Need help choosing

hiya!

I've been playing the game for ages and yet I'm looking for new horizons to enhance the fun. I'm thinking of rolling a Dervish or a Ritualist, but i can't seem to choose between either. there are many ups and downs to both professions, but i'd like a second opinion.

what do you think is the advantages and disadvantages of both professions?

Moved to the right section.

Dervish's are boring themselves, but they can play a Warrior weapon or a Paragon weapon pretty good, mixed with their Forms.

Ritualists I find boring all around. I've made 3, deleted all 3 eventually. Channeling can be fun though, if you mix PvE skills with it. I think Rits need a PvE revamp to actually be fun, right now Necro's play the Rit class better.

No offence to the people who love them proffessions, but i think they both suck.

Rts can be good for healing and i find healing boring.
I tried them for Spirit spamming, but thats pathetic, especially for PVE where you need to move to the enemies.

Dervish i have played a few times, mainly because il roll one, get to level 20, waste money on armor, then realise my warrior is way more fun to play.
Then il delete, and then within 3 months il think, "why did i delete my dervish? Scythes are kick ass!" So then il roll one, get to lvl 20, waste money, rinse, repeat.

I am really that simple minded. lol.

Never could get the hang of Dervishes, especially when it comes to Enchantment management, so can't really comment.

Ritualist, on the other hand... You don't blast as well as an Elementalist or heal as well as a Monk - which is why getting a team can be a problem, despite being more than good enough at *both* to be an asset to any team. H/Hing seems excessively easy as a Ritualist, at least in Factions (haven't been anywhere else yet with him, 'cept to the EotN itself since having an Interrupter you can lock onto a target is always useful ), compared to the other professions I've used. (even though most of what I do is drop [[Life] and [[Bloodsong], with [[Painful Bond] for the Bloodsong, heal a little with [[Mend Body and Soul], [[Spirit Light] and [[Protective was Kaolai], and toss out the occasional [[Spirit Rift] or [[Ancestor's Rage] when I've got nothing better to do - which isn't all that often, actually)

That's what [[Summon Spirits] is for.

it's come down to those two and i know full well they're not the most popular ones out there. really now, it's been ages since i've seen either in tournaments or GvG, but i do see them as secondaries (for Life mostly...)

here's what i've deduced so far

DERVISH
*can tank is done right and is a good melee frontliner to help ease the warrior.
*can solo just about anything since it's the posterboy for survivability in my book
*thr forms make for tons of builds that can prove to be very dangerous (avatar of grenth/nightmare weapon against destroyers = WINNER!!)
*has high base health, and feeds off Symbiosis like a leech, making it near-invincible
*scythes are kickass!!!
-has rather weak self-made defense in armor and runes
-has to be managed at all times, since enchants last just a few seconds
-has less skills than other professions, therefore less ersatility

RITUALIST
*can spam spirits with good survivability to gice party-wide buffs or a cover of damage (go Wanderlust/Earthbind!!)
*can damage, heal, protect, resurrect, melee (spirit strength) and utterly cripple minion masters
*they have 3 spell types available to them alone: weapon spells, item spells and binding rituals (hello, weapon distribution service, my name is Leet what weapon could i offer you today?)
*ritualists are rare, and it's always a challenge to play.
-caster classes are never the ones that feel like the heroes, since you're not the one bashing the other people's skulls in.
-spirit spamming is complicated and most people hate it since it's mostly long to cast (but it's fun since it's non-interruptable. Death to mesmers!!)
-spawning power is the worst attribute in game...really someone tell me what's it's purpose again?
-i hate how a ritualist swings his staff...looks so...ghastly...deathly...disco..ish

Go Rit. Dervs are fun until you get to 20, but rits only are fun after you hit 20. Make sure you have an elite tome or two for your rit if you're gonna make one; I feel it really helps since access to useful elites come too late

My .02 here, go with the Ritualist.

Neither prof as a Primary sees much outside of PvE, the Core profs just do things better.

But...

The Ritualist has 2 Campaigns and an Expansion with skills and armor, while the Dervish has 1 Campaign and an Expansion.

Playing Buff-bitch for a Physical party might not be the most fun way to play, but it gets things done, and any good players running Physicals will know where a crap-ton of damage is coming from, and give you your props.

Weapon spells cannot be stripped. (The most imba part of Rt's, imho)

Rt/R can run nasty Splinter/Barrage or Spirit's Strength/Volley combos if they don't want to Buff-bitch or Resto.

There's probably lots more, but again, my limited use of either class, I still favor the Ritualist over the Derv.

i'm starting to lean towards Rit now. i've tried both in the past but neither seemed that inspiring. i think it's because i always felt like a ritualist was useless and a dervish was just a glorified warrior. but times change it seems.

also, i've figured a nick in the ritualist's power. you see, there's good at everything, to about 8/10 in everything, where specialized classes get 10/10 (monk/ele). however, combine the ritualist's 8/10 in everything with the 10/10 of another profession and i think i could get some major props going.

also, i did weapon-bitching in the past, i actually like it. buffing is something that interests me (i'm a rare find it seems, i like chihuahuas too). so i'm leaning towards rit, but i still have technical quandaries:
*does it really matter if you take spawning power? seems so useless...
*does the enemy AI target spirits by default or don't they? hmmmmm
*what's the best energy management for rits (for all types)

my advise, dont take a stranger's.

