test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Lissonia/Psypheria Righteous Cleric Guide
kanoja
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 0 Arc User
Sample video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWUQbFQz_5s
Introduction: This is just an introduction guide to my Righteous build and gameplay, as well as clericing in general. I honestly don't think most clerics go Righteous in this game, since Faithful is just so dominant at healing. [Yet the funny thing about some of the other cleric guides I've read is that they stress Strength and Charisma (and Intelligence) for critical strike and recovery and neglecting Wisdom for bonus to heals. Yet they spec Faithful (the "middle tree") which is, as said, very heal oriented. I honestly don't know if they simply intended to gimp and balance their character, or if the benefits of the healing spec are just that difference making compared to Wisdom against its alternatives.] This build will force you to stay even more alert when the group takes damage since you can't just faceroll off some heals like if you were Faithful. If I had to comment on Righteous, it's more of a self-survival build than a devoted healer build. So it seems like it belongs on people focused on PvP. However, in certain fights, it is the cleric's job to kite a myriad of mobs and this greatly helps you withstand it. Combined with the change to cleanse no longer being able to get rid of res sickness, you want to keep yourself as far away from being downed twice (over five or so minutes) as best you can.
General Role: One thing everyone needs to realize and keep in mind (so as a cleric, you would potentially want to spread the word) is that our best healing powers are not heals themselves AND are proximity based. This means you want everyone in melee range, including Control Wizards. It just means they will have to dodge like everyone else, but they innately start with the least costing dodge anyway. It really should not be an issue, otherwise that player should not be playing an action game like Neverwinter. Expanding on that, everyone needs to realize this is an action game and that it falls on each player to dodge for their own damage avoidance. This is not WoW, or the like, where you tank the damage while DPSing and expect a single target, point-and-click heal for 80% of your hp just for you. Clerics are only there to heal up inevitable incoming damage from swarms of trash, and the occasional missed dodge, depleted stamina, lag,etc.
http://nwcalc.com/dc?b=cn4:2hwcg:5m9s,13l3314:6c000:6ui00:6z0z1&h=0
(Revised Cleric Feats, thanks for scozzers for suggestions)
http://i.imgur.com/As0p8Cj.png (Starting attribute roll for Tiefling)
Race and Attributes: Rolled a second cleric as Tiefling. Balancing between critical strike (from Strength) and recovery (from both Charisma and Intelligence) while minimizing Wisdom. Breaking down stats from an end game perspective, healing bonus, damage bonus, control bonus, and control resist aren't quite what the game tries to make them out to be for the Devoted Cleric class. +1% to your heals, keeping in mind what I've previously said about cleric heals in this game, is not worth anywhere near as much as 1% critical strike or 1% recovery (which both are unhindered by diminishing returns), which makes even Intelligence equal to or better than Wisdom. In short, Strength is the best cleric attribute, but I would not suggest sacrificing 2 Charisma and 2 Intelligence for 2 Strength (Tiefling versus Human in this case).
Feat Highlights: Alleged tests showed that it only takes 2 points in Rising Hope from tier 1 of Virtuous to have a 99% uptime. Restoration Mastery seems good, but keep in mind that most classes only have between 1500-2000 defense stat. 5% increase is ~100 defense. At 1727 defense I get 25.6% damage resistance, so an increase of about 100 defense is 1.5% damage resistance when I am critically healed. When you compare 1.5% damage resistance to the other feats you can get, it isn't too great. Also, since you don't heal targets at maximum hit points, due to the mechanics of the game you may not even grant them the feat's effect when you would have critical healed them that time. Something interesting to note with Healing Step is that critical heals on you also proc it. Usually that's a good thing, but it can be a bad thing as you may have it on cooldown when you start getting hit and thus lose benefit from the stamina regeneration until it is ready again.
Edit: Divine Advantage only seems to work on certain powers which I do not use and those feat points could be moved elsewhere (Power of Oppression). Thanks to punisouffle for pointing that out and scozzers for his or her testing and results.
Powers: Astral Shield, Sunburst, and Forgemaster's Flame. I would only suggest Healing Word with a Faithful build, as they get an extra Divinity pip. On certain fights, where you need to kite, if you're having trouble, you may want to slot this in place of Forgemaster's Flame. Do not use Divine Power on Sunburst, unless it is being used to knock mobs off. Divinity with Astral Shield if the group is about to take lots of incoming damage. Save Forgemaster's Flame with Divine Power for fast, heavy, multi-target healing, or use it without Divine Power if you're really low on Divine Power (like half a Divinity pip or less). Keep in mind that this is a proximity heal, similar to Astral Shield, so try not to use it during or just after a centered AoE from a boss. Sunburst generates almost 8% of my Action Points per target hit (at 54% AP gain). However, it has a target cap of 5 (which is also important to keep in mind when using it as a knock back). Each target hit by Sunburst has its critical strike rolled independently. If Forgemaster's Flame's does critical damage, all of its remaining pulses (four more) will also deal critical damage; when it deals critical damage, it also generates critical heals (when channeling Divinity).
