Cleric PK Guide
Aeliah - Dreamweaver
Posts: 784 Arc User
HOW TO PK as a CLERIC - the way I do it
Quick Introduction:
Many players have not yet learned that, ever since the Morai update, clerics have incredible potential in 1vs1 pk against a range of other classes. In particular, it seems that many of the clerics themselves have not yet learned about what they can do! It is my hope that this guide will help some of those clerics. As well, it goes without saying that a cleric always has been, and always will be, the backbone of any successful group pk, due to a wide range of buffs, heals, long-lasting control skills, and the all important Revive.
About this Guide:
Information is power.
Alrighty, I'm not going to promise to hammer out all my thoughts all at once, or in a particularly organized manner; I can revise later via editing. This can be an on-going project, and if it becomes good enough, perhaps it can deserve a separate thread or sticky of its own. I believe in details, so if you can't summon enough patience to read through what I write, you don't deserve to learn anyways. I'll try to format stuff so its as easy to follow as possible.
Now, I can teach you all that I know, but I'm not going to teach all of you clerics out there how to pvp like a pro, because to honestly pk like a pro, you do need to sink some coin into your character; some serious coin. Naturally, many tactics and strategies can be done no matter how good or bad your gear is, and this guide will cover those. However, like ANY class, to survive in pk you need a certain minimum level of gear; better gear for opponents who do greater damage. For example, I already employed many of the same tactics back when my gear was still under-developed that I do today (and would pull off nice surprise victories against high level assassins because of this), but when my gear got a bit better, the same tactics started achieving much more successful and reliable outcomes.
If you are a complete beginner, I suggest you start by reading the other guides first. For example, while this guide will have a wealth of information regarding the various cleric skills, the true focus is towards tactics and strategies involving those skills, rather than a simple description of what each skill does. Which is not to discourage you from reading it, but rather to explain the level of detail I am supplying. There is certain information I assume most clerics should know, and such information may not be included in here. However, for clerics with experience playing their class, this guide may be able to help you improve your pk game above and beyond what you thought possible!
As well, as a general practice, to excel in pk you can't be worried about money all the time. In order to clear your mind for the fight ahead, you can't be worrying constantly about how much each hp pot, mana pot, defense charm, apothecary item, hp charm tick, mana charm tick, and guardian scroll are costing you. Doing so throughout the fight will slow your reaction times and prevent you from fighting as you should be able to. This can be a tough adjustment to make, and in order to make it possible, you need to have a decent amount of coin handy. Unfortunately, that means this guide is probably not for those who have difficulty procuring coin. PK the way its meant to be done is not cheap! And yet, if you are willing to adopt the mentality required where you instantly use defense charms and other resources without worrying about cost, you will become a much tougher and deadlier pker for it.
Credibility: I have a lvl 101 demon cleric with nearly all skills learned, and a lvl 102 sage cleric with ALL skills learned (literally all of them; lvl 11s, 79s, 100s, and morai). Thus when I mention any differences between the two in terms of skills usage, I know what I'm talking about!
Updates to Guide:
This guide is a work in progress. Listed below are the updates and when they occurred.
1. Guide created at the bottom of a different guide. Included the sections 'Minimum Gear Requirement', 'Purify Weapon', 'Debuffs which cannot be purified', 'Suggested Gear', 'Other Requirements'. 01/11/2012
2. Added 'Defensive Skills' including the sections on Plume Shell, Vanguard Spirit, and Ironheart. 03/11/2012
3. Added a color scheme. Started on the section for Purify and 'Debuffs which you should purify'. Subsequently deleted (accidentally) some of what I'd been working on for this section, so it'll need to be re-written >.>; 07/11/2012
4. Turns out that the forum was cutting off the bottom of my post automatically, like some weird character limit. Maybe this limit doesn't exist if you are creator of thread, or else how would the maker of the top stickied guide here in cleric forums post so much text in a single post? Without knowing why it was getting cut off, I have reserved a number of posts for this guide; 7 in total. Will see how many I end up needing. 07/11/2012
5. Added section on Radiant wand, an alternative weapon with Purify Spell. 07/11/2012
6. Completed section on Purify and debuffs to purify/not purify. 10/11/2012
7. Started the section on Genies. This one is gonna take a while to finish I can tell! 14/11/2012
Minimum gear requirements:
-defined as the gear necessary to handle (aka, not be easily one shot or killed before you can even react) some serious pk against a range of opponents, including +10 to +12 r9 assassins, and all other r9 characters
-+10 armor and +10 or better weapon (full gear set of either rank 9 or g16), socketed as best as you can (my cleric just has r9 with immaculate hp/garnet gems atm, because I'm still aiming for better gear; if you plan on making your gearset more permanent, consider citrine or garnet gems (cheaper option) or jades of steady defense (much more expensive, but much more effective)
Unfortunately, many clerics don't have well-refined armor. This is fairly easy to understand, because in pve, clerics can often get away with very minimalistic gear and still do just fine. However, consider your opponents: most assassins will have all +10 armor, and a +10 to +12 weapon. Going up against a class designed for 1vs1 pk with anything less than what they have is just not going to work very well! To pk effectively, you need to be able to take a goodly number of hits, and your heals have to be strong, so get busy refining!
-physical necklace from cube; g14 minimum +10 (which I use)
-physical defense RING(s): yes, ring. Exchange 1 or both of those magic rings for +10 or better Sign of Frost: Chaos (lvl 95 ring) or Sky Cover (lvl 100 ring); preferably Sky Cover for the 2 attack lvls and slightly better refine rates. Yes, you lose a bit of magic damage. However, in exchange you get vastly more physical defense. Consider: without ornaments, your physical defense from armor and stat point alone will likely total no more than 2000, which is just not going to cut it. The addition of a +10 sign of frost: chaos to my cleric increase physical defense from 7315 buffed, to 8.8k, a % damage reduction of 4% (64% to 68%). Thats a big gain for a mere +10 lvl 95 ring; much better results achieved with +12 Sky Cover. Considering that most of the time, physical damage will be what kills you, this is a necessary sacrifice to your magic dmg if you ever want to survive long enough to kill anything. Giving up the r9 ring is probably not recommended unless you replace it with a +10 or better Sky Cover, because you do lose a lot of damage by not having r9 ring equipped. However, the sky cover will grant better survivability to physical dmg than r9 ring, which is useful when defending against a stealthed sin, or when in TW and your main role is healing only.
*Note: clerics as healers can afford to give up a considerable amount of damage in TW, if it comes with a significant survivability gain, which is something most other classes, barbs excepted, cannot do.*
-a weapon with a stat called Purify Spell
Purify Weapon
***** I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH how game-changing having purify spell is... ONCE your gear hits the right point, you became much more difficult for dps-users to kill. *****
What does purify spell do? Each attack you receive has a 5% chance to purify all* debuffs from you, and give you 5 seconds of 200% speed and immune to stun/immobilize/sleep/slow. What does this mean? When your gear is good enough to survive a number of hits, you can start relying on your weapon to get you out of sticky situations, provided you employ the right tactics. More on how to use a purify weapon will come later.
Where do you get a weapon with purify spell? There are 4 ways:
1) Reward weapon for tw season winners; clerics from winning faction get a non-refinable weapon with 1-666 dmg, that has purify spell. Yes, you can use it for the purify, but in practice it will be of limited use, because it will have weak healing and damage dealing power.
2) Radiant Wand, a wand obtained from a faction base with lvl 7 weapon storage (the east wing). Costs 170 mil coins and 43750 contribution (obtained from doing faction base quests). Damage is OK, and if you are on a budget and are lucky enough to be in a faction with high level weapon storage, then this may be an option for you.
3) Rank 8 Reforge glaive; obtained using r8 reforge mats that are obtained when factions complete faction trials. The damage is noticeably better than Radiant Wand, but it will definitely cost more to make. Getting purify spell on a r8 reforge glaive is about 6% chance per try, so it could take a number of rolls to get it. I use a +12 r8 reforge weapon with purify spell myself. Plan on spending at least 500mil to get the weapon.
How to go about getting r8 mats for r8 reforge weapon?
-set up a buy catshop near the faction base in Archosaur
-let the main factions on your server that participate in trials know that you are buying at competitive prices
-participating in faction trials of your own---this will give you the opportunity to collect mats like damascene ores (necessary to reforge your r8 wep as you try and get purify) that disappear if you leave faction base.
4) Rank 9 third reforge weapon. By far the best option; you get enormous damage and the purify spell all in one weapon. Only an option for the super wealthy. I am aiming for this weapon as a long term goal, since it will remove the issue of having to switch between r8 weapon and r9 weapon when going from defense to offense during a battle. Plan on spending roughly 3bil to get this weapon.
*****ONCE AGAIN, having a weapon with Purify Spell is CRUCIAL to surviving against assassins. If you do not consider obtaining a purify weapon, then you will be unable to utilize this guide to its full extent. My cleric is able to survive situations clerics with full jades cannot survive, due primarily to the purify stat on weapon.*****
Debuffs which cannot be purified:
*Not all debuffs are purifiable. And I'm not talking about being unable to purify because you are stunned or sealed, I'm talking about buffs that can't be purified by any means, period. When you encounter these debuffs, you want to ensure you don't waste time and chi trying to purify them; instead, depending on the debuff, you will react in other ways.
Archer:
-Arrow Inferno (the debuff increases charm cooldown by 3s and decreases hp recovery from hp pots by 20%)
Cleric:
-Seal of the Gods (15 second debuff which both seals and immobilizes, while also giving target 90% dmg reduction... more on this skill later)
-Magical Shackles (a MORAI skill; each time target uses a skill, has 30% chance to take physical damage equal to the base magic dmg of the cleric who used the skill... more on this skill later)
-Aurora Array and Absorbing Array (MORAI skills; Aurora Array is aoe, whereas Absorbing Array is single target with lower cooldown; both skills produce a debuff which absorbs healing from charm or hp pots or apoths; this debuff cannot be 'purified' in the usual sense, but the debuff can be removed if enough hp is recovered via heal skills, charm ticks, hp pots, and apothecary items)
Barbarian:
-Berserker's Rage/Wrath (can produce a debuff which will prevent target(s) from being able to fly for 30 seconds)
-Raging Slap (produces a 6 second debuff that prevents you from targeting anybody else except the barb who used the skill on you)
Venomancer:
-Bewitch (essentially a debuff that acts like a seal but isn't a seal, because using anti-seal genie skills does not prevent this skill from working; prevents you from doing anything with skills for 6 seconds)
-Soul Link/Soul Shatter (its kinda a debuff; a little mob is linked to you, and any damage that the mob takes is transferred directly and instantly to you)
Assassin:
-Death Link/Death Chain (some of the damage the assassin takes gets transferred to you, except for damage you do to the assassin, which won't get bounced back to you)
Psychic:
-Diminished Vigor: (similar to Arrow Inferno, increases charm cooldown and effectiveness of hp pots and heals)
-Soulburn (every time you use a skill, for 8s, you take damage equal to the psychic's soulforce... very nasty skill)
Mystic:
-Transfusion/Sublime Transfusion (a portion of the healing you receive [can be your own heals] gets redirected to the mystic who cast the skill on you)
Suggested gear:
-defined as gear that could be replaced with other options without game-changing impacts, but which has features that make it more desirable than the rest of the available gears
-on my cleric, I sacrifice 50 magic points in order to equip a light armor g16 helm, thus granting me ~1000 more hp than an equally-geared but arcane-helmed cleric. I decided this was an excellent defensive trade-off, because when we divide 1000 hp/50 stat points, it comes out to 20 hp/stat point. This is a better trade-off than barbs get when they allocate vitality points, and is twice as good as if those 50 points sacrificed were placed directly into vitality, which would yield only 500 hp on a cleric. Again, a cleric can afford to sacrifice some damage in order to get better defensive results.
