The game is far too hard for level 70 DCs

theapostle

I'm a level 70 DC and I can't solo hardly anything in Icewind Dale. For that matter, there are too many witherers too close together in the third area of New Sharandar. Furthermore, I'm seeing a lot of complaints about how hard the epics are. Is there any way the difficulty level can be lowered just a tad? Thank you.

Unknown

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zephyriah

The difficulty we have has already been lowered from the original Mod6 levels.

I run 2 clerics, one DPS one Healer. So, here are some suggestions to help.

Icewind Dale (level 73) is going to be almost impossible to solo if you are specced for healing. It's a tough for a DPS cleric. Many of the regular open world mobs have over 50 % DR, similar to bosses. Without the feats for extra Armpen, your RI will be too low. It's best to just do the daily to get the reputation each day and skip the ones that are too difficult for awhile. You should be able to mine the black ice and find an HE to join in without too much trouble. Then come back when you have built the character stronger with the boons from each area.

If you are specced for DPS, instead of just the one, do as many dailies as you can solo or look for a group. There is often a zerg doing HE's, join in. Some of the item drops from mobs in the HE's will be usable for your dailies(Axes, spears, staff, claws, etc) . Even as a healer, this can be somewhat effective.

If you don't have good gear, yet... Even though Black ICE gear (item level 122) when upgraded is PvP based, it's not bad for PvE in its normal form. You can get all three pieces (no gloves) from the vendor for 25,000 (9k, 8k, 8k) refined black ice, that's it. A real bargain since black ice is basically free.

Sharandar (level 71) can be pretty easy for a cleric. The witherers almost always stand near (usually behind) a bigger/tougher mob. Empowered Chains of blazing light will take them out. Works really well for the final boss and his 3 witherers in arcane sanctuary weekly. You can also disrupt them with sunburst, knock them back and pick them off one at a time. Just focus on the witherers until dead, then go after the whatever they were protecting (formorian warlords are the toughest). There are some other useful skills, but the two I mentioned are the only ones that every cleric will have(Divinity Divine Glow is also good for witherers). Unlike some other classes, most clerics don't rely on their dailies when soloing, so, we don't care if the powries drain our action points. We use divinity, instead.

Dread Ring (level 72) can be soloed (I noticed you didn't mention it). The lairs may take some practice. The boons will help with IWD.

As for the Epics, Well, they are EPIC.

HTH

theapostle

You're right about Dread Ring. The only thing that gives me problems is Jawbone. And I guess I could try divine DG. I've been using divine FF into empowered FF into regular DG.

Also, I didn't realize you could upgrade the Black Ice gear. Through professions? I only have level one so far (but I got the arms to drop from a HE and I bought the armor, so it's gotten a little easier but not much.

EDIT: Which Icewind Dale boons would you recommend? Please Note: I already have Weathering the Storm.

zephyriah

theapostle said:

You're right about Dread Ring. The only thing that gives me problems is Jawbone. And I guess I could try divine DG. I've been using divine FF into empowered FF into regular DG.

Also, I didn't realize you could upgrade the Black Ice gear. Through professions? I only have level one so far (but I got the arms to drop from a HE and I bought the armor, so it's gotten a little easier but not much.

EDIT: Which Icewind Dale boons would you recommend? Please Note: I already have Weathering the Storm.

The problem with using FF is that it is single target. AOE attacks work best in Sharandar to get the little groups and the witherers. Empowered DG has an increased radius that can get the mobs nearby (the witherers). I run almost exclusively with Sunburst, FF and Chains when solo but sometimes switch sunburst for DG.

Jawbone is odd. You have to fight the instinct to fight from a distance. Stay close to him when possible. It makes it easier to destroy the soulcaskets. After destroying a casket, you can back away for 10 secs or so and then move close again.

I'm envious, I want the gloves. All I've had drop from HE's is the Epic level 60 stuff like Hammerstone Boots, etc. Salvage bait. I'll hit 350 reputation tomorrow on the main (DPS) the get Level 3 forge. In professions, go up to filter and uncheck Hide higher level task and Hide tasks with unmet. You can then see the upcoming tasks higher level tasks. Level 4 for Black Ice purified/corrupted and Level 5 for the BIS stuff (not Black ice gear). Don't forget to recheck the filter when done looking.

I'll check the boons and reply tomorrow.

theapostle

zephyriah said:

theapostle said:

You're right about Dread Ring. The only thing that gives me problems is Jawbone. And I guess I could try divine DG. I've been using divine FF into empowered FF into regular DG.

Also, I didn't realize you could upgrade the Black Ice gear. Through professions? I only have level one so far (but I got the arms to drop from a HE and I bought the armor, so it's gotten a little easier but not much.

EDIT: Which Icewind Dale boons would you recommend? Please Note: I already have Weathering the Storm.

