Behind the Mask: Ritual pets don't suck
Way back in Champions Online's beta, I looked on at the Sorcery pets with a little bit of disdain. They didn't do as much DPS as a pair of Munitions Bots, and many of them were tied up in annoying ritual circles that you had to constantly stand in. Being required to stand still isn't a huge problem in many MMOs, but Champions has a very fast-paced, mobility-intensive combat system. Melee heroes need to move quickly from enemy to enemy and often have to chase down runners. Ranged characters are best served by kiting during battle to elude melee foes. In this kind of fast-paced world, who has time for a pet that forces you to stick around?
Naturally, I ate my own words a month or two ago when I discovered the Primal ritual. Originally I chose the Primal ritual because his huge AoE Snow Storm was pretty darn good at thinning mobs and gathering aggro. I also really liked that he had a travel-disabling lunge. After my crazy PvP antics at the anniversary event, I also noticed a lot of other goofy things about him. I asked myself the question: Are the other rituals this good?
The answer is no, but for the most part, all of them are worth taking. Unlike most pets in CO, rituals are pretty strong. I'll be pretty sad if the devs change them too much.
Ritual basics
Rituals are a complex can of worms to start messing with. The first thing I want to express very clearly is this: INT and PRE do not matter at all. Don't even bother with them. If the devs decide to make INT and PRE scale a little better in the pet patch, I'll retract my statement, but for the most part, you don't really need to ever get INT or PRE because they don't do enough for your pets.
The second thing that's really important to learn about a ritual is that your ritual is not your character. You're not a CoX mastermind. If you've focused on INT/PRE because you're a healer, that's great, but don't expect pets to be your sole form of DPS. Get a damaging power like Skarn's Bane to go along with your sorcerous theme. Pets are there to support you, not act as fully functioning characters.
One thing that does help with rituals stat-wise is mid-to-low REC. I know I've said a billion times that REC is awesome, but because REC determines the size of your equilibrium and ritual costs scale to your equilibrium, REC is sketchy if you want to use a ritual every fight. This is also really true because a lot of energy-granting powers don't scale to REC. If you've got a lot of PRE for instance, Thermal and Telepathic Reverberation give energy returns that don't scale with REC. The same goes for DEX and the various martial arts forms. In fact, just about any sort of energy-fixing power is better than getting REC. This doesn't mean that your REC/PRE fire-breathing regenerator heroine can't get the Ebon ritual too, but it'll be more awkward to use.
The circle created by rituals does not have to be stood in 24/7. I can't stress this enough. Do not be afraid to leave the circle. There's a pretty long grace period (somewhere between 5 and 10 seconds) when you can leave the circle and return without losing your pet. Even if you stand outside the circle for longer than the grace period, your pet will still fight for a little while after that. If you need to kite out of an AoE, you can run out of the ritual for a few seconds and return. If you need to kite a melee enemy, you can just run around in circles, and as long as you touch the ritual every few seconds you'll be fine. You can also leave the circle to grab aggro and then run back to the circle.
Probably the biggest problem for all pet masters is this: Don't be afraid to let your pet die. Ritual pets summon quickly, and the energy cost is usually not that big of a deal. Rituals also have a fair bit of life, so letting the enemy beat on them is almost always a good thing. If you need to leave your circle to move somewhere, invest two seconds to summon another pet. It's only two seconds.
Lastly: Rank up your rituals. R1 rituals are basically worthless, and R2 rituals don't have the more useful powers. There is never a case where getting a ritual at less than R3 is a good idea. This means rituals are a bit of an investment, and if you have a really tight build, you probably want to pass.
The first forbidden ritual: Arcane Construct
The Arcane ritual is the weakest of the four rituals, especially in PvE. When most people complain about rituals sucking, most of them complain about Arcane Construct. He's not actually that bad, but using him requires finesse and even still, you're probably just better off getting Electrocute yourself.
The Arcane Construct's attack powers fire bolts of lightning, either weak zaps or slightly stronger jolts of chain lightning. The electric bolts he fires can sometimes trigger the Negative Ions debuff for Electricity characters, but this is rare, and I think depending on it is a bad idea. Overall, Arcane Construct's biggest problem is this: his damage is much too weak, relative to other rituals. His lightning bolts deal less DPS than other pets and generally only affect a small number of foes, often only one.
The saving grace of Arcane Construct is Electrocute. When he's ranked up to R3, he gets the infamous hold from Electricity, albeit at Rank 1. Before you guys flip out, it is not the old bugged version (I was a sad panda at this discovery), but it is still really awesome.
