Most significant changes:
Divinity is now generated only from at wills, but granted and filled at a much faster rate.
Divine powered encounters now no longer replicate the base effect, but instead apply a supplementary bonus, as well as one empowerment stack. Divine encounters have no cooldown and generate no action points.
Empowerment stacks are expended on the cast of the next 'normal mode' encounter, and makes it more powerful by consuming 1-3 stacks. Consider an empowered encounter the 'old divine mode encounter'.
Action points are no longer accrued when a persistent Daily ability is in effect, including Hallowed Ground, Divine Armor and Anointed Army.
The 3 feat paths are redesigned- roughly, Virtuous path offers some damage mitigation and persistent healing over time effects for you and the party that is effective regardless of positioning. Faithful path has some damage mitigation and stronger spike damage clutching ability, and is more powerful when you have party is in a closer proximity to one another. Righteous path improves personal DPS output significantly and also offer additional enemy debuffs that can benefit your whole party.
Artifact equipment for the two paragon at wills, and an artifact equipment offhand is now available. Four new artifact cloaks are added as well as +2/+2 artifact belts- those confer a minor set bonus with one of the existing artifacts.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Class Roles
1.2 Quick Start levelling up guide
2. Ability scores, stats and boons
2.1 Ability scores
2.2 Stats
2.3 Boons
3. Gear, artifacts and companions
3.1 Weapon and Offhand
3.2 Gear set
3.3 Belt
3.4 Cloak
3.5 Rings
3.6 Artifact
3.7 Companions
3.8 Weapon and Armor Enchants
4. Power, skill and feats
4.1 Powers- at will, encounters, class features, dailys
4.2 Heroic feats
4.3 Paragon feats
5. Build
5.1 General tips
5.2 Healing/Support DO build
5.3 Healing/Support AC build
5.4 DPS DO build
5.5 Virtuous Heal like a champ build
1. Introduction
The Devoted Cleric is a staple well recognised class from DnD. The DC's implementation into Neverwinter MMORPG is based on the 4th edition rules, of course, there is a wealth of difference between the pen and paper and a real time twitch based MMORPG. In Neverwinter gameplay, the DC is classified as a leader, a versatile support class that offers the party tactical advantages and flexibility in overcoming their enemies.
The DC class has been significantly overhauled in Module 5, and this guide serves as a more updated presentation of information and discussion about how to be an effective DC player. The guide is based on building an effective character for Player vs Environment (PvE) play rather than Player vs Player (PvP) but I will provide information to cover both where applicable. This is not a build that dictates the player to do x,y,z, but empowers you with the information and the reasoning for you to fit into your chosen playstyle.
As the game is always evolving, there may be deviations and changes to the information here. Drop me a line or in the discussions if you have information about anything you wish me to correct, consider and rework in the guide.
I use a lot of jargon and abbreviations to keep this short, see the glossary section 7.45 for details.
Kaelac Symphony@Theosymphany
1.1 Class Role
In the current implementation, the DC is known for bringing damage mitigation, damage buffs, party healing, enemy debuffs, moderate DPS and personal hardiness to the party. The DC have these aspects built into their encounters, and they are augmented by paragon feat paths. As a major support class, it is very important for the DC to be able to remain flexible and support the party the best ways they can. You can perform all of the above to some degree, but for your build you will wish to specialise in a subset of these strengths depending on the content and groups you often adventure into.
I'll discuss the class roles in greater detail here. Usually you want to be have the capacity to be reasonably strong at 3 of these at a time from your loadout/playstyle/gear/feats.
Damage mitigation (defense buff):
Here you play the protector role in reducing incoming damage either by bolstering party damage reduction (DR), protecting the party with temporary hit points (temp HP) and to some extent tanking/off tanking incoming damage onto you. Damage mitigation is considered one of the key roles of the DC for personal and party protection, allowing the party to survive hits they otherwise wouldn't and reducing the amount of damage actually taken. Temp HP is a great way of protecting your party because it always added to HP, where as overhealing is lost. Furthermore some classes get bonuses when they have Temp HP active. Damage mitigation is considered better than healing- it softens large spike damage, and means you need to heal less during and after a fight. Signature abilities: Divine Armor, Astral Shield, Foresight
Damage buff:
Paired with the above is damage augmentation, which is what the DC is usually known for in Mod 2-4. The DC has access to some powerful party buffs that can increase and multiply the damage baseline from the party resulting in harder hitting hits, faster fights and shorter combat/dungeon time. Unless the party needs a lot of healing, damage mitigation/buff role is where the DC can help the most. Increasing party damage can be a means for ending encounters faster and thus limiting total damage taken over time. Signature abilities: Hallowed Ground, Divine Glow, Empowered Forgemaster's Flame
Enemy debuff:
DCs have a number of means to place debuffs on enemy targets. This include control effects or multipliers that make enemies weaker offensively and/or defensively. The most common of these places a damage multiplier that causes enemy to take additional incoming damage from all sources. The DC also has abilities and gearsets which reduce enemy base damage, crit chance, crit severity. The resultant effects are somewhat overlapping with the previous two roles but I separate them in discussion because the procs and mechanics are different. Signature abilities: High Prophet Set, Draconic Templar Set, Break the Spirit
Party healing:
The DC has access to a number of encounters and feats that provide small but usually ongoing/passive healing procs to the party. The healer DC had a much stronger presence at launch and in Module 1 due to the average player/party/gearscore being much weaker than they are now. The healing role is still important for some fights, but outside of some situations or with weaker, squishier party members it is a 'nice to have' rather than 'must have'. Siguature abilities: Astral Seal, Healing Word, Bastion of Health, Righteousness
Personal DPS:
With module 5 the offensive potential of the DC is updated. Those specced in the Righteous paragon have feats that boost personal damage and more enemy debuffs which make them take more damage. Overall this allows the DC to serve decently as a DPSer who still have access/flexibility to fill in their other roles when needed. Signature abilities: Daunting Light, Punishing Light, Chains of Blazing Light, Fire of the Gods
Personal hardiness:
The DC in DnD wears chainmail, and compared to most MMO/RPGs you are not that squishy. With your healing, damage mitigation and various buffs you should have a decent rating for personal survival in PvE. You generally want to be the last player to go down, your buffs disappear when you do and you should build your character for some degree of tankiness whatever your final spec is. Dead DC does zero healing and zero DPS.
Based on the above there's roughly 3 main types of DCs- DPS/buff Build, Mitigation/Buff/debuff aka buff build and Mitigation/healing aka healing build
I will make referral back to class roles when talking about gear/skills/playstyle. What suits one role doesn't necessarily suit another.
1.2 Quick start levelling up guide
This is a short straightforward section for those who just want to get a DC to lv 60 quickly and painlessly and not want to read too much. Just read this section and come back to the rest when you're about to hit 60.
Firstly, get the Dragonbone Icon, it's about 120 AD off auction house and it levels with you from 1-60 so you won't need to get upgrades.
If you can afford to spend a little, buy the Dragon bone Scepter (rare) or Ancient Mulhorand Scepter (epic). These weapons also level with you and helps you kill that much faster. However, it is also perfectly fine to save your AD and go with what you get from levelling. I do recommend upgrading your weapon every 2-4 levels. Your damage scales with weapon damage so keeping that high helps you both kill and heal more per cast. You can use green or blue weapons as you can afford.
If this is an alt or you want a headstart, get an augment pet. The Ioun Stone of Allure is a great option and basically gives you 3 extra equipment slots (you get all stats on items equipped on the Ioun stone). Even better is that you can use lv 60 items on the stone even if you're level 1. You can acquire a pet/companion from level 5 as soon as you're in Protector's Enclave.
Gear: keep update every 4 levels or so. Prioritise based on gear with stats you want rather than stats that are not as relevant. The order, from roughly highest to lowers priority are: Weapon Damage > Defense > Max Hit Points > Recovery > Crit > Armor Penetration (from lv 30 onwards) > regen > Power > lifesteal > deflection > movement. Of course, this is only for levelling. At level 60 it's different altogether. Keep your weapon update every 2 levels.
Skip the 5 man dungeon quests if you don't want to waste time, you get to do all epic dungeons at lv 60, and the 'loot' from heroic dungeons are very cheaply obtainable on the Auction house. Skirmishes can be fun but you'll likely outlevel many very quickly. Questing is generally the quickest way to get exp.
Also don't be cheap on potions, DCs are designed to use health potions like everyone else, it's much more effective when soloing to slot damaging encounters and use potions rather than use 2-3 healing encounters and do no damage. Remember: The faster you kill the less you have to heal.
Roll a Dragonborn (points in WIS and STR), Half Elf (put bonus in WIS) or Sun Elf (put bonus in CHA) go with whichever you like better, all are versatile as buffers/healers/debuffers/DPSers. Dragonborn is arguably strongest but you need to unlock via a zen pack.
Pick either the 16 WIS 16 STR 12 CHA or the 16 WIS 15 STR 13 CHA 11 INT 11 CON 9 DEX base stat roll combination (your racial stats will bump this up).
For Half Elf, put 3 points in CHA, 1 point into STR and 4 points into WIS as you level.
For Dragonborn/Sun Elf, put 4 points into STR and 4 points into WIS as you level. Those will give you the most optimised stats for lv 60.
Follow this link (Divine Oracle paragon, Faithful tree) for power/feat distribution as you level (switch tab for feats). http://nwcalc.com/dc...fo000&h=0&p=dvo
Loadout:
You start with Lance of Faith and Astral Seal as at wills. When soloing basically just spam LoF, it does overall more damage. Astral seal does moderate damage but gives some health back to attacker. For solo that's fairly useless. You don't want to spam Astral seal, just use LoF or cast ASeal once then LoF, but in parties it's decent.
- Use Healing Word, Sunburst, Searing light lv 1-15.
- Flamestrike for daily when solo. Hallowed ground when in party
- Replace Searing Light with Chains of Blazing Light at lv 15. If you don't have a companion yet, pick the healer companion when offered at lv 16, as the other white companions become useless after lv 40.
- Replace Healing Word with Daunting Light ASAP at 20.
- Replace Healer's Lore with Holy Fervor at 21.
- Replace Divine Fortune with Foresight at 30. Foresight will probably never leave your bar.
- You'll need to pick your paragon at lv 30. I recommend Divine Oracle for faster levelling and endgame versatility, but read up on the sections to see what each does if you don't want to respec later (not cheap).
- Unlock Forgemasters at 31, use in party only (replace chains).
- Replace Astral seal with Brand of the Sun at 35, swap back when in party
- Replace Holy Fervor with Terrifying Insight at 40 when solo, swap back when in party.
- Replace Sunburst with Divine Glow at 45.
- Unlock Astral Shield at 50 and use in party only (replace daunting light).
Lv 45+ Solo DPS loadout (do this at 60 too):
This is the best way to get through content, just DPS and rely on potions/companion on healing.
At-Will: Lance of Faith, Brand of the Sun
Daily: Hallowed Ground, Flame Strike
Encounter: Chains of Blazing Light, Daunting Light, Divine Glow
Class Features: Foresight and Terrifying Insight
2. Ability score, stats and boons
2.1 Races
See my main guide for in depth info.
At present I recommend the following:
Sun Elf: +2INT +2 CHA, +2% AP gain for decent overall RSI and AP. Suited for buffs/healing build.
