Guide to playing as a ritualist

Note: This article is geared towards new players. Please keep its contents to those which new players can reasonably understand and use.

Overview

Ritualists were solely dependent on the veneration of one's ancestors as conduits of power (before the gods gave magic to the world); they shield their eyes to better commune with spirits that grant great power and protection and often find themselves in versatile support roles for the team that allows them to wield synergistic abilities that enhance the offensive and defensive capabilities of the party. They are unique in their ability to create spirits that will actively protect and heal allies or damage and debilitate foes (compared to Ranger spirits which all have a global, passive effect). These bound tortured souls will assist the party in combat, offer up life-sustaining aid, and attract the ire of aggressive enemies to take some heat off your back. They are armed with weapon spells that enchant an ally's weapon instead of the person, thus avoiding the possibility of being disenchanted by foes. They also may cast item spells to summon ashes of long dead heroes which aid the Ritualist while the urn of ashes is held or when the urn is dropped. Ritualists also come with a variety of direct damage spells, condition spells, hex spells, healing spells, and summoned creatures interaction spells; allowing them to fill gaps in a party as true team players. In short, no group of adventurers should be without the ritualist's powers.

In PvP, Ritualists often use their spirits to influence the battlefield. Supportive spirits can create a safe zone to help mitigate damage, taking the pressure off the team's primary healers. Offensive spirits can create danger zones, resulting in a source of constant, armor-ignoring damage against those who enter their long attack range.

Attributes

Spawning Power (Primary Attribute)

This is the primary attribute of Ritualists. It boosts the health of spirits (and minions!) and increases the duration of weapon spells. Skills under this attribute focus largely on spirits and energy management, so those roles that require spirits will often take a skill or two from here. This ability is either extremely important or almost useless, depending on whether your build uses Spirits/Minions or not. Many spirits, such as Shelter and Union, will lose health when they take effect - so having many ranks in Spawning Power allows them to stay alive longer.

Channeling Magic

Most of the Ritualist's direct damage spells, hexes and lifestealing are found under this attribute. While they tend to deal lightning damage, they do not have the extra armor penetration found under the elementalist's air magic. However, most of the Channeling spells can be augmented by some condition such as holding an item (eg. ashes), being in range of a spirit, or being under a weapon spell.

Communing

Communing has the majority of the ritualist's spirit skills and a mixture of support skills. Most Ritualists will find something here that can help support the role they are playing.

Restoration Magic

As its name suggests, this attribute is where most of the Ritualist's healing skills are found. While Ritualists do not get the extra Divine Favor bonus of monks, much like the Channeling line, many of their healing spells can be strengthened by holding an item, being in range of a spirit, or being under a weapon spell. The Restoration line is perceived as inferior to the Monk lines (mainly due to the longer cast times), but 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. This fact allows Restoration and attributes such as Channeling Magic to work well together.

Understanding the profession

Ritualists use their connection with the spirit world to bring forth spirits to aid them or ashes of fallen heroes.

PvE

Ritualists in PvE play anything from parameter altering utility and support, to dealing high levels of sustained damage, to summoning spirits and minions for mob control. When spirits are employed, the PvE skill Summon Spirits enables you to take your spirits with you as long as you don't move out of the range of the spirits. 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.

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 don't get targeted by enemies. It is best to start placing these spirits before the fighting starts, to allow you to better focus on the combat to come and so lengthy recharge times can begin. When the fighting starts, watch for the recharge and search good places for your new spirits so that they are out of harm's 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); as spirits have longbow range, it can be wise to strike an enemy from a distance and allow spirits to begin their assault from afar (an effective strategy against immobile targets). Other spirits will only be cast during the battle. Make sure you get close enough to the enemy for these spirits to work, but avoid getting too close and making yourself an easy target.

PvP

Ritualists in PvP usually play a utility and support role, employing anything from snares, speed buffs, protection and healing. There are also Ritualist Spikers which use high powered channeling spells to make quick work of the enemy.

