Solid Healer with light damage (32 point)

[Rull]

Basic Healer Cleric

I noticed the forum lacking such a build, so here are my thoughts about a plain and simple healer.

The focus of this build is healing, surviving and consistent damage.
Any cleric can heal a party. Some can also swing a weapon, instakill mobs, or tank. This build will try to do none of those. However, you do bring something extra. The ability to survive that dragon breath, so you can get the whole party up again. And solid damage all through the quest.

The focus is on light damage. With SLA's this is a source of cheap no-save damage to use throughout the quest. Unlike something like blade barrier for which you need to have aggro, spamming light SLA’s is more effective when not soloing. The damage is ranged, so unlike a melee dps cleric you can position yourself where you can target everyone for heals and still deal damage. This build is not made to be able to burst heavily. During lesser fights that would be a waste of spell points and during trickier fights the idea is that you throw heals. Of course most content is easy enough that no dedicated healer is needed, but this build is not for that content.

Counter-intuitive as it may be, a high wisdom is not important for a cleric, at least not for this kind of cleric. Since wisdom determines your DC, you either go all-out to get it as high as possible, or you dumpstat it altogether. A build like this all but ignores it. Your healing spells don't have a DC, and neither do almost all your light damage spells. +2 wisdom just nets you 29 SP, which is not even close to being worth much effort.

So, CON is your main stat. you max it and put all level-ups in it.
18 CON +7 levelup
14 WIS
14 CHA (36 points ups this to 15)
12 INT (34 points ups this to 14)
8 DEX
8 STR

Besides wisdom, cha is equally important since it gives you an extra channel. 29 SP doesn’t even net you an additional spell, so one could argue it’s even more important.

Since you don't have much AP to spend in your racial tree, your benefits don't come from there. The choice is between human for the free feat + 10% healing amp, or half-elf for the paladin dilettante. I went with human but i can see either.

For feats you will want something along the lines of:
1: maximize + empower (don’t toggle either on yet, at lower levels this is just to boost your SLA)
3: empower heal
6: mental toughness
9: quicken
12: improved mental
15: shield mastery (10 PRR for you tower shield. You won't be proficient in wielding it, but you'll be a master in wielding it anyway. does that make sense? no, but it is effective.)
18: toughness

on epic you take:
21: epic mental toughness
24: epic toughness
27: epic damage reduction (or maybe epic fortitude to never get stunned. Haven’t tried that yet)

For destiny feats you take 20 spell power positive and 20 spell power light.

There are 3 skills you definitely want; heal, spellcraft and balance. But also nice to have are concentration, jump and spot.
With a starting int of 12, assuming a +2 tome at level 7 you get heal23/spellcraft23/balance11/concentration23/jump7.
(if you start at 14 and have a +4 int tome you do end up at the full 23/23/11/23/11/22).

There are two paths of enhancements I have yet to decide between:

Enhancement: Human - Human Versatility: Saves Boost (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Human - Improved Recovery (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Divine Emissary of Light (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Sacred Defense (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Sun Bolt (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Sunbeam (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Sunburst (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Transcend Light (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Nimbus of Light (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Spellpower: Light (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Spell Critical: Light (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Spell Points (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Spellpower: Universal (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Efficient Maximize (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Spell Critical: Light (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Efficient Quicken (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Searing Light (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Spellpower: Light (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Spell Critical: Light (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Spellpower: Universal (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Spell Critical: Light (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Healing Domain (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Pacifism (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Positive Energy Burst (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Improved Empower Healing (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Extra Turning (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Altruism (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Improved Turning (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Efficient Empower Healing (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Intense Healing (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Unyielding Sovereignty (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Endless Turning (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Incredible Healing (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Divine Health (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Positive Energy Aura (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Cure Focus (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Clr) - Smite Foe (Rank 1)