Jawbone is odd. You have to fight the instincts to fight from a distance. Stay close to him when possible. It makes it easier to destroy the soulcaskets. After destroying a casket, you can back away for 10 secs or so and then move close again.

I'm envious, I want the gloves. All I've had drop from HE's is the Epic level 60 stuff like Hammerstone Boots, etc. Salvage bait. I'll hit 350 reputation tomorrow on the main (DPS) the get Level 3 forge. In professions go up to filter and uncheck Hide higher level task and Hide tasks with unmet. You can then see the upcoming tasks higher level tasks. All of the current end-game armor

What would you recommend for the boons for Icewind for a healer DC?

armadeonx

A lot of players find IWD difficult and would welcome teaming up with a healer for running the dailies. A two man heal/dps combo is very effective, just make sure you're not generating more threat than the dps guy.

Put a shout in Zone, you may get several people wanting to join if it's busy.

Edit: my recommendations for healer DC would be:
Weathering The Storm - AoE resist. The combat advantage alternative doesn't help you.
Refreshing Chill - Stamina gain - no such thing as too much dodge The alternative of incoming healing bonus is also good as you heal yourself more effectively, bear in mind incoming healing is affected by your ArP.
Rapid Thaw - Recovery. The crit alternative is useful for crit heals but happens when IT wants, not when you choose. I prefer encounters to come around faster.
Cool Resolve - increase power as stamina goes down (if you're having to dodge a lot then a boost in heals is good)
Avalanch - all options on tier 5 are a bit meh but this could finish an enemy before they finish you

zephyriah

theapostle said:

zephyriah said:

theapostle said:

You're right about Dread Ring. The only thing that gives me problems is Jawbone. And I guess I could try divine DG. I've been using divine FF into empowered FF into regular DG.

Also, I didn't realize you could upgrade the Black Ice gear. Through professions? I only have level one so far (but I got the arms to drop from a HE and I bought the armor, so it's gotten a little easier but not much.

EDIT: Which Icewind Dale boons would you recommend? Please Note: I already have Weathering the Storm.

Jawbone is odd. You have to fight the instincts to fight from a distance. Stay close to him when possible. It makes it easier to destroy the soulcaskets. After destroying a casket, you can back away for 10 secs or so and then move close again.

I'm envious, I want the gloves. All I've had drop from HE's is the Epic level 60 stuff like Hammerstone Boots, etc. Salvage bait. I'll hit 350 reputation tomorrow on the main (DPS) the get Level 3 forge. In professions go up to filter and uncheck Hide higher level task and Hide tasks with unmet. You can then see the upcoming tasks higher level tasks. All of the current end-game armor

What would you recommend for the boons for Icewind for a healer DC?

My post messed up. Anyway, I agree with armadeox except for boon 2. I take Appreciation of warmth. The 400 points translates to a 5% boost in healing from all sources. I find that much more useful than the increase in stamina recovery speed.

All of the 5th level boons are worse than meh. The bottom one is the worst (1,000 hit points healed). So, Avalanche is the lesser of 4 evils. However, for the FOTM "hasty" cleric the action points may be the one for them. I haven't really looked into it.

In general for all boons, avoid ones that have a vague "chance" to do something. You never know when or if they will happen.

nickinight

theapostle said:

I'm a level 70 DC and I can't solo hardly anything in Icewind Dale. For that matter, there are too many witherers too close together in the third area of New Sharandar. Furthermore, I'm seeing a lot of complaints about how hard the epics are. Is there any way the difficulty level can be lowered just a tad? Thank you.

The Arcane Brotherhood is willing to help.

Despite my "signature" quote being Mod5, I still enjoy the benefits of a healthy, alive Cleric.

onlymat

I play a DPS cleric arm pen at the moment 50 % and crit only at 36 % but I can solo all areas but only some Icewind quests - not all.
If I upgrade my lantern Artifact and if I buy other Artifacts how help for armor pen I can also do Icewind alone.

A big help was the cloack Seldarinde because my defense got much stronger. If I upgrade it I'm sure I can solo all Icewind things.

At the moment I upgrade my "Golden Belt of Puissance" my Lantern Artifact" and my plague fire to perfect. Then I will remove my dark emblems on my weapons an will add azure one for critical strikes

It's a long way - but it can be done.
The only thing I don't like is the dragonhoard stone nerf - so its not easy to upgrade.

As a healer you need a group because you can't solo anything

zephyriah

onlymat said:

I play a DPS cleric arm pen at the moment 50 % and crit only at 36 % but I can solo all areas but only some Icewind quests - not all.

50% Arm pen is way too high for a DPS cleric. With your feats(assuming you took the ones that boost ArmPen), your RI (Resistance Ignored) would be well over 60 which is only needed for Tiamat. In spite of all the threads, Armpen is not as important as it is being harped. It is only its contribution to Resistance Ignored that matters. RI is the important stat.

