How did you get them to listen?

[Hellllboy]

Clerics are players as well (not babysitters).

Go, play, explore.

If your party members run off and die-grab there stone (if it happens to be in the same direction you are heading) and move on.

Your remaining party members will either learn from that or stop paying w/you-either way...you win.

[Fenrisulven6]

Damage PREVENTION is worth a ton more than damage fixing in this game.

Echo. Command and soundburst will save you oogles of mana.

And when I'm running with scatterbrains, I do mass buffs at chests. At least the ones that are minutes/level.

[Alishandra]

I guess I will toughen up. I am new to this so I assume the people running these higher level things know what they are doing. I am uncertain what is considered non newbie levels. I am level 5 nw so am probably still a newbie, not a noob as I will take direction.

Like the fish adage.

Teach me and I suck for a week, carry me and I wipe your raids at 20

[Zenako]

I guess I will toughen up. I am new to this so I assume the people running these higher level things know what they are doing. I am uncertain what is considered non newbie levels. I am level 5 nw so am probably still a newbie, not a noob as I will take direction.

Like the fish adage.

Teach me and I suck for a week, carry me and I wipe your raids at 20

Good start on your thinking....

newbie is more mind set than time in game. A CLERIC has a number of great tools they can use in game. At low/early levels, (under 9), you obviously have unmatched healing spells. You also have a number of very potent Crowd Control Spells (Command, Soundburst, etc), and lots of BUFF spells (Resists, Mass Aid, Prayer, etc). A cleric can also wear enough heavy armor to matter in those levels and if they grab a decent weapon, cast Divine Favor or Power they can knock heads pretty well too. A cleric can be about the most unkillable character in those levels. What I would recommend is getting into a small group, that will let you check out how well some spells work, or even going out into some quests solo and giving it a crack.

I recall sometime ago, I was in a group running Redwillow on my cleric. We ended up with another Cleric in the party. That cleric was focused on being a healer first and foremost to the exclusion of doing anything else. I told them, I would handle any healing that was needed, but that I wanted them to swap in some of the spells mentioned above and try them out in the group. It can be scarry when you deviate from the normal paradigm of being "just the healer", but it can also be very liberating. That player was amazed (based on their chat over voice) at how well things like COmmand were forcing otherwise dangerous mobs to their knees. I think I had a convert that afternoon.

Another under used spell is the Monster summoning. Those monsters have a TON of HP, a LOT more than any character, they have super SPOT scores and are usually able to grab the aggro of the enemy first, letting you and your party pound on the monster freely for a few seconds. Instead of having to heal 200 points of damage to your party members, your 10 SP to summon Dog has sucked up those attacks, and you don't even have to worry about healing them. The point is not to have the Summoned Dog (or whatever level you summon) actualy kill the monsters, but to have them grab the attention away from you and your party. DAMAGE prevention!

[Yagi]

My particular approach is to barbsplash my clerics and advise other players to keep up with me. I suggest this style of play once you learn the quests a bit, its alot of fun.

[Alishandra]

Are hirelings worth it? or just stick with summons?

[BitkaCK2]

Grease.

This. Is. Win. lol

1) Grease clickie so they can't run away.
2) Buff.
3) ???
4) Profit

bitkaCK2

[centurionaramis]

Are hirelings worth it? or just stick with summons?

Hirelings have their times. Around traps and/or in critical health, AI can be really ********. (Although human stupidity can still surpass it by light-years.)

But don't count out summons either, though. Combine yours with theirs.

I bring out the hellhound, my common hirelings bring out the spider or earth elem.

[Vouivre]

I think my biggest problem is players like the wizard in my group last night. We were having a really tough time with Hidden in Plain Sight. Most of the time people were staying together, but we did have a few problems with letting the fighter actually tank instead of one of the two paladins.

The problem with the wizard was that there are a lot of hard hitting caster mini bosses in that mission and the melees would rush in, all taking massive damage while the wizard laid out firewalls and other AEs. Well he gets aggro and dies in a few hits then starts sending me tells and making snide comments in the group about how I'm not doing my job.

I tried to explain to him that I target names in the group window with the mouse while my hand is on the heal hotkeys. I can't get the whole F keys and hotkeys as it scrunches my fingers on both hands into one little place. I can heal just as fast or faster the way I do it. And if I have four to six people in the group taking 20-60% damage at a time, someone is going to die. And since he has the least hps, that is often going to be him as while I am casting one heal he can get two rounded.

