I actually find the cleric to be a LOT like a D&D cleric - most of the healing is done post-fight, as the cleric is busy smiting and buffing during combat.Maybe a heal if things get bad, but otherwise - casting and smashing.
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h0rseMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 0Arc User
I actually find the cleric to be a LOT like a D&D cleric - most of the healing is done post-fight, as the cleric is busy smiting and buffing during combat.Maybe a heal if things get bad, but otherwise - casting and smashing.
In regards to sticking "true" to DnD, the cleric does behave similarly, but I don't think many people care about that aspect. They chose a healer because that's what they want to spend most/all of their time doing - healing. Overall, Clerics aren't really devoted clerics, but more like a "Battlepriest" class. I actually hope they come out with a subclass or paragon path that focuses on building a melee based, buff/healing cleric.
actually you all want to have some real fun...do your math and think about this.
Take your cleric heal at the lowest level and compare to a potion....notice the heal power does increments of 25 up to 250 health it recovers....using the same power on top of the previous power doesn't make the power stack....so you find you can heal for 250 damage in 10 seconds...now a potion heals for 1000 damage and takes 12 seconds to recharge......so you do your math.....in 1 minute a cleric can heal for 2500 damage while if you use potions you can heal your self for 5000.
Now you do this with the level 60 cleric...who now has great heals....they can heal for 300 and can heal groups maximum of 5 and in ten seconds you will see they can heal a person 1200 damage...yet a potion at that level heals for 8000, so in a minutes time the cleric can heal a single player 12,000, while if that target just used potions they heal themselves for 48,000.
Its an interesting little game mechanic issue.....concerns me a lot.
I have some other little math facts I went though the game and use with the other classes....that have under performing issues.
Power without Perception is Spiritually useless and therefore of no true value.
In regards to sticking "true" to DnD, the cleric does behave similarly, but I don't think many people care about that aspect. They chose a healer because that's what they want to spend most/all of their time doing - healing. Overall, Clerics aren't really devoted clerics, but more like a "Battlepriest" class. I actually hope they come out with a subclass or paragon path that focuses on building a melee based, buff/healing cleric.
DND 4e Pacifist Paragon path Cleric - Pure healing if fact if you attack you get stunned, I want this as a paragon path in our game.
actually you all want to have some real fun...do your math and think about this.
Take your cleric heal at the lowest level and compare to a potion....notice the heal power does increments of 25 up to 250 health it recovers....using the same power on top of the previous power doesn't make the power stack....so you find you can heal for 250 damage in 10 seconds...now a potion heals for 1000 damage and takes 12 seconds to recharge......so you do your math.....in 1 minute a cleric can heal for 2500 damage while if you use potions you can heal your self for 5000.
Now you do this with the level 60 cleric...who now has great heals....they can heal for 300 and can heal groups maximum of 5 and in ten seconds you will see they can heal a person 1200 damage...yet a potion at that level heals for 8000, so in a minutes time the cleric can heal a single player 12,000, while if that target just used potions they heal themselves for 48,000.
Its an interesting little game mechanic issue.....concerns me a lot.
I have some other little math facts I went though the game and use with the other classes....that have under performing issues.
This is either a balance issue that Cryptic will need to address, or the Cleric was never intended to be a healing machine, but rather a damage mitigator, buffer and/or a supplement to player's ability to heal themselves. Besides, doesn't gear effect these numbers, both in the potency and frequency of heals? A potion can heal a lot, but what happens if the **** hits the fan during the cooldown? This is all purely speculation by me, but think of it like vitamins - You don't take vitamins to replace the nutrients you are missing, they are suppose to be a supplement in addition to what you should naturally be getting in your diet - The Cleric could be designed to work similarly. Perhaps a mechanic was setup this way so players don't just attack blindly and just wait for the heals to roll in, bu rather have to have a greater sense of situational awareness and positioning and more be mindful of when and where they attack.
actually you all want to have some real fun...do your math and think about this.
Take your cleric heal at the lowest level and compare to a potion....notice the heal power does increments of 25 up to 250 health it recovers....using the same power on top of the previous power doesn't make the power stack....so you find you can heal for 250 damage in 10 seconds...now a potion heals for 1000 damage and takes 12 seconds to recharge......so you do your math.....in 1 minute a cleric can heal for 2500 damage while if you use potions you can heal your self for 5000.