Dragonborn: +2STR +2WIS, +3% crit and power rating, +5% incoming healing. All very good stats for a strong DC for any build. The extra 2 WIS is a stronger gain than Half Orc's 5% crit severity bonus. The extra power and crit rating pushes it over the edge.
Half Elf: +3 CON, +2 WIS, 1% crit severity, deflect and gold find. Good scores for tankiness/heal.
Humans: you look pretty. The extra 3 heroic feat are not good enough at present to justify losing 2 stat points. 3% defense is rather weak.
2.2 Ability scores
For detailed info see my original guide. You get +2 to all scores at lv 60 and 8 extra points to allocate as you choose (+4 in any one score max). Currently endgame artifact belts can give up to +4 in one score or +2 in one and +2 in another. Humans get +2 to one stat, all other races have +2 in 2 sets in fixed combinations (except Dragonborn, where you can choose). Your ability scores, in rough order of importance are
WIS: +1% damage/healing per point. There is a small control resist bonus but it is hardly felt due to the way resists are implemented in this game. For healing/DPS centric builds you want a decent WIS score as it improves your baseline damage/heal per second output (DPS/HPS).
STR: +1% crit per point. 1% stamina regeneration. All your encounters can crit as can some of your feats. Crits proc Repurpose Soul which is a healing feat and Fire of the Gods which is a DPS feat. If you want to DPS/heal/do decent damage you want some decent STR. Stamina is consumed for dodging, which gives you immunity frames for all control (CC) and incoming damage for 1-2s.
CHA: +1% recharge speed, +1% Action Point gain and 1% combat advantage. CHA is important for all DC builds. We have some of the longest cooldowns across all the classes and need a combination of CHA/INT/recovery to get decent cooldown times. Our Daily abilities are important for the party whatever role we play and fast AP gain is helpful for keeping Daily uptime high.
CON: +2% HP per point. This is a defensive stat which is much more important in PvP than PvE, but still a worthy contender.
DEX: +0.5% deflect. You only need to worry about this if you are thinking of PvP.
INT: +1% recharge speed increase per point. For DC CHA always do more than INT so very rarely will you seek just an INT bonus.
For PvE I recommend you max WIS and get enough CHA such that CHA = 29-INT. Put remaining points in STR. If you want more tankiness, put points in CON and you can take them out of either WIS or STR. For a pure DPS/healing point of view WIS is stronger than STR point for point if you don't plan to use a vorpal enchant. If you do, then DPS wise only worthwhile if you are using a perfect vorpal and getting all the extra severity boons/feats/pets, which is expensive. That said, it is only a minor difference between the two if you are absolutely min maxing. Also note crit does proc repurpose soul and Fire of the Gods, which increases its importance for more than a pure DPS perspective.
Starting rolls (before racial bonus)-
I still recommend the 16 WIS 16 STR 12 CHA base roll for highest base STR and future proofing.
The 16 WIS 15 STR 13 CHA is also a strong pick and slightly better bang for buck.
You can reroll your starting rolls by using a race change token.
Based on the above there's roughly 3 main types of DCs- DPS Build, Mitigation/Buff/debuff aka buff build and Mitigation/healing aka healing build
I will make referral back to class roles when talking about gear/skills/playstyle. What suits one role doesn't necessarily suit another.
2.3 Stats
For what stats actually do refer to my NW mechanics guide and also my original DC guide, I won't repeat info here to keep things short and sweet.
Unlike other characters I feel the DC needs to carry different sets of gear/jewellery to shuffle the stats depending on situation. Usually I will have a survivability set for kiting/PvP/lag/tough dungeons (+ max HP/ defense/ deflect), a healing/best of both worlds set (power/crit/recovery) and an ArP set (ArP/power/crit) for DPS/solo mode. You may not want to do this and it's fine, but bear in minds stats are more flexible than they seem.
2.3.1 Offensive stats
ArP- If you are a DPS DC you want ~2000. ArP contributes to your resistance ignored (RI) stat. If you do not care about DPS in the slightest ever than don't take ArP but don't complain that you can't kill anything. If you want the best of both worlds, I recommend getting 1000 base, then 800 on gear that you swap in when you solo or feel like DPSing. (Eg, rings with ArP with rank 6 or 7 darks). The augment pets help a lot with this. You can easily add 370 or more ArP per item. Theoretically you need 2540 ArP to completely negate resistance on bosses, but I feel that it isn't as important even for DPS DCs due to diminishing returns. Your debuffs will make up for it for the party.
Recovery- Depending on the set you use you either have lots of recovery, none at all or something in between. Good news is that AS isn't as mandatory so getting 75% uptime is not as important. Bad news is we lost a feat that gave us free recovery (Rising Hope). Generally I recommend something between 1800 to 3000. If your gear puts you way beyond that there's not much you can do than swap jewellery around, but at least the AP gain is nice. I don't recommend going beyond 4k. Now that divinity and empowerment mechanic is rehashed you are constrained by how fast you gain/spend divinity and the ridiculous casting animations rather than cooldowns as much.
Crit- 1500-1800 (no vorpal), 3000 with Pvorp. Again can vary a lot with gear sets. Power trumps crit at the cutoffs mentioned. Crit should not be ignored totally because of the proc and especially if you're building for DPS. Generally if your overall crit chance is somewhere between 30-35% you're good.
Power- put the rest of your stat points here once you have enough investment in the others. Many people overstack power early on, actually you need to work on everything else first. Power helps improve your healing and DPS baseline. Start at 3k and work towards 6k+. Some DPS builds dump a lot into power, that works too. 12k+ power builds are possible.
2.3.2 Defensive stats
Max HP- get to 25k+ then build towards 30k for endgame to survive those larger spike hits.
Defense- Defense and armor class contributes to your damage reduction rating (DR). Each 1% DR means you take 1% less incoming damage. Get 1.5k as you can, high HP pool means nothing without some defense. Then as you get boons and upgrades work to get to about 2.3k or so. Some sets are better for this than others. You don't need too much defence because you could cap it with encounters and abilities. Aim for around 35-40% overall damage resistance on your char sheet.
Lifesteal- this is a tricky one. For a DPSer, get 800-1200. For a healer/debuffer you don't really need lifesteal but 600-800 does help your personal survival. Our self healing isn't all that effective and we probably pop pots as much as, if not more than other classes.
Regen- Because of high HP pool and tankiness regen is quite effective. Recommend 600-800 and some may choose to go higher especially for PvP which is fine though I won't go above 1600. You will pull aggro with healing and regen is free self heals.
Deflect- roll with whatever is on your gear and don't bother getting more for PvE. High deflect builds are definitely possible for both PvP and PvE if you prefer to go that route. I prefer max HP to deflect.
2.3.3 Auxiliary ratings (boons/artifacts):
AP gain: Can be useful depending on your recovery. We can't charge AP during Hallowed Ground and Divine Armor anymore so extra always helps but not a priority, especially if you use DC artifact.
Combat advantage bonus: not so fussed on DC class, even if you're DPS you need party members for it to proc
Control bonus: very rarely will you want to make use of the control and when you do a few % is hardly felt.
Stamina gain: Decent stat that helps with survivability.
AoE resist: ignore, effects are too weak
Control resist: ignore, effects are too weak
Incoming Healing bonus: can be a big help. Our self heals are weaker than party heals. This helps even it up a bit. Works on regen/lifesteal and healing from other sources too.
2.4 Boons
If you're unhappy with your boons you can respec by respeccing feats under feat menu cost about 78k AD and much cheaper than respec token. There isn't a hard or fast rule, with a lot of the stat ones it just depends on your gear and end game stat allocation. Eg if your gear already gives way too much defense then take something else. Choices here are just means to the end.
Sharandar
1. Dark Fey Warder +250 defense. You can take power if you have no issues dying, or find you have too much defense with your preferred gear set.
2. Fey Precision +250 crit, don’t need deflect in PvE
3. Elven Haste: 2% multiplicative AP is great. 700 max HP is also a very decent investment, go with what you need.
4. Either. It's so weak -450-800 per proc, 1 minute internal cool down (ICD) that you won't feel a difference.
5. Elven resolve- you will need to dodge a lot and 10% is very noticeable. Other bonuses are rather minor at best.
Dread Ring
1. Reliquary keeper’s Strength for power, you probably have too much crit without trying
2. Illusory Regeneration- regen is great and hard to build.
3. Forbidden Piercing no question. Free damage is hard to argue with.
4. Again, fairly weak procs with 1 min cooldown. Shadowtouch for extra damage and be annoying in PvP.
5. I don't recommend madness after fix as the uptime is too short. Endless consumption is ok for more lifesteal, but if you have negligible DPS output you get negligible lifesteal. Burning guidance is decent damage but only works when there's others around. It does turn you into an aggro magnet (any untouched mobs will aggro you) so don't pick it if you have a squishy build.
Icewind Dale
1. Weathering the Storm- help survive those red circles. Take the alternative if you are DPS and run with good players who know what combat advantage is.
2. Appreciation of warmth for more lifesteal/regen/self healing
3. Either can work. You probably don't need recovery so go with the severity but it's small.
4. Cool resolve. Cold shoulder is a very very small chance to proc, and 200 damage is tiny when it's one mob out of 20 or so whacking on you.
5. Winter's Bounty. You get 10% AP every 90s or so and can add up to be 5-10% of your overall AP gain. You want to minimise the time between 0 AP and 100% AP and you will hopefully kill at least 1 thing every 90s. DPS builds can experiment with rousing warmth as it does proc a lot but I haven't tested extensively.
Tyranny of Dragon
1. No right or wrong here.
2. Dragon's Gaze +200 Crit unless you're a deflect junkie.
3. Whatever floats your goat.
4. Dragon's Blood +200 regen
5-7. Dragon's revival for more incoming healing (works with lifesteal), way better than Dragon's Thirst, makes up for your weaker self heals depending on how they are implemented. DPS builds get Dragon's Fury for 5% crit severity.
Overall the module 4 boons are straightforward and offer more flexibility to rounding your build. They give less stats (200 vs 250) compared to previous mods but at least offer something to everyone.
3. Gear, artifacts and companions
I'll give brief pointers and gear recommendations. I have an upgrade chart for each section for you to look it. This especially catered for newer/budget build players to let you know what choices you have on the left hand side. If you can afford better you can jump to the BIS choices on right hand side. Prices may fluctuate, I've put current prices down as a guide (Nov 2014). I don't put in every option, only the ones where it's easily obtainable. I also skip over several upgrades if I consider them insignificant and only put landmark ones there. Where there's a choices, I go with the best bang for buck.
Basically get your weapon and gear then use belt/ring/cloak to supplement your stats.
Good news is DC gear is fairly cheap because of oversupply.
3.1 Weapon and offhand
Your weapon is the most important piece of gear you have. You won't be able to dodge without one.
Weapon damage is, apart from some exceptions, the single most important stat on your gear as it dictates your base damage range. Unless it's only different by a few points, higher weapon damage is always better than the actual stat distribution on the weapons itself.
Recommended Upgrade chart:
Formorian Totemist's Symbols (10-15k) -> Draconic Scepter (35k) -> Artifact Weapon (Mod 4 campaign, refine to blue -> purple -> orange)
Artifact weapon is obtained via Module 4 Tyranny of Dragon Campaign tasks, just do a bunch of daily quests and buy the dragon bone/ dragon gem off auction house (20-40k each). There is one weapon that augment each of the at-wills. The weapon you get from the chest is random, but you can salvage the weapon for a shard of Dragon Forged Steel, 5 shards allow you to buy a weapon of your choice.
