I've been playing what I call a "Crit Cleric" for some time. Wish this thread was around when I started.
Very similar, and when I swap out my skills for end bosses I can surpass my Faithful aligned wife's cleric - depending on how lucky I've been with those critical heals.
But, coming up into and in T1s; I often times out DPSed same/similar GS party members. Very viable cleric and really requires the player to use his noodle to adapt to the battle scenario for efficacy.
In your video why do you have Divine fortune as passive ? I know it doesnt generate divinity from AShield so i wonder why you have it... does it proc on repurpose or something?
I've been playing what I call a "Crit Cleric" for some time. Wish this thread was around when I started.
Very similar, and when I swap out my skills for end bosses I can surpass my Faithful aligned wife's cleric - depending on how lucky I've been with those critical heals.
But, coming up into and in T1s; I often times out DPSed same/similar GS party members. Very viable cleric and really requires the player to use his noodle to adapt to the battle scenario for efficacy.
Hahahaha u think we have the same living situation, my wife is a cleric (i specced her faithful for her) She main heals while i dps/buff/debuff
What stats should I focus in the early **** levels? My DC is currently lv27 (almost 28) and I'm confused on what to focus on first as a dps/hybrid cleric following this build.
Do Foresight and Linked Spirit stack with buffs applied by other clerics? If so, this would probably make me shift towards using Sun Burst more and to adapt my spec. However, even if they stack, I don't think they should - they're way too powerful to stack. Also, the cast-SB-then-quickly-TAB will probably get removed as an exploit, and deservedly so.
If not building around Linked Spirit/Foresight, this build might make most sense for a DPS Cleric right now. Except for Foresight (which you can get at the expense of Holy Fervor), it still gets most integral healing spells, but really shines when it comes to group utility. This also has most integral PvP powers and feats, except Hammer of Fate. Considering Feats, one might drop the one point from Strength of the Gods and three points from Bountiful Fortune to dump into Desperate Renewal.
At-Wills: Lance of Faith and Brand of the Sun combine for some decent damage, divinity and debuffing.
Encounters: Wide range of useful encounters, from pure healing to healing/support to AoE nuking/kiting to group buff/debuff, this DC can do a lot of things to a satisfying degree.
Class features: Healer's Lore/Terrifying Insight in most cases, unless you need AP (drop Healer's Lore for Holy Fervor) or are healing (drop Terrifying Insight for Holy Fervor or Foresight, whatever you got).
Dailies: Hallowed Ground is the go-to power: unless your Healer has a very high HG uptime AND you're always grouped up, your group will be off better with the defense/offense boost from HG than some damage from Flame Strike (still in this build for soloing and since you need to invest points anyway..) or Hammer of Fate (which you can get for PvPing purposes if you drop one of the utility powers - Prophecy of Doom or Divine Armor). Flame Strike or Divine Armor take the second slot, depending on the needs of your group.
Yes they do stack with another cleric (both abilities).
What stats should I focus in the early **** levels? My DC is currently lv27 (almost 28) and I'm confused on what to focus on first as a dps/hybrid cleric following this build.
When I leveled as Virtuous, it didn't really matter which stats I got as I was still able to do all the dungeons. I went for any green/blue with recov/crit/power.
I haven't checked the forums in a while, apologies. I'll try and answer some questions. I haven't tested out any new abilities since the patch, all I've managed to do is fail to find evidence that the buff to Focused Poise actually works. So regarding spec questions, I don't know if Disciple of Divine Lore has a good proc chance, and I don't know if Divine Glow has been fixed so it no longer debuffs ally damage.
In your video why do you have Divine fortune as passive ? I know it doesnt generate divinity from AShield so i wonder why you have it... does it proc on repurpose or something?
I was probably testing it at the time. I often forget to switch around my Class skills.
Also, the cast-SB-then-quickly-TAB will probably get removed as an exploit, and deservedly so.
You mean ducking into and out of Divinity mode? I'm not sure why they would remove that, manage divinity is key to the way the class works. Anything that reduced our ability to cast with Divinity would be a huge mechanical change and make the class a lot less interactive to play.
Isn't it better to put the 2 spare heroic points you put in Holy Resolve to Toughness? The difference is just 4% and with Toughness it is permanent extra HP. Holy Resolve also works only once every 5 minutes which pretty sucks in PvP and End Boss fights.
Than that 6% more HP which is permanent sounds beter to me.
But nice guide, it helped me how to set my Cleric
Thank you. I do PVP more than I do dungeons, so Holy Resolve I found very good. I'd possibly take one point out from it and put it in Toughness, but Holy Resolve is definitely worth one point.
Has anyone tried a spec like this in a T2 and seen how it stacks up? Obviously you aren't going to compete with a Striker but could possibly give GWF a run for their money.
It depends heavily on group composition (which was also true pre-AS nerf). If your group is good at gathering trash (e.g. two CWs using Arcane Singularity) then you can even come top whilst being solo healer. If not, your DPS will suffer heavily, or at least mine does.
Cycle of Change: on paper, this is okay. If you're doing dedicated healing, then this may pop. But I haven't seen a buff pop from Forgemaster's Flame, and I haven't seen it proc from Astral Shield, and I haven't seen it proc from Astral Seal. If I were to respec, I'd ditch this until it's fixed or someone can explain which powers it works from that this build is likely to use.
I'd be using the alternative spec right now, especially since I don't think Focused Poise works as intended. I'm going to look around the forums to see if I can find any details on Disciple of Healing Lore, and Divine Glow (and whether they work or not). I'd probably respec if they do, and I'll update the post.
A note on Hammer of Fate - this is invaluable in PVP. It's about the only good way to stop being knockdown-locked to death by a well-geared Guardian Fighter, because it makes you immune, and it also does them a load of damage since they aren't using their shield when they start the death-cycle.
Edit: Looks like Disciple of Healing has a ~5% proc rate that doesn't fire off Spellplagued.
I'll update it possibly this week, definitely next weekend. I need to see how many free respecs I have. I also don't yet have socketable gemmed shirt/trousers which is an ongoing embarrassment!
It's going to be very difficult to give an ArPen importance, since I don't have the required equipment/runes to test it properly. I've got a feeling it'd be competing for space with Recovery and Crit, which isn't good. Recovery after the AS nerf is not as good as it was, but I find it a challenge to get my Def runes and my Crit runes as high as I want them (different slots, but there's gear flexibility there). I don't think there's much value in ArPen in PVE, since many mobs have very little armour. PVP has a lot more going for it, but when I last checked a spreadsheet into ArPen values, the only way to get a decent score would be to sacrifice a LOT of Crit (possibly then also taking the ArPen feat). Given my experience with highly armoured classes like GF/GWF is either a) I'm stunlocked and die, or b) I have my Daily available and can Hammer of Fate to ignore the knockdown and win, I don't know what benefit ArPen will get me.
