Effective ritualist guide

''Note: this article is intended to provide guidance for experienced characters playing a new ritualist or experienced ritualists looking for additional options. If this is your first time playing Guild Wars, please see Getting started in Guild Wars Factions.''

The Ritualist profession is only available in the Guild Wars: Factions campaign. Users of other Guild Wars campaigns will not be able to use this profession unless they add a Factions key to their account.

A Ritualist's Place
The ritualist is a 'jack-of-all-trades' that is usually seen as a support character rather than a primary damage dealer. The role of the class is to aid allies with additional damage, healing, and effects brought forth by created spirits.

Ritualists have certain types of skills that are unique to their profession. They can:
 * Perform Binding Rituals to summon spirits to bring offensive magic, healing, and protection to the battlefield.
 * Cast Weapon Spells onto an ally, providing an effect like an enchantment would, yet being resistant to enchantment removal skills.
 * Use Item Spells to create items that have an effect until or when dropped.

Being a Ritualist
There are several different ways to play a ritualist, depending on both one's playing style and the situation at hand. The profession is very versatile; it can both support fellow party members or aid them in combat.

If you plan to summon many spirits in battle, consider using the Ritual Lord or Soul Twisting elite skill to lower the normally lengthy recharge time. Casting many rituals very quickly takes up a lot of energy, so you'll benefit by maintaining Boon of Creation when summoning spirits.

Offensive Ritualists
Ritualists have many skills and options that allow them to deal damage to the enemy. Pain, a spirit that requires Communing to be effective, is a standard spirit that will attack any enemy within sight. Be aware that unlike projectile casters and attackers, spirits do not need a clear line of sight in order to attack a foe. Make sure to summon spirits far enough away from the battle that the monsters won't attack them. It is possible to create an extremely potent artillery ritualist with the use of Pain, Bloodsong, Shadowsong, Dissonance, and Anguish - the Ritualist will almost always have at least two spirits available, even after a heavy fight, and can often put up four or five as a "wall" of artillery. The value of attacking spirits lies in the nature of their attacks. Once placed, a spirit will continue to attack any target in range regardless of the actions of the ritualist (in some cases this is a bad thing). Spirit attacks ignore armor, making them quite effective at beating down tough, high-level opponents. The downside to this is that spirits choose their own targets and it is close to impossible to get them to coordinate attacks effectively.

Destruction is another spirit that does damage. It is the equivilant of a time bomb, building up potential damage the longer it is alive. You may use Signet of Creation in order to keep it alive longer. You can time the damage it does by using Rupture Soul after it has been alive for a good time; this will set off a massive spike to enemies within range, doing damage dealt from both Destruction and Rupture Soul as well as blinding nearby enemies.

There are also many spells that deal lightning damage. Most of these have conditional added effects which make them much more effective. Channeling Magic is the main attribute associated with offensive spells. Spirit Rift, a skill introduced early in the game, will strike many foes in a tight area after three seconds have passed. Spirit Burn can deal a fair amount of damage for a low energy cost if you have a spirit near you. With high enough Channeling, Essence Strike and Caretaker's Charge end up giving energy instead of costing energy if the conditions are met. Finally, if you summon several spirits in a typical battle, you may want to consider bringing Doom; you do not need to have channeling to use it and it can deal massive damage with several of your spirits active.

Defensive Ritualists
You may consider playing as a ritualist that supports their allies through healing and protection, in which case there are still many options. Some ritualists choose to invest their points in only Spawning Power and Communing, choosing to rely on spirits from just the Communing attribute.

However, a Ritualist using Restoration Magic can be a very effective healer. Unlike a Monk, ritualist healing gains bonuses from meeting certain conditions, rather than spending points in Divine Favor. This means a healing Ritualist needs to plan ahead and combine skills for the maximum health gain.

