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Looking for a completely solo cleric experience.
elusiveonen7
Member Posts: 190 Arc User
I just want to start off by saying that I am finding it surprisingly hard to find a cleric guide that isn't half a year old around here. Usually I attempt to search the forums for hours and hours to avoid asking others to do my hard work. Sadly, here we are.
So what i'm after is a cleric build that is designed around playing completely solo. I intend to level this character, do skirmishes, dailies, but at no point enter any dungeons. I have two classes I already use for end game progression, my cleric however I would just like to casually enjoy.
It would be nice if this game made it a bit easier to experiment with different builds without paying, but I'll have to take someones word for it. Id like a cleric that can do as much damage as possible, but will never be expected to heal allies in any meaningful way. Also note that I will not be purchasing the tank golem companion to make soloing easier for myself.
Id appreciate any help on which damaging encounters are good to have, and which feats make the most sense. I assume Divine Oracle is the path id choose.
So what i'm after is a cleric build that is designed around playing completely solo. I intend to level this character, do skirmishes, dailies, but at no point enter any dungeons. I have two classes I already use for end game progression, my cleric however I would just like to casually enjoy.
It would be nice if this game made it a bit easier to experiment with different builds without paying, but I'll have to take someones word for it. Id like a cleric that can do as much damage as possible, but will never be expected to heal allies in any meaningful way. Also note that I will not be purchasing the tank golem companion to make soloing easier for myself.
Id appreciate any help on which damaging encounters are good to have, and which feats make the most sense. I assume Divine Oracle is the path id choose.
Post edited by elusiveonen7 on
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Paragon feats are up to you, that's just one of the ways I'd do it. Dump everything in STR and Wisdom of course for maximum damage, you can actually do a good job of healing people with it if you have to as long as they don't do stupid things like aggro 20+ mobs then try to facetank them.
She's an effective healer when she needs to be but holds her own when soloing. I went Faithful to be more effective on the occasions that I party and for the fourth divinity pip; you may not be concerned with that depending on your playstyle.
I also dumped most or all of her points into STR and WIS, IIRC, and stack metric tons of crit/defense on her gear. She has ~7.2% lifesteal from her armor set, not sure how much of a difference it makes.
The loadout I use when soloing is Chains (always non-divine for the root and divinity gain), Daunting Light (always divine, to follow up Chains), Sunburst (always divine, for the knockback which is like having a 3rd dodge if timed right), Flamestrike, Divine Armor (for emergencies), Brand of the Sun, and Lance of Faith. There's really no point in slotting anything to heal yourself other than Sunburst and Divine Armor since righteousness makes your self-healing lol at best.
If you're really blasting through divinity, Bountiful Fortune is a perfectly reasonable alternative to Templar's Domain (unsure yet as to whether Templar's Domain is truly effective or not).
Kaylee Krankenwagen, level 60 GF | Tavandruil Wayfinder, level 49 GWF | Aldith Langley, level 51 HR
Check out the test server:
https://my.perfectworld.com/nw?going_to=http://nw.perfectworld.com/preview
If you need some enchants to test, send me a PM @josiahiyon and I can get you started.
The test server is great to test the purely solo experience, since you'll be the only player there :P Just about.
Iyon the Dark
-Helos
Doubtful it would be enough to compete with DO's Terrifying Insight, though. Linked Spirit doesn't do much of anything without multiple targets to buff, and while the extra Power from Battle Fervor is a bonus, it isn't going to impact your damage that much.
Honestly though, you can solo with any decent cleric build of any kind. The only question is whether you want it to go slightly faster, in which case you rock some ArP and, if DO, slot Terrifying Insight to get bigger numbers on elites and boss-type critters.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
I think that first build link looks pretty good. A few changes I'd suggest in regards to it though are, take sacred flame for you're primary at will. It beats the socks off of lance of faith, even if you have that power feated. I'd also try to take holy fervor, healers lore and searing light maxed out. This last one is really really good for destroying entire packs of mobs at once, just agro several groups and bam watch them all vanish. Some spells you could do without would be lance of faith(sacred flame is just better), divine fortune (you won't use this solo since you won't use dedicated healing spells), divine armor (as solo you'll most use dmg based dailys and if not HG is much better since it provides a dmg buff, divine armor is more of an oh **** thing to save yourself or your party or for lesser geared groups, this shouldn't be an issue for you), break the spirit is another spell you could skip (it's just single target and the slow and debuff aren't that important for soloing) and finally you could also skip hammer of fate if you want (flame strike does just as much dmg but in area and it disable mobs temporarily).
