[Elite Specialization concept] Ritualist, a necromancer elite specialization

[Nljsa.9247]

Something I, and so many others, have wanted for ages in GW2 is Ritualist. Either as a class or an elite specialization. I've also wanted the heal/boon support necromancer that Scourge doesn't quite fulfill, so I decided to work out a concept that combines the two. I'd love for some constructive criticism and maybe, just maybe, get a couple devs' eyes turned this way.

 

Ritualist Necromancer

An elite specializtion built around providing boons and healing, or providing decent mid-ranged power based damage.
Minor Proficiency: One-handed sword proficiency.

Minor Adept:

Spirit Binding: Life force is built up passively over time while in combat. Weapon skills and nearby deaths that grant lifeforce grant less life force.

Rather than Necromancer’s Shroud, Ritualists gain the ability to temporarily bind spirits from the Mists. Only one of each spirit can be bound at a time. Summoning a duplicate spirit unbinds and releases the first.

                F1: Bind Spirit of Pain: 10% Life force. 10 second cooldown. Summon a Spirit of Pain at target location within 900 range. The spirit attacks anything you attack. Range: 1500. Duration: 20. Interval: 2.

                F2: Bind Spirit of Shelter: 15% Life force. 15 second cooldown. Summon a Spirit of Life at target location within 900 range. The spirit pulses healing to up to 5 allies within 600 of it. Duration: 16. Interval: 2

                F3: Bind Spirit of Bloodsong: 15% Life force. 20 second cooldown. Summon a Spirit of Bloodsong at target location within 900 range. The spirit attacks anything you attack, and its attacks heal up to 5 allies within 600 of it. Range: 1500. Duration: 10. Interval: 2.

                F4: Bind Spirit of Empowerment: 30% Life force. 25 second cooldown. Summon a Spirit of Empowerment at target location within 900 range. The spirit pulses boons to up to 5 allies within 600 of it. Duration: 10. Interval: 2. Boons: Protection for 3 seconds.

                F5: Shroud of Spirits: 0 Life force. 20 second cooldown. Shroud yourself in spiritual energy, granting Armor of Unfeeling and increasing Life Force generation rate. Armor of Unfeeling reduces incoming strike and condition damage. Damage and Condition Damage reduction: 15%. Duration: 5 seconds. Life force generation rate increase: 100%

Minor Master:

Enduring Spirits: Your Binding rituals have increased duration. Duration increase: 50%

Minor Grandmaster:

Sight Beyond Sight: You are immune to the Blindness Condition. When you would become Blinded, you gain Sight Beyond Sight, which increases outgoing damage and healing. Your spirits inflict blindness on you upon being summoned. Sight Beyond Sight: 5% increased damage and healing. Duration: 10 seconds.
In PvP this would have an internal cooldown of 10 seconds, blocking the first instance of Blindness.

 

Adept Traits:

Ritual of Destruction: Precision increases. Casting a Binding ritual deals damage in the area. Radius 600. Precision increase: 100

Ritual of Life: Healing power increases. Healing done by Spirits is increased. Healing Power increase: 100. Healing done by spirits increased: 100%

Ritual of Focus: Concentration increases. Your Spirits pulse boons in a larger radius. Radius increase: 300. Concentration increase: 100

 

Master Traits:

Furious Spirits: Your Spirits gain Fury when summoned. Your Spirit of Pain and Spirit of Bloodsong attack faster. Blade Ritual increases outgoing damage by 5% for 10 seconds. Attack Speed increase: 50%. Fury duration: 5 seconds.

Spirit of Perseverance: Bind Spirit of Shelter becomes Bind Spirit of Perseverance. Blade Ritual’s heal affects nearby allies. Maximum targets: 5.

                F2: Bind Spirit of Perseverance:  15% Life force. 15 second cooldown. Summon a Spirit of Perseverance at target location within 900 range. The spirit blocks projectiles upon being summoned, pulses healing and removes conditions on up to 5 allies within 600 of it. Duration: 18. Interval: 2 Projectile Block duration: 4 seconds. Number of conditions removed per interval: 2.

