Ive recently returned (hurrah) and decided that I want to main a cleric! (double hurrah) I know conventional wisdom is to pick either a tank merc and tank/spank or box a tanky class and bot the cleric. To me that's pretty dull and is probably why main clerics are so far and few between. Instead i'd like to go the battle cleric route and tank my way up. Is this a bonkers idea?! So many questions: I know cleric dps is laughable, but i was wondering if I paired it with an enchanter and bard would that give enough aDPS to make the clerics dps passable? Or would a rogue be a better sub for the enc? Would a cleric beable to tank up to current content? I've heard they are pretty tanky at the moment but what does that really equate to? Can a cleric in this setup take on names in current content to get things done if no groups going? What expansion could a cleric technically take on raid targets? I've missed a lot of EQ - from OoW really and I want to see as much of it as possible before raiding (hopefully) at level cap. Anyone remember any useful cleric proc weapons? I love proc weaps. Cheers!
1. I frequently box BRD/CLR/ENC, it's quite fun. Your cleric will do a lot more DPS, for sure, but the enchanter will do the most, especially if you're using a charmed pet. The cleric will likely outDPS the bard. I do not think a rogue would be a better substitute than the enc, as rogues are much more difficult to hold aggro off of and box. 2. With raid gear, a cleric can definitely tank TDS content, although named can be pretty rough. In group gear, I'm pretty doubtful. It's certainly worth trying. 3. A solo cleric probably can't take on named while LFG to pass the time, but you could if you were boxing. Some named in TDS nearly one round tank classes, and they can certainly one round a cleric. It would be easier to have a tank merc or the (hypothetical) ENC tank for you. The most enjoyable cleric soloing I've done is mass killing of lower level mobs; viral reverse DS + Ward self proc buff + a couple AEs. Going toe to toe with current (TDS) content mobs is doable, but it's like swimming upstream - soloing isn't a cleric's forte. As for older content, for a long time I tanked on my cleric and most of the DPS came from my enc + charmed pet. It worked out well. Unfortunately charm has become pretty severely restricted (most mobs are not charmable), but enchanters bring a lot of other nice things to the table. 4. At level 75 cleric soloing power increases considerably over previous expansions - at this point you might enjoy soloing some Velious/Luclin raid mobs (if you can find them up). I'm not really sure what levels are appropriate for higher content, but it's certainly doable. Maybe if you get bored at level 90, see how far you can get. 5. Crystal Web Mace (Theft of Thought proc, drops in a lvl 70 DoDH mission) is situationally useful at max level. Sap Encrusted Branch (snare proc) is pretty fun to get, but snare isn't as important as it used to be. Rod of the Ruined / Runed Cold Iron Warhammer were fun weapons for that era and a long time after. Beyond ~ 90 they aren't as much DPS as regular cleric weapons - the procs start getting resisted all the time. Oathbound Hammer (pet proc, lvl 100) is amusing, but not as good as our summoned hammer at this point. You might want to pick up a priest 2HB (UF and above) and stick some Sympathetic proc augs in it as a fun toy. Have fun with the cleric.
If you were going to use a tank merc then you could box a wiz and use two dps mercs...you would absolutely melt stuff. Cleric dps is atrocious throughout the game and occasionally rises to just crappy, so a lot of times your fights become a war of attrition with the mob. That being said, if you box a dps class (mage would be an excellent choice too) you'll be deadly.
I blame the majority of clerics not knowing how to use their damaging spells for your poor opinion of cleric dps. It's really not as bad as you're making out.
Short answer, no it's not bonkers. It is possible to solo (no merc) to 90, I did. It's is a long, lonely road, and after having to kill 2000 Griffons to get from 89 to 90, I had decided enough was enough. My suggestion would be to grab a melee merc to level 20 and heal them while they are on burn. Then 20+ change to the caster on burn. And always jump in and start swinging. The highest named I have tanked (with a dedicated healer) was 106 in CotF, but that was in group gear, and it was a nail-biter. If you REALLY love clerics, and REALLY want to have fun, box another cleric, or maybe a 3rd. But my biggest piece of advice for being a Battle Cleric is attitude........have one. And don't let anyone tell you you can't do something....at least not without hurling yourself at it a few dozen times.
Thank you for that sage advice! It sounds like this trio would do reasonably well. My previous main was a enchanter and so I have no problems charm killing with her either. Although I actually don't mind the slower pace of cleric soloing. It can be quite relaxing if you're not trying to level too fast...
I do appreciate that other combos would be more effective and faster at killing, but my intention is to make my cleric the best that she can be, which is why I thought Enc and Brd would help in that pursuit. Will the Enc and Bard compensate enough for "soloing" to reasonably effective on the way up?
I have tried replacing one of my clerics with a bard, and it went reasonably well, however I found myself going back to the 3rd cleric, mostly for the fun factor. The beauty of 3 cleric with 3 burn casters is 6 stuns and 12 contraventions (at my level at least) add those together and you have mobs that don't stand a chance, while running around in circles trying to figure out who to hit. If you mess up a pull, you can use wordx3 to power heal through most messes while your casters burn your bad pull into nothing. And if everything goes bad, you have 3 divine peace, and 3 divine Rez.
Wow, that does sound pretty beastly! I guess I could possibly box 2 clerics, but 3 would be too much tabbing for me. I like the fact that bard doesn't need too much fussing with to get some benefit from. My cleric is level 20 now and growing fast! I'm mainly going down the undead leveling route at the moment as it's so much fun. Is there a global cleric channel I could join?
There is. /join serverwide.cleric:cleric Activity can vary from low to medium, but there's always folks in there from various levels. (I need to sweet talk Roxxy into joining sometime!)
