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Ritualist PvP Binding Ritual Balance
User	Soldier198
Categories	Player vs. Player

This page is a theorycraft on how to rebalance Binding Rituals in PvP. It aims to achieve four primary goals:

• 1. Allow Binding Rituals to be dependable mechanics for the Ritualist to utilize.
• 2. Deny Binding Rituals the ability to be used in spirit spamming builds.
• 3. Remove overpowered mechanics inherent to certain Binding Rituals and replace them with balanced ones.
• 4. Encourage an active style of play by pushing Binding Rituals towards being enhanced cannon fodder used to enable spirit-based skills.

What is the problem with Binding Rituals in PvP?

Binding Rituals occupy a uniquely problematic spot when it comes to PvP balance. Mechanically, they are passive. They are summoned and then operate without any input needed from the user. This is an issue because many Binding Rituals have effects that would be overpowered if the Binding Rituals themselves were made to be strong and reliable. For example, Shelter reduces incoming damage to 10%. It affects all allies. In PvE, it forms the backbone of the Soul Twister style of play. If all Binding Rituals were unsplit between PvE and PvP and used their PvE versions, Shelter would then become overpowered in PvP. But why so? Well, because it would allow a Ritualist to simply summon Shelter in conjuction with a skill like Soul Twisting or Ritual Lord and negate the ability of spike teams to kill a target. The Ritualist would not have to play the game in a skilled manner that requires active watching of the field and reacting to enemy actions. This is why skills like Spirit Bond and Protective Spirit are not overpowered in competitive play. They require skilled usage to take advantage of them. A player without much experience in PvP is likely to use Spirit Bond or Protective Spirit less effectively than a skilled player. They won't read the field of play as well as a skilled player; they won't know which skills to watch out for; they may not react in time to save a teammate. Shelter doesn't need this level of awareness. You cast it and it does the job for you.

Binding Rituals only required skilled usage in regard to their positioning, i.e. placing them in a manner to avoid enemy disruption while remaining close enough to support the team. Once the Binding Ritual has been deployed, it operates independently of the Ritualist and does not require skill on part of the Ritualist to work effectively.

Why then is a skill like Shelter not overpowered in current PvP? It's because it is weak compared to its PvE variant. It has a much longer casting time, which makes it vulnerable to interruption. It creates a lower spirit level, which means it absorbs less packets of damage and can be killed more easily by enemy players. These two factors are enough to make it so Shelter is not overpowered, and in many situations simply underpowered.

This is the same problem that is shared by all Binding Rituals in PvP. They are weak skills. Their casting times are long, which makes them prone to disruption and ineffective in fast paced, dynamic environments where a Ritualist must spend several seconds setting up their spirits before they can engage in combat while other professions can jump right into the fray. The spirits created by these skills are fragile, with low levels and low health pools. They are dispatched easily by foes; they can even be killed merely by wanding.

This problem was recognized by Arenanet and, in the PvE side of things, solved in the June of 2009 balance update. In this update, the very weaknesses discussed above were remedied by giving Binding Rituals universal decreases to their cast time, increases in their spirit levels, and in many cases reductions in energy cost and recharge. These changes were not extended to PvP because the very mechanics of Binding Rituals would have been made overpowered.

So, with that as it was, Binding Rituals were left weak in PvP, and the Ritualist remains one of the weaker PvP professions who has even lost what was once their most well-known position in GvG, flag running, to Monks.

How do weak Binding Rituals negatively impact the profession?

To answer this question, we have to look at skill design. Binding Rituals are such an inherent mechanic to the Ritualist that a vast amount of their skills are directly intertwined with, strengthened by, and in some cases entirely dependent on, Binding Rituals. Let's take a look at a few channeling magic skills.

• Spirit Burn Spell. Deals 5...41...50 lightning damage. Inflicts Burning condition (1...4...5 second[s]) if you are within earshot of a spirit.
• Gaze from Beyond Spell. Deals 20...56...65 lightning damage. Inflicts Blindness condition for 2...5...6 seconds if you are within earshot of a spirit.

