Can Clerics DPS in this game?

silvawind

Can Clerics DPS in this game?
I am playing this game with my wife. Whilst I have lots of MMO experience and am quite a competent player, she lacks a bit of confidence in group play, and always has, although she is making a real effort this time around to 'put herself out there'.

Look, she isn't the best player to have ever lived and has a lot to learn, especially in this game which has a high skill cap.

She has chosen a Cleric, as she always chooses the Cleric archetype in our previous MMOs, although back then she chose them because they typically make the safest/sturdiest solo classes with decent armour and self-heals.

This time around though she has been participating in dungeons/skirmishes and PvP and I feel she would be a lot more relaxed about the whole thing if she could DPS, as it's typically easier, and she's less in the limelight, held less responsible and all that.

So, my question to you Clerics is: Is Cleric a viable DPS in groups? I've heard different things, nothing substantial though.

Tbh, with potions, our experiences so far suggest healing isn't as important in this game as others, but does that change at end-game instances?

Will she be EXPECTED and NEEDED to heal? Or can I spec her into a decent DPS that will be accepted in groups? Or should I maybe get her to re-roll a Wiz?

Any advice would be hugely appreciated by both of us.

Thanks x

tsei

Clerics basically need to heal as its part of the mechanic, but its not the traditional healbot. If you play age of Conan you can compare it to a tempest of Set. She has to deal damage to heal, most mechanics are based around casting damage spells imbued with buffs+debuffs. Using divinity mechanic is important as a dps cleric or healing cleric. Sure you can build a dps focused build, it will still have heals and boss wise a trickster rogue has the edge on dps, on trash a Control wizard will have the edge. but lets put it this way, at the end of the skirmish/dungeon/epic if you add up the Heals done+Damage Dealt tables together who you think top the charts? Adding that potions are essential and moving from the red spots obligatory id say cleric is a fun class. Take some passive heal buffs, maximize crit and use spells to make sure your dpsing maximizes your Divinity generation. Also its most likely she will draw agro from trash mobs on boss fights this is excellent time for her to use her AOE cool-downs to pop some nice dps while filing her bar.

Trust me most groups would rather have a dpsing cleric that can mitigate some of their potion addiction than having a 5 man rogue/wiz fest like most random dungeons turn out for some people(i'm lucky that i'm a cleric with a personal tank).

rukbat

In my experience the cleric just hasn't got the output of the wizard. I've played both, but at lowish level only; I might be wrong. I also experienced more aggro problems as cleric and less mobility than wizard, even though it's indeed sturdier - self-healing being a factor though.

On the other hand, check out this thread - it may have the answers you seek.

As for expectations... people will be people. They 'expect' healing classes to heal, unless it's them playing it of course.

In this game there may be more to it, because when you use the queuing system, it doesn't let you choose a role - it assumes that the Guardian Fighter will be the tank and the Cleric will be the healer. So if you end up being the only cleric in the group, which will happen a lot, you're the only one who can take up the role of healer. Can't blame the others for expecting it of you

commonlisp

As long as she doesn't mind keeping Astral Shield up in Divinity Mode, I can't see many people having complaints. The hardest part for a cleric seems to be just keeping yourself alive since they tend to draw all the adds when they initially spawn.

joeldgn

Yes, we can. She can run the lower feat tree build which is all geared for the DPS/off-tank cleric. Also, once she has Daunting Light maxed out the divine version of that (pressing tab switched to divine mode) will her favorite thing.

bismar7

There is always one cleric to a group in neverwinter; and they do need to heal in dungeons... I would suggest the same in skirmishes.

(possible solution for your wife)
I started as a healer in wow, played a resto druid and healed for a year; then started a priest and healed for another as that. I tried shadow once and outdid the raid in Damage... and I've played Damage dealing casters ever since.

My suggestion is to wait for either the Ranger or Warlock and try them if you are thinking of going dps, they will be tailor made for it and then you won't have any other issues.

Can a Cleric do damage in NW; certainly, we can lock down a large number of targets and deal massive damage to them; if specced right we could do REALLY well as damage. However this will only work with a pre-made group; individuals who like each other and play with each other are a much better place than a random group of .... *expletive* who don't care and won't even try to understand why she is playing a cleric who doesn't want to heal.

Regardless best of luck