Team build - Skyway

I'm trying to build an all Ritualist team build just for the fun of it (because running gimmicks is fun in PvE). I would like constructive advice on how to improve upon the current setup I have devised.

And yes I shamelessly plugged this team build with my IGN, regardless of whether it's good, crap, or even been done before.

The general idea of the build is to setup defensive spirits around midline, while putting offensive spirits further ahead and pulling mobs into spirits, summons, and minions to create a wall while the buffed up Splinter Barrager and Great Dwarf Scythe clean up the weakened foes from the Necromancer Curses.

I have used some of the builds on this team build with relative success and think some of them would work well together, however the team build itself is no more than theorycraft and has never been tested with any weight or credibility as of yet.

Anyway, without further ado, here are the builds I have come up with so far:

Skyway Team Build

The only real problem I see is lack of decent protection spells so I was thinking of throwing Protective Spirit somewhere to put on the Great Dwarf Scythe Ritualist.

Constructive feedback that will aid in improvement is welcome.

Seems this has generated some interest from some Ritualist players here I am now adding a list of players interested in trying the build in a full setup. If you're interested in getting together sometime in the near future to try this please let me know what you can play.

Skyway test list

Spiritweaver: Splinter Barrager, Channeling Ritualist.
Upier
GW Cervantes: Any
Mikkelet
shefdawg

You should have protection in both shelter and union. But maybe change wanderlust on the Communing protector for ritual lord, so its possible to keep up those two spirits

Um try doing vanquishing areas in EoTN. If they're successfull it's a pwnage build

Sign me up if you wanna try it out sometime. Can pretty much do any of those builds.

Quote: Originally Posted by Demo You should have protection in both shelter and union. But maybe change wanderlust on the Communing protector for ritual lord, so its possible to keep up those two spirits I'll look into that, thanks.

Quote: Originally Posted by I Will Heal You Ally

Ok I changed the Communing Protector elite skill in favour of Ritual Lord. That looks so much better now.

there might be a slight chance this would work in easy areas of normal mode. in hm loool.. barely any healing and nearly no protection in a team full of 60(68 at best) armor targers, you'd get mollywhopped before you could even get a single minion up...

Quote: Originally Posted by Gift3d

there might be a slight chance this would work in easy areas of normal mode. in hm loool.. barely any healing and nearly no protection in a team full of 60(68 at best) armor targers, you'd get mollywhopped before you could even get a single minion up... I guess that depends on where you use it.

You can clear some areas with just the spirit spammers alone, even on HM. I think the protection from the spirits should get you past the first one or two mobs (Armour of Unfeeling reduces the damage taken by the protective spirits by half when they protect) while you build up minions providing they're not too dense. Let's not forget the 5 summons as well as the huge amount of damage done by the Scythe and Barrage Ritualists with the buffs they have on them. Weakness also reduces damage by 66% and Meekness makes that already reduced damage come twice as slow.

By the way the Great Dwarf Scythe Ritualist has 99 armour. Ghost Forge insignias + Great Dwarf Armour FTW. Weapon Spells are unstrippable so as long as your Buffer maintains Great Dwarf Weapon on you properly you'll always have at least +15 armour.

And this is also the reason why I was thinking of running Protective Spirit on a bar to aid when battling the first mob, though if you pull right you shouldn't need it, though I have yet to test this.

In any event I want to try and run 8 Ritualists on a team for a laugh and to do something original. In no way at all am I saying you must use it, is the best build ever, or that it is even that good. If you have a constructive comment to pass to help improve the build, please share it. Negative comments that have no aid in improvement will just be ignored.

Quote: Originally Posted by Spiritweaver

In any event I want to try and run 8 Ritualists on a team for a laugh and to do something original. Might I suggest people who signed up for the all ritualist trips if you lack people?
I still get people asking if trips will take place, but lately it's getting impossible to put together a team since people are expressing their desire to do do these events exactly at the time when pretty much they and me are the ONLY person on.
Still, since there is desire to do them - drop a line if I am on and I can try to help you bug people.

