Whats up with clerics anyways?

[Avonwey]

In case you havn't played many MMOs in your time, every group needs a primary healer, and effective groups usually have a backup healer as well (that is unless the primary healer is effective and adequate in their duties).

Well I've played *this* MMO for a long time, and I know that you absolutely do not need a healer for maybe 98% of the quests.

[GrayOldDruid]

You know the one thing i STILL cant figure out is how can i run with 2 or more cleric is a group, and still have to use pots? Is it just that they get slower mentally? Or are they getting lazy? Or is it just that important that You all destruct and BB?

(oooo, bait!)

What is the Whole story? How do you play?

If you run ahead and aggro everything then take as much damage as you are dealing - you're a mana-sponge. If someone has played with you before, they know you're a mana-sponge and refuse to heal you. I've gone so far as to not even picking up the zerging idiot's stone to take to the shrine. Why? If you're going to constantly make me run out of mana, I will no longer waste it on someone who does not appreciate the gift of healing. Don't take so much damage, play smarter. More than once I've said, "Ever consider using a shield?"

Of course, with two clerics in the party, I usually say, "Great! I can stop healing now." And I mean it. I will not be watching the red bars closely. I will top off with a wand sometimes, maybe emergency heal if I notice, but mostly I will be contributing with stuns or holds or turns or searing light or other offensive spells. I love the heightened soundburst - "Let them pray.... now kills them all!!"

[Sinth]

Well I've played *this* MMO for a long time, and I know that you absolutely do not need a healer for maybe 98% of the quests.

That may be true, but that is indeed in a perfect world, not the one in which we play. (Argo) lawl.

[Arianrhod]

Nah its not about the kill count because i am sure i can keep up with the best of any server. And AC yeah i have a 50 AC and what does that mean to a elite lvl 17 mob? Jack!! and i am really ok with when things hit the fan to pot in order to keep the quest going. So u all can make as may excuses as u want u r still messing with the fine design of things. And yes i have and do play a cleric so i know what one should be played like. But all the same if u r posting in this page because u believe not all cleric are like that keul. But if u r posting because ur that guy go relive ur conscience some place else because i am talking to u so wake up and do a lil healing punk!

All right, I'll humor you, and assume you really are doing everything just right, and it's all the cleric's fault (in these particular instances). Why then would you expect that awful cleric who can't be bothered to heal while actually playing the game to bother to come read the forums to find out how to better him/herself as a player? Of course there are bad players of every class. Most of them don't come to the forums at all, or if they do it's likely only to complain, not to look for suggestions to improve their own play.

[~Kha_AhmenRa]

I might point out that there is a shred of a point here concerning two (or more) clerics in a party. Most times (exceptions being raids and the new high end content) this is just not going to happen. But when it does, it can be more than a bit confusing. Which cleric is going to heal whom without "over casting" and loosing mana on already healed party members??? Well, one solution I’ve used is to confer with the other cleric as to which of us is going to be the primary healer. Case in point, if I'm not the primary, I will buff the whole party, use offensive/cc spells, swing a bit and get any stat damage that may occur and THEN heal as needed. And when I do heal it's mostly with CLW and CMW spells to top off, keep members up, and should I happen to over cast the other cleric, it’s not a big deal. This works wonders and the party can really move at tempo with effective use of mana reserves.

As to the question of topping of fighters with that last 20-40 when they carry some 350-400 hits points, PLEASE, give me a break. You want to top off, then by all means, drink a pot - OR BUY ME A WAND. In which case I will be more than happy to wand whip you.

[PCNONSENSE]

Let me get this straight. I should pay for wands to keep your zerging butt alive? Meanwhile you probably have 3mil gold in the bank. I expect the zergers in my group to use pots between fights. I only heal during the actuall battles. Lvl 14 characters are more than able to take care of themselves. Needless to say dont group with me it would be a waste of you time!

[smatt]

Well, there are surely ****, no healin' clerics out there..... But I find that when I do actualyl run with a cleric in the party,they usually do a fine job keeping my squishy lock opening/rezzing/self-healing/ self-buffing all around useful evasion tank alive. Why, because I'm usually nice to them, I will gladly toss them plenty of dough. And I woot woot when they kill stuff.....

[CoolHand_Luke]

Is it just that they get slower mentally?
Nope pretty slow to start with.


