Is there any resemblance?

right now there is a rt/d spirits strength build on wiki that is amazing in pve, you just need someone else to cast gdw on you

To a certain extent, the Channeling attribute is kinda-sorta similar to the Ele's Air Attribute. Once you look past the prevalence of Lightning Damage and Destructive Was Glaive, the only skill in the tree that mentions Armor Penetration, the analogy falls apart.

first of all this is camp fire so we're talking about PvE here not PvP. in PvE Elementalists are still most commonly used as nukers, usually Fire but sometimes Earth too. these nuker builds deal a lot of AoE damage which is why they're useful in PvE.

now Ritualists are very versatile. they can deal direct damage, most channeling spells, however these lack in the AoE department that Elementalists excell at. however they can deal a lot of AoE support damage with spells like [skill]splinter weapon[/skill] and [skill]ancestor's rage[/skill] why support you ask? because you need to cast them on a melee character on your team, not directly on the monsters.

so if you like Elementalists, I assume you like the nuking builds as these are the most common Elementalist builds, at least in PvE. in this case you will find Ritualist rather lacking, cause they dont have the nuking power Elementalists have. Elementalist nukers are 1 of a kind(excluding fast casting Mesmer/Elementalists). however damage is not just about nuking, all melee classes(Warrior, Dervish and Assassin) can deal a lot of AoE damage as well. well Assassins dont have as much AoE damage skills however the spammable [skill]death blossom[/skill] is enough to do a lot of it. mix with [skill]Moebius Strike[/skill] to make the entire chain spammable. Necromancers can also deal a lot of damage, however it is support damage, similar to the Ritualist but a bit different, you do cast it on the monsters but it's either damage over time or you need a melee class to attack that monster. AoE degeneration like [skill]suffering[/skill] and [skill]lingering curse[/skill] or on attack/skill effects like [skill]spiteful spirit[/skill] or skills that require physical damage(melee attacks) to trigger, [skill]mark of pain[/skill] or boost your melee class'es damage, [skill]order of the vampire[/skill][skill]order of pain[/skill][skill]dark fury[/skill]. not that all these skills deal AoE damage or support AoE damage from melee classes, there are also single target versions of some of these skills such as [skill]insidious parasite[/skill] and [skill]barbs[/skill]. of course there also are Mesmers, Smite Monks, and Paragons that can deal damage, be it direct or support.

so the best advise I can give you is to try out the different classes and switch your play accordingly. locking into a single play style(in your case nuking) is inadvisable as all classes in this game(including the Elementalist) are very versatile.

Personally I dislike [spirit rift] due to the cast time and delay in damage.

Personally, I agree that rits are harder to play (although I do believe that all professions take time to master). I think it comes from the fact that Rits tend to have very conditional skills so it's harder to maximize damage (than an ele) or healing (than a monk). Rits are also pretty diverse and can do a lot of different things. If anything, it takes more experience and experimenting than some of the other professions.

If you want to deal direct damage, you'd better stay on your Elementalist. Ritualists can deal great damage, but only with a Warrior or any other good frontline in their team. [Splinter Weapon] [Ancestor's Rage] and [Offering of Spirit] can be combined with practically anything. A few examples are [Mark of Pain] and [Barbs] or [Smite Hex] [Smite Condition].
It might sound boring, but the only real effective skills for a Ritualist are the ones mentioned above and [FoMF]
Both defensive spirits and offensive spirits are too time consuming for what they do.

Armor ignoring dmg > non ignoring dmg

ALL elementalist damage except [energy blast] + [obsidian flame]= non armor ignoring.

Splinter Weapon + any damage source (hell wield a spear and do might -1's) = Armor ignoring damage.

Rits win.

HM elementalists don't really stack up against Rits in terms of damage, the enemies armour is just too high. Its odd, but true. Over AoE, sticking a [[Splinter Weapon (PVE) @14] on someone with Whirling Axe, Whirlwind attack, volley, barrage, incendiary arrows, or just on a constant +33% attack speed sin will pump out craploads of damage. Combine that with [[Ancestors' Rage (PVE) @14] and support through party heals ([[protective was kaolai @13] and [[Life @13]) and almost infinite energy ([[offering of spirit @14]). A good rit is a lot more useful than a nuking ele in PvE HM.