Returning cleric needs some help

[Darkleila-DN]

Hi guys,

I decided to come back to the game after about 2 years of break. I left sometime in early 5.x, so most of these endgame instances are new to me. I saw that many many other things have changed and I'm a bit confused at the moment.

I got my cleric to level 80 no problem however it seems that every gear she had is pretty much useless now? She had IS set socketed HP for PVE healing, AC coin set with staff socketed magic boost for PVE dps, and I don't remember her pvp sets exactly, but I think she had a lvl 65 abyss set (the orange one) socketed MR, and an arena set socketed block. I heard that there was a full stat revamp, so most of this can't be used anymore? Should I just like... throw it out or what? lol this is probably a dumb question but it feels like all the effort is literally out in the window. What about pure plumes and bracelets? I saw on the broker that there are better ones so this is also for the bin, right?

As for the PVE gear progresson in this patch, I was reading around the forums a bit, and if I understood correctly, the first step after getting the free quest gear is Mirash/COE to get the first set. And for support I would have to tune it HP/heal boost, and maybe get a second set for dps and tune it...what? Magical attack? I assume magic boost is also non-existent at this point. Would it be worth it to enchant / socket them, or just move on to the next set of instances which would be Bastion of Souls and Frozen Monolith? Get the legendary gear from there and enchant/socket that instead. Like, are these doable with non-enchanted COE gear? I also heard that there is no such thing as magical staff anymore, so I would have to use mace + shield for dps as well?

And about PVP... well I guess that's where my main confusion is lol. So I saw that there are NPCs in Lacrum, where you can buy ancient pvp gear, which you can purify to legendary and then ultimate when they are +15. However, I read somewhere that 7.0 is coming soon so this approach is not worth it at this point and people are advised to keep their enchantment stones/kinah for the new upcoming set instead? Also, what do clerics need to tune/socket this patch for pvp? I know block and MR doesn't really exist anymore. Would I have to get multiple sets and socket it all differently to max out certain stats, or am I going to do just fine with only one?

And for the end, totally random, but which minion is the best for cleric?:)

Thanks guys!

[Vessttemona-KT]

For pve is pretty much what you just said, just try not to go to Frozen Monolith or Bastion of Souls with the pve lvl 75 gear, you wont have enough defence and hp to survive the bosses, so try to get the gear from CoE and Mirash sanctum first.

And for pvp, yes, its better for you to start getting enchant stones and save them once the 7.0 goes live in NA and as for manastones, i dont really know what are clerics are using for pvp, but my guess is Magic attack stones as some clerics hit really hard as a nuke class.

And as for minions, any minion grad A is fine, but i think Viola and Sheba are the best, Viola has a skill that reduces your casting time by 20% for a few seconds, and Sheba has a skill that increas you PvP and PvE stats for a few seconds.

[Haniya-DN]

Well first of all, welcome back! Always happy to see new and returning players 

Sadly none of the pre-6.0 gear is viable for clerics anymore; with most major patches you need to replace your gear, but 6.0 was a bit more extreme in that the old stuff isn't even worth using as transitional gear. But if you're sentimental like me, you can keep your biggest accomplishment sets in a cabinet. <3 

Gearing up is pretty linear. After the campaign quest gear you'll want CoE/Mirash ancients, or you can often find groups to carry you through FM and BoS. Probably don't bother socketing the ancients, but a bit of enchanting won't hurt anything. +5 is super easy to hit, but I'd suggest only enchanting the important pieces to 15 (weapon and wings for attack; shield, plume, and bracelet for defense). Next up is your legendary gear from FM and BoS. Personally I socket and tune for HP, HB, and magical stats. If you're rolling dps, remember that magic accuracy and crit are the key stats; you really need upwards of 12k accuracy for Primeth's Forge and IDD. (And yeah, 6.X doesn't have any magical staves and clerics can't wear cloth anymore. I cry as I struggle to find good mace skins.)

I'll need someone else to chime in with dps advice, as I'm a heal spec cleric all the way- rockin' 2k heal boost so far~  General rule of thumb for running PF and IDD as a newbie is full +5 legendary gear, and the more healing boost you stack, the easier your job will be. 