Now you do this with the level 60 cleric...who now has great heals....they can heal for 300 and can heal groups maximum of 5 and in ten seconds you will see they can heal a person 1200 damage...yet a potion at that level heals for 8000, so in a minutes time the cleric can heal a single player 12,000, while if that target just used potions they heal themselves for 48,000.
Its an interesting little game mechanic issue.....concerns me a lot.
I have some other little math facts I went though the game and use with the other classes....that have under performing issues.
Yes, but you need to take damage mitigation into account as well. it will close the gap somewhat.
Now you do this with the level 60 cleric...who now has great heals....they can heal for 300 and can heal groups maximum of 5 and in ten seconds you will see they can heal a person 1200 damage...yet a potion at that level heals for 8000, so in a minutes time the cleric can heal a single player 12,000, while if that target just used potions they heal themselves for 48,000.
This is incredibly inaccurate. Sure if the only heal you use is Healing Word, but if that's the case you've already failed before you even cast your first spell.
Astral Shield - ~350-450 ticks (depends on gear/stats/spec) and ticks once per second. That's 3,500 to 4,500 per 10 seconds. That's 21,000 healing a minute. But the REAL benefit of AS is the 30% less damage, which means you have to heal less. 1000 damage becomes 700, that's just as good as, if not better than, a 300 heal. It's too hard to truly quantify how much damage is mitigated over time though since it depends on what you get hit by.
Sun Burst - Heals around 1k per non-crit cast, 9 second CD. That's another 6,666-ish healing per minute.
Astral Seal and Repurpose Soul - More healing, hard to quantify.
Invigorated Healing - run Sun Burst and Astral Shield and you should get about 10 of these per minute, that's 25% of a persons max health healed per minute. (probably around 7,500)
Moontouched - Get 100% up time on HG and that's 100% of a persons max health healed per minute. (probably around 20k) Also, another 15% damage reduction.
Foresight - Oh, another 11% damage reduction.
Forgemaster's Flame - 1,300-ish non-crit heals, 4 ticks per cast. That's 5,200 healing per 12 seconds.
If your group needs more healing/damage reduction than that provides then they are failing to stand in the blue and get out of the red. Or they are just terrible at CC.
Started playing a cleric as second to my rogue ... at first it was very frustrating ... until I discovered the main strategy after which a cleric appereantly is meant to play ... build up divinity and action points fast and then strike with the encounter powers and daily. The cleric can build up both quite fast.
Played this way the cleric feels actually like a caster cleric in DnD. For people who didn't played DnD as a pen&Paper (I played several versions), clerics in DnD (espacially in 3.5) can be more powerfull casters then Wizards.
Didn't see anyone answer this, so i might as well, even though i'm new to clerics.
1) Anyway to resurrect a teammate without using a scroll?
Any character can really, just go near them and hit F. Should say something to the effect of help player or something. Nice that anyone can do it, if the cleric is busy, someone else can pull them up. They won't have full health, but will be able to use a potion if it's that tight.
2) Aside from Control key locking onto a teammate, targeting anyone for a single target heal is a pain in the butt without anyway to hotkey target teammates.
I don't have a link handy, but i read the devs did say they were working on solutions, possibly a hud type thing that pops up if someone is taking too much damage that makes it easier to target them. With a lot of adds, it does get rough at times.
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cwiyk13Member, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 5Arc User
1) Anyway to resurrect a teammate without using a scroll?
Any character can really, just go near them and hit F. Should say something to the effect of help player or something. Nice that anyone can do it, if the cleric is busy, someone else can pull them up. They won't have full health, but will be able to use a potion if it's that tight.
Any player can revive a fellow player who is dying (on their hands and knees, able to call for help, 15 second countdown until they actually die). But no class has the ability to resurrect (bring a dead player back to life) without using a scroll.
Garbage > Passable > Fall off in power > Whole different game.
AKA terrible game design.
I love listening to all the whiners, it just shows how bad you all are as player's. This game requires a few things most of you wowtards don't have.
