Solo caster clerics - tactics and strategy?

[Cypren]

So I've done a fair bit of reading on this forum and really appreciated a lot of the good advice on builds and equipment choices here. I'm currently running a level 11 cleric as an "offensive caster" build (per the Build Catalogue: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=173369), but I'm having a devil of a time soloing quests due to SP exhaustion; I simply don't have the mana pool to kill everything with spells, and even fully buffed and using Divine Power, melee doesn't seem like a very productive way of killing my way through a dungeon due to the very low damage output of sword-and-board fighting.

Since I keep hearing about how clerics are arguably the best solo class in the game, and the offensive caster the strongest cleric build, my conclusion is that I'm probably missing something terribly fundamental about the way in which the class is meant to engage enemies. Can some more seasoned players give me a run-down of how a cleric fights at the mid levels?

Specifically, I'm looking for detailed information on dealing with:

* Groups of ranged mobs (such as skeleton archers) that won't cluster up or chase you through a blade barrier.
* "Heavy hitter" melee mobs that can dish out 50+ damage in a single swing and have an attack bonus high enough to punch through my 31 AC reliably.
* Managing SP consumption through dungeons which don't have an abundance of rest shrines. Shrine placement seems extremely inconsistent, with some quests (Delera's Tomb) having far more than needed, and others (The Swiped Signet) having almost none. What are good ways to make your SP stretch longer in the latter?

[Visty]

what doesnt follow you, liek archers, ignore it if you dont ahve to kill it to compelte the quest

always remember you dont have to kill all mobs to complete
kill what is neccessary and run it in a blade barrier around

[Angelus_dead]

and the offensive caster the strongest cleric build
Don't know where you heard that, but it's wrong. Offensive spells are an important tool for a solo Cleric, because some monsters are difficult to beat in melee, but that can't be the only way you damage anything.


* Groups of ranged mobs (such as skeleton archers) that won't cluster up or chase you through a blade barrier.
Either don't fight them at all, or Divine Power and Quarterstaff. If you really need to use a spell to help hurt them, Cometfall can knock them over.


* "Heavy hitter" melee mobs that can dish out 50+ damage in a single swing and have an attack bonus high enough to punch through my 31 AC reliably.
Divine Power, Greater Command, and chop him up.



* Managing SP consumption through dungeons which don't have an abundance of rest shrines. Shrine placement seems extremely inconsistent, with some quests (Delera's Tomb) having far more than needed, and others (The Swiped Signet) having almost none. What are good ways to make your SP stretch longer in the latter?
Eh, depending on the exact quest there are techniques to use. Since you should be on Normal if it's at all troublesome, you can focus on just making it to one shrine, use it, and know that you can fall back there in 10-15 minutes or whatever.

Paying for more spellpoints: You could buy stacks of Heal scrolls to conserve mana for other needs, although you probably can't afford that quite yet. You can also rent cleric hirelings, some of whom have 10+ Divine Vitalities. Not only do they refill your spellpoints, but they reduce the healing you need to cast as well.

[Impaqt]

So I've done a fair bit of reading on this forum and really appreciated a lot of the good advice on builds and equipment choices here. I'm currently running a level 11 cleric as an "offensive caster" build (per the Build Catalogue: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=173369), but I'm having a devil of a time soloing quests due to SP exhaustion; I simply don't have the mana pool to kill everything with spells, and even fully buffed and using Divine Power, melee doesn't seem like a very productive way of killing my way through a dungeon due to the very low damage output of sword-and-board fighting.

Since I keep hearing about how clerics are arguably the best solo class in the game, and the offensive caster the strongest cleric build, my conclusion is that I'm probably missing something terribly fundamental about the way in which the class is meant to engage enemies. Can some more seasoned players give me a run-down of how a cleric fights at the mid levels?

Specifically, I'm looking for detailed information on dealing with:

* Groups of ranged mobs (such as skeleton archers) that won't cluster up or chase you through a blade barrier.

Leave Em Be. No need to waste time with Turretted mobs. THey dont count twoards Dungeon alert and they cant hurt y ou once your out of range.


* "Heavy hitter" melee mobs that can dish out 50+ damage in a single swing and have an attack bonus high enough to punch through my 31 AC reliably.

Dont get near enough for them to hit you.


* Managing SP consumption through dungeons which don't have an abundance of rest shrines. Shrine placement seems extremely inconsistent, with some quests (Delera's Tomb) having far more than needed, and others (The Swiped Signet) having almost none. What are good ways to make your SP stretch longer in the latter?

THey key to high end soloing on a cleric is efficeint use of blade barriers.... Luckily the devs have build in a new system that tells us exactly when the right time is to drop a nice fat blade Barrier. Its called Dungeon Altert Yellow!(or if your brave, Go to Orange).

