New Cleric Advice

[shweppy]

Some of my friends have decided to return to the game after a while, and we decided we're going to group up and run together on the weekends. Since I've never done a Cleric build, I figured this would be a good chance to test one out. We're going to have 3 melees (monk, barb, drunk), and a Pale Trapper, so I figure I'd like to go with a caster cleric build so I can focus on CC and filling red bars. We like running difficult content, and may even try to 5-man some raids.

Unfortunately, most of the caster builds I have come across appear to be from before the Enhancement overhaul, so I was wondering if anybody had some current build advice.

Right now, I'm thinking human for the extra feat & skill points. Stats priority would be:
Wis > Cha > Con > Str > Int > Dex

I'd like to take a deep dive into the Radiant Servant and Divine Disciple lines. Since we have a Pale Trapper with us, he has the negative energy covered, so I'll likely go to the light side.

Any advice about what else I need to consider?

[unbongwah]

https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/422552-Necro-Cleric-for-new-players

[jclaassen]

yes, wisdom is your main stat. Con should be your second and them cha. Human is good for the extra feat, which always nice. I have a FvS healer, used wis as my main stat and con. Cha for a cleric is used for turning ability, whci is not bad at all. The radiant aura and blast are awesome!!! I have human cleric and i used wis as main then con and cha. I spent all the action points in the radiant tree and then GEAR!! Gear is where you make the difference. The two main gear you should get is the latern ring and the epic seraphim helm. Helm comes from inferno if the damned and the ring which i can not remember at the moment. Hopefully this was helpful. I love being a cleric!!

[Daine]

Don't get caught up in healbot role too much as a cleric, they can much more diverse.

Make sure the rest of party knows to each carry a pile of 100 cure serious wounds potions and to carry the following potions in stacks: cure disease, remove curse, remove poison, lesser restoration and remove blindness if they don't have a blindness ward item.

By the mid levels:

The monk can self heal on the light path with fists of light and do a small group heal
The barb can heal by hitting and killing foes
The druid/monk can heal via spells and do a small group heal over time with vigour
The Pale Master can heal with death aura

Describing your party, there's no need for you to be a dedicated healbot, don't let them get lazy. If they over rely on you, it just means you'll group wipe if you die or get incapacitated.

Consider speccing hard in divine disciple, getting the SLA's and empower, maximise feats very early on. Being a divine spell casting DPS machine, doesn't mean you can't heal your friends it just means you contribute even more to the group when you're not healing them.

Oh and "Nimbus of Light" is one of the first SLA's you'll get, its a ray spell so you'll have double range, its an excellent way to control the pulls for the group until your friends find their feet after being away from the game.



Wis > Cha > Con > Str > Int > Dex

I'd like to take a deep dive into the Radiant Servant and Divine Disciple lines. Since we have a Pale Trapper with us, he has the negative energy covered, so I'll likely go to the light side.

Any advice about what else I need to consider?

Max wis, all points into wis, climb the divine disciple tree fast, a maximised, empower Holy Smite SLA will be your new best friend just before you hit level 5. Later on, a maximised, empowered, heightened and enlarged Holy Smite will be fun.

Carry a 'Radiance of Radiance lore' weapon/item, don't worry about melee DPS.

[Enoach]

If you want to be the caster type cleric, you might want to consider going with the DD tree as your primary.

Look at what abilities you want out of the Radiant that you feel you will need and try to limit your spending.

Also look at the Human Tree, the dragon marks can add some diversity to your build like have two people that can cast DDoor can help speed up some runs, or even the Finding one can help your group get better loot.

Also look at the War Priest to see if any low hanging items would help such as extra HP.

But if it is available look into the Harper Tree as it also can help with some SP and Spell Power

[Daine]

Skillwise if you do play a DPS caster with some heals, you'll want concentration, spellcraft and heal, but you only get 2 skill points per level, so either go human and dump int completely or start at 10 int and get a +2 INT tome as soon as possible (ie. level 7) to get to 12 INT and thus 3 skill points per level.

[SirValentine]

Don't get caught up in healbot role too much as a cleric, they can much more diverse.


Let me expand on that sentiment:

Don't build to a healbot role. If you happen to play as a healbot under certain circumstances, or as you get a feel for what else you can do, that's fine. Just make sure your build has room for you to grow.

