Cleric and you

[Derokah]

As a cleric, you have a major role to play in your group. Wheather it be acting as the heal bot or adding to the confusion, you are a prime target on the field. Chances are your foes will be after your head before they get to your defenders/tanks. Meaning you have a few things to think about. Such as where to place yourself in offensive and defensive scenarios, what positions in your group to concentrate on in these scenarios, rez priority, timing your heals right, and how to best make use of all of your abilities to better the chances of your groups survival. You should also be thinking about how every aspect of your strategy may need to change at a seconds notice depending on the environment in which your battle is taking place. While we cannot know exactly what our class will look like until more info on skills/gear comes our way, as a "healer" class, we can take from past healer experience and known Aion information to, collectively, come up with a better idea as to what our place in PVP/PVE really is. Please use this thread as a way to post ANY ideas, thoughts, theories, open questions, strategies, and past experiences etc to help better our understanding of how to go about being the best dang clerics out there! Think of this as a chance to share anything you know about taking on the "healer" role. Who knows?.. You might even learn something.

Cleric information resources:
- Cleric Wiki

If you find any Cleric info on the web, send me a link via PM and I will post them here as resources.

Ok I guess ill make a starter. Do you think, as a healer with some offensive abilities, you will hang back behind the warriors while on the offensive side, or fight as a support healer on the front line? Now there are a few pros and cons to this scenario. You could be an effective front line support as you have mail+stuns along with some nukes. Oh, and being closer to the action means all your tanks/O-line will definitely be within your area heal range (not sure of the range so I'm guessing.. :P). I think if you have a well organized group and a backup medic, being an 0-line Cleric may be viable. And of course hanging back as the heal bot is always viable in most games. :P But then again, It all depends on your play style. So what do you think you will be doing while on the offensive? /discuss

[creampuff665]

I'm always the type of Cleric who specializes more in high defense so that I can be up close to the tank/non-ranged DPS. From what I've seen in the games I've played most (Ragnarok, Sword of the New World) it's always best to focus more on high def and vitality than high strength, high intelligence or spell casting time.

One thing a Cleric has to be especially good at is the game controls, spell combinations/durations. They will need to know precisely how every skill in their repertoire works so that they can be of use in every situation.

[Derokah]

Great response. I agree, I find stacking defense as well as working on cast/skill timing is more important than being damage support. I have always tried our outlast my opponents rather than out damage them as a healer/medic.



Keep em coming! Don't be afraid to add new ideas and stories etc as well! All input is valued.

[Lamp]

Originally Posted by Derokah

Ok I guess ill make a starter. Do you think, as a healer with some offensive abilities, you will hang back behind the warriors while on the offensive side, or fight as a support healer on the front line? Now there are a few pros and cons to this scenario. You could be an effective front line support as you have mail+stuns along with some nukes. Oh, and being closer to the action means all your tanks/O-line will definitely be within your area heal range (not sure of the range so I'm guessing.. :P). I think if you have a well organized group and a backup medic, being an 0-line Cleric may be viable. And of course hanging back as the heal bot is always viable in most games. :P But then again, It all depends on your play style. So what do you think you will be doing while on the offensive? /discuss

To be honest, if I saw a cleric on the front lines I would kill him/her first. And then whoever I was fighting would be without a healer... I don't know much about any spells or skills that the classes in Aion have, but in MMOs that I've played my team either goes all out on the healer first, or we kill anyone else that is weak (maybe a sorcerer).
Just some input ^_^

[Chaos_Theory]

I normally tend to hang back and try to make it hard as possible to even hit and if you manage to hit me I try to avoid the spike that will be coming up. I normally go for high defense in armor and low energy/mana for weapons so I can switch weapons for more energy if things get bad.

I think the cleric in Aion will play more like a restoration/channeling ritualist in GW. I say this because they will heal and protect allies while assisting in spike similar to how the ritualist is played in GW. I think the cleric will mostly assist in spikes with its stun and knockdown abilities. KD is very important in pvp as it prevents the opponent from using defense skills, kiting, and switching to different weapon sets to defend itself.

I hope the cleric in Aion will be more of a support class in pvp but being able to solo well in pve.

