First thing's first:
I AM NOT IN A GROUP TO SOLELY DISH OUT DPS . Yes even though when I see someone in guild chat or Enclave chat asking for a DPS slot and I'll take it my main objective is not to dish out personal DPS, it's to
more than double by group's damage output. However, IMO if this game counted damage buffed on the Paingiver charts instead of giving the other DPS the numbers I am confident in saying I'd win every time. We won't be topping Paingiver charts any time soon so if that's the thing you're into go make a GWF or SW. I'm not saying it's impossible (well it kinda is unless you're playing with people that built their class completely wrong) but you'd be under utilizing your powers and the party overall would be doing less damage, cause you want to be greedy giving up over 40+ million in buffed damage as group for 2-5 million personal damage for yourself. My main objective is to buff my team and debuff my enemies while increasing my personal DPS is my secondary goal.
Race and stat choices
Okay so the main attributes for a Devoted Cleric are : Wisdom, Charisma, and Strength. One giving you more damage/healing, more AP gain and recast time reduction, and crit chance/stamina gain.
So, if I'm a DPS Cleric which stats would I want. Well I personally go for Wisdom and Strength and roll to start with 16 and 16. Wisdom for obvious reasons and Strength for crit chance AND more stamina gain (this is huge as a Righteous Cleric you gain a lot of threat and will need to dodge A LOT).
Now if I wanted those stats of course I make a big goofy looking Dragonborn! Ha, just messing to you Dragonborn mains even though. Dragonborn is definitely the best class to maximize your DPS and that goes for any class. Nothing wrong with Humans (DC feats are probably the worst though so the +3 points is doing nothing for ya). I personally went for a Drow besides looking bad <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> but the debuff they give off only made sense for the build I work with
.
Heroic Feats:
- 3/3 Toughness: 9% more health (Can't go wrong with more health)
- 2/3 Healing Action:A tiny bit more AP gain when using a healing power which usually just Divine Glow.
- 3/3 Weapon Mastery: 3% more critical chance (increased crit chance so we hit harder more often)
- 3/3 Holy Resolve: Gain 15% of your maximum hit points in temporary hit points when you drop below 30%. (Lifesaver)
- 3/3 Repurpose Soul: When one of your spells has a critical effect the target of that spell disperses a small area of effect heal, healing you and your allies for 15% of the spell's effect. (Does not work with Daunting Light, may work with chains? Not sure but there's really not much to choose from)
- 1/3 Battlewise: Again our heroic feats are trash or broken I take this just to give myself enough to move on to the next tier and 2% less threat helps a little I'm sure.
- 5/5 Bountiful Fortune: Gain 15% more Divine Power (so we can spam our divinity encounters as much as possible)
Paragon Feats:- 5/5 Astral Fury: You deal 10% more damage (raw damage increase)
- 5/5 Furious Intervention: You generate 10% more AP when dealing damage (you want hallowed grounds as much as possible, running with a haste DC you can have this pretty much up all the time)
- 5/5 Righteous Suffering: When you take damage you deal 10% more damage for 10 seconds. (Another 10% raw damage increase)
- 5/5 Power of the Sun: Decreases enemy damage with our main At-Will not the best in PvE has some uses in PvP.
- 5/5 Weapons of Light: 10% of your power goes to your group. WHY NOT?
- 5/5 Bear Your Sins: Foes who are under the effect of one of your DoT effects take 10% more damage from all sources. (10% damage increase for you AND your party, my at-will of choice is brand of the sun which is a DoT)
- 5/5 Condemning Gaze: Your encounter spells apply a stack of "Condemned" to their targets when they reach 5 stacks they take 15% more damage from all sources for 15 seconds. (Easy to get off 5 encounters with divinity, a 15% damage increase for you and your party)
- 5/5 Fire of the Gods: When you critically strike a foe they are set ablaze, taking 100% of your weapon damage every second for 15 seconds. (Even more damage when you critically strike a foe, yes please.)
- 1/1 Avatar of the Divine: When you enter combat gain Avatar, your damage is increased by 40% and your cool down speed by 40% for 25 seconds and has a cool down of 60 seconds. When you leave combat it cancels avatar and resets its cooldown (Most fights don't last over 25 seconds aside from boss fights, and when you leave combat it is reset, raw damage increase and you can get more encounters off)
What stats should I be focusing on?
Okay so stats you're going to want a little of everything as a healing spec you obviously ignore things like armor penetration and lifesteal well here with this spec that's not something you'll want to do:
- Power: Increases your effectiveness of damage powers and healing powers. This is where you will dump all your points after you get your other stats set.