Shelter and Union are highly effective both alone and when used together. What results is all damage that's greater than 10% of a party member's health is negated, while the damage that does get through is reduced by 15 points. In order to not have your Union spirit take damage before an attack is blocked by Shelter, cast Shelter first and then Union. Union will then only activate on the attacks that get through. Displacement is another spirit that many put in their lineup. Place displacement between Union and Shelter if you're using those skills to make it as effective as possible, as Displacement should only block the leftover attacks that Shelter hasn't.

There are Restoration skills as well that can heal instead of protecting. Recuperation is a spirit equivalent of the Monk skill Mending, providing up to +3 regeneration (6 health per second) to all allies within the area of the spirit. The comparison to Mending may be a bit trite, but consider this: with an investment of twenty five energy, a ritualist can grant every party member in range (and allies if you have them) a three point life regen bonus for 40 seconds. Life is another spirit you may want to include - it heals for large amounts when it dies if it managed to stay alive long enough. As with Destruction mentioned above, you may want to chain Life with Spirit to Flesh and time the healing. Finally, there are some straight healing spells that benefit when you have spirits nearby.

The key to using Ritualist healing spells is to ensure they meet their requirements to be completely effective. For example, Soothing Memories will only cost a net 2 energy if you are holding an item. Combining it with an Item Spell such as Mighty Was Vorizun will give you a very cheap heal. Mend Body and Soul is a moderate heal, but an excellent condition remover if you have several Spirits nearby. Wielder's Boon is a low heal on its own, but comparable to Heal Other if its target is under the effect of a Weapon Spell. Most of the ritualist heals cost only five energy and heal for a decent amount. Even so you will have to find a different source of energy management if you plan to spam healing spells. It is worth it to invest some points into Spawning Power to take advantage of skills such as Attuned Was Songkai or Spirit Channeling.

PvP Ritualists
The main use of PvP Ritualists is the spirit spamming Ritual Lord build. Other PvP builds have included Soul Twisting + Shelter and channeling magic for spike assists, as well as some builds occasionally using a pair of defensive ritualists to replace a monk.

Attribute Priority
There are two general trends for pure ritualist builds: those who use many spirits will spec strongly into Communing and Spawning Power, while those who do not will use Restoration and Channeling skills to support the offense or defense more directly.
 * Spawning Power: This ability is either extremely important or almost useless, depending on whether your build uses Spirits or not. Many spirits, such as Shelter and Union, will lose health when they take effect.  Having many ranks in Spawning Power allows them to stay alive longer.
 * Communing: When using a mix of spirits and other spells, Communing probably goes farther for you than Spawning Power as it will increase duration and effect of spirits as well as other spells.
 * Restoration Magic: The Restoration line is perceived as inferior to the Monk lines. However because it does not require a second attribute such as Divine Favor to be fully effective it is popular on hybrid characters that like to retain some damage dealing potential. Restoration and Channeling work well together for this.
 * Channeling Magic: As with most offensive lines, Channeling tends to be all or nothing. If you have many ranks, it is useful for dealing damage.  If you do not, it is better to use your energy elsewhere.

Types of Ritualists
This is not an exhaustive list of builds, but rather a short summary of common themes that many popular ritualist builds fit within. For specific builds see the article on Builds.

Restorer
A ritualist focused on healing and aiding, either in place of or in addition to a monk teammate. With a focus on restoration skills and a few spirits, the ritualist can do a good job of healing, and is not as easily countered by enchantment stripping as a Monk.

Certain Restoration spells are more effective with a spirit around, but you are not tied as heavily to your Spirits as other Ritualists. Using Skills linked to items, such as Soothing Memories or Lively Was Naomei allows you to be more mobile. Though the uses are limited, Lively Was Naomei and Restoration can be used to resurrect the entire team, including the caster, after a costly battle.

