Neverwinter DC PvP Guide

Neverwinter DC PvP Guide by lim3yy

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of PVP content for clerics in here so I’m going to start a thread, hopefully we can get some good info!

My current build is for max AoE heals / buffs / debuffs. I’ve found that it’s super hard to single target heal and it’s easier to just drop AoE’s and stay mobile rather than kiting enemies and being kited by my teammates.

My Build Breakdown:

Skills

Encounter Powers: 

-Divine Glow
Very good spell for doing a bit of damage here and there, and with a really long range it can sometimes net you a last hit on an enemy who can double dodge his way out. I use it 98% of the time for the buff / debuff. The 5% Damage Resist Debuff / Buff (Buff in Divinity) in either an AoE on Friendlies/Enemies/Combination of both, or Single Target on Friendlies/Enemies makes it one of the most versatile and useful spells you have.

-Bastion of Health
Powerful AoE Heal on a < 2 second cast time, or improved Heal on instant cast (Divinity). Need I say more? This spell is clutch, or more clutch no matter which way you look at it.

-Astral Shield
This is by far the most important and vital skill you can have as a Cleric. The ability to throw down an AoE HoT that also increases Damage Resist Buff by 20% on top of the base amount is nuts. You’ll be able to heal through most Dungeon trash mob pulls by just throwing down Astral Shield when it’s off CD. I can’t stress enough how much you need to pick up this spell, even if you’re not focusing on healing.

At Will: 

-Sacred Flame
This spell generates Divine Power extremely fast as well as giving teammates in a radius temporary hit points (which can in turn improve how much they receive from your heals depending on how you skill your Paragon Points). Since I am focusing on healing and not damaging I’m not looking at picking up skills that do a lot of damage, and this one allows me to get off a couple short bursts and generate a lot of Divine Power so I can immediately go back to healing.

-Astral Shield
A must have as well. With a long duration you can target a couple people with this and it’ll dish out some small heals, but it’s noticeable, believe me! This isn’t going to be a main focus of damage or healing, but you can set it and forget it and it does the most to benefit the team of any other At-Will spells.

Dailies: 

-Hallowed Ground
I’m serious about AoE Buffs / Debuffs!!! Another 10% on top of the base of this spell, when you drop all these AoE’s together you’re looking at quite a lot of Debuff for them and Buff for you.

-Divine Armor
Divine Armor and Hallowed Ground are very similar, the difference being Divine Armor is defensive, giving Temporary Hit Points rather than a Damage Buff.

Class Features: 
Class Features are probably the toughest decision I had to make, as there are 4 that are all equally viable so I’ll cover all 4 and let you decide!

-Healer’s Lore
15% heals is a pretty good amount, not much else to say on that! 15% is 15%!

-Foresight
A flat 2% damage reduction, combined with 4% Damage Resist Buff onto your healing targets (which yes includes all your AoE heals) is very good.

-Divine Fortune
When you’re an AoE healer it’s really hard to generate Divine Power through your At-Will abilities, which is why this is such a strong Class Feature. Unfortunately I think it’s bugged as it doesn’t work while in Divinity form so you can only get Divine Power when you’re in normal form, which isn’t very often. Also some spells don’t trigger the Divine Power bonus, like Astral Shield, which doesn’t necessarily render the Class Feature useless, but I use Healer’s Lore and Foresight over it.

-Prophetic Action
Blocks an attack every 60 seconds. This is the weakest of these 4, as you could block a 300 dmg Magic Missile and then die to a 20k crit from a TR the next attack, but I’m sure over the course of a couple games this feat would save your life a couple of times.

Feats
There are SO many great powers here that it’s a real tough job trying to only put 20 points into, but I’ll throw out what I did, and why.

Tier 1

Greater Fortune 3/3
I think this one is a no brainer, Wisdom is your main stat, and healing your main job, so something that increases one
by the other, DUH!!!

Toughness 3/3
9% Hit Points is a good amount at max level, and when you’ll undoubtedly be the focus of attacks at some point or another having a lot of them can only help.

Tier 2

Domain Synergy 4/5
I think that Recovery is the second best stat right at 60, and the more geared you get the better it becomes, until it eclipses Power as the best stat (More later!). I think therefore that you should get a lot of this Feat!

Tier 3

Repurpose Soul 3/3
I’m honestly not really psyched about this tier. I think all the options are pretty weak as compared to others. All though with enough heals going out a 15% heal in a small AoE is pretty good.

Initiate of the Faith 2/5
Not hyped on crit really, but you could take this one up to all 4 points, as I highly recommend at least 1 point in Repurpose Soul.

Tier 4

Cleanse 1/3
This is a really good spell, as it can be triggered by your AoE, so if you’re SUPER lucky you could get 5 Cleanses on a single Bastion of Health. I only put 1 point in this because I wanted to put more in Bountiful Fortune, but you could easily put more into this and at a 10% jump each time I wouldn’t find fault with that choice.

Bountiful Fortune 4/5
Divine Power is the most important aspect of this build, and of any Cleric build I believe so maxing this with whatever points you have remaining is essential.

