Ritualist a neglected profession? (yes, more whining)

In the past I played as a Warrior, Ranger, Monk, Ele, Sin and Necro.

Eventually I got bored with all of them and decided it would be cool to make a Rit since so many people dislike them or don't understand them, I'd be somewhat of a "connoisseur"(not sure if that is an appropriate word).

It was more or less fun up to level 20, but then it started getting boring... I noticed a very disturbing thing.... See, most professions excel in what they do. They are NOT the jack of all trades, but truly masters of their own.
No other profession can do more aoe dmg than an Ele... No one can fight like a warrior... and no one can hex like a mesmer....

Another problem is that the Ritualist doesn't have much skills that combine well with other professions. Splinter weapon and a few other weapon spells that are used with other professions are dwarfed by energy management synergies that mesmer or ele secondary provide to other professions... What about the monk secondary that gave and continues giving so much to other professions? The Ritualist doesn't offer even half that.

Ritualist of the other hand is trying to be good in everything but excels in NOTHING. That really sucks. Most people are not interested in Ritualists, and that is why there is very little builds posted here and on wiki as opposed to other professions that have hundreds of builds. Ritualist has only 1-2 truly effective solo/farm builds. He is not very good in offense and is ok at support/heals. Some people would tell me to make my own builds, but I don't have time for that.

When I made a Rit, I thought that I would have a choice between killing and helping other people kill. It turns out I can only do the latter efficiently.
I'm sure many will disagree with me, but try doing DOA and HM with a rit... I find that I'm probably the least efficient player in by party and more of a burden then a benefit to my team.

My spirits get killed extremely quickly since many enemies in the areas mentioned above do in excess of 100 dmg per hit. If I stay outside of the aggro bubble then my spirits simply don't reach... If I get into the aggro bubble I get owned. I'm speaking about offensive spirits off course...

Also it annoys me how most ritualist builds involve spirits of some sort... Why do I always have to use spirits? I understand that spirits are the core of Rit skills, but I want to have more choices!

I tried using builds without spirits, but those end up being weak. I tried Rt/W and Rt/D builds but those are more wacky than efficient.

I am still looking for a ritualist build that would be so good in offense where I'd be dropping foes in packs like an ele or so good at healing that people would be thanking me for saving their butt like they thank monks....

It looks to me that the Ritualist profession is getting a lot less attention from Anet then other professions. One example is how all professions got primeval armor but sin and rit didn't. Another example is the useless vampirism spirit that was added under sunspear title. Sure it's nice cause it heals and damages.. But it's yet another SPIRIT. Also it just doesn't do enough damage. It should do double whatever it's doing now to be truly good. And that's with my rank9 Spearmarshal title.

Another thing I feel should be mentioned is the need for at least one running skill on a Ritualist. Someone might say that a rit doesn't need running skills... Well I can say the same thing about an ele, but they have 3 running skills!!
Hell, correct me if I'm wrong, but ALL professions xept necro and rit have running skills. Another example how Rits get no love.

I wish ritualists were made more fun and more powerful. I wish that a Ritualist in a party would be someone who is noticed and talked about instead of a loner in the back shadowing the "leader" warrior or a "devastator" elementalist.I wish Anet reads this post and takes notice.


In conclusion, I want to say that I hope someone comes here, and shuts me up for good by explaining to me why I am wrong. I hope someone will give me examples by being effective in DOA and Hard Mode, and being a valuable asset to their party.

-The Ritualist excels at being a jack of all trades.
-The Ritualist has 3 signature moves: Weapon spells, item spells and spirits (not counting the Ranger spirits)
-The Ritualist has enough skills that combine well with other classes. Mainly weapon spells, but also a 4 second cast + 5 energie resurrection skill: Flesh of My Flesh. Which also combines well with other classes.
-If you now when and where to cast your spirits they won't be destroyed as fast a you say.
-The Ritualist heals just as good as a healing Monk.
-The Ritualist doesn't need a running skill because they can also take a second profesion.

And some more stuff I don't come up with right now.

The Ritualist has a lot to offer. A lot... If you look deep enough. They're not as solid as the core professions but they are easily the most interesting and unique of all the new classes.

If you struggle to comprehend the Ritualist or just find no value in what the class offers, play something else. It's as simple as that. There are many people who feel as you do I imagine, but I also know there are many people who feel the exact opposite...

YOU wish ritualists were made more fun and more powerful??

Honey, I have the most fun playing my ritualist, and is easily my most useful character. Now that PuG's recognize ritualist healing (they all take resto users now) and HA and TA has Rit Spike... NO ONE can say they arent powerful enough.

