Guide to playing as a ritualist
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Ritualists often find themselves in support roles for the team. They are unique in their ability to create spirits that will actively heal allies or damage foes (compared to Ranger spirits which all have a global, passive effect). 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 and healing spells, allowing them to fill gaps in a party.
Most ritualists focus solely on either dealing damage to opponents or healing and supporting allies. Should the team be short a Monk, a ritualist may be called upon to help mitigate and heal damage. This is often the case when joining PUGs, as monks are quite often in short supply. Ritualists focusing on spirits can either bring defensive spirits that heal the party or offensive ones that automatically target enemies in range. Direct damage spells will give the ritualist more control over targets when compared to utilizing spirits but deal less damage over time.
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.
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[edit] Attributes
[edit] Channeling
Most of the ritualist's direct damage spells 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.
[edit] Communing
Communing has a mixture of support skills, including the majority of the spirits. Being such, most ritualists will find something here that can help support the role they are playing.
[edit] Restoration
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.
[edit] Spawning Power
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.
[edit] Equipment
[edit] Weapons
As a caster class, ritualist weapons include staves and wands. They tend to deal lightning or dark damage.
[edit] Armor
The unique insignias available to ritualists compliment the conditions found in the Channeling and Restoration skills (although holding an item is the generic-classed Herald's Insignia). The Ghost Forge Insignia is often easy to maintain if using long-lasting weapon skills such as Vital Weapon, while Shaman's Insignia is more useful for those using a large number of spirits. Mystic's Insignia is not quite as useful unless you find yourself creating spirits more often then not.
[edit] Understanding the Profession
Ritualists use their connection with the spirit world to bring forth spirits to aid them or ashes of fallen warriors, which have an effect when dropped.
[edit] PvE
In areas where you move around a lot try to keep your use of Binding Ritual skills to a minimum, an example would be if you are playing as a Channeling Magic Ritualist, you have both Vampirism and Bloodsong, if the situation doesn't call for both spirits to be in play, small number of enemies,etc., just summon one of them to save the other skill just in case if the other battle is farther than the recharge of your Binding Rituals, so spirit spammers are less popular in PvE than PvP.
After the addition of the PvE skills, the spell Summon Spirits makes the spirits you cast be able to follow you as long as you don't move out of the range of the spirits.
Summon Spirits Spell. Spirits you control Shadow Step to your location and gain 40...88...100 Health.
[edit] PvP
Spirits really come into their own when they're in an enclosed space, making them ideal for PvP, except for AB, where you may want to heed the same advice as the PvE section.
[edit] Staying Alive
You should always carry 1 to 2 healing skills for survival, If you aren't already a healer Ritualist. Especially Spirit spammers find it very useful to take a healing skill, For example Spirit Light and/or Recuperation are useful (and great for spirit spammers!). It is never a good idea to be 100% offensive, so a good bet would be to carry a few healing skills, as said before.
[edit] Playing in a Party
All types of Ritualists are good in a party, but usually require some flexibility.
[edit] What to Avoid
As a Ritualist, either playing restoring, offensive or supportive, your spirits must survive for full effect of your skills.
Avoid at all costs the Ranger. A good Ranger will take at least three kinds of bows in battle, a smart one will take four kinds of bows into battle, Shortbow (short distance, fast attack), Hornbow (medium distance, 10% armor penetration, power), Recurve Bow (medium, faster than Hornbow) and a Long/Flatbow (long distance, longer than earshot). The Long/Flatbows are ideal for rangers to attack since Ritualists need to be at least at an earshot distance to cast spells or skills. With these bows, the Ranger can sit safely away from you while he can pelt you with attacks. Blind Was Mingson is not even a good option for these stalemate situations; at these longer distances you can see the arrows fly so you can easily dodge(stray) them but getting close to a Ranger without knowing what kind of build he is carrying is not a good tactic. Taking one for the team to blind him is a risk but if there's no other remedy, it's better to run to him and blind him before you get killed slowly. If it start to become a problem for your build, consider taking Weapon of Shadow, blind the Ranger at anytime when he choses you as a target or one of your teammates.