I recommend the Astral Seal weapon (+10/20/30/40 healing from Astral Seal) for Mitigation/Healing builds. Good stats, and astral seal is a versatile party at will that will bring decent background healing whatever else you're doing. You won't always have time for 3 sacred flames to proc temp HP and that HP will still be less than the overall healing you get from Astral Seal.
I recommend the Oracle of the Golden Dragon weapon for DPS builds. BoTS is usually your highest damaging at will power from group activities. If you're anointed Champion Build then it depends on what you actually use, which in a majority of cases it'll be the Astral Seal.
Offhand
Offhands do not have a visual. For stats only.
(Lv 1-60) Dragonbone Icon (160 AD) stats level with you -> Icon of the Divine Conduit (10k) -> Black Ice Icon (6000 black ice, module 3) -> Purified Black Ice Icon (~10k Black Ice)-> Artifact Offand (Module 5 campaign, refine to blue -> purple -> orange)
Artifact offhands can provide a bonus to one of your equipped class features. To do so you roll to unlock it with an item from Wondrous Bazaar, then you can select the features. You can buy more items for more unlocks. At least you only need one offhand.
3.2 Gear set (Helm, chest piece, gauntlets, boots)
I'll only list the sets that I deem useful or fill a niche here. Remember at the start you have a number of class roles, well gear makes up one aspect of that. Choose whichever boosts your strength or complements your weakness. A healer loadout with High prophet makes you a competent debuffer and a DPS with a healing set keeps some healing ability. Full info on other sets in my original guide.
Recommend upgrade path: Draconic arms/boots (cheap) -> High Prophet Set (fairly cheap), then also work on completing Draconic set from Mod 4 content. You don't really need Miracle Healer anymore, I think Draconic works better.
High Prophet Set (T1) (+779 P +1252 C +1652 R +945 D, when striking foe you shred 10% foe defense up to 3 times for 4s each).
What it does: Each attack from you (direct attack such as at will/encounter/daily), does not include procs like burning guidance or DoT ticks it plases 1 stack of High prophet debuff on the enemy. Lasts for 4 seconds each and you can have up to 3 stacks. Does not stack from multiple DCs. In PvP each one reduces their defense rating by 10%. In PvE each one makes the foe take up to 10%- mob damage resistance (DR) , so if a mob has no DR they take 10% more damage from all sources per stack. If a mob has 20% DR then can receive up to 8% per stack. If the attacker doesn't have full ArP the extent of High Prophet debuff is reduced further for this player (see mechanics guide in my sig for details).
This is an amazing set both for T1s and endgame. Recovery bonus is always good in T1 and T2. I currently do all endgame content including Castle Never in High Prophet set because of its set bonus. For skirmishs/ daily Sharandar dungeons/ Foundries/ Gauntlgrym where you solo allows you to kill stuff much faster. You basically do up to 10% more damage to enemies per stack (depends on their DR and your ArP, see section 6.3), up to 30% (if enemy has no DR) if you can keep 3 stacks up. This is better than (and complementary with) the High Vizier stack because it works with at wills, not just encounters. Every cleric should have one of this because it is among one of the most powerful debuffs in the game. Hit Dracolich or bosses once in a while with it and it’s an instant DPS boost to party. Best in slot for DPS spec and PvE fast runs. If you gear yourself right around this set, you don’t really need the T2 set to run anything else. Even if you used it and prefer T2 sets don’t sell it because it’s handy to keep for future situations.
How to use High Prophet- a lot of players dislike High Prophet because they can't put stacks on everything. Generally your role as a DC is to debuff and put Astral Seal on the stronger mobs so they die as fast as trash. In a dungeon run it's not trash cleanup that takes a lot of time but more so time spent on tougher adds and bosses. Forget about attacking/putting stacks on trash. You're already debuff priority targets and bosses with astral seal and divine glow, that's 2 stacks. Attacking them once more is 3 stacks. Easy. Otherwise burst punishing light for ~1s per target to keep stacks up. This synergises very will with plaguefire enchant as it has the same mechanics.
You may feel your healing is not that significant when wearing HP set in T2s, but once you start upgrading your jewellery and enchants you will heal just fine. Don't get hung up about gearscore- a seasoned player learn to value set bonuses and the right stats than inflating GS. PUGs will ask for 15k regardless.
Also, people think HP set does not improve healing and that Miracle Healer is a better healing set. That is NOT strictly speaking true. In a dungeon most DPSers have 50-70% or so of their healing via lifesteal, and only 20% or so is from the DC. Lifesteal healing is directly linked to how much damage the DPSer do. High Prophet set debuffs targets and raises their damage by up to 24% in PvE. That means you also raise their lifesteal by 24% using High Prophet set. In contrast, Miracle Healer is about 6% of your overall healing, and usually 1-2% of the DPSer's incoming healing, if at all. High Prophet IS actually one of your best healing sets, it's just that the numbers don't go to you that players think it doesn't help with healing. Also decent solo set, as you do that much more damage to all your opponents. Faster kills = less damage taken = less to heal.
Miracle Healer (T2) (+1047 P +1322 C +1772 R +990 D, encounters cause ONE nearby ally to be healed for 5% of your HP). MH is considered by many to be a strong healing set. IMO it's a good set but situational. With no cooldown on divinity powers the set is great for those spamming divine encounters as you get the healing proc each cast. However, outside of solo situations most of the time the heal goes to you even if you only lost 1 Hp and not to the one who needs it more. The actual heal is nice- 5% is like a 1250 HP heal. In a dungeon however they are only 3-8% of your outgoing healing, which isn't bad by any means but isn't that significant either, and less so if you're faithful/virtuous specced. It's also fairly decent for soloing if you feel you need the extra healing support when you DPS (slot all DPS encounters).
Draconic Set (Module 4) (your allies within 50' gain 20% more incoming healing from DC abilities). This is IMO a better healing set and an upgrade from MH. From Mod 5 the DC healing is more feat based, uncapped and improved. This set gives your rounded gear distribution and decent boost to your healing prowess. In particular, if you're worried about scoring well in heroic encounters, this is the set to go for.
Prophet Champion (Gauntlgrym) /Grim Set (T2 PvP)/ Profound Set (T3 PvP). I lump these here because they all provide a decent bonus to divinity gain. The PvP sets have tenacity which boosts PvP survival but are fine to use in PvE. My recommendation is the Faithful set as it's the most tanky. Divinity gain is a key central mechanic to DC effectiveness in mod 5 and if you are heavily into empowerment these sets can help improve the divinity recharge speed. However if you don't need divinity with your rotation then take one of the others.
Purified Black Ice (Module 3) This is among the most defensive gear set for PvE and PvP, once you empower it up to Tier 3 you have 4k+ defense, significant deflect and some HP bonuses. If you have issue surviving certain parts of dungeons or boss fights (eg Epic SoT) this may be a good substitute. You can buy helm/chestpiece/boots from vendor with Black Ice and get gloves from large HEs in Icewind Pass. It is a decent AD free option.
Draconic Templar (Module 5) Debuffs enemy defense and crit severity by 10%. This is a new debuff/damage mitigation set. Only one stack I think, so not as strong as high prophet but decent. Crit severity debuff is negligible, only decrease overall damage by a few%.
I do not recommend any 2+2 gear combos. Your set bonuses are good and not using them for the sake of inflating GS is a waste in PvE.
The only exception is for specialist builds, for example, a very high power build (10k+) or very high survivability build, but if you're going for those you know what you're doing.
3.3 Belt:
New artifact belts are now best in slot. Mod 4 introduced belts that add up to +4 to any one ability score. Mod 5 introduce belts that add +2/+2 to 2 ability scores plus a set bonus if used with a cloak and artifact. Mod 5 also added jewel reinforcement kits for a nice minor bonus.
My current opinion is that the new belt/artifact/cloak sets bonuses are not that tangible and significant for the DC class and you don't need to bother upgrading if you already have a module 4 belt, and definitely not worth changing your artifacts to get a set bonus.
There's only 3 mod 4 belts to consider.
Belt of wisdom: Improves both healing/DPS, decent for DPS/healing builds.
Belt of strength: Improves crit chance/stamina recharge, better than wisdom only if you are committed to using a perfect vorpal and the acquiring other crit severity bonuses. Or for proccing Fire of the Gods righteous feat.
Belt of constitution: More HP and survivability for tanky builds/PvP
High charisma is a trap due to the very steep diminishing returns on recharge speed increase, and the AP gain bonus is now a catch 22 as you can't gain AP during HG/DA.
Upgrade path:
Ancient Brawler's Belt of Guts (7-8k) -> Belt of Wisdom
3.4 Cloak:
Module 5 introduces Artifact cloaks which give fairly high stats if you're willing to upgrade. They also have a set bonus but the bonuses are skippable, except perhaps the Black Ice set, which gives potentially more DPS.
Cloak of Lathander (power, recovery, defense, +8 AC)
Cloak of Imperial Restraint (power, crit, recovery, increase AP by 3% every 4 s in combat)
Cloak of the Seldarine (power, deflection, lifesteal, +8 AC)
Cloak of Black Ice (power, crit, ArPen, increase AP by 3% every 4 s in combat)
At this stage, I think more artifacts sets will come in future modules, so you can either wait for next module to see if there's something that suits better or you can go for a cloak you like. Their stats and effects are all decent. I recommend Cloak of Lathander or the Seldarine- +8 AC is 4%DR which is very significant and worth over 1k defense easily. Free AP during combat is also great but not as significant. If you have RP burning a hole in your pocket pick one up.
Otherwise use the module 4 necks.
Upgrade path: Ancient Slavemaster's Necklace of Control (7-8k) -> Necklace of Shielding (Epic Lostmauth, for tanky builds) -> Artifact Cloak
3.5 Rings
Module 5 introduces craftable rings (and belts and jewels). The best items are BoP and give +250 to two stats making them the strongest. I recommend you invest the time to level it. The jewel reinforcement kits are useful also.
Offense
Grand/Ancient Necromancer's Ring of Control/ Undeath (6k/15k) -> Ring of Pain (Epic Lostmauth) -> Personalised Archmage Ring (Jewelcraft) + Greater Action Point gain Jewel (Jewelcraft)
Defensive
Grand/Ancient Priest's Ring of Burning Dead (6k/11k) -> Ring of shielding (Epic Lostmauth) -> Personalised Hero's Ring (Jewelcraft) + Greater stamina/regeneration gain Jewel (Jewelcraft)
3.6 Artifacts
See main guide for details
Active slot: DC artifact/ Emblem of Seldarine/ Blood Crystal Raven Skull/ Eye of Lathander
Other slots: GWF/ CW/ Heart of the Red Dragon/ Waters
The DC artifact has gone up in value simply because you no longer gain AP during HG/DA/AA so popping the DC artifact after it expires helps you get the AP back faster.
3.7 Companions
See main guide for details. Still aren't that many choices for DC outside of stat pets. DPS builds can explore the DPS pets. Basically not worth blowing AD on companions right now, save it for your DPS class.
Erinyes of Belial (crit severity), Rust monster (damage reduction debuff)
3.8 Weapon and Armor Enchants
Nothing changed there.
Vorpal- best personal DPS, best personal healing
Plaguefire- best party debuff/support
Terror- decent party debuff/support especially if others are using PF
Frost- good solo and party mitigation/control enchant
Soulforged- best survival solo/group
Barkshield- alternative to SF if you hate it
4. Powers, skills and feats
4.1 Class Features
Dodge
We get 2 dodges that uses up about ~40% stamina and shifts by ~10'. This is your survivability tool. You are immune to damage and control (cc) effects during dodge animation and shortly after. Eg if you shift towards dragon during wingflap you won't get thrown back.
