Making My First Cleric

[Matadorito]

I'm starting anew on Sarlona and I want to play a cleric/fvs for the first time. I plan on going pure the first time and am leaning towards cleric so I can learn the spells on the way. Ideally, I want to either do a cc and damage build or a high ac tank leaning towards buffs and debuffs. Which one would be easier to do? A general build for your suggestion would be much appreciated

[painkiller3]

easiest to start i would think would be a melee cleric...swing your big axe and heal yourself with aura. there are some very good threads about that.

[Mercureal]

If you want to stay pure, I'd say it's easier to build a caster cleric - maybe not great at CC, but certainly damage and insta-kill. The Divine Disciple tree gives you all of the tools you need to boost your DPS casting - spell power, SLAs, new spells and DC bonuses. Crowd Control isn't a big strength for clerics, as they don't get a lot of CC spells, but they get some. With a high Wisdom and DC gear (e.g. Enchantment / Greater Enchantment Focus), you can be effective at CC in most quests. Maybe not all the time on Elite quests at level, but some of the time, especially if you target weak saves and take the Heighten feat.

My cleric is a pure caster, so that's where my knowledge lies, but you can probably build a decent tank too on a cleric, though you'd likely have to multiclass to really optimise it as the Warpriest tree is useful but not focused on tanking. You'd probably want to splash some Fighter or Paladin levels to get their respective Defender enhancements. Fighter might be better, since it gives you some extra feats to build out your tanking ability.

[Matadorito]

If you want to stay pure, I'd say it's easier to build a caster cleric - maybe not great at CC, but certainly damage and insta-kill. The Divine Disciple tree gives you all of the tools you need to boost your DPS casting - spell power, SLAs, new spells and DC bonuses. Crowd Control isn't a big strength for clerics, as they don't get a lot of CC spells, but they get some. With a high Wisdom and DC gear (e.g. Enchantment / Greater Enchantment Focus), you can be effective at CC in most quests. Maybe not all the time on Elite quests at level, but some of the time, especially if you target weak saves and take the Heighten feat.

My cleric is a pure caster, so that's where my knowledge lies, but you can probably build a decent tank too on a cleric, though you'd likely have to multiclass to really optimise it as the Warpriest tree is useful but not focused on tanking. You'd probably want to splash some Fighter or Paladin levels to get their respective Defender enhancements. Fighter might be better, since it gives you some extra feats to build out your tanking ability.

I felt like if I wanted pure dps casting I'd go fvs for extra mp and being able to cast more spells. Does the DD tree give more to dps than what the fvs casting tree would? As I said, I'v never played a cleric or fvs before so I have minimal knowledge about which one would be better for dps casting.

[axel15810]

I felt like if I wanted pure dps casting I'd go fvs for extra mp and being able to cast more spells. Does the DD tree give more to dps than what the fvs casting tree would? As I said, I'v never played a cleric or fvs before so I have minimal knowledge about which one would be better for dps casting.

Until the favored soul pass comes I'd go cleric. I think casting cleric is clearly better (atleast in heroics) right now because of the divine disciple tree. Favored souls don't get any SLAs.

If you want a caster, build a standard 20 cleric caster. Off the top of my head feats will consist of spell focus, greater spell focus of either necro or evocation. Also take heighten, quicken, maximize, empower, and empower heal. Max WIS at 18 and then take a decent CHA around 10-12 and CON around 14-16. Go human for sure on a pure. The extra feat is critical.

Invest a lot into the divine disciple tree, apply your metamagics to the SLAs and cast away. Take stuff you can apply to metamagics as soon as you can.

If you want to go with a melee cleric check out my melee cleric build here - https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...e-Cleric-Build

You could build the character the same but run in Sentinel instead of Dreadnaught/Crusader if you wish to be a tank.

Both caster and melee cleric are very viable, just depends if you prefer to be an upfront melee or backline caster. Pick one or the other and specialize in it.

[Matadorito]

Until the favored soul pass comes I'd go cleric. I think casting cleric is clearly better (atleast in heroics) right now because of the divine disciple tree. Favored souls don't get any SLAs.

If you want a caster, build a standard 20 cleric caster. Off the top of my head feats will consist of spell focus, greater spell focus of either necro or evocation. Also take heighten, quicken, maximize, empower, and empower heal. Max WIS at 18 and then take a decent CHA around 10-12 and CON around 14-16. Go human for sure on a pure. The extra feat is critical.

Invest a lot into the divine disciple tree, apply your metamagics to the SLAs and cast away. Take stuff you can apply to metamagics as soon as you can.

If you want to go with a melee cleric check out my melee cleric build here - https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...e-Cleric-Build

You could build the character the same but run in Sentinel instead of Dreadnaught/Crusader if you wish to be a tank.

Both caster and melee cleric are very viable, just depends if you prefer to be an upfront melee or backline caster. Pick one or the other and specialize in it.

Played up to lvl 2 with both just now and I have to say the SLAs on the cleric totally made up for the lower sp. The sla NoL was hitting from 25-46 which made it real nice for clearing mobs (still not as fun as niac SLA). Thanks for telling me about the SLAs in the DD tree

[Mercureal]

I'm obviously a bit late in responding here and the questions seem to have been addressed. But purely for ego (m own) validation purposes, I'm going to go ahead and repeat what you've already been told.

Yes, the DD makes a Cleric caster better than a FVS. The SLAs (and Radiant Servant healing enhancements) offset the SP usage, and the various boosts you get make your DPS and instakill cating much better, meaning it takes less to kill the average monster.

Axel's recommendations on feat choices are spot on, so go with those. I'll note that light/evocation casting is better at lower levels, but I found negative/necro casting more effective in the mid-upper teens. It's easy to switch your enhancements around.

On the melee cleric stuff, I have nothing to add. Listen to Axel again, his experience with those builds is fairly credible.

[unbongwah]

For a pure caster cleric, I'll just point you to this thread: https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthrea...or-new-players