test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
Begging For A Solo PvE Leveling Build
klixan
Member Posts: 447 Bounty Hunter
I've tried three times to create a cleric that can solo all the PvE quests, and three times I've deleted the character out of pure disgust. They seem to be the weakest and most underpowered class in the game.
But I hate giving up, and I want to try just one more time. But if I fail at this again, then I'm ready to call it quits. Because there's only so much misery and frustration one person can take.
So I'm begging you guys for help. I've read all the guides, but they don't really help. They either focus on end game dungeon builds, healing builds or PvP builds. I don't want any of that, I just want a cleric that can play through the main storyline and solo all the quest bosses.
Is such a thing even possible with a cleric?
Anyway, my previous build focused on Critical (which was a total disaster) so I'm thinking I should ignore Critical this time and just stack Power and Defense. Likewise for stats, ignore Str and just go for Wis and Cha.
For skills, I'd like to focus on instant cast spells, like Sun Burst and Searing Light. Because I don't like the 'press key for targeting circle, position circle, press key again to cast' type spells. In the heat of battle, those spells got me killed more times than I can say.
So please, if anybody has come up with a solo PvE build, could you please share it. What stats did you choose? What skills? What Feats and gear? Any particular strategy you came up with for quest bosses?
Any and all advice would be extremely welcome.
But I hate giving up, and I want to try just one more time. But if I fail at this again, then I'm ready to call it quits. Because there's only so much misery and frustration one person can take.
So I'm begging you guys for help. I've read all the guides, but they don't really help. They either focus on end game dungeon builds, healing builds or PvP builds. I don't want any of that, I just want a cleric that can play through the main storyline and solo all the quest bosses.
Is such a thing even possible with a cleric?
Anyway, my previous build focused on Critical (which was a total disaster) so I'm thinking I should ignore Critical this time and just stack Power and Defense. Likewise for stats, ignore Str and just go for Wis and Cha.
For skills, I'd like to focus on instant cast spells, like Sun Burst and Searing Light. Because I don't like the 'press key for targeting circle, position circle, press key again to cast' type spells. In the heat of battle, those spells got me killed more times than I can say.
So please, if anybody has come up with a solo PvE build, could you please share it. What stats did you choose? What skills? What Feats and gear? Any particular strategy you came up with for quest bosses?
Any and all advice would be extremely welcome.
Post edited by klixan on
0
Comments
I will give you a few groundrules for leveling up:
1. Use Items with power on it.
2. Entchant as follows: Offense: Power; Def: Def!; Utility: +exp
3. Learn to use daunting light and chanis of blazing light. Those will kill any groups very fast.
4. Use Brand of the Sun. Also: use Holy Fervor and Divine Fortune, that will give you more flexibility while leveling.
5. Use any build you like, really, any. As it stands the DC builds are having little impact, while the power-setup you use, does a lot more.
Finally: Searing Light is great. But it you have to have a CW getting his Singularity out and putting 15+ Mobs in the same place for this ability to shine. The mechanic when you use this in divine mode (pierced targets repel dmg to nearby targets, again, and again) really makes this one shine, but that's for groupplay. CN is a good place to use this, or any t2 dungeon, as long as you can keep up healing your buddies using only 2 skills. Just try again, you will do fine.
Well, I've rolled my new cleric. Human with 14 Str, 10 Con, 10 Dex, 11 Int, 18 Wis (+2 points), 14 Cha. I've just hit level 12, but holy heck, compared to the other classes, the cleric really is incredibly weak and underpowered. It's a real struggle to play.
Gear-wise, I always tend to go for Power/Recovery, I don't find crit to be a big issue, as our dots seem to crit alot, regardless, atleast on my case.
flame daily is best for most soloing, nice strong aoe
When many weak mobs try to 1shot/badly dmg them with aoe from distance and 1-2 tough mobs you can stand toe 2 toe. Otherwise need to move and dodge a lot. And always dodge from red stuff ofc.
I tended to prioritize DEF on gear while leveling and power was last thing - since power scales really badly. At low lvls you'll just get very little to healing and damage from it. (def, rec, crit, pow)
End bosses of solo dungeons you just need to dodge/run all the time while you whittle them down. Sometimes pays to switch powers just for boss... taking dots/debuffs.
