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New Cleric looking for advices about feats & powers!
fenice86
Member Posts: 15 Arc User
Hi everyone,
i've started playing about 2 weeks ago and my human cleric is lvl 10 by now.
I play with 2 friends who are a thief and a guardian, i have a bit of knowledge of the d&d world but not much of this game.
I've choosen the cleric because i love to be "the_one_guy_who_saved_your_***" therefore i'm looking for a build which provides nice healing and aoe CC/mitigation.
I know that in a couple of days a new paragon path will be avaiable too.
So... could you please point me out a build to use? In particular power/feats rank up and stuff like that...
Thanks in advance to everyone who will help me!
PS: i few stuff i understood are important by reading in other topics:
- Astral Seal is good to spam
- Astral Shield is great too even if got nerfed months ago
- Hallowed Ground is good
- Healing Word is kinda the main heal?
- Sun Burst is nice to have
- Recovery is the most important value, must reach around 2.2-2.5k and stop there because of soft-cap
- Power has no diminishing returns
i've started playing about 2 weeks ago and my human cleric is lvl 10 by now.
I play with 2 friends who are a thief and a guardian, i have a bit of knowledge of the d&d world but not much of this game.
I've choosen the cleric because i love to be "the_one_guy_who_saved_your_***" therefore i'm looking for a build which provides nice healing and aoe CC/mitigation.
I know that in a couple of days a new paragon path will be avaiable too.
So... could you please point me out a build to use? In particular power/feats rank up and stuff like that...
Thanks in advance to everyone who will help me!
PS: i few stuff i understood are important by reading in other topics:
- Astral Seal is good to spam
- Astral Shield is great too even if got nerfed months ago
- Hallowed Ground is good
- Healing Word is kinda the main heal?
- Sun Burst is nice to have
- Recovery is the most important value, must reach around 2.2-2.5k and stop there because of soft-cap
- Power has no diminishing returns
Post edited by fenice86 on
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A google search on Cleric Guides will get you the current information. However on Thursday of this week the new Paragon paths are being introduced, with the Cleric's being Anointed Champion. The feedback on this is mixed, with some skills being aligned to pvp rather than pve.
The combat designer has stated that they are also looking to tone down at least one of the current DC skills: - see below
Quote Originally Posted by lordgallen View Post
Part of the thing with Foresight is that it's associated feat is too good. Feats are generally not intended to double the effectiveness of things, but that's pretty much what it does.
There is a reasonable chance that the feat may get toned down abit to be more in line with other options.
It's probably wise to let the dust settle with this introduction as the guide writers will need to update, (or decide there's no real advantage in changing).
"Mod 6. Oh my f****** god. It gutted the game pure and simple. And what wasn't gutted was messed up by the poorly thought out new level cap and equip. The game never recovered from that atrocity".
..............not this one then.............
Powers...well, you'll end up with enough points to get everything, so I wouldn't worry too much. Max sunburst and astral seal asap, as they remain super-useful even at 60.
Featwise, paragon feats depend a lot on where you're trying to go and what you're planning on doing (faithful-heavy builds are better healing, but righteous builds are much better at surviving in PvP, etc) but for heroic feats:
Max toughness
Max weapon mastery
Max repurpose soul
Don't get anything in healing action: it doesn't really work. If you really want to, put a single point in (a single point is effectively as good as 5 points).
Don't bother with battlewise: we never get threat anyway (at least, not anymore).
Don't bother with domain synergy (at max, with say..2500 recovery, you get a bonus of 125 recovery. Not really worth 5 feat points)
Don't bother with initiate of the faith (seriously, look at it: that feat is hilariously terrible).
Don't bother with templar's domain (it has a ridiculously long internal cooldown, and arpen doesn't work with a lot of our powers anyway).
Get a single point in cleanse.
The rest distribute as you see fit. Greater fortune is nice, bountiful fortune is nice, holy resolve is always worth putting at least one point into.
So... what i've understood:
- maxing out Astral Seal and SunBurst asap,
- wait for the upcoming update,
- i should aim to faithful/heavy build because i'm going to be fully-PvE oriented
- AoE heals > Single target heals
What about the heroic feats at begin? how should i put them to make a good healer/party supporter
http://nwcalc.com/dc?b=cn4:2hwcg:5m9s,19l331b:60000:60000:60000&h=1
Just put points in as and when you can, the order doesn't matter too much.
Thanks a lot, really appreciated
Any other things i should know? If i put points in "wrong feats/powers" do i have a chance to respec or am i screwed?
http://nwcalc.com/dc?b=oe4:4zm7r:al18,19l331b:6u000:b0zz1:60000&h=1
Powers I would equip:
- Astral Seal
- Sacred Flame
- Astral Shield
- Sun Burst
- Healing Word // Chain of Blazing Light
- Hallowed Ground
- Hammer of Fate
- Divine Fortune
- Healer's Lore // Foresight
Virtous Path is more about DPS, Faithful about healing and Righteous about mitigations and also some divine management.
with modul2, upcoming thursday, there will be a free respec for all, just cause some massive changes about feats and powers^^
But on feats you can spend them all at once, not like on powers where you spend one by another.
