nOOb faction player looking at direct-damage Ritualist

Hey guys,
Im a proph player who has just gotten fractions and looking at the possiblities of a ritualist.
As an elementalist at heart, my true love can be found in direct damage spells rather then summons and party buffs...
I originally (now, hold off your rotten fruit...) passed the ritualist off as a crazy blind man who can do a little of everything but nothing to flash in general. Needless to say this mistake has been quickly discovered in my journeys.

What I would really like to know is if a direct-damage ritualist is fesible compared to their other builds ( such as summons and healing/buffing), and if people readily use it? I understand that, unlike the ele, there would probably be energy management issues incurred through such spell usage, so would it in that can be benifitial to use a ele as secondry? Also, as their lightning spells dont have the armour piecing, would it also be useful to harness some ele air spells?
While on the top, why not use a ele as primary for energy management store and ritualist as second as I am assuming the prolonged summoning will not be as important, or is that a no-no?

Im just testing the waters here, so any and all feed back will be great, thanks.

Ritualists aren't really meant for pure damage dealing but they can do a great job of it, although their best damaging abilities require you to target allies, [Splinter Weapon] and [Ancestor's Rage], [Spirit Rift] can also pack quite a punch and since enemies in PvE don't actively avoid the rift, it's actually quite effective.

With the elite [Offering of Spirit] you should never be running out of energy if you're smart about using it.

If you're really into spamming the hell out of say, Spirit Rift, [Attuned was Songkai] may be a good choice, but you give you your ability to effectively support your party in exchange for wicked energy management.

Spirits are generally not a good idea, as they take forever to set up, and the defensive spirits don't last long enough to be of actual use.

Basic outline for a decent rit build :

Choose one : [Offering of Spirit], [Weapon of Remedy], [Attuned was Songkai]
Must have : [Ancestor's Rage], [Splinter Weapon]
Highly, highly recommended: [Protective was Kaolai], [Life]

A build I run on my rit as well as my rit heroes is a decent all around rit build, does the things a rit should do, good party healing, great damage, and good energy mangement:

[Offering of Spirit][Ancestor's Rage][Splinter Weapon][Essence Strike][Mend Body and Soul][Protective was Kaolai][Life][Flesh of My Flesh]

The Spirits are only good if you have [Summon Spirits] and [Painful Bond] on your skill bar.

Example: [Pain] [Bloodsong] [Shadowsong] [Anguish] [Vampirism] [Summon Spirits] [Painful Bond] and [Ritual Lord] or [Offering of Spirit] if you have problems with energy management.

If you want direct damage, you're playing the wrong class. Rits are a dedicated support character with the occasional gimmick on the side. Make an ele if you like DDs.

Spirit's Strength can give you some crazy high DPS, but you have to be very weary of your surroundings, due to your low AL. The standard glass cannon Rt/A is usually enough to take out any 100AL level 20 target in a single combo.

Also, Nightmare weapon, when used properly, can dish out plenty of damage as well. A one-man bowspike can deliver 300 damage in 2-3 seconds, with a fairly low recharge as a spiking set. However, due to its spiking nature, it's more oriented for PvP.

Rits also are capable of delivering heavy damage through support. Instead of giving the damage yourself, you can apply weapon spells to your allies, as well as skills like Ancestor's rage, to help increase your allies' DPS by large levels. If you count the additional damage, as well as other effects, that you can spread over your entire team, your output becomes simply enormus.

And if you like unique spikes, you can always make a bomber build. Heavy AoE damage spikes. What more needs to be said?

However, on a whole, Rit's offensiveness, especially in direct spellcasting offense, has fallen. They've lost the ability to string together long chains of pressure damage, and their spike capability has likewise gone down a considerable amount, atleast with channeling spells. If you're looking for direct damage output, you'd best look elsewhere then the standard 'target--->cast--->dead.' Rits are capable of some pretty crazy damage, but you'll have to play him in a completely different style then your ele to do so.

You should really play resto/channeling instead of straightup channeling.