From a build perspective, healing is trivial. (Executing it takes more practice!) So build mainly as an offensive caster (or a melee is fine, too, but you mentioned being a caster).

EllisDee's caster Cleric build, linked to above, is indeed a good place to start.

[UurlockYgmeov]

good advice here. I haven't played a cleric yet (soon™ish™er™) - but did three lives as a wf FvS g.sword ....

my advice:

Welcome Back!
divine disciple primary then radiant servant. don't worry about messing up - easy to reset and redo. :D
HAVE FUN! isn't that the whole point of playing DDO? playing with friends? :D


Have fun storming the er... castles!

[axel15810]

Best tip I can give is to take metamagic feats early so you can apply them to divine disciple SLAs for free right away. Apply and spam away. Have fun.

[ValariusK]

I did an ETR a while back on cleric where I went TWF with Radiant Major (41) and Warpriest Minor (31). It was actually pretty good, could solo with few problems (even in low EEs), and could support a group like few other builds without taking a lot of my attention while doing so.
Key points on it: Divine crusader with consecration (DC is also a decent melee destiny, which supported that aspect of the character). Ameliorating strike with TWF every 15 seconds or so---the big thing on this isn't as much the healing, because you're a fountain of healing anyway, but rather the lesser restoration it applies every time it hits on an EE. It cleans up the stat damage on your party pretty reliably.
Healing aura with a nice high tick, especially on those with decent heal amp, more turns than you know what to do with to turn into radiant bursts. Oh, and you have single target heals, the full menu of buffs, and even a few offensive spells if you need them (I pretty much only used divine punishment though, building that way doesn't make for high DCs).

[shweppy]

Thanks for the replies guys!!! I should have known this would be the friendliest and most helpful of class communities. :-D

Like everyone has advised so far, I am going all DD for now and rocking the SLAs. I am following EllisDee's build for now, but I think I may add my own wrinkles soon and stay focused on the DPS rather than the necro. We already have a Pale Master... no need to butt in on his turf!!!

It's interesting taking a Fighter hireling along for a change. I've been playing a lot of my melee toons lately, and its taking a while to get used to the fact that I'm the one responsible for the buffs and heals now!! Once I make the adjustment, I think things will go a lot more smoothly.

I am currently level 5, and trying to speed level to around 10, but the arrival of Crystal Cove is derailing that effort so I can get some of that loot for my other toons!! I'll post some updates once I really get going.

[shweppy]

Sorry for the double-post, but since it is Crystal Cove time, is there any gear I should look into getting? I didn't see much other than the Ring of the Buccaneer and the Calvary Platemail, but even those I only consider to be nice to haves.

[EllisDee37]

Not really much for a cleric in crystal cove.

You might consider a hat. Something like Superior False Life of Concentration +15 might be nice, but is by no means vital.

[kmoustakas]

I will agree that divine disciple all the way up is great. Max wisdom, take at least 14-16 constitution and then charisma. However, don't forget to take improved turning and destroy on turn undead enchancements from radiant servant as well as positive energy burst. With a mere eternal faith item you can devastate groups of undead easily

[SirValentine]

We already have a Pale Master... no need to butt in on his turf!!!


The power of Life & Death has always belonged to the gods. It's those arrogant wizards who are butting in.

[Daine]

Sorry for the double-post, but since it is Crystal Cove time, is there any gear I should look into getting? I didn't see much other than the Ring of the Buccaneer and the Calvary Platemail, but even those I only consider to be nice to haves.

If you're still low level, the greater stalwart trinket is worth a look into if you don't have an otherwise good trinket (like an unsuppressed ioun stone).

The Cavalry Plate is good to level 12, but it changes if you upgrade it to level 16 to medium armor, whereby you lose PRR, which is important, levels 4 to 12 though it is nice, though you can probably craft something better, if Cannith crafting and blue augments are your thing.

Also, whilst the ring of the bucaneer will add dex to improve your reflex save, your full plate will limit the maximum dex to add to your armour class, the underwater action and swim is very situational and the protection is always one below what you can easily find or buy at the auction house, it can be a nice item to swap in and out for underwater action at level 8 for the big necro2 swim, but not really worth the effort for a cleric to build.

