Feydark Cleric Caster

[Pandjed]

Currently leveling a cleric (Death Cleric with 3 levels of wizard, as I wanted to play an undead cleric), and the Feydark Illusionist tree is strong at low heroics, especially as the SLAs provide you with things your usual cleric SLA don't have: Shadowblade has a good range, and Fan of Shadowblades bring some cheap AoE, while Greater Color Spray brings some much needed CC into the mix. Had no real trouble that wasn't part of bad planning.

The only "problem" is, that there is little good named gear with Impulse at these levels, so now at lvl 10, I had to rely on random loot after a long time, while my nullification is through the roof. Yet still keen to see how long it works, especially as I think I hit the hidden MCL of Shadowblades.

What are you experiences with the tree and cleric? Which domains do you combine with it?

Will keep you updated, but so far, Feydark Illusionist is the caster cleric's new best friend for me. ;)

[Pandjed]

Let's take a look at the 10th to 20th. I decided to go Tier 5 FI and the Ring of Shadowfell worked wonders. While I made most of my damage with my easier to raise negative damage, the ring has some perks. First, you can put it into a Blade Barrier and both will proc, but for that to happen, you can't have them completely overlap. So cast Ring, move a tiny bit, BB, and you're fine.
As being a caster cleric means running around a lot in lack of really good AoEs, this playstyle is working well enough, and the damage of a emp/max ring of shadowblade is enough to fell enemies in 1-2 procs in low reaper (though newer content my need a fan as well). What keeps on being vital is the Greater Color Spray, which proves as a valuable way too low cost CC-option.

Leveling to 20 was a breeze. The perma-displacement really helps as well, same as the invisibility guard effect, that makes it easier to slip by foes when in a pinch and then GCS them to a standstill.


On undead clerics
Given, that I'm also a undead cleric and can use Negative Energy Burst SLA to bring myself back to max hp, it's a really helper, especially as the SLA is emp/max and does OKish damage as well. The really problem is, how targeting functions. You can only use inflict wounds and harm spells on yourself, when you have targeted yourself, but if you target yourself, you can't use NegEnergy Burst, which means you have to be precise when you want to get several healings on yourself. Sometimes, the Heal spell is even good enough for you.

[Pandjed]

Now onto the cap! I took Magister with Necromancy focus and you know what? I don't need the Illu Focus at all, as my DC is good enough with gear and the bonuses of the FI-tree. I also took cap, because it's WIS I wouldn't get otherwise as a multiclass and I also took later Master of Shadowblades, which makes me somewhat of a low-DPS mid-utility build. Only quests with an abundance of neg-immune constructs (like Best Laid Plans) proved to be a bit of a slug-fest, but I'm death cleric, fire clerics would have been fine with their own share of problems, I assume.

As a Magister, I also had the Arcane Tempest, which is boosted by force spellpower the FI provides plus the gear you need. You really, really notice how much you miss named Impulse Items, and my crafting level was too low to make an adequate item. So my negative spells remained my high damage option, but Tempest made the bosses and crowds much easier, especially crowds I downed with GCS, which remains super useful until the end.

I solo'ed the new Feywild Expansion on EE with little problems power-wise, though I had to get my strategies straight for this one and rely so much on GCS to get through it, that I was often thinking: 4 lousy SP for an effect, that carries me through the whole game!? My FI SLAs were staples, but lost much of their punch, though this is due to a lack of Impulse, I believe. They work well, but not whelming.

Funnily enough, my fort spells (like Destruction) work much better in R1 in Feywild, even on Fort-specialized enemies. Well, when you get more WIS and DCs, then... Would probably be able to solo it as well, but only with much more headache, may do so for some loot-runs.


Endgame High Reaper: This is where the build falls apart. While GCS will still work somewhat with a decent amount of points, the concealment and invisibility guard begin to falter, the damage is lacking, and especially my self-heal as an undead was underwhelming, from 2k down to around 300. Here I suggest to switch destiny to something more supporty and embrace the cleric role, with some GCS here and there.

[Pandjed]

I hope you find some insight here, and I think I'm making a druid caster next that uses FI as a secondary tree. Let's find out, how well it will work! :D


I'm also curious how other domains fare, as death domain with shadow DD was rather focused damage (though I didn't took Tier 5 in DD and therefore didn't have the mass inflict moderate wound SLA), but I can imagine that fire domain with firestorm and other domains will have a different experience here.