Other than heal, what do you try to do for your group as a Cleric?

[Emarr4E]

I never had an interest in playing a Cleric during live, so I don't know much about them. Despite my short time playing a Cleric though, I've seen enough of the spell list and realize all the different things a Cleric can do for a group if they're pro-active and not lazy.

The problem I have however is that being at base WIS, I have a hard enough time having mana for heals, let alone anything else. I'd love to hear what other Clerics out there try to do for their groups with what we have, other than just buffbot and heal. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[Brynnag]

Meditate for more heals.

[Ele]

Use root to help cc and spend less on heals.

[Bamz4l]

buff, summon food & drink

most importantly, be the one that survives a wipe either by /camping or DA & running to zone. When the cleric survives, the group survives!

[Emarr4E]

Is it considered mana efficient to spend the time/mana on stunning a casting mob, as opposed to letting the nuke land and then healing the damage? Agreed Ele, that is one thing I try to do; though many tanks don't position mobs well it seems and they just sit there by the rooted mobs. But that's another thread, lol.

[Estu]

Originally Posted by Emarr4E [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Is it considered mana efficient to spend the time/mana on stunning a casting mob, as opposed to letting the nuke land and then healing the damage? Agreed Ele, that is one thing I try to do; though many tanks don't position mobs well it seems and they just sit there by the rooted mobs. But that's another thread, lol.

Well, Stun costs 35 mana to cost. Whatever heal you're using probably costs a lot more. So it seems pretty obvious that it would be more mana-efficient.

To answer the main question of the thread, root-parking is one big thing, and the other big thing is lulling to help with pulls, assuming you're high enough level that lulls land semi-reliably on mobs (i.e. mobs are dark blue con). You only need to do these things if someone else can't already do those roles (i.e. can't crowd control mobs in camp or keep casters from nuking or pull singles); your most important job is healing because you're the best at it. More WIS won't let you heal more over time because it doesn't increase your mana regen; it just increases your max mana, which only matters if you have a bad group that's not getting enough pulls and therefore you end up medding to full a lot, or if some messy pull comes along that you need to pull out reserve mana for. The ideal situation from an efficiency standpoint is one in which you're never at max mana and the main tank is never at max HP (unless you're using complete heal).

One useful thing to do is to regulate how much mana you're using. You don't want to be in a place where you're constantly out of mana on routine pulls because it'll fuck you when things go sour. What I do is I only heal people if their HP percentage is lower than my mana percentage, unless it's really an emergency. So if they're 60% HP and I'm 50% mana, I just keep medding until they get hit more or I have more mana. This sends an implicit message not to keep pulling until I med up because the tank/whoever doesn't have the HP to deal with another pull; it lets people know what your mana situation is without you having to constantly update them (although sometimes you still have to be explicit if they're too ballsy). This kind of healing strategy also tends to leave you with a bunch of mana in reserve for when things go south.

[Emarr4E]

Originally Posted by Estu [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Well, Stun costs 35 mana to cost. Whatever heal you're using probably costs a lot more. So it seems pretty obvious that it would be more mana-efficient.

To answer the main question of the thread, root-parking is one big thing, and the other big thing is lulling to help with pulls, assuming you're high enough level that lulls land semi-reliably on mobs (i.e. mobs are dark blue con). You only need to do these things if someone else can't already do those roles (i.e. can't crowd control mobs in camp or keep casters from nuking or pull singles); your most important job is healing because you're the best at it. More WIS won't let you heal more over time because it doesn't increase your mana regen; it just increases your max mana, which only matters if you have a bad group that's not getting enough pulls and therefore you end up medding to full a lot, or if some messy pull comes along that you need to pull out reserve mana for. The ideal situation from an efficiency standpoint is one in which you're never at max mana and the main tank is never at max HP (unless you're using complete heal).

One useful thing to do is to regulate how much mana you're using. You don't want to be in a place where you're constantly out of mana on routine pulls because it'll fuck you when things go sour. What I do is I only heal people if their HP percentage is lower than my mana percentage, unless it's really an emergency. So if they're 60% HP and I'm 50% mana, I just keep medding until they get hit more or I have more mana. This sends an implicit message not to keep pulling until I med up because the tank/whoever doesn't have the HP to deal with another pull; it lets people know what your mana situation is without you having to constantly update them (although sometimes you still have to be explicit if they're too ballsy). This kind of healing strategy also tends to leave you with a bunch of mana in reserve for when things go south.

Awesome advice, thanks.

[Lifebar]

When I was leveling up I would keep my lowest level root and lowest level stun memmed all of the time.

The root is not great, but it's VERY cheap, casts fast, and is really not much worse than any of our other roots pre-paralyzing earth. It can help the group a ton, and if you position them away from the group, you're essentially turning off the damage from non-casters for as long as you can keep them rooted. I have used this to great effect at all levels. When the chanter's pet breaks as a 5-pull arrives at camp you can start parking them while he recovers.

Stun is cheap, fast to cast, and nice for interrupting casters--but it's even better for getting mobs rooted away from the rest of the group. If you have an add that is not being cc'd just stun it from across the room and sit. As soon as the ultra-short duration stun breaks and it starts running at you--cast root. You can get it locked down away from the group, usually without taking any damage yourself. Is it a caster? Do the same thing but run it around a corner and root it out of line-of-sight so it can't cast on anyone. Note: when root breaks it will still be coming for you...but just re-root with cheap roots =)

At 60 I find that I need to root less frequently. Most of my non-healing at this point is stunning (with the same minimum level stun) to interrupt casters, and stripping damage shields with Mark of Karn or Cancel Magic depending on how resistant the mobs are, how many melee need HP, etc.

Also as Estu mentioned lulling / pacifying is totally possible. Add some CHA gear in to help avoid agro from critical resists if it's something you plan on doing often or in very dangerous places (i.e. pacifying through Sebilis).

If you're having trouble with your mana pool, check out the wiki and look at equipment by class by slot. You can get a boatload of WIS pretty cheap these days. There is a lot of good, transitional gear available from 25p-200p per item in EC. Just chart out cheap pieces and save up for each one in order of mana per platinum.

Good luck and go Clerics!

[planarity]

stun charm pets on break, to get them off the chanter so they can mez/recharm more easily (and to save you mana on healing them---you should be able to steal aggro before it eats through the ench's rune)

Calm and atone are some of the best spells clerics get. Use them to send home some mobs on pulls that are too big. Don't use pacify because it costs more mana and doesn't last nearly as long.

[Jimjam]

You can also use the zero-damage stun to build aggro on mezzed mobs without breaking mez, taking heat off the enc.

IIRC you can use lull to pull without needing line of sight (helpful to prevent casting mobs nuking on inc); just keep casting it until you get a resist... it might be just the numb the dead line this works with, I've not played my cleric in a while.

If you are a Halfling you can use sneak to reduce the adds you get on inc.