Move forward inthe quest until you hit that alert then drop the Blade barrier and watch the fireworks.

I would suggest going out into the Orchard to fine tune your blade barrier Skills. get used to where the barrier actually hit the mobs. Figure out how to kit mobs around the outside of the barrer where they tend to cross over the threshold often.

WHile learnng quests, I would suggest using more cure wands and scrolls to top your hit points up if ya have time. Save those spell points for more Blade barriers.

[krud]

if your dps is low then use wounders or some other stat damager. It'll bring them to auto crit faster than simply beating them down with dps. For most everything else gather them up and use blade barrier.

[Impaqt]

If your seeing mobs make a lot of saves against your blade barriers a Cursespewer and a Maladriot weapon are your best friends.

[MrCow]

A couple unmentioned tips when it comes to utilizing blade barrier:


Striding Boots or a Striding Ring help keep the damage you take down when utilizing a blade barrier.
Most clerics have poor jump and sometimes the areas that you may need to use a blade barrier are narrow. Potions of Jump are both very cheap and quite handy.
In the lower levels of blade barrier you can't use Superior Potency VI (ML 14). Seek out a cheaper Greater Potency VI (ML 12), Greater Efficacy VI (ML 10), or Superior Efficacy VI (ML 12) to boost the damage.



THey key to high end soloing on a cleric is efficeint use of blade barriers.... Luckily the devs have build in a new system that tells us exactly when the right time is to drop a nice fat blade Barrier. Its called Dungeon Altert Yellow!(or if your brave, Go to Orange).

I prefer Dungeon Alert Green as a maximum marker. In some situations if you get to Dungeon Alert Yellow and have a reduced movement speed then you are much more vulnerable to area of effect spells, ray spells, attacks, knockdown, and critters surrounding you to the point where it is difficult to get out, sometimes resulting in death.

[sirgog]

Generally good tips so far. In particular, try to always use one Bladebarrier to kill many mobs.

I recommend hunting down one of the aforementioned Greater Efficacy 6 items - check the House D brokers. These will help you enormously.


Another spell you might want to consider trying out is Symbol of Persuasion. It takes some practice to use, and is not suited for every quest, but it is an area-of-effect mass charm spell. (It also has BB's long cast time, and has a 90 second cooldown. At your level, foes stay charmed for 66 seconds (132 extended).

[samho]

Personally, I prefer this kiting style (http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/179/ddobladebarrierkiting.jpg) (when you have large enough space and have a longer hp monster -- usually the end boss ). The reason behind was blade barrier have slightly greater actual radius than their visual radius -- and blade barrier only make damage when monster enter / leave the effect area.


You can also cast bane (CLR1) / bestow bane (CLR3) / symbol of pain (CLR5) (it's better to prepare it before hand if you want use the symbol) if you have no desire getting touched by the said monster. Highten seems works with blade barrier as well.


For Monster who doesn't come up with spell resistance and not construct type, Ray of Exhaustion clicky (or Wave of Exhaustion) was also good to reduce their dex for a short period time (but it also reduce the rate they getting contact with blade barrier due to slower moving speed)

[sirgog]

One more thing you might find useful soloing:

Potions of Jump.

These little beauties will let you jump over mobs, allowing you to more efficiently kite them through your bladebarriers. Basically, this will allow you to amass larger numbers of foes without getting overwhelmed, before you order mincemeat and drop that devastating bladebarrier. (Overwhelmed here isn't referring to the Dungeon Alert effect but just the normal meaning of the word)

[Cypren]

Thanks for all the advice. I think the biggest thing I was missing was the concept of "training" the dungeon to gather up a sufficient gang before dropping the blade barrier. Coming from other MMOs, I've gotten fixed into the mindset that large hordes of mobs equal instant death, and that really isn't the case in DDO.

I have a Superior Potency VI scepter sitting in my bank waiting for me to hit 14. I hadn't thought about looking for a Greater Efficacy VI item; I haven't seen any on the auction house, but I'll check the various House brokers and see if one turns up.

Is there a specific reason that a quarterstaff was recommended as a good weapon earlier? I've been using the standard "sword and board", with the Follower of the Sovereign Host enhancement to give me longsword proficiency and the +1 hit bonus. (Plus its advanced belief component for that lovely insta-cure-all.) My rationale at the time was that the significant AC bonus from the shield was worth more than the small amount of extra damage I might get on a crit with a two-handed staff weapon. Was that incorrect?

[Impaqt]

Quarterstaff for Skellies. DOuble Str bonus to damage and its blunt. Longsword for just about everything else with the enhancments.

[EKKM]

Quarterstaff for Skellies. DOuble Str bonus to damage and its blunt. Longsword for just about everything else with the enhancments.

