The -mostly- unbiased Cleric Guide for level 1-70
Enina - Heavens Tear
Posts: 263 Arc User
Please keep in mind that this guide is written from personal experience and testing, and, as a result, is not recommended as anything more than a guideline and suggestions. Your specific build will depend on your preferences and style of play. All non-flaming comments are welcome, and the guide will be updated as I see needed. Keep in mind that this is NOT an attempt to get people into any "correct" way of playing and building a cleric, as there is NO such one. It is merely a guide for getting an idea of what kind of cleric you should play.
Note: the guide does not deal with PVP play
What is a Cleric?
A Cleric is defined as the main healing class - in other games it will usually be known as Healer or Priest, but the role is the same. Your skills are geared towards keeping you and the people around you alive; through buffs, healing, and even ressurecting people, should someone die. However, in Perfect World, the Cleric is also a potent offensive force capable of dealing a great amount of damage. In its barebone form, the Cleric is a pure magic class. All skills are calculated from your base magic damage (usually counted as the lowest magic attack value in your character sheet), which means that any type of weapons that add to physical damage are useless - restricting the Cleric to the Magic type weapon that it shares with the Wizard and Venomancer classes.
What kind of builds are there?
There are three main "kinds" of Clerics - Full Support Cleric (FSC), Full Attack Cleric (FAC) and finally the less-known Hybrid Cleric (HC) addeum: it is the most common, however, but not quite as hugely discussed. The build that you choose will define what skills you prioritize and approximately how you distribute your stats upon levelling. There are many ways to construct each of these builds, but the guide will provide a thumbrule for how to define each Cleric build in its pure form. Note that there is also the theoretical Heavy Armour Cleric (HAC), but this is such a rare and difficult build that this guide ignores their existence for now.
The Full Support Cleric
As the name implies, this particular Cleric build is focused entirely and completely on keeping a party alive. This is also the most common specific Cleric build in Perfect World, and is usually what people will expect you to be (rather than a Hybrid or a FAC). Therefore, because of the overwhelming amount of FSCs, everyone have different ideas on how to do it best. The FSC mainly focuses on its healing skills, its buffs and the always-handy Revive. In groups, you can recognize the FSC on the fact that they will usually be non-stop healing everyone who takes the smallest scratch from monsters.
The most common build to have points in Vit, too, in order to survive potential AOE'ing bosses, and so they can take a hit or five without dying. This build will always wear arcane armour to boost their heal's efficiency (prepare to get yelled at by people if you "dare" be a FSC in light armour). The stat distribution is usually 1 str, 3 vit, 6 mag for 2 levels. Some FSC, however, follow the common FAC distribution of stats to boost their heals.
The Full Attack Cleric
In dire contrast to the FSC, the FAC is geared fully towards combat. It focuses on only a single heal to use on itself in a pinch, and otherwise focus on its offensive skills. Their damage is extremely high, and their self-healing ability makes them powerful soloers. However, because they neglect the more "party friendly" skills, they are often frowned upon. In groups, this build can be recognized on persistently attacking monsters rather than healing, and that even a high-level may only carry a level 1 or 2 Revive.
This build focusses solely on offense, and will either ensure that mobs are dead before they are hit, or rely on HP gems and gear to boost their health rather than using points on vit. A very few use light armour, but most prefer arcane for the extra amount of points they can pour into mag. The most common build is 1 str, 9 mag for every 2 levels.
The Hybrid Build
The Hybrid, while being what most Clerics will end up as sooner or later, is the most Spirit and Coin demanding class due to a very high amount of skills. They are not quite as good group-healers as the FSC, nor do they do quite the same damage as the FAC - but their heals are far better than a FAC and their damage is far better than a FSC; simply because they usually have all of their skills at a level that is about par with that of the FAC and FSC combined. These guys will usually keep a very narrow amount of primary skills, simply because they cannot fit all of their skills onto the quickslots, but usually are capable of both healing parties and killing monsters when needed. In groups, they can be recognized on their juggling of healing and damage - stacking four or five heals onto a tank, hitting a monster once or twice, then re-stacking the heals before they run out.