-Matchless Wings (robe): has all the things clerics need in abundance: +speed, +physical defense, +hp, +def level, physical dmg reduction. I compared Matchless Wings to the g16 light armor robe (having 2 pieces would give 700 bonus hp) and concluded that I prefered the physical defense over the extra hp. Unfortunately, the dexterity points on the robe would not be very useful to a cleric, leaving 2 of the 4 stats not very good. In a comparison of stats with similar survivability in each case, I prefer the stats with lower hp and higher defense, since it makes it easier to keep yourself healed.
-the obvious: if you can afford r9 2nd or 3rd cast, you will see leaps and bounds in all of your stats defensive and offensive. Highly recommended if you can afford it.
Other Requirements:
1. HP Charm: please never enter pk without a hp charm equipped... at least not as a cleric. About the only classes that might conceivably get away with no charm would be full jades +12 r9 barb, or lvl 105 assassins who never leave stealth! Needless to say, a cleric neither has 40k hp nor stealth. Put the charm on.
2. MP Charm: if you truly want to excel, a mana charm is a MUST! Unlike other arcanes, simply hitting mana pots every now and then is not sufficient, because via the effects of Plume Shell, mana becomes a cleric's second pool of life. Without a mana charm, a dps user will drain your mana dry within mere seconds or less, leaving you unable to do anything useful with your skills.
3. Defense charms: Get both the physical and magic defense charms (called Mystic Armor Charm and Charm of Defense, respectively). If you've never used these before, here's how they work. You manufacture them (lvl 8 apothecary required) by trading Perfect Stones at a high lvl apothecary master (I use the one in Snowy Village) under the Charms tab. For example, if you click a Charm of Defense, the next magic attack to hit you will only do 50% of the damage it would have otherwise done. Needless to say, very useful. The magic and physical defense charms share a cooldown of 10 seconds, so make sure you click the right one according to whatever class you are fighting against. To excel, you should: (a) have a physical and magic defense charm clicked (takes 20 seconds to have both of them clicked and cooled down again), and (b) click defense charms throughout a fight whenever the person you are fighting potentially hits you for over half your hp (which can happen when you fight r9 +12 anything).
4. Apothecary items: Keep your inventory well stocked with the ones you'll use most often.
-Ironguard Powder -> lvl 90 apoth often used with genie skill Fortify to get 12 seconds of stun-free immune to damage. Obviously excellent as a defensive move, or when launching a surprise offensive when the enemy thinks you are vulnerable.
-Pan Gu's Essence -> available only if you are in a faction with a lvl 6 apothecary wing: 8 seconds of immune-to-damage with no side effects like ironguard powder has
-Shadow Binder Powder -> lvl 90 apoth which is one of the best offensive AND defensive apoths available to any class, not to mention cleric. This apoth gives 15 seconds of 100% speed AND stun resist. Since being slow is one of a cleric's biggest drawbacks, this apoth is amazing, and much better than vacuity powder, which only gives 20 seconds of stun resist. Used properly this apoth not only prevents the stun, it turns a fight into your favor for 15 seconds, allowing you to keep up from a running enemy, or escape from a pursuer.
-Dew of Star Protection -> sometimes used when you want to fool the enemy into thinking you are going to be easy to kill; the problem with ironguard powder is that people run from you when you use it. However since dew of star, used on a cleric (you'll have your own physical and magic defense buffs in place), is much less noticeable (you have to spot the 'increased physical defense' buff) you can avoid this problem. As well, when combined with a purify weapon, the enemy will hit you a number of times before realizing you have an apoth in (if a dps-user), which increases the likelihood of getting a purify, and thus allowing you to quickly kite and then fire a few attacks off.
-Zooming Thunder Powder -> great for a surprise attack which you think will have a high likelihood of quickly killing enemy; gives 6s of zero channeling on skills like Tempest, Razor Feathers, and Wield Thunder (long channeling skills that are often avoided in a pk fight by enemy because of how long they take to channel)
-White Tea -> regain 2 sparks; essential in TW (use one each time you rez back at base) and in pk can be used to triple spark a 2 spark skill like Tempest.
-Fortification Draught -> a relatively new apothecary item which is very useful at preventing an assassin from killing you from stealth with normal attacks before you can react. This apothecary item puts a buff on you which lasts for 10 minutes (since apoths have 2 minute cooldown, you can put this on, wait for apoth cooldown, then enter the pk area with 8 minutes still left on the buff). If during the period that this buff is on, anything attacks you with a physical melee normal attack (NOT a skill), the buff gets 'triggered', and you get 15 seconds of 75% reduction to physical melee normal attacks (note: skill damage is NOT reduced). The icon doesn't change when this occurs. This means that even high damage assassins will likely not be able to kill you from stealth before you can react; and if they try to use skills, you'll gain more time to react, because of the cast times of these skills.
Quick Introduction:
Many players have not yet learned that, ever since the Morai update, clerics have incredible potential in 1vs1 pk against a range of other classes. In particular, it seems that many of the clerics themselves have not yet learned about what they can do! It is my hope that this guide will help some of those clerics. As well, it goes without saying that a cleric always has been, and always will be, the backbone of any successful group pk, due to a wide range of buffs, heals, long-lasting control skills, and the all important Revive.
About this Guide:
Information is power.
Alrighty, I'm not going to promise to hammer out all my thoughts all at once, or in a particularly organized manner; I can revise later via editing. This can be an on-going project, and if it becomes good enough, perhaps it can deserve a separate thread or sticky of its own. I believe in details, so if you can't summon enough patience to read through what I write, you don't deserve to learn anyways. I'll try to format stuff so its as easy to follow as possible.
Now, I can teach you all that I know, but I'm not going to teach all of you clerics out there how to pvp like a pro, because to honestly pk like a pro, you do need to sink some coin into your character; some serious coin. Naturally, many tactics and strategies can be done no matter how good or bad your gear is, and this guide will cover those. However, like ANY class, to survive in pk you need a certain minimum level of gear; better gear for opponents who do greater damage. For example, I already employed many of the same tactics back when my gear was still under-developed that I do today (and would pull off nice surprise victories against high level assassins because of this), but when my gear got a bit better, the same tactics started achieving much more successful and reliable outcomes.
If you are a complete beginner, I suggest you start by reading the other guides first. For example, while this guide will have a wealth of information regarding the various cleric skills, the true focus is towards tactics and strategies involving those skills, rather than a simple description of what each skill does. Which is not to discourage you from reading it, but rather to explain the level of detail I am supplying. There is certain information I assume most clerics should know, and such information may not be included in here. However, for clerics with experience playing their class, this guide may be able to help you improve your pk game above and beyond what you thought possible!
As well, as a general practice, to excel in pk you can't be worried about money all the time. In order to clear your mind for the fight ahead, you can't be worrying constantly about how much each hp pot, mana pot, defense charm, apothecary item, hp charm tick, mana charm tick, and guardian scroll are costing you. Doing so throughout the fight will slow your reaction times and prevent you from fighting as you should be able to. This can be a tough adjustment to make, and in order to make it possible, you need to have a decent amount of coin handy. Unfortunately, that means this guide is probably not for those who have difficulty procuring coin. PK the way its meant to be done is not cheap! And yet, if you are willing to adopt the mentality required where you instantly use defense charms and other resources without worrying about cost, you will become a much tougher and deadlier pker for it.
Credibility: I have a lvl 101 demon cleric with nearly all skills learned, and a lvl 102 sage cleric with ALL skills learned (literally all of them; lvl 11s, 79s, 100s, and morai). Thus when I mention any differences between the two in terms of skills usage, I know what I'm talking about!
Updates to Guide:
This guide is a work in progress. Listed below are the updates and when they occurred.
1. Guide created at the bottom of a different guide. Included the sections 'Minimum Gear Requirement', 'Purify Weapon', 'Debuffs which cannot be purified', 'Suggested Gear', 'Other Requirements'. 01/11/2012
2. Added 'Defensive Skills' including the sections on Plume Shell, Vanguard Spirit, and Ironheart. 03/11/2012
3. Added a color scheme. Started on the section for Purify and 'Debuffs which you should purify'. Subsequently deleted (accidentally) some of what I'd been working on for this section, so it'll need to be re-written >.>; 07/11/2012
4. Turns out that the forum was cutting off the bottom of my post automatically, like some weird character limit. Maybe this limit doesn't exist if you are creator of thread, or else how would the maker of the top stickied guide here in cleric forums post so much text in a single post? Without knowing why it was getting cut off, I have reserved a number of posts for this guide; 7 in total. Will see how many I end up needing. 07/11/2012
5. Added section on Radiant wand, an alternative weapon with Purify Spell. 07/11/2012
6. Completed section on Purify and debuffs to purify/not purify. 10/11/2012
7. Started the section on Genies. This one is gonna take a while to finish I can tell! 14/11/2012
Minimum gear requirements:
-defined as the gear necessary to handle (aka, not be easily one shot or killed before you can even react) some serious pk against a range of opponents, including +10 to +12 r9 assassins, and all other r9 characters
-+10 armor and +10 or better weapon (full gear set of either rank 9 or g16), socketed as best as you can (my cleric just has r9 with immaculate hp/garnet gems atm, because I'm still aiming for better gear; if you plan on making your gearset more permanent, consider citrine or garnet gems (cheaper option) or jades of steady defense (much more expensive, but much more effective)
Unfortunately, many clerics don't have well-refined armor. This is fairly easy to understand, because in pve, clerics can often get away with very minimalistic gear and still do just fine. However, consider your opponents: most assassins will have all +10 armor, and a +10 to +12 weapon. Going up against a class designed for 1vs1 pk with anything less than what they have is just not going to work very well! To pk effectively, you need to be able to take a goodly number of hits, and your heals have to be strong, so get busy refining!