OR

Enhancement: Human - Human Versatility: Spell Power Boost (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Human - Human Adaptability: Constitution (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Human - Improved Recovery (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Divine Emissary of Light (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Sacred Defense (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Nimbus of Light (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Spellpower: Light (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Spellpower: Universal (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Efficient Maximize (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Searing Light (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Divine Disciple (Clr) - Spellpower: Universal (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Healing Domain (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Pacifism (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Positive Energy Burst (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Improved Empower Healing (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Positive Energy Shield (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Radiant Servant (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Extra Turning (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Altruism (Rank 2)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Divine Healing (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Efficient Empower Healing (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Intense Healing (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Unyielding Sovereignty (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Incredible Healing (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Positive Energy Aura (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Radiant Servant (Clr) - Cure Focus (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Clr) - Smite Foe (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Clr) - Resilience of Battle (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Clr) - Sanctuary (Rank 1)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Clr) - Toughness (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Clr) - Sacred Touch (Rank 3)
Enhancement: Warpriest (Clr) - Wall of Steel (Rank 3)


As for destiny, Exalted Angel with a twist of Cocoon, Brace for Impact and uhm Elemental Absorption maybe. I will work out the points here later.

Playstyle is spamming nimbus of light and Searing Light (and later avenging light) as 'base attack', and using Divine Punishment as burst damage spell on bosses.

[axel15810]

Are you planning to use this for Pugging, static group or guild runs?

This will work fine for a survivable raid healer or if you group with friends that are not playing self-healing toons and want a straight healer type. If you're pugging though I'd advise against it. Not many groups want or need a straight healer anymore in heroics or epics. You won't have much to do and will be bored.

And your DPS will be really bad. You'll be able to poke at monsters with SLAs but that's about it.

Divine Punishment is not near what it used to be on bosses. It's not even worth the cast time for me anymore on my battle cleric.

As I usually say with focused healing builds, I think you'll be much better off going with a max WIS caster cleric. You can go tier 5 radiant servant for aura and only bring divine disciple to teir 4 if you want a more healing focused caster. You won't lose much healing power but will gain good DPS options.

If I were to build a healbot, it would be CON based like yours. I like the build for what it does, like I said though it's extremely specialized and won't help most groups in today's BYOH environment. But if it's what you want for flavor reasons go for it.

[Enoach]

I think you are leaning to far into the healing.

You actually do not need such a deep dive into the Healing side for the Cleric class to be a capable Raid healer.

With the current raids there is a change in the requirement for heavy mass healing. The newest raids CitW, FoT, Fire Dragons and Shadow Dragon have more scattered party requirements and less party group up.

This means while Mass Heal is still a good group healing spell, it is not necessarily the best spell to lean on for Raids. This is one of the reasons why Druids regeneration is considered such a good healing spell for these situations.

I would put more focus on the Divine Disciple tree and not have Divine Punishment as my primary damage spell, but utilize the SLAs from DD as your primary.

Cocoon is a good self healing option and a Friend healer and is cheap as far as Fate Points are concerned, so a good option.

EA is a good choice for light damage specs divine caster and using the new spells associated to help reduce spell point expenditure.

[Fhauvial]

And your DPS will be really bad. You'll be able to poke at monsters with SLAs but that's about it.



Bolded for emphasis.

Overall, this build doesn't look bad for what it does; but I wouldn't recommend building a healbot in the current game. A light-specced caster cleric is going to have a much easier time getting into groups, since most groups won't be looking for a healbot or actively avoiding them.

Neither of my Clerics use Divine Punishment on a regular basis. It's just not worth the SP cost, and the DPS isn't that great. If you're going to rely on it as a primary damage spell, most likely you're going to find yourself running out of mana very fast. The only thing it has going for it is you can throw heals inbetween casts, and I hardly think that's worth the cost in the current game.

Just my two cents.

[SirValentine]

As for destiny, Exalted Angel with a twist of Cocoon, Brace for Impact and uhm Elemental Absorption maybe. I will work out the points here later.


If you really want a survival-focused healer, I'd think Unyielding Sentinel would be a better choice.

[Rull]

If you really want a survival-focused healer, I'd think Unyielding Sentinel would be a better choice.

