Getting pretty tired of this class now...

vengefulfury

So I get my DC to lvl60, put epic gear on it and all that <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> but it STILL gets wiped across the bloody floor by mobs! The stamina SUCKS, you can't even avoid the red beams without "Stamina low!"

It says a lot when my companion does a better job at surviving than I do! I always seem to get aggro drawn towards me like 5 powerful mobs at a time and I have to keep hitting health potions to survive. How the hell can you evade enemies when the stamina runs down so fast? I try to run to give myself space from the mobs but noooo the little ****es just follow me and I can't do anything.

Maybe I'm not using the Divine enough I dunno, I do use it with Sunburst to knock the mobs back but I can't keep using that every 10 seconds.

I just pretty much rage quit the godamn game because no matter what I do it's not good enough. May as well go back to my lvl60 HR which, somehow, has a better gear score by about 1k.

Can't believe I wasted AD on a class that I seem to suck at

morsitans

What are you soloing? IWD is a good step-up in difficulty from DR or Sharandar (neither of which should give you trouble).

I'm guessing IWD, since that does seem to be a place where red stuff carpets the floor faster than stamina can replenish.

I've been running DG, DL and astral shield, and have been using my comedy freebie renegade mercenary dorf as a temporary meatshield. I find having the heal+mitigation of the shield is actually useful in IWD (plus that plus the freebie dorf gives me loltastic burning guidance procs), but yeah, there is often more red than stamina, so I've tried to learn which red is worth avoiding, and which can be facetanked. In all honesty, a lot of it can be facetanked, especially with an astral down, so it's worth saving dodges for the prones and big hits.

Also, some heroic encounters are higher level than others, despite looking identical at a casual glance, so that might play a part. I've had totem fights that were facerolls, and then totem fights that instagibbed me, and both looked the same from the outset (possibly I need to pay more attention).

beckylunatic

With DC, I kind of like using a canine companion that can prone, and try to position to give the pup combat advantage as much as possible. The war dog from the first time buyer's gift is pretty nice.

I run pretty much no heals when soloing. In Icewind Dale, this does mean I have to switch almost all my powers on the fly if I want to do a medium or large heroic encounter, but it makes the dailies much less painful. The faster you kill stuff, the less you'll miss any kind of healing.

Chains, Divine Glow, Daunting Light. Sadly, Chains bugs out sometimes and fails to trap anything. I could switch it for Sunburst, but I dislike running Sunburst except in specific situations. Ideally though, open with Chains (not divine) and use the time to position so that when things start closing in again, the maximum number will be caught in a DG/DL combo (divine, or just DL in divine if lacking pips). Throw Brand of the Sun on everything for DoTs and spam Sacred Flame. Only very tough stuff won't die in one rotation, which is a good time to bust out a Flame Strike. I run Terrifying Insight to squeeze out that bit more damage. (My DC is pretty well geared, so most powers crit and they come off cooldown fast.)

The Icewind Dale instanced stuff, I do prefer to pair up for, but the amount of overlapping red in the final fight in Biggrin's Tomb is hard on a lot of classes, so don't feel singled out.

vengefulfury

I haven't even made it to Icewind Dale yet that's the problem

It's that bloody Mind Flayers thing they kick the <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> out of me and hardly pay attention to my companion which happens to be the Cold Iron Warrior at lvl30.

Yeh it's doing its job, it is fighting them well enough and, since I've acquired it, it's only been taken down maybe 3 times but I seem to get all the attention from mobs and I just can't handle it xD It's funny because, in a dungeon the other day, I did moderately well at keeping people alive even though I kept getting swamped by mobs.

The problem is that I don't really want to give up because I know that clerics can be pivotal to helping others as opposed to my HR alt which is an overly used class.

I even re-did my character stats and power/feats, etc. but it doesn't seem to help much. I re-did them to pretty much be 100% pure (I can't see it right now because the game is being really buggy for some odd reason) but it's the top one on the "feats" tab (seriously wtf, Cryptic, I can't even sign in!)

If I were able to send my gear to an alt on the same account then I'd just start over and be wiser but I can't even do that so I'm stuck with a lvl60 DC that has epics and apparatus of kwalish mount (which I also can't transfer or even sell.)

I had such high hopes for this character, I had given up on it to begin with but I came back to it and got it to lvl60 and now I'm pretty much between a rock and a hard place.

