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Some things about my Devoted Cleric
devnulllore
Member Posts: 160 Arc User
So I am back playing Dorian Harper, my Devoted Cleric and I have some comments. Overall any defense she had is gone. Due to many nerffed powers as well I went back to Chandler farm and cannot even touch the Master vamp. he kills me in something like 3 shots. Some observations on powers, Chains of Blazing Light is totally different, it stuns now with no damage. Sun Burst is a bit better but slow to cast. Daunting Light kind of does what Chains used to but lower DPS and much smaller radius. Searing Javelin is a bit better but again slower. Dailies have pretty much stayed the same. Overall defense is way down and cast times have increased leaving plenty of time to interrupt. This is a little worse than my pally but still unacceptable. Any comments or suggestions on builds?
Cheers,
Ulfrik Dragonsyre
Hero of Neverwinter
Retribution Paladin of the realm
Siring quality Dragons for mounts and pets
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1. When you say "went back to..." - what level is your DC vs, the level of the zone? Scaling (as you might have heard, is having some issues.. :-p )
2. Yeah, some powers changed / were removed / were added - but I'm doing ok with it, without any issues with divinity. Lance / Conflag on at-will, sunburst, javelin, geas encounters. Lances, close range, sunburst - dead mobs. Big stuff gets conflag (or two), geas. I've soloed through most of the new campaign, only having issues in expeditions when I get scaled down a couple levels (and watch 20%+ of my stats disappear). Still been totally manageable, though.
(Solo Devout is.... a chore. But you have two loadouts! Build an Arbiter in your second slot!)
My build is Lance/Sacred to build stacks, Searing Javelin as my fire-DPS power, Geas and BTS as my Radiant-DPS powers, Flame Strike for Daily (and HG for emergencies). In a fight, I open with Searing to get some radiant stacks and drop divinity below 100%, then build Radiant, drop BTS, build Flaming, drop Javelin, build Radiant, drop Geas, build Flaming, drop Javelin, and now either everything is dead or I build radiant and consume them for divinity, then build flaming, drop javelin, build radiant and now BTS is off cooldown, etc etc, repeat. Whenever the fight ends I consume the remaining stacks and move on to the next mob group.
Dailies/Artifacts/etc happen any time in the cycle I feel like it.
Cheers,
Ulfrik Dragonsyre
Hero of Neverwinter
Retribution Paladin of the realm
Siring quality Dragons for mounts and pets
The trick is to get a build and power rotation that gives you decent DPS and at the same time allows you to avoid running out of divinity.
Sure, combat is harder than it used to be in M15 - you have to dodge and pay more attention to positioning, but it's not too hard - I managed to get from 70 to 80 in a couple of days without even needing a single healing potion, for example.
The class is harder to play than it was, but to me it is just as enjoyable in solo play.
About group play, however....the way I see it you have a few choices.
You have two kinds of Encounter powers. You have old-style Encounters that you use and they go on cooldown, like Break The Spirit, and you have "Divinity" powered Encounters that come off cooldown instantly but that cost Divinity to use, sort of like using the tab-version of powers in mod 15. You can spam those Encounters over and over again, as long as you have Divinity left.
Divinity is the curved bar in the HUD to the LEFT of your character. It refills over time, and refills faster when you're holding Tab to pray for divinity.
As a Devoted: That's your big mechanic. Almost all your heals will cost Divinity, and you can spend it faster or slower based on how badly your party is doing. Running out of Divinity in a bossfight is a lose condition: If the healer can't heal, the party should expect to be in DEEP RAT. Unfortunately this means you tend to be watching health bars, and holding Tab when you're not casting a heal, and holding Astral Shield when you're not holding Tab, etc. I'm not sold on this as "fun" yet but I'm still trying it out.
As an Arbiter: You also have the Scales Of Judgement mechanic, which is the six dots to the RIGHT of your character in the HUD. Almost every power is tagged Fire or Radiant, and the way this works is, when you use a Fire power you immediately consume all Fire stacks to make the power stronger, and you generate Radiant stacks. When you use a Radiant power you immediately consume all Radiant stacks to make the power stronger and you generate Fire stacks. Ideally, you want to rock this back and forth: Build Fire then use a BIG Fire power, then build Radiant and use a BIG Radiant power, etc etc. While you can channel to regain Divinity like a Devoted, every second you're doing that is not a second you're throwing out damage so it's not ideal. Instead, as soon as you hit Tab, you instantly consume all your stacks of Fire or Radiant and turn them into Divinity. So you can rapidly recharge your Encounter powers, by spending the stacks of stuff that make your encounter powers really strong.
