Is channel speed really that important?

P.def is far more important than channeling speed

The simple answer is it's not very important to your success as a cleric in any situation in the game. We don't take forever to channel the majority of our skills. You can boost your channeling speed so long as you do not impede your ability to survive. Regardless of PvE or PvP, you are useless if you are dead. At that point, it is irrelevant how much -chan you have.

There is some gear in the game that gives bonuses to both survival and -chan (TT90 gold wrists, for example, or good OHT wrists). This is what you want to use. I had a base of 27 and that was good enough for me in PvE and PvP. I know clerics with more, and I see many running around with elemental ornaments... all the time... =/

I also agree that you don't want to sacrifice pdef and hp for channeling. That extra hp and pdef goes a long ways. If you want to have it, then have a channeling necklace or belt to switch up with, but definately have a pdef one.

As you stated earlier, cleric skills are already fast without it...and sage magic shell grants -20 channeling to those who choose that path.

I also speak from a pve perspective, when the most pvp experience I've had is dueling, so I cannot appropriately cover pvp. That said, I know enough to know that a cleric's natural weakness is physical damage, and being robe wearers, we need all of the pdef that we can get. Thus, using necklaces and belts to increase these is always a plus, and will increase your survivability against these attacks.

I'm also not an overgeared cleric. My gear is decent at best. Yet I have outhealed clerics that have much better gear, and higher levels than I have.

My gear is TT90, my necklace in a level 95 pdef one, my belt is the 4th map pdef one, I have a stage 1 tome, 2 magic rings, and my refines are mostly +3. My belt is +4, and I've been called an excellent cleric, and one that rarely dies,...and that's in an age where my competition is R7, R8, Nirvana geared, TT99 geared, and Lunar geared clerics...yet I still get called because I'll heal the squad, and die that little doing so. Part of the reason that I'm able to take the hits that do come to me is because I use physical def ornaments...and I'm not a cleric that can't take a hit either...nor one that uses a squad for anything aside from instances, and bosses found on the map. I solo everything else...including some of the map bosses as well, and its due to the pdef ornaments that I even survive.

@Ted: Seeing clerics in elemental ornaments make me smh some too. Lol.

I know that its a long essay, and a little jumbled, but I'm tired, so...yeah. Hope that the information helps though.

Only time i worried much about channeling gear was the stuff I kept in bank for when my Veno went taming haha.

I used to think -chan is the best back in the old day b:shocked But after a few times I've encountered bosses in warsong/3-1, -chan was no longer listed on my wish list. I keep my -chan around -33% to -39% and to me that's enough (seen cleric with -54%chan >"<)

Since I never PK, only duels (about 5% of the entire time I play), mostly I run instances a lot, so I choose HP shards (those go with my 180 vit. helps me a lot against CRAZY aoe's) b:chuckle But if you go for tw, then you would definitely need phy. def. b:pleased

For me, defense, hp, and channeling are all important. acknowledge the fact that when one of the three increase, the other two generally decrease.

Therefore, at high levels, its nice to have both a channeling necklace and belt for special ocassions, as well as puzzle cube/warsong belt/jungle belt/other def and hp belts for other ocassions. same with the rings: its nice to have a set of highly refined defense rings for survival purposes, as well as a set of rank rings (or other rings that give channeling) in other cases.

Generally, in pk, defense rings are the way to go (generally), while in PVE, if you already have enough hp from your armors, you will need that extra channeling and magic attack from your rings, so PVE default rings are magic.

Same with capes. You might want to keep a cloudcharger/elite leather/matchless wings when you're trying to survive, while you may use a calm robe if you think you have enough hp/def from other stuff. Switching back and forth is pretty useful.

This post is very general so please do not hate on me personally if you have opposing opinions.

Decus - Dreamweaver wrote: »

Your post is fine, and I agree that swapping gear allows for greater flexibility (like someone said earlier for pulling off a faster revive or BB channel). The one addendum I'd like to make is that gear flexibility comes out to a greater investment in money. That's not really an excuse for having decent gear, I just wanted to point out that not everyone will keep a set of highly refined phys rings for pvp.

