29 Feb 2008 at 17:35 - 14
A ritualist in PvP is valued mainly due to a small selection of skills that are very powerful.
The foremost of these would be [skill]Splinter Weapon[/skill] and [skill]Ancestors' Rage[/skill]. These two skills are very powerful AoE, providing lots of damage and support to your frontline. The key to splinter weapon is to remember to use it often (oh and have 14 chanelling to hit the breakpoint). Remember to weigh out any investment in the primary attribute (spawning power) with the benefit it will provide, and not just put points into it for no reason. Since there are no break points in spawning power, there will often be rits with only their extra points left over put into spawning.
Ritualists also have access to unremovable [skill]Weapon of Warding[/skill], which can often decide the outcome of a skirmish and will be the highest priority for interruption.
As a ritualist in GvG, you'll need to be cognizant of your surroundings and be able to keep up NPCs or players on a split. You'll need to be able to run flags and splinter your frontline to splinter bomb at VoD (although nowadays splinter weapon is much less effective at VoD than it used to be). Most rits in GvG either utilize a secondary skill elite such as [skill]Icy Shackles[/skill] to snare the opponents or the elite Restoration skill [skill]Weapon of Remedy[/skill], which is a cheap and fast condi removal as well as a mini-rof. If using Weapon of Remedy, most rit runners utilize an assassin secondary for the run stances, namely [skill]Dark Escape[/skill] and [skill]Dash[/skill].
Playing a ritualist in the Hall of Heroes will usually involve a channelling/smiting buffer. This type of rit maintains smiting enchants ([skill]Strength of Honor[/skill] and/or [skill]Judge's Insight[/skill]) on the frontline and supplies them with splinter weapon and ancestor's rage, being fueled by [skill]Offering of Spirit[/skill]. Another rit bar forgoes elite energy management for the intense AoE damage of [skill]Destructive Was Glaive[/skill].
The ritualist also has some good party healing options, the foremost being, of course [skill]Protective Was Kaolai[/skill], which is versatile and maintains mobility and instant party heal when needed. Another strong party heal for a more static situation is [skill]Life[/skill], which provides regular spikes of party healing to help alleviate pressure.
Ritualist can also be used in PvP in several niche builds, such as when spamming [skill]Brutal Weapon[/skill] for Ranger spike or [skill]Vital Weapon[/skill] or when as part of a Ritualist spike (although this has been nerfed and is not extremely viable any more).
Finally, in low-end pvp, ritualists are often used due to their ability to lay down annoying spirits (usually of the communing line). Some examples of these are [skill]Shadowsong[/skill], [skill]Wanderlust[/skill], [skill]Displacement[/skill] etc. Being stationary turrets, rit spirits are usually very fragile and AoE can easily take out an entire set of spirits set up by a bad Ritualist. Also, rit spirits are very easy to interrupt using a hard interrupt, due to their long cast, etc. Some fun builds, on the other hand include the use of [skill]Spirit's Strength[/skill], such as Rt/A or Rt/P or [skill]Nightmare Weapon[/skill].
The restoration line of ritualists provide some of the most efficient heals in the game. However, restoration heals are often used on secondary professions, since they receive no real benefit from spawning power. Good restoration skills include [skill]Mend Body and Soul[/skill], [skill]Spirit Light[/skill], and [skill]Spirit Transfer[/skill]. Of direct restoration heals used on a primary ritualist, [skill]Wielder's Boon[/skill] is probably the most prevalent, due to its fast cast time and the fact that most non-gimmick PvP rits utilize weapon spells.
Unfortunately, due to the limited pool of 'good' ritualist skills, this class is highly dependent on the skill balance of those skills. This means that if these skills are nerfed, the ritualist will most likely see very little play, whereas if maintained at the status quo, they border on overpowered. The concept of the class itself creates the main problems in skill balancing, as the idea of a 'tinkerer' (the original developmental concept of the ritualist) isn't really easy to keep as a balanced class. As such, the general use of a ritualist in the current metagame is as a support/utility class, whether it be in the form of a buff rit, flagger, or some other form.
tl;dr Use more splinter and ancestors rage to win.
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