The first thing to learn about doing a DC build is that almost none of the feats or powers do what their tooltips say. Ignore all tooltips.Ignore all tooltips.Ignore all tooltips. Either do your own testing or come read the results of others' testing on the forums.
My personal recommendation is to focus on getting the highest crit strike chance that you can. So go for the highest STR that you can. After that, focus on WIS. I wouldn't be too worried about Recovery and Recharge Speed. Some DC's try to maximize this to have maximum uptime on Astral Shield. But then end up with a 1s shorter cooldown, but are seriously gimped. You can have 40% easily if you don't obsess with Recovery and Recharge. And it's far more useful than 1 extra second of Astral Shield.
As far as I'm concerned, there's only one way to go with Heroic Feats:
The feats I didn't take are useless. Cleanse only needs 1 to be effective. With the frequency of healing, it should proc reliably when it's cooldown is up with just one point. Same for Templar's Domain. It has an internal cooldown that make 1 point use as useful as 5. And yes, ArmorPen is good, ignore all the naysayers. After you soft-cap Recovery and Crit, ArmorPen is the next best stat for us.
Some abilities are over-hyped in the DC community. I do not recommend Linked Spirit or Moontouched. They just aren't that great. Diminishing returns make Linked Spirit not nearly as good as it seems. The healing from Moontouched just isn't that great for 5 feat points, especially with our AP generation nerf.
Benefit of Foresight is good, if you don't mind having Foresight permanently slotted. Bountiful Fortune is worth putting a point into, even if it's of minimal value simply because 1 or 2 points will keep it up permanently. I hear Healing Step is a great talent if you want to go Righteous. I think Divine Advantage is very underrated. It turns out to be a minimum of 12% damage mitigation anytime you are flanked by enemies. A better question would be: when AREN'T your flanked by swarms of adds? Right. And it's another one you don't need 5/5 in to keep almost full uptime. Even Astral Seal will proc it, and most mobs people are hitting should have Seal on them.
As for Powers, I would say leave 1/3 in Lance, and put 3/3 in the rest of the At-Wills. Just go 1/1 in Hammer and Flamestrike since they have been nerfed so hard they're useless now. (But 1 still lets you use them for their minimal CC function.) Divine Armor is 3/3. I have heard mixed things about the benefit of ranking up Hallowed Ground, but get at least 1 rank. Hold off on the rest until you find answer as to whether ranking it up more is useful. (Some say if the base is 30%, then rank 3 adds 10% OF 30%, or 3%. So Rank 1 = 30% and Rank 3 = 33%)
Encounters 3/3: Sunburst, Healing Word, Searing Light, Daunting Light, Forgemaster's Flame, Bastion of Health, Prophecy of Doom, Divine Glow, Astral Shield
Features 3/3: Healer's Lore, Holy Fervor, Foresight, Terrifying Insight, (Divine Fortune if you think you'll ever use it. It's kinda hard to figure out when it it will work and when it won't.)
Put 1 into everything else except: Soothe, Prophetic Action. Leave them at zero, they're useless.
Practice swapping your powers out in combat. You may need to do it a lot.
One last bit of advice: Learn to love divine Searing Light. With high crit, you can almost be assured a lot of healing to anyone nearby if you through it into a dense pack of mobs. It will also put you on top of the damage charts and make clearing trash much faster.
I'm not sure what you're saying. Are you suggesting Healing Action isn't a waste of feat points and the tests I linked to are wrong?
healing action is complete trash...im saying the guy in the first post isnt the one giving advice he is the one being advised. which is why you didnt know the context when you stopped reading at the point you said you did :P
Playing with Healing Step makes trying to play without it slightly painful. Almost (but not quite) makes up for having Dodge consume half your stamina.
For your best leveling experience, I would follow the recommendation to stack STR and WIS. It's not the only viable option at end game, but it's certain not to gimp you. Once you are 60 and putting together your gear, you will develop a better idea of which direction you want to go and can choose to reallocate your stat points if appropriate.
A lot of it depends on what sorts of enchants you are slotting and what quality you are choosing. The less powerful your enchantments, the more dependent you will be on your gear's base stats. Also, those base stats will likely influence your stat allocations somewhat.
