Nico's Cleric Guide

First and foremost, let me say that this is MY guide based upon my personal experiences and observations. This is not by any means intended to be a guide for everyone, just something to help out those who are new to the class. Also, my cleric is built as a pure magic support cleric, so keep that in mind, as your perspective may be different if you decide on something different for your build.

I. Types of clerics

A. The Support Cleric: The support cleric is a party favorite. Everyone loves a good support cleric, though it takes a rare breed of person to play one well. This is the type of cleric I personally enjoy playing the most. Be warned however, that there are major drawbacks to this kind of cleric. You will be kept very busy with fb's, TT runs, Boss fights, etc. If you let someone die, be prepared to get yelled at. It happens, in fact it's unavoidable some times, you will occasionally let someone die. This does not make you a bad cleric, just a human one. Humans make mistakes after all. It also gets expensive to play a cleric. One Ironheart Blessing (the best and primary heal skill) takes about 300 mp at level 10. That's a lot of mana when you have to cast it over and over on a barb tanking a boss.

B. The Attack Cleric: The attack cleric is basically just another damage dealer. With their focus more on their attack skills than their heals and buffs, they do a good bit of damage and kill pretty quickly. Not nearly as in demand as a support cleric, you may get yelled at for simply having the audacity to build your cleric towards the attack end of the spectrum. While not as hard hitting as a wizard and not as helpful in a party as a support cleric, the attack cleric is versatile as they can heal in a pinch or deal damage if something is just not dying quickly enough.

C. The Hybrid Cleric: This is the happy medium when it comes to clerics. Focusing on both support and attack skills, the hybrid is the one you see dropping a couple attacks on a boss, then stacking a couple ironhearts on the tank before going back to attacking. The unfortunate part of being a hybrid is that you will not be able to level all skills all the time. You simply won't have enough spirit to afford everything, so often a hybrid's skills are usually a couple levels below what they have available at their level.

II. Playing your cleric

A. Mana Consumption: No matter what type of cleric you decide to go with, you will go through AN UNGODLY AMOUNT OF MP. This is unavoidable, as the cleric's mana consumption rate is simply horrible. The frustration of this can be eased somewhat by the use of charms. When I hit level 20, I had enough money saved up that I could buy 1 Gold from the auctioneer npc and get a Bronze Spirit Charm. These cost 80 Silver, and recover a total of 150,000 mp. So each gold and subsequent charm you buy will leave you with 20 Silver left over. Therefore when you've bought 4 charms, you basically get a 5th one for free. You should be able to get a new charm about the time one runs out if u spend your money conservatively. If you can simply not afford charms, mana can be managed with potions made at the apothecary which raise your mp recovery rate for 10 mintues. There are also ones that recover very large amounts of mp. Combine these with normal mana pots and you get pretty effective mana management. ~EDIT~ With current gold prices, keeping oneself in charms is no longer an economical option. Stick with regular pots, event mp foods, and apothecary items.

B. HP Potions: In general, HP Potions aren't useful for a cleric. There are times when they are needed though, or perhaps just helpful. Bosses with strong AOE attacks (such as Soulbanisher in TT 1-2 and 1-3) are a good example. Also, there may be times when you simply can't heal yourself before you're going to die, and they can be helpful in buying you the time to cast a heal.

C. Grinding: Like to solo most of your quests? Great! Then the cleric is a good class for you. While some mobs are going to give a squishy cleric some trouble, especially archer-type mobs, these troubles can usually be overcome without much difficulty. Personally, I favor the use of the in game macro system to help with grinding. Open up your skill window...down at the bottom, there are 3 buttons: Edit, Delete, and New. Click new. Drag skills you want in combo to empty boxes. Pick a pretty picture and click save. Then apply your nifty new macro to your hotkey of choice. The following macros have proven effective for me over the course of leveling my cleric:

Melee mobs: cyclone, plume shot, cyclone, ironheart blessing, cyclone, plume, cyclone, plume

Ranged mobs: cyclone, plume, ironheart, cyclone, plume, cyclone, plume, cyclone

Poison and other Damage over Time mobs: wield thunder, cyclone, plume, cyclone, plume, cyclone, plume, cyclone (purify when mob dies)

I'll leave it to you to discover other combos of skills that work well for your play style.

