General Spiritmaster Information

So, you've sought the call of the goddess of the underworld, hmm?
Thought it'd be cool to control the spirits of the weak, hoping to send them off to a better life in Valhalla. Give them a second chance. Well, the Spiritmaster may be one of the most intricate classes in the game. The class combines pet control with several different playstyles depdending on how you specialize. I think that the Spiritmaster was originally envisioned as Midgard's "Hybrid Healer" which would explain some of the spells available to some of the specs. With a set of spells that heal yourself at the cost of an enemy, heal allies at cost to yourself, and even a resurrection the spiritmaster's background as someone who deals in the "flow of souls" is fit fairly accurately by the tools available to it. The Spiritmaster is moderately sought after by groups, but unfortunately suffers from the stigma of having a specline that is generally considered "better" than others, with groups expecting that Spiritmasters are specializing in this line, but... more on that later.
 

The Beginning - Character Creation

Hel's blessing only falls upon the Norse and Kobolds, finding other races unworthy of her attention. This being said, your first major decision is between the hearty Norseman, or the nimble Kobolds. I'd say the advantage here would go to the Kobolds, but let's explore both.

Norseman: As a Norseman, you have a few key advantages that you can play off of. The most major one being that from a distance, you will not immediately be identified as a caster. Let's face it, the Kobolds you can see are casters, and the Kobolds that ya' can't... well, that pretty much gives them away. Your second advantage, though slight, is the fact that you have the potential for more hits than any Kobold in the game. While this may seem insignificant, a few extra hits for the Suppression specialization which is designed to be up-close and in your face with their nasty Point-Blank Area of Effect Spell (heretofor referred to as the PBAE Damage spell) may keep you alive long enough to cast one more time, which just might be the edge you need.

Kobold: Kobolds are little, Kobolds are blue. Kobolds are pretty darn cute aren't they? Kobolds also have a major advantage in the fact that their Dexterity starts higher and can thereby end up higher than their norseman counterparts. Dexterity being the all-important stat for casters (decreasing their casting times and increasing their staff damage, which you may be using more of than you think) Kobold is the most popular race choice for Spiritmasters. Plus, we're furry, did you know we're furry, and soft too yes.... Er... sorry, went off on a tangent there. Kobolds are a great choice for Spiritmasters but will almost immediately be targeted for destruction by enemy realms. Kobolds are great casters, after all.

Frostalf: Ahhh, the new kid on the block. Specifically designed to be casters. The OBVIOUS choice, right?  Well, they do have a substantially higher starting piety, you will hit harder with your spells and have a larger power pool to draw from. However, they have substandard Dexterity and casting speed is a major, major contributor to damage output. This looks a lot like the tradeoff between Kobold and Norseman, and it's a style decision that you've gotta make. However, I think the introduction of Frostalfs, if you can get them, make the Norse look very substandard compared to the two blue races (unless the sound your toon makes when they get hit is a major contributing factor in your decision, do your realmmates a favor and just don't get hit).
 

Starting Bonus 30 points: Do NOT put points into Intelligence. You're saying to yourself right now, "Well duh, I know that ya' moron, anyone that plays Midgard knows they don't use/need Intelligence." Well, when I started character creation, I put 10 points into Intelligence, and it's a scar on me every time I look at it. If you're going to split your 30 points into 3 sets of 10, then there's really only one choice. Dex, Con, and Piety. No other stat significantly affects how your character operates. Anything else you do will be fine, as long as the points are going into one of those three attributes.
 

Darkness - Specline of Death

This specline specializes in the flow of life and energy from your chosen target into your character, making opposing enemies tasty treats. In all actuality, this line really isn't the Death-dealing monster that the title might make it out to be. There is quite a bit of utility in this line.

Darkness Baseline:

Single Target DD (Cold) - As with most baseline spells, the single target DD spell is just sort of generally useful as a long range attack. Those who don't specialize in darkness will find their damage variance rather high making it an unreliable main attack. Those who specialize in Darkness will find that this becomes a rather potent weapon and will be your main source of damage output given that there is no better source of pure damage or Area Effect damage available in the Darkness line. Summoners often augment their pets performance by using this to take down their target a bit faster, but having to carefully balance how much damage they expect to do with how much aggro their pet has accrued on the monster.