Crystal Cove seems so infrequent that I sometimes find myself crafting for a next life, guess that depends on your pace though, static weekly groups can be notoriously slow, but fun nonetheless! I've been in one for about the last 4 years and we're just about to TR for our 3rd life, incredibly slow, but nearly every session has been loaded with drama or laughs, generally one following the other!

[Livmo]

Lots of great advice in this thread. I'm probably not doing it right, but I'm having fun. No metamajics and I'm more of a killer than healer, but can heal in raids and such. I just want to highlight that you can make all types of cleric builds and this one is my favorite to play. I'm into spell crits and spell penetration. (EDIT I pump WIS and light spell power as well)

If you look at the screenie you'll see that I use the L24 Epic Treasure Hunter Spyglass from the Cove. Great time to get one now.

My bow is garnish and small mana generator like the light on your bike via Soul Majic. Keeps the Sunbeam and Sunbolt firing when I'm out of mana. You'll see that I use Fey Tap allot. I use good shrine management (more play style than build).

(EDIT keep firing the bow and use the temp spell points for your Sunbeam/bolt blasts for more mana hang time)

http://i.imgur.com/ap4WA2H.jpg

[shweppy]

I just hit level 8, and am currently running with the Pale Master and the level 9 sorc alt of one of the others in our group. The goal is to get to level 11/12 quickly so I can join the rest of the group. The three of us are annihilating everything in our path on elite!!! All three of us can laser the high profile targets before they even see us, then when we get to the melee scrubs we have 2 walls of fire and a holy smite to clean them up!! I've barely had to use our heals so far because very few things live long enough to damage us.

Right now, we are wrapping up Three Barrel Cove with the intent to move on to Sentinels of Stormreach, which should be good for around two levels I think. Not much of the loot for this questline is useful to clerics, however the Deneith Heavy Chain may be a decent armor for a while. You lose some PRR (not as important at heroic levels) and gain the temp HP buffer from the proc effects. I actually haven't found a lot of useful named gear for Clerics so far... Did Turbine just forget to make some for us?

[Daine]

I just hit level 8, and am currently running with the Pale Master and the level 9 sorc alt of one of the others in our group. The goal is to get to level 11/12 quickly so I can join the rest of the group. The three of us are annihilating everything in our path on elite!!! All three of us can laser the high profile targets before they even see us, then when we get to the melee scrubs we have 2 walls of fire and a holy smite to clean them up!! I've barely had to use our heals so far because very few things live long enough to damage us.

Right now, we are wrapping up Three Barrel Cove with the intent to move on to Sentinels of Stormreach, which should be good for around two levels I think. Not much of the loot for this questline is useful to clerics, however the Deneith Heavy Chain may be a decent armor for a while. You lose some PRR (not as important at heroic levels) and gain the temp HP buffer from the proc effects. I actually haven't found a lot of useful named gear for Clerics so far... Did Turbine just forget to make some for us?

There is lots of gear for clerics but it is for healing clerics that turn undead.

There is also loads of heavy armour, if you're not overloaded with gear from previous TR's, go run the "church and the cult" and try to grab Bloodplate from the end chest, it is min lvl8, +5 deathblock fullplate with a blue slot, where you can nicely slot in a blue augment gem of heavy fortification bought from the DDO store with the points you've earned from favour by leveling to 8.

Either craft or keep searching the Auction House for a weapon that is radiance of radiance lore, ie a +3 radiance scepter of radiance lore III or some such.

Loads and loads of great shields as well.

Google things like: "ddo named armor by level" or "ddo named shields by level", etc.

You're a level off heal scrolls it sounds like as well, so don't forget to grab a stack of 100 of those when you can cast them. It loads of fun to blast away as a cleric, but when your spell points are all depleted its nice to go to your plan B and just keep the party alive with scrolls.

[EllisDee37]

For gear, my cleric switches to Scepter of Healing (http://ddowiki.com/page/Item:Scepter_of_Healing) + Dalorent's Seal (http://ddowiki.com/page/Dalorent%27s_Seal) at level 10 and stick with them through heroics, using the two augments to keep my spellpower current.

I typically slot nullification and impulse into them for necrotic ray and blade barrier, but you might prefer radiance instead of nullification. They come with +60 radiance, but if most of your dps is light-based it's best to keep it current. Or maybe even combustion.

I really like that scepter for a DC cleric, as it uses wisdom for attack and damage. Helpful for finishing off slivered mobs blade barrier didn't quite kill.