Hey everyone! I'm sure the is the question you all get so often so I'll try to be more specific: Long time ago and a land far far away... I used to play a cleric back when Luclin was new (Oooh good for me) but changed up to one of those "fancy classes" so I could DPS like crazy. My group and I have decided to start over with Heroic toons and I get my chance to re-start my cleric life. I will NOT be boxing as I will be relying on them for tank/dps and holding up their end of the bargain; doing their jobs. We will be grouping and possible raid someday in the far future. We are not playing on the TLP servers so this will be with the most recent content. So outside of reading Alakazam spell explanations, figuring out where to stand in House of Thule so I don't get eaten, and learning what higher level AA's are needed, I am hoping you all can offer me some advice for my new main toon: 1. What spell gem lineup should I get used to for healing? - I've read so much about fast heals, slow heals, reactive heals, pro-active heals: any better use scenarios you can cite? 2. Mana conservation / regeneration? - Do clerics have anything that helps beside a large blue bar? Canni like Shamans or Death Bloom like necro's? Or is it more like Druids who get more into twin casting? What tricks are available? 3. What does good look like? - Outside of the Tank living from spamming heals - what else should I be looking to do to become more than a marginally functional HP giver-backer? 4. What else should clerics be doing during group battles? - Is stun still a thing that works? Are cleric buffs still better than the Almighty Shaman? Do clerics still burn the bread? Really though, I am sure there is more ways to contribute, perhaps even a little DPS on the side but I am clueless at this point. 5. What things can a cleric NOT live without? The must haves to be decent? 6. Is there a support group I'll need to join to help remember why Clerics are better than healing Mercs? - "And Gosh Darn it, people like me!" Thank you in advance to all who read this and anyone who would respond to this post that can help my naivete to evaporate, leaving behind a better than average cleric. I'm sure it will be a long road but I am exciting to begin.
And does anyone know if eqclerics.org is still living? Site comes up but no posts since last year...?
Press button, continue to heal tank. /s Check out the Freelance forums and see if they have a cleric guide. I don't know of any up-to-date guides for most classes anymore, but you should be able to extrapolate and at least get the gist of it with older guides.
Well, thank you for at least responding above. I've already been doing some research and that's why I was asking for help - especially anything current. The recommended eqclerics.org hasn't had a post since last December and that was only a new user checking into the site. I've also searched the forums for heroic guides and the only one that lists is https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/heroic-cleric-guide.210022/. These links take you to 404 pages, unfortunately. While I do appreciate the levity of: My party spent most of the evening waiting for rez's last night while we sat in Thule getting smashed and asking if they should add a couple healer mercs to help out. I'd love any advice a cleric could offer to get me going here. I don't want to give up on this and I'm hoping the community can help support me in this new endeavor.
I'm not a cleric, but here's my two cents. I would recommend memming a HoT, a quick heal, a regular heal, and some group heals. Tossing on a quick heal when tank is in danger followed by a HoT will keep the tank out of danger, though the quick heals are not as mana efficient. Then use regular heals as needed. I have a shaman that I mainly use for debuffs, and I use a similar strategy. A friend of mine plays a shaman and uses the group versions of the HoT and heals instead, so you may actually consider just using the group heals so you're getting everyone. At least, I would have them memmed so that you can use them when named mobs are tossing out those nasty AoEs or at times when the tank is having a hard time holding aggro. I know there are a lot of other nifty spells like a reverse DS, etc. There are some undead nukes and a small hammer "pet" for DPS, but I don't know if it's even worth memorizing. I don't remember enough about my cleric (stopped at like lvl 65) to offer much advice on the little spells.
