Bonder vs Ritualist

Does the ritualist make a bonder obsolete? I was thinking about this the other day, when I was in a party that wanted to clear UW and do all the quests. I was the only monk, and they told me to just bring a couple of heals, and mainly hex removal. There was also one tank. I wondered how on earth we would survive like this considering the huge damage that the aatxes do, but I went along with it.

The ritualist used ritual lord, spamming the same spirits over and over again, and to my amazement, nobody took any damage. At all. My job as a monk was pretty useless most of the time, because the tank would stand there, taking absolutely no damage from 3 aatxes, and everyone would shoot them.

If the ritualist had been a bonder, the damage to the tank would have been quartered, and the damage to most of the other players probably halved, but we definitely would have been taking damage and required healing from at least 1 other monk, usually 2 monks + a bonder for such a group.

The other thing that made me think about this was killing rotscale. His desecrate enchantments makes bonding a fairly bad idea, unless you prot spirit everyone. But the easiest rotscale farm I ever had was with the same ritualist, doing the same thing. She stood at the back making these spirits over and over, and nobody got hurt or died, it was unbelievable.

What do you think?

I guess nobody think that

Oh yeah, this is the reason I decided to take my Ritualist through Prophecies. After playing Tombs and UW/FoW and even the Hell's Precipice mission, I realized my Ritualist spirits would just be amazing. Since no one believed me, a friend and I took my Ritualist in a balanced group in Tombs and we went pretty quickly with only one other monk. Sometimes the only way to beat some of the bosses in Cantha (without having to respawn a lot) is a monk with Protective Spirit or a Ritualist with Shelter; the mobs in Prophecies are overall easier so it made sense that a Shelter/Union Ritualist would be great in Tyria. I haven't had the guts to take my Ritualist to FoW or UW without two monks, but I'm willing to bet we'd be okay. The spirits get attacked sometimes if you and your team aren't careful, but that down time is the only time where the monks earn their keep.

It is amazing how set in their ways people are. The only rotscale farms I've been on that have been successful were ones with a ritualist (this due to the fact that NOBODY DIES when a ritualist comes). But still, people say "we need another 3 monks". No we don't I tell them. They don't understand it, maybe they haven't played Factions or don't understand the ritualist.

I only wish more ritualists would come to ToA, because I have a really tough time finding one for my party, they are so rare in Prophecies but so useful.

I play a spirit spamming ritualist...I took a build from these hallowed threads and tweaked it a bit...Multiple Rotscale runs have taught me alot about its limitations. While the build (as I use it or as it is commonly used) requires the ritualist to remain far, far away from the conflict...it is not as absolutely invincible as you make it seem...Honestly, I find it funny when folks get cocky and run up to the bone dragons only to find themselves sniffing dirt...usually, these folks think spirits appear instantaneously...The ones that suvive, or have the basic instinct to survive have but one way (direction) to escape...which usually means aggro is dropped right in the ritualists lap...Rotscale runs...oy! I hate the narrow little bridge. Once the spirit-spamming is disrupted and you break your cycle, it's easy to find yourself running low on energy...even with Boon of Creation and/Mighty was "what's-his-face"...you get disrupted and you start losing spirits...not good. Sequence and timing are esential to the build...not a lot of flexibility...and it can get a bit dull at times.