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ACDC dps battle cleric-pve guide
masterjewstar
Member Posts: 563
I've decided to post a annointed champion battle dc guide because I wanted to see if a dps AC cleric was viable and so far it is.
I saw a dps & a healer DC oracle build and a lot of it made sense and I thought to myself (Hey, I bet an annointed champion might be interesting to play) because it can be more offensive because its abilities can buff attack better than defense because thats what an oracle does; it prevents damage passively for its allies through its visions but it doesnt really have anything there besides hallowed ground that boosts the attack of the cleric and party which is the current trend in the game: to boost dps the word annoint means to bless; to make more effective or make something weak more powerful an AC is a champion who blesses.
People will say in the forums or in game that they don't need heals so I'm going to try to accomplish a cleric that heals only through attacking using its feats and powers to increase damage and heal through the incredible damage skills that they do possess.
The thing about the cleric is that a lot of people use and are expected to usejust the healing abilities even when soloing; when attacking is just as good if not better, most clerics just put a circle down for themselves or others to show people where to fight. It is fine to use AS in this manner even with this build but it is not always necessary.
AS is for a team that is low defensively or can't dodge attacks. Just like oracle's foresight it's not absolutely necessary to win melee generally just run past AS anyway; which is the one main reason foresight even is good because its buff is stackable with divine or feated AS; but so is blessing of battle.
I have been; while in groups in-dungeon attacking. The players realize I'm not using heals so they attack and fight as if I am another class then when they realize I am still healing them just through attacks; especially while they are surrounded due to a single heric feat. I am using the heals that come with certain attacks and when those attacks crit I will gain another heal at the same time which will power me up.
Set up
My planned set up is going to be: A female High Elven Annointed Champion named Mirranda@aristolian using Virtuous tree (main) with a bit from Righteous for divinity gain. You can use any of the races to accomplish this but I wanted ap to be a focus from the start because most of what makes a cleric great in the first place is the dailies.
For instance you could make your character an orc cleric for the additional 5% crit severity or a human for additional feats and personal defense really any race will go with any class so long as you build and play it with the build or strategy. Its all on you to decide I can only tell you what I deem true or have proven to myself as fact.
Main Encounters- Searing Light, Chains of Blinding Light, and Exaltation. Optionally Divine Glow or Break the Spirit for more party dps boost; or Sunburst, HW, AS, or forge masters for when I'm with a low defense or inexperienced group.
At-wills- Lance of Faith, Blessing of Battle, or optionally Astral Seal replacing lance. I'm also actively using the twin beams sooth and punish to dps or hps while encounters are down as those allow me to attack and heal naturally and I am able to continue to move and dodge attacks.
Dailies- Guardian of Faith, and Annointed Army, or optionally Hallowed Ground if there is more dps needed or I feel like running it.
Features- Annointed Action, Holy Ferver.
Feats
Virtuous
Desperate Renewal 3/5 As I have no actual heal besides soothing light and forgemasters and Guardian of Faith with set up to aid those who are about to die or to mitigate damage through healing per second will keep them up if I have this at 3 which will give 15% more heal when below 25% hp.
Rising Hope 2/5 to increase my power and recovery by 15% for 1 minute which will proc a lot because I am only attacking and mostly using divinity to attack. I might switch this to 1 instead for 30 seconds.
Battle Fervor 5/5 to make blessing of battle increase attack power and defense instead of just defense.
Strength of the Gods 5/5 to make Guardian of Faith or Divine Shield if you run it; improve defense and attack power by 10% more as Anointed Action and Battle Blessing will likely stack it also I believe power up affects any player healed or given temp hp by them.
Focused Poise 5/5 to make Lance of Faith deal more base damage by 10% while also giving me more divinity per spear and the points there are all dependant on what attack you plan on using. So these points aren't imperative or even the most important.
Cycle of Change 1/1 for when one of my healing spells crit making my encounters hit harder; thusly making me heal even better and replacing terrifying insight.
Righteous
Righteous Rage of Tempus any/5 crits gain extra divinity to increase divine power use which is central to this play style.
Ancient warding 4/5 it allows to heal with anointed army gives 1/2/3/4/5% max HP in healing also gives all affected allies 1/2/3/4/5% of thier ap increased. It makes anointed action last 4/8/12/16/20% longer for longer increased damage.
Ethereal Boon 1/5 It was last second decision so now when my encounters come off cool down I will get 2% more DP its not a lot but it was either that or a 1% max hp heal 1% AP increase 4% duration for ancient warding.
These are temporary until I fix them.
I'm using Holy Resolve heroic feat at 1/3 because the temp hp is decent for lv 1 just in case they hit me enough and soulforged is great and will proc letting the holy resolve work to keep me alive even longer which is the point of the cleric and feat point; to keep me alive while boosting others chances of survival.
Holy resolve is not essential imo because I do not put myself in a position where its proc will always be needed it is there Just in case.
It's not absolutely essential to use holy resolve but it is good for what it does and procs letting me know its time to pot but at full it is amazing and will work with a soulforged equipent.
For my starting Artifact I got the Lantern of Revelation as it comes with a built in DR debuff through use and it hits around me like army and sunburst does and also comes equipped with crit at ranks 1-29.
My Companion to start was the wizard companion because it is all aoe damage with an aoe slow as its encounter and I can ignore it because its not necessary and it will get up after the battle is over because I am attacking with it and when it dies oh well.
Leveling I didn't even train it past lv 1 because I was using it for it's slow ability to synergize with chains. Not its damage: nor the active bonus from it is negligible. I could have used the tank companion; but I didn't feel I needed it and it wouldnt let me test what its like to solo without one which it is easy enough.
At 60 I got a swashbuckler for when I am crit so I may crit more and I can easily keep it alive without even trying and again when it dies oh well.
When I get to endgame and can afford one I will use a stone like almost all elites do.
more TBA when I fully decide on what else to go with.
REASONING
On the heroic side there is a feat called Repurpose Soul which heals 5, 10, 15% based on the critical damage any of my spells do meaning spells like searing light in divinity, chains regardless of divinity, and forgemasters flame for actual heals and dot; or spike damage from daunting light the both beams; all heal based off of that damage around those I hit and healall clerics can use this if a character is affected multiple times through its proc this means that the heal will be in a lump sum and will spread in an area around the crit.
