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Cleric 101: Things I wish I knew when I first played a Cleric
keetster1
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users Posts: 0 Arc User
There are many good guides out there discussing builds and specific feats and powers. However, we seem to be lacking a more basic level guide to help us acclimatize to the nuances of playing a Cleric on Neverwinter. I've been leveling a Cleric and am now at 46 and went through the entire cycle of confused-->less confused-->completely puzzled-->on the verge of rage quitting-->starting to get things-->dedicated to being a healer.
I'm sure I'm missing alot not having healed at the end game but this is just a quick guide to help new Clerics get over the initial hurdle.
Alot of the frustrations express in this forum could be addressed by a better grasp of some concepts which aren't obvious until much later in the game.
Most healers also come to the Cleric with prior MMO healing experience. Healing in Neverwinter is a big departure from other MMOs so please do not try to translate your other experiences here, it will only lead to frustration and confusion.
Feel free to critique and contribute, but here are my main observations and suggestions:
1. Clerics aren't pure healers. They are off-tanks with damage mitigation buffs and some Heal-Over-Time abilities. Clerics also constantly deal DPS as they heal. You will generate alot of threat from your heals, especially from adds. The main tank will generally focus on the main boss in dungeons. Good DPS players know that they should help peel adds off you. If you die, they die. This is tricky as they have to balance taking down a boss, avoiding AOEs and helping keep adds the Cleric. It helps to give your teammates a friendly reminder to keep adds off you.
2. Clerics need to balance healing obviously, but also, threat generation and avoiding AOEs. A key to survival is restraint--actually deciding whether or not to heal. Also, you cannot heal your way through group encounters if you ignore game mechanics like standing in certain AOEs. There are a few direct heals like Forgemaster's Flame (FF) and Healing Word (HW) IF USED with Divinity (D). That said, they are rarely strong enough to mitigate other players who ignore game mechanics like standing in certain AOEs.
**Again, I remind you to resist the urge to focus on maximizing your heals and trying to keep everyone at full health. That is how most other MMOs condition you. You cannot do that in Neverwinter. If you try doing that, you'll end up pulling too much aggro. Teammates have to avoid AOEs and drink potions in when health falls below 25%.**
3. You get Divinity (Tab Key) at level 10. You must master the use of this. There are many abilities which are ONLY USEFUL IF USED with Divinity, like Forgemaster's Flame (FF). Then there are some abilities which are SOMETIMES USEFUL in certain situations like Daunting Light (DL) and Sunburst (SB). Finally, there are some abilities which are NEVER USEFUL with D; or even without D.
Thanks to Oroness and cartmanfatfanboy for pointing out that Sunburst w/ Divinity should be used situationally.
Added May 27th: Because Divinity is such a pivotal part of our abilities, generating Divinity should be a top priority as well. I've found the following to be helpful:
- At-Wills: Best way to generate Divinity solo is Sacred Flame and Brand of the Sun; in a group, use Brand of the Sun and Astral Seal. (Thanks to oroness).
- Healing Word: I often cast it for Divinity generation, even if my group mates are at full health.
- Feats: Bountiful Fortune; Righteous Rage of Tempus and Ethereal Boon are almost mandatory.
4. Powers which are very useful for leveling include: Chains of Blazing Light; Forgemaster's Flame; and Daunting Light. Make sure you have them on your action bar as soon as they become available. And then life begins at 50: That's when you get Astral Shield (not to be confused with Astral Seal). When used with Divinity, Astral Shield becomes a powerful heal spell. Astral Shield replaces Forgemaster's Flame as your primary heal after level 50.
5. At-Will Powers: It took me a few levels to really understand how I would use them but here goes:
a. Lance of Faith: EDITED May 27th: I would pass on this. As pointed out by laudon1 and knoteskad, it does a meager 3-5% more damage than Sacred Flame, does not grant temporary hit points like Sacred Flame, but most important, generates much less divinity than Sacred Flame. The small damage bonus is not enough to justify using this.
b. Astral Seal: It is easy to overlook the fact that this is one of our heals. This lasts 10 secs and heals attackers for a % of damage caused to the target (This causes threat!!!). Almost all players bind Astral Seal to their right mouse button;
c. Sacred Flame: EDITED May 27th: Grants temporary hit points as well as damaging the target. As mentioned above, it also generates Divinity quickly.
d. Brand of the Sun: This is a Damage-Over-Time (DOT) At-Will which is great in dungeons or when grouping. When fighting groups, you fire and forget. Just remember, when you crit with this, every subsequent tick is a crit! So when you see an orange number, just leave it and reapply only after the DOT has expired, otherwise you'll reset and lose your crit.