It's all personal opinion, really. Like Frojack said, if you aren't having fun with ritualist, give another profession a try. Ritualists are fine the way they are.

That's the thing. I DID give other professions a try. I'm trying to like the ritualist, but so far I don't see why I should.

There's a post somewhere below mine, where the OP has trouble getting into a party in DOA just like me. According to him, he cant find a single build that would give him a place in a party that would always choose a warrior, nuker or a monk over him... I tend to agree.

This post was more of an attempt to get people to prove me wrong and get me interested/curious, rather than to tell me to just quit and try something else.

more than half the classes have trouble finding PuGs in DoA, i dont see your point.

whats so creative about rits are that they can be 75% of one class and 75% of another class and STILL WORK in one build.

Rit Twists on prof:

Assassin: deadly arts and communing have some synergies (shadowsong + signet of shadows, anguish + hexes in deadly in general), daggers + spirits strength, daggers + wailing/warmongers weapon is really fun

Dervish: not much synergy really >_>splinter + AoE attacks?

Elementalist: there are some wacky builds in ele, many using the various knockdowns in conjunction with earthbind, glimmering mark + channeling, support with spirits and wards, water hexes and wanderlust is fun together

Mesmer: expel hexes?

Monk: Convert Hexes is a winner on a rit

Necromancer: hexes and anguish are fun... mainly you wanna be N/Rt though >_>

Paragon: Vocal was Sogolon, 23 sec Stand Your Ground is pretty nice, 13 sec Fall Back is nice, Never Surrender can be kept up always. its pretty fun since you only need 3 or 4 slots of your bar devoted to it and you can add some healign like soothing memories. Spears + wailing/warmonger is pretty fun, Spirits Strength can hit 100s in high lvl pve.

Ranger: get barrage and a zealous bow and you can own pve. Splinter weap alone can do over 200 damage to each foe relatively easy and you can also interrupt multiple targets with wailing/warmongers and barrage. it is like the interrupts of a choking gas ranger with the damage of a 16 marks barrager.

Warrior: ghostforge + vital + Spirits Strength can be fun, 700 some health and 75 AL while still doing some decent damage. vocal was sogolon and some of the tactics shouts like shields up! can be good too.

play with the class and you can be whatever you feel like really. remember rits already have AMAZING energy management on their own and have some pretty nice heals with pretty low restoration.

DoA, like all the elite areas was made for cookie cutter builds. Its a fact, you cant change how these missions/areas operate. You've seen B/P's dominating Urgoz Warren, or Tombs... NOTHING will change that. Same with DoA.

However, Ritualist is more of a trial and error profession, they can do so much that just by experimenting you can come up with the most creative and versatile builds. There are a myriad of Channeling/Resto hybrids... all with deadly efficiency. They combine well with different classes, but can also operate by themselves. Experiment for a longer time, and you will probably find the fun in it.

Rits are probably one of the funnest classes to run besides ranger. There's just so much you can do...channeling for damage, restoration for healing, communing for spirits. Besides those you can play with weapon spells, etc. Get bored? Run a hybrid!

besides ranger? what the.. i found ranger to be the most boring profession ever :S

anyways.. Rt's ROCK

Ritualists are by far my favorite character. Honestly, people that get bored or disillusioned with Ritualists simply haven't played them enough to realize just how powerful they can be.

It's also easy to say that "they just don't combine with other professions very well" if you look at the very limited number of cookie-cutter builds that people post. Again, it's simply because a proportionately fewer number of people play the ritualist and don't realize just what they can do, especially in combination with other classes.

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- Channeling Ritualists seem to do (has anyone calculated this?) more DPS than fire eles.
- Communing Ritualists are a better party protector than a monk (the monk excels on individual protection though)
- Restoration Ritualists are better healers than monks
- MM Ritualists are at least as good as their Necro counterparts - I don't mean the minion bomber.
- VwK Ritualists have an easier and more forgiving time farming than 55 monks (even though the monks can farm in more varied areas)

The Rts are my favorite class and yes, the Ranger comes close due to its versatility (bow, hammer "thumper", trapper, pet master, spear chucker, toucher... tried them all :-) )

One of my favourite professions to play is the Ritualist. You can do a lot of damage with a Ritualist if you take the right skills. I have watched spirits I have summoned on my Ritualist just lay waste to everything in sight most days. The Channeling line of a Ritualist has some powerful skills. Like Painful Bond, which lets the spirits the Ritualist has summoned do more damage. Add Anguish and just watch the damage done soar. Disenchantment is one of my favourite spirits seeing as it can remove enchantments. Which is handy against foes that keep on enchanting themselves. Dissonance is handy when you need someone or something to interrupting.