And yes, feats that boost your AP gain from X type of action are generally trash. I second whistlingdixie's Heroic Feat suggestions, although I'm not incredibly keen on the ArP feat because I play full support style in PvP and attack to build DP and harass opponents. I have a spare ArP-stacked augment cat that I pull out for taking care of daily PvE content. In any case, if you fancy yourself more of a hybrid dps cleric in dungeons or PvP, you will find some use for ArP. If your usual power load-out in group PvE consists of AS, Sunburst, and HW or BoH, then ArP will not be a priority.
ignore the heroic feats that add percentages to stats such as armour pen, crit and recovery...Those are all a waste.
At 60 with good gear, the % gained from those feats is negligable, and you will be at the soft caps without using those feats. spend the points elsewhere.
And why would you want a % increase in armour pen? Only the new set has armour pen, and a 3% of zero is still 0, so its a total waste.
ignore the heroic feats that add percentages to stats such as armour pen, crit and recovery...Those are all a waste.
At 60 with good gear, the % gained from those feats is negligable, and you will be at the soft caps without using those feats. spend the points elsewhere.
And why would you want a % increase in armour pen? Only the new set has armour pen, and a 3% of zero is still 0, so its a total waste.
Not a waste if you slot dark enchants in offense slots, but yeah templar's domain is only worth putting in 2 points max (even then usually only 1 point unless you spec for damage).
ignore the heroic feats that add percentages to stats such as armour pen, crit and recovery...Those are all a waste.
At 60 with good gear, the % gained from those feats is negligable, and you will be at the soft caps without using those feats. spend the points elsewhere.
And why would you want a % increase in armour pen? Only the new set has armour pen, and a 3% of zero is still 0, so its a total waste.
[sarcasm] Yeah having a higher recovery and crit is so bad for a DC. Really why does a DC need Crit and Recovery.... [/sarcasm]
I get your point from the Arp, it's not needed for a healing specced DC. I actually have put 1 point on Templar's Domain, I don't have any Arp (yet) but as a Human you have 3 extra feats.
I find Holy Resolve very useless, really do you think the 15% temp hp will help? (than I won't even talk about the huge cooldown) No, that's just a waste of 3 points. Rather have the 3% extra recovery of Domain Synergy than (i got 5 points on it so 5% extra). That with Rising Hope gives you a very nice boost to your recovery. I got like ~52% AP gain, I can pretty spam Hallowed Ground/Divine Armor which can be very helpfull in both PvP and PvE. Than I'm not even using Sunburst, which I never use for my build anyways. Higher recovery means you can spam Encounters faster, which is helpfull for AP/Divine gain but also for DPS and Healing. I'm using Etheral Boon also to get the 10% Divine on cooldowns, believe me I found this very usefull for both PvP and PvE.
Just use the right combinations .
But to anwser the question in the title, there isn't really "a best build" for the DC. Healing and DPS Clerics usually have very different builds and both are good in what they do. I'm using my own build for DC and I use the same powers (At-Will, Encounter, Daily, Passives) for PvP and PvE. All my points are in Power, Crit, Recovery and Defense atm.
Ditto, holy resolve is outstanding. I only have one point in it, and it's still a life saver. Plus if stuff is pretty frantic and you're trying to keep an eye on too many things at once, seeing HOLY RESOLVE flash up on your screen is a great kick up the backside to get your priorities sorted.
The problem with domain synergy is that by the time it's contributing a significant amount of recovery, recovery is already so softcapped that you don't need the extra anyway. At 3k recovery it's only giving you 150 extra, with 5 whole feat points. That's a single level 6 enchant.
I didnt say DC's dont need recovery crit. My build has 3k recovery without the % increase from the feat. Miracle healer set is loaded with recovery. so the feat domain snyergy would give me 150 extra recovery which i dont need because im already over the soft cap. Same deal with crit, its already at almost 3k without the feat so any increase gained from putting feat points would be useless because im over the soft cap. I prefer to use the points on things i cant otherwise get by slotting enchants. i.e. repurposeful soul n holy resolve rather than adding to stats that are already over the soft cap. I did use domain synergy prior to 60, but once i got to 60 and respecced i found it was not needed.