Dexterity Debuff (Cold) - Oh how wrong I was about this debuff.  Yeah, it's only a single-target debuff, but lower Dex is the bane of casters everywhere.  He who casts fastest casts best, and if you're casting, you're interrupting him, and nothing save a quickcast or MoC is going to save you there.  Also, to dispel a couple of horridly wrong pointers I put in my previous incarnation of this guide.  Dexterity has 0 effect on how often you swing, 0, none, zip.  Dexterity only affects how often the users of certain weapons will hit you, it subtracts weaponskill from Pierce and Thrust and I believe bow, but really, the best use is on that Healer or Caster who's casting once every second with his new ToA gear.  One more important thing, neither this nor any other stat debuffs break mez in RvR. The same does not hold true for PvE so watch that trigger finger when your healer mezzes that Cthonian Crawler, though it is very useful as a pulling tool with it instacasting and drawing little aggro.

Darkness Specline:

Lifetap (Cold) - This used to be the mother-of-all spells before Midgard Mystics received a level 50 Baseline Darkness DD. It's usefulness still applies, however in it's utility, which seems to be the theme for Darkness. It has a slightly higher casting time than the Darkness DD, but as it's name implies it refills your life for 70-90% of the damage that it deals. This makes an excellent quickcasted spell and is useful in cases where you're being hit by a weakened monster and can't use your PBAE mez spell to remove him. It, combined with Mastery of Concentration also has the capability to keep you alive for quite a while while facing an opposing enemy. They have to do more damage than you suck away before you kill them with this spell, which is a tough proposition. It's also very useful in RvR in mixed zones where you may be damaged, but can find a gray monster that you can kill in one or two casts, acting as a very cheap full-life heal (entrance to Darkness Falls, open-field combat). You're a soul-sucker without shame, put the enemy's weakness to your advantage and teach them to carry around a gray in their party.

PBAE Mez (Cold) - Have you ever wanted an emergency button that just stops everything and lets you look at the situation before acting? This spell is it. It's an amazing utility spell, with the 2 second BASE timer it's good no matter how you're buffed, and well-timed it can be cast twice against a charging opponent. It has a fairly high level at it's highest rank (level 42) making it stick fairly often to monsters/Realm Enemies who it's used against. However, it only lasts 30 seconds at most, making it secondary to a casted Pacification Healer's mez spell. Then again, if you're using this, either combat's already started and the Healer's probably busy healing/stunning, or there's some sort of emergency that requires it. It is also a very effective spell to use against other PBAE classes. If it sticks, you only need to hit once for this to take them out of action. They need to hit you at least 2 or 3 times. This should give your tanks or spirit enough time to start bashing them to the point where they can't cast anymore, sealing your victory over your opponent. This may be one of the most useful spells in your arsenal. Learn to use it well.

AE Dexterity/Quickness Debuff (Cold) - What a wonderful tool to have out in the frontiers. Remember, stat debuffs don't break mez in RvR, so the minute you get a target, especially if your Pac Healer has done his job, zap the other group with a shot from this puppy.  All their casters are casting slower now, and in conjunction with the baseline Dex debuff (which is on a different recast timer) you can neuter an opposing healer or caster. Drains very little power and affects an entire zerg? Yes please, we'll take that thank you.

Body Debuff (Cold) - The first in the line of damage-type debuffs that the Spiritmaster receives, and probably the second most potent. Skald Shouts, Shaman Baseline Damage over Time spells, Healer Stuns, and the ever-feared Bonedancer insta-tap. Casting this as a pull utility is great if you have any of those classes in your party. Make sure to let your Bonedancer know that you are Darkness and have a killer Body Debuff. They won't throw their weaker version of the debuff, and they'll probably Tank you later!! HAHAHA! No, seriously, they'll probably be more inclined to tank for you with the insane damage-output/life-input increase that this will undoubtedly bring at higher levels. Don't bother casting this as your first spell when you group with a Skald, they tend to yell at the beginning of fights lessening the effectiveness of your debuff.

Spirit Debuff (Cold) - The second in the line of damage-type debuffs that the Spiritmaster receives, but maybe the least potent, as there is only one type of spirit damage in Midgard at this time. That would be your brothers who decided to specialize in Suppression. That being said it is an extremely potent form of spirit attack. Use the Spirit Debuff against the highest-level mob that your Suppression Spiritmaster is pulling and try to have it stick, hopefully dropping the baddie before he decides to punch your friend in the head.