Hello, how did he spend 23 heroic points ? after my 20th heroic point I can choose only paragon talent, in practice I can no longer take weapon mastery (3% crit); did I do something wrong? pls answer
Humans get an extra feat point at levels 5, 10 and 15, for a total of 23 heroic points.
You there. New to the game? Feeling overwhelmed? Maybe you think getting to end-game is impossible for a casual player like yourself, or maybe you just need to be around a community that helps each other stay sane and competitive with the latest news, current trends, random chitchat and most of all LEGIT (that is, we try to keep things fair) gameplay. If you don't mind being around quirky people and the rare occasional drama (one of our prominent TR members is apparently a mafia godfather) join nw_legit_community at http://www.nwlegitcommunity.shivtr.com/forum_threads/2330542.
Aim
The purpose of this build/post is to provide a DPS-focused build for the Devoted Cleric with the Divine Oracle paragon path (the only one available, at time of writing). I say "DPS focused" but, boasting aside, this build provides good DPS but your chances of coming top of the DPS charts are very low, unless you're grouped with a terrible rogue, a poor wizard, or a mediocre Great Weapon Fighter (perhaps in that order). Not that the DPS hybrid cleric should aim to come top: your role is to do decent damage, whilst also providing support and flexibility to a group. You can solo heal a Tier 2 dungeon (I haven't tried Castle Never), but you'll be happier if another cleric is the dedicated healer. That frees you up to tailor your encounter powers exactly how you want them, without being tied down to just a select few. A lot of other cleric posts and videos go through powers in a lot of detail, I'm not going to do that - check out the other cleric builds in the Master List for links.
Instead, I'm going to focus on the different roles you can play, and how you support this with powers and feats. There are a few separate notes on feats and powers (especially see Divine Glow).
But why not go Faithful?
The Faithful spec is fantastic, but some of us just don't enjoy healing in PVE that much and want to try something different. The Virtuous path lacks the powerful buff to Hallowed Ground, and some damage mitigation from the Foresight buff. But in exchange, you get a very active playstyle that lets you do large amounts of AE damage, build up to dailies very fast, and contribute to your team. Crucially, you can main-heal a lot of content (possibly all of it) but be a very solid DPS and add-manager if there's another priest in the group. You're a jack of all trades, which means you're a master of none, but you can always bring something to the party (how many mixed metaphors?).
There are currently five excellent Faithful-path healer cleric builds up on the forum, with a lot of discussion and information attached. The Virtuous cleric doesn't have that, but hopefully I can provide a little education here. In game I spend more time playing with the Foundry or roleplaying than I do in PVP or PVE, but I've had a decent amount of experience in both (almost 3-manned epic Trayven Blackdagger with a TR and CW, until a running-out-of-potions problem). This build is great for grinding, soloing, and Foundry quests. In PVP it tends to die fast to groups (such is the Cleric's lot), but that's probably an artefact of the way I've geared up ... but then again, a rogue stacking Armour Penetration (or Smoke Bomb ... ) can probably slice through most clerics builds.
Creation
Previous attempts to include a link to my build from an online character calculator have failed for some reason, so I attach screenshots. My character was rolled up as Human with 16 STR, 16 WIS, and 12 CHA. I put my discretionary +2 in STR. This is because my build relies on critical hits to build Divinity fast, and STR determines crits for clerics (for more information, see the official Wiki page on clerics. This also gives me +3 Heroic Feat points, but they're not essential (although it has to be said, they're very nice).
At my current gearscore (9.1 k), I'm sitting at 32.5% to crit, 36% faster cooldowns, and 35% action point bonuses. I had better bonuses than this with worse gear, but I had to switch out ++Recovery, +Critical gear simply to get access to later level zones. Gearing priority is +Recovery, then +Critical Strike, then +hit points. Utility enchants are Movement. I don't have a Cat pet yet, so I can't advise - I'm too busy trying to train up the many other pets I have.
STR - 16 (+2 racial bonus)
DEX - 10
CON - 10
INT - 10
WIS - 16
CHA - 12
STR and CHA raised during levelling.
Notes on Powers Rule of Five: Most area effect powers only hit 5 mobs at once. Synchronous Criticals: If you're in Divinity mode, many area effect spells seem to crit EVERY target if you crit at all (that or my Flame Strike and Daunting Light are probability-bustingly lucky). This means you can burst hard. Annoyingly this isn't always the case (I've had Divine Glow crit 4 out of 5 targets). (Note that Hammer of Fate only hits one target and hits it multiple times, so each hit may or may not be a critical regardless of whether other hits are criticals or not). I don't know if this is some weird thing going on with the RNG in combat. My Big Assumption: you see two numbers in your damage log when you attack something. I assume the first number is the damage you do, and the second number is the damage you would do if the enemy had no defence or mitigation whatsoever.
Searing Light: this is an exception to the rule of five. With Divinity, Searing Light will hit 5 mobs if they are all in a line. This will cause one explosion to each mob in the line, and each explosion can hit 5 targets for half damage. So you get a maximum of 5 mobs for full damage, and 25 mobs for half damage. This is great, in the incredibly unlikely situation that you have five lined up mobs each of which is surrounded by another five mobs. In practice, I've got this to hit 23 mobs (so 25 is an assumption, but it seems logical). If you're one of those people who likes to spend all day in a Foundry quest where there are 50 mobs sat in a pit that can't get to your, then maybe put this up to three points and don't take anything in Prophecy of Doom or Healer's Lore. Divine Glow: it is my belief that this power is bugged. Over a series of casts (n=30) WITHOUT the Divine Glow buff, I did an average of 912 damage (non-crit) with Lance of Faith, and 1463 (crit) against orcs. Over n=30 casts WITH Divine Glow, I did an average of 780 damage (non-crit) with Lance of Faith, and 1273 (crit) against orcs. The difference here is 15%. I believe (and this may be wrong, if I had time/inclination to do more tests it may be discounted) that Cryptic intended the Divine Glow buff to increase damage output by 15%, but instead made it decrease damage output by 15%. Oops! Not to mention, if you are under the effects of Divine Glow, your potential damage (given in brackets in the log) ends up lower than your actual damage. Maybe it would buff my teammates but I haven't found anyone to do tests, and I'd be surprised if it reduced my damage to increase theirs. I suspect that people who claim it "hugely increases" damage output haven't so much done tests as fallen foul of Confirmation Bias. However, it still does good damage over a wide area - so I use it and try to avoid "buffing" myself/my party with it. Daunting Light: this is a great power for damage, and made even better by the Nimbus of Light feat. Forgemaster's Flame: DOT lasts for 3 ticks, this is a good heal that can crit. Chains of Blazing Light: damage from this is not actually split amongst mobs. It's reduced by between 15 and 20% per mob that it hits, I'd say 20% is probably accurate. Break the Spirit: seems to reduce mob damage by 30%. DOT that lasts for 5 ticks, stun seems incredibly brief, threat reduction is unknown. Hammer of Faith: repeated multiple hits and pushback. Great at sniping low health people in PVP, because either by lag or design, the Hammer follows your targets.
