Robes on Clerics?

[obiwai]

I'm sorta new and wanted to know if anyone plays Clerics with a robe.
I know I've seen robes out there for Clerics like Sacred ones and stuff.
Is it a waste for me not to use the armour proficiency?

I wanted to play a spell casting Cleric that sits back and casts.

Any advice or opinions?

Thanks

[FuzzyDuck81]

At high levels especially, where getting a worthwhile AC is extremely difficuly, many players will switch to robes/outfits instead, as you wont take skill penalties and you can switch them faster.

Generally, armour up to about gianthold (or presumably the droaam stuff now), then robes/outfits after is a good bet. The main benefit robes/outfits have for clerics at lower levels is that as they dont have any enhancement bonus, you can get effecfts like deathblock, fortification etc. at a lower level than on any other armour type.

the exception is probably certain named gear, eg. fullplate of giants from tempests spine, which grants 5/- DR and can be very helpful for damage mitigation... the gorgon plate from u7 is pretty sweet too, and the deneith plate from the sentinals pack can also be nice at low levels.

[RobertVesco]

I gave up on my AC at level 12 and probably could have done so sooner on my cleric. It won't pay to get it high enough for it be effective. A robe with a guard and some protection will serve you fine until you get something like elfcrafted, dragon-touched or blue dragonscale.

[Eladiun]

AC is busted in this game. After a certain point it becomes meaningless, if you aren't mid-50 in GH (mid 60's by Vale) everything hits you on anything but a 1 anyway. These are numbers a cleric likely won't reach without sacrifices or specific build choices...so armor is basically pointless. Robes have nice effects and can be swapped quickly essentially making more use out of the armor slot than armor that does nothing for you. My Cleric switched to robes at 8 and my Barb wore them from go.

[Illiain]

Choose your armor for the other bonuses it gives you and not the AC. If a set of full plate gives healing lore, take the healing lore. If it's robes with arcane lore, take the arcane lore. Arcane lore will allow all your damage spells to crit without using AP on the smiting lines, and a maximized/empowered BB crit is fun to see.

When you reach GH, your AC won't matter unless you're specifically making an AC build, and those will typically have a monk splash so you'd need robes anyhow.

[PNellesen]

My cleric wore some decent Mithral armor until maybe level 13ish, then started wearing robes since his AC wasn't high enough to stop much of anything at that point. He's got a couple different robes he'll switch to now depending on the situation. It was really hard to take that armor off the first time, but there wasn't much difference in the damage I was taking, and in fact in certain cases I would take less damage depending on what's hitting me. I haven't put the armor back on since.

(He does wear the Snakeskin Vest right now, but mainly for the Proof against Poison - all my slots I'd otherwise use for that are being used for other items instead, and there's no armor check penalty when wearing it.)

[ArloOne]

Jinx's Vestation is a nice suit of armor for a healer. I also tend to use robes/outfits primarily for the look.
A Deathblock Robe with Spell Resistence or fortification is also nice.

[Sarisa]

My first life I wore adamantine full plate until 19 when I decided to switch to Regalia to improve my Blade Barrier and Implosion saves. Since AC doesn't matter later on, all I really lost was dr3/-, which I just replaced with an upgraded Light and Darkness shield. I noticed a big improvement in balance and jump after switching to robes.

Second life, I went into an Elfcraft Robe at 11 when I got Blade Barrier. Only the robe and docent have evocation focus, and the robe doesn't give me skill penalties like heavier armour does. Around that point is when my AC no longer made any difference, so there was no harm in ditching the metal.

It just feels wrong to not use armour on clerics from my PnP experiences, but it's typically better in DDO. Faster switching (ie to a deathblock robe for Beholders/dispel heavy areas), reduced penalties, and nice caster bonuses on certain named robes.

[EKKM]

Jinx's Vestation is a nice suit of armor for a healer. I also tend to use robes/outfits primarily for the look.
A Deathblock Robe with Spell Resistence or fortification is also nice.

FYI Jinx's vexation has a pretty hefty will save penalty that is not listed int he description of the armour.

OP - Armour likely wont matter when you hit Gianthold (12-14). My lvl 20 wears a dragontouched breastplate but that's only because I wanted to wear armour. It's actually a disadvantage to have made it armour instead of robes/outfits due to the impact on skills as the AC is useless. I just couldn't wear pyjamas or dresses.

[justagame]

There is something else to consider, and that's whether you plan to TR your cleric, and possibly consider other classes in the TR.

I just TR'ed my cleric, and while I considered options such as wizard or clonk, I ultimately rejected them because I wanted to be able to use the dragonscale and dt armor at level that I had grinded for the last time around. Had I gone with robes or outfits, I'd have that flexibility. And the thought of grinding out those items again, plus the TR xp grind, makes me cringe.