1. Skill
2. Patience (must be an epic drop or something)
3. Intelligence
4. Grade 5 reading ability.
Here is a tip. If you are below level 30 and you HATE the class you are playing, shut your traps and level up to 30+ that is pretty much for any class and then see how you feel. As some of the other poster's mentioned most of these classes struggle through leveling and start to shine especially 50+
I would have billions of AD if I was given 1 AD for every person that swear's GWF is the most horrid class ever made. Yet they work awesome @60.
Morale of the story. Be happy that Cryptic didn't give you classes that can do one thing only. The leveling is crazy easy and if you are struggling just run the single quests in each zone and you will level remarkably fast and give your classes the opportunity to develop and hit 60 and find out what your class is really all about.
For everyone else who persevered and leveled up regardless of all the negativity Awesome work
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cwiyk13Member, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 5Arc User
edited May 2013
@cronis10000, while I agree that the Devoted Cleric class becomes very awesome at higher levels and that patience and dedication are key to anyone wishing to truly learn how to play a cleric well, I don't think it's necessary to use such a rude tone in stating as much.
Furthermore, I do believe that a class should be fun to play at every level. Some people don't think DCs are fun to play at every level; some people do. Again, it's perfectly fine for you to state your opinion on this matter, I just think that you can do so while refraining from using an insulting tone.
Krae Vull - Devoted Cleric
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deberserkerMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 48
edited May 2013
I think you decided a bit too quick about wether you liked the class or not. Yes - In the early levels of the game as a Devoted Cleric you don't have that many effective healing spells, but they will come later in the game. In all of the MMO's I've played you don't really need a healer in the early levels anyway - and it's the same in Neverwinter. I'm now level 60 and believe me when I say that people couldn't do much without a healer in their parties. I got the sense of being useful as a healer at level 30+, and if you stick around long enough to level to that point I think you'll feel the same way. If you don't, I don't really care.
After questing to 60, and running most Tier 1 and 2 Dungeons several times over I am convinced this is one of the most engaging and fun healers to play in an MMO so far. I pretty much never have to stare at the health bars of my team, I actually get to watch the action and be involved by using offensive spells that have the lovely side effect of keeping my team alive... Love it!
This is the heal style of Tera as well, and the reason I found that game so addictive. I LOVE this heal style and revel in it's freedom. I get to MOVE, I am free to circle my team if I want to, tossing heals to those I find low, and I FINALLY get the pleasure of spending most of my time watching the world and action around me instead of staring at health bars.
There is a learning curve here, people have to get out of the tab target mentality and into this one. There is a reason you dont want to stick to one target.
I don't know what you're smoking, or more importantly what you're doing incorrectly, but healing as a Cleric is FUN. Maybe just reevaluate your stats, read up on forums about how to heal appropriately, and check out healing blogs. It's different, but once you really get the swing of how Cleric healing works, it's an absolute blast. I've healed in RIFT, SWTOR, and WoW, and this is the most fun I've had in a long while.
Now you do this with the level 60 cleric...who now has great heals....they can heal for 300 and can heal groups maximum of 5 and in ten seconds you will see they can heal a person 1200 damage...yet a potion at that level heals for 8000, so in a minutes time the cleric can heal a single player 12,000, while if that target just used potions they heal themselves for 48,000.
A level 60 cleric can only heal for 300? what weak healing move is that. My sunburst can almost do more healing than that per use~(1K total with feats included)... then look at my Divine Forgemaster's flame which will out do that EASILY and my hallowed ground, I can kick that off around every 30 seconds~ that's 50% of a player's HP which is what... around 12K/min by itself! Sorry but your maths is off.
48K might be a challenge within a minute but that's a heck of a lot of potions to be pushing... don't think anybody would be wanting to buy that many pots.
EDIT: oh yeah... I'm also level 57 and so haven't got any of the great set items yet .
I figured as much that cleric is more of support than a classic mmo healer, that is why you have healing pots....kinda remind me of gw2 and the "no trinity system"
Level 1 - 30 you rely solely on Astral Seal and Sunburst for healing, probably the random healing word. It gets tough at times but if you time your Hallowed Ground right, you might succeed. You must succeed actually, mobs don't hit that hard.
Healing word is much better for healing than Sunburst. I keep sunburst too for divinity and action pt regen + minion-cleanup, but it's healing power is negligible in the scheme of things. Divinity-Healing Word gives a burst heal, which can be very useful in keeping someone up. the thing about Healing word is that it starts off at a log rate, then scales up the healing. The top end healing is amazing. It's a "always keep on someone" skill... you don't wait until someone is nearly dead then try to use it to rescue someone.
