Some tips for FAC's

thewordlesssignature · December 2008

I've recently taken to make an FAC to get a better grasp of the argument about them. I decided to post some things that helped me get through the level 16-20 ish levels that were difficult. If anyone who is an FAC and has some helpful tips that does not include things like, "Don't be an FAC" or other flames, then you are welcome to post.

Please, let us not start another cleric war and be respectful and courteous.

Now, here are some things that helped me kinda live. I did die. Many times. You may be tempted to put things on vit because you die a lot, but it gets easier as you level up. (Getting your FB weapon helps too =D)

Some things that helped:

1) Choose your battles carefully. Check the stats of your enemy before attacking. Don't go for monsters that have increased magic resistance, defense and especially, no increased life. For enemies with sacrificial assault I cast an ironheart blessing a bit before I start attacking.

2) I try to kite things- It's kinda difficult to do if you aren't used to it or if you are bad at judging distances, but it helps. Just cast cyclone and run away. When you get a pretty good distance, cast cyclone again and run. Knowing your range also helps. Sometimes I run a bit farther away than I need too and hit the button to cast. My character automatically adjusts to the range and can give you more time to kill the monster before it gets to you.

3) Leveling up your Apocothary skill- it helps if you manufacture some life powders that can help you keep your very low HP at a relatively stable level and can reduce your mana consumptions by not healing as much. But don't skimp on potions either. I always made sure I had at 20 HP pots and at least 15 MP pots before I started to go to my grinding site. As you level up, you can manufacture jade powders that give you MP.

4) Reading the flow of battle and predicting the possibilities or scenarios really help you prepare before hand. Some people could possibly look at this as 'reaction time'. For instance, knowing what to do in case you get ambushed can help you when the need arises. While in battle, knowing that you set your heal too late and you need to use a potion while you wait for your iron heart blessing to kick in can help you NOT die. Also, knowing when to call it quits and to get the hell out of the fight before you get killed helps too.
Being alert to what you are doing and the impact your spells have on yourself and your enemies will help you plan better before you attack.

5) I tried to work on my reaction time when I was ambushed or when I draw more aggro than I mean to- usually it results in dropping what attack I might be doing, casting Plume Shell, spamming on ironheart blessings while kiting and using potions. If I really need to I fly away. (I went all out to save myself. =D) Practice makes perfect. (Just try not to die while your at it. I know, a nearly impossible request, but hey, try it anyway.)

6) Try to alternate your attacks to make the most of your time. Casting plume shot and then cyclone is faster than casting two plume shots right after the other and they do relatively the same amount of damage. I made 2 simple custom skills:

a) Cyclone/ Plume Shot/ Clyclone/ Plume shot/ (etc)/ is for some enemies that I can kill that give me one or two hits.

b) Plume Shot/ Clyclone/ Plume Shot/ Cyclone/ Ironheart Blessing/ cyclone/ is what I use when my character takes 3 hits or if the attacks are particularly strong. If they still are alive after the last cyclone, I just start kiting from there. Lately my enemies have been dying before I cast the blessing.

Just be careful not to make your skills too long, because it can cause you to cast a spell but your enemy is already dead, which results in loss of mp. Actually, using these things as custom skills is kinda tricky, because it can be difficult to break the chain if you suddenly run into problems, especially if you don't have a great reaction time.

6) One thing that definitely helps during that time: Get a squad going. Ask around- some people are killing the same things as you and can help. Even if you are an FAC, just spam on healing them. When I'm in a squad, I usually focus on healing the other party member(s): you don't want to suddenly find your partner at a dangerously low HP point where your ironheart blessings won't be able to kick in to save them.

However, I also take the time to cast some cyclones on whatever they are attacking or using plume shot when the monster's HP is a bit less than half to prevent taking away the aggro. It's your call. I know some FAC's just focus on helping their partner kill the thing before it reaches them, and heals the partner afterward. Find a fighting style that works for you and your squad.

7) Kindly make sure that your armor and your nuking spells are up to date. Try to use things that will increase your resistance or your HP. Well, it also depends on your playing style too. Some people want more magic attack to try and kill the monster before it attacks them, but sometimes this tactic is risky.

