Jarek's AC Righteous PVE MOD 10/MOD 10B Guide (UPDATED on FEBRUARY 1ST 2017)
jeffslider
Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 112 Arc User
Good day everyone, my name is Jarek. I'm a long time member of The Holy Crusaders guild & the Relentless Alliance. I present today, my current DC build for pve content, which will be AC righteous. This will basically be a guide that not only displays my current build/feats in use, also some of the simpler things that will be common knowledge for cleric enthusiasts and will answer questions for those who aren't so familiar with the cleric class, like my opinions on the gear to get, mount abilities, race to use, and so on. It's my first time doing this so feel free to give constructive criticism. (I want to note as well every single inch isn't calculated besides the fundamentals most other clerics will already know.)
With this build, I just want to simply summarize that your goals is to make your party dps beasts(Buff/Debuff build with good/great base power) with passable heals & boasting fair/excellent recovery/ap gain to have low CD's & spam dailies. As a DC, you can give your party such excellent buffs to help them defensively and most importantly help them offensively to destroy anything that's in their way. With being a DC and along with choosing righteous, you give your party a huge increase in terms of their damage. (Feats like bear your sins and condemning gaze combined are suppposed make targets you tagged with your damage over time abilities take 25% more damage & multiple power share abilities like Weapons of Light (10% of your power), Blessing of Battle (15% with Virt Feat) & Anointed Army (50%). This build will make you the life of the party and well appreciated by your hard hitting comrades. So in short, the main goals of the build stat wise, along with being an excellent debuff/buff with passable healing is getting high base power & high enough recovery to spam your AC dailies (Mainly Anointed Army)
I actually, for my support builds, used to be strict DO righteous. One day, while discussing with a fellow guild member who's into clerics as much as I am, she was suggesting to me to use AC instead of DO since I was clearly more support oriented than actual DPS oriented which I believe DO does give more flexibility when it comes to personal DPS which has never really been a goal of mine. So we went to the test server together and we spent a lot of time testing everything in terms of AC righteous and she showed me it will better be suited for my taste to which I agreed, tried and never looked back since. As mentioned here, if you know you want to be the best support possible, I do believe that AC has better options for that, especially with the whole 'Anointed Army vs the dailies DO specifically has' debate. I also understand the DO's point of view with foresight saying with that feat and the benefit of foresight feat from the faithful paragon, you give your party 13% less incoming damage that lasts for only 10 seconds. (When you heal others, this activates. Basically it's 8% from rank 4 foresight itself and an additional 5% from benefit of foresight).
In my opinion, I believe if you're striving for righteous support and point out DO for that reasoning, it's not a good choice for what you want to achieve because hypothetically speaking if you heal a Control Wizard, it activates and in that 10 seconds on let's say, on Orcus in Castle Never, he/she randomly gets a supposed 204k hit while the foresight buff is up, that person will still die. 13% of 204000 is 26520 so it's 204000 - 26520 = 177480 and I know no Control Wizard has that sort of health. If you're AC and activate Anointed Army, that person will survive since that daily makes any player 'take very little damage' for the duration it's activated.(Basically saying that with AA up, it can save you from those possible one shots which foresight won't). Another instance can be as well if a Guardian Fighter is struggling on a boss fight like yet again, Orcus in CN, and needs a bit of a survivability boost, the same Anointed Army daily will better serve him/her than anything Divine Oracle has to offer. Divine Oracle still rocks if you're looking for personal glory/damage giver and it can certainly be a choice to support, but if you want to support much more efficiently, thanks to the options like Anointed Army and Blessing of Battle & the feat it possesses in the Virtuous Tree if you're AC, I just believe Anointed Champion is better suited.
The dragonborn race is to me the best available option for righteous regardless if you're more support oriented with your buffs or dps oriented. In looks, it's absolutely ugly. Not even beer goggles can save it but what it brings to the table is great. It gives you +2 Stats to any two stats you want (Basically either +2 WIS & STR or +2 WIS & CHA), +5% incoming healing and it increases power and critical rating by 3%, you can't go wrong with that at all. Other choices include Half Elf which gives +2 CON, a choice of +2 CHA or WIS, 'Knack for success' which includes +1% crit severity and 'Dilettante' which is a +1 ability score to a non class ability. Sun Elf is also valid in choices because of the Action Point Gain it brings along with the choice of +CHA if you're into recovery. Human is an alright choice but not worth it in my opinion with the whole 'three extra heroic feat points' debate when us clerics don't have spectacular options in this regard. (I just want to point out, I brought up the stuff each race brings to the table, but talking strictly looks, if you know you care about your looks, then dragonborn is not for you. I personally went for Sun Elf strictly for the looks).
