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Advice about being a cleric?
zdragonlord
Member Posts: 31
So I want to be stupid and make a cleric named Solaire under Amaunator (yes, that is where I'm going with this guy…). However, I have never really been a major medic/support role, more of the guy in front getting pummeled and tanking it out or bombarding stuff with spells. All I'm really looking for is some advice on how to work as a cleric both solo (my major play style as none of my friends play NW) and in a dungeon/skirmish setting. For starters, I get buff and heal everyone all the time. I usually try to help out now as is when I see people starting to get low on HP, but not much a GSwordsman can do… Not asking for what feats or abilities to upgrade, just basic how to operate things to be efficient and survive.
(ps, new console player alert, lol)
Thanks,
ArchDrake Zweii
(ps, new console player alert, lol)
Thanks,
ArchDrake Zweii
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For solo play, grab the warrior companion and treat him as a tank at the early levels. That'll both allow you to solo and practice for groups. HG is your go to daily for group play, with divine armor for clutch saves (e.g. Your CW MT is dying...). Otherwise, HG to maintain. The goal as a DC imo is to get HG up as often as possible/appropriate. Empowered 3x stack WoH recharges daily power quick. I love divine sunburst spamming 3x to put those HoTs up. Pop an empowered WoH after that and it would take some really sloppy group play to overcome those heals pre-end game
Later, once you get your CC root power + dots + single target nuke/dot (I run word of healing and keep that running to maintain health), that can become your solo build. Use flamestrike when things mob you; else stuff dies quick.
Kaelac's guide is awesome to get you going. Really thorough too; I'm on my third read and still picking up info. It's hard to absorb until you get some hands on DC experience
http://laggygamerz.com/forum/index.php?/topic/17-kaelac’s-guide-to-devoted-clerics-in-neverwinter/#3
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Astral seal + Sacred flame until divinity bar is full. RB + Bastion of health X3 then healing word. I use sun burst in order to push any straggling enemies into the tank, while using my dodge to do circles around the fight.
Fun side note: Most dungeons I can utilize maxed empowered with sun burst to fling enemies off the map..
Only problem with this heal class, is that people seem to panic when the fights get large, and tend to scatter around the map. This makes it near impossible to get everyone healed. It seems like the concept of taxiing adds to the tank is too hard to comprehend these days :P
"Is there a way to reduce the amount of threat generated by your healing besides just a couple passive abilities? DO any of the T1 or T2 armor's also include a buff to your threat reduction?
Save your points and put them in skills/feats that benefit you more , not seen any armour that has threat reduction as of yet.
Alright cool, thanks for the reply.
I wasn't sure if there was specific sets of gear that altered that stat. Most games actually have that or a passive that you can spec to remove threat or reduce it's generation. Hmmmm. I'll have to rethink my current heal build for now. :P
I'll start the match by saying "Run to me if you are about to die, please!" If I can't see you, if you can't see me, you aren't getting healed. Some listen and they don't die.
Another thing is WTF is with people just sitting in the red stuff? I understand a tank just camping out up close and eating red non stop, that's his thing, he's good at that. But the control wizards and scourge warlocks, makes me want to scream. Then when they do eat Ultimate Smash of Doom to the face, they try to run to the far edge of the map to "escape". I'm not leaving the tank to go play hide and seek with you.
That said, I recently maxed out the passive that gives +AC. OMG that feels sooo sweet being able to just stand in the middle of 8 adds and maintain my heals. I think my AC is around 38 right now at level 47, or something close. I bumped into another healer of similar level doing our dailies and his was like 19 AC, I can't image going back.
I put down astral shield constantly, they think it heals them. Thank god for that, that aoe grants more defense and bunches them up closer to me to boost the effectiveness of my healing. For the most part a lot of the time the faith tree's ability to gift a stack of faith as a heal has made my job of healing much easier too. It's even added to my own ability to survive.
The downside to people not understanding the cleric class cause they will never play one (its my favorite class, and I've played wizard, 2hander, and rogue too so far), is that they expect heals to be just there instantly as if it were an at will power (only during divinity mode), and thus like to blame you for their death when they stood in a red aoe circle of death. Oye. Don't let them get to you though, if you don't die a few times in this game, you're not learning, you're not playing it right. lol. Everyone dies, some people just get pushed ahead to the line... Like when they stand in that aoe....
Right now I am conflicted as to which path is better, divine oracle, or annointed champion. I've read that awesome guide that everyone has been linking to, and i've followed that, so I am a divine oracle build. BUT! The author of that guide specifically states that they had liked that branch more because it was more easily able to solo. Thing is, I never solo, don't like solo, and only pve. Sooo i'm debating if i should consider switching to annointed champion in light of this fact, I'd glady sacrifice dps for higher survival ability to carry out my group function.
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The direct answer to your question do I know of any T1 or T2 armors with a threat reduction? No.