\agree Bard would be the way to go, I often forget I run my 3 ladies on 3 pcs, and everything is macro'd and multibound to keypads next to my main pc.
No need for sweet talk, you need to remind her cause she forgets everything once she sees something shiny.
DPS isn't the Only thing that matters, there is a reason clerics and paladins have long held the "Yeh I soloed that" records. As far as battle clericing goes it's an enjoyable experience. You may very well find you enjoy it. Give it a try.
If your goal is to "yeah i solo'd that" then sure, dps doesn't matter at all. If your goal is to gain xp at a reasonably good pace then dps is about 90% of what matters. And yes, battle clericing is fun. Love it. Used to do it all the time. If you read what he wants to do, he wants to get to max level, do some old raids, and kill some nameds. That's going to be a lot easier to do with some good dps.
Just an update really. I have sailed up to 50 in no time at all and having a complete blast! I'm enjoying smiting anything that even looks twice at me. Seriously, anyone thinking about playing a cleric should give it a whirl - It's so much more fun than i ever remember it being. That being said I'm now approaching a level where I can potentially group with some of my older characters and it got me thinking about which setup I want to go forward with. I really enjoy unusual combos. I like to get things done, but it doesnt necessarily have to be the optimal way to get it done. I am tempted by the "double trouble cleric" duo with bard suggested by Roxanna, but part of me would rather take another class to level cap (for variation really). I've narrowed it down to these setups: 1) Enc / Clr / Wiz 2) Clr / Druid / Brd 3) Clr / Shaman / Brd or Wiz 4) Brd / clr / Wiz I like the idea of another priest. I know that the druid seems the obvious choice due to ports and DPS but I feel that the shaman would perhaps bolster my cleric in her battle fierceness more than perhaps the druid would. Also having a slower/haster seems useful and I could always swap the bard for the wizard if DPS is still questionable. If anyone could shed some divine light opinion on the best foot forward I'd love to hear. I'm just eager to get going. Thank you.
If you are interested in killing named, you're going to want to have a tracker in there (of which only druid, bards and rangers have that ability). There's a true but old school thought that if you are the one tanking/providing DPS, then slowing the mob is counter intuitive (more of your DPS comes from the mob hitting you than it can from you hitting it so the faster it hits you the better). That doesn't really apply as much anymore with today's mercenaries who can blow things up or if you have a tank merc but you're also swinging away. Of your choices #4 or my #5 (cleric / druid / wiz) may work the best, but it depends what you really want to do with the bard. If the bard is just singing songs to boost your nukes/stats that's not using him as fully as you could use the wizard, but track is so worth it. And don't forget the druid has good stuff to boost your spells and mana.
A lot of opinions will vary on the best setup, we all have our favorites. Since I assume your boxing on 1 pc, I would choose simplicity. Mercs can do most of the workload, and I think the best way (meaning decent progress and minimal headaches) would be to focus on supporting them. Problem is, the game will change significantly as merc tanks start to suck (I think around lvl 70). The unfortunate truth with being a Battle Cleric, is it's best done alone. Mercs, dps classes, even the Bard will just take aggro, and that defeats the whole Battle Clerc purpose. Good news is that you are approaching the levels where you get Ward, Vow, Promised heals, and my favorite...Blood of the Devoted. As far as group choice, using 3 dps casters on burn will blow through mobs quickly, however a tank will be useless as the mobs will be ping-ponging between casters as the aggro swaps, use this to your advantage with slows/stuns, a mob who spends half it's time running between mercs is spending half it's time not damaging anyone, making healing easier, not to mention it's amusing. Cleric/Bard/Wiz, is my humble suggestion, for run speed and ports.......although cleric/cleric/cleric is awesome.
I recognize I am at max level 105. But our Dps can be decent at time if you use it right. I think you are missing a lot of our melee prowess. With our RoF summoned hammer melee dps is pretty awesome. Running divine avatar with your yaulp/vow can keep around 20k melee dps constantly. A lot can vary based on your gear and what type of mob you are fighting. Back in RoF I was duoing with another cleric and we were both able to sustain around 30-40k dps over 45 minutes in Chapterhouse. I don't solo much on my cleric because I prefer to group. But it is not out of the question. It has been a long time since I have tried to level a cleric on its own. I am usually available in serverwide.cleric like Crystilla mentioned above. I try to pay attention to it but sometimes I get distracted. There are usually a few people in there to bounce ideas off of.
Cleric dps sucks huh? I box a cleric/bard combo. On raids my bard out parses all of our bard mains and our warriors, oftentimes upper middle area of dps raid wise. In a group setting using the 97 cleric hammer my cleric out parses my bard on live mobs. On undead mobs our wizards don't even out parse my cleric. Melee with the proc hammer, use divine avatar, rotate between your two highest contravention nukes and your sound of stun. The new AA to turn off your subtlety AAs works wonders to get mobs to hit you instead of casters. I did a mission earlier today that traditionally would be a two tank situation, but we had two clerics. The other cleric covered our warrior and his tanking, I went and tanked the other stuff and healed the rest of the group at the same time. Link your bash to your banestrike and insta cast debuffs for some fun snap agro to tag things. I can box most missions just fine on my own, using a tank merc and a dps merc. I'm often the one dragging people through progression if they need it. I"m currently working on my shoulder aug, and handling T3 namers fine... though they can be eat through my tank merc quickly. My bard can take over fine if the merc tank dies though. A cleric can solo even con to yellow live mobs, though undead mobs are easier... but it isn't the quickest process. Melee them down and use ward, rotate stuns and contravention nukes. Soloing works better that way than using a tank merc and just chain healing it. If you are going to molo with just your cleric and a merc, use a wizy merc and tank the mob, or cleric mob and tank the mob... both methods work better than just you and a tank merc.
