I'm trying to get my wife to play again. We played before, but she didn't like the lower levels. She always plays a healer. She played a Cleric before, and she liked the class. If I get her to play, she wants to start at 85. Other than healing and buffs, what else does a Cleric bring to a group? She'll probably never pull, so the lull series won't be useful for her. She prefers to mainly heal. At what level does the Shaman and Druid get good heals? I have a Shaman at 70, and it just started to get some decent heals. For leveling, how much of her time will she be meditating, assuming she only uses mana for healing/buffs? I think that's the part she disliked the most the last time we played. I would assume she'll spend most of her time on a mount standing still or meditating. Will she be able to melee even though it won't do much and still be the main healer? Since I'll be grouping with her, I have to pick a class myself. I'm looking at Beastlord, Enchanter, Necro, or Ranger. SK is also on my list, but I'm already leveling a Paladin that I really like. My concern with the Ranger and Enchanter is tanking. I assume I'd use a charmed pet or a Merc with the Enchanter. I'm not too sure how well that'll work out at higher levels. For the Ranger, I would assume it would be the Ranger or merc tanking. The concern with the Beastlord and Necro is gear for the pets. It just seems like a hassle to stock up on equipment for the pets. Thanks!
Wife and I have been duoing for a long time and the best pair (one with the best options) has turned out to be a cleric/sk. The main problem with mercs post 85 is tanking so that has to be addressed, healing would come next so some kind of healer and clerics are just better healers. Running the DH HAs with all the undead mobs a cleric brings a lot to the fight. Of course if you can box a enchanter it does nothing but make things far easier but it is not required. Choose which tank/healer combo you like, just cover those areas first. It may not be sexy but it works. Med time is pretty limited as clerics have tools to keep manna up without a lot of butt mashing. The pally would work fine also perhaps better vs undead so there is that option. The enc is a good option just depends on how you like charm tanking and being able to respond to the sudden shift in situations when charm breaks at a bad moment. Of course the power of the mez and buffs are not to be under appreciated. You have a lot of options most pretty good so just keep an eye to the two basics the mercs dont provide well, tanking and smart healing. Get the J5 mercs asap, they are worth it for damage casters. Have fun
In terms of what a cleric 'can' do is different than what a cleric 'brings to a group'. Just so you know. Clerics can pull (though you said this may not interest her), can heal, can tank, can melee, can DPS. The only thing we're best at is healing. Pulling I tend to put us in a 3rd tier (behind Bards/Monks/SK's, Enchanters, etc.). But we can do it fairly well and even better at lower levels (pre 60). Tanking we can do if we're either well geared for the content or the content is quite a few levels below our level. What we don't do well is keeping aggro, which is the partner to tanking. Meleeing we would never be taken over someone else for this, but we do have some abilities that help us in this area for short times. Once she's high enough to get the Yaulp spell which has mana regen in it, she'll be more effective meleeing. However since you said you're starting with heroic characters she should be good. Our DPS is best among undead mobs versus life mobs, but we can do ok, just again nothing that someone else would ever take us over another class for. Now - I've done plenty of groups where there is a cleric merc out. Some take offense to that; me, I don't mind it if the group can handle the loss of a DPS class, simply because it allows me to use more of our abilities versus sitting there healing. (Clerics can provide a fair amount of extra 'stuff/spells' and still heal the group.)
"Now - I've done plenty of groups where there is a cleric merc out. Some take offense to that; me, I don't mind it if the group can handle the loss of a DPS class, simply because it allows me to use more of our abilities versus sitting there healing. (Clerics can provide a fair amount of extra 'stuff/spells' and still heal the group.)" Been there many a time, and always there's that moment........when they put away the merc healer, pull out a dps and start pulling faster.
My wife and I duo quite a bit with a Cleric Bst combo. We generally add a Mercenary DPS and a Merc Tank and can handle most group content using her pet and my merc to tank. Looking back at it now I think we would have been a better combo with a true tank vs the Bst but its fun this way and we are both playing the class we like. Her slows and buffs work well with any group. I'd guess she has pet weapons/gear about 1/2 the time, its a nice to have, but not really required. Her concern about Medding has been fixed pretty well. I very rarely need to med in a group situation. First the Yaulp Line is actually better mana than sitting and medding (In a non-rest mode). Plus you add in clerics have two AAs that give mana. VP is a self only buff and QM is a targetable mana buff. When my wife and I are duoing I generally give her all of the QM and use the VP on myself, that plus her mana buffs really increases her DPS, and we are able to be in a pretty constant state of pulling. It always bugs me when the group wastes a slot on a cleric merc. But I hate telling people to put it away. Especially if I say put away the healer merc and then someone dies. For me, it doesn't matter what the reason is, if anyone dies I always feel like I messed up.
"It always bugs me when the group wastes a slot on a cleric merc. But I hate telling people to put it away. Especially if I say put away the healer merc and then someone dies. For me, it doesn't matter what the reason is, if anyone dies I always feel like I messed up." I still feel responsible, even in a raid with 8 clerics. I don't tell them to put it away either, I just load up all my Contraventions, Stuns, and Judgement, then click my CoTF breast plate, Battlefrenzy, twin cast, and just start blasting. Kind of a little vacation away from the woes of a cleric (all responsibility and no thanks).
I used to play a Cleric before I left. I used to take a shot every time someone died. Looking back, I'm not sure that helped... A full group wipe was harsh. I never did it on raids, even I had my limits.
