Hoping to be raiding on my cleric soon- He isn't that far off the needed AA's. What focuses should I be going for? In order of importance. Thx in advance.
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=89540]Raiding Shawl[/url] - I'd take a group geared cleric with UF Shawl over a fully raid-geared + augged cleric. Thats how awesome the focus on raid shawl is. Get this. Beneficial Spell Haste (feet) - Going from 21% Haste -> 30% Haste is HUGE on spam heals. #1 priority for normal focii. Beneficial Mana Pres (ring) - Going from 17% Mana Pres -> 22% is decent, not nearly in the realm of the above, but the 2nd most important. Heal Focus (arm / neck) - More heals good Beneficial Extension (back) - Extended buffs good Beneficial Range (ring) - More range good Everything else is rather useless.
This is true for a progression server cleric. However the game evolved from having a mana pool to outlast events -> needing to be as reactive as possible. As such, Spell Haste overtook Mana Preservation several expansions back.
Here are two threads on the external cleric site with info. Thread #1 (includes general priority level) Thread #2 (more descriptive of what these are) Typical order I strongly suggest for clerics when I have this chat is: Beneficial Spell Haste (feet) Beneficial Mana Pres (ring #1) Heal Focus (arm / neck) Beneficial Range (ring #2) Beneficial Extension (back) I put range above extension for two reasons (more limited in ring choices with this focus + more and more current raids benefit clerics from standing the furthest away as possible. That just barely outweighs longer elixers/buffs from the back item IMO).
Elixirs aren't affected by back slot focus. The only buff I can think of that gets a real bonus from back slot would be the shining bastion line. Everything else lasts long enough with 70% from aa.
The shawl proc has been nerfed. It has been turned into a duration mana recovery, at half the power of the original proc. It cannot proc multiple times for additional mana- not only from MGBing, but from group heals, et cetera. The highest version is 150 per tick for two ticks. If it refreshes (which it should in a raid environment), you lose total mana per proc. You don't get mana back until the end of the tick, as with all duration effects (like HoTs). It's going to conflict with sympathetic mana procs that proc off heals in burst form, capable of firing more than once on a group heal. The caster version has been likewise nerfed. I once would have considered it that important. I no longer do. Otherwise, I would put them in almost the same order. Beneficial spell haste is absolutely number 1. Heal foci are variable, crits likewise; haste is forever. Mana pres is significant, I'd put range up higher than last on the "necessary" list, just because sometimes they like to throw you for a loop and put range-nerfing debuffs (Discord Tower and Underfoot had this), above Duration extension like Crystilla said. Elixir is focused by back slot, but it's only a tick, so you're looking at about a 7-14K total heal difference per HoT cast between having a back and not having one at all. Yaulp is affected. Shining, regular buffs. Spell casting reinforcement does so much more for them though, that the difference with a back is really minimal- nice to have, not going to break the bank- even Shining, the most dramatic, is only going from 7.5 minutes to 9 minutes approximately, going from no back to a raid focus back. Yep. In fact, I'd put range above heal focus on progression as long as you're still using rots (which, I remember you were in Tacvi a few months ago). So much of clericing in that era involved hiding in corners out of line of sight, that having more range for rebuffing and when you have to patch with anything but CH is very useful. CH doesn't focus with gear.
Oh they nerfed shawl 2.0 retroactively when changing shawl 3.0. *sadpanda* Damn exploiters getting stuff nerfed.
Oh. I never noticed they reduced the minimum duration on the back slot to 24 seconds. I wonder how long ago they did that, and I didn't keep up with the times lol. Back in the day!
<-- living without a shawl. Cold, but doable. has anyone parsed out the Alteration aug at lvl 100? Does it still work?
If you are any class in current EQ endish game raiding type environment and are hurting for mana during events you and the folks around you are seriously doing things wrong =p there about a bazillion ways to "recover" mana in a raid all of which are pretty simple (click of a button, send a tell etc) The shawl is nice but by no means needed. "Need" - bene spell haste (footsies) and heal focus (many slots - arms neck etc...) "Perks" - the rest mentioned above
Yeah I still consider our Alteration aug a must have for clerics...and I am not alone in thinking that.. BUT I do know clerics who don't use it and seem to get along without it... Honestly you don't need any focus. BUT your life is a lot easier with them So why not take advantage of them.. Beni Spell Haste is my main focus which I think no cleric should go without.
