New Cleric, hasn't played in 5 years

[connoisseur78]

I just recently signed up for this game again after a long hiatus. I begin making my character to realize that not only are the days of hours of re-rolls gone, but there's all of these different skills that I don't remember being in GSIII. So I wanted to post my info before I began training and get some suggestions on how to start. I would like to be an okay fighter, but would prefer to use spells and raise the dead as my focus. I'll post my stats that I was thinking about using, and then if someone could give me training suggestions, that would be great!

These are what I have set into the character creator currently.

Race: Human
Strength 70
Constitution 50
Dexterity 50
Agility 80
Discipline 80
Aura 95
Logic 48
Intuition 50
Wisdom 87
Influence 50

Thanks for the help!

[Flurbins]

Harness power is your mana stat, every time you train in it up to your level, it gains you 3 mana points, every time after the number = to your level you get 1 mana point. You should be fine if you 1x it.

Spirit Mana Control is basically mana share. you need 102 skill (24 ranks) to raise without fail.

Raise dead is now spell 318, not 312, and you need to cast 308 at the corpse before you can raise them.

Armor is 8 ranks for double leather, 35 for brig, and 50 for torso chain.

Spell aiming is a real nice extra attack form. If you're going to train it might as well do 2x.

Any weapon combo you want is basically viable, from sword/blunt and shield, pole arm, 2hander, archery, brawl/shield, or runestaff.

Runstaffs also work, they are defense based on your magic skill ranks instead of edged or anything like that. If you have 8 magic ranks/level, like 1x harness power, 1x smc, 2x spell aim, 2x spell research, 1x arcane symbols (scroll reading) and 1x magic item use, you'll be about equivalent defensively to 1x a weapon style. It's viable.

Spirit Lores offer little enhancements to some of the spells They generally aren't necessary. Most clerics I've seen 1x lores if they train them at all, and it's generally enough lore to use all the tiers of spell 325 and then everything else is religion, or they go full 1x religion.

As for the stats, I personally would raise the dex up to at least a 70, but that's a personal quirk.

What I do with my cleric is tank up the armor, use a runestaff, do 2.3x spells, and blast away at everything in stance offensive with both hands open. This is a real easy way to hunt until level 60 at least.

[Alarke]

My main suggestion is get to brig. No matter whether you want to cast or swing, get 35 armor ranks by 34 and get into brig at least.

I suggest just sticking with 1x HP.. you'll be a bit low on mana at first, but with bane/smite only costing 2 mana, it'll last you a good long while.

You'll want to get to 24 ranks of Spirit Mana control by 18, as stated above... I personally chose to leave mine at 24.. personal preference but it's been fine there.

I would also highly highly suggest using a shield over a runestaff, the difference in defense is noticable, and extreme in the case of bolts. Use a large shield and a weapon style.. i suggest brawling so you can open handed cast with no issues.

Decide if you want to be a pure cleric or a semi cleric... if you want to swing bigger weapons, ignore everything I say, cause I dont know what the hell im talking about with that.

Forget spell aiming... it's a nice little addition for a buncha freakin' TPs. You will do much better off maximizing your cleric CS for smite/bane, Fervent reproach and Divine Fury.

I would suggest 1x religon lore... this isnt so important at first, but once you get enough mana to hunt with 312 and 317 regularly it makes a major difference... it can be neglected at first for more spells and defense though.

You'll have to decide for yourself on arcane symbols (scroll reading) and Magic item use. I personally have 24 ranks of MIU and no scroll reading, and i've done fine with that and have had little regrets.

I focus strongly on spells, I am almost 3x in spells with 60 cleric spells over my training. I have almost a 400 CS at 76 which is more than enough to kill anything 10+ trainings on me with no problem.

This is all personal preference though. Guess and check and figure out what is important to you. If you have any questions on what new skills do that neither of us touched on, just ask, it'll be answered quickly.

[Myitkyina]

Alarke and I have already debated this out, but for the sake of you having another opinion (and NOT because I want to debate this with Alarke again), I'm rather fond of spell aiming, to the extent that I 2x it. I think just about everyone would agree that it isn't worth doing unless you can 2x it. Spell aim is necessary for hunting with 306, which is pretty deadly, especially on undead but also on the living. There are only two ways I know of to boost your CS: (1) train in more spells; (2) use heavy quartz orbs. There are lots of ways to boost your bolt AS, starting with spells you'll already have (211, 215, 307), but also including voln symbol of courage (and I think a lot of those COL signs, but I know less about that). Then, there are other group effects you can take advantage of (warrior cries and bard songs come to mind) that boost your AS, and I also use rods imbedded with 513 (:heart: my wizard husband!). This lovely combination has enabled me to uphunt for quite a long time. Alarke's right that it costs some TPs, but so does nearly tripling in spells.

Edited to add: stunning critters with smite/bane and then finishing them off with 306 is really lovely and fairly mana efficient.

