User:Artist of Healing/builds/Spirit Nuker

The original build's history

The purpose of this build is create spirits on the battlefield, and subsequently destroy them with Rupture Soul for massive damage and blindness. With this skill the ritualist acts like a trapper, by strategically placing spirits in combat and blowing them up for 146 lightning damage to nearby enemies. This is especially useful in some missions, such as The Eternal Grove, where enemies can be "bottle-necked" in certain locations.

This build has a significant advantage over a ranger trapper because, unlike traps, binding rituals are not easily interruptible. Also, once the first spirit is destroyed by Rupture Soul, the ritualist has 13 seconds of blinded enemies to cast and destroy the next spirit. If done properly, the last thing that any enemy in the area should "see" is the first spirit exploding.

Attributes and Skills
NOTE: The important attribute here is Spawning Power. The remainder of this point distribution is solely for improving the effectiveness and duration of the binding rituals shown below. As long as Spawning is maximized, however, the other attributes can be adjusted as necessary to fit your needs and skill set.

Usage

 * Always maintain Boon of Creation, Explosive Growth, and Ritual Lord.
 * During normal combat, wait until the fight is joined (that is, until the enemies have begun attacking other targets in the party). Run into a group of enemies and cast a binding ritual, immediately followed by Rupture Soul.  The combined effect of Explosive Growth and Rupture Soul will deal 214 lightning damage to all nearby enemies.  Also, the blinding effect of Rupture Soul provides protection to your warriors, and will often provide the cover necessary to cast and destroy a second or third spirit.
 * If a bottleneck location is available, cast multiple Binding Rituals at a bottleneck location. Work with your party to pull the enemies through the bottleneck.  Repeatedly cast Rupture Soul until all of the spirits are destroyed.  Repeat as necessary.
 * Cast and destroy Restoration if an ally dies.

When playing this build, other binding rituals may be used (such as Destruction instead of Pain). However, consider the following when choosing them:
 * Every second counts. Unlike the Elementalist, who can cast high damage spells from afar, the Ritualist must run into the middle of combat to plant his spells.  Because of this, binding rituals with a casting time of 3 seconds are recommended over those with a casting time of 5 seconds.  The exception to this is Restoration, which doubles as a resurrection and a damage dealing (or healing; see below) spell.
 * Some spirits, such as Shelter and Union, take damage when certain events happen in play. This can lower the duration of the binding ritual dramatically, and cause the spirit to die before you can destroy it.

Equipment

 * Depending on your style, either Halcyon's Armor for the added energy boost or Mystic's Armor for added protection in the middle of combat. For the healing variation below (which does not require you to go into the combat zone), Halcyon's Armor is preferred.
 * A spawning collector's staff (such as the one traded by Sakai in Senji's Corner) with an Insightful Staff Head and a Staff Wrapping of Fortitude for added energy and health.
 * A Minor Rune of Communing and Restoration, a Superior Rune of Spawning, and the strongest Rune of Vigor you can find.

Variants
Spirit Healer: The premise of this variation is the same as the Spirit Nuker; spirits are made and subsequently destroyed. The difference in this variation is that they are destroyed for the purpose of healing rather than damage dealing. To achieve this, only 2 skills need to be changed, with no changes to attributes:

Strategy:
 * Always maintain Boon of Creation, Spirit's Gift and Ritual Lord.
 * When combat begins, wait until the fight is joined (that is, until the enemies have begun attacking other targets in the party), the begin casting binding rituals as close to the front line warriors as possible. This will heal your nearby allies for 53 damage each.  When they are destroyed with Feast of Souls, they will provide an additional 103 points of healing for each spirit destroyed.  Note that, when Feast of Souls is used, the party members do not have to be standing nearby to gain the healing effect.
 * If you spread your binding rituals out, you can also pick them off one at a time using Feast of Souls. This can be useful in providing a steady stream of 103 HP healing to the entire party every 10 seconds.
 * Remember that this build is used for MASS healing, and not spot healing. Your healing heals everybody in the party by hundreds of hit points at a time; it is wasted on players who are already at or near full life.  For this reason, this build is optimized when there is at least one monk in the party to take care of the "stragglers."

Other Variations

 * The elite skill used in this build, Ritual Lord, can only be found very late in the game. If you wish to try this build before getting Ritual Lord, you can replace Ritual Lord with Doom (this was the original variation).  While not as effective, it still enhances the damage dealing characteristics of the build, and easy to create early in the game.
 * The elite skill used in this build, Ritual Lord, can also be replaced with Preservation.
 * The skill Empowerment can be replaced by a skill that will work with these builds, unless you are in Random Arena or GvG with flagrunners.

Templates
Spirit Nuker

Spirit Healer