Cleric looking for DPS..

[matezzo]

Looking for advice for my character:
Currently I'm at lvl 23, soon I plan to TR and I wonder what is the good approach to get better DPS than I have currently.

Race is halfling and should stay that way. While I want good dps I still prefer surviabilityand like the healing aura. This is a solo/duo character and rather causal so no raids/huge grinds for items. (I have 1cleric pastlife and thinking I will use my free +20 heart of wood to lesser tr into paladin before the true TR so i will have +5% heal amp.

Currently 18 clr/1rgr/1fighter and have both melee and magic focus.
Feats:
maximize, empower, quicken, empower healing
power attack, cleave, great cleave, imp critical slashing
overhelming critical

Enhancements. 34 in rs, rest in DD, some WP,
str currently 40 with divine might (no buffs, no guildship stuff etc)
weapon is a great axe, appropiate for the level.
with self buffs (divine favor, divinemight): melee dmg is 50-70/swing + some elemental. (critical can be over 300)
I have empowered maximized sla-s, divinie punishment againts bosses.
I have mostly played in unyielding sentinel ED, just started to try out Divine crusader.

The sorc I duo with is doing 2-4k damge with energy burst, thousands with other spells. I ofc dont want to match his dps..I have much better surviability.. I just want a dmg which is not neighible :)

so looking for tips for this current and for my next life.(I don't plan on too many lives..the next probably be my last). I prefer to have both melee and magic,but could go either way.

[axel15810]

Unforunately you'd have to use a +1 heart first to remove your ranger or fighter level if you want to add paladin levels. +20 hearts only let you involve 3 classes total during the process. Also you'd have to be lawful good so if you aren't you'd need pay for an alignment change also.

If you want the best survivability I'd recommend human (for heal amp) or dwarf (for more hitpoints and +3 to magical saves). I'd prefer dwarf as you also get the axe enhancements for better DPS.

My general feelings are you need to focus on either melee or casting - pick one. Trying to do both in my experience leads to a DPS problem. It's better to be very good at one or the other than to be so-so at both. There just aren't enough gear slots / feat slots / action points to allow you to be awesome at both.

For better DPS you need to fit in the THF line. I'd drop empower and splash a few more levels for more feats. Also don't worry about divine punishment in epics...I don't find it worth it. It's SP intensive and the DPS doesn't keep up with the power creep after level 20.

I personally would forget about the DD tree entirely and focus on melee. Invest in KotC, warpriest, kensei trees. You for sure need to take haste boost out of kensei if you have fighter levels. Still though I'd take 32 in radiant servant for aura as you want to remain a party healer.

Also my main is a THF melee cleric in epics - see my signature for gameplay videos if you want to look at how I play.

[matezzo]

Unforunately you'd have to use a +1 heart first to remove your ranger or fighter level if you want to add paladin levels. +20 hearts only let you involve 3 classes total during the process.

Are you sure about this? I thought the +20 allows to freely change any class as I wish. The aligment is not a problem, I'm lawful good.
If this is the case can i get a+1 heart of wood without buying it from store? (grind reward like th true druidic hw)

btw I know halfling gives a little to a paladin, but I don't want to change the race

[axel15810]

Are you sure about this? I thought the +20 allows to freely change any class as I wish. The aligment is not a problem, I'm lawful good.
If this is the case can i get a+1 heart of wood without buying it from store? (grind reward like th true druidic hw)

btw I know halfling gives a little to a paladin, but I don't want to change the race

Yep I am sure. Have tried it myself - also the devs have come out and said you can't involve 4 classes in the process. It's unfortunate but it's a coding limitation as I understand. I believe +1 hearts are a very rare drop in chests but I've never pulled one. There's no way to earn them via tokens or commendations of valor.

[Monkey-Boy]

Axel is not correct.

[Panzermeyer]

Yep I am sure. Have tried it myself - also the devs have come out and said you can't involve 4 classes in the process. It's unfortunate but it's a coding limitation as I understand. I believe +1 hearts are a very rare drop in chests but I've never pulled one. There's no way to earn them via tokens or commendations of valor.

Yes you can but you have to PLAN it.

You cannot involve 4 classes at the same time.

Which means you need to FIRST clear for example a ranger level BEFORE you add your paladin level. So if you took your Ranger level at level 7, you cannot add your paladin level before then. At level 7 then change the ranger level to cleric or fight or paladin. If you do not do paladin then at any later level you could add the paladin as now you only have 3 classes you are dealing with.

However you could NOT add the paladin level before 7, as that would have you at 4 potential classes in your TRing process.