- Critical Strike: More crits = more damage and more powerful healing
- Recovery: AP gain and increased encounter recharge speed.
- Armor Penetration: Resistance ignored you want 60% which is cap (PvE).
- Defense: Nothing makes a healer mad than some squishy DPS don't ignore this BTW bubble is getting nerfed.
- Lifesteal: In end game and you don't really run with a healer too much and just a tank this will increase your survivability.
I'd focus on getting armor pen and crit up but don't ignore defense entirely too much that's all. End game you'll want to invest into lifesteal
Comments
Okay so powers I change these around OFTEN even while in the middle of a dungeon or skirmish it honestly just depends what's ahead of us and what I choose I want to do. Does my group lack some DPS, I'll run full DPS with some buffs. Does my group have great DPS, I'll run damage buffs and some personal damage.
At Wills:The same 2 at-wills are always on my bar and that's Astral Seal
obviously to support heal and grant my team even more life-steal. Use it on priority targets and bosses. My other at-will and what I use most of the time to attack and build divinity is Brand of the Sun. BotS deals pretty decent DoT and it also will proc one of our feats that will increase our party's damage by 15%, also probably the most superior Divinity gainer we have. Another at-will that I should mention and is easily forgotten about and shouldn't be forgotten is our divinity at-will Punishing Light. This skill is great to use when your encounters are on cool down it deals insane amounts of single target damage also you can use it while mobile which is huge.
Encounters:
- Divine Glow:A great encounter to use I usually start off every fight with this as it will decrease enemy resistance which will increase your group's damage on that target.
- Daunting Light:This is the skill you use to see big numbers pop up. Though most people think this should be you're main DPS power...WRONG I honestly only bring this solo. Even though it's technically the most damage it's not consistent as the AoE ring is small and there's a short delay before it hits. Even the best of GFs can't always keep enemy's still and balled up together. If you miss you just wasted three divinity pips AND dealt 0 damage.
- Chains of Blazing Light:I love chains. Bigger AoE circle, quick to release, AP gain in divinity (not sure if WAI or a bug), and on top of that even a little control.
- Forgemaster's Flame:A great skill. In divinity it does great single target damage and slows. When empowered it grants your team 15% more damage and gives you a hard ticking DoT.
- Break The Spirit: One of the best powers you could bring with you. Empowered version does decent DoT BUT increases everyone's damage by 30% and has a short cool down time. If you don't take this and I see you use daunting light just stop...
- Searing Light: Pretty meh skill the only time I used this was CN in mod 5 while clearing the dungeon as it basically hit every single enemy and did a little healing as well. Not worth it IMO.
- Astral Shield: This will only be on my bar if there's a GF in the group using ITF as they give more damage based on their DR, normal (NOT EMPOWERED) shield gives them more DR. I also use this while soloing because I NEVER take off my High Prophet's set.
- Prophecy of Doom: Want to see a boss drop in health like it has paper armor? Slot this skill for a boss fight even unempowered the DR debuff is noticeable.
Class Feats:I run two usually and that's Divine Fortune for faster divinity gain so I can spam divinity skills more frequently. Also I run the Divine Oracle skill Terrifying Insight which gives us a nice damage buff.Dailies: Hallowed Ground could care less what you run as your other choice as this will be the most beneficial. 20% damage increase and 20% damage mitigation.
Armor, weapons, enchantments, and boons:
- Armor set if you were lucky enough to be playing during Mod 5 and kept your High Prophet's set congratulations or if you're rich and have money to blow grab this. If not, it's not a huge huge deal just grab what you can. Now if you are going to run HP consider this you're going to have gimped stats like health and other things but the set bonus is worth it. You will need to play more attentively I currently have 55k health with my set and have done all content including eDemo, and that's with a GF tank not an OP bubble so it's doable just play smart. (Another reason why I stack STR/ stamina regain, you will be dodging A LOT). As for rings you can do personalized for the armor pen if you need it but I go with Rising Power and Precision. Armor enchantment I run soulforged since I'm so squishy and even a lesser is effective here. For offense and defense enchantments fill in what you need, I use azure for more crit and my bonding companion gives me enough armor pen but if that's not your case you do what you need.
- Weapon Set. There's two choices. Burning Elemental or Twisted. I chose Twisted for more power. Burning is good too for the 25% AP you have after using a daily, which helps keep Hallowed Ground up.