Energy Debuff (Cold) - The third in the line of damage-type debuffs, and for a reason. This is a very potent weapon when used alongside Odin's servants, the Runemasters and the Thanes. Runemaster's have Energy as their main source of damage for all but one of their speclines. They all have a baseline DD that does Energy damage. All the Thane's damaging spells are energy as well, but you face the same problem with them as you do with the Skalds. Crazy Thanes tend to blast first and ask questions later, making the priority for you casting this spell to aid them much lower. With many runemasters this makes a quick, very effective way of increasing your group's damage output.

AOE Mez (Cold) - Now, you think this'd be more useful, however, with Pac Healers abundant in RvR with an AOE Mez that lasts much longer, and has the same range as this one, this spell is rarely used because your healer will want to set up his mez spell. Also, if you don't specialize fully in Darkness, this spell will probably be weaker than your PBAE alternative. That being said, if neither of those situations fit, and you get a chance to use it. Do it, by all means. AOE mez spells are nothing to laugh at, and you might get your opponents to burn a Purge that they may regret doing later.

Darkness Overview - Specializing in Darkness gives you a nice toolchest to work with. A little Crowd Control, a little damage, debuffs making you group-friendly. Overall a fairly nice spec to play, despite it's reputation as the "gimp" spec. You will not be doing phenominal damage, and you won't be doing damage to more than one target, but if you play it clever, you can accomplish quite a bit both PvE and RvR with this spec.

Suppression: Specline of Life

This specline of life has utilities to protect the caster from damage and just happens to have THE MOST DAMAGING SPELL IN MIDGARD! Yes, yes, be prepared to deal copious amounts of death if you specialize in this line, while having a bit of utility to aid you in other regions.

Suppression Baseline:

Strength Debuff (Body) - This spell reduces the opponent's Strength for a period of time, meaning that they should be dealing less damage in combat. It is an effective tool for pulling monsters at range due to it generating very little aggro from the monster. When pulling monsters who come in groups this will generally be replaced by the baseline root, removing one monster from the equation immediately. Other than pulling this spell sees little use on the field, it can be an effective root against casters who are carrying too much and are unprepared for it, making it more useful than the Darkness baseline debuff.

Self Armor-Factor/Absorb Buff (Body) - They're your shields, use them constantly, there is no reason for these to ever be down. They're pretty much self-explanatory, without tricks, the only thing to mention is that your specialization in Suppression in no way effects how well these operate in battle, making these effective for every specline.

Single Target Root (Body) - The baseline Crowd Control option for Midgard Mystics is important to every specline, but with the big appeal of Suppression being the PBAE damage spell it's rare that you're going to want monsters to keep from coming at you and you will most often find yourself using your pet to pull. It is the only non-mez form of crowd control that Midgard Mystics have, making it useful when your Realm Enemies have an immunity timer to that type of spell up. Overall this is a very useful spell for all speclines and should be used often.

Suppression Specline:

Instant Cast Attack Speed Debuff (Spirit) - A nice addition to any specline really, using this spell to significantly reduce the enemy's attack speed makes you a much welcome addition to any group. It's very useful for when your groupmates/pet are trying to build aggro to keep you from getting swarmed by the knockout punch that is your PBAE Damage spell. This can save your healers a lot of grief and maybe even in a pinch reduce an enemy's attack time enough for you to get a root or damage spell off in between hits.

AE Strength/Constitution Debuff (Spirit) - Here you might be expecting the standard "debuffs are sorta alright, but have few uses" sort of answer that I've pretty much given throughout the entire guide. You would be horribly mistaken. This is the wolf in sheep's clothing, this is the hidden ninja ready to strike swift death to your opponents, this is... enough metaphors. When this sticks, this spell has the potential to not only root overloaded opponents (generally casters/tanks with siege equipment) it also has the potential to do up to 400 damage a target. Yeah, that's right. I said 400 damage. That's crazy, isn't it? Think about it though, a debuff counteracts a buff, and adds a negative status effect to your opponent, decreasing the amount of hitpoints that your opponent can max out to. When that debuff goes away, the "damage" stays and has to be healed either naturally or through a spell to be recovered. This spell absolutely should be used in every RvR conflict you are involved in, and offers a great long-range, AE opener to a spiritmaster running into a group to start exploding.