Heroic Feats Healing Action: at first glance, Toughness is better for a DPS build. However, I think (haven't tested) that divine Astral Shield counts for this (due to the green text). I also know that, if I want to heal, I want to be generating more Action Points. Hallowed Ground going down is where, in some boss fights, you get time to
build up Divinity for the next Astral Shield, let your potion cooldowns tick over, and make sure your positioning is good. Domain Synergy: Recovery is key to this build - it's no good getting lots of Divinity if your Encounters are on cooldown. Weapon Mastery: 3% Critical is great. Holy Resolve: not dying is also great. Repurpose Soul: you will crit a lot, this provides some nice topup healing. Bountiful Fortune: if you're kiting (especially), every bit of Divinity gain helps.
Of those feats, Holy Resolve and Repurpose Soul are probably the best to drop if you're not human/want a different Heroic feat.
Alternate Heroic Feats: Templar's Domain: if you only do PVP, and you're planning to socket for Armour Penetration (there's precious little on our gear), this *may* be worth it. PVP is the environment where spiky damage is vital, and this is spiky damage. Cleanse: most dedicated healer clerics have this. Unless debuffs have a huge spike in impact past Tier 2, I don't think it's essential so much as "nice". However, you may have a particular reason to want it.
Notes on Paragon Feats Rising Hope: Power is a stat that scales badly (I've not done the maths myself, but I'm happy to believe this). Recovery is a stat that scales well, and it's a stat this build pumps as high as possible at high levels. Therefore the chance to get 15% more of it for 2.5 minutes is excellent. I'm not sure what the proc rate is precisely, but it is noticeable. Power of the Sun: Brand of the Sun is a fantastic ability. High divinity generation, decent AP generation, ongoing damage. This makes it even better. If nothing else, you can keep it up on a boss and reduce your team's incoming damage. Sadly, testing (n=12) indicates that it doesn't lower mob damage. Nimbus of Light: Using Daunting Light against level 60 'tough' mobs, it changes their mitigation from Lance of Faith from about 8.5% to about 0.3%. I've not been able to do controlled tests in PVP, but if it translates into PVP at the same level, it would make this a must-have. Focused Poise: I don't like the design of a feat that gets worse as your gear improves (the more criticals you do, the less this is useful). In fact, this feat is only here as filler to get to Cycle of Change. Cycle of Change: on paper, this is okay. If you're doing dedicated healing, then this may pop. But I haven't seen a buff pop from Forgemaster's Flame, and I haven't seen it proc from Astral Shield, and I haven't seen it proc from Astral Seal. If I were to respec, I'd ditch this until it's fixed or someone can explain which powers it works from that this build is likely to use.
Alternate Paragon FeatsIf I was to respec, I would take these alternate feats
Dropping Focused Poise and Cycle of Change gets us 6 points. Luckily, these are easy to spend. Power of Oppression: debuffs target of Astral Seal for -5% damage. Stacked with Power and Brand of the Sun, this is either -10% damage (two lots of -5%), -5% crit; or -9.75% damage (mob at 95% damage, then at 95% damage of that), and -5% crit. That's some potent debuffing and removal of damage spikes. Healing Step: 1% hit points isn't impressive (220 for me). But the extra stamina regen isn't bad, although not great. However ... Righteous Flames: some mobs aren't lifted up by Flamestrike, but a 0.1 second stun interrupts their spell casts.
Potential Roles
Bread and butter - grinding/Foundry/trash as DPS:
At Will - Lance of Faith
At Will - Brand of the Sun
Encounter - Divine Glow
Encounter - Daunting Light
Encounter - Astral Shield
Daily - Flame Strike
Daily - Hammer of Fate
Class - Holy Fervour
Class - Terrifying Insight
This is all about doing as much damage as possible to clear out the trash mobs, so you can sit in Astral Shield and DPS down the big mobs. Very simple, very fast. You use Divine Glow to pull them in (large area) which will make them cluster around you, then you use Daunting Light (ideally with Divinity) to damage them. Then you use Astral Shield (definitely with Divinity) to mitigate damage and start healing yourself. Once you're left with a few tough mobs, you can Lance of Faith them to death very quickly. Flame Strike is good at killing multiples (and if it crits, everything will crit). Holy Fervour and Terrifying Insight fill up your Inspiration inbox.
Tier One - trash (as healer)
At Will - Lance of Faith
At Will - Astral Seal
Encounter - Daunting Light
Encounter - Forgemaster's Flame
Encounter - Astral Shield
Daily - Flame Strike
Daily - Hammer of Fate
Class - Holy Fervour
Class - Terrifying Insight
Similar to the grinding loadout, but with Astral Seal and Forgemaster's Flame for extra healing. Daunting Light is in, because we don't want to nerf our own damage as with Divine Glow, and in most dungeon groups, you won't to pull with Divine Glow because someone else will already be there. Plus, Daunting Light does great damage and a defence debuff.
Tier One - bosses (as DPS)
At Will - Brand of the Sun
At Will - Astral Seal
Encounter - Break the Spirit (Searing Light if you have a Control Wizard who you can coordinate spells with, who has Arcane Singularity slotted, and if there are vast amounts of mobs)
Encounter - Daunting Light
Encounter - Forgemaster's Flame (Astral Shield if the group needs more help with healing)
Daily - Hallowed Ground
Daily - Hammer of Fate
Class - Holy Fervour
Class - Terrifying Insight
As a DPS, you can still serve your party by debuffing and healing. It helps that Break the Spirit and Forgemaster's do good single target damage (albeit over time). Brand lets you dot up multiple mobs whilst reducing their damage output, and Astral Seal helps put you up the healing meters - whether or not you need healing. Between the two of them, they generate divinity fast.