[axel15810]

Yes you can but you have to PLAN it.

You cannot involve 4 classes at the same time.

Which means you need to FIRST clear for example a ranger level BEFORE you add your paladin level. So if you took your Ranger level at level 7, you cannot add your paladin level before then. At level 7 then change the ranger level to cleric or fight or paladin. If you do not do paladin then at any later level you could add the paladin as now you only have 3 classes you are dealing with.

However you could NOT add the paladin level before 7, as that would have you at 4 potential classes in your TRing process.

Wasn't aware you could work around it like that. Good to know, thanks for the clarification.

[Enoach]

The question is at what level did you take the Fighter and Ranger?

To TR and get the Paladin past life you just need enough Paladin levels so that it is the majority of the build.

While the LR+ process will not allow you to have more than 3 classes at any time, it really comes down to what level did you take the splash levels.

Example: if Fighter or Ranger was your Level 1 class then taking paladin at level 1 clears the way to take more paladin levels and you are good.

If you took Cleric as level 1 you will have to wait until you took either the Fighter or Ranger Level before you can put in the Paladin levels. Hopefully this allows for having the majority class as Paladin.

Now the issue that Axel is pointing out is more an issue if you have taken more than one level of the two splashed classes such as a 16/2/2. But again it is dependent on when you took those levels. The earlier you took those splash classes the easier it will be to switch in Paladin.

[Panzermeyer]

Looking for advice for my character:
Currently I'm at lvl 23, soon I plan to TR and I wonder what is the good approach to get better DPS than I have currently.

Race is halfling and should stay that way. While I want good dps I still prefer surviabilityand like the healing aura. This is a solo/duo character and rather causal so no raids/huge grinds for items. (I have 1cleric pastlife and thinking I will use my free +20 heart of wood to lesser tr into paladin before the true TR so i will have +5% heal amp.

Currently 18 clr/1rgr/1fighter and have both melee and magic focus.
Feats:
maximize, empower, quicken, empower healing
power attack, cleave, great cleave, imp critical slashing
overhelming critical

Enhancements. 34 in rs, rest in DD, some WP,
str currently 40 with divine might (no buffs, no guildship stuff etc)
weapon is a great axe, appropiate for the level.
with self buffs (divine favor, divinemight): melee dmg is 50-70/swing + some elemental. (critical can be over 300)
I have empowered maximized sla-s, divinie punishment againts bosses.
I have mostly played in unyielding sentinel ED, just started to try out Divine crusader.

The sorc I duo with is doing 2-4k damge with energy burst, thousands with other spells. I ofc dont want to match his dps..I have much better surviability.. I just want a dmg which is not neighible :)

so looking for tips for this current and for my next life.(I don't plan on too many lives..the next probably be my last). I prefer to have both melee and magic,but could go either way.

As a cleric you have three things you CAN do. Heal, Spell DPS and Melee DPS. You can do do well or three meh. You just don't have enough feats and action points to make it otherwise. By going deep into DD it would seem you are going more caster DPS which would totally drop your melee DPS.

Pick one or the other. If you want more melee DPS and burst healing drop DD altogether. Go much deeper into Warpriest. I just went through my cleric lives and wanted more caster DPS and decided to drop the RS tree and just get the burst for healing and skip on the aura.

I would definitely drop Empower. I would like drop great cleave as well, and maybe the whole cleave line, it is not quite what it once was.

What weapons do you want to use? Oh just read that you go THF.

Getting shield mastery feats is increasing your PRR/MRR might be a way to go to wade into the mobs more survivable, and have the sorc clean them up.

SWF is great these days. As a halfling you would be a bit hampered with THF.

I would likely drop the PA and cleave lines and go for Shield Mastery and SWF line. You could make a strong argument for swapping to 3 Paladin for stances, or drop the ranger and increase the fighter to 3 for the extra 2 feats and stance which I would be more inclined to lean towards since you are looking for more melee DPS rather than survivability per se.

Going as a Dex build with Weapon Finesse might be a bit hard to fit in, but could provide a decent boost since it is so hard to be a str build as a halfling. But I would likely focus on Cha and Dex (or str) and dump wis and spell casting. Cha will get you more turns and can boost your str with DM.

Feats I would go
maximize, quicken, empower healing
SWF, ISWF, GSWF (or weapon finesse), IC: Slashing, Shield Mastery
overhelming critical
With SWF you will likely get more DPS out of Divine Crusader, or move through the destinies till you get to Legendary Dreadnought which would give you a big boost to your melee damage, and SWF is much easier to maintain a blitz than THF.

