Devoted Cleric (DC) was my first character I created in Neverwinter. At the time I had absolutely no clue what I was doing. Some might argue I still don’t, haha! Well, I will just leave that up to you to decide. By no means am I an expert, but I hope I can help new players or players debating making a DC with what I have learned so far. 🙂
Ability Scores, Stats, and Races
First, I just want to remind everyone of the basics. This classes Ability Score priority is Wisdom (1% damage and healing bonus), Charisma (1% recharge speed gain), and Strength (1% critical chance and AP Gain). Stats you should focus on are Recovery, Crit, and Power.
Good races for AC DC include Humans, Half-Elf, Drow, Sun Elf and Dragonborn. The 3% increased defenses for Humans is nice, since you tend to get the crap beat out of you by angry mobs if you don’t have a very good tank. Half Elf can be a good race because of their 1% increased Deflection and Critical Severity as well as +2 Charisma. Sun Elf also has +2 Charisma and a 2% increased Acton Point Gain). Drows can be useful with the Darkfire debuff (reduces targets defense by 10% for 4 seconds) to help you and your team. Dragonborn are probably the best race for this class, as they have 5% increased healing, +2 any two stats and 3% increased Power and Critical Chance. However, you have to purchase this race with Zen. I personally play a Half Elf.
At Will Abilities
I like to use Astral Seal and Blessing of Battle. I treat Astral Seal much like a Damage Over Time (DOT), casting it on several targets in large mobs and making sure to refresh it on bosses (so it acts more like a Heal Over Time (HOT) and heals your group while you cast other spells). Do not underestimate the healing this ability can do of used properly. The defensive buff given from Blessing of Battle I have found is well worth using it over the other abilities, mainly because you are constantly refreshing it without even thinking about it when you use this At Will to build Action Points (AP).
Encounters
The three Encounters that I like to use in high healing situations; like Skirmishes and difficult dungeons; are Healing Word, Bastion of Health and Divine Glow. Sometimes I switch Healing Word with Astral Shield, which I think is most useful if used when you are channeling Divinity (Temporary HP)or Empowered (Damage Absorption).
The hardest part of playing as an AC DC is the fact that many of your heals have small radius or Area Of Effect (AOE), which means you must try to keep track of where members in your group are to use them most effectively. This can be particularly annoying when everyone in your group is taking high damage and are spread across the room. The solution to this is to ask your team to stay close to you or your tank, or in some cases have everyone stack in one spot to make sure everyone is within your healing radius. This is particularly helpful when using Divine Glow because in addition to healing and buffing (10% damage resistance) allies it also puts a helpful damage resistance debuff on enemies, which makes it ideal to use if several people are standing right on top of an add or boss, allowing the spell to effect both the enemy/enemies and your team members. Bastion Of Health has a larger heal radius, which makes it a little easier to plan where to drop, but still takes a bit of planning if you want to heal several people at the same time. I like to sometimes use Bastion of Health and/or Divine Glow as a pre-pull HOT also. I’ve noticed that some people debate about using Healing Word, but I personally like it. Not only does it have a strong instant heal, but also a nice stacking HOT. With Healing Word, I discovered that using Dodge to quickly position yourself behind your teammates can help you heal more or all of your allies, just be careful to save enough Stamina to Dodge harmful effects if necessary.
Daily Abilities
Deciding which Daily you use can sometimes depend on your group make up and if there is another Cleric who is using the same Daily. I personally like Anointed Army, Hallowed Ground or Divine Shield. Anointed Army is most useful when used on bosses, but can be useful for high HP mobs as well if you know the boss fight most likely won’t require using it or if there is enough time for you to generate enough Action Points before fighting the boss. Hallowed Ground has a massive AOE and stays active for a good amount of time, giving your entire team an awesome offensive and defensive boost. I haven’t used Divine Armor very much yet, but it has a smaller AOE so it requires your teammates grouping up to be most effective. It doesn’t last very long, so using it for ‘oh shit’ moments seems to be the way to go or if you see a teammate is about to get a huge hit to the face.
Class Features
You can only use two Features at one time, but they are easily swapped out. The three Features that I seem to use the most are Healer’s Lore, Divine Fortune, and Light of Divinity. Healer’s Lore is nice for an overall boost in healing, and seems to work well for me with a low ilvl. Divine Fortune is also very nice, allowing you to build 5% more Divine Power, therefore you are able to use Divinity more often. Light of Divinity is a good alternative to Healer’s Lore, giving a decent amount of healing without any effort. As I get more gear, I find that I use Light of Divinity more often than Healer’s Lore.
Feats
All of the abilities I have recommended so far are most effective if used with the following build.
Heroic Feats
- Healing Action 3/5
- Gather Fortune 3/3
- Toughness 2/3
- Weapon Mastery 3/3
- Repurpose Soul 3/3 (this feat is amazing)
- Battlewise 1/3 (unless you are not having threat issues)
- Cleanse 1/3 (if you don’t choose Battlewise, place extra point here)
- Bountiful Fortune 4/5
Paragon Feats
- Virtuous
- Lasting Wishes 5/5
- Battle Fervor 5/5 (If you use Blessing of Battle)
- Righteous
- Furious Intervention 5/5
- Ancient Warding 5/5 (This is one of the things that makes Anointed Army one of the best Dailies)
- Weapons of Light 5/5
- Bear Your Sins 5/5 (Works very nicely with Divine Glow)
- Fire of the Gods 5/5 (Again, great with Divine Glow)
- Condemning Gaze 5/5 (Hey there, Divine Glow)
- Avatar 1/1 (seriously, Divine Glow!)(Use Divine Glow when you see this pop up)
Some people prefer to go a different route, and this is entirely up to the players opinions and play style. If you don’t like Divine Glow, this build is not for you; however, this build is currently considered one of the best for healing as an AC DC and has worked amazingly for me so far.
Happy Gaming,
CraZ
Gaming with CraZBlonde 