Improve my cleric!

[CaT]

Dear guildies,

I plan the following feats for my melee focused cleric with paladin splash: Power Attack, Cleave, Greater Cleave, Overwhelming Critical, Improved Critical Slashing, Toughness, Quicken, Empower Healing, Maximize and Improved Sunder.

For gear I checked different builds on the official forums and settled with small tweaks on the following:

Goggles: Dream Visor (Insightful DEX +2 slotted) swap for buffing GS SP with Raise Dead clicky
Helm: Helm of the Black Dragon CON +8 (HP +35 / CHA +7 slotted)
Necklace: GS Min2 with Stoneskin clicky
Trinket: Planar Focus of Prowess Insightful STR +3
Armor: Flawless Black Dragonplate Armor
Cloak: Adamantine Cloak of the Wolf
Bracers: Ogre Power +8 Bracers of Superior Parrying
Belt: Epic Spare Hand (Good Luck +2 / Globe of True Imperial Blood slotted)
Boots: Spiked Boots (Sheltering +14 / DEX +7 slotted)
Gloves: Nether Grasps
Ring1: Seal of House Avithoul WIS +7
Ring2: Seal of House Dun’Robar Insightful CON +2 / Shatter +10 swap Ring of the Djinn for electricity/DR and Seal of House Szind for buffing
Main Hand (Devotion +114 slotted): Cleaver, eAGA and eSoS with Pinion / Quiver of Poison for range

Now I am missing a few convenient things I would have liked for example Deathblock (Epic Cloak of Night swap), Striding/Alacrity (UMD scrolls/clickies), Blur/Displacement (UMD scrolls/clickies), Natural Armor, Heightened Awareness, Vitality, Ghostly, permanent Radiance/Lore etc. mostly because of the lack of slots, but maybe someone can suggest a different layout.

Considering the fact there are always trade-offs, someone can suggest anything to improve/tweak this further? Even a nod would be good enough.

Thank you for reading! 😉

[Ryan]

Hello Cat.

My initial thought (though I have no experience with battle Clerics) is to swap your Insightful Con ring for a Ring of Shadows – the perma blur/ghostly will serve you better than the +2 Con.

Ring of Shadows may have a colourless slot which you could put insightful Con on.

For times when you still want to melee but boost your healing, Upgraded Gaunlets of Immortality could be considered a plus grant you a (iirc) another colourless slot for Insightful Str – a Shamanic Fetish is also good but you lose +3 Ins Str – however, both will allow you to use your primary melee weapons and boost your healing.

I dont know if you ever go pure Healbot Cat, but if you do a
30% (Bracer)
20% (Wall of Wood)
10% (?)

healing amp set is a great boost to your survivability

Hope this helps

Edit added…..

If you can twist it in then Renewal is great – it’ll save you a tonne of SP that you can use instead on DPing (i think Shamanic Fetish mentioned above has Radiance on it)

[CaT]

Thank you Ryan!

I considered too the Ring of Shadows but I don’t have this one while I do have both the House Seals I mentioned above. Also while I was rather disappointed with Stunning Blow without a permanent stunning item equipped I was thinking that I should take advantage of the Dun’Robar I already have and swap in place of it Improved Sunder which will help the party more in boss battles. But you do have a point and I could keep it equipped instead and swap in the seal for boss battles. I would only lose Dodge and gain quite a bit especially on the eE version. Very good point 🙂

Oh yes, those gloves are pretty good and if the skills will be changed as they announced I will pick it up. Until then though when I am in healing/casting mode I do have a staff with Devotion +120, Superior Devotion Lore and Radiance +120.

I use now the PDK gloves and a Convalescent +20% Bracers of Superior Parrying but I am not so hot about heal amp too much. Maybe because I feel that I don’t bring enough to the group being too defensive. I don’t know, I usually don’t have issues surviving unless something insta kills me.

Oh yes, Renewal is very hot. I don’t usually have it twisted since nowadays I mostly default in FotW with LD/US twists.

