Ritualist offensive ability weak?

I usually played a Mesmer and Necro and I just recently made a Rit. I find Ritualists alittile slow in the damage dealing apartment. Sure Spirit Rift and other lightning based attacks do a lot of damage but once it actually hits the enemy armour just negates it, rarley ever does over 90dmge. Also a lot of the more powerful attacks take quite some time to activate. Spirit Rift takes 2 seconds to cast, then takes 3 more seconds to activate! I'm farley sure along time ago before an update Spirit Rift only had casting time of 1, why make it longer?
Also some of the more spamming like spells, spirit burn, essence strike, etc. seem to do such littile damage even when conditions are met. Ritualist offensivley just seem alittile dummed down compared to Necros, Mesmer, maybe because of the ignore armour thing... any suggestions on making a more powerful offensive Ritualist?

p.s. Restoration Magic rocks!!!

... Spam Splinter Weapon on the melee, and let them pwn stuff.

Throw on Ancestor's Rage, maybe Warmonger's Weapon too, and then you start to kick ass.

Agreed, splinter weapon is the most overpowered thing in the Rit line. It's farking insane.

This is not a particulary large mob, and it's me being a bad player and sticking splinter on myself instead of the melee just so I get to see big numbers. Still, count up the damage if you want.

There's also offensive spirits. I havent done it too recently, but back in factions once you had summoned a few of those and cast painful bonds things started dying off QUICKLY. Should be even better now with Summon Spirits to help them tag along.

Anyone used this with success in GWEN?

try this out if they can fit your bow-rit pve playstyle:



-spirit's splintering volley-

<spirit's strength - splinter weap - volley>
<nightmare weap - triple shot>
<bloodsong> or <vampirism>
<warmonger's weap> - to use on a capable melee guildie or hero
<res of choice>


works for me in general pve. pretty much armor-ignoring stable dmg all around. mobs are pretty much covered with the
spirit's strength-splinter-volley.
i just personally prefer it over splinter-barrage.

and you can lifesteal an isolated target for 150 every 10 seconds using nightmare + trip shot.
the spirits will give an additional armor-ignoring and protection ignoring dmg since they are both life steals. bloodsong if you prefer more dmg, vampirism if you want to be healed as well.

warmongers gives you an interrupt ability as well for dangerous and priority targets. just cast this on a capable melee guildie / hero and watch them interrupt consecutively. just cast-and forget.


p.s. sorry i don't know how to use the skill picture / details linking.

I was kind of feeling the same thing as the OP, though I already knew of the awesomeness of Splinter Weapon. Is there any real use for most Channeling spells besides some of the secondary effects*? Or are the secondary effects the whole point? That is, considering mostly just Rt skills/synergy.

*Spirit Boon Strike for spirit healing, Essence Strike for energy, etc.

Quote: Originally Posted by terminus123

thanks for the replys!
hmmm.. never really tried using splinter weapon, I'll try it, can it be cast onto spirits and yourself, even when wielding a staff? I guess if offensive power isn't enough I can alsways go with the Ritualist MM people are talking about.

So Channeling was actually strong back in the old days.. darn, Anet we need you to unerf the nerfed plz!

Spirit Rift casting time is indeed painful, I used to like the skill, as something to use after all the spirits are set up...

You cannot cast weapon spells on spirits afaik. Splinter weapon is most effective when used on someone with high attack speed (sin, some warriors builds) or AoE attacks (barragers, dervishes).

And yes, nightmare weapon + triple shot or double shot and savage shot combo works really good. Add a splinter weapon, a pet and an elite skill of preference and you got yourself a nice flexible pve build...

Rt minion masters are mostly bombers abusing boon of creation/explosive growth... very effective and very hard to use effectively as well (unless there's some easy way to target minions which I do not know of =P). The targeting issue is the reason I rather use death nova with heroes than cast it myelf...

Splinter weapon wtfpwns if you throw it on your melee or barrage rangers. Honestly, it's probably one of the most broken things in PvE once you get it running right (see above picture). You can run it with barrage on yourself, but that's not quite as effective. Putting it on yourself to wand with is a complete waste of time, since you spend time wanding that you could be using for other stuff.

