Returning Cleric

[Eughe]

Heya, old timey cleric coming back to see whats what.

I have the new classes as of now and am planning on playing around with them, however i do have some questions concerning roles:

So from what i can gather, Shaman is back to being the top dps with a semi involved rotation.
Druids short time in the sun was apparently short lived and now is just a sub class?
ST inq isnt the go to ST for sustained dps anymore?
Cabby still has no point even in hybids?

Does that sound about right?

When it comes to heals, whilst i was leaving, Warden was starting to make a come back as being the primo heal build for dungeons and of course raid healing.

Puri/Senti Mix and Full puri for hard mode raids. Although there was debate on if that was necessary because of defiler.

Is that still the consensus at this point? Or have the new classes brought a little sumpin' sumpin' into the mix?


Speaking of: I am not too sure of what the runeshaper is supposed to be. I remember when it dropped i happened to have look at the forums and saw it was seemingly unfinished, and now that ive come back, it seems the same way. So is it support dps? On paper it seems nice for organized pvp. Unless this marks the sign as clerics being the de facto back up for Rift.

Oracle seems pretty nifty, does it fall into the Bard role? (like, you only need one). Does it mix well with healers?

And i see they forcibly jammed some synergy with the souls all haphazard like, does that mean we are not bound by the 61 or bust rule if we arent anything other than Senti?

And how are clerics in pvp? Still aoe spam?

Thats all i can think of for now and thanks in advanced.

[Refuge]

So from what i can gather, Shaman is back to being the top dps with a semi involved rotation.
Druids short time in the sun was apparently short lived and now is just a sub class?
ST inq isnt the go to ST for sustained dps anymore?
Cabby still has no point even in hybids?

Inquisitor is still top for ST dps, but overall still the worst class to deal damage in raids. (Though the recent change to eternal probably changed this slightly, possibly put us above warriors). I'm still happy with it, it's just primalists that need bringing down.

When it comes to heals, whilst i was leaving, Warden was starting to make a come back as being the primo heal build for dungeons and of course raid healing.

Puri/Senti Mix and Full puri for hard mode raids. Although there was debate on if that was necessary because of defiler.

Warden would still be considered one of the best AoE builds, but due to the ease of raids, 1 healer has often been favoured, which is where other classes excel at because they have slightly better ST healing with the required AoE healing. Puri & Sent are still decent, but cant be used as solo healers, as there are ST specs out there that do decent AoE healing, which these 2 don't. This is my personal experience, but I'm fairly sure I'm correct here.

Speaking of: I am not too sure of what the runeshaper is supposed to be. I remember when it dropped i happened to have look at the forums and saw it was seemingly unfinished, and now that ive come back, it seems the same way. So is it support dps? On paper it seems nice for organized pvp. Unless this marks the sign as clerics being the de facto back up for Rift.

They completely gave up on runeshaper and turned it into a required off soul now due to the increased dmg. One way to give up on a soul but still make you buy it. The whole thing stinks, but there you go.

Oracle seems pretty nifty, does it fall into the Bard role? (like, you only need one). Does it mix well with healers?

In terms of support, Archon is the go too. It makes all the other supp souls bad choices now. They really need to work on this.

And i see they forcibly jammed some synergy with the souls all haphazard like, does that mean we are not bound by the 61 or bust rule if we arent anything other than Senti?

Still bound to 61 in any specs. They simply made 61 talents essential to any kind of build.

And how are clerics in pvp? Still aoe spam?

Awful, but PvP is in a sorry state atm.


Otherwise, all is good. You just asked questions that inevitably would receive a negative answer ha ^^

[Athiona]

Inquisitor is still top for ST dps, but overall still the worst class to deal damage in raids. (Though the recent change to eternal probably changed this slightly, possibly put us above warriors). I'm still happy with it, it's just primalists that need bringing down.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but Inquis is like 140k less than shaman for me. Am doing 61 inquis/5 druid/10 RS?

[Kaelani]

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but Inquis is like 140k less than shaman for me. Am doing 61 inquis/5 druid/10 RS?

I'm guessing you went with Legendary Perseverance, rather than Legendary Sanction Heretic.
I like 5 RS (Inscribe Fate) and 10 Cabalist (Shadow's Touch) as off souls.

Four DoTs (Scourge, Inscribe Fate, Seal of Pain, and Sanction Heretic) every 15 seconds, followed by the usual Inq rotations. See if that helps.

[Naught]

I'm guessing you went with Legendary Perseverance, rather than Legendary Sanction Heretic.
I like 5 RS (Inscribe Fate) and 10 Cabalist (Shadow's Touch) as off souls.

Four DoTs (Scourge, Inscribe Fate, Seal of Pain, and Sanction Heretic) every 15 seconds, followed by the usual Inq rotations. See if that helps.

Please do not use 10 cab as it will net less dps than 10 RS/5 druid......even using the mastery to get the range on fervent strike over the stacking armors from inquis it is better but he is right on using legendary Sanction heretic over legendary perserverance.

If you are wondering if more dots will trigger the secondary dmg from SH it will not so just using seal of pain is enough to get the max dmg from it and it should be about 17% or higher in your dmg break down if you are doing it right

[Eughe]

Thanks for the answers!
So it looks like clerics are slightly worse than there were. Awesome.

I'm guessing you went with Legendary Perseverance, rather than Legendary Sanction Heretic.
I like 5 RS (Inscribe Fate) and 10 Cabalist (Shadow's Touch) as off souls.

Four DoTs (Scourge, Inscribe Fate, Seal of Pain, and Sanction Heretic) every 15 seconds, followed by the usual Inq rotations. See if that helps.

