Spellcaster Cleric?

[TestPilot]

I'm lookin to build up another alt for gear farming. My wizard with all his AOS spellcasting does the absolute best, but I don't just want another wizard. A lot of the cleric spells look like fun, like blade barrier and cometfall. Is a spell-cleric a viable thing, or are they just melees now?

[Loromir]

I'm lookin to build up another alt for gear farming. My wizard with all his AOS spellcasting does the absolute best, but I don't just want another wizard. A lot of the cleric spells look like fun, like blade barrier and cometfall. Is a spell-cleric a viable thing, or are they just melees now?

I've run a spell casting cleric...my only complaint is the slow casting animation speed. They can be very sturdy though with all the defensive spells and self healing and of course Heavy Armor and Shields.

[TestPilot]

I've run a spell casting cleric...my only complaint is the slow casting animation speed. They can be very sturdy though with all the defensive spells and self healing and of course Heavy Armor and Shields.

Are we talking actually slow casting or just low animation speeds? If its just a slow animation it doesn't mean too much.

Would a favored soul potentially be better?

[Fedora1]

I've tried a couple of times to build a fire/light spell caster cleric with little success. I really wanted to make it work with the sun elf iconic. It's one of those things that should work, but for whatever reason doesn't. Take my experience with a grain of salt though, I am not a good caster player. I play melees or specialists almost exclusively. I'm okay with warlocks, but then again, who isn't?

So not to hijack your thread, but if someone could point me to a good fire/light cleric build I'd appreciate it.

[TestPilot]

Well I just played around with it using a sun elf iconic. I was doing pretty well until I ran out of mana. Then again, I was also playing on normal. Then again for a second time, I was playing with just the garbage sun elf starting gear and no real plan for the build. Its probably that with some thought to enhancement point allocation and a few real pieces of gear, it'll work. I doubt I'll ever be soloing R10s but so far it seems like as much fun as my wizard(and a lot better than my stupidly gimped sorc who's gear I may be stealing).

I would appreciate some better direction though before I get terribly invested in the character.

[droid327]

Spell cleric is generally considered one of those Heroic heroes - great for clearing stuff from 1-20, but doesnt scale well into Epics.

The general consensus is Air Cleric is the best approach for a caster-archetype Cleric - LB and CL give you the AOE power that you're used to from Arcane spellcasting, to go along with your Light nukes from DD. Sadly and inexplicably, the T5 SLA is Force/Fire based, not Light & Align like the entire rest of the tree...which only does you any good if you take Sun or Fire domain, and even then only for half the damage...

That might be too close to your Wizard playstyle though.

Also worth looking at FvS...they make good nukers too with their much higher SP pools, AoV is perhaps a better caster tree than DD, and they can do intermittent melee even when WIS/CHA based with stat-to-dmg.

[ned_ellis]

I just updated my Necrocleric thread if you wanted to consider DC caster instead of blaster caster; if not, there is still some good info from others that confirm the Air domain builds being ahead as blasters as Droid states here...

[lronEnema]

Spell cleric is generally considered one of those Heroic heroes - great for clearing stuff from 1-20, but doesnt scale well into Epics.

The general consensus is Air Cleric is the best approach for a caster-archetype Cleric - LB and CL give you the AOE power that you're used to from Arcane spellcasting, to go along with your Light nukes from DD. Sadly and inexplicably, the T5 SLA is Force/Fire based, not Light & Align like the entire rest of the tree...which only does you any good if you take Sun or Fire domain, and even then only for half the damage...

That might be too close to your Wizard playstyle though.

Also worth looking at FvS...they make good nukers too with their much higher SP pools, AoV is perhaps a better caster tree than DD, and they can do intermittent melee even when WIS/CHA based with stat-to-dmg.

If you want to build a caster cleric, light and fire is not the way to go. As stated above, it does not scale into epics:

Blade barrier is great in heroics but doesn't keep pace with mob hit points.
Light spell power and impulses cannot get as high as most other types because there are no Barovian belts for these types of damage
Cleric fire spells are just meh.

The best way to go is Necro - instakills and negative damage.