[Elsbet]

I think my biggest problem is players like the wizard in my group last night. We were having a really tough time with Hidden in Plain Sight. Most of the time people were staying together, but we did have a few problems with letting the fighter actually tank instead of one of the two paladins.

The problem with the wizard was that there are a lot of hard hitting caster mini bosses in that mission and the melees would rush in, all taking massive damage while the wizard laid out firewalls and other AEs. Well he gets aggro and dies in a few hits then starts sending me tells and making snide comments in the group about how I'm not doing my job.

I tried to explain to him that I target names in the group window with the mouse while my hand is on the heal hotkeys. I can't get the whole F keys and hotkeys as it scrunches my fingers on both hands into one little place. I can heal just as fast or faster the way I do it. And if I have four to six people in the group taking 20-60% damage at a time, someone is going to die. And since he has the least hps, that is often going to be him as while I am casting one heal he can get two rounded.

Bah. Tell the stupid, squishy sorc to do the following:

1. Get a set of armor bracers. His AC sucks.
2. Get a con item or chew a tome. He doesn't have enough HPs.
3. Get a heavy fort item and leave it on.
4. Put some points into diplomacy and learn to use it liberally.
5. Learn some agro management, i.e. don't agro every mob in the area if you can't take a hit or 10.
6. Mem stoneskin (or get it on wand/scroll), get barkskin pots, and buff the hell out of himself.
7. Suck a pot. There are six people in a party. He isn't the only one who needs heals; however, he is the mana sponge. Besides, he's cheaper dead and HiPS can be done without a caster.

[Arianrhod]

6. Mem stoneskin (or get it on wand/scroll

/agree. Anyone who can cast a firewall can use a Stoneskin wand

[MoiraKatonic]

This. Is. Win. lol

1) Grease clickie so they can't run away.
2) Buff.
3) ???
4) Profit

bitkaCK2

hahahah..how silly. "Alright, you're gonna gather for buff's or whether you like it or not!! Don't make me cast grease on you!!"

[SquelchHU]

Grease.

/thread

[Siro]

Grease.

I used to do this...

But now every new character my guildies make either have high enough balance or strength or both to avoid the clicky.

[Lerincho]

snip.

i watched other clerics for the first year of this game before i made mine. how did i get party listen? finally letting someone die and tell them "it was cheaper SP wise to rez you than heal you". don't be a babysitter.

[Vouivre]

Last night me, a paladin, barb, and this spastic sorc in our guild were going to run WW side entrance. I got invited, started running there while the sorc is messing around with his mic (I think it is a he, either way it is very very young) and doing something that annoys the heck out of me on the internet and always has, typing statements in multiple lines. Like this...

Where
Are
You
All
At
?

So I finally get there (and this sorc by the way is known for running off ahead of the group and trying to solo everything and die a lot then blame everyone else) and just before they are about to go in I remembered that I still had my solo spells memmed. I ask them to wait while I go fix it, and the sorc replies..

Noooooooooo!
You
Come
Now!

Then he zones in. The other two follow after he starts taking damage and he starts complaining at me. Telling me I'm a bad healer because he died. Tells me no spells were worth that, that I didn't need whatever it was I was wanting to mem. So I zone in and advise him that a player dying is not usually the fault of the cleric.

They pick up his stone and they kill a few more mobs. All of a sudden the Barbarian says he needs a Restore badly. I reply I can't restore you <sorc name> told me I didn't need that spell so I didn't mem it remember? The sorc goes off, we get attacked by a beholer who two rounds me even with my deathblock on and everyone but the barb dies trying to kill it. The sorc gets mad and leaves and the rest of us rezz up and go do a different mission.

The moral I guess is that no one was carrying potions, wands, or anything else to heal themselves and relied completely on me. I don't understand that. It is almost in every group that no one heals themselves with a potion AFTER the fight, they wait for me to do it then are confused when I'm annoyed at ending up spending a lot of money on wands when I don't get to loot any of the barrels and such. Or a melee gets rezzed at a shrine and doesn't get back to full hps and expects me to heal them rather than using the rest shrine.

[calvinklien]

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