III. Building your cleric

There are a few viable ways to allocate stats for a cleric, and they are described below.

A. Pure Magic Build: My build and my personal favorite. Pure magic clerics are known for their strong heals and strong attacks. This build is all about getting your magic attack as high as it can possibly be. What can't be killed before it gets to you can be outhealed with a single ironheart for most mobs. Stat Allocation for Pure Mag: 5 magic on even levels, 4 magic, 1 strength odd levels (9 mag, 1 str every other level).

B. Vitality Build: This build is very popular. While the attacks and heals for this build won't be as strong, they have increased survivability due to higher hp. Stat Allocation for Vit: 5 magic on even levels, 1-3 magic, 1 strength, 1-3 vit on odd levels. (6-8 mag, 1 str, 1-3 vit every other lvl)

C. Light Armor Build: LA clerics get their survivability from armor as opposed to statting vit. As light armor takes dex to equip, clerics wearing it will have a higher critstrike rate. Every 20 points in dex = +1% critrate. Stat Allocation for LA: 3 magic, 1 strength, 1 dexterity every level.

IV. Skills

Exact Skill Stats by level can be found here:
http://www.ecatomb.net/skillpwi.php

A. Healing Skills

1. Blessing of the Purehearted: the basic healing skill every newbie cleric starts the game with. DO NOT LEVEL IT....EVER. As a heal, it's virtually useless, with a long channel time, and no heal over time or stack effects. For gaining chi, however, it is very useful, especially if it's left at level one. Level 1 only uses 10 mana, so it's very cheap chi. At higher levels, you actually regenerate your mana faster than you use it spamming this skill for chi.

2. Ironheart Blessing: the healing standard of the Perfect World community. This is the first good heal you get, and the one you will use most often. It has no instant effect but it heals a large amount of hp over 15 seconds. Also, it can be stacked, so if you cast ironheart on someone twice, they are getting healed double what they would with only one cast. For bosses, this should be used repeatedly on the tank. Max this skill ASAP.

3. Wellspring Surge: Don't have time to get an ironheart stack going before someone dies? Drop this skill on them to buy yourself the time. An instant heal without any stack or heal over time effects, it channels faster and heals more hp than blessing of the purehearted. Nice for healing arcane classes, as it will usually heal a good portion of their hp. Leveling this skill is a matter of preference, but wait till you have spare spirit.

4. Chromatic Healing Beam: Your first squad heal. Essential for AOE bosses. Level when you have the spirit.

5. Stream of Rejuvenation: A heal over time with an instant heal thrown in. The long channeling time makes it somewhat less effective than it could be, but it can be useful if your tank's hp is getting dangerously low. This skill will stack on itself, but WILL NOT STACK WITH IRONHEART. Some clerics find this skill very useful, other find it virtually useless. Try it out...level it if you like it.

6. Regeneration Aura: Also known as Blue Bubble, or BB. At the cost of 2 sparks and massive amounts of MP, you can cast this little beauty. Not only does it heal 500 hp plus a percentage of your magic attack every 5 seconds, it also cuts the damage anyone in range takes in half. This skill is a must have for much of the game's higher level content. It only has 1 level, so get it as soon as it is available.

B. Attack Skills

1. Plume Shot: The basic newbie attack skill. This is what you will use to 1-shot all those level one mobs in Battlemark Village. If only things stayed that easy.... Max this ASAP.

2. Great Cyclone: Your other basic attack skill. This has a chance to slow your target, which is nice for helping preserve your squishy life. Alternating this with plume shot is a pretty deadly combo, as their channel and cooldown times complement each other. Max this ASAP.

3. Thunderball: I personally don't have much use for this skill, but I've been told by people that have leveled it that it's nice for use on bosses, etc. Long channel time, and a mix between instant and over time damage. Level it if you like it.

4. Razor Feathers: Clerics have 2 useful AOE skills. This is the first of them. If you plan to do aoe grinding (either with a bm or by yourself), then this skill is a must have. Until you start aoe grinding however, leave it at level 1. Level when you have the money and spirit for it (if you plan to aoe).

