Hthor's Compendium for Cleric Skills

Hthor - Dreamweaver · April 2010

Hey everyone,

I decided that as I'm growing in levels and starting to max out many of my skills, I should start writing how I use all of them in order to help our clerics grow. This isn't meant to say that this is how the skills are meant to be used, but this is what I do and it keeps the party alive, so it works for me - and I hope it'll help you too

.

I am one of the few clerics that like to use all my skills, I've found that the vast majority will just spam IH, BB, Wellspring (not even sometimes), and purify (again, not even sometimes). My goal here is to help people learn how to push all skills to their fullest extent, I even use skills like Blessing of the Purehearted occasionally (I know, you think "fail cleric" - trust me, every skill has its own uses no matter how limited they are).

This is how it's going to work - I am going to write a section on each and every skill that clerics have, but only the ones I currently have maxed (or in the case of 1-level spells, currently have) in order to not mislead people. Every time I update, I'll change the colour of text - normal will mean solid and reliable pointers, grey will mean things you can try but I haven't decided myself if I 100% agree with yet, <green braces> will mean I changed/added it recently, and <red braces> will mean something I said in the past, but don't agree with anymore. I'm going to do this so you can see how I've changed as time goes on and maybe that will help open your mind to new possibilities too ^^.

As a start, I'm gonna post a pic of the cleric skill tree and explain it quickly. After that, I'll give all my skill levels. Finally, I'll give however large of a description I need to explain every skill, how, when, and why I use it - and eventually images/videos to demonstrate what I mean

. Feel free to post your comments, but please remember that this is just how I do things, and I'm trying to help the faction - I'm a very unique cleric, and you may think the way I use some of the skills is weird - but it works for me

.

[NOTE] I will be posting new spells as I write them - if you want the original and more organized version of this post, check here. Please don't create an account on those forums unless you're in BloodFire (Dreamweaver Server), you'll be banned if you're not

. Hopefully people find this useful, it's mainly for my own fun

. Btw, if you use anything I say anywhere, gimme credit please!

Hthor - Dreamweaver · April 2010

Heal
These are all your healing spells. You may notice I did not include Regeneration Aura (BB), I DO NOT consider BB a heal - yes, it does heal, but you shouldn't rely on it for healing.

Buffs
These are what you use to increase various stats of yourself and party members.

Phys
These are your skills that have something to do with dealing physical damage or resisting physical damage.

Metal
These are your skills that deal metal magic damage.

Debuff
Many clerics do not use these enough, or do not use them well. Debuffs reduce your opponent's stats or cause other negative effects on them.

RB&BB
Regeneration Aura (BB) and Heaven's Wrath (RB), your two continuous channel support (need I not repeat that) skills.

79
Your two level 79 skills.

100
Your two level 100 skills.

Other
Miscellaneous/passive skills that you don't need to activate to use, they help just by having them.

Hthor - Dreamweaver · April 2010

Heals

Blessing of the Purehearted (BotP): 10
Ironheart Blessing (IH): 10
Wellspring Surge (Wellspring): 10
Revive (Res/Rez): 10
Purify (Pure): 10
Chromatic Healing Beam (Chrom/AoE Heal): 3
Stream of Rejuvination (SoR): 2

Buffs

Vanguard Spirit (p.def): 10
Magic Shell (m.def): 10
Celestial Guardian's Seal (hp&mp): 10
Spirit's Gift (m.atk): 10
Greater Protective Aura (party p.def): yes
Aegis Spirit (party m.def): yes
Exalted Renewal (party hp&mp): yes
Arcane Empowerment (party m.atk): yes

Phys

Plume Shot (Plume/PS): 10
Plume Shell (Shell): 10
Razor Feathers (Razor): 10

Metal

Great Cyclone (Cyc): 10
Thunderball (DoT): 9
Siren's Kiss (Siren): 1
Weild Thunder (Weild): 9
Tempest (Tempest): 2

