Critique Me: Water Domain Cleric

[Ausdoerrt]

Please help me improve my theory-build. I'm looking to do a few cleric pastlives and was intrigued by the idea of a water domain cleric, esp. since I've seen some done well in groups. I say "pastlives" but I might as well take it to 30 if I like it enough, and I do enjoy BoGW.

The idea is to try to do a full caster cleric focusing on water spells + dragon breath spam with the ability to play support when needed. I'm open to other ideas, but so far I haven't been able to integrate additional offensive options (other than wis to hit and dmg from Falconry in case I have to swing a stick). I like the synergy with DB. I am concerned about the slog to level 9 (when you first get Cone of Cold) as well as the 25-sec cooldown on the breath. I do need to have decent solo ability as I often play in off-hours and don't want to wait too long for groups.

Here's what I've managed to put together so far:

Water Cleric
Cleric 20
Lawful Good Dragonborn


Stats
. . . . . . . .36pt . . Tome . . Level Up
. . . . . . . .---- . . ----. . .--------
Strength. . . . 10. . . .+3. . . .4: WIS
Dexterity . . . .6. . . .+5. . . .8: WIS
Constitution. . 16. . . .+2. . . 12: WIS
Intelligence. . .8. . . .+2. . . 16: WIS
Wisdom. . . . . 18. . . .+5. . . 20: WIS
Charisma. . . . 18. . . .+3. . . 24: WIS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28: WIS

Skills
. . . . . 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
Heal. . . 4. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 23
Concent . . .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .1 .19
. . . . .------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . 4. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2. 2


Feats

.1. . . . : Maximize Spell
.3. . . . : Quicken Spell
.6. . . . : Heighten Spell
.9. . . . : Spell Focus: Evocation
12. . . . : Past Life: Wizard
15. . . . : Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
18. . . . : Spell Penetration
21 Epic . : Greater Spell Penetration
24 Epic . : Burst of Glacial Wrath
26 Destiny: Epic Spell Power: Positive
27 Epic . : Intensify Spell
28 Destiny: Mass Frog
29 Destiny: Fount of Life
30 Epic . : Epic Spell Penetration
30 Legend : Scion of: Plane of Water

.1 Dragon : Draconic Ancestry: White

.2 Cleric : Water Domain

.1 Deity. : Follower of: Aureon
.6 Deity. : Aureon's Instruction


Enhancements (80 AP)

Radiant Servant (41 AP)

Healing Domain, Pacifism, Positive Energy Burst, Improved Empower Healing, Positive Energy Shield, Radiant Servant

Extra Turning III, Altruism III
Improved Turning III, Mighty Turning
Intense Healing III, Unyielding Sovereignty, Wisdom
Endless Turning I, Incredible Healing III, Wisdom
Positive Energy Aura, Cure Focus



Dragonborn (22 AP)

Hardy, Strength or Charisma: Charisma, Hardy, Strength or Charisma: Charisma

(none)
Dragon Breath: White (Cold), Arcanum I
Power in Breath III, Draconic Knowledge: White (Cold)
Memory of Flight, True Power III, Augmented Breath: Relentless Breath



Falconry (17 AP)

Summon Avian Companion: Snow Owl, Ability Score: Wisdom

Rugged III, Out in Nature I
Killer Instinct I, Action Boost: Sprint III
Killer Instinct II, Strike for the Eyes: Strike III

[Mercureal]

I haven't played a cleric in a while, so I can't comment much on specifics. I'll say that Wisdom to Hit/Damage probably won't be worth much to you given that there's nothing else in the build to support melee. Spending those points in Divine Disciple could give you a bit more Universal SP and a little Spell Critical chance - judgement call, but those could be better in a caster build.

The only other comment is about the Epic Spell Pen feat. I'm not sure what content and difficulty you'll be aiming to run, but it might be hard to hit useful DCs without gearing for it and/or playing in the Magister ED - and if you can't land the spells reliably, the Spell Pen would be a mostly wasted feat.

[Ausdoerrt]

Thanks for the comment!

When I did my FVS life (hybrid Vistani / DC casting) I got enough divine gear at cap to be able to do "well enough" in raids and low reapers, so that's not a big issue.

I looked at the DD tree and didn't see much useful there to support my desired playstyle - what kind of things would you take there?

And what would you swap for the spell pen feats? Some SWF or something?

---------

P.S. Played a bit in the builder: going DD instead of Falconry gets me +2% spell crit, 90 SP, +2 to saves and +3 spell pen. Nice but not game-changing; I feel like I'd need to go deeper into the tree to get the most of it.

Another option would be to really drop Killer Instinct and instead get more bird attacks, which would be a nice thing to add to the ability cycle while breath / cone are on cooldown.

