Stop Teasing Us with Ritualist!

[BerriosC.7295]

With the release of End of Dragons, we were given two new stat combinations. Dragon and Ritualist. We were also given NPCs and Enemy Units that are Ritualists. And now we have the Ritualist Staff skin, the Ritualist Outfit, and equipment stats for Ritualist, but not Ritualist. 

 

I know that Ritualist is not something everyone wants to see return, largely due to the number of players who have never played GW1 or never cared about the profession. Either way, there are thousands of players that want to see Ritualist come back and bringing it back would be incredibly easy. Just make it an Elite Spec. End of Dragon's would have been perfect, since we're back in Cantha. There are 3 Profession it could go to. Necromancer could gain Spirits that act like stationary Minions with a trait that teleports them to you when you dodge, referencing the Kurzick skill. Guardian already has Spirit Weapons and are described in one of the books as having Ritualist magic, so mobile spirits would work. And Revenant already has the theme of communing with spirits from the mist. Give it the Legendary Ritualist Stance that channels Master Togo or Razah. There's literally no reason not to do this. Just about every Elite Spec, outside of their role or a couple mechanics, has been something no one has asked for. So even if the number of people who want Ritualist back is a small percentage, it's still a higher percentage than nearly every Elite Spec we've gotten so far.

 

 

And before you say it, because I know someone's going to. No, Engineer and Renegade are not suitable Ritualist replacements. If that's what you're going to comment, I will assume you are a troll and have nothing worth saying. 

[AgentMoore.9453]

I'd be cool with this. I was actually hoping Necromancers would get a ghost-based spec with this expansion. They could even have the spirits be participating willingly because we're bros with them as opposed to subjugating them (which is what Rits did in GW1). We help so many ghosts and lost spirits and soul entities throughout the course of the GW2 story, it'd be nice to bond with some of them in a spec.

Necros also didn't get the big hat. Sad day for big hat enthusiasts everywhere.

[Cronospere.8143]

Same for paragons and dervish during pof and ls5

[Super Hayes.6890]

Pretty sure they are not going back to new professions after 2 expacs now without them. You are right, this would have been a great opportunity for a ritualist espec. PoF could have done a paragon espec for warrior. I'm not sure why they pass on this low hanging fruit. Hell, I would buy a elite spec only expansion if they gave us some of these specs with it.

[Doggie.3184]

Imagine if the the Living Story released with Heavy Paragon, Medium Dervish and Light Ritualist. As well as the addition of every Assassin armor skin from GW1 for Thief. 😶

[castlemanic.3198]

i'm all down for ritualist, dervish and paragon making an appearance as playable classes or elite specs in the game. i've actually really been really wanting a paragon spec for guardian. but yeah it seems like the devs are intent on not providing us with these classes or their elite spec versions.

[Fueki.4753]

2 hours ago, castlemanic.3198 said:

i'm all down for ritualist, dervish and paragon making an appearance as playable classes or elite specs in the game. i've actually really been really wanting a paragon spec for guardian. but yeah it seems like the devs are intent on not providing us with these classes or their elite spec versions.

Paragon is closer to Warrior than it is to Guardian.

Even in GW1, paragon was basically a ranged, more supportive Warrior, so it could give Warrior what Warrior actually needs (unlike trash like Junksworn). That aside, Guardian doesn't need yet another support specialization.

Since Dervish is attuned to elements via Earth and Wind Prayers, it could be an Elementalist specialization. But Elementalist already got three melee specializations, so that would be another bird flipped towards people who want a ranged Elementalist. Or Revenants could channel Varesh Ossa. Given that the Alliance can be channelled despite Shiro already being available, Varesh and Mallyx both being available wouldn't be an issue.

Assassin could be implement for Thief, replacing Stealth with an actual defensive mechanic.

I'm not so sure how Ritualist could fit into the professions though. Theoretically, Revenants could channel Razah or Togo. Or Arenanet could stick it to Necromancers.

[BerriosC.7295]

9 hours ago, Fueki.4753 said:

Or Revenants could channel Varesh Ossa. Given that the Alliance can be channelled despite Shiro already being available, Varesh and Mallyx both being available wouldn't be an issue.