Single Target Mesmerize (Spirit) - Providing a decent duration to compensate for the lack of any area effect crowd control, the mez is a decent, but rarely-used tool for the suppression spiritmaster. Useful for getaways from accidentally aggroed mobs and control of spellcasting mobs, but not more than the pet, and not for much else. Pacification healers boast a mez that sticks as much, and they have an AOE mez that works better in RvR. Your fellows will likely be rooting/snaring any other realm opponents, and even a failed root will break a mez. Also, you generally don't want to mez when using your PBAE damage simply because you want all your enemies in close as you explode for damage incomprehensible. Most other classes would be grateful for this spell. The Suppression Spiritmaster rarely requires it.

Life Transfer (Spirit) - A fairly simple spell concept, and the spell that gives this "life spec" it's name. This is the only non-seer castable heal in Midgard. I believe it is also the only spell of it's type in the game. It's sort of useful as a backup heal, in the even where maybe you have no healer in your party or you find yourself in the unfortunate position of being the only healer ALIVE in yoru party. In a clinch, it can be a group-saver, but it's not main ability because it's a single-target heal, and you can't effectively spam it simply because every time you cast it life is drained from your Hits total. Given that you're a cloth caster, this total isn't much at all. A useful, but secondary ability that should probably be made baseline summoning if it ever expects to see any action.

PBAoE Direct Damage (Spirit) - The mother of all abilities for the Spiritmaster, and the most widely recognized. This spell deals the most punch to a single target than any other spell in the game (or at least the realm). This is what every Suppression Spiritmaster will be expected to use when he groups simply for it's unmitigated power. Entire groups are designed around this ability, and it's one of the most highly feared attacks in RvR. There are guides written about this ability alone that are much, much better than anything that I will be able to provide. I will discuss this ability in detail, but I will not do it justice. If you are playing a Suppression Spiritmaster, learn all you can about the correct use of this spell. Get the picture? :) On that note, here are some things to remember.

When forming groups around the PBAE Spiritmaster, the idea around it is very simple. You will at all costs prevent the Spiritmaster from being interrupted. Period. If the spiritmaster draws aggro and cannot continue to cast, then the spiritmaster is finished and you better hope that your remaining combatants can off whatever other monsters have aggroed. If you're pulling right for this, then they won't be able to.

Rules for PvE PBAE Spiritmaster groups.

• The tank with the best Shield spec and largest shield will guard the Spiritmaster.
• All Viking classes will Intercept for the Spiritmaster.
• Runemasters will use either the best Pulsing Bladeturn spell they have available and/or spam the friend turn on the spiritmaster.
• All classes with weapon styles will use their Taunt styles exclusively.

Given a 3-man group (which is probably the smallest group that this can be effectively done with) I would personally take along a Thane and a Pac/Aug Healer. You start by fully buffing the pet and the spiritmaster. Dex and Strength should be given to the Thane to make sure he hits and hits hard, he'll provide his own Str/Con and Damage Add to the equation. The healer uses the leftovers to give himself whatever Mana Regeneration spell he has and increase his defensive capabilities. The Healer should also use his run-speed buff to give the pet a little extra boost for when he's pulling. Have the pet pull as many mobs as possible, hitting them once as he approaches, sending him here and there aggroing as many mobs as possible. Ideally these will be blue-yellow con mobs and there will be a LOT of them. When the pet has pulled sufficiently, have him return to you by using the "passive" setting on your pet-command bar. As the pet is returning with the mobs, as they get closer, have the healer use his AOE mez on the mobs, and have the Thane pick up aggro on any mobs that resist the mez using his insta-cast spells and attacking where need-be. The spiritmaster should walk to the middle of this group, and start casting his PBAE, mid-cast the Pac Healer should cast his AOE stun in an attempt to control the amount of mobs going towards the Spiritmaster. As the Spiritmaster is casting is PBAE, the Thane should use his insta-PBAE shout for added damage and taunt any mobs that are not stunned. Hopefully the mobs will fall before the stun wears off. If they do not you are guaranteed 2 swipes from the monsters before the spiritmaster has a chance of being interrupted. One from the Intercept from the Thane, and one from the Spiritmaster's self-bladeturn. After that there is a chance of many of the following situations happening. The Thane successfully guards an attack on the spiritmaster. The pet successfully intercepts for the spiritmaster. The mob misses the Spiritmaster due to defense. The mob hits the spiritmaster, but does not interrupt the cast (rarer as you approach yellow). Even if all of these options fail, you still have the quickcast with the spiritmaster, which guarantees you at least one more cast. With the time you've bought yourself from all the other defensive measures, hopefully this will be the last cast you need to make, or there will be an insignificant amount of monsters left for the PBAE to hit and your Thane and your pet will be able to dispatch of the rest.

