Ritual Lord Guide

The control of information can be frustrating. Especially when people make posts about things we are 'not allowed' to know about. Thanks for the 'protection'... The control of information is needed because said information are under the NDA.

Shelter was increased to 25e in the update, and Boon of creation was nerfed. That's too much. Ritual Lords are now impossible to play. Somehow this seems like a hasty jump to conclusion. I do believe that some sort of energy management skill other than Boon of Creation will need to be added to be able to work as it did before, but I'm a bit hesitant to say that the whole legitamacy of the build has been nullified by an extra 10 energy cost on one skill and slightly less regen from boon.

Shelter was increased to 25e in the update, and Boon of creation was nerfed. That's too much. Ritual Lords are now impossible to play. not so. ive been testing a few things with my rit this morning, and while yes the effectiveness of spirit spam has been greatly reduced, it is not dead by any means. the shelter union displacement chain can still be maintained so its not dead yet.

Heres what ive been testing this morning:

Rt/any
16 Communing 12+1+3
15 Spawning 12+3
have also run:
16 Spawning 12+1+3
13 and 15 Communing 12+1 and 12+3

Boon of Creation
Ritual Lord
Shelter
Union
Displacement
Signet of Creation
Pain
Flesh of my Flesh

Equipped: Ritual Lord Staff
Energy +10
Lightning Damage: 11-22 (req. 9 Spawning Power)
Halves casting time of Spawning Power spells (Chance: 20%)
Halves skill recharge of Spawning Power spells (Chance: 20%)
Health +30
Health +30

just keep casting the chain as it is on the bar, subbing in boon and rit lord when needed, and pain pretty much whenever it comes up. While this isnt as effective as before the balance, the chain can still be kept up 3-5 times without much trouble. the longer you try and keep the chain going though, the tougher things do become. the trick is just give yourself about a 2-5 second or so break between casting of your next spirit.

shadowsong is much bettter than pain, i know, but pain is there for almost a form of energy managment. with rit lord up, its back in less than 15 seconds, and when you factor in the casting time plus boon, you end up with a net gain of energy, plus a nice dmg dealing spirit. whenever in a pinch, just cast pain to get that little extra bit of energy you need to keep the chain going.

rit lords: nerfed, but not dead yet...

ss - how on earth are you keeping your energy up though?

I don't understand the Pain gaining energy concept - Pain costs 5 energy to cast, so you're gaining 1 energy per cast. ok, upkeep first, pain will be answered later on:

the key to energy upkeep is not just the +6 from boon, but your normal energy regen. remember to keep a few seconds before dropping the next spirit. lets look at the chain:

shelter + rit lord during cast:
25 eng to cast, 10 eng for rit lord, 5 second cast, at 4 pips of regen you gain 1.33 eng a sec, that makes 6.65 eng gained, added to the 6 from boon, gain of 12.65 eng.

now we are at a net of -22.35 eng
wait 3 seconds before next spirit, 4 eng gained, net is -18.35 eng

union:
15 eng to cast, 3 second cast, gain of 4 eng + 6 from boon, net of -5 eng.

now we are at -23.35 eng.
wait 3 seconds before next spirit, 4 eng gained, net is -19.35 eng.

displacement:
15 eng to cast, 3 second cast, gain of 4 eng + 6 from boon, net of - 5 eng.

now we are at -24.35 eng.
wait 3 seconds before next spirit, 4 eng gained, net is -20.35 eng.

sig of creation:
0 eng to cast, to second cast, and for the sake of easy math, we will only wait 1 second before next cast, 4 eng gained.

now we are at -20.35 eng.

pain
5 eng to cast, 3 second cast, gain of 4 eng + 6 from boon, net of + 5 eng.
(a net gain of anything is better than a loss, plus you get a newly buffed dmg dealer!)

now we are at -15.35 eng.

note: one rit lord should be enough to make it once through the chain.

so in the end we are down about 15 engergy after one chain. with 47 total eng, the recasts of boon, pauses when you can afford too, and a watchful eye, i can keep the chain up at least 3 times, which should be enough for your average pve battle.

you can also wait longer when you can afford it, remember just 3 seconds of waiting will net you 4 eng. spread that out 2 seconds here, 1 second there, 3 seconds there, and you can almost negate that -15 eng. get it down to a net of -7 eng and then the chain can be kept up for as many as 6 or 7 times.

is it even close to what it was before? not even. before i could cast recup, shelter, union, soothing, and dispalcement almost non stop and never have any problems. but does this chain still work, yes it does.

oh, and plz check my math if you want, i did it off the top of my head and could have easily messed up along the way.