Ancestor's rage is insane too - 137 AoE damage for 5 energy and 1/4 second cast. Find another DD as nice as that and you win a cookie.

Spirit rift isn't as good, but it's still certainly a good spell. Compare it to fireball, which is widely recognized as a solid skill. Rift does more damage on a faster recharge for the same energy, but has the drawback of a 3s delay

Other spells in channeling are more niche, like nightmare weapon or warmonger's weapon (which are both awesome in their own right). I don't really see the point in triple shot + nightmare though. It's 150 armor ignoring damage on a 10s recharge for 15 energy. it's nice as a spike in PvP, but it just takes too much to be worthwhile in PvE. There's better things you can do with all the time it takes to make it work.

The huge bonus on channeling rits is that you can very easily run restoration too - this is what gave ritspike its teeth. Throw the 3 uber channeling skills (splinter, AR, SR) on a bar, throw some useful restoration stuff on their, add in some energy management/utility and you have a really, really strong support character.

Minion bombers are horrible. Do the world a favor and never, ever run them. Here's why they suck:

1) You're way too reliant on enchants and the 8-9s it takes to put them up. Interrupts/enchant stripping/fast moving groups > you

2)Your minions are crappy. Bone minions aren't going to hurt anything while they're alive, and can't tank much more than a stiff breeze. 16 DM bone fiends really are much better.

3)Death nova is slow and hard to target. Setting up a group of 8 minions will take you around 20 seconds - an eternity when the rest of your team could have gone and killed stuff already.

4)Can't do anything without corpses. Without lots and lots of corpses, since you never really get to that steady momentum stage that N/ minion masters have.

i have to agree that using splinter on a barrage ranger teammate is better.

although if the comparison is a barrage ranger using splinter barrage on himself and
a barrage/volley rit using splinter on himself; i found the rit version much more effective dmg-wise. especially in the later stages where enemies get tougher. (tried using both as a ranger and rit)


and yes, no to wands as well.
warmonger's is fun if you like hearing that "interrupted" sound.
(to be used on a capable melee team member). if your team already has
more than enough interrupters, it can be easily swapped for other utility skills.


as for nightmare and trip shot... you can always just use nightmare on its own (spammable as its only 5en), trip shot just gives it a mini-spike factor.
perhaps its not just the 150 armor ignoring (and protection ignoring...since lifesteal does not count as dmg) that attracts players to nightmare weap.
it also essentially heals for up to 150 without spending any points in restoration. it can also be casted on others when they need some support healing. offense and a little healing at the same time, if you can't afford to spead anymore attribute points.

you know what I really wish, when the Rit casts weapons or enchntments like Ancestor's Rage on someone else I wish you could actually see the damage outputed, except just hoping it worked.

hehehe. i have to admit that i'm greedy for the dmg numbers too, that's why i bring the volley/barrage instead of using it on a barrage teammate.

I really find that the increased casting times hurt our Channeling effectiveness, especially for Gaze From Beyond, Channeled Strike, and Spirit Rift. Although the spells are powerful, they're not worth the cast times at all.

I also find that Splinter Weapon has some GREAT uses when used with a Barraging Ranger.

My current favorite is to have one Ranger hero with Barrage and two Warrior heroes with Dragon Slash setups. That way, I can keep the Ranger Splinter Weapon'd and I can cast Weapon of Fury on the Warriors. It's fantastic.

Yes, dahnel introduced me to the Rit profession also.
So..if your ever on the receiving end of this:

BLAME HIM.
Buwahahahahaaa!!
__________________
PvE Helpful Hint #2772: Razah LUVZ chili cheese fries.

Echoing Ancestor's Rage on the tank also works surprisingly well, especially when led off by a Spirit Rift.

Ritualist are offensively powerful, unless you try melee and you have no IAS...then I question their offensive ability.

Quote: Originally Posted by Darkpower Alchemist

I've faced Rt/A players in Random Arenas.

It was devastating.

If the Ritualist's offensive capacity is lacking, it is because their channeling and restoration skills combine together beautifully. Namely, they can both hurt stuff and heal stuff. Not to mention Ritualists have some insane support skills, like Weapon of Fury.