Debuff

Elemental Seal (m.def): 7
Dimensional Seal (p.def): 6
Silent Seal (Paralyze): 7
Chromatic Seal (Sleep): 1

RB&BB

Regeneration Aura (BB/Blue Ball): yes
Heaven's Wrath (RB/Red Ball): yes

79

Wings of Protection (WoP): yes
Guardian Light (GL): no

100

Elven Boon (Boon): no
Seal of the God (God Seal): no

Other

Flight Mastery (FM): 10
Metal Mastery (MM): 8

Hthor - Dreamweaver · April 2010

Blessing of the Purehearted (BotP)

- 3 Best Pros:
○ Low MP use
○ Heals a fair bit more than most cleric skills
○ Great for grinding when trying to make money

- 3 Worst Cons:
○ Insane channel time (seriously, WTF - 3 seconds...? O.o)
○ Uses in combat are extremely limited
○ Most will label you a "fail cleric" upon use (they're right sometimes, too >.>)

BotP is a very basic heal, most clerics consider it highly useless due to its ridiculously long channel time (at 3 seconds, one of the slowest cleric skills). You'll basically never see a cleric use this in game past level 20-30 or so after they have a few levels in <Ironheat Blessing - which I seriously don't understand since that is NOT an instant heal like BotP or Wellspring Surge>. If you ever use this, most will label you a "fail cleric", and quite frequently they'd be right - but here's the trick: You just have to learn to use it well.

With a very low MP cost for the amount it heals, BotP is a very useful skill to use after battles to recover people's HP if they've taken heavy damage. Most clerics will use wellspring for that, but I've tested - BotP yes, is slower (but I thought you were healing after combat was over, so what does speed matter?), but it will save you a lot of MP. Even squishies frequently need 2 or 3 wellsprings to get back to full HP, so in the long run you'll save a lot with this spell.

Grinding presents another great use for BotP. As a cleric, try to grind DOT (Damage Over Time) mobs as much as you can - especially poison mobs. Every 3rd to 5th mob, purify yourself once (when you're around 1/4 HP) - then use BotP, it'll heal you to full instantly instead of 2 or 3 wellsprings (less purify & less wellspring = more mp savings!).

Hthor - Dreamweaver · April 2010

Ironheart Blessing (IH)

- 3 Best Pros:
○ Can give near invincibility when spammed on a single target
○ Heal over Time effect lets you focus on other party members
○ Very spam able (it stacks, and casts fast)

- 3 Worst Cons:
○ NONE! (people think that at least, and become too reliant on it

)
○ High MP use (spam casts every 2 sec @ ~225mp/cast)
○ Sometimes hard to tell if you're over/under using it due to heal over time

After hearing me say you should use BotP you're probably thinking I'm gonna tell you not to use this. No, I'm not going to say you shouldn't use this - I'm not THAT insane. I can almost guarantee you that this heal you'll be using more than any other - but I have a few tips on how you can limit its overuse and use it more efficiently. First point I want to state quick - IH costs A LOT more MP to spam than most realize, you can drain Herb Yuanxiao (level 75 food) very fast with it (225ish MP every 2 seconds = ~1 herb every 45 seconds = ~1.5k coins per minute).

Okay tip number one, people freak out about needing heals more than they actually do - you don't always need to spam IH everywhere. When the tank is first running up to a boss or a batch of mobs that you're not sure how hard they'll be hit by - stack 3 or 4 IHs before they run in just in case. If you know how hard they'll be hit, try to use IH JUST enough that it covers how hard their being hit. You can tell when that is by watching their HP, if it's going up and down between full quickly, you're doing it well; If it's staying max HP even when they're being hit, you're probably overdoing it a bit.

Another thing you can use IH for is to sort of "pause" needing to heal someone. Let's say someone is dying, and another is being hit lightly - quickly throw one IH on the one being hit lightly (that should be enough to "pause" their HP, IH should heal more or less the same damage they're taking), then use those 15 seconds to save the one dying.

