The Path to Enlightenment

[The_Great_Samulas]

[IMG][/IMG]

Here is a screen shot of my hotbar set up for those interested. I keep most of the buffs on the bars at the top. I keep my main hotbar (number 1) loaded with the following for quick hotkey activation:

1) offensive spell of my choosing
2) cure serious
3) cure critical
4) heal
5) Mass cure moderate
6) Mass cure serious
7) Mass cure critical
8) true resurrection
9) Mass cure moderate scrolls
10) Heal scrolls

[Diesel_Smurf]

As a cleric I am a healer but I make sure I have my offensive spells. I am not there just to watch everyone fight while i sit back and do naught but heal and buff. Not my way. I heal yes, but I make sure If i can use a little mana to defeat or slow our opponents then why stay back and use up all my mana healing when I can use little to HELP in a more efficient way? I need a better spot skill however I tend to run ahead a little sometimes lol. But need more mana, I have noticed that I lose a lot of mana with the defensive spells, and at the moment I only have 6 of turn undead so the abilities i have that use them can go pretty quickly as well. I know the more I level the more mana points I will get, however, I do not want to level to quickly and not really experience good game play. (make sense?)

p.s. yup I am also one of those who sees you pop into the tavern with little health and mana and start healing you up and giving you mana. Then i buy something from the barkeep to replenish my turn undeads and mana lol

[The_Great_Samulas]

As a cleric I am a healer but I make sure I have my offensive spells. I am not there just to watch everyone fight while i sit back and do naught but heal and buff. Not my way. I heal yes, but I make sure If i can use a little mana to defeat or slow our opponents then why stay back and use up all my mana healing when I can use little to HELP in a more efficient way? I need a better spot skill however I tend to run ahead a little sometimes lol. But need more mana, I have noticed that I lose a lot of mana with the defensive spells, and at the moment I only have 6 of turn undead so the abilities i have that use them can go pretty quickly as well. I know the more I level the more mana points I will get, however, I do not want to level to quickly and not really experience good game play. (make sense?)

p.s. yup I am also one of those who sees you pop into the tavern with little health and mana and start healing you up and giving you mana. Then i buy something from the barkeep to replenish my turn undeads and mana lol

Sounds good. You are trying to incorporate offensive casting into your playstyle, so you aren't healboting. You will find if you also include melee you will use less mana, although this gets to be a more advanced playstyle that you may not be ready for yet. You should definately gain experience as you level your cleric and not level too quickly. Once you start hitting level 12 and higher quests, the difficulty changes rather dramatically, so be prepared.

As far as skills, clerics don't have that many and I would rate them in importance the following way: concentration, balance, use magical device, jump. Intimidate is also useful for advanced clerics.

Mana use can be problematic. You will get a feel for when you don't need crowd control vs do need in relation to the particular group you are in as you gain experience. This will save you mana (this is part of the learning objective in stage 3 -"You are learning what your crowd control spells are and what works best on what. You need to learn when it is needed and when it is not.")

Of note - Turn undeads replenish in a tavern, just like other clickies, over time. You don't have to drink anything.

[clkpacker]

Very helpful thread for a new player like myself. I'm new to healing, DDO, and MMOs, and came into the game thinking I'd never want to be a healer, as it'd be too boring. My first char was a Tempest; didn't particularly like playing her, so I deleted and started anew with a pally. I enjoyed playing her a lot more, but noticed I was putting all of my feats into improving spells and LoH so that I could heal myself and others. Finally upped and created a cleric, and I'm finding that it suits my playstyle a lot more than I ever thought it could. I'm most likely at level 1 or 2 of your stages, but I'm sure I'll learn eventually (my highest level cleric is only level 4). I'm still trying to figure out how to use crowd control; it's one thing I've always struggled with in video games. I just don't deal well with swarms.

One thing that'd help with overhealing is knowing how critical hits work--I try to keep health bars up as high as possible because I don't know if an crit on a partially-full health bar can kill a player. In general, how low can HP go before you need to start worrying about a hit killing a player? I haven't found much info on how crits work.

