Couple questions about being a cleric

[Scarence]

I am on my 4th life as a cleric I figure I could brute force my way thru this life and be done with it but being a cleric is brutal and it made me mad so at level 18 I decide that before I move on I am going to master cleric. All have to say to all you good clerics in the game nothing but respect and I will save my majors and pass them on to you as I go thru my lives on Cannith.
Question 1: What is a good place to have your concentration at so I do not have to use quicken but only in special circumstances?
Question 2: SR how do I manage to break that for energy drain and other spells like that?
Question 3: What gear can I easily get for end game so I am viable?
Question 4: How do I deal with situations when monsters are always blocking players from receiving heals?
Question 5: How do you do it being a cleric?

Have to edit and add one more question what are good spells besides the heals and raise dead that I can use to help more in party's then be a nanny bot.

[~Grumpycat]

I am on my 4th life as a cleric I figure I could brute force my way thru this life and be done with it but being a cleric is brutal and it made me mad so at level 18 I decide that before I move on I am going to master cleric. All have to say to all you good clerics in the game nothing but respect and I will save my majors and pass them on to you as I go thru my lives on Cannith.
Question 1: What is a good place to have your concentration at so I do not have to use quicken but only in special circumstances?
Question 2: SR how do I manage to break that for energy drain and other spells like that?
Question 3: What gear can I easily get for end game so I am viable?
Question 4: How do I deal with situations when monsters are always blocking players from receiving heals?
Question 5: How do you do it being a cleric?

1- you will always need quicken
2- with past lives 3 sorc to be exact. 3 FvS too for spell pen
3 When the cove comes, Epic plate... til then, VoD drops a good Full plate, Dragon touched armor for mid levels... there are more. Just keep swapping out and look at your spell power and AC. Light and Darkness sheild helps for a while as well
4 monsters dont block heals. Distance and corners do. Tell your meaties to stay close enough to heal or handle it themselves. *I do not chase you to heal you. If you are out of range, heal yourself*
5 With MUCH practice. I build healbots. I dont build battle clerics. When the chips are down in an epic quest, no one wants you dying or it's a wipe. If you want a battle cleric, build a FvS. (Let the flaming begin) High charisma for more turns(radiant servant bursts) currently up to 23. If you take any focus, your best spells for dmg are Evocation.(IMHO) No - not blade barrier... Divine Punishment, energy drain, etc.

Edit: Cleric capstone is pointless right now so I have taken 1 lv pally for save boost. 2 lvs pally would get you lay on hands for a personal *Uh Oh!* button. My gear leans to boosting my heals and so my personal healing amp sux. Having Lay on Hand would help- gonna try the second pally level next life.

[Scarence]

Well thank god I already have epic plate. For awhile there every party I did join I warned I was not the best healer but did of have raise dead loaded. LOL I did not even attempt to build a battle cleric but I do have to learn to always pay attention to red bars. thanks for your reply.

[domandi]

To answer some of your questions.

1) If you just keep a point in concentration per level, you should be fine. This is tough for clerics though due to them getting very few skill points a level. The only spells you really have to worry about failing are heal/mass heal. Honestly, I wouldn't even worry about it and just accept the fact that heal/mass heal will always have quicken. At end game, you are getting hit so hard that there is no way that concentration will save you anyway.

2) With twists and spell pen/greater spell pen/epic spell pen, you can have enough to hit anything through epic hard quests. For Epic Elite.... it isn't really worth it. You would need multiple wiz/fvs past lives etc. We will see how things change with the enhancement pass.

3) Tough to say. Depends on what you mean by end game and what you want to do. If just heal botting, then just get the best devotion/healing mastery stick you can find. If you want to melee or offensive cast, then there are challenge items that are easy. Greensteel is still not a horrible grind. I don't really feel the torq is really worth it anymore with more options available. Other than that, just searching the auction house and working towards a goal isn't hard.

4) I am not sure what you mean by monsters blocking the path... do you mean for clicking them? If so, learn to use f-keys or clicking the party name. If not.... not sure how to help you. Monsters don't block line of sight to players.

