Proposed ideas to encourage actual "Front-line healing" for Clerics. [Archive]

Wyndrith

07-14-2009, 11:23 PM

Good day fellow Inquisitors,It's been a while since I've actively played my Inquis. It was the first class I picked when I started EQ2, 2 years ago. It is my understanding that the class archetype is labeled under Cleric and my interpretation of that is that it should be a "Front-line healer" in some way, especially since it has access to plate armor. As I progressed through the levels, solo and grouping, I began to notice that my heals, direct or reactive weren't too comparable to other Priests' heals as a whole, and this was heavily dampened if I was the solo healer for a group. I began to think "Oh, well I should have DPS options available to compensate for my lack of healing potential.", and while this remains true to this day, DPS as an Inquisitor (or Templar for this matter) is not something that seems to help a group anymore than it only makes me look like I'm trying to do something beneficial.After taking some time to think about what could be improved for the class and the class archetype as a whole, I'd come up with a few interesting ideas that I hope can bring some sense of replayability to the class and will take it into a whole new direction. These ideas are mostly in support of pushing the Cleric classes towards needing to be at the frontlines in order to perform better as healers or at least on-par with the potential of other Priest classes. While I am aware that the reasons and benefits for being at the front as a Cleric are not wholly phenomenal as compared to any other healer class, the proposed ideas below are designed to give Inquisitors and Templars alike much more incentive to fight alongside their allies, and not just for DPS purposes, but to enhance their healing potential. Additionally, it is my understanding that most will argue that AAs and equipment schemes can be devised in support of either healing or DPS. However, as mentioned above, DPS/damage output is not my main concern when playing an Inquis or Templar, but rather having incentives to DPS would be the primary issue.-Truth be told, there is no truly beneficial incentive to DPS as a Cleric other than to add a minimal amount of overall damage output and inadvertantly put yourself at risk to hostile AE. Since this applies to pretty much any healer class, what I have to say only highlights my intentions in regards to addessing those issues for Clerics.----------------------- Cleric Stances ---------------------Yep, that's right, more stances. And no these stances will not require 170+10 AAs to achieve, these will be standardized self-buffs that have their own tiers. As stated above, these stances will offer the Cleric additional prowess when fighting at the frontlines. Conversely, there will be a stance that augments healing from a distance. However, neither stance will impose significant penalties when used, and consequently will require 1 concentration to maintain.---Offensive stance (Enhances the Cleric's potential when engaged at the frontlines):Combat Zealotry (10), Combat Zealotry II (30), Combat Zealotry III (50), Combat Zealotry IV (70)Power cost: 150Casting time: instantRecast time: 10 secondsDuration: Until cancelledConcentration: 1Combat Zealotry - The Cleric focuses their melee abilities and discipline of faith, improving their combat skills, focus, ministration, attack speed, and augmenting certain healing and cure spells at the cost of reduced casting range. The Cleric's primary physical mitigation group buff will also be enhanced. This ability requires 1 concentration to maintain.<ul><li>Increases Crushing of caster by: (10): +8 Crushing, (30): +11 Crushing, (50): +15 Crushing, (70): +20 Crushing </li><li>Increases Focus and Ministration of caster by (10): +5, (30): +8, (50): +12, (70): +16 </li><li>Increases Attack Speed of caster by 10</li><li>Reduces the spell range of single-target and group reactive heals by 10</li><li>Reduces the spell range of single-target and group cure spells by 10</li><li>Reduces the effect radius of Holy Armor and Sacred Armor by 25<ul><li>Increases the physical damage resistance granted by Holy Armor and Sacred Armor by 15%</li></ul></li><li>Whenever the caster strikes a foe with a melee weapon or combat art, caster gains the effect of Combat Fervor. Lasts for 15 seconds.<ul><li>Augments single-target and group reactive healing spells<ul><li>Grants single-target and group reactive heals 2 additional trigger amounts</li><li>Improves the base heal amount of single-target and group reactive heals by 35% </li></ul></li></ul></li></ul><ul><li><ul><li>Augments single-target and group cure spells<ul><li>Whenever the Cleric removes a trauma, arcane, magic, elemental, or divine effect, Prayer of Recovery is cast on the target. Lasts for 6 seconds.<ul><li>Prayer of Recovery<ul><li>Heals target for: Level of hostile effect removed multiplied by 2, immediately and every 2 seconds.