 

 

I think Revenant getting Legendary God Stance and channeling Balthazar (if he's in the mists again, I don't remember exactly what happened to him) with greatsword as the new weapon would have been the best way to go about bringing Dervish back since it wouldn't make sense for any race besides Human to worship them. 

[Artyport.2084]

I feel like scourge was ritualist but they didnt go all the way. 

[The Greyhawk.9107]

12 hours ago, Doggie.3184 said:

Imagine if the the Living Story released with Heavy Paragon, Medium Dervish and Light Ritualist. As well as the addition of every Assassin armor skin from GW1 for Thief. 😶

Don't tease me like that, I'm hitting the bottle hard enough as is right now.

[Fueki.4753]

4 hours ago, BerriosC.7295 said:

 

I think Revenant getting Legendary God Stance and channeling Balthazar (if he's in the mists again, I don't remember exactly what happened to him) with greatsword as the new weapon would have been the best way to go about bringing Dervish back since it wouldn't make sense for any race besides Human to worship them. 

I don't think channelling any god would be a good or pleasing way to bring Dervish back at all.

The Avatars were merely five abilities. That'd be like spitting on the profession as a whole and reducing to to its bare minimum.

Dervish is so much more than just the smelly avatars.

[Lottie.5370]

I was really hoping the new revenant elite spec would be ritualist, was slightly disappointed to find out it wasn't. I doubt we will get any new elite specs now though 😞

 

I thought they teased us by naming the PvP achi for revenant "Champion Ritualist"!

[sasya neko.1985]

On 3/5/2022 at 8:26 AM, AgentMoore.9453 said:

I'd be cool with this. I was actually hoping Necromancers would get a ghost-based spec with this expansion. They could even have the spirits be participating willingly because we're bros with them as opposed to subjugating them (which is what Rits did in GW1). We help so many ghosts and lost spirits and soul entities throughout the course of the GW2 story, it'd be nice to bond with some of them in a spec.

Necros also didn't get the big hat. Sad day for big hat enthusiasts everywhere.

a while ago i had an e-spec idea for the necro, i called it the banshee but it's basically the mix of necro and rit in one.

it uses the longbow with spirit arrows, it can summon both defensive and offensive spirits to aid the battlefield while staying mobile enough to control the enemy.

it's shroud is changed to shadow realm and allows it to attack trough armor, it also has 2 skills, 1.) etheral spikes: you hold this skill and select up to 5 targets, release to fire it all at ones, 2.) wrath of grenth: focus all your power on one single target.

 

small idea but it's a WIP

[BerriosC.7295]

On 3/6/2022 at 1:47 PM, sorudo.9054 said:

a while ago i had an e-spec idea for the necro, i called it the banshee but it's basically the mix of necro and rit in one.

it uses the longbow with spirit arrows, it can summon both defensive and offensive spirits to aid the battlefield while staying mobile enough to control the enemy.

it's shroud is changed to shadow realm and allows it to attack trough armor, it also has 2 skills, 1.) etheral spikes: you hold this skill and select up to 5 targets, release to fire it all at ones, 2.) wrath of grenth: focus all your power on one single target.

 

small idea but it's a WIP

 

That sounds like an awesome concept. Longbow Necro with spirit arrows would be so cool to play

[Einlanzer.1627]

As much as I love this game, Anet has consistently dropped the ball on this kind of thing and I can't figure out why other than they just have mediocre-to-poor direction and simultaneosly try to over-innovate AND eliminate development waste through homogeneity in the types of things that are tackled with resources, which isn't really great for the game in the long run.

Why didn't we get land spears with POF? No clue. Why didn't we get monks or ritualists with EOD? No clue. Why has there been no attempt at simulating any of these three concepts either with new classes or especs? No clue. Why has there been no attempt at adding new playable races even in a minimalist way? No clue. Why have we received 1 fractal and no new normal dungeon in years? No clue. Why has LW1 not been properly reimplemented? No clue. Why have we never gotten a third borderlands map to replace one of the two Alpine ones? No clue.

None of these things should really be that difficult, and many of them deserve to be prioritized over the types of content that we continually get at least sometimes. 