-physical necklace from cube; g14 minimum +10 (which I use)
-physical defense RING(s): yes, ring. Exchange 1 or both of those magic rings for +10 or better Sign of Frost: Chaos (lvl 95 ring) or Sky Cover (lvl 100 ring); preferably Sky Cover for the 2 attack lvls and slightly better refine rates. Yes, you lose a bit of magic damage. However, in exchange you get vastly more physical defense. Consider: without ornaments, your physical defense from armor and stat point alone will likely total no more than 2000, which is just not going to cut it. The addition of a +10 sign of frost: chaos to my cleric increase physical defense from 7315 buffed, to 8.8k, a % damage reduction of 4% (64% to 68%). Thats a big gain for a mere +10 lvl 95 ring; much better results achieved with +12 Sky Cover. Considering that most of the time, physical damage will be what kills you, this is a necessary sacrifice to your magic dmg if you ever want to survive long enough to kill anything. Giving up the r9 ring is probably not recommended unless you replace it with a +10 or better Sky Cover, because you do lose a lot of damage by not having r9 ring equipped. However, the sky cover will grant better survivability to physical dmg than r9 ring, which is useful when defending against a stealthed sin, or when in TW and your main role is healing only.
*Note: clerics as healers can afford to give up a considerable amount of damage in TW, if it comes with a significant survivability gain, which is something most other classes, barbs excepted, cannot do.*
-a weapon with a stat called Purify Spell
Purify Weapon
***** I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH how game-changing having purify spell is... ONCE your gear hits the right point, you became much more difficult for dps-users to kill. *****
What does purify spell do? Each attack you receive has a 5% chance to purify all* debuffs from you, and give you 5 seconds of 200% speed and immune to stun/immobilize/sleep/slow. What does this mean? When your gear is good enough to survive a number of hits, you can start relying on your weapon to get you out of sticky situations, provided you employ the right tactics. More on how to use a purify weapon will come later.
Where do you get a weapon with purify spell? There are 4 ways:
1) Reward weapon for tw season winners; clerics from winning faction get a non-refinable weapon with 1-666 dmg, that has purify spell. Yes, you can use it for the purify, but in practice it will be of limited use, because it will have weak healing and damage dealing power.
2) Radiant Wand, a wand obtained from a faction base with lvl 7 weapon storage (the east wing). Costs 170 mil coins and 43750 contribution (obtained from doing faction base quests). Damage is OK, and if you are on a budget and are lucky enough to be in a faction with high level weapon storage, then this may be an option for you.
3) Rank 8 Reforge glaive; obtained using r8 reforge mats that are obtained when factions complete faction trials. The damage is noticeably better than Radiant Wand, but it will definitely cost more to make. Getting purify spell on a r8 reforge glaive is about 6% chance per try, so it could take a number of rolls to get it. I use a +12 r8 reforge weapon with purify spell myself. Plan on spending at least 500mil to get the weapon.
How to go about getting r8 mats for r8 reforge weapon?
-set up a buy catshop near the faction base in Archosaur
-let the main factions on your server that participate in trials know that you are buying at competitive prices
-participating in faction trials of your own---this will give you the opportunity to collect mats like damascene ores (necessary to reforge your r8 wep as you try and get purify) that disappear if you leave faction base.
4) Rank 9 third reforge weapon. By far the best option; you get enormous damage and the purify spell all in one weapon. Only an option for the super wealthy. I am aiming for this weapon as a long term goal, since it will remove the issue of having to switch between r8 weapon and r9 weapon when going from defense to offense during a battle. Plan on spending roughly 3bil to get this weapon.
*****ONCE AGAIN, having a weapon with Purify Spell is CRUCIAL to surviving against assassins. If you do not consider obtaining a purify weapon, then you will be unable to utilize this guide to its full extent. My cleric is able to survive situations clerics with full jades cannot survive, due primarily to the purify stat on weapon.*****
Debuffs which cannot be purified:
*Not all debuffs are purifiable. And I'm not talking about being unable to purify because you are stunned or sealed, I'm talking about buffs that can't be purified by any means, period. When you encounter these debuffs, you want to ensure you don't waste time and chi trying to purify them; instead, depending on the debuff, you will react in other ways.
Archer:
-Arrow Inferno (the debuff increases charm cooldown by 3s and decreases hp recovery from hp pots by 20%)
Cleric:
-Seal of the Gods (15 second debuff which both seals and immobilizes, while also giving target 90% dmg reduction... more on this skill later)
-Magical Shackles (a MORAI skill; each time target uses a skill, has 30% chance to take physical damage equal to the base magic dmg of the cleric who used the skill... more on this skill later)
-Aurora Array and Absorbing Array (MORAI skills; Aurora Array is aoe, whereas Absorbing Array is single target with lower cooldown; both skills produce a debuff which absorbs healing from charm or hp pots or apoths; this debuff cannot be 'purified' in the usual sense, but the debuff can be removed if enough hp is recovered via heal skills, charm ticks, hp pots, and apothecary items)
Barbarian:
-Berserker's Rage/Wrath (can produce a debuff which will prevent target(s) from being able to fly for 30 seconds)
-Raging Slap (produces a 6 second debuff that prevents you from targeting anybody else except the barb who used the skill on you)
Venomancer:
-Bewitch (essentially a debuff that acts like a seal but isn't a seal, because using anti-seal genie skills does not prevent this skill from working; prevents you from doing anything with skills for 6 seconds)
-Soul Link/Soul Shatter (its kinda a debuff; a little mob is linked to you, and any damage that the mob takes is transferred directly and instantly to you)
Assassin:
-Death Link/Death Chain (some of the damage the assassin takes gets transferred to you, except for damage you do to the assassin, which won't get bounced back to you)
Psychic:
-Diminished Vigor: (similar to Arrow Inferno, increases charm cooldown and effectiveness of hp pots and heals)
-Soulburn (every time you use a skill, for 8s, you take damage equal to the psychic's soulforce... very nasty skill)
Mystic:
-Transfusion/Sublime Transfusion (a portion of the healing you receive [can be your own heals] gets redirected to the mystic who cast the skill on you)
Suggested gear:
-defined as gear that could be replaced with other options without game-changing impacts, but which has features that make it more desirable than the rest of the available gears
-on my cleric, I sacrifice 50 magic points in order to equip a light armor g16 helm, thus granting me ~1000 more hp than an equally-geared but arcane-helmed cleric. I decided this was an excellent defensive trade-off, because when we divide 1000 hp/50 stat points, it comes out to 20 hp/stat point. This is a better trade-off than barbs get when they allocate vitality points, and is twice as good as if those 50 points sacrificed were placed directly into vitality, which would yield only 500 hp on a cleric. Again, a cleric can afford to sacrifice some damage in order to get better defensive results.
-Matchless Wings (robe): has all the things clerics need in abundance: +speed, +physical defense, +hp, +def level, physical dmg reduction. I compared Matchless Wings to the g16 light armor robe (having 2 pieces would give 700 bonus hp) and concluded that I prefered the physical defense over the extra hp. Unfortunately, the dexterity points on the robe would not be very useful to a cleric, leaving 2 of the 4 stats not very good. In a comparison of stats with similar survivability in each case, I prefer the stats with lower hp and higher defense, since it makes it easier to keep yourself healed.
-the obvious: if you can afford r9 2nd or 3rd cast, you will see leaps and bounds in all of your stats defensive and offensive. Highly recommended if you can afford it.
Other Requirements:
1. HP Charm: please never enter pk without a hp charm equipped... at least not as a cleric. About the only classes that might conceivably get away with no charm would be full jades +12 r9 barb, or lvl 105 assassins who never leave stealth! Needless to say, a cleric neither has 40k hp nor stealth. Put the charm on.
2. MP Charm: if you truly want to excel, a mana charm is a MUST! Unlike other arcanes, simply hitting mana pots every now and then is not sufficient, because via the effects of Plume Shell, mana becomes a cleric's second pool of life. Without a mana charm, a dps user will drain your mana dry within mere seconds or less, leaving you unable to do anything useful with your skills.
3. Defense charms: Get both the physical and magic defense charms (called Mystic Armor Charm and Charm of Defense, respectively). If you've never used these before, here's how they work. You manufacture them (lvl 8 apothecary required) by trading Perfect Stones at a high lvl apothecary master (I use the one in Snowy Village) under the Charms tab. For example, if you click a Charm of Defense, the next magic attack to hit you will only do 50% of the damage it would have otherwise done. Needless to say, very useful. The magic and physical defense charms share a cooldown of 10 seconds, so make sure you click the right one according to whatever class you are fighting against. To excel, you should: (a) have a physical and magic defense charm clicked (takes 20 seconds to have both of them clicked and cooled down again), and (b) click defense charms throughout a fight whenever the person you are fighting potentially hits you for over half your hp (which can happen when you fight r9 +12 anything).
4. Apothecary items: Keep your inventory well stocked with the ones you'll use most often.
-Ironguard Powder -> lvl 90 apoth often used with genie skill Fortify to get 12 seconds of stun-free immune to damage. Obviously excellent as a defensive move, or when launching a surprise offensive when the enemy thinks you are vulnerable.
-Pan Gu's Essence -> available only if you are in a faction with a lvl 6 apothecary wing: 8 seconds of immune-to-damage with no side effects like ironguard powder has
-Shadow Binder Powder -> lvl 90 apoth which is one of the best offensive AND defensive apoths available to any class, not to mention cleric. This apoth gives 15 seconds of 100% speed AND stun resist. Since being slow is one of a cleric's biggest drawbacks, this apoth is amazing, and much better than vacuity powder, which only gives 20 seconds of stun resist. Used properly this apoth not only prevents the stun, it turns a fight into your favor for 15 seconds, allowing you to keep up from a running enemy, or escape from a pursuer.
-Dew of Star Protection -> sometimes used when you want to fool the enemy into thinking you are going to be easy to kill; the problem with ironguard powder is that people run from you when you use it. However since dew of star, used on a cleric (you'll have your own physical and magic defense buffs in place), is much less noticeable (you have to spot the 'increased physical defense' buff) you can avoid this problem. As well, when combined with a purify weapon, the enemy will hit you a number of times before realizing you have an apoth in (if a dps-user), which increases the likelihood of getting a purify, and thus allowing you to quickly kite and then fire a few attacks off.
-Zooming Thunder Powder -> great for a surprise attack which you think will have a high likelihood of quickly killing enemy; gives 6s of zero channeling on skills like Tempest, Razor Feathers, and Wield Thunder (long channeling skills that are often avoided in a pk fight by enemy because of how long they take to channel)
-White Tea -> regain 2 sparks; essential in TW (use one each time you rez back at base) and in pk can be used to triple spark a 2 spark skill like Tempest.