Bzw: there will be several points where you are going to have a hard time. I noticed the first "bump" is that undead village. Everytime I start there I have a hard time at first, gets better after a level or so, though. And of course the last map. That one was hard when I first came there. Did finish it way later (i got to 60 in the middle, got bored, and started to give my AD for really crappy 60s gear to the auction house. Other then that: if you get your hold of you cleric, he really thrashes the hell out of everything solocontent. (but so did rogue and wizard... i don't know about fighters, cause i simply dont like them)
The key for me was:
1. Chains of Blazing Light + Daunting Light synergy. This will decimate most weak questing mobs in groups.
2. Cleric Disciple companion to top your self-healing before you get Astral Shield.
3. Slot Foresight and Holy Fervor in later game.
For completeness, I happened to use a balanced 16/14/14 -> 20/20/20 build while stacking crit and defense equipment.
With those three things, I completed every single questing instance in the game solo except one, including the final Whispering Caverns one with those annoying almost one-shotting brain dogs + 5 enemy "player" treasure room + the boss who summons elites.
The one I could not complete, but which I only tried twice without changing set up before asking for Zone help was the mother wolf + child wolves one towards end of Icespire Peak, I believe. This was trivial on other classes, but I kept being CC'd by the child wolves and then decimated by the turn bite of the mother wolf. However, I think if I were doing it again, better use of Chains or Break the Spirit or a Man-At-Arms pet or even higher healing would have turned out better.
Given that the Icespire instance is before you get Astral Shield, you should similarly have no significant problems till then. Of course now with the nerf to Astral Shield, the Whispering Caverns instance and maybe another in Mount Hotenow, could be quite unpleasant...
Finally, you cannot compare DC to other classes. Its offensive capability is very weak indeed (and actually becomes weaker relative to difficulty of mobs as you level). Since it was my first class, I had nothing to compare and just dealt with it at the time.
I really do think the Cleric is the hardest class to play solo. I've played a Guardian Fighter, Wizard and Rogue so far and none of them were as hard to level as the Cleric.
Sadly, I don't think I would ever recommend this class to a new player. But if you're hardcore and you love a challenge, then this is the class for you
I did all of the quests, so I was pretty much always over-leveled for the zones. (No dungeons but did do skirmishes.) Mount Hotenow I ran with a rogue I met in zone, so I can't swear I could have solo'd that ok. Whispering Caverns I did solo but that was before the Astral Shield nerf and I don't think I could do it today.
Chains + aimed tabbed Searing Light/tabbed Daunting Light for early levels. I prefer aimed tabbed Searing Light because I save Daunting Light for the elites, and both work just as well when it comes to clearing out normal mobs. Daunting Light is an excellent finisher - it will usually kill elites before they can use potions. Use chains to help you aim tabbed Searing Light, use dodge make sure that mobs are standing in a line or are closely packed together when you use Searing Light. I usually avoid Sunburst outside of dungeons at low levels. Sunburst scales very well with stats/feats/levels, but by itself does rather poor damage/self-healing. Forgemaster's Flame is hit-or-miss - great for some areas, bad for others. You need to use it on an elite mob for it to work but it does wonders for the tank companion. At mid levels Divine Glow comes into play and Sunburst starts picking up damage/heal-wise. Virtuous can get away with just using Divine Glow/Sunburst, more because they usually get Terrifying Insight along with other +damage feats, but for others Daunting Light should be a staple. Finally, Astral Shield comes into play. The best thing about Astral Shield is that it makes the tank companion viable again, which is important for non-virtuous clerics. You will need those few extra seconds your tank gives you to nuke the hell out of mobs once you reach the Whispering Caverns. For dailies, I suggest Flame Strike with Hallowed Ground/Divine Armor. Note that Divine Armor affects companions now.
From my experience you should have both cleric and tank companion. Cleric for most zones, tank for those zones that give you problems. The tank gives you a few precious seconds to aim a nuke or decide whether to flee or not. The cleric may seem unimpressive at first, until you realize you are barely using potions and that you're moving from one enemy group to the next fairly quickly.
Others have already pointed out some of the problems you will be facing. The first hurdle is indeed the ruined village in Ebon Downs, and that's because clerics do not have a reliable nuke for clearing out a large group of mobs which are not tightly packed together and which tend to spread out when attacking. This is especially true for mobs without an elite member among them, preventing you from properly using Forgemaster's Flame. You will encounter a similar problem on Mt. Hotenow.
