Double-RP, Devoted Clerics, and The Matrix

hustin1

Red pill or blue pill?

"Come on, copper-top."

I remember first hearing that line in the theater and thinking, "huh?" It made no sense at the time. Now, of course, if you've seen The Matrix, it makes perfect sense. People were being used purely for the electrical power their bodies could provide.

Today being the last day of double-RP, I've been thinking of where to use most of my remaining stockpiled RP -- specifically, the RP that can be fed into artifact equipment. I have 9 alts, some of which I've already buffed up this weekend, and some that I haven't. That said, two candidates stand out to me.

Do I buff up my Sentinel GWF, who hits like a wet noodle, or do I buff up my Virtuous DC, who hits harder, but has problems of her own? I don't play either of them much at all, so it's a difficult choice.

That, however, got me wondering. In pencil-and-paper D&D (albeit 2e AD&D), I play a cleric 99.9% of the time. You could say I have it down. So why don't I like to play my DC in NWO?

It occurred to me that most of the traditional roles that clerics have are absent in NWO:

- Protection against evil creatures
- Turning and dispelling of undead
- Neutralizing poison
- Curing disease

DC's can heal, of course, but the advent of the paladin and Gift of Haste has made healing a secondary benefit for most clerics when grouping. Instead, everyone wants an "AP-gain DC": someone who can keep everyone's action points topped off.

In other words, a battery. So what's it going to be, copper-top? Red pill or blue pill?

So I thought about it some more. In the design of the DC in NWO, a fundamental aspect of the class has been missed: while DC's have spells, it is their interaction with the positive and negative planes that makes them special. That is what makes them uniquely qualified to deal with undead, and why they alone traditionally can deal with undead in ways that others cannot. Further, it is the connection with the negative plane that makes some undead so dangerous and difficult to destroy. I'm by no means advocating things like level-draining, but merely the fact that interaction with the negative plane has deleterious effects that only a cleric can mitigate or cure -- well, at least in the paper-and-pencil world.

Did you know that the only way to permanently destroy a vampire in PnP D&D requires a cleric? It differs from Bram Stoker's vision. You can't just drive a stake through a vampire's heart or expose it to sunlight: you have to then decapitate the head, have a cleric bless holy wafers, and then place the wafers in the vampire's mouth. Only then do you prevent (a now very angry and vengeful) vampire from rising again. Otherwise...surprise! He's back and he's mad.

Of the other roles, those are absent as well. You don't ever get diseased and need a cleric to cure you, or poisoned and need a cleric to neutralize it. You don't even need a cleric to open a religious skill node, as you can just spend a few coppers for a kit. It has me almost feeling bad for my cyber-clerics: they've been largely put out of a job.

A lot of people, myself included, have been saying that the paladin is grossly overpowered. However, one reason for that is because the roles of the two classes don't appear to be well understood. Can the devs fix it? Will they? I don't know, but I do think they ought to think about it.

Back to refining...

mrshabok

I hear you 100%. Classes roles are totally out of wack. Controllers are similarly useless. This game has turned into Paladin, DC, and GWF. I'd love to click a reset button with mod 10, add a new class (like a Bard, I'd level one immeditely), and rebalance everything. That's really what this game needs. A big cleanse and a rethinkinging of how classes are. That's how you will bring in new platers and keep the game fresh. They never will though....

thefabricant

You can always max out my CW if you like, he needs it more then you do

adinosii

elmoregemstone said:

Mod 5 they were like "here DC, go be fun to play and kill everything!"
Mod 6 they were like " oh nvm DC, we take it all back, go be boring again"

Maybe, but right now DCs are in a fairly good place. Useful, but not overpowered - able to do all the solo content relatively easily, useful in groups, and supposed to be decent in PvP (although I do not have any first-hand experience with that).

Sure, there are a few problems with the class, mostly a few powers that do not work as they should, but overall the class is in a decent shape - I hope they just leave it alone and focus on the classes that really need attention.

silverkelt

i would throw my rp on the toons i play the most... are you saying the top 3 or so of those toons are maxed for you?

I only have 4 items to legendary after all of this time.. of course.. it was reset on me and I had to pay back 80% rp loss on several toons.. which is no small task. (which is why I hate the rp loss)

I still hate rp.

next double weekends, I should have my cw offhand ot legendary though and start another one to max.

it just never stops.

did I mention I HATE rp?