Class Features: Holy Fervor and Foresight. I don't bother with Soothe in this build, as I can take hits and dodge more than enough. None of my powers would uniquely benefit from Divine Fortune, other than Astral Shield, but it seems to be bugged as of now anyway.
Dailies: Hallowed Ground and Divine Armor. As mentioned, Sunburst generates a ridiculous amount of AP, and with a very short cooldown. You can spam Hallowed Ground in trash fights for the increased damage to speed things along, but you may want to save Divine Armor as an "oh ****" button. Basically, use Hallowed Ground (even during a boss fight) if your team is all full and you expect no incoming damage you can't handle is coming.
At-Wills: Astral Seal is the only one that matters. Pick your favorite for the alternate. If you're good enough with the targeting reticle, throw as many Astral Seals as you can to different targets. If not, just try to manage the one or two targets your group seems to be focusing on. Feel free to spam the other At-will if you're confident in your reaction time and the situation.
http://i.imgur.com/thri0iU.png (Character sheet with my perfect preferenced gear without camfire buff)
http://i.imgur.com/PFdOpsU.png (Second part of character sheet without campfire buff)
http://i.imgur.com/2mZIqot.png (Companion only missing BiS Icon and its rank 7 enchantment)
Gear: The prioritizing of stat ratings desired are recovery to the hard cap (4200), critical strike to the hard cap (3100), defense (1500 to 2000 at least), but still stacking as much maximum hit points as you can if you intend to get the full Miracle Healer's set. I very much like the full Miracle Healer's set bonus and would also recommend it, though it does seem kind of buggy. I purposely sought defense slots where ever I could get them. Ancient Royal Priest's Symbol is obviously the best main hand you can get. I have its weapon enhancement slot filled with a Greater Vorpal Enchantment. Being that this build promotes critical strike, I would advise some level of Vorpal Enchantment in the weapon enhancement slot. Holy Avenger is a cheaper, "weaker" substitute. I currently only have Lesser Soulforged Enchantment in my armor enhancement slot. This is probably the last thing I will upgrade, as it costs about 1 million astral diamonds to get to normal quality, which only adds one second to its effect. Negation is a cheaper, "weaker" substitute. The strange, blue icon (Heroic Gloried Icon) grants 1300 maximum hit points and a utility slot. If you look at my character sheet link, you'll see that I am slightly over the critical strike hard cap and slightly under the recovery hard cap. Due to these achieved ratings, I chose to (better) allocate my stat ratings to maximum hit points and defense (and unfortunately deflection as a by-product). Following that, I go with Ancient Priest's Ring of Burning Light which grants 616 maximum hit points, 154 defense, 154 deflection, and a defense slot which I emphasized earlier (instead of an offense slot like most other rings). So my character has 3 offense slots, 4 utility slots, and 5 defense slots. For offense slots I split between recovery (Silvery) and critical strike (Azure) to relatively achieve the hard caps for each stat rating. Utility slots should always be filled with movement speed (Dark), but I only suggest rank 5 at most for it. Defense slots are always maximum hit points (Radiant). Unfortunately, maximum hit points are not inherited through the companion, so the ring and icon that my Ioun Stone uses had to be different from what my character uses. I have critical strike (Silvery) in each offense slot on the items my companion uses.
Introduction: This is just an introduction guide to my Righteous build and gameplay, as well as clericing in general. I honestly don't think most clerics go Righteous in this game, since Faithful is just so dominant at healing. [Yet the funny thing about some of the other cleric guides I've read is that they stress Strength and Charisma (and Intelligence) for critical strike and recovery and neglecting Wisdom for bonus to heals. Yet they spec Faithful (the "middle tree") which is, as said, very heal oriented. I honestly don't know if they simply intended to gimp and balance their character, or if the benefits of the healing spec are just that difference making compared to Wisdom against its alternatives.] This build will force you to stay even more alert when the group takes damage since you can't just faceroll off some heals like if you were Faithful. If I had to comment on Righteous, it's more of a self-survival build than a devoted healer build. So it seems like it belongs on people focused on PvP. However, in certain fights, it is the cleric's job to kite a myriad of mobs and this greatly helps you withstand it. Combined with the change to cleanse no longer being able to get rid of res sickness, you want to keep yourself as far away from being downed twice (over five or so minutes) as best you can.