These are some basic Channeling Magic pressure skills. They are both effective skills as they deal a moderate amount of damage and inflict conditions. Spirit Burn has a rather lengthy 5 second burn while Gaze from Beyond has a decent 6 second blind. But to inflict these conditions, the Ritualist must be in earshot of a spirit. If this contingency is not met, the skills no longer inflict conditions and merely deal damage. In such situations, the skills become weak and strictly inferior to what can be done by unconditionally by other caster professions (Immolate and Blinding Flash are never conditional).

These situations are not at all rare and are instead common and frequent in PvP. Enemy players know that Ritualists need Binding Rituals to operate. They will take active measures to prevent Ritualists from using them. And because these Binding Rituals are so weak, it is very easy to shut them down and render any Ritualist dependent on them ineffective.

Now let's take a look at some Restoration Magic skills.

• Spirit Light Spell. Heals for 60...156...180. You don't sacrifice Health if you are within earshot of any spirits.
• Mend Body and Soul Spell. Heals for 20...96...115. Removes one condition for each spirit within earshot.
• Spirit Transfer Spell. The spirit nearest you loses 5...41...50 Health. Heals target ally for 5 for each point of Health lost.

As Ritualists were the only other profession introduced into the game with intention of fulfilling a backline role, the contingencies on these spells are direly detrimental to their performance in PvP. Spirit Light is the Ritualists only spot heal. It is their Word of Healing. They have no other alternatives for a sustainable main healing skill. As such, whenever a spirit is unavailable, the Ritualist cannot fulfill its role as a dedicated backliner until they are once again within earshot of a spirit. Monks do not have this problem. Word of Healing never stops working. Healing Burst never stops healing. Dismiss Condition always removes a condition. But a Ritualist might find themselves in a situation where Spirit Transfer doesn't heal and Mend Body and Soul doesn't remove conditions. From the perspective of a profession that was supposed to backline, this is simply unacceptable.

Because Binding Rituals are so weak, and because many of the Ritualist's skills that rely on them are fragile, it leads to a situation where spirit saturation and overloading is simply the most reliable way to guarantee that the contingencies on these skills can be fulfilled. Having 5-6 spirits on the field is significantly more difficult for an opposing team to deal with than only 1-2 spirits. In many situations when Binding Rituals were utilized in higher levels of PvP play it was done through spiritway builds that featured this aspect spirit spamming. It even reached a point where Arenanet reduced the health of all spirits and allowed the burning condition to affect them. This change reduced the power of the spiritway teams that were prevalent at the time but had the negative effect of making the single Ritualist even more vulnerable then they already were.

As such, spirit based skills saw less frequent usage compared to skills that did not need spirits to function. Weapon Spells, Item Spells, and individual skills like Ancestor's Rage and Caretaker's Charge that did not need to rely on spirits became commonplace during specific periods of the PvP meta.

Solving the problems

We identified that the mechanics of Binding Rituals are troublesome to balance. If we make Binding Rituals too good, they may easily become overpowered. If left as they are, they remain weak and, in many situations, ineffective to use. If Binding Rituals are weak and ineffective to use, then skills that rely on Binding Rituals become undependable and undesirable. To solve this, we can make significant changes to the mechanics of Binding Rituals while also decreasing the effectiveness of what the spirits actually do. What this means is that we will decrease the casting times of Binding Rituals, making them less prone to interruption and more suitable to fast paced environments. We will also increase their levels so that they are resilient and less vulnerable to direct attack. Lastly, we will reduce in power the actual effects of the spirits so that they do not become overpowered. To achieve this, this also requires a change in the inherent effects of Spawning Power which will be discussed below.

Spawning Power: Changed functionality to: For each rank of Spawning Power you have, creatures you create (or animate) have 4% more Health, and weapon Spells you cast last 4% longer. Some Ritualist skills, especially those related to Spirit creatures, become more effective with higher Spawning Power. In PvP, you can control one Binding Ritual plus one additional Binding Ritual for every 5 ranks of Spawning Power (maximum 3 Binding Rituals).

