Cleric = fun fun fun

[Rageburst]

Considering that I've tinkered with tons of lvl 30 chars from each class, the new and improved 1.10 paladin finally has more options aside from fanaticism and conviction, making the paladin feel like a new class.

Required:
20 pts prayer,
20 pts holy bolt,
1 pt meditation,
1 pt salvation.

Prayer gives healing synergies to holy bolt, and using the 1 pt in meditation allows you to use activate the effects of prayer w/o using any mana in addition to its regeneration rate boost.

From here, you can choose to boost FotH and holy shock for maxed FotH synergy. Afterwards, pts in blessed hammer is also useful for better holy bolt damage.... or you can opt to put pts in holy shield instead.

One tactic is to hire a merc and equip him to be able to take at least a few hits from act bosses. Simply place a portal in front of an act boss and run in/out to bring the merc in front. Now you can easily aim holy bolt at your merc and heal him until the boss is dead.

The great thing about holy bolt is that no undead can resist it... even the magic immunes. I'd hotkey holy bolt and FotH on the left attack (switching on FotH for non-undead). Using 1 pt meditation with 20 pts in prayer allows you to invest little in energy and spend it more on dex and vit.

[Raziel]

Welcome to my world!

I have a level 64 cleric playing with my wife's lvl 64 lig/fire sorc.

My build:

Holy Bolt: 20
Prayer: 20
Meditation: 5 (more useful than 1 point, doubled radius and extra 100% regen)
FOTH: 20
Holy Shield: 5

I haven't maxed Holy Shield yet. I am currently wielding +3 Combat crystal sword, +2 Combat spiked shield and +1 Pally circlet. FOTH and HB are at 26. I'm still maxing Prayer. Holy Shield is at 1, but with bonuses it's at 7 and it's duration is incredible.

Incidentally, one of the prerequisites for FOTH is Conversion, which at slvl 7 has about a 28% chance to convert. Very, very useful. Slvl 7 Smite is doing wonders for me in players 8 NM.

FOTH sounds sucky, but believe me, it's great fire support in between spammed Holy Bolts. It's serving me well in players 8 NM Act 4/5.

I originally recommended a Prayer merc (since it STACKS with Meditation's inherited healing) but I take it back. I now recommend an ACT 3 COLD SORC - Glacial Spike and Ice Blast both freeze, working to save your party members while giving you a minion that stays the heck out of melee combat and therefore not needing any of your healing attention. Your Holy Bolts can be focussed on your party member's hirelings, keeping them alive as eternal tanks, while your merc freezes, you heal and fist things to death, and your party members (ie, my wife's sorc) can kill in peace with an endless pool of mana and life.

We basically NEVER die.

My wife's merc - a level 64 (they levels FANTASTICALLY in 1.10s) defiance merc from Normal Act 2, equipped with Skin of the Flayed One, Nat's helm and a Cruel Pike of 30% IAS - all found LEGIT - can basically tank anything except Diablo. He tanked Hephaesto. He tanked the Infector of Souls. Only insane damage can take him down, because I just lock onto him with Holy Bolts and spam healing.

You don't need town portals to let your merc fight. Players can walk through mercs - advance, draw out enemies, and run through your merc to place him at the battle's forefront.

Ps. I'm wearing trash shop bought eq for the most part. If only I could find a +3 Pally Circlet and Shield, or better yet, a HoZ. Level 32 FOTH.. mmmmmm :)

I don't think the synergy of Holy Shock to FOTH will be worth it. I'm maxing Prayer and putting 5 into Holy Shield first (it's all I have left to do at clvl 64), and only when I have spare points will I burn them in Holy Shock. Or maybe i'll put a few more in Conversion.

+Combat skills is the key.

The Zombie Garden in Act 5 gives insane exp. Clerics will level FAST there.

I suggest getting Prayer to about 5 points, then max Holy Bolt, put 5 in Meditation when you can, and max Fist of the Heavens. Get a point into Holy Shield and THEN turn around and max Prayer. The incidental healing isn't worth it, and Holy Bolt heals well enough without really needing it's Prayer synergy until later levels. But having Meditation, Holy Bolt and Fist ready ASAP are essential to being both a cleric and lending an occasional bit of helpful damage in battle.

There are a lot more undead than you might realise. For example, the tombs of Act 2 are pretty much all undead. The Chaos Sanctuary is 2/3 undead. For a cleric, you can suddenly find yourself very useful, especially when you can own spectres and oblivion knights far easier than a sorc.