But if you are want to stick with the weapons you have you will likely get more out of going the THF line rather than the cleave line, but I would recommend trying to get away from THF as a halfling if you are looking to do more DPS.

[matezzo]

I got the fighter level early and the ranger level later(I know it's not optimal,I planned for two fighters, but at that point 1 ranger level was offering big amount of positive spell power, which was changed later..)

so assuming I took the fighter level at lvl 9 (I'm quite sure i took it earlier though I can't remember exactly when) then i can go with:
1-9 cleric
10-20 paladin so I would have the paladin past life availabe to me, right?

[matezzo]

...

Yes I'm thinking about getting rid off the cleaves in favor of THWF chain.
Tbh It's my gf's character and she likes this halfling and two handed weapons, so this I will not change :). Two weapon fighting could be ok, but not swf or s&b.
For heroic levels the sla-s with metamagic were great.. no longer doing enough damage for epic hard/elite. still the burst healing with all those metamagic applied is nice.


I'm considering these builds for next life: ( the rest are cleric):

2 pal-martial wep prof, great saves, no feat
1rgr/1wiz -weapon prof.,extra feat, spell point, cleave for 1 ap
3 pal-for +6 sacred str over 2 pal
1 fighter/1wiz if i really need feats

btw : do the ranger combat style feats work in heavy armor? if so then rgr2/rgr3 also could be considered if I decide on TWF

[unbongwah]

so assuming I took the fighter level at lvl 9 (I'm quite sure i took it earlier though I can't remember exactly when) then i can go with:
1-9 cleric
10-20 paladin so I would have the paladin past life availabe to me, right?
In this example, you could swap to pally at lvl 9 because you would be replacing your one-n-only ftr lvl at the same time.

btw : do the ranger combat style feats work in heavy armor? if so then rgr2/rgr3 also could be considered if I decide on TWF
Yes, armor has no effect on rgr / Tempest abilities, apart from Evasion, Evasive Dance, and Imp Dodge / Mobility.

[Panzermeyer]

Wasn't aware you could work around it like that. Good to know, thanks for the clarification.

Yes it would have been nice is Turbine really clarified that for everyone before that offered all those changes, really borked some peoples builds. But yes it can be worked around if you plan it properly.

[matezzo]

Still looking for ideas how to give melee dps to this halfling cleric.
I was thinking getting two rogue and thief acrobat enhancements (+15% attackspeed, quickstrike, staff dmg bonus enhancements etc) Would it be better than taking 2 fighter levels and getting either the cleave feats as extra or 2 THWF feats?

[phalaeo]

You're spreading yourself too thin. Focus on casting/healing or melee/healing.

My main is an offensive casting Halfling Cleric18/Monk2. Good survivability, good saves. PM me if you want build specs.

[matezzo]

You're spreading yourself too thin. Focus on casting/healing or melee/healing.

My main is an offensive casting Halfling Cleric18/Monk2. Good survivability, good saves. PM me if you want build specs.

If I wanted to go more melee focused on my build then I could had got some more points in warpriest, though I got it up to blur, no haste. and took the THWF chain instead of maximize, empower, quicken.. but I think the SLA-s, the improved burst, spellpower for ocasional casting gave more to the character DPS and versatility than those melee feats would had.

I'm considering making a more caster focused cleric for next life, but not sure how viable it is.
So looking for builds where I add 2-3 more classes and I get more dps, either melee or caster.

2-3 fighter, 2-3 paladin, 2-3 rogue, 3 bard, 2 monk, 1 wiz+1-2X, I considered these so far, if anyone has suggestion, experience to share with these build I'd like to hear.

[Faltout]

Usually caster clerics are super viable in EE. First of all, you can blind most mobs so they won't hit you. SLAs with metamagics and some good spellpower items hit for quite some damage. Also, I don't see how you view Divine Punishment as not worth it in epics. Of course you are not going to use it on regular mobs, but it's great for bosses. 500 DPS from range and only the need to refresh the spell every 8-10 seconds. Now it's true that all those spells don't do so much damage that you can complete the quest alone (although Blade Barrier is great if mobs don't have evasion), but since you said you're running with a sorc... Use sunburst to blind all the mobs ahead, and let the sorc go in and do whatever... great tactic. Definately lose the aura. T5 enhancements of the other trees are more worth it.