Actually you can reskill at any time, via "Retraining Token" from Zen Shop, but it takes 300 Zen, thats about 120.000 Astral Diamonds or about 3$ to buy for cash.
one thing to mention about "cleanse" feat...
It's not that usefull in PvE, most negative effects have a very very short duration, and also they aren't that hard - In my opinion it's just useful only in PvP. Besides of that, it's a random-remover, so you got a 10/20/30% chance to remove with every heal.
If you got one point left, may spend it there, else I would not.
Edit: the upcoming free respec won't be lost over time, but there can only be one - so if someday another one will come, this one will be "lost".
So you can skill now, test a bit and save it for some later time to reskill..
Yep, i've changed Brand of the Sun with Sacred Flame, confused the 2.
Pretty clear yes
thx for letting me know
I see ok, 1 point if i have 1 to spare
i'll keep in mind
Deepstone/Enduring relief are tricky: deepstone provides a bigger heal boost, but requires tempHP which are not always around, especially if you haven't taken divine armour at all (DA is the single biggest generator of tempHP in the game). I tend to go half and half on those because I'm terribly indecisive.
You've taken zero points in benefit of foresight, which I'd say is a mistake. Foresight is one of the best mitigation skills we have, and with benefit of foresight it's almost twice as good. Since you're clearly planning on taking foresight as a passive, definitely get some in this. Invigorated healing and power of life are...debatable, invigorated healing is nice, since it ticks off fairly commonly used powers, but the overall healing amount is pretty puny. Power of life essentially locks down two of your powers, since if you don't take seal and SF, you're getting no benefit. Admittedly I run with seal and SF 95% of the time anyway, but I sometimes switch out for BotS. Plus, if I'm honest, 10% extra tempHP from sacred flame is pretty terrible: sacred flame generates so few tempHP that 110% of bugger all is still pretty much bugger all.
The same rationale applies to mark of mending: it pretty much glues healer's lore to your bar, and only provides a small benefit for the amount you invest. +5% healing means healer's lore is +20% rather than +15%: nice, but honestly you shouldn't NEED to spec that deeply into extra healing potency. We're top-up tick healers rather than spike healers, so it's rare that an extra 5% makes a appreciable difference. And the boost to power from recovery? Well, it's 5%, so again 3k recovery gives you 150 extra power, which you could just do by slotting a radiant.
Plus you then miss out on moontouched, which is a lovely feat, as far as I'm concerned. Hallowed ground is an awesome daily anyway (roughly a 30% damage boost and 30% damage reduction, in an area the size of a mansion? Yes please) Add an extra 25% heal to that and whooooo.
I think my current set up is something like this (tiefling, because I WANNA TAIL, so minus 3 feat points)
http://nwcalc.com/dc?b=nnj:4y4mv:aghh,19k3319:6c000:8nu0v:8l000&h=0
I usually run around dungeons with seal+SF, DA/HG dailies, shield, sunburst and forgemasters for encounters, and foresight/holy fervour for passives. If the party is mostly CWs or deathwish GWFs, I might replace forgemasters with healing word, at which point I'll swap holy fervour for divine fortune.
Well comparing mine and yours it looks like i didnt missed too many points for a "first try"
Once again thx for ur time and guide, i'll try to follow your build and get my own idea of what i wanna do exactly in the game but, at first glance, it looks like your build would suit my playstyle
A question: is Forgemaster that good? i dont know... the description doesnt "excite" me that much but maybe it's because i'm a newbie
And of course when all is going well you can use in non-divine mode to pew pew with space lazors and pretend you're a real wizard...erm, I mean: build AP/divinity.
Also, in PvP it's great because you just stick it on the dude trying to kill you. It takes people quite a while to figure out that they're actually healing their target, and of course if they decide to cut and run, they're snared anyway.
So as said, it pretty easy and fast heals your meleeish partymates.
On some boss fights you may splitt a bit, e.g. at malabogs castle you may get pretty busy - so Forgemasters + ASeal keeps the melees alive easily, while you can care about the ranged ones with soothling light, healing word, or however you like.
All over you also don't need to focus that hard on faithful path, many clerics running very different specs.
I prefer righteous path builds, other also do virtous builds, knowing clerics of every kind running very successful.
I'd say test a bit different builds, at preview shard you can free respecc, may take a copy of your char over there, check preview forums for more info.
Let's say that I'm using Sacred Flame as my attack power, and every 3 hits I'm giving them temp HP. Does that increase the amount healed from Astral Seal? Or my AoE heals? Or does it only work for targeted heals (like Healing Word)? It seems to me that people who prefer SF could get a potential benefit from DB, at least for healing melee who are getting the tHP from your attacks.
Tomas, Human Devoted Cleric
Dragon Shard
From DC powers alone, it's mostly divine armour that's the big tempHP skill: this gives a HUGE chunk of tempHP, and is mostly used as an O GOD WE'RE ALL GONNA DIEEE button: taking the entire team from "near death" to "about half health -temporarily" (and providing a chunk of damage reduction too). Taking heavy feating into deepstone allows the DC to put out extra healing during these clutch periods.
