Cleric Mains? Do you exist? How do you play?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Cintile, Jan 19, 2023.

  1. Petalonyx Augur

    I can relate with Tallie. When boxing, if I spend any time trying to heal, my dps plummets hard. The healer merc coverage (even with a cleric in group) is indirect dps because it lets me maximize the damage I do from the dps characters I box. This is especially the case for someone boxing 2+ dps by hand. Tallie is just doing what works optimally for them, and it's very possible that having the cleric sit there doing little/nothing is optimal.
  2. Tucoh Augur

    They use a healer merc so Tallie can focus on the ranger and mostly ignore the cleric. They believe that this provides more overall DPS in the encounters they typically fight in, this is probably true except in difficult encounters where Tallie likely switches to the cleric to blow the entire group up with overhealing while the ranger does little DPS. This also makes them more resilient to sudden AFKs of the healer which is a time-old problem (along with sudden AFKs of CC and tanks).

    It's not a terrible decision to make and highlights how ineffective cleric DPS is.
  3. Tacoheals TACOBELL !!!!

    I'm 100% content on how the cleric is and does perform. Dps on a cleric? nah not worth it. Clerics soul Design is to Heal. if your bored in group content then your not pulling enough. Cleric is my main and I love it. If you happen to have a solid tank in group content IE: Cadira than you just need to pull more and make the game challenging to you. Now when playing with lower end people who arent in raid gear than you have more focus and abilities to use as from playing with a main raider sk war paladin.
  4. bbanz Elder


    I do something like that so my main (cleric) can get credit.
  5. Velisaris_MS Augur

    I can relate 100% to this situation. I box cleric/ranger/SK...alt tabbing, no cheat software.

    Even having to tab over every now and then for heals/buffs with the cleric does make the overall efficiency of my group go down some. I had hoped, when the cleric had finished his AAs, to swap him out with a rogue and go with a healer merc, but the cleric has a cloak now. I have to drag him around to get xp on it.
    bbanz, Lluianae and Tallie like this.
  6. bbanz Elder

    I wish I knew more groups willing to do that.
  7. Cicelee Augur

    So many groups want one mob in camp. Easy work. It is so boring.

    One of my favorite EQ moments was a Karnors wall group in Dreadlands, where for two hours straight we had at least 3 mobs in camp, and at some points 7. Bard would pull and mez, and for two hours the group worked their tail off. Far and away one of the best groups I have been in. We all were challenged and pushed to our limits, and it was hectic and awesome.
    bbanz and Tatanka like this.
  8. Lluianae Elder

    My spell line would like a word.

    Bigger multi-pulls alone isn't enough to salvage what's a dreary grouping experience for Clerics, whether that be contemporary or our damage potential having been stagnant since, lest I'm mistaken from what Emilari and others have said, CotF, or even back in the times when I was still active before.

    The whole purpose of big pulls is for a net gain in kills over time by being able to cleave, AoE and multi-DoT, which fundamentally falls down to one factor - the group's DPS.

    We heal a finite amount, and a tank can only withstand a finite amount of damage per interval before things become lethal, even with discs and tools used, and that's still never touching a modicum of our true heal potential. It's just not needed, and to use Cicelee's words, it doesn't challenge nor push to the limits. If content truly did, it'd be prohibitive to the other priests and Cleric mercs. I had group content more balanced to that once - Ashengate and Frostcrypt. Most people hated it, in turn, learned a valuable lesson from Rashere where it was later toned down.
    bbanz, Annastasya and Emilari like this.
  9. Tatanka Joe Schmo

    Thank you, now I understand perfectly.
  10. Bigstomp Augur

    Clerics getting bored in group content is mostly about tanks/groups not trusting the cleric/tank.
    A live cleric main is a joy to play with but the pullers/tanks need to step it up.
    Pull 5-10 mobs at a time. Give the cleric a challenge and make them use their heal discs.
    bbanz likes this.
  11. Tallie Elder

    The other day we were in Shadeweaver's Tangle at the skeletons, with most pulls being 4+ mobs. I had a blast. When we stopped my beloved friends said, that was exhausting, next time lets get a nice relaxing camp. They were surprised that I had fun :)
    Bigstomp, bbanz and Emilari like this.
  12. Evye Augur

  13. Tallie Elder

    bbanz, Evye, Lluianae and 1 other person like this.
  14. Annastasya Augur


    i main a cleric. Raiding has always been at the top of my priorities when it comes to EQ playtime management, so time working on group level content has been, let's say, inconsistent. When i do get into grouping, it is typically with raid geared guildies or friends, so suffice to say it is rarely a challenge.

    Which is fine, as i get all the "challenge" i need from this game during raid content. In fact, i like to think of group content as time to relax and curbstomp the enemy. This is largely the reason that i raid, to defeat the group level content relatively stress-free.

    Style wise, as has been mentioned several times, the "normalized" mode of play for many players (and for good or bad, this is another consequence of the predominance of boxing) is to take things slow and methodically- which is what your average 3-6 boxer can handle well without wiping often, and so Cleric heal power far outmatches this threat. So i do as much damage as i can, using pets and discs, 2hers that i've set up for damage (or 1hrs that proc mana+ and group heals as one of the few ways to enhance the groups' dps) and DD/heals, or twincast DDs. i save a bit over half my spellbar for "real" healing, to switch back quickly for difficult namers or large pulls. i'd call this half-battle-cleric style.

    Specifically spell hammer pet, AA hammer pet, and BP clicky hammer swarm (pretty sad but fun). Twincast DD and a couple Contraventions and always Yaulp (mounts are for boxers and people specced for low Mana pools/regen). For AAs used, Battle Frenzy, Spire, Divine Avatar, Twincast+, Intensity. For click items- Feather/Horn, Circle of Power, DD shield.

    If undead are the primary target, i'd switch out two spells for our primary undead dot, and undead DD. And use Turn undead in combination with a de-aggro click, or just tank the mob up if i can take the hits.

    During mission runs or when grouping with particularly reckless tanks or squishier toons i will use a spell set that is closer to a raiding one and be ready for full healing power, at least until i've made a good determination for how much time i can spend not jamming heals.

    As for macros, i use multibinds for both heal spam and DD spam. Clerics have a lot of "oh SHIRT" abilities and there's probably not room to go into all that here, but we also have a lot of fairly passive fixes for regular level damage that don't require us to come off of our battle cleric stance, for example : Epic, Divine Arbitration, Beacon, Burst, Celestial Regen, Focused Regen, Shining armor, Bp Click, Benediction, Hand of infusion, and Weapons that fairly constantly proc group heals/mana returns.
    Evye likes this.
  15. Elyssanda Bardbrain

    Cint, have you tried asking these questions in the class sections down below?
  16. Cassiera MOAR DoTs


    Yep. My main is a necro, but a friend mains a cleric. Currently I box a mage/bard/druid. With my cleric friend in group, I can pull 5-7 mobs, rather than the 2-4 I limit myself to with the druid only or druid + merc. (She's a dps with reflexive heals, as far as I'm concerned)

    There is nothing more frustrating as a necro/mage/druid/bard than joining a group that wants to mez all but one mob at a time. They die in seconds, no challenge, no interest. Just how fast can you change targets.

    And having a cleric around allows for more challenging stuff, more varied game play, etc.
  17. Koutarou_E'ci Elder

    This is the mode I'm in too, once I get cleric's 5th cloak level maxed I'm planning on sitting him out until at least March for more dps.

    I've never been this short of things to do so early into an expansion.
    Velisaris_MS likes this.