Righteousness
Righteousness still cops a lot of bad press because it used to be a negative effect. However as it current is applied it is a significant boost, and boosts by 70% to the incoming healing for your party from all sources (except fixed healing ones such as potions and some items), this includes DC abilities SW healing, as well as the party's own lifesteal/regen. This is a strong reason to take DCs in a party, providing a significant boon towards everyone elses's own healing and survivability. You are simply more adept at healing others than yourself, and while this can be annoying that your self heals are not as effective, 'nerfing' or 'righteousness' as it is won't do you one bit of good because it is currently a useful party buff.
Righteousness is active for about 7 seconds after you heal a target.
Divinity and Encounter Empowerment (new to mod 5)
Clerics have an additional resource to manage called divinity. From level 10, attacking with at wills, and only with at wills only grant the DC divinity, which is used to fill up 1-3 pips. At anytime one of these pips can be used (tab) to cast an encounter in divine mode (aka 'Divine Encounter'). In module 5 the divine encounter no longer replicates the base effects, but rather procs a related or different effect on the targets. For example, normal Astral Shield gives damage reduction, divine AS now no longer gives damage reduction but instead grant temp HP to those in the AoE. Divine encounters have no cooldown, have a faster animation and generate no action points. They do count as an encounter for procs (eg Miracle Healer).
Each divinity encounter grants a stack of empowerment which lasts for 15s. The stack(s) will be consumed when casting your next normal mode encounter, and this will usually make the base encounter more powerful or grant it additional effects. You can considered the empowered encounter in the same calibre as the divine encounters of Mod 1-4.
Channel Divinity
An alternative way of spending divinity is by channeling divinity. When in divine mode (tab), your at wills change to Punishing Light and Soothing Light. They can be held down and channeled to enemy or ally targets respectively to do fast continuous ticks of damage or healing. Given the faster rate we can spend divinity channeling divinity at times can give you better bursts of heal/DPS and should see more use.
4.2 Paragon Paths
Currently Neverwinter allows 2 paragon paths per class. These each offer a small selection of skills and feats that have a particular theme. You can re-choose your paragon path by using a respec token.
Divine Oracle (DO)
At Will- Brand of the Sun
Encounter- Prophecy of Doom
Daily- Hammer of Fate
Class Features- Foresight, Terrifying Insight, Prophetic Action
Feat- Power of the Sun, Second Sight, Benefit of Foresight
DO is a more DPS flavoured path that still offers excellent defense and utility. Foresight is an excellent class feature which raises party DR by 6% (11% feated). BoTS, HoF and Terrifying Insight all boost personal DPS significantly, which is important for soloing or DPS/PvP builds. If you want to max DPS, go DO. Divine Oracle is still a very strong healing path and more flexible with group composition regardless of your spec due to the other healing feats and the presence of foresight. This remains my current paragon post Module 2 as main PvE DC for endgame content.
Choose this path for: Hybrid healing/DPS builds, Pure DPS builds, PvP DoT build, buff/debuff builds
Anointed Champion (AC)
At-Will- Blessing of Battle
Encounter- Exaltation
Daily- Anointed Army
Class Features- Anointed Action, Anointed Armor, Anointed Holy Symbol
Feat- Battle Fervor, Prestigious Exaltation, Ancient Warding
Anointed Champion is a more defensively focused path. This path has more group buffing abilities, offers a decent amount of damage mitigation and some group temporary immunity powers. Temporary hit points and healing builds are supplemented with anointed Holy Symbol which gives 10% HP to party for each divinity encounter (works with sunburst/BoH tab trick). Although you lose foresight, blessing of battle and anointed holy symbol can make up for it fairly easily. You can still have a DPS build with AC path trading BoTS for BoB which trades more DPS for buffs and survivability. You do lose HoF which isn't really much of an issue since FS is fixed and HG is still very powerful along with the situational Anointed Army.
Choose this path for: Tank/healing/mitigation builds, PvP survivability, clutch builds.
Paragon Path Comparisons:
Both paths are comparable, which you choose depends on your character emphasis.
Personally as I tend to be doing more solo than group content I prefer DO's DPS bonuses to get through dailys faster. I have the option to heal, buff and DPS. BoTS is a great solo/DPS ability but probably won't see much group play in most dungeon settings. Foresight is great for any situation, TI is great for solo/DPS spec, and Prophetic Action in its current implementation is terrible. Prophecy of doom has potential but has very long cooldown, mediocre damage and long casting animation which limits its real usefulness. Hammer of Fate is weak for what it does and rarely useful in party situations.
For AC Blessing of Battle is a decent buff, although the cast time is very long. Exaltation used to be the go to but no longer offers immunity, and there are enough other healing abilities that it doesn't stand out. Anointed armor/Holy Symbol are great, and Anointed Army is the only damage immunity skill DCs have. Many of your buffs are ranged based so you need to be very close to party members (20') to get max bonus out of AC. Given that for many boss fights this simply won't happen, keep in mind that your bonuses will not have 100% uptime.
Overall, play what you like as they do have key strengths. I simply prefer DO for their greater independence and versatility. I no longer PvP as of mod 3 so I won't comment on how they fare.
4.3 Powers
You get 1 power point per level, and a total of 61 at 60. You can gain bonus levels after 60 which gives you the chance of bonus power points. Eventually you can max out everything. Points here are a guide only more as a means to determining priority. There have been significant changes made to many of these in mod 5.
4.3.1 At Wills
Lance of Faith (LoF) (1/3): our first at will power, nothing particularly special except every 3rd hit is slower and gives (tiny) bonus damage. It offers roughly 25% more DPS than Sacred Flame but it is slow to cast and gives lesser divinity than the others. This is your go to for soloing/DPS mode and does about 25% more damage than Sacred Flame with mod 5 tweaks. Sacred Flame is slightly faster though if you care more about divinity.
Astral Seal (ASeal) (3/3): A preferred RMB at will in parties for healing/mitigation. Don't use this as a solo power past lv 35 and replace with Brand of the Sun. Underpowered at low levels, and probably not noticeable when solo/levelling where you may be thinking it’s useless, but scales incredibly well with level and especially endgame dungeons for free team healing. Astral Seal basically gives fairly good lifesteal (from observations about 1-5% DPS, sometimes more and can crit) to whoever hits the target. More importantly, the heal from astral seal can proc a huge list of very useful feats including Foresight and Cleanse. I recommend boosting ASeal with the appropriate artifact weapon for healers/buffer/debuffers for ASeal will then be one of your major healing contributors.
In most fights you should open by casting this 'tag' on a few tougher targets that won't die quickly. Despite multiple icons proccing, only one Astral Seal can be active on the target at a time, only the first one is active and it's duration is not refreshed (info from Scozzers). There is no need to spam it, just refresh every 10 s or cast until you get a crit (all outgoing heals will crit). If your group is scattered, just cast seal once on each enemy being taken down and it’ll help keep allies healed without further intervention. Astral Seal healing is a little unusual and have diminishing returns for successive heals (50%, then 33%, 16.7%). Although the old adage is to keep Seals on every target, as your GS and party GS improve they have less and less reliance for AS healing and get more from their own Lifesteal. You are using this just to poc feats like Foresight so seal on 2-3 tough mobs per pull and you're good to go.
Astral Seal is important in PvP for proccing Foresight and cleanse to the team. The healing is rather insignificant but it cleanse is a life saver especially with all the roots and freezes. I've been told cleanse can remove a lot of cc or control effects like chill stacks, and given cc is a major reason why we die, it's always good to have as it otherwise procs quite rarely.
Sacred Flame (SF) (3/3): My preferred LMB at will, on 3rd hit gives small temporary HP bonus to all allies near target. It’s slightly faster to cast (0.8 s per hit) compared to Lance of Faith, and best for spamming divinity and therefore keeps you more mobile and versatile. Temporary hit points is about 330 on the third hit to all close to the target. It's also great to put debuff stacks on fast.
Brand of the Sun (BoTS) (1 or 3/3) (Divine Oracle Paragon only): I use this situationally on RMB when solo or going DPS spec e.g. solo foundries/PvP/Gauntlgrym , ticks 7 times over 10s. Can crit, and can do excellent supplementary damage with divinity gain over time. Ideally you tag each enemy with one cast, let the damage tick and divinity will roll in. Recasting doesn’t stack but refreshes ticks. You can recast on a target until the first hit crits (orange number), then every tick will crit. In group situations I still find Astral Seal incredibly helpful so I rarely take BoTS. However in easy dungeons or when there’s another DC (eg Pirates) BoTS helps a lot with damage output and can end up out- damaging most of your encounters. Some players use BoTS/ASeal combo. It can be useful because you can pop a quick cast then run around. Put one point when levelling to see how you fare. If you like it and manage to make use of it frequently you can put 3 points, otherwise the 20% damage won’t make that much difference if you have something else you prefer to max. Single target BoTS DPS is lower than LoF and SF but if you spam it once per mob then you obviously multiply your DPS. BoTS is great for PvP because you won't have the luxury to stand and cast. It's got the highest damage per cast, and fire and forget and if you cast it on each enemy you get steady divinity coming in. They will ignore the damage but it all adds up. DoTs prevent mounting also and messes with TR stealth.
Blessing of battle (BoB) (1 or 3/3) (Anointed Champion Paragon only):
BoB gives a small defensive buff (6% DR) to you and nearby allies (also + up to 15% power when feated with Battle Fervor). The buff is applied when cast even if the animation doesn't finish. It’s got a longer animation and gives about 3%AP per cast (highest AP gain per sec). This can be used as a replacement to Astral Seal, but depends on your other feats and playstyle. Cast at the beginning of battle and recast once in a while to keep the buff up. This basically replaces Foresight from DO path. It has the longest at will animation (1.6s, comparable to half charged storm pillar) so you may not always have the time to use it. For general dungeons it can be good, but in boss fights where there is a lot of scattering and things to watch for I feel the cast and forget mentality of astral seal a much easier way of watching the party's backs. I believe the buff range is centered from where you are rather than where the target is, so always be mindful to be near your party when you want to buff them and especially in PvP.
Punishing Light: Your divinity left click at-will. Spend your divinity as fast direct ticks to hurt your opponent. Strikes at 3 ticks per second. It's easy to forget about this, but don't. This is a high DPS skill and because it's much faster to gain divinity it can be quite potent. In PvE you usually want to save it for healing, but if something needs to die now (eg Redcap Powies and witherers) and everything is on cooldown don't be afraid to punishing light it to death. In PvP you should utilise PL in conjunction with DOTs to finish off players when they are at 30% health or less, especially DCs, TRs and CWs who can go down quickly. In PvE it's ok to use if you have divinity to spare. You can use PL to put High prophet/plaguefire stacks quickly on priority targets. Just spam PL for 3 tics on bosses, PvP etc once in a while to charge your debuff stacks up. If stuff comes off cooldown it's wise to stop, cast it and then continue with PL/SL.
Soothing Light: Used to be ultra terrible, and is now decent when someone needs a clutch heal and you have some divinity. Works better the less health they have so really useful for bringing them back from brink of death. Also procs various healing feats to aid their survivability. It’ll never replace all your other heals, but don’t forget about this skill when you need to clutch heal. Also if you're suffering from DoTs or are being controlled you can SL on yourself to try to proc cleanse and remove the cc effects. For DPS specs this is still a good heal/clutch when you/team need it.