Right now at level 32 in lower level gear; my Searing Light hits about 1200 or so with a crit so thats 200-300 heal. If I hit max targets with it which is around where AS heals at level 60 but with-out mitigation but because I'm hitting so many if my party is surrounded by enemies they are all being healed that multiple times. If I crit with chains that's 5 targets who can now not hit the cw or hr without a jump-to attack so they dont need to be healed and any melee around those targets are now healed 5 or so times even more HP if close enough; this is especially good for dealing with imps or other lower mob lifeforms that like to surround while still healing and adding to aoe dps.
Anointed Action Increases my damage therefore it increases my heal potential everytime I use a daily meaning my whole team benefits even more when I use Hallowed Ground or Guardian of Faith which works with Holy Fervor. It boosts my ap gain which is increased also by my race; so I get this benefit more often than without it.
Divine Fortune is useless to such a cleric because my only real heal will be forgemasters or; and that costs a pip to heal with or with Exalted by itself. I will have at least lv 2 in this incase I must healbot.
This way the cleric is no longer a healbot but an actual leader; I attack or "mark" those that need to die with lance, astral seal, searing, chains or daunting lights and when people need heals? They will attack my target; I am basically calling out who needs to die first, all the rest is usually trash or something I can hit to deliver such heals. I believe thats what the devs intended from the beginning when they called it a "leader class" not just go here to heal and don't go over there or I can't heal not that that is a bad thing.
If my Guardian of Faith hits with a crit it heals twice also and I only target those who can hurt my party or if the party needs a heal the spell itself will heal all in view of the light and then increase thier damage.
Flame Strike can also be used this way; meaning if I place it in the middle of my party on top of enemies and I crit I will heal for close to the same amount.
Blessing of Battle When feated will also increase my and nearby allies power by 15% of my power in around 10-20 feet and i can dodge 25' to cover the difference in range; and if I crit my target it will produce a spike heal higher than the other at wills; especially if my other damage boosts are up. Normally without being righteous blessing will only increase DR by an amount yet unspecified or looked at.
It holds you in place so its useful to cast only while you are not under heavy fire but your team is. Because I do not heal or hit quite as often as other classes if theres a fast aoe attacker like a cw drawing attention, I wil use this to buff his attack and defense; then switch to divinity and maintain his average health through Soothing Light, or Healing Word, FFor exalted or another such heal if it is needed.
DR is defense but as a whole you get DR from armor class I believe it is .5 DR per AC. Mitigation goes over DR and I believe it is calculated first. To add the ACDC also possesses a feature that improves its own deflection by several percent.
Anointed Armor- will improve my armor class and deflection by lv 1 baseline and then each level will increase deflection and armor class by 2% more this is a good soloing feature to slot.
I'm using Lance of Faith because its a quick attack that does damage while also letting me move afterwards which is an unfortunate problem with sacred flame and bless; it just takes too long to reset animation and still receive the buff. Where as with lance, I throw a few or just one and move; meaning the spear or beam is my main attack dps wise and the bless is used for what its meant to.... to bless.
Btw, if I say dps I really mean number of frames in which I am adding damage or heals per frame or second in hps respectively.
When I got to learning Exhaltation I noticed that it will increase damage for allies and myself, reduce damage taken and around 1000 or so hp during normal non crit effect. Divinity will heal for spike make me and another player immune for 3 seconds whilst healing me 300 or so per second and doing all the buffs that come with it. But this is less for me.
Its about 600 more for my target. Both normal and divinity will show flames and glows upon those who are affected this makes it better than holy word though healing word is a good spell to stack it with while exhalt is down this will synergize with repurpose soul and should anyone be near the target and it crits it will now heal all who are near the exalted ones.
Meaning this is a spell where a glass cannon or a destroyer gwf or a GF will get immunity to damage and heal while not recieving any damage allowing time for that player to survive whatever is thrown at them and to pot while I heal them.
Both me and my target continue to add thier own dps and while they are immune I can focus heal them and if feated my healing toward me and that player will be increased by 10%. I may or may not keep on bar as it is only truly useful if the target ends up or plans on having low life or running straight into the line of fire of heavy attacks constantly making them invulnerable to those heavier attacks for a time which does happen especially because I'm not a healbot.
Divinity Gains and Loss As I am only really attacking; I never absolutely have to use divinity for anything in particular. Its either full or empty when it is empty I use attacks without divinity; when full I will expend a pip or two on encounters and use the beam on enemy to death or till I am out or maintain the heals as I have written elsewhere.
My build will have a natural affinity for building divinity easily because I'm not expending it as much as a heal bot would and since they are all attacks they all build and expend divinity at pretty much the same speed. At certain point; Yes I will run out but it won't be gone normally or for any long period of time.
Life Steal and Armor Pen
Running a cleric in this manner makes life steal and possibly armor pen an actual desired stat which may be the reason it is so prevailant throughout DC gear because if you have a life steal percentage of 10% you will gain 10% of that 37k Daunting light and if you are near it the hit will heal you and party members near it for 15% more! Since as an ACDC you will be buffing from close to party this makes this possible more often than not.
The idea was to buff my own power originally which this will do just from playing but it will also power and heal others up around me or attacks I throw through feats and powers. I still heal 2k on a crit with exalted and many hits will crit when crit is increased.
I still heal 700-1400 per second or more depending on my team mates health or my power with my heal beam.
Slotting for Soloing- Encounters Daunting light Chains of blinding light and searing light or exalted replacing any.
Features- Annointed Action and Annointed Armor
At-will- same as above.
Dailies-Same as above.
More TBA.
Gear TBA.
A special thanks to jenisyde for posting the guide that got me to posting this one.
I saw a dps & a healer DC oracle build and a lot of it made sense and I thought to myself (Hey, I bet an annointed champion might be interesting to play) because it can be more offensive because its abilities can buff attack better than defense because thats what an oracle does; it prevents damage passively for its allies through its visions but it doesnt really have anything there besides hallowed ground that boosts the attack of the cleric and party which is the current trend in the game: to boost dps the word annoint means to bless; to make more effective or make something weak more powerful an AC is a champion who blesses.
People will say in the forums or in game that they don't need heals so I'm going to try to accomplish a cleric that heals only through attacking using its feats and powers to increase damage and heal through the incredible damage skills that they do possess.