I hope these things help some people out...I'm not exactly a high level FAC and I can only share my experience. Again, if anyone has any tips or experiences that can help, please share. =D

jaa,
sano

Nirveli - Sanctuary · December 2008

Also, until quite much later, I would not recommend to AoE monster(agro many) that are near your level as your HP will go down in no time, specially those with magic attacks. Until now, I have killed 1 on 1, except for much lower level monster I had to kill to help people.

andyboi · December 2008

I have some tips for a FAC while in a party.

After lv40s I found myself pulling aggro a lot in parties. Meaning, you would go do an fb and the barb will be tanking it and you are blasting away. Next thing you know, the monster targets you...and you are gone in 1-2 hits. There are a few ways to save yourself from this situation:

1) Try to stand away from the boss (so its not facing you) when you are attacking. Keep your eye on the boss constantly. If you see it turn away from the barb and turn towards you, cast plume shell and RUN in the opposite direction. You are praying that the barb knows what they are doing and will try to get aggro on it again before it kills you.

2) Wait a bit before attacking any stronger enemies or bosses. The tank naturally, will aggro the enemy. Wait until the monster drops down to 80%-85% life before blasting away. It certainly helps keep you from aggroing the boss and makes your tank's life easier.

a) If you know your tank cannot maintain aggro that well, don't throw all you have at the monster. Cast a cyclone or plume shot with some time in between. Doing too much damage at once will make them aggresive towards you.

3) Just because you are a FAC, doesn't mean you can't heal. All clerics should have ironheart blessing. Help out your fellow cleric in the squad with healing every now and then. Moreover, help eliminate those pesky enemies that tend to aggro the cleric that is healing. Be sure to put on plume shell though.

jemima · January 2009

I found that rather than alternating spells to be faster, casting two plume quills was significantly faster than plume then cyclone then plume, as in the latter case I'd have some waiting time, then start casting, but when I cast two plumes I start casting the second straight away.

Amiris - Sanctuary · January 2009

To OP, two things.
1) Those combos you stated will change a lot over time. Eventually, Plume Shot will disappear from your combat spells, and replaced by Wield Thunder and Thunderball.
2) You suggest kiting with Cyclone, yet say you shouldn't fight Increased Defense monsters. That doesn't really make sense. Also, Increased Magic Resistance can be easily killed by Plume Shot, and Increased Life is just two monsters in one - no problem there either. The only one you should truly hate is Increased Attack when it's on a ranged physical monster.

VeritasVis - Lost City · January 2009

Most of these tips are very helpful. Focus powders make life much easier for a cleric and I personally have never seen a need for life powders. My biggest problem has always been those pesky mobs that call thieir nearby friends when you attack them. If you get double agro the best thing to do is just fly straight up and try again. If you really wanna take em though don't mess with plume shell it uses too much mana just spam a couple of ironhearts on yourself and tank away. Same goes for increased life mobs, these guys aren't too bad just drop an iron heart every now and then and it should match tick for tick their damage so that your hp never even goes down. The only mobs that should give us FACs any trouble are increased deffence metal mobs.

Oh and one more thing, it's always great to open with cyclone due to it's slowing effect, although if plume shot is 1 rank higher it may be worth it to use that first due to it's slightly better range. Not sure how any of this applies to 60+ though, i'll let you know in a few days

.

-Veritas

Pynk - Sanctuary · January 2009

I came here looking around to find out how to kill mobs by myself. Not knowing better, I made a cleric and raised my magic abilities instead of anything else. Now I've reached a point in my quest levels that I can't kill anything, I have to depend on a tank. I don't like that. I love helping people, but I want to be able to stand on my own.

Right now I've got 3 quests that total 80 mobs. I use that for my grinding. I quit playing last night after everyone I was helping quit too because there was nothing for me to do since I can't kill these things.

But thanks to your advice, I'm going to give it a try. Stupidly I never thought to cast and run... duh. And when in a squad I usually only heal because the tanks take on everything and then I lost sight of them and then they die or almost die because I can't find them. So I concentrate on keeping up and healing. I need to fight on my own tho. Hopefuly I'll get better with your suggestions.

Thank you.

thewordlesssignature · January 2009

Everyone, thank you for your great comments.

