Guild Wars: Baby Rits and Low Level Builds

As I mentioned the other day, I've started up a Ritualist because...well, I'm still working on that really. But I've had fun playing on my Monk and wanted to experience a different kind of backliner, I suppose. It's been going pretty well so far. Advancement in Factions is lightning fast so in only a few hours of play I've already marched nearly to the level cap and off the Shing Jea Island. Next is heading to Elona to pick up some Heros and from there, well, I don't know, probably not much since I'll be busy writing a novel or playing on other characters but one of these days I'll be able to bring a Ritualist to the party, too. Anyways, I thought I'd share my build and what I'm doing with my baby Rit around level 15ish and about to wade through Zen Daijun and get on the boat to the mainland. I'm slash E since, really, if you're a caster and you have nothing better to do that new model Glyph of Lesser just makes sense. If you're counting AP, yes, I haven't gotten the second 15 yet. You need to complete Zen Daijun first.


Red Secret Nights lv14

• Channeling 11+3
• Restoration 6

1. Ancestor's Rage
2. Splinter Weapon
3. Mend Body and Soul
4. Spirit Light
5. Flesh of My Flesh
6. Generous was Tsungai
7. Bloodsong
8. Recuperation

Alright, yes, it sucks. But remember that I'm just getting to the mainland now and have had to assemble it completely from Factions skills. No elites, either, since I haven't been able to cap any. The basic idea is to work as a support character, making the tasks of other characters in the party easier or increasing their ability to do their jobs. It's not a full-fledged healer but it chips in enough healing that one Monk can float the party. Especially in the deep Newbielands that I trek. It's not an offensive character but it can chip in with the ocassional blast or by making other characters more lethal.

I have Channeling +3 from when I bought myself a gift rune because I like the big numbers. It's on the first +attrib hat I could find so although I could have opened up the bank account, I instead went with the cheap option. Turns out, oddly enough, that the minor Channeling rune is actually the most expensive one you can get for a Rit (Outside of the still outrageously priced Super Vigors and various armor insignias, of course). It was something like 500g while a Superior only ran 250g. The Major I picked up was the bargain basement option at a cool 100g and since I'm not exactly swimming in armor, most of my gear is still starting equipment which is rated at 5AL, I figured it was best not to take a huge hit to my health. While since I'd eventually want to upgrade to a Super, it didn't make much sense to splurge on a Minor to start with.

On to the skills. The star, hands down, is Splinter Weapon. Just massive AoE damage even at low levels. I've gotten my stats high enough that I can almost keep it up on multiple characters now. Given the lack of diversity in henchie choices on the starter island (something that gets fixed in a big way on the mainland, of course) means the War and Sin henchies.

Ancestor's Rage is nice, too, especially when it's down to a single target that makes Splinter useless. Nice, heavy hit and I love watching the health bars fly down just after it goes up.

I've gone heavily defensive here when I'd really like to slip in another weapon spell or DD skill but it means I only need to bring one Monk along with me, if that in the 4 person areas.

For my straight healing, I had been using Wielder's Boon and Soothing Memories. But Wielder's was proving inconsistent when I'm only using Splinter Weapon and I switched to Spirit Light - at low levels the 17% blood cost doesn't hurt much but now that I'm starting to get decent health, I'm feeling it more. That's why Bloodsong is in there. Not just because it's halfway decent at my levels of Channeling, because it's on a short recharge with a long duration, I can almost always keep it up to fuel Spirit Light (Or, really, any skill that needs a spirit.).
Since I'm doing that, MB&S is a no-brainer since it's a decent heal and condition removal. I was using Soothing Memories to help out with e-management back when I was also using Mighty Was Vorizon for the same. Now, though, I'm using Generous Was Tsungai which I don't have up as frequently and the enemies are getting tougher so I went with the bigger heal of MB&S instead.

The tougher foes are the same reason I switched to Tsungai, of course, as since I have bonus weapons, Vorizon's only a +15 en boost to my pool. And setting that to 60en suffers from the Elementalist problem - sure, I have lots of energy to start a fight but as it wears on and I'm relying on regeneration it's not really doing me a lot of good. The extra armor was handy but I'm finding now that the extra health buffer and the emergency mega-heal on command are much more useful. I also don't have to keep that +health item up constantly and can use it in spot duty instead which helps my energy flow even more.

There's another reason I switched, too, and it's why I'm using Recuperation. Which, let's be honest here, sucks. It's a massive, cheaper version of Mending which lasts something like 20 seconds. So, for 25 energy I get to slowly heal 80~120 health for everyone once every minute or so if we haven't run out of range by slaughtering things too fast. It helps but it's not exactly what I'd call good. The defensive Rit spirits really suck now compared to what they were when Factions was released but even still, I'd much rather have Shelter or Union. So why don't I? Well, those are under Communing and I only have so many attribute points to go around. And by sticking with Recuperation I can stick with a pure Channeling/Resto build and eventually sink my remaining points into Spawning. Once I get some runes and some more AP, I can spec to a four attribute build but, at the moment, I think it's better to limit the focus and maximize the potential of what I'm using instead of spreading myself too thin. That's, in general, the best policy for lower level characters with very few exceptions like Curse Necros or Hexing Mesmers who aren't really dependent on their stats so much as their skill descriptions. For others, though, it's best to pick one line and raise it to the roof and, with whatever's left over, try and hit some breakpoints with another line. Because, remember, the big difference between a low level character and a high level character isn't the health, it's not even armor (since you can craft any set you can get to), it's the stats. It's those couple hundred attribute points they've sunk into improving their skills that makes a lv20 better than a lv1. And although you can't match that, the higher you can get one attribute the more those skills function like you're at an effectively higher level.

Avoiding Communing is the same reason why I'm no longer using Brutal Weapon, which I had been using both to increase melee damage and to fuel Wielder's Boon. I should probably, though, switch to something like Resiliant or Vengeful Weapon since as those health bars are lengthening the few pips of regen that Recuperation provides are becoming increasingly ineffective.

Next play session, maybe.