Hey a name i recognize.

[Zehne]

Still bound to 61 in any specs. They simply made 61 talents essential to any kind of build.

There is Wardocle(priest/silg/golems/tarj), Wardinel(Ereandorn/Beruhast/beli/council), and a dps hybrid or two that exist (and have dps gains/utility gains depending on raid composition/fight).

But yeah pretty much the majority of players limit themselves to sham/inquis/warden.

Honestly though between 61/wardinel/wardocl, each has their own areas they excel in which makes them perform better in different situations (if you heal alot).

[Wynford]

Honestly though between 61/wardinel/wardocl, each has their own areas they excel in which makes them perform better in different situations (if you heal alot).

61 Warden is substantial enough to solo heal all t1 content as I've found. Wardens ST even surpasses that of Sentinel its hilarious.

Honestly all you need is 61 Inq/RS/Druid for ST DPS - 61 Shaman for ST/Cleave/AOE (Shamans AOE with the final eternal rivals that of strong dedicated AOE specs like Berserker and Saboteur) and 61 Warden for any healing.

[Eughe]

Heya, probably another question or 2.

So like, wtf happened to defiler? Its a lot weaker than before and seems to be a dedicated ST mitigater.

Is this why i dont here about it anymore? Is it dungeon ready?

[FateStayNight]

Heya, probably another question or 2.

So like, wtf happened to defiler? Its a lot weaker than before and seems to be a dedicated ST mitigater.

Is this why i dont here about it anymore? Is it dungeon ready?

Defiler used to be a form of mitigation support for tanks, and many 20-men raid bosses tank damage output were balanced with Defiler links in mind.

This is no longer true. There's currently no boss that deals enough damage to tanks that would need assistance from defiler link let along requiring them. Actually you don't even need a dedicated tank healer anymore with the current content, maybe T2 would change that.

[Ora pro nobis]

The new offsouls for defiler are druid and runeshaper. Legendary Fervent Strike buff 15% damage + 15% Death Magic but you need to stay in 20m range with Masterys. The lost of range doesnt matter in raids..

Defiler as well as Cabalist need to be buffed - compare to nightblade, defiler does around 50% less damage at 20m range. Not even Cabalist (aoe range spec) will reach the damage of nightblades cleave.

[Mystifal]

lets summarize what works and what does not:

cabalist: outdated, no real use, over dpsd in aoe by justicar hybrid. THREAT DROP ABILITY BROKEN (only calling in the game)

defiler: no sense, lower dps than inqui, no target switching, total madness and no dots management (a bad attempt to copy mage's warlock). worst soul at the same position as runeshaper & druid. NEEDS TOTAL REWORK - AGAIN -

druid: no sense, no dps, no hybridization, no real use (only good the first 2 legendaries faerie healer and fervent strike as subsoul). worst soul at the same position as runeshaper & defiler. NEEDS TOTAL REWORK - AGAIN -

inqui: quite good dps (exp. burst) and mobility, quite poor target switching

justicar: here's where cleric really "shines". some help in healing, good AoE threat, and res in combat is always a gain. fun and efficient to play with the legendaries (but you NEED a shield!)

oracle: only needed in combination with warden, this results in a very good AoE heal/buff build, that nowadays seems to be a real must have. no use 61 oracle (which has intricate mechanics, a bad attempt of copying bard).

purifier: no real use at the moment, but very poor resource management (other healers never ending their resources, and event sentinel and warden regain mana are more efficient). too much nerfed in PVP, useless.

runeshaper: no sense, low dps, no mobility, no advantages in using it (only good the first legendary as subsoul, but sentinel one's very similar, so in general no worth buying). worst soul at the same position as druid & defiler - NEEDS TOTAL REWORK

sentinel: very improved from 3.x but it's flavour still seems to be missing something. works well in pvp, bot not much use in pve (warden and warden oracle preferred). difficult hybridization

shaman: good dps, good target switching, but it's melee (ok, no pain no gain)

warden: the way to go pretty much everywhere. even better in a 38/38 with oracle


so, in my personal classification, keeping in mind pros and cons:
1) warden (warden/oracle) vote 10
2) justicar vote 9,5
3) shaman vote 8,5
4) inquisitor vote 7
5) sentinel vote 6
6) purifier vote 5,5
7) oracle (61 build) vote 5
8) cabalist vote 5
9) defiler vote 1
10) druid vote 1
11) runeshaper vote 1

[Eughe]

Are you friggen telling me that -icars are back in style? Freaken twilight zone.

So people are just doing the 61 justi as an off heal or are they off tanks?

[Mystifal]

Are you friggen telling me that -icars are back in style? Freaken twilight zone.

So people are just doing the 61 justi as an off heal or are they off tanks?

unfortunately not, but i'm voting justicar as one of the best tanks of the game atm!

[Andracleric]

My main is a cleric- and I used to rock socks as warden, puri, and shaman. That said... my shaman does not shine like it did. Crit power is tough to gain with planar fragments- but even with appropriate CP it's dps falls short of Primi and Rogue and it gets one shotted by same in pvp. The warden is OK but other classes do a bit better in raid heals now. Sent is OK in dungeons- not raids. Puri is not useful. If you are OK soloing, doing dungeons, and OK with dps not like it was in SL and NMT you will be fine. If you are a min-maxer cleric will drive you nuts. For Shammy to perform at its best you have to do the planar fragment grind for CP and do the Legendary grind. If you have the time and you love cleric that is the only way to go. Best of luck.