6. The best companion for you when leveling is....drum roll.... Cleric!!! I know, its ironic but having tried a couple of other companions, Cleric still worked best for me.
EDIT: May 27th: yeebin has mentioned good success using the Man-At-Arms companion for leveling. There are also numerous other threads discussing the best companion for endgame min/maxing and it appears to be a toss-up between the Cat and the Stone of Allure.
7. EDITED June 5th: As pointed out by glofspork:
QUOTE
A-Shield is our bread and butter. For healing, and also for making sure every add in the fray goes bonkers with threat. Our HoT's are our main healing capabilities, and as such, burst healing is out of our grasp. That makes damage prevention all the more important.
The perfect way to prevent damage is to keep A-shield down 100% of the time obviously. Now the tricky bit is, A-shield down 100% of the time = aggro build 100% of the time... or not?
A wise cleric knows when to throw down A-shield from divine mode and when not to!
The 40% mitigation is applied even with a yellow Astral Shield! It builds DP in stead of using it.
Careful consideration of the situation will help you:
- mitigate damage to your party which we then do not need to heal;
- not generate aggro;
- make your group's task a hell of a lot more easy since they're not chasing that which they need to kill!
And for those that are Moontouched: Hallowed Ground will help cover up any misjudgement on your part
UNQUOTE
8. There are many discussions regarding feats but broadly speaking, they fall into a few categories: Damage Mitigation or increased survivability; Divinity generation; Action Point generation; and Damage bonus. When planning out your feats decide which way you want to go and focus your feats accordingly.
9. Don't overlook Forgemaster's Flame's healing ability. It took me awhile to start thinking of it as a heal rather than a DOT ability.
10. Center your AOEs: We have many AOEs like Flamestrike and Daunting Light. Damage is actually the highest at the center of the circle.
11. There is no rotation: This is another problem we have when translating other MMO experiences. As far as I can tell there are no set rotations for any class, at least not for Clerics anyway. I've been reading about Clerics facing impossibly difficult situations around level 30+. I certainly had trouble had that level and recommend the following:
a) Making sure you gear is up to date, this is important if you PVP alot;
b) Try different ability combinations, I've found that my optimal ability sets vary CONSIDERABLY depending on whether you solo; pvp or group. EDITED May 27th. Now that I'm at level 60 I use:
For Soloing: I use Sacred Flame; Brand of the Sun; Astral Shield w/ Divinity; Daunting Light; Searing Light w/ Divinity for AOE
For PVP: I use Sacred Flame; Astral Seal or Brand of the Sun; Astral Shield w/Divinity; Healing Word; Sunburst w/ Divinity (to knock enemies of nodes)
For Groups: I use Brand of the Sun; Astral Seal; Astral Shield w/ Divinity; Healing Word; Sunburst (to knock mobs off ledges)
Hope this is helpful to all budding Clerics.
I'm sure I'm missing alot not having healed at the end game but this is just a quick guide to help new Clerics get over the initial hurdle.
Alot of the frustrations express in this forum could be addressed by a better grasp of some concepts which aren't obvious until much later in the game.
Most healers also come to the Cleric with prior MMO healing experience. Healing in Neverwinter is a big departure from other MMOs so please do not try to translate your other experiences here, it will only lead to frustration and confusion.
Feel free to critique and contribute, but here are my main observations and suggestions:
1. Clerics aren't pure healers. They are off-tanks with damage mitigation buffs and some Heal-Over-Time abilities. Clerics also constantly deal DPS as they heal. You will generate alot of threat from your heals, especially from adds. The main tank will generally focus on the main boss in dungeons. Good DPS players know that they should help peel adds off you. If you die, they die. This is tricky as they have to balance taking down a boss, avoiding AOEs and helping keep adds the Cleric. It helps to give your teammates a friendly reminder to keep adds off you.
2. Clerics need to balance healing obviously, but also, threat generation and avoiding AOEs. A key to survival is restraint--actually deciding whether or not to heal. Also, you cannot heal your way through group encounters if you ignore game mechanics like standing in certain AOEs. There are a few direct heals like Forgemaster's Flame (FF) and Healing Word (HW) IF USED with Divinity (D). That said, they are rarely strong enough to mitigate other players who ignore game mechanics like standing in certain AOEs.