Ghostly Haste: Vigor reduces the recharge of your Cantrips and generates Life Force. Blade Ritual grants Vigor. Vigor duration: 5 seconds. Skill recharge: 1 second. Interval: 2 seconds.

 

Grandmaster Traits:

Ritual Lord: You can have an additional Spirit of Pain bound at a time, but they do 25% reduced damage. Spirit of Pain’s attacks inflict Painful Bond. Painful Bond effect: Increases damage taken from the Necromancer by 2% per stack. Can stack up to 5 times and each stack lasts for 5 seconds.

Boon of Creation: Your Binding Rituals grant boons to allies within range. Casting a Binding Ritual grants Alacrity to allies within range of it. Alacrity duration: 3 seconds. Range: 600.

                Spirit of Pain: Applies Might upon being summoned, and on each attack. Initial Might: 5 for 10 seconds. Might on Attack: 1 for 10 seconds.

                Spirit of Shelter: Applies Regeneration upon being summoned and with each pulse. Regeneration: 5 seconds.

                Spirit of Bloodsong: Applies Fury upon being summoned and with every attack. Initial Fury: 5 seconds. Fury on Attack: 2 seconds.

                Spirit of Empowerment: Applies Stability upon being summoned and grants Resolution with each pulse. Initial Stability: 5 stacks for 10 seconds. Resolution per pulse: 3 seconds.

Unflinching Spirit: Whenever you cast a Binding Ritual, allies within 600 of it gain Armor of Unfeeling for 5 seconds. Armor of Unfeeling is stronger and increases incoming healing. Armor of Unfeeling: Incoming strike and condition damage is reduced by 25%. Incoming healing is increased by 25%.


 

Main hand sword: 

Channeled Strike: 900 range 150 radius, damage. Inflicts vulnerability. Max targets: 5.
           >  Essence Strike: 900 range 150 radius, damage. Inflicts vulnerability. You gain Lifeforce (5%). Max targets: 5.
           > Spirit Boon Strike: 900 range 150 radius, damage, heal and grant Vigor to nearby allies. Radius: 600. Maximum number of targets: 5. Vigor duration: 2 seconds.

Blade Ritual: 10 second cd. 600 radius. Infuse your weapon with spiritual energy and strike enemies near your target. Your next few attacks heal you and grant you lifeforce (3% per attack). Duration: 20 seconds. Maximum number of targets: 5. Number of attacks: 5.

Spirit Rift: 16 second cd. 900 range. 200 radius. Creates a rift in target area that lasts for 3 seconds. Enemies in the rift take damage each second, with the last tick dealing more damage. When the rift expires, allies in it are healed.

Utilities: Cantrips
Healing:

               Mend Body and Soul: Cantrip. 30 second cooldown. Heals. Heals more and removes conditions if you are within 600 range of a spirit created by your Binding Rituals. Allies near spirits created by your Binding Rituals heal for a small amount. Conditions removed: 2

Utilities:

                Draw Essence: Cantrip: 40 second cooldown. Destroy all your active spirits. If a spirit is destroyed, you gain a large amount of Lifeforce and the spirit’s Binding Ritual recharges. Binding Ritual Recharge: 50% Life Force gained per spirit: 20%

                Renewing Surge: Cantrip. 25 second cooldown. Deals damage to nearby enemies over 3 seconds. You gain Lifeforce for each foe struck (5%). Also strikes foes near Spirits created by your Binding Rituals. Maximum targets: 10. Interval: 1 second. A foe can only be hit once per interval.

