Why are clerics a money sink in this game?

[BlackSteel]

money sink? what money sink?

granted the only thing I've ran on any of my characters over the past month/month n half is shroud and reavers refuge stuff. But my cleric has been dry on heal scrolls for atleast 5 weeks, and I dont plan on restocking as long as thats the content I'm playing in.

[cinoaz]

Clerics do cost a bit during low level play. But, once you get a cleric above lvl 13, then the game opens up.

Heck, my clerics at lvl 13 and above pretty much do raids. The loot they pull gets sent to my Haggle Bot for AH or Vendor Sale. When was the last time you saw a raid group NOT asking for clerics....maybe a Hound on the off chance, but that's it.

Clerics always get invited, period....unless, of course you suck, and not even running a cleric can help you then.

Whenever I think I'm getting a bit low on funds, I run a few shrouds, maybe a Tor or Reaver, usually a hound, but mostly shrouds and after 3 or 4 shroud runs, my cash is back where it needs be, and I'm back on AH pimping out my next lowbie :-)

Cleric, in my opinion, is the #1 moneymaker in game, at high levels that is.

[Fenrisulven6]

Dumping a greater command on a group of mobs surrounding your party is cheaper than sitting there and spamming heals on them.

I'm also learning when NOT to do this. In the past, when we ran into a chains of 2-3 monsters, I was putting each one on its face, party moves in to bash helpless critters then moves on to next group, rinse cycle repeat. Waste of mana.

If you get a sense that the other 5 guys can take down chains of small mobs without taking significant damage, LET THEM. So what if it takes 5 more seconds per critter? Gives you a chance to check health bars, dvs, etc. Throw a haste clickie on them and dive into melee.

Save the offensive mana for larger mobs. You'll find that not only do you have enough mana leftover for heals, but that you can contribute to 50% of the dps dealt to the end boss.

[DoctorWhofan]

I'm also learning when NOT to do this. In the past, when we ran into a chains of 2-3 monsters, I was putting each one on its face, party moves in to bash helpless critters then moves on to next group, rinse cycle repeat. Waste of mana.

If you get a sense that the other 5 guys can take down chains of small mobs without taking significant damage, LET THEM. So what if it takes 5 more seconds per critter? Gives you a chance to check health bars, dvs, etc. Throw a haste clickie on them and dive into melee.

Save the offensive mana for crowd control and larger mobs. You'll find that not only do you have enough mana leftover for heals, but that you can contribute to 50% of the dps dealt to the end boss.

This is true, and not only for clerics, but ofr casters too. You hired the bodyguards, let them earn their pay.

For me, I try to wait until the mobs get almost too much before I go on the offensive.

[Fenrisulven6]

Hey! Caus wants to know when you are going to lead another Tempest Raid

[DoctorWhofan]

Hey! Caus wants to know when you are going to lead another Tempest Raid

I can now. I'm on with Trissa

[Fenrisulven6]

Ugh. Today/tonight is "date night" to diplo all the wifey aggro I've been getting.

[DoctorWhofan]

Ugh. Today/tonight is "date night" to diplo all the wifey aggro I've been getting.

I'll be here tommorrow! Drop me a line!

[Verlock]

Ok... i don't wanna read every thing everyone has said, but i think clerics ain't that bad,

P.S i probley won't check back on this forum...i get forgetfull

[sisterjinx]

I know some pretty great clerics including my husband. I quit clericing because frankly he is just better at it. He does use a LOT of scrolls and I think any great cleric does but that's par for the course. Beyond that if he doesn't make it between shrines he will call out of the quest to get mana. Yes I said it xp hit. He and I both believe in doing what is best for the party and the levels will come as they come. If he has to call out more than once or if I do on bard or caster so be it. If it means completion and not quite so much expense the xp hit is irrelavant.

It helps that my bard shops for him.

[Lundivar]

Clerics seem to be money sinks for people who are on their first cleric and/or don't play them often. They haven't fine tuned their play, just like any other class. For clerics that fine tuning is (in my opinion) a bit different from other classes.


Example:

In a typical quest, Healing 2 barbarians in melee isn't my idea of fun either, but casting a sound burst, greater command, or comet fall BEFORE they get there can save you half your SP bar.

My (capped) main cleric finances all my low level toons easily.

[QuantumFX]

OP: Um… wow. I suck at playing a healbot, but don’t remember having the troubles you’re describing in the Gianthold stuff.