Ditto, holy resolve is outstanding. I only have one point in it, and it's still a life saver. Plus if stuff is pretty frantic and you're trying to keep an eye on too many things at once, seeing HOLY RESOLVE flash up on your screen is a great kick up the backside to get your priorities sorted.
The problem with domain synergy is that by the time it's contributing a significant amount of recovery, recovery is already so softcapped that you don't need the extra anyway. At 3k recovery it's only giving you 150 extra, with 5 whole feat points. That's a single level 6 enchant.
Oh well that's the good thing that everyone is using diff builds.
I still don't find a reason to spend 3 feats on a feat which can only spawn once in the 5 min. That's just huge, which isn't helpfull for PvP or boss fights. I usually only die if I get perm proned/stunned, by huge burst DPS or by a "gangrape". In these cases Holy Resolve is just useless, the 15% temp hp ~ 3300HP isn't going to help me with that.
Than I rather have the 150 recovery extra, it's not much but still it's a permanent buff. It's get little bit more with Rising Hope also. Also you can't really compare it to a enchantment .. you can only have 6 offensive enchants (or 7 if you use a beserker belt). So using one slot for getting 150 more recovery doesn't make sense to me :P.
My build has 3k recovery without the % increase from the feat. Miracle healer set is loaded with recovery. so the feat domain snyergy would give me 150 extra recovery which i dont need because im already over the soft cap. Same deal with crit, its already at almost 3k without the feat so any increase gained from putting feat points would be useless because im over the soft cap.
I'm not using Miracle Healer's but the other T2 gear (for 450 power and crit). Also I'm not a healing specced cleric, so the set bonus isn't that interesting for me. But about which Crit feat you're talking about? Cause 1 Crit feat gives 3% more chance to make a crit hit, not 3% more critical strike. So especially for the dimishing returns this feat is usefull. Initiate of the Faith is indeed crappy, that's not worth putting any points into it. Oh and I dind't say Repurpose Soul was bad, I'm having 3 points in this feat. It gives nice HP, especially with crit hits from Daunting Light.
And I don't really have something better to put the 5 feat points anyways I already having 3 more because I'm Human.
Probably initiate of the faith: it's terrible. (1% of my power as crit! Gosh! Totes worth 5 points)
As for holy resolve...meh, you'd be surprised how fast those 5 minute cooldowns go. Given that it pretty much only procs when you're about to die, each time it procs...it has probably saved your life. And let's be honest, if you need your life saved more than once every 5 minutes, you probably want to have stern words with your CW and GF.
It's certainly worth at least one or two points. Also, it annoys TRs in PvP. And that's never a bad thing.
Diminishing returns make Linked Spirit not nearly as good as it seems.
Bountiful Fortune is worth putting a point into, even if it's of minimal value simply because 1 or 2 points will keep it up permanently.
The BIG difference here is that LS increases the power, crit and defense of everyone in your party and BF only increases YOUR recovery and power.
Comments
But jokes aside. There are no best builds for cleric, because any spec is bad.
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?468831-My-DC-s-Divinity-amp-AP-maximizing-build-%28suggestions-welcome%29
Stop right there. When I am looking at the build and the first thing I see is:
Healing Action 5/5
I stop reading.
http://clericguide.com/healing-action/
The first thing to learn about doing a DC build is that almost none of the feats or powers do what their tooltips say. Ignore all tooltips. Ignore all tooltips. Ignore all tooltips. Either do your own testing or come read the results of others' testing on the forums.
My personal recommendation is to focus on getting the highest crit strike chance that you can. So go for the highest STR that you can. After that, focus on WIS. I wouldn't be too worried about Recovery and Recharge Speed. Some DC's try to maximize this to have maximum uptime on Astral Shield. But then end up with a 1s shorter cooldown, but are seriously gimped. You can have 40% easily if you don't obsess with Recovery and Recharge. And it's far more useful than 1 extra second of Astral Shield.