In the fast-paced world of PvP, this is really nice because it tends to interrupt kill combos. Like clockwork, the Construct will zap the enemy with his hold immediately as soon as the your foe's hold protection drops. This is really, really annoying to fight against. If you're knocked down, held, disabled, or otherwise rendered unable to fight, you often have another means of escape because of the annoying Arcane pet.
Overall, he is good in PvE for holding Master Villains or other tough foes, and he's really obnoxious in PvP. I think in terms of sheer annoyance, his PvP value is exceeded only by the fearsome Primal ritual. I think that for best PvE use, you'll want to get the Meek Inheritance advantage and set up a keybind to manually target him on tough foes.
The second unholy ritual: Demons
The Ebon ritual is no-nonsense. The other rituals benefit from tricks or quirks that make them strong, but Ebon ritual-san doesn't mess around. He just does DPS. And he does a lot of DPS.
I consider the demons summoned from this ritual to be sort of boring in that respect. They're cool, I guess, but there are no goofy fun (or annoying) things to do with him. He throws fire blasts and makes the sky bleed fiery rain. There's nothing subtle about him.
One of the best properties of Fire powers as a whole is their synergy, and the Ebon ritual is extremely nice in this respect. He benefits a lot from Unstable Accelerant or Fire Snake's resistance debuffs, and he often applies the Clinging Flames debuff to fuel Thermal Reverberation.
Because his AoE damage from breathing fire and raining flaming death is pretty considerable, he makes a great pal in PvE. He'll probably die a lot from aggro, but again, losing him isn't a big deal. There's a pretty good chance that he'll proc Clinging Flames on something and pay for himself, so he's a great pick in almost any Fire build.
The third blessed ritual: Spirits
The Radiant ritual claims it summons a "spirit," but nobody calls it that. It's an angel, and if there's one thing we expect angels to do, it's get beat up by hot chicks... I mean heal things.
The angel's attacks are on the mediocre side, but her R1 attack has a nice little damage debuff. Her AoE "Condemn" attack is actually the old Condemn, complete with random hold chance. I actually kind of hope that she keeps the hold post-patch, just to keep with her defensive nature.
But you guys really didn't pick an angel for the DPS, did you? Her DPS is laughably bad, and the AoE on her Condemn isn't very big. You picked her because you wanted a healer, and she delivers. Her healing is considerably better than most self-heals, and the best part is that she doesn't cost energy or attention to heal you. If you're knocked down, held, or in some other crazy bad situation, you can bet that your pet angel will be there to spam healing on you.
The angel is best suited for tank builds. I realize that a lot of tank concepts make absolutely no sense with a pet angel, but the increase in survivability makes no sense if you die super fast in the first place.
The final divine ritual: ...a wolf?
I've gotten some word through the grapevine that the Primal ritual is getting changed. However, the existing ice wolf will be moving to the Ice framework, so I can't complain too much. The Primal ritual is the beast of the rituals. He's the king of the hill, the baddest of the bunch. He's awesome in every way.
OK, he doesn't heal you.
The Primal ice wolf is the master of cold powers, but he has a little more than just ice at his disposal. The first great thing about him is his travel-disabling lunge. It's hard to get away from him, especially since he stacks the Chill debuff and snares the heck out of the enemy. If you're an ice hero that benefits from Chill, you're even better off.
His ice AoE damage is really good. He's not quite as rock-awesome as the Ebon ritual, but his Snow Storm has a slightly wider AoE. In PvE, he's not going to top the damage charts, but he's a great backup damage dealer.
Lastly, his Snow Storm has an area blind. It can be easily seen through with +Perception gear in PvP, but for the most part, it is annoying. In general, annoying things in PvP are fun for me, so I latched onto this with joy.
Last words?
Each of the four rituals really has something to make it stand out. While the Arcane ritual is kind of bad and the Primal ritual is very solid, all four are pretty decent in their own respects. I'm seriously hoping that the rituals don't get changed too harshly in the pet pass, because they really are better than everyone expects.
And lastly: Don't be afraid to leave the circle. You're not tied to it.
When he's not touring the streets of Millennium City or rolling mooks in Vibora Bay, Patrick Mackey goes Behind the Mask to bring you the nitty-gritty of the superhero world every Thursday. Whether it's expert analysis of Champions Online's game mechanics or his chronicled hatred of roleplaying vampires, Patrick holds nothing back.