In contrast, we've arguably had too much expansion of story and meta-style maps in the game to the point where the poplulation is over-distributed and the story is really intimidating to play all the way through. Why is that stuff not mixed up more with PVP/WVW maps, dungeon-style content, or systems expansions that actually affect gameplay like new weapons/classes/races. In the last 6 years, only mounts have been a substantial gameplay/system update, and that was now four years ago. That's absurd, really. 

The weapon thing is particularly problematic for me, because the reasons for not doing it are extremely lame cop-outs, and it has a practical impact of pigeonholing the way in which classes are expanded over time. Imagine if they were willing to add new weapon types how that might affect the concepts that get fleshed out for elite specs or even full new classes. I find it absurd that they've never made this a priority especially when POF launched without adding spears - I mean, really, wtf, whose brilliant idea was that?

Edited March 11, 2022 by Einlanzer.1627

[Ausar.9542]

On 3/5/2022 at 6:34 AM, Cronospere.8143 said:

Same for paragons and dervish during pof and ls5

Dervish are Warriors with Revenant sub class. 

 

Edited March 8, 2022 by Ausar.9542

[Cronospere.8143]

1 hour ago, Ausar.9542 said:

Dervish are Warriors with Revenant sub class. 

 

Uhh.. yeah meleefighters with scythes who can shapeshift into their gods avatar. With a lot of AoE damage. 

 

They are a lot different than what you just discribed.

[Obliviscaris.6937]

In no other game has the pedigree & potential of what came before been so flagrantly disregarded (besides World of Warcraft but that's not for here)
We have developers wetting the bed over wanting to come up with the "next original idea!" to spearhead their personal careers.

An idea can be original, it doesn't mean it 's good. See: Most of the End of Dragons elite specs.

Think about it. There's a reason why there hasn't been a Warrior spec that uses...whatever the hell it's trying to do now. There's a reason why Elementalist hasn't had a hammer as a main weapon thus far. You need to be working within a framework, what I'm seeing as a designer is not following the design ethos that carried the first games (Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, and Core Guild Wars 2), and by extension Heart of Thorns to such roaring success.

Dervish, Paragon, Ritualist, were all incredibly unique classes that drew on some fantastic cultural sources for inspiration. There was absolutely no reason not to re-introduce them in the way that Factions and Nightfall did. The model worked before, it would work again, but the constant need to re-invent the darn wheel is stunting  the entire IP.
(Whereas then you have a spec like Virtuoso, which is at a very base concept level quite interesting with a lot of potential, to find that the devs have taken that and completely crapped the bed.)

 

It's so frustrating for players.

 

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by Obliviscaris.6937

[Desh.7028]

On 3/5/2022 at 12:34 PM, Cronospere.8143 said:

Same for paragons and dervish during pof and ls5

 

I just wanted land spears so badly. Guardian with spear is in essence half a paragon already. 

 

Scourge and Renegade in combination would be mechanically really close to Ritualist.

Revenant builds focused on upkeep skills are Dervishes.

[Ausar.9542]

33 minutes ago, Cronospere.8143 said:

Uhh.. yeah meleefighters with scythes who can shapeshift into their gods avatar. With a lot of AoE damage. 

 

They are a lot different than what you just discribed.

Dervish use mist powers  to evoke avatars of the gods. Revenants do the same exact thing but with any echo from the mist. 

[ScottBroChill.3254]

People saying ritualist is covered by other professions, engineer for general gameplay, guard for spirit weapons, renegade for spirits, etc., is the equivalent of not having necromancer in the game but claiming it's already covered by mesmer because clones=minions. Nobody in their right mind would say anything covers the necromancer niche outside of a necromancer. People who want to use death magic, raise the dead, spread diseases, is not going to want a mechanically similar class wrapped up as, lets say, a mechanical engineer. This is the issue about the ritualist. Like yeah, the combat was fun and I'm always for a area control/off-support class, it's my bread and budda, but the draws of the ritualist are mostly thematic and aesthetic I think for the majority of players. I don't want no plant based meat subsititute, I want the real thing. 