Before I explain what to roll, I just want to say there's really no wrong choice between WIS (Bonus Healing/Damage), STR (Critical Chance Increase by 1% per point) & CHA (Adds to recharge speed and Action Point Gain by 1% per point). With that being said, it's really a choice between going all in on WIS/STR or WIS/CHA and in my opinion, I'll go for the WIS/STR side of this because I believe you're better off placing all silveries into your gear's offensive slots since 200 recovery = 1% recharge speed (1 CHA = 1% recharge speed) and for the STR, it's 400 crit stat = 1% crit chance so you should indeed go for the WIS/STR all in since you get better bang for your buck and can cover the recharge speed through enchantments and other means like your artifacts, rings, etc. I learned from Kaelac's old stat guide back in the days that there's great balancing rolling between 16 WIS, 16 STR & 12 CHA or 16 WIS, 15 STR & 13 CHA so really aim for one of these two. I'll just add for my ideals of this build, you will want to go for the 16 WIS, 16 STR, 12 CHA. After this, when you're finally leveling or even using a respecc, as mentioned, you're going all in to WIS/STR. See pic below to get the idea:
Basically you are witnessing a layout of how I allocated the 112 points I got available on my DC. What I'll list now are moves you'll 100% for sure, want to get to rank 4 as quickly as possible and in the order I believe you should strive for: (You can have your own personal preference here but for sure you want Anointed Army, Blessing of Battle and at least Hastening light in your top 3 to max asap):
Anointed Army
Hallowed Ground
Blessing Of Battle
Divine Glow
Hastening Light
Break the Spirit
Astral Shield
Bastion of Health
Chains of Blazing Light
Holy Fervor
Divine Fortune
Healer's Lore
Astral Seal
Forgemaster's Flame
Comments
Basically this is how my feats/build look currently, both heroic and paragon (27 righteous, 14 virt). As you all already notice, this is one of the variations I have. Due to how the game is currently, this build is the standout/premiere choice in my opinion in terms of a balance of righteous and virt (strictly comparing to my other builds). With my old version and at least 5 other versions I personally tested, they all don't have that flavor and balance that comes close to this particular one. So for most, I'm aware that y'all are using this particular variation that's now the main outlook of my build. For others that didn't use this up to this point, I recommend looking into this as it helps the most on all levels and item levels as well due to that extra ap gain/recovery.
I want to explain here for those who really don't know this, but god, the cleric heroic feats are so awful. These are my options/choices for them, but read my explanations carefully for the ones I took & the ones I passed on.
Healing Word - 3/5 (Optional), You basically gain 1/2/3/4/5% more action point gain when using a healing ability. This feat is still bad to me, just like Domain Synergy but if you don't need Domain, you can put 3/5 here
Greater Fortune - 3/3. 'Your wisdom now grants 3% more healing'. Take this
Toughness - 3/3. 'Increases your max HP by 3/6/9%'. A free HP boost so take.
Holy Resolve - 0/3. 'Gain 5/10/15% of your max hp as hit points when you're below 30% max hp. Has a 5 minute cooldown'. I don't like this either, don't see the use. However, if you're not feeling the healing action, you can indeed take this if you want 'extra insurance' in a near death situation.
Domain Synergy - 3/5(Optional). 'You gain 1/2/3/4/5% more recovery'. My old explanation was that it wasn't worth it and honestly, it hasn't changed that much, my views, however, if you're looking to get even more recovery, even if it's not that much, then you put 3/5 here instead of 3/5 in healing action.
Weapon Mastery - 3/3. 'Increases your critical chance by 1/2/3%'. Take it, embrace it as it adds to your crit chance. Something that's actually useful for us.
Initiate of The Faith - 0/5. 'Your crit stat is increased by .2/.4/.6/.8/1% of your power stat'. This is so bad. Don't bother with this.
Repurpose Soul - 3/3. 'When one of your spells has a critical effect, the target of that spell disperse a small area of effect heal, healing yourself and your allies for 5/10/15% of the spell's effect.' Basically here, it's free heals so you definitely want to take this.
Battlewise - 0/3. 'You create 2/4/6% less threat'. Don't even bother with this.
Cleanse - 1/3. 'When you heal an ally, you have a 10/20/30% chance to remove a damage over time effect from them. You may not re-cleanse for a target for 8 seconds'. You just need one point here, it actually procs alot, no need to have any more than one point & in my opinion, it's very useful compared to the other choices.
Templar's Domain - 0/5. 'When dealing damage, you have a 5/10/15/20/25% chance to gain 30% more armor penetration for 5 seconds.' Not the goal of this build and besides, this feat is useless. So many other ways to get your armor penetration to the 60% Resistance Ignored goal anyways if it's important to you. I also learned there's a 5 minute cooldown & if this is accurate, 100% not worth it.
Bountiful Fortune - 4/5. 'Gain 3/6/9/12/15% more divine power.' Not much more to say here, take this. Helps with your divine power.
Furious Intervention 5/5: You generate 10% more ap with your damaging moves. This gives you great AP gain and since this build is not 'dps', you must take this instead of astral fury.
Ancient Warding 5/5: When Anointed Army is over, it heals for 3% max hp and gives allies 5% of their own AP. *UPDATE ON THIS* I last tested this on December 28th 2016 due to multiple people in the forums saying it wasn't working and at that time, it indeed wasn't working. I still have points into it however. I'll update later on what to do in this situation if indeed this isn't still working.