This change serves two purposes. Firstly, it removes the ability of secondary Ritualists to create more than one Binding Ritual. This is being done to reinforce Binding Rituals as a mechanic best suited for use by Ritualists. Secondly, it diverts attribute investment into Spawning Power for Ritualists who seek to create more than one spirit. This is an attempt to weaken teams who want to rely on spirit overloading by requiring them to spread attribute points across multiple attributes. The limit of 3 Binding Rituals was chosen as it is the lowest number that allows us to retain synergies with certain skills and abilities of the Ritualist profession. For example, Soul Twisting and Signet of Creation are skills that operate on a limit of 3 Binding Rituals, while Shaman's Insignias also cap out at 3 Binding Rituals.

The changes to the active effects of spirits are an attempt to push Binding Rituals towards the direction of being enhanced cannon fodder used to empower spirit based skills. This will hopefully encourage a style of play where the Ritualists targeted spells are most important and Binding Rituals serve as a means to fulfill their contingencies without imbalancing the field of play.

Adjusting Binding Rituals

We are going to make some wholesale changes to Binding Rituals in order to reduce their weaknesses and make them dependable mechanics. To make sure that they do not become overpowered, we will, in most cases, be weakening their actual effects.

Channeling Magic

• Agony (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...11...12 spirit (30...78...90 second lifespan). Causes 3...9...10 Health loss each second to foes in earshot. This spirit loses 3...9...10 Health for each foe that loses Health."

• Bloodsong (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...11...12 spirit (30...126...150 second lifespan). Its attacks steal 5...13...15 Health."

• Destruction (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...11...12 spirit (30 second lifespan). On death, it deals 1...8...10 damage for each second it was alive to all foes in the area (maximum 100 damage)."

• Gaze of Fury (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased casting time to 1 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Destroys an allied spirit. Creates a level 6...11...12 spirit (30...54...60 second lifespan). Its attacks deal 5...13...15 damage."

Communing

• Anguish (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased energy cost to 10; decreased recharge to 30; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...11...12 spirit (10...50...60 second lifespan). Its attacks deal 5...13...15 damage and an additional 3...9...10 damage against hexed foes."

• Disenchantment (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased energy cost to 10; decreased recharge to 30; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...11...12 spirit (10...50...60 second lifespan). Its attacks deal 5...13...15 damage and an additional 3...9...10 damage against enchanted foes."

• Dissonance (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased energy cost to 10; decreased recharge to 30; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...11...12 spirit (10...50...60 second lifespan). Its attacks deal 5...13...15 damage and an additional 3...9...10 damage against stationary foes."

• Pain (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...11...12 spirit (30...126...150 second lifespan). Its attacks deal 5...17...20 damage."

• Shadowsong (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased recharge to 30; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...11...12 spirit (30-second lifespan). Its attacks deal 3...9...10 damage and inflict weakness (3 second duration).

• Shelter (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased energy cost to 10; decreased recharge to 30; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...11...12 spirit 60 second lifespan). Non-spirit allies in earshot gain +1...7...8 armor."

• Wanderlust (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased recharge to 20; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...11...12 spirit (30...54...60 second lifespan). Its attacks deal 5...25...30 damage and an additional 3...9...10 damage against foes not using a skill."

Restoration Magic

• Life (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...11...12 spirit (20 second lifespan). Affects non-spirit allies within range. End effect: heals for 1...4...5 for each second this spirit was alive."

• Preservation (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Elite Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...11...12 Spirit (90 second lifespan). Every 4 seconds this spirit heals one non-spirit ally for 10...94...115."

• Recovery (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...11...12 spirit (30...54...60 second lifespan). Conditions on allies in range expire 5...25...30% faster."

• Recuperation (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased energy cost to 15; decreased recharge to 30; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...11...12 spirit (15...39...45 second lifespan). Non-spirit allies within range have +1...2...2 Health regeneration."

• Rejuvenation (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...16...18; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...16...18 spirit (30...78...90 second lifespan). Heals party members in earshot for 3...9...10 each second. Healing cost: this spirit loses 3...9...10 Health."

