Playing a Cleric in 2019? Thoughts Anyone?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by hein, Oct 10, 2019.

  1. hein Augur

    I have recently returned to EQ on the FV live server and started a BeastLord to box along side my 92 Druid. I'm thinking / hoping that I can box those two characters all the way and get ready to enjoy the new expansion coming out in Dec.

    However, I also have a 73 or 74 Cleric. I was wondering how viable, the Cleric + Beastlord might be? I've played a druid since the year 2000, and it might be fun to put my efforts into a Cleric class. This would also allow 2 x DPS merc will boxing.

    Is there still a demand / desire for a Cleric in guilds or end game content? Would love to hear your thoughts on all this.

    thanks!
  2. Tucoh Augur

    Cleric + Beastlord is perfectly viable, but druid + beastlord will be better. The beastlord is one of the best mana batteries now (for whatever reason...) which helps a generally mana starved druid. The druid will be able to keep the warder alive and will be able to CC + nuke better than the cleric while giving the beastlord some spell ADPS.

    Clerics shine when healing needs are high, which is true in guilds and end-game content. If your goal is to raid I recommend looking through:

    https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?forums/guild-recruitment.25/

    And seeing what guilds that are in recent content need.
  3. Metanis Bad Company

    As a raiding cleric I would advise you to stay with the Druid in your 2-box scenario.
  4. Zunnoab Augur

    The biggest difference from around the time you were active from what it looks like is now, is the cleric class can spam out far more spells in a shorter amount of time. Before VoA (?) remedy spells stunk, for example, doing insanity like locking your spell bar for several seconds. Now they are very good, though they do not put out the raw heal power of the shorter casting stuff they are exceptional for quickly healing multiple targets, or hitting before the next melee round.

    Yes clerics are still essential for raiding forces. Keep in mind as well, some raid forces will be interested in exceptional players regardless of the class, if the commitment is there, and keeping in touch and networking with players with a serious effort to catch up on how the game changed is a good way to show your interest, if you decide to raid. In a game this old, returning players are a huge asset.

    The economics of the FV server are completely foreign to me though.
  5. Arraden Augur

    Cleric is a fun class in group environment, and i love it in my box group (chanter + wizard + cleric)
    beast lord wont benefit from cleric and cleric wont necessarily benefit from bst so - if you're looking for best synergy, go druid.
  6. Belkar_OotS Augur

    I love my cleric. I always want my cleric especially when first learning content or doing things when it is still "hard" since the cleric healing kit is plain awesome! More love for clerics! They are also fun in raids and groups.

    Once upon a time I considered clericing on raids to be to most stressful and least appreciated job. I have now changed that feeling to druid/shaman have it worst. They have worse healing tools and have a dozen other things they are somehow supposed to do while still doing max healing on tanks, and healing their group alone versus the doubled up clerics in tank groups (that often have pally too who are very formidable healers).

    That said. Cleric solo and dps is laughable in my experience. Total waste of time to go it alone versus even a fairly inept group. That part is the suck.

    However in your situation, you have access to mercs. I would say druid wins by a landslide With your set up for the synergy between classes and the druids deep and useful utility kit. Druids can be a great addition to almost any group. I would probably try to dps with the druid and support heal a cleric merc instead of using 2 dps mercs.

    I would also put in some thought to pairing with a shaman too. More overlap in buffs and abilities but still some good synergy to be had between the two.
  7. Vumad Cape Wearer

    I box a cleric. I might have a bit of the grass being greener here. Merc clerics are very powerful. My observation is that of the 4 merc types the cleric is the best performing. If I was starting now, I would box a druid. Druids are very sufficient subs for clerics. As a beastlord you will very much appreciate not needing gate potions, or invis potions. I think you'd be happier with a merc cleric and druid DPS than a merc DPS and a real cleric while boxing. The automation of the cleric merc also makes it easier to relax when you want to slack off a little.

    There is absolutely a place for clerics. Druids can sub but not replace clerics when the going gets the toughest. Examples being MH on raids. Raid leaders are not benching clerics to use druids as healers. But if you are going to call the Beastlord main, the raid value of the box doesn't matter much.

    Zunnoab is right about need being more about performance than class. Raids would rather have a great beastlord or druid over a burnt out cleric. A happy and high performing druid will out heal and bored low performing cleric. Not to say clerics are boring. Both classes a good. Both classes will do what you need. Pick the one you will enjoy the most, is what I'm saying. The rest will fall in line.
  8. Brohg Augur

    Cleric mercenaries are gd awful. As they should be, but still. Just the pits. I main one of the toughest characters ever to walk the face of Norrath and I can't operate in remotely "real" content depending on one. A passable player cle opens the world for their group, plus opens multiple dps slots that don't have to be even more healing/debuffs to back them up. An actual good cle is just night & day.
    Cadira likes this.
  9. Laronk Augur

    I'd stick with a druid in your scenario, pets are terrible at tanking multiples the druid has some good ghetto CC and can dps. you can always use a cleric merc to help heal, dps mercs are generally terrible.
  10. Vumad Cape Wearer


    A cleric merc can not compare to a real player. I did say that.