The hybrid can be found in both arcane and light armour. If you choose light armour, you will have less points available for damage, but your physical defence will be slightly better than an arcane-armour cleric (and your magic defence will be worse). The stat distribution is entirely up to the individual, but usually follow a mix of the FSC and FAC distribution (for instance 1 str, 1 vit, 8 mag every 2 levels, or 1 str, 2 vit, 7 mag every 2 levels).
So that's the theory - how is it actually to play a cleric?
All Clerics are expected to be able to do three basic things, and that's not really what anyone else will demand of you: 1) Buff, 2) Heal, 3) Revive. A lot of people will even go as far as to claim that this is your "job" and that you should be honoured to restore their sorry behinds after they went and got themselves killed.
Finding a party for various things is easier for a cleric than it is for many others - however, keep in mind that if something goes wrong and all in the party die (for instance from an Archer managing to aggro a AOE boss, and sends it rampaging through the whole group), then it is all too easy to blame the cleric. But keep in mind that you are in theory the most important member of a team - the Cleric heals the tanking Barbarian or Blademaster, and the healed Barbarian or Blademaster prevents the monster from killing the rest of the party. Thus, without you, the party is dead. Expect others to know that they should grab any mobs that might come running for you, and prevent you from dying - and if you are unsure if they know this, make sure you state it. A dead cleric is a useless cleric. And -if- you die, you are usually the one who has to take the full blunt of the experience-loss-upon-death penalty, in order to go back and revive the rest of your party so they lose as little experience as possible.
You will also ALWAYS customize your character's stats and abilities. The guide offers the extreme versions of both the FSC and FAC, and disregards that the FAC will join a party and the FSC will have to kill stuff on its own. In actuality, there is no such thing as a perfect FSC or perfect FAC (though the FAC is easier to pull off, but also gets more yelled at), as both builds will want to incorporate as many useful skills as possible. The only difference, when it comes down to it, is that the FAC usually only have Ironheart Blessing, and that the FSC has a bit more health. Everything beyond that is the mentality of the player.
The Cleric, in gameplay, is also squishy. You will die easily, because you never have really high life, and you don't have the offensive power of the venomancer, wizard or archer to keep monsters away from you so you don't get hurt. You are, however, the only class with access to both physical and magical damage, which makes you versatile - if a bit weak as you only have a single magic element at your disposal. When killing stuff, you will often set up a good ryhtm of self-healing and attacking so you stay alive - this means that you will go through a LOT of mana, so most clerics carry a Spirit Charm to restore their mana automatically. Because of your healing abilities, however, you will not often find a use for a Guardian Charm, but it is nice to have in a pinch.
What's that about physical and magic damage?
There are two main types of damage in PWI: Physical and Magical.
Physical damage is basically when something walks up to you and hits you with a club. Magical damage is when something throws lightning at you. Keep in mind that a few spells look like physical damage, or look like magical damage while doing physical. The easiest way to test for a cleric is to turn on your plume shell. If the damage you take is reduced, you're dealing with a physical monster. If not, then it's magical.
Physical damage is also effective against all kinds of monsters. If you're in doubt, use physical damage. EXCEPT! If you're dealing with a monster with the Increased Defence text - then you will want to use magical attacks, as your physical attacks will have little to no effect on it.
Magical damage have specific elemental properties, and are aligned according to Feng Shui. Each element is strong against itself, weak against another, and neutral towards the remaining three. In the cleric's case, the only magic element available is Metal - so any monsters of Metal alignment will take 25% less damage from the cleric's magical attacks. However, Wood aligned monsters are weak against the cleric's Metal damage, and will take 25% more damage from Metal-attacks.
To sum up the elemental strengths and weaknesses..
Metal > Wood > Earth > Water > Fire > Metal
Note: the guide does not deal with PVP play
What is a Cleric?
A Cleric is defined as the main healing class - in other games it will usually be known as Healer or Priest, but the role is the same. Your skills are geared towards keeping you and the people around you alive; through buffs, healing, and even ressurecting people, should someone die. However, in Perfect World, the Cleric is also a potent offensive force capable of dealing a great amount of damage. In its barebone form, the Cleric is a pure magic class. All skills are calculated from your base magic damage (usually counted as the lowest magic attack value in your character sheet), which means that any type of weapons that add to physical damage are useless - restricting the Cleric to the Magic type weapon that it shares with the Wizard and Venomancer classes.