EDIT: It'd also be useful to know if healing draws aggro. In WoW, it does. I haven't figured out yet if it does in DDO as well.

[JollySwagMan]

Very helpful thread for a new player like myself. I'm new to healing, DDO, and MMOs, and came into the game thinking I'd never want to be a healer, as it'd be too boring. My first char was a Tempest; didn't particularly like playing her, so I deleted and started anew with a pally. I enjoyed playing her a lot more, but noticed I was putting all of my feats into improving spells and LoH so that I could heal myself and others. Finally upped and created a cleric, and I'm finding that it suits my playstyle a lot more than I ever thought it could. I'm most likely at level 1 or 2 of your stages, but I'm sure I'll learn eventually (my highest level cleric is only level 4). I'm still trying to figure out how to use crowd control; it's one thing I've always struggled with in video games. I just don't deal well with swarms.

One thing that'd help with overhealing is knowing how critical hits work--I try to keep health bars up as high as possible because I don't know if an crit on a partially-full health bar can kill a player. In general, how low can HP go before you need to start worrying about a hit killing a player? I haven't found much info on how crits work.

EDIT: It'd also be useful to know if healing draws aggro. In WoW, it does. I haven't figured out yet if it does in DDO as well.

RE: Overhealing and crits: Communication is essential here. First, try spamming your heals in a tavern to establish your average numbers. Then when in a party ask your party members what their HP is. When you hit level 5 you gain access to the Mass Aid spell, which doubles as your first 'mass cure' that you can pop off in tough battles, as well as a good spell to pop off when the party is gathered near a chest or door.

Also ask if your tanks have fortification items. Fortification items are gear that help to prevent criticals and sneak attacks - 25% is available at level 1, 75% available at level 4 (via robes, though many are unaware of this. Minimum level 7 Belts of Mod Fort fetch a high price on the AH. Mod Fort is most commonly found on Min level 6 robes/armour). Heavy Fort (100% prevention) is available at level 8 via robes, 9 via a necklace that is quite straightforward to get (collect 10 adamantine ore in a f2p quest in House K), and 11 on the most commonly used item - a Helmet that provides extra HP as well.

Everybody needs Fortification, but especially tanks.

Healing your party doesn't draw much aggro, but some critters do make beelines for the casters.

[Diesel_Smurf]

Sounds good. You are trying to incorporate offensive casting into your playstyle, so you aren't healboting. You will find if you also include melee you will use less mana, although this gets to be a more advanced playstyle that you may not be ready for yet. You should definately gain experience as you level your cleric and not level too quickly. Once you start hitting level 12 and higher quests, the difficulty changes rather dramatically, so be prepared.

As far as skills, clerics don't have that many and I would rate them in importance the following way: concentration, balance, use magical device, jump. Intimidate is also useful for advanced clerics.

Mana use can be problematic. You will get a feel for when you don't need crowd control vs do need in relation to the particular group you are in as you gain experience. This will save you mana (this is part of the learning objective in stage 3 -"You are learning what your crowd control spells are and what works best on what. You need to learn when it is needed and when it is not.")

Of note - Turn undeads replenish in a tavern, just like other clickies, over time. You don't have to drink anything.

Thank you for your response. I have been trying to work melee into it as well. (I multi classed as a pal for that reason Now I need to level my cleric side, But am close to purchasing favored soul. Up to 725 on my turbine.

[The_Great_Samulas]

Very helpful thread for a new player like myself. I'm new to healing, DDO, and MMOs, and came into the game thinking I'd never want to be a healer, as it'd be too boring. My first char was a Tempest; didn't particularly like playing her, so I deleted and started anew with a pally. I enjoyed playing her a lot more, but noticed I was putting all of my feats into improving spells and LoH so that I could heal myself and others. Finally upped and created a cleric, and I'm finding that it suits my playstyle a lot more than I ever thought it could. I'm most likely at level 1 or 2 of your stages, but I'm sure I'll learn eventually (my highest level cleric is only level 4). I'm still trying to figure out how to use crowd control; it's one thing I've always struggled with in video games. I just don't deal well with swarms.