The thing about the cleric is that a lot of people use and are expected to usejust the healing abilities even when soloing; when attacking is just as good if not better, most clerics just put a circle down for themselves or others to show people where to fight. It is fine to use AS in this manner even with this build but it is not always necessary.
AS is for a team that is low defensively or can't dodge attacks. Just like oracle's foresight it's not absolutely necessary to win melee generally just run past AS anyway; which is the one main reason foresight even is good because its buff is stackable with divine or feated AS; but so is blessing of battle.
I have been; while in groups in-dungeon attacking. The players realize I'm not using heals so they attack and fight as if I am another class then when they realize I am still healing them just through attacks; especially while they are surrounded due to a single heric feat. I am using the heals that come with certain attacks and when those attacks crit I will gain another heal at the same time which will power me up.
Set up
My planned set up is going to be: A female High Elven Annointed Champion named Mirranda@aristolian using Virtuous tree (main) with a bit from Righteous for divinity gain. You can use any of the races to accomplish this but I wanted ap to be a focus from the start because most of what makes a cleric great in the first place is the dailies.
For instance you could make your character an orc cleric for the additional 5% crit severity or a human for additional feats and personal defense really any race will go with any class so long as you build and play it with the build or strategy. Its all on you to decide I can only tell you what I deem true or have proven to myself as fact.
Main Encounters- Searing Light, Chains of Blinding Light, and Exaltation. Optionally Divine Glow or Break the Spirit for more party dps boost; or Sunburst, HW, AS, or forge masters for when I'm with a low defense or inexperienced group.
At-wills- Lance of Faith, Blessing of Battle, or optionally Astral Seal replacing lance. I'm also actively using the twin beams sooth and punish to dps or hps while encounters are down as those allow me to attack and heal naturally and I am able to continue to move and dodge attacks.
Dailies- Guardian of Faith, and Annointed Army, or optionally Hallowed Ground if there is more dps needed or I feel like running it.
Features- Annointed Action, Holy Ferver.
Feats
Virtuous
Desperate Renewal 3/5 As I have no actual heal besides soothing light and forgemasters and Guardian of Faith with set up to aid those who are about to die or to mitigate damage through healing per second will keep them up if I have this at 3 which will give 15% more heal when below 25% hp.
Rising Hope 2/5 to increase my power and recovery by 15% for 1 minute which will proc a lot because I am only attacking and mostly using divinity to attack. I might switch this to 1 instead for 30 seconds.
Battle Fervor 5/5 to make blessing of battle increase attack power and defense instead of just defense.
Strength of the Gods 5/5 to make Guardian of Faith or Divine Shield if you run it; improve defense and attack power by 10% more as Anointed Action and Battle Blessing will likely stack it also I believe power up affects any player healed or given temp hp by them.
Focused Poise 5/5 to make Lance of Faith deal more base damage by 10% while also giving me more divinity per spear and the points there are all dependant on what attack you plan on using. So these points aren't imperative or even the most important.
Cycle of Change 1/1 for when one of my healing spells crit making my encounters hit harder; thusly making me heal even better and replacing terrifying insight.
Righteous
Righteous Rage of Tempus any/5 crits gain extra divinity to increase divine power use which is central to this play style.
Ancient warding 4/5 it allows to heal with anointed army gives 1/2/3/4/5% max HP in healing also gives all affected allies 1/2/3/4/5% of thier ap increased. It makes anointed action last 4/8/12/16/20% longer for longer increased damage.
Ethereal Boon 1/5 It was last second decision so now when my encounters come off cool down I will get 2% more DP its not a lot but it was either that or a 1% max hp heal 1% AP increase 4% duration for ancient warding.
These are temporary until I fix them.
I'm using Holy Resolve heroic feat at 1/3 because the temp hp is decent for lv 1 just in case they hit me enough and soulforged is great and will proc letting the holy resolve work to keep me alive even longer which is the point of the cleric and feat point; to keep me alive while boosting others chances of survival.
Holy resolve is not essential imo because I do not put myself in a position where its proc will always be needed it is there Just in case.
It's not absolutely essential to use holy resolve but it is good for what it does and procs letting me know its time to pot but at full it is amazing and will work with a soulforged equipent.
For my starting Artifact I got the Lantern of Revelation as it comes with a built in DR debuff through use and it hits around me like army and sunburst does and also comes equipped with crit at ranks 1-29.
My Companion to start was the wizard companion because it is all aoe damage with an aoe slow as its encounter and I can ignore it because its not necessary and it will get up after the battle is over because I am attacking with it and when it dies oh well.
Leveling I didn't even train it past lv 1 because I was using it for it's slow ability to synergize with chains. Not its damage: nor the active bonus from it is negligible. I could have used the tank companion; but I didn't feel I needed it and it wouldnt let me test what its like to solo without one which it is easy enough.
At 60 I got a swashbuckler for when I am crit so I may crit more and I can easily keep it alive without even trying and again when it dies oh well.
When I get to endgame and can afford one I will use a stone like almost all elites do.
more TBA when I fully decide on what else to go with.
REASONING
On the heroic side there is a feat called Repurpose Soul which heals 5, 10, 15% based on the critical damage any of my spells do meaning spells like searing light in divinity, chains regardless of divinity, and forgemasters flame for actual heals and dot; or spike damage from daunting light the both beams; all heal based off of that damage around those I hit and healall clerics can use this if a character is affected multiple times through its proc this means that the heal will be in a lump sum and will spread in an area around the crit.
Right now at level 32 in lower level gear; my Searing Light hits about 1200 or so with a crit so thats 200-300 heal. If I hit max targets with it which is around where AS heals at level 60 but with-out mitigation but because I'm hitting so many if my party is surrounded by enemies they are all being healed that multiple times. If I crit with chains that's 5 targets who can now not hit the cw or hr without a jump-to attack so they dont need to be healed and any melee around those targets are now healed 5 or so times even more HP if close enough; this is especially good for dealing with imps or other lower mob lifeforms that like to surround while still healing and adding to aoe dps.
Anointed Action Increases my damage therefore it increases my heal potential everytime I use a daily meaning my whole team benefits even more when I use Hallowed Ground or Guardian of Faith which works with Holy Fervor. It boosts my ap gain which is increased also by my race; so I get this benefit more often than without it.