After your legendary gear, it's time for PF and IDD And... that's about it for now! Like I said, pretty linear 

PvP gear is a bit harder to pin down, especially since we're guessing 7.0 is around the corner. I don't think anyone is doing multiple sets in this patch, and MR is dead and buried, so I've been socketing a mix of Physical Defense and Healing Boost. It's really up to you if you want to craft gear, start working on the genesis set, or wait for 7.0, whenever that might be. For new/returning people in my legion, I've suggested crafting gear and working on their genesis stuff on the side. Just remember two things:

1. You want Vindicator armor and accessories, Inquisitor weapon (This is more important for dps classes; clerics can get the Vindicator mace if you would rather have HP stat instead of Magic Crit)
2. Getting one +15 piece is better than making multiple +10s

As for minions, I use Viola in PvE content and Modor for PvP. Viola has a passive chance to increase your speed and healing abilities with every hit, and gives you a mini-WoW type skill that you can use every 5 minutes. Similarly, Modor has a chance to dispel you, and lets you blink- which has saved my butt more times than I can count! 

I'm not a super pro expert by any means, and some things are really subjective based on your personal playstyle. But if you have any more questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to help 

[Vantheria-DN]

10 hours ago, Vessttemona-KT said:

Sheba has a skill that increas you PvP and PvE stats for a few seconds.

Wanted to add that Kromede and Sheba have the same pve/pvp stat increase skill, so either of those are great for dps. Viola is awesome all-around for dps and healing. Decreases your cast time, gives heal boost, and increases your magic attack.

[Capa-KT]

 

21 hours ago, Vessttemona-KT said:

For pve is pretty much what you just said, just try not to go to Frozen Monolith or Bastion of Souls with the pve lvl 75 gear, you wont have enough defence and hp to survive the bosses, so try to get the gear from CoE and Mirash sanctum first.

That's inexact, however you can't be slow at healing and you need to pop prayer+ripple of healing before bit hits, else you will die repeatedly. Full COE/Mirash ancients is more than fine for BoS/FM, but ultimately if it's not enchanted and tuned, you get nearly the same stats as the Lakrum starter gear anyways. Anyways, moving on.

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i dont really know what are clerics are using for pvp, but my guess is Magic attack stones as some clerics hit really hard as a nuke class.

Phys def and mag def works best, on top of a pve heal boost set (tuned and socketed HB/HP/phys def/mag def).

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And as for minions, any minion grad A is fine, but i think Viola and Sheba are the best, Viola has a skill that reduces your casting time by 20% for a few seconds, and Sheba has a skill that increas you PvP and PvE stats for a few seconds.

Hyperion will save you more than anything, but the Modor active skill is the most useful (the passive is nearly useless compared to maxed Hyperion) for PvP. For PvE, Viola can help with the healing a bit, but building multiple minions is time and resource-consuming, and that's mostly why Hyperion is the best in my opinion; it simply works in all situations and settings.

15 hours ago, Haniya-DN said:

Sadly none of the pre-6.0 gear is viable for clerics anymore; 

You will absolutely need to keep a 65 or 75 mace with 12% cast speed until you get an ultimate (or legendary I guess, if you get a really nice tune) mace, for healing. Particularly with ancient (or weaker) transforms, it helps tons. For dpsing, use the new maces and shields, along with a transformation with mixed stats of atk speed and cast speed; it should give the best results (Denku, Tehji, Sheba, Frigida) but you can just use your best cast transformation if you don't have any of those.

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Gearing up is pretty linear. After the campaign quest gear you'll want CoE/Mirash ancients, or you can often find groups to carry you through FM and BoS. Probably don't bother socketing the ancients, but a bit of enchanting won't hurt anything. +5 is super easy to hit, but I'd suggest only enchanting the important pieces to 15 (weapon and wings for attack; shield, plume, and bracelet for defense). Next up is your legendary gear from FM and BoS. Personally I socket and tune for HP, HB, and magical stats.

I wouldn't enchant ancients to +5 until you have a lot (400+) ancient pve enchantment stones because it will be more useful on legendary items, that you'll keep until your prayers are finally answered and you get the right ultimate piece to replace them. Keep in mind that +5 on multiple pieces is worth next to nothing compared to 2-3 pieces +15. Now, once you actually get those legendaries, you will mostly need to enchant (+15) your shield, plume and bracelet to gain higher PVE defense. The rest, imho, isn't worth enchanting at all until you get ultimates. With a chanter (even more so if they can alternate Elemental Screen and Block Curtain, one for each adds' wave), you can do PF/iDD smoothly in full legendaries unenchanted (except shield/bracelet/plume as I mentioned, it helps quite a bit). Tuning the ancients to HB/HP is key. At legendary grade, socket HB and tune again for HB/HP, and magical def then pdef if you happen to get them (it's not as important, but helps with the high magical damage from bosses in PF/iDD). Overall, with 1.5k HB and 50k HP unbuffed with minion, you should be fine in PF/iDD.