Death domain gives you necrotic ray SLA, an extra destruction (longer cool down), bonus to turning and bonus to necromancy DC's

so, as a divine disciple, death domain (Aureon as a deity) you get

2 necrotic rays for damage (one from DD and a SLA from Lvl 5 that does obscene damage) - NB they also drain a level to help with the instakills
3 single target instakills (SLA destruction, normal destruction, slay living)
A weaker Implosion - use some DC boosts from arcane insight / reaper / Aureon's instruction to boost it up
Oh and Frog of course

Run in Exalted angel or Magister (if you want to go full on instakill).

In reaper, standing still on entry with no pots my lvl 30 has 113 necro DC's - certainly not maxxed but still serviceable in all content

Oh - I take ruin and greater ruin for when I'm soloing low to mid reaper and need to take down properly deathwarded mobs and bosses.

[SocratesBastardSon]

I've tried a couple of times to build a fire/light spell caster cleric with little success. I really wanted to make it work with the sun elf iconic. It's one of those things that should work, but for whatever reason doesn't. Take my experience with a grain of salt though, I am not a good caster player.

My experience is basically the same. I usually play ranged, so I also admit I am not a good evoker. I say evoker rather than caster because instakill DC casters are a whole different thing, and vastly more effective in reaper and high epic. Evokers are now the red-headed step child of DDO builds, unless you want to play in Epic Hard the whole time. Sad really.

So, yes, I tried a Sun Elf fire domain Cleric, and it was pretty good for a first life toon until around level 24. Or anything at R2+. The damage output just plummeted. Kicking their shins, spitting in their face, and shaking my fist while using harsh language feels about as effective.

So now, at level 25, I just play a support toon handling party healing and tossing out some offensive support when needed. That works ok, so long as you don't mind being pure support. And forget soloing. Or raids. Or mid to high reaper except as a soul stone in someone's backpack. In other words, lacking lots of past lives, top gear, and reaper APs, don't do try fire/light evoker. And if you have those things, well, you still shouldn't do it.

Like Fedora, I'm not an expert on evoker builds and my experience is based on a first life toon. I've done several evokers (non-Cleric), so I'm not entirely incompetent, but maybe someone has better advice. Though I doubt it.

[NancyD]

If you want to build a caster cleric, light and fire is not the way to go. As stated above, it does not scale into epics:

Blade barrier is great in heroics but doesn't keep pace with mob hit points.
Light spell power and impulses cannot get as high as most other types because there are no Barovian belts for these types of damage
Cleric fire spells are just meh.

The best way to go is Necro - instakills and negative damage.

Death domain gives you necrotic ray SLA, an extra destruction (longer cool down), bonus to turning and bonus to necromancy DC's

so, as a divine disciple, death domain (Aureon as a deity) you get

2 necrotic rays for damage (one from DD and a SLA from Lvl 5 that does obscene damage) - NB they also drain a level to help with the instakills
3 single target instakills (SLA destruction, normal destruction, slay living)
A weaker Implosion - use some DC boosts from arcane insight / reaper / Aureon's instruction to boost it up
Oh and Frog of course

Run in Exalted angel or Magister (if you want to go full on instakill).

In reaper, standing still on entry with no pots my lvl 30 has 113 necro DC's - certainly not maxxed but still serviceable in all content

Oh - I take ruin and greater ruin for when I'm soloing low to mid reaper and need to take down properly deathwarded mobs and bosses.

So I’m listening. There’s some killing you can do in Magister when soloing, just takes longer.

But ... here’s the thing. If you were a completionist and had the extra Sorc and Wiz lives, and the reaper points, it’s possible. But why would you do that? Only if you also wanted to be a support role, a healer. Even then, for high end content, you have to survive. I’m rusty, trying to get back into things, trying to find positions on the new content. But if you were adept, knew the content, and had the reaper XP (none of which applies to me now), I think it possible. I’ve a friend on another server who apparently does it, in fact.

Just you have to want to. There has to be a reason you’re not a FVS, and that’s probably / hopefully healing.

[DirkTyrant]

yeah... I want to play an undead necro death domain cleric.... but I'm not good at putting builds together. There has got to be some synch between death domain necro cleric.... and pale master undead... Help??

[unbongwah]

yeah... I want to play an undead necro death domain cleric.... but I'm not good at putting builds together. There has got to be some synch between death domain necro cleric.... and pale master undead... Help??