These will get a boost with the new artifact offhand. Minor consideration in most cases.
Healer’s Lore (3/3)- Good when levelling, but once you have Foresight I rarely use it as 15% more healing doesn’t make too much difference so it’s more of a point dump. There are situational fights where it can be useful, particularly combined with healing word but you generally won’t notice a difference. If you’re struggling to heal the party adequately try slotting this. It doesn't see a lot of use personally at lv 60. The one place it shines is heroic encounters, more healing plus draconic set plus uncapped = MVP DC.
Divine Fortune (DF) (3/3)- Now gives more divinity gain per at will. Depend on how you gain/use divinity can be totally useful or totally useless. All a matter of playstyle.
Sooth (0/3)- Even before cleric aggro fix I never used it, after the fix you should never need it regardless of party composition. Reducing your aggro doesn’t eliminate it, encourages lazy/poor positioning and dumps aggro to your teammates which makes you need to heal more. Waste of a slot and points. Clerics at lv 60 should never be afraid of aggro because you are tanky and you allow your party to have more DPS uptime by keeping mobs off them.
Holy Fervor (HF) (3/3): Although it gives a +15% AP gain to your character sheet, from my tests the effect is actually multiplicative (which makes it even better). Thus your AP gain from abilities will be BaseAbilityAP*(1+ raw AP gain %)*1.15. Very useful especially at lower GS/levels before your have lots of recovery. HF gives lots of AP especially with sunburst to help keep your dailies up. Still a staple for challenging/effective dungeon and trash clearing so you can keep Hallowed Ground up as much as you can.
Foresight (3/3) (Divine Oracle Paragon): This should always in your bar in group play unless you have 2 DCs and one already slots it. It reduces damage taken to your party by 6% and 11% when feated. This is amazing and procs off most heals. Helps immensely for survivability in all situations as more damage mitigated= less healing needed. Better than Healer's Lore as the 11% mitigation might make the difference between the squishing surviving the hit or getting one shotted.
Terrifying Insight (3/3) (Divine Oracle Paragon): Optional passive to boost your damage for when you DPS or solo content. Stack mechanics are similar to High Prophet, stacks up to 4 stacks offering 4% debuff each for 16% debuff total. This is helpful at lower GS to get through dailys faster. Not needed at higher GS, but for Module 3+ where mobs are a lot tougher I recommend it again. Not as useful in party or boss fights as DC damage no longer compares as favorably as other classes. Up to you whether you want it or not but you can probably get by without. Obviously it's going to be useless slotting this when you're taking 3 healing encounters. It can be useful in PvP and dailys/easy content. Must for DPS builds.
Prophetic Action (0/3) (Divine Oracle Paragon): Mitigating one hit per 40-60 seconds won’t save you. Doesn't distinguish between big hits and small hits. Save your point for something else. Soulforged armor enchantment and Holy Resolve feats can keep you alive much better and more consistently.
Anointed Action (0/3) (Anointed Champion Paragon): After using a daily power you temporarily deal increased damage and reduce incoming damage. I feel we’re not using dailys often enough for this to be useful, and if you’re using HG and Anointed Army it already does both. Your mileage may vary but may as well take HF to get dailys more often.
Anointed Armor (0/3, 3/3 in PvP) (Anointed Champion Paragon): Adds a nice chunk of AC and deflect. Fairly good for PvP but in PvE skills that help your party is more important. Useful if your party likes to pull lots of mobs in one go and/or you have survivability issues.
Anointed Holy Symbol (AHS) (3/3) (Anointed Champion Paragon): Each divinity encounter grants temporary HP to you and allies. Multiple applications won’t increase the amount of temp HP above 10%. Depending on how you chain divine encounters can be of some use, but if you usually divine 3x in a row it's probably not worth it. For soloing however Anointed Armor is possibly better.
4.3.3 Encounter
When it comes to picking encounters it’s about the opportunity cost. As we have only 3 encounter slots we need to pick them for best versatility and consider the opportunity cost if we give it up. This also largely determines what your class role will be, but you're free to switch of course depending on how the party fares.
Unless specified otherwise all DPS powers target up to 5 targets. Healing powers usually have 5 targets with some exceptions where they're uncapped. Unless I point out, the divine version does not duplicate base effect of the spell. Unless otherwise indicated effects are listed for rank 3 of the ability.
Sunburst (SB) (3/3)
Normal: Does an AoE push, damages and knock backs enemies and heals allies for moderate amount in small area around self.
Divine: No push/heal but puts a DoT on enemies and HoT on allies.
Empowered: +15% knock radius/heal per stack
Great solo ability. Push gives you a breather and also a great interrupt skill. Damage and heal gives it great utility. However in party mode the knockback can be very annoying for DPS classes, so don't knock if you're in the thick of battle and use it out of combat as a heal, but there are better powers for that...
Healing Word (HW) (3/3):
Normal: Places HoT on you and all allies in front of you. Uncapped healing AoE. 3 charges
Divine: Grants temp HP to you and targets in AoE every 3 s for 9s, uncapped.
Empowered: Consumed stacks give an immediate base heal plus DoT.
Your first direct HoT early on. It's now a ground splat target ability and much easier to use/target. Not really worth while using when solo but is the bread and butter maintenance healing spell. HW ticks 7 times, if you recast before all 7 ticks are up they are replaced with ticks from the duration. So if you cast after 5 ticks, you will get 5+7 = 12 ticks total rather than 14. Procs Foresight / Cleanse / Repurpose Soul (on first tick).
Searing Light (SL) (3/3):
Normal: single target damaging spell. Damage heals allies within 15'.
Divine: deals 15% damage to surrounding targets, AoE is uncapped targets.
Empowered: hits with +10% more resistance ignored per stack
Edit: I'm hearing with updated changes this is a good spell to use when empowered especially versus bosses. Try and see for yourself.
Chains of Blazing Light (3/3):
Normal: damage, bind and immobilise up to 5 targets on cast or when they enter the AoE. Immobilise time halved in PvP
Divine: immobilise instantly targets in AoE for 1s and deal small amount of damage
Empowered: immobilise duration increased by 2s per stack, damage +10% per stack
Immobilise is not a stun. Enemies can't move but they can still fight. Note the stun duration does not increase with more points, only the length of the ‘trap’ itself being active. Can be helpful to kite in some situations. Player trapped in chains can still attack so don’t cast this on ranged characters except to force them to go around. For Idris/FH boss fight can be used to kite/ chain the zombies while party DPS boss. For spider temple can help root blademasters to help CWs who can’t dodge. Used in a few DC PvP builds. It is one of the faster casting animations with good AoE and thus decent option for solo or DPSers.
Daunting Light (DL) (3/3):
Normal: hits targets in AoE (5') after a brief delay (~2s)
Divine: increase AoE diameter and is almost instant, but hitting at half damage.
Empowered: crit chance and severity of DL increased by 10% per stack (not working yet)
Our hardest hitting AOE nuke that hits after a short delay. At 60+ can crit for 20k+ which is very respectable (60k+ very possible in a party). In a DPS build this is the main damage dealer along with BoTS. A must for levelling, foundries, solo content and makes lv 25-45 PvE a breeze. Practice casting these on mobs to target all inside the tiny AOE and you’ll be set. Divine version also useful as AOE is bigger and it’s instant cast. Not needed for most boss fights but if you’re DPS or have a spare slot you want to feat and nuke bosses with them. Does not proc repurpose soul if it crits. Use this in dungeons if your offensive GS is better than that of your party, especially if they're still in the 7-10k range and you're in the 12k+ range, because then you contribute more to party DPS. Somewhat tricky to use in PvP as the red is telegraphed and even in divine mode can be dodged easily unless enemy was already immobilised by chains. Easily you highest DPS encounter when DPSing.
Forgemaster’s Flame (FF) (3/3):
Normal: Places a dot on target, ticking 5 times over 6s
Divine: Does one tick of damage (half tooltip), slow target for 6s
Empowered: Increase FF damage by 10% per stack, all nearby allies gain 5% damage per stack for 8s
Single target DoT and slow. Somewhat useful as a group buff in divine mode.
Prophecy of Doom (PoD) (0/3) (Divine Oracle Paragon):
Normal: Lower damage resistance on target by 10% for 8s, and if target is still alive then deals damage to target. Charges AP and resets PoD cooldown if target dies during debuff.
Divine: does instant damage to target, doubled if PoD is on target, no debuff
Empowered: increase debuff by 5% per stack and add duration by 2s. 1 stack: 115% debuff for 10s, 2 stacks: 120% for 12s, 3 stacsk: 125% for 14s.
Single target debuff which grants AP and resets timer if mob dies during cast or does a small amount of damage if the mob doesn't die. Great in theory, average in practice. Rank 1: 5% debuff normal+ 10% AP when target dead | 10% debuff Divine mode + 20% AP. At rank 3 it's 10% debuff normal +12.5% AP| 15% debuff Divine mode +25% AP. AP gain is not modified by Holy Fervor or your AP gain stat. AP gain only results if you kill the mob before debuff expires. Doesn't not grant AP if PoD kills target. Long casting animation and long cooldown if you miscast (though you can try to cancel animation). You want to aim it at something that will die fast. Can help AP gain massively if managed right. Damage is decent but delayed so you generally want stuff to die before then. Practice on test server and see if you like it as personal choice. Useful for some single target loadouts (DoT and debuff). On some bosses and Heroic Encounters (Remorhaz) stacking all you debuffs allow your DPS allies to hit extremely hard.
Exaltation (3/3) (Anointed Champion Paragon):
Normal: You and one ally both get +10% DPS and damage resistance for 2s.
Divine: On cast grants extra 20%(?) DR for 2s.
Empowered: Increase healing by 15% per stack, buffs increase by 5% per stack
Decent buff/heal/mitigation power, but only affects you and one other, who will probably be your main DPSer. Cooldown is same as Astral shield and is long. In short, don't just use exaltation because it's new or because you went AC, use it when you actually need it. For most PvE content I feel there's almost always something better. In PvP it's a reliable staple, however losing the immunity took off most of the glimmer.
Bastion of Health (BoH) (3/3):
Normal: After a short delay grants a large upfront heal plus HoT, uncapped targets
Divine: instantly heal all in AoE
Empowered: add extra heal for 10% missing HP per stack
With a faster casting time this is now a contending encounter for party play. It's an uncapped heal and HoT spell which is great. Get used to knowing where targets will be when it kicks in, and cast it based on where players will be.
Break the Spirit (BtS) (0/3):
Normal: Deals 5 ticks of damage to a single target over 6s, target deals 20% less damage
Divine: Deals 1 tick of about half normal mode damage and stuns for 3s
Empowered: Nearby allies gain a 10% damage buff per stack consumed, last 8s. Currently increase amount seems bugged.
Decent buff encounter similar to FF. It does overall more DPS than FF as it's faster to cast, higher base damage and shorter cooldown. Buff also stronger atm.
