Walking Shrine

[Ulenui]

Hi. First off I am new to the Cleric character but have been a healer in all of the other on-line games I have played. (Everquest, WOW etc.)
I am of the rare breed who thourougly enjoys the healing aspect of the game. My questions are as follows for a drow based cleric:

1. If I am mainly intrested in being a healer and pure support cleric (aka healbot) is it viable to lower my wisdom score. I currently have a 12 in constitution, 18 in wisdom, and a 16 in charisma?

2. Would it be insane to lower my wisdom to 16 for an 18 charisma or even a 14 wisdom for a 20 charisma?

3. How viable is Dh and DV's, or even the fortitude and poison one based on the turn undead ability?

I would really like some input if 16 charisma is enough with my character. I am going to make an attempt at a full wand, scroll, sp healing cleric, who uses DH's. According to the math, if I use DH it is a huge savings in SP and expense from the wands/scrolls, etc.

As far as feats go, I am thinking empower healing, extend for da buffs, mental tough and improved mental tough, turn undead, and possibly toughness for a few more hitpoints so I am not that squishy.

Also, I am thinking about being on of the rarities in a robe based cleric, figuring that if my ac isnt high enough (like around 45-50) then I might as well get some usage out of being able to swap out quickly for diferent buffs, heals on the robes, etc.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[Nevthial]

Keep your 18 Wis & 16 Cha, with enhancements you will get plenty of DV's and have decent Turning ability as well. You would regret the loss of Wis at higher levels.

[moops]

You could start with a 16 Wis, and be fine. Even if you decide that you want to be a caster cleric later on, you can get to 32 through tomes and enhancements and items, and even craft an item that will get you to 34. Before I got to 32WIS on my 28pt who started with 16 WIS, I could still land alot of offensive spells in the vale, even on elite quests--but I also had heighten and a decent spell pen.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

You can get by with the lower Wis.
And you can benefit from the higher Cha.

However, IMO you will be happier with the highest Wis you can get.
Cha is a secondary stat for Clerics.......and most people avoid it all together.

I think my Drow Cleric went 10, 10, 10, 10, 18, 16 for stats at lvl 1 (does that sound right?)

I hate my weak Str and pitiful ref save.....but othet than that I am happy. And I can turn undead and I love it!
I also wish my Wis was higher. To many things save from my spells......very frustrating.

More Wiz makes a happier cleric.

After your first one, if you want to play around with a specific build idea, you can do so with experiance.

You really only need an 18 Wis by lv 15....and even that can be done with items. If all you want is healing and buffing spells.

But those greater commands and destructions are so much fun when they land..........believe me....you'll want more Wis!

[richieelias27]

Well first you have to take into account that healing in this game is almost completely different from other MMORPG's. Very few people seem to understand that clerics in DDO are wasting 75% of their full potential by sitting back, twiddling their thumbs and doing absolutely nothing but healing. A healbot cleric is in my opinion a wasted cleric.

Why? Damage avoidance is much more mana effective than healing. You will find that one well placed command/soundburst are worth 3-4 times their SP in heals. In DDO you have healing spells to keep people from dying when they get in trouble, not so you can sit back and watch health bars. It would definitely benifit you to get over the mindset of the WoW priest (pigeon-holed healbot).

That said, even a caster cleric would benefit from a decent charisma score. You're definitely right about Divine healing being an effective way to save SP, and that leaves you even more SP for combat control spells like mass command and soundburst. So, basically, if you want to be an effective cleric, go 18 wis, then cap out your cha to something decent without forgetting your constitution. A dead cleric is 100% useless.

If however you're still deadset on a healbot cleric... well you could even go as low as 14 wis and still be able to cast level 9 spells with a +5 stat item... you arent using your SP for anything but heals anyway so who cares about DC. Maxing your wis doesnt offer all "that" much bonus SP, especially since your lack of caster feats allows you to take both mental toughness feats, empower healing, and tons of toughness feats. Use that lost wis to bump your CON and CHA to the max. Or bump your dex as well and get 2 rogue levels so you dont feel quite so much like you're doing absolutely nothing between boss fights.

[Ulenui]

I am sure you are completely right that DDO is way different in healing compared to wow and eq. It's hard because I have not faced the high end content of this game as a healer so I am only doing "theory" guesswork to healing at this point.

Just curious, since I do love being a shrine type of cleric, how much DV's, DH's or the other 2 abilities could I actually get. Would it make sense to go something like empowr healing, extend, and then 3-4 turn undeads to get as much turn attempts for these abilities per shrine. Or would it make more sense to get mental toughness, improved mental toughness, and then say 1-2 turn undeads.

If anyone knows what the breakdown in how much turn undeads we can get or how much we progressivly get thru levels, charisma bonus, etc, I would certainly appreciate that information.

As of now, I got my drow to level 4 on Thelanis with an 18 wis and 16 charisma. Seems pretty potent as I have 7 turn undeads allready.

[Kindoki]

My main is a 16 human cleric who started as a healer (sp and healing feats/enhancements), switched to completely offensive casting (all metamagic and spell pen feats/enhancements), and has now settled back into something inbetween - which is where I recommend. The previous poster who stated that a cleric who just heals is a waste is absolutely correct. IMO, high end play requires a mix of offensive spells that will save you serious mana over just healing. Destruction, Blade Barrier, Banishment, and Greater Command pretty much rule. 3 out of four of those, you are going to benefit from a higher wisdom. I recommend keeping the 18 you currently have.

The other thing I can recommend is a good set of fearsome full plate. I wear fearsome full plate of invulnerability. I think that one set of fearsome full plate will help you more than an entire set of hotswappable robes ever could. Most of what you would want robes for, you already have (deathblock, resists, etc.).

DV's and DH's are definitely useful, and can easily be incorporated. I find that DV's are less useful at higher levels, but I still keep the basic level of them - you never know when those few spell points could make the difference. However, most decent casters won't run out of spell points, or will quaff mana pots. With one level of DV and my charisma bonus, I can still add quite a few sp in a pinch.

[richieelias27]

The thing about DDO compared to games like WoW, is that here you "can" eat your cake and have it too. In WoW, if you specced your paladin to heal, you did diddly for damage, wheras if you specced your paladin for damage you did diddly for healing. Its all very cookie cutter. Here however, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from building a cleric that is just as good at blasting the crapola out of everything as it is at keeping the party healed, and then still be pretty decent at melee to boot. Its more about the skill of the player in DDO than it is about gear/build.

edit: *sigh*... apparently the word Cr*p is offensive nowadays and is blocked on this forum.... replaced occurences of that with "diddly"....