General Role: One thing everyone needs to realize and keep in mind (so as a cleric, you would potentially want to spread the word) is that our best healing powers are not heals themselves AND are proximity based. This means you want everyone in melee range, including Control Wizards. It just means they will have to dodge like everyone else, but they innately start with the least costing dodge anyway. It really should not be an issue, otherwise that player should not be playing an action game like Neverwinter. Expanding on that, everyone needs to realize this is an action game and that it falls on each player to dodge for their own damage avoidance. This is not WoW, or the like, where you tank the damage while DPSing and expect a single target, point-and-click heal for 80% of your hp just for you. Clerics are only there to heal up inevitable incoming damage from swarms of trash, and the occasional missed dodge, depleted stamina, lag,etc.
http://nwcalc.com/dc?b=cn4:2hwcg:5m9s,13l3314:6c000:6ui00:6z0z1&h=0
(Revised Cleric Feats, thanks for scozzers for suggestions)
http://i.imgur.com/As0p8Cj.png (Starting attribute roll for Tiefling)
Race and Attributes: Rolled a second cleric as Tiefling. Balancing between critical strike (from Strength) and recovery (from both Charisma and Intelligence) while minimizing Wisdom. Breaking down stats from an end game perspective, healing bonus, damage bonus, control bonus, and control resist aren't quite what the game tries to make them out to be for the Devoted Cleric class. +1% to your heals, keeping in mind what I've previously said about cleric heals in this game, is not worth anywhere near as much as 1% critical strike or 1% recovery (which both are unhindered by diminishing returns), which makes even Intelligence equal to or better than Wisdom. In short, Strength is the best cleric attribute, but I would not suggest sacrificing 2 Charisma and 2 Intelligence for 2 Strength (Tiefling versus Human in this case).
Feat Highlights: Alleged tests showed that it only takes 2 points in Rising Hope from tier 1 of Virtuous to have a 99% uptime. Restoration Mastery seems good, but keep in mind that most classes only have between 1500-2000 defense stat. 5% increase is ~100 defense. At 1727 defense I get 25.6% damage resistance, so an increase of about 100 defense is 1.5% damage resistance when I am critically healed. When you compare 1.5% damage resistance to the other feats you can get, it isn't too great. Also, since you don't heal targets at maximum hit points, due to the mechanics of the game you may not even grant them the feat's effect when you would have critical healed them that time. Something interesting to note with Healing Step is that critical heals on you also proc it. Usually that's a good thing, but it can be a bad thing as you may have it on cooldown when you start getting hit and thus lose benefit from the stamina regeneration until it is ready again.
Edit: Divine Advantage only seems to work on certain powers which I do not use and those feat points could be moved elsewhere (Power of Oppression). Thanks to punisouffle for pointing that out and scozzers for his or her testing and results.
Powers: Astral Shield, Sunburst, and Forgemaster's Flame. I would only suggest Healing Word with a Faithful build, as they get an extra Divinity pip. On certain fights, where you need to kite, if you're having trouble, you may want to slot this in place of Forgemaster's Flame. Do not use Divine Power on Sunburst, unless it is being used to knock mobs off. Divinity with Astral Shield if the group is about to take lots of incoming damage. Save Forgemaster's Flame with Divine Power for fast, heavy, multi-target healing, or use it without Divine Power if you're really low on Divine Power (like half a Divinity pip or less). Keep in mind that this is a proximity heal, similar to Astral Shield, so try not to use it during or just after a centered AoE from a boss. Sunburst generates almost 8% of my Action Points per target hit (at 54% AP gain). However, it has a target cap of 5 (which is also important to keep in mind when using it as a knock back). Each target hit by Sunburst has its critical strike rolled independently. If Forgemaster's Flame's does critical damage, all of its remaining pulses (four more) will also deal critical damage; when it deals critical damage, it also generates critical heals (when channeling Divinity).
Class Features: Holy Fervor and Foresight. I don't bother with Soothe in this build, as I can take hits and dodge more than enough. None of my powers would uniquely benefit from Divine Fortune, other than Astral Shield, but it seems to be bugged as of now anyway.
Dailies: Hallowed Ground and Divine Armor. As mentioned, Sunburst generates a ridiculous amount of AP, and with a very short cooldown. You can spam Hallowed Ground in trash fights for the increased damage to speed things along, but you may want to save Divine Armor as an "oh ****" button. Basically, use Hallowed Ground (even during a boss fight) if your team is all full and you expect no incoming damage you can't handle is coming.