</li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul>---Defensive stance (Enhances the Cleric's spellcasting potential): Spiritual Inspiration (10), Spiritual Inspiration II (30), Spiritual Inspiration III (50), Spiritual Inspiration IV (70)Power cost: 150 Casting time: instant Recast time: 10 seconds Duration: Until cancelled Concentration: 1Spiritual Inspiration - The Cleric focuses their casting abilities, improving their casting skills, spellcasting speed, spellcasting range, and augmenting certain healing and cure spells at the cost of reduced physical resistance. The Cleric's primary group elemental, magic, and divine resistance buff will also be enhanced. This ability requires 1 concentration to maintain.<ul><li>Increases Ordination, Disruption, and Subjugation of caster by: (10): +10, (30): +14, (50): +19, (70): +25 </li><li>Increases casting speed of caster by 5%</li><li>Increases spellcasting range of caster by 5</li><li>Decreases physical mitigation of caster by 20%</li><li>Increases the effect radius of Fanatic's Faith and Symbol of Marzin by 10<ul><li>Increases the arcane damage resistance granted by Fanatic's Faith and Symbol of Marzin by 15%</li></ul></li><li>Whenever the caster casts a beneficial or hostile spell, caster gains the effect of Spiritual Fervor. Lasts for 15 seconds.<ul><li>Augments all single-target and group healing spells <ul><li>Grants single-target and group reactive heals 1 additional trigger amount</li><li>Improves the base heal amount of single-target and group healing spells by 20%</li></ul></li></ul></li></ul> <ul><li><ul><li>Augments single-target and group cure spells<ul><li>Whenever the Cleric removes a trauma, arcane, magic, elemental, or divine effect, Prayer of Restoration is cast on the target. Lasts for 6 seconds. <ul><li>Prayer of Restoration<ul><li>Heals target for: Level of hostile effect removed multiplied by 3, immediately and every 2 seconds.</li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul>--------- Inquisitor: Inquisitor AA tree enhancement: Battle Cleric --------As stands the current Battle Cleric ability in this AA tree provides the following:-Increases caster's Crushing by x-Increases caster's effectiveness of worn armor against all physical damage by 10%-Reduces power cost of Battle abilities by 25%In light of pushing the Inquisitor class to be a more effective frontline healer, I propose the following be added to Battle Cleric:-Augments all Battle abilities<ul><li>Adds a 1.0 second stun component to the trigger effect of Act of War</li><li>Augments Invocation Strike, Writhing Strike, Litany Circle, Strike of Flames, and Strike of Corruption<ul><li>Whenever Invocation Strike, Writhing Strike, Strike of Flames, or Strike of Corruption successfully hits an enemy, Radiance of Faith is cast on all of the Inquisitor's allies within 25 meters.<ul><li>Heals all group friends and allies for 50% of damage dealt<ul><li>Whenever Litany Circle successfully hits an enemy<ul><li>Heals all group friends and allies for 15% of damage dealt to each target</li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul></li></ul>------- Equipment Variety ---------Lastly but not least, an expanded variety of shields for Clerics would be an interesting perk. Particularly kite shields were in consideration. After all, if Clerics can wear heavy armor and use heavy weapons, why can't heavy shields be used as well?And that's it! Thoughts? Ideas? Is my idea of an actual frontline Cleric proposed in this manner too far-fetched? Please leave feedback and or suggestions if you would like to comment in support for or against this. Thanks very much all for reading!

Calain80

07-15-2009, 12:38 PM

Actually these are some horrible ideas. 1st the Templar ist the most powerful healer out there, so there is no need to push them even further. Then we already don't have enough conc slots unless we have our T4 4piece bonus (Inq) / Mythical (Temp). So there is no way we can afford anything that costs conc. 3rd are some of your options either unusable (smaler area for group spells, as it would kill your mages and soime others, if they get ported or need to move away from the group (what happens quite often in TSO) or absolutely overpowered (+35% base heal / cure bot). I don't know what you played the last two years but either try to understand the role of an Inquisitor or better return to that class. p.s. Just in caste you think, that we still do no DPS: It is easy to reach 3k while grouping, if you there is a second healer. In a raid we can reach much higher numbers. With good gear we can also solo heal any instance. Yes it is easier for many other healers esp. Templars, but we can also do it.

Orthureon

07-15-2009, 12:58 PM

The ideas are alright, some seem a little OP/UP at the same time, I know odd right. But anyways I do agree that Clerics should be able to use Kite Shields, I would even go so far as to say tower shields. Remember D&D. Just make it so when you wear a kite or tower shield it lowers your focus.