[Derokah]

Originally Posted by Lamp

To be honest, if I saw a cleric on the front lines I would kill him/her first. And then whoever I was fighting would be without a healer... I don't know much about any spells or skills that the classes in Aion have, but in MMOs that I've played my team either goes all out on the healer first, or we kill anyone else that is weak (maybe a sorcerer).
Just some input ^_^

And good input at that. I also mentioned this issue in the beginning of the thread. It will definitely be interesting to see how cleric will come together considering most healer classes in other games barely have any offensive skills, or good armor. Not to forget what we might be able to do with stigmas.

Originally Posted by Chaos_Theory

I hope the cleric in Aion will be more of a support class in pvp but being able to solo well in pve.

/agree

[Ecco]

For a Cleric, you have to get the fact that not many would-be healers learn and maximize their full potential. Would an average player have 3-4 different sets of gear depending on the situation, or different skill-sets or having to analyze surroundings then make use of their range to heal / support while also moving to avoid getting focus-fired on are some examples.

Even when you can know your class from top to bottom, being on a team means also relying heavily on your mates, DPS, tanks. At times when you're so focused on one thing ie., tunnel-visioning, you lose track of everything else and your reaction time is delayed. Oh it's easy to say, "Learn to look around you or L2 multitask", but actually doing it is another thing. Even if you keep your whole team and yourself alive, someone in that group would eventually drag you down because either he/she wants to do it his/her way or just plain don't have teamwork and can't manage to keep your would-be killers off you unless you have that "perfect dream team".

I had that happening playing as a healer in most games, some people get so damn fixated on their target that they fail to realize who was keeping them up the whole time, then poof, I go down because of aggro or the enemy finally realizes I need to die, then the rest follows forth and everyone wonders what the hell happened and sometimes healer gets blamed on.

My question is how do players feel about the person playing the healer react to certain situations, can perform decently in healing and support, has potential to be better but can't really do what the others expect him/her to do overall because of certain reaons? What I mean is this, you can do more than just heal, you basically excel in what you do and you know everything about the game mechanics and you exploit your classes abilities in order to be beyond that of an average healer.

[Lady Elsa]

Playing a healer is one of my fav class in GW. If I am setting up my cleric to heal a group, typicly putting any offensive spells in my bar is a waste of time. A good healer hangs in the back he/she does not attack, but tries to stay as much as possible away from the agro.

I had a chance check out Aion cleric skills and found perhaps 1 offensive skill that might be useful to add to the skill bar and it is a "ability to paralyze". We all know that in pvp people tend to gang up on a cleric, this skill my help to hold of an enemy before the rest of your teammate get rid of the agro on you.

Typically sorceress or ranger or something that damages from the distance in the back should help out a cleric who is in distress. Most important if you are being attacked, LET THE GROUP KNOW! A decent group will immediately react by getting agro off you. If they don't, at least when you die u can point out that they ignored your cry for help and you weren't at fault for dying.

Good skills to focus on as a cleric would be: increase over all energy, increase energy regeneration and put something in defense too.

VERY IMPORTANT: if you are the groups healer, please DO NOT run up and stay at the front with tanks and agro stuff getting yourself killed! In fact you would be a very good healer if you were just to focus on heal and avoiding combat when necessary! The whole group relies on you to keep them healed and to keep yourself a life. DO NOT make them it harder on them to protect you!

And most important: enjoy what you do =) Good luck to all playing healers.

[Calindor]

Healers are the most valuable part of your party, or force in L2...having a skilled healer is a lot more beneficial than a pro on other char.

For the first part of the fight I think the best spot is behind everyone, archers always up at the front, then nukers and melees behind them ready to run across once the forces meet. When its all a scramble its just running around trying to avoid cc/getting hit, you have to know when to spam heals, or when you should just let the person die and rez them so they will no longer be under focus...MP consumption has to come into account, when you've got someone getting hit by a whole party of people, are you going to waste 1/4 of your MP spamming heals on him? Or just let him die then rez him up. Most importantly is how all the healers work together, how fast they are at rezzing each other when one goes down...Its also a whole different story in small scale PvP, or Mass PvP with 50 people on your team.

For my build it will be robes and staff. I'm sure even if healers get the stigma for heavy armor, other things will be impaired...I'm going for pure PvP heals and resurrections, cast speed, mana efficiency, etc...I dont care if I cant kill a lvl 1 mob...my clan will be running organized PvE/grinding parties pretty much every night.

