Cleric tips'n'tricks

[chayes]

So I've started a cleric. 6levels in and lovin it.
I've read all the cleric wiki's and just wanted to hear you small tips 'n' tricks for cleric-ing.
(No wiki references- we've all read the short blurbs there, what do You do?)

Begin!

[Estu]

http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153636

[chayes]

Thread killer :-/

So basically you are telling me the only tips are
Heal sometimes, buff sometimes, lull/stun/root sometimes?

I'm working on a wiki of tips and tricks cause the cleric ones are lacking

[Estu]

I don't know what kind of information you're looking for or what you're finding inadequate in the thread I linked. It has a bunch of suggestions other than "heal sometimes, buff sometimes, lull/stun/root sometimes".

Clerics are not known for being a terribly complicated class. Maybe ask some specific questions and I could be more helpful.

[Jimjam]

If tank is struggling to keep aggro root the mob and have the tank stand on it's toes. Rooted mobs target whoever on it's hate list is closest.

Be creative with social hot keys to help you find who is being hit. E.g.

/pause 3, /assist (MA name)
/pause 3, /assist
/cast (heal)

This will heal the person targeted by the mob the MA has designated as the main target. You may be able to delete the pauses.

Lots of the HP/Ac buffs (courage line) are also heals. Some of them are more mana efficient than plain heals. Unless someone is rocking a hp/ac buff that is better than what you can cast often it is better to use the buff to heal (less aggro).

On the subject of aggro, if you want aggro group heals work pretty well. Stuns also work well if you need to tank (reduce mob damage as well as keeping aggro).

Once you get to a level where you can rez sometimes it is best to gulp an invis potion and camp out if there is going to be a wipe; you may as well survive to rez people back in rather than everyone dieing. Always carry plenty of invis pots. Don't rely on other people casting it on you.

Speaking of invis, if a character needs a charm pet breaking (eg it is close to death and the group wants to take the xp from it or perhaps the charmer just wants to go afk) cast invis undead on that player and charm will break.

Target corpses and hit /con a few times. If the rez timer is decreasing that person is online. Pop them a tell asking if they'd like a rez.

If you have a really difficult /long pull that might have a lot of adds you can have a player ghetto FD by letting them die then rezzing them.

If you get some adds you can root, soothe then atone them to keep them out of you hair for a while.

Divine aura type buffs have a whole bunch of tricks also associated with them.

Clerics do have a few tools in their box, as with any class part of the fun is looking at them and seeing how you can throw them together in to funky little combos.

[Jimjam]

Oh and build aggro on rooted/mezzed mobs using the low level stun (no damage so won't break them).

[Synthlol]

Keep Stun and Divine Aura memorized.

[Jimjam]

Hows your wiki page coming along Chayes, if you are still bothering to read this thread?

[chayes]

I am. Got one here and one in the starting area.
Also reviewing old Zam postings, since tey date wayy back!

Only read these at work ;)
Who needs productivity?

[Corydon]

+1 for Jimjam. Solid info in there! Thanks!

[Jimjam]

Thanks Corydon, good to see my post is appreciated :)

[Tecmos Deception]

DA and DB memmed at all times. Use DB first if possible since it has a longer cast and save DA for when you REALLY need a quick get-out-of-jail-free card. Try to think of cool ways to use them besides just hitting them when you get a bunch of aggro, like using DB to aggro a room full of harm-touching mobs in HS while your buddies then CC the pack. You can sit while DA/DB to med!

Keep the hp+ac buff line on everyone all the time, and add AC and symbol buffs to the tank and enchanters also. Hit the puller and tank with MR at least, maybe with more resist buffs depending on where you are. Don't burn all your mana at once on buffs unless the whole group is ready to take a break while you med back up though. Click some buffs on the tank and chanter, symbol them, and get on a roll and buff the rest of the group as mana allows. Don't let a DPS who gets aggro too often talk you into giving him a symbol and an AC buff; your mana is more important than extra cushion that facilitates his sloppy play.

Remember that the top spell slot can be cast more quickly than other slots when using instant clickies to refresh gems, so depending on the situation you may want a normal heal or a CH or a root in that slot.

Atone and calm are awesome spells, but be careful with calm depending on your charisma and what you're trying to cast on.

Get some invis clickies. Larrikan's mask is the cheapest (and I think you can even target it on other people, I forget), but it's nice to have some of the instant rings too incase your invis is dropping at a bad time.

Don't worry about topping off everyone all the time. Probably a good idea to keep the chanter (and maybe puller) at full HP whenever remotely possible, but so long as others are above 80% or so you can let them regen HP instead of wasting your mana only for them to end up sitting at 100% anyways.

I basically only ever use stuns to interrupt spells, and only some spells: heals that are big for your level (not gonna interrupt a greater heal when I'm in a group with a bunch of 60s, for example), SLOW, maybe some bigger AE nukes if you see a wiz mob casting a PBAE nuke and all your melee will get blasted with it, stuff like that.

Keep your cure blindness, poison, disease, and dispel magic spells handy for when you know you might need them. Be able to target and cast cure blindness even when... ya know... you're blind. If you've got an instant clicky, keep that buff in the top slot all the time so you can click it off if you see a magic debuff/dot coming your way and you won't be able to interrupt it in time... then you can dispel it quickly and easily.

Bury your good buffs, both on yourself and on others. You don't want to have grim aura as your first slot, symbol as your second slot, MR as your third slot, etc. Too likely you'll get those important (and expensive) spells dispelled in a messy fight or if you aren't paying close-enough attention to things. The tank and puller, especially, is going to be getting dispelled fairly frequently.