[Legend]

Would go for both the Gloves and Ring that Ryan suggested, Ring is one of best defensive items in game.

I dont think u will be able to twist in renewal as one of the pre reqs is from within the destiny granted abils, reju cacoon is good enough.

I would also forget both sunder and stun, i very much doubt you can get the dc’s for epic elite and it is just not worth it on epic hard as mobs die fast anyway.

With regards to itesm you have a few options to swap out.
Epic Spare Hand – (Epic belt of Mrornan, Epic Brawns) also opens up better option for neckie.
Bracers to: Greater Conv of sup Parry
Spiked Boots to: Halycon Boots
Cloak of Wolf – Not really needed so could use something else.

Cant see resist item/slotted, good to get +7 on this.

Would forget Deathblock and you have ward anyway, yellow slot can cover the striding 30% but will prob have to upgrade item for slot.

Its really all about getting epic leet versions of these items for the green slots.

Also be nice to fit in a dedicated seeker item somewhere.

[CaT]

Thank you Legend for the time to review my items and post a feedback!

You can twist Renewal in I think, but you cannot use it on self if not in EA only on others.

Yes, the Ring of Shadows is on my list now, though I think the Dun’Robar will still be used for boss fights. I expect that once the Fortitude penalties stack the Improved Sunder will go through eventually. This is the biggest difference compared to Stunning Blow and also a slightly better DC (+4 or so from start).

Another option I was contemplating was to change Paladin2 for Fighter2, scrap Improved Sunder completely and go for Manyshot (requires Rapid Shot and Point Blank Shot but will also have to raise DEX to 14+3 tome so I could barely qualify). I would get situational better range, but lose probably up to +8 to saves which is quite a lot.

With the swap you proposed (Epic Girdle of Giants’ Brawn and Halcyon Boots) important things I would lose from belt UMD +3, Combat Mastery +5, but gain Exceptional STR +1, DEX +8 instead of +7, permanent Striding +30% on boots and free some slots. I plan to slot Resistance +7 in the Black Dragon Armor and I already own Nether Grasps for Seeker +10, plus the planned Adamantine Cloak of Wolf has Exceptional Seeker +5. I also own a +20% Heal Amp of Superior Parrying bracers and with a Colorless Slot (think it is still ML24, but not sure if needed).

Awesome proposals mate and will check more carefully though seems stronger overall, but what to swap Improved Sunder for? Qualifing for Epic Toughness could work, but I would need to cut a STR+1 for a CON+1 (started with 16+4 tome). Or maybe Precision for boss fights but it is really needed? Hamstring/Sap are no save but again never used them. Suggestions?

[Ryan]

I can confirm I have Renewal twisted in on Nanna – I cannot use it on myself out of EA Dest.

You should easily be able to get the Immortality Gauntlets as I think most of the Divines running FoT already have them so youre almost gaurenteed to get a pair if they drop.

[CaT]

Oups, just checked my file and it seems I already have them haha! I really need to clean and review what items I have since I am beginning to lose their track 😀

[CaT]

Following the input from Ryan and Legend (thank you both for your kind contribution!) I updated the item list as below. Note that I had to return to Spiked Boots since otherwise I am missing 1 Green/Blue slot for additional PRR, but certainly the Halcyon Boots might be a short term goal since they should be easier to acquire.

Goggles: Dream Visor (Insightful DEX +2 slotted) swap for buffing GS SP with Raise Dead clicky
Helm: Helm of the Black Dragon CON +8 (HP +35 / CHA +7 slotted)
Necklace: GS Min2 with Stoneskin clicky
Trinket: Planar Focus of Prowess Insightful STR +3
Armor: Flawless Black Dragonplate Armor (Resistance +7 slotted)
Cloak: Adamantine Cloak of the Wolf
Bracers: Convalescent Bracers of Superior Parrying (DEX +7 slotted)
Belt: Girdle of Giants’ Brawn (Good Luck +2 / Globe of True Imperial Blood slotted)
Boots: Spiked Boots (Sheltering +14 / Striding +30% slotted)
Gloves: Nether Grasps
Ring1: Seal of House Avithoul WIS +7
Ring2: Ring of Shadows (Deathblock slotted) swap Ring of the Djinn for electricity/DR and Seal of House Szind for buffing
Main Hand (Devotion +114 slotted): Cleaver, eAGA and eSoS with Pinion / Quiver of Poison for range

Think this covers most if not everything I would have liked. Surely if someone has other points I would love to hear them!