Spawning Power

• Empowerment (PvP) Increased spirit level to 6...11...12; decreased casting time to 1.5 seconds; changed functionality to: "Binding Ritual. Creates a level 6...11...12 spirit (15...51...60 second lifespan). Allies in range holding an item gain 15...39...45 maximum Health and 10 maximum Energy."

Summarizing these changes

All Binding Rituals had their spirit levels normalized to 6...11...12. This was done for a few specific reasons. Let's take a look at a progression table to help illustrate some of these points.

Progression
Attribute investment Spirit level	0 6 1 6 2 7 3 7 4 8 5 8 6 8 7 9 8 9 9 10 10 10 11 10 12 11 13 11 14 12 15 12 16 12 17 13 18 13 19 14 20 14 21 14

At attributes of 14-16, the level of a spirit will always be 12. 12 is the magic number for how resilient a spirit should be in PvP, because at that level a spirit has 74 armor and 240 health. Spawning Power can increase the health of this spirit to around 360. So, at a maximum attribute investment in Spawning Power and a maximum investment in a different attribute line with spirits, we are looking at a spirit with 74 armor and 360 health. That is a balanced spirit. It can resist some attacks, yet will fold to persistent damage. An additional benefit of this sort of level scaling is that it reduces the maximum level a spirit may reach when used with Ritual Lord. As we can see in the table, the highest level a spirit can be is 14. A level 14 spirit is rather tanky for PvP, but to achieve this a Ritualist must sacrifice an elite skill, fully invest into two attributes, and sacrifice their maximum health through the use of a +2 attribute boosting rune. In this regard, it can be considered balanced.

All Binding Rituals also had their casting time reduced to 1.5 seconds, except for Gaze of Fury who saw a reduction to 1 second (that is because it must destroy a friendly spirit to create its own, and so deserves a shorter cast time). Again, 1.5 seconds is the magic number. Any attentive player can interrupt a skill with a 1.5 second cast time. What this cast time will permit, however, is the ability of the Ritualist to move and operate more quickly in fast paced, rapidly changing environments. This is essential to improving the performance of the Ritualist in many PvP game modes.

Now, those were just some of the universal changes to Binding Rituals. Let's discuss each skill on an individual basis, with a focus on tradeoffs and reductions in power to account for these significant improvements.

Agony is the first Binding Ritual on our list and did not receive a decrease in power. This is because the spirit is rather well balanced the way it was designed. It loses health the more damage it deals. At best, it will deal 360 damage spread evenly across however many foes are in earshot, but can do at most 10 damage per second to any individual foe. It did not need a negative adjustment.

Bloodsong received a damage reduction from 5...21...25 to 5...13...15. This is to account for its improvements in level and casting time.

Destruction had its damage cap lowered to 100 from 150. This is also to account for its improvements in level and cast time.

Gaze of Fury received a damage reduction from 5...17...20 to 5...13...15.

Anguish had all around improvements to cast time, energy cost, recharge and level and duration. It received a significant damage reduction through a change in functionality. It now deals a base 5...13...15 damage (down from 5...17...20), and instead of dealing double damage against hexed foes, it deals only an additional 3...9...10.

Disenchantment also had the same improvements as Anguish, however, it needed a significant overhaul to keep it balanced. Its previous ability to remove enchantments from struck foes is inherently imbalanced in PvP. Enchantment removal is a very powerful effect, and Arenanet kept a relatively tight balance between enchantment application and enchantment removal in PvP. Making Disenchantment as resilient as other Binding Rituals while retaining its enchantment removal would've been too powerful. Instead, it was redesigned to be a counterpart to Anguish, dealing a base 5...13...15 damage and an additional 3...9...10 damage against enchanted foes.

Dissonance similarly received improvements as did both Anguish and Disenchantment. As was the case with Disenchantment, interrupts are a powerful effect that were also balanced tightly by Arenanet. Interrupts are supposed to be a crucial element of skillful play, and Dissonance being able to passively interrupt foes is inherently imbalanced in PvP, and so its functionality was changed. It now deals a base 5...13...15 damage and an additional 3...9...10 damage against stationary foes.

