Basically, the company has been ignoring class concerns for 5 years now. I seriously doubt anyone in a position of authority at DBG is paying attention to this thread.
it's kind of sad that lack of cleric has been the most common issue raid-wise AND group-wise because the class is so effin boring to play, and has been since 99... yet daybreak barely ever tried to change it. Even chanters get their moment in the light every other expension with some charm gimmick.
Chain Casting Remedy and fast clicks on everything for twitch play. I was one of the many clerics that loathed CH and enjoyed the finesse of playing with Light and other tools, and this is like a return to that dark age only in reverse.
You can imagine my shock in discovering Remedies were now "good" heals and Lights were not! Things have swung quite a bit to the other side. That said I do still try to break up that norm and use a good variety. Some things never change. It's nice to see you're still about Ami.
One question I have for the clerics who say playing a cleric is "boring" - do you only play the cleric OR do you also play other characters often? I ask because I suspect feelings on cleric play may be influenced by having tried other characters and seeing what they can do. While I have dabbled with other characters slightly, I am still playing the character I made 21 years ago as my main character and enjoy and still find the cleric versatile and fascinating.
Originally we had a Complete Heal problem. Since then we have a Remedy problem. The only difference is that the game design is trying to kill us in 2 seconds vs 8 seconds. I prefer time to consider my options.
I don't play other characters often; I don't currently have any alts. I don't believe it's boring personally, but it is frustrating trying to play in content without a group. I still don't believe I should have to wait for 5-7 years after a piece of content is released to be able to finish old quests or old hunters. The problem? Our DPS has stagnated heavily in the past decade and our pet is 'broken' as it doesn't have enough hit points to be of any use. Ring of Scale was released in 2017; it's 6 years old now. A cleric, in my opinion, should be able to pop a merc and molo most of the named's for the Heroic Achievements; yet we can't. We're the only class that still requires a group to go get stuff done in 6 year old content because our DPS is just that bad these days, and it shouldn't be. Raid healing can occasionally get stale during farm season, but I believe that's more seeing the same targets for months on end. It'd be nice if we didn't have to use so many 0.5s and 1.5s spells though... it's a recipe for carpal tunnel syndrome if you're not fortunate enough to have a gaming mouse or keyboard to essentially "autofire" with a multibind.
I think its closer to 2 decades now i remember being on the CH chain back i the pop days, by then our DPS was garbage and it never recovered.
It'd be cool (really cool) if they gave clerics (and only clerics) the ability to have 2 (yes two!) mercs active at one time! This way we could tank and dps via merc and actually maybe kill something once!
Little off topic but I had always wished the cleric was the more melee type healer. But disiciple in vanguard was my absolute favorite class in any game. With the way the game has evolved it’s essentially a pally now, but I always thought the healers got a little off track Druids stick with the casters leaning on nuke heals Shamans stick with the dots and heavier heal over times Clerics no tank abilities like the paladin but can also heal with melee abilities with tankish melee dps
i mean...they cost more mana, cast slower, have a fraction of the base damage and although we get some (they threw us some crumbs?) AAs to make our nukes better, we just dont have the tools to enhance our nukes to make the damage meaningful. You could add two Zeroes to our base nuke damage and we'd still be in laughably last dps place in any situation. Which, i am fine with being in last place, i just want to contribute meaningfully if given the chance, or kill a trash mob in group content from 5 or 10 levels ago while moloing and not having it take an eternity.
I like the battle cleric concept a lot but, overall, the dps numbers need attention. The pet is probably the worst part of it; feels more annoying than useful and hardly worth the spell gem at the moment. Again, it's a good idea but needs improvement.
I'm not in the camp of finding Clerics boring - you know me! But I figured I'd mention what I'm up to these days. Since returning I've made a Shadowknight and Bard to pair with my buddy's characters for our group. SK has always been my favourite of the tank concepts and Bard was always interesting to me. They're mostly played in group content but I've boxed one or both along with Llu on raids. I would say, while it's fun to play the other characters, I always prefer focusing on just the Cleric in raids and doing my utmost. Splitting my focus across multiple characters does not feel great. My perpsective is more on the tuning side (numbers) and potential QoL tweaks that could go a long way, not unlike they would all those years ago when Prat and I would brainstorm.
I loved my cleric(s). So much that I boxed 3 of them. Why? Because I don’t like being told what I can’t do. I’ve been away for a couple years now, and I’m about to dip my toes back in the pool, I’m hoping not to be disappointed with how they’ve treated us.
In addition to my cleric main, I have a rogue, a ranger, and an sk. For the first 3 or 4 months of the expansion (progression, AA and names) our group normally consists of a rogue, sk (botted, not mine), a paladin, me and my ranger alt. Once we are done with that, my cleric is essentially retired other than for raids. By that time a cleric merc is sufficient to keep the group up, and I can offer a lot more to the group by adding dps from the rogue and ranger. As a cleric I l just don't add that much to the group once the other mains and bots are geared up. Yes I heal better than the cleric merc. However by that time the cleric merc is "good enough" and we can use the extra dps more.
I would love for Clerics to absolutely demolish undead content. Can't find a group right now? Fine. Just summon up an undead bane hammer, load up your self buffs that auto heal/nuke on attack and Yaulp yourself to massive undead damage. Make us punish the undead. Dare I say, make an ability or spell or combo that equals the Assassinate/Headshot abilities. But strictly for undead. Would be a freaking blast!