**Again, I remind you to resist the urge to focus on maximizing your heals and trying to keep everyone at full health. That is how most other MMOs condition you. You cannot do that in Neverwinter. If you try doing that, you'll end up pulling too much aggro. Teammates have to avoid AOEs and drink potions in when health falls below 25%.**
3. You get Divinity (Tab Key) at level 10. You must master the use of this. There are many abilities which are ONLY USEFUL IF USED with Divinity, like Forgemaster's Flame (FF). Then there are some abilities which are SOMETIMES USEFUL in certain situations like Daunting Light (DL) and Sunburst (SB). Finally, there are some abilities which are NEVER USEFUL with D; or even without D.
Thanks to Oroness and cartmanfatfanboy for pointing out that Sunburst w/ Divinity should be used situationally.
Added May 27th: Because Divinity is such a pivotal part of our abilities, generating Divinity should be a top priority as well. I've found the following to be helpful:
- At-Wills: Best way to generate Divinity solo is Sacred Flame and Brand of the Sun; in a group, use Brand of the Sun and Astral Seal. (Thanks to oroness).
- Healing Word: I often cast it for Divinity generation, even if my group mates are at full health.
- Feats: Bountiful Fortune; Righteous Rage of Tempus and Ethereal Boon are almost mandatory.
4. Powers which are very useful for leveling include: Chains of Blazing Light; Forgemaster's Flame; and Daunting Light. Make sure you have them on your action bar as soon as they become available. And then life begins at 50: That's when you get Astral Shield (not to be confused with Astral Seal). When used with Divinity, Astral Shield becomes a powerful heal spell. Astral Shield replaces Forgemaster's Flame as your primary heal after level 50.
5. At-Will Powers: It took me a few levels to really understand how I would use them but here goes:
a. Lance of Faith: EDITED May 27th: I would pass on this. As pointed out by laudon1 and knoteskad, it does a meager 3-5% more damage than Sacred Flame, does not grant temporary hit points like Sacred Flame, but most important, generates much less divinity than Sacred Flame. The small damage bonus is not enough to justify using this.
b. Astral Seal: It is easy to overlook the fact that this is one of our heals. This lasts 10 secs and heals attackers for a % of damage caused to the target (This causes threat!!!). Almost all players bind Astral Seal to their right mouse button;
c. Sacred Flame: EDITED May 27th: Grants temporary hit points as well as damaging the target. As mentioned above, it also generates Divinity quickly.
d. Brand of the Sun: This is a Damage-Over-Time (DOT) At-Will which is great in dungeons or when grouping. When fighting groups, you fire and forget. Just remember, when you crit with this, every subsequent tick is a crit! So when you see an orange number, just leave it and reapply only after the DOT has expired, otherwise you'll reset and lose your crit.
6. The best companion for you when leveling is....drum roll.... Cleric!!! I know, its ironic but having tried a couple of other companions, Cleric still worked best for me.
EDIT: May 27th: yeebin has mentioned good success using the Man-At-Arms companion for leveling. There are also numerous other threads discussing the best companion for endgame min/maxing and it appears to be a toss-up between the Cat and the Stone of Allure.
7. EDITED June 5th: As pointed out by glofspork:
QUOTE
A-Shield is our bread and butter. For healing, and also for making sure every add in the fray goes bonkers with threat. Our HoT's are our main healing capabilities, and as such, burst healing is out of our grasp. That makes damage prevention all the more important.
The perfect way to prevent damage is to keep A-shield down 100% of the time obviously. Now the tricky bit is, A-shield down 100% of the time = aggro build 100% of the time... or not?
A wise cleric knows when to throw down A-shield from divine mode and when not to!
The 40% mitigation is applied even with a yellow Astral Shield! It builds DP in stead of using it.
Careful consideration of the situation will help you:
- mitigate damage to your party which we then do not need to heal;
- not generate aggro;
- make your group's task a hell of a lot more easy since they're not chasing that which they need to kill!
And for those that are Moontouched: Hallowed Ground will help cover up any misjudgement on your part
UNQUOTE
8. There are many discussions regarding feats but broadly speaking, they fall into a few categories: Damage Mitigation or increased survivability; Divinity generation; Action Point generation; and Damage bonus. When planning out your feats decide which way you want to go and focus your feats accordingly.
9. Don't overlook Forgemaster's Flame's healing ability. It took me awhile to start thinking of it as a heal rather than a DOT ability.
10. Center your AOEs: We have many AOEs like Flamestrike and Daunting Light. Damage is actually the highest at the center of the circle.