This, of course, is only one situation. It also may not be the best situation, just remember, your goal is not to be interrupted, and to get as many casts off as possible as close to the mobs as possible.

In RvR, the rules for not being interrupted still apply, that's your goal. PBAE casters are typically found next to keep lords or behind keep walls. When combined with a Pac Healer, the Healer can throw his instant or castable stun and the Spiritmaster can waltz into the middle of a group and cut loose on them, widdling them away quickly.

The only drawback to this spell is that everyone knows that spiritmasters do this, and expect them to do this almost exclusively. Just like when you see an enchanter you expect him to charge you and explode, they see the pet, and they expect you to charge. All Spiritmasters can use this to their advantage by hanging back and surprising the enemy with the fact that they're not charging, but casting their DDs, either utilizing your most effective ability, or lulling them into a false sense of security that you won't explode on them. To increase your survivability as a suppression spiritmaster you might also want to consider not having your pet with you while you roam around. This makes you immediately identifiable as a runemaster to most enemies, and though you may have problems with some long-range oppnents, if tanks charge you, they're falling right into your hands.

Cure Mesmerize - Spell does simply as the spell states, cures realmmates under the effect of mesmerization spells. Though it sounds neat, it's use is highly situational at best. Most mezzes are found in RvR, and generally they are AOE mezzes. If you happen to resist the mez, find yourself outside of the mez, or have the Purge RA then you're going to be able to use this to quickly revive your friendlies one by one. If you get caught in the mez, there's no point to this spell because your tanks are going to come out of the mez before you given they generally have Determination and purge themselves. A great tool to have, for sure, just don't count on it all the time.

Summoning: Specline of Rebirth

The poor souls who find themselves trapped in Nifleheim yearn for escape through proving their worth in battle one last time. This is where you come in by summoning the spirits of the dead and granting them this extra shot at glory in Valhalla. I know I've sent one or two there myself, especially the one who dealt the killing shot to one of our realm's most feared enemies, Depredadora (go Spirit Champion!).

Summoning Baseline:

Summon Pet - This is the spell that differentiates the Spiritmaster from his casting class fellows, and is a very useful tool that every specline of Spiritmaster should learn to use successfully. First, let's start with the pets themselves and their 5 types.

1. Spirit Fighter - Carries no weapon. This is a very basic pet that has no special effects and has virtually no means of defending itself.
2. Spirit Soldier - Pet starts carrying a weapon. The pet will also randomly proc a stun upon attack. This is probably the most useful proc that your pet will pick up and all the procs that your pet gains carry over into the later forms of the pet. The pet will also start intercepting attacks for you just like the intercept ability that Tanks get, though the pet will intercept at random intervals and has the capacity to intercept 2, 3, even 4 hits in a row. This pet also gains the Parry skill that will help keep it from being completely clobbered.
3. Spirit Swordsman - Gains all the abilities of the Spirit Soldier, but now has the chance to proc a Cold DD on every swing, adding a bit of damage to his arsenal (and a currently inexplicable graphic that is amusing to use on flying creatures where it appears really really small or giants where it is HUGE).
4. Spirit Warrior - Has all the abilities of the previous forms, but gains the chance to proc a lifetap on every swing, increasing both his damage and his survivability.
5. Spirit Champion - Has all the abilities of the previous forms including the ability to seemingly at random proc a self-bladeturn, increasing his survivability.