-Fortification Draught -> a relatively new apothecary item which is very useful at preventing an assassin from killing you from stealth with normal attacks before you can react. This apothecary item puts a buff on you which lasts for 10 minutes (since apoths have 2 minute cooldown, you can put this on, wait for apoth cooldown, then enter the pk area with 8 minutes still left on the buff). If during the period that this buff is on, anything attacks you with a physical melee normal attack (NOT a skill), the buff gets 'triggered', and you get 15 seconds of 75% reduction to physical melee normal attacks (note: skill damage is NOT reduced). The icon doesn't change when this occurs. This means that even high damage assassins will likely not be able to kill you from stealth before you can react; and if they try to use skills, you'll gain more time to react, because of the cast times of these skills.
YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
youtube.com/user/csquaredcsquared
CLERIC PV GUIDE (complete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1531411
CLERIC PK GUIDE (Incomplete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=18027931
youtube.com/user/csquaredcsquared
CLERIC PV GUIDE (complete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1531411
CLERIC PK GUIDE (Incomplete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=18027931
Post edited by Aeliah - Dreamweaver on
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Necessary Skills and their Uses:
-defined as skills that you will use all the time if you are in pk, which you must have in order to excel
Short answer: nearly all skills are necessary in various situations. However, some skills certainly see a lot more use than others. Exactly which skills you tend to use the most will also depend to some extent on whether you are demon or sage, of course.
It is not my job to tell you what the skills do, just how to use them. In some cases I'll point out the differences between sage and demon, and how that affects gameplay, though.
Defensive Skills:
Vanguard Spirit:
One of the biggest advantages a sage cleric has in terms of surviving assassins and other dps-users is the fact that sage vanguard spirit increases physical defense by 100% for 10 seconds.
Now I know what you demon clerics are saying: 'we can get that too, we just use stream of rejuvenation'. True enough; however in practice, stream of rejuvenation takes far too long to channel and cast (assuming you have g16 or r9 armor in) if your sole aim is to get the physical defense buff.
If you are fighting a stealthed assassin, you want to use this skill and ironheart blessing, along with plume shell, while waiting for the assassin to make his move. More on the exact tactics will follow later in this guide.
Plume Shell:
Used very frequently in any fight against a physical damager, and especially dps-users. In fact, it should be put in nearly on cooldown if you are under attack and cannot sleep the enemy or otherwise avoid getting hit. When your gear is good enough, plume shell used properly can greatly increase your chances of getting a purify before you die when being attacked by a dps sin or bm.
Plume shell is a very very powerful skill, but how good it works for you all depends on how long you can keep your mana full. When your mana runs out, so does the shell. Thus, whenever you have plume shell in, you should make a habit of hitting 5,000 mana pots made from tokens. This, combined with a mana charm, will essentially give you far more than your roughly 9,000 to 10,000 mana as extra life.
An example: a 5,000 mana pot recovers 2,500 mana within 5 seconds, 5 seconds being the cooldown of mana charm. Assuming you have 10,000 mana, your mana charm will tick at 75% (2,500 mana), giving you a actual pool of 12,500 mana. Now, if you click a mana pot right before an assassin stuns you, that pool is increased to 15,000 (when the mana charm will tick again). Since your mana pool is taking (sage, 85%) of the damage, and its 1 mana point per hp of damage, 85/15000 = 100/x ; x = 17,600 damage. This is the amount of damage a bm or assassin has to do in 5 seconds to completely wipe out your mana pool before the shell runs out. Now, if you have decent physical defense, first of all, the odds of the sin breaking your mana pool are fairly low. Secondly, the sin is apsing on you this entire time, so that the likelihood that you get a purify from your weapon is very good. I'll get into more later on what to do when your purify weapon procs.
Sage absorbs 85% dmg (as opposed to 80% for demon) whereas demon costs 15 chi (as opposed to 30 for sage). I give demon the slight edge here. When your gear is good enough, 80% or 85% doesn't really matter; how long you can hold onto your mana pool is what decides if the plume shell works for you or not. Thus in a drawn out battle, the 15 chi saved over repeated uses is probably going to be more useful.
Guardian Light:
This skill is a lvl 79 skill which reduces the damage you take by 60% for 10s, has no channeling time, for the cost of 1 spark. This skill often gets forgotten due to its longish cooldown of 5 minutes. I believe this skill will see a much reduced cooldown with the latest patch, however. In any case, this skill is GREAT!
Suggested uses include:
-to fill in the gap between Plume Shell cooldowns, particularly if the enemy has just Double or Triple Sparked.
-if you see an 'ulti' (a 2 spark skill from an arcane class which is gonna hurt a lot) coming your way, pop Guardian Light to counter the attack
-when close to death, can be used in combination with the other 79 skill, to be described in a moment, to escape the situation
Wings of Protection:
Places a shield onto the 'target' (in pk this'll usually be yourself, but in group pk or in TW, you might place it onto somebody else) that absorbs damage equal to 20% of the targets max hp, for the cost of 20 chi. Very effective on a barb!
Shells have an interesting way of working. Let me explain. If a shell is good for, say, 2500 damage, the shell will stay on your character until either (a) you have received more than 2500 damage, or (b) 30s has passed. However, if you have a shell on, and an enemy does an attack for, say, 15000 (not a joke), the shell will absorb the hit, and you'll take only, say, 600 dmg, or something else laughably small, after which the shell is immediately gone. Furthermore, if, say, somebody hits you for 1k dmg and then, with the shell still on, does 15000 dmg to you, the shell will again absorb the huge hit, and then dissipate immediately after.
Thus, Wings of Protection is GREAT at blocking damage from skills like Armegeddon (barb), or any 'ulti' from an arcane class.
I believe this skill is also seeing a decreased cooldown with the Sirens of War expansion. If so I'll need to update this section as well.
Ironheart Blessing:
I hardly need to mention this, but this is the skill you will use more than anything else, enough to term it a spam skill.
Example: While waiting for a stealthed assassin to make his move, this skill can be spammed between plume shell and vanguard spirit cooldowns.
Sage recovers additional 10% hp, while demon recovers a negligible amount of mana to the target of the heal. Your barb tank in pve may love you for demon ironheart, but for pk, sage ironheart has the clear advantage.
Purify:
While vanguard spirit, plume shell, and ironheart blessing can all be used while waiting for the enemy to attack, purify gets much more use once the enemy has actually attacked. The following is an extremely comprehensive list of debuffs you should, in most cases, immediately purify (and will be able to purify). Naturally, you cannot use the purify skill (or any skill) when stunned, slept, or sealed.
Purifiable debuffs which you should purify:
Movement Debuffs:
Immobilizes:
Tackling Slash: assassin; demon 9s + 20s of 50% slowdown, and sage 11s. You will be vulnerable to a stun lock if he uses his seal skill called Throatcut right afterwards. Purify immediately upon receiving the immobilize, and his seal will still land on you, but you'll be able to run away; once the 4 second seal falls off you are back in business again.
***WARNING***: Better assassins may start with the seal from Throatcut, and then Tackling Slash you as you run away. This gives them about 2 seconds of stun lock, and then you are still immobilized. If this happens, you either (a) use plume shell if it is not in already, or you (b) purify if plume shell is still in. We can assume that a sin this good will not be attacking you without tidal protection and deaden nerves in, so it is highly risky to stay in melee range with the assassin without purifying the immobilize and running away.
Bolt of Tyreseus: a bm fist skill with 12m range which applies the following debuffs for 5s:
-immobilize (immobilizes the bm too)
-reduces your movement speed by 30%
-increases your channeling time by 50%
-decreases attack speed by 30%
Should probably be purified, particularly if the bm used it when close enough to hit you with melee attacks.
Alacrity of the Beast: barb, has 50% to freeze for 3s and CANCELS YOUR CHANNELING. The immobilize is not long enough to bother purifying, but you do have to be careful about the channel cancelling effect. If you are trying to channel a tempest, a barb moves fast enough to run up to you from quite a ways away and cancel it right before it goes off, using Alacrity of the Beast.
Hailstorm: wizard, 33% chance (sage) or 50% chance (demon) to immobilize for 4s. Purify if you need to kite.
Aim Low: archer, 90% chance to immobilize for 8s; sage version gives 25% chance to seal for 5s (turning it into a potential stun lock) and demon has chance to stun for 3s. Due to the long duration of this skill, you should definitely purify before proceeding.
Glacial Shards: psychic immobilize; 60% chance for 6s if sage, and 75% chance for 4s if demon. Should probably be purified in case you need to kite; psychics have a large number of skills which cause reduction to movement speed, and so Holy Path may be necessary to kite out of range... but only if the immobilize is gone.
Heartseeker: seeker immobilize; 90% chance for 8s if sage (28m range), 75% chance for 8s if demon (33m range). Due to its long duration, not a bad idea to purify this. Seekers don't have many ways of holding you down besides this, and so removing this will give you freedom of room to kite in case things get nasty.
Slows:
One of an abundant number of skills which cause a reduction to your movement speed. I will not bother listing every skill that slows you; every class has one or many skills which slow, and they are mostly treated the same. Slow debuffs share the same icon (for the most part) and may or may not need to be purified immediately, depending on the situation. Knowing when to purify or not purify a sleep takes experience, but here are some examples of both situations.
Purify slow debuff immediately if:
-you have just used Chromatic Seal (if sage) and you are running to put distance between you and your target (because you don't want to waste 10 seconds running at uber slow speed)
-if you have multiple slows stacking on you and you can barely move (eg, mystics Nature's Vengeance stacking with any other slow skill)
-any situation where an arcane is hitting you from their max range, and you want to kite backwards without relying on holy path from genie to overcome the slow, a purify would be acceptable (though heals might work just fine too in most cases)
Probably can wait:
-if a barb uses a skill which slows you, probably not worth purifying it, because you can't outrun a barb even if you have no debuffs on
-if a bm uses a skill with slow and you are running away, try to recall the last time you saw the bm use his speed skill; if it was recently, you might purify, if it wasn't, don't bother; save your time and heal/damage deal instead
-if an arcane is hitting you with a spammable slow skill and they are closer than their max range (inside of 28.5 meters), purifying the slow is probably not a good use of time, because you'll just get slowed again AND take damage; better to heal or go on the offensive.
Damage Amplifying Debuffs:
Heavens Flame: if a blademaster uses hf on you and you are able to, immediately purify yourself, no exceptions.
Subsea Strike: immediately purify this if an assassin uses it on you, especially if you know that the assassin is sage with the sage skill learned. Demon Subsea Strike lasts for 15 seconds of 30% amp, and Sage Subsea Strike lasts for 8 seconds of 50% amp; neither debuff can be ignored.