11. There is no rotation: This is another problem we have when translating other MMO experiences. As far as I can tell there are no set rotations for any class, at least not for Clerics anyway. I've been reading about Clerics facing impossibly difficult situations around level 30+. I certainly had trouble had that level and recommend the following:
a) Making sure you gear is up to date, this is important if you PVP alot;
b) Try different ability combinations, I've found that my optimal ability sets vary CONSIDERABLY depending on whether you solo; pvp or group. EDITED May 27th. Now that I'm at level 60 I use:
For Soloing: I use Sacred Flame; Brand of the Sun; Astral Shield w/ Divinity; Daunting Light; Searing Light w/ Divinity for AOE
For PVP: I use Sacred Flame; Astral Seal or Brand of the Sun; Astral Shield w/Divinity; Healing Word; Sunburst w/ Divinity (to knock enemies of nodes)
For Groups: I use Brand of the Sun; Astral Seal; Astral Shield w/ Divinity; Healing Word; Sunburst (to knock mobs off ledges)
Hope this is helpful to all budding Clerics.
Post edited by keetster1 on
0
Comments
Cheers!
1. On solo dungeons: kite the boss out of the areas where they can spawn adds. Preferably kite them using brand of the sun and FF. They make easy targets for daunting light once you are in the safe zone.
2. On Flame Strike: when dealing with multiple mobs. center it on the one that is hard to take down (co-incidentally, on higher levels, they are also the ones that disable a lot).
3. Save up on a plaguefire enchantment for your lv 60 weapon. It does wonders.
4. Use divined daunting light when you know you can quickly clear adds (whether through one-shot or leaving enough health to easily pick off).
5. Money saved during the course of grinding will be spent on pots and injury kits later on.
In fact I rarely use it in divine mode unless i'm in a very tight situation and i need some air. I0d rather spend my DP on something else.
I use it mainly to biuld divine power and AP LOL.
I want this class in NW.
Can you select healing targets by a keyboard shortcut? or should I just turn the party nameplates on so they're always visible then just chase them down?
I dont know of any short cuts ATM, perhaps they are coming. This is why powers like FF and AS are so important. Both being AOE heals just applied differently. FF being a target centered AOE heal and AS being a regular AOE HOT. I never use holy word and if i have to use soothing light about all i can do is going into DM and point about where i think my target is watch his health bar. the good news is once i get it right by holding CTRL i can lock on to him if he moves.
Bookmarked!
No, you can't. You have to stop wanting to save people with direct heals, as that's not really how DCs work. I know that feels weird if you've played a healer in other MMOs, but them's the breaks. Keep damage mitigation buffs up, AoE heals, astral seal etc.. Players generally have to take care of their own spike damage, either by avoiding it, or potting- there is no full direct heal in your armoury.
as a young cleric, I got to 10 and was all excited because I finally had a single target focused heal and thought I could finally be a healer. Soothing Light is not our big heal - at 58 I never use it, and the last time I did was back in my 20s because I hadn't yet figured out it's a waste of our divinity power. Healing word too while useful before 30, is not very efficient past getting FF
i think the hardest part of the learning curve about clerics (that is also a learning curve for all other classes too) is to understand that clerics can churn out big healing power only after we have generated a lot of divinity, and it's something we have to maintain. especially so the farther in levels you get.
I hear people say frequently (in guild chat and protector's enclave) things like "I wish clerics would learn to heal" where they probably are failing to understand our big heal power requires us to have the chance to generate divinity and other players see us trying to dps once in awhile and think we are doing so in ignorance. the other thing that astounds me is how many players stand outside my big blue circle of heals (astral shield 50+) and completely fail to save themselves and stand in it to heal up (especially in pvp).
we need to damage to heal. our heals are aoe HoTs, not single target instants. unlike most other MMOs, you cannot single-handedly carry groups as the healer, the other classes need to understand your role and how to work with you to make the group shine. your control wizard expertly played makes you a deadly duo. your trick rogue well played can also make you a deadly duo. GFs are misunderstood at the moment, but played well are critical to making a lot of the harder content manageable. even GWFs while still needing love can be very useful in a lot of situations, but in all cases they need to understand what the cleric does and how we do it.
1 big tip for tough fights: learn how to kite all those adds you pull in circles around your party, stopping to grab divinity power once in awhile - it often educates your party as the notice soon enough that most of the entire encounter is chasing their healer around in circles.
pretty much forget single target healing. you can focus on a player or mob by holding control, but it's still nearly useless in the midst of a melee, especially as your dodging 6 adds, 2 red circles and the boss.
brand of the sun and forgemasters flame are the biggest heals you've got midgame, sunburst only heals for a couple hundred.
you want to keep the divine forgemasters on whatevers biggest and baddest, and closest to your group, pop brand when it's off cooldown, occasionally use the divine version for a bigger on point heal, Dot everything with astral seal. single target heals is pretty much them hitting a pot when it goes in the crapper. Damage mitigation though is where it's at, the feated foresight, the large aoe blessing, things like that which increase healing effectiveness and damage resistance mean that they stay alive long enough for you to keep them alive.