Weapons of Light 5/5:- Not much to say here, you give allies 10% of your power so get this. Note as well, this is 10% of your base power, not BUFFED power. (Thanks @silverkelt)
Bear your Sins 5/5: Enemies that are affected by your DMG over time effects takes 10% more dmg from all sources. This along with what I'm going to explain next is the whole point of being righteous so make sure to take this and the following (Condemning Gaze).
Condemning Gaze 5/5: Your damaging encounter powers applies a stack of 'Condemned' for 30 secs. When the foe reaches to 5 stacks of this, it takes 15% more damage from all sources for 15 secs. Again, the whole point of being righteous, so take this.
Fire of the Gods 1/5: This is important to have being AC righteous because it will help proc bear your sins. Also, if you have a plague fire or dread enchantment, this helps as well to proc this.
Avatar of the Divine 1/1: The Capstone. 'When you enter combat you gain Avatar. Avatar increases your damage by 40% and increases your cooldown speed by 40% for 25 seconds. After you have activated Avatar you cannot benefit from it again for 60 seconds. Avatar will reactivate automatically when it is ready. Leaving combat cancels Avatar and resets its cooldown'. Not much more to say about it except take it.
Lasting Wishes 5/5: You heal for 10% more. Basically, you're a DC regardless if you're righteous. Depending on your party set up, you'll have to have some sort of heal. This will help your heals to be better.
Batter Fervor 5/5: When you have Blessing of Battle slotted and tagged it on a mob or boss, you give your party 15% of your power. This along with weapons of light is great to have, gives your party that extra 25% of your power. (BASE power, not buffed)
Gift of Haste 4/5: This basically, having 4/5 in it, will give any target hit with your heal over time moves 4% of their ap over 5 seconds, including yourself so a must have in this build.
The following are just variations of this build that you can also try/see what you like if the original isn't to your liking or if you're curious to try something else: :-
1) 1/5 Fire of the Gods & 4/5 Have Faith - Basically for us, as the Guardian Fighter's ITF was fixed where our moves like Astral Shield, Have Faith won't be a booster to it anymore however it isn't 'completely useless' as at least you can still have this move to give your party an added Dmg resistance. Please check here
2) 1/5 Fire of the Gods & 4/5 Desperate Restoration - This variation is for those who might have that 'healer's feel' despite speccing to righteous. Since Lasting Wishes has been constant in my build, adding Desperate Restoration will be viable if you want to cover heals even more since righteous is weak in that category. Please check here.
With Ancient Warding's Problem, I last tested on December 28th 2016
1) Removing 5/5 from AW & adding it to Astral Fury - The only option I see useful here if Ancient Warding isn't working still to give the ap it says it's supposed to. Going for 10% extra dmg from astral fury might be the best option at this time A.W isn't working. (I'm still keeping mines at 5/5 AW since I really don't need the extra 10% dmg). The build itself remains the same everywhere else, it's just to remove 5/5 from warding (If it's broken still) and put it into Astral Fury.
This part will be for those people who never quite understood the 'tab' mechanics on the DC. I'll do my best to explain these things for a better understanding:
Divinity - Divinity is simply, when you attack the mobs/bosses with your at-wills, you should notice there's a bar to the left of your screen that fills up. For each time it's full, a cross(pip) will light up. It will mean that you have one pip of divinity. Do your best to actively attack so you can fill up all three pips. Being AC you get Blessing of Battle and it's the best builder of divinity available to a cleric. The cast time of it is slow and it may seem a bit weird using it, but it's as mentioned, the best builder of your divinity with Astral Seal second placed out of the four at-wills you have available. (I want to make clear, you only build divinity through you at-wills).
Empowered encounters/skills - When you're in divine mode, every time you used an encounter/spell, you gain a blue orb that will float around you. That's the empowered stack. You can gain up to three of those orbs. The moment you switch from divinity to use any encounter, that encounter you use will consume the number of orbs you had and it will make your encounter stronger so basically, the more orbs, the better for your next encounter outside of divine mode.
Clerics are all about getting a feel of the situation and understanding what to do in those situations. The following will be a list of moves you will be switching in between the most depending on what situation you are up against.
Blessing of Battle - As mentioned, despite its slow cast time, it's still legit to use because it's the best divinity builder we clerics have. Also, for the build itself, as you have your points into battle fervor, you're giving your party that power buff.
Astral Seal - This is your sidekick to BoB. It can help with divinity since it's the second best divinity builder based on research & also it can help a little with your heals. (Try to not use this during activities like Dragon flight, heralds & tiamat as it apparently still causes bad lag in these instances when so many people are around.)
Divine Glow - Cleric-ing at its finest. This move in almost all situations, you'll have it(Heals as well). This is perfect especially for the trash mobs you'll encounter in dungeons since you can tag them all and with critical hits, you'll have your buffs active on more than one target. (Note that DG doesn't proc your weapon enchantments)
Break the Spirit - This is the best, the butter to your bread. In empowered, this give your party 10% dmg per stacks of empowered consumed, so basically, full empowered = 30%. This is love, this is life & the fact it's CD is so short, it has basically a 100% up time. Just use, sit back and watch your allies melt and destroy. (Single Target so great on boss fights especially)
Bastion of Health - Slotted in case your party needs the heals. It's the strongest heal we have.