Defensive spirits, from both the Restoration and Communing lines, always affect all allies in the area, making them more effective in larger groups. As mentioned above, Recuperation is a poor deal for just one person, but it costs the same whether it affects just the caster or an 8-person party with pets and minions. Furthermore, spirit affects stack with enchantments and other affects (like chants) and can only be removed or ended by the death of the spirit. Unfortunately, as the game is now, spirit affects always take precedence over enchants. That means that Aegis or Guardian will not trigger while Displacement is alive since Displacement will evade all attacks in its range before a check is made to block an attack via an enchantment.

Weapon Spells are very useful for keeping your party alive, as they are not an Enchantment or Stance, and so can only be countered by interrupting them. Vengeful Weapon is basically Reversal of Fortune with a life steal, and is useful for healing Warriors while also adding to their damage output. Weapon of Shadow can relieve the pressure on anyone who is the focus of attacks by blinding attackers. Weapon of Warding helps block attacks while adding some regen to the bearer. Resilient Weapon is a good counter for hexes or conditions that cause degen and adds armor, to boot. Finally, the often-overlooked elite Weapon of Quickening can be exceedingly helpful to other casters on your team since it reduces recharge time of spells by a quarter and can be cast on several other people in rapid succession.

For Energy management, spells such as Spirit Channeling and Attuned Was Songkai are helpful. At full Restoration Magic, and 9 Spawning Power Attuned Was Songkai combined with Soothing Memories gives you a 0 energy 82 point heal every 4 seconds. Boon of Creation helps manage energy costs associated with creating spirits, while Wielder's Zeal and Renewing Memories make for cheaper weapon spells.

Spirit Wrangler
A ritualist focused on managing offensive spirits. This is probably what you want to focus on if you like doing damage, but don't want to tank. Some good spirits to take are Pain and Bloodsong, along with Dissonance, Shadowsong, and Anguish. Painful Bond can easily increase the damage of your spirits, and Spirit Boon Strike will do damage to your enemies while boosting your spirits' HP. A few healing skills can be taken as a complement.

Minion Bomber
A ritualist/necromancer, when played right can be a Minion Master, but a very different sort than the standard N/Mo build. The minion bomber relies on enchants that trigger when minions are created (Boon of Creation, Explosive Growth, and Spirit's Gift) and those that trigger when minions are destroyed (Death Nova and Jagged Bones). While the focus of a necro minion master is keeping the minions alive for their damage dealing capacity, a rit's minions serve two purposes. First, ritualist minions are an excellent distraction. Choosing melee minions (horrors and minions but not fiends) guarantees that they end up in the middle of a fight, getting in the way, drawing attacks and harmful spells and just generally being a nuisance. Every attack or fireball that hits a minion is one that doesn't hit a party member. The other use of ritualist minions is to deliver Death Nova to unsuspecting opponents. Melee minions are more than happy to charge right at enemies and die, damaging and poisoning adjacent opponents.

For a ritualist energy management is provided by Boon of Creation, instead of the Necro's Soul Reaping. At 14 Spawning Power, Animate Bone Minions is free and can be used as often as the spell is ready. Combined with Explosive Growth, making new minions damages enemies around where the minions were raised. This can lead to a nice cascade effect where the first enemy to drop gets raised as a pair of minions which damages other nearby enemies, some of whom will die and get turned into minions causing more damage from Explosive Growth...

The addition of the Nightfall skills sweeten the deal. Spirit's Gift heals anyone standing next to a corpse that gets raised. This vastly improves the lifespan of frontline units like warriors, dervishes and assassins as well as other minions. Shambling Horrors spawn Jagged Horrors when they die, which also triggers all the effects of Boon, Explosive Growth and Spirit's Gift. Jagged Bones makes any minion spawn a Jagged Horror when it perishes. A single minion dying while enchanted with both Death Nova and Jagged Bones deals the damage from Death Nova, spawns a Jagged Horror to fight in its place, triggering lightning damage from Explosive Growth, in addition to healing everyone around it and triggering health and energy gain for the ritualist. With the addition of the skill Putrid Flesh a ritualist can detonate a minion on command, spreading disease along with the poison from Death Nova. If necessary, Spirit's Gift can mitigate the effects of disease on your own people. Other kill-on-command spells include Taste of Death, which spike-heals the Ritualist, Feast for the Dead which heals other minions and Reclaim Essence, which gives energy.

