Smite/Bane

[eboats]

Is there a big difference in the power between the two builds, or does it just change how you hunt? Is either a significantly better choice?

[Ryvicke]

Smite is just a little stronger against undead than bane is against the living. If you choose smite and do not train spell aim it will be quite awhile until you can reliably hunt living things on your own mana. CoL can really help this come earlier.

[Rucca]

I honestly think bane is better if you plan on leveling your character up to cap. There are tons of undead creatures when you are young, but it dies out as you get older. Smite works better on the undead. Bane on living, but in my opinion is the strongest and best way to go. You can still use bane on undead, it just takes a couple more mana points to use. No big deal.

[Anebriated]

It is my opinion that you should not even choose one or the other until you are 20ish anyway. The beginning version will hit both living and undead, albeit slightly weaker than if you had picked a side. It will allow you plenty of diversity of what to hunt at lower levels until you know which path you want. I only picked bane on one of my clerics recently when he was 30.

[cyaknight]

It is my opinion that you should not even choose one or the other until you are 20ish anyway. The beginning version will hit both living and undead, albeit slightly weaker than if you had picked a side. It will allow you plenty of diversity of what to hunt at lower levels until you know which path you want. I only picked bane on one of my clerics recently when he was 30.

Unfortunately, the beginning version only works on Undead (AKA a weaker version of Smite). From the official spell list:

All Clerics will come into the realm with a default version of Smite, that only works on the undead. When a Cleric is confident enough in their beliefs, they may align themselves to their deity by CONVERTing their faith to that being. After this alignment, they will receive either Bane or Smite along with the full benefits those spells provide.

Too bad, as it WOULD be nice to be able to get a feel for both until you decide on a path.

[Anebriated]

Unfortunately, the beginning version only works on Undead (AKA a weaker version of Smite). From the official spell list:

All Clerics will come into the realm with a default version of Smite, that only works on the undead. When a Cleric is confident enough in their beliefs, they may align themselves to their deity by CONVERTing their faith to that being. After this alignment, they will receive either Bane or Smite along with the full benefits those spells provide.

Too bad, as it WOULD be nice to be able to get a feel for both until you decide on a path.

Because everything on play.net is accurate... Go give it a shot. Pretty sure the beginning version still works on both and is 2 mana a pop no matter what. I could be wrong but I dont think I am here.

[RichardCranium]

Because everything on play.net is accurate... Go give it a shot. Pretty sure the beginning version still works on both and is 2 mana a pop no matter what. I could be wrong but I dont think I am here.

You are wrong. Try that shit with rats or rodents or whatever and it just makes them glow real purty like.

[Ivex]

Yeah my cleric is still unaligned and I want to use Bane but she is a Voln master, kind of makes me want to RP as a Voln-aligned or at least a Liabo-aligned cleric, but the options are limited in that respect

[Jace Solo]

Go bane and just RP hate for all!

[TheLastShamurai]

Yeah my cleric is still unaligned and I want to use Bane but she is a Voln master, kind of makes me want to RP as a Voln-aligned or at least a Liabo-aligned cleric, but the options are limited in that respect

IIRC, one of the Liabo Arkati provides Bane, kind of like how Fash'lo'nae provides Smite.

[Ivex]

Yeah Charl will do Bane but I am not too much of a fan, I may just go with Vtull, being a brawling cleric

[mrjrd222]

For quite some time I was a brawling/voln cleric that followed Luukos (I wanted to RP the double agent) and hunting was quite easy. Bane for the living, bind/kick for undead. Binding the undead easily makes up for only being able to single in brawling.

Eventually I went with more of an all 'good' cleric and re aligned to Koar. I'm 85 now and don't have any mana problems with using smite on the living, or divine fury, but at a lower level I think mana would have been an issue.

In my experience, using smite on the living still gets plenty of death crits. I've overloaded my cleric spells for CS and even though I only get 22 initial damage from Smite, I can still get 45-50 damage crits that will kill if they hit anything vital.

