Please, don't look at Ritualists for spirits. Believe it or not, outside of a few ([life], [bloodsong], and [vampirism]) they are usually very fragile and require a high investment in spawning, which is generally considered a bad primary.
Instead, the ritualist is usually more of a dps booster with minor heals. They boost the effectiveness of your physical team mates with skills such as [splinter weapon] or [warmongers' weapon] while providing minor heals + condition removal. They can also go Rt/R with splinter weapon/volley/spirit's strength for high damage output.
The monk on the other hand, is pretty much all about protection and healing. Very few use smiting outside of farming or other certain circumstances.
I can't go into much detail on the monk but what I can say is that I chose to make a ritualist instead for the following reasons. They can use a variety of builds, depending on the situation. (Hybrid or Splinter volley as mentioned above, as well as a pure healing build and a few other niche builds) They also have fantastic energy management with skills such as [offering of spirit] (My favorite since it's energy on demand), [essence strike] and [soothing memories]. And my final reason was that both professions can farm in a variety of places, quite easily.
I hope this makes your decision a bit easier now.
) and prefer keeping ur party alive than being on the front line get teh monk.