What kind of builds are there?
There are three main "kinds" of Clerics - Full Support Cleric (FSC), Full Attack Cleric (FAC) and finally the less-known Hybrid Cleric (HC) addeum: it is the most common, however, but not quite as hugely discussed. The build that you choose will define what skills you prioritize and approximately how you distribute your stats upon levelling. There are many ways to construct each of these builds, but the guide will provide a thumbrule for how to define each Cleric build in its pure form. Note that there is also the theoretical Heavy Armour Cleric (HAC), but this is such a rare and difficult build that this guide ignores their existence for now.
The Full Support Cleric
As the name implies, this particular Cleric build is focused entirely and completely on keeping a party alive. This is also the most common specific Cleric build in Perfect World, and is usually what people will expect you to be (rather than a Hybrid or a FAC). Therefore, because of the overwhelming amount of FSCs, everyone have different ideas on how to do it best. The FSC mainly focuses on its healing skills, its buffs and the always-handy Revive. In groups, you can recognize the FSC on the fact that they will usually be non-stop healing everyone who takes the smallest scratch from monsters.
The most common build to have points in Vit, too, in order to survive potential AOE'ing bosses, and so they can take a hit or five without dying. This build will always wear arcane armour to boost their heal's efficiency (prepare to get yelled at by people if you "dare" be a FSC in light armour). The stat distribution is usually 1 str, 3 vit, 6 mag for 2 levels. Some FSC, however, follow the common FAC distribution of stats to boost their heals.
The Full Attack Cleric
In dire contrast to the FSC, the FAC is geared fully towards combat. It focuses on only a single heal to use on itself in a pinch, and otherwise focus on its offensive skills. Their damage is extremely high, and their self-healing ability makes them powerful soloers. However, because they neglect the more "party friendly" skills, they are often frowned upon. In groups, this build can be recognized on persistently attacking monsters rather than healing, and that even a high-level may only carry a level 1 or 2 Revive.
This build focusses solely on offense, and will either ensure that mobs are dead before they are hit, or rely on HP gems and gear to boost their health rather than using points on vit. A very few use light armour, but most prefer arcane for the extra amount of points they can pour into mag. The most common build is 1 str, 9 mag for every 2 levels.
The Hybrid Build
The Hybrid, while being what most Clerics will end up as sooner or later, is the most Spirit and Coin demanding class due to a very high amount of skills. They are not quite as good group-healers as the FSC, nor do they do quite the same damage as the FAC - but their heals are far better than a FAC and their damage is far better than a FSC; simply because they usually have all of their skills at a level that is about par with that of the FAC and FSC combined. These guys will usually keep a very narrow amount of primary skills, simply because they cannot fit all of their skills onto the quickslots, but usually are capable of both healing parties and killing monsters when needed. In groups, they can be recognized on their juggling of healing and damage - stacking four or five heals onto a tank, hitting a monster once or twice, then re-stacking the heals before they run out.
The hybrid can be found in both arcane and light armour. If you choose light armour, you will have less points available for damage, but your physical defence will be slightly better than an arcane-armour cleric (and your magic defence will be worse). The stat distribution is entirely up to the individual, but usually follow a mix of the FSC and FAC distribution (for instance 1 str, 1 vit, 8 mag every 2 levels, or 1 str, 2 vit, 7 mag every 2 levels).
So that's the theory - how is it actually to play a cleric?
All Clerics are expected to be able to do three basic things, and that's not really what anyone else will demand of you: 1) Buff, 2) Heal, 3) Revive. A lot of people will even go as far as to claim that this is your "job" and that you should be honoured to restore their sorry behinds after they went and got themselves killed.
Finding a party for various things is easier for a cleric than it is for many others - however, keep in mind that if something goes wrong and all in the party die (for instance from an Archer managing to aggro a AOE boss, and sends it rampaging through the whole group), then it is all too easy to blame the cleric. But keep in mind that you are in theory the most important member of a team - the Cleric heals the tanking Barbarian or Blademaster, and the healed Barbarian or Blademaster prevents the monster from killing the rest of the party. Thus, without you, the party is dead. Expect others to know that they should grab any mobs that might come running for you, and prevent you from dying - and if you are unsure if they know this, make sure you state it. A dead cleric is a useless cleric. And -if- you die, you are usually the one who has to take the full blunt of the experience-loss-upon-death penalty, in order to go back and revive the rest of your party so they lose as little experience as possible.