Healing word is much better for healing than Sunburst. I keep sunburst too for divinity and action pt regen + minion-cleanup, but it's healing power is negligible in the scheme of things. Divinity-Healing Word gives a burst heal, which can be very useful in keeping someone up. the thing about Healing word is that it starts off at a log rate, then scales up the healing. The top end healing is amazing. It's a "always keep on someone" skill... you don't wait until someone is nearly dead then try to use it to rescue someone.
Problem is once you get to 30 you get Forgemaster's Flame that is generally better than healing word since you need to worry about trying to aim it so much and will HoT anybody near the target.
Problem is once you get to 30 you get Forgemaster's Flame that is generally better than healing word since you need to worry about trying to aim it so much and will HoT anybody near the target.
Probably better for group work, but for solo? The nice thing about Healing Word is that you can use it while you're running from the boss, dodging aoes, etc. Usually I'm try to NOT stand next to those guys.
Disclaimer: Have spent virtually no time with FF. My quick attempt at using it wasn't compelling for me. HW was suiting my lifestyle earlier, and now Astral Shield has supplanted it.
Just hit level 20 last night and have not had a problem.
I am 100% new to this game so not sure what weight my words have.
What I have learned is that the game designers seemed to have created this game to be "different" and standout from the rest. So far with my experience they have done that, and done it very well. Granted the Claric has no "nuke" heals and you don't see 1k+ crit heals on your screen. But that is because the designers did that on purpose. Healing in this game seems to be more about mitigating damage and keeping HP topped off at all times.
I noticed the Claric is more involved than healing in other games. For example; Other games tend to make a "healer" that sits in back and heals/debuffs/buffs when needed. If you had a good group, which happened a lot, you just sat in back and took a "free ride" to the end in hopes of better gear. Personally, I didn't like that as much as I see myself liking healing in this game.
If my team is topped off; I pop a regen on the tank, make sure all enemies are marked with astral seal, then I start throwing out damage myself. Granted it's not a lot, but it adds up and helps.
I feel like they intended the claric to be a "battle healer" contributing to ALL aspects of the fight. Damage, support, heals.
Probably better for group work, but for solo? The nice thing about Healing Word is that you can use it while you're running from the boss, dodging aoes, etc. Usually I'm try to NOT stand next to those guys.
Forgemaster's Flame has a slow effect that allows you to run away from bosses far easier than you can do with Healing Word, if distance is the goal than this will do something, Healing Word won't and there are other abilities like sunburst which are best used near mobs. Also the distance on Divine Forgemaster's Flame heal tends to be longer than most mobs can melee in terms of distance.
Disclaimer: Have spent virtually no time with FF. My quick attempt at using it wasn't compelling for me. HW was suiting my lifestyle earlier, and now Astral Shield has supplanted it.
Forgemaster's Flame is literally our second best group encounter after Astral Shield and IMO is the best for solo play. Currently at level 59, Divine Forgemaster's flame ticks ~800 HP (selfl) heal normally and ~1300HP (selfl) heal for crits which for 5 ticks... crits beats out even the 990ish HP per tick I get from Hallowed Ground (moon touched ignores righteousness!) and I can use Forgemaster's flame more often than Hallowed Ground.
One thing I will have to say is that the phrase, "At level 50 you get Astral Shield and all gets better" is by far the most insulting comment to this class I have ever read. We are clerics, the ones that ALL healing classes are based on. From the original D&D paper and dice rolling to current MMOs.
Currently, we are the ONLY class that has a negative to there class, the -40% to healing ourselves, and they call it a 'mechanic.' Our DPS is meh, we have no agro dump or control, and we are OK with this? Since the AH/AD exploit I have really not been interested in playing because the class I have played for over 25 years is now a joke. I know I will get flamed for this but honestly it is rather insulting to some of us that pride ourselves on playing a healing class to have to hear this HAMSTER. We should be great at healing from level 1 to level 60 not just after 50. Yes, we can heal and I have in a few dungeons. Then from Mad Dragon on it has been more painful than a 40 man raid in Everquest. I drink potions like a drunk just to stay alive while rogues and mages whine that I am not healing. Nothing torks me off more than when everyone is demanding I heal them when I have 5 adds trying to eat my face off.