Amplify Damage: purify immediately if a veno uses this on you; 25% amp if demon (lasts 26 seconds), 30% amp if sage (lasts 20 seconds).
Parastic Nova: demon veno; this is a nasty skill becomes the 30% amplified damage effect (same icon as heavens flame, does not stack with it) comes with an immobilize AND a seal. In other words, it acts like a stun. (Incidentally if you encounter venos in pk a lot, lawbreaker on a strength build genie is a great idea, specifically for this skill.) If you were fortuitous enough to have seal-resist in (for example, from genie skill Will Surge) purify this immediately, otherwise you may have to rely on a genie skill like Absolute Domain if the veno in question is hitting you hard.
Blood Vow: won't see this one too often; archer lvl 100 skill that amplifies damage for 30 seconds by 25%. This debuff does not stack with Heavens Flame. Should still be purified immediately nonetheless, since Blood Vow also reduces your maximum hp by 18% at the same time.
Thicket: demon mystic; I've honestly never had this used on me, and I don't know how strong the debuff is. The skill has a 25% chance to 'increase damage taken', so I'm going to assume the icon is same as heavens flame and does not stack with it. Thicket has a chance to seal and immobilize, which means sometimes it will not seal and immobilize. If you get the damage amplifying debuff without the seal and immobilize, purify asap. If not, you may have to use genie. You cannot underestimate mystics ability to kill; if they have their lvl 100 skill, they can get a guaranteed crit, and if they are smart, they'll use that crit right when your hp is just above half.
Most of the damage amplifying debuffs above stack with each other, except as mentioned the ones that share heavens flame icon. If you have more than 1 of any of those debuffs, you MUST purify immediately or else use an apoth such as Ironguard/Pan Gu Essence/Dew of Star Protection, or genie for Absolute Domain or Expel (if the damage you are receiving is mostly physical).
Physical Defense Debuffs:
Several classes are capable of doing a physical defense debuff. These vary in strength, and will overwrite each other if used on the same target. Below is a comprehensive list:
Devour: (barb, 50% debuff); this debuff also reduces your attack lvl for 4 seconds. This debuff is too strong to ignore, and should be purified asap, particularly since barbs love to use tangling mire on full strength genies.
As a side note: barbarians benefit greatly from full strength genies, from skills such as solid shield, tangling mire, and tree of protection, which is why you should never take barb debuffs lightly, even if a barb's own damage is not very good (especially if the barb has r9 weapon).
Glacial Spike: (bm, 90% debuff to physical defense, 60% to elemental defense if lvl 11; demon has 50% chance to make all bm's attacks crit for next 5 seconds!) This debuff is, interestingly enough, not often seen. It is very deadly however, and should be purified. It has almost the strength of a Heaven's Flame in terms of how much more damage the bm will be doing to you, will also giving the bm the chance to be doing all crits. Arguably, this skill is better for a bm in 1vs1 than Heaven's Flame; you won't do quite 2x dmg, but if all your hits are crits, your average damage will be quite a bit higher (naturally bm switches back to axes after using glacial spike). That is off topic though, if you see a bm casting this (VERY distinctive animation), be purifying it off as they cast; if you are stunned, you'll need to use genie to save yourself. In group situations, same applies, purify immediately.
Dimensional Seal: (cleric, 40% debuff if lvl 11). This debuff is most often placed onto you by yourself. Sage version debuffs yourself for 20s and the enemy for 25s; demon version debuffs yourself 15s and enemy 20s. I give edge to sage version, because in the event that I want to purify it, it doesn't matter whether it would have been on me for 15s or 20s, because I'd purify it right away; I'd rather have it on the enemy for longer.
Even when fighting arcane classes, they all have 1 or more skills that do some serious physical damage, and thus you'd be wise to purify this off of yourself if possible, or at the very least, using plume shell. (Note: when fighting mystics, purify instead of plume shell, because Absorb Soul, a unique skill which does physical damage and ignores defense levels, is not blocked by Plume Shell).
Ironwood Scarab: (veno, 40% debuff if sage, reduce physical defense to 0 if demon ***IF FIGHTING A DEMON VENO WHO IS USING NIX, YOU MUST PURIFY DEMON IRONWOOD SCARAB DEBUFF IMMEDIATELY, or else the nix bleed will **** you over royally***) If the venomancer using the debuff has a Phoenix pet (called 'nix' by many), you should definitely purify asap; in doing so you'll often purify the nix bleed effect (more on that in a bit) as well, so the purify does double duty.
Myriad Rainbow and Myriad Rainbow (Fox Form): two skills that venomancers have; one is fox form with 12.5 meter range, and the other is human form with 25m range. These are tricky skills that operates on chance. The skills have a random chance to place one or all of the following debuffs on you for 9s.
-4500 bleed damage over time
-4500 poison damage over time
-100% physical defense reduction
-100% magic defense reduction
When this skill is used against you, you have to immediately check your list of buffs to determine if a purify is needed. Knowing how incredibly strong the debuffs are, if you see the icons for elemental or physical defense debuffs, purify immediately, because debuffs that strong are very deadly.
In addition, there are genie skills which reduce physical defense.
Tangling Mire: (any class could use against you; reduces physical defense and slows your movement speed). ***STACKS WITH THE OTHER PHYSICAL DEFENSE DEBUFFS***
Tangling Mire is always somewhat dangerous, but on a genie with many strength points, the debuff can become very strong. Check your opponents genie before the fight, so that you can know how strong the debuff you'll be receiving is should it be used against you (more on how to analyze your opponents genie to determine playstyle to come later!)
Impact: (any class can use; reduces physical defense and deals a small amount of damage, and does not stack with the physical defense debuffs that the various class skills have (will overwrite them if used)
This is definitely a case of knowing thy enemy to know thyself. Except for Tangling Mire, all of these debuffs share the same icon. By knowing how strong the debuff is, you can use your judgement to decide whether it needs to be purified immediately. If you have plume shell in, you can probably get away with doing something else, like continuing to deal damage, or shooting off a heal. However, if you do not have plume shell in, you should probably purify the debuff pronto.
As well, you sometimes have a choice. Say for example you do not have plume shell in, and you get debuffed. Do you purify first, or plume shell first? In my experience, using plume shell first is better to immediately save yourself from any big hits, and then you buy yourself enough time to purify later as you can.
Elemental Defense Debuffs:
There are far fewer 'general' elemental debuffs; in fact, cleric is one of the few classes with a general elemental debuff. In some cases you don't bother purifying, and in some cases you do. Without further ado then, the list of elemental debuffs below.
All Element Debuffs:
Glacial Spikel: see entry under Physical Defense debuffs.
Elemental Seal: (cleric, 35% debuff to all elemental defenses); this debuff often comes from... yourself! Thats right, when you cast this debuff onto somebody else, you get the same debuff onto yourself, though not for as long. Sage debuff lasts 25 seconds on the enemy and 20 seconds on yourself; demon debuff lasts 20 seconds on the enemy and 15 seconds on yourself. I give the edge to sage debuff, because in the cases where purifying it matters, you have to purify whether the the debuff on yourself lasts 15 or 20 seconds, and I'd prefer to have the debuff long on the enemy if I'm purifying it off myself anyways.
You often do not bother purifying this debuff if you are fighting any physical damage only class, such as barb, bm, or assassin. Use your discretion when fighting classes such as archer or seeker, who can do metal damage to you. Purify this debuff if fighting any arcane class.
Myriad Rainbow and Myriad Rainbow (Fox Form): see identical posting under Physical Defense Debuffs heading.
some veno pet skills: A skill of which I know not the name can reduce your elemental defense by 30%. Probably not a bad idea to purify this; as well, take a moment to kill the veno's pet if you can.
Befuddling Creeper: mystic plant debuff. This skill summons a plant that lasts 1 minute that spits out a variety of debuffs that last for 6 seconds on and off. The debuffs include:
-20% physical defense debuff
-20% elemental defense debuff
-40% decrease to attack speed
-40% decrease to channeling speed
If the mystic 'lyses' the plant, the plant disappears and the debuffs stick on you for a guaranteed 18 seconds.
The defense debuffs are fairly weak and probably ignorable, but the -channeling debuff is another story. If you get a chance (eg, you have slept the mystic in question) kill the plant, but be warned: the plants have a 50% chance to take '1' damage, so it could take a number of skill attempts to kill it, and it may not be worth your time, particularly since the mystic can quickly bring the plant back again. (As a side note, fights of well geared mystic vs. cleric are very difficult, since each class is just too good at outhealing the damage the other class can do; similarly cleric vs. cleric can also be tricky.)
Specific Element Debuffs:
Undine Strike: wizard debuff that decreases water, fire, and earth resistances by 60% for 12 seconds, while doing a tiny bit of damage (couple 100, usually). This is a very very nasty debuff that should be purified immediately. The nasty part about it is the fact that it'll take off any magic defense charm (Charm of Defense) you might have in.
Glacial Snare: wizard; sage version reduces water defense by 20%. While that debuff isn't of much concern, the fact that the skill also deals a slow which reduces movement speed 80% for 6s is enough of a reason to use purify, if you need to kite the attacks being dealt (a slow that strong will have you going nowhere fast unless you use Holy Path on genie, or purify the debuff!)
Divine Pyrogram: wizard; sage version reduces fire defense by 20%. Should probably be purified, due to a skill on genie called 'spark', which I'll discuss momentarily. If a wizard uses blade tempest on you while you have fire defense reduced, it'll definitely hurt.
Spark: a GENIE SKILL which REDUCES FIRE DEFENSE. SCALES UP in an OVER-POWERED MANNER on FULL DEXT GENIES. DEBUFF STACKS WITH UNDINE STRIKE. THIS SKILL GETS VERY MUCH ABUSE FROM PK-ING WIZARDS! IF you have Undine Strike and Spark on you at the same time, you can be EASILY ONE SHOT. Needless to say, PURIFY IMMEDIATELY if you see this debuff on you.
Pro tip: a wizard will often use their undine strike, and then follow up with spark. The really dangerous bit to you as a cleric is when both debuffs are stacked together, which can absolutely destroy any classes' fire defense. HOWEVER, as a cleric, if you have previewed the wizards genie and see the skill Spark, you can get into the habit of immediately purifying Undine Strike when you see it. Thus, when the Spark lands on you, the resulting damage dealt with fire skills won't hurt nearly as bad, though you should still attempt to purify the Spark debuff ASAP.
Pro tip #2: if you frequently encounter wizards in pk or tw using spark on you, consider investing in a genie skill called 'Soul of Fire' which makes you immune to fire damage for 8 seconds, to the tune of 70 energy on your genie. This is an excellent counter, because to use their genie skill Spark, wizards have to expend a similar amount of energy on their genie, so you come out of the exchange evenly matched, as long as you hit the Soul of Fire fast enough.