At-Wills: Astral Seal is the only one that matters. Pick your favorite for the alternate. If you're good enough with the targeting reticle, throw as many Astral Seals as you can to different targets. If not, just try to manage the one or two targets your group seems to be focusing on. Feel free to spam the other At-will if you're confident in your reaction time and the situation.
http://i.imgur.com/thri0iU.png (Character sheet with my perfect preferenced gear without camfire buff)
http://i.imgur.com/PFdOpsU.png (Second part of character sheet without campfire buff)
http://i.imgur.com/2mZIqot.png (Companion only missing BiS Icon and its rank 7 enchantment)
Gear: The prioritizing of stat ratings desired are recovery to the hard cap (4200), critical strike to the hard cap (3100), defense (1500 to 2000 at least), but still stacking as much maximum hit points as you can if you intend to get the full Miracle Healer's set. I very much like the full Miracle Healer's set bonus and would also recommend it, though it does seem kind of buggy. I purposely sought defense slots where ever I could get them. Ancient Royal Priest's Symbol is obviously the best main hand you can get. I have its weapon enhancement slot filled with a Greater Vorpal Enchantment. Being that this build promotes critical strike, I would advise some level of Vorpal Enchantment in the weapon enhancement slot. Holy Avenger is a cheaper, "weaker" substitute. I currently only have Lesser Soulforged Enchantment in my armor enhancement slot. This is probably the last thing I will upgrade, as it costs about 1 million astral diamonds to get to normal quality, which only adds one second to its effect. Negation is a cheaper, "weaker" substitute. The strange, blue icon (Heroic Gloried Icon) grants 1300 maximum hit points and a utility slot. If you look at my character sheet link, you'll see that I am slightly over the critical strike hard cap and slightly under the recovery hard cap. Due to these achieved ratings, I chose to (better) allocate my stat ratings to maximum hit points and defense (and unfortunately deflection as a by-product). Following that, I go with Ancient Priest's Ring of Burning Light which grants 616 maximum hit points, 154 defense, 154 deflection, and a defense slot which I emphasized earlier (instead of an offense slot like most other rings). So my character has 3 offense slots, 4 utility slots, and 5 defense slots. For offense slots I split between recovery (Silvery) and critical strike (Azure) to relatively achieve the hard caps for each stat rating. Utility slots should always be filled with movement speed (Dark), but I only suggest rank 5 at most for it. Defense slots are always maximum hit points (Radiant). Unfortunately, maximum hit points are not inherited through the companion, so the ring and icon that my Ioun Stone uses had to be different from what my character uses. I have critical strike (Silvery) in each offense slot on the items my companion uses.
Post edited by kanoja on
0
Comments
...or did you make it proc with Soothing Light...?
And thanks for pointing out my mistake. I appreciate it and realize it's my fault for not doing as much research as you or others.
Just a quick point on restoration mastery. It stacks. So say you have a big mob that your melee's have their beady eyes on. Put Astral Seal on it, send in those melee, they hit, they heal - Resto procs. Along with foresight. Switch to divine mode. Throw on a Forgemasters. Now you have 2 stacks of resto. Your melee are taking even less damage (granted not a massive amount less). If you had linked spirit feated that would have proc'd from the astral seal heals the moment you switched to divine mode for your FF. So your melee would have even more defense (and damage) from those enhanced stats. So, 1 encounter and 1 alt will + 2 feats and a passive give enhanced stats (more damage, defense etc) then a 4% defense bonus (2 stacks of resto), 6% flat damage reduction from foresight (plus whatever % from however many points you have in the feat) and some heals - quite often critical heals due to the enhanced crit you would have from linked spirit. Anyway, linked spirit aside (so sick of that feat), Domain synergy isn't very good and cleanse still only needs one point. If you're going down righteous with those encounters and passives, I suggest a feat set up like this (for the heroic feats, at least - if you take bountiful fortune, dropping ethereal boon won't really affect you much) .. or .. the same except feat linked spirit instead of foresight. Also, if you use sacred flame and use divine armor a lot, you might benefit from switching enduring relief to deepstone blessing.
What exactly do you mean by being sick of Linked Spirit (It seemed like you were suggesting it to me)?
Also, what about Domain Synergy makes it worse than how it sounds?
And I actually can't stand any of the at-wills other than Lance of Faith and Astral Seal, so I think I'll have to pass on Deepstone Blessing.
It's flavour of the month and yes, I was suggesting it.
Domain synergy isn't very good for pretty much the same reason you gave about restoration mastery not being good (5% of ..).
Yea, I don't bother with deepstone. Enduring relief also stacks like restoration mastery so it's a decent feat to take to get to foresight/linked.