Pain is a good idea for the build. I was using Feast of Souls, but I think I'll drop it for Pain next time I go to use the build. im glad someone else sees the benefit of running pain. not only is it a net gain of 5 eng each time that you cast it, it also can be a decent dmg dealer since the update. plus with 15 in spawning, its recharged in 12 seconds. 5 net engergy every 12 seconds if needed aint to shabby for a skill that is supposed to be geared to offense.

well pain has always been used as my E-manegment. the main problem is that shelter's death comes much much faster now. one good metor will elimiate you shelter at full health essentially shelter can proc 8-9 times now before dieing. yes shelter does die faster now but not as drasticly faster as some are thinking. ill explain:

At 15 Spawning and 16 Communing (what i run), shelter is a lvl 8 spirit that takes 43 dmg each time it protects. before the update, shelter would take 28 dmg each time it protects. to calculate the health of the spirit, we use the formula:

(50 + (Spirit Level * 20)) * (1 + Spawning Power * .04) (guildwiki is your friend :P)

and we get that shelter has 336 hp. before the update, shelter would protect exactly 12 times before it died, now it will protect 7.8 times or 8 times before it dies.

only 4 fewer protections, and when you look at it, of the three key spirits, shelter almost always is the one that survives the longest. by the time you start the chain again, union and displace are usually already dead, but shelter is still alive and well, barring the barrage shadow bows in fow or stupid people standing in a meteor shower for the whole duration.

so if you think about it, the protection has just been balanced to last about as long as union and displacement do.

rit lords: balanced, not nerfed to death yet...

i would consider it nerfed to death.. WE arn't as good as monks at protection any more. So why bother bringing us along now. we serve no purpose. we're like a sucky monk. id argue that about rits not being good at protection. the rit spirits are rly the ultimate as far as protection. yes, a monk can protect one person better than a rit, but we offer global protection to the entire team. just look at the skills:

shelter = global prot spirit
union = global shielding hands
displace = suped-up aegis

no matter how good the monk, he cant keep ps, shielding hands, and aegis up on every single member of the team for even a fraction of the time a rit can. it doesnt matter if its not as good as before, it is still a wonderful form of protection.

and arguing that the rit protection doesnt last as long as a monks when looking at just one ally, remember that the effects from spirits cant be removed (shattered, stripped, well of prophane, OoA) nor can they be taken advantage of with certain skills (desecrated enchant ftl).

not only is it a net gain of 5 eng each time that you cast it. It's only a ONE energy net gain when you cast it. 5 energy to cast, 6 energy received from Boon of Creation.

I still like the concept of it being a "free" spirit that does decent damage, but I still think the slot is better suited for an energy management skill.

It's only a ONE energy net gain when you cast it. 5 energy to cast, 6 energy received from Boon of Creation. again, you are forgetting to factor in casting time to the equation, as i have alrdy explained before. during that 3 second cast while you are doing nothing but waiting for it to finish, you regened 4 energy. add that to the +6 eng from boon, and after pain has dropped, you have 5 more eng then when you cast it.

example: i have 20 eng. i cast pain. pain finishes casting. i now have 25 eng. a net gain of 5 eng. simple.

PS.

i did some quick calculation to find out the best energy/sec gains of the best energy managment skills. the best skills are elite of course, but i just wanna show the numbers for this argument (these numbers are slightly higher than those posted on guildwiki because i factored in casting times of the skills to show my point. all attribute points calculated at 10 of each respective lvl):


Offering of Blood [E] - 0.775 energy/sec
Mantra of Recall [E] - 0.667 energy/sec
Energy Drain [E] - 0.493 energy/sec
Inspired Hex - 0.367 energy/sec
Pain - 0.333 energy/sec

so, being that the best energy managment skill are elite, we can throw those out. and when compared to a very good utility e-managment skill like inspired hex, the difference is only 0.034 energy/sec. not worth taking points out of either spawning or communing for that small of a return.

is pain a good form of energy managment? no, not as good as many mesmer skill. is the gap wide enough for me to invest 9-10 points into that respective line and lose those points from spawning and communing? not even close.

again, all this is just my opinion. if you feel you need to invest in outside attribute lines, go right ahead because it will work, im not doubting that. im just showing that you dont need to.