Melee Ritualist seeks skill advice and answers, please

[dave in the basement]

Hello all,

As the title indicates, I would like some help with the topics below, and suggestions on how to improve Fanskar, my level 44 Ritualist. I am having a blast in Epic Greece and I’d love some pointers on the topics below. :D

Background and preferences:

With the exception of my lone purple item (Truncheon of Malice), my gear is pretty much a hodge-podge of basic green and blue items. My helm looks like a bucket, but it offers +1 to all skills, so I am willing to put up with the constant snickering from the monsters I face. My other “interesting” gear consists of Shard of the Elements (amulet), Gloves of the Crimson Guard (gauntlets), and armor that provides +28% damage.

Distort reality is my main attack, and I then whack away with psionic touch as needed. In epic Greece, most monsters drop with one or two hits after the distort reality attack. That seems pretty good to me, but if I could get more bang for my buck, please chime in. (I don’t really enjoy phantom strike, though, so please don’t go that route unless it would be dropping one skill point in there to use occasionally.)

I enjoy playing with pets in general, but the Nightmare is my favorite by far. I have been pumping wolves to help keep them alive…but they still die all the time. The Nymph doesn’t die terribly frequently, but I am not sure if she is doing much while she is alive. I guess with the exception of the Nightmare, I am not sure how helpful the pets are. Any thoughts?

Anywho, long story even longer, here is a pretty close guess on my current build, minus skill items:

Click Me! (http://www.titancalc.com/TitanCalc.asp?mastery=Ritualist&master1=4&master2=9&m1=32-0-7-6-0-1-0-0-1-0-0-0-0-4-0-1-1-0-1-0-1-0&m2=32-0-3-0-0-1-0-1-6-1-0-0-8-1-0-12-1-0-0-1-12-0)

Is the plague tree worth investing in? If so, what would you recommend? Feel free to be as explicit or as concise as your time allows.

What would your skills look like at level 50 and 60?

If you have any questions, I’ll be happy to do my best to answer them. Thanks in advance for taking the time to reply. :)

Dave

[Hadrian]

My melee Ritualist entered Epic Greece at 42 or so, and has since progressed into Legendary. My build seems to be more pet-focused than yours, as my wolves were maxed out well before the end of normal. I can tell you that with maxed wolves, high levels of Survival Instinct and high levels of Trance of Convalesence it is nigh impossible for them to die.

Plague is very worth it, especially with a few +skill items. So far I've sunk only 1 into plague itself, and then a handful into Susceptibility for the damage/elemental debuffs. It's great on bosses and works wonders with Distort Reality in large groups as the petrify keeps them all in close proximity which allows the plague to spread faster as well as making them take greatly increased damage from the electrical burn damage. Coupled with refresh it's a potent combination which has allowed me to take on entire packs of dragonians/tigermen with very little risk to myself despite the fact that my resists are less than what most similar-level characters might need. It also allows my Phantom Strike/Dreamstealer combination to hit for massive damage, which can also be refreshed.

As I was playing last night it dawned on me that a melee ritualist may be the most survivable character possible. You have everything that you need (damage absorption, huge HP, potentially huge HP regen, pets, debuffs, crowd control, stuns, high armor) to survive whatever the game can throw at you and, with a little gear tweaking, can put out some downright righteous damage as well. After playing four characters through Legendary, I can say that this one is easily the most powerful, and I can't think of a character that could do better. It scares me to think that most of my gear is old, low quality or unaugmented. When I get the gear that I'm seeking, I posit that my character will usurp the Gods themselves with little issue.

EDIT:
Work blocks me from seeing your build, so I can't comment on that much. When I get home later I'll give it a look. I've found it hard to go wrong, though. There are only a few skills that I would deem worthless to this character in general, primarily Tranquility of Water (I don't remember the last time I drank a blue potion. Even Typhon can't suck it up faster than I use it), Briar Ward/synergies and whichever Dream skill gives you a temporary damage absorption buff on hit, though I've recently sunk 1 point into it just for fun. Regrowth isn't necessary so far, but I wouldn't call it totally worthless either. It might have saved a Nymph or two along the way.

[dave in the basement]

Thanks for the reply, Hadrian. :)

I was just about to post that "this melee Ritualist seeking advice must be out of luck." :lol:

I plan on doing a little respeccing tonight, and it looks like I'll be spending some points in the ol' plague tree.

Thanks again for the reply!

Dave