I especially want to thank VertasVis for his suggestion on dropping plume shell during attacks and instead use iron hearts- its a great way to save mana.

Also, I thank Amiris and jemima for including their comments. Amiris made great points about my mistakes regarding how to deal with certain monsters, mainly, increased life, magic resistance and defense. It's also good that jemima added in her comment about casting, because it's true that you can cast 2 plume shots faster than alternating plume shot/ cyclone. I found someone who said that Plume Shot could be chained, so it cuts the casting time. I read that in a thread entitled, "healing? mana? buffing? mana? @_@".

And for Pynk, I hope everything works out for you- hopefully you won't need to, but check back and see if anyone else gives tips to help you.

If anyone has any tips that are constructive and not flames, please share your knowledge to help fellow players. I am only a low level cleric and a rather new player to be honest, and I have no knowledge of how to deal with higher level monsters. If there is any little tip on how to fight better, please drop a line! It will be greatly appreciative.

With that, happy playing.

jaa,
sano

Klath - Sanctuary · January 2009

1) Those combos you stated will change a lot over time. Eventually, Plume Shot will disappear from your combat spells, and replaced by Wield Thunder and Thunderball.

Thunderball is and always will be:
Magic attack + Fixed damage over time.

That fixed damage eventually becomes LOWER than magic attack, and the spell becomes useless since you can simply throw a cyclone and do 1-2k more damage instantly.

At level 78, my cyclones do 5k on wood mobs, plume shots 4-4.5k, thunderball does 3k plus 3k over time. meaning i could just throw 2 cyclones and get the job done faster. Also note im a support cleric not attack, so my magic attack is way inferior than attack clerics (they usually do 1-2k more damage than me, meaning their thunderball is even weaker).

Plume shot will NEVER disapear, its your main attack spell and does same damage against all elements, only drawback is increased defense mobs.

Also will be your main pvp skill during TW.

VeritasVis - Lost City · January 2009

Hey Klath i'm just curious as to what rank your metal mastery is. I can't say from personal experience but it would seem that if you used elemental seal combine with the effects of metal mastery thunderball might pass plume (although as far as pure damage goes it does, according to what you said). I'll have to try it for myself, i must say i really do like plume shot though

.

-Veritas

_WillFire_ - Sanctuary · January 2009

Klath - Sanctuary wrote: »

Thunderball is and always will be:
Magic attack + Fixed damage over time.

That fixed damage eventually becomes LOWER than magic attack, and the spell becomes useless since you can simply throw a cyclone and do 1-2k more damage instantly.

At level 78, my cyclones do 5k on wood mobs, plume shots 4-4.5k, thunderball does 3k plus 3k over time. meaning i could just throw 2 cyclones and get the job done faster. Also note im a support cleric not attack, so my magic attack is way inferior than attack clerics (they usually do 1-2k more damage than me, meaning their thunderball is even weaker).

Plume shot will NEVER disapear, its your main attack spell and does same damage against all elements, only drawback is increased defense mobs.

Also will be your main pvp skill during TW.

Thunderball isn't that bad. It's main use is to help wear away mobs or to help killing high hp mobs without drawing aggro.

For example...a few folks have noted that high health mobs are sometimes difficult. I usually deal with such by casting cyclone>plume>thunderball and then decide whether I need to add anything else to the mix. If I need to put them down fast I launch into the mana intensive stuff. While I'm reading the terrain that Thunderball is whittling away at the mob's health. Pity it doesn't stack.

Then there are the high defence mobs. Plume shot is useless against them. Cyclone has a short cooldown. Tossing a Thunderball in there helps.

Others have mentioned kiting...very very important in the early levels. Learn it...live it...and live.

What I haven't seen mentioned are debuffs. Learn to use them in combination with stuns or even without them. They have decent range and they increase your damage by a large margin.

To test this go find a "non" mob area. Blast away at a few of them with purely magic stuff ( cyclone, thunderball, lightning ). Note the damage you do. Now try doing the same thing but first toss your magic seal on them.