Divine Fortune is useless to such a cleric because my only real heal will be forgemasters or; and that costs a pip to heal with or with Exalted by itself. I will have at least lv 2 in this incase I must healbot.
This way the cleric is no longer a healbot but an actual leader; I attack or "mark" those that need to die with lance, astral seal, searing, chains or daunting lights and when people need heals? They will attack my target; I am basically calling out who needs to die first, all the rest is usually trash or something I can hit to deliver such heals. I believe thats what the devs intended from the beginning when they called it a "leader class" not just go here to heal and don't go over there or I can't heal not that that is a bad thing.
If my Guardian of Faith hits with a crit it heals twice also and I only target those who can hurt my party or if the party needs a heal the spell itself will heal all in view of the light and then increase thier damage.
Flame Strike can also be used this way; meaning if I place it in the middle of my party on top of enemies and I crit I will heal for close to the same amount.
Blessing of Battle When feated will also increase my and nearby allies power by 15% of my power in around 10-20 feet and i can dodge 25' to cover the difference in range; and if I crit my target it will produce a spike heal higher than the other at wills; especially if my other damage boosts are up. Normally without being righteous blessing will only increase DR by an amount yet unspecified or looked at.
It holds you in place so its useful to cast only while you are not under heavy fire but your team is. Because I do not heal or hit quite as often as other classes if theres a fast aoe attacker like a cw drawing attention, I wil use this to buff his attack and defense; then switch to divinity and maintain his average health through Soothing Light, or Healing Word, FFor exalted or another such heal if it is needed.
DR is defense but as a whole you get DR from armor class I believe it is .5 DR per AC. Mitigation goes over DR and I believe it is calculated first. To add the ACDC also possesses a feature that improves its own deflection by several percent.
Anointed Armor- will improve my armor class and deflection by lv 1 baseline and then each level will increase deflection and armor class by 2% more this is a good soloing feature to slot.
I'm using Lance of Faith because its a quick attack that does damage while also letting me move afterwards which is an unfortunate problem with sacred flame and bless; it just takes too long to reset animation and still receive the buff. Where as with lance, I throw a few or just one and move; meaning the spear or beam is my main attack dps wise and the bless is used for what its meant to.... to bless.
Btw, if I say dps I really mean number of frames in which I am adding damage or heals per frame or second in hps respectively.
When I got to learning Exhaltation I noticed that it will increase damage for allies and myself, reduce damage taken and around 1000 or so hp during normal non crit effect. Divinity will heal for spike make me and another player immune for 3 seconds whilst healing me 300 or so per second and doing all the buffs that come with it. But this is less for me.
Its about 600 more for my target. Both normal and divinity will show flames and glows upon those who are affected this makes it better than holy word though healing word is a good spell to stack it with while exhalt is down this will synergize with repurpose soul and should anyone be near the target and it crits it will now heal all who are near the exalted ones.
Meaning this is a spell where a glass cannon or a destroyer gwf or a GF will get immunity to damage and heal while not recieving any damage allowing time for that player to survive whatever is thrown at them and to pot while I heal them.
Both me and my target continue to add thier own dps and while they are immune I can focus heal them and if feated my healing toward me and that player will be increased by 10%. I may or may not keep on bar as it is only truly useful if the target ends up or plans on having low life or running straight into the line of fire of heavy attacks constantly making them invulnerable to those heavier attacks for a time which does happen especially because I'm not a healbot.
Divinity Gains and Loss As I am only really attacking; I never absolutely have to use divinity for anything in particular. Its either full or empty when it is empty I use attacks without divinity; when full I will expend a pip or two on encounters and use the beam on enemy to death or till I am out or maintain the heals as I have written elsewhere.
My build will have a natural affinity for building divinity easily because I'm not expending it as much as a heal bot would and since they are all attacks they all build and expend divinity at pretty much the same speed. At certain point; Yes I will run out but it won't be gone normally or for any long period of time.
Life Steal and Armor Pen
Running a cleric in this manner makes life steal and possibly armor pen an actual desired stat which may be the reason it is so prevailant throughout DC gear because if you have a life steal percentage of 10% you will gain 10% of that 37k Daunting light and if you are near it the hit will heal you and party members near it for 15% more! Since as an ACDC you will be buffing from close to party this makes this possible more often than not.
The idea was to buff my own power originally which this will do just from playing but it will also power and heal others up around me or attacks I throw through feats and powers. I still heal 2k on a crit with exalted and many hits will crit when crit is increased.
I still heal 700-1400 per second or more depending on my team mates health or my power with my heal beam.
Slotting for Soloing- Encounters Daunting light Chains of blinding light and searing light or exalted replacing any.
Features- Annointed Action and Annointed Armor
At-will- same as above.
Dailies-Same as above.
More TBA.
Gear TBA.
A special thanks to jenisyde for posting the guide that got me to posting this one.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
Guardian of Faith is just bad. The damage is poor, the heal is poor, the prone is short, and it hits only one target. You might as well skip the Strength of the Gods feat and stick to casting Hallowed Ground right before a fresh rotation since it packs a significant damage buff on its own. That, or keep Strength of the Gods for use with Divine Armor in the event that you want the added buff packaged with a panic button. If neither DA nor GoF, then Flamestrike offers a decent direct-damage option, but I personally find its use in group play annoying since Hallowed Ground's buff will provide more damage during its uptime.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
Terrifying Insight doesnt do that much to increase damage it is too slow to stack. Plus, I have plenty of aoe but no stuns or prones besides flamestrike and a prone on a nonimmune elite will stop that elite from attacking, healing, or exploding or whatever it was about to do meaning its action is reset.
I am agreeing that hallowed ground is a good idea but it's entirely possible to go without it and like I said it will be on my bar but only when needed like in a boss arena.
I'm only going to slot 1 heal if I absolutely have to (ala forgemasters or exhalt) or maybe 2 if it's a boss and the team needs it if you are too impatient to wait for me to change in 2 seconds then you are impatient enough to potentially wipe.
