Cleric Build Question

Fisyn - Heavens Tear · November 2010

I have read the forums and realize there are 3 good builds for a cleric. They are:

+ Highly offensive build.
- 9 MAG
- 1 STR

+ Balanced build.
- 6 MAG
- 1 STR
- 3 VIT

+ Light armor build.
- 6 MAG
- 2 STR
- 2 DEX

My question is, which one would be best for my type of playing?

I like to help others whenever I can and plan on leveling up these skills most:

- Ironheart Blessing
- Plume Shot
- Great Cyclone
- Spirit's Gift
- Spark Ignition

But I also like to hold my own when there is none around to help me, i.e. soloing.

So, which build would be best for me to use?

PsychedHarpy - Heavens Tear · November 2010

You like to help... you seem like you can hold your own.....

How about the Highly offensive build? b:chuckle

Fisyn - Heavens Tear · November 2010

I thought about that but it has a low survivability, which might not be a good thing if I have to solo sometimes.

GenericBrand - Archosaur · November 2010

Fisyn - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I thought about that but it has a low survivability, which might not be a good thing if I have to solo sometimes.

This is really only an issue for melee type mobs that are right in your face. Even then you have several skills to help such as ironheart/plume shell. The low survivability is a major concern for things with crazy AoE/physical damage, PvP, or if you generally don't check your own health bar.

I've never tried any of the other builds since I have too much fun with being highly offensive b:laugh
But I will tell you that there are many times I am easily 1-hit killed and had I chosen hybrid or whatever build I would have had plenty of time to react and survive.

/shrug

Flickerfae - Sanctuary · November 2010

I'm relatively offensive (added 1 vit a level until 40 and capped it there, then everything extra into mag), and it's an awesome way to play.

Some vit is nice, just so you don't get one-shotted by certain bosses' aoes (TT comes to mind....). Whether you get it by sharding your gear or giving yourself a little vit is up to you. Personally, I supplement my vit with citrines, and it does make me hardier than other party squishies... this is nice when things go sideways during dungeons, since it gives the tank more time to grab aggro back.

1.5 vit a level is probably a bit much, though. We don't really get enough hp per vit to make the drop in magic attack worth it. Think of it this way: the higher your Mag, the stronger your heals, and therefore the stronger they'll be if you need to lay a couple on yourself.

Light armor is not recommended unless you want to pvp. There are much better ways to make yourself sturdier than to add to a stat (dex) that's pretty much useless to us otherwise. Again, decent gear and well-leveled heals will get you very far, as far as survivability goes.

So I vote for highly offensive... with perhaps some tweaks. b:chuckle

Deceptistar - Sanctuary · November 2010

maybe 20-30vit might be good for you tops. Rest into mag, which covers your attack and magic defense. Now you want to focus on physical defense which you lack. HP is good but dont forget to balance your defenses out, magical and physical. You dont want to be a super squishy that has alot of HP that goes down just as fast.

Teny - Heavens Tear · November 2010

When it comes to a build, it depends entirely on your playstyle/resource management.

Vit, while being nice for some tiny resists/hp, definitely lowers your damage output/heal strength, so generically as an arcane cleric you don't want to up vit using stat points.

The one downside to being a pure magic build, is needing very good gear to increase your survivability, be it with vit stones, garnet/citrine gems, or with high refines on your gear, to effectively be "pure" you need very good gear, otherwise you'll hit/heal for a nice amount but get killed by AoEs and such.

Deceptistar - Sanctuary · November 2010

Teny - Heavens Tear wrote: »

When it comes to a build, it depends entirely on your playstyle/resource management.

Vit, while being nice for some tiny resists/hp, definitely lowers your damage output/heal strength, so generically as an arcane cleric you don't want to up vit using stat points.

The one downside to being a pure magic build, is needing very good gear to increase your survivability, be it with vit stones, garnet/citrine gems, or with high refines on your gear, to effectively be "pure" you need very good gear, otherwise you'll hit/heal for a nice amount but get killed by AoEs and such.

probably for tw but not as much for instances. Remember the times when perfect gems were a dream and the highest affordable was beautiful gems?