There's something else I want to mention as well. After mobs when combat is over, don't use IH to heal everyone - you'll end up casting it more than you need or not enough, or the party won't be full before the next group, etc. Use Wellspring, BotP, Chrom, or other heals - you'll save MP and people will feel more confident in you when they see their HP go *Bang, full* after mobs, rather than *

Hthor - Dreamweaver · April 2010

Wellspring Surge (Wellspring)

- 3 Best Pros:
○ Combat useable (1.5 sec. channel isn't great, but it's tolerable)
○ Very low MP use
○ Heals enough that you can use it in emergencies

- 3 Worst Cons:
○ Barely sooths a high-HP target at all
○ No heal over time, the small amount it heals is all it heals
○ Channel time (yes, it's a con too), 1.5 sec can feel like ages in desperate times

Before I get into the in-combat uses, let's cover what you can use Wellspring for when you're out of combat. First and foremost, Wellspring is great at "topping-up" somebody's HP when they've been injured - but are not mortally wounded (see Blessing of the Purehearted). Once combat is done you can (read 'should', don't use IH) cast it on the people in your party to heal them back to full health before the next batch of mobs hit - that's simple enough, right?

In combat most clerics will NEVER use this skill, and for some reason or another some believe Wellspring sucks - which isn't true at all. While you're IH-ing whoever's taking the boss, you can use Wellspring to heal other people in the party who may have quickly taken aggro and got a bit hurt, or heal those that were hit by some type of short-ranged AoE. I say short-ranged because if it's long ranged and the entire party gets hit, it's probably better to use something like Chromatic Healing Beam because in that case it would be much faster than Wellspring.

Something else you can do in combat (it'll save a hell of a lot of MP, trust me) is use this to heal the tank instead of IH. If you have a Barb tanking a lower-level boss or mob (just something that doesn't hit that hard, like Chientien in TT1-X or basically any non-magic mob) you can let them get to about 2/3rds HP and then use 3 to 5 (depending on their max HP) Wellsprings to get them back to full health. In the time that you're not healing, throw debuffs and DoT skills on the enemy - your debuffs will last long enough that you can heal the barb again and repeat

. Following that strategy you have your hands free for a good 15 seconds or so between healing where you're free to do whatever the heck you want (talk about awesome), including healing others, debuffing, DDing, etc.

In tune with what I said above with using Wellspring on the tank - here's something else you can try, one of my favs. After you Wellspring the tank to full HP, throw one (or two if they're getting hit a touch hard) IH on em to 'pause' their HP loss a bit (See Ironheart Blessing to see what I mean). That will give you even more time to do stuff between heals

.

Paramedic - Dreamweaver · April 2010

umm whole idea is nice. any decent cler (or person who is able to read skills descriptions) should have similar thoughts like you. unfortunately many dont b:chuckle

it s better now tho. i remeber back in nub days when for many ppl art of healing

was about 'just-IH and trash other spells' idea.
i even remeber those resentments from team mates - cuz i wasnt just 'IHing' and i used other spells, and also -omg- i was sparking between heals

btw

BotP = exactly 2 WS (not 2-3) but bit faster and cheaper

WS dont have long channel time. it s just 0.5s slower than IH. 0.5s more dont take 'ages' to cast

anyway, i ll be bit sceptical. it s sposed to be guide of cler 'who uses all his skills' but u dont have GL and just 2-3 lvl SoR, CHHB

btw. u shud make one long post cuz spammers like me will run over this topic

Hthor - Dreamweaver · April 2010

Thanks for the feedback :P. I would make one long post but I kept hitting a character limit or something to that effect

.

And I do use SoR and Chrom, and I'm getting GL soon - They just cost a fair bit to upgrade/get so I don't want to talk about how I use em yet. There's a chance that I may say "use this skill this way" when I have it level 3, but when I have it at level 10 I may think otherwise. Like I said, _I_ use them at those levels, but I don't want to be giving false info to people that have higher level skills.