                Grasping Was Kuurong: Cantrip: 30 second cooldown. Strike your target and enemies near it, knocking them down. Knockdown: 2 seconds. Defiance Damage: 200. For 5 seconds, your attacks inflict Chill. Base Chill Duration: 3 seconds. Maximum targets: 5

                Protective Was Kaolai: Cantrip: 40 second cooldown. Break stuns. Incoming Condition Duration is reduced for you and nearby allies. Pulse Resistance to nearby allies for 5 seconds. Incoming Condition Duration reduction: 20%. Resistance duration: 1 second. Interval: 1 second. Maximum number of targets: 5

Elite:

                Selfless Was Togo: Cantrip: 80 second cooldown. You take 50% reduced damage, but 50% of damage dealt to nearby allies is transferred to you. If you would take lethal damage, you are instead healed and this effect ends. Duration: 10 seconds. Max targets: 5.


Let me know what you think! Damage and healing coefficients are something that I don't have the mental and spreadsheets for at this time.
[I plan to edit this as I get input. Please ask questions if something needs to be clarified, so that I can update it. Things that I think make sense aren't always clear to others. I haven't put a lot of thought into cast times, imo that's something that's very hard to balance without actually being able see/feel it in action.]
-Nljsa

[thirdtry.1089]

You remade Scourge?  The Spirits look like remade Sandshades.

[Nljsa.9247]

I made something that I feel like Scourge should have been. Rather than just creating a bunch of shades that you can activate in different ways, you have different spirits that provide different things. Scourge is great, my favorite necro spec right now. But also a missed opportunity when it comes to true healing and boon support, in my opinion.

[thirdtry.1089]

So, Scourge 2.0 then.  I mean, if you think about it that is all it really is.  You have Sandshades that you place around then you hit one of the F-keys to have an effect with Scourge.  With your concept, you just hit an F-key and it places a Spirit (which seems to be the same as a Sandshade since they don't move) that does an effect.

[Nyzki.4152]

Really cool concept for an elite spec! While it does share similarities with scourge it definitely seems to split away from it enough to be a fully fleshed out concept. Having a sharable shroud that's not barrier and actual healing (that's not barrier) really adds a lot to where necro lacks. The trade offs with the dps/support/heal seem well balanced in your design, too. It builds off of what seems to be the mantra with spec building now. And being able to have a full party of necros for all roles doesn't hurt either. 

 

34 minutes ago, thirdtry.1089 said:

So, Scourge 2.0 then.  I mean, if you think about it that is all it really is.  You have Sandshades that you place around then you hit one of the F-keys to have an effect with Scourge.  With your concept, you just hit an F-key and it places a Spirit (which seems to be the same as a Sandshade since they don't move) that does an effect.

 

A shade really only has one application (with multiple skills attached to it) where as the spirits are more similar to Renegade's skills. There's nothing wrong with reusing ideas for specs either (e.g. Spectre shroud and kind of celestial avatar for ranger are basically copies of base necro shroud, Mirage got dodge modifier just like Daredevil did, Mech is just ranger 2.0 with it's pet, Bladesworn gets a kit like engi, etc.). The fun part about elite specs is their ability to grow the class in fun ways that can fill new roles.  

[SingleDoubt.6047]

I really love this idea Nljsa <3, and as someone who played Ritualist in GW1 and has played Scourge--to me, this is in no way Scourge 2.0. I feel like you really embraced the spirit of what Ritualist was all about in terms of combing lore and abilities--something that Scourge misses the mark on and, from what I can tell, had no intention of ever trying to replicate. I think some of the mechanics are obviously similar, but only because Scourge always came after Ritualist, so if anything, it's Rit2.0 with sand. Which, you know, just doesn't have the same feeling about it. I think you did a truly lovely job at writing this up, too, and it never hurts to share your amazing ideas! Some of us really love what you've come up with!

[thirdtry.1089]

It just seems like such a waste of time to recreate Scourge.  Sure, other parts of it are different.  But, the core part of it is almost the exact same.  And, it's also on the same profession.  Maybe if it was on a different profession it would make more sense.  But, right now, it's Scourge 2.0 on the same profession.  We already have an OP Scourge.  We don't need another one.