Divine Glow (DG) (3/3):
Normal: Grant 10% DR to allies and heal all in AoE (uncapped), grants a HoT effect. Damages targets in AoE
Divine: damage targets in AoE, debuff their damage by 5% for 6s, stacking up to 3x. Heals allies and buffs their outgoing damage by 5% stack up to 3x
Empowered: Radius increased by 5' per stack and buffs/debuffs last for another 2s per stack
This is the new Astral Shield in terms of utility. Does practically everything a DC is meant to do: DR buff, reduce mob damage, mob debuff, party DPS buff, heal and HoT. The heal and damage are small but you really only need it for proccing feats. The buff and debuff aspects are great and useful to all. Target DPSers as a priority.
Astral shield (AS) (3/3):
Normal: Additive 30% damage resistance (at rank 3) for 10 seconds.
Divine: now grants temp HP to all in AoE (no DR buff)
Empowered: AS also blocks incoming damage, blocks 100% of DC weapon damage per stack consumed. Note that atm this is not as described, but the shield is based on 3% of the DC's max HP per stack, so if you're a tank, all the better. (credits to @thestia for info).
Large damage reduction in area of effect and acts as a location tool as to where party members should fight. There is no more need/emphasis to cast it in divine mode. You should always have AS down in a strategic location. You want it to be up when adds come or when a big hit is about to occur. Discuss with you party where AS should/will go beforehand as it’s different for each boss. For most bosses you will place it with one edge near boss and allow melee to tank inside it, for other fights (Pirates/Spellplague/Karrundax final), you’ll use it protect the CW and yourself while dealing with adds. In dungeons you want it on ledges where CW will toss or under elites the team will burn down. If casting on a boss or tough mob trap him off center so casters have more room to dance around. AS disappears when you die.
4.3.4 Daily abilities
Dailies are usable when you have a full AP meter. These are some of the most useful abilities and can change the tide of battle when used at the appropriate time. A measure of a good cleric is how often they can get dailies up, so practice practice practice and don’t worry too much about saving dailies if you can get it up again by the next sticky situation. Note that in Mod 5 you cannot gain action points when an AP is in effect- this is in effect for HG, DA and AA. This is an indirect way of decreasing uptime. Not the be all end all but towards the end of a daily's duration you may want to save encounters off cooldown to get AP back quick.
Guardian of Faith (GoF) (1/3): A prone and a weak heal, one point because you have to, but replace with anything else as soon as you can. Some uses in PvP as a quick prone and heal but after PvP changes neither is that effective.
Hallowed Ground (HG) (3/3): One of the best dailies and best thing DCs can do for their party. Hallowed ground sanctifies a huge AOE around the caster and gives 30% DPS boost and 30% damage reduction to all allies within the area. This is an amazing party skill for any 5 man situations and should be used in big fights whenever you have daily up and not saving for an upcoming boss fight. In boss fights you should aim to get this down as much as you can for massive heals and DR. In PvP gauntlgrym cast this over a contested point and members closest to you will receive the boosts, have a much harder time dying and often winning the point for your side. If the opponent cast this you should counter by casting it also. This is always on my bar. Animation is long, so watch for imminent red when casting. Timing of Hallowed Ground is key- for use offensively try to cast it in a window where party is free to DPS. Defensively just use when there's big hits coming or party suffered major damage. For example you want to save HG until after Spider boss heal in ToS or Valindra choke in MC/VT where party can concentrate on DPSing. However HG disappears as soon as you die, so watch out as you'll lose your AP and party will lose your buff. In most cases in PvE it is more worthwhile for party DPS to cast HG than your DPS dailys, even if you're a DPS. Basically 30% more damage on at least 1 rotation of your encounters plus that of other party members usually will mean more damage than a Flamestrike or HoF hit, even if you're DPS specced.
Flame Strike (FS) (3/3): Nice nuke early on, but towards the endgame I find it’s better to have HG/DA up rather than an extra bit of DPS. Can be useful for soloing/levelling. Mobs in center can be knocked prone. Does not proc repurpose soul if it crits. Good supplementary damage when soloing. If going full DPS spec go 3/3 and should be on your bar always. The target limit is still problematic as is the push. In party situations FS is unlikely to kill anything of importance and you should instead cast HG to boost everyone's damage to kill faster. Tooltip damage only applies to centre of the effect, if mobs on the periphery they take reduced damage.
Divine Armor (DA) (3/3): Usually on the second slot in my bar in dungeons. DA is an amazing clutch ability when someone takes spike damage or pulled too much mobs. Gives 15% temporary hit points and damage reduction to those in AOE. DA is good to cast preeemptively also when going into a tough encounter, eg fight after first boss at Lostmaugh. Watch your CWs in dungeons, usually they will need a clutch and that’s when you want DA to save them. If everyone’s health is good then HG is probably better because of the HoT and DPS/DR bonus. Temp HP from DA stay with you when cast out of combat but time out when cast in combat. DA not as useful in PvP anymore with healing depression. Use HG instead. I see a lot of DCs cast DA in PvE when party is topped up and safe beating down a boss. This is a waste of a daily and you should cast HG instead for DPS boost and HoT. *Post PvP patch I really feel the usefulness of DA is very limited because of temp HP nerf. I usually just use HG instead.
Hammer of Fate (HoF) (0 or 3/3) (Divine Oracle Paragon): Since its mod 1 nerf HoF it doens't really hit all that hard PvP wise and is easily dodge-able. PvE wise it's three hits that hit for about 10-16k. Ideally you want to buff yourself with divine glow beforehand. Each hit crits independently but can one shot people if they’re caught offguard and makes you immune to CC. It’s generally very hard to time the immunity, your first hit needs to have gone off before you become immune, otherwise you can still be interrupted (albeit with AP points intact in most cases). At times useful for solo foundries on the elite mobs that would otherwise take forever to kill as a DC. For dungeons even if you’re DPS specced generally the 30% DPS and DR boost from HG is better than a 20k hit on the boss considering a TR can hit >100k with buffs. *Post module 2 I'm really finding there's limited time I actually want to use this skill. You can safely shuffle points elsewhere.
Anointed Army (AA) (3/3) (Anointed Champion Paragon): When cast party takes very little damage, are immune to control effects, and gain 50% of the DC's power. However, when someone takes damage, all those effects are removed and instead bestow a small amount of Temporary Hit Points to their holder. This is a clutch daily and may replace Divine Armor in some situations. The 3 charges absorb attacks but if one person loses them the whole party loses the effect. Immunity to control effects may be very useful for example during dragon wing flaps. Fast cast so you can get it off quick. However I don’t like how fast it expires. May be a situational damage to mitigate some CCs or boss phases. Not worth spamming otherwise and you should use HG instead as it's a much stronger DPS buff than raising power.
4.4 Heroic Feats
DCs have the worse heroic feats. There's pretty much just 1 way to go when you consider how bad most feats are. Combat Designers seriously seriously need to rework most of these.
Healing Action (0/5): Adds 1-5% extra AP from healing abilities, which from others' testing are restricted to Healing Word and Bastion of Health only (Not Forgemasters and not sunburst). Crossreferencing from Grimah's tests for CW controlling action, this % is not a flat +1-5% of AP but rather a multiplicative percentage of your own AP gain. Very close to useless and not deserving of points because it’s such a small boost, you get enough AP already. The AP gains do not round up with one point. The other guides are incorrect. As DC you have enough AP gain from high recovery to not need this even if you're a healbot. Considering Healing word is about 8.9% AP per cast a few extra % is not noticeable at all. Every class have a trash feat like this, but the DC one is worse of the lot, by far because it is severely restricted to two encounters.
If I could change it, I'll call it "Divine Action" and let it grant 1-5% extra AP for each encounter used in divinity mode.
Greater Fortune (3/3): 1-3% bonus healing, not amazing, but decent and you should take it to unlock other powers. Calculation is a bit strange that your WIS bonus seems to apply to this but there is strange rounding where it shows as +2% when WIS<20 and +4% at 24 WIS.
Toughness (3/3): Max this, 9% HP is amazing because it is an endgame stat. Every bit of survivability helps on any DC and synergises with %HP heals like Moontouched/regen/Miracle healers. Toughness feat applies to HP gains from enchants and items also and makes stacking HP even more worthwhile.
Holy Resolve (3/3): Highly recommended for all builds. Even with the cooldown it’s amazing and will save your life many times over especially combined with Soulforged. Gives you that extra buffer to wait for cooldowns/heal/clutch. Great for both offense and defense builds. Also a good warning when to pot.
Domain Synergy (0/5): It’s a trap. The skill looks like a great deal until you realise that at 3000 recovery you get a mere 150 extra recovery for 5 feat points. Coupled with diminishing returns at high GS and it’s just a waste. You won’t notice it at low levels and you won’t need it at higher levels. Inferior to every comparable feat of other classes. I would change it to you gain +5/10/15/20/25% recovery.
Weapon Mastery (3/3): This is an additive 3% bonus to crit, adds to STR bonus and help boost your CRIT more than gearscore can, must take even if you don’t care about crit.
Initiate of the Faith (0/5): Another trap. At 5k base power 1% gives you only extra 50 points of crit. Seriously? Worse feat ever implemented. I would change it to you gain 5/10/15/20/25% of your crit as Power.
Repurpose Soul (3/3): Decent feat and makes crits pay off. Basically each time you crit you get a free mini AOE heal. It won’t be an amazing bonus but it is a 7-16% free healing to the party. Doesn’t proc off ground target AOEs like daunting light or flamestrike but works with most at wills and spells. The way it works I believe is that 15% of your base crit damage (before damage mitigation/arpen) becomes an AOE heal. Repurpose Soul healing is not diminished by Righteousness. From parsing however most of this self healing rather than party healing. Still useful in that you need more healing than your party, but it's not the be all end all party sustenance skill. For DoTs crits it only procs off the first tick.
Battlewise (0/3): Like sooth, useless feat, you don’t need to manage aggro and 6% won’t make a difference. I would change it to you gain 10/15/20% AoE and control resist.
Cleanse (1/3): Fairly decent spec, many people say there’s not much to cleanse from but I disagree. Spider temple web snares, Frozen heart slow debuffs and PvP all puts party under lots of debuffs which you want to cleanse right away. Doesn’t cleanse revive sickness but still very useful. Has high proc chance with even 1 point so no need to put all 3. 8 second internal cooldown.
Templar’s domain (0/5): Feat is only ok in theory, but terrible uptime- 5s with 5 minute cooldown. Absolutely ridiculous. If you’re not going for arpen 30% of 0 is 0. With my ArP build and one point it rarely procs and not for long so until they fix it I don’t recommend it. I prefer stacking 1.2K ArP and just boosting with Linked Spirit alone for 25% buff. I would change it to you gain 1/2/3/4/5% mitigation ignored.
Bountiful fortune (4/5): max this if you have spare points. Divinity is the lifeblood of the DC. Even better with PvP/GG sets.
Sample Heroic Spec:
3 Greater Fortune, 3 Toughness, 3 Holy Resolve, 3 Weapon Mastery, 3 Repurpose Soul, 1 Cleanse, 4 Bountiful Fortune
http://nwcalc.com/dc...00000&h=0&p=dvo
Humans max out Cleanse and Bountiful Fortune
4.5 Paragon Feats
You have 31 paragon feat points, and the allocation of paragon feat points is mostly what distinguishes a cleric from DPS or healing or buffing spec. It’s going to be difficult to suggest the number of points in each so I will rank each feat from A to E where A rank is an excellent rounded good feat and E rank is a mediocre one just based on what it does, what its competition does and the ‘bang for buck’ rating. Bear in mind that each tree unlocks separately and you need 5 points in the first tier of each ability to unlock the next, so you have to make your call whether it’s worth spending 10 points on mediocre feats to unlock a good one for example.