1. What spell gem lineup should I get used to for healing? I think most clerics use a Multi bind so that they are only hitting one key over and over for direct heals. My multi-bind for general healing use is QH>QH>UL>INT>INT. So it generally fires with quick Heal, Quick Heal, Undying Life, Quick Heal, Intervention, Quick Heal, Intervention. There is a lot of debate on whether UL should be included in your multiband, but I generally like the double quick heals followed by a big heal for when I'm caught napping and a little slow with that first heal. 2. Mana conservation / regeneration? 1) VP is a self only AA that helps, but they nerfed it awhile back so its of limited use now. 2) Our biggest mana regen spell/AA is the Yaulp line up. I use the AA version of Yaulp for most encounters, about the only time I use the spell version is for raids where mana is an issue and you need the slightly better boost of mana. 3) Our self shielding HP/AC buff also has a very high mana regen on it. I generally turn down druid skin in favor of our self buff. 4) Gear, lots of great gear out there but some OLD gear that I think many people still use are * The Helping Hand - a mana return weapon Aug from RoTF expansion Gorge of Kind Xorb that procs Sympathetic Invigorating Burst. * Horn of Unity - From the anniversary events. * Tome of Manipulation - from CotF Neriak fourth Gate (all named). 3. What does good look like? For most grouping if no one dies your good. Be quick with not just your spells but your AAs to make sure this happens. In my opinion a good cleric should be out healing two merc healers. (I'm pretty sure some of the healers on here out heal 2 merc healers and a merc DPS, though my dps is not good). You can start to add a bit of DPS if your comfortable in a group, your primary goal is healing but if you have a decent tank adding dps is pretty easy. For DPS firing your big Direct Damage spell followed by two healing interventions on your main tank, followed by your Big Direct Damage spell followed by two Contraventions on the mob hitting the main tank. Repeat as often as you can while swinging your summoned hammer. I know some clerics can get decent dps like this, In older expansions you can pacify pull but I haven't been able to do that effectively since TDS. 4. What else should clerics be doing during group battles? See above. But don't worry too much about "what else" initially remember your #1 job is that no one dies. If anyone dies get em up fast. I have let plenty of good tanks, pullers, etc die cause I was wasted time trying to get a reverse damage shield on, or add some other utility. If your group is doing fine with damage, the next add would be dps as above. Remember the ABCs of being a good cleric - Always Be Casting. Watch the agro bar and be fast to anticipate who is going to need a heal. A lot of healing is anticipating for the non-tanks in the group. For your QH's you have a little bit of time to see agro switch and still get a heal off, but somehow the squishy classes always seem to pull agro when all you have are 3 second heals up. Also your synergy on Syllable for group healing is a nice boon. I love to cast syllable anytime you have agro jumping around the group in fast succession. 5. What things can a cleric NOT live without? The must haves to be decent? 6. Is there a support group I'll need to join to help remember why Clerics are better than healing Mercs? Come here, alas EQclerics is no more. I'll give you lots of bad advice, but luckily there are lots of amazing clerics on this board that can correct me. I'll probably learn a couple things from corrections I get on this post. And remember a cleric is better at healing than 2 Mercs. - "And Gosh Darn it, people like me!"
Thank you, Gundolin, for all of this above! That is exactly what I've been looking for! Taking your advice, especially the ABC's, into practice kept my group above ground last night. Though each member seems to think they will win a prize if they get aggro... Divine Intervention made a big deal as that saved us in a few situations. It seems expensive though. I was even DPS'ing with the pass-through spells and DD that procs a twin-heal. What a great feeling to use that Twin-heal for a group heal spell and see some work get done to open up some breathing room. One thing my studies haven't helped with yet: How does Arbitration work? It doesn't seem like a buff. Do I click that AA after a bunch of damage is taken or is it proactive for a bit of time so I should use it before? Also, I find I hold onto things like 2nd spire, Healing Frenzy, Flurry of life, and Focused Celestial Regen for named...and then barely use them anyways. Is there a rotation or a combo that works best for these that you can recommend? Thanks again for your post! I was worried I'd have to lean on a healer merc until my trial and error failures began to show any positives.