Also, I didn't know BotP was 2x Wellsprings, I haven't done the math - everything I say is purely from a lot of gameplay experience. That's very good to note though, ty

.

omg, I spark between heals or double spark right before using SoR or Chrom at times - people yell at me too -.-. What I really like is when people sometimes freak out if I use wellspring on a boss instead of IH (I had a level 92 barb yell at me for using it in TT1-1 at Chien when I was level 81) - nobody seems to realize that clerics do infact have more than 1 useful heal xD.

mulanrouge · April 2010

just an fyi -

chrome and SoR WILL be used much more often at later level instances b:shutup

ps -> i use all my skills on a daily basis, only way to play efficiently

Sylredrae - Sanctuary · April 2010

Indeed. I'm not much of a fan of Chromatic Healing Beam but I use it when I have to. Stream of Rejuvination though... lol, I use this heal quite frequently. It's my emergency heal on tanks, and using a glaive as my main weapon means that heals can spike pretty high. Tanks can go from low health to almost full after one use of Stream of Rejuvination. b:victory

Tank at 25% hp + Stream of Rejuvination = tank at nearly full health + no need to res/get BM to emergency tank/squad wipe XD

Handmaiden - Dreamweaver · April 2010

Yeah SoR and Chrome have become VERY useful.
Many clerics don't realize how powerful SoR can be on tank barbs. I actually met a lv100 cleric that told me, in all seriousness, that WS was better on a TANK BARB, because it was faster.
I personally use WS for building chi in instances(if there's no NPC to bash nearby), or for healing squishies quickly.

Anyway, very well put-together. ^^

Lylfo - Dreamweaver · April 2010

what are you talking about? all we need is BB, BB, and the 2 sparks to use that BB b:laugh

DeathBanana - Heavens Tear · April 2010

Hthor - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Blessing of the Purehearted (BotP)

- 3 Best Pros:
○ Low MP use Hardly; take a look here. Until your magic attack is 6065, IH will be more MP-efficient than BotP
EDIT: Black = IH, Red = BotP, Blue = Wellspring, Green = SoR, and Orange = CHB
○ Heals a fair bit more than most cleric skills Per cast, yes. Once you get SoR leveled, it will heal MUCH more per cast
○ Great for grinding when trying to make money I find IH better for grinding, as it costs more or less the same amount of MP, and you don't have to be at particularly low health to use it and not waste heals

- 3 Worst Cons:
○ Insane channel time (seriously, WTF - 3 seconds...? O.o) The main drawback
○ Uses in combat are extremely limited HPS wise, BotP is awful, and for times that you need an instant heal, you'll either wellspring or SoR
○ Most will label you a "fail cleric" upon use (they're right sometimes, too >.>) *points up*

Hthor - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Ironheart Blessing (IH)

- 3 Best Pros:
○ Can give near invincibility when spammed on a single target No argument here
○ Heal over Time effect lets you focus on other party members No argument here either
○ Very spam able (it stacks, and casts fast) No argument here either

- 3 Worst Cons:
○ NONE! (people think that at least, and become too reliant on it ) Clerics who over-IH annoy me >.>
○ High MP use (spam casts every 2 sec @ ~225mp/cast) Once again, here. For the amount of HP it heals, I'd consider it a fairly low MP use
○ Sometimes hard to tell if you're over/under using it due to heal over time This can be tricky, but eventually you'll (hopefully) be able to judge how much healing is appropriate

Hthor - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Wellspring Surge (Wellspring)

- 3 Best Pros:
○ Combat useable (1.5 sec. channel isn't great, but it's tolerable) 1.5 sec. is amazing b:dirty
○ Very low MP use I suppose, considering how much you clerics spam it
○ Heals enough that you can use it in emergencies Works like a dream in the lower levels, but the fact that it only takes 20% of your Magic Attack kind of bites

- 3 Worst Cons:
○ Barely sooths a high-HP target at all SoR is pretty much made for this
○ No heal over time, the small amount it heals is all it heals I frankly can't see a HoT being useful with WS
○ Channel time (yes, it's a con too), 1.5 sec can feel like ages in desperate times *shrug* it's the best we've got