Ritualists can also make good healers. I haven't tried it myself, but I have played in the odd group with a Ritualist healer and they have always done a good a job at healing as a monk. Ritualists can also do a bit of protection, seeing as they have some spirits that can reduce damage allies take or ensure that allies recieve no damage for a short time. I used to do nothing but spirits that protect and they helped out the monks in the teams I was in a lot

I have managed to do some farming on my Ritualist as well using the VwK elite along with a build depending on where I am planning to farm.

Ritualists can also make a fantastic second profession. Like the R/Rt Splinter Barrage build. Ever since I started to play R/Rt I have never looked back. I can't believe how much damage I can do playing a R/Rt most days. I was helping out a friend in Iron Mines of Moladune and we came to the part where you have to follow the Mursaat. A few of have had our armor infused so it was decided we take them down. I couldn't believe how much damage I did when I saw the damage that all the Mursaat took. It was easily over 200 damage for against all the enemies that was hit with Splinter Barrage. Get a team of Splinter Barrage/Pet's in Tombs and they can easily conquer it on Hard Mode without any hassle.

Ritualist a neglected profession? I don't think so.

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Rits are great fun to work with. How many other professions can keep up with the big guns of the Elementalist, stand toe to toe with a Monk's healing power and display energy regen that a Mesmer would be truly envious of, all in the same build?

In the build my Rit runs at the moment, he's pumping out damage at a truly tremendous rate and never runs out of energy. Spirit Rift, Spirit Burn, and Essence Strike (cast in that order of priority). Bloodsong is the main spirit that powers it, with Preservation or Life as a backup spirit in case Bloodsong gets sent back to the Mists too soon or if the Monks need a hand. That leaves 3 skill slots left to add in a coupla high-power heals and a hard rez.

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TBH I haven't found a single build I can do on my Rit without relying on spirits, which is getting really annoying lugging a load of spirits around. Besides Spirit's Strength stuff and MM bombing (which really sucks) I can't think of anything else that works effectively.

Spirit Light and Spirit Transfer, the only two large heals in Restoration, both need spirits to work, or work effectively.
Communing is just totally about spirits. Painful Bond + Spirits does around 100 armor ignoring DPS but I just get bored of lugging spirits around. Ritual Lord with protective spirits is amazing too but it's still just mashing spirits out at every fight.
Channeling really sucks in PvE... it does nowhere near the AoE damage of an AP nuker and it isn't as good as an Air ele for single target damage or utility. It just has a little of everything; some AoE damage, some single target damage, and some DPS... really lame

Is there another path to take with the Rit that I'm missing?

Channeling can be useful in PvE.

I remember how useful Grasping Was Kuurong was. I would chain it twice in a row for two AoE KDs. When I worked with my Hero Nukers, mobs never lasted long. Plus, I had Splinter Weapon on my Melee.

Ritualists don't have to suck at PvE.

Channeling is ftw
I even set my ele heroes as channelers because i only have one rit hero.
I got a team with 5 potential healers, and 6 damage dealers
party of 11? no just 3 rits

Splinter barrage is one of the most insanely overpowered things in the game. Use it.

Spirit's strength rits are also massively effective all by their lonesome in PvE.

As for support characters, you're right in that rits are generally inferior to primary monks. However, as "half monk" characters, like, say, spirit spikers or weapon of remedy spammers, they're insanely effective.

Idk what your complaining about...I can heal as well as a monk when I want too, and I'd say the only thing more fun than spirit spamming is being a minion master necro.

I just switched my Necro's secondary from Monk to Ritualist last night(I got factions specifcaly to try Rit out) So far I'm pleasantly surprised. He was a Blood/Protection mix, playing the damage/damage reduction role. In ways the Monk was better to really stop some heavy damage from beating someone down fast, but I like Ritualist more for a couple of reasons.

1) For a backup healer Rit makes a much better secondary because it's skills aren't balanced around Divine Favor. [skill]Soothing Memories[/skill] is a nice heal. The cooldown makes it unspammable but it's great in a pinch for a non healbot role. Meshes well with ashes.

2) [skill]Shielding Hands[/skill] was great, but I found I mostly used it on myself anyway. [skill]Protective Was Kaolai[/skill] gives some much appreciated armor(especially for a health sacrificer), and a great emergency heal for anyone in the party.

3) [skill]Vengeful Weapon[/skill] doesn't quite stop the damage inflow that [skill]Reversal of Fortune[/skill] does, but where it lacks in that area it makes up for in sheer usefulness all around. Reversal was super weak vs low damage attacks or when your target was high on health anyway, resulting in often wasted casts, but Vengeful is great no matter if someone is hit for 10 or 100 you can always rely on a set amount of health stolen. I appreciate the constant effect.