Spirits can, and should be positioned aggressively, as some will take their toll on enemies' backlines, like Dissonance (PvP). Since players tend to move back when facing trouble, Pain (PvP) and Anguish (PvP) are good calls too, but it also means Shadowsong (PvP) or Preservation (PvP) will be best used in your own mid or backline. Keep in mind that spirits in PvP have longer casting times than those in PvE; as such, spirit spammer builds can be effective, but take some getting used to.

Spirits can be used for organized pushes to get a hold on enemy ground. In such a scenario, the ritualist will place spirits progressively closer the enemy group, making sure to be covered by the previous spirit or a healer, as this would mean going to the frontline. This could be achieved for instance by raising Displacement (PvP) first in the mid line to avoid being quickly spiked or interrupted by a ranger, then moving forward to set Wanderlust (PvP), and forward again to the enemy group to set Shadowsong (PvP). The ritualist will back up as soon as he starts being pressured or if the opposing team is clever enough to target the spirits instead of the ritualist himself.

On some maps, two to three spirits can be used to body block narrow passages like bridges, while still allowing the ritualist and his teammates to move back and forth, since the game mechanics allow you to move closer to an ally than to an enemy.

Staying alive

In PvP, positioning is critical to stay alive and ritualists in PvP generally are somewhere between the backline and midline depending on their build and how they integrate with the team.

In PvE, ritualists should generally rely on positioning for survival. Defensive builds, such as damage prevention and healing supporters, should generally take backline positions, while offensive builds such as nukers, offensive spirit spammers and minion bombers should generally take midline positions. Using offensive item spells' point blank area of effect (PBAoE) effects can be quite risky, so caution is advised.

Playing in a party

All types of Ritualists are good in a party, but usually require some flexibility. In particular, in order to avoid stacking and overlapping issues, extra care must be taken in coordinating Team builds and Team roles when having two (or more) ritualist within any given party.

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's build is one 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 as opposed to chasing it.

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, 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 easily with patience.

What to avoid

As a Ritualist, either playing offensive, defensive, or supportive, your spirits must survive for full effect of your skills. Avoid interrupts. Thankfully, in PvE, interrupts are rare, usually coming in the form of knockdown by casters or warriors. Set up your spirits before aggroing the enemies to avoid them. In PvP, interrupts are much more common. Also note that Binding rituals are not spells when determining what skills to watch out for.

Against an Area of Effect Elementalist, you won't have much choice but to keep taking cover. Even the simplest of area of effect (AoE) skills, like Fire Storm will hinder your build. A fire elementalist is not the only one, an earth elementalist can do AoE too; skills like Shockwave can kill your spirits if your Spawning Power is low or in one cast if you have no Spawning Power at all. Playing a match against an AoE Elementalist is to hand them your spirits for sacrifice.

If you plan on going to Random Arenas, think wisely about what build you are going to take. Each player has their own agenda due to builds being completely random. If you are going for spirit summoning, or healing in earshot range, it is wise to advise your team at the start before they overextend. Since the Ritualist is made almost entirely for team players, taking a build that relies on teamwork will not function well in Random Arenas. Not to say you should avoid Random Arenas at all, but take caution when participating in Random Arenas as a Ritualist.

Other considerations

Spirits, Weapons and Ashes

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

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; however, only one weapon spell may be on each ally at a time - Weapon Spells do not stack!

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).

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

Energy management

Ritualists have a few energy management skills at their disposal; Essence Strike and Spirit Siphon, both parts of the Channeling Magic line, require nearby spirits. Offering of Spirit, perhaps the most popular choice, does not require nearby spirits to gain energy, but instead involves a large health sacrifice without them. Boon of Creation is often vital for Ritualist 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 options don't fit your plans, try a secondary profession for your energy management needs.

Resurrection

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, although both are (arguably) outdone by the Paragon's Signet of Return and "We Shall Return!". 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 and Unyielding Aura are 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, though 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 Magic 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.

Bar compression

While ritualists are known for their versatility, they are frequently lacking in available skill slots as Binding Rituals, Weapon Spells and Item Spells require several synergies to maximize their effectiveness.