Thunder Shock: archer skill which reduces metal defense by 50% for 15 seconds (demon) or 25 seconds (sage). If the archer in question is r9 with a higher refine on weapon, probably not a bad idea to purify it; if not, you can get away with not purifying it. You can pretty much laugh at an archer who uses metal skills on you; the ones who know to use Quickshot are much more worrisome.
Wield Thunder: demon cleric reduces metal defense by 30% for 10 seconds. If a cleric has actually used this on you, probably not a bad idea to purify it, since the majority of damage a cleric does is metal after all. In purifying it, you may also purify the other debuffs the cleric placed on you (much of how a cleric kills people is through the use of debuffs; something I will discuss later in great detail).
Sandburst Clash: demon psychic, has 20% chance to reduce earth defense by 20% for 8 seconds. You probably won't see this debuff very often, and if you do, probably don't have to worry much about it, since its quite weak.
Ion Spike: seeker; demon version is 35% metal debuff, sage version is 40% debuff. If you are fighting just a seeker, their metal damage skills won't hurt you very much, and furthermore, they cannot 'zerk' (a term used when speaking of the double damage effect that results from weapons containing 'God of Frenzy' or 'Sacrificial Assault' stat). If fighting multiple people including archers and clerics, probably not a bad idea to purify.
Swirling Mist: sage mystic; skill has 25% chance to reduce wood defense by 15% for 6 seconds. That in itself is pretty weak, but the skill also does continuous wood damage to you after your hp drops below 60%. For that reason, its not a bad idea to purify, but its not a high priority; a heal would serve just as well and not cost you any chi.
Defense Level Debuffs:
Seekers have a number of defense level debuffs you should be wary of.
Northern Sky Waltz: when a seeker uses this stance, each hit he does to you has a 30% (demon) or 40% (sage) chance to apply a debuff to you. This is not the debuff to purify. However, if the seeker then follows up with a skill called Staggering Strike (low cooldown, 12 meter range skill that deals small physical damage) your defense level will be reduced by 20 for 8 seconds. You may wish to purify this debuff if the seeker in question hits very hard, or if you are fighting multiple enemies.
Soulsever Minuet: when a seeker uses this stance, each hit has a 50% (demon) or 65% (sage) chance to put a debuff on you. Not worth purifying this debuff. If the seeker follows up with a skill called Gemini Slash (a skill which does 450% weapon attack + some additional damage, hurts a lot and can zerk and crit), you will get 2 debuff which last for 3 minutes:
-reduces defense lvl by 10
-reduces attack lvl by 10
Since Gemini Slash has a 15 second cooldown, these debuffs can't be spammed onto you, its worth purifying them.
Sacrificial Slash: a lvl 100 morai skill which 'reduces seekers own defense level by 40% while increasing attack lvl by 50% of the reduced defense level; the defense level is reduced at least 20'. You are thinking, why does this matter, its not debuffing me? However, the smart seeker immediately follows up with a skill called Quid Pro Quo, which transfers the seekers debuffs from him onto you, as well as sealing you for 1 second (demon) or 3 seconds (sage).
For example, a r9 seeker with full jades may have roughly 100 defense levels and 100 attack lvls. 40% reduction of his defense level will be 40 defense levels. This will increase his own attack lvl by 20%. Now he transfers his defense level debuff onto you. Suddenly, the seeker will be hitting you for roughly 60% harder than before; VERY dangerous! Learn to recognize the animation of this skill and expect the Quid Pro Quo; make sure you have Plume Shell in, or you'll be forced to defend with genie (Absolute Domain or Expel, for example).
While we are discussing Quid Pro Quo, you must be wary of the debuffs you place onto seeker, since there is a good chance they'll be sent back to you. Lvl 11 Quid Pro Quo has 30s cooldown, so it may be tough to find an opening to place debuffs without having them get sent back to you.
Attack Level Debuffs:
Devour: see entry under Physical Defense Debuffs.
Soulsever Minuet: see entry under Defense Level Debuffs
Magic Attack Reducing Debuffs:
Silent Seal: like Dimensional Seal and Elemental Seal, this is a case of you causing your own debuff. Sage Silent Seal immobilzes the enemy for up to 19 seconds in exchange for a decrease to your magic dmg by 50% of weapon attack for 6s. (Demon Silent Seal immobilizes for up to 17s, and does not reduce magic attack).
Whether you purify this debuff or not depends on the situation.
-if you immobilize an enemy for the purpose of stopping him so you have a moment to heal yourself and build up some chi, there is no reason to purify the debuff
-if you immobilize the enemy and hit him a few times to get his hp near to half before using Chromatic Seal (sleep) or Seal of the Gods (seal+immobilize) when his hp is near half, then purifying the debuff is not necessary either
-if you immobilize the enemy with the intent of hopefully one shotting him, by use of a skill such as Wield Thunder or Tempest, it may be best to quickly purify, so you get all of the magic attack you possibly can
Myriad Sword Stance: a blademaster sword skill which consumes 2 sparks to hit you for a bunch of dmg and decrease magic and physical attack by 50% for 15 seconds. This is a very strong debuff and should be purified immediately. However, as mentioned before, most bms do not use swords in pk, and you will very rarely see this skill used against you. Most bms attempting to kill you would much rather spend 2 sparks on Heavens Flame to double the damage you take, than on decreasing your magic attack just to have you purify it.
Roar: sage barb Roar reduces magic attack by 30% for 15 seconds. Should be purified asap.
Channel Increasing Debuffs:
Mage Bane: a blademaster sword skill that increases channeling time by 50% for 8 seconds (costs 1 spark). In modern pk, most bms use fists and axes almost exclusively, so you will very rarely see this debuff. This is a bit of a shame, because bms could be using g16 swords with 40 attack lvls... in any case, can purify if you see it.
Spell Cutter: assassin skill that increases channeling speed by 30% for 3 seconds. Do not bother purifying, the debuff doesn't last long enough to warrant it.
Disturb Soul: psychic skill; demon increases channeling speed by 100% for 12 seconds, while sage increases it by 80% for 15 seconds. MUST BE PURIFIED. If you don't purify, you'll be severely handicapped using any other skills.
If, for example, you started a Wield Thunder (2.5s channeling time) just after the debuff was cast on you, cancel your wield thunder, purify, and then start again; if you don't purify it immediately, the 2.5 seconds will be closer to 5; thus, the ~1s it takes to purify and the 0.5s it takes to cancel your wield thunder are very worth it.
Bolt of Tyreseus: see entry under Immobilizes
Other special debuffs:
Nature's Vengeance: a debuff that slows you, and causes you to take double damage from the skill Absorb Skill. Normally purifying this debuff is useless, because the mystic can spam Nature's Vengeance. However, if you see the mystic starting to channel Absorb Soul (it has a very very long channel time), you'll cut the resulting damage in half if you quickly purify off the Nature's Vengeance debuff.
Soulburn: Dangerous enough to list even though it CANNOT BE PURIFIED. This skill causes you to take damage equal to your soulforce with every skill you use. If you were thinking ahead, a stack of ironhearts will keep your hp nicely topped up during the 8s (demon) or 10s (sage) that this skill is on you. Do NOT ATTEMPT TO ATTACK DURING THIS TIME. Against a psychic with high soulforce, every skill you use could cause you as much as 5000 dmg. Acceptable counters include:
-79 skill called Guardian Light (consumes 1 spark; a good counter because they had to use 1 spark to use Soulburn on you
-continue to spam ironhearts IF you already had a stack of ironhearts on before the psychic used soulburn.
-spam hp potions and Charm of Defense; the use of these does not tick Soulburn damage, and will augment your heals and lower damage received as the psychic hits you
-Chromatic Seal (preferred for lower chi cost and longer duration) or Seal of the Gods (used if psychic has anti-stun in) to put the psychic out of commission for a while, so that you can wait for the Soulburn to go away, and then resume gaining chi/debuffing/etc.
Purifiable debuffs Which you should NOT bother purifying:
-debuffs that decrease your physical attack, such as a barbs 'Frighten'
-debuffs that decrease your attack speed, such as an assassin's 'Rib Strike'
By now it should be abundantly clear that much can be said for the usefulness of the skill Purify! No other class has a purify which can be used so often or so reliably. Used properly it can greatly increase your ability to survive and counter many of the nastier debuffs others can use against you.
Learning about which debuffs to purify and when is a matter of learning and experience, and will change with your gear. If you don't need to purify, you can save time and (if sage) chi by not purifying.
YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
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CLERIC PV GUIDE (complete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1531411
CLERIC PK GUIDE (Incomplete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=180279310 -
Genies and Genie Builds:
In this section I will cover everything related to genies. A good genie is essential when pking. If you go to an area where people are pking, you will often find that the most successful pkers have high lucky point genies with a specific set of skills and a certain distribution of stat points such that they are able to fight and survive in many situations.
List of notable genie skills:
Here I will discuss any genie skill that may pop up on a pk genie, either your own or your opponents. I'll try to group them in some logical fashion after I have them all listed
Absolute Domain:
Easily one of the most common skills to be found on almost any genie. Its that 'sh** just hit the fan' skill, the skill you fall back to when you can tell you will almost certainly die if you do not use it. Abbreviated by pkers as AD.
-this skill makes you immune to all damage for 5 seconds, and immune to movement debuffs (sleeps, slows, stuns, immobilizes) for an additional 2 seconds
-costs 135 energy to use
-has a 3 minute cooldown
-requires genie to have 4 metal, 4 water, and 4 earth affinity points
-skill is not modified by either strength or dexterity points on genie.
Of course, much of pking comes down to your timing, and to perfect your timing requires a combination of knowledge (what animation the enemy is doing matches up with what will happen to you next, etc), and experience (example, how hard attack is likely to hit you if you don't block with genie). However, before we decide how to time a genie skill, we have to make the decision to use the skill. So what are appropriate reasons to use AD?
Below is a list, no doubt incomplete, of some of the situations you may use AD for.
-to avoid a purge from a venomancer
-to save yourself if you HAVE been purged, either by archer or venomancer
-to save yourself if your opponent has triple sparked and stunned/sealed you, and you cannot use your skills to defend or retaliate
-when you wish to use an Ironguard Powder, and you want to chain it up with the immune to stun that AD provides
-to save yourself when you are suddenly attacked by multiple enemies and would die if you didn't block their damage
-anytime you wish to block an opponents attack, that you predict will cause your death directly or shortly afterwards if you do not block
Example: if you predict that an assassin is about to stun you with Headhunt (2 spark skill that will stun you for 5s if sage and 6s if demon and do a big chunk of damage), you may wish to block this in order to retaliate or escape
Example 2: if you saw the animation for a wizards skill called Blade Tempest, a 2 spark 'ulti' which does a ton of physical and fire damage, and if your hp is near half such that the skill is likely to bypass your charm and kill you, you may wish to use your genie
Almost as important as when to use the AD, is when to NOT use AD. If you use the AD when it was not necessary, you will place your genie into 'cooldown'. This is particularly important to consider with AD, because the skill takes such a large amount of energy. Until your genie charges its energy back up, you will be unable to use some of your other skills on genie which require higher amounts of energy. Furthermore, you will be unable to use the AD itself for 3 more minutes. Because AD is such a powerful skill for escaping a bad situation, its a good idea to keep it ready for when you actually need it the most.