Astral Shield - Astral Shield won't be boosting a GF's ITF anymore for this Mod 10 update however it will be still useful if the party is squishy and will need the protection.
Chains of Blazing Light - This is another option for your AoE along with Divine Glow. If your party seems to not really need heals, you can switch out DG for Chains & you can also use it along with DG since Chains helps alot with ap gain. Chains, unlike Divine Glow, will procc your weapon enchantment.
Forgemaster's Flame - I use this in either a situation where the party needs no sort of heals and I use this along with Divine Glow & Break the Spirit, Or, if there's another DC in the party, one DC should use Break the Spirit, the other should use Forgemaster's Flame.
Exaltation - I actually only use this in a situation where there's multiple DC's and they have BTS & Forgemaster's covered. I try to use this on my top dps and others told me they use it on their tank, so it's pick your poison on how you want to use it when/if a situation to use it comes up.
Hallowed Ground - It enhances damage and damage resistance for your allies by 35%. This daily is still pretty rocking but the following has it beat (Note HG may be better for a dps party of no bondings/augment users)
Anointed Army - The best. This to me is the ideal option to use basically with trash mobs battles since Hallowed Ground might be a waste in those 3-5 second trash mob battles and AA is also ideal in particular boss fights. To explain this daily in particular, it's a huge power booster which is 50%. That's 50% your allies gain of your base power & with BoB + Weapons of Light, power galore! Having great recovery & ways for ap gain (You'll see along the guide) will make you be an AA spammer which will be great for your party as you're constantly maintaining the power share of this. Along with cc immunity and making you take less incoming damage for at least 10 seconds, this is truly a great daily along with HG. (Note that, as was explained to me, AA + BoB together will not build upon your buffed power, using instead your base total from equipment, enchantments etc. However, while this means using AA after bonding procs will not benefit you, using it before will. This is as AA will apply to your pet as well as nearby allies and thus create a stronger bonding proc. Thanks @lerapiso818 for this explanation.)
Divine Fortune - Builds 5% extra divine power for every point into it, so getting this at rank 3 or 4(I currently use this at rank 4 with the heroic feat bountiful fortune at rank 4/5 since I went 1/3 in cleanse). The combo of this & bountiful fortune builds/recharges your divinity in no time.
Healer's Lore - Basically, if you feel your party needs the heals in anyway, slot this so it can help you heal even more since at rank 4, increases the potency of your heals by 20%
Holy Fervor - Your attacks generate 5% extra action point gain. Having this maxed out is a beauty. I have this slotted most of the time and helps a lot with my AP gain. With the way I play and want to spam out my dailies, this is actually perfect for me personally and if you fit this mold, slot it.
Hastening Light - This will basically, when maxed, reduce your allies' recharge time by 4 seconds. This along with Holy Fervor is the premier choices. Most of the times, you'll have holy and hastening light on your bar. This benfits, not only your allies, but yourself as well. Unlock it, max it, use it. (The offhand feat still doesn't work)
Anointed Armor - This should only be used when you feel you're having personal problems surviving.
Light of Divinity - This applies a heal that's divided every 3 secs to allies within 50' feet (Doesn't count as a heal over time). This actually isn't half bad in my opinion, can be useful if FBI if you're needing even more heals (I was told this was a fixed number it divides but I haven't used ACT to check)
Top Tier - Because of this new mod & its dungeon, the gear from farming that Fangbreaker Island dungeon (Head, Chest, Braces) & the Heroic Encounters in those new areas (Bryn Shander HE's drop the boots) is currently the ‘best option’. It’s called the Lighttender’s Set and in my opinion, the best balance will be two Restoration pieces (Chest, Bracers) & two Raid pieces (Head, Boots). These pieces of gear, in general ,has good stats for us so in your own view, you can go for what you like here/need. Raid = Power/Crit/Defense, Restoration = Power/Recovery/Defense so your call. If you’re not going for this gear, stick to the Dragonflight/Elemental Dragonflight gear. The best combo to rock in my opinion for this dragonflight gear will remain the same as I had before which is 3/4 Dragonflight Restoration (The helm, chest piece and bracers) and 1/4 Dragonflight Raid (The boots).
Alternatives - If the dragonflight gear isn't immediately in your reach, then settle for the alliance restoration set (The T1 set from the PE vendor) and from that, move on to the Elven set (3/4 Restoration Set which will be the bracers, helm and boots and 1/4 Assault which will be the chest piece for the power and crit) or the Dusk set (3/4 Restoration which will be the helm, chest & braces and 1/4 Raid which will be the boots)
The other alternatives if possible - Due to the word limit, please check my explanations here on my mmomind's guide.