Dollface - Harshlands · November 2010

Hmm...I'm kinda balanced I have vit but I can still heal very well...but....! I hear LA Clerics are fail...they are not good for healing...(I'm not knocking LA clerics) Don't shoot the messenger >.<

Phoenix_Eye - Heavens Tear · November 2010

My veno friend has a light armor cleric and till now she does quite good . ofc she has spend a lot of coins to get legendary gear , but i think it worthed her time

Bagoly_ - Sanctuary · November 2010

Sidenote on the LA thing:
LA can work well till 90's. After that arcane is superior, unless you wear oht stuff with uberawesome bonuses or something similar and items to balance out the loss of magic def ...and refine your weapon high. I mean really high.

gelnd · November 2010

Dollface - Harshlands wrote: »

Hmm...I'm kinda balanced I have vit but I can still heal very well...but....! I hear LA Clerics are fail...they are not good for healing...(I'm not knocking LA clerics) Don't shoot the messenger >.<

If a cleric likes how LA handles, and can do his/her job properly, who's to call that fail? I have a friend who plays LA cleric, and she's never failed to save my tush when needed. Recently we duoed Qingzi with my barb and her cleric (at the time, I was 52 and she was 49) and we took him down without trouble.

Flying_Flash - Sanctuary · November 2010

I would say do not be afraid of using vit. I've capped mine at 100 and I really haven't had any problems keeping up with heals and keeping the tank up. I absolutely love the extra hp cushion.

Not to mention I think having that extra hp helps if you plan on AoE grinding poison mobs. That way you can up your special wood resistance armor with more wood resistance shards rather than citrines.

Plus if you go sage, when you get sage vanguard things really get easy for keeping those tanks alive

Paramedic - Dreamweaver · November 2010

LA cleric -unless endgame and great refines- is pretty **** idea..

gelnd · November 2010

Paramedic - Dreamweaver wrote: »

LA cleric -unless endgame and great refines- is pretty **** idea..

"What can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence."

Paramedic - Dreamweaver · November 2010

link in siggy

Bagoly_ - Sanctuary · November 2010

Paramedic - Dreamweaver wrote: »

LA cleric -unless endgame and great refines- is pretty **** idea..

Orange: Aren't endgame ornaments are the ones that make LA obsolete by giving a lot of crit and pdef?

Paramedic - Dreamweaver · November 2010

yeah,
but at least you can get more hp from high refines and also noticable crit difference

beside that, LA is tarded

gelnd · November 2010

@Paramedic: Your link does not prove that LA clerics cannot effectively do their jobs. I repeat, if a cleric likes how LA handles, and can keep his/her partners alive effectively, the build cannot be dismissed as "fail."

Paramedic - Dreamweaver · November 2010

you didnt even bother to check it...

and im not even sure what you are talking about

ijs that LA give u **** - not better defense, and you write something about 'being able to do cleric's job right'

=/

vristion · November 2010

gelnd wrote: »

@Paramedic: Your link does not prove that LA clerics cannot effectively do their jobs. I repeat, if a cleric likes how LA handles, and can keep his/her partners alive effectively, the build cannot be dismissed as "fail."

What makes a LA pointless and **** is all you are doing is trading HUGE amounts of potential m-atk (points in magic) for something you can achieve just fine as a AA geared cleric. All LA does is take away from m-def, and add p-def at a HUGE cost though.

But you can virtually get plenty of p-def, (if built/geared right same amount as a LA) keep your natural high m-def, as well as have highest potential of m-atk and never spent one point in dex-or over spend in str.

MystiMonk - Sanctuary · November 2010

vristion wrote: »

What makes a LA pointless and **** is all you are doing is trading HUGE amounts of potential m-atk (points in magic) for something you can achieve just fine as a AA geared cleric. All LA does is take away from m-def, and add p-def at a HUGE cost though.

But you can virtually get plenty of p-def, (if built/geared right same amount as a LA) keep your natural high m-def, as well as have highest potential of m-atk and never spent one point in dex-or over spend in str.

You won't lose that much m atk as LA Cleric and that all depends to if you are pure mag. AA Cleric.

vristion · November 2010

MystiMonk - Sanctuary wrote: »

You won't lose that much m atk as LA Cleric and that all depends to if you are pure mag. AA Cleric.

You need 99 in dex (end game)99 points taken from mag
you need 99 in str (end game) 45 points taken from mag

with a difference of 412 base to 551 full mag.... that's not a lot? those two may seem little, but once you add gears and mods, it becomes a difference of THOUSANDS....and you trade off those thousands to achieve what as a LA?

More p-def? what about your m-def? what would you shard....lemme guess HP? ya will have to, no choice but to....why? because ya dont have room to spend in VIT because if you do you would absolutely become worthless as a healer, much less do any damage worth a flip. so now you have

A cleric, with sub par heals, fully sharded with HP shards, has crappy defense all around..basically a squishy sin with slow, low damage dealing nukes.

Id say that is a HUGE loss..