I follow the Faithful, Agent of the Divine Path and I run with an organized team. That said, I avoided all feats that reduce my threat as there were other feats that were more important to my build. Yes, I do get agro from time to time, But I'm tanky enough to survive a sustained T2 beating. (25k HP, Defense 2k, and an additional 11% auto damage mitigation from Foresight Passive & Feats)
Usually the assigned body guard/offtank kills the adds or gets agro from it. Mobs beating on me heal the team and me. So that's nice. Mobs not beating on me, allow me to wander around doing healing things and dodging the red splotchy things on the floor. Granted, I'm certainly not in the top DPS cleric builds (I usually come in 4th or 5th on the team in damage and 2nd or 3rd in most damage received.)
Sometimes I wish I had that Zen Owl with the active -25% agro bonus, but I get by without it.
Everything I learned about playing NW as a cleric, prior to the game being release on X1, I learned from:
http://laggygamerz.com/forum/index.php?/topic/17-kaelac%E2%80%99s-guide-to-devoted-clerics-in-neverwinter/
Working solo you certainly have options. Lots of people will advise different things and these mainly involve the amount of self-healing you want to do vs. how much you want to rely on potions. You can max out your at-wills, encounters and dailies to pretty much get rid of healing entirely and turn yourself into a pure DPS machine. Personally I just like having the utility of healing myself, so I keep powers in that return some healing back. Most of the mobs in solo mode that I have come across so far can be killed easily enough without going full DPS and I can save my potions for emergencies. I would say experiment with different combinations until you get comfortable with something that works for you. For example, pretty early on you get the choice of two out of 3 at-wills; Astral Seal (less damage, gives healing back), Lance of Faith (most damage, no healing), Sacred Flame (middle damage, boost hit points slightly). Any combo will work. Which works for you is up to you. As for companions again, I would say its up to your own personal style. I have both the man-at-arms and the free warlock dude you get for linking to your Arc account. Both work equally as well. The man-at-arms potentially has more synergy as he can tank stuff, but often in solo-mode things aren't alive long enough to seriously threaten.
In dungeon's I think the only advice is: "never stop thinking". Unless you are in organised groups who know the best tactics, I suspect you're going to have to think on your feet a lot. You need to learn to be mobile. For someone who is used to standing at the front and getting bashed, this might be a different playstyle. Positioning yourself so that you take the least personal damage and are in range of the rest of your team will be important. There will always be someone who grabs those extra adds, or doesn't execute the strategy properly that will cause the unexpected to happen. This is why you always have to be aware of your surroundings, whats happening in the battle, where mobs are, where team mates are etc. This is why I love playing the healer class. Dealing with the unexpected and succeeding.
I would also say "be patient" and "be humble". Healer is a relatively complex class to play. You'll make mistakes and it'll be your fault you wipe. Other's will make mistakes and they'll expect you to be able to heal through whatever happens. Not everyone will have the patience or the understanding that you're learning a new class.
You'll learn when you can stand still, when you need to move, when you need to dodge move, when to DPS and so on. Before your mid 40's its a bit rough, it gets better, and much more fun once you hit a few of the Class defining milestones.
Devoted Cleric: Heskan
The problem is picking that AC power means you loose out on foresight, which is the single best mitigation power for keeping the team safe.
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It used to be. I'm seeing reports that Foresight isn't what it used to be (utility-wise) in the upper levels 65+ and that the AC path has suddenly become very much a contender for some of the Paragon-specific feats in that tree. I'm not debunking your claim, only repeating what I've been seeing reported in other threads and my own experience feels like it confirms these reports.
My recommendation to anyone deciding with path to take: look very closely at the Paragon-specific encounters and dailies, then look at the feats and make your decision based on that. Foresight, as awesome as it is 1 through 60 becomes less important s you get into the high-tiers of end-game.
I have three DCs and I sent two of them over to the AC path, one still on the DO path. I'm really liking the AC side right now on the one who's made it into the level 70 stuff.
If nobody needs healing then hit RB and Chains four times and out dps the TR that hasn't used stealth the entire dungeon.
Outside of heroics you will be the tank in most fights, but this isn't like a normal MMO, you can avoid the vast majority of damage just by sliding out of the way, most fights you'll feel more like Micheal Jackson than Mother Teresa. Potions are also plentiful, cheap, and on a short cool down, use them. Don't be afraid to run head first into groups, you don't need that tank until heroics, and he is slow as hell.
If you find yourself stressed and frantically looking for the one guy taking massive damage don't worry about him, he is standing in red, not using potions, and not worth your time.
AC is more of your PvP build
What AOE knockback? Are you talking about Sunburst? I'm a level 47 and haven't used that in ages. I played in a skirmish with another cleric that was spamming Sunburst and swore I'd never use it in a party setting again :-P It's great for solo but horrible in group (except in something like Pirate where you can knock off bridge, but CW can do that). Nobody appreciates everything getting knocked back when they're trying to fight, haha.
I do sort of miss it, it's pretty fun to make enemies fly
I use Bastion of Health with divinity for heals. Otherwise, I agree with everything you said in your post.
To whomever asked if there is any way to reduce aggro, NO. I mistakenly took 3/3 in the feat and it does zero. Enemies give no cares. Learn to kite like a boss. You're tanky, you can do it!
A lot of the time PUGS will not even bother helping Cleric when they are swamped with trash so we do what we have to.