80+ cleric advice needed

abcyang

I have read many guides but high level stuff doesnt seem to have much info about it......

Ive been sitting on lvl 79 now for a while, have almost all quests done, have levelled a heap of skills..... both heal and dd.....

Now Im wondering on when/how to go to 80 and beyond. Money is a problem for me and I grind most of it - so a 70k+ cs scares me!! Can some of you tell your story past 80 and what you did right, or what you realize you should have done differently...... skills you;ve found are the absolute best, and ones you never use etc etc

I dont see how I can AOE grind with any success. When I aoe a couple of mobs, like dazzlewings for example with razor feathers then I still have to wield thunder, cylcone and heal myself as I finish them off individually... what am I doing wrong

What weapons does everyone like after 80, I'm thinking of decomposing my acalantha wand and getting the next one..... thoughts......

Anything you think relevant after 80, I wanna read abut it. Tks in advance.

Nexdonum - Lost City

Well, to aoe grind efficiently, you just need to purify (have it at lvl 6-8, should be good enough), and heal in the CD of razor feathers. I would suggest Tempest, but only if you have spark pots to regain the expended chi for purify. I generally gather 10-14 mobs, flying slow enough so they can continually hit me so I don't lose aggro, and making sure to purify every time the CD is up and healing when necessary, then when I've collected the amount I want, I stop, drop to the ground, and start to kill them. Generally goes like this- Purify,IH(x2-3), Razor Feathers, (Siren's Kiss, if they are bunched together enough, and I have 2 sparks), purify, IH(x1-2), Razor Feathers, rinse and repeat. Just don't lower yourself to killing them individually, if you still have a group of them. Yeah, you can, but it's not efficient at all. Just cyclone/plume shot to kill the last couple (inc life, inc mag def/phys def mobs) if they are still standing after the majority dies to a few razor feathers.


And the 80 weapon doesn't matter TOO much, if you plan to get to 9x+. Endless Ambiguity is good for the -chan and upgradeability to Wraith Conqueror, and Yaksa keeps the +200(ish) phys def from Sakyamuni's Light if you're used to that (which I am. b:victory).


Basically, the search function is your friend, as there have been several threads about this, and you can always check http://www.ecatomb.net/ to see the skill lists. And to check on the weapons/items you can get, http://www.pwdatabase.com/pwi/ is very nice as well.


Good luck in your choice(s).






edit: while aoe grinding, it's a good idea to have a spare set of gear with +wood resis (and +hp, but that's a personal preference). I've got my regular gear with 72%+ resis for all mag, and then a spare set that drops the other mag resis, but raises my wood resis to 81%. Helps tremendously. Well, if you are grinding on the recommended wood poison mobs (ones that don't phys attack, but put a wood dmg DoT over you at a certain distance), then it's a good idea. If you are trying to aoe grind on anything else, you won't have so good of luck. >.<

Sevas - Heavens Tear

abcyang wrote: »

Now Im wondering on when/how to go to 80 and beyond. Money is a problem for me and I grind most of it - so a 70k+ cs scares me!! Can some of you tell your story past 80 and what you did right, or what you realize you should have done differently...... skills you;ve found are the absolute best, and ones you never use etc etc

Yes, tempest is a lovely AoE skill. Carry chi pots, they help a ton. If you ever do ground AoE (as you will in the future) I recommend speed pots as well (if you don't have HP on your genie). For money you will also spend a lot of time in TT. Soloing with a veno will get you extra money. You generally get second pick if there is a melee tank though.

What weapons does everyone like after 80, I'm thinking of decomposing my acalantha wand and getting the next one..... thoughts......

Endless is a very nice weapon, not only for the channeling on it but also because of the TT90 upgrade you get. I got the glaive for both my veno and my cleric, I like the 99 upgrade. Of course, I carry a back up weapon too. So, you can save mats and get two TT80 weapons you like.

Anything you think relevant after 80, I wanna read abut it. Tks in advance.

Start thinking about Sage/Demon really hard. I'm still uncertain what I want to do with my cleric. I built her for killing, not supporting (though I'm d*** good at that when I need to). Both sides have a nice lure. Pick your amors. Remember, as a cleric people NEED you, so you can pretty much always find a squad for TT or something. If you make an impression people will add you to their list and call on you whenever a slot is open.

Those are my thoughts.

LloydAsplund - Sanctuary

I dropped CS at level 81-88. Then spent a few at level 88 to get to sage/demon, then a few more at 89 to get to 9x for new gear. This is a veno's PoV, but should be the same. Merchant. Merchant. Merchant. Grinding is the best source of income.

For weapon, I recommend either yaksa, or endless ambiguity. I went with the latter, and kind of regret it

Sevas - Heavens Tear

LloydAsplund - Sanctuary wrote: »

For weapon, I recommend either yaksa, or endless ambiguity. I went with the latter, and kind of regret it

Why do you regret it? Most clerics I know either get Requiem Blade or Wraith Conquerer as their 90s weapon.