[Derokah]

Yeah does anyone know what the group member cap is? That would help a lot. That would at least give us an idea of how many healers per group we could get away with. Without losing too much DPS I mean. Also.. Does anyone know if our area heal(s) only effect those in our group?

[Calindor]

6 per group, 24 per raid

[Derokah]

Originally Posted by Calindor

6 per group, 24 per raid

Wow that's pretty small. Well since we don't (or maybe just I don't) know if area heals or resuscitation works on non group members, two scenarios come to mind.

1st - In the case that we can use healing/rez abilities on non group members, its not a problem at all. Allowing us to just keep groups close together etc etc so everyone can get multiple area heals. Or whatever strategy you prefer. This was just an example.

2nd - In the case that area heals/rez abilities do not effect non group members, we will have to resort to organizing different group builds based on functionality. For example, say its just a single boss run with a few minions... Depending on how many healers/buffers you have, you may need to assign one group to tanking which might consist of 4 warrior classes, and two healers. And another group for ranged DPS consisting of a few rangers, a few mages, a chanter for damage buffs, and a healer. And so on. So each group would have objectives such as holding the boss aggro, or taking out the minions before a timer or something. The possibilities are almost endless.

Either confirm one one these scenarios/examples, or add any thoughts, ideas, opinions, or different ways of going about each. I'm going to go check the abilities/skill descriptions in the Wiki to see if it hasn't been confirmed already. But of course it's old info and skills are still subject to change.. so yeah.

/discuss

Note that Calindor had already posted a thread related to the subject in question.

Originally Posted by Calindor

Some questions about both...how fast does the Rez skill recharge, are there any mass resurrections to rez all nearby faction members?

For the heals, approx how long do they take to cast, are they very hard on MP? Does anyone know of a good video that shows a Cleric healing party members eitehr pvp or pve?

Thanks

His thread had resulted a few answers, but still left me with the question of the ability to effect non group members. Which is why I asked about it. His thread can be found here.

[Calindor]

Yeah I would be interested to know if clerics could rez each other out of party, I assume they can, but you never know.

[Derokah]

Yeah, the skill descriptions in the Wiki are too vague to tell. Ill add a link to the cleric section of the source Wiki here as well as any other cleric links I can find. (If you know of any links, send them to me via PM and Ill post 'em) Maybe someone will be able pick out something I missed.

[Lady Elsa]

Originally Posted by Derokah

2nd - In the case that area heals/rez abilities do not effect non group members, we will have to resort to organizing different group builds based on functionality. For example, say its just a single boss run with a few minions... Depending on how many healers/buffers you have, you may need to assign one group to tanking which might consist of 4 warrior classes, and two healers. And another group for ranged DPS consisting of a few rangers, a few mages, a chanter for damage buffs, and a healer. And so on. So each group would have objectives such as holding the boss aggro, or taking out the minions before a timer or something. The possibilities are almost endless.

4 warrior classes!!!!!!!!!??????????? and 2 Healers!!!!!?????? Please NO! and a 100 times NO!!!!!

People for some reason think that if they surround themselves with warriors it will be better for the group. That’s one wrong assumption!
Guilds wars have 8 people per group and most of the time you walk around with 2 healers per group. If a group of 8 has more than 2 warriors.....unless it's a simple mission, healers have a VERY hard time keeping up with mele class. I know! I was there. There is no way in hells u need 4 tanks in the first place!!!!! that’s extremely unnecessary! 1-2 from warrior class is always plenty.....it works very well in GW and they have 8 people in a group which means that a lot more enemies are roaming around.

Here is a solution if you are looking for more tanking.

1 templar ( good defense, they should be able to protect themselves which will allow u to spend less heals on them!)
2 spirit master (the spirit master himself will stay back you will not have to worry to much if his pet dies. he can always summon another pet especially Earth elemental it's a defensive type!)
3 Chanter (yes......chanter has a lots of armor pick someone with lots of defense he will buff up the group and also do the damage upfront, which means easier for the healer)
4 sorcerer (they always deal most damage than any other class and they stay behind, great choice for offence!)
5 ranger (same as sorcerer, they will stay behind and yet deal a nice amount of damage)
6 cleric ( self explanatory)

and so........in the end you end up with 3 tanks upfront and 2 damage dealers from the back........the group however will have no problems staying healed, tank and deal damage.