5) With Style :D

[~Erzmeister]

1. Always use Quicken at level 15+.

2. Enhancements, certain sticks/items, most pf all Wizard and FvS past lives, EDs

3. The Commendation gear from Eveningstar and FR & Cannith Challenge gear.

4. Monsters dont block healspells. Corners and pillars do, though. 99% of the time its the hyperactive/no-brain/unattentive player getting behind on of these and blocking you.

5. Learning that sometimes one of them has to die / stay dead for the benefit of the whole group. Its not your 1st duty to keep them all alive, but to make The Group complete the quest. A small,but important difference.

[Scarence]

I have to clarify that when I did prey on the hunter last not I kept getting the massage player is blocked when I tried to heal them and there was no pillars, corners, etc so that must of been a bug then?

[Enoach]

Question 1: What is a good place to have your concentration at so I do not have to use quicken but only in special circumstances?
Question 2: SR how do I manage to break that for energy drain and other spells like that?
Question 3: What gear can I easily get for end game so I am viable?
Question 4: How do I deal with situations when monsters are always blocking players from receiving heals?
Question 5: How do you do it being a cleric?

#1: Some will argue this, but Quicken is not always needed and is a very fast way to drain your SP pool. With that being said you should still have the Quicken Feat. If you can get all 23 Ranks of Concentration and a Concentration Item (Scrolls cannot be quickened). Also anything you can do to reduce incoming damage PRR/DR etc. will also help you with your concentration checks. Also avoid using High level spells without Quicken when you are taking lots of damage.

Tips:
Setup spells on your hot bar 2x. One with Quicken always on and one with standard option.

#2: Feats are tight on Divines, so without Past Lives in Wizard or Favored Soul and if not able to take the Spell Penetration Feat, your options are Enhancements, Gear and Shattermantel. Gear should be swappable and brought in as needed.

#3: Much of the gear is subjective to the build. A devotion and Void, Combustion item of the appropriate level can help save SP by making your healing/curing/Damage powers stronger. A Evocation, Conjuration, Necromancy and Enchantment Focus Items can help with the DCs of your spells. Gear that increases your maximum spell point pool or can restore SP (Bauble, Con-Op, Torc, etc.) are useful in extending your Spell Power.

#4: Avoid trying to click on characters on the screen, use the F-Keys or select them using the Party UI. In the event of getting "Blocked" messages (even if the field appears to be clear), try moving to the left/right. Sometimes there are terrain elements that have a bigger blocking range then they should.

#5: Patience is key. Next don't be afraid to call out a person is blocked, or attempt to re-group the party when they have bitten off more then they can handle and it is burning your ability to heal. Sometimes a just saying "Hey, this isn't working lets try this instead" can change the pace appropriately and let everyone have fun. Also avoid overhealing, you have bursts and Aura us those when outside of fights as a primary healing source, save SP for in combat healing. Supplement with wands (lower levels) and scrolls (higher levels).
Know your enemy - If you can use greater command and make them fall down, do it. It will save everyone resources. If you can't look to what you can do to contribute - Just never leave it at "I only heal".

[~MarkGrismer]

#4 I think he is talking about monsters making it difficult to click on fellow players. The answer is to use to learn the function keys to target players. Or click on them in the party list.

[~nexusvalhees]

Cleric 101

Healing a party.

Step 1: Get a **** ton of HP
Step 2: Get Some PRR
Step 3: take quicken
Step 4: Load Mass heal, and random mass cure.
Step 5: Hot bar those spells in easily reachable keys. Right click and activate quicken always on.
Step 6: Hot bar up burst and aura in easily reachable keys. Right click activate all metas available.
Step 7: Keep Aura on and stay in the middle of melee blob may as well equip a decent weapon and hit stuff.
Step 8: When Red bar gets low smash burst key. If it's really low Smash random burst mass heal/cure key.
Step 9: if you feel like it use heal to keep the non self healing ranger or arcane that can't stick close.