Also, I would strongly argue for lores! I more than 1x them (it's pretty much 2x/level now, but I did less at the lower levels), putting nearly all of my ranks into religion (with enough for 325 in the other categories and a few extra ranks in summoning for the effects it has on the minor spirit circle).

[Edited on 2-11-2005 by Myitkyina]

[connoisseur78]

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I've decided to go for a shield/edged combo, but I'm skipping combat maneuvers and spell aiming to focus on lores and spells. About training armor to brigandine, doesn't it negatively affect your spellcasting anymore? It's funny, I'm typing this while the travel guide is taking me from Tal'Vaalar to The Landing (which is where I'm familiar with from 4 years ago). Talk about a long trip.... I got tired of messing with the travel guide a half hour ago...

[Flurbins]

Brig has a 7% hinderance minimum on all your spells, and torso chain has an 8% hinderance minimum.

The way cleric spells work (302, 312, and 317) is that for their maximum effectiveness you need to be in stance offensive with both hands empty and channel them (3 seconds hard rt), and if you chose to do this you will eventally get blasted hard, and the armor will save your life in those situations.

[Alarke]

Brig is actually 6/7/7 to clairfy and Torso Chain is 7/8/8 hinderance.

I would never suggest standing around a hunting ground completely open handed to cast any spells... one open hand is very effective in offensive with a shield.

Myitkyina brings up a valid point...too bad she's wrong!! Haha, totally kidding. It's all preference. I feel that no AS will compare to a wizard or sorc who can gain +50 AS from 425, and although im sure it is effective, just not my cup of tea. To each their own. I prefer having a much higher CS than anyone expects a cleric to have, therefor making 306 and 111 completely useless as I kill anything on plane 1 of the rift in one shot about 75% of the time at 76. Big mana saver for me, and I prefer to do one thing extremely well instead of two things as expected.

I don't want you to belive im saying your way is wrong in any way, Myitkyina, because the GMs obviously allowed us to 2x spell aiming in GS4 for a reason, just less things for me to worry about.

[connoisseur78]

So now that I've somewhat decided on a training plan, I've been trying to remember what the different armor names are equivalent to. For example, I started in Tal'Vaalan (I think that's where it was) and I'm wearing leather that I've never seen before. Does anyone know of a link or something to an armor comparison chart?

[Alarke]

Just inspect the armor, it will tell you what parts of your body it covers. There are different levels of armor... starting from robes, leathers (light to doubles), scale (lbp to brig), chain (torso to hauberk) and plate (mbp to full plate) you can find all the info on www.play.net under the armor and weapons section to figure out what type of armor you're wearing and what you need.

[connoisseur78]

Ok, I've got the armor thing figured out. And I have 2 more quick questions. First, how is ones CS determined. It seems as if my CS is a bit higher than my AS, but I do better swinging right now, and I wanted to be able to bump up my CS in coming levels.
Second, I remember there being a graveyard near the Landing that was a good place to hunt. I'm going on 5 now, and shades are getting tiresome. Any reccomendations? Thanks.

[Myitkyina]

Short of redoing your stats, the only way to bump up your CS is (as I said earlier) to train in spells and use heavy quartz orbs.

The graveyard is a good place for lower level undead... you might try ghouls for a couple trains, then switch up to dirges etc., avoiding the spiders for awhile. It's been awhile since I was five, but that's what my bardess did until she could handle the wraiths.

[connoisseur78]

Ok, after more research, I've decided to switch my edged weapon skills to brawling. I spent a decent amount of cash on a white ora blade from the clerics shop already, and I looked there for a sanctified brawling weapon but couldn't find anything. I also didn't see anything that I recognized at Tykel's, but I don't have backroom access yet. Can anyone reccommend a good sanctified brawling weapon for a cleric with 6 trainings?

[Flurbins]

Yeah, don't get one at all, the point of brawling is to have an open hand for channeling. If you want to hurt stuff with a weapon, get a pole arm. I personally think brawling is a total waste of training points, but whatever floats your boat. You can't really screw up a cleric.

Also check solhaven cleric shop or the northern caravansary. I'm not sure if you can find anything good there, but might as well look.

[Edited on 2-17-2005 by Flurbins]

[connoisseur78]

Ok, thanks. I've been trying to do some smiting now, and it seems to be working ok. However, I don't fully understand the channeling system. I've read on the official site about it, and some other forums as well. I've been hunting mummies, in a guarded stance with one open hand. Occasionally when I channel one, it will say something about successfully infusing more mana into the spell, but I don't think I did anything differently. I guess a basic explanation of the channel vs. cast system would be great. Sorry for all the questions.

[Sean]

Channelling just lets you take advantage of open hand casting which gives you a bonus to damage dealt. Stance is also a factor in damage dealt offensive = more damage than defensive. Infusing is a part of the 302 spell it used to be based on mana share, I believe now its based on spirit lore religion which determines its frequency and damage dealt. Its basically just a little perk that gets you a couple extra damage when it happens for a couple extra mana.

[Alarke]

Simple explination is Channeling = more damage with a hard RT and Casting = less damage with a soft RT.