Best to have - This is a toss up. Either you can go for the Prelate Gemmed Exquisite Elemental Chainmail & Chausses because of the stats or the Drowcraft Shirt & Pants because with that set, when you land a critical strike, you heal allies for 1% of their max hp up to 1000 and it occurs once every three seconds. Whatever floats your boat here. (The drowcraft is quite easy to obtain if you're budgeting AD)
Alternatives - Thanks to recent changes in the game, the Bloodstained Shirt that drops from Epic Gray Wolf Den. Not a bad alternative at all, especially if you have that Assassin's Covenant ability.
Best to have - Gotta say, I love the burning set but god damn, the stats on the new set is great. It's called the 'Lighttender's set' similar to the name of your cleric's armor but the stats on it, is fantastic (The power). I took pics of what it is like on green ranked & legendary ranked, so whatever current mainhand you have, just check the link here for the green version & here for the legendary version & compare your current main hand to the new one and be amazed. This set will however take a while to get so if you have no patience to get and level it up, this is not for you.
Alternatives - Burning set is obviously the alternative choice now to this so if you can't eventually get that Lighttender's set, burning will still be a great choice. Another set can be the twisted set. You get this from farming epic demogorgon. You get a nice defense and power boost from it, so it's a great, valid option.
Main Hand Equip & Offhand Artifact Stat bonus & class feat - Just gonna add this here because a lot of mails I got wondered what do I use here. The answer to this is for the main hand, my equip will either be Blessing of Battle's Equip Bonus or Astral Seal's Equip Bonus, varies while for my offhand's artifact stat bonus, it's having action point gain which I have 399 stat on that (Max is 400). The class feat for it, I use Holy Fervor's Bonus as I have that class feat slotted most of the time.
Noteworthy Mention - Check out my mmominds guide for the explanation here.
Best to have - Greater Belt of Wisdom, Tiamat Sash, Greater Imperial Waistband of Honor.
Best to have - Ostorian Ring of Hellig +5 x2, the current best choice for our type of support cleric. This has a small chance to drop from Fangbreaker Island or Master version of Svardborg
Alternatives - Tons to choose from. Ostorian ring of Hellig, Ring of Brutality +4 & 5, Ring of Sudden Precision +4 & 5, Ring of Rising Power +4 & 5, Ring of Rising Precision +4 & 5, and Ring of Rising Recovery +4 & 5. More options include x2 of either the Personalized Adamant Ring of Recovery or x2 Rosegold Raid/Restoration Rings. If these rings aren't obtainable, your other bets include the Dragonflight/Elven Restoration Rings, Dragonflight/Elven Raid Rings, Drowcraft Raid/Restoration Rings.
Reinforcement Kits
Best to have (Armor) - Either Major Critical Strike Armor Kits for that extra crit chance or Major Power Armor Kits as well for more power.
Alternative - If you can't get Majors, settle for Greater Critical Strike/Power Armor Kit.
Best to have (Neck, Belt, Rings) - For this, no doubt about it, the Major Action Point Gain Jewels.
Alternative - If you can't get Majors, you simply get Greaters.
Best to have - Greater Imperial Dragon Cloak - Basically any cloak that has great stats for us like Power/Crit/Recovery and along with that, has 'Increase Action Point Gain by _% every 3 seconds while in combat' effect.
Weapon Enchantment - Word limit so check out mmominds for my explanation here.
For Armor - Soulforged or if you're confident enough to not need soulforged, then use Negation.
The artifacts that I find to be great for this updated version of my build will be:
Sigil of the Devoted - Power/Defense/Incoming Heal Bonus
Symbol of Fire - Power/Recovery/Defense
Sigil of the Hunter - Power/Recovery/Stamina/Guard Gain
Symbol of Air - Power/Recovery/Movement
These four together give you even more base power with more recovery which is vital for the build. I'll say later on about the stats that will be important to this build. Honorable mentions of artifacts/artifacts to think about if you can't get the ones I mainly stated are:
Thayan Book of the Dead - Critical Strike/Armor Penetration/Action Point Gain.
Heart of the Blue Dragon - Critical Strike/Recovery/Combat Advantage Bonus.
Heart of the Black Dragon - Recovery/Armor Penetration/Action Point Gain.
Sigil of the controller - Power/Critical Strike/Control Resist
Tiamat's Orb of Majesty - Power/Crit/Recovery/Armor Penetration/Action Point Gain.
Sigil of the Oathbound Paladin - Max HP/Power/Aoe Resist
Offense slot: To make this much simpler than I originally had here, I'll label it Cruel's as your best in slot option if some didn't realize so ideally, you want cruels, at least rank 10's then work them up further into 12's. If you can't, then you will have to mix to suit between radiants and silveries (Rank 8 for starters, then to work up eventually) As a side note, if your guild has a maxed or close to maxed power boon, then you can afford to slightly balance into the silveries' favor.