I'm glad it was of some help. If Divine Intervention is expensive maybe save it for your Main Tank that's getting beat on a lot and use the low level spell Death Pact (level 51 Divine Intervention with 0 heal) on your DPS. It lasts four times as long and only costs a pearl. I used it last night on a level 89 Beastlord in Labs with good results. Arbitrations is like casting a spell, so I usually use it in anticipation for the main tank taking a lot of damage. It is not an instant cast, so be careful about saving it. if you have your 2.0 (or 1.5) it works pretty similarly. I usually use it and follow immediately with Syllable if we don't have a couple of HoTs running. For AAs 1) Burst of Life and Beacon of life I use a lot almost every time someone takes a quick big damage spike. 2) Focused Cel Regen I use on the main tank on big pulls. I use this one a lot, it has a smaller save effect so no point (for me) in holding on to this. 3) Celestial Regeneration I use for bad pulls and named. We do a lot of overpulls though so I use it fairly often. (My groups aren't big on splitting). 4) Healing Frenzy, Flurry of Life, Third Spire, Celestial Rapidity are all good supplements to use when the groups in trouble. I tend to lean toward using Celestial Rapidity for faster group heal spells, but that's probably due to the amount of time I spend grouping without a tank, so bad pulls often require fast group heals with agro and mobs bouncing all over the place. But there are very few encounters that you really need to use all of them so there is no point in saving them. Just click a different one on each big pull. 5) Divine Rez - I try and save this for a bad pull where we really need everyone up and fighting right away. First critical person who goes down gets it for the night. But if I'm pretty comfortable with the place we're fighting I burn it on my oops death.
(Note: The following is a spell description from raidloot.com, which I recommend using to look up spells or abilities to find out what they do.) [48559/3252] Divine Arbitration IV Classes: CLR/254 Skill: Melee Mana: 1 Target: Caster Group Range: 200' Resist: Beneficial, Blockable: Yes Focusable: Yes Casting: 0.75s 1: Balance Group HP with 0% Penalty 2: Increase Current HP by up to 24000 (24000 HP per 1 Mana) This ability, when activated, balances the amount of damage that each level 50 or higher member of your group within 200 feet has taken such that all group members in range end up with the same amount of damage taken then shares up to 24000 points of healing among them. Divine Arbitration is a great "save" ability that redistributes the damage the group has received across the entire group. Beginning with Rank 4, it also adds a heal that is shared among the group. So if you have 1 seriously injured person and the other 5 are fine, casting Divine Arbitration will spread the damage to the other 5 players. If the seriously injured person is at 20% and the rest of the group is at 100%, casting Divine Arbitration will result in the entire group being at 80% or so (assuming they have roughly the same amount of health), all in 0.75 sec. The math might not be entirely correct, but you get the idea. As you can imagine, there are many uses for this, provided not many people in the group are low in health and the rest are fine (pets don't count so don't worry about them). Otherwise, it can sometimes do more harm than good or nothing at all (besides providing a minor heal at higher ranks). It also won't be too useful with small group sizes as you have less people to share damage with. So its use is somewhat situational and you do have to watch when you cast it, but you will find it useful in many situations since your tank should be taking most of the damage for the group. It is also aggro-free, so you won't get aggro using it to "heal" a puller who is FD near the group but not in aggro range and if you're medding, it won't take you out of combat if you use it to heal. Cleric Epic 1.5 (Harmony of the Soul) and 2.0 (Aegis of Superior Divinity) have a similar effect called Divine Balance: [6265] Divine Balance Target: Caster Group Range: 200', AE Range: 100' Resist: Beneficial, Blockable: Yes Focusable: Yes Casting: 0s 1: Balance Group HP with 0% Penalty 2: Increase Current HP by 2300 3: Dispel Detrimental (95% Chance) Balances the spirits of your group members, evening the wounds between your group, healing what wounds remain, and potentially removing the effects of harmful spells. The difference with Divine Balance is that it also has a chance to cure various ailments and provides a worse direct heal that is not aggro-free. This is also why Epic 1.5 and 2.0 are nearly required for clerics even though the items are decades old (and the effect can be used while it's in a bag so you don't have to wield it). It's essentially another Divine Arbitration on a separate timer. Another thing to mention about Divine Arbitration and Divine Balance are that they, like all of our AAs and click effect items, can be cast during the global recast timer between spells (or that 1.5 seconds between spells when your spell gems go gray and you can't cast another spell). So if you cast a heal and your tank loses a lot of health during that time, you can use Divine Arbitration or Divine Balance to heal them instead of waiting out the 1.5 seconds to cast another spell. Assuming you have both, you can be somewhat liberal in their usage as the recast timers are low enough that you can afford to use one for less urgent situations while still saving the other for more dire situations.
