Cleric? what cleric?

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Originally Posted by Phidius

If you want to increase the DCs of your spells, you should start with a 17 Wisdom and put all your levels ups there. However, if you do this you should also consider Spell Penetration so you can get more bang from your buck with the other DC-based spells like Destruction, Implosion, Greater Command, etc...

Bladebarrier is a great spell for melee focused clerics because you don't have to have high DCs (or spell pen) to make good use of it. As long as the mobs don't have evasion, they'll take damage as they chase you through it (and most of the ones that have evasion tend to stand in one place and range you).

Taking Maximize/Empower was a good idea because they are useful for more than just Blade Barrier (Divine Punishment, Mass Cures, Cometfall, Flamestrike, Searing Light, etc...), but spending 2 additional feats just for Blade Barrier seems excessive.

It's not that you'll be a gimp if you split your focus evenly between casting and melee... I just prefer to squeeze as much as I can out of every purchase.

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My first cleric was pure caster, although he has some melee capability once I got to make him greensteel weapons. Boosted up and with a good weapon, he is doing some nice melee damage. Although I did ditch the mental toughness feat for bastardsword, though I could have went with kopesh, I could not afford them at the time from the AH and I did not realize how easy it was to make tier 2 greensteel.

Anyway, the OP seems to have found a new love for his healer based cleric, so hopefully he realizes that he can cast offensive spells and have a blast.

Go human, pure cleric

28 Point stats as follows:

STR 14, DEX 8, CON 14, INT 8, WIS 18, CHA 8

Use staff as your primary weapon

Feats at level 1: Toughness, Extend Spell
Feats at level 3: Empower Healing
Feats at level 6: Extra Turns (take RS I at this point as your PRE)

Find an adamantine type armor (hvy plate is best) or "invulnerability" as they will absorb damage from being hit (can be expensive though, but they're worth it at low levels).

Command is your friend, this spell will temporarily take one opponent out of the fight or make him easier to hit (many non-humanoids are immune though). Sonic Burst is another at level 3, it damages and stuns and is an AOE. Both of these spells should get your through a lot. Add in Bless or Aid and Divine Favor as melee buffs and have fun!

Command, smack smack, command, heal, smack command...etc...you get the idea.

Paradigm shift around levels 6-10, start thinking of healing/casting more and less meleeing. At this point your spells will be better DPS. Once you get Blade Barrier/Comet Fall/Destruction (11) you'll be kickin' butt with your mana as well as healing.

IMO this is what I do at lowby levels where melee is supreme. Just get a big stick and hit them til they don't get up. Once you level up past 6 start reviewing what you're doing, if it ain't workin' start rethinkin' you're spell slots and what kinda DPS you're packing (+3 Staff of "energy type" and pure good, is a good all around choice).

A good hireling for you will be a bard or arcane type that can give u buffs like blur, bard songs, haste, rage etc...

Potions are you're friend, if you can swing it, Haste/Rage/Heroism pots/clickies are a melees friend. Buy them lewt them, use them...

Haste nets faster swings, bonus to hit
Rage nets bonus to STR/CON which means more hit points and a better BAB and damage
Heroism nets bonuses to hits and saves.

Also, keep in mind you if you can't carry a spell yet, but can cast it, you can always buy the scroll in House J. So if you don't carry a meat shield spell like summon monster II or III, your could buy it and use it, there is no diff between carrying this spell and scrolling it (so carry a stack of 10 or so, for those times you need help with aggro).

low level Sword and Board (Human = Long Sword if you have the sovereign host enhancement) isn't bad either btw (levels 1-6?). Shield blocking, better AC, Long Sword has a decent crit' profile.

at the moment the only enemies that give me trouble are the ones the knocks me down but aside from that i run in and use soundburst if there is more than 3 mobs attacking me.
i don't bother using summon monster any more as they are too weak at lvl 3 but i hope that this will change later on.
This along with some barbarian hireling things go very smooth.
I'm lvl 3 ATM with no problem.
Thankx for the advise guys.

Ohh don't worry about me i'll come here for advise when i'm lvl 4 or 5 or so because i think clerics aren't that easy to play like say barbarians.

If I could go back and tell myself one thing as a new player to DDO it would be don't plan on keeping any character you build right now.

As a new player you can have a ton of fun playing at the lower levels. You will learn a lot about DDO and grouping with others will be fast and easy. Every time a character you make reaches 100 favor, you earn 25 DDO points. I've learned more about DDO simply by building a character focusing on this stat or that, running dungeons to 100 favor, scrapping them and starting over. I keep what worked, scrap what didn't, and try something new.

I don't have a single character over level 15 that I don't wish I could change at least something about them. Sometimes it's not a big deal to change, other times it's nearly impossible. Of course, a TR fixes just about everything and makes a stronger character, but the earlier you catch a mistake the better off you are.

If you get veteran characters as one of your first purchases, every character you create can start at level 4, where they can really do something. Then you can make a new character, try different abilities, and have fun figuring it out on your own. When you get 100 favor, if you still like the character, go for 200 favor and another 25 DDO points.

I would advise getting used to grouping up as soon as possible. I soloed for a long time before I got the confidence to venture out into random groups, but once I started I wondered what I was so worried about. The vast majority of low level groups are quite friendly and fun, from my experience anyway. It's also the only way you'll meet any new friends.

However, if you really want to run solo, I'd suggest messing around with a warforged wizard or sorcerer (after you get veteran chracters and either VIP or buy Warforged). They can heal themselves and pack a very powerful offensive punch. With a veteran character your starting gear as a caster will include a robe/docent with arcane augmentation on it that increases your caster level by 1 (for level 1 spells), so you will be casting spells as if you were a level 5 caster right out of the gate. Niac's Cold Ray is the hardest hitting level 1 spell by far, and will one shot most mobs in the harbor, even on elite. A caster (sorcerer/wizard) is probably the very most powerful class a new player could choose, especially with veteran characters.

With UMD, any race can heal themselves with wands. A human sorcerer (sorcerers have high charisma, the stat that boosts UMD) can use cure light wound wands at level 4 without much failure by using human versatility skill boost enhancement.

Any character can heal themselves with potions, cure lights are great to heal up between fights as they are very inexpensive. However, in a fight you'll probably get damaged more than they heal while you drink them.

Finally, a hireling can tag along with you and heal you constantly, even in battle. They are by far the most cost efficient, and once you get used to their little quirks, you'll find they are often more powerful than an actual player as they can do things no player can do (teleport to you, and heal underwater to name a couple or the bigger ones).

Have fun!