Defense slot: Radiants for HP. You want to at least get to rank 8's and work your way up if possible, however, if you are into that mount bonus called 'Assassin's Covenant, you should put azures in your defense slots as when you have this bonus, it takes away some of your defense, deflection & lifesteal & in return to gain power (If you are really into this mount bonus & in a guild, you should also activate your guild's defense boon if they possess that). Same as radiants, you want to have this on rank 8+. If you're really feeling this mount bonus, you can also try for Cruels in your defense slots as Cruel's give both Defense and Deflection. (Just know, if you go for Cruels, you got to at least start it off at rank 10 +).
Utility Slot: Dark enchantments rank 7's, Dragon Hoard's, Fey Blessings, Quartermaster's Enchantment, whatever you can get there that's rank 7+
Overload Slot: Greater Black Dragon Glyph/Greater White Dragon Glyph/Greater Corrupt Black Ice Enchantment/Greater Corrupt Lethal Enchantment
Power - Power is the love of DC's, it's the life. Basically the more power for us, the better. You want to realistically get to at least 18k power as a new cleric and work your way up to as much as you possibly can (The ideal promise land in my view is at least 28k-30k, you can obviously get even higher, just saying that's a great number to finally obtain to then push further as much as you can)
Recovery - For this build, ideally you'll want to get a reasonable number to start of with. At least 6k recovery+ and work it up to as much as you can. Due to so many sources, including a bonding pet, insignias, gear within the bonding pet and so on, you should be able to get that ideal number of recovery which you want to at least have 10-16k recovery, base, as for buffed, due to your bondings (at least perfect ranked) and with artificier's mount bonuses of persuasion and influence, you can buff your recovery to at least 25k+
Critical Strike - You want a good critical chance number. With the gear that's recommended along with going all WIS/STR in your ability points, you should be around 27-30% for starters and just find ways to work upwards from there if possible. (30%-35% is a solid number for this build. Since we're not dpsing here, we truthfully don't need that much after this point and max for me that's fine is 50-60%.)
Action Point Gain(Number Stat) - Add to this number anyway you can (Via ap kits/if you have the tiamat's orb/your offhand artifact stat). This basically to the percentage of AP gain which is important for us clerics to get the dailies up faster.
Action Point Gain(Percentage) - 50-60% range then with bondings, artificer's bonuses, you'll have an insane amount
Hit Points - This is more like the common stuff for any DC to have. Build this to whatever you can. At least get it over 110k for starters and work your way up.
Defense & Dmg Resistance - If you're using assassin's covenant, you'll want to stack on defense so you can in return gain power. If not roll with whatever number you got. If you have problems, Anointed Armor & just be alert & dodge (If you rock a companion & bondings, the defense slots in your companion's gear can be used with azures and when proccing, will give you good defense along with if you use negation for those who wants the 'Better safe than sorry' feel).
Lifesteal - This can be a great help for you if you take those one or two surprise hits. Our self heals are pretty weak & regen is a bit useless in my opinion so lifesteal will benefit you. The number you'll want to aim for is roughly 5-10% for this build. (You'll see later on through boons & your companion, you'll get this easily)
UPDATED! on FEB 1ST 2017 - Basically, i'll put two options here. For those who didn't go with assassin's covenant and those who went with that mount ability
With Assassin's Covenant
The following are to me the three best options you can get as our type of debuff/buff support cleric:
Overall : To me, this is the best in slot option at this time for us & I believe it's worth the investment as a main companion. To properly test, myself & my guildie @bonnine took off our weapon enchantments & practiced on the dummies by hitting it with at-wills to get a better understanding of how good this debuff is & studies showed its effectiveness was 110% meaning it was a 10% increase in damage it gives & we found out it stacks with plague & bear your sins so that's a huge plus. (Weapons of Light appears on the companions bar but actually adds nothing to it)
Overall :This companion got nerfed. It no longer scales with power and whatever else crazy things it was doing I believe. For that reasoning actually, I prefer the sellsword at this time as it's actually much easier to get as well. I know there was recent changes to give the drake a small chance to drop in dungeons but I still prefer the sellsword despite the debuffs.
Overall: I used it & I won't be switching to it. I've seen tanks using this and it's not going to stack if there's two in the party. Tanks should go for this while the rest of possible debuffers like DC's, MoF CW's, may be better off using sellswords because at least the shield and sellsword can work in harmony
This next list here are just companions to have along with your main that have decent enough active bonuses :-
Erinyes of Belial - Critical Severity. Won't hurt to have this. 5% on rare, 10% on epic.
Dancing Blade - Critical Severity. 3% on rare, 5% on epic
Lillend - Upon using a daily power, heals your allies for 2% of their max hp once every 30 seconds.
Owlbear Cub - On encounter use, if you fail to critically hit, do an additional hit for damage equal to 50% of your power.
Deva Champion - 4% Incoming Heal Bonus & 4% Outgoing Heal Bonus on epic.
Young Yeti - 10% chance for you or your companion becoming bloodthirsty, increasing damage dealt by 10% (Epic)
Laughing Skull - On the start of combat, 500 power and 500 recovery for 25 seconds.
Cambion Magus - Critical Severity - 5% on rare, 10% on epic.