[Guest]

with the holy shock synergy to FoH, has anyone tried to make a shock ranger/cleric?

[Raziel]

Yes, I have one of those too. I call him a "Shock Trooper":

20 Resist Lightning
20 Holy Shock
20 FOTH
1 Vengance

... etc.

My goal was to use a bow with charges of multiple shot, but that's harder to buy than you might think :(

[LordJaeden]

IIRC you can get gloves with charges of multi shot, that way it should not matter what bow you use.

[Raziel]

The glove requirements are much higher, and the level and number of charges is lower.

[Obi2Kenobi]

If I get positive feedback (and I am stubborn, so even if I get negative) I am going to make this a real guide... and add some more stuff to the vague parts. Even an overall assessment of each item that I think is fairly good. :P

I don't really want to use FoH, since my cleric will play with other players who kill stuff... :) I just make it easier.


If I plan for a peak of level 80 (doesn't seem that hard from what I have heard) then I will end up with 91 (right?) skill points for distribution. (prereqs. in gray) (optional in red) (synergies in green)

Max Prayer (for a lot of healing)

1 point Cleansing (for getting Mediation, and to be used until then, unless you want the larger radius you would have with Prayer...)

Max Meditation (I am one of the few people [Ok, the only one] who advocates maxing this... I have plenty of skill points without FoH. It gives a huge radius, and allows you to spam your Holy Bolts + Blessed Hammer non stop with minimal energy investment, which means more dex for blocking/strength if you want to wear something like Griswold's Heart/vitality for life)

1 point Defiance (only if you want...)

1 point Vigor (one of my favorite 1 point wonders. :) )

Max Holy Bolt (for a lot of healing + undead damage)

Max/10ish [depending on how much you want in Holy Shield...) Blessed Hammer (for the Holy Bolt synergy, plus the ability to damage non-undead monsters [which won't be much, so it is more for the Holy Bolt synergy])

1 point Smite

Holy Shield (remaining points here)


The main thing you will have to do with this guy is get him into a party. Amazon Basin games will (hopefully, unless a lot of them make these guys, since only 2 can work together, unless at least one doesn't have a prayer merc, then you just use that instead) be good for that. Unless you don't mind not getting thanked that often (I can count on 1 finger the amount of times I have been thanked for saving some one), then random public games will work.

For items (the title says just, not that there isn't one. :P) you want as many plus skills as you can. Although combat or defensive auras are almost as good (unless you get both, then it is as good). Your weapon damage doesn't matter, so a scepter is just as good as an elite war scepter (unless you really want to whack things every now and then).

This section is incomplete... but I will finish it as soon as I get my own website. :P (if you are appalled at the quality of this guide, don't worry... there will be more than this (and even more than Diablo II stuff) on it. :) )

For good armor (some "top end" gear, some poor man's solutions) there is (with my thoughts on some abilities):

Chains of Honor
+2 To All Skills Very good. Can't go wrong with more +skills.
+200% Damage To Demons Fairly useless, except maybe getting in some damage vs. Act End bosses if you aren't too busy healing others.
+100% Damage To Undead
8% Life Stolen Per Hit
+70% Enhanced Defense More defense=less hits. ;)
+20 To Strength Allows more points into dex or vitality.
Replenish Life +7 To help make up for the fact that you can't Holy Bolt yourself.
All Resistances +65 Magical attacks are the ones you will be hit by most...
Damage Reduced By 8% To help against the few missile attacks that get through your blocking/defense. And if you chose to whack some act end bosses with your weapon.
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Enigma
+2 To All Skills Very good.
+45% Faster Run/Walk Allows you to flee from danger easier.
+1 To Teleport In case you get trapped.
+757 Defense Less likely to be hit=less time spent blocking/recovering.
+ (0.75 Per Character Level) +1-74.25 To Strength (Based On Character Level) More for dex/vitality.
Increase Maximum Life 5% Your high healing rate will help keep you full with your increased life. :)
Damage Reduced By 8% In case some attacks get through.
+14 Life After Each Kill The closest thing you'll have to life leech.
15% Damage Taken Goes To Mana In case med can't keep you full (read as: mana burn boss)
+ (1 Per Character Level) +1-99% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items (Based On Character Level)

Guardian Angel
+180-200% Enhanced Defense
+20% Increased Chance Of BlockingAllows for less dex, meaning more life, or if you need it, strength.
+30% Faster Block Rate
+ (2.5 Per Character Level) 2.5-247.5 To Attack Rating Against Demons (Based On Character Level)
+1 To Paladin Skill Levels Good mod here.
+4 To Light Radius
15% To Maximum Resist All Since Paladin shields have inate resists (sometimes) this allows you to send it to the max, which is good since elemental is probably your biggest weakness. (or rather the potentially biggest weakness)

Skin of the Vipermagi
+120% Enhanced Defense
+1 To All Skills Important
30% Faster Cast Rate Allows you to get those holy bolts off faster, or if you wish, fill the screen with BH.
Magic Damage Reduced By 9-13 That's important. :)
All Resistances +20-35 In case your shield doesn't fill these up.