For stats, I go by Crit&Recovery->everything else. Your tank/cleric companions can help you with survivability. The only thing your companions can't provide you with, atm, is good DPS. I have not tested the Phoera though. Don't forget to revive your companions during fights. This is crucial - you can ignore him/her in dungeons, but a lot of the time a living companion can mean all the difference between a successful/failed boss attempt in solo play. This affects the cleric in particular because most of our abilities are group oriented. Also, do not rely solely on your powers for healing especially at low-mid levels.
Sure, levelling a Control Wizard is faster, as you can just pull multiple packs, freeze and burn them, but hey. The DC might be the weakest class for solo PvE, but it's still laughably easy, the levelling content is fun and pretty, but it's pitched at "training wheels" level to help you learn the game.
Really? I just grabbed the basic wizard companion and had to trouble at all. Popping seals on all the mobs meant that we both got heals, even from an early level, and the odd healing word kept him alive through most things.
As to using pots, I hardly ever used pots levelling my DC (my first character, as people could tell by dodgy gear choices). I was giving them away as they dropped far faster than I could use them, and I ended up with too many pots of previous ranks cluttering my bags.
Even with the 40% healing debuff, I was able to do keep myself topped off reasonably well. Don't be afraid to spam those seals on targets though, it's ludicrously good value. The biggest incoming damage mitigation is dodging the big red attacks, of course. Crowds of little mobs clustered around you could just be sealed, sunburst, and burned down with at-wills in a lazy way.
The easiest way to cope with stuff like that is often, as in most MMOs, to line of sight pull (i.e. aggro the pack, and then duck behind an obstruction that breaks line of sight). The targets tend to be far more bunched up by the time they get to you. Situational awareness and positioning is more valuable than a 30% GS bonus
Level slow as hell stay alive or go dps and get ready to run in case you cannot burn down the mobs as sometimes you deal with one group and another appears so you gotta run forest run! haha.
I got it to 60 but now PvP is totally useless as you cannot do damage or heal good enough to make a contribution and yes its probably my gear as its only 9k GS atm but that's the starting gear so if its no good then should they not be offering something more useful?
I am thinking of just ditching my DC and playing any other class as they all seem better than DC.
Now you're at 60, and assuming you have any tolerance left, you could do some of the easier T1s and low-gear score T2 just to get experience with them. I do not recommend dungeons like T1 Mad Dragon because it relies on competence of others so much, stretching your patience even further. The higher T2s basically require an augment-class companion which is an expensive investment if you are not going to make the class your main.
So, yes, unless you are a hardcore pure healer type who loves to min-max builds for that 0.5% extra (yes, the differences are very small across effective DC builds), you'll enjoy any other class more and they will be faster to level too.
Works fine all the way up to 60, it's how I cleared the Wrathforge, too. If you have basic minimum skills, it's risibly easy. If you're a Bad who can't avoid red stuff, or are too stupid to LoS pull to group ranged mobs together, then that's your lookout. Moreover, using your cooldowns are they become available is a core mechanic when you start doing endgame dungeons, and you're going to suck pretty hard if you don't manage it.
Don't rely on your companion. I took a free CW as a bit of damage on legs, and popped the odd heal on him, but if he died, it's no big deal. Ultimately, you should be playing with a blue stone anyway.
Levelling in this game is easy, for all classes, if you're not terrible. Levelling as a DC is a tiny bit slower, but as long as you're not just waste biomass, you'll do OK, even against the odd annoying elite mob. Play properly, righteousness or no, "you can't outheal stupid", as has been said in many other MMOs.
Thats the point there is no in between its either slow as hell going full heal or take a chance and throw a few sub par dps skills in there that frankly do not cut it.
Sure I could level easy with full heals but its slow and boring try using AS and FF but when you have lots hitting on you, you cannot use FF to any decent extent and then a group comes out of no where then you have to run making it just as slow to level with healing. I just went healing and slow with a mix of dps in between to stop the bordem.
I have done a few dungeons with no problems so far have not tried the 8300 ones though but i guess there the next step but not sure who well i could do them with only a 9k score.
Take sunburst for example. While under divinity it causes a decent knock back. A well placed knock back can throw mobs off cliffs etc..
Dodge(sift key plus direction).
I used a wizard companion.
I always kept healing word on. FF is only good when maxed out and only when there's groups like 3 trash 1 elite mob. 5 trash+ is just not going to work with FF only for healing and youll need to run chains/healing word/sunburst and not be scared to pot. I actually didn't pop a pot except at that spellplagued quest and once I got to the undead village map (not the first undead map with the picky lich that would rather die then deal with a certain necromancer).
