A newbie cleric with a lot of questions...

Skyea - Heavens Tear · December 2008

Hi there,

I'd like to thank you for still entering after reading the title knowing a whole bunch of newbie questions would follow. I have always played support classes in other games and I absolutely loved them so I couldn't stop myself from trying out one in this game but unfortunately the clerics in this game confuse me a lot. I read all the guides in the cleric forum so the questions wouldn't be too noobish. Here we go:

1) I've read there are three kinds of clerics: Full Attack - Hybrid - Full Support. Is there much difference regarding party efficiency between the Full Support and Hybrid cleric?

2) Is it possible to max all or nearly all skills near the endgame or is this impossible? (Most skills a cleric has in this game are so nice so I couldn't help asking...)

3) I'm a little confused regarding builds, especially about adding VIT. I'm going to use arcane armor (so you can scrap LA and HA builds) but I don't know what I should do with my VIT. Some say I should add VIT during my whole cleric life, other say I have to get VIT to 30 and then stop and even more others are telling me not to add VIT through points and to only use HP adding stones. What do you think about adding VIT?

Thank you in advance for helping me out and I hope you were able to understand my questions.

biggs · December 2008

From my experiences as a level 63 cleric...

1. It would depend on what type of Hybrid cleric you become. To best support a party, you will need your heals (almost always ironheart and some soon, the light after level 40), the 4 cleric buffs, resurrect, and at least level 1 of purify. Unfortunately, keeping those skills maxed from levels 30-60 doesn't leave many extra skill points for other skills. With my extra skill points, the only offensive skills I have been able to level are plume shot and cyclone (although those 2 will take you far).

If you wanted to be more of an offensive cleric (and trust me, after 63 levels of plume shot, even the best support cleric is going to be itching for more offense) you could invest SP in other skills at the expense of your buffs or resurrect. No one other than you will be able to tell how high of a level your buffs are and as long as you have them people won't complain. In addition, spamming ironheart is about 80% of what you'll be asked to do as a support cleric. As long as your ironheart is maxed, you can perform adequately as a support cleric in just about any squad.

2. Yes, but it will take a very, very long time. At 63, I've maxed all my buffs, ironheart, plume, cyclone, and resurrect. I have a few other offensive spells at level 1, but I have not even touched any of the PvP cleric skills. I would guess a cleric isn't going to max all skills until level 100+.

3. The Vit question really depends on your personal preference, play style, and role. In my personal opinion, HP become important to a cleric only when we are doing hardcore soloing against physical mobs, which happens to occur most often from level 15 to about 30-35. During this time, there are 5 ways to approach the problem of being incredibly weak physically.

a. Always quest with friends/guild members/other players: This is a sound idea in theory, but it's difficult to find someone to quest with all the time (at least it was for me). It's great when it happens, but tough to count on, even as a cleric who you'd think people would want to squad with.
b. Add to your HP through charms: easiest solution and most expensive
c. Add to your HP or Phys defense through your gear/stones: Less expensive than charms (I highly recommend the auction house), but it takes a lot of work/money to keep your gear updated.
d. Add to your HP though VIT
e. Die a lot

I personally went with (c) and spend a lot of time buying good armor through the auction house and socketing it with stones. I also increased my VIT to 50, which bought me 450 extra HPs. I really have no idea how a cleric can solo without getting additional HPs from somewhere or by constantly using plume shell every 30 seconds.

Once you get into your 40's and especially your 50's, you'll be facing almost all magic based mobs and HPs become less important. Clerics who put points into VIT often restat at this point and put those points back into MAG to remove some excess HPs from their character. I will probably do the same pretty soon.

Regarding the loss of offensive fire power by not being a full magic build, I do not think it is a big problem. Yes, I hit for slightly less than a full magic build using the same weapon, however, far more important to your damage dealing is the type of weapon you are using. I always make sure to buy very good 2 and 3-star weapons with + magic damage and found that am usually on the higher end of cleric damage for my level. Plus, if you are already using the auction house to get your armor, what's a few more minutes to find yourself a very good weapon.

So, my own recommendation is yes, you will need some HPs if you plan to solo in this game as a cleric. If you are rich, then charms are the way to go. But, if you have the time to get good quality armor with stones in it starting around level 20, you can probably avoid having to put any points into VIT. If you find that you are still dying a lot, then putting 30 points of VIT in your character should increase your ability to survive while soloing to a reasonable level.

Wwing - Heavens Tear · December 2008

biggs wrote: »

e. Die a lot

Skyea, for your information, as revival, you will die quite a lot while trying to save your friends. Be prepared.

Roselette - Heavens Tear · December 2008

@biggs: Thank you so much! You simply answered every single question I had perfectly

I loved the way you explained the VIT question, it was very elaborate without being hard to understand. Plume and Cyclone do seem like a good combo to use for a supportive priest.

@Wwing: I am more than prepared to sacrifice my own exp to help out other people. Thank you for your friendly warning, I'll make sure to keep it in the back of my head.

advoc · December 2008

I always maxed cyclone and plume shot everytime they became available. My Ironheart was usually 2 lvls under, and buffs were maxed as I could. I was spec'ed as an attack cleric, and didn't get beyond lvl 1 revive until mid 40s. Even with that little towards the healing side, the tanks in my guild always wanted me as the healer, saying I was the best.

It's not just about what skills you've leveled in here. It's about your skill at playing, pots you've brought, ability to adapt to the situation, and everything else that makes a healer good. I had farmed alot of herbs, so I always had focus powders on hand in fbs. So I could spam my lower lvled Ironheart and heal more than full healers who try to conserve their mana somewhat.

Since my build was toward max damage, I had a better base damage than other healers. So my spells healed for more off of percent as well. Also since I soloed everything but FBs and elite bosses, I had a very good awareness around me, and could view possible actions from an assault point of view. I would be where the tank would end up needing me, as opposed to chasing after him to get another heal on. So I could layer ironhearts on the tank the entire way to the boss needing killing. I also would not stand in patrol routes while healing, and pan the camera around from time to time to make sure no mobs are coming up on us. Adding monsters to the radar also helps with that.

Also if you've done assault, alot of times things need to be changed based on the mob to make killing it easier. This is learned more at a lower lvl, but not if you squad to cover any weaknesses. Trying different combos, and where to use a certain skill makes it so you look for that later on in the game. When another squad member shifts around, moves the boss, or lures it somewhere, you will already be moving since you should have thought of the same thing already.

In the end, Combat or Hybrid is usually the way to go. Even at lvl 80 I use Cyclone and Plumeshot as my attack spells. Very few times would it save me a hit to use wield thunder in a chain while I grind. So I save 300 mana a kill by using those two and cast an Ironheart every 6 mobs or so. So those two skills with maxed metal mastery is all you need for pve. Ironheart is the only healing skill you need, in my fbs we have two clerics use Ironheart healing; the tank never drops below max health except on special attacks. He heals back to full in seconds. This is with Purify and Soon, the Light being cast as needed. Anyone even mentioning Stream of Rejuvenation for healing either has a crappy build, or the other cleric on the team does. There shouldn't be any dmg to be healed that Stream would come in handy.

vedic · December 2008

I fully agree with that. The amount of player skill a healer has is a *huge* benefit to the group, beyond what a build/gear combination can bring to the table. Knowing that your healer knows what's going on, and can adjust accordingly, makes the job of a tank that much easier, which leads to easier time in dungeons over all. At least in every other MMO I've played:) I hope to one day get to the point that I can participate in things of this nature.

A newbie cleric with a lot of questions...

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