[Panzermeyer]

Usually caster clerics are super viable in EE. First of all, you can blind most mobs so they won't hit you. SLAs with metamagics and some good spellpower items hit for quite some damage. Also, I don't see how you view Divine Punishment as not worth it in epics. Of course you are not going to use it on regular mobs, but it's great for bosses. 500 DPS from range and only the need to refresh the spell every 8-10 seconds. Now it's true that all those spells don't do so much damage that you can complete the quest alone (although Blade Barrier is great if mobs don't have evasion), but since you said you're running with a sorc... Use sunburst to blind all the mobs ahead, and let the sorc go in and do whatever... great tactic. Definately lose the aura. T5 enhancements of the other trees are more worth it.

Divine Punishment, sunburst, and such all suffer in epics if you are a divine caster that is focusing on healing, melee, and casting. As this is sure to mean that your DC's are lower, your light spell power is lower. So the results of these spells will all be lower. Does not mean they are totally useless. It means that if I focus on melee, the I dump most of the casting and just use the damage spells when I have the mana and to help take things down a bit quicker with my melee, instead of relying on taking it down with the casting.

[matezzo]

I think I've decided to go with 15 cl/4 pal/ 1 monk

I don't really care about evasion since I want heavy armor.
1 monk for the feat. I considered 1 fighter (haste boost) or wizard (spell points,extra cleave in ek), but I think 1 monk will serve me better (extra saves, skill points (balance),+5 healamp and 10 pos spell power)

4 pal so I can take +20% hp next to +6 str, and the +10% speed in sacred defense.

Since Kotc gives a cleave I will not take those feats, dropping empower too, so I will go with:

3*THWF, PA, Imp crit, empower heal, maximize, quicken.

stats:

15 str, 10 dex, 14 con, 9 int, 14 wis, 16 cha (36 points halfling)

So I expect dps increase in melee at the cost of spell damage. (no lvl 9 spells :( ),weaker aura, but better heal amp and much better prr/mrr

[unbongwah]

1 monk for the feat. I considered 1 fighter (haste boost) or wizard (spell points,extra cleave in ek), but I think 1 monk will serve me better (extra saves, skill points (balance),+5 healamp and 10 pos spell power)
Haste Boost is one perk, but the real incentive is extra action boost, IMHO, esp. if going human or HE, as you could have up to 4 action boosts: racial Dmg Boost, Kensei Haste Boost, KotC Melee Power Boost, WP Enflame.

[firemedium_jt]

Still looking for ideas how to give melee dps to this halfling cleric.
I was thinking getting two rogue and thief acrobat enhancements (+15% attackspeed, quickstrike, staff dmg bonus enhancements etc) Would it be better than taking 2 fighter levels and getting either the cleave feats as extra or 2 THWF feats?


Melee Clerics get most of their melee dps from Epic Destinies and twisting. For your GF build here if she likes 2HF fighting that is just fine. I have a CLR17/PAL2/FTR1 that melees just fine. You might also need some tips on gear.

I like to twist Momentum Swing with Cleaves and Great Cleaves. With Thunder Forged Falchions you get lots of critical. If you pug you probably want Aura and Empower for versatility. Divine Punishment is a hog, but great for bosses still and great for versatility for a melee cleric. With static groups you might get away with dropping Empower, but Aura is just such a good enhancement mainly because melees don't get ****ed at you melee'in and dieing as long as your Aura ticks off when you are alive. They will revive you to get your Aura back ;) It means they can melee and self heal less which is really more dps for the group.

Make sure you have a deadly and seeker item and a weapon with a good critical profile to use with enhancements and epic desitiny abilities

With my build I have great saves and enough room for Great Cleave, GTHF, empower along with the essentials like PA and IC and EH. I even have OC.

I have Goat Boots, but a speed item is good. You need a FTR lvl for haste. This stacks with speed items. You put out a lot of damage with THF. Keep in mind as a Cleric you may move more and have to move around to heal others, so your GTHF might not have a chance to go off, but I think they changed it so moving does not negate it?

You should be using Divine Power item clicks for heroic. Cause Aura is just that good.
I have kind a gravitated towards Divine Crusader for melee dps with the 50% boost ticking down along with BAB=character lvl. Unyielding Sentinel has huge synergy with PAL2 for a more healing surviving role, and Legendary Dreadnought for Momentum Swing Twists. Cocoon Twist and Endless Faith for for spell points.

Cocoon saves so much spell points and it is sooooo easy to heal with it through walls not needing line of sight. Healing is such a lesser distraction for your other tasks like melee or casting. Clerics are fun that way multi tasking and the group usually expects you to especially pugs unless there are way too many divines.