Paragon Powers
Much like the Feats, Paragon Paths are really wide open to whatever you want to do. To be a healer I think the Faithful and Righteous Paths are the most powerful, the Virtuous ‘Main Power’ is damage oriented so it’s not as viable. I find myself using a lot of Divine Power so I choice the Faithful path as it gives another ‘Charge’ to your Divine Power allowing you to have 4 rather than 3, which is one more ability in a fight. The final thought that went into my decision was Sovereign Justice (the Righteous Path ‘Main Power’) keeps you from being as mobile as to get the most out of it you need to roam with 2 others at least, whereas the 4th Divine Power slot allows you roam with another person and get much more out of it. Outside this path I have as follows for Feats.

Virtuous
Tier 1

Rising Hope 1/5
The extra Recovery and Power is pretty clutch, and going in and out of Divine Mode a lot makes this a pretty consistent buff, and 30 seconds is about how long most PVP encounters last.

Faithful
Tier 1

Enduring Relief 5/5
You’ll be in Divine Mode for the majority of the fights so this is a must.
If you want, putting a point into Deepstone Blessing for the extra heals on targets with Temporary Hit Points could be beneficial.

Tier 2

Benefit of Foresight 5/5
No reason not to put points into this if you’re going to use Foresight. An extra 5% on top of the 4% you give allies makes this a really strong Feat.

Linked Spirit 5/5
With all these AoE heals I’m specing into, this again is a no brainer. 5% of my stats (with the max ones being Power and Recovery, which amounts to 187 Power and 138 Recovery (I still have 2 blue’s and a green equipped which are garbage) and those numbers are nothing to sneeze at.

Tier 3

Invigorated Healing 5/5
This Feat is proced by two of my AoE spells making it, again, a no brainer.
-If you’re going into a Temporary Hit Point focused build put some points into Power of Life but I would definitely keep at least 2 to 3 points in Invigorated Healing.

Tier 4

Mark of Mending 5/5
With use of Healer’s Lore this turns the ability from a 50/50 with Divine Fortune to being incredibly good. Bumping up my heals by another 5% to a whopping 20% buff, and adding 5% of my Recovery to Power (138), very viable and useful spell if you’re going to use Healer’s Lore.

Moon Touched 4/5
This makes it so anyone who wants to fight against your team in Hallowed Ground is ruined. Seriously, try this build and head to the 2 point right at the start and throw down Hallowed Ground, your AoE spells. You could take a 4v5 with ease if you’re geared all right.

Tier 5

Greater Divine Power 1/1
As I mentioned earlier, this makes you a better Cleric, without doubt. It makes everything you do easier, and allows you to do more of it. It lets you be more mobile as you don’t need a constant stream of At-Will hits to keep your Divine Power up, but also lets you sustain longer in big engagements.

Stat Prioritization
Power -> Recovery -> Deflection/Defense -> The Rest
At beginning stages of end game I believe Power to be easily the best stat you can get. Power will buff up your heal’s and after all that’s the point of this build, to heal! Also it will help your DPS, but in this build I’m not focused on DPS’ing and getting kills. That being said, anything you can add to the group in terms of damage will be helpful. Also Power is a very easy stat to stack as it comes on most of the gear you’ll find.
After a certain point, increasing Power will start to suffer from diminishing returns in game play. At a certain point your Astral Shield will be able to keep people up through regular sustained DPS, I’m healing for around 430 HPS in the circle, and if my team is fighting in the circle I rarely have to drop my instant AoE heal (during sustained DPS skirmishes). Your Power, and therefore HPS numbers, will stay on par with the sustained DPS numbers the enemy team can put out. What you’ll have to worry about is burst damage coming out from Trickster Rogues, and Control Wizards. Moderate sustained heals will never be able to keep an ally up through 10k+ crits coming out of TR’s and CW’s. This is where recovery comes in. Focusing on stacking up Recovery will allow you to keep Bastion of Health off cooldown so you can drop them more liberally, rather than waiting for the big crit to come in. Also your Daily can really turn the tide of any fight and stacking recovery lets you be more liberal in dropping a Hallowed Ground.

Lastly it’s a bit of a toss-up between Deflection and Defense. I have Deflection ahead of Defense for the same reasons that I have Recovery eclipsing Power at a certain point. Your Astral Shield (as long as you stand inside it…) will do a really good job of keeping you up along with Bastion of Health if you’re getting focused. As I said prior, a 10k+ crit can really put a damper on your day and life, and having seen crits upwards of 24k coming out of TR’s, having the ability to deflect a good amount of that damage, I think, is crucial, especially because Clerics are such strong healers at later stages and depending on how you build them can be easy to stick on top of and nuke down.

You can make up your mind on the rest of the stats, I don’t really have a preference with any of them, but I would say that Crit would be your best bet, as it does work on heals, but without casting heals very often I don’t think it’s worth it over any of the aforementioned stats.