    But I believe a Druid + Cleric merc is vastly superior to a Cleric + a Wizard/rogue merc.

    There is not a lot of content a good druid can't MH for.
    Brohg likes this.
  11. Tumbler Lorekeeper

    It'd be pointless to play a cleric with the beast lord.

    The druid can crowd control and dot. The beast will dot as well. You will also get 2 mercs to go with it.

    If you want to do the tanking game then reroll the druid to an sk. The beast will slow and debug and buff you. The cleric and druid buffs are pointless. Especially with a merc casting HP buff on you. The dps mercs do so little dps that they are not worth the Plat to run them.

    So reroll the healer to an sk and pop out 2 healing mercs. That would be your best group option with this 2 box scenario.

    The clerics healing is not needed and their dps is actually dpy(damage per year)
  12. Mazame Augur

    Having a cleric beast that I play together. I can say the cleric /bst works. Cleric aura's had a lot of hp. The Mark is nice for removing Damage shields. The mitigation buffs are nice and add to what I can tank. the biggest pro is the healing. Bst are leather class so fast healing is needed and Druid heals are slower. Also with the cleric fast heals I can nuke my targets target so dps as i am healing is nice.

    I do not have a druid black wolf would add synergy and port are nice but not needed in today's game with the guild hall porting to most places.

    In my mind I like the cleric options more but maybe I am missing something.
    Arraden likes this.
  13. Mazame Augur

    I know a number of Druids I would take as a MH. If people know how to play them they can MH just fine.
  14. Moldar Augur

    Druid is going to be good for healing, DPS, CC, Ports, and you can run either a Cleric merc if you want to be more lax on the healing or if your really able to focus on the heals you can run a pair of DPS mercs.

    The Cleric is going to be the opposite, little to no DPS unless your doing Undead only content, no ports, CC only in the form of roots. The flip side is their healing is 2nd to none and your the best at it for any and all content. As Mazame posted above you do get some death saving buffs and can utilize the best reverse damage shields, but terror's juju isn't all that hard (maybe a pain, but not hard) to farm and do with a Beast/Druid.

    The thing your trading is weaker (but still totally sufficient) healing for more "stuff" (in this case DoTs, DPS, ADPS, CC, Ports, etc), I have leveled both a Cleric and Shaman to max with over 30k AA, and I am currently leveling a Druid (which I am having a blast with by the way); however, the biggest thing that I have noticed is that on the Druid (only because he is low level and I am still learning the ropes "so-to-speak") and on my Shaman is that there are "gaps" (as I like to call them) in their healing where there is little to no healing, additionally I have found Druid heals to generally be bit slower (I am not sure if they speed up overall the closer you get to max level, I can't speak from experience), but that usually means the damage incoming just needs to be less "spiky" and more consistent. Whereas on the Cleric it didn't really matter what damage was coming in I almost always had some sort of way to respond to that damage and heal it with minimal problems.

    In short it really is going to boil down to how you want to play the game. If your intention is to "patch" heal with the secondary toon and only really utilize it as a healer during "harder" content then I suggest going with the Druid, on the flip side if you like doing missions and always just want to be able to heal through it (whatever "it" may be) I would suggest the cleric.

    Additionally, since you already have both of those toons (the 73/4 Cleric and the 92 Druid) Might I suggest leveling the Cleric up along side your Beastlord and then swapping to your Druid to give it a try out and see which play style you prefer when they get closer to level 92. In my opinion the Druid is probably the way you want to go because for the most part it will provide sufficient healing for most group content (only the most difficult missions may give you a small headache until you figure out some sort of healing strategy that works for you), and you're going to be able to DPS, CC, Port, ADPS, on the fly if the healing needs are not very demanding and still have a very decent healer when you do need that extra support in my opinion, but again I would play around with both and see which you prefer more.
  15. Vumad Cape Wearer


    Very good advice there.
  16. Tappin Augur

    Why bother with a healer at all? Just roll another BST. Your going to get boggled down trying to heal and end the result is less overall DPS. If you have to play an ADPS class, then just roll a bard.
  17. Bigstomp Augur


    Clerics are useful. Some raid guilds need them.
    Druids are useful. Some raid guilds need them.
    Beasts are useful. Some raid guilds need them.

    If you play them well, someone wants you.
    If you play them exceptionally well that's where the we'll make room sorta rules come into play.
  18. hein Augur

    I actually have a 93 bard instead of the cleric or druid
  19. HanktheTank Journeyman

    Yes go with the bard. There is no reason to play the druid or cleric.