Just starting out

phantomblade77

My client is downloading now as I type. But, I want to know is, how can I balance it all out? So that I have a high MAG attack, high Physical attack and high Physical defense, while still having healing skills. I was looking around here. And would you guys say this would be how I should spend my stat points per 2 levels?

- 6 MAG
- 2 STR
- 2 DEX

Or how would you say it? What is this talk about magic armor or magic swords I hear about. What would you say for me to buy later on or early on?

Regards.

Edit: I also saw information about Spiritual Weapons. What are these exactly?
Edit2: Also, I just came across some mage armor information? What does this look like? Just armor with boosted stats that support magic?

tankhunter

As a caster you will never have a high physical attack, never. The build you reference gives you reasonable defense, at the cost of HP.

Magic Armor is the Arcane sets, which provide the worst Physical defense but the best magic defense. This is made up for by the points that would have gone into a semi useless stat (dex, which only improves your chance to crit every 10 or so levels by 1%, so is only good for getting light armor) goes into vit, which naturally ups physical defense, and HP.

So, the best defense for a caster is 3 things:
1) A good offense
2) A good amount of HP
3) Knowing how to kite

Magic swords are amoung the many magic weapons, they have reasonable balance so they are fairly consistent and fairly strong as well.

The recommended build is the Balanced Build. This gives you good offense, lets you use your latest Magic weapon and magic armor, and the vit gives you a good amount of HP since as a Cleric: You have Plume Shell which reduces incoming damage using your large volume of MP. So your HP is "buffed" so to say by the amount reduced.

phantomblade77

So, what do you recommend in terms of how to spend stat points, what skills to buy first, what armor and weapons to wear throughout the career?

EDIT: I never played a Cleric before.
EDIT2: How do I go about making this balanced build like you said?

Beariden - Sanctuary

http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1331


That is a really good starter guide for clerics....helped me get started. I started with 3 stat points into mag,with enough strength to use appropriate robes for my level and saving the remaining points every level up to about level 18 because i was torn on which build I wanted to use. By 18 though things were starting to get rough. But thats enough to get ya started if you can't really decide how ya wanna go and is plenty to get ya by for about 10 levels till ya get the feel of how ya wanna stat him.

One piece of advice I will give ya though learn to kite at a low level (even though you can kill the low level mobs easily enough without kiting ) even if you have played a kiting class in other mmorpgs. The kiting mechanics are a little different in this game. you will need the kiting skills later and the trial and error at lower levels will give ya some room to work. When ya **** up it will mean having to drink an extra pot or throw an extra heal instead of dieing and losing 5% XP.



Goodluck to ya!

phantomblade77

I don't understand. Like I'm not sure how to spend my stat points. Or what armor to buy. I want to have a good defense from physical attacks. Do you know how to build this "defense build".

tankhunter

The balanced build is this:
6 Mag
1 Str
3 Vit every 2 levels.

By far this gives you the best defense, without gimping your HP or magic capabilities. It will allow you to wear the next set of Arcane Armor.

Beyond this you need to make a choice between Skill Builds. which would be this:
Full Attack: Focus on offensive skills primarily, secondary on Buffing/Debuffing Skills, least worry about Healing Skills. Primary Healing skill is Ironheart Blessing. Good in PvE solo, good Secondary Supporter in FB/HH/TT. Best with the Full MAG Build.

Full Support: Opposite of Full Attack, Heals first, buffs/debuffs second, Attacks last. Recommended for PvP with balanced build, and is generally in demand for TW/FB/HH/TT.

Hybrid: You just try to keep everything relatively equal, but you will not have everything up to its current max for your level. Alternatively you could focus on one of the other skill builds, then start leveling up skills in its opposite to create a Hybrid. ex: Go Full Attack and at some later point level up your healing skills. Hybrids should go with Balanced build.

phantomblade77

Ah. I see. What would the disadvantages be with FAC? If it's lack of physical defense, what could I do to negate that effect?

tankhunter

Disadvantages of FAC is that you are more of a soloer then a party person. The best build for a FAC cuts out vit in favor of just increasing your damage output to such that you do not need to kite: what you decide to kill dies before it gets to you. "The best Defense is a good Offense" is the creed of the FAC.