Maybe I'm panicking too much I dunno... I mean I just tried again but this time just let them hit me and it seems that if I stop moving around and just stay on top of the situation then I seem to do better.

Can you suggest what I should have on my power bar? Maybe I've got the wrong things there.

silverkelt

Use a augment pet in DD's dont use anything else.. I assuming your talking about SP here? I can only suggest a few things, I havent seen you play in person and frankly, you may be doing nothing in error, sometimes no matter what a poor group doing wierd things will get you killed (Ive been in pugs that 2-3 people insisted on leading the charge, pulling different groups and wiping us.. then they all yelled at each other.. was kind of funny tbh)

Stack defense to 2500... if you are not at that range and your pulling things via burning guidance that's on you. Learn to dodge , position out of the way.

IF you are already stacking defense to that amount and you are not pulling the mobs, then your group needs to better control them , or kill them.

Frankly when I pug, even in legit runs, I take responsibility for my own survival, no matter what class I play.

Even though the DC is a "healer" type, its not a raid core healer from other mmos, when Im on my GWF or CW , I never , EVER blame the DC, weather I died or not, this game isnt like those other games, dont kill yourself saving someone else. They have pots, artifacts, save encounters, dailies of thier own, plus lifesteal and regen.. this all adds up to multiple ways of not getting killed.

angrysprite

vengefulfury wrote: »

So I get my DC to lvl60, put epic gear on it and all that <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> but it STILL gets wiped across the bloody floor by mobs! The stamina SUCKS, you can't even avoid the red beams without "Stamina low!"

It says a lot when my companion does a better job at surviving than I do! I always seem to get aggro drawn towards me like 5 powerful mobs at a time and I have to keep hitting health potions to survive. How the hell can you evade enemies when the stamina runs down so fast? I try to run to give myself space from the mobs but noooo the little ****es just follow me and I can't do anything.

Maybe I'm not using the Divine enough I dunno, I do use it with Sunburst to knock the mobs back but I can't keep using that every 10 seconds.

I just pretty much rage quit the godamn game because no matter what I do it's not good enough. May as well go back to my lvl60 HR which, somehow, has a better gear score by about 1k.

Can't believe I wasted AD on a class that I seem to suck at

I've been saying this since BEFORE Open Beta.
All I got back from the community was the loud laughing at my face with the comment "L2P, idiot".

You vindicate me. Let's face it: On the fun-scale: Devoted Cleric is just this side of "totally sucks". It's why I haven't even bothered with any of the mods (1, 2, or 3) on this character. Though with Angel of Protection I'm considering giving it a go.

beckylunatic

Well, for one thing, Whispering Caverns is a more difficult area than either Sharandar or the Dread Ring. There is no shame at all in going off to do some level 60 stuff, get a few boons to make yourself stronger, and then come back to finish this zone later.

Yes, it does help to stop moving around, and let stuff converge on you in order to blast it all into oblivion with your spells (you can do what I outlined above to slot for full-on damage mode). Most of them have a small radius, so scattered mobs will evade your splat more easily. This is core to my solo DC gameplay, which you need to get a handle on or you'll always be the DC crying in zone chat about not being able to do your campaign stuff without someone along to carry you.

In a dungeon situation, your party should be covering your butt to keep you from getting all the aggro, and/or to peel mobs off you/kill them quickly if you are getting swarmed. If they aren't, they're letting you down. Disadvantage of pick-up-groups (pugs) that don't know how to operate as a team.

Also, I don't know what epic gear you decided to buy for yourself. I sincerely hope it's just the cheap junk purples where you can recover the cost by salvaging the gear when you upgrade into a full set. Set gear is massively overpriced to buy.

There are two problems with your choice of companion, which you can only make work by adjusting your expectations. One is that I am 95% certain that he's a striker, not a defender, so you cannot expect him to tank for you as he has no taunts to hold aggro. His job is to damage stuff for you, which it sounds like he's doing. The second is that he's a specialist in Dark Fey enemies, which you'll find in Sharandar and pretty much nowhere else except for some oddly classified drow.