Example
Caretaker's Charge Blind Was Mingson Resilient Weapon Mending Grip Spirit Light Essence Strike Bloodsong Flesh of My Flesh

This build fullfills all the requirements needed for a generic/backliner support Ritualist; at least 1 binding ritual skill, 1 weapon spell skill, 1 item spell skill, 1 energy-management skill, and 1 resurrection skill. However there is little room for healing, damage, buffs, and other utilities (such as Hex-removal) unless the player can compensate or fullfill two requirements at cost of only 1 skill slot. This player has chosen to employ Caretaker's Charge to fill 3 requirements at the cost of 1 slot and 1 elite.

Play styles

There are two general trends for pure ritualist builds: those directly reliant on spirits will spend strongly into Channeling, Communing and Spawning Power for indirect support; while those who do not will use Channeling, Restoration and Spawning Power skills to support the offense or defense more directly.

Generalized Support Ritualists

Ritualist sub-types who assist their party with damage, healing, and utility support currently fall under these two play-styles.

Restoration Support Ritualist

A ritualist focused on healing and aiding, either in place of or in addition to a monk teammate. With a focus on Restoration Magic (the healing, life-stealing, condition-removal branch of Ritualist skills) and a few spirits, the experienced Restoration ritualist can do a good job of healing, can keep a party alive with remarkable competence and stamina, and is not as easily countered by enchantment stripping as a Monk. Restoration spells are also more efficient than many Healing Prayers spells -- for example: Orison of Healing with an attribute spread of 16 Healing Prayers and 13 Divine Favor will heal for 115, less than 16 Mend Body and Soul which may also remove a condition (provided a spirit is present).

Remember that while Restorers may be as powerful, they're not simple to use and may have difficulty switching between numerous targets; since its effectiveness often changes depending on conditional factors such as the presence of Spirits nearby (static-mobility), whether you're holding bundle items (no weapon-mods), and if the spell target is affected by a weapon spell or suffering from hexes. Perhaps the Ritualists’ greatest flaws are the inability to remove hexes, so a mesmer or monk secondary is popular.

Certain Restoration spells are more effective with a spirit around, but you are not tied as heavily to your Spirits as other Ritualists. Many of these spells like Spirit Light, Mend Body and Soul and Ghostmirror Light are cheap and capable of healing a fairly good amount of health or keep a small team going assuming the option conditions are met. Using Skills linked to weapons or holding a bundle items, such as Mending Grip, Soothing Memories and Wielder's Boon 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. Protective Was Kaolai heal party members and can relieve some pressure off the monk, while Mighty Was Vorizun and Generous Was Tsungrai make for sustainable item spells.

Defensive spirits, from both the Restoration and Communing lines, always affect all allies in the area, making them more effective in larger groups. Preservation or Empowerment make for decent and fairly fast recharging spirits, and Life can be a very powerful spirit, it can be used to set off secondary effects of spells, but it also a stronger, albeit delayed, Heal Party and can be very effective as a party heal when combined with skills to kill spirits, such as Spirit to Flesh. 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 12-person party with pets and minions and summons. Furthermore, spirit effects stack with enchantments and other effects (like chants) and can only be removed or ended by the death of the spirit. Unfortunately, as the game is now, spirit effects always take precedence over enchants. That means that Aegis or Guardian will not trigger while Displacement is alive since Displacement will block 75% of all attacks in its range before a check is made to block an attack via an enchantment.

• Monk: Monk skills like Aura of Stability or Holy Veil can add great support, especially in 4-man teams. Defender's Zeal also provides additional energy.

Spirit Light Weapon is one of the most powerful heals for its low energy cost, comparable to many powerful healing prayer spells in terms of raw healing. Vengeful Weapon, Xinrae's Weapon and Weapon of Remedy are basically Reversal of Fortune and Life Sheath 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 mending-like regeneration to the bearer. Resilient Weapon is a good counter for hexes or conditions that cause degen and adds armor, to boot. Vital Weapon is useful for a spammable weapon spell. 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 third and can be cast on several other people in rapid succession.