My only problem at the moment is swapping the Stunning Blow/Improved Sunder with what? Qualifing for Epic Toughness could work, but I would need to cut a STR+1 for a CON+1 (started with 16+4 tome). Or maybe Precision for boss fights but it is really needed? Hamstring/Sap are no save but again never used them. Suggestions?

[Legend]

It is very hard to fit in everything as have found very hard for my monk, just about got their now!

Epic Toughness is probably the only viable feat to go for at mo until something else comes out in future.

Have come up with below set-up, only thing you really lose is +4 extra seeker from Nether but seem to gain a lot more!

Other set-up
Goggles – As is.
Helm: As is (replace +7 char with +2 Insight Con)
Neckie: Smoke hp Neckie – perm blur (hvy for and prot below)
Trinket: Def as is
Armor: As is (Replace +7 resist with Prot +7)
Cloak: Any epic version of Ghost Walking Cloak or an ee Jeweled Cloak with +7 Char/+7 resist slotted, both have v nice abils such as dr on Ghost and absorb on Jeweled or get both and swap depending on quest!
Bracers: as is (nice find)
Belt: Epic Belt of Mrornan – Yellow Slot spare
Boots: as is
Gloves: Gauntlets of Immor – Yellow Slot – Deathblock, Colourless – Globe
Ring 1 – Tier 3 Ring of the Stalker – Yellow Slot, Colourless Slot
Ring 2 – no need for ring of shadows as u get blur from neckie and ghostly from other ring now. so use the House of Avi ring.

With above get +6 seeker, manslayer, blur, ghostly, Vitality, dr and a few additional slots for +7 str, +2 insightfull to stats and perhaps +200 sp in a yellow.

[CaT]

Very nice Legend 😀 but gloves are pretty important since on top of the seeker (okay I am not a khopesh user but I believe the difference it is still high) you also lose Profane STR +2 (Demonic Might). Also I might be wrong but with this setup I would be 2 Blue/Green slots down which means no more PRR +15 and Good Luck +2. The Cloak also has Exceptional Seeker +5 which I cannot see anywhere now. The Stalker ring does have Manslayer though, but that is slightly less effective on eEs depending on when it procs (kills outright or only does bane damage). Either way it is a very potent ability I reckon.

Good brain storming here and plenty to setups to choose from now! It will be even more interesting when they drop the Vitaly +40 augment not only in a lousy ML15 trinket 🙂

[Legend]

You will lose 27 damage on each crit with Cleaver which would only be on 19-20 anyway, you would only lose the +2 goodluck overall which is not really needed anyway, with a versatile toon i would give up the max on the seeker for all the other abils you gain, max on seeker is only really important on Barbs/Pallies/Kensais/Monks/rogues/rangers where the damage can really increase due to other abils.

[CaT]

Ah okay, I was under the impression that I cut too many corners for basically only Manslayer.

Either way I already have equipped eE Nether Grasps and I wouldn’t really want to trade them away. I also have banked Gauntlets of Immortality. I have available both House Seals I mentioned and I think I could produce fairly fast the Ring of the Stalker. GS shouldn’t be a problem to make either.

I don’t have the rest though so it seems I need to run a lot of eE PoP (maybe eH would work) and see what I get. For me the most important slots are Blue/Green ones just because the best augments are there, but maybe you are right and have to look from a bigger perspective.

DDO is always a changing environment and your luck with drops is also a huge factor. So, eE Madstone, PoP and Tor anyone? 😀

[Author]

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