Pain is the vanilla damage spirit, and so saw its damage reduced only to 5...17...20. At this level and considering its low energy cost, it remains superior to the other attacking spirits so long as their conditional bonuses are not being met.

Shadowsong was another problematic spirit as skills which inflict blindness were rebalanced many times over to account for shifts in the meta. Allowing Shadowsong to inflict blindness while retaining its improvements would be overpowered. As such, it was changed to inflicting the less debilitating weakness condition for a shorter duration, and has the lowest damage amongst all the attacking spirits.

Shelter was used in the opening of this article to illustrate the difficulties in balancing Binding Ritual mechanics. Its current functionality cannot be balanced in PvP because it is directly opposite of what should be achievable with skill-less play. As such, it was changed to function similar to defensive ward spells. While the increase in armor is limited to just +1...7...8, Shelter has a larger area of effect and longer duration than wards.

Wanderlust was also a problematic spirit as knockdowns are an important and strictly balanced part of PvP play. As such, it was necessary to remove from Wanderlust its ability to knockdown foes, and instead, being an elite skill, it was made to be the superior damage dealing spirit.

Life saw its healing reduced from 1...6...7 to 1...4...5.

Preservation did not receive any negative adjustments because it is not likely to be a problematic spirit.

Recovery had its condition duration reduction decreased from 5...41...50% to 5...25...30%.

Recuperation had its health regeneration reduced from 1...3...3 to 1...2...2. A 1...2...2 numerical scale also prevents Recuperation from reaching +3 health regeneration when used with Ritual Lord. In turn, Recuperation has been made much easier to use with a 15 energy cost and 30 second recharge.

Rejuvenation operates similarly to Agony and so did not see any reductions in power.

Empowerment is also less likely to be a problematic spirit and so did not recieve any nerfs.

Binding Rituals that were left unchanged

The majority of the Binding Rituals in PvP were buffed in similar ways and made into resilient fodder for spirit based skills. There were, however, certain Binding Rituals that did not receive any improvements out of fear of causing imbalances in PvP.

Union shares a similar problem with Shelter but has a less powerful effect overall. It was left alone in order to avoid imbalances.

Displacement is also a spirit that should not be improved. Blocking skills were given a keen balance, and party-wide blocking was even removed from the once potent Aegis (PvP).

Soothing can significantly reduce the effectiveness adrenaline based skills and attacks. It does not need to be improved.

Earthbind enhances knockdowns which is again a delicately balanced mechanic. It would be best to leave it alone.

Reaching a conclusion

So, by implementing these changes, we achieve a few things. We make Binding Rituals a much more reliable and dependable mechanic for the Ritualist to utilize. With improved levels, they cannot be so easily dispatched. With improved casting times, they cannot be so easily interrupted. Reductions in energy costs and recharge times further reinforce the resiliency of Binding Rituals. Yet, these improvements were done in moderation, and so their spirits can still be killed and can still be interrupted.

Removing inherently imbalanced effects of Binding Rituals was necessary to allow these changes to occur. As mentioned earlier, mechanics like interrupts, enchantment removals and knockdowns are important and carefully balanced aspects of skilled play. Allowing Binding Rituals to perform these kinds of actions truly does not have a place in a PvP environment.

The overall reduction in power to the active effects of Binding Rituals was also a critical component in allowing these changes to be balanced and to furthermore encourage an active style of play. Spirit overloading is limited by requiring attribute investment in Spawning Power, and because the spirits themselves are no longer as powerful as they once were, spirit centric teams see diminished returns while the ability of the single Ritualist to be implemented as part of a team is greatly improved.

Lastly, because spirits are more dependable, spirit-based skills are more dependable too. This will encourage Ritualists to rely on skills that have spirit based contigencies. Because these skills are now more reliable in fast paced, dynamic environments, perhaps we may finally see an emergence of the Ritualist as capable Restoration Magic backliners and Channeling Magic pressurers.

Thanks for reading!