As clerics are mainly needed as heal, and most groups won't even consider your application for dps unless they know you're geared through your nose (because the other cleric, the one that's healing, wants no competition when a cleric-appropriate piece drops), I would highly recommend prioritising exclusively your healing set until you're mostly in legendaries. If you're going to do Pandora quests however, and want to speed it up by doing some of the quests that require to actually kill mobs, not just gather things, you'll need a dps set, that's made for dpsing. Dpsing in your healing set is near useless, not only because your 65 mace will make you hit like a noodle, but because all your stats will be fine-tuned for healing and as such, you'll hit like you're naked, really.

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If you're rolling dps, remember that magic accuracy and crit are the key stats; you really need upwards of 12k accuracy for Primeth's Forge and IDD.

I'll need someone else to chime in with dps advice, as I'm a heal spec cleric all the way- rockin' 2k heal boost so far~  General rule of thumb for running PF and IDD as a newbie is full +5 legendary gear, and the more healing boost you stack, the easier your job will be. 

So, once you're in mostly legendaries (of course, keep duplicate legendaries for a dps set! but ancients, because they're so easy to get (you can buy those pesky last ancient pieces you don't seem to drop with Genesis Crystals next to the pvp gear sellers), are better used as disenchanting material to expand your manastones to be able to socket them all HB), you can start working on a dps set. Unsurprisingly, the manastones will be more expensive than HB; you will need magical attack and magical crit, around equal numbers of each works well. For legendary/ancient dps pieces, you will need to tune primarily magical attack, magical crit and magical accuracy in that order. Magical accuracy isn't as much needed for clerics specifically because you have multiple debuffs that lower your target's MR in dps spec (Chain of Suffering, Judge's Edict and Festering Wound) which other classes do not have. HP (and to a lesser extent magic def/phys def) helps to soak up a bit of damage, but isn't crazy necessary, particularly not if you're 20M down the drain and you still don't have that last stat tuned properly. However, 20M is pocket change when it comes to tuning ultimates to 3-4 appropriate stats- also why you don't need to go ham on tuning legendaries: more kinah for later. Additionally, if you really like dpsing and it's the main thing you do in group or solo settings, a dps minion like Sheba or Kromede will go a long way with their active skill by boosting your initial burst damage on a boss, or by giving that little kick that clerics sometimes need in pvp when you're dpsing someone in fully defensive set. The passives are also a nice touch, but if you're not in full ultimates, nothing will help you like Hyperion's passive will.

As for PvP gear, I more or less agree with Haniya, I posted another wall of text in a different thread about that particular subject, however I would join the other answers and recommend to keep genesis crystals and enchantment stones for the next patch. Tier 2 (the new pvp gear in 7.0) is quite a bit better than tier 1 (the current pvp gear), however the socketing and tuning stats should be roughly the same as now, hence the quote right under. (+ an official graph from ncsoft comparing tier 1 and tier 2 gear for the lols)

 

On 2019-04-24 at 7:17 AM, Capa-KT said:

 

You need full Vindicator/Cloud War for support, and for dpsing, you want all Vindicator/Cloud War as well except mace and shield.

For supporting, you can go either of 3 ways: pdef, mdef or HB. Note that magic def stones haven't all been fixed and that the manastone with the lower number (10/16/19/23) is the one you want, the one with the higher number is magic resist and you definitely don't want that.

Pdef and mdef are pretty straightforward, you'll receive less damage from physical and magical sources, respectively. HB on pvp set, personally, I don't recommend because clerics are often focused first unless you're going double cleric or double cleric+chanter. (On pve set however, HB is very nice and you can even use that set in pvp when not focused, but obviously you want to switch back instantly when anyone attacks you so, if you're usually too slow, just always stick to pvp set.) You pick one of those 3, and you socket your whole set with it. So far I've tried a combination of pdef/hb and pdef/mdef, they both work decently for what they're made for. Obviously, you tune your cloud war ultimate pieces into hp/pdef/mdef/hb. If you're using the same set or pieces of it for your dps set, tune in crit spell and magic attack as well on the appropriate pieces. Otherwise... I suppose MP is cool for full support ?