You probably want to read Kaelac's guide to the cleric. It's full of great information about what the powers and feats all do, and outlines which ones are traps. There is really only one way to build a DC's heroic feats, for example.
http://laggygamerz.com/forum/index.php?/topic/17-kaelac%E2%80%99s-guide-to-devoted-clerics-in-neverwinter/

Your paragon feat choices, I gather people view Virtuous (that's the top tree) as the one to go with to reward attacking, and Faithful up to the capstone as the healer build. This is basically what I use (I think I actually went 2 points in Cleanse and 3 in Bountiful Fortune)
http://nwcalc.com/dc?b=nlq:27sim4:20dqf4,13l3314:100000:1k5000:1fu0z1&h=0&p=dvo
I don't feel that I underperform as a party healer, but my DC is also plenty durable and good at blowing stuff up by herself, so it's a build I am extremely happy with.

Solo
Foresight, Terrifying Insight, Chains (Sunburst if preferred), Divine Glow, Daunting Light, Sacred Flame, Brand of the Sun

Self-sustaining group (when a party is geared, healing becomes fairly passive and the DC is primarily there to buff/debuff)
Foresight, Holy Fervor (change according to preference), Chains (or Sunburst), Divine Glow, Astral Shield, Sacred Flame, Astral Seal

For parties that actually need more direct healing, I have the option of swapping in Healing Word, Bastion of Health, and/or Forgemaster's Flame. Doesn't happen that much for me because my DC really only groups up with guildies.

Dailies are Hallowed Ground always (cast frequently while grouping), Flame Strike for solo (use when extra damage is needed), Divine Armor for groups (panic button). I'm putting overflow points in Hammer of Fate, haven't really tried it out.

vengefulfury

Well I've learned that, rather than trying to run away from fear of dying, it's actually better to stand there and attack the mobs because they don't seem to do as much damage as I thought.

I stand there with maybe 3 or 4 mobs all attacking me in a group and I just lay down the shield, healing word now and then, and I seem to do okay.

Guess I just needed to change my tactics.

I'm also a lvl85 cleric on Perfect World so I guess I'm just not used to being able to take a beating. On that game it's more long distance combat and you tend to pull one mob at a time. In the "dungeons" you stand in the background just healing people and attacking now and then so I guess I'm just not fully used to this "style" of cleric lol.

tyrtallow

The NW cleric is very different from the PW cleric. The PW cleric is more or less a ranged single target (physical damage-type) DPS with loads of buffs/heals and a few strong aoe (metal damage-type) nukes. The NW cleric is a dynamic jack-of-all-trades type of character who focuses on buffs and mitigation. Among other things, it is also capable of doing massive AoE burst damage with the proper setup. Chains is a staple among many DCs in solo PvE because it leaves monsters wide open to a good Searing/Daunting Light cast.

The last part of the Whispering Caverns is a lesson in learning to choose your battles more carefully or kill stuff before they kill you, unless you're overgeared. You -will- die repeatedly if you get mobbed by a large group of intellect devourers ("brain dogs"). You either kill them first or drop Divine Armor and hope the Mindflayers don't stun you while you dodge. The Mindflayers themselves are easy to to beat as long as you stay mobile. You don't need to actually "dodge" their beams/shadow strikes so much as just walk/run out of the way. Once you get used to how long it takes for them to recover from using their special abilities you should be fine.

vengefulfury

tyrtallow wrote: »

The NW cleric is very different from the PW cleric. The PW cleric is more or less a ranged single target (physical damage-type) DPS with loads of buffs/heals and a few strong aoe (metal damage-type) nukes. The NW cleric is a dynamic jack-of-all-trades type of character who focuses on buffs and mitigation. Among other things, it is also capable of doing massive AoE burst damage with the proper setup. Chains is a staple among many DCs in solo PvE because it leaves monsters wide open to a good Searing/Daunting Light cast.

The last part of the Whispering Caverns is a lesson in learning to choose your battles more carefully or kill stuff before they kill you, unless you're overgeared. You -will- die repeatedly if you get mobbed by a large group of intellect devourers ("brain dogs"). You either kill them first or drop Divine Armor and hope the Mindflayers don't stun you while you dodge. The Mindflayers themselves are easy to to beat as long as you stay mobile. You don't need to actually "dodge" their beams/shadow strikes so much as just walk/run out of the way. Once you get used to how long it takes for them to recover from using their special abilities you should be fine.

I managed to do it in the end lol. I always found the chain cast to be more beneficial but between Sun Burst, Healing Word and Astral Shield I don't know which of the 3 to replace it with.

I'm leaning more toward Astral Shield because I'm guessing that's more useful in a squad?

tyrtallow

I suggest you replace Healing Word with Chains/Daunting/Divine Glow. Healing Word stops being decent for solo PvE at mid-high levels, the self-heal is too low (massive healing on allies on a crit though). While Astral Shield is generally overkill for solo content, I'd make an exception for the last part Whispering Caverns.