In PvP/TWs you will not be wanted, as the slot you take up could be better filled by a balanced build Full Support Cleric, who would keep the rest of the fighters alive and with their higher HP, would survive much better then you.

A FAC would need to get gear that has slots in it to put HP stones in order to offset the lack of vit.

phantomblade77

Is the physical defense any better with a FAC?

tankhunter

FAC does not care about Physical Defense, the critter should not reach the FAC to hurt them.

phantomblade77

Is there some kind of powerup to boost my physical defense? Like wouldn't I get owned in a mob?

AlanAlthenna - Sanctuary

You could try going light armor if you're that worried about physical defense but it could cost you magic attack (from what I've read around here)

basically you'd have to add every level (calculations may be wrong)
3 mag
1 dex
1 str

OR you could get equipment with sockets and add phys def stones or HP stones.

phantomblade77

Hmm.. I'm confused in what to do lol.

Deadbone - Lost City

tankhunter wrote: »

FAC does not care about Physical Defense, the critter should not reach the FAC to hurt them.

i have to agree with u
the critter should not reach the FAC .... because there should be no FAC to begin with

Deceptistar - Sanctuary

Deadbone - Lost City wrote: »

i have to agree with u
the critter should not reach the FAC .... because there should be no FAC to begin with

For the love of god, stop picking on FACs. Its their freedom.
If you dont like them then dont invite them to your squad or faction and leave it like that. If you cant ignore them outside your immediate connections then you seriously got a mental problem (and I dont mean the '****' mental) What your doing is like knockin on the doors in RL neighborhood of everyone who you have a knitpick with and actually telling them, which, no one in their right mind would do, but your doing nontheless cause its the internet. Your business ends where your faction responsibility ends. Its not like FACs are literally crashing the server or affecting others on a physical level.


phantomblade77;
FAC or FSC or hybrid, dont be afraid to try anything you want. Although when your starting out taking the medium might be good if your still quite unsure how you may play. If your willing to spend a tad bit of real money (and you probably WILL, just depends on what) then you can always restat your skill points. From reading alot of the forum threads FAC/FSC have their own pros and cons, but it seems to differ alot based on the lvl its played on.
Like for the way lower lvls say up until -10-15 going hybrid might not matter so much cause eventually in high lvls your skill will need to "grow up" and catch up anyway.
I myself am FAC right at the momoent tho I am kinda changing it as I level. Starter I was hybrid, now FAC, possibly up until 65+ or so. Higher levels I will most likly restat myself to go more hybrid/FSC just because of the fact that it will allow me to proceed more smoothly in the game. (Lvling up and farming gears as a group)
No bodys reached the cap lvl at this point in time so we cant tell how it fully goes, even the so called 'elite' are only 2/3 through their full lvls. But I will assume also like most MMORPGs, higher lvls have a harder solo and having just high dmg in the end might just not cut it. Solo wise and group wise if you are serious in getting endgame gears.

phantomblade77

I think I will go with the balance build and see what it's like. I will probably end up maxing all of my skills at some point. Just curious though, if I use robes, what could I do to boost the physical defense?

Deceptistar - Sanctuary

phantomblade77 wrote: »

I think I will go with the balance build and see what it's like. I will probably end up maxing all of my skills at some point. Just curious though, if I use robes, what could I do to boost the physical defense?

Aside from the NPC shops you can buy the gears, some of the equipment you can put on drop from mobs (sometimes the same stats, sometimes different) Half the time they will have slots available in which you can go to a crafting mercahnt and infuse it with shards with diff. stats (they also drop from mobs or can be bought from merchants too) If you have left over slots to spare then you can use those to boost a bit of your DEF probably.

I cant say much about endgame lvls because it might be different but until right now only about 1/5 of the mobs I fought actually had some kind of major magic attack, which made me think twice about slotting magic resist jems in my gear slots. (wasnt the smartest choice I made >.>) Probably could go more with physical DEF+ for the slots just for now since rebuying and re-equiping the gears are pretty fast in the lower lvls.

tankhunter

An Alternative is to raise the Tailoring skill and make your own armor. Sometimes you can make an NPC armor a 2* instead of it being a 1*, which doubles its defensive attributes, in addition they come with sockets more often then a mob dropped armor which will always be 1* but may have points allocated differently.