Or are they getting lazy?
Naturally Lazy


Or is it just that important that You all destruct and BB?
Ohhh I do like those spells!!


or even I might be away un-announced making a "sammich"


But in reality, well additional reality, I play my clerics alot, and I like to. Usually from my point of view it is a case of not wanting to double tap a heal wasting SP. I like zerging, and not too worried about the $$. Rich by no means for my characters rarely have more than 100k pp. But SP is a limited resource and blowing a heal kinda sucks. Also watching someone die esp in an a scenerio like you give. Imaging the two clerics standing over your wasted corpse, looking at each other, scratching their heads, and thinking do I rez or do they?

So I do feel for anyone that finds that happening.

And true to my slow mentality, lazyness, my ADD kicking in thinking about the pretty BBs, I must go and make me a PB&J "sammich" and not correct any spelling or grammer. I leave that to others.

[smatt]

Is it just that they get slower mentally?
Nope pretty slow to start with.


Or are they getting lazy?
Naturally Lazy


Or is it just that important that You all destruct and BB?
Ohhh I do like those spells!!


or even I might be away un-announced making a "sammich"


But in reality, well additional reality, I play my clerics alot, and I like to. Usually from my point of view it is a case of not wanting to double tap a heal wasting SP. I like zerging, and not too worried about the $$. Rich by no means for my characters rarely have more than 100k pp. But SP is a limited resource and blowing a heal kinda sucks. Also watching someone die esp in an a scenerio like you give. Imaging the two clerics standing over your wasted corpse, looking at each other, scratching their heads, and thinking do I rez or do they?

So I do feel for anyone that finds that happening.

And true to my slow mentality, lazyness, my ADD kicking in thinking about the pretty BBs, I must go and make me a PB&J "sammich" and not correct any spelling or grammer. I leave that to others.

LOLOLOOLOLOLOL...

The perfect snap-shot of a cleric

[CrimsonEagle]

Esteban, heres a simple solution: Cleric won't heal you? Don't pull aggro off the cleric. 2 things are gunna happen. 1) The cleric realizes they need you more than they thought. 2) Your party wipes. Either way you win.

Interesting. Another person who does not realize just how powerful a properly built, properly played cleric really is.

The real outcome would be:

All characters who are not self sufficient die. Cleric, WF casters, (and umd characters), Bards, ect., take care of buisness. Someone then either raises the non self sufficient, or puts soulstone in backpack and leaves them there till next shrine (whenever that may be) since they are not needed anyway.

(Grabs a bag of popcorn)

[ShadowFox1978]

Are you the type of player, that when the Cleric calls out mas heals after a fight runs off to the next encounter? If you are I assume you can handle yourself......I will raise you but not heal you.

[LOUDRampart]

You know the one thing i STILL cant figure out is how can i run with 2 or more cleric is a group, and still have to use pots? Is it just that they get slower mentally? Or are they getting lazy? Or is it just that important that You all destruct and BB?

Sometimes letting you die and then rezzing and and casting one heal is more spell point "cost effective." I believe that would make my cleric a bit faster mentally.

[Ringos]

Esteban, heres a simple solution: Cleric won't heal you? Don't pull aggro off the cleric. 2 things are gunna happen. 1) The cleric realizes they need you more than they thought. 2) Your party wipes. Either way you win.

3) Cleric kills all the baddies by themselves

[S1gma]

I play a cleric and a bard (which more oftne than not is a cleric fill-in for the group, just with less mana! )

I wanna give you the benefit of the doubt here and suggest that maybe you just don't realize what it is that you do to make the clerics not heal you.

Everyone who has been here for a while knows the usual offenses. Being a mana sponge etc... That is true, of course, but speaking for myself, you have to be really hemorraghing to make me stop healing.

What will make me stop healing you very quickly: You leave me behind. You need healing?? I need to see you!
Yes I know you are a real he-man and can kill everything in sight, but hold on a sec, I may not be able to keep up, and if you are blocked or too far away, I CAN'T heal you. After wasting a couple CSW worth of mana, only to realize you didn't get the healing cause you kept running, well, I'm done healing you until you ask for it.

So check that out... maybe you are so used to doing what you do best, that you forget the whole line of sight requirement and left your cleric in the dust on too many times. I can see that happening without the player realizing it. I usually will say once or twice to the group as a whole (So as not to point fingers at the offender) "Hey slow down, stay closer if you want healing!" But if you want to run ahead, you do so at your own peril.

I reply here also not to fuel a fire, but in the hopes that many zergers may read this and realize that there are those of us healers out there who really don't mind doing it, even though it is costly, but simply sometimes cannot due to your own actions.