When the spirits are summoned, after the Spirit Swordsman they will all come equipped with a type of armor and weapon. The type of weapon matters very little in how the spirit performs (though I'm told there's some sort of jagged axe that gets the fastest attack) but does provide the Spirit with a damage type which determines which resists will be opposed to the spirit. The type of armor on the spirit does NOT PROVIDE any extra absorption. It does, however, provide weaknesses and strengths to certain damage types equivalent to their Midgard counterparts.

When using your pet, it's recommended that you set hotkeys to both "Attack" and "Passive" giving you a much better reaction time when siccing your pet on a target and calling it off. Requiring no fine mouse-work on your part. To make these (or any other) buttons available on your quickbar Shift-Left Click on any button and drag the resulting icon to your hotkey bar. Easy as pie.

The pet can be used somewhat effectively as a means of crowd control, however remember that if you're using the pet to tie up a mob, if it's done little to no damage to the mob it's fighting then the first time your group's healer heals someone that mob is heading straight for the healer. Simply having the pet closeby when an enemy mob is attacking you provides a form of defense in the intercept, whether or not the pet is actually engaged in combat or not. One thing to note about your pet, if the pet is attacking something/being attacked by something then both you and your pet are considered "in combat" for purposes of run-speed and MCL. If you need to bolt away quickly or use MCL, remember to disengage your pet from it's target.

While soloing, one of the more effective ways of killing creatures is to allow the pet to engage the mob first, fully buffed, and accrue aggro. After the mob has taken a certain amount of damage, the spiritmaster casts spells on the mob in order to finish it off, usually not drawing the mob's attention.

In RvR, the pet's most notable use is to counteract enemy stealthers. If you happen to see an enemy stealther in stealth, simply targetting him and telling the pet to go after him will make the pet hunt him down, whether or not you can continue to see through his stealth or not. Also, when you're attacked by enemy archers, the pet, if in Defensive mode, will respond aggressively to the person who attacked you. If you can avoid being killed, the pet will follow the archer and bring him out of stealth if he restealthed, causing much annoyance and bringing him out in the open, killing his advantage. The pet's intercept is also very useful when enemy tanks rush you for keeping you alive for an extra one or two hits.

When you tell your pet to attack in RvR is much, much more important than how strong your pet is, and is the key to using your pet effectively in RvR. Charging your pet out to harass an opponent while the enemy is sizing you up, unless it is part of a coordinated charge, does absolutely nothing to the enemy. It wastes a little bit of their power taking it down, and it wastes 25% of your power plus buffs to bring it back up. There are good times to let your pet sic 'em as it were. Send your pet to attack with others, always. While your tanks are charging in too. Sending pets from inside a keep after a guard pop is a really good way to lose your pet with the crowd, and have them worry about either your pet or the Viking Jarls breathing down their necks. Sending a pet to attack an enemy healer or caster to interrupt them is always a good thing, and pretty much takes them out of the fight until the pet is killed, or makes them burn a RA like Mastery of Concentration to continue casting. Even if they burn Mastery of Concentration, the pet can still interrupt them if a procced stun sticks.

Pet-Only Heal - A heal that will heal only your pet, but I bet you figured that out (you're so smart :) ). Considering the pet does not benefit from Shaman friggs or the Skald's heal song, this or another healer's heal, or a long sit is about the only way you can bring your pet up to 100% again. A secondary spec in summoning will increase the amount per cast that your pet will heal.

Self Bladeturn - Like all cloth casters, the Spiritmaster recieves a self-bladeturn good for stopping one melee or arrow attack on him. Like all bladeturns this does not stop critical strikes dealt to the Spiritmaster by assassins. Unlike Bladeturns given to you by Runemasters, this bladeturn is not effected by Penetrating Arrow a skill given to Archers depending on their Bow specialization. It should be up at all times, but due to the high power cost of the spell, if you have a Runemaster who is running a pulse for you, it is not absolutely necessary to have your own up all the time.

Summoning Specline:

Pet-Only Focus Damage Shield (Spirit) - This is considered the "killer ability" for the Summoning specced Spiritmaster. It is an incredibly high-damage shield that deals damage whenever the pet is hit by an enemy. This ability may be the most useful PvE spell in the game, because simply with a summoning specced Spiritmaster and a Healer or two there are epic-level monsters that can be taken down.