You will also ALWAYS customize your character's stats and abilities. The guide offers the extreme versions of both the FSC and FAC, and disregards that the FAC will join a party and the FSC will have to kill stuff on its own. In actuality, there is no such thing as a perfect FSC or perfect FAC (though the FAC is easier to pull off, but also gets more yelled at), as both builds will want to incorporate as many useful skills as possible. The only difference, when it comes down to it, is that the FAC usually only have Ironheart Blessing, and that the FSC has a bit more health. Everything beyond that is the mentality of the player.
The Cleric, in gameplay, is also squishy. You will die easily, because you never have really high life, and you don't have the offensive power of the venomancer, wizard or archer to keep monsters away from you so you don't get hurt. You are, however, the only class with access to both physical and magical damage, which makes you versatile - if a bit weak as you only have a single magic element at your disposal. When killing stuff, you will often set up a good ryhtm of self-healing and attacking so you stay alive - this means that you will go through a LOT of mana, so most clerics carry a Spirit Charm to restore their mana automatically. Because of your healing abilities, however, you will not often find a use for a Guardian Charm, but it is nice to have in a pinch.
What's that about physical and magic damage?
There are two main types of damage in PWI: Physical and Magical.
Physical damage is basically when something walks up to you and hits you with a club. Magical damage is when something throws lightning at you. Keep in mind that a few spells look like physical damage, or look like magical damage while doing physical. The easiest way to test for a cleric is to turn on your plume shell. If the damage you take is reduced, you're dealing with a physical monster. If not, then it's magical.
Physical damage is also effective against all kinds of monsters. If you're in doubt, use physical damage. EXCEPT! If you're dealing with a monster with the Increased Defence text - then you will want to use magical attacks, as your physical attacks will have little to no effect on it.
Magical damage have specific elemental properties, and are aligned according to Feng Shui. Each element is strong against itself, weak against another, and neutral towards the remaining three. In the cleric's case, the only magic element available is Metal - so any monsters of Metal alignment will take 25% less damage from the cleric's magical attacks. However, Wood aligned monsters are weak against the cleric's Metal damage, and will take 25% more damage from Metal-attacks.
To sum up the elemental strengths and weaknesses..
Metal > Wood > Earth > Water > Fire > Metal
Post edited by Enina - Heavens Tear on
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Your Skills
The skills are listed as they are in your skill tree, taking each "line" from top to bottom.
Keep in mind that these are the extreme aspects of the builds, and you should in fact ignore the advice-colours and merely read the text in order to decide what skills you think you'll need
Must-have
FSC important
FAC important
Nice to have
Don't need to have
- Hybrids will usually want both the FAC and the FSC skills...
Blessing of the Purehearted - the first heal you gain access to, and a lot of people will recommend that you utterly disregard this one. However, keeping it at level 3-5 means that you have a fairly mana-efficient way to heal up a scratch later on.
Ironheart Blessing - this is your absolute main healing skill. It heals over 15 seconds, but you can stack this heal. Three Ironheart Blessings on the same target is thrice as efficient as one. A good cleric with a good connection can get 10-12 Ironhearts stacked on a target at a time.
Wellspring Surge - this skill is pretty much a beefed-up version of Blessing of the Purehearted, in that it heals faster. It's good in cases where you need a sudden injection of health, such as when you see a monster come running at you, and you don't have time to get Ironheart Blessing up and running.
Revive - Welcome to a skill that is in essence utterly useless to you. The only ones who will benefit are the ones that you choose to use this skill on. The first level will only revive a person where they dropped - subsequent levels will also decrease the amount of experience they loose upon death with 10% per skill level (to a max of 90% experience saved at skill level 10)
Purify - a nifty little skill that instantly wipes the target of poison, burn, stun, mana leak, and what other negative effects that they might have picked up. It's essential for hunting monsters that burn or poison you, and they are a must for some bosses who like to debuff people before they attack.