- First and foremost: Let people know that you are new at playing the cleric role and you need them to be as self sufficent as possible. At the very least they’ll start donating. I know that I keep a variety of non major mana pots, scrolls and mid level wand donations (Resist Energy 7/11, Mass SoF, etc.) for casters in need on my lowbies.

- Second: Crowd Control spells are your friend. A sound burst (fort save) that connects on a mob can turn a squishy rogue into a DPS beast. A commanded (will save) mob does no damage. An evil mob that just got smacked by a Holy smite (Will Save) is going to act like your party has displacement and a bunch of radience II weapons. If you’re fortunate enough to have an intimidator in your party, back him up. Even if the Intimiguy has a 3 AC he performs an important role: he corrals the mobs together so you can stop them in their tracks.

- Third: Don’t overheal. If a player wants to be at 100% health 100% of the time they can drink a potion. If they go through their hit points too fast then it’s not your fault that they died. Your Blue bar is not an extension of their Red bar. You have 5-11 other people to take care of and if they can’t respect that, then they don’t deserve your services.

- Fourth: Reward self sufficency and team play. If you see a guy quietly taking care of his needs and/or tending to the needs of other characters then let them help. But also make sure they’re the first to get DV's and heals in battle. Same goes for any fighter type that Trips/Stuns mobs. You’re probably dealing with someone who plays a cleric.

[Kalari]

Also buffs are your friends by the time my girls are in GH they can pretty much (even at level 10) have all the first or second line of house J and P buffs. You add on that aid from a cleric stacks with house J aid, false life and greater heroism then throw in a pally's virtue if you have one in the party and bard songs a person could have some extra HP to spare when tackling a quest. Most of the time I have 75+ extra hit points on all my girls. It really does make a difference to and helps the cleric out.

So remember *Buffs are your friend*

[sjwalker1973]

Clerics seem to be money sinks for people who are on their first cleric and/or don't play them often. They haven't fine tuned their play, just like any other class. For clerics that fine tuning is (in my opinion) a bit different from other classes.


Example:

In a typical quest, Healing 2 barbarians in melee isn't my idea of fun either, but casting a sound burst, greater command, or comet fall BEFORE they get there can save you half your SP bar.

My (capped) main cleric finances all my low level toons easily.

Um, you don't know what you are talking about. Clerics are Plat sinks. Why?

1. If other clerics in a raid see one of the clerics standing back and healing, then some of them revert to battle cleric mode and don't help out in the healing, thus making one cleric do the entire job.

2. A lot of PUGs DO NOT contribute to cleric scroll funds. Even after the cleric says help out and give so I can replenish my scrolls. That's why I don't run with anyone other than those I know or if the party is made up of some members I know. You shouldn't have to ask, it should be manditory.

3. Zerging fighter idiots. Case in point, there was a shroud run where an idiot triggered part two before everyone was fully buffed up and ready. We didn't have a scout that could call out who was there and he just brought everything back. All this after everyone was telling the idiot NOT TO. Not to mention, they wouldn't listen to instructions when we were telling them to hold off on killing certain mobs so we could prep them. I don't heal stupid.

[Demoyn]

Um, you don't know what you are talking about. Clerics are Plat sinks.

My clerics aren't plat sinks, and none of the ones I have now are even full clerics (thus less mana). If your cleric is a plat sink, you should probably l2p.

[sjwalker1973]

My clerics aren't plat sinks, and none of the ones I have now are even full clerics (thus less mana). If your cleric is a plat sink, you should probably l2p.

Read the entire post and you will see the reasoning instead of nitpicking.

[EKKM]

Read the entire post and you will see the reasoning instead of nitpicking.

You made a definitive statement that "clerics are a a plat sink". Se said his wasn't and so have many others in this thread. My cleric is the easiest to keep plat on. Ergo, your definitive statement is false.

[Cathabad]

Ive not ran my cleric through SoS but the only quest I can think of that requires anything BUT mana is VoD.

Shoot. I can and do sometimes even run VoD without using scrolls, wands or pots. But, having said that, the other day I ran a Monestary with a pug (I rarely ever pug, and the story below is why) Typical pug they were all over the place. One barbarian insisted on always running away from the party and dying, I stopped healing him completely and started just carrying his stone with me, sadly someone else would always end up rezzing him. But then the golden thing about that was, rather than waiting, and maybe drinking pots to get his health back and playing conservatively, he would just immediately charge into combat with half health. It got to be a joke after awhile. Then this sorc was doing almost the same thing, only managing to be a bit more effective. I healed him for awhile, but was quickly running out of mana doing so and decided to let him die. I very quickly made the decision I wasn't spending any scrolls or pots keeping these incredibly lame people alive. No reason for me to spend a fortune supporting stupidity. Finally a monk who was actually a decent player died, and by that time I had no mana for a rez, he quit in anger when i wouldn't drink a pot to rez him and went LD. At which point I decided that was a good idea.