Polar Bear Cub - 5% outgoing heal bonus
Sprite - 2% Action Point Gain
Book Imp - 2% Recharge Speed
I changed my mind for those who can't afford the bondings to choose augments. You really should try to save up and get some as bondings are the absolute top of the game. Augments in my view, are obsolete. So stressing on the importance here to GET BONDINGS AND PET THAT CAN PROC IT.
The following is an up to date picture of companions I currently use:- (Sellsword, Deva Champion, Polar Bear Cub, Erinyes of Belial & Dancing Blade)
As we all know now, they added a mount system to the game which is pretty cool and useful. There's a lot of valid options for us righteous DC's in this department and I'll be listing the ones that I found useful:-
The following is a picture of what I currently have set up in my stable (Currently updated as of 1/02/2017) :
Strongly recommended - As you all can see, this is the current 5 mount powers I use. I labelled of course other mount abilities one can use but I'll strongly recommend for anyone if you're following this build or any build for that matter, to have at least Assassin's Covenant, Artificer's Persuasion and Artificer's Influence, at least. These three abilities are pretty much key for this particular build or in general, it's great for anything
Equip Power I currently use - Using a daily power grants 25% of your total action points over 10 seconds. This is via the Flail Snail mount. Basically, if you can't afford this, other alternatives will be either mounts that provide power as a stat or recovery as a stat (Depending on what you lack of course. The Gorgon/Embellished Apparatus mounts are viable since they grant 15% of your total ap over 10 seconds). Check this link out via neverwinter gamepedia to see the mounts that provide power or recovery.
For more information on other bonuses and the mounts needed to achieve these bonuses, you can check it out at this helpful link most already know of (Credit to the creators of this chart, I do not own it).
If you are wondering what types of insignia to use, you want either power ones or recovery ones (The names are Dominance for power, Mastery for recovery). You want to at least basically have the blue versions (100 power/recovery) or the epic versions (200 power/recovery). Thanks bluntsides@hotmail.com for this reminder.
My current stat line (No companion & no bondings active) :
That will be it for me! Hope you enjoyed reading this build & my thoughts along the way. As mentioned at the start of my guide, I'm open for constructive feedback. It will be greatly appreciated. I just want to shout out a few people. My guild The Holy Crusaders for being great, my fellow officers in the guild for encouraging me to do this, my guild leader and one of my best friends Lia Knowles @rinat114 for helping me out as well on how to lay this out, format it and giving me the encouragement as well to do this in the first place & I'll like to thank one of my guild mates specifically, @bonnine for actually helping me to lean towards the direction of AC righteous in the first place and giving me her thoughts as well throughout the way. I want to thank those who since the guide came out, helped me along the way in some manner with key info for parts of my guide whether they directly told me, had the info available throughout multiple outlets like spreadsheets or outright had it in the arc forums. @rapo973, @putzboy78, @thefabricant, @lerapiso818, @michela123, @silverkelt & so many others (word limit). The Cleric Community has been absolutely great.
If there's any questions you need answered, you can contact me in-game (Czar Jarek@jeffslider) or ask them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer as quickly as I can.
BTW, welcome to Relentless, see you soon
And see ya soon man
In all seriousness though, superb job as usual, you're the best cleric I know by complete merit and I have the honor of playing with you every single day. Hopefully you'll produce some baby-jarek's to be even remotely as excellent as you are in the server, it'll be quite awesome to see.
I can vouch for this build entirely, my damage wouldn't look the same otherwise.
Congratulation on going public with this amazing build, I'm super proud of you!
The Holy Crusaders guild leader ♚ Mod 10 PVE Destroyer GWF guide ♚ Founding member of the Relentless Alliance
For the gift of haste part, I actually can see what you're saying, on a larger scale. If you don't possess the snail mainly since the burning set and the dc sigil is quite obtainable, the GoH in that instance can be a valid option if you do need some help with AP Gain
For that second part, since I'm not a healer anymore and must say no one is completely perfect dodging, I will disagree with saying that defense slots for the bondings is a 'waste of AD'. I'm confident enough to use my negation enchantment I possess in the pve content and basically, with my DMG resistance at 21.5% + the negation I have, along with those same azures in the defense slots in the companion's gear, it can help me be a bit tanky to the point where I can be almost capped on DR, thus negating a lot of damage. Besides that, I can't really put the radiants there since the bonding doesn't proc to increase HP.
All you're really skipping for GoH is Fire of the Gods so you lose some personal DPS and you can trigger Bear Your Sins with your weapon enchant anyways.
I should rephrase like this basically, I agree to dodge, but as mentioned no one can dodge everything every single time so this is where the azures can come in. You have to look at it as basically, you can't buff/debuff if you're flat on the ground so I can't truly say really that it's a waste still. I understand what you're saying but won't hurt to have the azures slotted in those slots.
Some minor comments coming from my build.
- GoH: it's just a matter of preference. I think it's still good when you've have a high AP gain.
- On the virtuous tree I have Have Faith instead of Lasting Wishes. Two main reasons for that: it works with ITF and with BoB/DG the overall effect looks like foreasight but with a limited range.