The advantage to using Chains is that you don't need to cast it in divine mode and you can use the divinity generated to spam Punishing Light. Being able to DPS while moving helps a lot against mindflayers. Disadvantage: lower overall damage than Daunting/Divine Glow and sometimes won't proc. Daunting does the highest damage, but has a 5 maximum target cap and can be difficult to aim without Chains. Finally Divine Glow debuffs enemy targets and also buffs you in divine mode, combo with Flame Strike for massive damage. It has the longest cooldown of the three, though.

vengefulfury

I always found the column attacks to be kinda useless if it's only on one mob though =/

beckylunatic

vengefulfury wrote: »

I always found the column attacks to be kinda useless if it's only on one mob though =/

That's why you let them clump up and use Chains to hold them that way to set up the rest of your attack. The DG debuff contributes to nice DL boom, especially if it crits. Also, casting DL in divine mode increases the AoE.

DL out of divine mode is mostly only useful if you can be sure that your target won't move in the time it takes you to cast.

Generating and using divinity is important to playing your DC effectively. Chains and Sunburst cast out of divine mode are both spells DCs use to generate divine power to juice up other encounters, as well as spamming your at-wills when you've got nothing else to be doing.

vengefulfury

beckylunatic wrote: »

That's why you let them clump up and use Chains to hold them that way to set up the rest of your attack. The DG debuff contributes to nice DL boom, especially if it crits. Also, casting DL in divine mode increases the AoE.

DL out of divine mode is mostly only useful if you can be sure that your target won't move in the time it takes you to cast.

Generating and using divinity is important to playing your DC effectively. Chains and Sunburst cast out of divine mode are both spells DCs use to generate divine power to juice up other encounters, as well as spamming your at-wills when you've got nothing else to be doing.

Sadly I've spent all of my points and I don't even have DG =-(

beckylunatic

Go to Sharandar and Dread Ring and start doing the daily quests available there, and make sure you invoke 2-3 times a day for the XP rewards from that. You'll get a power point for sure on your first post-60 "level" and if luck is with you, you'll get them a good portion of the time as you continue with post-60 progression. No need to pay for a respec, but I'd prioritize putting the first 3 power points you get into Divine Glow.

It really is a must-take. It is fundamental to the buff/debuff role, and has the benefit of doing some damage too when playing solo.

vengefulfury

beckylunatic wrote: »

Go to Sharandar and Dread Ring and start doing the daily quests available there, and make sure you invoke 2-3 times a day for the XP rewards from that. You'll get a power point for sure on your first post-60 "level" and if luck is with you, you'll get them a good portion of the time as you continue with post-60 progression. No need to pay for a respec, but I'd prioritize putting the first 3 power points you get into Divine Glow.

It really is a must-take. It is fundamental to the buff/debuff role, and has the benefit of doing some damage too when playing solo.

Oh so you do still get power points even after you've reached max level then? I was wondering about that..

beckylunatic

It's a new thing, but you do and can eventually max them all out. It is a nice change for oversights and just plain trying stuff you never got to.

lazuree

instead of DG you can run sb too
chains and daunting usually do enough dmg so all that is left is to clean up with sunburst

nurmood

I died like all the time too at the beginning.

But once i was at 2,3k Def and used Healing Word (!) i just didnt.

so best to use is like SB / HW / AS maximum healing. If you feel stronger and have enougn dodges left you may use Divine Glow.

When you solo and have problems just get decent blue gear with regen - takes longer to kill mobs but you will not die - you can advance then to less tanky sets.

And dont dodge too much most of the time you can just walk out of the red area!!

alexandrearruda

I'm having no difficult to kill mobs... it's obvious that you can not kill them like other classes, you will take more time, but you will not die. And look that i'm using my pvp set with 700 critical (wowwwww) but 4k power/3.4 recovery and 3.3 def (my focus is pvp now because i'm trying to get my banner )

SunBurst, divine glow, and chain, there is no secret or something magical to do.

linoge63

Cold Iron warrior doesnt create nearly enough threat though....man at arms or the shield maiden does...I spent
a tonne of ADs to level the man at arms to 30 and decked him out in top end gear etc and ...most of the time
I can operate properly ...but omg...if i have to start moving...my stamina becomes zero in a nanosec...like whats with that!