All of this minion goodness comes at a price, though. This sort of build relies heavily on enchantments, making enchantment removal a crucial problem. Ideally, PvE critters will just as often remove Death Nova from minions instead of removing the important enchants from the ritualist, but something like Rend Enchantments or Lingering Curse could significantly hinder the effectiveness of the build. Furthermore, Guild Wars has no support for automatically selecting minions, and picking them out of a melee to target them with enchants can be an exercise in frustration especially considering the cast time on Death Nova. Lastly, ritualists who go this route cycle minions at a phenomenal pace. Since the key points for the ritualist are making and destroying minions, there is really no point in keeping them alive for long, except to have a decent force going into a fight. This could cause competition for corpses if a more traditional minion master is included in the group. Problems aside, a ritualist minion master makes for an excellent teammate and a unique and interesting experience.

Channeling Ritualist
Ritualists can be direct damage dealers by using the skills in the channeling line. Builds like this usually make use of a single spirit or an item spell (or both) to take advantage of conditional effects on spells like Essence Strike, Spirit Burn, Renewing Surge and Caretaker's Charge. As in the Restoration line, Channeling spells often have their own skills dedicated to energy management and the wise player will take this into account when devising a build. While Channeling skills do not have the 25% armor penetration inherent in many of the offensive Air Magic spells, (Destructive was Glaive now causes 10% armor penetration to all Channeling spells) most do better damage versus cost. Builds like this often spam damaging spells as often as possible, resulting in constant damage output.

Spirit Spammer
A spirit spammer is a subclass of either the restorer or spirit wrangler builds mentioned above. The major difference is that spirit spammers tend to summon spirits as often as possible and to that end include the elite skill Ritual Lord.

Offensive spirit spammers put points into Communing to have the buffest attack spirits. With Ritual Lord, though, the spirit's lifetime and the recharge of the binding ritual are less important. With the exception of the long-lived spirits (Pain and Bloodsong, both of which can last two minutes or more) any spirit should be summoned as soon as its ritual has been recharged, giving a fresh supply of attacking spirits.

Defensive spirit spammers can split points between Communing and Restoration. Protective spirits are favored (the popular combo of Union and Shelter) along with healing spirits (Recuperation, Life, Recovery) to greatly extend the life of the party. Protective spirits often have short lifespans since the activation of their abilities causes a loss of health to the spirit. A spirit spammer can more quickly replace these spirits so a party can make use of their protective abilities more often. A build like this should consider some of the skills that provide increased resilience to a spirit for a limited time (Signet of Binding, Signet of Creation) to keep the spirits around long enough that new ones can be summoned.

55 Ritualist
While not being as popular, the 55 Ritualist can be used as an alternative to the 55 Monk build.

The Secondary Profession Dilemma
Perhaps moreso than any other profession, the choice of secondary for a ritualist is difficult. The ritualist plays very well when using only Ritualist skills. It can be difficult choosing a secondary when none of the choices seems to offer anything the class can't already do. A common (though perhaps unwise) strategy is to choose anything just to be able to progress past the initial Shing Jea Monastery quests and then ignore it. That advice however, can leave a new player unable to decide, and PvE for a ritualist can stall over this conflict.
 * See also Secondary professions for a Ritualist.

Assassin
The primary benefit to the assassin profession is mobility. Shadow Arts offers a variety of skills to move your character around the battlefield. While skills like Heart of Shadow and Viper's Defense are primarily defensive, Death's Retreat and Return can be used to get out of a tight spot quickly. Further, since a ritualist controls the placement of her own spirits, Spirit Walk can be used to shadow step to a predetermined location, while Swap serves double-duty to a ritualist: it can be used to get the ritualist out of trouble while bringing a spirit (like Destruction) into the center of the action.