Sorry, I am praying for a fix to our class soon.
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cwiyk13Member, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 5Arc User
One thing I will have to say is that the phrase, "At level 50 you get Astral Shield and all gets better" is by far the most insulting comment to this class I have ever read. We are clerics, the ones that ALL healing classes are based on. From the original D&D paper and dice rolling to current MMOs. ... We should be great at healing from level 1 to level 60 not just after 50...
I agree with those sentiments. While I do think it's possible to get through to 50 with the abilities we have 1-50, I don't think that they have done a good job at designing the progression of abilities. In my opinion, a good design would be to introduce the abilities which Devoted Clerics use the most at the earliest possible level so that they will have the longest possible time to learn the best way to use those abilities before they reach level cap. Then, along the way to 60, introduce other various abilities that are used less often but are very useful in some situations.
Astral Shield is the most notable case. It is not an exaggeration to call it a game changing ability or a class defining ability: it is used by literally every cleric in literally every dungeon/skirmish as soon as they have access to it. And yet clerics do not receive this ability until level 50. Some have said they wish we received Astral Shield at level 25, 20, 15, even 10. I think we should receive it at level 4: I think we should receive it as soon as the tutorial is over. I think Astral Shield is such an essential part of what a Devoted Cleric is in Neverwinter that they just aren't a Devoted Cleric until they receive it. As many have stated, I think it's just a very bad design to force players to play through 50 levels before they receive it.
Comments
In regards to sticking "true" to DnD, the cleric does behave similarly, but I don't think many people care about that aspect. They chose a healer because that's what they want to spend most/all of their time doing - healing. Overall, Clerics aren't really devoted clerics, but more like a "Battlepriest" class. I actually hope they come out with a subclass or paragon path that focuses on building a melee based, buff/healing cleric.
Fiona Bauerstone - Devoted Cleric - Dragon Server
Take your cleric heal at the lowest level and compare to a potion....notice the heal power does increments of 25 up to 250 health it recovers....using the same power on top of the previous power doesn't make the power stack....so you find you can heal for 250 damage in 10 seconds...now a potion heals for 1000 damage and takes 12 seconds to recharge......so you do your math.....in 1 minute a cleric can heal for 2500 damage while if you use potions you can heal your self for 5000.
Now you do this with the level 60 cleric...who now has great heals....they can heal for 300 and can heal groups maximum of 5 and in ten seconds you will see they can heal a person 1200 damage...yet a potion at that level heals for 8000, so in a minutes time the cleric can heal a single player 12,000, while if that target just used potions they heal themselves for 48,000.
Its an interesting little game mechanic issue.....concerns me a lot.
I have some other little math facts I went though the game and use with the other classes....that have under performing issues.
Power without Perception is Spiritually useless and therefore of no true value.
=^_^=
DND 4e Pacifist Paragon path Cleric - Pure healing if fact if you attack you get stunned, I want this as a paragon path in our game.
This is either a balance issue that Cryptic will need to address, or the Cleric was never intended to be a healing machine, but rather a damage mitigator, buffer and/or a supplement to player's ability to heal themselves. Besides, doesn't gear effect these numbers, both in the potency and frequency of heals? A potion can heal a lot, but what happens if the **** hits the fan during the cooldown? This is all purely speculation by me, but think of it like vitamins - You don't take vitamins to replace the nutrients you are missing, they are suppose to be a supplement in addition to what you should naturally be getting in your diet - The Cleric could be designed to work similarly. Perhaps a mechanic was setup this way so players don't just attack blindly and just wait for the heals to roll in, bu rather have to have a greater sense of situational awareness and positioning and more be mindful of when and where they attack.
That could also be a viable path - I still want a "Batlepriest" melee based cleric though, like I played in NWN.
Fiona Bauerstone - Devoted Cleric - Dragon Server
Yes, but you need to take damage mitigation into account as well. it will close the gap somewhat.
This is incredibly inaccurate. Sure if the only heal you use is Healing Word, but if that's the case you've already failed before you even cast your first spell.
