Returning Player....DO/AC Confusion !

jumajii

Hello fellow DC players!

casual player returning after a long break (left just before the Sharandar campaign came out, just got back a few days ago).

I'm mostly a solo player. not a huge fan of end game content in this game, but interested in crafting, running dailies, and leveling some new toons. my favorite though is the DC, so I hop onto my old lvl 60...and all my stuff is reset.

Fair enough. lots of changes. but now i have 2 paragon paths to choose from...uh oh, choices...they make my brain hurt. so, from my playing perspective, which one is really best? I also wouldn't mind some honest opinions about the real differences between the two. a few questions based on this below:

1) AC sounds interesting...it comes across as more of a "sturdy" style approach to playing (the defensive or tanky cleric). How is its Damage compared to DO? would I be slugging through content like a defense built GF? or is it pretty close to DO?

2) Do the offensive benefits of DO outpace the defensive benefits of AC for solo play? or are the new regions (just starting them) tough enough solo that AC is better?

3) My two main companions where i left were Galeb Dur and Phoera. mostly use Galeb (hes maxed and has decent gear). is one paragon better for running with those pets? I would think AC is better for Phoera, and DO for Galeb...or does it really matter? (FYI...I don't have a stone yet...no clue when I'll be motivated to get one, so giving that as an answer wont help much).

Looking forward to the new content on my DC, and Thanks in advance for the answers and discussion!

jazzfong

AC and DO both are better in different situation. It is like one favours back line support and another favours semi front-line. For pve, if the cleric is needed to stand beside tank, then get a AC, or else DO. AC is better with more emergency life savers abilities while DO is a all-go-round pve hp top up healer.

ulviel

AC path is all about supporting your team (more buffs, arguably less healing), there is no difference in dmg you can make. My solo rotation after respeccing to AC didn't change, with 1 small exception - I use blessing of battle instead of brand of the sun, and that's it. In a party however, I perform slightly better - exaltation serves me so much better than healing word, and anointed army is cool to cast in FH ( I can stand in rimefire golems circles )
Now that everyone has more regen (pvp artifact) and generally higher stats heals are even less important than before, but a good buff still comes handy in every possible situation.

P.S. Heals make pretty green numbers flying tho, that make your party happy even if your real contribution to the team's effort is rather small. Never underestimate the psychological effect lol.

vorphied

You can solo fine with either spec. People often forget that DC damage tooltips aren't that shabby (Daunting Light is one of the most damaging encounters in the game). DO has somewhat better damage potential with Terrifying Insight slotted, but I really don't miss it for solo. If I played DC as primary AoE DPS in groups more often, I might note its lack, but in most cases I'll just play CW if the group needs that kind of role filled.

I'm not sure why I keep seeing the assertion that AC is supposed to have weaker healing somehow, because it definitely doesn't. With Exaltation's healing buff (when feated), Anointed Holy Symbol's constant temp healing, and Deepstone Blessing, AC arguably heals better than DO. What you are really missing is the ease of feated Foresight; instead you get the equivalent of basic Foresight built into a slow-casting At-Will with a small buff radius. By itself it's 6% added DR vs. feated Foresight's 11%, but then it stacks with Exaltation's 10% DR buff and also with your own Anointed Armor when you want to be especially resilient :P

I think most DCs will agree that both paths are perfectly viable (yay, Cryptic . Many players seem to find DO easier to play in PvE, while AC shines with great timing and solid single-targeting skills.

spani4rd

I'd say DO is slightly better for running solo but it doesn't really matter that much. AC is definetely superior for PVP purposes. In terms of PVE I'd say the same thing that Vorp said.
I play DO because the PVP is pretty weak in this game and I like it better for the PVE side of things since it flows a bit better. I find it's more comfortable to just spam a spell rotation in this game then wait for just the right moment to use each spell (since we have a very limited number of active spells) I Also use linked spirit since it provides a nice buff to speed up runs but I need SB for this; although it looks like this will go out the window in the next patch. I like abusing my DP and dailys as much as possible so cast cast cast. More spam on shorter cooldowns for DO path. Finally I hate the single targetting system in this game so the less time I'm trying to pick out some exact person with HW/Exaltation/Soothing Light the happier I am