Repeat steps 7 and 8 as needed.

soloing

Step 1: Get a **** ton of HP
Step 2: Get Some PRR
Step 3: take quicken
Step 3: Load up quickened BB and DP add in max emp whatever
Step 4: hit BB Key
Step 5: run back and fourth.
Step 6: If Boss throw in DP

repeat steps 4-6 as needed.

Go fourth cleric go fourth and win

[Antiguo]

2- with past lives 3 wizard to be exact. 3 FvS too for spell pen


Fixed for ya :D

[~Adolf_Christ]

Well, Cleric is one of my two favorite classes in DDO(monk being the other, yet I don't like clonks... Go figure)
So I gotta ask, with your experience being:

cleric is brutal and it made me mad
Why are you playing one, let alone for four lives? If your just trying to craft a healer for when it's "your turn" to heal, I suggest a favored soul. They get more mana and generally do more damage with spells.


Question 1: What is a good place to have your concentration at so I do not have to use quicken but only in special circumstances?
As high as you can get it. As pointed out by another, quicken won't help scrolls. Personally I don't take quicken until 18, and only use it on a few spells: Heal, Mass Heal, Blade Barrier & Symbol of Death/Persuasion are about it.
I would also recommend Ballance. A healer on their back is as useful as a soul stone ;)


Question 2: SR how do I manage to break that for energy drain and other spells like that?
Depends on your target end game content: ENorm/Hard-a couple feats & a twist should be fine. For EElite I'm working the TR train, including 3x each Wiz/Soul for a total of +9. Be wary of any recommendations to class splash. Spell pen is a caster level check, so any level you splash out is effectively -1 spell pen. An (imp)curse spewing/(imp)shattermantle weapon is very handy if you locate your casting gear on non-weapon slots.


Question 3: What gear can I easily get for end game so I am viable?
That depends greatly on how you define both "easy" and "viable." (un)Fortunately there's not a lot of great healer gear out there, but without knowing what your specific goals are and/or what you consider a reasonable effort to attain them it's hard to make specific recomendations.


Question 4: How do I deal with situations when monsters are always blocking players from receiving heals? As others have addressed, this confuses me too. Was the issue in Pray on the Hunter isolated, or does it affect you often?


Question 5: How do you do it being a cleric?
lol easiest question to answer of all: I enjoy the class and it's abilities. ;)


what are good spells besides the heals and raise dead that I can use to help more in party's then be a nanny bot.
Against trash: Symbol of Death, Blade Barrier, Implosion(*** is up w/"consume"?!) and Sound Burst are my favorites.
Against bosses: Divine Punnishment and debuffs like prayer. I find an (imp)curse spewing/(imp)destruction weapon can be handy here as well.

I hope this helps, and would be happy to expand further on any particular point or subject. Just ask here or pm me if you wish :)

[~Grumpycat]

#1: Some will argue this, but Quicken is not always needed and is a very fast way to drain your SP pool. With that being said you should still have the Quicken Feat. If you can get all 23 Ranks of Concentration and a Concentration Item (Scrolls cannot be quickened). Also anything you can do to reduce incoming damage PRR/DR etc. will also help you with your concentration checks. Also avoid using High level spells without Quicken when you are taking lots of damage.

Tips:
Setup spells on your hot bar 2x. One with Quicken always on and one with standard option.



#3: Much of the gear is subjective to the build. A devotion and Void, Combustion item of the appropriate level can help save SP by making your healing/curing/Damage powers stronger. A Evocation, Conjuration, Necromancy and Enchantment Focus Items can help with the DCs of your spells. Gear that increases your maximum spell point pool or can restore SP (Bauble, Con-Op, Torc, etc.) are useful in extending your Spell Power.



1- First you should have spell in hotbar... rt click on the spell in the hotbar and select the metamagic you want on it. So it's only a drain on the spells you want it to be. Second, a vibrant purple Ioun stone for your buff spells the swap to another trinket. 200 SP is plenty to get out the mass buffs

3 Unless you are going to be turtled up in the DPS pile or close enough to it to get hit, Conop is pointless. It only regens your SP by you getting hit. Which can be more of an SP drain.