Capped cleric

[HastyPudding]

So, with the ravenloft expansion coming up, I'm keeping my cleric at cap. The guild will start running reaper 5+ with the expansion, and I'll join in occasionally with my cleric. He's not a DC caster and will spend 90% of his time healing and buffing (and casting the occasional no-save light spell when that's not needed). He hasn't selected his domain yet (he's been capped for a year and I've been working on my main with racial reincarnation). Sun would make a good choice but this cleric isn't a DC caster and will be healing most of the time. I also considered animal domain but the only thing it gives is HP. Since I'm horrible with decisions, I narrowed it down and I can't decide between healing and protection.

Healing Domain:
Pros - another cheap cure sla to spam, more positive energy spellpower than you know what to do with, healing amp buff
Cons - It's R5+...people tend to die very quickly and healing is almost useless in R8+, clerics are already overpowered healers

Protection Domain:
Pros - a boatload of personal defenses, perma shield, +40 PRR/MRR to the party on turn uses
Con - Will 40 PRR/MRR at R5+ even make a dent on damage mitigation?

[EllisDee37]

With the caveat that I'm not an endgame player, so this pure theorycraft. Going through the domains, the three top contenders that jump out to me:

Animal Domain
300 hit points and a wisdom-based AoE knockdown. Even if you don't build for DCs, you could probably build for somewhat decent wisdom and toss in some trip items for a maybe-possibly-decent cc option. (Mobs tend to be easier to trip than stun.)

Destruction Domain
Turn undead gives everyone near you +10 melee and ranged power. If all options are minimal (including this one), tie goes to the dps?

Luck Domain
You personally can keep displacement up 24/7, you don't auto-fail saves on a 1, and turns give everyone near you +10 saves.


I think I like Luck the best.

[SirValentine]

For your situation, I'd say to go with one of the defensive choices. Like you said, you don't need more healing, and you don't care much about your offense. So go for more survivability. You can't heal the rest of your party if you're dead.

I agree with EllisDee that Luck edges out Protection, but either of those 2 look reasonable.

[Vish]

[QUOTE=EllisDee37;6043495
I think I like Luck the best.[/QUOTE]

depends on the cleric, depends on the build
But for a healbot already with empower,
I definately go luck of the dice

I built a vol dagger cleric
Went luck
Reasoned the no fail saves are worth 3 feats
And you cant miss with displace
And saves can always be boosted
So its all around winner

[Tlorrd]

So i agree with what LSD and SirV said ... but I'll give you some more food for thought ...

Water Domain ... here's why

If you are truly healing based and are maxing you positive spell power ... your Cold Spell power will be good for one spell ... (I'm excluding Cone of Cold because you don't get the max caster level benefit from any Master of X feat)
- Greater Creeping Cold SLA will be a nice addition to a party's boss DPS.
- Solid Fog SLA is a nice Slow and 20% miss SLA
- you can turn all elementals
- Party bonus to Will saves with your TU
- If you take BoGW then the cold damage from that is a nice bonus in addition to the stun that it provides.

1200+ Positive spell power translates into 1200+ Cold spell power ... again good for your 2 SLAs and BoGW and Solid Fog SLA. The rest of your spell points sit in healz and buffs.

[Enoach]

If you are playing this character primarily as a Party Healer/Raiser to support then I would suggest these domains

1. Protection - The MRR/PRR as well as the use of Radiant Forcefield can go a long way in reducing your incoming damage thus keeping you up to keep the party up.
2. Luck Domain - Displacement adds more avoidance of damage from the trash, but the Don't auto fail on 1 for Saves can be a life saver for clerics that have moderate to high saves
3. Magic Domain - Here it is more as a way to buff your party members spell power using those TU's that often get overlooked as a resource the +2x Cleric Level could mean as much as +50 Universal Spell Power. In Reaper where damage is reduced this type of bonus can help save Spell Points.

Now Trickery, Knowledge and Strength Domains are interesting as they have the 1/2 Cleric Level 20 second boost to Charisma, Intelligence and Strength, which could translate to +12 to these or +6 to DCs for those that use those attributes to determine DCs. This could be the +30% success rate on Crowd Control spells landing the party needs to turn a bad situation around. Keep in mind good CC reduces the resources needed to keep the party up. Your choice should be made based on the type of DC characters you run with.