Astral Shield - ~350-450 ticks (depends on gear/stats/spec) and ticks once per second. That's 3,500 to 4,500 per 10 seconds. That's 21,000 healing a minute. But the REAL benefit of AS is the 30% less damage, which means you have to heal less. 1000 damage becomes 700, that's just as good as, if not better than, a 300 heal. It's too hard to truly quantify how much damage is mitigated over time though since it depends on what you get hit by.
Sun Burst - Heals around 1k per non-crit cast, 9 second CD. That's another 6,666-ish healing per minute.
Astral Seal and Repurpose Soul - More healing, hard to quantify.
Invigorated Healing - run Sun Burst and Astral Shield and you should get about 10 of these per minute, that's 25% of a persons max health healed per minute. (probably around 7,500)
Moontouched - Get 100% up time on HG and that's 100% of a persons max health healed per minute. (probably around 20k) Also, another 15% damage reduction.
Foresight - Oh, another 11% damage reduction.
Forgemaster's Flame - 1,300-ish non-crit heals, 4 ticks per cast. That's 5,200 healing per 12 seconds.
If your group needs more healing/damage reduction than that provides then they are failing to stand in the blue and get out of the red. Or they are just terrible at CC.
Played this way the cleric feels actually like a caster cleric in DnD. For people who didn't played DnD as a pen&Paper (I played several versions), clerics in DnD (espacially in 3.5) can be more powerfull casters then Wizards.
Any character can really, just go near them and hit F. Should say something to the effect of help player or something. Nice that anyone can do it, if the cleric is busy, someone else can pull them up. They won't have full health, but will be able to use a potion if it's that tight.
I don't have a link handy, but i read the devs did say they were working on solutions, possibly a hud type thing that pops up if someone is taking too much damage that makes it easier to target them. With a lot of adds, it does get rough at times.
Any player can revive a fellow player who is dying (on their hands and knees, able to call for help, 15 second countdown until they actually die). But no class has the ability to resurrect (bring a dead player back to life) without using a scroll.
I love listening to all the whiners, it just shows how bad you all are as player's. This game requires a few things most of you wowtards don't have.
1. Skill
2. Patience (must be an epic drop or something)
3. Intelligence
4. Grade 5 reading ability.
Here is a tip. If you are below level 30 and you HATE the class you are playing, shut your traps and level up to 30+ that is pretty much for any class and then see how you feel. As some of the other poster's mentioned most of these classes struggle through leveling and start to shine especially 50+
I would have billions of AD if I was given 1 AD for every person that swear's GWF is the most horrid class ever made. Yet they work awesome @60.
Morale of the story. Be happy that Cryptic didn't give you classes that can do one thing only. The leveling is crazy easy and if you are struggling just run the single quests in each zone and you will level remarkably fast and give your classes the opportunity to develop and hit 60 and find out what your class is really all about.
For everyone else who persevered and leveled up regardless of all the negativity Awesome work
Furthermore, I do believe that a class should be fun to play at every level. Some people don't think DCs are fun to play at every level; some people do. Again, it's perfectly fine for you to state your opinion on this matter, I just think that you can do so while refraining from using an insulting tone.
This is the heal style of Tera as well, and the reason I found that game so addictive. I LOVE this heal style and revel in it's freedom. I get to MOVE, I am free to circle my team if I want to, tossing heals to those I find low, and I FINALLY get the pleasure of spending most of my time watching the world and action around me instead of staring at health bars.
There is a learning curve here, people have to get out of the tab target mentality and into this one. There is a reason you dont want to stick to one target.
A level 60 cleric can only heal for 300? what weak healing move is that. My sunburst can almost do more healing than that per use~(1K total with feats included)... then look at my Divine Forgemaster's flame which will out do that EASILY and my hallowed ground, I can kick that off around every 30 seconds~ that's 50% of a player's HP which is what... around 12K/min by itself! Sorry but your maths is off.
48K might be a challenge within a minute but that's a heck of a lot of potions to be pushing... don't think anybody would be wanting to buy that many pots.
EDIT: oh yeah... I'm also level 57 and so haven't got any of the great set items yet
2/10, got me to respond
Healing word is much better for healing than Sunburst. I keep sunburst too for divinity and action pt regen + minion-cleanup, but it's healing power is negligible in the scheme of things. Divinity-Healing Word gives a burst heal, which can be very useful in keeping someone up. the thing about Healing word is that it starts off at a log rate, then scales up the healing. The top end healing is amazing. It's a "always keep on someone" skill... you don't wait until someone is nearly dead then try to use it to rescue someone.