One thing that'd help with overhealing is knowing how critical hits work--I try to keep health bars up as high as possible because I don't know if an crit on a partially-full health bar can kill a player. In general, how low can HP go before you need to start worrying about a hit killing a player? I haven't found much info on how crits work.

EDIT: It'd also be useful to know if healing draws aggro. In WoW, it does. I haven't figured out yet if it does in DDO as well.

I saw this was your first post! Welcome to forum participation. Happy to see you are enjoying your cleric. You'll find that the class gets even more rewarding as you gain levels. The power of the class is such that it can solo most content and is an integral part of a smooth running group. There is also alot of room for growth through player skill, so this aspect can be a rewarding part of playing a cleric. As a cleric you will come to love swarms -bladebarrier, mass healing and mana regeneration all love it. Clerical power shines in the swarm.

Criticals are prevented by fortification to various degrees. At low levels you will run into tanks who underestimate the value of fortification. This can also happen to a lesser extent in the mid and high levels. As a cleric you should assume people are wearing the appropriate fortification for thier level (as pointed out in the post above). I use the general rule of healing tanks once they get to the 30-50% hp range. Heal them up to 80-90% then move on (if they want more they should self-heal, tell them your mother doesn't play this game if they give you grief).

If you notice a particular toon is getting slapped for 50% or more of their hits, chances are they don't have fortification or are just poorly built as far as hit points. If it is an arcane or rogue then that is somewhat acceptable at lower levels (just keep them at 95-100% health). If it is a melee, THAT is not your fault! YOU should only compensate for this by burning more mana/resources to keep such a toon alive IF you deem that quest completion is best served by this. Be an advocate of Darwin! Poorly built/played toons should die as a learning incentive, accompanied by appropriate chiding and laughter as the case warrants. You can even recite humpty dumpty lyrics if you want. Just keep quest completion as your end goal.

Healing draws some agro last time I checked. I draw agro as a cleric on most quests just the way I play, so don't worry about it much (I even use intimidate). In some quests you will draw agro by just being a cleric. Its kinda funny to see a mob ignore the tank swinging at him and beeline straight for the cleric. It happens. An experienced cleric doesn't worry about agro in most situations.

[Diesel_Smurf]

is it worth going to favored soul? I wanted to multi class. And if so do you have a recommendation for favored soul multi class options?

[Shaftronics]

You should never multi-class a Favored Soul.

If you want a melee-based Favored Soul, you choose your weapons as according to your religion, which depending on what you want, can be racially based. Scimitars/Elves, Rapier/Drow, Greatsword/Warforged and the like.

Search over Impaqt's Favored Soul threads and builds to get you started on what you want. Otherwise, with limited Spell Slots and late spells, I strongly discourage multi-classing Favored Souls.

[r3dl4nce]

Search over Impaqt's Favored Soul threads and builds to get you started on what you want. Otherwise, with limited Spell Slots and late spells, I strongly discourage multi-classing Favored Souls.

Melee favored soul usually are 18fvs/2monk, evasion + 2 feats is very useful !

[Diesel_Smurf]

Thank you both. I am a halfling. My path gives me long sword proficiency, and I also chose maul proficiency. We shall see what happens. Breebaby Goodheart of Thelanis. I also have a cleric halfling Ienilli of Thelanis

[The_Great_Samulas]

As far as FvS, they are an interesting class with unique features. Many swear by them. In my opinion and in that of most of the healers I would qualify as "great" healers, they are just not as good as a cleric in the hands of an experienced player. My take on them is they are really for three types of players. First, for those wanting to healbot they are really ideal (except for the loss of the cleric capstone - which can save a raid from a wipe, nothing else like it). Second, for intermediate level players that are still finding it hard to deal with quests/raids with "normal" mana levels. Third, for solo players/blade barrier fanatics that love the DR/wings/blade barrier combo (over-rated in my opinion). If you find the FvS attractive you should try one and see for yourself. I found mine to be a struggle to keep as effective of a healer as my cleric, while still maintaining melee and offensive caster potency (this is somewhat the fault of splashing monk, but not entirely).

