Ritual Lord: For 30 seconds, your Rituals recharge 15-63% faster.
At 16 Spawning Power, the percentage is 79%. This causes your 60 Second Rituals to recharge in 12 Seconds, and your 45 second Ritualist to recharge in 9 seconds.
Ritual Lord is found after your Faction's Mission (i.e. VERY LATE into the Factions campaign. Sadly.)
Therefore, you can effectively Spirit Spam without having to deal with something messy like Oath Shot. (And gives the spirits the necessary HP to boot.)
The Build:
16 Spawning Power (12 + 1 + 3)
13 Communing (12 + 1)
Ritual Lord: For 30 seconds, your Rituals recharge 79% faster.
Boon of Creation: For 63 seconds, whenever you create a creature, you gain 53 Health and 8 Energy.
Shelter: Create a level 7 spirit. Non-spirit allies within its range cannot lose more than 10% maximum Health from a single attack. When this spirit prevents damage, it loses 34 Health. This spirit lasts 56 seconds.
Union: Create a level 7 spirit. Whenever an ally in its range takes damage, that damage is reduced by 15 and the spirit takes 15 damage. The spirit dies after 56 seconds.
Displacement: Create a level 9 spirit. Attacks made by foes within its range are "evaded." Every time an attack is evaded this way, this spirit takes 43 damage. This spirit dies after 56 seconds.
2 Free Slots (Options explained below)
Resurection Signet: (Or Free Spot in Alliance Battles)
There's the key to Ritualist Domination. Right in your grasp.
The trick to a Ritual Lord is to stand as far as you can away from combat and still have your spirits affect your party.
Boon of Creation is your Energy Management tool. Cast it first, then begin casting Shelter. CAST RITUAL LORD DURING SHELTER (Ritual Lord is a no castime skill, and thus it can be cast during other skills). Cast Union and Displacement. Then repeat the Shelter/Union/Displacement spam (make sure you constantly refresh Boon of Creation and Ritual Lord!)
Make sure you always cast Shelter BEFORE Union in order for the effects to be counted correctly!
The end result of this build is that your party will ALMOST ALWAYS take no more than 30-38 Damage Per Hit and will avoid ALMOST EVERY ATTACK.
In Alliance battles and certain missions (Amatz Basin, etc.), the effects are even better. All 3 spirits affect allies, as opposed to only party members. Thus, even 1 Ritual Lord can turn the tide of battle.
Now, you DO have some freedom with the build, however. Hence, the free spots...:
Armor of Unfeeling: For 10-30 seconds, you have 10 base damage reduction while casting Binding Rituals.
Pointless in PvE, excellent in PvP. A flat-out damage reduction give you MUCH more protection than any amount of Armor. Sadly, it isn't as active as often as you would hope...
Mighty Was Vorizun: Hold Vorizun's ashes for up to 15-51 seconds. While you hold his ashes, you gain +15 armor and +20 maximum Energy.
So-So in PvE, great in PvP. Can't go wrong with additional Armor and Energy, although you lose any Fast Cast/Recharge mods on your weapon...
Feast of Souls: Destroy all nearby allies' spirits. For each spirit destroyed in this way, all party members are healed for 104 Health.
Overpowered in PvE, excellent in PvP. This makes Heal Party look like a farce. Chances are, Shelter won't die before it recharges. Therefore, you can just pop it, at the least, and give your party a nice, shiny heal. You can even use it early to give your party a godly Heal. I need to get into an Elite Mission to try it out...
Signet of Creation: All spirits and animated creatures in the area gain +7 Health regeneration. After 30 seconds, those spirits and creatures are destroyed.
Good in PvE, good in PvP. Gives Union and Displacement a few more procs before they die. It doesn't Hurt.
Mantra of Resolve (with 3 Inspiration): For 42 seconds, you cannot be interrupted, but each time you would have been interrupted, you lose 9 energy or Mantra of Resolve ends.
Not needed in PvE, but you may want it for PvP. Mesmer interrupts can't harm your Binding Rituals, but Warrior and Ranger interrupts can. Interruptions to Binding Rituals do not trigger Ritual Lord's Recharge reduction, thus, it's really bad to be interrupted. Don't worry about the low Rank: You'll have Energy to spare if you manage Boon of Creation properly.
Now you know the Power of the Ritual Lord. Fear it!
If you have any questions, contact me in-game, Syria Metaphysical (I'm the Ritualist with the sexy 15k Kurzick dyed black.
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