This idea is focused around powering up me and the team while still doing dps and spike well while healing from that damage. I can still use all the healing abilities that any cleric can use.
like Hallowed Ground; for Flame Strike I'm only going to use it occasionally as a finisher or to wipe trash its great for a dungeon like mad dragon where theres 100 imps. You are right about the annoyance but if the enemy is dead it's not an annoyance.
Like I said though mechanics and synergy, you can't look at a move or class by itself; each move is terrible on its own but together they are strong like my party.
Thanks for the post and tips there-in.
I know how GoF works, the potential for proccing Repurpose Soul, etc. etc., but the results just aren't fantastic. If you just plain like it and want to use it, that's completely a question of play style, but I'm still convinced that you can get better mileage with other choices.
Terrifying Insight is still one of the few damage-boosting options you have if we're talking about personal damage. The stacking is impractical outside of a full AoE rotation or when focusing on a single monster, but it's something.
Hallowed Ground isn't something you save for "just in case." That's what Divine Armor is for. Hallowed Ground provides such a huge boost to party damage that it should be busted out whenever the situation calls for it. Personally I don't care if Hallowed Ground is feated to heal or not (mine never is); the party-wide damage and DR buffs alone make the power worth it. If you are running primarily a DPS build, I imagine that the assumption would be that your party isn't in need of a lot of healing from you, so they aren't going to miss either the Moontouched healing or the heal from GoF. If you buff up their damage, they will heal themselves just fine off of Life Steal and mitigate incoming damage by killing faster :P
Flame Strike still suffers from a low target cap and isn't going to one-shot anything in a dungeon except for the smallest trash monsters on a crit, so it's almost always a poor use of AP.
Thanks for the theorycrafting discussion, btw
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
Halfling - Devoted Cleric - Divine Oracle
Neverwinter Tribunal
<Genocidal Tendencies>
www.genotendencies.enjin.com
You can use divine shield to make a high damage attack feel silly to the stronger classes like gf or gwf and it will allow weaker defensively classes not get deadened by those same attacks as long as you time it beforehand.
You are right about DO and AC both being just as useful as the last, I still have a DO cleric in-case my guild or friends need protection more than damage but this is a great way to actively buff and power party while still contributing to the battle at hand damage wise or heal wise.
Dungeons while leveling
I ran the normal cragmire crypts twice and they both went surprisingly well; even though my character was incomplete only the gf got particularly hurt on the last one I did and thats because he was tanking the boss and I was helping to protect the cw and hr we were with; he never went down because I didnt let him. Again it's an easy dungeon so it wont be entirely good info till I complete it which will be a process. To add to this I placed second in damage over everyone but the hr but as its easy and low level this is also irrelevant.
Normal Idris was slightly harder to keep health up but not by a whole lot excepting during a boss fight where there is a slightly higher chance of life loss and idris in the arena was hard; but not because of her; but because the cw decided to pull the entire room so people fell but me and I got them back up and running. Any dc would have had the same problem in that instance except that they wouldn't have been as able to get them up because of healing threat. A disclaimer about this I'm not saying I'm awesome or anything I never do that; I just play it the way the character is built my way.
Doing both paragons in any build is fun and viable for me and others this was all just a test something I end up doing everytime I create or respec a character the idea was unique and far from normal clericing so I posted it.
and anytime vorphied.:)
jenisyde- I heard ACDC in-game wish I could take credit for that lol, but thanks.
Honestly, some of you mechanic descriptions are completely off point and they're causing you to use inferior spells simply beause you didn't bother to learn how to position yourself and move in between spell rotations. A quick example is you're LoF vs Sacred Flame analogy. Sacred Flame actually has a faster attack animation than LoF does so by using LoF not only do you lose damage and divine power generation but you also lose the temp HP buff. Why you're not using ASeal is beyond me...if you wanted to use less healing encounters then ASeal should be your best friend. You also talk about spaming LoF...terrible idea. It provides nothing for you except small amounts of single target dmg being delt. It's preferable to spam ASeal since it procs all your feats and heals allie, or battle of blessing. You and you're party get a lot more out of it.
Terrifying insight doesn't do much to buff dmg, and it doesn't stack well? Really? It gives you 2% dmg for every subsequent attack. All you have to do is use aoe dmg spells and everything you hit is afected and then re-affected, etc. It bufs your damage a lot and it's very easy to maintain. With that benig said you obviously can't take it being AC but you description of it is incredibly misguided.
My issue with this build, is that is simply allows you to get to see bigger dmg numbers poping up on your screen, but yet you're making your party much worse than it could be by denying them debuffs and buffs that would allow them to greatly increase their dmg, much more than you are increasing your dmg or adding damage to the party. You're disregard for HG makes this pretty obvious. This is simply a selfish build where you're saying "I want to see my little numbers get slightly bigger so I can not be so far behind on the dmg meter, when you could greatly buff the rest of the parties dmg and cut run times in half"
Then again the descriptions in the guide are no less misleading than the tooltips provided in-game that is what this is it is a guide.
Terrifying Insight buffs only your damage and its a small damage boost percentage to max stacks placed on enemies damaged which must be maintained constantly as there is not too many attacks on a healbot dc anyway these stacks are widely irrelevent.
You should always place yourself where you need to be to support and if you must replace something on your bar then do it. You can tell how geared, enchanted, or prepared a player is simply by looking at them or watching 1-5 fights and if they are not prepared you may simply leave because the que will give them someone else any. Remember any character can be played selfishly and those players rarely when not buying gear get further than t1 because players notice when you are being selfish and when you are foregoing dps to assist them.
You can tell just by looking who you are with weather or not your team will be able to even complete and even then I will only pug t1s and the rest is with guild which is the smarter way to play t2s and beyond; with a guild you know what they are running and if they are experienced or new if you actually talk to them and even help them out if they ask.
I start a character and dont buy mulhrond because it makes the game pve way too easy instead I level to 60 like back in the day; grabbing and using gear I get from drops; at 60 I buy the gear and enchants I want in blues and rank 5s and farm the rest like you should. This is what I mean by I made this character I didn't buy bis or buy anything for it I didn't earn in ad myself.
WORK IN PROGRESS!!!
This is a cleric and its far from selfish it still heals it still deals good damage comparatively to other classes of similar gear; and it DOES power others up depending on how much power you have accumulated just through playstyle and gear alone.
