RaiderZ Cleric Skills In Depth Guide

RaiderZ Cleric Skills In Depth Guide by frostreave

Hey everyone, my name is Frostreave, and my cleric is Grell (Crawler server)! I have noticed in some of the other forums a comprehensive list of skills that are considered valuable and others that are considered worthless, yet a distinct lack of such in the cleric forum. As a young cleric looking to learn from the pro’s I want your input on what is useful and what isn’t! As such, I intend to keep this thread up to date with input and make it a compilation of feedback from the pro’s below. For now it will have my input based on what I have read in the forums and briefly played with.

All this in mind, let’s keep it constructive and keep it open-minded!

Further information: I plan to credit people for anything they can contribute to fill in on the skills list, and also please mention whether your input is based on a PvP or PvE side. As for me, I am strictly PvE, and so gladly welcome any PvP feedback, and will make dividends as necessary. Please justify! Be courteous! Halp!

New Section Added: So you want to be a Cleric, Eh? A levelling guide from 1-20

Finally, a brief wishlist:
Multiclassing (dipping into the other kid’s cookie jars, can it be helpful?)
Soloing vs party play

Skills (Credit: xtnlol, ghazed)

Tier 1

Hammer of Light:
This skill is pretty skippable. Put a point in if you want some ranged damage to throw on bosses if you are uncomfortable with melee, or none if you feel like focused strike and healing strike give you enough mileage. Don’t rank it up past one since the energy cost goes up dramatically for a very small increase in damage.

Divine Punishment:
The bread and butter of magic damage for the cleric, a PBAoE which does pretty decent damage and gets decent power from ranking it. It also staggers foes, so one is a must as a fast-casting stagger, but max it out if you plan on being in melee as a cleric whether PvE or PvP

Revitalize:
A staple skill that helps a bundle while soloing, cutting your downtime significantly. Either one point to assist, or more if you can afford it (low priority).

Divine Mastery:
What’s not to like, 2% buff to all cleric abilities per rank. Max it pretty early.

Tier 2

Focused Strike:
This skill is praised by any cleric brave enough to get in melee. It staggers and costs stamina rather then energy, which is great because it gives us more energy for heals and punishment spells!

Heal: (Credit: frankelot)
Good skill, but gives low return for ranking it in regards to the amount healed vs energy cost. That said, it is very viable to rank it up in a pure healer role, particularly because of the cooldown reduction. Given that the typical party size is 5, with the good fortune of a sorcerer with you the three targets affected at rank one is enough, but four can also be helpful in the case of four melee people. Each rank significantly raises the energy cost. Rank this up to taste! Two or three points seems to be the sweet spot for general healing, five of course being ideal for purist healers out there.

Blessing: Endurance:
A good buff for a party to have, but not considered an essential skill in the cleric repertoire. Come back if you need the points later. A few hybrid sorcerer’s may pick this up (23 sorc/7 cleric).

Tier 3 In progress

Hammer of Judgment:
This skill can be helpful to have a point in due to the fact that it stuns for 2 seconds if you are under the effect of possession. That in mind, the stun doesn’t work on most named creatures, whether large or not. If you have already taken a point in Hammer of Light and find that you have a point to spare take this, otherwise do not bother. It does about 40% more damage then Hammer of Light, but has a long cooldown. This coupled with the fact that its’ most useful component is the stun (which requires possession) makes it a very situational choice.

Circle of Punishment:
This is a great skill to have one point in. While the returns on further ranks aren’t very good (low damage but large increase in energy costs), it adds a significant amount of damage to Divine Punishment on foes within the circle. An increased rank in Divine Punishment also allows two casts from one Circle of Punishment cast. The damage is roughly an additional 70% or the initial hit (so a Divine Punishment for 100 would add about 70 more as a second hit)

Mind Training:
One of our few ways to manage mana when healing for parties. Great skill to fill out within your ability to do so.

Tier 4

Healing Strike:
A great follow-up skill after focused strike, for a double stagger 1-2 punch! This skill will heal up the nearest party member as well as yourself when you use it for a decent amount. The reason this skill is so good though is because it uses stamina instead of energy, meaning essentially free heals if you’re comfortable enough to go up to the boss and give him a good whack or two!

Circle of Healing:
Currently a skill of debatable value. At present there is no question that a full 3 ranks gives good healing power, but it is still viable to simply put in a single point or in some cases none at all. Like Circle of Punishment, it gives low returns for a high energy cost but can be a very effective support skill. It should be noted that in order to make good use of this skill you have to have an entire group stand in it for the full duration. This can be difficult against bosses with high mobility. It will give you as much mileage as you work to get out of it. None or one for most clerics, maxed for pure support.

Blessing: Concentration:
Definitely worth a point as a recovery option for clerics in need of more energy (most of us). More ranks is unnecessary as it only decreases the cooldown, it does not increase the amount of energy gained. Utility skill. More points are fluff for a lower cooldown, low priority after the first point.

Tier 5

Links of Light:
This skill is really nothing to write home about. It doesn’t do much damage and the damage over time isn’t particularly enticing either. The snare actually only works if you cast it while in Possession, even if the text says otherwise. Considering you have to take Hammer of Judgment to get here I would skip this skill in a heartbeat. The only thing these skills could be good for are to catch a ranged enemy in PvP (Possession-Hammer of Judgment-Links of Light). Even then its merit is questionable.
(credit: frankelot)

Miraculous Recovery:
Another debatable skill. In PvP this skill warrants a single point without a doubt, being able to spike heal you is great. In PvE however, a smart cleric will make good use out of Revitalize and Healing Strike, making the recovery pretty much unnecessary. Put a point in if you feel you have them to spare, but not more.

