Avic's Cleric build
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Video Guide Above
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Edit1: Formatting
Edit2: Video Guide
Edit3: Feats Reworked (I mixed up the names, my bad!!!)
Edit4: More Formatting
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A few disclaimers to kick this thing off.
*I'm writing this on my phone, so the formatting may be a nightmare.
*This build is NOT an easy one to play. In my opinion, it is by far the most effective cleric build pre 15k gear score. I'm still experimenting with different skills to maximize Gift of Faith (explained later), so if you have any input or professional math skills, feel free to contribute. I ruv ru rong time.
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So to get started, I'm going to go against the grain of how most people play this class, because I have experience in almost every mmo ever made, and have utilized the unique way Clerics were built in this game to create a ridiculously powerful build. It's not new. It's not unused. Other people have similar stuff.
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LEVELING - LEVELING - LEVELING
Leveling up as a healer in most games is a pain in the fallopian tubes. Most games build their heal class as a squishy immobile one hitter quitter character. The uniqueness of Neverwinter Clerics is that, true to D&D they stuck with mail armor class rather than squish city cloth wearers. I'm going to say some things next that might make you think I'm a troll. I'm not. I mean I am, but not here.
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ABILITIES - FOR - LEVELING
Leveling up, stick to Astral seal and Lance of faith as your at-will abilities. Astral seal can effectively keep you healed with the supplement of options. This is one of two ways of healing yourself. Invest in a healing companion and potions.
For encounter abilities, switch healing word with chains of blazing light as soon as you get it. Next, switch searing light with daunting light when you get that one. And finally, switch sun burst with divine glow.
As for rotation, smack the hardest mob in the group with Astral seal, wail on him/her/it with Lance until you have full divinity. Use your 3 bars of divinity on daunting light, and use your empowered state for daunting light as well. Once you get comfortable using these abilities, go into options and turn off AOE Targeting Assist. It's a pain in the rectal cavity.
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PASSIVES - FOR - LEVELING
For passives, you will want to use Holy fervor and terrifying insight as soon as possible. Yes this is a Divine Oracle build, as I personally see Annointed Champion paragon path as useless from experimentation.
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DAILY - ABILITIES - FOR - LEVELING
For Daily abilities, I never waver from Hollowed Ground and Flame Strike. None of the others have any usefulness in any situations above these two. When leveling, I mainly use Flame Strike for the excellent aoe clear damage, and minor Cc.
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FEATS - FOR - LEVELING
Now let's talk about feats. You should respec a few times in your career as a cleric due to changes in your gear, to help maximize benefits to get as close to soft cap as possible. I will talk about these stat caps later.
While leveling up, focus primarily on dps/tankiness.
Max the first one/put rest into the next.
Toughness/healing action Weapon master/Holy resolve Repurpose soul/healing action Templar's domain
For your heroic feats, go righteous path.
Astral fury Righteous suffering Piercing light Condemning gaze Avatar of the divine Furious intervention
The last 5 points is preference.
Running full dps as a cleric is devastatingly powerful for leveling. Clerics have some of the absolute highest damage capability in the game. During the leveling process, skip all dungeons and skirmishes, focus on quests exclusively.
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ITEMS - OF - NOTE
*Some items of note:
At level 26, start your Tyrany of the Dragons campaign.
At level one, if you have an extra $20 to spend, one of the most overpowered and useful things you can do is buy an Heirloom Pack from the zen store. Be sure to claim this from the reward merchant opposite the tunnel from Sgt. Knox.
Be sure to get your free bags from Blacklake and Never death. In never death, the dudes name is Chatterbell, he's in the main town to the left when you enter the area. He won't have a quest icon. Talk to his ratchet ass anyways.
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LEVEL - 60 - GUIDE
OK, so you've made it to level 60. Congratulations, this is where the real fun starts. The following is a semi-comprehensive guide on what to do at this point in your existence.
Upon reaching level 60, buy a respec token. You may already have one if you purchased the Heirloom Pack.
Upon respec usage, I will start with your powers. This build is a hybrid build that covers all bases for any situation.
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ABILITIES - FOR - DUNGEONS
Everything that follows is a 3 point power, the rest you just fill in with one point to move forward.
Astral Seal
Lance of Faith
Sun Burst
Healing Word
Searing Light
Flame Strike
Hollowed Ground
Chains of Blazing Light
Divine Fortune
Sacred Flame
Daunting Light
Bastion of Health
Brand of the Sun
Foresight
Terrifying Insight
Break the Spirit
Divine Glow
Astral Shield
(optionals)
Holy Fervor
Prophecy of Doom
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FEATS - FOR - DUNGEONS
For feats, we are going Divine Oracle again. We are going to do some feat tricks here.
