To Radiant Servant or not?

[Talltale-Storyteller]

Actually there is a reason not to if ur making an evocation Cleric.....even on a human there is not enough feats to fit in Empower Healing....even on a Human.

Toughness
Hieghten
Empower
Maximize
Quicken
Spell Focus: Evocation
Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
Extend.

I'm unwilling to give up any of those.......altho I have contemplated dropping toughness....but if I do it won't be until level 20 and I have my tier 3 GS HP item done.

That being said if ur just making a non-specific all around cleric... Radiant Servant is great....I also have a cleric that has the PrE.......I don't think it's worth it tho if you're going for maximum BB efficiency...but I'll have to see if I can afford to lose the 40 HP at level 20 to make that decision for sure.

Not knocking your build... but greater spell focus is really not necessary - you could easily ditch that for either Spell pen (and take the clonk path!) or empowered healing. Entirely seperate topic, but i personally feel maximize AND empower on a BB is overkill. To me the strength of the class is versatility, so why build for only one thing? To each their own, not knocking your build, but i don't think that little bit more out of your BB makes up for giving up regenning turns and the RS heals.

In the end the burst alone is equivalent to so much free SP its just ridiculous - I crit on my burst for upwards of 300 hp, and I'm only level 13 (10 levels of cleric). And it regens... and all i did to invest in it really is pick up the PRE.

Just my 2cp.

[vVAnjilaVv]

Not knocking your build... but greater spell focus is really not neces in those situatiuons...sometimes it's not even enough.sary - you could easily ditch that for either Spell pen (and take the clonk path!) or empowered healing. Entirely seperate topic, but i personally feel maximize AND empower on a BB is overkill. To me the strength of the class is versatility, so why build for only one thing? To each their own, not knocking your build, but i don't think that little bit more out of your BB makes up for giving up regenning turns and the RS heals.

In the end the burst alone is equivalent to so much free SP its just ridiculous - I crit on my burst for upwards of 300 hp, and I'm only level 13 (10 levels of cleric). And it regens... and all i did to invest in it really is pick up the PRE.

Just my 2cp.

Solo Amarath and party end game content on higher than normal much.....sorry my build is not overkill.

There are a lot of mobs in higher end content with good reflex saves and evasion/improved evasion.

I had your same attitude when I first GR'ed my cleric.......it was an elf, still had like a 33-34 dc on BB.......changed stuff up and went out to Amarath thinking my blades were gonna be a lot stronger because I had added Empower and before I GR'ed I only had maximize but my DC's were sligthtly higher.

It was a joke, my blades were not killing close to fast enough and the evasion mobs were saving on them left and right...extreme content calls for extreme builds.

This was just in the explorer area.....just because a lot of mobs have weak reflex save does not mean they are still not high by the time you get to end game content, and don't even get me started on the amount of HP they have.

So I had to re-Reinc....I just took the pl;unge and TR'ed into a Human Cleric...now my evocation build is much stronger and will be much better suited for end game content.

Not too mention BB is not the only evocation spell I cast.

[Mortekei]

take it...

pros
1) free healing
2) free healing
3) free neg level removal w/burst
4) free healing
5) the burst is a great weapon against undead
6) not sure if i have mentioned it, but you get free healing

I'm sorry, I'm a little slow today...so are you suggesting there may be some free healing with this?

[Talltale-Storyteller]

I'm sorry, I'm a little slow today...so are you suggesting there may be some free healing with this?

Holy Thread Necromancy, Batman!

[EustaceTrevelyan]

Take it and don't look back. You can run out of sp, but you can always wait and recharge your turns. No-brainer on the healbot side of the spectrum, and even MORE no-brainer the more you go toward battlecleric, since you'll have less heals and less feats/AP spent punching them up. To each their own, but really, it's such a gift from turbine it almost makes up for the tempest/twf nerf.

[Vallin]

In lay-mans terms what are the real pro's and con's to going RS?

cons:

1. I don't want to be anyone else's lamp post.
2. I need toughness, spell pen, and improved mental toughness. Empower healing doesn't fit.
3. I rolled a radiant servant and compared it to my generalist - the generalist dwarven cleric is a much more useful and survivable character. Cleric survival = group survival.

Vallin.

[vVAnjilaVv]

Well sorry to add to the necromancy of this thread but I went ahead and experimented with dropping toughness and picking up empower healing so I can take Radiant Servant.