Play Style:

1: The More the Merrier!
This style is the most effective when you have a handful of people around that way you can heal all of them at once. This setup is pretty mobile and with decently low cooldowns on your abilities you can stay mobile and move around, cap, ninja cap, and defend points. You could make simple changes to the build, add in a [CC] for example and become more aggressive rather than following around your buddies. At the end of the day this build relies on big AoE’s to take man fights to the other team and bull rush cap points, and then once you have them allows you to be mobile and move around with one or two teammates and dig in until reinforcements arrive.

2: Location, Location, Location!
Be very cognizant of where you place down your heals as it will dictate where the fight takes place. In many senses you are the leader of the team! For example if your team is capping or defending 2 (the middle point), if you place your Astral Shield closer to your spawn, you’re in a more defensive position, will allow your team to be safer, but limits your ability to cap / hold. Also it severely limits where your melee fighters can be as they’ll need to stay closer to the Shield, and any movement they take past the point can be severely punished. However, if you put the Shield towards their side it allows your team to extend a lot farther to chase them off the point, as they really can’t fight in the circle at all, so they’re either forced to fight off the point which allows you to cap the point, or keep getting points if you already hold it, or they’re forced to fight on your side of the map, which is just the worst idea ever and would be a move of pure desperation.

3: It’s the Little Things That Make the Big Things Possible
Aside from throwing out your big heals, there are SO many little things that you can do as a Cleric that can really turn the tide of battle. Micromanaging enemies and knowing what debuffs are on who can easily turn the tide of a battle.
By having your Astral Seal on as many targets as possible, you’re ensuring a constant flow of heals to all your team. I’ve seen it countless times, a TR running around in stealth with less than 5k health and his Daily up. With an Astral Seal debuff the TR can do massive amounts of damage, and heal himself up, where if Astral Seal wasn’t down and the TR came out of stealth, it’d be a lot easier to kill him and keep the target alive.
Knowing when you can stay in normal form to cast a spell rather than jumping into Divinity form is a game winner without question. Divine Power will have its own section next so I won’t get into it here, but most of the time unless your party is in really dire straits or you’re getting heavily focuses, you won’t need to go into Divinity to drop a spell. For example, Bastion of Health’s channeling time will be low enough that you won’t get interrupted usually, and if you’re team isn’t barely clinging to life it will be enough to keep them nicely topped off. By not using it in Divinity you save a lot of precious Divine Power, but also keep the spell on cooldown. Lastly managing debuffs and buffs are another crucial point. With Divine Glow you can either focus on giving enemies debuffs or your allies buffs. Knowing when to pop Divinity and drop Divine Glow on your CW or TR who’s about to go ham on an enemy, or drop it on your GF or GWF who’s duking it out with an enemy TR/GF/GWF, or when to just drop it on an enemy CW or Cleric is something that you’ll have to play around with and depends on the team comp and who you’re playing with. But just be mindful that there is no one best scenario on using it, and there are TONS of uses of it, and a misuse could cost you the point you’re trying to cap or defend!

4: Divine Management
Managing your Divine Power is one of the most crucial things you can do in any build. This build favors it heavily as it allows you to make a huge impact on a fight, and you can even do decent DPS with it! My reasoning (as stated above) for using Sacred Flame is twofold. It’s a very fast attack and allows you to build up Divine Power very quickly (Especially with the 4 Piece bonus from the PVP set [20% Divine Power Generation]). In addition to fast Divine Power generation, it gives out temporary hit points within a radius. This coupled with Sacred Flame makes it easy to keep yourself up, and add onto the substantial HPS of your Astral Shield. Your focus in big fights should be keeping your Astral Shield on the ground, and throwing down Bastion of Health and Divine Glow whenever they’re off CD, then putting up Astral Seal on targets to help your team, at this point is when you should be looking to start spamming Sacred Flame. The one substitution you can make easily is if your team isn’t taking heavy damage, and then between Astral Seal mini-heals and the temporary hit points from Sacred Flame you should be able to keep your team up without the use of Bastion of Health. Also you should try to keep your Divine Power above the 2+ mark just so if you’re in a bind and you can’t get many of your At-Will powers off you’ll be able to heal your team through the engagement.

Final Thoughts:
I haven’t really experimented a lot with other class builds as I don’t really want to throw money into respecing my character, nor do I have the patience to level up another Cleric just to mess with things. I’ve messed with a lot of other Encounter Powers and none of them really seem to be as useful on a consistent basis. There are a handful of things that are very situational, but for the maps and game-type now, my build is tried and true and pretty **** good if you ask me! Clerics are a lot of fun, and can be an unstoppable force if you build and play your character right!

Final Final Thoughts:
Thanks all for reading this, I really hope that this inspires people to work with their own builds, tweak them, delve in deeper to the class and really think about things and really get to a point where their builds are strong as hell! I stream a lot of PVP and some PVE on my twitch account at www.twitch.tv/k1w1FTW, you can follow me on twitter at @k1w1ftw, in-game I can be reached at Ilyana@lim3yy on Beholder where I am the GM of <Pv*****> (think inappropriate male bits) which is a PVP’ing guild and were always looking for more members to run premades! Thanks again for reading this and please pick this apart!! The game is super new and I’d love to hear other thoughts on what I’ve compiled!!!