[Gehenna.3625]

11 minutes ago, ScottBroChill.3254 said:

People saying ritualist is covered by other professions, engineer for general gameplay, guard for spirit weapons, renegade for spirits, etc., is the equivalent of not having necromancer in the game but claiming it's already covered by mesmer because clones=minions. Nobody in their right mind would say anything covers the necromancer niche outside of a necromancer. People who want to use death magic, raise the dead, spread diseases, is not going to want a mechanically similar class wrapped up as, lets say, a mechanical engineer. This is the issue about the ritualist. Like yeah, the combat was fun and I'm always for a area control/off-support class, it's my bread and budda, but the draws of the ritualist are mostly thematic and aesthetic I think for the majority of players. I don't want no plant based meat subsititute, I want the real thing. 

The Ritualist npc's also use spirits and these are something that we've not seen before. So they implemented the class but not for players.

[Chay.7852]

As a main rit in gw with few thousands of hours played on this class, i too agree that i would still like to have my rit back somehow but i'm 99,9% sure that it won't happen - it didn't happen with para and dervish and i doubt it will happen with rit or assassin.

As for rit = engi  - never was, nor will it be. Thats like saying mesmer is warrior because it uses a sword.

Necro was necro here and there. I like necros for beeing necros (i think the flair of the class remained the same) but they are not rits. I don't think even an elite specialization ritualist would fit for a necro.

The closest we will get to our rits is rev - imo - now even more with the ash elite which works similar to the ashes in gw1. Renegade has spirits (sort of), vindicator has ashes (at least 2 of them.. )

Edited March 9, 2022 by Chay.7852

[Fueki.4753]

48 minutes ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

So they implemented the class but not for players.

It's just like they have done with Monks, Paragons and Dervishes.

They have refused to give us any of these as well, so I doubt Ritualist will ever become playable in GW2.

[Teratus.2859]

I was kinda hoping for a Ritualist spec for Revenant.
MH Sceptor for the weapon and class abilities something akin to Scourges Shades.

But it would have probably been too similar to Renegade.

I would have gone with F-skills though that would change based on your current legend.

Shiro would have a focus on offensive spirits that deal power damage.
Summon up to 3 Spirits of Pain to attack foes, they can be manually sacrificed dealing damage based on their current health. (more health = more damage)

Ventari would have a focus on healing spirits that buff group healing.
Summon up to 3 Spirits of Life that heal nearby allies and grant a small boost to nearby players healing power.
+50 healing power per active spirit.
Sacrificing these spirits grants AoE healing based on the spirits current health. (more health = more healing)

Mallyx would have a focus on condition spirits that apply torment, bleed and poison conditions.
Summon up to 3 spirits of Agony.
F2 inflicts bleeds.
F3 inflicts poison.
F4 inflicts torment.
Sacrificing one of these spirits pulls their associated condition from up to 5 allies within range.
If an enemy is within range the spirit transfers that condition to that enemy before it dies (up to 10 stacks)

Jalis would have a focus on support spirits that give offensive boons and stat boosts.
Summon up to 3 spirits.
Spirit of Might, provides 5 stacks of might every 5 seconds to nearby allies and also grants them a +50 power and condition damage bonus.
Spirit of Fury, provides 1 second of fury every second to nearby allies and also grants them a +50 precision and ferocity. 
Spirit of Speed, provides swiftness and quickness every second.

Unlike damaging spirits these spirits cannot be sacrificed, instead you can summon multiple of the same type if you choose to.
When a spirit dies either via duration expire or actively killed in combat, it's associated F-skill goes on cooldown and you are unable to summon another of the same type until the cooldown expires.
These cooldowns are not affected by alacrity.

The new Legend would have had a focus on defensive spirits that give defensive boons and stat boosts.
Summon up to 3 spirits.
Spirit of Protection, provides 1 second of protection every second to nearby allies and grants them +50 toughness.
Spirit of Resolution, provides 1 second of resolution every second to nearby allies and grants them +50 vitality.
Spirit of Shelter, provides 4 seconds of Aegis every 4 seconds to nearby allies 

Much like Jalis spirits these spirits also cannot be sacrificed, and can instead be stacked up with multiples of the same type.
When they die they function the same as Jalis's spirits and go on cooldown and are not affected by alacrity.

This is pretty much my vision for a Ritualist spec for Revenant and how spirits would more or less work.