I kept everything else the same....in the end it's a loss of 50 extra HP's, but I am finding the aura to be very beneficial.......I'll make my final judgement at end game, but I will probably nix the toughness permanently.


Especially with proper gear and a nice setup...the aura seems to compensate for the loss of HP from toughness.....but again I will make my judgment at end game when I know I will be getting hit much harder.

Greater spell focus is not being dropped...sorry...the 1 DC does make that much of a difference in high end content...no matter what people may think IMO.

[SpearKicker]

So vVAnjilaVv,

Any news about the thoughness drop? Was it worth it?

[Shamurai]

I personally LOVE it on my Cleric.. She USED to be just a pure nannybot.. now with all that free healing she was respecced to be more effective at BB and Destruction/ Implosion. Maybe not the uberest EPIC build but she's much more fun to play for non Epic content to be sure!

[Sarisa]

I personally would never want to ditch toughness. 420 point disintegrates are flung around too much in epics to warrant giving up the 43-63 HP. If you're already below that mark, there are still the 250-300 point Chain Lightning's, 300-340 point Delayed Blast Fireballs, and 350+ damage Meteor Swarms to worry about on a class with pathetically bad reflex saves.

As of update 9, Extend will be the most useless of the feats if you still intend to keep GSF: Evoc. It will no longer work on offensive spells (Greater Command, Blade Barrier). Aside from a few endurance matches (VoD, New Invasion, Coal Chamber, Bastion if you get a poor layout), anything longer than 20 minute buffs isn't that necessary.

Extend is only really useful for Divine Power, Divine Favor, Prayer, Recitation, and Holy Aura. Since you're an evoker and most likely not melee'ing, you won't really need extended Divine Power/Favor. Recitation is typically just used when you have people without luck items who need the extra to-hit or saves. Holy Aura is just used offensively or for increasing saves when faced with a trap. Prayer is really the only one that you would cast often enough that you may miss Extend.

[Arkadios]

Actually there is a reason not to if ur making an evocation Cleric.....even on a human there is not enough feats to fit in Empower Healing....even on a Human.

Toughness
Hieghten
Empower
Maximize
Quicken
Spell Focus: Evocation
Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
Extend.

I'm unwilling to give up any of those.......altho I have contemplated dropping toughness....but if I do it won't be until level 20 and I have my tier 3 GS HP item done.

That being said if ur just making a non-specific all around cleric... Radiant Servant is great....I also have a cleric that has the PrE.......I don't think it's worth it tho if you're going for maximum BB efficiency...but I'll have to see if I can afford to lose the 40 HP at level 20 to make that decision for sure.

Drop extend, come update 9 Blade barrier won't be affected by it. Pick up Empower healing instead.

Edit: didn't read post above.

[MagicalDad]

Two arguments against what you say:

1. RS heals save your SP for offensive casting
2. W/ Update 9 taking away extending BBs, extend becomes superfluous after about level 10 - your buffs become long enough w/o them. So, at that point, just retrain your Extend feat into Quicken, and you are good to go.

Besides, I think RS will cast the new light damage spells @ Level + 2, increasing their DPS - and the shorter BB animation means you don't really need Quicken until Mass Heal.

I have a Cleric 19 / Fighter 1, my first toon to make it to level 20, didn't become RS until level 18 (picked up Emp Heal and respecced most enhancements at that point), and the difference it makes is amazing. I have solo-healed Shroud 4/5 w/o running out of SP, never even touching Mass Heal, just alternating between MCMW and MCSW.

Actually there is a reason not to if ur making an evocation Cleric.....even on a human there is not enough feats to fit in Empower Healing....even on a Human.

Toughness
Hieghten
Empower
Maximize
Quicken
Spell Focus: Evocation
Greater Spell Focus: Evocation
Extend.

I'm unwilling to give up any of those.......altho I have contemplated dropping toughness....but if I do it won't be until level 20 and I have my tier 3 GS HP item done.

That being said if ur just making a non-specific all around cleric... Radiant Servant is great....I also have a cleric that has the PrE.......I don't think it's worth it tho if you're going for maximum BB efficiency...but I'll have to see if I can afford to lose the 40 HP at level 20 to make that decision for sure.

[bryanmeerkat]

In lay-mans terms what are the real pro's and con's to going RS?

