I threw my back out on Friday and haven’t been able to sit at my desk for any great length of time, so posts and gaming have been neglected on this long holiday weekend. Thankfully today (four days later) I’m feeling about 95% better, so it’s time for things to get back on track! Pictured above, my cleric in King’s Breach, also known as the zone I hate the most. I was healing the expert version of it yesterday and thankfully we beat the final named on the first run. Not everyone survived, but if they can’t move to the location without the spikes before the spikes get them there’s not a whole lot I can do about it. I did switch out my healing spec to another one for the fight though to better help the group.
I typically run with a cookie cutter single target heal spec, it gives me big heals on the tank and two heals for the group. I have an in combat rez which I can not stress enough as being VERY IMPORTANT. If you go into a group as support I highly suggest you have an in combat rez. I don’t understand players who do not. Mages are even luckier, because theirs is on a 5 minute cool down, where as the cleric requires 10. There’s nothing fancy about this 34/32 build, it plays much the same as my WoW discipline cleric, shields are your best friend. I’ve healed all of the T1/T2 dungeons with this spec and have no complaints at all. I have a macro to cure upon mouseover, which is really handy.
I also have an AoE healing build, for Rifts and encounters where the group is taking more damage then I would like, such as the final fight in King’s Breach. This spec also comes with an in combat rez, which I love. Most of my heals are HoT, which is nice when the group is taking damage because you never really need a whole lot of massive single target heals. I use the same mouseover cure button from the previous build, remember you NEED TO CURE group mates.
Then there is my DPS build, the duracell build. It’s made for AoE fights, and as I said before I run this spec with three macros, one for single targets, one for AoE damage, and one for mana regeneration. I never run out of mana and as long as there are numerous mobs around my DPS is amazing (plus you’ve got to love the heals from doctrine). There are videos and a lot of commentary about this spec over on the Rift Forums.
I also have a tank spec in my fourth slot, and if I could afford the 5th build (it’s 100p ouch) I would have that as my pvp build (I recently got rid of it for my tank build). Tanks are tricky creatures to play as a cleric. You do far better at aggro management if you’re dealing with more then one mob, and the heals you proc also help generate threat. Wisdom is the main contributing factor to your block / parry / dodge skills, and a shield is a must. I’m debating getting myself a full tank set of gear, but for now I need to finish off my T2 for heals / dps. I picked up another planar focus so that I can fill it with tank-like planar essences. I need to do a few more DRR before I can purchase the good ones, but I’m feeling confident so far.
There are countless other builds and I wish we had more then five of them on hand at one time (and I wish they were not quite so expensive to unlock). I’ve been running around Freemarch when I can, looking for red shinies with my quantum sight. There are so many blasted shinies in this game!
As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!
My dps on the Shamicar is about the same as yours then. I don’t personally use a parser, but I’ve been in groups where people had them and I asked how I was doing. I have better gear now than I did then also, so I’m probably doing more than I was then too. And from the forums, that’s about what is expected from a cleric.
I’m really happy with the one melee dps build I have at the moment, I’m parsing 1k dps on most fights, 1300-1600 on ones with more then one mob – and I’m wearing a mixture of crafted / T1 / T2 gear no raid. I’m honestly not sure where I should be dps wise, but that seems good enough for the T1/T2s that I do since I have no real inclination to raid at the moment.
and now that my internet’s not being wonky and actually will pull up the Zam page. . . . . Here’s what I use and why:
Shamicar — The 44 point vengeance acts like a mini-soul drain on each hit. You can drop to 20% health gathering up 8-10 mobs, then be back at full health by the time the fight’s over and never have done any healing other than your Reparation. Also always full mana. I love this build!
My take on the PuriSent — I use RF as my 3s spam spell for the bonus ward on it. HI gets 1 point and is macro’d with TtL and Flashover for an “Oh snap” heal, but is otherwise not on my hotbar. Usually I can just bubble the tank as he runs in and then spam RF and call it a day, but if I can’t then there are a ton of emergency cooldowns to use also, so overall I really like this build. Downside is that on movement fights I don’t have many instant cast spells, so they can be interesting . . . .
Caster Inquisitor — This build is the “best single-target caster” dps from a cleric, and the AE ain’t too shabby either, though it certainly can’t match a cabalist for AE. Sadly, cabalist doesn’t do so well single-target, so on balance this build wins out for me. Still…. maybe 5th build will be cabalist for AE trash ;-) Time will tell on that.
The cookie cutter tank — When tanking, I consider Glacial Shield to be a waste of a cooldown since it’s so small and only affects me. If I need heals, I use DoL or DoA — they give more healing and more threat, especially if my group has some damage on them. The 6 points in Inq are for the Armor buff with the END for more health. The armor amount is trivial — it’s all about the HP from that buff.
My builds are similar, though instead of an AE healing build I’ve got a caster dps build — 51 Inquisitor, 10 sentinel, 5 warden for that. And I don’t use the Duracell, but a 44 point shamicar instead. Not only is the dps okay for single-target and excellent for AE, but it can put out raid-level hps on those AE fights too. My healer is a 33/33 purisent, and my tank is the cookie-cutter 51 justi / 9 shaman / 6 inquisitor. And yeah, someday I’ll buy a 5th role and use it for a 2nd healing build, but… it’s a way off yet.