How to Build a Powerful Cleric in Ashes of Creation
Understanding the Cleric Role
The Cleric is part of the Divine archetype in Ashes of Creation. They specialize in healing, protecting, and supporting their team while also having access to some powerful utility and control abilities. In most games, the Cleric is synonymous with healing, and in Ashes of Creation, this is no different. However, what makes the Cleric class unique is the variety of customization options available. Clerics can specialize in different sub-archetypes, allowing them to mix healing with damage-dealing or crowd control.
While their primary function is healing, Clerics can be built in many ways depending on the player's preference. Whether you're focused on healing, supporting, or adding utility, the Cleric's flexibility can make it an excellent choice for both beginners and seasoned players alike.
Core Abilities of the Cleric
To start, it's crucial to understand the core abilities that define the Cleric class. These abilities will form the backbone of your build, so it's essential to know their functions and how they work in conjunction with each other.
Healing Light - The primary single-target healing spell for the Cleric. It's a relatively quick cast with a moderate cooldown. This ability will be your go-to for healing allies during most encounters. The amount healed scales with your character's stats, making it essential to invest in gear that boosts healing power.
Circle of Purity - A potent area-of-effect (AoE) healing spell. This ability heals all nearby allies, making it invaluable during group content like dungeons or large-scale PvP fights. It has a larger cooldown than Healing Light, but its ability to restore health to multiple allies at once is its key strength.
Divine Shield - A protective spell that grants an ally a shield that absorbs incoming damage. This ability is vital in protecting fragile allies during boss fights or PvP encounters. Its duration can be extended with the proper talent investment, making it a critical part of your defensive toolkit.
Blessing of the Ancients - This is a powerful buff that increases the effectiveness of your ally's attacks or healing. It can turn the tide of battle when applied at the right moment, making it a crucial spell to manage during high-stakes fights.
Divine Wrath - An offensive spell that deals damage to enemies. While Clerics are primarily healers, they can contribute to damage as well. This ability is particularly useful in PvP or when you need to add some DPS during a raid.
These core abilities will form the foundation of any Cleric build. By combining these skills with the right talents, gear, and playstyle, you can create a Cleric who excels in their chosen role. Use Ashes of Creation Gold to improve your abilities.
Building a Cleric for PvE
In PvE content, Clerics are typically the backbone of any group. Dungeons, raids, and world events require a reliable healer to keep everyone alive and maximize the team's performance. The Cleric is excellent for this role, but the key to building a successful Cleric for PvE is maximizing your healing output, reducing downtime, and ensuring that you provide useful buffs to your party.
Talent Tree and Abilities for PvE
When it comes to talent choices, you will want to focus on enhancing your healing abilities while reducing the cooldowns of critical support spells. Here are some recommended talent focuses for a PvE Cleric build:
Maximize Healing Output - A Cleric's primary role in PvE is to keep their party alive. As such, you should invest in talents that increase the potency of your healing spells. Abilities like Healing Light and Circle of Purity should be prioritized to ensure that you can heal effectively in all situations. Additionally, talent points that enhance healing over time or reduce the cast time for key healing abilities can make a significant difference.
Cooldown Reduction - Many of the Cleric's strongest abilities have cooldowns that limit their usage. By reducing the cooldown of spells like Circle of Purity or Divine Shield, you can ensure that you're able to provide consistent healing and protection throughout longer fights. Having shorter cooldowns on critical abilities is particularly useful in raid scenarios where managing multiple abilities at once is a key part of success.
Mana Efficiency - As a healing class, managing your mana is crucial. Spending too much mana on a few big heals could leave you dry when you need to cast something important. Talents that increase mana regeneration or reduce the mana cost of spells should be considered a priority for any Cleric looking to perform in longer fights.
Area-of-Effect Heals - The Circle of Purity ability is crucial for healing multiple allies at once, and investing in talents that improve its healing output or reduce its cooldown will make you even more effective in group content. Having the ability to heal your whole team quickly is invaluable in dungeons or multi-phase boss fights where the party takes damage from multiple sources.
Gear for PvE Cleric
When gearing your Cleric for PvE, you want to focus on stats that improve your healing potential and mana sustainability. The key stats for a Cleric in PvE are:
Intelligence and Wisdom - These stats increase the effectiveness of your healing spells, making them more potent. You'll want to prioritize gear that boosts these stats.
Vitality - As a support character, it's important that you can survive if you're targeted by enemies or if you take incidental damage. Vitality will increase your total health pool, allowing you to stay alive longer in tough encounters.
Mana Regeneration - Having enough mana to continue casting healing spells is crucial in long fights. Look for gear that increases mana regeneration or reduces the cost of healing abilities.
In addition to these stats, gear that reduces cooldowns or boosts the effectiveness of your buffs and debuffs is a strong choice for any Cleric in PvE. You can buy AoC Gold to get them quickly.
Building a Cleric for PvP
In PvP, the Cleric takes on a more dynamic role. While still focused on healing and support, the Cleric must also consider things like crowd control, survivability, and the ability to contribute to damage. PvP encounters are faster-paced and require more quick decision-making than PvE, so adjusting your build to focus on these aspects is essential.
Talent Tree and Abilities for PvP
Crowd Control - PvP often requires quick reactions to prevent enemies from overwhelming your team. Talents that enhance Divine Wrath or provide additional crowd control effects like stuns or snares can be very effective in stopping enemy players in their tracks.
Burst Healing - In PvP, burst healing can often save your team from near-death situations. Invest in talents that reduce the cooldown or increase the effectiveness of your burst heals. The faster you can keep your team topped off during intense PvP fights, the better.
Survivability - Clerics in PvP are prime targets. Increasing your personal survivability through talents that increase your health, reduce incoming damage, or improve your mobility can give you the edge you need to survive longer in a fight.
Movement Speed - Clerics are often seen as easy targets in PvP, especially if they're stuck in the backline. Talents that increase your movement speed or reduce the effects of slows can help you avoid getting locked down by enemy players.
Gear for PvP Cleric
For PvP, you'll want gear that boosts both your healing potential and your survivability:
Health and Vitality - Boosting your health is essential in PvP, where you'll be taking damage from enemy players. Gear that increases your health pool can help you survive long enough to heal your team.
Cooldown Reduction - Quick access to your healing abilities and utility spells is vital in PvP. Look for gear that reduces the cooldowns of critical abilities.
Mana Management - In PvP, managing your mana can be just as important as in PvE. Gear that improves mana regeneration or reduces ability costs is essential to keep healing throughout extended fights.
Conclusion
The Cleric in Ashes of Creation is a flexible and powerful support class, offering a range of abilities that can turn the tide of battle in both PvE and PvP. With a proper build, your Cleric can become an essential part of any team, ensuring your allies stay alive and are able to perform at their best. Whether you prefer a pure healing build, a hybrid damage-dealing role, or something in between, the Cleric can be tailored to suit your playstyle. By understanding the core abilities, selecting the right talents, and optimizing your gear, you can create a Cleric build that excels in any situation.