Enjoy

Impetus - Lost City · January 2009

To the OP: You really shouldn't be dying AT ALL during the early levels. From my experience, opening with Cyclone then alternating with Plume Shot lets me kill mobs without a scratch on me. The only exception to this strategy would be the ranged mobs at around lvl16 which you either have to kite with Cyclone or open up with Ironheart Blessing.

Now, on to a couple of life-saver tips based on my personal experience-

1). Fly when things get ugly.
We have wings the second we start the game, so make use of them. If you accidentally pull two mobs or if a mob landed a crit, take to the skies and save yourself from either death or an MP-consuming fight. Don't mind the fact that you just wasted an attack or two; being alive to try again is better than dying and having to try again.

2). Keep Ironheart Blessing at a fairly high level.
When the deuce hits the fan and flying isn't an option, spam Ironheart like there's no tomorrow. Stacking Ironheart about 4-5 times will pretty much make you invincible for the next few moments, so make use of it and kill the mob harassing you.

3). Max Vanguard Spirit ASAP.
As most (if not all) of the mobs in the lower levels are physical, you will greatly benefit from the significant Phys. Def. increase Vanguard Spirit grants. If you keep this maxed, i can't imagine any mob hitting you faster than Ironheart can heal you.

4). Avoid "Increased Life" mobs.
All other "Increased Stat" mobs pose no threat if you play your cards right, but unfortunately the same cannot be said against "Increased Life" mobs. Keep this in mind if you plan on taking one on- you WILL get hit. I'm able to 4-shot mobs before they can touch me, but these mobs take around 7-8 hits to kill. Which in turn means it will have enough time to walk over to you and sucker punch you in the mouth. Unless you want to waste MP and kite it using Cyclone 7-8 times, find another mob.

5). Make use of Life Powders.
Iirc, all it takes is 10 Golden Herbs and 15 Nectars to manufacture 5 of them. 25 herbs for 50 minutes of health insurance is a pretty good deal. At low levels, 50HP per second is like recovering 10% of your health per second, so you'll find yourself never needing to spam Ironheart unless you really don't know how to play this game.

So that was my 2 cents. I hope someone will find this useful and will use it to their advantage ^^.

Ence - Lost City · January 2009

VeritasVis - Lost City wrote: »

Hey Klath i'm just curious as to what rank your metal mastery is. I can't say from personal experience but it would seem that if you used elemental seal combine with the effects of metal mastery thunderball might pass plume (although as far as pure damage goes it does, according to what you said). I'll have to try it for myself, i must say i really do like plume shot though .

-Veritas

I think I'll weigh in a little on this conversation since though I'm not using a FAC on this version of the game, I've played it on 3 other versions of PW and have messed around with all sorts of builds.

As was stated earlier, Thunderball is useful for ticking extra damage against higher HP mobs. (Increase life) However, the cast time really is kind of horrible in making it really worthwhile. Thunderball, for those who insist on using it, often times becomes a TW skill (If you know what you're doing) when you don't have time to stand still and blast away but are moving quickly.
I would find that at lower levels, you could wind up with that as your starting attack. However, at higher levels you will start leveling Wield Thunder which will blow Thunderball's damage out of the water; plus you'll get it all at once.

With metal mastery, all elemental damage will pass plume in damage. However, given it's short casting time, if you need filler in a battle, plume is great. Which is why you'll never stop using it. Sure, the other stuff is great but the point of a FAC is to maximize damage. Why not tack on extra damage while your cyclone is healing? Sure, it's not superb against High Def mobs but against anything Metal Element and Magic Resist. Plus it's got one of the lowest costs out of your arsenal. And in TW? If you're not using it, I hope to God you're fighting a Barb, which you really shouldn't be doing in the first place IMO or you're just plain confused ;D

-Ence

Pynk - Sanctuary · January 2009

I've jumped 2 1/2 lvls this weekend and part of that is from the advice I got here. Now, maybe you're thinking 2 lvls isn't that much, but, when you die as much as I do... that's alot. LOL At one point I had litterally lost as much as half my exp that I started with because I died so much.

Kiting has helped. Mixing attacks has helped. Doing both has kept me more alive. I did lot of killing in squad and out and paid attention, experimented and learned alot. Also, I teamed up with another cleric of the same level and watched her. I ended up having to just keep her alive, she played a little recklessly.