• Mesmer: Expel Hexes easily resolves your inability to remove hexes. Mesmer skills like Channeling, Energy Drain, Power Drain, Waste Not, Want Not, or Tease can provide excellent energy management. Mantra of Inscriptions reduces the recharge of Signet of Spirits, allowing for more frequent use of Feast of Souls.

For Energy management, spells such as Attuned Was Songkai, Signet of Spirits and Spirit Channeling are extremely helpful, as is Boon of Creation which helps manage energy costs associated with creating spirits. Wielder's Zeal and Renewing Memories also make for cheaper weapon spells. At 12 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 combined with Signet of Spirits and Feast of Souls gives you 12 energy + 250 party-wide heal every 30 seconds.

Channeling Support Ritualist

Channeling skills are the most damage-oriented tools available to a Ritualist. Rivaling in raw firepower and operations of an Air Elementalist, Channeling spells such as Spirit Rift and Ancestors' Rage quickly spike down targets, obliterating enemies through the use of lightning. This type of Ritualist is a very common choice for beginners due to the simplicity of the raw damage, the ease of utilizing Spirit Siphon for efficient energy-management, or the advantage of coupling Restoration line skills with Channeling skills.

While Channeling skills do not have the 25% armor penetration inherent in many of the offensive Air Magic spells (the item spells Destructive Was Glaive and Cruel Was Daoshen cause 20% and 10% armor penetration respectively to all Ritualist skills when held), most do better damage versus cost. Builds like this often spam damaging spells as often as possible, resulting in constant damage output (only Martial professions yield higher damage). And unlike Air Magic, Channeling Magic spells often have their own skills dedicated to energy management and the wise player will take this into account when devising a build.

Ritualists can be both direct and support 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, Clamor of Souls and Caretaker's Charge. The ability to summon damage-dealing spirits, namely Bloodsong and Agony, and to support the party through utility weapon spells such as Splinter Weapon or Weapon of Fury further increases the usefulness of Channeling skills.

In PvE, utility slots are usually filled with powerful PvE-only skills, such as Great Dwarf Weapon and Great Dwarf Armor. In addition, the nature of Channeling Magic allows for greatest diversity of effective builds, suitable for nearly all fields of play.

• Monk: Monk skills like Castigation Signet, Convert Hexes, Smite Condition, Smite Hex and Strength of Honor can deal great amounts of damage, through the support of any frontliner.

• Mesmer: Mesmer skills like Arcane Echo combined with Auspicious Incantation and Channeling allows you to maximize the effectiveness channeling skills such as Destructive Was Glaive and Spirit Rift.

• Necromancer: Necromancer skills like Barbs, Mark of Pain, Rigor Mortis, Weaken Armor and Rip Enchantment compliments a channeling ritualists’ aptitude for supporting a team of physical characters with single target and AoE damage buffs.

However, most skills are semi-complicated and comparatively underpowered unless a condition is met; such as the 3-second delay in Spirit Rift. It is typical for Channeling Ritualists to find one or two conditions, add one or two skills to ensure they are always met, then use the pool of skills that require those condition to fill out the rest of the primary skills. Like Elementalists, it is best to focus on either single-target or AoE skills. Energy management is crucial, since unlike Elementalists, the Ritualist energy pool is usually fairly small.

Spirit spammer Ritualists

Ritualists sub-types reliant upon three (or more) spirits as the core foundation of their builds currently fall under these two play-styles.

Defensive Spirit Spammer

A fairly common and defensive variety of Ritualists. The most frequent tactic always involves summoning the use of Shelter, Union, and Displacement (frequently in that order) as a responsive hard-defense to counter threats. Protective spirits are favored by them in conjunction with Armor of Unfeeling to help ease the strain on the party's primary healers and to greatly extend the life of the party. Defensive spirit spammers may further split points into Restoration, trading slots for healing spirits like Life, Recovery, Recuperation, and Rejuvenation to provide party-wide soft-defense.

Spirit Supporters generally focus on summoning spirits as frequently possible with skills like Reclaim Essence, Ritual Lord, Soul Twisting, and Weapon of Quickening in addition to energy management skills like Boon of Creation, Signet of Creation, Energetic Was Lee Sa or Mighty Was Vorizun. These spirits often have an unsustainable lifespan and usually disappear quickly, so spamming Summon Spirits as well as having high rank in Spawning Power will help keep them active as long as possible.