For dpsing, you want mostly magic attack and, of course, all your accs tuned hp/crit spell/magic atk/whatever else is left, usually pdef/mdef. You get firebrand mace and shield tuned for high crit spell. I can't really give more pointers than that as I'm not even close to finishing my first set on retail NA server, and for now I believe that hoarding enchantment stones is a better option than wasting them on a 2nd set since 7.0 isn't that far (imho), but on a certain private pvp server a dps set socketed 3/4 matk and rest crit spell works like a charm and hits like an average dpser.

Now (and this stands for all classes), as for why you never pick a single piece of inquisitor/firebrand armor/accs/feather accs- it doesn't give mdef/pdef/HP so you will be squishier, instead it'll give you evasion (lol) and MR (also lol). It's all explained in the vids above, but roughly speaking MR is rubbish, you need tons (i.e. full set+everything socketed MR) so either you make a pvp MR firebrand set because, to you, resisting <25% of things and getting hit like a truck by everything else, that's cool, or you make a MR pve set (the manastones are actually quite cheap, usually) and you switch to it against CC and you switch out of it (and into a proper pvp set) the second you get attacked. Now, if you already have firebrand pieces, it's all good, because in 7.0 it all purifies into the same set (example/proof -> https://aionpowerbook.com/powerbook/Item/110550192 click on Reverse Upgrade at the bottom of the item description).

That's about it, can't really give numbers as having high vs low tune results from piece to piece and as a whole impacts stats quite a bit plus there's new manastones now, so you can always go higher. Socket legendary with cheaper versions, ultimately just make sure to socket everything and upgrade to ultimate as soon as possible to be able to tune everything. Crafted isn't worth enchanting, but isn't bad as a temporary ultimate. In all situations except one, ultimate (crafted/compensation or cloudwar/firebrand) tops legendary +15 (compensation/cloud war/firebrand) in all or nearly all stats. There is only one item type where upgrading to ultimate isn't always worth it vs legendary +15, and that's for accessories, pvp defense-wise. You need to enchant them to a certain level (10? 12? not sure) for it to be equivalent. For all other pieces, upgrading is a priority.

As an after/side note, I believe MR makes a bit of a come back in 7.0 for clerics with multiple sets, so it might not be entirely rubbish as I said back in April,  doesn't really matter because the post is way too long already ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Darkleila-DN]

Thanks for the replies everyone, it was super helpful! I should have all my ancients soon (missing shoulders, gloves and bracelet), hopefully COE will be nice to me this week after reset lol. 

I have always prioritised support, so my HP/HB set will be the top priority for sure. I don't like to dps in groups at all. I went cleric because I like healing, after all. If I wanted dpsing, I would of chosen a dps class.  Anyways, I will still make a pve dps set eventually, mainly because I need it when I want to solo something. As @Capa-KT suggested, I will skip dps set with ancients, and will only start working on it once I have full legendary heal set. As for pvp.. .well, eventually I will get to it I guess? +15ing and then purification, rinse and repeat seems too annoying right now, so... yeah. Probably wouldn't have done it before 7.0 anyways. I will start collecting the crystals though, that won't hurt.

2 hours ago, Capa-KT said:

You will absolutely need to keep a 65 or 75 mace with 12% cast speed until you get an ultimate (or legendary I guess, if you get a really nice tune) mace, for healing. Particularly with ancient (or weaker) transforms, it helps tons. For dpsing, use the new maces and shields, along with a transformation with mixed stats of atk speed and cast speed; it should give the best results (Denku, Tehji, Sheba, Frigida) but you can just use your best cast transformation if you don't have any of those.

This is actually a super awesome idea. I didn't even think about it, so thanks so much. I will stick to my +15 IS mace for now then, it's socketed full HP and has heal boost, so I don't lose out on any of that. It even has more HP than the COE one actually, plus COE doesn't come with heal boost...so yeah. And I get the cast speed too. Perfect=)

As for minions... I looked at the skills each one has... Viola seems pretty useful? I'm not sure about Hyperion though. Increased PVE+PVP defense seems pretty good, but the other skill, the 3% chance of damage reduction when you are attacked... does that actually... proc sometimes? 3% seems super low.

[Vantheria-DN]

10 hours ago, Darkleila-DN said:

plus COE doesn't come with heal boost...so yeah. And I get the cast speed too. 

You have to tune the new weapons (and gear, overall) to have specific stats. Weapons, plume, wings, bracelet, and accessories (not hat) will all grant you heal boost if you tune them with kinah to have it.

[Darkleila-DN]

Oh yeah, I know. Sorry I didn't word it well. What I wanted to say is that you can only choose 2 stats, and I prioritized HP and cast speed on the mace. You can't have HB/HP and cast speed all at the same time.