Pincushion Cleric PVP/PVE Build

Reposted from http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?174901-The-Critical-Cleric-(Deistik-s-build)&p=5449661&viewfull=1#post5449661


August 22 upsate: Sunburst action point gain was seriously nerfed in the august 22 patch. It is worthless for action point gain. I am looking at other skills to replace it for pvp, but for pve the utility of sunburst such as being able to knock enemies away or off cliffs makes it essential even though it gives less action point than a charge of healing word at the moment. Will update again once I find a suitable pvp replacement.

August 18 update: Power of Life may replace Linked Spirit (or Invigorated Healing if you went that route) for an even more defensive build, then use sacred flame mainly for the hit points and astral seal enemies being attacked. Also, I read that Briartwine armor enchantment may work very well with astral seal. If this post is correct, that each proc can trigger a 100-150 heal from astral seal, it could be insanely overpowered in pvp. I have not tried it myself and do not intend to try it since I think this build is cheesy enough. I am mentioning it may be a viable alternative to soulforge just for the sake of completeness, and this will likely be the last update I make to the build. http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?311321-So-Good-News-Briartwine-Enchant

I am trying out a new cleric build, I am kind of newbie though. This build is similar in some ways to Deistik's Critical Build. I am not an expert at this game and would like feedback and suggestions.

Pincushion Cleric

The pincushion cleric is a PVP build, emphasizing survival first and foremost, healing secondarily, damage is near nothing. It revolves around the T1/T2 PVP armor sets, and tries to stack critical strike and defense.

Race: Any will suffice, but humans benefit from 3 extra heroic feat points and these last 3 points are quite important for the build which put them clearly in first place. My order of compatibility: Human>Dwarf>Halfling>Half-Elf>Wood-Elf>Tiefling>Drow>Half-Orc. Please note, Dwarf racial knockback resistance does NOT work against monsters because of bug, it only works in PVP as of 8/1/2013. Dwarf would be in sixth place if only PVE.
Attributes roll: 16 Wisdom, 16 Strength, 12 Charisma, 10 Strength, 10 Dexterity, 10 Intelligence. Raise str and wisdom +1 every 10 levels.

At Wills: Brand of the Sun (I prefer) OR Sacred Flame, Astral Seal
Encounters: Sun Burst, Healing Word, Astral Shield
Passives: Divine Fortune, Foresight Foresight Foresight Foresight Foresight Foresight
Dailies: Hallowed Ground, Guardian of Faith OR Hammer of Fate

Unused powers, but my suggestions for other powers to max out in situations where you have to solo, farm foundry, or be secondary cleric in team: Healer's Lore, Searing Light, Flame Strike, Daunting Light, Forgemaster's Flame, Prophecy of Doom, Bastion of Health, Terrifying Insight, Divine Glow.

Heroic Feats: Greater Fortune 3/3, Toughness 3/3, Holy Resolve 3/3, Weapon Mastery 3/3, Repurpose Soul 3/3, Cleanse 2/3 (3/3 if Human), Bountiful Fortune 3/5 (5/5 if Human)
Virtuous Feats: Rising Hope 1/5
Faithful Feats: Enduring Relief 5/5, Benefit of Foresight 5/5, Linked Spirit 5/5 (I prefer for stat boost lol's) OR Invigorated Healing 5/5, Moon Touched 5/5, Greater Divine Power 1/1
Righteous Feats: Righteous Rage of Tempus 5/5, Ethereal Boon 4/5

I want to make a list of suitable equipment because the two PVP armor sets used in this build will seriously hinder your critical strike, and high critical strike and defense items must be chosen while recovery items minimized or you will be very lopsided and not do too well in pvp. Ideal level 60 equipment for this build, in order of price:

War Prophet/Cleric T1 PVP armor set or Prophet Champion/Cleric T2 PVP armor set
Symbol of the Divine Emissary, High Prophet, Grand Templar, or Ancient Royal Priest.
Icon of the Divine Emissary, High Prophet, Greater Icon of Blue Fire, Grand Templar, or Ancient Royal Priest.
Grand/Ancient Fugitive's Necklace of Revolt
2x Grand/Ancient Priest's Ring of Burning Light
Grand/Ancient Slavemaster's Belt of Control for power/crit/recovery (I prefer) OR Necromancer's Belt of Undeath for defense/deflection

Enchant all offense and defense slots with azure enchantments, and utility slots with dark enchantments. I suggest just enchant everything with rank 4, don't try to get rank 6+ until you have your end-game gear and can afford it, defense slot>offense slot>utility slot. Lesser Soulforged Enchantment for armor should be sufficient, Lesser/Normal Vorpal Enchantment for weapon, suggest saving for normal vorpal since the critical severity jumps from 12.5 to 25% and is quite significant.