Crystal of Life:
Gives poor returns and requires party members to idle themselves in order to gain health at a high cost. Skip it.

Uplift:
This skill has a small chance of proccing, and when it does it increases your attacks by 10% for 5 seconds, and also restoring a small portion of stamina (rank 1 is 10). This skill can be skipped without any trouble, and there are quite a few skills to invest in that take priority over a random 5 second buff.

Tier 6

Whirlpool of Light:
Great PvP skill, put 1 rank in to get the knockback effect to get out of jail free. The damage is mediocre, so don’t spend any more points in it until after your main skills are filled out. This also applies to solo PvE or if you pull aggro on an unruly pack. Consider a single point, not more.

Orb of Punishment:
This skill is essentially an armor type of spell which creates a little orb that will flinch enemies who strike you in melee combat. The spell is also an instant cast. A good way to interrupt a combo in PvP but less useful in PvE, particularly where boss monsters deal massive damage and cannot be flinched. One point for PvP to have the flinch, none for PvE.

Salvation:
Great AoE heal, 20 meter range that helps your party survive in times of need. As many points as you can spare.

Blessing: Swiftness:
This is a good skill to give your team that extra push to land more damage. Giving attack speed buffs to your entire party is the definition of support, and can be really helpful during the bosses collapsed states.

Combos (Credit: Sobatfn)
Using healing strike into focused strike is a good way to keep enemies flinched in PvE, following up with a Divine Punishment to seal the deal. All three skills are fast casting and cause flinch on most regular mobs. Great to mix in for solo play.

So You Want to Start A Cleric, Eh?
Hello all! Grell again, and this time with a go-to guide about how to spend your points as a budding cleric who wants to solo some content. While you have up to level 13 or so to experiment (at which point you get your one and only skill reset), this guide will help get you on the right track so you don’t waste those precious points!

Below is a guide for levels 1-20. With this build you want to focus on getting ahold of good cloth gear and a strong staff to back you up. This way you will maximize your magic attack without sacrificing almost any physical attack. In my second set I often keep a mace+shield to deal with faster monsters (since the mace swings faster) or when I need to turtle up blocking.

Levels 1-5
Your first two points should be dropping into divine punishment and revitalize, giving you an extra damage skill that causes stagger and some sustain for solo play. The following two should be spent in Divine mastery, leaving your tier 1 like this.
Hammer of Light 1, Divine Punishment 1, Revitalize 1, Divine Mastery 2.

Levelling is pretty easy so far, you pull a target with a few Hammers of Light, using divine punishment and a few normal strikes to take down your foes. Don’t forget tapping w before striking leads to a charging strike that flinches the target, and tapping s then striking will also flinch while giving you some breathing room! Don’t try that on Treants!

Levels 6-10
So now you have the basics down, as a first time cleric the first thing you should do is pick up focused strike because even if the energy gain is insignificant now the fact that it staggers and costs stamina rather then energy makes it a great staple for solo play and sustain during boss fights. Next you should grab the heal skill so that by level 7 you can heal in group play, preparing you for the spider queen and fleetfoot. Once your new skills are gained, you should probably go back and rank Divine Punishment up to 2, and then finish filling out Divine Mastery.

Levelling is still pretty easy, and now you have a few more tools to deal with mobs. After a strike or two throw in a focused strike to make foes flinch! You can now use heal out of combat to regenerate health even faster as well. Not much has changed as you are still mostly just filling out Divine mastery.

Levels 11-15
At 11 I picked up Circle of Punishment rank 1 since it adds a significant boost to your divine punishment skill, and then proceeded to rank up Divine Punishment, Heal, and Focused Strike. I finally picked up Mind Training at 15 when you get your first really long fight (Goblin Golem).

Now you can finally do proper rotations! Start a fight by approaching an enemy (or pulling it to you with Hammer of Light), then immediately using a Circle of Punishment-Divine Punishment combo (That way if your divine punishment is ranked up, you can get two in one circle). After that Mix in some hit-back hit combos and a hit-focused strike. Be ready though, the second that Divine Punishment is off cooldown you want to launch it again to take advantage of that ring. Then finish off your mob. Rinse, repeat.

Respeccing
The biggest change will be whether or not you drop the skill Hammer of Light, giving you an extra point to play with. Other then that you may also decide to drop circle of punishment if you don’t feel it is doing enough for you (it is a waste of energy in boss fights and party play, but extremely helpful solo).

After your respec your build will look something like this:
Divine Punishment 3
Revitalize 1
Divine Mastery 5
Heal 2
Focused Strike 2
Circle of Punishment 1 (Switch to Hammer of Light 1 or Revitalize 2 if you don’t like this skill)
Mind Training 1

This is a nice all-around build to let you solo and keep up with heals in a competent group.

Levels 16-20
From here you need to make it a point to pick up Healing Strike to finish up your combo, then pick up Circle of Healing if you got rid of Circle of Punishment during your respec, then Blessing: Concentration. Then max out focused strike and another rank in divine punishment. The most notable things is to keep in mind skills you plan to keep at rank 1, the list being: Hammer of Light (or 0), Circle of Punishment, and Revitalize. I recommend keeping heal at rank 2 since it heals 4 party members (everyone but you), though a third rank is viable as well.

(In progress as I level up ^.^)

My Soloing Rotation
Circle of Punishment
Divine Punishment
Healing Strike
Focused Strike
Divine Punishment (if the Circle is still active)
I also liberally add in a normal hit between certain skills, as you get a feel for how fast the mobs are and what they can do. If you find yourself with 3s or more before your next cooldown consider doing a strike-back strike (so left click, then S+left click) in order to get a stagger and some distance.

Hope this helps those of you looking for a more guided tour! (Thanks Lordjash for the suggestion)

Thanks in advance,

Grell

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