Below is a list, naturally incomplete, as to when you would purposely not use AD.
-if you are only immobilized, you should avoid using AD; many immobilizes such as Tackling Slash (9-11 seconds, assassin) or Silent Seal (up to 19 seconds if sage) last longer that the duration of AD, and you'll still be stuck after it wears off. A better response is to purify the immobilize first, and then proceed from there.
-if an MELEE enemy triple sparks or threatens to do great damage without first stunning you, hold off on the AD and watch the situation; your first instinct should be to check the buffs on enemy who sparked, and look for any signs of immune to damage or immune to stun. If none are there, an appropriate response might be to use Silent Seal or Chromatic Sleep or even Seal of the Gods right after the 3 seconds of triple spark finish. If you have reason to believe that using a skill to keep the enemy from attacking will not work (example, if assassin still has Tidal Protection in, or you see immunity to damage on the enemy), then kiting is the preferred option, but at this point an AD is usually not yet required.
Expel:
-this skill seals you for 9 seconds while also making you immune to all physical damage
-costs 125 energy to use
-has a 1 second cooldown
-every 40 dexterity points on genie extend the duration of the seal+immune to physical damage by 1 second
This skill is an excellent addition to a cleric's genie, since it provides protection and possible escape from physical damage should Absolute Domain be in cooldown. The protection from physical damage is also longer than Absolute Domain.
A list of possible uses for expel:
-if already stunned and facing imminent death from physical damage, with absolute domain on cooldown
-if you suspect a barb is about to use Armageddon (their 2 spark skill eats up 50% (demon) or 35% (sage) to do a TON of aoe physical damage) use expel if you don't have Plume Shell or Guardians Light in
-if an assassin has just used Shadow Teleport (their tele stun skill which lasts 5 seconds if sage or 7s if demon; don't believe the skill descriptions which say 3s and 5s, its actually 5s and 7s);
-if a blademaster has just used Heaven's Flame on you, and you are stunned and cannot purify the debuff
-if you have just been purged by an archer; WARNING, the archer could purge your expel off, because an archer does a bit of magic damage with each attack (they have a fire damage buff called Blazing Arrow)
-if you are in any situation where you are stunned with many damage amplifying debuffs, or physical defense reducing debuffs, and you need to block incoming physical damage
An advanced use for expel:
-if you practice the timing with extreme care, it is possible for a CLERIC to use expel in a special way: using Purify immediately before pressing Expel. How it works is this: You press Purify, and the skill starts channeling, and then almost immediately after you press expel. If the seal from expel is on your character during the channeling of Purify, the Purify will finish channeling and REMOVE THE SEAL. However, this will leave the 9 seconds of immune to physical damage buff intact! Thus, with practice, expel can be used as an OFFENSIVE, SURPRISE move.
-for all classes, the same purification of the seal from Expel can be achieved by triple sparking immediately before pressing Expel. However, the result of an unsealed but immune to physical damage state is harder to achieve, since the channeling for triple spark (not the 3 seconds, which is the 'cast' time, but the fraction of a second between when you press triple spark and when it goes off) is much shorter, and often you'll end up with the seal on you and all your chi gone, probably not something you wanted!
Unfortunately, Expel does have a few disadvantages over Absolute Domain.
-Expel will not block stuns or status effects that do not deal damage
-Expel does not block magic damage
-finally, of importance when fighting assassins and barbarians, status effects can be *carried through* Expel if the person attacking you has a buff which causes him to do elemental damage with their attacks.
With that in mind, here are some situations where you may want to think twice before using expel:
-if you get stunned by an assassin with their Headhunt skill, if they still have Shadow Teleport in cooldown, they can stun you moments after their headhunt runs out, before Expel is done. This will leave you in a bad place unless the Purify Spell on your weapon removes the stun, because not only will you still be stunned, but you'll be stunned with genie probably in cooldown.
-if you get stunned with Shadow Teleport from a sin and then use Expel, then assassin can use their Condensed Thorn skill to give themselves water damage to each of their attacks for 10s. Then, they can use Headhunt on you while Expel is still on you. Again, you'll be in a very bad situation if this occurs.
***Essentially, using Expel against a talented assassin can be a risky proposition***
-if you use Expel against a blademaster who has not yet used their aoe stun skill called Roar of the Pride (lasts 6s), they can use this skill to stun you even though you are immune to physical damage, thus extending their stun lock
-if you use Exepl against a barbarian, they can still stun you inside of Expel as well due to the wood damage a barb gets each attack from Poison Fang buff.
Sometimes you don't have much of a choice but to risk using Expel. If its a choice between certain death and Expel, you should Expel, naturally. To alleviate the risk, if you get stunned by any means, to avoid a stun lock that bypasses Expel, you can try to hold off from using Expel as long as possible, so that even if you get stunned a second time, it'll be more likely to be wasted by the immune to physical damage Expel provides. The danger, of course, is that if you wait too long, you may die before you can use Expel, or that, if there are magic dds around, if you let your hp get too low before using Expel, they could kill you easily before your charm ticks again.YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
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CLERIC PV GUIDE (complete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1531411
CLERIC PK GUIDE (Incomplete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=180279310 -
List of things to add to guide:
To whet your appetite, topics I plan to cover include:
Offensive skills description
Skill clustering-how to arrange skills in logical ways according to how frequently they are used, and which skills they most often get combined with, so that your mouse pointer moves most efficiently
Genie builds: how to pick the skills, and how to arrange them on genie (or on skillbar)
Knowing your enemy: covering the common (and sometimes uncommon) tactics other classes will use, and how to defend against them
How to recover from a purge (or multiple purges) depending on who did the purging.
Offensive combinations: what to do when you have target slept (with Chromatic Seal) or sealed and immobilized (with Seal of the Gods) or simply immobilized (Silent Seal).
Group pk: knowing who to sleep first, and knowing when to heal others and when to go on the offensive, + more.
TW: who attacks you and how, and how to defend against these attacks
How to plan your fights, the next level: how to fight strategically, in order to minimize your vulnerabilities, and how to predict what your enemy is doing by watching for 'give-away' clues.YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
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CLERIC PV GUIDE (complete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1531411
CLERIC PK GUIDE (Incomplete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=180279310 -
Reserved for future use 3.YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
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CLERIC PV GUIDE (complete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1531411
CLERIC PK GUIDE (Incomplete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=180279310 -
Also reserved for future use.YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
youtube.com/user/csquaredcsquared
CLERIC PV GUIDE (complete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1531411
CLERIC PK GUIDE (Incomplete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=180279310 -
Additionally reserved for future use. Yes this is an ambitious project, lol.YOUTUBE CHANNEL:
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CLERIC PV GUIDE (complete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1531411
CLERIC PK GUIDE (Incomplete):
pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=180279310 -
+1 Amazing so far
definently setting a few things in stone for me as well as changing my mind in other areas xD
waiting in anticipation for the next entry b:victoryit should be because it is.0 -
Suggestions on topics you have already described:
On purify spell:
It's also possible to get a G13 weapon with 100% chance of purify spell from faction base. The "Radiant Wand" can be acquired from a weapon storage at lvl VII and costs only 170 million coins, which is way cheaper than R8 recast. The loss on attack power can be overcome by swapping weapons with a R9 or G16 when attacking, since, for a cleric, it's really about taking turns, unlike, say, a barb, who attacks and defends at once
On defensive skills:
No mention to two other occasional defensive skills - Guardian's Light (great skill) and Wings of Protection (not so great, but still a life saver if no other skill is at hand).
On Apothecary:
No mention to Sutra makes me sad. It's like a pan gu essence for 2 less seconds, but which also purifies you. It's great if you're not in a faction with a high enough alchemy lab and under some situations where you need the damage prevention and a purify at once, so you save the time of a purify to proceed to attacking.
Then again, purify here is not that relevant, because, as I said, cleric pk is a turn thing - you either attack or defend, and you can easily purify between turns anyway. But Sutra is still an option for those who don't want to waste their anti-stun genie skill and are not in a faction with a base, but still want some immunity.
Another useful pot you didn't mention was the fortification draught. Acts like Dew of Star Protection, but it's actually a buff, so it'll activate even when you're stunned. I haven't checked yet if it can be purged, but anyway it's a great little new perk.
On using LA hat:
It is a great add to survivability, but it's not 1k extra HP unless you +12 it (and then it's actually a bit more than 1000hp). The gain from a G16+10 LA hat, compared to a G16 arcane headgear, both at +10, is of 717 HP. Also, that's a great thing when you're using R9, since the helm is not part of the set. In that case, I'd advice to also use LA cape for the extra 700 HP. If you're using G16 armor, then AA helm and cape are very useful for the attack levels needed to kill your target and defense levels from cape.
Other than that, good guide. I'll let you know if there's anything else I think shoulkd be added to your guide.0 -
Show me a single faction base with lvl 7 weapon storage wing required to get the Radiant Wand? Most factions go for apothecary first, and then the lower wing to get the high lvl arrows for their archers. Its possible to get this wand, sure, but in practice it is improbable. As well, it pays to be able to do some damage when using your purify weapon. Whenever you switch to r9 weapon, you lose all of the benefits of purify, and if you get stunned... good luck escaping. (Which is why I am working towards r9 3rd forge weapon, where you keep your damage and your survivability at all times). A nice tactic (which I haven't gotten around to discussing yet in the guide) is being able to nudge a target's hp down towards half before using seal of the gods or chromatic seal. With a weak weapon like radiant wand, damage is gonna be quite bad. If you do get the chance to acquire this weapon though, it should work for the most vital function, being purify. So I'll add it into the guide as well as a possibility.
Read the bit about 'work in progress', and how 'forums cut off the bottom part of the guide'. It'll come in due time, but don't comment on what isn't there yet, lol.
Sutra power orb purifies? Can't say I ever noticed if it does or not, I'll have to test that further. Its certainly not in the description of the item. Assuming you are correct, I'd still favor pan gu essence, namely because most debuffs will be gone after 8 seconds anyways, and the extra 2 seconds is not to be lightly written off: it is *only* 2 more seconds, but it is a 33% longer duration (8s vs. 6s). There is the small issue of pan gu essence not stacking in inventory, but I'm fairly confident that in most cases I'd choose pan gu essence over a sutra.