The simple fact is people automatically think cleric=healbot and if not heal bot you suck; and this may be wrong using this. I also never said you don't or won't run astral seal; the heal from it is to ok at best and most people endgame striking it already have enough life steal or regen to make its point barely even realized beyond seeing it on an enemy.
This is not a build HAMSTER yet; it is a gameplay info mine for my plans and I'm mining it. If you want to learn and mine it with me; that is fine. But actually read it and try it and you will see that there is more to ACDC than just the skills you get for it; which I can still run to the same effect.
To get the benefit of T.hp from Sacred Flame you have to hit three times being completely stationary and it's only maybe 2-400 hp shield anyway; a zombie at level 30 can hit that. I know what the moves all do in game and in background at least better than the casual gamer or moderate player, because I was training to be a dev and because I am constantly playing this game even in my dreams.
Searing light is not "inferior"; not when using "superior positioning" which this what this move is all about. It's not just fire and forget, its a skill shot. In non-divinity I can hit 5 targets with it lined up; not all the time but enough that it works. Using divinity target cap is raised.
It doesnt matter where you are when you use daunting light you can almost place it anywhere for effect and if you happen to miss with it which can happen at least 50% of the time due to enemy movement or other knocks it does no damage where as even with searing if the target dies before the light leaves your hand it will be available to recast immediately and won't go on cooldown where as you miss or target dies with daunting the skill will go on cooldown.
But most players won't even realise this because Daunting Light is gotten at around level 20 and it hits way harder at level 20 when you get it; so searing gets dropped. I'm not abandoning daunting; far from it; It will still be used and will still be powerful and with searing it's an ultimate combo where aoe damage and heals from damage is concerned also using chains first with daunting and searing is very potent combo as the chains will hold enemies in place then flay them with lights.
I am actually trying to learn something new; not going with the flow like everyone else and am not blinded or phased by current trends or my own ego; because I build my own characters and they all have thier own tactics and personality and all work end game. No one has died or fallen in a dungeon by the fault of my cleric and I haven't gotten to the point where I almost died yet alone; so something must be working even though it's far from complete.
Maybe something like this will make people blame the dc less for wipes and more on thier own inability to fight well or maybe not; thats not the point of this. The point I'm trying to make is; it is entirely feasible to run this the way I am. While still maintaining what the dc should stand for; LEADING not just healing. Being a heal bot is a choice; like choosing a paragon is a choice, it's not the only choice just like running or not running with 3 cw; Yes it's fast and easy but its also imo lazy.
Sure I can go on preview and test but thats not reality, one thing holds true there one day; next week will be changed and when on the next week after it will be completely false or broken. It's not actually there for our benefit it's there for the players and devs to test current builds and change what might be considered OP. Thats why testing on preview is not 100% you can't trust anything you learn there completely.
This thread will be a mile long when im done with it and it will discuss more than just dps potential, this is something I just started to get the ball rolling.
I will post my completed build using a link to it here and a link there to here for reference; on a new thread of which I haven't even considered the name yet.
Thank you for your opinion sir.
Chains of blinding light will hit 5 targets roughly 200 damage higher and can crit up to 2000 at level 39.
This allows the cleric to mitigate through moderate healing and moderate to high damage and buffs for melee damage while still being able to use the greater healing and protection spells if your team need them.
Don't take this thread as if I am only running dps because I'm not, I am healing somewhat through forgemasters and sunburst and when those skills crit they will heal more because I am hitting more but I am healing passively instead of overly agressively and if your life is that low I will heal you enough to give you time to potion which is why AS was nerfed before in the first place because no one was using them.
Potions are extremely cheap and running a dungeon without them is pointless and irresponsible even with a heal bot.
Even elites and pros use potions and if they say they have never had to use one they are lying to you or cheating in some fasion or are so overly geared and skilled being hit doesnt matter.
I get the feeling that if I am with a nature ranger the heals and mitigation from oakskin and my damage heals going around and the temp hp boosts associated with stag heart and divine shield would also be able to make both this cleric and the NHR even more effective. (i havent been able to try this because most people who make hr are people who want to dps) But I know how they work because I made a good one.
Also if running end game with several cw's theres little need to heal as many mobs are being controlled so they aren't doing damage and I am not stuck putting down a shield that sees little to no use instead I am adding aoe damage to thiers and I am actually contributing; not there's that guy's pointless circle that we will just teleport out of at the first sign of trouble because the aoe from boss will kill us in one hit anyway.
Thanks for posting ghoulz; feed back is essential to this thread as it is in others this thread will only be as good as the people who post and the info contained there-in.
Heck, with my first DC my party got wiped twice by the Cragmire Crypts boss. Not this time. Hand out a couple heals here and there, while contributing to the DPS.
Toke 1st place for damage dealt, even with a HR in the party... Probably because of those massive blobs of zombies I instantly wiped out with searing light.
Cleric heals are for keeping the party alive long enough to pot even my heal bot cant heal 8500 hp like a pot can.
This imo is a more active more dynamic healer and competent fighter.
No, I wont be able to heal ranged characters as well as a heal bot but if they aren't terrible and are smart they wont need me to and melee are usually able to fight through the pain because they are where i am healing the most.
A note though, trs and hrs are probably the hardest to heal but thats due to thier nature they are both melee and ranged and both flit around alot and are usually shorter trs are generally easier than hr is though because of Marauders escape and the fact that many only use split shot thusly only pull all aggro but I support them with chains which is why it is on my bar almost 24/7 well that and when I crit it's a pretty tasty heal.
continued gameplay:
I also noticed that blessing of battle will make targets affected glow faintly during duration and to show that the blessing is over they glow bright then fade away meaning I can see this and cast another at anytime from that point leading to my buff attack playstyle to work even better because at any point my power will be higher than when I blessed last so blessing of battle isn't used to attack constantly or hurt my target though it can; It's used to refresh the buff with a better or lesser one depending upon my power gains.
I can also hit 1000-2000 with BoB and it does give a nice spike to healing too about 4-600 hp.