The drawbacks to this spell are few, but important to keep in mind. The major one being that the spiritmaster cannot move after the spell is cast for the spell to be able to stay in effect. This means you need to make sure that you stand in a place where no monsters are going to spawn or wander to and aggro on you. The second drawback to this spell is that your pet has to actually get hit for it to work. I know this may seem obvious, but this means your pet is taking damage while you're sitting still. It also means defensive abilities like the Spirit Champion's bladeturn are actually a hindrance to getting the most damage output for the power you spend. Many full-summoners hold the opinion that using the spirit fighter is the best option when killing using the focus-shield because they have no means of defense, and with a high specialization in Summoning, they're going to be well-buffed and able to land hits on the higher level mobs. True they don't get the lifetap which is their only real means of healing themselves, but if you're pulling really high-level mobs then the lifetap is rarely going to stick anyway. Use this ability to the fullest against mobs who are based on dealing physical damage. Anything else and the spells will disrupt the equation for the pet and the pet won't be able to deal enough damage to compensate.

The killer PvE ability that this is, in RvR it is severely lacking. People tend to notice when they're taking chunks of damage every time they're hitting your pet, and they quickly stop hitting him. Pets, when misused, also tend to just get rooted/mezzed and generally magicked to death. Though there are tools in place to help the spiritmaster pet in the summoning line, it still is not a VERY good RvR line, though it has to be an intriguing playstyle to try and make this work, and to anyone out there doing it, keep up the good work!

Pet-Only Str/Con & Dex/Qui & Attack Speed Buffs - Fairly obviously, like all other buffs, these should never be allowed to fall, and should be cast whenever they're missing from the pet. An important thing to note about the Dex/Qui and the Haste Buffs however is that this not only effects the stats of the pet, it also effects how often the pet will swing, and therefore how often the pet will proc. This makes these buffs substantially better than they may appear to be.

Non-Focused Point Blank(?) Damage Shield (Cold) - The second damage shield in the spiritmaster line is significantly less powerful, but has it's uses in combat. This spell used to be a self damage shield buff for the Spiritmaster, but Mythic, quickly finding out that Spiritmasters generally don't like holding aggro or being hit in melee combat changed this into maybe the strangest damage shield in the game. It is now castable on any friendly target. It has a fairly low damage output, it only lasts for 60 seconds, and the strangest part is that it can only be cast on a target that's 300 units away.

This spell does have it's uses however. It can be used to augment a tank's ability to hold aggro quite obviously. Spiritmasters who have a primary spec in Suppression may want to consider a secondary spec in Summoning to increase the amount of time the pet will hold aggro, by casting this spell on the pet before the pet is sent to pull monsters. Darkness spiritmasters may want to do it for the same reason, allowing them to get more damage from a cheap spell and have the pet hold aggro allowing more DDs to go off before the mob starts charging. Considering it's short duration and close proximity requirement, this spell is of little to no use in RvR.

Resurrection - When you spec to 23 in Summoning as a spiritmaster, you receive the only non-seer resurrection spell in the game. It is equivalent to the lowest resurrection that all seers get in their baseline. Despite it's weakness, it is appreciated when there are lots of people down who need to get back up, or all the other ressers are down period. It also garners the Spiritmaster who uses it a few extra realm points for their hard work. It's a neat support ability, but if there're healers out there with power who have better resses than you, don't be greedy, let them do their job, no matter how hard it may seem sometimes.

Mez Length Reduction Buff - Another fairly simple spell to understand, this buff reduces the amount of time your spirit will suffer from any mez spell cast on it. This spell is only available to high-level summoners, and is designed to try and make sure your pet gets to it's target. Despite potentially cutting the length of mez times in half, this provides no protection to the spirit against roots (which are slightly rarer in the other realms). Hopefully it will be enough of an added tool to make more summoners interested in RvR, but clever deployment of your pet is better served for this.

Single Target Snare Proc Add - This gives your pet a chance to proc a snare, surprise surprise, on someone it's currently attacking. Just like the other procs the pet gets, it has a chance to occur anytime a pet swings it's weapon, so the faster your pet's swinging, the more chances that it has to stick. At the highest level, this is an 85% snare, which is so close to a root it might as well be a root. This brings another useful tool to the summoner's arsenal.
 

Potential Specs
So, now that you have all this information, what do you do with it? Here are a few sample specs for level 50 Spiritmasters.

