Newbie healing/support cleric help

[Ysariel]

Hi,

My only character is a 1st life healing/light SLA support cleric, no multiclass. I'm already happy with the healing power I have, and notice that most characters have little use for my buffs, so I'm looking for other ways to support my party.

(I already use Sunburst to blind stuff, Divine Wrath and the thing from Exalted Angel that gives -light/physical resistance.)

If it matters,

• I plan to play Epic content only, running Exalted Angel
• I'll have a +6 Supreme tome eventually
• I won't have any Spell penetration
• I have no heroic PL's and don't want to TR, getting flagged for raids was a massive pain
• I want to stay with a mainly caster build
• I need 18 cleric levels for Sunburst from Divine Disciple. It blinds really reliably even though my Evocation DC is low. So I can't splash more than 2 levels of any other class.

1. Dire Charge

Someone recommended me this saying that stunned enemies take more damage. It sounds really good -- stun enemies so they don't do any damage, teammates do more damage to them, it disables their Evasion, gives me time to drop Sunburst and other spells, and it also puts all the melee teammates in my healing aura range as well.

• Is the DC really based off the highest you have of ANY ability? Even wis or cha?
• Can I reliably hit non-bosses in LE content on a low-STR caster? How much attack bonus should I have?
• What DC should I have to stun LE non-raid enemies? (I'm fine with not being able to stun raid enemies.)

2. Legendary Vacuum greensteel weapon Vulnerability

I'm thinking I can Dire Charge in with this, quickly drop Sunburst, Consecrate and Divine Wrath, and put everything at -20% resistance. Will that work?

Does the Vulnerability stack with other players if they're using the same weapon? If both I and another player have it, does the target take 20 stacks from each of us (40 total) or just 20 total?


3. Twists of fate

Does Crusade add to spell damage or is it just physical damage?

If I only have enough Fate points to take one of Crusade and Sacred Ground, which is generally more useful?


4. Blood & Radiance

Is there any way to easily maintain stacks of Righteous Fervor so that Excoriate triggers? I notice my radiant aura and burst doesn't give stacks of it.

I've tried spamming Close Wounds to get the counter up but this costs a lot of SP and in the middle of fights I often forget.


5. Light DPS

How much Light spellpower and critical chance is it realistic to get?

I don't expect to lead kill counts or solo EE, but it would be nice to pick off stragglers, help with damage on bosses and Shroud portals, and help the killing go faster in general.


6. Anything else

Is there anything else I've missed? Any easily available things a caster cleric could get that most parties would value?

Thanks for your advice and comments!

[SirValentine]

6. Anything else

Is there anything else I've missed? Any easily available things a caster cleric could get that most parties would value?

Many parties appreciate some crowd control.

What Epic content are you running? At what difficulty?
I'm assuming you have Wisdom as your primary stat?

DC casting is an option for Clerics. 2 things about that: 1. Getting it to work on Elite is obviously more difficult in terms of build & gear than on the easier quest difficulties. 2. It's usually (not quite always) harder to succeed targeting Fortitude saves, such as with instakills, than Will or Reflex saves, such as with various crowd-control spells.

If you run stuff on Hard, or lower-level Epics on Elite, you may be able to seamlessly add Greater Command to your arsenal and be effective with it in many situations.

Cometfall is the alternative for monsters with high Spell Resistance (e.g., Drow), or that have high Will but low Reflex (caster enemies, mainly).

Oh! And Power Word: Stun is a no-brainer! Use it on Champions & Orange-named enemies.