Spirit spammer

A Spirit spammer is a type of build that emphasizes the use of binding rituals to create a small army of spirits. These builds can be used for significant armor-ignoring damage, for offensive or defensive support, to create a Spirit Wall to body block opponents, or even as fodder to distract the enemy AI from other soft targets.

Characteristics

Spirit spammer builds are based around one of three elites, typically supported by one or more energy management skills. Since most of the work can be done by 3-4 binding rituals, this leaves plenty of room on the skillbar for additional utility skills.

Skills

Elites

• Ritual Lord — speeds recharge of binding rituals and boosts Ritualist attributes for one skill. Less frequently used due to its sacrifice cost.
• Signet of Spirits — the core of damage-dealing variants. Often combined with Painful Bond to increase the damage output of the three spirits.
• Soul Twisting — manages energy and speeds casting of binding rituals, making it a favored choice for hero builds.

Energy management

• Signet of Creation — a less-frequently used tool for regaining energy.
• Spirit Siphon — a preferred energy-generating skill.

Multi-purpose skills

• Boon of Creation — aids energy management and helps keep the spammer healthy.
• Vampirism — a PvE-only spirit that helps keep the caster alive.

Other important skills

• Armor of Unfeeling — improves durability of spirits, especially helpful at protecting them from enemy frontline attacks.
• Painful Bond — nearly doubles damage by offensive spirits.
• Summon Spirits — to move and heal spirits.
• Spirit's Gift - excellent heals and condition support, especially with Signet of Spirits.
• Spiritleech Aura — spirits steal health, which bypasses damage reduction.

Equipment

• Shaman's Insignia
• Can often use a spear and shield instead of caster weapons: increasing armor is often more valuable than decreasing recharge and casting time for 1-2 spells.

Evaluation

Pros

• Rapid spirit creation provides additional damage, support, and control for the party.
• Distracts the enemy from allies, increasing overall party durability.

Cons

• Vulnerable to burning.
• Vulnerable to anti-summon spikes, especially Consume Soul.
• Vulnerable to AoE damage and foes that strike multiple targets, notably dervishes and barrage rangers.
• Susceptible to critical hits (due to their low level), especially against hard mode foes.

Trivia

• Historically popular names for this character have included: Soul Spinner, Spirit Wrangler, Spirit Master, Spirit Monger, Spirit Binder, Spirit Shepherd, Spirit Shaman, Spirit Spam, Spirit Wall, in addition to Ritual Lord or Soul Twister.
• The June 2009 and the February 2010 updates buffed various binding rituals and spirit-generating skills (notably Soul Twisting, Ritual Lord, and Spirit Siphon). This allowed for more rapid creation of stronger and longer-lasting spirits.
• The spirit spammer is often considered the Guild Wars equivalent of turtling.

See also

• Guide to playing as a ritualist

• Attack spirit
• Passive spirit
• Minion Master

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