Ioun stone of Allure: Although this is a PVP build, I'd like to touch on companion items because again Cleric PVP armor sets make you quite lopsided, you get high recovery and no critical strike. Based on what I read in http://clericguide.com/485/ critical strike and power reach parity in 1800 critical strike and 4000 power, after which power is better to put points into unless you have vorpal enchantments in which case lesser vorpal makes 2200 critical strike about the same as 4000 when it comes to sun burst and healing word amount of heal. But for this build, the heavy reliance on critical strike to build divinity makes it more valuable than that, and if you use lesser/normal vorpal, critical strike becomes even more valuable when casting Sun Burst and Healing Word to build divinity. Unfortunately, critical strike does not benefit Astral Shield at all, so an argument could be made to increase power instead once critical strike has reached ~2k.

And please DO NOT put +HP equipment on stone, you won't receive any benefit in the stat.

Recommended Ioun stone runestones and equipment:

Offense: Profane (critical strike)
Offense: Profane (critical strike) especially with lesser/normal vorpal OR Empowered (power)
Defense: Eldritch (gain % of companion stats) OR Profane (defense)
Ring: Abolethic Loop OR Minor/Grand/Ancient Slavemaster's Ring enchanted with Azure (critical strike) OR Radiant (power)
Neck: Grand/Ancient Brawler's Necklace of Guts enchanted with Azure OR Radiant
Icon: Icon of the Grand Templar enchanted with Azure OR Radiant

I'm not sure where to begin explaining how the character is played, but here's some key things.
1. No you aren't immortal, and you can still die in 2-3 seconds against the right enemies or you are caught off-guard. However, when Astral Shield, Hallowed Ground, and Healing Word are all up, you can easily reach the 80% defense cap and heal ridiculously fast. I'm not sure how armor piercing works when you actually exceed the 80% defense cap which can certainly happen with this build though, so it is possible that using Silvery (deflection) instead of Azure (defense) in some defense slots might be preferable but I will leave that to others more knowledgeable to answer.
2. It's kind of like pacman, when AS goes down, you very often have to dash around for damage immunity until you can cast it again. And when all of these effects are running, you stand your ground and Astral Seal and Brand of the Sun every enemy you see and spam sun burst/healing word/divine sun burst/divine healing word, whatever you can do to build divinity, so that you can cast Hallowed Ground again as soon as possible.
3. You have four pips to help with managing your action point and divinity economy and it is fundamental to this build to throw healing words and when you have too much action point or run out of healing words, throw divine healing words, PRIMARILY for building divinity NOT just healing. The last pip should be reserved for divine AS except in dire situations or you are certain you can get 1 pip for AS when it is time to cast it again.
4. Pre-emptive Astral Shield. It is the first thing you cast when facing an enemy. Very often in pvp, enemies will begin attacking with a skill that either knocks you over or does a lot of damage. You build action point fast enough that you can afford to pre-emptive AS even when you think you imagined seeing or hearing a rogue nearby using cloak. If you are caught off-guard with your pants down, you can easily die in 2-3 seconds. But if you have AS down when the enemy strikes, your chances of survival greatly improve. If you also get Hallowed Ground down and possibly also healing word, your odds of survival are at its peak and its pacman time.
5. Stay with your team. You don't have any damage skills, you're useless by yourself. In fact you are less than useless by yourself, because you will just let enemies build Action Point and Meter, and when you have finally been knocked out of your AS, and HG is down, and your 40% self-healing rate is so pitiful you want to yell at Cryptic, you'll quickly give the enemy an easy kill score point.
6. Sun Burst with enemies around you, and preferably allies too, the more the better because this builds divinity better. Sun Burst is your key divinity builder, use it wisely, and use it well.
7. Divine Sun Burst and Divine Healing Word can give the Linked Spirit feat bonus, which stacks 5% for every person affected, up to 25% to stats for all teammates for ten seconds normally, but some people say up to 40% due to a bug in some circumstances. Casting Divine Sun Burst is likely the most common method of getting Linked Spirit bonus. The instant the spells are cast, the allies in the radius of effect will be affected by Linked Spirit, and contribute to its effect.

Let me know what you think.