Chromatic Healing Beam - your first and in theory only multi-person heal. One blast of this one will heal everyone in your party within 10-20 meters, depending on level. A multi-person Blessing of the Purehearted, if you will. It takes a long time to cast, however, which can make it useless in stressed situations - while it can be used to rescue the group from a party wipe. It is indeed very much up to the invidual if you can find a use for it or not, which means that it will be completely useless to some, while it will be constantly used by others.
Stream of Rejuvenation - this is an end-game skill. It costs a ton of spirit and coin to upgrade, and you only gain access to it about the time that Ironheart Blessing can be fully upgraded. However, it is a combined Wellspring Surge and Ironheart Blessing, as it not only heals a flat amount of HP, but also adds a heal-over-time to the target. It takes a while to cast, though, and costs a lot of mana.
Regeneration Aura (known as Blue Bubble or BB) - at level 59, you gain access to this one-time purchase skill, and it can easily be called the Ultimate Protection. Although it requires two sparks to be cast, it puts up a field where it reduces all damage taken by 50% and adds a 5-second heal to everyone within its reach. While it is not as efficient in terms of raw healing as Ironheart Blessing, it is invalurable when you are dealing with Area-Of-Effect bosses (AOE) as you can heal an entire party. During its duration, however, you are locked in place. Combine with Heaven's Wrath to make a difficult boss a walk in the park. It does, however, eat your mana much like a hobo can do through a can of beans.
Vanguard Spirit / Greater Protective Aura - this nifty little skill boosts the physical defence of the target with up to 60%. However, because it runs off the equipment value of the character, its efficiency depends on the amount of defence a character has from the start. Never the less, a useful skill. Greater Protective Aura is merely a party-version that allows you to give your whole party the buff with a single click - and increases the duration to an hour instead of 30 minutes.
Magic Shell / Aegis Spirit - much like Vanguard Spirit, this skill just boosts the target's magic defence by 60%. It also runs off the individual character's base magic defence. Aegis Spirit lets you buff the whole party at once, and also lasts for an hour.
Celestial Guardian's Seal / Exalted Renewal - this skill provides additional regeneration of mana and health per second. One point per level, to be precise. It costs a LOT of spirit and coin, and the effects are almost neglible as the regeneration (and the effects of this skill) drops to a mere 25% as soon as you enter combat mode. There are more important skills to get, but a level or two in this one will make it less painful to meditate for health or mana. And a lot of people will insist that you buff them with it - but KEEP IN MIND that it will override any similar buffs from items, such as the 100 hp/second buff from Life Powder! Extalted Renewal, like Aegis Spirit and Greater Protective Aura, provides the buff to your whole party for an hour.
Spirit's Gift / Arcane Empowerment - this particular skill can turn any magic-using class into a magical, metaphoric chainsaw. At its max level, it boosts the target's magic attack by 70%. And as your heals are also calculated out from your magic attack, this skill is a must-have no matter what build you decide to go with. The Arcane Empowerment gives it to all in your party for an hour.
Plume Shot - your first offensive skill, this particular attack is physical in nature (see next paragraph). It's a very decent attack, and you'll be using it for the rest of the game.
Plume Shell - this is your official butt-saver. When turned on, it will absorb a certain percentage of physical, melee damage (magic and ranged attacks aren't absorbed) and will subtract the absorbed damage from your mana instead of your health. Lower levels gives a higher percentage of damage absorbed, and less mana-per-damage drained.
Razor Feathers - this is the cleric's only non-spark AOE. It's good for beating up lower-level monsters, good for getting the attention of a bunch of mobs, and it's also a pretty good upgrade to Plume Shot if you can avoid hitting too many targets at once. It has a longer cooldown, however, so you will likely use Plume Shot inbetween anyway.
Elemental Seal - this skill reduces your target's magical defence at the cost of reducing your own magical defence by the same amount. It gives a bit of an extra punch to the magic attacks of any who attack, but you will take a good chunk more damage from any magic while it lasts.
Dimensional Seal - this skill reduces your target's physical defence at the cost of reducing your own physical defence by the same amount. This can be very dangerous if you are facing a physical attacker, as you will likely die within a very short amount of time. However, it is a matter of tastes. Other classes can do the exact same to a monster, but without risking their own defence.