Quote: Originally Posted by Spiritweaver

Meekness makes that already reduced damage come twice as slow. For some places, I often take Tryptophan Signet instead of Meekness (or shadow of fear) since they removed the touch-range requirement. Downsides - it affects all adjacent to target, rather than all in area... and it only gives 40% reduced attack speed, rather than 50%.

Upsides - it costs no energy (or sac), it casts in 1sec, it also reduces enemy movement speed 40%. But best of all, it is not a condition or a hex - so it can't be removed or shattered, and it will last its full duration even on bosses. Very useful in some places. If used well, it could replace Meekness - or in HM it might work well stacked on top of Meekness and Ice Spikes from the Imp.

uhm, about tryptophan signet: dont expect everyone to be r10 in ebon vanguard/have a skill that for most builds is useless(personally, i love it, but if you compare it to other pve-skills, you'll see its hardly used)... I'd say you can expect, in over-all, ppl to be r4-r5 of any of the eotn titles...

so, imo, stick to meekness/shadow of fear^^

Quote: Originally Posted by Hissy For some places, I often take Tryptophan Signet instead of Meekness (or shadow of fear) since they removed the touch-range requirement. Downsides - it affects all adjacent to target, rather than all in area... and it only gives 40% reduced attack speed, rather than 50%.

Upsides - it costs no energy (or sac), it casts in 1sec, it also reduces enemy movement speed 40%. But best of all, it is not a condition or a hex - so it can't be removed or shattered, and it will last its full duration even on bosses. Very useful in some places. If used well, it could replace Meekness - or in HM it might work well stacked on top of Meekness and Ice Spikes from the Imp. Tryptophan Signet is a valid option, but as Slasher said the larger area of effect is the general desire.

I most certainly won't dismiss the idea entirely but it would take proper balling of foes to work properly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by upier Might I suggest people who signed up for the all ritualist trips if you lack people? I still get people asking if trips will take place, but lately it's getting impossible to put together a team since people are expressing their desire to do do these events exactly at the time when pretty much they and me are the ONLY person on. Still, since there is desire to do them - drop a line if I am on and I can try to help you bug people. Perhaps pointing them this way and seeing who can run what, and what timezones they're in would be a start. I can edit the first post and add a list of who can run what etc. I'm assuming you would be up for trying this aswell?

I you want to test this setup sometime, I'm game =)

I actually use something similair to this when i vanquish, i already have vanq'd all of factions, and it seems HM is now NM with my 3 rit build and MM bomber, and i even solo a lot of stuff with it. The funny thing is i dont even use armor of unfeeling, if you want some tips hit me up in game, i am working my way through eotn right now so if you have a rit lets get together and put thoughts together. I even solo UW with my rit and no one else.

my ingame name is mathias moonstreak.

Quote: Originally Posted by shefdawg

I actually use something similair to this when i vanquish, i already have vanq'd all of factions, and it seems HM is now NM with my 3 rit build and MM bomber, and i even solo a lot of stuff with it. The funny thing is i dont even use armor of unfeeling, if you want some tips hit me up in game, i am working my way through eotn right now so if you have a rit lets get together and put thoughts together. I even solo UW with my rit and no one else.

my ingame name is mathias moonstreak. Armour of Unfeeling is most definitely needed (in my opinion) for the Communing Protector I feel as it reduces the amount of health the spirits lose when they reduce damage for the party etc. In conjunction with Summon Spirits you can pretty much keep them up indefinitely I would assume.

They may not be needed so much for the offensive Communing Ritualist, I just added it for more tanking ability for the spirits, especially when building up Minions.

I've already completed EotN with my Ritualist but I'd be happy to get together with you and work on some stuff. IGN is in my profile.

Btw - might I suggest testing this out in GWEN this weekend?
I'd love to advance my titles a bit and this sounds like a fun thing to do while doing that.

Quote: Originally Posted by upier

Btw - might I suggest testing this out in GWEN this weekend?
I'd love to advance my titles a bit and this sounds like a fun thing to do while doing that. Sounds good to me. Will need another 3 people still (because the fun of this is to run this with 8 players), and we have to address timezone differences though.