You are right about the fortification draught, it is useful. I forgot to think about its importance because when I fight somebody on sin who is using that, I just use a normal attack and kite for 15 seconds, then start the actual fight. However, yes, this apoth is great for preventing kills from stealth. I'll add it in.
I already discussed why I chose to use matchless wings over the 700 hp bonus for light armor cape. To my mind, 500 phy def, 4% phy dmg reduction, and a def lvl are a bit more useful than 700 hp, but this is arguable to be sure. Either gear would work, which is why I put Matchless Wings under the Suggested Gear title.
Thanks for your critique.
Remember-work in progress
Azzazin[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Setting of the twilight moon; a late evening rendezvous from atop the
city's lonely heights. With the dawn the city below springs into bustling
activity, and I don my morning apparel. From on high, I watch the world.0 -
Really great guide so far i can't wait to see the rest.
It's true that the Radiant wand exist, but so far I never heard that a faction got it, cause it would cost about 219m to faction to get the weapon storage VII.
The only point I don't agree it's i don't think someone absolutely need to be R9+10 to be able to PvP.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
b:dirty "I **** rainbows and love everyone"-Longknife b:cute0 -
Azzazin - Dreamweaver wrote: »Show me a single faction base with lvl 7 weapon storage wing required to get the Radiant Wand?n't there yet, lol.
Regenesis does for sure. Not sure about Spades, but I think they do, too? In other servers, other factions may have it as well.
Radiant wand is weak, but not terribly weak. It hits slightly less than the low end of a R8 recast when at +10. The thing with R8r is the amount of recasts you might need to get purify.
And I know it's a work in progress, that's why I'm giving suggestions lol.
I'd also take pangu over sutra, but some people are not in big factions with high level base to have lvl 6 alchemy lab. That's why I think it should be mentioned at least. That's also why I didn't mention the lack of info on attack skills or seals, cause you just didn't get to that yet.
On the robe thing, matchless wings are indeed great, and I agree with the idea of lots of def being better than some HP. But G16 is not negligible as (LA version) will most likely grant you a new crit%, more magic and allow for some str restat. Also refines (slightly) better. Can't beat the 100% chance of 4 sockets on matchless wings, though.0 -
Finally someone talking about cleric pk and knowing what he's talking about.
Excellent work for the moment.
I think you should add a part on Genie: what kind of build to have (full dext/vit/mag..) and what skills to use.
I don't have +10 armour yet, and I know for sure that I heavily relie on my Genie to be able to compete against other people. I'm pretty confident that with betterrefines and sharding, the genie using will become even more effective.
You could also add a part on channeling gear, what minimum chan would you advise for Cleric.0 -
Alrighty fair enough, so some of the bigger, more active factions may have lvl 7 weapon storage. There is also the matter of getting the 100k+ faction contribution, though. Either way, r8 reforge or faction base, getting a purify weapon could take some time and money, so you gotta look at your options and pick the path that works best for you.
I am, of course, going to cover my philosophies on different genie builds. I'll include that in the list of things to talk about, thanks for reminding me.
I'll take another, closer look at the g16 cape and see what I come up with. Quite possibly even without resetting, the str points reduce the difference in physical defense... and it shouldn't be terribly difficult to get 4 socket g16 cape, though getting one with the best stats is a bit more tricky to be sure.
I should also clarify that, anybody can pk. The point of my guide is to be able to pk well, against anybody... at least against pesky assassins who currently dominate 1vs1 pk. And what I'm describing is the minimum build I've found necessary to *just barely* be able to deal with r9 +12 assassins. Others might be able to handle these same sins with slightly worse gear, or they may need better gear, depending on reaction time, ping, genie, and experience.
Thanks for the positive criticism, keep it up.
Azzazin[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Setting of the twilight moon; a late evening rendezvous from atop the
city's lonely heights. With the dawn the city below springs into bustling
activity, and I don my morning apparel. From on high, I watch the world.0 -
absolutely great guide, ty
i have played a cleric for over 2 years now almost exclusively and this guide is long overdue. to all... you want to be a true pro in pwi??? pvp on a cleric, then you understand what skill is.
knowledge is power, and i hope all clerics gain from this.
parts i am eager to see upcoming:
arrangment of skills/skill bars for ease and quick use, speed is critical
some offensive and defensive combinations, by class
more tw info for cata and non-cata type clerics
how to be prepared and forsee potential problems in advance and ways to get out
the use and opinion of the new sirens of war skills
thanks again
Clerics Rise!!!0 -
Inserting my vote for sticky status.Proving that not only archers do math since 2009. b:victory
Current math challenge: pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1029711&page=45
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
"Any skills that can be used to kill you will interrupt BB when successful." -truekossy | "...Sage archers are kind of like Mac owners. They are proud of the weirdest and most unnecessary things." -Aesthor | "We ALL know Jesus doesn't play PWI. He may have suffered a lot for humanity, but he'd NEVER punish himself this way." -Abstractive | "I approve of bananas." -SashaGray0 -
man.. just amazing, i don't pk much but half of the stuff you said i make use in TW.
i used to be kinda nub and would panic in tw when id get hit by all sides, but since the stuff mentioned i learned a while ago and did a lot of practice with the different classes.
had daggers trown at me, arrows shooted like insane, but all for a good purpose b:chuckle
for the things you were gonna add in tw, would be nice to have a somehow sense making skill setup but for clerics like me who have been playing with the same setup for 2yrs is dangerious
would take a long while to adapt.
thought sensefull stuff i guess what i got taught back than was to put Phy/mag def charms on F1/F2/followed by hp food,genie,skills fortify/IG near each other
i rather not add more of my own setup as fac members who have seen screenshots of my skill setup would have the reaction of "how the hell do you work with this kind of setup" XD[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
The greatest danger for most of us
is not that our aim is too high
and we miss it
but that it's too low and
we reach it.
-Michelangelo0 -
I hear your voices! I will continue to write more as I have time. I don't want to get too ambitious and then leave it because the task seems too large, so I'll just take it one step at a time.
Azzazin[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Setting of the twilight moon; a late evening rendezvous from atop the
city's lonely heights. With the dawn the city below springs into bustling
activity, and I don my morning apparel. From on high, I watch the world.0 -
I agree with the other comments - this is the start of a great guide.
Although, I see lots of advice clerics can benefit from, even while lacking good gear. Saying several times that this guide is not for such players could discourage them from considering it seriously.0 -
Bezdna - Dreamweaver wrote: »I agree with the other comments - this is the start of a great guide.
Although, I see lots of advice clerics can benefit from, even while lacking good gear. Saying several times that this guide is not for such players could discourage them from considering it seriously.
Duly noted, perhaps I'll revise what I say at the beginning.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Setting of the twilight moon; a late evening rendezvous from atop the
city's lonely heights. With the dawn the city below springs into bustling
activity, and I don my morning apparel. From on high, I watch the world.0 -
A very well thought out and written guide keep it up. Azzazin is a well respected pker on all his toons and has a great knowledge so it is great to see him share this with us. I too would like to see this stickied for all new and old clerics looking to start pking or looking to hone their skills.0
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Bump for sticky0
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Seems to me that the update tonight should change a lot of what I would be writing, so I'm gonna wait till I get to test some of it, hehehe. Never fear more is on the way. Maybe I can start section on genies or something.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Setting of the twilight moon; a late evening rendezvous from atop the
city's lonely heights. With the dawn the city below springs into bustling
activity, and I don my morning apparel. From on high, I watch the world.0 -
Stickied for now, but please keep working on it. Wouldn't want an unfinished product to be the only cleric PK sticky, now would we? b:pleased0
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Ah of course not. As mentioned quite a few things will be different after this update such that I will need to experience and rewrite sections were I to have them up already! [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Setting of the twilight moon; a late evening rendezvous from atop the
city's lonely heights. With the dawn the city below springs into bustling
activity, and I don my morning apparel. From on high, I watch the world.0 -
Also, somewhat lolworthy that even an incomplete work gets a quick sticky... definitely indicates that what I'm producing has a demand and a niche to occupy.
In particular, many people still do not realize that clerics are incredibly successful in 1vs1 pk ever since the Morai update, and I'd like a few more clerics to be enlightened to the fact (or to interest non-clerics enough to try pk on a cleric). It also goes without saying that a cleric always has been, and always will be, the backbone of any group vs. group pk, due to a wide assortment of buffs, heals, and the all important Revive.
Azzazin[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Setting of the twilight moon; a late evening rendezvous from atop the
city's lonely heights. With the dawn the city below springs into bustling
activity, and I don my morning apparel. From on high, I watch the world.0 -
Thx for informationb:victoryb:chuckleb:kiss0
-
Azzazin - Dreamweaver wrote: »
In particular, many people still do not realize that clerics are incredibly successful in 1vs1 pk ever since the Morai update, and I'd like a few more clerics to be enlightened to the fact (or to interest non-clerics enough to try pk on a cleric). It also goes without saying that a cleric always has been, and always will be, the backbone of any group vs. group pk, due to a wide assortment of buffs, heals, and the all important Revive.
Azzazin
Very true. Clerics are underrated when it comes to PvP, 1v1 or group vs group whatever it may be. Great details you got there. Having the calculations included, i.e. Plume Shell part, definitely will help some reader understand why Cleric's damage absorption skills are absolutely wonderful.0 -
Nice job on the guide. Well done, and congrats on the sticky.
"Male Player using female toon. Please don't flirt with me."
Need to see the cleric guide for questions, comments, or concerns? Just copy and paste the link.
"http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1246011"
(Ignore the quotation marks. URL isn't allowed, so I had to do it that way.)0 -
Alrighty guys, just a bit of an update as to where this guide is going.
I've had the time now to explore many of the updates the latest patch brought to how cleric skills operate, and to practice a bit of pk. There are quite a changes that I still need to think through and learn properly myself before I start becoming an authority.
Almost as importantly, many changes to skills other classes possess change how a cleric has to play against these classes. Its not enough for me to just practice my new skills, I have to practice them against each of the other classes, to see if they work as I imagine they will.
I don't want to spend too too much time working on this guide during 2x drops, but I'll try to, say, add in a paragraph or 2 every couple days.
Azzazin[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Setting of the twilight moon; a late evening rendezvous from atop the
city's lonely heights. With the dawn the city below springs into bustling
activity, and I don my morning apparel. From on high, I watch the world.0 -
Great job so far. I am now able to afford a r8r weapon now thanks to NW so r8r could be farmed alone without a faction now. so far 80/299 Whetstones, 0/999 coins, 0/15 Oric's... haha.
Great guide though i plan to read more when it gets updated!0
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