Tier One - bosses (as healer)
At Will - Brand of the Sun
At Will - Astral Seal
Encounter - Break the Spirit
Encounter - Forgemaster's Flame
Encounter - Astral Shield
Daily - Hallowed Grounds
Daily - Hammer of Fate (Flame Strike if adds will cause you an issue)
Class - Holy Fervour (Divine Fortune, if adds are killing you fast)
Class - Terrifying Insight (Foresight, if adds are killing you fast)
Break the Spirit gets a look-in here, debuffing the boss - if the 30% figure is correct, this is a great talent. Hammer of Fate is in instead of Flame Strike because Flame Strike does rather poor damage to single targets (if you're going to be killing adds, then you can keep Flame Strike in). Hammer of Fate lets you stand still and take minimal damage from many boss attacks, which helps with stamina management and for building Divinity. Also I've had crits of over 34k with it, which is nice. Brand of the Sun and Astral Seal combine to give you high Divinity gaining attacks.
Tier One - bosses (as kiter)
At Will - Brand of the Sun
At Will - Astral Seal
Encounter - Chains of Blazing Light
Encounter - Sunburst
Encounter - Astral Shield
Daily - Hallowed Grounds
Daily - Flame Strike if adds will cause you an issue
Class - Divine Fortune
Class - Foresight
Kiting is a hassle, but occasionally it is what your group wants. Luckily, the way healing aggro works is your friend. You can stick down an Astral Shield with divinity and the mobs that spawn continuously, will chase you. Chains and Sunburst are both capped at five targets, but with good timing that works out to ten mobs that won't be hitting you at any one point. In addition, Sunburst heals your team as well as knocking away mobs.
PVP
At Will - Lance of Faith (Astral Seal if you took the recommended, alternate build).
At Will - Brand of the Sun
Encounter - Break the Spirit
Encounter - Forgemaster's Flame
Encounter - Astral Shield
Daily - Flame Strike
Daily - Hammer of Fate
Class - Holy Fervour
Class - Terrifying Insight
All about Divinity management. All of the encounters benefit from Divinity, Astral Shield is the priority here, the other two are situational. I haven't tested if the Breaking the Spirit debuff affects players, but assuming it does, this is great - a powerful, short-duration DOT that can couple with a second short-duration DOT.
PVP video - link . This isn't intended to demonstrate skill, it's to show that Astral Shield is an excellent thing in PVP and makes the cleric very worthwhile. The ability to solo other players (unless they're rogues who silence-lock you until you die) is very helpful as well.
Updated with changes from patch. I should say that I've decided to retire my cleric from being my main character - the state of the game at the moment is such that the cleric is boring and cookie-cutter for PVE, and comparatively weak in PVP. That and my Eurolag means PVP is often over before I get to interact with the game (get better pipes to Europe, PW!).
kasen420Member, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited August 2013
Just rolled up a new toon using this build as of 8/4/13. This will be my third toon, so far i'm level 26 and following this build step by step am having an absolute blast. I'll let you know further down the road how its going but thus far i'm stoked to have found this guide. much love, great job.
Member of Warlords of Destruction Guild
warlordsofdestruction.shivtr.com
Character List
Old St. Sativa - 12.2K GS Human Devoted Cleric - Divine Oracle - DPS Build
Drizzt Do'Urden - 11.5K GS Drow Hunter Ranger - Archery Build
Kronos - 10.8K GS Half-Elf Control Wizard - Spellstorm Mage - Thaumaturge + Stone
Kasen Satanbane - 11.4K GS Tiefling Trickster Rogue - Master Infiltrator - Executioner + Galeb Duhr
All mounted on a Heavy Worg
Just rolled up a new toon using this build as of 8/4/13. This will be my third toon, so far i'm level 26 and following this build step by step am having an absolute blast. I'll let you know further down the road how its going but thus far i'm stoked to have found this guide. much love, great job.
Thanks for the feedback!
The upcoming change to Hammer of Fate I'm not quite so bothered about for this build. A) it doesn't use +Power anyway (except incidentally in gear), so Hammer of Fate dropping from hitting for 14k to 8k isn't a massive difference. Every player worth hitting in PVP will either totally dodge this or pop some sort of mitigation power. That's happening already - HoF is a noobsniper. It still serves the primary purpose of making you un-knock-downable which is great. The 15% AP boost on a kill is a joke, since you won't be getting kills with Hammer of Fate.
The only question this opens up is whether it's worth using Hallowed Ground instead of Hammer of Fate, and hoping you can suck up the stunlocks whilst your team deals with the problem. Probably, if you're in a good team. Probably not, if you're in a poor team. But here's yet another reason to go Faithful.
And really, that's where Cryptic keep getting worse and worse. Making Faithful the only viable spec for any cleric regardless of their interest.
What Enchants are good for PvE and PvP? What Enchants do you use?
Nevermind this question I have figured out this answer a long time ago.
The only thing that annoys me is with these guides in general that people never seem to update their gearscore. I will become 15k+ gearscore DC with my main likely during this week and I actually met one 16k Devoted Cleric.
Ok I am not Elitist that was not my point. However seems all guides show up gear that is many months old and not only this guide I meant generally builds posted out there.
I have a real life friend who is a very casual player Control Wizard. It took him many months to become even max level. Right now my friend is 11k+ CW.
I respect all players regardless if they are casual or hardcore and regardless if they are free players or choose to use real money and that is also absolutely ok to do.
0
Options
elewyndylMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited January 2014
As promised delivered. My main is now 15,3k Cleric so above the 15k and can join the ELITE club for the Clerics:).
Yeah 16k+ should be possible at least for a Cleric. I think 15k is enough to say as Cleric that you belong to "ELITE club".
Rogue and Wizard roughly is same gs/performance. GWF and GF are NOT! A 16k Cleric would be like 25-30k Guardian Fighter. Great Weapon Fighter gets also insanely high gs but due to buffs with patches after release I would say that GWF is currently more powerful then GF if they have same gs usually. Ranger performance/gearscore I have difficult to estimate, but Ranger seems good in PvP and less good or needed in PvE Dungeons.
It does not matter so much to become Elite and my point is not that you must become Elite. For example my second Cleric that is more PvE build is 12,8k and does fine many Dungeons and PvP a lot of has to do with the build and to know right tactics for the Battle.
Why do I "troll" this thread is perhaps that both my Clerics are hybrid PvE/PvP builds though not 100% same as this build in this thread. It is a bit subjective taste what to consider best build and yes my main Cleric with higher gs is slightly more PvP build though still hybrid PvE/PvP.
16k on DC is easily achievable thanks to artifacts and the companion bonus system, but as elewyndyl said, GS isn't all that. My DC is around 15.5k but could be pushed higher if I threw a different artifact or companion bonus on him, but I have his stats more or less where I want them. In contrast I've seen DCs over 16k with mixed sets and wacky stat distributions that would make them less effective than a well-planned 12k build.
16k on DC is easily achievable thanks to artifacts and the companion bonus system, but as elewyndyl said, GS isn't all that. My DC is around 15.5k but could be pushed higher if I threw a different artifact or companion bonus on him, but I have his stats more or less where I want them. In contrast I've seen DCs over 16k with mixed sets and wacky stat distributions that would make them less effective than a well-planned 12k build.
