I would like the cleric +hp aura to get the no-ranks treatment as buffs did, so that grouped clerics don't step on each other's toes. Folks with the previous "raid" aura have had seven years to enjoy their earned advantage, it's time to flatten that one out. No need to jump up hp%, just a rankless lv120 aura equal to the old rk3 would be super. Alternately, we could fix up the mitigation aura. That the current highest level mitigation aura (Aura of the Reverent) is a noob trap due to its invisible (in game) per-hit cap I think is a problem. I'd like a new mitigation aura (again, rankless) without the per-hit cap. Aura of the Reverent's 4% mitigation does not need to go up, it just needs to lose the secret-whammy part that makes it worse in current content than the level 70. Like, one aura this year, the other one next year. Either order, I'm easy! And the 116+ plain "Light" heal should be 3sec cast, so that the bad clerics aren't quite so bad. I am against noob trap spells.
Yes indeed. Having them be part of [new ranks of] the Saint's Unity AA like the shm Pact of the Wolf would be realnice.
I can live without all this this QoL improvements but, sure, would be ok to have. What would make the game more fun for clerics would be more DPS. Increased damage on the Intervention Heal-Nuke lines or a huge increase on our Nukes or Yaulp or Divine avatar making us hit for 10000000% more melee damage would be funstuff.
More cleric DPS. A temporary buff that you can keep up that will heal the people that it lands on for 50% or 25% of the cleric's DPS would be fun. Shielding spells getting a buff would also be incredibly fun and give clerics a stronger purpose when healing knights (spamming remedies into a knight IMO is pretty pointless when they are healing themselves). More options is always better. Keep the remedy spamming noobs happy, but also give better players an option to contribute more to the raid/group.
I hate being the pessimist on these kinds of threads but it has been literally YEARS since they've done anything special for clerics. It's been all cookie cutter spreadsheet percentage updates. I fully expect the next expansion will be the exact same thing. Having said that, in case the appropriate Dev happens to read this thread, they could do clerics a lot of good by simply re-powering the Intervention line of spells. Cut the recast time by half, double the heal, triple the damage. If they absolutely can't give out a massive improvement without consequence then triple the Hate and/or add an unwelcome effect like knock back. C'mon Devs, throw the clerics an old musty bone for a change!
I wonder what exactly are the balancing points for the cleric class? Why are they such a one dimensional healer vs the other 2 priests classes? I ask because the I believe the same design constraints are applied to the paladin class, but to a lesser degree. If we can highlight either we can maybe break them down and offer some viable suggestions to the devs.
1. Repel the Wicked- This needs to be an instant cast time to be brought more in line with Bards and Enchanters and the relative usefulness of knock back root comparisons with druids and shamans. This should be able to be used as both a pulling tool and a CC tool. Instant cast would make this ability a lot better. 2. Hybrid spells were changed to be better targeting for healing and offensive spells so less target switching, this is something clerics need done since switching targets lowers our capacities. 3. Having the ability to have both an offensive target and a beneficial target locked into the system would allow us to have more control over how to play a cleric. Meaning that we could melee easier while casting. I believe the first stage really is streamlining the targeting problems with some offensive abilities, but I do agree with Metanis that upgrading some of the damage abilities to be more in line with modern content is a good start.
Two words: Complete heal. Yes, that spell has LONG since been buried in the back of a cleric's spellbook, but the mentality surrounding it has never left the game, from the view of the devs. "Clerics heal...you need nothing else." Two decades later, and that is STILL the mentality of the devs. That is why they are scared to death to even THINK about upping a cleric's dps, or expanding our utility, or just doing anything to make the class fun to play. "But I'm a BATTLE CLERIC!" No, you're not...you're just embarrassing yourself. If you're in top of the line, full raid gear with all of your hero AAs, yeah, you can probably tank stuff...can probably even tank named. But when you break it down, and look at the numbers, those numbers are pathetic. A raid geared group may be able to "get by" with a cleric tanking, but...why? Even with the good focus items and crits, a cleric's dps is still laughable. You can go on fooling yourself that you're a DPS machine, but you're really not. Clerics heal, and until there is a fundamental shift in philosophy among the devs about the class, that's all they ever want us doing. I don't think a single person who mains a cleric is asking to make us on par dps-wise with a druid, or wizard, or necro, or anything like that. I think we just don't want to look foolish when we do try to add dps.
All the one dimensional classes lose in modern EQ because of how powerful utility has become. Utility/ADPS is powerful now because of how difficult it is to measure.
I would like increased damage on the cleric ward. On a blue server it's hard to get into an xp group with everyone else boxing a cleric. On Zek groups are much easier to come by, but most of the clerics in the game don't or won't pay on Zek as we are limited in our ability to pvp vs other classes. I miss the days when I could cleric swarm dark blues on my own using my ward, my AA's, my spells, my pet and perfect timing of heals. This is not giving the clerics a dps freebie. You have to have some skill and great timing to pull off a good swarm but it would be a nice option for blue server clerics, who don't box, to be able to swarm xp instead of going LFG for hours. In my perfect world my clr ward would have a 10% chance to smack back for 1 million dmg if something hits me. It would be defensive damage, like a God Smite for something attacking the cleric.