I do agree that the Healing Domain while nice for two free healing SLAs and possibly the saving of the feat Empower Healing would be an overkill even if you could "heal" fast enough. I do think it would be good for someone that is not a pure cleric that wanted to fit in more healing boosts to their build to be better at that role.

[GreenBastred]

If you are playing this character primarily as a Party Healer/Raiser to support then I would suggest these domains

1. Protection - The MRR/PRR as well as the use of Radiant Forcefield can go a long way in reducing your incoming damage thus keeping you up to keep the party up.
2. Luck Domain - Displacement adds more avoidance of damage from the trash, but the Don't auto fail on 1 for Saves can be a life saver for clerics that have moderate to high saves
3. Magic Domain - Here it is more as a way to buff your party members spell power using those TU's that often get overlooked as a resource the +2x Cleric Level could mean as much as +50 Universal Spell Power. In Reaper where damage is reduced this type of bonus can help save Spell Points.

Now Trickery, Knowledge and Strength Domains are interesting as they have the 1/2 Cleric Level 20 second boost to Charisma, Intelligence and Strength, which could translate to +12 to these or +6 to DCs for those that use those attributes to determine DCs. This could be the +30% success rate on Crowd Control spells landing the party needs to turn a bad situation around. Keep in mind good CC reduces the resources needed to keep the party up. Your choice should be made based on the type of DC characters you run with.

I do agree that the Healing Domain while nice for two free healing SLAs and possibly the saving of the feat Empower Healing would be an overkill even if you could "heal" fast enough. I do think it would be good for someone that is not a pure cleric that wanted to fit in more healing boosts to their build to be better at that role.

Some really good ideas in here. Apparently the TU of Magic Domain is currently bugged and running at USP 1x Cleric level.


So i agree with what LSD and SirV said ... but I'll give you some more food for thought ...

Water Domain ... here's why

If you are truly healing based and are maxing you positive spell power ... your Cold Spell power will be good for one spell ... (I'm excluding Cone of Cold because you don't get the max caster level benefit from any Master of X feat)
- Greater Creeping Cold SLA will be a nice addition to a party's boss DPS.
- Solid Fog SLA is a nice Slow and 20% miss SLA
- you can turn all elementals
- Party bonus to Will saves with your TU
- If you take BoGW then the cold damage from that is a nice bonus in addition to the stun that it provides.

1200+ Positive spell power translates into 1200+ Cold spell power ... again good for your 2 SLAs and BoGW and Solid Fog SLA. The rest of your spell points sit in healz and buffs.

This is a great idea :cool:

Edit: Throw this in too heh: Frost Arrows: Arcane Archer Imbue Toggle: Your arrows gain the Frost ability, dealing 1d6 cold damage on hit.

[HastyPudding]

All excellent ideas. Saves are nice from the luck domain, but saves only help when you need a save, where prr/mrr will always be helpful to some degree. I had thought of water, before, since clerics get a ton of positive energy spellpower, but it seems a lot just for a little added boss dps and a semi-useful fog spell.

I'm horrible at making up my mind....too many choices!

[Tlorrd]

Some really good ideas in here. Apparently the TU of Magic Domain is currently bugged and running at USP 1x Cleric level.



This is a great idea :cool:

Edit: Throw this in too heh: Frost Arrows: Arcane Archer Imbue Toggle: Your arrows gain the Frost ability, dealing 1d6 cold damage on hit.

I also thought about 1 level of wizard for EK spell sword with cold and using Arty or fighter or ranger for repeater xbow.

Also Tsunami also has a cold damage component as does things from Draconic incarnation.

[GreenBastred]

All excellent ideas. Saves are nice from the luck domain, but saves only help when you need a save, where prr/mrr will always be helpful to some degree. I had thought of water, before, since clerics get a ton of positive energy spellpower, but it seems a lot just for a little added boss dps and a semi-useful fog spell.

I'm horrible at making up my mind....too many choices!