I don't know if companion bonus or 16k is so "easy" to achieve for a 100% free player as I am. I certainly don't have any bonus from companions a thing I would at some point improve.
That said if I have understood it correctly then companions are not valid and neither are their bonuses in PvP. Artifact bonuses are 100% valid in PvP.
Regarding stat pushing it also has to do what you like most PvE or PvP. My 15,3k Cleric is more PvP build and my Cleric 12,9k though neither of them are some "tank" Cleric with CON max. Even when my PvP Cleric had same gs as my more PvE oriented Cleric he got more kills in PvP, but my 12,9k Cleric does very well in Dungeons since he has excellent healing ability performance/gearscore.
As it is while both my Clerics are hybrid(PvE/PvP) they certainly do NOT have same stats and not exactly same feats.
GS is irrelevant for a DC to be placed in elite group. Reason? If u planned to heal well, then do so, by proving it in pvp u get the respect. The same way goes to DPS ,Tank and Buff DC. If you cant, then even a gs of 17k above is a waste for you. Don't say how the dungeon is tough or can glitch etc, i don't know all about it. I currently have 11.999k gs with a T1 HP set, making my pug teammate enjoy pvp and let the opposite cry. Btw my cleric isn't a pve healer or pvp tanker, i create him as a hybrid heal/buffer so please don't say my cleric can excel in pvp because i am tanky but cant even heal in a T2 dungeon.
0
Options
elewyndylMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
GS is irrelevant for a DC to be placed in elite group. Reason? If u planned to heal well, then do so, by proving it in pvp u get the respect. The same way goes to DPS ,Tank and Buff DC. If you cant, then even a gs of 17k above is a waste for you. Don't say how the dungeon is tough or can glitch etc, i don't know all about it. I currently have 11.999k gs with a T1 HP set, making my pug teammate enjoy pvp and let the opposite cry. Btw my cleric isn't a pve healer or pvp tanker, i create him as a hybrid heal/buffer so please don't say my cleric can excel in pvp because i am tanky but cant even heal in a T2 dungeon.
Ok so you got good PvP Guild, well that is good for you. My guild sucks we never do PvP or Dungeons together and I will soon change Guild though I have a nice very good real life friend a casual player that is 11k+ Control Wizard. The nearest that I come to Guild PvP run is when my real life friend plays with me and yes he is in the same guild as my characters are.
Please don't talk about glitches because it is forbidden to use and anyway Cryptic does their best to patch any possible glitches that might exist.
First time I did successfully Castle Never 4/4 I had 10.5k gs, but I know that Castle Never is due to patches harder now so don't know if Cleric 11k is good for that anymore since none of my Clerics are so little gs anymore.
Seems to me that you do well with you Guild, but you see my best Cleric does well with pugs in PvP and yes sometimes my real life friend 11k+ CW is with me.
Ok so you got good PvP Guild, well that is good for you.
Just a thing to add, i usually do PuG pvp unless i log in when my guildmates recruiting ppl for pvp. Ask those pug or frequent pvpers, they may saw me often.
I...go...PuG...
"Elf says pvp with leavers and newbies are boring."
0
Options
elewyndylMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
Just a thing to add, i usually do PuG pvp unless i log in when my guildmates recruiting ppl for pvp. Ask those pug or frequent pvpers, they may saw me often.
I...go...PuG...
"Elf says pvp with leavers and newbies are boring."
PvP with leavers is boring agree on that. That is perhaps the biggest problem with PvP currently. It should work that every time a player leaves they are banned 15 minutes from PvP queing and are immediately replaced with another player.
If I remember correctly in WOW they had time ban for those who left in the middle of PvP. Now it is all to easy for players to leave the game and get no penalty.
Newbies well everyone has to start somewhere. I have more problems with rude people in Dungeons who scream to me to kick some newbie player for 1 tiny mistake. In those cases I say to them calm down but of course if a newbie repeatedly does mistakes or act as very drunk I might kick him.
I actually played in WOW with a drunk player. I asked why on earth do you run towards walls and seem disoriented? He said he was drunk and I believe him and it was weekend night. It was only PvP so I accepted the situation for what it was. He was at least better then a bot running around with no clue what to do and a bit funny to watch him do PvP.
the link with the data on the build doesn't seem to work. Points were in weird places like 5 points at the end of paragon skills which usually only allow for the choice of 1 and only for 1 point in the feats section. The powers weren't all chosen , they were only up to a certain point and none of the end powers were chosen (which I would think would help in the DPS role.
Comments
Very similar, and when I swap out my skills for end bosses I can surpass my Faithful aligned wife's cleric - depending on how lucky I've been with those critical heals.
But, coming up into and in T1s; I often times out DPSed same/similar GS party members. Very viable cleric and really requires the player to use his noodle to adapt to the battle scenario for efficacy.
Dimly Witty Productions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In your video why do you have Divine fortune as passive ? I know it doesnt generate divinity from AShield so i wonder why you have it... does it proc on repurpose or something?
Hahahaha u think we have the same living situation, my wife is a cleric (i specced her faithful for her) She main heals while i dps/buff/debuff
its fun ;-)
Yes they do stack with another cleric (both abilities).
When I leveled as Virtuous, it didn't really matter which stats I got as I was still able to do all the dungeons. I went for any green/blue with recov/crit/power.
I was probably testing it at the time. I often forget to switch around my Class skills.
You mean ducking into and out of Divinity mode? I'm not sure why they would remove that, manage divinity is key to the way the class works. Anything that reduced our ability to cast with Divinity would be a huge mechanical change and make the class a lot less interactive to play.
Thank you. I do PVP more than I do dungeons, so Holy Resolve I found very good. I'd possibly take one point out from it and put it in Toughness, but Holy Resolve is definitely worth one point.
It depends heavily on group composition (which was also true pre-AS nerf). If your group is good at gathering trash (e.g. two CWs using Arcane Singularity) then you can even come top whilst being solo healer. If not, your DPS will suffer heavily, or at least mine does.
I'd be using the alternative spec right now, especially since I don't think Focused Poise works as intended. I'm going to look around the forums to see if I can find any details on Disciple of Healing Lore, and Divine Glow (and whether they work or not). I'd probably respec if they do, and I'll update the post.
A note on Hammer of Fate - this is invaluable in PVP. It's about the only good way to stop being knockdown-locked to death by a well-geared Guardian Fighter, because it makes you immune, and it also does them a load of damage since they aren't using their shield when they start the death-cycle.
Edit: Looks like Disciple of Healing has a ~5% proc rate that doesn't fire off Spellplagued.