- Weapon Enchantment. I keep 2 weapon enchantments on me. One is pricy and the other is affordable. Transcendent Dread or Perfect Plaguefure. Dread will increase your damage with encounters and even your healing which is laughable since we aren't specced to heal so it's nice on top of that it gives a debuff to enemies, honestly this enchant is only worth it at max level. Now on the other hand we could go Plaguefire and the defense debuff is the only thing we care about and that maxes out at 15% per stack which you obtain at rank 10 Perfect. Going pure for the power debuff is not necessary and going to trans for the garbage AoE is a WASTE DO NOT DO THIS UNLESS YOU'RE AN ITEM LEVEL FREAK.
- Artifact set I'm currently running is well NONE lmao! After the nerf to Lostmauth and me not having a super crazy high crit chance besides when I have 3x bonding there's no need to run with the set anymore. To be honest no set looks that great to me. I chose the Tiamat Orb to get a little more stats that I could use which including AP gain, the Tiamat Sash gives me WIS and CHA which give me more damage, combat adv damage, AP gain, and recharge speed bonus.
- Other artifacts I currently run are: Lantern, DC Sigil, and CW sigil. Artifacts may vary it just is what stats you want to pump into your DC.
- Boons - I'm not going to tell you which Boons to pick I go mostly offensive. Honestly, you just choose whichever stats you are lacking to make up for it.
Companions:This is what my companions look like. For my summoned I run with the Harper Bard with 3 Rank 12 Bondings his active is pretty eh also 2 defensive slots isn't the best for a "DPS Cleric". BUT his skills are what is awesome and what you would want in a "Buff/Debuff Cleric" (OUR MAIN OBJECTIVE!). Let me go into a little detail of how awesome he is. He has 3 songs he uses. One buffs every ally in the area if they're above 50% health they gain power and crit strike if they're below 50% they gain defense and deflect instead this buff scales with level and at level 40 max it gives 920 each stat. Other song debuffs enemies damage if they're below 50% health additionally it reduces their damage resistance. I don't have numbers on this but I mean any additional debuff to resistance we'll take!!
If you can't afford a Harper Bard no big deal he's not a deal breaker. Other notable summoned companions would be ones with 3 offensive slots and 2-3 rings slots the Air Archon is an excellent candidate. Let me tell you this though if you CANNOT afford 3 rank 10 bondings yet an augment companion is the better choice here.
Now my other active companion are all companions that boost my damage that's all I wanted to gain out of my companions if you want to go a different route with yours more power to you. To increase my damage I went with Intellect Devour (+5% combat advantage damage) , Blink Dog (+5% combat advantage damage) , Siege Master (damage +4%) , and Air Archon (Targets not at full health? +5% damage). These are the best way to increase your damage, other notable actives are Erinyes of Belial (+10% Crit Severity) and Fire Archon (Enemy less than 50% take more damage)
Below is what my DC currently looks like and what I have equipped. Full High Prophets reinforced with Health (may swap to critical strike not really seeing what 3200 health is helping me survive from.) Twisted Artifact Weapon Set. Sudden/Rising Precision Rings +4s, Loustmauth Necklace. Tiamat Sash. Gemmed Exquisite Elemental Shirt/Pants. Brutals or Azures in my Offensives with Darks in my Defensives.
I currently have 5 Artifacts at Mythic that's: Sigil of the Devoted, Tiamat's Orb of Majesty, Lantern of Revelation, Sigil of the Controller, and Wheel of the Elements. For my active if I'm the only Cleric in the party I run with the Cleric Sigil to keep Hallowed Ground on the ground as much as possible to make everything faster. If there's another Cleric I run lantern for damage buff. If I am pugging and I'm playing with low damaging players I run with Wheel just to boost my damage.
Alts:
Saxy Healz Paladin (Oathkeeper) [Xbox and PC]
Saxon Ranger (Warden)
Yuri Wizard (Thaumaturge)
Member of the guild: Legacy (Xbox) and Strawberry Yakuza (PC)
I'm a relatively fresh 60 on my Cleric, went the DPS route as well. Like you, I want to use Benefit of Foresight, what did you sacrifice to make that happen?
Assuming it has to be Fire of the Gods or Condemning Gaze... and I don't want to ditch either
I need some of those stats bad for my dps pvp cleric
I get most of my ArmP from my allure stone or other enchantments, which you would lose in PvP obviously. Also I have the Horn of Lostmauth and a Lantern which also give me a good boost of ArmP.
Thanks haha actually going to add a few clips from earlier this morning of a PUG I found in the enclave we were melting Lostmauth in seconds thanks to my buffs also a GF had a greater plaguefire (I'm currently using a greater vorpal I may swap to PF soon), which is why I love this spec not only do I deal great personal damage I'm almost doubling my parties damage.