So whatever others tell you, if you want to choose a deity for pure roleplay purpose, it will not cripple you. You might not be the most efficient cleric out there, but that's not everything in this game (to most people). You just gotta find out what's the most fun for you! And do it early, if you want to change deities late in life it costs millions :)

[Ivex]

huh every time I use smite on the living it does nothing at all.. or is that because I am unaligned? If I align with a smite-deity then it will harm living?

[mrjrd222]

huh every time I use smite on the living it does nothing at all.. or is that because I am unaligned? If I align with a smite-deity then it will harm living?

It'd be because you are unaligned. If you align with a smite deity, not only will your undead smite become more powerful (although only a little more powerful) you'll be able to hit living for double the mana cost.

[Asha]

Does anyone have cleric hunting logs? I always thought they were useless but I'm interested in seeing what they get up to in the field.
I might even start one up. Hmm.

[mrjrd222]

You want a full hunt log? Or just a few shots from a hunt?

[Ivex]

I can get you some from my brawling cleric tonight, nothing to impressive (mostly just inca 301, kick till death), if the critter turtles, I may either 302 to death or use a voln symbol to change their parry/make them kneel and then kick them some more

[Asha]

The more varied use of spells or techniques the better. Thanks a lot, I appreciate it.

[Asrial]

Liabo aligned smite and unaligned smite are the same. The power difference is in the crit used.

As for deciding.. I never did and I've not had any hunting issues. I use 317 on the living. However, I am in CoL and I went the 'fuel 240' training route so I have a ton of mana at my disposal.

[dott]

I leveled a cleric from the start, pretty much, to currently 82. Personally, now you're fine with smite, with 317 being awesome on everything pretty much. I'm not sure how well the undead gap has been closed, but my only rough spell was between 58 or so (when eidolons in Bonespear become too slow to hunt) and the Rift. I personally did the Stronghold, due to not wanting to commute to TI from Solhaven every hunt, and only managed by (at first) using lots of wizard wands and later, after fixskilling, using a lot of voln fu. This was before 317, though, which completely changed the game.

Smite isn't much of a hindrance. As a shield/brawl smiting cleric at 82, I tend to offensive-stance channel 317 on anything corporeal, then follow up with 312 or 302 depending on whether it's living or undead. I have absolutely no trouble hunting the aqueducts, which are solely living critters. I do wish 319 was more useful without being Bane-converted, but it's a very situational spell in any case.

If you want to do Liabo while having Bane, you can choose Charl as your deity, but I'd definitely recommend seriously considering the RP aspects and theme you want your character to have and choose your deity based on that. You'll have no problem leveling very quickly and easily with Smite up through late 50's, at which point you have the mana pool to make hunting with 317/312 viable. Brawl/shield gives you the offensive stance DS you need to channel those spells to awesome effect.

-mark

[Asrial]

I'm not sure how well the undead gap has been closed, but my only rough spell was between 58 or so (when eidolons in Bonespear become too slow to hunt) and the Rift.The place to be at that level is the Black Forest area in Ta'Illistim. 317 destroys everything in there. Use Skull Temple to bridge the small gap into Maaghara Tower.

The undead gap is still present, but it's a lot smaller these days and a non-issue due to the power of 317.

[eboats]

Finally rolled my cleric up and he is now level 10 with 31 ranks in cleric circle. Don't know what Deity to choose. Was thinking about possible picking based on flare type. All the bane ones are slash/puncture/crush whereas you can get vacuum, unbalance, and disruption with the smite path. For RP purposes I think Luukos would be the best though. I am considering Voln as well, and I think I want to do two open hands. I refuse to do brawling/shield because I don't like that for RP purposes. If I can't get high enough DS with brawling and two open hands I can switch to runestaff, or I can just spell up my cleric with my wizard.

[FNLN]

Doesn't really matter, really. Just pick the deity that works for your RP. Most of the time it will be the plasma flares from 302 and 317 (before the deity flare) that will do the killing.