Your armpen should probably be around 35%-45%. My DPS cleric currently has 33.5 armpen, but 46.5 RI. Which is enough for Sharandar and Dread Ring and just about everything in IWD except Dire Polar Bears. They are at 55% and they are tough. There are a few mobs at 50%, but I'm not having an issue with them. I plan to build to 41-42% armpen to hit the 55% RI and then move on to other stats.

silktrocity

The difficulty decreases when your gear gets better. You shouldn't have any issues once your item level gets to about 2300-3000.

I feel your pain, before I retired my cleric I had to respec him to DPS just to do my dailies, it was much easier but poopy for dungeons. The new mod requires much more teamwork then before.

armadeonx

Me too, my DC was a healer/wannabe dps. After EE I also respecced to proper dps and he's much more fun but you'll notice from PE that Devotion Haste DC's are all the rage for dungeons now.

Still working on getting my RI to 60% before I go into T2's.

I also started an OP for that purpose but he's still in blues with green weapons - saying that, he can solo around WoD in those blues & greens without any probs, including soloing HE's. The OP is truly OP - lol.

theapostle

I just tried Well of Dragons. I swear to God, that place is RIGGED! I'm so FRUSTRATED! There is NO EXCUSE for making that place so HARD! I used to play that zone all the time and it wasn't anywhere NEAR this hard! You guys WILL change it back! NOW! I want it changed! I won't rest until it is! I won't go back to Well of Dragons EVER until it's changed back!

emmure8004

theapostle said:

I'm a level 70 DC and I can't solo hardly anything in Icewind Dale. For that matter, there are too many witherers too close together in the third area of New Sharandar. Furthermore, I'm seeing a lot of complaints about how hard the epics are. Is there any way the difficulty level can be lowered just a tad?

Lower difficulty? Hell naw, make it harder.

theapostle

emmure8004 said:

theapostle said:

I'm a level 70 DC and I can't solo hardly anything in Icewind Dale. For that matter, there are too many witherers too close together in the third area of New Sharandar. Furthermore, I'm seeing a lot of complaints about how hard the epics are. Is there any way the difficulty level can be lowered just a tad?

Lower difficulty? Hell naw, make it harder.

It doesn't need to be any harder than it already is. Icewind Dale is borderlined rigged if you try to solo as a DC healer, while Well of Dragons is totally rigged.

emmure8004

theapostle said:

emmure8004 said:

theapostle said:

I'm a level 70 DC and I can't solo hardly anything in Icewind Dale. For that matter, there are too many witherers too close together in the third area of New Sharandar. Furthermore, I'm seeing a lot of complaints about how hard the epics are. Is there any way the difficulty level can be lowered just a tad?

Lower difficulty? Hell naw, make it harder.

It doesn't need to be any harder than it already is. Icewind Dale is borderlined rigged if you try to solo as a DC healer, while Well of Dragons is totally rigged.

No it's not, and yeah, I'm not "trying" to solo it as a healing cleric, I've actually been doing it for about 7 weeks...

theapostle

emmure8004 said:

theapostle said:

emmure8004 said:

theapostle said:

I'm a level 70 DC and I can't solo hardly anything in Icewind Dale. For that matter, there are too many witherers too close together in the third area of New Sharandar. Furthermore, I'm seeing a lot of complaints about how hard the epics are. Is there any way the difficulty level can be lowered just a tad?

Lower difficulty? Hell naw, make it harder.

It doesn't need to be any harder than it already is. Icewind Dale is borderlined rigged if you try to solo as a DC healer, while Well of Dragons is totally rigged.

No it's not, and yeah, I'm not "trying" to solo it as a healing cleric, I've actually been doing it for about 7 weeks...

How do you solo WoD as a healer DC then?

theapostle

My biggest problem is that enemies in WoD hit too hard. It's not as big an issue in Icewind Dale as it used to be though.

Unknown

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enicegeo

DO Virtuous shouldn't have much trouble soloing IWD or WoD, barring Heroics and dungeon bosses. Yes, the enemies do hit harder in WoD than before so you can't go around ignoring some attacks as before, getting rooted or group shanked by Cultists that got huge.

All you need is Chains as main attack, Divine Glow and Astral Shield and you can tank most WoD and IWD. Switch Chains for Sunburst if need more healing. For daily use Flame Strike, try to keep it in reserve to interrupt and stop enemies from healing or changing forms or charging an attack. Although often times the enemies have a bad habit of doing those things after you use it and never doing it when you have a daily stored waiting for them.

Some enemies in IWD require a different setup, the bear riders and yetis. You switch it all for DoT attacks because you can't stand still when you fight them.

lorde

for sarindar i highly recomend useing sunburst and divne glow, that helped me out the best