Cleric 17 / wizard 3 is the obvious split if you want an undead-form Necro cleric. Downside is you lose the last two Divine Disciple cores and don't get Death Aura, but NEB SLA and self-targeted Inflict / Harm spells work (though not the Mass versions), while keeping level 9 spells.

[painkiller3]

yeah... I want to play an undead necro death domain cleric.... but I'm not good at putting builds together. There has got to be some synch between death domain necro cleric.... and pale master undead... Help??

roll up a deep gnome 4 wizard/11 cleric to see how you like having to aim harm at yourself. I was thinking about 14 cleric/6 wizard and going all in on destruction, as you can get a +2 DC on necro spells from pale master tree and +2 wis from vampire so you wouldn't be that far off a "pure" 20 death cleric. like I said, try out the aiming harm at yourself, I find it to be annoying

[DirkTyrant]

Cleric 17 / wizard 3 is the obvious split if you want an undead-form Necro cleric. Downside is you lose the last two Divine Disciple cores and don't get Death Aura, but NEB SLA and self-targeted Inflict / Harm spells work (though not the Mass versions), while keeping level 9 spells.

Thank you, Unbongwah.... I had hoped you'd respond - and this is great news. You don't happen to have a full build guide, do you? I can stumble through, but would prefer a roadmap.

Dirk

[unbongwah]

You don't happen to have a full build guide, do you?

Not really, but it's just a standard Necro cleric which takes a wizard 3 splash.

Aureon is probably the best deity option for Aureon's Instruction. I guess either human for the extra feat or Aasimar for the extra WIS.

Leveling order: cleric 1-14 to grab your Death SLAs ASAP, then wiz 1-3 for Pale Master, then cleric 15-17. I'm thinking something like this:

Undead Cleric
17/3 Cleric/Wizard
True Neutral Human


Level Order

1. Cleric          6. Cleric         11. Cleric         16. Wizard
2. Cleric          7. Cleric         12. Cleric         17. Wizard
3. Cleric          8. Cleric         13. Cleric         18. Cleric
4. Cleric          9. Cleric         14. Cleric         19. Cleric
5. Cleric         10. Cleric         15. Wizard         20. Cleric


Stats
               28pt     32pt     Level Up
               ----     ----     --------
Strength         8        8       4: WIS
Dexterity        8        8       8: WIS
Constitution    16       16      12: WIS
Intelligence    10       10      16: WIS
Wisdom          18       18      20: WIS
Charisma         8       12      24: WIS
                                 28: WIS

Skills
          C  C  C  C  C  C  C  C  C  C  C  C  C  C  W  W  W  C  C  C
          1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
         ------------------------------------------------------------
Concent   4  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1     2  1  1  1  1  23
Spellcr   4  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  23
Heal      4  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1  1        1  1  1  21
Repair                                                    1            1
         ------------------------------------------------------------
         12  3  3  3  3  3  3  3  3  3  3  3  3  3  3  3  3  3  3  3


Feats

 1        : Maximize Spell
 1 Human  : Empower Spell
 3        : Quicken Spell
 6        : Heighten Spell
 9        : Empower Healing Spell OR Enlarge Spell
12        : Spell Penetration
15        : Spell Focus: Evocation OR Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy
15 Wizard : Spell Focus: Necromancy
18        : Greater Spell Penetration OR Extend Spell
21 Epic   : Epic Spell Penetration OR Arcane Insight
24 Epic   : Burst of Glacial Wrath
26 Destiny: Epic Spell Power: Negative OR Guardian Angel
27 Epic   : Embolden Spell OR Epic Damage Reduction
28 Destiny: Mass Frog
29 Destiny: Arcane Pulse
30 Epic   : Intensify Spell
30 Legend : Scion of: Shadowfell

 2 Cleric : Death Domain

 1 Deity  : Follower of: Aureon
 6 Deity  : Aureon's Instruction


Enhancements (80 AP)

Divine Disciple (39 AP)
Emissary: Darkness, Sacred Defense, Enervation, Necrotic Ray
Chill Touch III, Spell Critical: Negative
Spellpower: Universal II, Spell Critical: Negative
Necrotic Bolt III, Spellpower: Negative III, Spell Critical: Negative, Wisdom
Negative Energy Burst III, Necromancy DC, Spell Critical: Negative, Wisdom
Mass Inflict Moderate Wounds III, Negative Spellpower, Divine Empowerment