5. Siren's Kiss: I have yet to find any practical application for this skill, other than unlocking the next skill on the tree. Being player-centric ruins this skill, as we are a ranged class. Otherwise, it does decent damage and has a pretty wide area of effect. But you have to be right up on your group of mobs to use it. Save your spark and your spirit and use razor feathers instead.

6. Wield Thunder: A pretty sweet single target skill. Long channeling time, but nice damage. Can be used as an effective opener. Level it casually.

7. Tempest: /drool. Out of all the skills from all the classes, this skill is my absolute favorite. I actually have dreams about using this skill in real life. My own pathetic lack of a life aside, this is a really great skill. Massive damage, large area of effect. The downside? Long channeling time, and a hefty chi cost of 2 sparks. This skill is a must for aoe grinders. It's also nice when healing for bosses as a nice break from spamming ironheart for a few seconds. While this skill can be skipped altogether (it is very expensive to level), if you plan to aoe grind, level it as fast as you can afford to.

C. Buff Skills

1. Vanguard Spirit: Physical defense buff. Party version is Greater Protective Aura. Max ASAP, get party version if focused on support (this goes for all 4 buffs).

2. Magic Shell: Magic Defense buff. Party version is Aegis Spirit.

3. Celestial Guardian's Seal: Increases HP and MP recovery rate. Party version is Exalted Renewal.

4. Spirit's Gift: Magic Attack buff. Party version is Arcane Empowerment.

~NOTE~ Standard buffs last 30 minutes. Party versions last 1 hour.

D. Debuff Skills

1. Elemental Seal: Lowers the magical defense of both the target and yourself. Useful for bosses, and sometimes pvp. Level later on (60+)

2. Dimensional Seal: Lowers the physical defense of both the target and yourself. Can be useful for bosses if you have lots of physical DDs in the squad. Level later on (60+)

3. Silent Seal: Not very useful for pve. Can be used in pvp for keeping melee opponents at a distance. Makes target unable to move. Level later on if at all.

4. Chromatic Seal: Nice for pvp. Puts your target to sleep. Can also be used to escape from something killing you. Level later on.

E. Misc. Skills

1. Purify: This is in the heals skill tree, but it's not technically a heal. Removes negative status effects from a player (ie. sleep, poison, bleed, fire, etc.) This skill is a must have, but can be left at level 1 till lvl 60 or so. Afterwards, level 5 or 6 is usually sufficient. Nice to have maxed for solo aoe grinding, but not a priority.

2. Plume Shell: Another skill I personally don't have much use for. Many clerics swear by this skill, however. It converts incoming damage into hits against your mp. Personally, I go through too much mp as it is, so I'd rather just cast an extra heal. Level it if u like it.

3. Revive: The only skill we have that is absolutely worthless to ourselves. Resurrects someone who has died, and depending on its level, cuts down on their xp loss. Since we can't use it when we ourselves die, leveling it is up to you. If you like people, max it. If you hate people, leave it at level one and let them take the same hit we have to take when we hit that Go to Town button. (There are times I regret maxing mine)

4. Flight Mastery: Increases the flying speed of natural white elf wings, and only the natural white elf wings. Let me say that again: ONLY WORKS ON NATURAL WHITE ELF WINGS. Level it if you never plan to get other wings.

5. Metal Mastery: Adds a bit of damage to Cyclone, Wield Thunder, and Tempest. Level it later on.

6. Heaven's Wrath: Also known as Red Bubble, or RB. This skill is downright tasty. If there are 2 clerics in a squad, this is extremely nice when cast during boss fights. Increases attack speed for melees, decreases channeling time for casters, and increases the damage of everyone. Not a huge priority, but I recommend getting it when you can afford it.






I'll probably add to this again later. Especially as I get higher level and try out the lvl 79 skills and eventually decide on demon or sage and get some of those skills. For now however, I think this is good to give newcomers a decent grasp of the class. Also, at some point, I'll probably get around to color coding it so it's easier to read.