However, the undead village (as someone mentioned) is a big big step up in difficulty. The quests are still very easy, but man that map is pretty hard because mobs just spawn right on top of you and cleric spells are bugged like crazy so sometimes you target them with aoe and half of them dont get hit. It's not that the area is hard, but the bugged spells make dealing with the large amount of mobs hard. Once I started investing in defense this area also became cake because I could take the hits easily.
The next area thats hard (wolves was ez and I loved it, the dungeon boss is insanely brutal though, first dungeon I actually managed to fail, felt bad when after 2 runs I couldn't do pit skirmish anymore) is the ice map. Oh man, undead village map was kinda tough, but the ice map is pull your pubes out balls to the wall fall off your horse and die while running to dungeon hard. And also brutally annoying. AAARGgghhh. SO glad I'm at the next map now, which is chasm. LOVE IT. Easy, few mobs at a time and you now have Astral Shield which is godmode. Only thing I hate is that you outlevel the insanely easy skirmish way too fast. I'm not sure, but I am still afraid that the next skirmish will be like the black dragon one. Laggy pos with too much useless mobs out there to lag you to death. And that's not even talking about the mobs all aggroing on the healer and using you as a volleyball. That's pretty bad in the ice map too, but there it's manageable because there's zero lag there. Swamp is lag hell, and it really shows in the skirmish. The map itself was easy though, just the skirmish was unplayable for me.
For later maps, just get someone to party with. CWs clear the trash mobs easily, way faster. It's not hard but boring, your dog just doesn't scale anymore and daunting light alone just doesn't cut it.
I really don't see how you can have trouble at level 12. At level 12 I was not used to the controls yet since I am allergic to the mouse view that the game forces you to play in and it was still easy. Build doesn't matter. I got a 17 cha/14 int cleric and it's still easy. I only used gear I found without enchanting and my feats are messed up beyond belief. I bet the endgame content will be impossible for me because I really couldn't have picked worse feats.
Key abilities:
Sunburst (does not leave bar until daunting light, must max)
Healing Word (same as sunburst, I only got 2 levels in this only because I had to, you'll need it so much that 3 is not a waste but silly me I put points in searing light. I'd max it if I could do it again, but not essential.)
Chains of Blazing Light (awesome, must max, has left bar only in certain heal mode dungeons, essential for soloing.)
Daunting Light (Normal mode...meh...too slow. You get hit too often. But divinity...let's just say it's REALLY worth burning a pip for. Must max, don't ignore.)
Forgemasters Flame (can solo heal with 1 elite/few trash mobs. Must max if only because of the value in dungeons. This is where I found out I have too many encounters and too little slots.)
Astral Shield (Done. Godmode.)
Daily:
Flamestrike (Extra DPS, and what else are you going to use for 99% of the game?)
Hallowed Ground (Massive area, more valuable in dungeons since for solo flamestrike is often better.)
At will:
Astral Seal is must max for dungeons. Solo, meh. I'm not sure if this is another bug, but it only procs on at wills for me. Other classes get massive healing and I doubt they're permanently using at wills. The main use later is spreading cleanse.
Harder to decide. I rarely used spear since I preferred using divine on punishing light (it's OP during much of the game, very very good single target damage).
I thought that the best at will was brand of the sun, and it works when I'm in healbot mode for passive divine generation but solo you sometimes need fast divine generation. Brand of the sun/Astral seal are must maxes imho, but either spear or sacred flame is also a must have. Very good DPS and divine generation on those.
I could've done much better myself at selecting these powers, but I still do fine. I didn't use daunting light for a long time because I was still happy with sunburst. It's just a pain to target but I suggest you learn to do so because both chains and daunting light are really so awesome that you need to be able to use them well. I f them up many times but they're still amazing.
Astral Seal
Lance of Faith -> Brand of the Sun
Sunburst
Healing Word or Chains1 -> Daunting Light
Searing Light -> Forgemaster's Flame -> Prophecy of Doom1 once I found out I can Flame Strike all day with it -> Divine Glow post-patch
Healer's Lore -> Foresight
Holy Fervor
I found that if I use stuff like Astral Shield or Healing Word while soloing, I actually risk dying. In epic dungeons though, I use them both and life is considerably easier.
For gear, I went for crit and recovery, though now I think crit and power would have been better. I didn't enchant most of my gear 'til maybe around level 40 or 50, and I didn't run normal dungeons much so I had maybe 4 pieces of blue gear from 1-60.
Maybe a bit late now, but I hope that helps.