The Spirit Shroud
+150% Enhanced Defense
Cannot Be Frozen You need to maneuver a little to get those holy bolts in, and being frozen would make that difficult.
+1 To All Skills Important for this Paladin.
Replenish Life +10 You can't Holy Bolt yourself.
Magic Damage Reduced By 7-11 For anything left over from your resists (or is it to make it easier on your resist... I forgot which one goes first)



Helms need pretty much the same mods as armor. :)

Radiance
+75% Enhanced Defense
+30 Defense Vs. Missile
+10 To Energy Not very important with your high levels of mediation, but usefull none the less.
+10 To Vitality Allows more points into vitality. :P
15% Damage Goes To Mana In case of mana burn boss, use this helm. :)
Magic Damage Reduced By 3 Not terribly important when this low...
+33 To Mana Read energy comment
Damage Reduced By 7 Good, I guess.
+5 To Light Radius

Lore
+1 To All Skill Levels Important
+10 To Energy Good, I guess
+2 To Mana After Each Kill Your mana leech.
Lightning Resist +30% Good against those conviction LEBs.
Damage Reduced By 7 OK mod.
+2 To Light Radius


More later... :)

P.S. What do you think? Instead of say, "it sucks" say that it's OK. :P

[ZenXIII]

Chains of Honor
+2 To All Skills Very good. Can't go wrong with more +skills.
+200% Damage To Demons Fairly useless, except maybe getting in some damage vs. Act End bosses if you aren't too busy healing others.
+100% Damage To Undead
8% Life Stolen Per Hit
+70% Enhanced Defense More defense=less hits. ;)
+20 To Strength Allows more points into dex or vitality.
Replenish Life +7 To help make up for the fact that you can't Holy Bolt yourself.
All Resistances +65 Magical attacks are the ones you will be hit by most...
Damage Reduced By 8% To help against the few missile attacks that get through your blocking/defense. And if you chose to whack some act end bosses with your weapon.
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items

Now, with the chains of honor and the 100% damage to undead...that doesn't apply to holy bolt...does it?

[Obi2Kenobi]

Unfortunately, no.

[Raziel]

Your guide sucks. LOL, j/k. ;)

I found that BHammer sucks without synergies. Maybe I just suck at using it, but there you go. You haven't mentioned any synergies beyond 1 point in Vigor, and you have no Concentration.

I liked FOTH far more than BH. Plus, you get the obligatory Conversion prerequisite point. Okay.. it might suck in Hell. I'm about to find out. Works nice in /players 8 NM though.

Do not max Meditation. Put 5 points into it and get +Combat skill items. I am level 64 and have about +10 Combat skills. Gambling on circlets and ammys get you some, and shop running gets you +3 swords and shields easily (I just bought a +3 Combat shield). That's enough to sustain constant HB, help your party, and have a huge radius.

I'm wearing "Stealth" armor - have been for 30 levels - and it's still very nice.

I guess I have my own views on building a cleric. I'm really, really enjoying the one I have right now. Oh, and you didn't mention mercs - I highly recommend an A3 cold sorc.

[Obi2Kenobi]

Blessed hammer was more for the holy bolt synergy than anything else. And for the merc, I was thinking a prayer merc, but after reading that post on the Amazon basin by Craziel (is that you??) that reminded me that freezing=everyone takes less damge, also. :)

Oh, and... my guide sucks because it is not done and my first one. :P

[Raziel]

Yeah that's me. I'm Craziel there and Raziel here. I prefer the former :)

[Ice]

Do not max Meditation. Put 5 points into it and get +Combat skill items. I am level 64 and have about +10 Combat skills. Gambling on circlets and ammys get you some, and shop running gets you +3 swords and shields easily (I just bought a +3 Combat shield). That's enough to sustain constant HB, help your party, and have a huge radius.

Maxing meditation isn't all that bad an idea. It's about going all out to be a party aider... the cost of which would of course be the amount of damage you can inflict but usually that wouldn't be a major problem in parties.

