I'm hoping some people out there will agree with me on this one. I can see the ritualist being in high demand because of their weapon spells. Who doesn't want somebody out there giving their warriors sweet buffs for their weapons, and doing a bit of healing on the side? It is possible that ritualists will take the places of monks. Very flexible characters with spirits and other cool skills.

I don't think the rituilst will take the place of a monk, monks have divine favor. Any extra healing power per spell (monk spell) is and will be the best choice when choosing a healer. But if no monks are present (happens alot eh? I wonder were they disappear to?) then i bet the rituilst will be the next best thing.

I think the ritualist was made to be a replacement for the monk. I'm not saying all the way, but instead of groups being blah blah blah and two monks. It would be blah blah blah 1 monk 1 ritualist.

I think I said this, but the ritualist was made to be a anit-melee protector and the Assassin a anit-caster killer. Though when I went up against a ritualist using my Assassin I killed it off easier then anyother class :P , but the others were a bit harder

Divine Favor will always heal better. ALWAYS. The divine favor skill tree practically doubles the amount healed from the regular healing prayers, and in the same time, provide energy management (ex. Blessed Signet, Divine Spirit). While ritualists are good to have around, I will never put a ritualist in the place of a monk.

I played an assasin during FPE, and it was certainly appealing. However, an assasin's power is very limited. Their armor can only provide them with enough energy to burst a 4-combo move ONCE. After that, you need to wait for your energy to recharge to full before setting off another burst. Each burst can take out half of a caster's HP, but do very little against heavy armored mobs.

Alot of the moves have been lowered in energy for the assassins so that might have changed.

I dont know why my thread didnt get posted but:

Rit/Nec will become the new minion master. You will get level 14 Minions, with 634 health I believe (16 Spawning 12 Death). As opposed to the regular lvl 18 minions with only 440 health a 16 death necro would have. The loss of soul reaping will be replaced by boon of creation in which not only will you heal yourself, but gain 11 (possible 10, i havnt quite figured it out) energy for every creature you create. Add in explosive growth and you've got enemies taking around 70 damage every time you create a new minion, think of the effect of EoE in combination with this. Ghostly haste will also recharge VS very nicely, not quite all the way where you can have it up constantly, but with only a few seconds inbetween.

I don't see Ritualists replacing Monks, but they can definitely play supporting roles. Ritualist healers are to Monks what Fire Nukers are to Air Spikers: they provide a nice AoE effect, but not enough to complete the job. By themselves they're not very effective, but they can certainly provide very effective backup! In the PvP event, I had a Ritualist healer build that generally maintained everyone's health at a high level, but I was unable to counteract spikers. With a good healer in the group, though, my teams were pretty much invincible.

My first new character to roll in Cantha will be a Ritualist. I'm still debating between mesmer and necro as a secondary, but after reading this thread and the guide book with the preorder, I'm swaying toward necro secondary.

btw, did anyone notice a change in the writing style in this little book over the one that came with the chapter one's preorder? I thought there was a huge, user friendly improvment. Either that, or I'm so familiar with the game that it wasn't as confusing this time around.

Did you just say Air spikers where better then fire eles! -_-

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Well anyway I never ment a full replacement, but a substitute. I do think the Ri could do that. I believe this was Anets mind set when they were making the Ri. As you know the monk is the most wanted class in most everything so Anet was trying to balance that out.

In pvp air spikers are much more effecient at doing their job...however in PvE, fire eles still rule.