Pros: Its the only Pre thats available , so take it

Cons: Its the only PRe , so you have to take it .

In all seriousness taking it makes you better , theres no point being extra fancy at casting evocation spells if you run out of spellpoints to keep you alive .
It also means you dont have to spend your spellpoints on healing yourself or others , so you can cast more offensive spells .

[justagame]

If you're a cleric, I don't see any good reasons not to (even if you're a battle cleric with a melee splash).

- The 75% rate on empower healing is very good in high level / raid healing
- The aura won't take the place of huge heals, but is great at acting like a kind of DR, and greatly reduces the need for between-battle top-offs
- The burst, especially when empowered/maximized, just destroys undead. It's great to hop into the middle of a huge undead fight, slay them all, and heal the party all at the same time -- without using a drop of mana
- For now, there's no other PRE for clerics

Yes, it costs, some:

- Empower healing feat. You might not have otherwise wanted it, and it results in over-healing in all but the highest levels
- AP cost, namely heal skill x2, and imroved turning. I accept these, as every PRE seems to have it's share of garbage feat or enhancement requirements

To respect into radiant servant, I think I had to give up the highest tier of spell pen, and the top tier of wand/scroll enhancement, and maybe one other thing. But it was well worth the tradeoff.

Contrary to what one might conclude at first glance, it's not just for healbots. As an offensive caster, it frees up valuable mana that would have been spent on mass healing. And it goes very well with melee clerics, as both the aura and burst center on you. Being in the think of battles utilizes the RS abilities a bit better than the stand-back-and-heal model.

[EyeRekon]

There is not a motivating reason to not take RS if you are a Cleric. The benefits are great and there is very little contention for Enhancement Points. So you can easily incorporate it into your build without really sacrificing anything important.

If you do not value free, gradual, rechargeable healing and do not mind chugging pots , then the PrE will not provide as much value to you. As others have said, it reduces your burden for casting of healing spells to free you up to do more offensive & CC with your SP.

Leveling in Necro is a lot easier with magnified positive energy for offensive healing as well as free DoT.

[Zenako]

In the recent CC event I would solo level 25 stuff with my RS Cleric. Gather up a boatload of undead at once and blast them to oblivion cycling thru RS blasts, and Mass Cures. Rinse and repeat while clearing out a side of the map. (Only thing that was a pain were the archers since they stayed rooted in place and would loathe to gather...)

[countfitz]

-
To respect into radiant servant, I think I had to give up the highest tier of spell pen, and the top tier of wand/scroll enhancement, and maybe one other thing. But it was well worth the tradeoff.

Sorry to argue... But giving up wand/scroll enhancement isn't a con, since getting RS2 I've never even purchased scrolls or wands (using only the ones I loot) because the healing is so much more effecient/available/cheap.

Just saying

But for real, the biggest thing about this is it regens all your Turn Based abilities, NOT JUST RS 1 and 2! So, Divine Vitality, if you have it, means that, if you are really really desparate to finish a quest without recalling, and have patients, you can refill a friends mana infinitely. You can get all the Divine Mights you could ever want if you're a Battle Cleric. You can, in a quest with two RS Battle Clerics with DVs, never ever run out of anything, and kill forever.

[vVAnjilaVv]

Actually I started playing my other characters trying to cap them so my TR Evo cleric is at 16 and probably for a while now as I made the mistake of not leveling another character to cap before TR'ing and now I am feeling the pinch in the higher levels....I play all servers.....I only have the two on Cannith where my cleric is.

Most likely I will finish leveling my non-TR WF AM to cap after U9 and then finish with my cleric....I need my haste potions and the AM will support that nicely.

My decision so far is that I will keep the RS...if they release a PrE that is more beneficial to offensive casters tho I will retake the toughness and drop RS in a heartbeat...but this remains to be seen.

I have to agree with other posters in this thread tho....not taking RS atm....is a waste.....there really isn't a reason why you SHOULDN'T take it....even at the expense of a few HP if need be.

With U9 nerfing extend so much, I may drop that and retake toughness.......extend is still useful for other spells tho....I'll have to play around with that some as well.

[azrael4h]

*edit* didn't note the necro

[Meat-Head]

As the game currently stands, if you have 12 levels of cleric, then you must take Rad Serv. II. If you don't, you are a silly silly goose, or you are worse.

That is all.