50 Suppression/20 Darkness - Possibly the most common specialization, the full suppression spec gives the user the killer PBAE spell, while augmenting the damage on his baseline DD for situations that don't call for the PBAE. A more RvR focused spec, but useful all around, though don't expect to use anything in the Darkness Specline at all, and your pet now becomes an option instead of an absolute necessity.

50 Suppression/20 Summoning - Same killer PBAE, but the additional summoning gives you a few more tools PvE, like a small focus shield to help your pet hold aggro and pet buffs to make it slightly more effective in combat. Long range combat here suffers, but who wants to stay long range when you explode for a living?

50 Darkness/20 Suppression - So you wanna deal out some damage, eh? Darkness gives you the best AOE mez that's available to Spiritmasters, and though it's short in duration, it's still a level 50 AOE mez, and your RvR group will thank you as their casters fall down. The 20 suppression gives you a decent downtime-reduction heal that's easily brought back up with your killer lifetap, but shouldn't be relied on in the middle of a fight.

50 Darkness/20 Summoning - The same small level 20 focus shield may be enough to give your pet enough aggro to begin the bombardment of the enemy monster. As with all secondary summoning specs, this is more focused PvE than RvR, as your pet doesn't have the tools to see much action RvR. You will however, still dole out a decent amount of damage to a single target, taking down opposing casters fairly quickly and giving you the escape options of the darkness spec.

48 Darkness/24 Summoning - Sacrificing slightly in the damage output department, and giving up the highest energy debuff and lifetap, this Spiritmaster has decided that the Resurrection spell is more worth it to him to have than the level 50 AOE mez. You still get the highest level lifetap, and you will see little to no difference in your damage output for your baseline level 50 DD. A nice additional touch of groupability and on a selfish note, a pretty easy way to get additional realm points for yourself. Just remember, don't be greedy, if there're other healers with power around, let them do their ressing first.

50 Summoning/20 Darkness - Full summoning means you are a monster vs.... monsters. Careful use of the pet will allow you to do okay RvR, but you're going to learn how fun it is to solo the bigguns in Tuscaren Glacier. Then again, if you're going to go to TG, you don't want to be using your Darkness DDs, despite their decent output. Make sure to focus your RAs on power regeneration, because you're going to want to keep that focus shield up at all costs against those big mobs, and have a good healer hidden in your pocket somewhere.

50 Summoning/20 Suppression - Same idea as above, only now you have an extra PBAE tool, not so useful for doling out damage, but you might find it adequate for uncovering stealthers. Your pet should be able to bring an assassin unstealthed down fairly easy with your help, or the help of a few friends. The extra suppression is decent for a small heal as well, but with no darkness to back it up, they better really really need the life more than you do.


The All Spiritmaster Team! - While I was writing I thought, "Hmm, ya' know, I bet you could level Spiritmasters of the three different types pretty well together." So I came up with a battle-plan for an all Spiritmaster team! Check this out.

Summoning Spiritmaster - Finds a good spot and stands in it, casts all his buffs on his pet and the focus-damage shield. Pet pulls as many mobs as he can using the spirit fighter, allowing them to pummel him.

Darkness Spiritmaster - As the mobs are being pulled, casts a spirit debuff on every mob pulled, with priority on sticking the tougher mobs. This will augment the damage done by both the damage shield and the PBAE damage to come. This SM should also have his pet out and target it on one of the tougher mobs, harassing the mob and whittling its hits down further. When the pets have sufficiently taken aggro and the enemies are all debuffed, the Darkness SM can feel free to pick a tough target and DD/Lifetap it down while the Suppressor PBAEs.

Suppression Spiritmaster - Allows his pet to stand still on defense mode so any approaching enemies who come to attack him the pet will start hitting. If the summoner's pet requires healing through the pulls hitting it before it gets home, the Spiritmaster pet will use his lifetransfer heal. If the pet requires healing, the damage shield should have enough aggro accrued for a safe heal or two until the pet comes back. Then the suppression runie explodes using the PBAE DD as hard as he can.
 

I know this has been very long, thanks for reading! This guide was written during the publish of 1.65. I plan on updating the guide shortly with Realm Ability information that's important for each specline, and if you have any strange specs of your own, mail me at boshin@hotmail.com or find me on Nimue as Squeegoth, and I'll be more than happy to help. Good hunting!