With maxed meditation, that would take up around 70 skill points already (3 maxed skills and abt 10 prerequisites and 1-point wonders). You could spend whatever remains to get a mid level FoH for some minor lightning damage coupled with some fun party healing via FoH bolts. Alternatively, you could get the points into smite/holy shield which when coupled with a little bit of crushing blow is quite a reasonable source of damage as well.

It's just a matter of how far you want to take the concept of party-aiding at the cost of self. With 5 meditation, a lot of builds will like you. With 20+ (probably end up with 25+) meditation, those builds will love you :D .

[Crystalion]

I now recommend an ACT 3 COLD SORC - Glacial Spike and Ice Blast both freeze

I think it is a yet unsettled question, v1.10s, whether the merc's skill in glacial spike synergizes the freeze duration of the Ice Blasts (which are the predominent attack m.o. for the merc). In any event a quick test (with my level 52 "zombie garden" character, HolyFist, who was rushed to hell incidentally although he continues to "live" in Pindle's nightmare courtyard) suggests this works quite well in nm and falls apart in hell. Certainly in Diablo 2 Classic the act 3 freeze sorc merc was a god, so it is somewhat nostalgic to realize he still can rock for crowd control.

The advantage of the slowing of Holy Freeze is that it isn't shortened or voided by monsters having immunity or high cold resist. Indeed current v1.10s discussion suggests that when the merc then jabs a monster that has already been slowed by HF that the chill damage HF adds to the weapon also stacks some slowing on the monster (if they are suspectible to chill). This makes "monster flee" a beautiful sight to behold (as the merc is repeatedly jabbing them in the back as they attempt a slo-mo getaway). Of course, you can always hire a new merc later (from nightmare) for hell (and then power level them by slumming). I am not aware, v1.10s, of which monsters can not be slowed by any means, although I recall seeing a list posted in a thread recently.

[Xergon]

Sanctuary could be useful, but I'm guessing that also doesn't stack with holy bolt :P

[Raziel]

The advantage of the slowing of Holy Freeze is that it isn't shortened or voided by monsters having immunity or high cold resist. Indeed current v1.10s discussion suggests that when the merc then jabs a monster that has already been slowed by HF that the chill damage HF adds to the weapon also stacks some slowing on the monster (if they are suspectible to chill).

It isn't? Woah. I didn't know that. Added Kelpie Snare... ;)

I've been wary of the A2 cold merc simply for the huge radius - and attracting too many monsters. Anyway i'm about to go into Hell.. if it doesn't work, then so be it.. but as a cleric, I really can't handle two tanks, IMO it's a total PITA to keep both of them healed..

[Occhidiangela]

I am in late Act IV NM with maxed BH and I am slowly working my synergies up. About 10 in each at this point.

In players 8, it is OK, I expect to stick to Players 1 in Hell Diff to avoid boredom and to avoid the insane regen rates.

My favorite side effect is that maxed BH gives Holy bolt quite a damage boost. I shoot hundreds of points into undead per shot with my one point wonder. This makes undead easier to deal with when they go into corners to avoid BH.

I have +3 Skills at present. This is the stuff that I have found:

Malabrega's Orb
Sigon's Shield
*Spirit Shroud* (Nice drop in NM ACt III, I thought!)

I have a Crafter Belt, Amulet, and Ring, nothing uber, and just socketed my circlet of 27 Resist All with a perfect Sapphire. Since I have energy at 20, I could use a little.

What do I do for Mana?

Redemption and Meditation, both at one point plus skill adders, and the occasional blue pot.

I rarely have mana troubles unless we hit a missile firing Mana stealer, then trips to town for Mana tend to be the norm.

Baal was a way bigger PITA for this Paladin than Diablo. Mephisto was not too rough. Duriel in NM was surprisingly straightforward, not sure that Hell will be the same sort of cake walk.

Merc = holy Freeze with a Lance that I put two sockets into. I got a 60% damage and 7% Life leach on the roll (Lucky me!) and have only socketed a Perfect Emerald to help cut down Regen.

Merc still wearing Sigon's Hat and Armor, both of which I found (I have found the entire Sigon's set with this char, just found gloves in Act IV NM) which makes his life leach 17%. I suspect he will need new armor in Hell Diff.

[Raziel]

So my question for you would be.. how would your hammers do without the synergies?

Because if you're playing a cleric, and max BH for the Holy Bolt synergy, but don't really have the points to spare in Vigor or Blessed Aim... how's hammers going to do?