Against an Area of Effect Elementalist, you won't have much choice but to keep taking cover. Even the simplest of 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 what build you will take. Each player has their own agenda due to very random builds. If stalling for spirit spammer, or healing in earshot range, is wise to advise your team at the start before they overextend or something similar to it. 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 to avoid Random Arenas in all but, take caution when participating in Random Arenas as a Ritualist. A good build many take is blinder/healing Ritualist, there's the obvious healing skills and for blinding any melee, theres Blind Was Mingson, Weapon of Shadow, Shadowsong and Rupture Soul, making the first three the best skills to take into the build, instead of giving your teammates a chance to block, just blind the enemies, lowering the playing field to casters players only.
[edit] Play Styles
[edit] Spirit Spammer
This is mostly like Spirit Bomber, Except for a few things: Spirit spammers use skills like Weapon of Quickening to get to spam spirits as fast as they disappear, instead of directly attacking with Painful Bond or Channeled Strike. Also, it is good to have some sort of healing skill, as noted in Staying Alive.
Mesmer: Mantra of Concentration or Mantra of Resolve can be used to prevent rituals from being interrupted.
Many offensive spirits (binding rituals) such as Pain, Bloodsong, Anguish, and Vampirism deal small amounts of armor-ignoring damage. However, with a large number of spirits and topped off with Painful Bond, these small numbers add up devastatingly quick. However, these rituals are very prone to interrupts due to the long recharge of most binding rituals.
In PvE, they are great to set up to ambush a patrol and can take down almost any typical foe extremely fast. However, they are stationary and it may be difficult to get them to focus fire. Summon Spirits is useful for overcoming the stationary penalty, 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.
In PvP, Spirit Bombers are useful against random groups such as in Random Arenas , Alliance Battles, and Hero Battles. However, experienced players may know better and avoid the spirits the best they can. The worst dangers in PvP are interrupts and knockdowns, as they can easily capitalize on the long cast and recharge of binding rituals.
[edit] Spirit Support
Instead of damage, a Ritualist may choose to bring spirits such as Union, Shelter, and Displacement to help ease the strain on the party's primary healers. These spirits usually disappear quickly, so skills such as Signet of Binding and Signet of Creation as well as having high rank in Spawning Power will help keep them active as long as possible. Since this style doesn't require the Ritualist to be near battle, party-wide support skills such as Heal Party, Aegis, or Cautery Signet may be helpful should the party need someone to use them. Skills such as Ritual Lord or Serpent's Quickness are also helpful to reduce the downtime of the short-lived spirits.
[edit] Channeler
Much like Elementalists, Ritualists have both direct damage and PBAoE spells. However, most skills are comparatively underpowered unless a condition is met. It is typical 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 PBAoE skills. Energy management is crucial, since unlike Elementalists, the Ritualist energy pool is usually fairly small.
[edit] Healer
Ritualists can make surprisingly good healers when needed. Many spells are cheap and are capable of healing a fairly good amount of health. Spirit Light, Mend Body and Soul, Ghostmirror Light, and Wielder's Boon all only cost 5 energy yet can provide enough healing to keep a small team going assuming the option conditions are met. Preservation or Empowerment make for decent cheap and fairly fast recharging spirits; Vital Weapon is useful for a spammable weapon spell; and Mighty Was Vorizun and Generous Was Tsungrai make for good, cheap item spells.
Keep in mind that Weapon Spells cannot be removed by foes, so they can be extremely useful when facing enemies equipped with numerous enchantment removal skills. However, only one weapon spell may be on each ally at a time - Weapon Spells do not stack.
Note that Ritualists cannot remove hexes, so a mesmer or even monk secondary is popular. Mesmer also provides energy management skills.
[edit] Minion Bomber
Due to the energy requirements of maintaining a minion army, Necromancers with their Soul Reaping bonus are usually recommended over Ritualists. However, the Ritualist has skills such as Boon of Creation and Reclaim Essence which work on minions as well as spirits, helping to mitigate the energy deficiency. As a bonus, Spawning Power also increases the maximum health of minions. However, compared to a primary Necromancer, a Ritualist's minions will still be weaker due to the inability to use Death Magic runes. Still, clever use of Death Nova with Signet of Creation and Signet of Ghostly Might can supercharge minions before they explode gloriously in battle. In addition, spells such as Explosive Growth and Spirit's Gift will trigger upon minion creation, providing more incentive to create minions, blow them up, and create more minions with the defeated foes' corpses.