Also lance is also hitting much harder when it does and doesnt crit because I've powered it up through play, gear, and feats, so when it crits it heals quickly.
assuming you will mainly use divine glow, astral shield and daunting light
IDK if a build like this will work, I am not sure you can proc linked spirit and divine advantage with those encounters
http://nwcalc.com/dc?b=cn4:13ydj4:13ydj4,1li3314:1f0v00:1uu000:1u0u00&h=0&p=anc
currently I use this buils, It add a lot of damage for the party and lot of survive for me
but I change daunting light to sun burst most of the times
http://nwcalc.com/dc?b=cn4:13ydj4:13ydj4,1li3314:1f0u00:100000:1u0uz1&h=0&p=anc
I also dont know if a build like this will work but I'm confident it will.
All posters will get credit for this on the build thread that I will post.
Continued gameplay:
I've used annointed army and it is very good as when I crit with it it heals a decent amount around me and will AGAIN increase defense and power stackable with my other attack and defense boosts the stacks of defense arent as irrelevent as many players believe if the player recieving it is smartly moving out of red circles and dodging and will improve their ability to recieve damage without feeling like it's the hulk kicking them in the sac it also will void control effects for as long as the effect exists.
You can tell how many stacks you or allies currently possess by how many orbs are surrounding you and them and you give temp hp just from using it and when the stacks fall off.
I've also taken to using exaltation instead of sunburst because it powers and gives defense. Exaltation is like exalted in magic the gathering: those who are attacking are powered up offensively defensively but only 1 person is actually to be affected at a time difference is; is that it also effects me too. After using one or both of these powers if I use blessing of battle it will increase the power it buffs.
You have to time exaltation with the enemies heavy attack you have to memorize movements and timing not just the splats they are making in order to be effective with it because memorizing movements of enemies and allies alike means you can plan on when and who to heal, stun, prone, or attack to prevent them from even being damaged.
Enemies have different attacks they use or spam depending upon where thier target is in range if an enemy has a ranged attack it will use it and if the ally is in melee it will use its melee.
In icespire peak when fighting the rimehound I lost a few times due to not having approprately leveled gear and not using the right encounters and because my chains did not stop him from the spike damage jump-to; so I switched around a bit and put on some improvements in gear which I absentmindedly forgot to put on beforehand on the third try. But I still killed him the and the adds 3rd try pretty quickly alone.
I am at 53 now and the chasm wasn't hard I healed random players and helped them when surrounded and powered them while attacking the enemies and some wanted to party with me just because I helped them. I did some of the dungeons there alone and with a SM GF who never even came close to feeling anything resembling pain. I even went afk for a smoke I came back to see his life low I threw in a divinity exhalt in time for a nothic to blast him causing no damage while he healed and then I heal beamed him and when I saw him pot I switched to attack. I wish I had footage but I don't.
When I started this I thought I was only going to improve attack because I went in with supposition which is good as it allows me to place a beginning point at which to test and as I test these things are noticable.
Any cleric might just put a heal just in case but a good cleric will put a heal for a reason everything a cleric does must have meaning.
I havent used holy annointed symbol class feature and I might not put more than 1 point into it but it sounds very good depending on how many base thp it gives based off of lv 1; which is a base where it has to be in order for it to be tested as a baseline. Because it works off my divinity powered encounters of which I use many it sounds good for party if it affects them or solo survival if it does not, so I may yet respec a bit since this was a test from the beginning and leveling it to 3 will not tell me how many thp it truly is; as you can just use math or mouse over hp bar to figure it out.
each level on this increases the thp gains by 12% just for having it slotted and using divine powers.
And its the first time I lost so I figured I'd post it.
Thanks for that.
I will also add my basic & full attributes rolls and choices and why I made them when I get the chance which will also be up for discussion to make this cleric better.
Also enchants and gear ideas and proposals will be accepted at this time. Know that I will dispute or agree with them as I will any other post but I will only do that once I have completed and gained sets.
Because it attacks so slowly your divine power gain will suffer.
And when I do slot astral shield blessing will stack with it and even if it is not divine it will improve the resistance of the party.
And my personal dps as a battle cleric isn't as important as in other classes because the other classes around me are also benefiting from my buff I only use it to buff and rebuff and I only use it once not to actually attack thats what punishing, daunting, and searing lights are for.
Even I sucked with it at first for the ten levels it took me to perfect: it's a buff that hits and does what I want it to because I forced myself to learn to use it effectively with my rotation and I tap it instead of holding it down because you can que your next action while the blessing in animation is going and it will either interrupt the blessing or it will work after.
If interupted it doesnt matter I have other things on my bar that cause this effect and I can still use it afterwards. It does work so far its not a move you have to slot 100% when soloing but you can use it to power and protect yourself.
As a cleric I may never be a true dps but I will make the others around me even more powerful and I will smite enemies alongside them but I have noticed that I'm either 2nd to 4th most of the time.
Again thanks and I will add to this.
Not using Blessing of Battle as an AC is a pretty awful waste. Better to go DO and take advantage of Foresight in that case. Don't forget that the buff from BoB lasts about 10 seconds and is equivalent to Foresight's base benefit (6%) without Benefit of Foresight applied.
Also don't forget that the DP and AP gain on BoB are higher to help compensate for its slower animation.
Contagion - Cleric
Testament - Wizard
Pestilence - Ranger
Dominion - Paladin
NIGHTSWATCH
It takes 2 seconds if you know where the skills are on the powers tab which can be brought up by hitting P and 10 seconds after the switch to use the changed skill you must have patience practice and even skill for doing this on the fly if you are auto moving using T key with the group when there are no enemies or pits then switch while not fighting. The others, if not terrible will be fine for that two seconds.
And remember that if you are aware of where you are auto moving and are about to do something regretable like fall into a pit or attract the attention of enemies; you can interupt the auto move and the menu screens simply by moving another direction other than forwards. Use your memory of the layout of the dungeon or areas to your advantage and enemy placement while doing this.
I still contributed about 700,000 or so damage and I didn't bother to see what I had healed as that is not and never is my focus next time if others are curious I will also post what heals I do in a dungeon which will themselves improve as I gear.
All players were actively contributing which was why we were able to win; some fell during only boss fights and as soon as they did and it was safe to pick them up I did leading to no fall in dps. One of the rangers was possibly a nature ranger and was using all buffs and my buffs and abilities all stacked with thier's to great effect.
Only the nature ranger died 2 times during the boss fights under no fault of anyone because falling and dying are a part of this game as is gear, loot, victory, and failure.