It's going to be very difficult to give an ArPen importance, since I don't have the required equipment/runes to test it properly. I've got a feeling it'd be competing for space with Recovery and Crit, which isn't good. Recovery after the AS nerf is not as good as it was, but I find it a challenge to get my Def runes and my Crit runes as high as I want them (different slots, but there's gear flexibility there). I don't think there's much value in ArPen in PVE, since many mobs have very little armour. PVP has a lot more going for it, but when I last checked a spreadsheet into ArPen values, the only way to get a decent score would be to sacrifice a LOT of Crit (possibly then also taking the ArPen feat). Given my experience with highly armoured classes like GF/GWF is either a) I'm stunlocked and die, or b) I have my Daily available and can Hammer of Fate to ignore the knockdown and win, I don't know what benefit ArPen will get me.
Aim
The purpose of this build/post is to provide a DPS-focused build for the Devoted Cleric with the Divine Oracle paragon path (the only one available, at time of writing). I say "DPS focused" but, boasting aside, this build provides good DPS but your chances of coming top of the DPS charts are very low, unless you're grouped with a terrible rogue, a poor wizard, or a mediocre Great Weapon Fighter (perhaps in that order). Not that the DPS hybrid cleric should aim to come top: your role is to do decent damage, whilst also providing support and flexibility to a group. You can solo heal a Tier 2 dungeon (I haven't tried Castle Never), but you'll be happier if another cleric is the dedicated healer. That frees you up to tailor your encounter powers exactly how you want them, without being tied down to just a select few. A lot of other cleric posts and videos go through powers in a lot of detail, I'm not going to do that - check out the other cleric builds in the Master List for links.
Instead, I'm going to focus on the different roles you can play, and how you support this with powers and feats. There are a few separate notes on feats and powers (especially see Divine Glow).
But why not go Faithful?
The Faithful spec is fantastic, but some of us just don't enjoy healing in PVE that much and want to try something different. The Virtuous path lacks the powerful buff to Hallowed Ground, and some damage mitigation from the Foresight buff. But in exchange, you get a very active playstyle that lets you do large amounts of AE damage, build up to dailies very fast, and contribute to your team. Crucially, you can main-heal a lot of content (possibly all of it) but be a very solid DPS and add-manager if there's another priest in the group. You're a jack of all trades, which means you're a master of none, but you can always bring something to the party (how many mixed metaphors?).
There are currently five excellent Faithful-path healer cleric builds up on the forum, with a lot of discussion and information attached. The Virtuous cleric doesn't have that, but hopefully I can provide a little education here. In game I spend more time playing with the Foundry or roleplaying than I do in PVP or PVE, but I've had a decent amount of experience in both (almost 3-manned epic Trayven Blackdagger with a TR and CW, until a running-out-of-potions problem). This build is great for grinding, soloing, and Foundry quests. In PVP it tends to die fast to groups (such is the Cleric's lot), but that's probably an artefact of the way I've geared up ... but then again, a rogue stacking Armour Penetration (or Smoke Bomb ... ) can probably slice through most clerics builds.
Creation
Previous attempts to include a link to my build from an online character calculator have failed for some reason, so I attach screenshots. My character was rolled up as Human with 16 STR, 16 WIS, and 12 CHA. I put my discretionary +2 in STR. This is because my build relies on critical hits to build Divinity fast, and STR determines crits for clerics (for more information, see the official Wiki page on clerics. This also gives me +3 Heroic Feat points, but they're not essential (although it has to be said, they're very nice).
At my current gearscore (9.1 k), I'm sitting at 32.5% to crit, 36% faster cooldowns, and 35% action point bonuses. I had better bonuses than this with worse gear, but I had to switch out ++Recovery, +Critical gear simply to get access to later level zones. Gearing priority is +Recovery, then +Critical Strike, then +hit points. Utility enchants are Movement. I don't have a Cat pet yet, so I can't advise - I'm too busy trying to train up the many other pets I have.
STR - 16 (+2 racial bonus)
DEX - 10
CON - 10
INT - 10
WIS - 16
CHA - 12
STR and CHA raised during levelling.
Notes on Powers
Rule of Five: Most area effect powers only hit 5 mobs at once.
Synchronous Criticals: If you're in Divinity mode, many area effect spells seem to crit EVERY target if you crit at all (that or my Flame Strike and Daunting Light are probability-bustingly lucky). This means you can burst hard. Annoyingly this isn't always the case (I've had Divine Glow crit 4 out of 5 targets). (Note that Hammer of Fate only hits one target and hits it multiple times, so each hit may or may not be a critical regardless of whether other hits are criticals or not). I don't know if this is some weird thing going on with the RNG in combat.
My Big Assumption: you see two numbers in your damage log when you attack something. I assume the first number is the damage you do, and the second number is the damage you would do if the enemy had no defence or mitigation whatsoever.
Searing Light: this is an exception to the rule of five. With Divinity, Searing Light will hit 5 mobs if they are all in a line. This will cause one explosion to each mob in the line, and each explosion can hit 5 targets for half damage. So you get a maximum of 5 mobs for full damage, and 25 mobs for half damage. This is great, in the incredibly unlikely situation that you have five lined up mobs each of which is surrounded by another five mobs. In practice, I've got this to hit 23 mobs (so 25 is an assumption, but it seems logical). If you're one of those people who likes to spend all day in a Foundry quest where there are 50 mobs sat in a pit that can't get to your, then maybe put this up to three points and don't take anything in Prophecy of Doom or Healer's Lore.
Divine Glow: it is my belief that this power is bugged. Over a series of casts (n=30) WITHOUT the Divine Glow buff, I did an average of 912 damage (non-crit) with Lance of Faith, and 1463 (crit) against orcs. Over n=30 casts WITH Divine Glow, I did an average of 780 damage (non-crit) with Lance of Faith, and 1273 (crit) against orcs. The difference here is 15%. I believe (and this may be wrong, if I had time/inclination to do more tests it may be discounted) that Cryptic intended the Divine Glow buff to increase damage output by 15%, but instead made it decrease damage output by 15%. Oops! Not to mention, if you are under the effects of Divine Glow, your potential damage (given in brackets in the log) ends up lower than your actual damage. Maybe it would buff my teammates but I haven't found anyone to do tests, and I'd be surprised if it reduced my damage to increase theirs. I suspect that people who claim it "hugely increases" damage output haven't so much done tests as fallen foul of Confirmation Bias. However, it still does good damage over a wide area - so I use it and try to avoid "buffing" myself/my party with it.
Daunting Light: this is a great power for damage, and made even better by the Nimbus of Light feat.
Forgemaster's Flame: DOT lasts for 3 ticks, this is a good heal that can crit.