It's about the best balance. I'd rather have the light damage and healing from Exalted Angel (or maybe Divine Crusader) and the survivability from feats and stats (at least it's a whole lot better than the survivability from Sentinel and, well, not much damage or healing from feats and stats).
Sure a Sentinel with also defensively focussed feats and stats would be even more survivable. Such a build might have its uses, but it's not what I am looking for (except for in raids maybe).



Are you planning to use this for Pugging, static group or guild runs?


Any non-soloing, whether it be shortmanning or 6manning EE, or raiding.
And it's what I would like every 20-cleric I run with to be. So far I have not been impressed with any build that does go either strenght or wisdom as their primary stat. Especially not on a first/second life with neither the gear nor the past lifes to back it up.

[SirValentine]

I'd rather have the light damage and healing from Exalted Angel (or maybe Divine Disciple) and the survivability from feats and stats (at least it's a whole lot better than the survivability from Sentinel and, well, not much damage or healing from feats and stats).


Healing from Angel? What healing from Angel? The healing's all in Sentinel. That's why I suggested it. More survivability AND more healing.

Of course Angel has better offense (light damage and so on). But you said even "consistent" (not "good" or "high") damage was 3rd priority after healing and survivability.

[axel15810]

As was mentioned above, the divine EDs were recently rearranged. Angel is now offensive casting/healing, Sentinel is now healing/tanking, Crusader is melee DPS/ some healing/some offensive casting.

[Rull]

I would love a slight shift in focus from healing to more light damage.
However, I think the tier5 from Divine Diciple is just unimpressive, and the same goes for the Divine Disciple capstone. That is why I went for radiant servant in both instead.

[SirValentine]

...I think the tier5 from Divine Diciple is just unimpressive, and the same goes for the Divine Disciple capstone. That is why I went for radiant servant in both instead.

I admit the DD T5s are not flashy or that powerful, compared with the aura. (I take DD T5, but then I'm singularly focused on max Necro DC, a very different focus from yours.)

But the DD capstone is amazing! Far better than RS's capstone, IMO.

[Rull]

I admit the DD T5s are not flashy or that powerful, compared with the aura. (I take DD T5, but then I'm singularly focused on max Necro DC, a very different focus from yours.)

But the DD capstone is amazing! Far better than RS's capstone, IMO.

Hm yeah, maybe it is better. I am going to try to see if i can work out capping in divine while tier5ing in radiant.
You do have to take pretty lame lvl6/lvl12/lvl18 abilities for it though :-(

[EllisDee37]

Hm yeah, maybe it is better. I am going to try to see if i can work out capping in divine while tier5ing in radiant.
You do have to take pretty lame lvl6/lvl12/lvl18 abilities for it though :-(That's what my cleric does: radiant tier5, DD capstone, a few points in human.

The DD cores are solid, IMO. I particularly like necrotic ray, but sunbolt and sunbeam are nice as well.

[bibliomane]

I have to agree with what was said previously about EDs:
Priority 1 Healing / 2 casting --Sentinel
Priority 1 Casting / 2 healing -- Angel
Priority 1 Melee /2 healing -- Crusader

I love sentinel for endgame heal oriented cleric with casting as secondary. Go up radiant line, some into DD for casting crits, etc. Mamma is 2nd life drow with several etrs, and I have her positive healing spell power to 563 semi buffed, --538 self buff sustainable. Comet fall, energy drain, destruction make for acceptable dps when the healing isn't needed. Sentinel puts me close to 1200 hp. I always start Mamma with 8str 10 Dex 12Con 12 Int 18 Wis 16 CHA. Points go into UMD, heal, spell craft. Instead of shield mastery and toughness, I take enlarge & skill UMD. Epic I take wisdom, blinding speed, and mass frog.

Your play style is going to determine what works best for you. I know this is extremely effective for me and I run endgame content daily. My goal is always to be by the party/tank in the mobs/boss and target trash/ dot boss while aura healing and tossing mass cures on myself. Being able to cure light and fill up most bars frees up a LOT of manna to play around with.