Learn how to time casting a buff on yourself when accepting a rez so that you have the buff after you get rezzed... helps you not be so low on HP when you loot up +hp gear, so you don't get low HP aggro and whatnot. Plus it's fun.

Keep backup peridots in the bank so you can symbol yourself or others while on CR. Don't forget you can summon food/water so neither you nor your groupmates are thirsty when on a CR.

Use your PBAE fear spell to mess up chardok groups for great justice.

Don't let yourself be full mana, or low mana. You want to always be gaining mana when you sit to meditate; top off the tank or refresh a buff (even if it still has a bunch of duration left) or something if you are about to hit full mana, so that you aren't "wasting" med ticks. But at the same time, make sure you don't drop below 60-70% mana if you can avoid it; you never know when a bad pull or something is about to happen and you will need all the mana you can to survive it. DEFINITELY don't let your group pull faster than you can keep up with, and then that big nasty pull happens when you're at 15% mana because you let your group control the pace poorly.

Managing mana during a messy fight is very difficult, imo. You don't want anyone to die if you can avoid it, of course, but you also can't afford to "waste" a bunch of mana on a dumb or unlucky DPS and then not have enough mana to keep yourself, the tank, and the enchanter alive. Try to learn to use just enough healing for the situation: don't cast a divine light on a squishy wizard when they are only getting hit for 1 round because they clicked their tstaff on inc and the tank hasn't finished casting a disease cloud yet, just use a remedy or nothing and wait to see how wounded the wiz is. Don't let someone DIE just because you're trying to conserve mana/be efficient though. Don't be afraid to duck that CH that you think will probably land when the tank is still alive... maybe... just suck it up and duck it and hit the tank with a DL or something to keep him up.

Don't OVERfocus on wis and mana. Yeah, you need mana to cast spells. But a larger max mana pool is of pretty limited usefulness most of the time. It's great if you're in an intense CH rotation or doing raid heals on an AE boss or soloing stuff that is pretty tough for you or something. But in normal groups, your mana regen is the limiting factor and your max mana is only useful to maybe sometimes save you if you've already been doing something "wrong" (like letting yourself get too low without taking a break, or inviting a bad puller, or something). If you're close to 200 wisdom and you've got some +mana gear on too, look for magic resist or hp or ac gear (probably in that order) instead of pushing your wisdom up over 200.


People who think clerics are JUST about healing and medding are dumb. There are a shitload of little things you can do that add up and make a VERY big difference!

[Tuljin]

Every time I tell a cleric that capping out wis is not good and they should get HP and resist gear they think I'm crazy - just like most Wizards on the server they crank out their mana pool and neglect other stats which are in many ways more important. High mana pool has limited use, and in a group you should really NEVER be full mana. I still don't know why the practice of going beyond softcap and even hardcap is so common.

Going along with the effectiveness of stunning to interrupt spells, it saves you TONS of mana when you stop a Ice Comets and Conflagrations during the duration of a group. Also stopping Slows is a high priority. If you pull agro just stun, park the mob with root, and get out of the way.

I have done the most difficult dungeons on Wizard with only a Druid healer by mitigating caster threat through pulling mobs myself, taking caster agro, and chain interrupting while melees beat on the mobs. Xoquil is also far less "squishy" than most Wizards because he uses stuns to protect himself, gets his cleric buffs, and is HP and resist geared. Paladin is also excellent at using stuns and bash to stop nasty spells. Cleric is the only other class with a line of DD stuns.

Most of all, its YOUR OWN mana you're saving by mitigating caster threat, so you can stop complaining about being OOM. Usually when my Wiz or Pal is in a group the cleric complains about having TOO MUCH mana (because they do nothing else besides heal :-P )

Also don't hesitate to throw out a stun on running mobs. I don't see this nearly enough from clerics on this server.

Clerics of p99 - try doing other things besides just casting CH and think about some other stats besides WIS!!!! Cleric is way more versatile than just heal and res. That topped out mana pool does nothing for you when you're 50% mana!

[Zalaerian]

being able to corner cast when shit goes south. like 2 clerics i ever played w did this

[Waedawen]

Catch every single med tick you can -- cast right after it hit, then sit as fast as you can when the spell completes.

People taking less damage means more safety, which means less need for healing. Pre-empt your need to heal with Stuns and CC with root.

[chayes]

Good stuff y'all!
Very helpful to young'uns and experienced a like.
+1 to Tecmos and Tuljin for taking time for lengthy explanations!
Very helpful

[Tecmos Deception]

Catch every single med tick you can

Is this habit for anyone?

I've tried for YEARS on p99 to get to the point where I sit for med ticks as second nature, but it still isn't. I mean, when the situation isn't crazy, I sit immediately after spellcasts. And I try to use camera angles to satisfy my desire to view the situation without having to run around to position myself. But that's not quite the same as timing casts to catch med ticks.

The latter has always felt like "work" to me, has never become second nature, and every time I try to REALLY focus on it (especially if I get really crazy and try to move around while still not missing med ticks), I burn out in like 10 minutes and log off to play something else. Lol.

[Daldaen]

Catching med ticks on this server is easier and harder than it was in classic.

On this server, you can see your mana value in inventory. So you know when it ticked up. During classic you had to look at your blue bar and watch it move the slightest amount to know when your med tic occurred.

On the other hand, this server has 2 ticks, which could be favorably timed or unfavorably timed. I believe that comes down to when you logged in, where the server tick is at that point in time. But you can have an annoying spread where the 2nd tick is 3-4 seconds after the first one. Or it can be nice and it can be directly after the first. This is the client / server having to psynch up I believe.