[Ninetailfox]

You'll have to excuse a lot of people around the forums these days most are rather jaded. Armor class isn't near as usless as they are making it out to be depending on the content you are running and at what difficulty.

Around high 20's or 30ish noob stuff will not be able to hit you and 35 is plenty for much low end content. 40 ac around giant hold normal/hard is fine you will want it higher for strictly hard/elite content there closer to 50 or so, tanking there you want close to 50 or more. The new lords march quests a/c is useful, orchard ac is still useful. It isn't until you start hitting vale on hard or upper end content like battlegrounds, refuge, or inspired quarter at hard and above that it gets plan silly how much ac you need. If you run epic content just about everything hits you anyway unless you can get insane ac (like 70 territory or higher).

As a person who has played cleric/healers since soon after release I have seen a trend among players. years ago when giant hold was your end content 40 was for rogues and 2 weapon fighters and 50 ac for your tanks was fine (and yes tanks used to use shields, and shields are still useful)...now people say 50 plus or none at all. People build their characters with epic bosses or the high end raid bosses in mind and say that since ac is useless there, unless you sacrifice alot of dps for ac, that they ignore everywhere else in the game where ac is still useful. These days it is ignore everything that doesn't increase your dps and as healers especially at around levels 9-14 (when you are still not quite at the healing capacity you will be later) I have found it next to impossible to keep some groups alive with no ac hp melee builds because so many ignore simple stategies, ac, and 100% fortification.

People forget that not every mob in the game is an epic raid boss and there are many trash mobs that moderately high ac is useful for. Work on your ac as you level up but don't sacrifice good healer gear. There are many pieces of gear that give you what you need and help with ac. Then as you level up judge for yourself around giant hold and up(10 to 16) how useful you find it. When you feel the cost isn't worth the benefit go with what works for you, just remember to watch your agro if you are not main tank. I like ac and damage reduction as it increases survivablity even at upper levels against at least the trash mobs and doesn't drain spell points as badly on your healers. But when you have barbarians at levels 1-4 with 8 dex and in robes...they have a word for that...reroll.

DDO is really 2 games. Epic/endgame elite content, and then the rest of the game. If when you reach end game feel free to respec with a cheap lesser reincarnate and rearrange your stats and skill points, but to start at level one with 9 ac (no armor and 8 dex) is just idiocy or just plain laziness and such people expect a guildy healer or pug healer to pick up the slack in their poorly built dps toon. After all you are doing 0 DPS when you are dead because the healer couldn't keep up with the damage you were taking.

In short do your research, trial and error, and then go with what works for you. But whatever you do don't ignore ac completely it is still very useful even though mid levels.

[obiwai]

Thanks everyone.

I think I'll stick with whatever's working and go more for the feature the armour is giving me rather than the AC it's giving me.

I'll wait for much later to dabble with the robe thing.

[phalaeo]

AC is busted in this game. After a certain point it becomes meaningless, if you aren't mid-50 in GH (mid 60's by Vale) everything hits you on anything but a 1 anyway. .

54 exact for the Vale explorer area.

To answer the OP- I don't wear armour on a Cleric unless it grants me DR. AC on a pure Cleric just doesn't happen, as mentioned.

[toughguyjoe]

Someone mentioned earlier that the effects on the robe/armor are more important than the armor itself.

This is my philosophy as well. A good robe to look into might be Elf Crafted Robe, which has Arcane Lore on it. This will give your blade barriers a chance to crit..which is tasty.

[Crann]

Someone mentioned earlier that the effects on the robe/armor are more important than the armor itself.

This is my philosophy as well. A good robe to look into might be Elf Crafted Robe, which has Arcane Lore on it. This will give your blade barriers a chance to crit..which is tasty.

This.


The arcane lore gives your heals, and other damage spells a chance to crit too. Only time I touch the heavy armor is for Adamantine Damage reduction.

[toughguyjoe]

This.


The arcane lore gives your heals, and other damage spells a chance to crit too. Only time I touch the heavy armor is for Adamantine Damage reduction.

Harder to attain than the Elf Crafted would obviously be Blue Dragon Scale, which is also awesome. There are other ways to get Greater Arcane Lore...but not in the body slot that I can easily remember.

[Wurmheart]

Harder to attain than the Elf Crafted would obviously be Blue Dragon Scale, which is also awesome. There are other ways to get Greater Arcane Lore...but not in the body slot that I can easily remember.

with greater arcane lore crits are only 150% of normal dmg right for blade barrier and other non healing spells?
or do they get some base crit modifier?