With sockets you can use the Jewelcraftsman and the Merchant to make shards that can add to your physical defense, HP, magic defense, etc. This is how you would boost up your defense even further.

Keep in mind, when using the crafting skills (such as Tailoring, Apothecary, Blacksmithing, Craftsman) you need to make 10 items of your current skill level to be able to proceed to the next level.

Besides Tailoring to boost up your defense, you can use the Apothecary skill to make a variety of items to help boost up your resistance even further indirectly. For instance there is an HP regeneration orb you can make at level 1 Apothecary which increases your HP regeneration by 50 per second. In combat this results in a regeneration level from the orb itself of 12.5, so if you take a hit while kiting you can regenerate the damage done to you. Out of combat at your HP levels you can meditate for a few seconds and you will be at full HP again. When you hit level 2 Apothecary you can make a MP regeneration orb that regens 50 mp/sec out of combat 12.5 when in combat. Which is quite nessecary for keeping your MP up to use your survival skills, like Plume Shell.

You got more then just armor that can save you.

You can also use Blacksmithing to try to take the FAC approach: Kill the critter before it gets to you by making superior weapons to beat the critter up with. Remember, a 2* weapon does twice as much damage as its 1* brother.

If you wind up with equipment that is not as good as you want, you can sell it off for money.

@Deadbones
Bones, the major skill difference between FACs and FSCs, is the lack of the group buff AOE skills, the lower level Revive, and the general lowest level of healing skills besides Ironheart. As well as the line of thinking of "I want to kill **** too."

How about, if you really want to keep FAC numbers down, you ask groups of people in your guild to go around, find FSCs and help them level. The major complaint I hear from FSCs is that it is too damn difficult to level. If there are a ton of nice people going about and helping lower level Clerics, you get more of the cleric type you want, FSC, because they have the parties they rely on so much.

Make it a cross server help system for new clerics to help them learn how to work in a party, and let the loner FACs do their thing. Do not go about telling them their build sucks, if they ask for help, then have someone willing to help, help them while you help all those FSCs asking for help who really badly need it.

You do good and to boot you get more FSCs who would be competent in helping your guild achieve PW TW domination.

Metraze - Sanctuary

tankhunter wrote: »

Remember, a 2* weapon does twice as much damage as its 1* brother.

Not sure where you got this from, but it's way off ... you get maybe 10% more damage with a 2*. Same goes for armour - 2* gives you maybe 10% more protection.

Regarding Physical Defense, also remember that you can get some from your Necklace and Belt (no stat requirements on those).

As a Cleric, you're never going to have good Physical Defense - you just need to accept that (or go with a different class!). Keep in mind that the classes with good Physical Defense Blademaster/Barbarian) have poor Magical Defense ... it's a tradeoff.

Rosewhite - Sanctuary

tankhunter wrote: »

@Deadbones
Bones, the major skill difference between FACs and FSCs, is the lack of the group buff AOE skills, the lower level Revive, and the general lowest level of healing skills besides Ironheart. As well as the line of thinking of "I want to kill **** too."

How about, if you really want to keep FAC numbers down, you ask groups of people in your guild to go around, find FSCs and help them level. The major complaint I hear from FSCs is that it is too damn difficult to level. If there are a ton of nice people going about and helping lower level Clerics, you get more of the cleric type you want, FSC, because they have the parties they rely on so much.

Make it a cross server help system for new clerics to help them learn how to work in a party, and let the loner FACs do their thing. Do not go about telling them their build sucks, if they ask for help, then have someone willing to help, help them while you help all those FSCs asking for help who really badly need it.

You do good and to boot you get more FSCs who would be competent in helping your guild achieve PW TW domination.

Quoted for pure truth. The main reason that so many people go FAC is because they don't get any help as FSC and not to mention as an FSC (Yes I have one but she's a lowbie at the moment.) especially if you are lower lvl one you practically get ignored. I've had people who have sent me an invite and then as soon as they learn that I haven't gotten the lvl to get revive yet I'm dumped. It's probably part of the reason I'm still a lowbie cleric to begin with, I find myself just going back to my veno.