I have a FvS psuedo-melee build (18 FvS/2 monk). The 2 monk splash is very advantageous for the feats/evasion/ac as you level, while the ac isn't as useful at endgame. The thing about FvS is that they have defensive class abilities that make them hardy. The evasion synergizes well with thier high saving throws adding additional resilience, with minimal loss (FvS capstone, mana loss, and DR isn't attractive to me). If you want to have a fighting oriented build, it is hard to do it with a pure FvS. Core feats are improved critical (Mineral 2, somewhat alleviates this, but not really) and power attack. If you want to two-weapon fight, then there is the 3 or 4 feat chain to bring this up to par with tank rate of attacks. I have seen favored soul that are also 12 FvS/6 Ranger/2 monk as well, but this is an advanced build. On the other hand, the cleric fighting blends give you the ability to swap spells for a quest, that can really up your ability to serve in a primary healing capacity. I don't recommend this until you have perfected healing efficiency to deal with the mana level though (the bauble from weapon shipment really helps).

You have to figure out what you want to do with your melee build. I have discussed battle clerics in this thread already, so you may want to review those posts. Also, don't forget the divine might enhancements the cleric offers (these can give you up to +8 damage on every swing, +4 or +6 is more reasonable). The radiant servant prestige enhancement also will regenerate your turn clickies when it comes out. I just reincarnated my cleric into a cleric designed to take advantage of this prestige enhancement (along with some other fixes for curent endgame).

[The_Great_Samulas]

The Academia di Curatio will be meeting this Sunday 5/16 at 11 AM EST for those interested. We shall discuss mass curing as the main emphasis. Check the Sarlona server forum for details.

[The_Great_Samulas]

I was remembering and old analysis of spot healing to masses (about 2 years ago), that concluded spot healing was better for under 4 targets, about the same for four targets and better for five or more targets. I wanted to verify this conclusion in modern DDO. Healing assumes Amarath belt clickie, four levels of cleric/FvS amplification enhancements, and a level 20 caster, and 4 mana to cast empower healing. It is still true that spot healing is better for 4 or less targets, while 5 or more means masses, provided you don't overheal. Mass Heal is highly efficient provided you don't overheal with it. It seems to break even one target less than the other masses compared to spot healing.

Abreviations: No MM (no metamagics), EH (empower Healing), efficiency is hitpoints healed per spell point spent.

Anyways hope this helps. Thanks to Skaldrom for the spreadsheet template I used to do this analysis (saved me some time).

[The_Great_Samulas]

I was curious how the Radiant servant would compare in healing efficiencies to the present day. It looks very promising in that MCCW with empower healing is actually better in efficiency to Mass Heal with quicken. This assumes that the maximum healing is 200 hp on all targets. Assumptions are the same for the previous analysis.

I'm looking forward to the Radiant Servant. The efficiency of Mass Heal, with a quick casting time allowing for spot healing with scrolls is going to be very nice I think.

Abreviations: Q (quicken), E (empower), EH (empower healing, and M (maximize).

[rendet]

Intersting, of course I like to keep peopl on their toes and let everyone get to 25% before my mass heal goes off in von6. That limits the overhealing from mass heal to minor levels. I also use an epic dragoneye clicky however, which hits 0 amp targets for 570. I like the charts gonna have to save that to my computer for future reference.

edit: I dont have the belt clicky.. wonder what the number would be with the belt, dragoneye and 75% from empower healing. I'm not good at math but My regular mass heal hits myself for 420 and using the superior 9 clicky i get hit for 570 which is 36% increase and not 50%. So I don't know what number the trinket is actually adding 50% to.

[The_Great_Samulas]

Intersting, of course I like to keep peopl on their toes and let everyone get to 25% before my mass heal goes off in von6. That limits the overhealing from mass heal to minor levels. I also use an epic dragoneye clicky however, which hits 0 amp targets for 570. I like the charts gonna have to save that to my computer for future reference.

edit: I dont have the belt clicky.. wonder what the number would be with the belt, dragoneye and 75% from empower healing. I'm not good at math but My regular mass heal hits myself for 420 and using the superior 9 clicky i get hit for 570 which is 36% increase and not 50%. So I don't know what number the trinket is actually adding 50% to.