I have more confidence in myself as a fighter and healer. I came in today to check out skill levels and you here ended up helping me with that too. So again, thank you.

Just wanted to let you know.

Cosmos - Heavens Tear · January 2009

I have to ask - what stat builds are you guys using?

I started out as Full Attack and was so until my 50s when I saw the light and switched and I never once had any of the problems you all seem to be facing.

Especially some of these attack combos, you shouldn't be needing to cast so many spells. Absolutely everything I fought went down in 3-4 hits, 5 tops (and still does, even though almost all my SP as of late has went to my support skills.) Plume Shot and Cyclone are enough to keep you grinding well into the 60s and I expect 70s, also.

SATII - Lost City · January 2009

Here's all my tips on FAC's. Too lazy to just summarize what I wrote there.

Pynk - Sanctuary · January 2009

Cosmos - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I have to ask - what stat builds are you guys using?

I started out as Full Attack and was so until my 50s when I saw the light and switched and I never once had any of the problems you all seem to be facing.

Especially some of these attack combos, you shouldn't be needing to cast so many spells. Absolutely everything I fought went down in 3-4 hits, 5 tops (and still does, even though almost all my SP as of late has went to my support skills.) Plume Shot and Cyclone are enough to keep you grinding well into the 60s and I expect 70s, also.

Me personally? I'm attempting to be a sort of cross-breed I hope. I'm sure it won't work and I'll get laughed at or whatever. Mostly I'm support, but I also want to attack. No matter which you are you still have to solo sometimes, and that's when I'd really like to stay alive. Grinding is a slow slow process, so fighting tips help ALOT. It gets kinda boring being full support, I want to be able to fight too.

Ence - Lost City · January 2009

Personally....Light Armor build. Not because it's the best or whatever. Just so I don't get one-shotted by Tentacle Boss in HH 1-2

Impetus - Lost City · January 2009

Cosmos - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I have to ask - what stat builds are you guys using?

I started out as Full Attack and was so until my 50s when I saw the light and switched and I never once had any of the problems you all seem to be facing.

Especially some of these attack combos, you shouldn't be needing to cast so many spells. Absolutely everything I fought went down in 3-4 hits, 5 tops (and still does, even though almost all my SP as of late has went to my support skills.) Plume Shot and Cyclone are enough to keep you grinding well into the 60s and I expect 70s, also.

Stats every 2 lvls - 9 MAG, 1 STR. FAC

Absolutely right. Killing mobs shouldn't require more than 4 hits. And the slow-down effect from Cyclone should be more than enough for you to kill without a scratch on you (unless the mob is ranged). Unless you aren't leveling your attack skills, there is no reason for the mob to have time to walk over to you and hit you in the face plenty enough to kill you.

And even then, you should have enough reaction time to put up an Ironheart Blessing/Plume Shell or simply fly away...

P.S. Btw, make sure you are at the farthest possible range from the mob you're killing. Do not attempt to kill a mob in front of you...

Ithildwen - Sanctuary · January 2009

Now this was really informativ. I've made so many mistakes until now, I hope I can still safe my cleric from the wastebasked yet. Thanks for the great advices guys!

Tritoryo - Lost City · January 2009

LOL i dont know but i love the hit and run tactic which got me through level 13 to level 20.

Plume - RUN LIKE HELL - Plume - RUN LIKE HELL - Plume - RUN LIKE HELL - ...Plume Shot...

Izz Naize!

chewy3 · January 2009

Klath - Sanctuary wrote: »

Thunderball is and always will be:
Magic attack + Fixed damage over time.

That fixed damage eventually becomes LOWER than magic attack, and the spell becomes useless since you can simply throw a cyclone and do 1-2k more damage instantly.

At level 78, my cyclones do 5k on wood mobs, plume shots 4-4.5k, thunderball does 3k plus 3k over time. meaning i could just throw 2 cyclones and get the job done faster. Also note im a support cleric not attack, so my magic attack is way inferior than attack clerics (they usually do 1-2k more damage than me, meaning their thunderball is even weaker).

I don't see how TB gets weaker as you gain magic as cyclone works the nearly the same way as TB. Cyclone = base + weapon + static instant damage while TB = base + static DoT. Since base is used in both the only difference is their static and a weapon. The best weap to my knowledge is the HH sword 513-714 matk so we'll use that.