Elementalist
Since the Ritualist's Channeling Magic line deals lightning damage, it has some possible interaction with Elementalists Air Magic skills, for example Glimmering Mark can be combined with the Channeling Magic lightning spellls for an effective blinding ritualist. Further, Glyphs can also be used to reduce Recharge time and energy cost on spells in the ritualist's lineup. Skills that knockdown, of which the majority of an Elementalist's lies in the Earth Magic line, also benefit greatly from Earthbind. A defensive ritualist can also make use of Wards, such as Ward Against Melee, to further protect the party while allowing Union to stay alive longer. One may also consider throwing up Ward Against Foes to slow down enemies charging directly to spirits. Please note that Wards do not affect spirits, however.

Mesmer
While an excellent complement to most spellcasting professions, Mesmer as a secondary is of limited usefulness to a ritualist. Mantra of Resolve and Mantra of Concentration can be useful to prevent interruption of binding rituals, but Tranquil Was Tanasen works better, even if it is elite. Arcane Echo can be used to copy any spell, but binding rituals are not spells and can only be copied with Echo. Some useful energy management skills lie in the Inspiration magic line, but ritualists already have a decent supply of their own energy management skills. The true strength in an Rt/Me would come from the differences between the professions. Mesmers have stances, interrupts and hex removal, none of which are available to a pure ritualist.

Monk
Rt/Mo carries the support/healing build to an extreme. An Rt/Mo cannot rely on Divine Favor for incidental heals and to boost the effectiveness of certain lackluster spells like Orison and would be better of going with Restoration for healing and using other skills like enchantments and signets which are unaffected by Divine Favor anyway. Martyr or Draw Conditions can combine well with Resilient Was Xiko and Resilient Weapon to put conditions on the person best able to handle them. Attuned Was Songkai can be used to reduce the costs of expensive spells that affect the entire party like Heal Party. The monk's repertoire of hex removal skills is a welcome addition to the ritualist's skillbar. Finally, Zealot's Fire works just as well with spammable weapon spells as with monk spells, allowing the smiting ritualist to damage enemies while buffing allies.

Necromancer
Almost all Ritualist/Necromancers focus on one specific build. As Rt/N Explosive Creation shows, they can make for a different and potent minion bomber. It is worth noting, however, that Attuned Was Songkai is just as useful for spamming lifestealing Blood Magic skills or Curses.

Ranger
Ranger Traps can be combined with Spirit placement to corall victims into bombardment. Serpent's Quickness can serve as a weak version of Ritual Lord in the early game. Generally, the Rangers huge variety of stay alive skills can be helpful to the Ritualist.

Frozen Soil is often used by Ritual Lords in PvP matches.

Warrior
The Warrior's attack skills will be of little use for Ritualists, but some good survival skills are in the Tactics line.

Armor & Runes
Armor varies as much as the multitude of roles the ritualist can play. Armor bonuses may be granted for being enchanted by a weapon spell, controlling spirits, holding items (notably including urns), or while activating skills (think of the long activation time for spirits).

As for appearances, while all ritualist helmets cover the eyes, as far as game mechanics, they are not blind and are affected by the blindness condition just as any other class. However, players may still roleplay being blind as does the henchman, Aeson.

Weapons
As other casters, ritualists, use wands and offhand items or staves.

Keep in mind that binding rituals are not spells, thus weapon mods that grant faster casting or recharge to spells will not affect your rituals. Also note that if using an abundance of item spells, you will lose any bonuses granted from your weapon as long as an item is held.

Spirit Stats
Spirits cannot be healed directly, but can be healed via the Spirit Boon Strike spell, can be targetted by attacks, and are immobile. Spirits' effects either work within a range around them or they target single enemies within their range. The exact range varies according to the spirit. Detailed information on Spirit stats is available within the Spirit article.

