Time and Tides

the wharf rat wrote:
> In article <dq8se29augcd1640uo7v89puktg2cu34cs DeleteThis @4ax.com>,
> Faeandar <mr_castalot DeleteThis @yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>Off root, stun, nuke (with my current AA set I can out nuke some
>>mages), pacify, hell I can even melee; with my machinegun-like
>>proc'ing hammer I can add BL pet-like DPS.
>>
>
>
> Hmmm, ok, root, that I see. Clerics stuns I don't consider
> terribly useful due to the very long recast time - you get one per
> fight. Nuke? Well, ok, DPS is DPS, but IMHO cleric nukes have
> such a high resist rate, low damage, and long cast that it makes me
> not want to bother...
>
Cleric stun does have a long recast time, however, clerics get not one,
but... four? more than four really. This means cast 1, cast 2, cast 3,
cast 1 = total stun lock. On CHealing mobs, stun lock for the final 40%
or so of a mob's life can be a far more efficient use of a cleric's mana
than healing the tank, who after all isn't taking any damage due to the
stun lock. Meanwhile, you kill the mob once instead of three or four
times over.

Barring stun lock, watching for a mob to begin casting, and
interrupting, again stopping a probable CHeal or Gate, now we're talking
a very cheap mana per effectiveness, since its only the higher level
stuns that cost noticable mana.

Cleric nukes have a fairly nice damage to mana ratio, actually, its the
recast time that prevents them being a high DPS class... except on
undead, where despite a worse mana to damage ratio than their real
nukes, they get a fast cycle time and can really lay down the hurt if
they want to.

In an AOE group, clerics can lay down a noticable amount of PBAOE
damage, after keeping the chanters afloat during the pull phase, and of
course being available to rez the group afterwards if things go badly
(unfortunately, this will happen eventually if you AOE regularly)


> Cleric melee is fun but is the dps significant? Even with
> the hammer I see "Monk hits mob for 500 (x4)...Rogue backstabs for
> 2000..Ranger hits mob for 4500 non melee damage" and it still takes
> a long time to die, so does that 1-2K really matter?
>
Depends on the target, on some mobs cleric DPS is very significant,
because the procs are... well I'm tempted to say unresistable, but there
may be mobs which resist them. I never saw it happen myself. With a
capped dex, the hammer procs like mad, clerics certainly have a good
chance of outdamaging warriors, paladins, and meleeing bards (which is,
I know, faint praise). I'm not sure this means a better use for their
time than sitting and healing though.

> I'm asking if this is a correct view not arguing with yours.

You passed over Lull, which is actually a major contribution in some
groups in some camps; fighting one mob at a time is much more efficient
than fighting three or four, and if only one comes when you pull, you
don't have to worry about root or mezz parking the adds.

Faeandar skipped Fear, which again in some camps, some groups, can mean
a great deal, fear kiting is often a much more efficient way of dealing
with mobs than anything else, it shuts down mobs which may dish out
overwhelming DPS in melee, and it shuts down casters. Chromodracs in SF
come to mind simply because I've been hitting them a lot recently, but I
also recall hunting the drakes in Cobalt Scar for fun and profit when
noone else would even touch them, with their 500 point AE with dispell.
A snaring partner is necessary usually for this (although those
Drakes, and Specters, for two examples, don't require it)

Here's a fun trick; root an add, lull it, then cast Atone. Root wears
off, it just stands there, or wanders off, because the lull reduced its
aggro range, and the atone erased its memory of whatever made it add,
and of you rooting. Ghetto mezz, workable in emergencies or in places
like Kael where the mobs are unmezzable.

Mark of Redemption is a fairly tiny heal, but can be very effective on
certain mobs because it overwrites their DS, and does so with laserlike
precision, instead of trying to brute force it off via annuls... which,
on other mobs, is also very effective use of mana, sometimes without
their buffs mobs become cheesepuffs.

Hammer pet, over a certain range of mobs, is also an effective DPS
engine; I'm very dissapointed that there was no upgrade for 61-65, nor
66-70... and for that matter really thought they should have added a
smaller lower level one when they added the low level HOTs and undead
only DOTs for the class. I fondly remember soloing Lord Bergurgle at 54
by chain stunning him while the pet beat him to death.

I think part of your myopia about clerics is the inevitable focus on the
high end game; after all, most people get stuck up there eventually, and
spend half their EQ career there. Many classes see tactics that were
very effective at lower levels fade into obscurity at the high end.
Clerics, sadly, are no different in this regard.

Berg, 57 SK, Combine
Altoid, 10 Wizard, Combine
Bergh, 65 Cleric, Morell Thule

Don Woods wrote:

> Richard Carpenter <rumbledor.DeleteThis@hotspamsuxmail.com> writes:
>
>>A macro that I feel is required for each of my characters is one I call BW5:
>>
>>/pause 110, /doability 1 (or whichever button you used for bind wound)
>>/pause 110, /doability 1
>>/pause 110, /doability 1
>>/pause 110, /doability 1
>>/doability 1
>>
>>If I don't think I need as many as five bandages, I'll just use the regular
>>BW key.
>
>
> Hm, I've done that sort of thing for other actions, but only actions
> that I tend to associate with non-hostile settings: fishing, foraging,
> etc. If I need to Bind Wounds at all, I'm frequently in a setting
> where I might have to get up at any time to run or fight some more.
> I don't mind wasting the odd bandage when this happens, but I'd be
> rather distraught to have all my hotkeys disabled because my BW5 key
> still has another 3-4 minutes to run.
>
That is a good point, but I frequently solo, and I make a point of
getting somewhere as free of adds as possible before going into BW mode.
This might be worth doing for me. Is it really minutes? 110 is only
11 seconds, so at most this macro eats 44 seconds (plus another 4 or so
in mysteriously wasted time, I guess).

Also, what actually locks up while a macro is running, just other
macros, or all hotkeys? How about autoattack using the actual attack
key? How about the action window? I wouldn't mind losing the socials,
if thats all there is to it, I primarly use them for assist and for
calling for assist, both of which I can do by typing a fairly quick line
/assist or /g tanking %t... and neither of which is needed when soloing
anyway.

Berg, 57 SK, Combine