(Oh, and you didn't ask, but "Magnitude" is literally just how strong a power is. 100 Magnitude = 100% base weapon damage. 300 Magnitude = 300% base weapon damage. 50 Magnitude = 50% base weapon damage. Powers no longer attempt to estimate actual damage numbers because those were always inaccurate anyway. Instead, they simply tell you "this power is twice as strong as that power" or "Hammer Of Fate does 10x the damage of Lance Of Faith", etc)
Anyway. I don't run out of Divinity very often because I'm only spending it on Searing, and basically every third Radiant stack gets consumed for Divinity anyway because both BTS and Geas are still on cooldown. I'd run out a lot faster if I was using Daunting Light or (especially) Bastion.
Make a high-crit build (being a Cleric, I have no good class-specific way or power to reliably create CA, and also because heals can crit, I max Crit and use a Vorpal enchant.)
Power rotation:
- Build up 6 orange pips with at-wills.
- Cast javelin...I have the "javelin crit" feat (whatever it is called, I'm at work now and cannot check). I may cast FF instead if I'm facing just a single target. It is a bit situational.
- At this point I may have either 1 or 6 yellow pips (I have the feat that gives the pips a chance of filling up.
- Hit Tab, converting the yellow pip(s) into divinity.
- Repeat.
- Cast daily (typically HoF) if appropriate when it is available.
I actually find combat more fun now than it used to be in M15. I need to dodge more, and pay more attention to positioning, like backsliding to line up mobs if they surround me before blasting them with a javelin. Overall, I am happy with what @asterdahl did with Arbiters in solo play.Interesting decisions, certainly a valid way of working it. And yeah, I'm loving the "next Javelin Crits" and "25% chance of full pips" feats too.
One advantage my way has over yours is that sometimes I'll hit a super-combo: Opening Javelin fills Radiant, full-pip BTS fills Fire, full-pip Javelin fills Radiant, full-pip Geas. That's a boss-eater of a combo when it happens. Your equivalent would just mean your Divinity would stay at 100%, and you'd probably only get one full-pip Javelin off in the time it took me to drop my three full-pip encounters. One DISADVANTAGE my way has is that you've got 1-2 Encounter slots free to drop in whatever you want - nothing prevents you from slotting Bastion for emergencies or Daunting to use when you get the running-combo of massive divinity gain, or from using Glow to drop threat and refill divinity to fuel a few more out-of-band FF/Javs.
So I think I'm going to have to try your version, at least for a bit.
But if you're not having any concerns with solo play, awesome. The Arbiter's DPS (like every DPS class) is overkill for solo play.
For another: The DPS feats for Arbiter are strong and fun.
For another: Arbiters can regenerate divinity much faster than Devouts can, letting them cast more Divine encounters. (See also: DPS feats stronk)
For another: If you spend all your divinity on unbuffed or partially-buffed DLs, you're not doing the healing you queued for and your party will die, in a pug.
Devout can totally ignore healing in favour of DPS while solo and do OK. But they're not doing "as good" DPS as an Arbiter, let alone "better". And in a random queue party, the Arbiter will leave the Devout in the dust on the DPS meter *and* the Devout aiming for DPS will tank their party by not healing.
But I'll tell you what, let's test this. Hit me up in-game, I'll find a tank, a healer, and a moderate DPS, you bring your best Devout DPS build and I'll bring an Arbiter DPS, let's test the hypothesis that your Devout does more DPS than my Arbiter. I'm not BIS, I'm barely even coping with the changes - I still have an active companion with no runestones in their gear. Let's give it a try.
(Silver result tends me towards the first one, tho)
What I'd like to see is your Devout competing with a good DPS, or running a queue that requires healing like FBI. You've posted images from a skirmish that doesn't require a healer, with a group who I don't know, with a result that isn't great.