[Mercureal]

Definitely none of my comments amount to anything game-changing. And yes, you noted the DD enhancements I was thinking about. As for the feats, if you have the DCs to land your spells, then worth keeping the Spell Pen feats. Alternates I might go for would be the Mental Toughness line for more spellpoints and a bit of spell lore, and/or Wellspring of Power for a burst spell damage option.

The Bird Attacks in Falconry would be a good choice too, since they cause helplessness and you can get ok DCs on them.

[Seph1roth5]

I sometimes put pts in falconry on my fvs/cleric to get the first active bird attack (trip), but once I have a few SLAs I find I never have room to fit it in. I also usually get heighten later when it's going to affect a lot more spells.

Are you looking to run high reaper or anything? Putting so many points in radiant servant kind of locks you into the healer role with just a bit of dps from your domain. I think if you're planning on being a blaster, you might as well go Divine Disciple for the awesome SLAs. I don't know what water domain gives you off the top of my head, but holy smite/searing light are quick and crazy strong. Flame Strike is decent too but bigger cooldown and the delay makes it tough to hit stuff without someone grabbing aggro. I never really use the spells DD gives because the SLAs are so cheap.

I had a cleric life recently and actually went 2 fvs just to get the close wounds and good hope SLAs. Honestly, close wounds is more than enough to heal up to low reaper content.

[Ausdoerrt]

I sometimes put pts in falconry on my fvs/cleric to get the first active bird attack (trip), but once I have a few SLAs I find I never have room to fit it in. I also usually get heighten later when it's going to affect a lot more spells.

Are you looking to run high reaper or anything? Putting so many points in radiant servant kind of locks you into the healer role with just a bit of dps from your domain. I think if you're planning on being a blaster, you might as well go Divine Disciple for the awesome SLAs. I don't know what water domain gives you off the top of my head, but holy smite/searing light are quick and crazy strong. Flame Strike is decent too but bigger cooldown and the delay makes it tough to hit stuff without someone grabbing aggro. I never really use the spells DD gives because the SLAs are so cheap.

I had a cleric life recently and actually went 2 fvs just to get the close wounds and good hope SLAs. Honestly, close wounds is more than enough to heal up to low reaper content.

Thanks for the comment! I'm going deep into RS because it gives positive spellpower, and in water domain that will also fuel my cold spells. Since devotion is pretty easy to get / stack, that should make for some devastating use of Dragonborn Breath, Cone of Cold (domain spell) and BoGW. Maybe also twist in Energy Burst from Draconic in epics. EDIT: And Tsunami! Keep forgetting.

Biggest question is how bad will the heroic levels feel on this build. I suppose I could go Dark Disciple in heroics for the AOE SLAs and then readjust in late heroics / early epics.

And yeah I realize that I'll have to play support as well, though that's probably expected if you show up on a divine in a raid group, anyway.

Also it's a "no" to high reaper bcs I don't have the pastlives, tomes or skill for it :)

[Ausdoerrt]

Well, if anyone cares, I'm up as high as level 11 on this build, with minor tweaks. Solo R1, groups up to R3.

Realized Falconry lower-tier attacks are single-target, and also don't deal that much damage, so dropped that tree like a hot cake. Went into Feydark instead for extra spellpower, defensive stuff and shadowblade as a fallback melee option. But playing as full caster 99% of the time.

Up to level 9 I went light focused DD, worked ok (1-3 was a bit painful). After 9 you get cone of cold SLA and as expected, with all metamagics on it pretty much trivializes most content / kills most mobs AOE in one hit. If someone survives, I follow up with the dragonborn breath.

Now I'm wondering to see at what point the effectiveness will fade. But also curious to see how well this holds up in epics, what with all the additional Draconic SLAs + Tsunami.

P.S. Oh, and Turn works quite well with the respective gear in things like Cats / Necro, but if the enemies aren't immune to cold, it's more efficient to just blast them with my big CoC and wipe the screen for 10 SP.

[Careall]

I was playing around with a similar theory build but using Tiefling instead of Dragonborn. The concept made a sudden 90-degree turn when I looked at adding Infernal Sovereign - Cold and wondered how that worked with Water Domain. Could I use the highest of all three; fire, positive, and cold spell powers? Moreover, what would happen if I activated Pacifism?

After scooping up my brains off the floor, I went onto other ideas.

[Tlorrd]

Water Domain for heroics is great.

Basics are start as divine disciple to have spell DPS from level 1-8.

Once you hit level 9, switch your enhancements to radiant servant and pump your positive spell power as high as possible. Thus you drop Solid Fog (and Soundburst for high HP mobs for helpless damage) followed by Cone of Cold and utterly destroy everything that is not invulnerable to cold damage. Just equip a cold critical chance item also.

For bosses use Divine Punishment and Greater Creeping cold and keep yourself healed with RS tree (also the cost reduction coming here will help you get additional benefits from the other 2 cleric trees).

Don't forget you can turn elementals in addition to undead.