3 Toughness
3 Greater Fortune
3 Weapon Mastery
3 Holy Resolve
3 Repurpose Soul
5 Bountiful Fortune
Virtuous: 5 Lasting Wishes
Righteous: 5 Furious Intervention
Faithful: 5 Resounding Beliefs
5 Benefit of Foresight
5 Shared Burdens (very important)
5 Test of Faith
1 Agent of the Divine
So there you have it. Equal parts heal/passive heal and utility. This spec requires no specific character placement in a battle, nor does it require too much emphasis on heal upkeep.
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SOLO - FOR - DAILIES
Now for power load outs, you will 95% of the time be running the same one, with a few alterations depending on boss fights.
For solo play (daily quests and such) I use Lance of Faith and Brand of the Sun. Cast brand on each target and go ham with Lance.
Flame Strike is your go to Daily ability.
Chains of Blazing Light
Daunting Light
Divine Glow
These are your main encounters. Same strategy here as leveling. Use Chains and Divine whenever they are up and use Daunting x3 while in Divinity mode, and then once more for the Empowered bonus.
For passives, use
Divine
And
Terrifying Insight.
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LOADOUTS - FOR - DUNGEONS
Now, for dungeons. This is the best part of this build.
You will want Astral Seal and Sacred Flame for most content, sometimes switching Sacred Flame for Brand of the Sun for boss fights where you can't stop moving to cast 3x Sacred Flame.
For passives, use Holy Fervor and Foresight. The damage mitigation from Foresight is increased to 11% from your feats, and this affects all party members who you are healing which should be a constant bonus if you hit the priority targets with Astral Seal.
For encounters, use Bastion of Health, Astral Shield and Divine Glow. The vast majority of Bastion of Healths massive heal will go directly into your gift of faith. This is preferable. Astral shield gives a 30% damage mitigation for a total of 41% between Astral Shield and Foresight, further increasing if Hollowed Ground is on the floor, although that one is an unknown amount of mitigation. At preferable recovery (explained later), Astral shield will be down constantly minus 4 seconds between casts. Divine Glow is your absolute bread and Nutella. It literally does it all. On a regular cast, it reduces enemy armor, heals allies, gives a heal over time to gift of faith, and gives a further 10% damage mitigation to allies. This is your divinity spell as well. Always cast it on tanks/melee allies. Divinity will heal for as much as Bastion of Health here, also reducing enemy damage by 15% and increasing ally damage by 15%. It's ermahgerd ermerzerng. For Empowered mode, I usually cast Astral shield unless someone just used a gift of faith proc and needs a refill, then I use Bastion of Health.
For dailies, only use Hollowed Ground in dungeons.
Phew. Book status.
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GEAR - FOR - DUNGEONS
Now for gearing. For Clerics, everyone thinks Miracle healer is the best heal set. It's not. Math op. Not only does High Prophet reduce enemy armor by wtf30%scrub but it increases your healing ability more than Miracle Healer. 13k+ gear score players have a good amount of life steal. Life steal is a heal based on damage. 30% more damage equates to higher passive heals (less work for you), faster fights (less work for you) and allows for some player meta combinations that I won't get into in this guide.
You will use High Prophet forever and always.
Get a Wisdom artifact belt from the auction house, this is best in slot.
Work your way up the campaign and get Astral Golden Dragon Symbol for dungeons, and Heart of the Golden Dragon for solo play. Self explanatory.
Utility slots need Dragon Hoard Enchantments from the auction house, get Four of them since you have four utility slots. Defense and offense slots should be mainly Radiant Enchantments until you start hitting stat caps (explained shortly).
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STATS - FOR - DUNGEONS
Now for stats. As a cleric using this build, you notice I didn't take any threat reduction feats or passives. That's because your job is not only to heal/buff/debuff but to take and hold aggro so your squish dps homies can do their thing. You want aggro. Aggro is good. Aggro is life.
Power is your main squeeze. This stat has no soft or hard cap, and builds with 12k power are often seen. I prefer 10k to have room to cap a few other stats.
Critical strike should be 2000 up to 2500 while using plague fire enchantment. If you prefer Vorpal enchantment, boost this baby to the soft cap at 3500.
Recovery, due to recent changes in caps and cleric cast speed, the preferable amount is 2500. Any more than that is unnoticeable and wasted.
Defense should be around 2500 as well. This is the soft cap and should allow you to get around 40% damage resistance on your character sheet, making it insanely easy to hit the damage resistance cap with your abilities.
Regeneration is not mandatory, but I try to get it as close to 1k as possible because it's free heals and doesn't draw aggro. Cleric heals are only about 50% as effective on yourself as others.
The rest of the stats are next to useless to a cleric. Don't fux with em.
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BOONS - FOR - DUNGEONS
For Boons, I find the following as the best route.
Dragons Claws Dragons Gaze Dragonscale Defense Dragons Blood Dragons Revival (due to lowered self healing)
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This concludes the majority of the guide. Any frequently asked questions will be added to the guide at a later time.
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My gamer tag is Avic09, Happy hunting ladies and gents.
EDIT: Improved Format for convenient referral.