As far as I'm concerned, there's only one way to go with Heroic Feats:
The feats I didn't take are useless. Cleanse only needs 1 to be effective. With the frequency of healing, it should proc reliably when it's cooldown is up with just one point. Same for Templar's Domain. It has an internal cooldown that make 1 point use as useful as 5. And yes, ArmorPen is good, ignore all the naysayers. After you soft-cap Recovery and Crit, ArmorPen is the next best stat for us.
Some abilities are over-hyped in the DC community. I do not recommend Linked Spirit or Moontouched. They just aren't that great. Diminishing returns make Linked Spirit not nearly as good as it seems. The healing from Moontouched just isn't that great for 5 feat points, especially with our AP generation nerf.
Benefit of Foresight is good, if you don't mind having Foresight permanently slotted. Bountiful Fortune is worth putting a point into, even if it's of minimal value simply because 1 or 2 points will keep it up permanently. I hear Healing Step is a great talent if you want to go Righteous. I think Divine Advantage is very underrated. It turns out to be a minimum of 12% damage mitigation anytime you are flanked by enemies. A better question would be: when AREN'T your flanked by swarms of adds? Right. And it's another one you don't need 5/5 in to keep almost full uptime. Even Astral Seal will proc it, and most mobs people are hitting should have Seal on them.
As for Powers, I would say leave 1/3 in Lance, and put 3/3 in the rest of the At-Wills. Just go 1/1 in Hammer and Flamestrike since they have been nerfed so hard they're useless now. (But 1 still lets you use them for their minimal CC function.) Divine Armor is 3/3. I have heard mixed things about the benefit of ranking up Hallowed Ground, but get at least 1 rank. Hold off on the rest until you find answer as to whether ranking it up more is useful. (Some say if the base is 30%, then rank 3 adds 10% OF 30%, or 3%. So Rank 1 = 30% and Rank 3 = 33%)
Encounters 3/3: Sunburst, Healing Word, Searing Light, Daunting Light, Forgemaster's Flame, Bastion of Health, Prophecy of Doom, Divine Glow, Astral Shield
Features 3/3: Healer's Lore, Holy Fervor, Foresight, Terrifying Insight, (Divine Fortune if you think you'll ever use it. It's kinda hard to figure out when it it will work and when it won't.)
Put 1 into everything else except: Soothe, Prophetic Action. Leave them at zero, they're useless.
Practice swapping your powers out in combat. You may need to do it a lot.
One last bit of advice: Learn to love divine Searing Light. With high crit, you can almost be assured a lot of healing to anyone nearby if you through it into a dense pack of mobs. It will also put you on top of the damage charts and make clearing trash much faster.
well more fool you because the rest of the thread is people sharing their insights and telling the guy why he is wrong.
I'm not sure what you're saying. Are you suggesting Healing Action isn't a waste of feat points and the tests I linked to are wrong?
healing action is complete trash...im saying the guy in the first post isnt the one giving advice he is the one being advised. which is why you didnt know the context when you stopped reading at the point you said you did :P
For your best leveling experience, I would follow the recommendation to stack STR and WIS. It's not the only viable option at end game, but it's certain not to gimp you. Once you are 60 and putting together your gear, you will develop a better idea of which direction you want to go and can choose to reallocate your stat points if appropriate.
A lot of it depends on what sorts of enchants you are slotting and what quality you are choosing. The less powerful your enchantments, the more dependent you will be on your gear's base stats. Also, those base stats will likely influence your stat allocations somewhat.
And yes, feats that boost your AP gain from X type of action are generally trash. I second whistlingdixie's Heroic Feat suggestions, although I'm not incredibly keen on the ArP feat because I play full support style in PvP and attack to build DP and harass opponents. I have a spare ArP-stacked augment cat that I pull out for taking care of daily PvE content. In any case, if you fancy yourself more of a hybrid dps cleric in dungeons or PvP, you will find some use for ArP. If your usual power load-out in group PvE consists of AS, Sunburst, and HW or BoH, then ArP will not be a priority.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
At 60 with good gear, the % gained from those feats is negligable, and you will be at the soft caps without using those feats. spend the points elsewhere.
