User:Ellison.dean/Ritual Lord

Through spamming protective spirits, the Ritual Lord is designed to greatly reduce damage dealt to the team.

Usage

 * Stand as far away from combat as your spirits can be and still affect allies.
 * Use Boon of Creation for Energy management. Cast it first, then begin casting Shelter.
 * Activate Ritual Lord during shelter. Like a stance, it has zero casting time so it can be cast during other skills.
 * Invoke Displacement then Union.
 * Be sure to constantly refresh Boon of Creation and Ritual Lord.
 * Typically, Displacement will run out fairly quickly, at which time Union will start eroding. Before Union runs out, your Displacement should be recharged and ready. Invoke it as soon as it becomes ready again.
 * For the duration of the battle, try to balance Union and Displacement so that at least one of them is in effect, while always maintaining Shelter. This will make healing extremely easy.

The end result of this build is that the party will almost always take no more than 30-38 Damage Per Hit and will avoid most attacks.
 * 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.

Counters

 * Removing Boon of Creation will greatly reduce the energy management within this build.
 * Likewise, any energy denial skills can greatly impact the build's effectiveness.
 * If targeted, the build will usually die quickly as it does not have attack or healing skills.
 * Interrupts while creating the spirits will force the player to wait the full length of recharge time.

Variants
There are two optional slots in the skill bar. These can be filled as follows:


 * Soothing
 * Suggested as a near must have for one of the optional slots. This is not a universal opinion, but should be considered. It will go a long way towards shutting down Adrenaline users.


 * Armor of Unfeeling
 * Pointless in PvE, excellent in PvP. A flat-out damage reduction to give more protection than any amount of Armor. Not always effective.


 * Mighty Was Vorizun
 * So-So in PvE, great in PvP. Can't go wrong with additional Armor and Energy, although you lose any Fast Casting/Recharge mods on your weapon.


 * Feast of Souls
 * Overpowered in PvE, excellent in PvP. This far outstrips Heal Party. Chances are, Shelter won't die before it recharges. Feast of Souls can therefore be cast to give the party a strong heal. Used early it will give the party a very strong Heal.


 * Signet of Creation
 * Good in PvE, good in PvP. Gives Union and Displacement a helping hand before they die.


 * Shadowsong
 * Protects caster and caster's spirits from melee attackers that try to bring them down.


 * Spirit Siphon
 * By using two Superior Runes, one each of Communing and Spawning Power, and a Minor Rune of Channeling Magic and putting Communing and Spawning Power at 14, you can put 11 into Channeling Magic and use this skill for much more efficient energy management. Great for PvE, if you stay out of aggro range. Dangerous in PvP because of much lower health.


 * Mantra of Resolve
 * If your secondary class is Mesmer, put 3 into Inspiration. Not needed in PvE, but you may want it for PvP. Binding Rituals are not spells, so there are less interrupting skills to affect them, but interruptions will not trigger Ritual Lord's Recharge reduction, thus, it's really bad to be interrupted. Don't worry about the low Rank: There will be Energy to spare if Boon of Creation is managed properly.


 * Mantra of Concentration
 * A longer lasting, cheaper variant of Mantra of Resolve. Only stops one interrupt per cast however.


 * Frozen Soil
 * Many teams (most notably IWAY) prefer to have one Frozen Soil-spirit carried by the Ritual Lord, to prevent enemies from reviving dead teammates. This requires Ranger as secondary profession.