My thoughts

Tojop - Dreamweaver · April 2010

Chromatic healing beam I never really used in my 8x, but once you start doing Frostcovered City....hoo boy. Get used to casting that one. Also, Wings of Protection is the best emergency heal we have, actually. It doesn't heal, but sets up a shield with ZERO channel time. Should be at least enough to pop off wellspring or whatever you're in the mood for. /2 cents

Bollocks - Raging Tide · April 2010

Used and still use Chromotic healingbeam in every instance after barb buffs. Easier to cast then 6 single wellsprings b:thanks

MystiMonk - Sanctuary · April 2010

It is also better to use chromatic healing beam than bb at times as it doesn't drain all of your mana.It is why I am lvling mine up for the wider range.

Sylredrae - Sanctuary · April 2010

MystiMonk - Sanctuary wrote: »

It is also better to use chromatic healing beam than bb at times as it doesn't drain all of your mana.It is why I am lvling mine up for the wider range.

Untrue! If you want to use Chromatic Healing Beam because it uses less mana than BB, keep it as low as you can get away with! Leveling it will give you more healing per cast and more range, but it also costs more mana. My Chromatic Healing Beam is currently lvl 7 and and it already costs 800mp per cast! b:shocked

Believe me, when you start lvling it higher, and if you have to spam it non-stop, it will cost more mana than BB.

MystiMonk - Sanctuary · April 2010

I think mine is at 6 or 7 to I guess I will stop lvling it then and use bb sparingly.

DeathBanana - Heavens Tear · April 2010

Here's another graph, this time comparing the HP per MP (Black = Lvl 1 CHB, Red = Lvl 10 CHB, Blue = BB, Green = BB multiplied by 2 (for the damage reduction effect)). In short, BB is much more MP-efficient than CHB for bosses and such, but CHB still has higher numbers. Besides, BBing in anticipation for sparce boss AoEs (e.g. FB/BH69) isn't exactly easy or efficient.

Lylfo - Dreamweaver · April 2010

In bh 79 and bh 89, BB is a must for high level parties. (Unless you have reflex of a tiger)
It keeps the cleric stress-free, makes the DD go all-out and barbs QQ less about repair bills. There is no other heals that has all these miraculous effects. b:thanks

Decus - Dreamweaver · April 2010

Lylfo - Dreamweaver wrote: »

In bh 79 and bh 89, BB is a must for high level parties. (Unless you have reflex of a tiger)
It keeps the cleric stress-free, makes the DD go all-out and barbs QQ less about repair bills. There is no other heals that has all these miraculous effects. b:thanks

BB in FB79 b:question

Handmaiden - Dreamweaver · April 2010

Decus - Dreamweaver wrote: »

BB in FB79 b:question

Yeah it makes little sense to me too, but I guess if there's no barb to tank?

Lylfo - Dreamweaver · April 2010

Its when aggro fails in this game. Aggro generated by skills has a limit but aggro generated damage especially by a lvl 90+ DD has a much higher limit. In that sense, barbs get outaggro-ed very easily and thus, you get something like an aggro juggle.

(Try to hold aggro against a 5atk/sec fist archer for example)

BB fixes all of that. DDs aren't afraid to steal aggro and you would still be doing your job : to heal.

And yes. I am a fail cleric too =D. Ask para b:laugh

Decus - Dreamweaver · April 2010

Lylfo - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Its when aggro fails in this game. Aggro generated by skills has a limit but aggro generated damage especially by a lvl 90+ DD has a much higher limit. In that sense, barbs get outaggro-ed very easily and thus, you get something like an aggro juggle.

(Try to hold aggro against a 5atk/sec fist archer for example)

BB fixes all of that. DDs aren't afraid to steal aggro and you would still be doing your job : to heal.

And yes. I am a fail cleric too =D. Ask para b:laugh

Gotcha, makes sense. Was just lost for a moment.

