Ritualists--Offensively Underpowered?

I never ever, ever liked to play a physical class. So when the ritualist came out, I was happy. But, being a CA lover, I soon saw that a large of the ritualists skills were defensive, and the ones that actually did good damage required alot of timing, or big rechage times or teambuilds. Am I being unobservant, or does the good, offensive CA Ritualist not exist?

There are some good dmg spirits. What you need for spirits its Ritual Lord, elite spell. With that spell all the spirits recharge 65% faster on 13 attribute points. That means basicly under 30 sec. Than there are 1 hex that makes every spirit do +20 dmg on the target for some time.. think its around 25-30 sec. Than there spells that do lightning dmg too... so I dont think the dmg is a problem for a ritualist.

Actually, the pre-made earthbinder build does some pretty good damage, especially if you throw in Dissonance to inturpt their healing. It just takes patience to deal damage as a rt. In fact, imo the rt is a little overpowered in pvp.... though i might think them a trifel useless in pve. I guess only time will tell.

I think ritualist is the farthest thing from overpowered in PvP. Thier spirits are way to easy to kill and in my opinion need a buff before the offical release. I also noticed that the offensive ritualist spells that did good damage have huge recharge time and/or need really good coordination to be effective in CA(RA), TA, Hero's ascent(tombs).

rit/r + oath shot = gg

They also need to tweak the NPCs to stop them from ONLY attacking Ritualists, in the learning PvP matches I was prime target, I spent most of the time healing myself and therefore got almost no faction. If I died and then revived, less than a second before I saw 5 damage indictators above my character and half my health gone.

I know about intelligent AI attacking healers first, but well, this is silly.

I agree, spirits are way to easy to kill. There is shadowsong, but even that, has a sad recharge time. I hate it when I put up my spirits, and they just attack them, and then they attack me. And then I die.

The only real offensive thing ritualists have going for them is destruction and rupture soul.

Don't Ritualists have a skill that destroys all of their spirits and resets the timers on them? That would make them work completely fine in PvE.

Don't forget that they have Vengeful Blade. It's in restoration, but it does a decent amount of dmg and healing if used against thick players (ones who keep attacking through it).
I think that Ritualists are really designed for supporting roles though, since they seem to fare just as well as a monk at them. And the knockdown, interrupt, etc is always appreciated.

I think they're supposed to be like a mesmerish thing... Channeling (illusion, debufs and decent damage) Communing (domination, disruption and decent damage) and replacing an energy draining line is restoration, which does as the name implies. What I mean by this is I don't think they're supposed to be all about the damage... A mesmer monk crossbreed, if you will.

I played the Earthbinder a couple times. It's alright, but then I played the Rt/Mo premade, and I love it. But I have to echo the complaint of spirits dying too easily. Against the ViM Trapper team in the Zaishen Challenge, I put a spirit up, and they trap it, and it's dead in less than 5 seconds. Now I have nothing to show for it, and I'm waiting 45-60 seconds before I can waste energy again.

I'm not going to say the spirits are useless, but they need some kind of defensive buff, as even with 12 in the summon attribute (where each points gives +4% more hp), they die fairly quick.

I can't comment on damage, as I haven't tried playing a Rt to do damage, but the frailty of spirits makes me a little sad sometimes.

Spirits are only easy to kill if you plant them everywhere like an idiot.

Its all about location when it comes to spirits.Not to mention, I doubt a spirit that can does no more than 20 damage a hit(without the superior runes) will take priority over enemy classes.

The ritualist also has several skills that allow them to penalize the people attacking the spirits,and spells that heal spirits when used agaisnt foes.

Since everyone is using premade builds that have none of these skills involved of course they seem offensively underpowered.

Excellent point, and I hadn't really even looked at it that way. When more skills are available, it's very possible the Rt will play out just fine. Managing the Rt spirits in the premade builds can be a little hopeless (mostly since they die relatively quickly, and take 60 seconds to recharge)

I suppose spirits can make good meatsheilds where your team-mates seem innefective at protecting you. Sorta of like dummy double spawn one and run away, NPCs tend to ignore them though.

Weapon skills are not enchantments, but thank you for playing. The attacker has zero warning that this skill is active unless it is cast on the ritualist that has the skill. It is also parrallel to reversal of fortune, so its not like they can stop their attack when it lands either. It does say damage as well, so im not sure if it will steal health from direct damage spells or not.

Vengeful was kahaei or however its spelled is a different story entirely.


I havent seen it yet though, but has the minion master with signet of creation and hitting em all with death nova a little over the top? All of it lasts 30s, then dies. That sounds a little too convient to me. Walking nuke bombs going off at the same time, umm yes please. And whoever was saying rits dont have offense, really havent looked too closely at the channeling line of skills.

Oath shot with 50% failure because you're a ritualist with no expertise = you don't know what you're talking about.

I don't get it. I never said it was an enchantment O.O
Don't the skin of the weapons change when you use weapon spells?

But, it's like RoF, but cooler (imo). I'm just throwing the idea out, since a lot of people will take the punishment repeatedly (ie, if you stand there and recast it over and over) without thinking to stop attacking.

Maybe he meant R/Rt?
Secondly: Does expertise effect binding spirits?

Yes position is important with spirits but it is still way to easy for say a single foe to eliminate all your spirits. Also the health that spirits gain from i think it is spirit boon strike is 82 i think at 12 attribute which is only 1 more attack from a warrior or assassin. Also i dont like the fact that it does lightining damage becuase of all the work for one spell becomes vastly less effective against warriors and rangers (maybe make it with more armor pentration i dk ) my opinion only.

Expertise does affect binding rituals.