Tojop - Dreamweaver

First, you shouldn't be trying to aoe dazzlewings; you can only aoe on poison mobs. Try the level 85 malicious cadevils by east barrier village, although the butterflies are good for normal grinding.

My biggest mistake was bothering with TT gear before 90. Get sleeves of sea captain, the level 70 molds for chest and legs, and whatever looks good in AH for helmet and boots. If you grind that much, you may want to look for some gears with stacked elemental resistances.

For example, When I was fish grinding I had boots with single element water and legs with two element water, full of perfect water res (forget which?) shards. You can usually find these for cheap in AH also.

As for weapon....I used my Endless Ambiguity until 95, and am still using my lunar wand. Loves it.

Telarith - Sanctuary

Flying is going to be better than ground gathering, as the speed of the mobs is high enough to need 2.0+ wings to not need to waste time purifying damage away. Also, if you have to take a tight turn to gather more, you're screwed if stacks already exist on you.

Look in AH and get some 7X armor with only wood resist, or 2 ele def and wood adds; whichever turns out to give more. Also try to get that with existing sockets already on them. Get some cheap high level wood def shards and place them in the sockets. Luckily adding sockets isn't too expensive with 7X gear. Do mirage refine to +3 on your armor to give more health, wait until the elder is lucky to do all your set. Remember to have enough mirage on hand to try a couple times before finding when he is lucky to get everything refined then.

Other than wood def adds, health adds are also very helpful, only really need a -6% channel to stay a bit ahead of the poison stack hitting an extra time with purifying it away. To maintain aggro they don't need to hit you, you just need to cast IB at least every 6-8 seconds. Do it on the 6 sec end if experiencing some lag just to be safe. Nothing worse than losing a huge draw.

At the end my lvl 90 full mag cleric was pulling 30+ lvl 96 spiders and killing them with no problem. Had 21k wood defense, so only took about 30 dmg per tick each stack, which made their damage negligible. Learning when to use Tempest will vary off of mob health, and need to be adjusted each time you find a new area. Getting chi wasn't difficult, and if demonized is ridiculously easy. Each round of AoE on the spiders was netting me a minimum of 30K and best was 100K for 2-3 minutes work with basically no repair bill. So easy money and kinda fun testing how many you can survive against.

Aya__ - Heavens Tear

1) grinding - for clerics most efficient is grind on dot mobs, preferably wood, so you have elemental advantage on them. low 80s - petallis still good (despite some drop reduction) and you can also grind on malicious cadevils near 1k streams. there are lot of aoe grinding guides for clerics, Nelae's is a good one and i think in one of comments Kott posted link to very good video on 'how to'
2) cs - i do it still. if i have time to grind for money (very rarely on weekdays) i can easily earn way more than that 73k, even if i count mp costs. also you can always do tt, as cleric you get 3rd drop (after subber and tank) now is double drop again so no way you wont get goiod money out of it
2a) bhs - wines are costly, at 80s 69 is usually wined, 79 stygean often unwined, with brigand - wined. i recommend bhs only if you want to level fast, or now if you hope for molds to drop... also you meet lots of ppl on bh runs, you can get to know some very nice and competent players that way (and some truly disastrous too)
3) weap - 80s i used endless, now im wearing requiem. was meant to be temporary weap but i found i really like it so it will probably stay to at least 95, maybe even 99.

Decus - Dreamweaver

abcyang wrote: »

I have read many guides but high level stuff doesnt seem to have much info about it......

Ive been sitting on lvl 79 now for a while, have almost all quests done, have levelled a heap of skills..... both heal and dd.....

Now Im wondering on when/how to go to 80 and beyond. Money is a problem for me and I grind most of it - so a 70k+ cs scares me!!

CS gets more and more useless past 80. I don't bother with it anymore.

Can some of you tell your story past 80 and what you did right, or what you realize you should have done differently...... skills you;ve found are the absolute best, and ones you never use etc etc

It really does depend on what you do. If you are strictly PvE based, some skill choices are different than others. I stay away from DoTs and I prefer ranged AOEs myself. Ergo, I never use thunderball or siren's kiss, for example. I began seriously PvPing at 79 so I prioritized maxing my debilitating seals and creating a genie for PvP in particular. I also focused on hitting really hard (maxed DD skills + maxed debuffs + genie debuffs) initially and trying to keep someone off you otherwise (apoth pots + genie skills + protection skills). If this doesn't help, then I apologize but you asked what we did specifically, and that's my story ^.^

I dont see how I can AOE grind with any success. When I aoe a couple of mobs, like dazzlewings for example with razor feathers then I still have to wield thunder, cylcone and heal myself as I finish them off individually... what am I doing wrong

Don't bother with Dazzlewings. Stick with poison DD mobs. Dazzlewings are straight wood DD. You can handle the healing/DD better with stacked poison, especially if your purify is leveled (though I have always had at level 2 and never had problems in fb69 or FC but I just wanted to give you options as well as my thoughts).

What weapons does everyone like after 80, I'm thinking of decomposing my acalantha wand and getting the next one..... thoughts......