- The healing part is covered by the Tiamat set: it gives a heal bonus but most important it gives AP and Wis+Cha...but that's not important for WiS+Str build.
- Mounts. Artificer's persuasion + Shepperd's Devotion work very well AA + my vanguard banner which is another source of debuff. Here mine
- On my build the dps part is covered by the owlbear cub and dread enchantment. I don't rely on DL but I prefer BtS which work very well with the owlbear when I stack power.
Oltreverso guild leader
Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF
Still i would like comment few choices.
1. Lasting Wishes 10% to heal. With static 17k power and 55% critical chance my Righteous heals are sufficient, as weapon enchantment for DC i use terror, so critical heals are not a case. The most viable alternative to Lasting Wishes is Have Faith which stacks with ITF buff.
2. 5 points in Fire Of Gods. This dot damage is weapon damage based. It is great addition for leveling and solo play but its damage contributes little to support build. I have one point here for sake of dot (to proc Bear of Sins), which dot slightly harder to get with AC than with DO. Other 4 points would be put into Astral Fury (8% more damage) - relief for solo, or Have Faith (4% to damage resistance, ITF synergy) or Gift Of Haste (4% AP over time, to support people who still may need it).
— (The unwritten rule)
About GoH: I understand, I just will say it GoH can be an option if you end up going 1/5 fire of the gods & put the four points into it that if you really don't have that high AP gain, It can be a suggestion.
About Have Faith: Another valid option since it fits into the whole GF/DC synergy. I myself just wanted that extra healing for the classic 'safe side' but I can def. see this as an option mainly for the ITF.
About the Tiamat Set: Exactly that what you said. I like the actual individual pieces that makes the set (I didn't really call the amulet because of the power/recovery/defense which I rather power/crit/recovery for this build.)
The mounts: I learned about that Shepard's + Artificers combo when my fellow guild members mentioned this, hence why I did my research and added this as an option. We just need to remember however that it can get changed at anytime since it seems to be working wrong based on the actual tooltip that was explained about it but nevertheless, still great to have & I'll eventually look into it if it's still around longer than intended.
From another comment: I saw the dps explaining from another comment saying that maybe for my actual solo play, I can take fire of the gods to 1/5 instead of 4/5 & make astral fury an option for solo content. Since you explained how the dps part is covered in your build, as mentioned for mines, I won't say I made this for dps but in solo play, it's pretty good so for now, I feel won't need the cub but will want to test however to see how great the cub is for myself with what you explained.
1. This is a true point, another person mentioned this in the comments earlier & I agree, if I was to ever move off the 10% heals, it will be an option to use Have Faith for the whole GF/DC synergy whenever I party with a GF. It's just knowing me, I know I took the heals for the larger picture & will know in my head, a switch to Have Faith was only for the GF ITF factor & it possibly could be a minor waste if I don't party with GF's all the time
2. The whole fire of the gods debate. Even my main guild mate who helped me with some things along the way, she told me about probably just needing 1/5 into fire of the gods for the whole support play. I do agree with everyone who brings this up. I'll say about 1/5 fire of the gods, that with those 4 extra points, I'll more recommend it for Have Faith for those who want that ITF synergy or even GoH which I'm not that big of a fan but it can be used for those who has trouble for the actual AP Gain. Astral Fury will be a distant 3rd in the options you brought up because the other two covers support which this is about firstly and mainly.
Also a new companion is coming with the dc booster pack that could be at least a little interesting. Can't discuss it in these forums however because its all speculation at this point.
It does sound very interesting.
Our builds are a bit similar in case of feats. I picked gift of haste and have faith since i have other good outgoing heal sources. Also i went for mitigation, deflection, recovery and regeneration and i still have good crit and power. Lathander's set is very cheap and useful too.
Good job!
Harper Bard appears to be BiS for buff/debuff DCs if you can afford it.
The tier 4 boons in Sharandar and Dread Ring have 2 minutes internal CD. This means that you choose between 20k healing or 20k damage every two minutes. In my opinion, 40k damage is pretty insignificant while 40k healing is a lifesaver from getting two shot. When soloing, that healing along with Divine Glow will keep you up until you get 10 stacks of Negation.
You have 7.8% deflect chance, which makes it very inconsistent. It may be more efficient to put those into Lifesteal, Defense, or HP.
Since you're going a relatively low Crit chance build, it also may be more efficient to replace your Crit Severity companions with % damage bonus or Combat Advantage companions. Although Crit Severity does affect heals, so it's a tradeoff. You may also want to consider an Owlbear Cub, since you're going for a high power/low crit build.
Another thing to note is that your loadout only has Divine Glow for AoE damage. If you're running a debuffing enchantment, such as Terror or Plaguefire, you may want to get an additional AoE spell since Divine Glow is bugged and does not apply weapon enchantments.
About ability scores, cha is unconditionally better than int and dex is only relevant for high deflect builds (pvp). So you'd want to roll for the lowest possible combinations of those two stats.
Overall, great guide!