Based on that a few changes to the feats would be. I would only put 1 point in cleanse not 3 and put those other two into bountiful fortune. You coudl put one into Templars Domain but it has a 5min internal CD so it's pretty worthless. Skip focused poise since you should use sacred flame over lance of faith and you could then instead take disciple of divine lore and run healer's lore as your second class feature along with terrifying insight (unless you need foresight for the DR) or you could put the points into power of the sun in the righteous tree since brand of the sun is going to be the secondary at will that you use. Other than that the only other thing would be you could split your first 5 points in the righteous tree between divine advantage and righteous rage. Soloing I don't find divine power to be much of an issue so you could probably go with 2 in righteous rage and be fine, especially with 4/5 bountiful fortune and 5/5 etheral boon. Divine advantage with 3 points is plenty also, you don't really need it maxed out and it helps reduce dmg quite a bit since mobs spread out to try and flank you all the time.
take some apen for more dmg, sharandar set would probably be the best or if not the high prophet set for the DR shredding it provides. Miracle healer is also very viable since you heal yourself just by casting encounters, and those heals bypass righteousness.
Also, I don't know if you intend to pvp with this character but that could condition some of the spells or powers you want to take although with the upcoming changes to pvp who knows what will happen for us clerics
FWIW, the reason I started using Lance of Faith when soloing is that the temp HP from Sacred Flame isn't enough to be noticeable for me despite the feat to increase it, and Lance of Faith deals slightly more damage (IIRC you can't see Sacred Flame's damage until you slot it, but I checked and I do know Lance of Faith is a bit greater unless something has been changed). Sacred Flame's casting animation might be a few milliseconds faster, but you'd have to really spam it to notice it. Probably either one can be used interchangeably without noticing a huge advantage of one over the other.
Kaylee Krankenwagen, level 60 GF | Tavandruil Wayfinder, level 49 GWF | Aldith Langley, level 51 HR
Unless they've changed something Sacred Flame does more dmg, not by a lot but it's faster cast animation gives it a little bit more dmg, but if you're not completing the 3 attack rotations then you're losing efectivness. The temp HP actually are worth it, although more for group/team play and less so for solo I'd say. Maybe the buffed's LoF base dmg a little although I don't remember that from any patch notes, it could of been one of those stealth buffs too. Either way I wouldn't spend my points feeating the at will when there are better options
That's also true. It's worth mentioning, though, that my DC wears the War Prophet set and has the Faithful fourth divinity pip, so pretty much all it takes for her to generate divinity is to hit stuff with BotS and a non-divine Chains to get all the divinity she needs. The divinity gain will matter more depending on how you're geared and feated, which I forgot for a minute there.
Kaylee Krankenwagen, level 60 GF | Tavandruil Wayfinder, level 49 GWF | Aldith Langley, level 51 HR
On a side note, in case anyone reading isn't already aware, the 4th pip doesn't do anything for divinity gain. It just gives you a larger reservoir, which is why it's not a popular feat choice.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
Obviously under virtually all circumstances you don't unload 3 or 4 charges before rebuilding, you spend and build as you go, but for protracted fights, and ..hell, pure pseudo-psychological purposes if nothing else, I like it. It feels nicer to have a buffer of 4 than one of 3.
I played 100% solo (except one Dungeon: Cloak Tower).
Here are my two tips for doing it and maximizing enjoyment:
1) ignore all the "builds" listed in forums and it doesn't matter what age the posts are. Ignore them. Just go as you level and use your gut instincts.
2) Companion should be a tank, and Galeb Duhr is your friend as he will literally keep bosses occupied while you handle adds. Better than Honey Badger (I had both) - if you don't want to spend any Zen, go with the Man At Arms freebie. (Augment companions won't help you level the way a tank will.)
That's it. Because the game will still be the same old thing as you play since this isn't your first character: if you want a truly different experience then do it right.
It's actually worse for protracted fights, because you are unlikely to refrain from expending pips long enough to top off your extra-large tank, making it useful only for the very beginning of the encounter.
For some Faithful builds there really might not be a better use for that 1 dangling point, but for a capstone feat it's still pretty lame. Another example of why Cryptic really needs to revisit DC feat trees.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
before 60 i prefer man at arms to tank while i dps
at 60 i prefer the cleric to heal me while i tank and dps
after getting high prophet set and 1k life steal, i prefer stone all the time
I disagree: in protracted fights where you have trouble maintaining divinity, an extra pip (or not) makes no difference, and in fights where you have no trouble maintaining divinity again an extra pip (or not) makes no difference, but between those extremes (like fights with lulls and peaks, where D-gain/D-spend can be bursty), playing with a 4-pip tank gives much more leeway than a 3-pip tank. It's harder to fully deplete divinity (if, say, you're spending more than than you're gaining, you'll still manage to maintain output for longer), and easier to not over-gain divinity (if you're gaining more than you're spending, you take longer to reach a point where gain is wasted).