I made them stronger even though they were not recieving the benefit of AS constant heals or foresight they all potted when they needed to and when they couldn't I tried my best to beam them or heal them by attacking while buffing them.
No one screamed at me to heal, or use AS, I didn't use BIS mulhrond; I didnt scream at them or call them or me anything because we were working to accomplish a common goal: and that goal is to win.
Using this style I don't have to coddle or carry them; nor do they carry or coddle me nor use skills just for them or me. As a cleric or any support class you should always aware of where your party is and thier needs are even when separated because they aren't children to coddle they are heroes. If they need me I am there or rushing as fast as I can to help if not then they are fine.
None of which are cheap except plague fire since I last looked for it. You have a chance to get one from a nightmare lock box in ah if keys are what is your thing or get it right off ah; enchants are expensive and this may change at any time. So I try to run dungeons to get ad.
Do you mean the cap stones? I will improve my feat list and how to use or synergise them for both clerics later.
Later if I care to I'll even move it to another with link.
I will add more soon after I sleep, verify what you mean and I am still tired.
Though Ethereal Boon might work wonders when necessary?
Ethereal boon is a great thing for dp generation especially when using searing as it has the smallest cooldown and thusly procs it.
Most of our attack spells have low cooldowns where as the heals miracle and AS both have pretty high cooldowns.
Halfling - Devoted Cleric - Divine Oracle
Neverwinter Tribunal
<Genocidal Tendencies>
www.genotendencies.enjin.com
shadow - Pvp is indeed annoying I actually hate it personally with every class it is sometimes robust and interesting but it is almost always a burdening and harrowing experience sometimes because gs isn't separated. This is my opinion.
Your cleric is allowed a lot of leeway in how you play and is unique from mine, sally struthers' or richard simmons'. I am not telling anyone in particular you "must" play a cleric this way that way or another way just giving ideas as to how to make things better or different for me or anyone who reads.
ranged classes have right to be there you just have to consider them a target to heal once and a while they all have ability to take care of themselves and if not use abilites that will assist them if you or they cannot get a grip.
As you can try to take a weaker survivable hit for them if I can slide in front to give them time to escape because I am buffed and can be slightly tankier than most of them are.
Thank you for your post as it allows some insight into pvp as a cleric however small or large if you'd like to add your playstyle to a thread and link it here I'd be happy to help or learn from it as others will be able to as well.
I will add thoughts and pvp advice here but as I am not a pvp jock I will not be able to cover absolutely everything as this thread is about pve.
here is my gameplay thesis on hr it is incomplete and old because i moved on from it http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?554351-My-experience-with-the-ranger-class
I still play and love my rangers.
Rangers still get healed off of astral seal the problem is that if those seals are on enemies behind others thier split shot may not hit them. And you are right it is not your problem or fault if they are aggroing everything it is because that ranger is only using splitshot because of its power.
All classes can interupt each other so long as they arent immune or are knocked back and are using the skills that cause these interuptions.
unless prepared in pvp or have a team or random pug all classes must work much harder 1v5 or even 1v1 excepting some gwf because of unstoppable. Even they are subject to being beaten in a 1v1 by any class if that character is built, skilled, and geared well enough to destroy them.
A smart player will not even engage a whole team that is running together 90% of the time alone unless they are running survival powers and even then there are no guarantees.
That player may instead take the long less traveled route to back cap if thier mount is better than 5 gold as the slower mounts are leagues slower.
or use height advantage to attack or buff to use it defensively from a safe distance that is better protected from cover or if they are running multiple melee fighters.
GWF are masters of one v many so are GFs to a different extent depending on what they are running and thier strategies for dealing with those situations.
Did Defend the Temple skirmish. Didn't do the most damage on second run, but didn't do the least. Let a guy rush in and let the mobs surround him, hurl ubercharged searing light into blob, agro them, put forgemasters/daunting on toughest thing, sun brand a bunch of stuff(since it has such a fast animation), and just kite till they're dead.
Dot might not be amazing all the time or even the most impressive but my divine oracle healbot can hit 7-12k on crit over time with brand of the sun at 12k gs.
I totally wish I could have Brand of the Sun instead of lance but since I cant oh well.
used velocity as an action word not its actual meaning for lack of better one.
the other cleric was running AS which helped as i was not using it. but I never had to because he was running it. I was staying close to the cw and it looked to hit harder the giants certainly felt it.
The tr I was with was hard to heal as they always are. I even missed with exalt a few times but he got through fine because as soon as he needed me I was beaming him and throwing passive aoe heals the healing from repurpose soul is nice and goes further then you might think.
I also ran annointed symbol class feature some more and what it does is pretty good at lv 1 its not bad so I may put another point on it as it will give temp hp anyhow when I attack, buff, or heal, using divinty meaning that it will stack with all classes thp and deepstone blessing and all the hp that they are getting passively it looks like a blue version of sacred flame buff that targets me and will do the same effect in an aoe around me the temp hp is also much higher even at level 1 and 2 and will probably stack with it so my build will have sacred flame at lv. 1 for its added t.hp usage.
level 1 for this feature will give around 600 thp at level 2 it gives around 900. not sure about level 3 yet.
Lets look at this further since talking about thp; Anointed symbol gives 900 at level 2 and sacred flame gives 400 more stacked then divine shield will add around 2000 thp added to the nature rangers stag heart thats another 3000 or so.
Lets look at each combined thats 900+400+2000+3000=6300 thp with just encounters in divinity 1 daily and 1 encounter from nature ranger and 1 at will used three times. Add on a gwfs temp hp from unstoppable or grit or a gf's grit and his bonus thp from Iron Warrior when low on hp. Thats a great amount of thp for a whole team to get out of a few abilities from two classes.
So if you think about it annointed champion can also be the temp hp annointed champion just by slotting 1 feature and daily.
it will also work for healbots.
I also ran the last solo dungeon from rothe there are alot of spiders and I died 3 times because I was testing if I could do it with out potions I succeeded in doing it all it cost me was 25 or so silver.
I ran various non attack healing spells when I won a fight then switched when my health was fine. And to survive I hid from enemies; used cover to my advantage, and lost the mobs from behind corners because I was messing about testing validity of strategies for survival and how much my cleric can withstand. Not quite immortal but it does take a while to go down even without over clocking heals.