
You're a communing spirit spammer. You spam spirits. But one weapon spell is okay. Resilient weapon or Vital weapon are the most common choices. I largely prefer Vital weapon. At 16 communing, it grants +184 health. YOu can keep it up on the whole party. It is unremovable. +150 and over health means spike a lot more handable, and monks have generally a lot more time to react, making the difference between a heal just too late and a heal just at time.

double post sorry.

There are a few things I'd like to share with everyone with regards of the channeling line. Just an outline of some skills that have more to them than their descriptions say:

[skill=text]Destruction[/skill] has the shortest recharge than any other spirit, and therefore provides the greatest mobility for the Ritualist.

[skill=text]Spirit Siphon[/skill] has a bad reputation, and most players will not take it because the energy gain is insufficient. (Nets between -1 to 4 energy). If you are dipping into the other two lines of restoration and communing, you can summon an expensive ritual and then use Spirit Siphon to return up to 17% of that energy cost, and continue doing so with the more spirits you cast. This percentage may not seem much, but it works well with Spawning Power's [skill=text]Boon of Creation[/skill] (meaning you'll be using builds that use 3 attribute lines). If you are using a pure channeling build with a spirit, then you can cast the spirit, then Siphon it, and Siphon it again before the spirit dies. You should generally Siphon a spirit in PvE when there are no targets left to kill. For such offensive builds, the energy becomes more helpful when you encounter enemy spirits.

[skill=text]Spirit Burn[/skill], [skill=text]Essence Strike[/skill] and [skill=text]Gaze From Beyond[/skill] have excellent synergy as well as a consistent flow of damage over a lengthy period of time. This used to be my favourite trio of skills in the channeling line since Factions first came out, but then it became abusive and later nerfed. But don't let that stop you, it works well with HSR and HCT modifiers. These three skills are heavily reliant on a spirit within range to use their added benefits. My suggestion - take one, take all three.

[skill=text]Nightmare Weapon[/skill] is very useful as a self-heal and as a supporting skill for allies when they are under fire, or if you're facing targets with high armor. If you use [skill=text]Painful Bond[/skill] as a Spirit Spammer, cast this on yourself and attack the same enemies that your spirits attack for that extra spike potential.

[skill=text]Wailing Weapon[/skill] should be considered purely as a defensive skill. Because a Ritualist is most effective while playing in the mid-line, casting this on yourself or another mid-line ally will assist to disrupt any stray targets that your front-line miss, and prevent those targets from seriously harming your monks. Try not to cast this on your warriors or assassins, there are more effective weapon spells that they can utilize.

[skill=text]Clamor of Souls[/skill]. there have been suggestions that [skill=text]Destructive was Glaive[/skill] or the non-elite [skill=text]Cruel was Daoshen[/skill] are superior to this skill... well, they are. The only advantage this spell has is that it isn't an Item Spell, which allows for damage to occur faster, but that's about it. Also keep in mind that this spell includes all spirits and minions as 'allies' when activating this skill, and it doesn't suffer from the extended aftercast penalty that [skill=text]Flame Burst[/skill] has. Best used in conjunction with [skill=text]Ancestor's Rage[/skill].

[skill=text]Spirit Boon Strike[/skill] has two uses, which are fairly obvious, but can only be used in one of the two ways, not both. Use this skill as a chain when making channeling builds... as a follow up for Gaze From Beyond, for example. Defensively, any healing that your spirits recieve, particularly [skill=text]Displacement[/skill], [skill=text]Wanderlust[/skill], [skill=text]Union[/skill], [skill=text]Shelter[/skill] and [skill=text]Earthbind[/skill] will improve the effectiveness of your spirits, though it does promote players to summon spirits in a tighter ring, which isn't an appealing strategy for Spirit summoning. Combines well with [skill=text]Signet of Creation[/skill], and can be used with [skill=text]Signet of Binding[/skill] if you only have one of these spirits

Finally, only take [skill=text]Signet of Spirits[/skill] if you're using [skill=text]Mantra of Inscriptions[/skill], otherwise, [skill=text]Offering of Spirit[/skill] outclasses this skill.

The other skills are more simple to indulge upon, and should be used to their limits. As other people have said, the Ritualist is a very special class, and is best summed up as a profession with eight hands, each of them performing different functions. I would say that Channeling magic is best defined as a supporting line in both offense and defense, but should only focus as one, not both.

[skill]soul twisting[/skill]<---this skill is your friend if you plan on going offensive spirit spamming in PVE. Lay down a spirit as soon as you zone and kill it with soul twisting, you can also take anguished was lingwah to have 2 quick spirits on the ground.