Silence Seal - this skill, when cast, will stop the target monster dead in its tracks. However, it merely prevents the monster from moving, so you can still be attacked by it if you're within its range. The duraction of the spell is also random, which makes it fairly difficult to use. Mostly, it's good for stopping a monster from running too far away.
Chromatic Seal - now we're talking. This particular skill "sleeps" an enemy for a random amount of time. As long the skill lasts, and the monster isn't attacked, they are unable to move or do any action. This makes it possible to get a brief moment for gearing up a powerful spell, throw a heal on yourself, or, if needed, run away.
Cyclone - your first magic offensive skill. This calls up a miniature sandstorm and deals Metal damage (see next paragraph) to a monster. Its damage is slightly lower than that of Plume Shot, but it has a faster cast. Later on, it might become more powerful than Plume Shot.
Thunderball - this is your only damage-over-time skill. While it can become fairly powerful, 15 seconds is a terrible long time for it to finish. It also has a fairly long cooldown, and its initial damage is only equal to your base magic. In short, by the time it becomes powerful enough to be useful, your basic skills are far outdamaging it. Does Metal damage.
Siren's Kiss - your first AOE spark skill. This skill, however, only works from your current position and in a 12 meter radius. The damage isn't that great, and its freeze lasts too short to be of much use. And, frankly, you don't normally want enemies to get so close that you use Siren's Kiss. However, it is quite useful in getting rid of lower-level mobs quicky. Does Metal damage.
Wield Thunder - much like how Razor Feathers is the upgraded version of Plume Shot, Wield Thunder is the upgraded version of Cyclone. It is a single-target skill, too, which makes it slighly more useful than Razor Feathers. At higher levels, it is a good opener as well, but it takes a bit of time to cast and is easily interrupted. Does Metal damage.
Tempest - this is the second of your three two-spark skills. This one in particular is your AOE uber-magic skill. It takes forever to cast and deals Metal damage, but even at level 1, its damage is noticable. In many cases, it can one-shot kill monsters that would normally take two shots. However, every new level will make your toes curl at the sight of the Spirit and Coin cost.
Heaven's Wrath (also known as Red Bubble or RB) - the last of your two-spark skills, this is to the Regeneration Aura what the FAC is to a FSC. When active, it causes everyone near to deal 50% more damage, and grants 20% faster channelling and attack speed. However, as with Regeneration Aura, it locks you in place, and drains your mana by the time you locate the hotkey for your mana potions.
Metal Mastery - one of your two passive skills, this particular skill increases the Metal damage you deal. Its effects are neglible at first, but it will soon cause your Cyclone to far out-damage your Plume Shot on anything but metal monsters. Very useful.
Flight Mastery - this skill increases your flight speed. It's much cheaper than buying cash shop wings and using wind widgets on said cash shop wings, but your max flight speed will only be +2.0. Also, keep in mind that this skill only has an effect on the WHITE elf wings. The pretty, brown, non-mana-using wings you gain at the level 30 quest are not affected by Flight Mastery. So if you plan on staying with your white wings for the rest of your characters life, get this skill. If not... Then save your precious spirit and coin for another skill.0 -
First: Hybrid is the most common build of all, not really the least known.
Second: Your skills are kind of... misleading. Your saying FSC's don't need plume shot or great cyclone or any attack for that matter and FAC's don't need buffs. FSC's need plume shot and great cyclone maxed at least, and FAC's need buffs maxed. Both of them need ALL buffs maxed except the celestial one. The seals are also VERY useful, not "Don't need to have". But you are in HT, so I'll forgive you on that because you don't really see the use for them (pvp).
All in all, looks like that other guide that was made earlier today but with the advice from the responses taken in. Nice try though. But I still say what I said at the other guide - don't try to make a guide until you've hit endgame and understand all aspects of the class including alternate builds, pvp vs pve and real uses for every skill.0 -
Like SATII said, while you have good intentions, some of the things listed are a bit inaccurate. (Not much, just little things).
1) FAC's can not have light armor because FAC's only put stats into magic and the minimum requirement in strength for their arcane robes. Also, FAC's will have insane mag points, so they actually have the best healing potential- their high mag that gives them huge damage will also translate to high heals. The only problem is, most FAC's will only have Iron Heart on them and they won't really use any other healing spell.