Anyway. I actually took your advice and added Daunting to my Devout loadout and it's a lot more interesting than it was before. I still can't spam Daunting in real content, and sometimes I have to avoid hitting it to conserve divinity, but abandoning Bastion + Healing Word in favour of Cleanse + DL has made being Devout a lot more fun for me. I'm still HAMSTER DPS compared to my Arbiter build, but it's a big change towards making Devout fun.
Ill try to explain both with short explanations so this remains easy to read and get the point.
Arbiter ~ I only use two encounters. Javelin and Daunting Light. In that order. So if you take the "Lightspeed" feat it allows Daunting Light to have an instant cast if you use Javelin first.
My rotation looks like this if you use the above and end with a Tab press to utilize your stacks to replenish your divinity you can endlessly cycle this mechanic. All you need to work on is your quick twitch placement of Daunting Light. You will get better with it. Javelin can hit like a truck on multiple monsters if you line them up in a row.
Your 3rd encounter power can be anything you want. You can go for an off heal Bastion if you wanted to assist healing however; I have discovered this is not even necessary.
The key with Cleric is knowing when to press tab and I don't mean holding it down unless you are out of combat. ONLY hold tab if you are not in a fight. This is to top off your divinity in between fights. When you get better this becomes less of an issue because your cycle for Arbiter is better than that of Devout.
The new Cleric Arbiter Daily is awesome. Celestial Prominence. You double press the button. Once to set the target location, the second press will activate it. You can nuke groups of mobs with it easily. If you take Critical Sun feat, if you hit CP with a crit, you can immediately recast it, essentially spam it twice in a row. This might sound like it is a rare thing, but in my experience it seems to crit often. (which I'm actually afraid to admit because if it's nerfed then WTF).
Devout~ I only use Healing Word and Bastion. I know there are better but I've noticed Bastion doesn't require very much divinity so you can quickly spam it. So I open with Healing Word always and only save Bastion for when party members need it. If you use a quick cast of Blessing of Light at-will once it will empower your next Bastion cast. Also if you take the class power Desperate Prayers you can gain healing bonus when your divinity is low which it will always be, especially in long boss fights. The Devout is a little more difficult keeping divinity up and simple tab presses don't do squat. I don't even know if this is how it is suppose to be. To me it seems like an over site that its really not suppose to take so long to regen divinity in combat. Because with this method I have described, you basically can only use ONE encounter unless you spend more time trying to regen divinity. But in certain fights making this choice means someone is going to die. So it seems you are stuck as a Devout only using Bastion. But I honestly feel the Devs are unaware that this is the experience of Devout Clerics. It just seems wrong.
As well, with Bastion + Word you've got two powers that are basically the same: AoE heal, costing Divinity. Bastion is cheaper, Word doesn't require targeting, but that's the main difference between them.
On Devout, I've been having a lot of fun with the Cleanse power, which is basically Bastion with a lower heal (but my heals are strong enough) that also turns off negative statuses, including the Rune Banes from Master Expeditions. That's my main healing power, with the auto-target-lowest-HP-ally non-divinity one for backup, and Daunting Light as my third Encounter - if nobody needs heals, I drop a little damage out. DL is very cheap on Devout compared to Arbiter.
With a little luck and decent footwork and you become an AoE cannon. I generally quickly consume most pips that I get (1 or 3 of 6 radiant, 1 or 3 burning), and occasionally spend a 6 burning pip (courtesy of sudden judgement) as an extra fat hit SJ hit.
Coupled with perfect balance, I seldom need to use at-wills (only if I hit a sudden judgement dry spell or make a rotation error). If need be at-will for 3 pips quickly, which is usually enough to encounter and hope for sudden judgement. Keep track of perfect balance even between mob groups to maximize benefit, since the shift stacks have cooldowns long enough to survive the time it takes to move on to the next mob group.
Sub in FF for SJ on bosses (can be feated) works, but you run out of divinity faster. For Mod16 questline I didn't bother, since continued SJ+DL rotation worked fast enough / was more engaging than rolling in at-wills.
I've found this as a smooth solo setup, and engaging enough (you can line up multiple mob groups with SJ, and twich fire DL). It's nice to see that there are other setups that are meaningfully different in rotation and also seemingly decent.