Necromancer: In PvE, Ritualists make excellent minion bombers due to Boon of Creation and Explosive Growth.
[edit] Assassin Spike
Ritualists 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 deal a decent amount of area damage. The knockdown effects of Grasping Was Kuurong can be followed up by Falling Spider or Falling Lotus Strike to start a quick dagger chain. Spirit's Strength is popular for boosting the damage output from the daggers, often using long-lasting weapon spells such as Resilient Weapon or Vital Weapon to meet the condition or Warmonger's Weapon and Wailing Weapon for interrupts. Nightmare Weapon is also common, as the fast flying daggers usually hit in quick succession to add to the spike. However, with a low armor class, the Ritualist is very vulnerable on the front line. The goal of this role is usually to defeat a foe quickly before it can retaliate. However, skills such as Resilient Weapon are often taken as a defensive option for when under pressure.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 
Warrior
Defensive stances from the Tactics line combined with defensive Item Spells can offer protection against foes. Shouts such as "Shields Up!" or "Watch Yourself!" can provide defensive benefits to most of your party. The elite skill Spirit's Strength can be used for a large damage boost combined with a melee weapon and warrior Attack Skills to function like a warrior.
[edit] 
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.
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.) Added with a longbow can also add a deadly effect.
[edit] 
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 Heal Party or high cost Protection Prayers spells.
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.
[edit] 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.
Attuned Was Songkai and Awaken the Blood(+2 to Blood & Curses) could be used to spam Life stealing spells in Blood Magic line or spam curses.
[edit] 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 spirit. Arcane Echo is used to increase the damage potential of channeling magic builds and enable Ritualists to farm with Vengeful Was Khanhei effectively.
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 Mesmer skill Signet of Midnight can be to blind the user and the foe while taking advantage of Resilient Weapon and Resilient Was Xiko.
[edit] 
Elementalist
Air Magic skills can be used to inflict damage with armor penetration or conditions like weakness from Enervating Charge or Glimmering Mark which can be combined with the Channeling Magic lightning spells for an effective blind-causing Ritualist. Many glyphs can be used 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.
Several knock down skills from the Earth Magic line can benefit greatly from Earthbind spirit.
Ward spells can help protect the party in addition to a defensive spirit like Union to stay alive longer. Ward Against Foes can be used to slow down melee foes that are aiming to destroy the spirit. Note that wards do not affect spirits.
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.
[edit] 
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.
Spirit Walk allows efficient travel between spirits to use skills that require the Ritualist to "touch" their spirits to work or to just escape to spirit that may not be near the foe. Swap allows the Ritualist to switch places with a spirit like Destruction, Shadowsong, or a minion while escaping from the foe.
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.
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.
[edit] 
Paragon
Vocal was Sogolon can be used to make all shouts and chants last longer. There are two good candidates within the Command line, "Never Surrender!", which provides health regeneration, and "Stand Your Ground!", which increases armor for non-moving allies and useful for spellcasters.. Signet of Synergy could be used as a substitute Ghostmirror Light as Ritualists usually do not utilize enchantments.
"Help Me!" could be used to make other allies' Spells targeting you cast 50% faster for damaging foes near you or healing/protection just in case you’re being targeted.
The leadership skill Hexbreaker Aria can be used as an unlinked conditional hex removal.
[edit] 
Dervish
Ritualists can make use of skills from the Wind Prayers attribute like Featherfoot Grace to move and remove conditions quicker. Earth Prayers such as Veil of Thorns can be used to cripple the attacking foe and escape.
Spirit's Strength can be combined with a Scythe and Scythe attack skills for a large damage boost to function more like a melee fighter than a Ritualist.
[edit] Further Reading
| Guides for all Professions |
|---|
Core:  Warrior •  Ranger •  Monk •  Necromancer •  Mesmer •  Elementalist
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Factions:  Assassin •  Ritualist Nightfall:  Paragon •  Dervish
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