Pale Master (15 AP)
Dark Reaping, Zombie Form
Spell Critical, Negative Energy Conduit III
Spell Critical, Bone Armor I
Cloak of Night III, Spell Critical

Eldritch Knight (Wizard) (12 AP)
Eldritch Strike
Improved Mage Armor III, Item Defense I
Improved Shield III, Mystic Wards II
Arcane Barrier

Radiant Servant (11 AP)
Healing Domain, Pacifism, Positive Energy Burst
Extra Turning II, Bliss III

Human (3 AP)
Spell Power Boost, Wisdom

Leveling Guide
DD0 Emissary: Darkness; DD1 Chill Touch I, II, III
DD1 Spell Critical: Negative; DD2 Spell Critical: Negative
DD0 Sacred Defense; DD2 Spellpower: Universal I; DD3 Necrotic Bolt I, II
DD3 Necrotic Bolt III; DD3 Spellpower: Negative I, II, III
DD3 Spell Critical: Negative; DD3 Wisdom
DD0 Enervation; DD4 Negative Energy Burst I, II, III
Rad0 Healing Domain; Rad1 Bliss I
Rad1 Bliss II; Rad0 Pacifism; Rad1 Bliss III
Rad1 Extra Turning I, II; Rad0 Positive Energy Burst; DD2 Spellpower: Universal II
DD4 Necromancy DC; DD4 Spell Critical: Negative
DD4 Wisdom; (Bank 2 AP)
DD0 Necrotic Ray; DD5 Mass Inflict Moderate Wounds I, II, III; DD5 Divine Empowerment
DD5 Negative Spellpower; Hum0 Spell Power Boost
Hum0 Wisdom; (Bank 3 AP)
PM0 Dark Reaping; PM1 Negative Energy Conduit I, II, III; PM1 Spell Critical; EKw0 Eldritch Strike
EKw1 Improved Mage Armor I, II, III; PM2 Bone Armor I
PM0 Zombie Form; PM2 Spell Critical; PM3 Cloak of Night I
PM3 Cloak of Night II, III; PM3 Spell Critical
EKw1 Item Defense I; EKw2 Improved Shield I, II, III
EKw2 Mystic Wards I, II; EKw3 Arcane Barrier

Enhancements: Dark Divine Disciple is your primary tree, obviously. Pale Master: undead form is only 6 APs (pick either vampire for +2 WIS, lich for negative amp / Spellpower, or wraith for 10% Incorporealty), but you might as well spend 15 in PM for Negative Energy Adept + 3 ranks of spell crit. Sorry, just realized the builder I'm using doesn't contain the current Pale Master tree and I'm too lazy to look for an update right now. But the AP cost is correct, just the names have changed.

You could even ditch Radiant Servant entirely if you don't care about healing others. Then you could put those points into Archmage for extra spell crits and maybe Invisibility+Blur SLAs.

[DirkTyrant]

Thanks a lot, U - I DO want points in Radiant Servant.... because the character needs to be able to TURN sufficiently... or it won't be able to deal with undead at all...

I will probably drop the pts in EK... I ended up being Aasimar... and I can't use the maximize and Empower on the SLAs... so I'll concentrate on spell pen..., but most of this ... I'll be taking as directed... and I think vampire is better...

I am partial to skelly buddies... but I won't put many pts in it... I just need him to be a distraction...

and, yes - the more % crit I can squeeze in - the better!

[Merfyn]

You could even ditch Radiant Servant entirely if you don't care about healing others. Then you could put those points into Archmage for extra spell crits and maybe Invisibility+Blur SLAs.

Seems like this may be a wise choice now. I logged on & discovered all my points had been stripped from Radiant Servant because the tree has been revamped.

[kmoustakas]

I just finished a life of cha based illusionist caster. I started off as a melee and took the two weapon fighting feats to go with shadowblades and death domain for better turning. Then, the death domain SLA is insanely powerful and the ring of shadowblades is crazy good for benny hill situations. So I tr'ed at 20 into a law cleric because my main issue all the way until 11 was aoe. Law cleric has an aoe SLA so I'm gonna try and see how that works!

Air seems really good with turning working on elementals too and so does fire. There's one that has blade barrier as an SLA, that can't be bad! Chaos has chaos hammer sla and prismatic spray.

These are all heroic ideas, I don't think these will work well on epic.