Planned Changes for Clerics in 1.7

[Phage]

Trion doesn't have a dedicated end-game Cleric expert so the combined attention that each individual soul needs/deserves is spread out across all the Cleric roles in the form of minor, non-game-breaking adjustments.

I can't tell if this is a joke or not.

In all seriousness, while incremental changes are usually an amazing way to develop and evolve a class while avoiding knee jerk imbalances, they need a clear path with logical development.

Starting off with a pet based, melee class and adding in tons of ranged, debuffing Earth skills really makes no sense. Where does Trion see Druid going? In what way does it make sense to convert Druid into a poorman's Elementalist?

Change and development should happen for a reason. New skills should be introduced with a clear intent. I am really, really confused on the implications of taking a melee/pet DPS soul and turning it into a ranged healing soul. You can say that these changes aren't bad and have some cool potential, but no where near the amount of potential they should have considering the resources and time likely spent on them.

If I wanted to heal, I would go Puri, Sent, or Ward.

If I wanted to raid heal, I would go Just.

If I am Druid there is a very, very, very strong indication that I want to DPS with a pet in melee range (when I say I want to DPS, I don't mean heal, funny that).

[Quietmode]

I think i'll prefer the new 51puri over the Sent/puri build now. Maybe its just cause its the "cool new thing"

[Broxus]

Well, the purifier changes put a 51 puri on par with puri/sent in terms of overall effectiveness, perhaps each having strengths in different areas. Puri/sent still has better aoe healing capabilities with serendipity Healing Communion, Healer's Covenant which allows you to use 1GCD to let one raid member ignore certain mechanics (such as Jornaru orb), and still has the aoe dispel.

51 puri now has the aoe shield (which will always shield for the same amount, so it's very consistent and powerful), and a brez.

51 puri was already the better tank healer because of stronger ancestral flame shielding, spiritual conflagration, and rite of the ancestors; it was just pointless to run one in most cases, since nothing in the game really warranted one (save unintended strategies on certain fights, like pulling ALL of the dogs in the T2 fire raid rift). You lost too much utility and aoe capability for a slightly stronger tank heal. Now you gain a lot of that back. I don't see it as game-breaking or really even game-changing for the most part. It just gives us another viable purifier option, instead of 34/32 (or whatever your flavor)

Lets wait to see how much the AoE Shield does before we even speculate that its useful and what the recast time is. Most likely it will not be worth the trouble or mana cost to cast it, especially if it isnt a smart cast like DoL.

[Jonchron]

I think that the best we can hope for is for it to hit 10 targets around the targeted player.

[kliknik]

I'm not understanding what all this brouhaha about the 44pt BRez skills is for. If you're not going 44+ points into Puri/Warden, chances are you're doing either a Sent or (rarely) an -icar split. Both of which have access to a battle rez for 31 or 32 points. I suppose you could make a big stink about Senticar getting 2 BRezs, but is it honestly that troubling?

For me its the ability to pick up 2 brezs without having to go senticar, maybe have the option of purifier or warden with a double brez build.

[Sunstone]

GREAT FINALLY! Combat res's to all the healing souls, duh wait... 44 points.

The new combat res's should be at 32 not 44 talent points, just like the sentinel soul.
44 talents leaves you only 22 talents between 2 souls.

if it goes this way we might as well just play 51/15 in either of the 3 healing souls. just like our tank and dps souls are now.
Justicar 51/15 Tank Spec
Inquisitor 51/15 Dps Spec
Cabalist 51/15 Aoe Dps Spec

[Jungo15]

I'm not understanding what all this brouhaha about the 44pt BRez skills is for. If you're not going 44+ points into Puri/Warden, chances are you're doing either a Sent or (rarely) an -icar split. Both of which have access to a battle rez for 31 or 32 points. I suppose you could make a big stink about Senticar getting 2 BRezs, but is it honestly that troubling?

While I don't have a strong opinion either way, I assume the thinking is that why is Sentinel special and gets a B-rez at 32 pts when Warden and Purifier get it at 44? What is the logic behind it? Seems arbitrary to me. Personally, I am happy that there was a b-rez added at least at 44 so that the full healer specs all have a rez. 51 Purifier was inherently gimped in progression because of no rez. With 100% of the time 3s induction on heals (ie no Serendipity), I am not sure if I will love 51 Puri anyway. But now at least I can try it. I was randomly thinking of a 44 Puri/22 Ward spec a ways back with the idea that HoTs and Shields would go well together. Maybe I will dig that out.