Chains of Blazing Light: damage from this is not actually split amongst mobs. It's reduced by between 15 and 20% per mob that it hits, I'd say 20% is probably accurate.
Break the Spirit: seems to reduce mob damage by 30%. DOT that lasts for 5 ticks, stun seems incredibly brief, threat reduction is unknown.
Hammer of Faith: repeated multiple hits and pushback. Great at sniping low health people in PVP, because either by lag or design, the Hammer follows your targets.
Heroic Feats
Healing Action: at first glance, Toughness is better for a DPS build. However, I think (haven't tested) that divine Astral Shield counts for this (due to the green text). I also know that, if I want to heal, I want to be generating more Action Points. Hallowed Ground going down is where, in some boss fights, you get time to
build up Divinity for the next Astral Shield, let your potion cooldowns tick over, and make sure your positioning is good.
Domain Synergy: Recovery is key to this build - it's no good getting lots of Divinity if your Encounters are on cooldown.
Weapon Mastery: 3% Critical is great.
Holy Resolve: not dying is also great.
Repurpose Soul: you will crit a lot, this provides some nice topup healing.
Bountiful Fortune: if you're kiting (especially), every bit of Divinity gain helps.
Of those feats, Holy Resolve and Repurpose Soul are probably the best to drop if you're not human/want a different Heroic feat.
Alternate Heroic Feats:
Templar's Domain: if you only do PVP, and you're planning to socket for Armour Penetration (there's precious little on our gear), this *may* be worth it. PVP is the environment where spiky damage is vital, and this is spiky damage.
Cleanse: most dedicated healer clerics have this. Unless debuffs have a huge spike in impact past Tier 2, I don't think it's essential so much as "nice". However, you may have a particular reason to want it.
Notes on Paragon Feats
Rising Hope: Power is a stat that scales badly (I've not done the maths myself, but I'm happy to believe this). Recovery is a stat that scales well, and it's a stat this build pumps as high as possible at high levels. Therefore the chance to get 15% more of it for 2.5 minutes is excellent. I'm not sure what the proc rate is precisely, but it is noticeable.
Power of the Sun: Brand of the Sun is a fantastic ability. High divinity generation, decent AP generation, ongoing damage. This makes it even better. If nothing else, you can keep it up on a boss and reduce your team's incoming damage. Sadly, testing (n=12) indicates that it doesn't lower mob damage.
Nimbus of Light: Using Daunting Light against level 60 'tough' mobs, it changes their mitigation from Lance of Faith from about 8.5% to about 0.3%. I've not been able to do controlled tests in PVP, but if it translates into PVP at the same level, it would make this a must-have.
Focused Poise: I don't like the design of a feat that gets worse as your gear improves (the more criticals you do, the less this is useful). In fact, this feat is only here as filler to get to Cycle of Change.
Cycle of Change: on paper, this is okay. If you're doing dedicated healing, then this may pop. But I haven't seen a buff pop from Forgemaster's Flame, and I haven't seen it proc from Astral Shield, and I haven't seen it proc from Astral Seal. If I were to respec, I'd ditch this until it's fixed or someone can explain which powers it works from that this build is likely to use.
Alternate Paragon Feats If I was to respec, I would take these alternate feats
Dropping Focused Poise and Cycle of Change gets us 6 points. Luckily, these are easy to spend.
Power of Oppression: debuffs target of Astral Seal for -5% damage. Stacked with Power and Brand of the Sun, this is either -10% damage (two lots of -5%), -5% crit; or -9.75% damage (mob at 95% damage, then at 95% damage of that), and -5% crit. That's some potent debuffing and removal of damage spikes.
Healing Step: 1% hit points isn't impressive (220 for me). But the extra stamina regen isn't bad, although not great. However ...
Righteous Flames: some mobs aren't lifted up by Flamestrike, but a 0.1 second stun interrupts their spell casts.
Potential Roles
Bread and butter - grinding/Foundry/trash as DPS:
At Will - Lance of Faith
At Will - Brand of the Sun
Encounter - Divine Glow
Encounter - Daunting Light
Encounter - Astral Shield
Daily - Flame Strike
Daily - Hammer of Fate
Class - Holy Fervour
Class - Terrifying Insight
This is all about doing as much damage as possible to clear out the trash mobs, so you can sit in Astral Shield and DPS down the big mobs. Very simple, very fast. You use Divine Glow to pull them in (large area) which will make them cluster around you, then you use Daunting Light (ideally with Divinity) to damage them. Then you use Astral Shield (definitely with Divinity) to mitigate damage and start healing yourself. Once you're left with a few tough mobs, you can Lance of Faith them to death very quickly. Flame Strike is good at killing multiples (and if it crits, everything will crit). Holy Fervour and Terrifying Insight fill up your Inspiration inbox.
Tier One - trash (as healer)
At Will - Lance of Faith
At Will - Astral Seal
Encounter - Daunting Light
Encounter - Forgemaster's Flame
Encounter - Astral Shield
Daily - Flame Strike
Daily - Hammer of Fate
Class - Holy Fervour
Class - Terrifying Insight
Similar to the grinding loadout, but with Astral Seal and Forgemaster's Flame for extra healing. Daunting Light is in, because we don't want to nerf our own damage as with Divine Glow, and in most dungeon groups, you won't to pull with Divine Glow because someone else will already be there. Plus, Daunting Light does great damage and a defence debuff.
Tier One - bosses (as DPS)
At Will - Brand of the Sun
At Will - Astral Seal
Encounter - Break the Spirit (Searing Light if you have a Control Wizard who you can coordinate spells with, who has Arcane Singularity slotted, and if there are vast amounts of mobs)
Encounter - Daunting Light
Encounter - Forgemaster's Flame (Astral Shield if the group needs more help with healing)
Daily - Hallowed Ground
Daily - Hammer of Fate
Class - Holy Fervour
Class - Terrifying Insight
As a DPS, you can still serve your party by debuffing and healing. It helps that Break the Spirit and Forgemaster's do good single target damage (albeit over time). Brand lets you dot up multiple mobs whilst reducing their damage output, and Astral Seal helps put you up the healing meters - whether or not you need healing. Between the two of them, they generate divinity fast.
Tier One - bosses (as healer)
At Will - Brand of the Sun
At Will - Astral Seal
Encounter - Break the Spirit
Encounter - Forgemaster's Flame
Encounter - Astral Shield
Daily - Hallowed Grounds
Daily - Hammer of Fate (Flame Strike if adds will cause you an issue)
Class - Holy Fervour (Divine Fortune, if adds are killing you fast)
Class - Terrifying Insight (Foresight, if adds are killing you fast)
Break the Spirit gets a look-in here, debuffing the boss - if the 30% figure is correct, this is a great talent. Hammer of Fate is in instead of Flame Strike because Flame Strike does rather poor damage to single targets (if you're going to be killing adds, then you can keep Flame Strike in). Hammer of Fate lets you stand still and take minimal damage from many boss attacks, which helps with stamina management and for building Divinity. Also I've had crits of over 34k with it, which is nice. Brand of the Sun and Astral Seal combine to give you high Divinity gaining attacks.