Use the following:

The way to describe this calculation is this:

1. Spell damage is rolled useing the dice in the spell description, 1d4+1 for Magic Missle for example, giving you the BASE damage range. Once again for Magic Missle this would be 2-5 Damage per missle. (note that DDO actually uses "loaded" dice for spell damage, but this will be covered later)
2. Feats like Empower and Maximize are then added together, 100% for Maximize and 50% for empower and the BASE is then multiplied by the result; or BASE*(Max+Emp+1)
3. Item bonus's like Potency or Effects from potions and AP Enhancements are then added together and multiplied by the result of BASE*(Max+Emp+1); or (BASE*(Max+Emp+1))*(Pot+Enh+1)
4. If the spells is a critical, your total Critical modifier from Items and Enhancements is then multiplied by (BASE*(Max+Emp+1))*(Pot+Enh+1) giving you ((BASE*(Max+Emp+1))*(Pot+Enh+1))*(Crit Item+Crit Enh+1)
5. At this point the result is then multiplied by any strengths or weaknesses the target may have to the spell type; for example "most" undead take double damage from fire: (((BASE*(Max+Emp+1))*(Pot+Enh+1))*(Crit Item+Crit Enh+1))*Monster
6. The end result is then rounded down to the nearest whole number.
7. Finally damage mitigation is applied, things like Absorb Energy, Protection from Energy and Resist Energy.

The complete formula is this:

POTENTIAL DAMAGE = (((((BASE*(MAXIMIZED+EMPOWER+100%))*(POTENCY+ENHAN CEMENT+100%))*(CRIT ENHANCEMENT+CRIT ITEM+100%))*MONSTER)
ACTUAL DAMAGE = (((POTENTIAL DAMAGE*(100%-ABSORB ENERGY)) - RESIST ENERGY) - PROTECTION from ENERGY)

The source for this is by Xionanx here.

[Asbiorne]

Just another "Thumbs Up" from a formerly WoW-tainted cleric!

After reading through this forum I rejigged my spell list to include Soundburst, Greater Command and Cometfall - what a revelation! Crowd control is a fantastic addition to my arsenal and I am revelling in practicing it.

Thank you all for this awesomely useful thread, my 11 (almost 12) cleric has taken on a whole new dimension for me.

[rendet]

Just another "Thumbs Up" from a formerly WoW-tainted cleric!

After reading through this forum I rejigged my spell list to include Soundburst, Greater Command and Cometfall - what a revelation! Crowd control is a fantastic addition to my arsenal and I am revelling in practicing it.

Thank you all for this awesomely useful thread, my 11 (almost 12) cleric has taken on a whole new dimension for me.

Just wait until you start to use destruction and slay living. Those pesky casters go away in an easy click of the mouse

[The_Great_Samulas]

Just another "Thumbs Up" from a formerly WoW-tainted cleric!

After reading through this forum I rejigged my spell list to include Soundburst, Greater Command and Cometfall - what a revelation! Crowd control is a fantastic addition to my arsenal and I am revelling in practicing it.

Thank you all for this awesomely useful thread, my 11 (almost 12) cleric has taken on a whole new dimension for me.

Congradulations, you have taken a large step into the real power of a cleric. You'll learn that your cleric becomes more and more powerful as you learn how to play him better and to utilize his versatility. This is the essence of the Path to Enlightenment. Just remember to be nice and forgiving to those clerics that are still struggling at the earlier stages. And believe me, you'll have to almost bite your tongue off when you hear a healbot telling you how you are doing it all wrong, because "you must get no agro and only use mana for healing and buffing". One thing that might interest you is the use of the symbol spells, particularly symbol of stunning and persuasion. Symbol of Death is useful in VoD with the bats once you get to that. Give them a go.

I'm glad the thread has helped, thanks for the praise. Always nice to hear support. Good luck in the game and have fun.