Plume shot and Cyclone are usually your "must haves" as a cleric. You will rely on them heavily throughout the early levels, although as you level up you might exchange them for harder hitting spells. However, Plume Shot and Cyclone will still be used because they are fast casting spells and have reasonable mana cost.
Overall, nice effort to bring this guide.
jaa,
sano0 -
Ah, you see, the guide is meant purely for those who look through the forums. Anyone who try the game will quickly discover what alternative skills they might need . Hence why I stress that it is merely a guideline.
I also, as I point out, only offer a rule of thumb for prioritizing skills - hence why I put the offensive skills as FAC important and heals as FSC important, although both classes will usually want a peek at the other's skillset. A perfect Full Support Cleric, in theorem, should never need to lift an attack against a foe. A Full Attack Cleric should never need to heal a party member. However, the world doesn't work like that, as the FAC will sooner or later end up in a party, and the FSC will have to kill stuff on its own as well.
As for my statement of "least known" - the Hybrid is the one that doesn't get its little fancy special name and causes hundreds of flaming arguments that will usually cause a lot of new players to think that playing either is the only way to play a cleric. b:chuckle Most common doesn't have to mean "best known".0 -
there is no such thing as a "fsc" or a "fac" - why do you people keep bringing it up?0
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Forp - Heavens Tear wrote: »there is no such thing as a "fsc" or a "fac" - why do you people keep bringing it up?
i agree, im a cleric too(obviously u can see my pictureb:bye)(i try to max my buffs just as my atack skils and ( im talking in your language here)why do i ned to be put in the group in betweenb:angry(by between i mean in between of ''fsc'' and ''fac'' OR am i ''hibryd as u say that its the most common but the least known? im not exactly trying to make an argue here but YOU(Enina) obviously want one) i mean isnt ewerione doing that(trying to max buffs and atack skills) if u want atack only then be a wizard and ul have much more atack skills(dont quote me on this i know wizards also have buffs BUT they have more atack skills))
yours sincerely, AlyyyClerics are like cops...they always seem to be around.....until you actually need one b:surrender - DeadRaven
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don't you know better? there's no such thing as "clerics" only fsc and fac. god that's cool. i like being labeled as something that doesn't even exist.0
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was that ment for me or someone else just asking...?Clerics are like cops...they always seem to be around.....until you actually need one b:surrender - DeadRaven
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Alyyy - Sanctuary wrote: »was that ment for me or someone else just asking...?
I think he's kinda sarcastically agreeing with you, Alyyy.
Personally, I describe myself as a "FSC", just for the simplicity of implying that I try to focus on healing and buffs for skills. But my build is more of an FAC build (high mag, enough str for robes, and a teensy injection of vit added just recently), and I definitely keep my offensive skills up.
To me, "FSC" and "FAC" is more of a mindset thing than anything else... in parties, do you tend to heal more or attack more? That's the difference, in my opinion. To claim you can be FULLY and attack/support cleric is ridiculous.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
-Ignoring my main for alts since early '090 -
Bah, don't mind those people. Of course there aren't many pure FACs or FSCs. Everyone falls in between. A hybird that's close to one end of the spectrum should be able to qualify for the name. Saying FAC and FSC don't exist is like saying Democrats and Republicans shouldn't be distinguished because there are Communists and ****.b:pleased
Nice guide overall. A few quirks though. The necessity of Plume Shot and Cyclone for FSC was already pointed out. As there are no pure FSC, you need them to be able to grind past early/mid levels where it's mostly soloing.
Flight Mastery shouldn't be white, as it can be useful depending on personal preference. +2.0 isn't a small amount of speed increase as far as aerogear goes. The $20 cash shop wings give +2.0, so your white wings are in theory, only slower than the fastest and most expensive cash shop wings. Upgrading using wind widgets past a high +2.0 gets expensive. The 2/sec mana cost should be considered a con only for archer, not cleric, since you'll regenerate mana at a far higher rate anyway.0 -
I was a completely FSC on Lost City, level 82. Low levels were a *****, but as I got higher my guild knew that I was one of the best healers. This character is going to attempt to be another pure FSC, but we'll see how it goes.
