The haste effect from the clicky initiate symbol lasts 2 seconds. It sounds really cool on paper, but was pretty darned useless in practice. Cleric bash wasn't really all about melee damage. It was much more about interrupting casters. Yes, it added a little extra dps, but its main effect was that it saved us mana by interrupting casters. It meant we had to heal less often.
Our stun spells are pretty mana intensive and are resisted a lot, but landing one just as the mob is engaged always saves mana because the fight doesn't last as long, and we don't have to cast as many heals.
Bash was a big deal for a lot of Clerics. We fought long and hard to get SOE to finally give us that skill. Further self sufficiency arrived later after so many old Clerics had quit the game due to the sheer boredom of the CHeal chain gang, and their toons turned into bots. I only played a Cleric, and truly love the class, but I do miss all of the added utility and self sufficiency that was added later.
A Cleric wielding the Luclin DA Hammer with his self proc'ing DS was a sight to behold. I was SO close to being able to solo Vindi when I quit playing about 4 1/2 years ago. So very, very close...
So says one of the crazy ex-battle Clerics from Live.
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