• Ranger: Sometimes they will use the Serpent's Quickness to reduce recharge times of binding rituals.

Hexes such as Binding Chains and Dulled Weapon and other passive spirits Empowerment, Soothing and Restoration may also be included, while Spirit to Flesh and Spirit's Gift are used to provide additional healing. The more aggressive-variety may also use offensive spirits to both aid allies or disables foes. (See Offensive Spirit Spammer.)

PvXwiki Example - Soul Twisting Hero

Offensive Spirit Spammer

A Ritualist manager of offensive spirits that uses channeling skills like Painful Bond to dramatically increase damage to foes done by allied spirits, Spirit Boon Strike to damage foes while healing the spirits, Signet of Spirits to summon even more powerful attack spirits, and Offering of Spirit or Spirit Siphon to gain energy when spirits are within earshot when Boon of Creation is not enough as energy management.

In PvE, Spirit Wranglers are great for setting ambush points on patrols and can take down almost any typical foe. However, they are stationary and it may be difficult to get them to focus fire. The greatest liability for any Ritualist is when their spirits are not focus-firing. Summon Spirits is useful for overcoming the stationary penalty and forcing spirits to reacquire the same target, but they sometimes have a noticeable delay before they actually start attacking again. By placing offensive spirits just outside the aggro range, those spirits can deal heavy damage if they focus fire on a target.

PvXwiki Example - Offensive Spirit Spammer

Specialized Support Ritualists

Ritualist sub-types focused on diversly unique and surpisingly effective builds currently fall under these four play-styles. (Note: These are gimmick builds intended for more advanced play by experienced ritualists. Many beginners may find these niche builds to be less-viable, or harder to play, in comparison to other play styles.)

Minion Bomber Ritualist

Minion Bombers are quite a unique breed of Ritualists. Relying heavily on Necromancer skills such as Death Nova and Animate Bone Minions, the primary goal of a Minion Bomber is to create a quick army of disposable creatures, deploy them as guided "smart-bombs" and explode them on his enemies. Ritualist/Necromancer characters are well suited for this task, thanks to skills like Explosive Growth. As a bonus, Spawning Power also increases the maximum health of minions. While a Necromancer can use more or less the same "Sapper" tactics with potentially more effectiveness, Ritualists do it with certain effects Necromancers cannot replicate.

• Necromancer: In PvE, Ritualists make excellent minion bombers due to Boon of Creation and Explosive Growth.

-See the Minion Master for more notes on running minion builds.-

Spells such as Explosive Growth and Spirit's Gift will trigger upon minion creation, providing more incentive to create minions, blow them up, replenish them just as quickly, and create more minions with the defeated foes' corpses. This accelerated minion creation takes full advantage of the "Summoned Creature" creation enchantments available to a ritualist to provide very cheap and hardy minions that can be used as often as the spell is ready. Aura of the Lich in particular strengthens Death Magic skills such as Putrid Bile or Deathly Swarm, further expanding bombing synergy. In addition, when used with Jagged Bones these skills can lead to cascade effects of several concurrent area-of-effect direct-damage explosions combined with area-of-effect degeneration and even allied healing.

PvXwiki Examples - Explosive Creation Bomber

Note: Ritualists are not recommended as more traditional minion masters. As compared to a primary Necromancer, a Ritualist's minions will have lower levels due to the inability to use Death Magic runes, resulting in weaker armor and lower health, and Boon of Creation provides less energy than Soul Reaping.

Lightning Spike Ritualist

Lightning Spiker is the spiritual successor of Saccers, have a number of PBAoE spells and Weapon Spells to strengthen attacks. Item skills such as Grasping Was Kuurong, Cruel Was Daoshen, and Destructive Was Glaive as well as spells such as Ancestors' Rage, Essence Strike, Channeled Strike, Doom and Spirit Rift deal a decent amount of area damage/energy gain.