1.5 for strength bonus, not x2. x2 is the power attack bonus for two handers.

[Drekisen]

At level 11 u should have ur AC way higher than 31. U might wanna put some more into that aspect of ur build.

10 Base
13 Full Plate
7 Heavy Shield
3 Barkskin Potion
2 Recitation
3-4 Deflection Item or SoF
1 DEX
2 Alchemical Rituals
---
41-42

2 Defensive Fighting (if u can still hit with it on)
2 Chaosguard (if ur the right alignment or have UMD)
1 Haste Potion
---
46-47

[ariel7]

Level 11 was tougher than 12 for me by a very wide margin. I got elfcrafted armor for arcane lore and used only heal scrolls for self healing to lengthen the spell points. Trust me life is better at level 12 and beyond. Potency and a chance to crit on blade barriers and you'll be smiling inno time.

I also:
recommend having scrolls of spells like feast and the like to help further lengthen those spell points
buff the longer lasting spels first and not even extended if shrines come before buff wears off and certainly drop quicken for buffing
use scrolls of summon or even hirelings depending on situation
striders plus haste potion/clickie to make a train then throw a blade barrier
finally for soloing I pay closer attention to exactly what buffs are needed and what spells are needed

symbol of persuasion is the shizzit for a soloer

[Bunker]

but I'm having a devil of a time soloing quests due to SP exhaustion; I simply don't have the mana pool to kill everything with spells

OP: Out of everything you said, this phrase stuck out the most to me. Simply put, if you want to solo quests, you have to differentiate between killing everything and completing the quest. In short time, you will learn that almost every quest in the game does not require every monster to be dead. This and this alone will be a great start to managing your SP usage.

There are many other good suggestion that you will read. What you have to ask yourself is: Are you in the quest to complete it or to kill everything in it?

When you know that answer, you will start paying attention to your play style and the answer to your low SP issue will be resolved.

/cheers -Bunk

[The_Great_Samulas]

One thing I would add. You will hopefully get to the point where archers are actually your favorite mob. Just hang out with 4-12 of them shooting you in shield block mode once you get the Torc from the Demon Queen raid. You'll never worry about mana again...

Concordiant opposition from the shroud is also effective and combinatorial, but nothing is like the Torc. The Torc is one of THE items for soloing. Get one ASAP. Of course, you can't get one by soloing...

[Bunker]

Get one ASAP. Of course, you can't get one by soloing...

Not true.

[Cramski]

One thing to add also, I may have missed it if it it was written, is stacking the BB on end bosses or for huge mobs. I can stack four BBs and get 10 secs of with four ticks/monster. You only get one tick as they enter the BB and all 4 when they leave. One thing to add on this is that if you want all four to tick you need to have extend and quicken for the 50 sec BB and so you do't get interrupted. This will drop mobs like crazy, hugely mana intensive but also hugely effective. They do need to be stack pretty close to exactly on top of each other so they look like only one BB.

I do this on Devils in the the vale on hard/elite and I had plenty of mana(1780) at lvl 16. Now I have over 2200 and most things are no problem.

[Impaqt]

Seems to me that losing 25%+ of your blade barrier damage is innefficient.....

Just space em out and you get the tick going In and Going Out on all of them....

[Cramski]

True. Spacing them out, which I do alot, is effective. The distance between seems to be quite a ways from each others in order to get both to tick. I like having two stacks of two BB to circle them around if there is room. Its just one method/style. You'll figure out what you like and what works for you.

[dopey69]

At level 11 u should have ur AC way higher than 31. U might wanna put some more into that aspect of ur build.

10 Base
13 Full Plate
7 Heavy Shield
3 Barkskin Potion
2 Recitation
3-4 Deflection Item or SoF
1 DEX
2 Alchemical Rituals
---
41-42

2 Defensive Fighting (if u can still hit with it on)
2 Chaosguard (if ur the right alignment or have UMD)
1 Haste Potion
---
46-47

i solo most of the content in this game with a cleric that has lower ac than 31 :) imo ac to a caster cleric is as important as high ac on a sorc or wiz. it is not needed . tactics for the win .it has changed a bit since the DA came out. now like impaqct said it will tell you when you need to lay down a bb and keep moving. only thing you are having a problem with atm is that your bb is not strong enough yet. you should be hitting them for around 600 points of dammage when you get it tweeked . 300 in and 300 out ,and yes it does not take long to clear a room like that . so worrying about wheather to use a long sword for one extra point in dammage is not important. imo if you are swinging away instead of laying down a bb and running them thriugh it, is where the problem is.

[Zenako]

OK you might see some of those huge numbers being cited for damage and wonder ? HOW do they get there???