Was I a jerk? Yea absolutely I was, I admit it. However, I am not under any contractual obligation to play this game and spend my plat supporting people that refuse to acknowledge good tactics. Monastary is not a simple zerg run, unless everyone is extremely well equipped and well built and well played (which none of these guys were) I felt justified making an early statement that the mana I have is the mana you're getting healed with. Any other healing will have to come from other players or, if you want me to go above my mana resources, compensate me for it.

I will admit that on some runs my friends may forget tactics, and we'll laugh and I'll use resources to keep them alive. But my friends have gotten me to where I am today, they earned those resources as much as I did. And truthfully, they give me as much or more than I spend anyhow. Pugs don't have any such leniency from me. If you are a great team player and are carrying your weight or more, I will go to the ends of the world with you and do everything in my power to make sure you come back alive. But if you think your 300 hp barbarian with 20 ac is an uber tank, run off into a mass of those monks in Monastary without the team, good luck, you're not getting my help.

The point is, you choose who you spend your resources on as a cleric. Reward good play and teamwork, not stupidity. Otherwise, yea, it is FAR to expensive to play a cleric. My honest recommendation to the OP, get a regular group of friends who play well together.

[Draccus]

My cleric hit 16 a couple weeks ago and I've only run a few raids (5 Shrouds, 4 Hounds) but I haven't seen this money sink yet. But I have seen some pretty bad clerics who are turning themselves into money sinks so I can give you advice on how to do it...

Dresek's Guide to Being a Money Sink Cleric.

1. Overbuff. Hit every party member with every buff you have. Extend them all, and leave Quicken on while buffing. Don't pay any attention to what buffs the party will NEED in the quest, just hit everything you have.
1a. Selfish buff. Don't ask any other party members to buff. Rangers need to conserve their spell points since they don't have very many.

2. Insta-kill. Target every monster you can and either Destruct it or Banish it. It doesn't matter if the party is DPSing things down in 4 seconds, insta-kill them anyway. Oh, you'd better quicken it all, too, so you're not interrupted. When you run out of spellpoints half way to the next shrine, be sure to announced that you're "on wands" and "using scrolls." to your party while bragging about your kill count.
2a. AOE. 8 second long fights against single monsters are the perfect spot for a quickened, maximized, extended blade barrier.

3. Overheal. Keep everyone topped off with Maximized, Empowered, and Quickened Mass Cure Criticals.
3a. Underheal. Use an 70ish sp Maximized, Empowered Cure Critical wounds to heal someone who's down 75 hp instead of a 35 sp Heal.

I bought 100 heal scrolls before my first Hound. I've since run 4 Hounds and 5 Shrouds (all PUGs) and have 98 left. My cleric only has about 2.5 million gold but that number's going up, not down. Now, I haven't healed a VoD-gone-wild yet and have seen clerics in there chugging pots and burning through scrolls only to delay the inevitable fail but outside of those, I think you have to work pretty hard to be a money sink.

EDITED: On top of all this, I still have people trying to give me coin and leaving me junk in chests. After my last Shroud, I had 3 items in chests and two people try to give me plat. They knew I was a new cleric but I had to tell them that I didn't drink a pot or use a scroll so there's no need to donate. Hmmm...this guy could end up being a better money maker than my rogue! If I whined about being a money sink (even though it's not), people will donate and I'll be even richer! Mwahahahaha

[Frodo_Lives]

I've never found my clerics to be plat sinks. Around level 8 to 10 can be a little rough going because a CSW really doesn't go very far on a level 10 300 hp barbarian or fighter. Even still I've never had to use more than a scroll or two even on the toughest non raid.

I have never bought anything more than a CLW wand. OR had them given to me. I use collecatables and have a ton of house sealed letters in the bank so that all my characters that can wand whip always has a couple. They very rarely get used as in most cases my sp is more than enough at mid levels.

Clerics are only as expensive as you let them be, I don't run content that is over the head of a random PuG (ie Gianthold at level 9), or at a difficulty that will squish a party flat.

I find I spend a lot more money on my bard (although he makes more money as well) because he uses a lot more scrolls than my cleric because he can't naturally cast the heal spell.