• Assassin: The knockdown effects of Grasping Was Kuurong can be followed up by Falling Spider or Falling Lotus Strike to start a quick dagger chain. Nightmare Weapon are common, as the fast flying daggers usually hit in quick succession to add to the spike.

• Mesmer: Arcane Echo and Echo allows you to nuke foes with massive PBAoE direct-damage. Echoing Destructive Was Glaive provides a strong burst of AoE damage and can still do good sustained AoE damage in a prolonged fight. Creating 3 copies of Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support at the same time with the skills Boon of Creation, Explosive Growth and Spirit's Gift provides the added bonus of 3 extra Ebon Vanguard Assassins (buffed with Splinter Weapon) to quickly kill things for you.

An experienced Lightning Spiker can deploy a well timed/placed Destruction combined with the support of Soul Twisting, Explosive Growth and Boon of Creation, then using Spirit Siphon and Shadow Fang against a foe followed by using both Swap and Rupture Soul on the spirit to create a deadly PBAoE-spike with minimal chance of retaliation due to Blindness.

However, with a low armor profession, the Ritualist is very vulnerable on the frontline. The goal of this role is usually to defeat a foe quickly before it can retaliate; but most prefer skills such as Resilient Weapon and Great Dwarf Armor are often taken as a defensive option for when under pressure.

PvXwiki Examples - Echoed Glaive Bomber

Choice of secondary professions

The Ritualist plays very well with using only its profession skills, and can be known as a "Jack of all trades". However, they still may find benefit from a secondary profession. Ritualists may gain additional interrupt skills from the Mesmer profession as Ritualists only have a few interrupt skills. Their lack of hex removal can be gained from the Monk and Mesmer professions. The physical damage dealing professions are used to play a unique breed of Ritualists along with the skill, Spirit's Strength, to deal heavy damage.

• Warrior
  • "You're All Alone!", an uninterruptable snare and debilitator, is particulary favored in PvP.
  • The elite skill Spirit's Strength can be used for a large damage boost combined with a warrior's melee weapon and their respective Attack Skills to function more like a warrior than a Ritualist.

• Ranger
  • The Ritualist's Spawning Power can be used to reinforce nature spirits with additional health.
  • Serpent's Quickness or Quickening Zephyr can reduce the lengthy recharge times on Spirits in place of Ritual Lord to use another elite. Ranger traps can be used to protect vital spirits or allies.
  • Wanderlust is usually a favorite elite spirit to use along with Earthbind to cause knock downs, Brambles for bleeding and Dissonance to interrupt foes while they aren't knocked down.
  • Frozen Soil is often a necessity in high-end PvE missions and dungeons. Muddy Terrain can be a good way of leveling the playing field in Hard Mode against inherently faster moving foes.
  • Many running skills like Storm's Embrace, Natural Stride, and Storm Chaser can be used.
  • The Ritualist's Splinter Weapon is good for a ranger so that he can attack many enemies in a small area (3 Max.) Combining Splinter Weapon with Barrage or Volley allows even more enemies to be hit simultaneously. Using a long or flatbow for increased range can also add to this deadly effect.
  • The elite skill Spirit's Strength can be used for a large damage boost combined with Bows and Bow Attack Skills to function more like a ranger than a Ritualist.

• Monk
  • Monk skills can provide additional condition removal and give the Ritualist hex removal. Skills such as Martyr or Draw Conditions can be used with Resilient Was Xiko and Resilient Weapon to put conditions on a single person best able to handle them.
  • Attuned Was Songkai can be used to spam Healing Prayers such as Heal Party and Heal Other or high cost Protection Prayers spells such as Aegis and Convert Hexes.
  • Smiting Prayers skills like Zealot's Fire can be used with spammable weapon spells like Vengeful Weapon to help the ally and punish melee foes who are harassing spell casters or melee characters who are taking damage.

• Necromancer
  • Spawning Power can provide more health to minions at the cost of lower level minions. Spawning Power skills can make great use of minion creation skills to add damage and energy management when summoning minions in a large group and the use of skills like Death Nova to damage foes when minions fall in battle(also with the help of Dark Bond to redirect damage dealt to you to one of your minions) which is common in Minion Bomber builds. Also, if you have the skill Boon of Creation, its ability applies to minions.