Tier One - bosses (as kiter)
At Will - Brand of the Sun
At Will - Astral Seal
Encounter - Chains of Blazing Light
Encounter - Sunburst
Encounter - Astral Shield
Daily - Hallowed Grounds
Daily - Flame Strike if adds will cause you an issue
Class - Divine Fortune
Class - Foresight
Kiting is a hassle, but occasionally it is what your group wants. Luckily, the way healing aggro works is your friend. You can stick down an Astral Shield with divinity and the mobs that spawn continuously, will chase you. Chains and Sunburst are both capped at five targets, but with good timing that works out to ten mobs that won't be hitting you at any one point. In addition, Sunburst heals your team as well as knocking away mobs.
PVP
At Will - Lance of Faith (Astral Seal if you took the recommended, alternate build).
At Will - Brand of the Sun
Encounter - Break the Spirit
Encounter - Forgemaster's Flame
Encounter - Astral Shield
Daily - Flame Strike
Daily - Hammer of Fate
Class - Holy Fervour
Class - Terrifying Insight
All about Divinity management. All of the encounters benefit from Divinity, Astral Shield is the priority here, the other two are situational. I haven't tested if the Breaking the Spirit debuff affects players, but assuming it does, this is great - a powerful, short-duration DOT that can couple with a second short-duration DOT.
PVP video - link . This isn't intended to demonstrate skill, it's to show that Astral Shield is an excellent thing in PVP and makes the cleric very worthwhile. The ability to solo other players (unless they're rogues who silence-lock you until you die) is very helpful as well.
warlordsofdestruction.shivtr.com
Character List
Old St. Sativa - 12.2K GS Human Devoted Cleric - Divine Oracle - DPS Build
Drizzt Do'Urden - 11.5K GS Drow Hunter Ranger - Archery Build
Kronos - 10.8K GS Half-Elf Control Wizard - Spellstorm Mage - Thaumaturge + Stone
Kasen Satanbane - 11.4K GS Tiefling Trickster Rogue - Master Infiltrator - Executioner + Galeb Duhr
All mounted on a Heavy Worg
Thanks for the feedback!
The upcoming change to Hammer of Fate I'm not quite so bothered about for this build. A) it doesn't use +Power anyway (except incidentally in gear), so Hammer of Fate dropping from hitting for 14k to 8k isn't a massive difference.
The only question this opens up is whether it's worth using Hallowed Ground instead of Hammer of Fate, and hoping you can suck up the stunlocks whilst your team deals with the problem. Probably, if you're in a good team. Probably not, if you're in a poor team. But here's yet another reason to go Faithful.
And really, that's where Cryptic keep getting worse and worse. Making Faithful the only viable spec for any cleric regardless of their interest.
Do you mind if I add your guide to http://mmominds.com?
Thank you
The only thing that annoys me is with these guides in general that people never seem to update their gearscore. I will become 15k+ gearscore DC with my main likely during this week and I actually met one 16k Devoted Cleric.
Ok I am not Elitist that was not my point. However seems all guides show up gear that is many months old and not only this guide I meant generally builds posted out there.
I have a real life friend who is a very casual player Control Wizard. It took him many months to become even max level. Right now my friend is 11k+ CW.
I respect all players regardless if they are casual or hardcore and regardless if they are free players or choose to use real money and that is also absolutely ok to do.
Yeah 16k+ should be possible at least for a Cleric. I think 15k is enough to say as Cleric that you belong to "ELITE club".
Rogue and Wizard roughly is same gs/performance. GWF and GF are NOT! A 16k Cleric would be like 25-30k Guardian Fighter. Great Weapon Fighter gets also insanely high gs but due to buffs with patches after release I would say that GWF is currently more powerful then GF if they have same gs usually. Ranger performance/gearscore I have difficult to estimate, but Ranger seems good in PvP and less good or needed in PvE Dungeons.
It does not matter so much to become Elite and my point is not that you must become Elite. For example my second Cleric that is more PvE build is 12,8k and does fine many Dungeons and PvP a lot of has to do with the build and to know right tactics for the Battle.
Why do I "troll" this thread is perhaps that both my Clerics are hybrid PvE/PvP builds though not 100% same as this build in this thread. It is a bit subjective taste what to consider best build and yes my main Cleric with higher gs is slightly more PvP build though still hybrid PvE/PvP.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
That said if I have understood it correctly then companions are not valid and neither are their bonuses in PvP. Artifact bonuses are 100% valid in PvP.
Regarding stat pushing it also has to do what you like most PvE or PvP. My 15,3k Cleric is more PvP build and my Cleric 12,9k though neither of them are some "tank" Cleric with CON max. Even when my PvP Cleric had same gs as my more PvE oriented Cleric he got more kills in PvP, but my 12,9k Cleric does very well in Dungeons since he has excellent healing ability performance/gearscore.
As it is while both my Clerics are hybrid(PvE/PvP) they certainly do NOT have same stats and not exactly same feats.
Please don't talk about glitches because it is forbidden to use and anyway Cryptic does their best to patch any possible glitches that might exist.
First time I did successfully Castle Never 4/4 I had 10.5k gs, but I know that Castle Never is due to patches harder now so don't know if Cleric 11k is good for that anymore since none of my Clerics are so little gs anymore.
Seems to me that you do well with you Guild, but you see my best Cleric does well with pugs in PvP and yes sometimes my real life friend 11k+ CW is with me.
Just a thing to add, i usually do PuG pvp unless i log in when my guildmates recruiting ppl for pvp. Ask those pug or frequent pvpers, they may saw me often.
I...go...PuG...
"Elf says pvp with leavers and newbies are boring."
If I remember correctly in WOW they had time ban for those who left in the middle of PvP. Now it is all to easy for players to leave the game and get no penalty.
Newbies well everyone has to start somewhere. I have more problems with rude people in Dungeons who scream to me to kick some newbie player for 1 tiny mistake. In those cases I say to them calm down but of course if a newbie repeatedly does mistakes or act as very drunk I might kick him.
I actually played in WOW with a drunk player. I asked why on earth do you run towards walls and seem disoriented? He said he was drunk and I believe him and it was weekend night. It was only PvP so I accepted the situation for what it was. He was at least better then a bot running around with no clue what to do and a bit funny to watch him do PvP.