FAC, complete nonsense build?

The problem with that is no one can tell what buffs you have when you get invited to a party. All they see is, "Look there's a cleric. Lets invite him/her!" If you get invited to a party, and your a FAC, TELL THE GROUP! There is nothing worse than when your expected to perform a role and cant do it. More likely than not, the group will drop you for a FSC. But at least you didnt let the group down.

I started playing PWI for a week. But I have been playing MMO for about 12 years now.

The common views I read on this post are...

What good is FAC when they have weak healing...
What good is FAC when I can heal so much more with support...
They will not have enough Spirit if they want to get heal spell (the guide stated clearly only to get enough healing to heal yourself / serve as backup, let the other cleric heal the squad. Do yourself a favor, read the entrie guide before critising)

I guess you simply do not understand 2 things:

1. FAC means attacking, they are not there to support the group. Enough said.
2. You can heal better than a FAC has no corelation to you being more useful to the group than the FAC. In you opinion, you must be the most useful person in the group, since the Warrior. Tanker, Mage and whoever else you have, none of them can heal well, so they are all useless.

The ironic to this is, the same people who sees the glory in having a mage in the party, will refuse to see the role of a FAC in a party. What's the difference? The FAC in other words, is just a mage who uses different elemental than Fire/Water/Earth... the FAC can be viewed as a mage who uses Metal elemental, and have better healing ability than a mage. So... put simply, a mage with different elemental who can ALSO act as a secondary healer.

Useless?

In some games the healer could turn out the be the best attacker due to the debuffs that they have. And this is exactly the theory behind this FAC where they debuff and attack, so the attack will turn out stronger than a mage's.

It's 'YOU' who expected the cleric to heal. The Cleric has no obligation to meet your expectation. You voluntarily assumed that the Cleric is there to heal you. I agree where if they are not there to support, they need to let the party know up front. And the guide said that also.

-quote-
It doesn't mean that they don't use heals at all because that ruins the purpose of being a cleric, rather than choosing the wizard
-unquote-

Ruins the purpose of being a Cleric? Or ruins your expectation from Clerics?

Isaphet - Heavens Tear wrote: »

The problem lies not in someone describing themselves as an fac or an fsc, because if people are serious about it, both "builds" suck ****. I recently did an fb39 with a level 7x cleric who kept running away from mobs when she pulled aggro and did nothing but heal all dungeon. When questioned over why she wasn't attacking she responded "I'm a full support cleric"... in fb39 for crying out loud. Thats just as useless as a cleric continuing to attack a boss while the tank is dying and claiming "but I'm a full attack cleric".

Both attitudes are ridiculous. Sure you can play your cleric slightly differently and there are different ways that work out (if someone is about to die you may choose to steal aggro, or heal, both should be used in the right situations), but these titles of FAC and FSC just encourage terrible gameplay from various clerics who think they are "being unique" or "sticking to the build". No this isn't just for low level players, plenty of clerics upwards of level 70 still play horribly while using these titles as their exscuse.

Then what will your definition of a GOOD cleric be? HEAL and ATTACK simultaneously?

Nayethe - Lost City wrote: »

As I'm sure you know, Forp, Attack Cleric is a mindset, not a build. This is because you will get enough SP to max all of your skills eventually. But many new players are inexperienced, and do not know this yet!

All they see is that, in the lowish levels, that they don't have the SP to keep all of their skills leveled. Therefore, like any reasonable person, they choose the ones they use most often, and level those! For people playing FACs, those skills are debuffs and attack spells. Since they don't have the SP to level other skills yet, FAC really looks like a build to them.

This, I feel, is the basis for their argument. And, from their perspective in the lowish levels, it certainly makes sense.

i have no problem with people who choose to have attacks as a priority, as long as they know their purpose. if they have the skills they need to be useful, then so be it, make attacks a priority. people who ignore their true role(like the writer of the guide in this section), are completely worthless to everybody around them. he has no purpose, he's a waste of space.

people believe, with his guide, they will become higher hitters than wizards. guess what? wizards dominate 3 elements, clerics have 1. unless you only fight wood mobs forever, we're not very good dds.

why do you keep saying full int? the stat point distribution doesn't bother me as long as you don't go light armor. utterly useless to a cleric. vit builds are ok.

Nelae - Heavens Tear wrote: »

1st Cleric heals. Is that all he should do? No! If situation lets you, youll be doing a party a greater good DD/debuffing then healing just to be doing something.

2nd your Cleric you build choice. But as a Cleric IH and purify are well things you
need to fill your role. No matter what crazy build you are doing.

3rd fac's arnt useless, they are same as FSC's who also just spam IH (i rarely see them use other healing spells, and i am not counting BB).

So whats the difference?
As stated, only what skills you will lv up first and what you like to do.
But note, as a Cleric you will never avoid healing cause if you want to avoid it then as some one said "roll a mage".

if you avoid healing, you'll be useless to those around you. you don't hit higher than a wiz, you have less elements, so less ability, and you're still squishy as hell. make yourself useful, heal. and, iron heart isn't the only heal used. wellspring surge is right up there with it. iron heart wont save a life, wellspring will.

Get this through your thick skulls, assorted morons...

FACs do not heal. FACs do not res. FACs do not buff anyone other than themselves. This is indisputable. Anyone who disputes it has not read the original FAC guide, and is an idiot.

If you heal, res or buff anyone other than yourself, you are not an FAC. You are a normal cleric.

FACs are worthless. There is no reason whatsoever to make one. If you make one, you are an idiot.

Anyone who plays an FAC is an idiot. Anyone who supports FACs is an idiot.

In fact, if you have anything whatsoever to do with FACs, you will need to work awfully hard to avoid being an idiot.

End of story. Simple as that.

he's right. "full attack clerics" are useless. an attack cleric? that's more reasonable. at leas then you help your squad. "full attack" is useless to everyone around them. they wont be accepted in squads. the writers of the original guides lied when they said people took them over wizards. the only time they would take a "full attack cleric" over a wizard is when the level difference is so dramatic that the cleric wins in attack power.

Nelae - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Kiddo get some IQ in your head then talk.

I love your carefully worded rebuttal and the facts you used to support your argument.

If you have nothing to say, **** off. I've given reasons, facts, supporting arguments and coherence. All you've done is verbally rung my door-bell and run off.

Get a decent argument, or go away...

In this instance though, saying that will inevitably lead to you going away. (Which is quite alright by most people here, I'm sure). There are no decent arguments in support of FACs.