Alts:
Saxy Healz Paladin (Oathkeeper) [Xbox and PC]
Saxon Ranger (Warden)
Yuri Wizard (Thaumaturge)
Member of the guild: Legacy (Xbox) and Strawberry Yakuza (PC)
I do enjoy killing dragons with all the buffs and debuffs we offer.
I'm mostly interested in pvp though - **** I'll never get my hands on that horn for dat apen, so rare- although my perfect vorpal certainly helps with damage.
I've only ran a few PvP games with this set up and I usually just run Break the Spirit, Forgemasters, and Astral Shield. Always empower the shield and when the shields on cool down empower the forgemasters. In divinity I usually use break the spirit once to stun and then two forgemasters for spike damage and slow. It will definitely melt lower geared players you do lose effectiveness when playing against people with more tenacity. Either way the stun and slow help take down enemy clerics when they don't have shield up.
Alts:
Saxy Healz Paladin (Oathkeeper) [Xbox and PC]
Saxon Ranger (Warden)
Yuri Wizard (Thaumaturge)
Member of the guild: Legacy (Xbox) and Strawberry Yakuza (PC)
If I/teammates are getting abused I run shield bastion and FF, if I don't have to worry too much I use what you mentioned, and if there's absolutely no reason to play defensively I slot in prophecy of doom because why not?
lol disregard. I see where you posted armor. and where to get armor pen.
It's all your personal preference to be honest. Anything that increases STR or WIS is nice which is why I went Dragonborn because you can choose which one. But that's just min-maxing I recently did a race change to a human just because I got tired of looking at the Dragonborn. I lost ~300 gearscore because the Dragonborn gets more Power and Crit but I lost no damage output that I've noticed, I still usually top charts. Honestly if you want to go for most damage maybe even Half-Orc would be best cause of the 5% crit severity boost. Even then the damage increase would be nigh noticeable.
Just whatever class YOU want to play as, it's your character and the differences are not game changing.
Alts:
Saxy Healz Paladin (Oathkeeper) [Xbox and PC]
Saxon Ranger (Warden)
Yuri Wizard (Thaumaturge)
Member of the guild: Legacy (Xbox) and Strawberry Yakuza (PC)
SAX!!! Awesome work with that boss on Shores. Inspiring!
I now am enjoying my lvl30 DC (respec'd) and my brother yesterday created a DC. Helped him out with Bone weapons and other goodies and aligning him with the info provided here.
Thanks for sharing Sax!
.. Teucer (HR) / Maximus Decimus (DC) .. GT: ApexDemon
Chains of Blazing Light is my favorite offensive encounter, followed by Divine Glow, Break the Spirit, and Daunting Light. I'm a little curious about how/when you use Forgemaster's Flame though. From the in-game descriptions it sounds like BTS is better in every way than FF. Higher DoT, stun instead of slow, larger empowered DPS boost, additionally lowers single target damage. I spec'd out of FF around when I hit 60 and can't remember anything that special about it. So in what situations do you use FF instead of BTS?
for soloing epic bosses, i prefer perma stealth rogue
Character:
7thS1n---Trickster Rouge LV 70(perma-Stun build)
7ThH3AL3R-- Devoted Cleric LV 70 (Divine Oracle Haste/DPS build)
7ThM4G3-- Control Wizard
7ThW4rL0CK-- Scrooge Warlock
7THW4R--Great Weapon Fighter
Unleash The Wolves- HR Lvl 70 (PVE)
<font color="Aquamarine">"Non-Pay-To-Win"</font>
I hunt GWF "Magik" on sight.
Well that's like, your opinion man
Pup - Level 70 4.2k Buff/Debuff AC DC
XBL GT: TehPuppy
That said, DPS/Debuff clerics are still very viable.
Haste clerics are all the rage, but fact is you can basically mimic the effect of haste with the right gear, boons, companions, and stats.
DPS/Debuff make enemies take more damage, don't hit as hard, and chip in a decent amount of direct damage as well.