First of all, thanks for not insulting my post, because a lot of people do insult each other in forums these days.

And on Decus' point, I would like to add to the thread saying that in the case money becomes an issue, its best to look at what kind of stuff one does more, like aoe (channeling important to prevent cancels), BB (def more important because chan doesnt affect heal speed), and PK (def important), etc. Personally, i dont pk and i aoe grind and stuff so i got a chan neck and puzzle cube, and chan rings.

Sakubatou - Sanctuary wrote: »

Clerics are a reasonably fast casting class and our channeling and cast time tends to be about equal, which means we only get half the total reduction with -channeling gear anyways. Because alot of arcane gear contains - channeling anyways, without even looking for it, my cleric is going to land somewhere between 30-40% total, which is about perfect. Some skill cooldowns will start overlapping and glitch above that.

YES!! I dont go after - chann so to speak, but if the gear I want happens to have it b:pleased great. It's also very true that if you get too much - chann then your skills and macros will stall = not good in combat.

My philosophy when it comes to gear is "whatever works." Unless you plan to TW or PK, you don't need fantastic gear to survive in PvE. Okay, maybe in cube, but that's VERY situational as you'll only really need it if rooms 14 and 34 if you don't have the do-alls to pass instantly.

If you want both channeling and good all-around defense, go for rank 8. I never had channeling as a priority when it comes to gear, but I ended up with -18% channeling in total from rank 8 alone. Very nice bonus! b:chuckle

Also, don't worry about clerics that wear elemental -chan belts on the map while grinding/questing/killing stuff, but I'd get worried if you're in an instance where the boss has a physical AOE. I recently tried out the rank 7 belt (an elemental belt - no channeling, but still nice bonuses) and it's fantastic for killing magic mobs. So yes, there is some benefit to using elemental belts. Just don't wear them when you PK or when you're in an instance where you can expect to take damage, especially phys damage.

Regardless, I mostly use physical defense belts in general PvE. Those never have channeling, but the hp and physical defense bonuses help a ton. That's probably why even if my cleric has decent gear and not very impressive ornaments, he's pretty tough in PvE. In TW, only recast rank 8 or rank 9 may save you from being one shotted... and even if you do have them, you might get one shotted anyways! b:shocked

Chan is good but not as much as p.def and hp like other said.

If you are or plan be R8 you will get -6%chan by the weap, chest and ring, if u use TT90 gold or TT99 sleeve you'll get a other 6, which mean total -24% chan which is really decent and enough, but if u want more you can also get lunar ring that give 6 too and 250p.def., and if u can get TT99 boots you'll get a bonus -3%.

So you can get a good chan without chan ornement. I have 36% chan on my cleric and 4.5k p.def and 6.2k hp, yea i could change ornement for chan one and loose 1.1k pdef and still have around 3.4k pdef unbuffed, seriously even with my 36% chan i need to wait the skill cd anyway so that dont worth to loose p.def for more chan than needed, so even if u have 76% chan, that change nothing about the fact u need wait the cd of the skill.

Mitachi - Dreamweaver wrote: »

When you reach lvl 100 your get your channeling naturally with tt99 and r8.

tt99,r8? meh, sleeves of the sea captain: how else could a 100 cleric manage to have <3k hp so he can go splat at final caster boss? b:avoid

I run around most of the time in channeling ornaments, however I swap to phys defense ones if I notice my squad sometimes doesn't bother to agro half the mobs. (If I can handle the mobs, I do heal, if not... I'll just rez xD)

But well... I personally just love channeling... I swap to channeling ornaments too when healing a boss without aoe/weak aoe to ditch in some attacks, or faster heals.

_vaiya_ - Lost City wrote: »

channeling gear isn't all that important. i'd say that it's actually one of the least important things for a cleric. the only time i can think of when channeling gear would be good is during pvp. it's a nice option to have but only when you're happy with all the rest of your stats, including phys def, HP amount and mag atk.

+1 to this

Are people so lazy that they can't use both on the hot-bar, switched circumstantially?

I've always kept channeling ornaments in my inventory.

Last time I put them on? About 2 and a half years ago.