And I mean PURE FSC. Level 1 of attacked skills, maxed buffs and Ironheart.0 -
Jailbait - Harshlands wrote: »I was a completely FSC on Lost City, level 82. Low levels were a *****, but as I got higher my guild knew that I was one of the best healers. This character is going to attempt to be another pure FSC, but we'll see how it goes.
And I mean PURE FSC. Level 1 of attacked skills, maxed buffs and Ironheart.
But why?b:lipcurl
Once you reach higher lvls, the amount of spirit and coin cost for low/med lvl attack skills are so low that not having them saves next to nothing. You won't be able to get a single extra lvl of higher lvl support skills with the chump change anyway. It's like that FAC that has no ironheart and use HP pots. Why make life difficult for yourself?0 -
If you have friends helping you level, a FSC can have its benefits. But I know it would drive me insane to play a FSC and have lower attack power from under-leveled attack spells! But that's because I solo a lot, and need my attacks at a decent level. But still, props to you for being a FSC! I know I'm not brave enough to try!Nayethe - 7x Combat Cleric
~Reviction~0 -
Nayethe - Lost City wrote: »If you have friends helping you level, a FSC can have its benefits. But I know it would drive me insane to play a FSC and have lower attack power from under-leveled attack spells! But that's because I solo a lot, and need my attacks at a decent level. But still, props to you for being a FSC! I know I'm not brave enough to try!
It's not just under lvled attack spells. She was going to leave it at 1. At such low lvl, the cost is basically free for higher lvl characters. Why not have a lower, but usable attack for almost free? No one is going to babysit you all the time. And there are a few occasions, like Cube of Fate, where you have to solo. Being without teeth means losing out on some of the gaming experience.0 -
another FAC FSC -.-'
FAC = one shot
FSC = who can you kill? some 3x?0 -
Soo, After reading this most lovely guide
I don't agree with plumeshot being a MUST for just FAC FSC need it just as bad. or they wont be able to do anything. unless you are suggesting the BUFF the mobs to death for exp -_-0 -
Flickerfae - Sanctuary wrote: »I think he's kinda sarcastically agreeing with you, Alyyy.
Personally, I describe myself as a "FSC", just for the simplicity of implying that I try to focus on healing and buffs for skills.
what does that bring u? wil u heal ur enemi to death or buf it til it chokes of buffs?-.-Clerics are like cops...they always seem to be around.....until you actually need one b:surrender - DeadRaven
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]0 -
Alyyy - Sanctuary wrote: »what does that bring u? wil u heal ur enemi to death or buf it til it chokes of buffs?-.-
I seem to recall it's helped you out, since we've partied together before. b:chuckle
Forp's point about there being no such thing as an FAC or FSC is completely true imo... but I call myself an FSC just to imply that my play style focuses more on party healing than on offense. I'm not technically an FSC, since I've got the offensive spells up, but I'm close enough. It's just of semantics; that's all I was trying to say.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
-Ignoring my main for alts since early '090 -
Flickerfae - Sanctuary wrote: »I seem to recall it's helped you out, since we've partied together before. b:chuckle
Forp's point about there being no such thing as an FAC or FSC is completely true imo... but I call myself an FSC just to imply that my play style focuses more on party healing than on offense. I'm not technically an FSC, since I've got the offensive spells up, but I'm close enough. It's just of semantics; that's all I was trying to say.
You're a rare breed though.b:chuckle0 -
I couldn't help but input my thoughts on this whole "FSC and "FAC" shizz
for starters I have noticed many people have stated they try to go "FAC" build by going all out on mag and minimum strength for weapon/armor requiremnts. . The issue I have is this is in no was a Full Attack Cleric, it's simply a Full Mag cleric build.
A full Attack cleric focuses only on attacks, hence the name. . the second you get a heal its no longer a full attack cleric. . and vice versa with the full support. . so people honestly let's please stop labeling us clerics like this, because honestly, they do not exist in game. .
There are Full Int. builds, there are light armor builds, builds structured to have higher vitality.
alright. . I think I'm done
and and to the person who started this, very nice guide, It's nice and simple for those people who need a jump start on what to do : )0
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