This is good for the whole team.
Solid Fog
A bank of fog slows movement and attack speed (like the slow spell, aprox -25%) and obscures sight (20% concealment miss chance to all creatures within it.), inflicting a -2 penalty on all melee attack and melee damage rolls. The spell also has a secondary effect called "trapped in fog" which causes enemies within the fog to suffer a -5 penalty to their reflex save. Not sure what the Clr cooldown is but Src/Wiz 5/8 secs.
Note: Red- and purple-named enemies are susceptible to the concealment and trapped in fog portion of the spell, but are immune to the attack and damage penalties. Also, True Seeing does not bypass the concealment effect of fog and cloud spells.
This spell is often used in clicky form to gain aggro in the Hound of Xoriat raid and in other quests to retreat from monsters when on the verge of a wipe.
Greater Creeping Cold
Deals on-going cold damage to the target every 2 seconds for 12 seconds. The damage starts small, and grows larger as the spell continues. Each phase lasts 4 seconds.
First phase: 2d4 Cold damage +4 per 2 caster levels (max +40 at caster level 20).
Second phase: 4d4 Cold damage +6 per 2 caster levels (max +60 at caster level 20).
Third phase: 6d4 Cold damage +8 per 2 caster levels (max +80 at caster level 20).
3 Sec cooldown spamable.

It is hard to decide and ultimately your decision.


I also thought about 1 level of wizard for EK spell sword with cold and using Arty or fighter or ranger for repeater xbow.

Also Tsunami also has a cold damage component as does things from Draconic incarnation.

It might be worth a look see.
4 Level splash of Ranger wont effect overall Positive Spell Power much and i wonder if the Cold Spell Power would only amp during the water domain spells.

[Tlorrd]

This is good for the whole team.
Solid Fog
A bank of fog slows movement and attack speed (like the slow spell, aprox -25%) and obscures sight (20% concealment miss chance to all creatures within it.), inflicting a -2 penalty on all melee attack and melee damage rolls. The spell also has a secondary effect called "trapped in fog" which causes enemies within the fog to suffer a -5 penalty to their reflex save. Not sure what the Clr cooldown is but Src/Wiz 5/8 secs.
Note: Red- and purple-named enemies are susceptible to the concealment and trapped in fog portion of the spell, but are immune to the attack and damage penalties. Also, True Seeing does not bypass the concealment effect of fog and cloud spells.
This spell is often used in clicky form to gain aggro in the Hound of Xoriat raid and in other quests to retreat from monsters when on the verge of a wipe.
Greater Creeping Cold
Deals on-going cold damage to the target every 2 seconds for 12 seconds. The damage starts small, and grows larger as the spell continues. Each phase lasts 4 seconds.
First phase: 2d4 Cold damage +4 per 2 caster levels (max +40 at caster level 20).
Second phase: 4d4 Cold damage +6 per 2 caster levels (max +60 at caster level 20).
Third phase: 6d4 Cold damage +8 per 2 caster levels (max +80 at caster level 20).
3 Sec cooldown spamable.

It is hard to decide and ultimately your decision.



It might be worth a look see.
4 Level splash of Ranger wont effect overall Positive Spell Power much and i wonder if the Cold Spell Power would only amp during the water domain spells.

also don't forget that deepwood stalker enhancements have a ton of +8/+10/+12 positive spellpower added in to many of the enhancements. and radiant servant gives the best spellpoint addition per any class in that it gives +1.5/AP spent positive spell power. I think the cold spell power is static to anything that your cold spell power will affect (I haven't tested this myself, but will soon).

Greater creeping cold cooldown SLA is 8 sec and the spell lasts 12, thus you can continually spam this every 12 seconds for maximal effect on bosses and somewhat double down on other mobs.

The fact that sold fog gives -5 reflex to mobs is basically like +10 to wis for your reflex based spells (blade barrier, cometfall, sunburst, etc) ... +5 DC ain't too shabby.

[HastyPudding]

I ultimately decided on the protection domain. With the passive buffs, I have 192 PRR and 71 MRR on my cleric, with 129 AC (adding +40 PRR and MRR with the turn undead buff). I think that's decent enough for middle-road reaper.