Thank you so much, Clarisa! This post, also, is so incredibly helpful. Just the mention that using AA's and click effects that can be used during the global cool-down time is so great. This would make both the AA and the click of Arbitration along with the AA of Burst of Life and (later on Beacon of Life) very invaluable to a crisis where more healing is needed so quickly. These will be worked into my healing strategies right away. As far as the epic 1 - 2.0, how easy was it to do? I'm assuming it will take a little time but I know things have changed since it first came out. I've found a decent guide for the 1.5 pre-quest. Any tips or tricks for doing the 1.5 or 2.0 easier? I'll hopefully be able to rely on my group as we are 85-88 right now. Thanks again, all of you!
You should be able to solo your 1.5 and most of your 2.0. I couldn't get the MPG Raids to run without six people in the zone, so was stuck at that point but six level 85+ should breeze through these.
Hey all! Just thought I'd check back in with you all. Shout outs to Gundolin and Clarisa for all the helpful knowledge you have sent my way! I hit 95 this weekend and have started using more AA's that are now available. With that, I may be using some of them incorrectly now so I thought I'd check: Are Blessing of the Sanctuary and Devine Aura Beza worth using in groups? Both have a healing component but both also seem to leave the target unable to battle? Especially if targeting the tank? Maybe I'm wrong but I've been leaving these tools aside. Someone suggested the Divine Aura's were only good for making a DPS merc calm down after consistently pulling agro in a fight. Don't know if there's any truth in that... Are there situations these are perfect for? Exquisite Benediction seems to be a very small heal at 205hp/tick with a 22 min refresh - is this even used? Divine Peace: the cleric fade? Yeah, every time I've used this, death follows almost instantly. I was under some impression that if a group wipe was immanent, this would keep me around to rez. Is there a trick to using it? Maybe use it with Divine Retribution or some other combo? I'm not sure how long DR lasts either. The Divine Intervention line that starts at 60 for 2 emeralds: Has a few upgrades as you level. What do the high lvl spells of the line do? Provide more HP when it pops or last longer or land on higher lvl toons? Is Issueance of Faith spell worth it? Seems the recast timer on it is murder. Have it mem'ed for emergencies or only to open a lessons session and then un-mem it? Is Shining Armor spell a must have on the tank, always? 10% mitigation for that many strikes seems almost too good to be true. Seems like a candidate for an audio trigger along with Divine Intervention. Does Improved Twincast stack with the Glorious spell line for quad cast healing? one can dream... Those are the questions on my mind at the moment. Any super special tricks I may have missed? I'm not sure yet as I'm just getting into it all. Wow, though, This has been a fun ride so far! It's a good feeling to be able to do something when I see HP bars drop too quickly for comfort and keep my party "upright and taking fluids". This so different than playing the wash/rinse/repeat of a DPS machine. I'm finding it very addictive, especially when everything is going according to my plan! Thanks again all for your help on this journey!
Gratz on 95! I occasionally play a cleric so perhaps I can attempt to answer some of your questions (although a main cleric is probably going to have more insight than I do) These are semi-rare situational use for sure. Sanctuary - is a weird spell that basically is supposed to (in theory) be like a TEMPORARY FADE (it doesn't drop aggro or reset aggro) but as long as there are other players/pets (possibly on pets) that are on the NPC's hatelist the NPC should turn to attack those first until the first of the following happens: 1) it fades, 2) the player performs "aggressive action" (basically auto attack on and nukes/DoTs spell casts [not sure if casting breaks it or if when the nuke lands it breaks it]), 3) that player casts a spell that affects another player (heal, group buff, etc.) In order for sanctuary to work properly basically there needs at be at least 2+ people on the NPC's hate list. You do not want to use this on a tank as you run the risk of the NPC briefly turning to smack one of your less-tanky party members who can potentially die. It can be used as single target quick mana free heal off of the spell gem cooldown time for non tank party members though if the damage is coming in too fast on them Divine Aura (Beza) - you also have a (Azia) version (although it has no direct heal in it) to basically be used as a method of last resort to keep someone alive. Again it is something your not really going to want to use on a tank (unless your pulling the plug and running to the Zone Line) as once invulnerable the NPC(s) will proceed to kill of the rest of the