[CrazySamaritan]

3) Cleric kills all the baddies by themselves

I've done it before, I'll try it again.

[Yen_Lo_Wang]

As a cleric i dont have to heal you, often i will call out don't do this or wait to top people of so i can heal em and they decide to do something stupid or run off i don't accept stupidity and won't heal after that cause its not my job to waste sp and money on morons. And i've found that if you can prevent damage with a symbol of fear/stunning, blade barrier or command etc it saves more sp then healing everyone, things go to hell when your setting up and some fighter decides hey look lets just run ahead and pull everything while a clr is in lockout mode with a long casting spell. People should allways be carrying pots to top themselves off been over a year now since i have even heard someone offer a clr cash, if the fight is draining on a clr i will offer them some wands or heal scrolls but otherwise why bother i spend plat all the time on my clr and never have it reinbursed by those who use it. Chug a pot and waste your plat like the clerics do if your out of combat.

[kingzero]

*sigh*

another cleric bashing thread?

really? really? I thought the last one just got done with....

[Beherit_Baphomar]

Esteban, heres a simple solution: Cleric won't heal you? Don't pull aggro off the cleric. 2 things are gunna happen. 1) The cleric realizes they need you more than they thought. 2) Your party wipes. Either way you win.

3) Your cleric owns the quest with you in his backpack....saves time anyways.

You realise your cleric heals you because this is an MMO and he wants/likes playing with others rather than solo'ing, right?

[CrazySamaritan]

3) Your cleric owns the quest with you in his backpack....saves time anyways.

You realise your cleric heals you because this is an MMO and he wants/likes playing with others rather than solo'ing, right?

I dunno about other clerics, but I try to keep my party alive because more often than not, when a fight begins, I'm bogged down by the lag monsters. I've started summoning earth elementals just to have something take the aggro off me while I'm lagging into a decent speed.

[smatt]

I play a cleric and a bard (which more oftne than not is a cleric fill-in for the group, just with less mana! )

I wanna give you the benefit of the doubt here and suggest that maybe you just don't realize what it is that you do to make the clerics not heal you.

Everyone who has been here for a while knows the usual offenses. Being a mana sponge etc... That is true, of course, but speaking for myself, you have to be really hemorraghing to make me stop healing.

What will make me stop healing you very quickly: You leave me behind. You need healing?? I need to see you!
Yes I know you are a real he-man and can kill everything in sight, but hold on a sec, I may not be able to keep up, and if you are blocked or too far away, I CAN'T heal you. After wasting a couple CSW worth of mana, only to realize you didn't get the healing cause you kept running, well, I'm done healing you until you ask for it.

So check that out... maybe you are so used to doing what you do best, that you forget the whole line of sight requirement and left your cleric in the dust on too many times. I can see that happening without the player realizing it. I usually will say once or twice to the group as a whole (So as not to point fingers at the offender) "Hey slow down, stay closer if you want healing!" But if you want to run ahead, you do so at your own peril.

I reply here also not to fuel a fire, but in the hopes that many zergers may read this and realize that there are those of us healers out there who really don't mind doing it, even though it is costly, but simply sometimes cannot due to your own actions.

Yep, nice advice here... I catch myself taking off all the time..... I'm a fast bugger and am used to playing a zerging tank even though I'm squishy.. But often I'm the only tank so.... But in those quests where I get my arse handed to me, or can have that happen, I try to remeber that clerics in general are a slow moving lot.... If I'm off zerging for wahtever reason and get beat up... Off I go dashing back to my hero/heroin cleric for that emergency quik heal

Sure, now that clerics have starting hitting higher levels and actually are or can be some bad arsed offensive weapons, there are more cases of no healin' killing clerics who really do fall-down on the healing job... It's still not the norm really.... If you're running with more than the worst out there, and you're not getting healed, well then maybe it has something to do with YOUR tactics, YOUR attitude, YOUR cheap ass....

Be nice to the clerics..... I don't play one, and likely won't... It's not an easy job when you have stupid kill everything in sight squishy casters on a bad DC roll running one way... Dumb arsed 500hp barbs thinking they're superman and couldn't possibly get beat down by the mob of 10 they just dashed into the middle of running another, and the frigan squishy ranger/rogue deciding they have to curse/destruct/whatever other fancy effect bow they have every mob in sight and now have the agro of them all, running this way and that trying to get away...... **** clerics kick ass when they can keep up with all of that, people jsut don't realise how hard it is to heal in such situations