[Phage]

Changing brez's to 5 minutes >>>>>>> adding more brezzes.

While it would be nice to have Puri/Ward's brez at 32ish to fiddle with Puricar or Wardicar, there really isn't a huge need for either spec.

You can now brez with a heavy warden or heavy purifier or purisent and now instead of having a 5min and a 10min brez on Senticar they are both 5 minutes.

If you really need more battle rezzes than at least 1 5 minute rez per chloro/cleric, you have far more wrong with your raid.

People were almost exclusively going purisent for tank healing before with a few people rolling pure warden. Purisent halved the CD on its brez. Pure ward got a brez. Pure Puri is now viable with a brez.

Having the brezzes at where they are now is where they should have been from live.

[Ahov]

Lets wait to see how much the AoE Shield does before we even speculate that its useful and what the recast time is. Most likely it will not be worth the trouble or mana cost to cast it, especially if it isnt a smart cast like DoL.

If Trion goes the same route as every other direct purifier shield it will shield for the same base amount, and at 51 pts with the passive talent, it should shield for 2260, before any greater essence.

[MNM]

I think i'll prefer the new 51puri over the Sent/puri build now. Maybe its just cause its the "cool new thing"

I liked 51 puri before it was cool

[Healinator]

Not sure what to say on the purifier changes. While it is nice to have an aoe shield I just cant see this being better than say serendipity and the other sentinel goodness. I will have to test this out in combat. Its just restorative flame has too long of a cast time to make me give up the sentinel soul.

[Malbojia]

I look at it this way.

All the inexperienced healers who are like "oo, shields, I'm gunna run 51 puri", and use it to heal every dungeon from normals to T1/T2's, will actually have a real way to keep the group alive, instead of that healing flood tickling you for 150 hp every 2 seconds as 800 damage hits fly in.

QoL adjustment.

[Tufelhunden]

I look at it this way.

All the inexperienced healers who are like "oo, shields, I'm gunna run 51 puri", and use it to heal every dungeon from normals to T1/T2's, will actually have a real way to keep the group alive, instead of that healing flood tickling you for 150 hp every 2 seconds as 800 damage hits fly in.

QoL adjustment.

Ahh thats no fun. I like to yoyo tanks health in pugs. Epsecially rogue and cleric tanks, they seem to get really upset. ;)

[Zinbik]

I've updated the original post to include all changes currently up or on their way to PTS. I also wanted to clarify a few matters:

• Mead Rush is just a charge with some damage on it. That's it. No snare, no CC break, no interrupt.
• Gathering of the Ancestors uses smart healing to determine who it applies to. It should hit the 10 people with the lowest percentage health who don't already have the blocker on them. If you had two Purifiers in your raid and one cast it shortly after the other, all 20 people in the raid should get it.
• Brutalize uses a higher ratio of Massive Blow's damage now (60% instead of 40%), but is spread over a longer period of time (10s), meaning a single stack will do less damage per tick. However, you will now see it stack much more often and stacking it will actually increase its damage properly now (meaning two stacks will do twice as much damage as one stack).
• Ekkehard's Invocation is not meant to be added to your standard rotation. It's meant to be used whenever you can't be in melee range and can't charge in (either because Battle Charge is on cooldown or there's some mechanic preventing you from utilizing it). If you're in melee range and don't have anything better to use, you should use Crushing Blow, not Ekkehard's Invocation.
• Favored of the Valnir simply adds more ticks to Lightning and causes each additional tick to deal more damage. The original damage isn't spread out over a longer period of time.

The next things we'll be looking at are Druids and Justicars (namely their reliance on avoidance for mitigation). Both will require some time to get right, so you probably won't see any more changes to either until we start patching 1.8. I do want to specify right now though that the Druid will not become a full support soul. There are currently no plans to add a full support soul to the Cleric in the foreseeable future.

[Malark]

The next things we'll be looking at are Druids and Justicars (namely their reliance on avoidance for mitigation). Both will require some time to get right, so you probably won't see any more changes to either until we start patching 1.8. I do want to specify right now though that the Druid will not become a full support soul. There are currently no plans to add a full support soul to the Cleric in the foreseeable future.

Zibnik, although it's taken a long time for you to acknowledge the issue with tanking on the Cleric and you obviously don't plan on addressing it anytime soon thank you for finally acknowledging it and saying that you will eventually do something about it.