group. I personally use this as a last ditch attempt to save DPS i know i can't save in time (it can also be used in-between spell cast lockouts); however, it is a double edged sword, it basically prevents them from doing any DPS / Tanking / Offtanking / Casting / Healing etc for 18 seconds flats --- ALSO it prevents you from healing them (so if they have a DoT on them from before you made them invulnerable to damage they will still take that DoT damage and now for ~18 seconds you can't heal them, not can they heal themselves). In short - an absolute last ditch attempt cooldown to save usually another DPS / Healer. Now having said that you can also use this as a way to "bypass" some mechanics, one of the best examples I can think of from recent memory is the Droga Mission where you can cast both Azia and Beza on some folks and simply run through all of the perma-rooted goblin NPCs and rush to the priest up-top without those individuals taking any damage. so there are some situational uses for Divine aura as a proactive cooldown rather than a reactive one In terms of just healing - it is a last ditch cooldown to save somebody You have 2 versions of this actually. Exquisite Benediction & Ward of Purity Exquisite Benediction is the healing-only version, and Ward of Purity is the cure-only version. the healing/cure amounts are small and pale in comparison to your spells, but they are instant cast and semi-leashed wards are instant cast, can be used during the spell gem lockout timer, and require no more effort than pressing a button and forgetting about it. Passive healing is passive healing. Here is raidloot.com's description of Divine Peace: So as long as the NPC your killing are not more than 3 levels above you 9/10 times you should be able to have them drop off of your extended target window (or at least the little green/red numbers near their name will go away). The ability however does have a 10% chance to fail so keep in mind you may end up pulling the short straw anyways. Here is the description for Divine Retribution: So with divine retribution it is a defensive proc - meaning you need to be tanking something in order for it to have a chance to proc. There are also several descriptions depending on the rank you have, I ended up posting the max rank which you do not have just yet, but essentially the proc is going to attempt to stun the NPC hitting you for X seconds, then attempt to lower your threat (note: this is not a fade, it just makes the NPC not want to hit you as much as the next guy - it will not drop you out of combat), then attempt to heal you and boost your AC - Your version may or may not do all of that In short, your fade has a innate 10 % chance to fail when doing level appropriate content, always know group named NPCs are generally 4 levels higher than you at level appropriate content so in other words your fade will fail to wipe them from the extended target window 100% of the time. your fade has a Sanctuary portion built into it, meaning that it is NOT INVISIBILITY and you will need to either gulp a potion or use a clicky for invis, AGAIN - sanctuary is a weird buff that will make the NPC(s) target/kill you last assuming you take 0 action after it lands and everyone else on the NPC(s) is reset to 0 (either dead/they used fade) Divine Retribution is a defnsive buff that basically attempts to stun and lower your hate so the NPC's will hopefully attack somebody other than you - It does not remove you from combat the short answer is YES the higher level versions add HP when they are saved from death. The initial version just basically had a chance to prevent the tank from dying on a single melee attack, Im sure you have noticed that mobs swing a lot more and a lot harder than they used to. It gives you more breathing room to catch the tank back up on HP before he "dies" again Definitely A MUST for raiding, arguable for group content. It is basically the grown-up version of Exquisite Benediction. the only difference between Issuance and Exquisite is that Issuance is 100% stationary and doesn't leash like Exquisite sort of will and doesn't last as long, but it comes back quicker than Exquisite does. the saying "the light that burns twice as bright but burns half as long" is a good way to describe their difference - except that it heals A LOT MORE than twice as much. Again large passive healing for 2 minutes every 5 minutes (~40% up-time) is pretty good, it is cast once and don't worry about it. If your going to kill a named NPC with a NASTY large AoE effect this spell I would definitely recommend otherwise it is situational. If you find that you have extra spells slots as you level up and you do not need them all for healing spells than I definitely recommend keeping this loaded up YES, in fact it is a good spell for just about anyone. When I am playing my cleric I always make sure I have the buff on Myself, the Tank, and the Puller in a group setting and any members of