Of course, you don't usually act alone. There are lots of powers and feats from other classes that provide tempHP: into the fray (GF encounter) gives everyone tempHP, take measure (GF feat) gives tempHP when the GF is crit. And of course, GWFs have unstoppable, which is tempHP all the way.
So there are definitely benefits to it, I just don't think SF should be considered as the primary source of tempHP: it's mostly (as far as I'm concerned) useful as a constant low-level background bit of pseudo-mitigation - if you proc SF-derived tempHP on three melees, the tempHP may only last a second before damage removes them, but that's about 300-400hp you didn't have to heal, and every little helps. Over time it probably amounts to a reasonable amount.
The temp hp will boost any sort of healing spell whether it be AS or heal word or aoe. I prefer sacred flame b/c I feel like a constant 10% boost while using other spells is very strong and heals them back up quickly. I think healing word would benefit most from it since it crits unlike AS. Also, sacred flame has a faster attack rate than astral seal which I often find slow. Overall I think that sacred flame heals quite quickly when you have other healing spells down, then when my AS is down I switch to Astral Seal, and then back to sacred flame.
tl;dr
sacred flame for healing upkeep+increased dps
astral seal for stronger heals/ less dps
enduring relief is only 3 seconds so.... don't see too much a difference between the two
I think the problem is you are seeing SF as mitigation... b/c there is constant temp hit pts, it is giving you tht constant 10% healing bonus which imo, is way stronger than 3 second enduring relief with the 5% bonus; temp hit pts aren't being removed by damage they are being consumed by the healing; like when you do divine armor and instaburst heal them, those temp hit pts turn into real hit pts meaning they are gone, but they added that 10% heal bonus to the heal that overtook them
there's some truth in here!
And all this assumes that they haven't been chipped off by a monster brushing vaguely against the player in the interim (because again, it's like 120 hp, which in an epic dungeon lasts about as long as a wet tissue in a hurricane).
So you have:
>TempHP provided are very small, with corrollaries that
>>TempHP are removed very quickly by tiny amounts of damage, and
>>TempHP are healed up to "real HP" so fast that the benefit to healing is minimal
>Sacred flame needs to be spammed three times to generate tempHP in the first place, with corrollary that
>>Only when constantly spamming SF do these tempHP count as 'constant'.
>>If you're comfortable enough to sit and spam sacred flame, people don't need the healing ANYWAY.
>>If you're spamming sacred flame while people are dying, you are a terrible cleric.
Contrast this with things like "a party where the GF spams ITF on cooldown, and the GWF is constantly popping unstoppable, and you have divine armour slotted" and you see where the real benefits of deepstone are.
Now I'll admit, I haven't tested this (and god knows NW code is buggy as all get-out) but I figure for most of my general pugging needs, enduring relief is going to provide the most benefit, because it presumably kicks in from the first tick of astral shield and is maintained by every subsequent tick, so making the entire AS 5% more effective, and any clutch heals needed immediately after (and AS downtime is only like 4 seconds so 3 seconds is about enough). Ditto for forgemasters, and soothing light top-ups, though I rarely resort to the latter. And sunburst tabswitching procs it too.
But I'm indecisive, hence I went 2/5 deepstone and 3/5 enduring, giving me about the same healing boost to both. :P
or +10% heals if target has tHP
Do DC play almost always in Divine Mode?
ok this confuses me a bit
basically you saying that DCs constantly heavy swap in and out of divine mode often?
A typical group fight might be "tabswitch sunburst to proc LS, stick AS down while in divinity, tab back to normal to astral seal a few things and maybe spam a bit of sacred flame, tab back to divinity to divine forgemasters an elite monster to keep peeps topped up while AS is down, tab back to non-divine, skoosh into the pack to tabswitch sunburst again (builds divinity, AP, procs LS) then since you're now in divinity stick down a fresh AS, pop back to non divine for more seals, and so on.
For solo facetanking in sharandar it's similar: I usually run with divine glow, daunting and shield, so it's usually non-divine astral seal spam, then when they're in face range a D'd divine glow followed almost immediately by a non-divine Daunting (because with the debuff on them and the buff on me from divine glow, you don't need divine daunting), skoosh away, seal a bit, back to divine for another divine glow and so on. Obviously for most trash fights in sharandar it's over by this point, but for formorians or celandine or something it's basically this, rinse, repeat.
Tabbing back and forth should become second nature.
thanks and sorry for newbieness
Tomas, Human Devoted Cleric
Dragon Shard
is there anything worthy in the new path that can be used in this kind of DC?
From the general feedback the new path doesn't appear to be a must go to spec option. Some people will re-spec to it just to see how it goes. Choosing one of the new skills, of course means giving up an existing favorite one. People are naturally a bit reluctant to remove something from the bar that they've been trusting in for a long time.
"Mod 6. Oh my f****** god. It gutted the game pure and simple. And what wasn't gutted was messed up by the poorly thought out new level cap and equip. The game never recovered from that atrocity".
..............not this one then.............
Tomas, Human Devoted Cleric
Dragon Shard