Spirit popularity

Some of you are making bad e-management recommendations.

If you spec into channeling, there is nothing better than siphon spirit.

Why do people take Pain and Bloodsong instead of Shadowsong for instance? It's not like with Syphon there are any energy problems, and shorter duration is not a big deal IMO. I think perma blind in HM on just one enemy can help a lot. And with proper positioning it will quite often blind the right target. So if you already have points in Communing, why not?

Blinding just one target in some areas means negating quite a lot of damage, for only a slight reduction in damage.

The same reason people say "just trust me" and insist to bring charm animal with ursan because "I like bears"



Vampirism is a bad spirit skill, no matter what anyone says. It is only useful when you don't have anything better at your disposal. But if you have communing, using the low-damage vampirism over the blindbotting of shadowsong is just dumb.

Thanks for all the informative posts. I have a few comments.

I've been meaning to try out Rt/Mo SoS-Smiting builds but never got around to it.

I didn't like the Restoration/Channeling builds I've tried, but perhaps I should go more in depth before dismissing it.

I've been pretty dissatisfied with the common SoS builds that load the bars with spirits.

I don't really find high spawning to be of that much use. It's mostly for BoC/SG/Agony and the benefits are pretty marginal. There seems to be other spells that help support the team better. Keeping Agony alive isn't as hard as you would imagine with constant Summon Spirits/Spirit's Gift + good positioning, but overall, it's not worth the trouble.

Communing doesn't really seem to help the bar much as Pain at lower levels just suck and Shadowsong/Anguish just doesn't seem to make up for the communing stack. I think communing is even worse than the 16/14 Channel + 13 Spawning Method as adding the extra spirits seem to be not that useful. Furthermore, Armor of Unfeeling completely blows if you don't park your Spirits in a RoJ or something.

BTW, the more I think of it, the less I like Anguish. When Painful bond is on, the SoS spirits should destroy the target quickly, not to mention the discord heroes. Otherwise the damage from Anguish is measly, the spirit is low level, and bad recharge.

Just as a sidenote, contrary to its description shadowsong actually DOES damage for as much as most other communig spirits.

And Josip made quite a good argument: If you already deal about ~150 DPS dealing ~5 DPS less is hardly noticeably, but one oppenent that produces less than 10% of its original damage output can be highly noticeably.
For such a small loss of damage capabilites most other classes/builds cannot blind one or more foes constantly.

Yea, that's why no one brings other defensive stuff, prots and kd/interrupts is what everyone uses to defend the team.

Also remember you can bring a hero with Signet of Ghostly Might, Pain, Shadowsong, and Anguish for more damage and throw in a couple heals. Put Arcane Mimicry on your own bar, and watch your high-damage SoS spirits hurt even more. Add Anthem of Disruption on the hero and live it up.

Staple skills in a Spirit Spammer PvE:
Summon Spirits-> if you don't take it, it will only slow down the game for everyone else OR they won't wait and you'll lose DPS while forming a line of spirits.
Signet Of Spirits- Highest DPS elite.
Armour of Unfeeling- If you don't have this in HM areas, spirits go bb quick.

You can take Siphon Spirit if you struggle with energy, but you shouldn't need to SPAM if your team is good enough. Spirits aren't walking sticks for the unwell, they're sniping turrets.

At max Sunspear vamprisim is a great skill, get grinding bitches who say it sucks. Spiritleech aura is stupid, attribute stretch is bad. You can have more damage/health/armour for spirits without investing for one skill.