My build =
Heroic:
Healing Action 2/5 (2% AP gain when using healing ability, filler 2 points)
Toughness 3/3 (9% HP)
Weapon Mastery 3/3 (3% Crit Chance)
Holy Resolve 3/3 (Temp HP when below 30% HP)
Initiate of Faith 5/5 (Crit increase by 1% of Power)
Templar's Domain 4/5 (20% chance to gain 30% more ArP)
Paragon (all in Righteous Tree):
Astral Fury 5/5 (10% more damage)
Furious Intervention 5/5 (+10% AP when dealing damage)
Righteous Suffering 5/5 (10% more damage for 10 seconds when you take damage)
Weapons of Light 5/5 (Power Buff)
Bear your Sins 5/5 (10% more damage from all sources if under the effect of DoT)
Piercing Light 5/5 (+10% ArP)
Condemning Gaze 5/5 (15% damage from all sources)
Fire of the Gods (100% weapon damage/second DoT on Crits)
Avatar of the Divine (40% damage, 40% cooldowns when in combat)
Typical Powers:
Passives:
Terrifying Insight 4/4 (always, damage buff)
Holy Fervor 4/4 (+20% AP gain)
* Light of Divinity 3/4 (3 second heal, will use solo in place of Fervor)
At Wills:
Sacred Flame 4/4 (always)
Brand of the Sun 4/4 (always)
Dailies:
Hallowed Ground 4/4 (always)
Hammer of Fate or Flame Strike 3/4 each (take your pick, either rarely used)
Encounters:
Forgemaster's Flame or Prophecy of Doom 4/4 (either/or, typically use FF)
Break the Spirit 4/4
Divine Glow either/or Daunting Light 4/4 (DG used solo or if no Cleric in group, prefer DL for the damage)
Gear/Companions:
Ioun Stone of Radiance (active)
Erinyes (+5% Crit Severity)
Fire Archon (+7% damage if under 50% HP)
Air Archon (+5% damage if not at full health)
Wererat Thief (3% chance on encounter use to apply Poison DoT) - I will eventually replace this with something (I think)
Lantern of Revelation (active)
Lostmauth's Horn of Blasting
Tiamat's Orb of Majesty
Sigil of the Devoted (will probably get rid of this, AP gain isn't an issue)
I run with the Lostmauth set for the extra damage from Crits (belt/neck/artifact)
Brand of the Sun Damage buff on Main Hand
Terrifying Insight (crit severity) & AP gain on Off Hand
Perfect Plaguefire (10% weapon damage w/ powers, 4% weapon damage/second DoT, reduce damage 15% x3 stacks)
Soulforged
Boons:
Sharandar -
Dark Fey Hunter (400 Power)
Fey Precision (400 Critical)
Elven Haste (3% AP gain)
Elven Ferocity (20K damage proc)
Elvish Fury (30 x 135 Power)** (working on it)
Dread Ring -
Conjurer's Gambit (250 Critical/Movement)
Evoker's Thirst (400 Lifesteal)
Forbidden Piercing (3% RI)
Shadowtouch (20K damage proc)
Rampaging Madness or Burning Guidance (4K x3 buff or 2K proc on heals)** (undecided)
Ice Wind Dale -
Encroaching Tactics (400 Combat Advantage)
Refreshing Chill (400 Stamina Gain)
Sleet Skills (2% Crit Severity)
**Undecided
**Undecided
ToD -
Dragon's Claws (400 Power)
Dragon's Gaze (400 Critical)
Draconic Armorbreaker (400 ArP)
Dragon's Greed (400 Lifesteal)
Dragon's Fury (5% Crit Severity)
**Undecided
**Undecided
No real rush to get the 4th & 5th in IWD or the 6th or 7th in ToD
That about covers it
Just saying.
Pup - Level 70 4.2k Buff/Debuff AC DC
XBL GT: TehPuppy
IMO, I see the 2 fold benefit of adding crit for a stat I want to stack, regardless of the return, seemed like the best investment. Very much in the "every bit helps" category.
Anyways I'll make a revision for the new mod here soon. I just hit level 70 a week ago and still have much catching up to do but let's get to the point, is Righteous/DPS route still viable for a cleric? The answer is... YES! I sit a 2.6k iLvl and pump out above average damage just wait until I get my underdark rings and twisted set
Now we're not going to be topping Paingiver's like we did in Mod 5 (glares at broken Lostmauth set, Maze Engine nerf where are youuu) but hey we can dish out a decent amount all the while STILL increasing party DPS greatly! Also when Lostmauth get's nerfed that gap between us the GWF,CWs, and SWs will have greatly decreased.
If you have any immediate questions I can try my best to answer them, that's all.
Alts:
Saxy Healz Paladin (Oathkeeper) [Xbox and PC]
Saxon Ranger (Warden)
Yuri Wizard (Thaumaturge)
Member of the guild: Legacy (Xbox) and Strawberry Yakuza (PC)