Feat points can be respecced independently of ability scores and encounters (~78k AD). It may be worth shuffling feats around as you build your GS to pad out areas your party seems to struggle in whether it be heals or damage mitigation. Always try it out on the preview server until you are happy with the actual feat.
Module 4 revamped all paragon feats entirely. The three capstones have distinct different functions and are powerful. I would usually recommend taking a capstone as they help the feat path overall a lot more. Splashing feats of other trees for the last 10 points still possible, but I point out the situations where they're not recommended.
4.5.1 Virtuous Feats
Virtuous is a HoT path focused on healing over time and mitigation. It does overall more consistent healing however lacks the ability to clutch save. In its current form I believe it is weaker than Faithful for healing. The capstone is a fairly fast heal and is effective, so overall it's still a decent path, just a personal choice whether you prefer this over Faithful style healing. I haven't tested, but I think Faithful has an edge in PvE (party closer together) where as Virtuous is decent healing regardless if party is close together or spread out, and that may be more effective in a PvP situation.
Lasting Wishes (A rank): You heal for 2/4/6/8/10% more. Decent feat that helps in all situations, if it does work as intended. Good for any build.
Have Faith (A virtuous, B righteous, D Faithful): Allies under the effect of your Heal over Time effects take 1/2/3/4/5% less damage. Good for virtuous and righteous builds. Divine glow puts a DoT so the uptime of this is about 40% if you're good at targeting. Of course, virtuous have HoTs runnning all the time from feats. Faithful capstone removes all HoTs so this probably won't proc. They also have Benefit of Foresight which is better.
Urgent Prayers (C rank): Applying a Regeneration or Heal over Time effect to an ally below 10/20/30/40/50% HP will also cause them to be healed for 150% of your weapon damage.
Second Sight (E rank) (Divine Oracle Paragon): A situational feat for a even more situational power. When not on bosses you generally don’t want PoD to do damage, much less healing (~1k) but to give you AP instead so a very useless feat. However Restoration Mastery is even worse so take whatever you think you'll get a use out off to unlock next rank. The heal is around 1.3k per proc, which isn't too bad.
Battle Fervor (A rank) (Anointed Champion Paragon): Blessing of Battle’s buff now also increases power by 3% per rank up to 15% (base power).
If BoB is on your bar a lot you can consider it to give yourself both a DPS and defensive bonus. Battle Fervor together with AA gives considerable power. Unbreakable Devotion (B rank): Your Heal over Time effects grant allies a shield that ignores a flat amount of damage. This amount is equal to 10/20/30/40/50% of your weapon damage. Not a bad feat but purity is better
Purity (A rank): Your Regeneration and Heal over Time effects have a 2/4/6/8/10% chance when healing an ally to heal for 3 times as much. At present this is the best performing feat for virtuous feat hands down. Significant healing boost.
Virtue's Gift (C rank): Your Heal over Time effects are increased by 20% while you are above 95/90/85/80/75% health. Overall a semi useful feat. When you have good HP the party is usually doing OK, and if you're not the party is either fine or struggling even more. Depends on playstyle
Cleansing Fire (C rank): Your damaging encounter powers have a 10/20/30/40/50% chance to apply a Heal over Time effect to all allies within 20' of the target. This effect heals for 350% of your weapon damage over 15 seconds. This effect does not stack. Right now this feat underperforms compared to the T3s. I would say maybe 1 point for the procs. Also note if you're not using damaging encounters (divine glow counts) then this is useless for you.
Shield of the Divine (A rank): When you or an ally within 30' of you takes damage they receive a Heal over Time effect from you that heals for 500% of your weapon damage over 10 seconds. An ally cannot trigger this effect while already affected by Shield of the Divine. Additionally, Word of Healing, Bastion of Health, Divine Glow, and Astral Shield no longer directly heal allies, and instead apply a Heal over Time effect to affected allies for double that amount over 12 seconds. Mixed bag. The constant HoT is great, however losing all direct healing capacity is not. If your allies take spike damage you can't do anything encounter wise to save them except dump a daily (DA/AA) or soothing light.
4.5.2 Faithful Feats
This is a more traditional healing tree and has good clutching/mitigation capabilities. Stronger self survivability also.
Resounding Beliefs (A rank, E for virtuous): Your direct healing powers heal for 2/4/6/8/10% more. Great for everyone else, but virtuous capstone eliminates all direct healing powers for them.
Desperate Restoration (B rank): When you or the target of your healing are below 30% HP you heal for 6/12/18/24/30% more. If you need to be a clutcher this helps, but I generally prefer feats that are always in effect than conditional ones. Is a good survivability feat though for PvP and the like.
Divine Intervention (C rank): Your direct healing spells have a 5/10/15/20/25% chance to grant the target 150% of your weapon damage as Temporary Hit Points. Not bad but Benefit of Foresight is much better mitigation for DOs.
Benefit of Foresight (A rank) (Divine Oracle Paragon): Must take- increase foresight buff to 11% damage taken reduction, helps counter those spike damage and means less overall healing required.
Prestigious Exaltation (C rank) (Anointed Champion Paragon): Increases duration of Exaltation buff by 2% per rank and heals are increased by 2% per rank while you are buffed. If you use Exaltation a lot (eg PvP) then the feat gets the mileage out of it, but otherwise I find it’s too situation a power and gives buffs which are weak for a 5 point investment. If Exaltation is in your main rotation then definitely take it as you can almost keep the DPS/defense/heal debuff up most of the time.
Shared Burdens (AA rank): Your direct healing spells also heal allies within 20' the target for 4/8/12/16/20% of the original heal. This is utterly amazing in party play especially for PvE. Your healing basically bounces off each other and you get significantly more effective.
Chaplain's Strength (B rank): When a foe is within 30' of you your healing is increased by 2/4/6/8/10%. Since you're melee this will happen a lot, and it's a decent feat for a tier 1 but not a tier 3.
Test of Faith (A rank): When taking damage you gain a stack of Faith. Every 3 seconds a stack of Faith will seek out a nearby damaged ally and heal them for 60/120/180/240/300% of your weapon damage. You can only gain a stack of Faith once every second. This is THE definitive feat to take as righteous. Your party will love you and this helps mitigate incoming damage much better. Especially great even soloing or kiting as sometimes mobs heal you more than they hit you. Works on self and you probably need it more than the party especially if you're an aggro magnet.
United by Faith (B rank): For each ally within 30' of you your healing is increased by 1/2/3/4/5%. Generally you should have 1-2 allies in that range, but again, 10% more healing doesn't really cut it for a T4. Not bad but nothing special.
Agent of the Divine (A rank): Your healing spells now heal for 25% less and store the difference on the target as a "Gift of Faith". While an ally has Gift of Faith on them, when they drop below 45% HP the Gift of Faith is expended to immediately heal them for the full amount. Additionally Word of Healing, Bastion of Health, and Divine Glow no longer apply a Heal over Time effect, but instead grant the amount they would have healed directly to Gift of Faith. Again, the base effects are good. Gift of Faith is a passive clutch so even if you don't respond in time it will. However, you lose your HoT effects (Healing Word, Divine Glow, BoH, Exaltation) which is still a shame.
4.5.3 Righteous Feats
These are personal DPS feats as well as mob debuffing feats to help increase over DPS of your party. Preferred for personal DPS/ party DPS debuff paths .
Astral Fury (A rank): You deal 2/4/6/8/10% more damage. Good straightforward feat for any path.
Furious Intervention (A rank): You generate 2/4/6/8/10% AP when dealing damage. I don't think DC AP is a big issue, but if you need more AP here's where it is.
Righteous Suffering (A rank): When you take damage you deal 2/4/6/8/10% more damage for 10 seconds. In a dungeon this is always active. Even fall damage will trigger this, again, good for any path, and help healers with DPS.
Power of the Sun (C rank) (Divine Oracle Paragon): In theory If you use BoTS a lot you will want this. Most useful in PvP to reduce burst damage and enemy output. In PvE you don’t get critically hit as much and 5% less damage off a few mobs doesn’t make as much difference on the whole when you get swamped by tons of adds. WIth tests on preview I don't think this works correctly, if at all, so avoid for now. Also the other tier feats are just better
Ancient Warding (C rank) (Anointed Champion Paragon): When the Anointed Army daily buff ends, the holder is healed for 3% (reduced from 5% in Mod 3) of their max HP and gains 3% of their max AP. The 3% HP heal sucks and the AP is pathetic. Anointed Army is already useful without it, 5 points are better off in any of the other opening feats for righteous tree.
Bear Your Sins (B rank): Foes who are under the effect of one of your Damage over Time effects take 2/4/6/8/10% more damage from all sources. This is a debuff and helps your party do more damage to the targets. With Fire of the Gods AoE DoT you can keep this active. Otherwise divine Sunburst is a good DoT proccer.
Piercing Light (C rank): Your damaging powers have 2/4/6/8/10% additional Armor Penetration. If you're specced for DPS you should already have enough ArP. Wasting feat points on something you can achieve with gear is silly.
Condemning Gaze (A rank): Your damaging encounter powers apply a stack of Condemned to affected targets for 30 seconds. If a foe reaches 5 stacks of Condemned they take 3/6/9/12/15% more damage from all sources for 15 seconds and will not gain new stacks of Condemned until this effect expires. Again a mob debuff that helps increase party damage. You need to be good at divine charging encounters to keep it up though.
Fire of the Gods (A rank): When you critically strike a foe they are set ablaze, taking 20/40/60/80/100% of your weapon damage every second for 15 seconds. This effect does not stack. It's a good boost to personal DPS. Amount still being tweaked but likely worthwhile.
Avatar of the Divine (A rank): When you enter combat you gain Avatar. Avatar increases your damage by 40% and increases your cooldown speed by 40% for 25 seconds. After you have activated Avatar you cannot benefit from it again for 60 seconds. Avatar will reactivate automatically when it is ready. Leaving combat cancels Avatar and resets its cooldown. The best thing about it is the cooldown reset. The first 30s of combat is probably the most crucial and the boost helps nicely.
5. Build and Playstyle tips
Here are some recommendations for builds. They will be based on the DO path but AC is viable also with changes. You can usually swap between DO/AC for flavor. I have 3 builds below, one roughly corresponding to each path. They are different enough to offer something else and you should still find it fun/effective in PvE.
5.1 General tips
Time, time time
Playing a DC well in mod 5 is all about time management. You have many options but very little time to execute them all. In a geared party also things may die fast enough to not require any empowered encounters and you are better off saving divinity. Therefore don't always optimise based on the end result, optimised based on what you can achieve now or in the near future. Eg if you have 2 empowered stacks and the encounter is about to end in one rotation then you may as well spend it rather than try to get 3 stacks.
Your combat time is spent with one of 4 actions:
Idling
Movement (dodge/ repositioning)
Divinity gain/ at will tagging
Casting encounters (normal/divine/empowered)
Basically you want to minimise time for the first 2 so you can maximise time casting encounters. Positioning is now a lot more important to save time. I recommend sticking with your top DPSer and/or tank to always be able to get Divine Glow covering more of the party/mobs. Get to instinctively position yourself to where DPSers/mobs will be for casting Divine Glow/ BoH/ HW etc. Get to know where to walk to get out of red, direction of dodge etc to minimise time spent repositioning. Then, be good at targetting the right mobs with at wills, make casting ground splats for encounters a second nature. Instead of pressing the tab key, spend 3 second finding the right splat then another 2 to cast, you should already be ready to go with the mouse on the right spot and cast straight away once you hit the hot key. Note that any empowered stacks are spent automatically on the next encounter, so if you wanted to empower a particular encounter, don't use another till it's off cooldown.