Cyclone is 1372.6 static so the total dmg is 2086.6

TB has a static of 4419.7 over 15 so its 294.646 per second. So basically any fight that lasts over 7 seconds you will surpass cyclones damage. Now I have no idea how fights work at high lvls, but I assume they take ~4 or more hits which is in generally 8 seconds minimum so TB isn't really that bad especially on boss fights. If Sage bonus was factored in Cyclones effectiveness drops even further. If we also consider the fact cyclone has a 3 second cooldown you can cyclone open with TB then continue on.

At the very least I can easily see TB replacing plume on wood mobs especially factored in with mastery + wood weakness.

thewordlesssignature · January 2009

Glad to see people are getting some info from this thread. Just wanted to say that making Focus Powders really help when you find your self burning through your MP very quickly.

Focus Powders give you 50 MP per second for 10 minutes, and is very useful when you don't have a safe place to sit and meditate. Jade Powders are great in a pinch when you are in battle and you find out that your focus powder has run out of time. Pairing Focus Powders and Life Powders are great because you never have to worry about healing yourself.

When your Apocothary skill is at lvl 3, you can manufacture an item that gives you both 50 HP and MP per second, but you have to be lvl 45 (if I'm not mistaken) to use it.

Everyone, keep up the good work! I'd like to applaud you all on keeping this thread open and respectful! =D if anyone has any other tips or experiences that helps, please share.

jaa,
sano

SATII - Lost City · January 2009

I guess your not 6x. TB is a bad spell. If anything, it's only useful for wood bosses if your wield thunder and cyclone are on cooldown and you don't have 2 spark. TB is 2.4 sec channel while wield thunder is 2.5sec channel. A wield thunder is 10x better to use than a TB for the same time.

Luxos - Heavens Tear · February 2009

Also!! lolz FAC's should not underestimate "Elemental Seal", its a great skill to combo with. For example this combo works great: Elemental Seal -> Great Cyclone -> Plume Shot. Don't underestimate a Debuff....it will save you time when soloing

Specgoesemo - Lost City · February 2009

Some tips for FAC's [Full Attack Clerics]

1: DON'T
2: DO NOT
3: GET THE THOUGHT OUT OF YOUR HEAD
4: NO! NO! AND NO!

Nayethe - Lost City · February 2009

Some tips from a 6x former-FAC (pure MAG build):

(1) You will have different roles, depending on whether you're in a squad or soloing.

In a squad, unless you have another reliable Cleric, you will be relegated to a healing role. Period. Healing may not be what you WANT to do, but it may be what you HAVE to do, especially in FB and TT parties. And anyway, since you should ALWAYS keep Ironheart Blessing maxed for your level (and you'll likely be a pure MAG build), you will be a very powerful and effective healer, and healing will not be a problem for you. Being able to heal and revive will make you a lot of friends.

While soloing, which is the majority of the time for me, I need my attack spells. I have Plume Shot and Great Cyclone maxed, and Wield Thunder is maxed for my level. These three skills are all you really need most of the time, and they certainly get the job done. Keeping these maxed means I have to gimp some of my heals, but since Ironheart Blessing is enough to get the job done in 90% of cases (solo or squad), I don't really need many other heals. I have the blue bubble skill as well, which comes in handy for TT runs. But all you really NEED is Ironheart.

And don't forget to heal yourself while soloing! Cast an Ironheart Blessing on yourself, and you're good to go. If you can't kill the mob in 15 seconds (the duration of Ironheart's heal over time) with your maxed primary attack spells, cast another Ironheart or run. But you should be able to kill mobs in 15 seconds anyway.

(2) Max your buffs, and put off the debuffs. In my experience, buffs are much more widely useful than debuffs, as they can be used to make you a bit less squishy, and they will make your party very happy. Why I suggest putting off debuffs is that they cost MP, and we Clerics have terrible MP upkeep. You may do a little extra damage with debuffs, but not enough (in my opinion) to justify the MP cost. Get them eventually, as they will increase your damage, and will help you from being hit. In the early levels, however, I'd really suggest to ignore them.