4) Ashes and Weapons aren't removable like Enchantments are. Which is a big plus

Maybe I'm looking at the class just from the context of my build, but from my experience with the skills I've used Restoration is quite solid. I can't speak for the other attributes, but they look interesting none the less! All I can say is there could be a little more synergy with other classes, but other they than Ritualist looks solid all around.

(Pleading ignorance here but looking at the Paragon they got a lot worse issues...)

ritulist would be awsoem if this was a hack and slash game for sure. But in a team game they are almsot always replaced by their more effeciant counterparts.

because despite what people might say

monks > rits ( healing monks suck @$$, and because rits suck slightly less @$$ does not make them somehow viable. )

eles > rits ( rits do more on target spike dmg than eles as shown by rit spiek in PvP unfortuantly pure elemental dmg in PvE is worhless if its single target, who needs 23 dmg spells? =/

warriors > rits nuff said there.

necs > rits ( MM bomber is the only build that can compete. )

also things that rits can do that aren't neccesary in PvE

party protect, useful indeed, but its only 8 hits of protect per 30 seconds, not helpfull enoguh to have one instead of monk

party heal. the rit is the best party healer ever. a monk can't even compete with life, kaoli, spirit feast, and other aoe heals. but quess what? pure healas are really worhtless prot is 10x better and a monk can bring a big enoguh heal to take care of its own. no need to devote an entire slot to party heal.

weapon spells are nice dmg. but there are plenty of other sorces of dmg compared to the rit, a weapon master or w/e rit isnt needed, jsut a cute gimick.

I played my rit a lot in HM recently and I'd like to whine and cry some more...


The rit is all but USELESS in HM. Most spirits that take damage to themselves while preventing it for players die in mere seconds! For example.. A spirit that costs 25 energy, takes a long time to cast and much longer to recharge dies in 5 seconds when the tank of the party is being pounded on. A monk will keep healing that tank and everything will be ok. But what about me? Now.. How is that fair, when most characters remain just as strong and useful in HM as they are in Normal? Ritualist spirits should get a boost in Hard Mode(more life, more armor). I can see how that's a bad idea in PvP but in PvE it's a necessity.

The only way a rit can be useful in HM is to either cast weapon spells on warrior/tank(boring), go straight healing(boring), or use distance channeling spells of which there are only a few and they take a long time to recharge. Spirit rift is easily avoided by enemies and wasted if they happen to move.

The Rit just doesn't give as much to a party as a warrior, ele or a necro.
No experienced HM pug will ever take a Rit in their party for DOA or anything of that sort... Well maybe after a recent nerf they will.


I wish there were ritualist spirits that would passively "cripple" the enemies somehow instead of doing direct damage or healing. For example.. While the spirit is active, ALL enemies who suffer from condition move 50% slower.

Or... All hexed enemies suffer from -5 hp degen or -3 energy degen. Oh.. Here's another idea. Every time an enemy is knocked down, that enemy looses X energy or enchantments.

That kind of spirits would be much more useful to a party under just about all circumstances.

i gotta disagree. rits excel at nothing?
1. all the channeling magic skills are so overpowered, almost all of them do 100 dmg at least, with quite a bunch dealing over 125. a channeling rit is stronger than any elementalist atm (this needs to be balanced asap). only downside is that channeling magic doesnt offer any wupass elite skill (ye ye i know OoS is used in pvp, i understand that this thread is about pve). but u can always take a spawning power energy management elite and keep merrily spamming rifts that do 150 dmg each.
2. healing rits can be better than monks in many circumstances. there are enough threads here about that.
3. spirit spam, way better than what ranger has to offer. both the offensive and defensive ones. (this is more relevant in pvp though)

ibex333, im sry but u sound like a very unexperienced rt. who the hell uses displacement/union/shelter in pve? "the rit doesnt give as much as a warrior, ele or necro"? channeling rits do more dmg than all of these, channeling rits are ridiculously overpowered (none of u ever been to HA recently, have u..)
"use distance channeling spells of which there are only a few and they take a long time to recharge. Spirit rift is easily avoided by enemies and wasted if they happen to move." - that entire sentence is total BS. if ur trying to throw rifts on moving targets, than do me a favor. only a few skills that take long time to recharge? give me a break.

and when it comes to farming, no one can farm like rt can, 55 hp monks included.

plz, the fact that u ppl dont know how to play ritualists doesnt mean that they suck.