Also if anyone who will be joining will be able to guest the party on their vent server while we run this that would be awesome. Would certainly help with co-ordination and communication alot better.

I'm good for anytime after 9.30pm GMT00+ Saturday or Sunday.

Also I added a testing party list to the first post so if anyone reading this wishes to have a crack at this then let me know what builds you can run.

The Buffer is most definitely needed, so anyone who will be able to play that efficiently is essential to the teams success.

I was thinking of doing Resto, since ... well, if we can win with ME playing resto, the build works.
What I have though are issues with the build itself:
"Restoration Healer"
res=12 cha=12
[Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support][Offering of Spirit][Life][Feast of Souls][Mend Body and Soul][Soothing Memories][Spirit Light][Flesh of My Flesh]

Considering you have Soothing Memories, it would be insane not to bring an ash pot.
Also Feast of Souls seems a bit misplaced here.
Given the fact that all you are running Channelling for is Offering of Spirit, and if you still want to waste your elite on e-management - I'd look into dumping all your Channelling points into Spawning and bringing Attuned Was Songkai.
Still, personally I am much more in favour of just bringing Spirit Syphon since the amount of spirits present will be insane and waste the elite slot on something else. Hell, you could even go with Assassin's Promise, recharging your Assassin Support AND PwK (which would be my pot of choice to fuel Soothing.)
No WoW is also weak.

The Communing offensive guy is also pretty darn weak with no Signet Of Ghostly Might.

The MM guy?
Hell no to Golem. I'd much rather just unload this job to a hero, since those guys won't suck with Death Nova.
But, all in all - this guy would be MUCH better on a necro primary. There is absolutely no point - outside of being a gimmick to run minions on a non-necro guy.

At first glance, the amount of wasted slots is pretty big.
Still, do I think this will work?
Absolutely.

Quote: Originally Posted by upier I was thinking of doing Resto, since ... well, if we can win with ME playing resto, the build works.
What I have though are issues with the build itself:
"Restoration Healer"
res=12 cha=12
[Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support][Offering of Spirit][Life][Feast of Souls][Mend Body and Soul][Soothing Memories][Spirit Light][Flesh of My Flesh]

Considering you have Soothing Memories, it would be insane not to bring an ash pot.
Also Feast of Souls seems a bit misplaced here.
Given the fact that all you are running Channelling for is Offering of Spirit, and if you still want to waste your elite on e-management - I'd look into dumping all your Channelling points into Spawning and bringing Attuned Was Songkai.
Still, personally I am much more in favour of just bringing Spirit Syphon since the amount of spirits present will be insane and waste the elite slot on something else. Hell, you could even go with Assassin's Promise, recharging your Assassin Support AND PwK (which would be my pot of choice to fuel Soothing.)
No WoW is also weak. I didn't throw WoW because of the block from the Communing Protector.

Also I do agree I think PwK should be on the Restoration bar.

Assassins Promise is a nice idea, it would also recharge the summon.

If you post a full bar that you think would be good to run for the Restoration Rit I'll take a look at it.

I'm not sure how Feast of Souls is misplaced though, it can give a nice partywide heal if used properly.

I have currently replaced the summon with PwK.

Quote: The Communing offensive guy is also pretty darn weak with no Signet Of Ghostly Might. Believe it or not this was my first choice of elite, lol. However one thing this build does lack is hex removal and Expel hexes is a nice skill to use that isn't tied to any attribute lines.

Don't forget the Channeling Rit has Painful Bond boosting the damage that all the spirits will do.

Quote: The MM guy?
Hell no to Golem. I'd much rather just unload this job to a hero, since those guys won't suck with Death Nova.
But, all in all - this guy would be MUCH better on a necro primary. There is absolutely no point - outside of being a gimmick to run minions on a non-necro guy. Well this is a gimmick.

I do agree that a Necromancer is better but seems using Necromancers isn't the plan let's leave that debate elsewhere.

I'm guessing Jagged Bones or Aura of the Lich would probably be a better option.

Oh and sorry I am now working Saturday so if anyone wants to try this at the weekend then it will have to be Sunday for the same time.