Anyone

Defensive spirits still have absurd energy costs and won't live long even if not under attack. Anyone know if Armor of Unfeeling reduces damage spirits take on effect triggers (like Shelter)?

Oh wait, the wiki says it does. Could be useful then.
Energy is still an issue. And again Imbagons, the occasional prot spirit or an ether renewal protection ele are better and more viable alternatives.

That has almost always been the case for pretty much every area.
Spirits have their merits, but the drawbacks are too great for almost any viability. No merit, an imbagon can do what a spiritspammer does and better (especially after todays buff to paragon). They tried to make ritus more viable by nerfing other classes usage of ritualist skills, in the process they nerfed ritus as well and gave us new spirits as a bone but the implementation failed to realize the true problems.
Why should a party take a ritual lord with 15-25 energy spirits wich are going to die within a second over a paragon able to grant permanent unstrippable protection. That being said paragon and ritualist will not see much play in high end pve anyway Shadow form is still meta.
Not commenting about pvp, this was a buff to spawning but a nerf to ritualists as a class.
If this is just a step of a future rehaul then it's good but I got the feeling this is going to be a permanent solution.