(3) Stick with it. The early levels are terribly difficult as a pure MAG Cleric. You'll have essentially no HP, and if mobs actually get to you, you're dead. Once your attacks get more powerful and your MAG stat gets high enough, no normal (or increased stat) mob should be able to kill you.

Some final notes: I can do pretty much anything my guild needs me to do: heal the tank, debuff a boss, buff the party, and unleash a lot of damage. Built right, by the time you hit the 4xs, you will be an excellent soloer, eclipsed mainly by Venomancers with their pets. The only thing you won't be able to do in PvE is tank a boss.

I make no claims about the PvP viability of this build, as I have not done a lot of PvP! However, for what I do most often, a pure MAG build hybrid healer-attacker does anything and everything I want to do. It's a lot of fun, especially when you get out of those difficult low levels.

I hope this helps!

Mysticlifex - Heavens Tear · February 2009

FAC is a great build and this is a very infomative thread

Razor feathers is in my opinion a must have very powerfull

thewordlesssignature · February 2009

Thank you for all those who took the time to share their experiences and tips, especially Nayethe, who took the time to write about what a pure mag build cleric will do in a squad.

I think it was also a good point to bring up that at times, FAC's will be asked to heal if there is no other cleric. Now, what is pretty cool about FAC's is that they are versatile. Switching to healing isn't too bad since your insane mag points actually allows you to cast a higher heal, but you won't have your nifty AoE heal. Also, you might have to work on focusing on your team mates to make sure that their HP doesn't get far down that your Ironheart Blessing won't kick in time to save them. However, this also doesn't mean that you won't ever be able to do damage during a quest.

Most of the time, FAC's just have to be aware of what's going on around them: check the team mates, read the flow of battle to see if you can get some damage in on the boss, plan ahead if the mob has increase stat and heal certain members accordingly- all these things are just common sense.

The suggestion to go for buffs rather than debuffs was interesting! (to me at least =p) Reasons why is that I never really used debuffs unless I'm in a squad killing a boss. Most of the time I don't really have time to cast the debuff because it's being killed pretty quickly by my guild mates and comrades. Not saying that debuffs don't work, but use at your own discretion. =D

So far, everyone (with 1 exception) has been very kind and respectful. I hope that other clerics, not just FAC's, can benefit from this thread. So please, share any tips you might have lying around!

jaa,
sano

Nelae - Heavens Tear · February 2009

About debuffs, you wont use them in soloing not that useful.
You rather use them in boss fights and pvp.
Lets say you debuff a boss and you all do 100-300 more dmg *well thats in my case with not so high debuffs* may be its nothing much but as we know some bosses take a while to kill and that lill bit dmg helps alot.
In pvp, try dueling any class and see what impact your debuffs have, again you may be wont be aware but its alot cause with higher skills the dmg is significant.
And not to say sleep/paralyze rock ^_^

But one thing tho, ppl say FAC's arnt any good in pvp, well that may be the case in TW but not in 1v1, the term "glass canon" does not refer just that you can get killed easy, it also means you can kill fast.
Its kinda trading the ability so survive longer to killer faster.

Thats why you cant say that any build is silly or useless.
And specially would like to see ppl stop saying "dont be a FAC"

Deceptistar - Sanctuary · March 2009

thewordlesssignature wrote: »

Most of the time, FAC's just have to be aware of what's going on around them: check the team mates, read the flow of battle to see if you can get some damage in on the boss, plan ahead if the mob has increase stat and heal certain members accordingly- all these things are just common sense.

YES! Totally agree >.<

Nelae - Heavens Tear wrote: »

But one thing tho, ppl say FAC's arnt any good in pvp, well that may be the case in TW but not in 1v1, the term "glass canon" does not refer just that you can get killed easy, it also means you can kill fast.
Its kinda trading the ability so survive longer to killer faster.

Agreed. It seems that if you can survive some of the initial stun moves that some classes drop on you, then you can kill them fairly easily (like starting from 2 normal hits and up)

A cool thing about debuffs are that when you use them, usually on boss fights (cause the fights are long) you can purify yourself right after and take the debuff off yourself and it stays on your target mob still. b:chuckle

Some tips for FAC's

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