New cleric, explain the difference between Paragons please

kap273

Hi there. I just started playing Neverwinter a couple of weeks ago and chose a cleric as my first character. I've been healing in several MMOs for over seven years ago, so the role is very familiar to me. I really like the combat and healing playstyle in this game, however, it's incredibly fun and something I haven't really experienced since I left Warhammer: AoR after it's first year. I'm still experimenting here in Neverwinter, trying to get a hang of the class, powers, feats, etc. I just hit 30 tonight and had to choose my paragon path. I tried doing a bit of research as well as really looking at the powers in game, and for now I chose Anointed Champion. Anyway, enough of my background and onto my question:

What are the main differences between the two paths? I know that AC is new and players have spent a lot more time with DO so there's obviously more info on the DO around especially here in the official forums. From what I am gathering it seems that DO is more of a traditional healer style, i.e. staying in the back and healing (as much as is possible here compared to other games) and it seems that AC may be a more front line buff/mitigation type of healing. Is that accurate at all?

I'm sure to play with both styles as I level up, when I feel like dropping the coin on respeccing just to get a better understanding of the class but any insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

hidahayabusa

It highly depends on what you need to do. DO is a better overall spec for PuGs and Dungeons with randoms etc. If you play with a given group of people and if you plan to join premades on PvP etc, probably AC will give you more value back.

The main difference is Exaltation which is a relatively high CD power that prevents incoming damage/CC and gives away a heal. As powerful as this sounds, it requires very good understanding of what you are about to do, since it's very easy to get it wasted for nothing. So you have to understand who is getting bursted down, who is getting focused and more importantly what the opponents (call it PvP or PvE) will use up next.

On the other hand DO is using Foresight and a very typical healing/mitigation setup with significantly lower CDs and a bigger error-forgiving margin.

tyrtallow

Actually the AC is more the traditional healer-type (general support, reactive healing/mitigation) while the DO's design makes it ideal for active healing/mitigation (not necessarily frontline healing, ACs are tougher).

Most DCs rely on the same powers for general healing, so the main difference between the two (besides a natural inclination towards different playstyles, mostly apparent once you slot paragon-specific powers) boils down to at-wills (the AC's unique at-will buffs allies, the DO's more or less grants passive divinity gain), class features (the AC's generally make them and their allies tougher, the DO's rewards them for attacking/healing) and an encounter (a great defensive power for ACs, a debuff/AP gain power for DOs).

Bottomline, the AC plays naturally as a defensive DC. The at-will is slow but it buffs allies, your class features rewards you for just running around supporting people (ie, almost automatic gain), and you gain a very powerful defensive encounter. The DO's unique powers rewards them for generally just being more active, whether attacking or healing or possibly even standing in harm's way every once in a while.

jazzfong

Very detailed discussion, just a point to add, AC and DO is the same except 1 daily, 1 encounter and 1 at-will. We are not picking which power we use only but also pick which one we don't use. If you didn't want to use the AC specific powers, go DO and vise-versa. For instance, if you use Hallowed Ground as your main daily then you can ignore the daily from 2 paragon path, pick for class feature instead. Whether you want a 11% bonus DR foresight for ALL teammates or constantly 1.5k temp hp to all teammates nearby every 9 sec, that will reveal your choice.

kap273

Thanks, that helps clear things up a lot!