Managing Your Spirits
Important factors for your spirits are the recharge time and the placement. You want your spirits to be up at the correct time at the correct place. Defensive spirits are usually placed a good distance away from the actual fighting, so they dont get targeted by enemies. It is best to start placing these spirits before the fighting starts, since it takes some time to get them all up. When the fighting starts, watch for the recharge and search good places for your new spirits so that they are out of harms way but still cover your team mates (who might have moved since the fighting started). Finally, do not stack spirits in one place. Any form of AOE will be devastating to your lightly armored spirits.

Offensive spirits can also be created before the battle. In that case the enemies have to be lured towards the spirits (like in a trapper build). Other spirits will only be cast during the battle. Make sure you get close enough to the enemy for these spirits to work but be aware that you will be standing still for a long time while creating a spirit, making you an easy target.

Consider Draw Spirit as an option to bring vital spirits with you as you move, but be careful to not waste it on a short lived spirit in the heat of the moment. Spirits that take a lot of damage or have short life times are simply not worth the effort, even if the recharge time for them is long.

If you are working with a specific build it may have different advice, and you should consider which suggestion is correct for you.

The hardest part of spirit management is not actually the spirits, but your teammates. Avoid 'go-go-go' PUGs if at all possible. When they run, all your spirits will be left behind, and with them all the support you could have provided until your recharge comes around. More than likely, you will get the blame for their error. A spirit spammer is a build that works best on a thinker's team. You want a team willing to let you set up a 'battle / spirit platform' (the area where you cast the majority of your spirits) and then to defend that space until the fight is over. You want them to draw in the opposition, lure them to your spirit platform, rather than chase it down.

With henchmen, this becomes easier to manage. Most henchmen will not stray too far from the PCs, and when they do will return if you choose not to follow them. On the other hand, they will not seek out and draw in opponents as readily as fellow players might, and often you will have to leave your own spirit platform to draw in an enemy, and then flee back hoping the hostiles follow and your henchmen don't stop them too far away from the spirit platform. It is a delicate game, but it can be managed.

Energy management
Ritualists have a few energy management skills at their disposal; Essence Strike, Spirit Siphon and the elite Signet of Spirits, all part of the Channeling Magic skill set, require nearby spirits. Boon of Creation is often vital for spirit spammers and Ritualist minion masters, and Restoration Magic Ritualists may rely on the Spawning Power elites Attuned Was Songkai or Spirit Channeling as an exclusive skill to give them a leg up on monks. If the above doesn't fit your plans, try a secondary profession for your energy management needs.

Resurrecting
With Flesh of My Flesh, Lively Was Naomei, and Restoration the Ritualist might be equal or even superior to the Monk in resurrecting dead allies during battle. If your team wants to resurrect team mates during battle the Ritualists is the better choice (but always keep in mind that Resurrection Signets might be even better). For resurrection after a near-wipe, the Monk's teleporting Rebirth is unbeaten though.

If you use Death Pact Signet keep in mind that while it is the fastest resurrection using it on people who jump right back into combat may not be the best idea. Death Pact Signet draws aggro to a player and when and if they die again, you're going down with him (dying via Death Pact Signet will not cause Death Penalty.)

Lively Was Naomei and Restoration are the only two skills in the game that resurrect the caster. They are also unique in the fact that they allow people to be resurrected on the field even while under the effect of Frozen Soil, making these skills even more useful when it comes to fighting in Heroes' Ascent as Frozen Soil is often set down by the other team. While Lively Was Naomei is more common in Heroes' Ascent, some people prefer Restoration because it falls under the Communing attribute line, so they do not have to invest points into the Restoration attribute line. If you plan on using the Restoration spirit, it might be wise to consider bringing a spirit-killing skill such as Rupture Soul in order to get an immediate resurrection.