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 Guild Wars: Factions. Guild Wars: Prophecies users will not be able to use this profession unless they have linked a Factions key to their Prophecies account.

A Ritualist's Place
The ritualist is a 'jack-of-all-trades' usually seen as a support character, rather than primary damage dealer. The role of the class is to aid allies with additional damage, some direct healing and mainly the creation of spirits.

PvE Ritualists
Most PvE Ritualists take a role in supportive healing. Spirits like Shelter, Union, Displacement create good area of effect protection for the whole group, while Recuperation bring cheap health regeneration. If the group lacks Monks, many Ritualist also bring direct healing skills from the Restoration line to help with healing single group members. A PvE henchmen-assisted solo player might consider going the damage route (Channeling Magic) to get the benefit of calling targets for the henchmen. A special sub-class are the Minion-Master Ritualists.

PvP Ritualists
The main use of PvP Ritualists is the spirit spamming Ritual Lord build. Other PvP uses might include a Channeling Ritualist spike.

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 pretty good job of healing.

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 Recuperation. Spirit Boon Strike will do damage to your enemies while boosting your spirits' HP. A few healing skills can be taken as a compliment.

Minion Bomber
A ritualist, when played right can be a Minion Master, but perhaps not as effective as a necromancer, as it will be 2 minions short. However this is offset with the massive AoE damage of Explosive Growth. Primary skills for the minion ritualist are Boon of Creation, and Explosive Growth.

Channeling Ritualist
Ritualists can be direct damage dealers by using the skills in the channeling line. These Ritualists usually bring one spirit to make use of the complementarity with skills like Spirit Boon Strike and Essence Strike.

Spirit Spammer
These Ritualist focus exclusivly on creating spirits and usually work with the skills Boon of Creation and Ritual Lord.

55 Ritualist
It has been suggested on many forums that the ritualist can make an alternative to the 55 monk build. However, while popular to discuss, this concept remains unproven and it not at this time a recommended strategy to attempt. Fansite and forum discussions on the theme should be examined cautiously.

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 chose 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 Ritualist:Profession Combinations

Assassin
While a ritualist will usually not wield a dagger, being secondary Assassin offers some good defensive skills in the Shadow Arts line. Apart from there there are few complementarities.

Elementalist
Since the Ritualist's Channeling Magic line deals lighting damage, it has some possible interaction with Elementalists Air Magic skills, for example Glimmering Mark can be combined with the Channeling Magic lightning rituals for an effective blinding ritualist. Further, Glyphs can also be used to reduce Recharge time and energy cost on spirit or damaging skills.

Mesmer
Probably one of the main secondary professions for Ritualists, due to Mantra of Resolve and Mantra of Concentration. These skills can be essential for spirit spamming Ritualists. Other useful Mesmer skills are the energy management skills in the Inspiration Magic line. Arcane Echo and Echo can be useful for spamming slower spells, although Arcane Echo unfortunately will not work for any binding spells.

Monk
Both classes have a focus on healing, but without access to the Monks Divine Favor line, there are only very few good combinations for Ritualist/Monks. Despite this the Monk is perhaps (unfortunately) the second most if not the most common secondary taken for the ritualist, and builds of varying effectiveness (or lack thereof - approach with caution) are common on external fansites.

Necromancer
Almost all Ritualist/Necromancers focus on one specific build. As Rt/N Explosive Creation shows, they can make for a different and potentially potent minion bomber.

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.

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

Spirit Stats
Spirits cannot be healed directly, but can be healed via the sprit boon strike spell, can be targetted by attacks, and are immobile. Spirits effects either work within a range around them, or the spirit targets 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 places 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).

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 henchment 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 precious few energy management skills. Essence Strike is a main one for Channeling Magic users, spirit spammers and minion masters rely on Boon of Creation. The situation is worst for Restoration Ritualists, who might consider going secondary Mesmer or Elementalist to get access to other energy management skills.

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 an even better). For resurrection after a near-wipe, the Monks teleporting Rebirth is unbeaten though.