I was ready to rage quit myself after hitting mad dragon the first time (at 31) it was like hitting a wall, everything i'd learned about the class had to be thrown out, and you need some of those higher level abilities or your groups start going down like candles in a blowtorch. what really helped me was http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?174901-The-Critical-Cleric-(Deistik-s-build) deistiks guide, i went through, reworked what i was using, grinded out a few levels, (ground out a few surveys and got a respec token as well because i'd been looking at things completely wrong and wanted a fresh start). anyway, i went back in last night at 37, we burned through mad dragon and idris both with maybe two wipes between them.
For me, 1-59 is not the problem, I soloed most quest up to Mt Hotenow with little problems, especially after getting AS.
Now that I am 60 I am having difficulties even in doing daily foundry quests (read: I can't), because the tank companion is decent but I cannot keep him alive even in [D] AS +HW and the occasional D FF, although I usually use Daunting Light.
Skirmishes are out of the question, Aberrant Assault's last encounter has all the ground covered in red and the adds are constantly on me even with Sooth and Threat Reduction feats.
At 60 you need AD to even ID the items that drop so it is being a big deal for me.
Anybody can share some advice ? I am GS 5700 now, so that is part of the problem I guess.
Thanks
oh jesus. I hope some cleric didn't take off sacred flame for something like lane of faith, considering it more than doubles divine power generation in comparison to lance of faith. Also, all these threat issues you are talking about are handled by the control wizard controling mobs and it mostly a problem with lower gearscore players only. At 10k+ you'll start to have wizards who know how to cc instead of focusing on dps. So IMO, don't worry about threat; You won't have aggro on mobs if the dps is decent.
Dragon Guild
This, as soon as I got Sacred Flame I ditched Lance for good. Lance gives like literally 3-5% more dmg, it's nothing. Sacred Flame builds WAAAAAY more divinity and that alone makes it top tier, compared to Lance that is.
I also felt like the animation is smoother and doesn't lock me down as long.
Do some pvp and get (almost free) pvp gear for glory it should raise your GS a lot - 8kish I think.
As for the healing issue people really need to learn to stand in the blue circle if they wanna be healed. The problem comes with the serious threat issue as I maxed both - cleric and GWF mobs go always for the cler first no matter what the threat feats. Marked or not... they are always after healers. And something is seriously broken when your GWF spams "threatening" encounters with all the threat enforcing feats and class skills and mobs don't even turn around
foundry Call of the Blood - NW-DTAK6CXZ2
campaign Heart of Nature - NWS-DUKNH9PPZ
Or, brand the target with BotS and spam ASeal -> builds up a lot more DP than sacred Flame
I want this class in NW.
Yeah that works too, for some reason I don't like Aseal/BotS combo, just because it feels like I have no real solid attack to go, but Aseal spamming is ok.
However BotS only gives like 20% over 10 seconds which isn't as good as it seems lol.
Spamming it on multiple targets it's technically 5% more per cast, but yeah.
Please remove Sunburst from 'ONLY USEFUL IN DIVINITY MODE' category - it's highly arguable.
As oroness and starman1111 mentioned, this encounter can be used to build divinity power (and is IMHO very convenient while kiting swarm of adds).
Additionally, the knock off effect may be extremely disturbing for fellow party mates, who try to take the adds off you, but fail because you suddenly throw away the monsters off their target.
As I understand, you want this post to be an aggregation of community know-how, so please include different point of view on this matter.
Targetlock.
Use the following command -
/bind <Key> +HardTargetLock
This is set to control by default. It'll lock you onto a target for as long as you hold the control key down. The above command changes the bind. You can also use ++HardTargetLock to make it a toggle.
EG-
/bind Rbutton ++HardTargetLock
Now when you have something targeted and click your Right Mouse, it'll lock that target until you click the right mouse again to unlock it. I have mine set to Button5 on my mouse, its ESP helpful for rogues trying to single out a boss in a mass melee, works for cleric's too if you really want to hard target your tank.
Word of warning though, Hard Target Locking means that your cursor will lock onto that target, so as you move around your camara will lock to the target too, takes some getting used to.
Another tip is the FOV change,
/gfxSetDefaultFOV <##>
Its set to 60 by default, I changed mine to 85-90 to get a wider playing field.