Counterpart to this is that if you don't have divinity, or are kiting/getting swamped you have almost no way to recover rather than straight DPS. If you can't kill stuff and allies can't help you you'll probably die. Stopping to gain divinity is rarely worth it if they start putting red/cc on you.
AP management: You don't gain AP while a daily is in effect now, so save encounters for use just after the daily has ended to get a head start. Divinity encounters no longer gain AP (because they have no cooldown).
Divinity management: Divinity gain is from at wills only. Encounters don't give any divinity, so always save up in advance and ration usage.
Soloing:
DCs can have a harder time soloing and getting through dailys especially at lower gearscore. Experiment around to see what works for you, but personally the DPS loadout always seem to work out the best for me. Just pull a pack at a time. Idea is to not get surrounded and not get controlled.
At-Will: Lance of Faith, Brand of the Sun
Daily: Hallowed Ground, Flame Strike
Encounter: Chains of Blazing Light, Daunting Light, Divine Glow
Class Features: Foresight and Terrifying Insight
Rotation:
Start with BoTS on the biggest 2-3 mobs, don't bother using it on trash that will die with encounters anyway. Once they are close enough melee cast normal Divine Glow on yourself and the tougher mobs. Then drop Chains, and while things are immobilised drop Daunting Light on the tough mobs. Build up divinity with LoF spam and then double or triple cast divine Daunting Light (chains also work). Most things would be dead at this point. If not, cast an empowered DL or DG and repeat to clean up. Try to only walk out of red, and only dodge to avoid control abilities of hard hitting/life draining type hits. Always kill trash and archers first, then the spell casters and finally whatever slow tanky mobs there is. You want as few mobs hitting on you at once. In a mixed group, physically position yourself next to the ranged/caster mobs, that way the melee will come to you and you can kill them all with one AoE.
Support:
Astral shield is still useful as before. Only cast in normal mode. Divine mode doesn't give an actual shield or DR. You don't usually need to cast AS in divine mode and it's better to spend divinity on Divine Glow. Astral Seal and Sacred Flame are still you at wills and playstyle with those is still the same. Try to get better at timing and capturing allies and enemies with DIvine Glow.
I don't recommend sunburst for party play anymore, unless you only use it in divine mode. Previously we use it to build divinity and AP amd to proc feats. With mod 5 encounters don't give divinity anymore, AP gain isn't too bad with other spells, and Divine Glow is the go to for proccing feats now. It is still a great solo power and potentially DPS/DoT build if you know what you're doing. Just don't push if you have a lot of melee in the party. You'll make yourself unpopular.
5.2 Healing/Support DO build
This is the closest to my Mod 1-4 build where you are versatile and can do everything.
Divine Oracle:
5/5 Resounding Beliefs (stronger direct heals)
5/5 Benefit of Foresight (more damage mitigation)
5/5 Shared Burdens (turns any heal to an AoE heal)
5/5 Test of Faith (much stronger personal survivability feat and useful for party also)
1/1 Agent of the Divine
For the last 10 points, you can go
5/5 Astral Fury, 5/5 Righteous Suffering for more personal DPS
or
5/5 Desperate Restoration, 5/5 United by Faith for a stronger healer/clutcher
This works really well with both High Prophet set as jack of all trades, or Draconic set (red and white glyphs) for stronger healing.
Recommended loadout:
Encounters will change a lot depending on what the party need or doesn't need. It's the key to being flexible in this build. If the party gets one shotted use Astral Shield, if they need top up heals use Healing Word/BoH, if they don't need healing then buff them.
At-wills: Sacred Flame (fast divinity), Astral Seal (easy healing)
Encounters: Divine Glow (for any situation)/ Healing Word OR Bastion of Health (for healing)/ Astral Shield (for mitigation)/ Break the Spirit (for party DPS buff)/ Prophecy of Doom (debuff/ AP charging)
Class Features: Benefit of Foresight (mitigation)/ Holy Fervor (faster AP gain) or Healer's Lore (more healing)
Daily: Hallowed Ground, Divine Armor
Playstyle is similar as before if you use Astral Shield, which is still great without the HoT. Shield, then when DPSers move in DG on everything then top up with another heal when needed. Tag 2-3 mobs with Astral Seal, then focus on building and spending divinity with Sacred Flame/encounters. The righteous feats give you a lot of free healing with Shared Burdens, Test of Faith and the capstone so you can focus on gaining divinity and empowering encounters. You usually want to spend divinity on Divine Glow as a party buff/ heal. For empowered encounters Break the Spirit is a great party buff skill as is PoD to further increase damage. Drop Hallowed Ground on any tricky encounter. Divine Armor is for clutching or preemptive protection only. If you take 31 Righteous feats you are a great clutch healer and even soothing light will be very powerful. This is a good build for both PvE and PvP.
5.3 Healing/support AC build
5/5 Resounding Beliefs (stronger direct heals)
5/5 Desperate Restoration (more clutch healing, Divine intervention may not stack with AHS)
5/5 Shared Burdens (turns any heal to an AoE heal)
5/5 Test of Faith (much stronger personal survivability feat and useful for party also)
1/1 Agent of the Divine
For the last 10 points, you can go
5/5 Lasting Wishes, 5/5 Battle Fervor for more healing/ buffing
At-wills: Blessing of Battle (fast divinity), Astral Seal (easy healing)
Encounters: Astral Shield, Divine Glow (for any situation) then Healing Word OR Bastion of Health (for healing)/ Break the Spirit (for party DPS buff)/ Exaltation (buff/heal single target)
Class Features: Anointed Holy Symbol (mitigation)/ Holy Fervor (faster AP gain) or Healer's Lore (more healing)
Daily: Hallowed Ground, Anointed Army
Playstyle:
You probably want to use Astral Shield and Divine Glow. Between both of those and Blessing of Battle you still give great DR and can probably help the party get to the cap. Again, seal a few mobs, then either spam BoB or ASeal depending on preference. AHS no longer gives free Temp HP now that divine AS doesn't heal but you're still going to use divine encounter enough to make it worthwhile. If you have a strong DPSer who is doing the bulk of the DPS exaltation is very good, otherwise a third healing encounter makes for a very safe experience, or Break the Spirit for faster kills. HG for damage/DR buffs, and AA for clutches/immunity to CC. Still very powerful and versatile.
5.4 DPS build (Divine Oracle)
Finally DCs can DPS again if they want to.
5/5 Astral Fury (more personal DPS)
5/5 Righteous Suffering (more personal DPS)
5/5 Bear Your Sins (more party DPS)
5/5 Fire of the Gods (more personal DPS)
1/1 Avatar of the Divine
For utility/Damage reduction
5/5 Resounding Beliefs (better healing)
5/5 Benefit of Foresight (better damage mitigation)
For Max DPS
5/5 Condemnation Gaze (more party DPS)
5/5 Furious Intervention (more AP gain, makes up for not slotting Holy Fervor)
Loadout:
At-wills: Sacred Flame (fast divinity), Brand of the Sun (more DPS, divinity gain over time, proc Bear your Sins)
Encounter: Chains of Blazing Light (fast to cast, decent DPS and control), Daunting Light (your go to nuke), Divine Glow (damage, heal, DPS and buff/debuff)
Class Features: Terrifying Insight (more personal damage), Holy Fervor (AP gain) or Foresight (party mitigation, especially if feated)
Daily: Hallowed Ground, Flamestrike
Firstly you are a bit more vulnerable as a DPSer, least of which is because you don't really heal youself anymore. For your stats you still want 2k+ defense and 25k max HP. I would get more lifesteal than usual (like 1k) as well as regeneration. Your ArP should be 2k, your crit chance should be above 33%. Recovery should be around 1800 minimum and only then worry about power.
You probably want to start your rotation with Chains or Divine Glow depending on who leads then once the party used their knocks use Daunting Light. If you use DG first the party is not in position for everyone to be buffed, and if you use DL first Roar/ Frontline surge may knock them out of the AoE. For divine encounters you can spend on all 3 skills- chains is fast damage+cc, DL is fast damage, DG is damage plus buffs. For empowerment you probably want to save it for Daunting Light, even if it is going to be hard to land. Always try to target DL on toughest boss, and predict their movements. Work out who have aggro and adjust accordingly. You want to BoTS tag all the tough mobs for free divinity and DPS and proccing your feats. The rest is all about gaining and spending divinity well. Use High Prophet set for more personal and party DPS. If you want to use overload slots then corrupt black ice/draconic/templar are also good candidates. If you are getting the hang of divinity and want to spend less time on at wills then Divine Fortune can help you with that.
You'll find you don't have very good ways of dealing with threat or many adds due to target limits. Stick with the party and fight on Icy Terrain where you can, and let the tanks pull. Buff yourself and the top DPSers with DG. Burning Guidance and Rousing Warmth feats can help you DPS but also remember you have to heal to procs them too. Basically you're not the gung ho DPSer, but rather one who works with the party to buff and DPS at the same time.
Apart form BoTS, divine Sunburst is a good power to put DoTs on, but in party situation it's going to be hard not to get into other's ways knocking all over the place. Use it only if you know what you're doing.
I don't recommend DPS build for AC. They'll do fine, but losing BoTS and Terrifying Insight takes away the DPS edge, you are more tanky and can help the party be more tanky however so it's up to you.
5.5 Virtuous Heal like a Champ Build
This will work for both PvP and PvE to try to be the best healer possible. You still don't have much survivability so gear for max HP, defense and regen and rely on your constant HoTs to buy you and party time. I no longer PvP so it's theorycrafting for that component. Feel free to share what works for you. Both paragons work fine here.
5/5 Lasting Wishes (more base healing prowess)
5/5 Have Faith (more DR for the team)
5/5 Purity (great healing boost that works in the background)
4/5 Unbreakable Devotion (more damage mitigation even if team have HP topped up)
1/5 Cleansing Fire (free healing depending on your rotation, you can split points with Unbreakable Devotion above)
1/1 Shield of the Divine (works on allies within 30' but effectively doubles your healing strength over time)
5/5 Desperate Restoration (makes you better at clutching to compensate for losing upfront healing)
5/5 Benefit of Foresight or Prestigious Exaltation (6% more DR for the team, or more buffs and heals if you do use exaltation).
Loadout:
At-wills: Sacred Flame or Blessing of Battle (fast divinity or more protection), Astral Seal (more healing, cleanse proc, divinity gain over time)
Encounter: Healing Word (fast to cast, Aoe HoT), Bastion of Health (more healing) or Astral Shield (more mitigation/defense), Divine Glow (damage, heal, DPS and buff/debuff)
Class Features: Healer's Lore (more base healing), Foresight (party mitigation, especially if feated)
Daily: Hallowed Ground, Divine Armor or Anointed Army
Playstyle:
Recommend Draconic set or one of the PvP sets for PvP. You want to stagger your heals that you have HoT effects running on everyone during combat. This will be fairly easy to do given your feat procs and Healing Word. Use a combination of healing and temp HP (divine AS, divine HW, feats) to achieve the best overall damage reduction possible. You are very effective with this when you are protected by the party, so stay with a tank and try not to pull aggro. In PvP dance and weave between party members because everyone will want you dead and it's a lot easier healing others than healing yourself.
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