Problem is once you get to 30 you get Forgemaster's Flame that is generally better than healing word since you need to worry about trying to aim it so much and will HoT anybody near the target.
Probably better for group work, but for solo? The nice thing about Healing Word is that you can use it while you're running from the boss, dodging aoes, etc. Usually I'm try to NOT stand next to those guys.
Disclaimer: Have spent virtually no time with FF. My quick attempt at using it wasn't compelling for me. HW was suiting my lifestyle earlier, and now Astral Shield has supplanted it.
I am 100% new to this game so not sure what weight my words have.
What I have learned is that the game designers seemed to have created this game to be "different" and standout from the rest. So far with my experience they have done that, and done it very well. Granted the Claric has no "nuke" heals and you don't see 1k+ crit heals on your screen. But that is because the designers did that on purpose. Healing in this game seems to be more about mitigating damage and keeping HP topped off at all times.
I noticed the Claric is more involved than healing in other games. For example; Other games tend to make a "healer" that sits in back and heals/debuffs/buffs when needed. If you had a good group, which happened a lot, you just sat in back and took a "free ride" to the end in hopes of better gear. Personally, I didn't like that as much as I see myself liking healing in this game.
If my team is topped off; I pop a regen on the tank, make sure all enemies are marked with astral seal, then I start throwing out damage myself. Granted it's not a lot, but it adds up and helps.
I feel like they intended the claric to be a "battle healer" contributing to ALL aspects of the fight. Damage, support, heals.
Just my .02 cents.
Forgemaster's Flame has a slow effect that allows you to run away from bosses far easier than you can do with Healing Word, if distance is the goal than this will do something, Healing Word won't and there are other abilities like sunburst which are best used near mobs. Also the distance on Divine Forgemaster's Flame heal tends to be longer than most mobs can melee in terms of distance.
Forgemaster's Flame is literally our second best group encounter after Astral Shield and IMO is the best for solo play. Currently at level 59, Divine Forgemaster's flame ticks ~800 HP (selfl) heal normally and ~1300HP (selfl) heal for crits which for 5 ticks... crits beats out even the 990ish HP per tick I get from Hallowed Ground (moon touched ignores righteousness!) and I can use Forgemaster's flame more often than Hallowed Ground.
Currently, we are the ONLY class that has a negative to there class, the -40% to healing ourselves, and they call it a 'mechanic.' Our DPS is meh, we have no agro dump or control, and we are OK with this? Since the AH/AD exploit I have really not been interested in playing because the class I have played for over 25 years is now a joke. I know I will get flamed for this but honestly it is rather insulting to some of us that pride ourselves on playing a healing class to have to hear this HAMSTER. We should be great at healing from level 1 to level 60 not just after 50. Yes, we can heal and I have in a few dungeons. Then from Mad Dragon on it has been more painful than a 40 man raid in Everquest. I drink potions like a drunk just to stay alive while rogues and mages whine that I am not healing. Nothing torks me off more than when everyone is demanding I heal them when I have 5 adds trying to eat my face off.
Sorry, I am praying for a fix to our class soon.
I agree with those sentiments. While I do think it's possible to get through to 50 with the abilities we have 1-50, I don't think that they have done a good job at designing the progression of abilities. In my opinion, a good design would be to introduce the abilities which Devoted Clerics use the most at the earliest possible level so that they will have the longest possible time to learn the best way to use those abilities before they reach level cap. Then, along the way to 60, introduce other various abilities that are used less often but are very useful in some situations.
Astral Shield is the most notable case. It is not an exaggeration to call it a game changing ability or a class defining ability: it is used by literally every cleric in literally every dungeon/skirmish as soon as they have access to it. And yet clerics do not receive this ability until level 50. Some have said they wish we received Astral Shield at level 25, 20, 15, even 10. I think we should receive it at level 4: I think we should receive it as soon as the tutorial is over. I think Astral Shield is such an essential part of what a Devoted Cleric is in Neverwinter that they just aren't a Devoted Cleric until they receive it. As many have stated, I think it's just a very bad design to force players to play through 50 levels before they receive it.