Feats useful for soloing differ from those most useful for group play. Spells memorized for soloing are also different. Clickies can be your friend when soloing too.

One of the key points made, was the difference between completing the quest, vs killing everything. You can end up wasting a lot of time and spell points trying to kill everything in a quest, for that little extra EXP award. Its a tradeoff.

Get bang for your buck and gather the mobs together for blade barrier fun. Get and use items to boost the power of spells (the best one you can use for your level) like my level 12 cleric just started using a Greater Potency VI item. Be sure to have some Feat that amps up damage like Maximize for example. Extend is more useful in the mid levels. (I have personally found that extend ends up being overkill at high levels with spells like Blade Barriers still running LONG after all the mobs were dead, and the lower level buffs spells now last long enough and have low enough base cost that extend is not really buying you much for the cost of a feat. Quicken is more useful for a solo cleric.)

As for armor and AC. You can as shown get to a significantly better AC than 31, if you have the gear or resources. You should also look to be wearing armor with some DR to it. My clerics of that level often wear some Platemail of the Giants. I give up an AC (it is only +4 Full Plate) to get the Damage Reduction of DR5/-. Ends up making a very nice difference, especially with glancing blows or missile fire. Plain Adamantine full plate is still DR3/- and very useful. You are also able to wear a Heavy Fortification Item at level 11, and should have one on by now. You can get a helm from the Orchard Tapestry turns in, or run Relic of the Sovereign Past to get Ore to have a Heavy Fort Necklace made. With heavy fort, no crits on you.

Monster Summons can be your friend and a useful spell point expenditure.

Learn how to sneak. Even a full plate wearing cleric can do it against some mobs. Invisibility works wonders in other cases.

Make sure your enhancements are tweaked to maximize their effect on healing/damage outputs. Better to get 10% better results than to get 5% more Spell points from those same enhancement action points. More Spell Points are an attractive lure, but often you will get better effects spending them elsewhere. If you solo for example, most of the Divine (healing, vitiality, cleansing) do nothing for you, so don't go there, waste of action points. (If you group a lot, those can be very useful to have.)

[zooble]

when i group up too many mephits i discon and die

or i die but i'm still alive when logging in... i'd still take the repair hit and chances are i'm surrounded by mobs... due to the way blade barrier works i probably won't make it out alive so i die again and take a bigger repair hit

or the mephits overload ddo again and i dc again... rinsed and repeated

spirit cake sales rocket

[GreyRevan]

Specifically, I'm looking for detailed information on dealing with: Groups of ranged mobs

- any +5 tower shield - wood, steel, mythril for DR9 (it doesnt matter it goes yellow in your hands)
- spearblock item for piercing DR5
- plate of the giants DR5
- heavy fort neckie (level 9) from "A Relic of Sovereign Host" (10 ores needed) http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s220/jgould2005/DDO/Items/Necklaces/NightforgeGorget.jpg
- aid neckie from Cannith Crystal quest on Korthos - you can solo it on casual at level 1 (i do it on norm, then many times on hard for xp first); it fives 8 hp at level 1, and more later (that way you spare sp and money for self-healing); you can have them as many as you want by repeating quest
- fearsome robe or outfit (level 4); fearsome/heavy fort robe or outfit (level 14) - (I am a robe-wearing cleric)
- robe of magi at quest beginning for 100 sp initial buffing (its 200 sp with 1 sorc level)
- Icy Raiment (level 14) http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s220/jgould2005/DDO/Items/Robes/IcyRaiment.jpg

Taking 1 level of wizard (or sorcerer for double sp on some items) makes wonders. You can use lots of scrolls and wands for easier soloing, tactical reasons, extended survivability, warforged repairing or just to make your/party's life easier when no arcane around. Some of them are for lower levels only and some will stay up to endgame...

- melee: greater command + masters touch + divine power & favour + stat damager
- ranged: zen archery feat + silver flame enhancement + divine power & favour + holy (acid)/puregood/ice (risia 1d6)/force bow + (summoned) flamearrow
- tactical: freedom of movement + sleet storm or grease (grease + burning hands or fireball wand)
- self-buff: Expeditious Retreat, Feather Fall, Jump, Mage Armor, Shield, Merfolk's Blessing, Tumble, Cat's Grace, False Life, Heroism, Rage
- healing: repair warforged with all kinds of rep wands
- crowd control: Charm Person, Grease, Hypnotism, Chill Touch, Glitterdust, Web, Sleet Storm, Fear
- helpful: Detect Secret Doors, Fireball (nice for door opening :D), Teleport
- offensive: Melf's Acid Arrow, Force Missile, Lightning Bolt, Fireball, Acid Blast
- survival: Blur, Displacement, Invisibility, Haste, Fire Shield, Stoneskin