Most people don't. The effect is useless for most builds and there aren't many attractive skills.

Aggro is decided by many factors, probably the only one in the spirits favour is that they don't deal much damage. Low health and low armor mean they'll get attacked often. They also can't move, so an AoE spell pretty much means instant death.

[[Offering of Spirit].

Imo, between Rits and Dervs, I prefer Rits.

both are pretty crappy... so it will come down to what makes them unique, rather than what makes them effective. simply put: ritualists = spirits, dervish = avatars.

Depending on what you play, you're either:

a) reminding the people who do bash other people's skulls in that they need you around to prevent their skulls from being bashed in;

b) bringing an apocalypse down on the heads of the enemies;

c) having a disgustingly fun time making sure the other side can't do anything while people bash their heads in.

Then you might as well go Rt IMO.

Some builds i've been using as rt:

Ritualist/Monk: Physical Buff

- Great Dwarf Weapon
- Reversal of Damage
- Smite Condition
- Smite Hex
- Pain Inverter
- Wielder's Zeal {E}
- Wielder's Remedy
- Strength of Honor

Ritualist/Necromancer: Rt MM

- Jagged Bones {E}
- Death Nova
- Animate Bone Minions
- Air of Superiority
- Energetic Was Lee Sa
- Blood of the Master
- Boon of Creation
- Explosive Growth

Ritualist/Ranger: Spirits Strenght R/Rt

- Volley
- Triple Shot
- Nightmare Weapon
- Splinter Weapon
- Optional
- Spirit's Strength {E}
- "I Am The Strongest!"
- Flesh of My Flesh

Ritualist/Paragon: Spirits Strenght Spear

- Merciless Spear
- Blazing Spear
- Spear of Fury
- Splinter Weapon
- Weapon of Aggression
- Spirit's Strength {E}
- "I Am The Strongest!"
- "Dodge This!"

Ritualist/Mesmer: Spirit Rift

- Mindbender
- Arcane Echo
- Spirit Rift
- Ancestors' Rage
- Summon Spirits
- Bloodsong
- Vampirism
- Offering of Spirit {E}

Ritualist/Assassin: Spiritspammer

- Assassin's Promise {E}
- Pain
- Anguish
- Bloodsong
- Vampirism
- Painful Bond
- Summon Spirits
- Essence Strike

i can definitely say, that rt is funny to play. GL

rit is pretty boring in my opinion... idk.. got him to lv20, then he just got boring. just sitting there, retired.

I've been playing around with a Mo/Rt smiter lately, and it's been fun. If you aren't casting spells on allies, you don't need any points in DF, so you can easily run 12 Channeling.

A Rt/Mo should work just as well. Since Spawning Power is largely useless, you can throw 12 into Smiting Prayers for RoJ, Castigation Signet, etc. Signet of Judgement + Earthbind might be a nice combo, too, especially if you bring a hammer hero. Then there's also the possibility of combining weapon spells and smiting buffs like SoH.

Rits and dervs need a huge buff in all there skills both pve and pvp. my advice make another class

I love Ritualist. No I do not PvE or play super serious PvP, but they're fun and pretty easy to pick up. Yes Spawning Power does need a buff but I like healing with them and there are some really cool weapon spells. Haven't tried them offensively yet, but I've seen it done.

Oh and it's kind of energy management but [Mighty Was Vorizen] (and fix it so the tags work again!)

why does it seem like everybody keeps revolving around the core classes? seems only those 6 are worth playing in some people's eyes...i find that sad imho

Because the game was made for those 6. All the later Professions that got added borrowed a few traits from each of the core 6, but were never able to get their own place in the game. Other than gimmicky stuff like Shadow Form and Imbagon.

There's just no need for a Rt, A, D or P.

----

Can't you make both a D and a Rt, and see what you like best?

Rt healing can be surprisingly powerful, and the great thing is you won't make people shatterbait when you buff them. Weapon spells are the only thing really draining on energy, but Offering of Spirit will take good care of that.

I use 12 rest/12 chan now for OoS, but I used to run 12 SP and energy by chaining life -> reclaim essence. The one thing I miss is the duration extension that SP offers weapon spells.

i've done em both, and love em both equally. however i'm looking for a main character. also, i'd love to prove everybody wrong about the core 6. the other 4 have their place, they just need to prove themselves

Started a Dervish today to try and remember what it was I didn't like about them the last few times I tried (around 10 months ago). Didn't take long - for some reason, not being able to cast your self-buffs while on the run towards the enemy irritates me a *lot* more than it does when I'm on my Assassin. :/

You need to join a good guild/alliance.

I was in the same place you are - logging in just to ask myself 'what now'?

I got into a guild that belongs to a great, active alliance. Right now we are in the beginnings of a board-game style adventure, created by one of our alliance members, that takes us through various outposts/explorable areas of the game, completing tasks set up by the adventure coordinator for prizes. I have never had so much fun playing GW as I am right now.

A good guild makes all the difference.