Deceptistar - Sanctuary · November 2010

its not a huge loss but..........id say its more of a waste of points >.> excluding player skills tho

xxxdsmer · November 2010

just build a HA cleric and do a little +'s and citrines n u'll have the average 4-5k HP that most lv9x clerics seem to have anyways

then you'll be able to heal for insane stoopid phys atk aoe bosses like soulbanisher without a problem b:pleased

and no ppl, there isnt much difference in mag atk between a full vit cleric, an LA cleric, and a properly built HA cleric.

ofc there's gona be more mag atk if you go arcane and pump every spare point into mag, but who of us average geared players is going to be able to survive with 3 base vit and the subsequent crappy pdef b/c we're trying to be metal mages? noone. lol (pure strength barb with the average **** for refines+shards trying to tank fb69 at lv70 any1? i didnt think so.)

do what fits your playstyle. my cleric 90+ would probably be HA. but i also have a lv90 veno wearing hh90 glaive and mountcrasher at level 90, not 98.. so i'd say i've done it properly lol.

Paramedic - Dreamweaver · November 2010

arguing on forums seem so pointless sometimes..

forget about mag attack for a second and try to answer if LA or HA benefits you more in terms of defense than AA

is it more effective? or at least - cheaper?

Chrystin - Raging Tide · November 2010

My cleric on Raging Tide is full magic (9 MAG, 1 STR every 2 levels). It is anything but squishy. My HP is well over 3000 at lev 76 due to careful attention to equipment. I have solo'd EVERY magic boss to date and most of the physical bosses. I have also solo'd every boss in BH59, including the physical one. I solo'd Zimo at level 65, when the BM (who was tanking died). While killing Zimo, I managed to rez the BM. A full magic cleric's heals are exceedingly strong and this, more than anything, makes them tough.

REALLY tired of hearing how "squishy" full-magic clerics are.

Deceptistar - Sanctuary · November 2010

xxxdsmer wrote: »

just build a HA cleric and do a little +'s and citrines n u'll have the average 4-5k HP that most lv9x clerics seem to have anyways

then you'll be able to heal for insane stoopid phys atk aoe bosses like soulbanisher without a problem b:pleased

and no ppl, there isnt much difference in mag atk between a full vit cleric, an LA cleric, and a properly built HA cleric.

ofc there's gona be more mag atk if you go arcane and pump every spare point into mag, but who of us average geared players is going to be able to survive with 3 base vit and the subsequent crappy pdef b/c we're trying to be metal mages? noone. lol (pure strength barb with the average **** for refines+shards trying to tank fb69 at lv70 any1? i didnt think so.)

do what fits your playstyle. my cleric 90+ would probably be HA. but i also have a lv90 veno wearing hh90 glaive and mountcrasher at level 90, not 98.. so i'd say i've done it properly lol.

the only properly build HA cleric is the one that has the most money dished out. There has already been a thread on this forum back in beginning of 2010 or was it 2009 using the average gold TT99 gears as HA for clerics. What we found out: the amount of money spent on 'properly building' an HA cleric, could have been used to build 'even a better' AA cleric with the same cost and overall better stats.

Mardra - Sanctuary · November 2010

I am a LA build and do just fine healing. ive never had an issue. and am solo cleric 99% of the time in BH and othe instances. Most the time ppl dont know what my build is, any more than i pay attention to exactly what their build is.. as long as they do their job, thats all that mattes.

If a cleric is fail its possible they just suck. i know many a *pure* cleric that sucks and cant heal as well as i do.

Do not dismiss what you have not played with. Making builds on a calc and claiming something is fail or good is like reading the joy of sex and deciding sex isnt fun because its too much work.

as for what build is best for you. It always depends on playing style.

Paramedic - Dreamweaver · November 2010

Mardra - Sanctuary wrote: »

I am a LA build and do just fine healing. ive never had an issue. and am solo cleric 99% of the time in BH and othe instances. Most the time ppl dont know what my build is, any more than i pay attention to exactly what their build is.. as long as they do their job, thats all that mattes.

If a cleric is fail its possible they just suck. i know many a *pure* cleric that sucks and cant heal as well as i do.

Do not dismiss what you have not played with. Making builds on a calc and claiming something is fail or good is like reading the joy of sex and deciding sex isnt fun because its too much work.

as for what build is best for you. It always depends on playing style.

this is reason why 'arguing on forums seem so pointless'

vristion · November 2010

Chrystin - Raging Tide wrote: »

REALLY tired of hearing how "squishy" full-magic clerics are.

when people talk about squishy clerics they are basically describeing the fact they have little to no P-def, in which case they absorb at best 15-20% of in comeing physical damage, and a lot of AoE mobs in endgame content does some very impressive physical AoE damage, You said you were able to solo every "magic boss" to date. Common sense would tell you why you were able to. When you can solo a physical boss, then you achieved somthing.

Cleric Build Question

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