I decomposed a TT70 just to make the TT80 Endless Ambiguity and used that till I aqcuired a gold FC weapon. I have been using that since. However, the End. Ambig. I HIGHLY recommend because it is not only a really nice sword, it decomposes to an equally nice TT90 sword (Wraith Conqueror). Though many people like using more than one weapon, especially if you PvP (keep one for spike dmg or keep another for higher hp/pdef). Some also like using the TT80 glaive (I don't but, again, options) since it leads to an also very nice TT90 glaive. Your idea for the TT gold wand isn't bad, just be aware that you cannot sell it and it does not decompose to something else, so that weapon path ends there =/

Anything you think relevant after 80, I wanna read abut it. Tks in advance.
FC is your friend, WQ is your friend, chi pots are your friend, legendary armor is your friend, keeping skills up-to-date is your friend, good barbs are your friends, make sure to get mats for your 90 gear... I can keep on going =P

.
.
.
+10char

Ahira - Lost City

Best mobs to AOE grind on are poison mobs as people have already said, but at low 8x Dazzlewings are still the best mobs to grind on- pointless to try to aoe on those btw.

You can aoe grind on cadavils but i prefered going straight onto ultrafin's when I was too high for dazzlewings.

Someone mentioned using Tempest when you're aoe grinding. I wouldnt really recommend that because you'll want to save your chi for purify most of the time. A good trick is also to use the Genie skill Nulify poison- this saved my life on more than a couple of occasions when i'd lured a bit more than I could cope with! b:chuckle

Telarith - Sanctuary

Ahira - Lost City wrote: »

Best mobs to AOE grind on are poison mobs as people have already said, but at low 8x Dazzlewings are still the best mobs to grind on- pointless to try to aoe on those btw.

You can aoe grind on cadavils but i prefered going straight onto ultrafin's when I was too high for dazzlewings.

Someone mentioned using Tempest when you're aoe grinding. I wouldnt really recommend that because you'll want to save your chi for purify most of the time. A good trick is also to use the Genie skill Nulify poison- this saved my life on more than a couple of occasions when i'd lured a bit more than I could cope with! b:chuckle

An at lvl Tempest guaranteed the deaths of all sac assault or other half health mobs in a group, and would kill all normal health ones if followed by a razor feather on the 2 petali. For that reason alone it was useful, as when maxing out the grab gives a set number you an survive, and there will come a time with 2 or 3 sac assaults on a smaller pull and more on larger ones. Tempesting first is what I used to remove that particular variable without reducing kill rate. With lvl 1 useless heal skills (BotP and WS), I just macroed that as a chi builder and would make sure to have a bit over 1 spark before doing the pull. Since I know how to do the pull, I never purify on that; just IB to keep aggro. Damage rarely goes above 2XX or 3XX every 3 secs anyways, so it's a constant chi build during the draw.

Also, thing to watch out on that nullify poison, it does not prevent damage stacks from being applied, just the damage incurred from them. So slapping it on early won't delay the stack building, it just wastes the heal stacks already going. Had to find that one out when I later on made a zeal genie with it and died before finding that fun fact out. Just an extra note for anyone looking to try it out and aren't sure what that genie skill does specifically.

Ahira - Lost City

Telarith - Sanctuary wrote: »

An at lvl Tempest guaranteed the deaths of all sac assault or other half health mobs in a group, and would kill all normal health ones if followed by a razor feather on the 2 petali. For that reason alone it was useful, as when maxing out the grab gives a set number you an survive, and there will come a time with 2 or 3 sac assaults on a smaller pull and more on larger ones. Tempesting first is what I used to remove that particular variable without reducing kill rate. With lvl 1 useless heal skills (BotP and WS), I just macroed that as a chi builder and would make sure to have a bit over 1 spark before doing the pull. Since I know how to do the pull, I never purify on that; just IB to keep aggro. Damage rarely goes above 2XX or 3XX every 3 secs anyways, so it's a constant chi build during the draw.

Also, thing to watch out on that nullify poison, it does not prevent damage stacks from being applied, just the damage incurred from them. So slapping it on early won't delay the stack building, it just wastes the heal stacks already going. Had to find that one out when I later on made a zeal genie with it and died before finding that fun fact out. Just an extra note for anyone looking to try it out and aren't sure what that genie skill does specifically.

Still prefered not to use tempest on petali's- get a few increased life mobs in your pull and you'd start running low on chi. Depends alot on how many mobs you pull tho and frequency of purify. When you're aoe grinding on spiders and have 3rd spark I think its a bit more of an option. In both cases for me I didnt use tempest very often.... but that was mainly to save sparks in case I got attacked by kos/pkers (which was very often!)

lol @ nullify poison info b:chuckle

Mendolin - Sanctuary

why hasnt anyone mentioned GAMMA???? b:dirty
by far one of the best ways to level and earn money in this game... when i was in my 80s when gamma was first cracked, many people stayed at lvl 85 to keep earning money from gamma and get all their gear ready for 90s just by doing gamma every day.
has this changed?

abcyang

All this information is awesome everyone and many things I was totally unaware of... I will have a print out on hand for a while......

I did get the impression that gamma was just for the xp? Can you make dollars too.....