No worries, I am the most fail cleric that exists b:cool

Magicgabe - Lost City · April 2010

some people seem to fail to recognize that there's more to healing that just MP and HP

There's an issue of frequency of heal - the less the HP your target has, the higher frequency you want

then there's neccesisity of heal - if a barb has less than 25% HP, you wanna wellspring and IH in alternates( wellspring to buy time for IH and IH for eventual regain)

BotP is useful, but you gotta learn how to use it right. It has several benefits: chi, cheap MP at low levels.

BB is useful to prevent spike damage from 1-shotting people. Other than that, it's main use is pyscological. People seem to act calmer with BB around.

And know what other heals people have. Wiz can big-heal, pysics can boost your heal and have AOE heal for light AOEs , BMs can keep themselves alive for awhile w/ sutra and .

healing isn't as simple as button hitting. its more of an art.

Bollocks - Raging Tide · April 2010

Lylfo - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Its when aggro fails in this game. Aggro generated by skills has a limit but aggro generated damage especially by a lvl 90+ DD has a much higher limit. In that sense, barbs get outaggro-ed very easily and thus, you get something like an aggro juggle.

(Try to hold aggro against a 5atk/sec fist archer for example)

BB fixes all of that. DDs aren't afraid to steal aggro and you would still be doing your job : to heal.

And yes. I am a fail cleric too =D. Ask para b:laugh

You have a point there.. But I still disagree to the use of BB then. Cause of a DD can't control their damage, we should waste tons of mp with a BB b:sad

In an fb/bh79 BB might save the life of a sin when it steals aggro. But BB won't save a sin's life in TT2-3 at Wurlord.

Handmaiden - Dreamweaver · April 2010

Bollocks - Raging Tide wrote: »

You have a point there.. But I still disagree to the use of BB then. Cause of a DD can't control their damage, we should waste tons of mp with a BB b:sad

In an fb/bh79 BB might save the life of a sin when it steals aggro. But BB won't save a sin's life in TT2-3 at Wurlord.

No but in 2-3 you mainly just BB so the barb will shut up. Granted there's two clerics, which there kind of has to be for Bel. $:\$

Lylfo - Dreamweaver · April 2010

Magicgabe - Lost City wrote: »

some people seem to fail to recognize that there's more to healing that just MP and HP

There's an issue of frequency of heal - the less the HP your target has, the higher frequency you want

then there's neccesisity of heal - if a barb has less than 25% HP, you wanna wellspring and IH in alternates( wellspring to buy time for IH and IH for eventual regain)

BotP is useful, but you gotta learn how to use it right. It has several benefits: chi, cheap MP at low levels.

BB is useful to prevent spike damage from 1-shotting people. Other than that, it's main use is pyscological. People seem to act calmer with BB around.

And know what other heals people have. Wiz can big-heal, pysics can boost your heal and have AOE heal for light AOEs , BMs can keep themselves alive for awhile w/ sutra and .

healing isn't as simple as button hitting. its more of an art.

^ this is what Hthor can use in his compendium. For tanks with smaller hp pool, IH is the only way to go. With more hp, you can then use your other skills like Wellspring, IH combo or IH, Stream combo. Knowing when to use which heals in order to maximize what you can do is an art like what Magicgabe said. ( Also knowing when you can afk and macro heals b:quiet)

As for sins stealing aggro in tt, BB might still buy enough time for the Barb/BM to regain aggro rather than he dies instantly. A good DD should know when they can handle aggro and when they can't. And for the mana wasting comment, a DD that doesn't go all out is wasting our mana and time.

naughtykitteh · May 2010

what skill is BB?

ManeK - Harshlands · May 2010

naughtykitteh wrote: »

what skill is BB?

BB = a short term for Blue Bubble
Blue Bubble = a visual aid for the skill called Regeneration Aura

Bagoly_ - Sanctuary · May 2010

BB=Byebye!

Ergo sparked Tempest on a sleeped and debuffed opponent. b:chuckle

Hthor's Compendium for Cleric Skills

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