It's...basically a buffer for the lazy/inept. If I was paying more attention I could probably cope with three pips (hell, they reset all DC feats once after a patch and it took me a week to even notice, so feats are clearly not that fundamental to playstyle), but having a bigger buffer lets me play slightly less miserly.
But I want to build a strong Healer/Buffer to play with a party of friends and form a Guild.
Our Battle formation is likely to be
Trickster Ranger Trickster
Cleric Wizard
We will not have any powerful melee tanks, except maybe Companions.
Will an Annointed Champion be better than a Divine Oracle and does anyone have any links to a good build?
Cheers!
~
http://laggygamerz.com/forum/index.php?/topic/17-kaelac%E2%80%99s-guide-to-devoted-clerics-in-neverwinter/
Your experience while leveling up isn't necessarily going to translate well to the post-60 game. Aside from party dungeons and skirmishes, there is no group-oriented PvE content for your party, so your group composition won't matter in the slightest.
Companions are fun to play around with and can actually be useful to new players while leveling, but their usefulness drops off drastically as you become better at the game and gain more of your powers and equipment. Except for augment companions (Ioun Stones, Cat), they don't factor into end-game at all beyond providing their Active Bonus to you.
Anointed Champion vs. Divine Oracle has been discussed in a number of recent forum threads. Basically they are both viable Paths with some difference in play style, and both can solo just fine. DO is easier to play effectively and makes a slightly better redundant DPS if required, while AC shines with good situational awareness and tactical play. DO seems to be more popular for PvE because Foresight is powerful and easy to maintain on allies, while AC depends on positioning and precision targeting to maximize party defenses.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
Thanks for that.
The character I want is to mainly help the party, rather than a solo character, like a traditional AD&D Cleric. So I want to take Feats and Powers that enhance that role more.
I cannot Turn Undead, but a Divinely Channelled Sunburst does almost the same thing to everything - and heals the party. I just got the second rank in Sacred Fame (level 23), but not noticed much difference to Spear of Faith except the temp hp.
There are not a huge number of differences between AC and DO, but I'm not sure whether Blessing of Battle will be better than Brand of the Sun etc for this role. I've never really played a Cleric, I prefer Druid, so my gut instinct is DO for the Sun spells etc, but I want to heal and buff the party better.
We teamed up the first time this morning and formed a Guild. Our levels are:
Wizard 42
Cleric 23
Trickster 22
Ranger 18
Trickster 17
As we did not really know what we were doing, we entered a level 42 map and the lowest two got killed easily. So we'll get the lowest level character to be leader for other quests. Level 42 drops are no good to most of us, anyway.
So, things like Prophetic Action vs Anointed Holy Symbol - which helps a party more? Does PA shield just me from all damage, or the whole party? And would a Divinely Chanelled Sunburst with Anointed Holy Symbol Heal, Knockback enemies AND grant temporary hp?
I'm not so interested in a solo build at the moment.
Cheers!
Cheers!
Kaylee Krankenwagen, level 60 GF | Tavandruil Wayfinder, level 49 GWF | Aldith Langley, level 51 HR
Yes, that's the sort of thing I mean, thanks.
Anointed Holy Symbol for the AC is at the same level as Prophetic Action, but grants Temp hp for Divinely channelled Encounter spells. So Sunburst would heal, knockback enemies AND give Temp hp to the party.
At the same level as Foresight for the DO is Anointed Action, which gives a buff to me instead of the party. I was going to skip over some in the middle so I can max out higher level spells etc. I have not checked yet whether I can Feat Anointed Action to help the whole party.
The DO seems a little more combat orientated, the AC a little more healing and buffing. But not by much.
Cheers!
~
"When in Divine Mode you have a chance to proc Rising Hope with Encounter powers, which grants you 15% more Recovery and Power for 30/60/90/120/150 seconds."
What do they mean by "proc"?
~
Divine Sunburst is something only for a true emergency or for when you are deliberately knocking enemies off of a ledge for instant kills. Powers that throw enemies around without killing them outright are highly undesirable in group play because they spread mobs around and make everything take longer to kill. The worst offenders are Powers like Repel, Ice Storm, and (Divine) Sunburst, but even slightly less messy ones like Frontline Surge and Oppressive Force should be used judiciously.
As has been said already, Prophetic Action doesn't really contribute to party play, and it's useless for solo play. I occasionally used it for PvP while my DC was DO, but I don't really miss it.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
It's pretty easy to proc and even with 1 point I probably get 85% + uptime on it. It procs from Astral Shield so that makes it really easy to keep up. Not to mention casting sunburst and tabing into divine mode before the spell animation completes (you can activate AHS like this with sunburst without actually casting in divine mode?