• Mesmer
  • Ritualists can make use of mantras to gain armor against elemental attacks and gain energy whenever hit by elemental attacks. Mantra of Resolve is used to protect against interrupts which is useful when summoning a spirit.
  • They can also make use of stances like Physical or Elemental Resistance and an addition of hex removal. Also, Mesmer interrupts make a nice addition to the three Ritualist interrupts.
  • The Inspiration Magic skills Tease, Power Leech and Leech Signet provides excellent mixture of interrupts and energy-management.
  • The Mesmer skill Signet of Midnight can be to blind the user and the foe while taking advantage of Resilient Weapon and Resilient Was Xiko.
  • Arcane Echo is used to increase the damage potential of channeling magic builds; enabling Ritualists to bomb with Destructive Was Glaive and farm with Vengeful Was Khanhei effectively. Auspicious Incantation and Channeling are used with these for energy-managemnt.
  • Consider Arcane Echo and Echo copies of Ebon Vanguard Assassin Support combined with the skills Boon of Creation, Explosive Growth and Spirit's Gift that literally nuke foes with massive AoE direct-damage; with the added bonus of having three extra Ebon Vanguard Assassin.

• Elementalist
  • Many glyphs can be used in the Air Magic line to reduce recharge time and energy cost on spells in the Ritualist's lineup or to help spread item and weapon spells. Note that binding rituals are unaffected.
  • Water Magic provides a strong snare with skills like Icy Shackles and offers mobility/protection through Armor of Mist.
  • Glyph of Lesser Energy can also be a very valuable non-elite energy management skill, especially for more of the costly weapon spells. Note though, that this skill does not apply to binding rituals as they are not spells.

• Assassin
  • Assassin skills from the Shadow Arts line is used primarily for mobility purposes to evade and escape from attacks with Dark Escape, Death's Retreat, and Return allows to shadow step to a safer location or for defensive purposes with skills like Feigned Neutrality and Shroud of Distress. Note that shadow stepping will cause a bundle item like an urn and ashes to drop which can be used as an advantage depending on the bundle being held.
  • The knockdown effects of Grasping Was Kuurong can be followed up by Falling Spider or Falling Lotus Strike to start a quick dagger chain. Nightmare Weapon is added to the fast flying daggers in quick succession to add to the spike.
  • Spirit spammers can make use of Assassin's Promise to increase mobility by recharging slow recharging spirits with energy return provided that the hexed foe is killed in time.
  • Using Dash also speeds up the flag runner.
  • The elite skill Spirit's Strength can be combined with Daggers and Dagger Attack Skills for a large damage boost to function more like an assassin than a Ritualist.

• Paragon
  • Combine Vocal was Sogolon with shouts such as "Stand Your Ground!" and "Never Surrender!". Stand "Fall Back!" and "Incoming!" are excellent in aiding the party's mobile in addition to healing. Other shouts like "We Shall Return!" are very useful in PvE.
  • The leadership skill Hexbreaker Aria can be used as an unlinked conditional hex removal; invaluable as Ritualists dont have hex-removal.
  • Since ritualist spirits attacks are attack skills, anthems that affect allies such as Anthem of Weariness and Anthem of Disruption will affect your spirits.
  • The elite skill Spirit's Strength can be combined with a Spear and Spear Attack Skills for a large damage boost to function more like a paragon than a Ritualist.

• Dervish
  • Ritualists can make use of skills from the Wind Prayers attribute like Featherfoot Grace to move and remove conditions quicker.
  • Enchanted Haste, Fleeting Stability, and Vow of Silence are useful in running builds for speed boosting and spell immunity skills.
  • Pious Concentration can also be used to prevent rituals from being interrupted,
  • The elite skill Spirit's Strength can be combined with a Scythe and Scythe Attack Skills for a large damage boost to function more like a dervish than a Ritualist.

Further reading

• List of ritualist skills
• State of the Game—June 28, 2006—Advanced Ritualist Tactics

---