Cleric Guide

Welcome to the *Cleric Guide*! This player curated guide aims to help you make the best Cleric you can **statistically**. Contributions to the guide are welcome. If you disagree with a large portion of the guide, you are instead encouraged to create your own guide. Make sure to tag it with the appropriate class guide category, so that users can find it.

### Character Creation

For the start of the guide, we're beginning at character creation. If your character is already created, or you're more interesting in role-playing rather than optimizing, you can skip ahead to the Group Role section of the guide for advice on what your role in a group is.

The race you choose will provide different racial innate abilities that can and will be handy while adventuring. There will be times when the race you choose is to your, and your party’s, advantage; at other times neutral, and other times to your disadvantage. They will all be useful in any serious dungeon or other adventure area but one may be more advantageous in certain scenarios and situations.

Let's look at the races available to the Cleric and what their starting racial statistics look like. Attributes with this  icon before them are important for the class.

The statistic bonuses of a race are only a small part of determining the best race for your character. Now, we need to look at the *Racial Passives* and *Racial Actives* for each race.

#####  Racial Passives

 **Dark Myr**

From an optimization stand point, Dark Myr are perhaps the worst fit for the Cleric. Their passives are more exploration based, and Clerics get little benefit from them.

 **Dwarf**

There isn't a lot of synergy between Clerics and Dwarves in terms of passives, as Clerics don't rely on Stamina as a primary attribute. Still their **Fortitude** passive is a nice trait which gives the cleric some more precious hit points. Their **Mountain-forged** is always useful to the Cleric, as Blunt type weapons are the only form of weaponry Clerics can equip.

 **Human**

Humans are a strong choice. Their **A People Inspired** trait benefits the Cleric two-fold, since they function as both a caster and a melee. **Shield Specialization** trait will boost the Cleric's survivability, but it's worth noting: Clerics *might* equip their Celestial Tomes in their shield slot, which presumably does not benefit from this trait. However, it is currently unknown (Dec. 2020) if clerics *still* equip these tomes or if that as been changed.

##### Summary

Decent: Dwarf and Human. If you want a sturdier Cleric who can fill in as an off-tank if necessary, pick Dwarf. If you want a more rounded cleric with somewhat better dps/healing output (thanks to A People Inspired), pick Human.

Poor: Dark Myr

### Group Role

 **Healer.** The role of the healer is a critical one. The healer's job, first and foremost, is to ensure that none of their teammates die. Within an ideal group set-up, the Healer can focus the majority of their healing on a one or two teammates: the party's Tank and Off Tank.

   Among the Healers, Clerics have the strongest single target healing spells (File:CLE Burst of life icon.JPG Burst of Life). With their ability to wear light plate armor and wield shields, Clerics are the sturdiest healer and should not be afraid to enter melee combat and display their skill with blunt weaponry (File:CLE Favor of the order.png Favor of the Order)

 **Support.** A class in the support role has access to many beneficial abilities designed to help their teammates survive and fight beyond their normal means.

   For the Cleric, this is primarily seen through their powerful maximum Health boosting spells (File:CLE Bolster icon.JPG Awaken Bravery), Armor Class Boosting spells (File:CLE Gift Ethereal studded armor icon.JPG Gift: Ethereal Studded Armor) and their ability to resurrect fallen allies (File:CLE Revive icon.JPG Revive).

 **Utility.**  Utility is a broad category. It can perhaps best be thought of as a sum of all abilities that do not fall under the other categories (Tanking, Healing, Damage Dealing, Crowd Controlling, Supporting)

   For the Cleric, their Utility is expressed through spells such as File:CLE Edict of stillness icon.JPG Edict of Stillness, which reduces the aggro radius of a mob, or Celestial Aegis, which provides a solid wall of light that enemies cannot pass through.

 **Off-Tank.**  While not one of their officially listed roles and not a primary goal for them, Clerics are a very sturdy class capable of wearing shields and light plate armor, which can enable them to act as emergency off-tanks. Though they will struggle with holding the aggro of the mob, it is worth keeping in mind.