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Spirits in DoA????? NOOOOOOO. "That is why you fail." - Yoda

Arcane Echo + Spirit Rift for AoE damage
Attuned Was Songkai + Essence Strike (other options available) for endless energy (basically).

Never will I understand the notion of Rits not being able to deal high damage in PvE. I will yeild the fact that a fire ele will beat them, but not by any embarrasing margin to justify the reputation they have. Rits are a Meteor Shower away from being the better nuker IMO.

And when it comes to healing I feel a rit is better than a monk. HEALING. Monks are still better overall because of the sheer power of the Protection skill line.

i Extremely agree that the Ritualist is extremely effective in HM but EXTREMELY disagree that the ritualist is overpowered. The problem with the ritualist is that now one wants to put up with them. The only place that rit is accepted is in Urgoz as a Ritual Lord. Every other position the rit can play the ritualist has to argue his way into that spot and fight off the other teammates. But when in battle he is just as good as everyone else.

and on the overpowered note:

Spirit Rift < Inciendary Bond
Adjacent Foes take 140dmg~ < Nearby Foes take 80dmg~ + burni

And on the healing note the rit can heal for more with 1 spell but the monk has other spells which make there spells more powerful and can outheal that 1 spell.

And on the spirits note i agree defending spirits arent effective defending 1 guy/tank but when defending the entire party they are EXTREMELY effective and can easily take care of spikes and dmg to people that the monks cant reach fast enough.

The offensive spirts are good in both nm and hm...nothing to be said

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My build for PvE and this owns

communing 16
chanelling 13
spawning 4

Offering of spirit
pain
bloodsong
anguish
shadowsong
vampirisim
painful bond
Agony..(some say too weak but 198 life stealing damage over time ,i like it ,best used when 1 or 2 foes are left) think of it like a conjure nightmare (cheaper)or phantasm (more damage)...

The difference to a nuker is that for a ms or firestorm or any AoE spell enemies can get out of or run away from and thats the end of that damage, so you arent getting all the damage laid down on the foes. The spirits will just keep firing for 3 mins on some of them and cant be easily run from due to the long range. So over time, damage from spirits far out ways nuker damage..

Rit is my main character and the most fun to play.

Now with gw en i have tried pain inverter or radiation shield in place of agony all on the asura title track...or finish him

The only problem my rit has is energy managment. Offering is great but it takes elite slot.

Whether or not Ritualists are currently "effective", they don't seem to be getting the same attention that other classes get. I personally enjoy playing as a Ritualist, but I often feel that the class suffers from neglect (kind of like another class that will remain unnamed). Ritualists have a lot of potential as a class, but there are so many things that could use revision to make them less weird and more usable.


1. The bonus skills, Vampirism and Summon Spirits, while "okay", don't even remotely approach the pure awesomeness of other class-specific PvE skills.

2. Most Ritualist elites fail. While most classes have their fair share of duds, Ritualists seem to have the most severe case of this problem.

3. Many Ritualist skills DEMAND that spirits/weapon spells/item spells be somewhere on the bar. I wish Ritualist skills had less of these boring conditional clauses and more unique/interesting skills like Ancestor's Rage or Spirit Rift; but I'm a bit hesitant, seeing as how we might wind up with more skills like [skill=text]Clamor of Souls[/skill]. I believe that these conditions are the primary bottleneck in class-synergy with Ritualists (aside from, you know, redundant skill sets).

4. Not saying they aren't useful or anything, but spirits are boring. Part of this is that they're passive; I've only got 1 or 2 spirits, usually, but I can't imagine how boring it must be to play a pure Spirit Spammer. Rangers can get away with one spirit, but spirits are the cornerstone of the Ritualist class. Additionally, with the recharge on spirits, you'll often have to wait a while before you can move on.

5. I've noticed an inconsistent description for spirits. Are they creatures or not? To some skills, like [skill=text]boon of creation[/skill], they are. To other skills, like [skill=text]heal area[/skill], they are not. Argh! I hate anomalies. Plus I wouldn't mind something in-game to say that spirits have 31 energy, regardless of level; only through extensive trial-and-error can anyone tell how much energy [skill=text]Spirit Siphon[/skill] will return. A freaking tablet in Shing Jea would be enough for me. How many players, those who don't know about/use the wiki, are out there who are utterly confused with this skill? There isn't any indication that spirits even have energy, outside of this skill.


These are just personal observations, of course, but I think they should do a little more work on Ritualists. Will it happen? Doubtful, but who the heck knows.


PS: Not vitally important, but I wouldn't mind a set of armor that doesn't reuse the "shaman" look and yet isn't a bikini. I can dream, I guess.