And why would you want a % increase in armour pen? Only the new set has armour pen, and a 3% of zero is still 0, so its a total waste.
Not a waste if you slot dark enchants in offense slots, but yeah templar's domain is only worth putting in 2 points max (even then usually only 1 point unless you spec for damage).
[sarcasm] Yeah having a higher recovery and crit is so bad for a DC. Really why does a DC need Crit and Recovery.... [/sarcasm]
I get your point from the Arp, it's not needed for a healing specced DC. I actually have put 1 point on Templar's Domain, I don't have any Arp (yet) but as a Human you have 3 extra feats.
I find Holy Resolve very useless, really do you think the 15% temp hp will help? (than I won't even talk about the huge cooldown) No, that's just a waste of 3 points. Rather have the 3% extra recovery of Domain Synergy than (i got 5 points on it so 5% extra). That with Rising Hope gives you a very nice boost to your recovery. I got like ~52% AP gain, I can pretty spam Hallowed Ground/Divine Armor which can be very helpfull in both PvP and PvE. Than I'm not even using Sunburst, which I never use for my build anyways. Higher recovery means you can spam Encounters faster, which is helpfull for AP/Divine gain but also for DPS and Healing. I'm using Etheral Boon also to get the 10% Divine on cooldowns, believe me I found this very usefull for both PvP and PvE.
Just use the right combinations .
But to anwser the question in the title, there isn't really "a best build" for the DC. Healing and DPS Clerics usually have very different builds and both are good in what they do. I'm using my own build for DC and I use the same powers (At-Will, Encounter, Daily, Passives) for PvP and PvE. All my points are in Power, Crit, Recovery and Defense atm.
i respecced when i hit 60 and got this perk. I cannot begin tell you how many times it has saved my life already.
The problem with domain synergy is that by the time it's contributing a significant amount of recovery, recovery is already so softcapped that you don't need the extra anyway. At 3k recovery it's only giving you 150 extra, with 5 whole feat points. That's a single level 6 enchant.
Oh well that's the good thing that everyone is using diff builds.
I still don't find a reason to spend 3 feats on a feat which can only spawn once in the 5 min. That's just huge, which isn't helpfull for PvP or boss fights. I usually only die if I get perm proned/stunned, by huge burst DPS or by a "gangrape". In these cases Holy Resolve is just useless, the 15% temp hp ~ 3300HP isn't going to help me with that.
Than I rather have the 150 recovery extra, it's not much but still it's a permanent buff. It's get little bit more with Rising Hope also. Also you can't really compare it to a enchantment .. you can only have 6 offensive enchants (or 7 if you use a beserker belt). So using one slot for getting 150 more recovery doesn't make sense to me :P.
I'm not using Miracle Healer's but the other T2 gear (for 450 power and crit). Also I'm not a healing specced cleric, so the set bonus isn't that interesting for me. But about which Crit feat you're talking about? Cause 1 Crit feat gives 3% more chance to make a crit hit, not 3% more critical strike. So especially for the dimishing returns this feat is usefull. Initiate of the Faith is indeed crappy, that's not worth putting any points into it. Oh and I dind't say Repurpose Soul was bad, I'm having 3 points in this feat. It gives nice HP, especially with crit hits from Daunting Light.
And I don't really have something better to put the 5 feat points anyways I already having 3 more because I'm Human.
Probably initiate of the faith: it's terrible. (1% of my power as crit! Gosh! Totes worth 5 points)
As for holy resolve...meh, you'd be surprised how fast those 5 minute cooldowns go. Given that it pretty much only procs when you're about to die, each time it procs...it has probably saved your life. And let's be honest, if you need your life saved more than once every 5 minutes, you probably want to have stern words with your CW and GF.
It's certainly worth at least one or two points. Also, it annoys TRs in PvP. And that's never a bad thing.
The BIG difference here is that LS increases the power, crit and defense of everyone in your party and BF only increases YOUR recovery and power.
imo LS>BF, be it 2 or 5 points.
I want this class in NW.
this works perfectly for me