On the other hand, a tank isn't strictly required most the time. Rangers, Monks, Bards, even Shamans can and do fill in as needed. My wife used to tank on her Cleric from time to time and did a fairly decent job of it. If the group has decent mana regen the Cleric-pseudo-tank typically works fine. Due to higher damage intake than a proper tank they usually stress a healer more than a real tank, though, if mana's an issue. Oh and forget much self-healing in such a situation, either; with constant pulls and no clarity it's hard enough just to maintain mana for aggro spells. It helps if the Cleric has decent gear for the role and a decent defense skill; many of them don't. Granted, for the great majority of group content all you really need is an Enchanter to go solo everything with charm (see: solo artist challenge). Everything else is pointless to some degree or another. Game would be pretty boring though if we were all Enchanters with a scattering of Wizards, Monks, Warriors, and Clerics for raids that need them.
Comparing damage to a Paladin, a Cleric has better burst, but their main offensive damage spell is both magic-based (hence a lot of resists) and inefficient. As such the Cleric's sustained damage output tends to be lower than the Paladin's, although frankly in this case it's a cripple fight since both classes stink for offense.
Danth
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01-03-2015, 05:03 PM
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