the group with high DPS or high threat that likes to pull NPC(s) off of the Tank. It flat reduces the damage that NPC will deal to that character by 10% every hit, every flurry, double/triple attack, rampage/focused rampage attacks, any physical MELEE damage is reduced 10% No, it just gives you a second 2 charge Healing Twincast Buff, they will not stack up to 4 charges You're still gaining all of your tools so I do not want to bog you down with a bunch of nonsense, just know that you should be on the lookout for the following spell lines and their upgrades: Graceful Remedy (96) - Quick cast, quick refresh, low heal that is FANTASTIC for those pesky little hits the tanks take Anticipated Interposition (97) - Procs a large heal on the tank when they get hit for a large attack Ward of Certitude (97) - absorbs 8 hits up to X damage and heals the tank, good for start of fights when the tank is engaging on a hard hitting NPC Olsif's Retort (100) - this is a buff for your tank, it will also give his Hott (health of target's target) a Reverse damage shield and is good for removing damage shields NPC's cast on themselves Aura of Divinity (100) FLAT % HP AURA as long as you stand near the tank Aura of the Reverent (100) Flat % damage reduction w/ a cap, Think weak "Vie" type buff on every hit Undying Life (101) - LARGE single target heal w/ a group heal and Flat % HP boost to main target (large mana cost, but will top off most tanks) Divine Response (102) - 12 Counter buff if you're hit with any AoE for more than 20,000 procs a free group heal for your group I would also play around with the Promised line as well, it takes forever to work 18 second buff that needs to fade on the tank, but it is the "new" version of "complete heal" VERY good buff/heal for pullers, the tank (in conjuction with other heals), and the occasional DD a named NPC may throw out a random group member There are several ways to play cleric and granted I mained a ranger, but I use a cleric to help heal said ranger while he is tanking and I cannot recall all of the various named NPC(s), bad pulls, etc, that I managed to live through using all of the tools available to a cleric, when on my raid alt shaman the ranger would strait up die. Hope this helps AND if you ever need help looking up what a spell does, the following link is an excellent website to use: http://www.raidloot.com/Spells.aspx
These abilities are balanced to include their feature of being AE healing, not just group healing. Envision 54 player raids with AE dots to push back against, not just a guy fighting a treant.
Your use of the word "flat" is enormously suspect. I can't tell what you think that word means. Anticipated Interposition isn't particularly large. It's a slow casting but pre-castable heal. Ward of Certitude is fast casting, designed for use *in* battle when you need a few seconds break to cast something else (like to refresh DI)
Others are covering most of the spells but one place a live cleric really shines is the ability to heal proactively instead of reactively. You want to have a heal being cast before the tanks hp's drop not after they drop. One AA I did not see mentioned is divine rez. Ideally it's not a save some xp tool. That's a save a wipe tool by getting someone back up and in fighting shape right away (has mana/endurance/ect so they can either jump back into tanking or jump into dps'ing to get the mob dead so you can relax again).
Glad you are having fun as a healer, don't let anyone fool you into thinking you are'nt doing any DPS in a fight though. Clerics deliver massive amounts of DPS in long hard fights. It is just delivered on the edge of the zerkers axe, or from the point of the rogues dagger. Dead melee are just a trip hazard, keeping them up and doing in the face of rampage and AE effects makes a world of difference.
Hello, I play progression server cleric, so most of this stuff is far away from me, but I noted something. Targeted DA (Beza and Aria) are awesome tools to save people. It's been mentioned there that you can't heal them under that effect. That's partially true, since you can divine arbitration or divine balance to heal them, making it really overpowered to save some weak friend in your group about to die. Also, Someone there mentioned the use of Death Pact. In my server and era (DoDh) it just heals for 300hp when it procs. How that can be useful for lvl 86 characters? Is there any way to boost it with AA or any trick I missed? Thanks, and not my intent to hijack your thread with my last question, Talonthalis. Good luck.
86? still level 60 DI 87? new Divine Intercession with up to 33k base heal Upgrades continue to become available. At 107 the highest rank includes a heal for (base) 83k
Hey Brohg, I'll quote what I meant. He said that he's still using Death Pact on a lvl 89 guy with good results. I tested Death Pact and it healed me from 180 to 300 hps. How that can be useful for a lvl 89 guy? It isn't for me at lvl 70!