In my experience hammers - without synergies - sucked. :(

[Crystalion]

Because if you're playing a cleric, and max BH for the Holy Bolt synergy, but don't really have the points to spare in Vigor or Blessed Aim

Try this build, to have your cake and eat it too...

Primary build strength: Blessed Hammer
Secondary build strengths: uber vs. undead, mega healer

20 Prayer
20 Vigor
(optional 1 Meditation for aura when not in BH mode)
1 Might (prereq)
20 Blessed Aim
20 Concentration
1 Holy Bolt (prereq)
20 Blessed Hammer
(optionals: 1 Smite, 1 Charge, 1 Holy Shield)
==========
102 required, 4 additional optionals suggested, out of 110 max possible points

Required equipment, at level 42 (on weapon switch): Boneslayer Blade (exceptional unique 2h axe), due to
having 200 charges of level 20 Holy Bolt (repair cost ~453 gold per charge, or save 90k by using an Ort repair).

So, you play this build like a BH build (which it is--I'd recommend that the +19 points into Prayer be the very last points spent in the build order) but at level 42 you add massive direct Holy Bolt damage vs. undead (because you have +1000% damage from your 20 point BH synergy on your level 20 HB charges for ~2300 unresistable damage vs. undead per bolt) and later, when you've put points into Prayer, you'll be quite the healer (synergized HB direct healing ~240 healing a bolt--I don't consider the +HP pulses of maxed Prayer to be that big of a deal).

You'll be party friendly and a stud vs. undead and often a stud vs. demons and usually okay vs. animals/other. (You are very studly, in other words, except when terrain/walls mess with your hammer delivery).

As a technical note: using pvp tricks (such as asymetric hostility) you could potentially take advantage of the Boneslayer's 50% proc when struck of level 25 Holy Bolt, using several players "slapping" (metaphoric, not descriptive) on a 20 Prayer Paly to generate an uber stream (1000s of HPs per second) of healing bolts to the Paly's party-partner, who would be tanking, for example, an act Boss or Diablo Clone. AFAIK only my "Laser" is capable of higher sustained heal rates for a character ("sustained" = Full Rejuvs run out, whereas the Paly trick here and Sorc Laser don't). And yes, in case you're wondering, there are ways to proc more bolts this way from the Paly than you could get by having a bunch of Palys just casting HB (which is more straightforward, but requires that you have had a bunch of players do the build).

p.s. yes, I know that in order to "save" 19 points by using Boneslayer we are going without a shield--but only when in "gunslinger" mode, that is, only when we wish to (by weapon switch) shoot holy bolts at a distance. This is quite a disadvantage, but workable I think, under typical circumstances. For example, my FoH/HB build char, HolyFist, lives in the "zombie garden" and the only time they get close to him is if they charged and I didn't nail them on the way to me, in which case my shield doesn't matter, because charge ignores blocking (hmm, I should look this up: which melee attack skills ignore blocking?).

[monkorn]

I currently have a level 76 cleric who has beat hell with a legit party. Here is the stuff that I have learned.

20 HB
20 Prayer
5 Meditation
20 FotH
20 Blessed Hammers
1 Salvation

The All-HB build has done me quite well, at about 6000 damage a shot it kills pindle in about 10 shots on players 1, and am still getting +skills to get that even higher. The amazing ~300 heal is also quite well, and mana is never a problem unless I switch to Salv for the tough elemental attackers.

Everybody loves me in the party, the necro's/sorc kept making me change to meditation for the huge mana regen and everyone loved that +300 hp every couple of seconds means unless we are going against Gloams most the time everyone was pretty safe.

Such a rush when you have to keep everyone at full hp, essp when you have to run around summons. You really have to look at where everyong is in the group unless in a couple shots they will die.

Holy Bolt is NOT the perfect meat shield though, it is very very good, but when one guy is being hit by a lot of different things at once, he WILL die, as HB seems to be a bit laggy.

If I was to do it again, I would not max out prayer until late in the build, and get maxed Hammers/FotH before I do. Killing UD is one of my main priorities ad it really does do its job. I think a cleric would be great at doing pindle runs, even just for the exp because it is one of the only places where all UD hand out.

One very odd thing I noticed is that merc's do not get med aura and neither do any other summon even though it should give +life, perhaps the prayer effect only works for the player using it? Also, here is something that I think only works with prayer. +skills do work with prayer for meditation, so if you get a level 50 prayer you will get that much from meditation, I do not know of this is a bug or what though.