Cleric is fully geared and has been leveling nicely. My experience thus far reinforces the idea that being as tanky as you reasonably can is definitely is the way to go while leveling/PuGing/duoing. Being tanky allows you to get a lot more use out of your underrated CC skills without having to constantly heal yourself. I find myself taking hits fairly regularly (lot of root CCing in small leveling groups) and the AC helps a lot. A good number of minimum hits and misses from mobs. For reference, I'm tanky enough that melee soloing with a 30/36 Velious bat is still superior XP/hr to root nuking even at level 40 where I currently sit. The Dwarven cultural is a huge asset in this regard, having high AC and decent WIS in the Chest/Arms/Legs. Crystal Chitin Gauntlets are another easy choice, with 20 AC and a respectable 35 mana in the glove slot (compare to Gauntlets of Iron Tactics with +7 WIS but only 2 AC!). Mana has not been an issue at all even in a few SHTF situations (although to be fair even in tanky gear I still have 192 WIS and a number of +mana items).
I really can't think of any situation outside of raiding where a Cleric isn't better served by reasonably emphasizing AC/HP over max mana. Solo, group and duo all benefit noticeably from it from what I've seen so far. Given that a Cleric death is the worst death a group can take, it makes sense that Clerics should be as hard to kill as they reasonably can be while having a sufficient mana pool to deal with the occasional SHTF scenario.
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