Because, as a monster, when facing cleric-mage party, who would you go after the one that heals the one killing you, or the one pumping fireballs up your behind?

I still say agro generated by heal can still bring monsters to the clank.

OKAY!!! :sunnies:

I disagree. I solo my cleric all the time. With a two-year-old, my playtime is sporadic and no one wants to party with someone who has to drop off all the time. Clerics(at least in my opinion), seem to be the most cost effective since they can heal/buff themselves, so I don't have to spend a lot of what little time I have to making a profit. So there IS a point to cleric soloing. As far as "Why play an MMORPG if you aren't going to party?". I do party sometimes and I enjoy the fellowship of others around me even when I'm not partying.

I'm currently using a hybrid END and STR build. I guess you could define it has soloing. I always have double the amount of STR as END. Is this good?

Sounds good to me. In my humble opinion, if you plan to solo a cleric but still party occasionally, the best builds are:
2:1 Str:End
1:1 Str:End (I don't really like this one, it's too "jack of all trades, master of none" for me)
1:2 Str:End

If you solo exclusively, you probably want to go with all STR. Some go all SPR for the increased critical rate and SP.
If you party mostly, you'll probably want to go pure END or maybe splash a bit of SPR.

ic...its not like I never solo my cleric, and when solo grinding you still kill mobs and you still get exp, so my term "pointless" was really just an OTT exaggeration :) of course there is still some benefit from it.
Also, not sure if people with sporadic gameplay is "normal" so you may just be in a special situation? Have you tried playing as a warrior? I'd agree clerics are cheaper, but I didnt find the difference so great that I couldnt get a warrior to level...especially now with quest exp.

STR in a cleric seems to be used for soloing or pvp...im guessing you can tell my opinion on both :) One note tho...some people go 25SPR (for crit/sp) 50END(blockrate/HP) then rest STR for damage or some END/STR ratio after 50END...the reason for the 50 into END is that's when the increase to the blockrate freestat bonus decreases by half.

if you play to solo, id say try playing each class to at least level20, 30 if you can take the extra time. If you like to, and can party, then do so.

*if* you still decide to build a solo cleric, there is definitely no reason *not* put 25 into SPR to get the crit bonus. i dont think loosing the 25 from STR will matter at higher levels. Also, get a +9 hammer, that should help a lot.

oh, and full SPR is definitely not a great solo build...its usually considered a support-only build, but I believed I addressed that too.

ok. So I have to disagree with this here...

1) You CAN PvP with a cleric effectively. Pure STR with a +9 and high STR gears will take your damage high enough...

PvP intense people are a little rediculous though. They +9 everything... and a lvl 79 mage I fought had more DEF than the 70 Cleric the other day... with all my stuff, I was only hitting like 50~60 on a mage with over 4k hp. If you want to PvP with a cleric, prepare to do so with people that don't +9 Max END every piece of gear they have.

I also solo nicely. Not because I want to, because no one has parties anymore. I can clank very effectively... run around, collect mobs, then Recover. AoE heal = cleric mock. I heal myself and that pulls more aggro. I also deal enough damage that I can hold the mob there, and kill it reasonably fast with my high STR.
^False. You get to lvl 79 on Teva, and tell me how few parties you can find because of the "I want an AoE pt with my guild//friends" mentality.

Because an average of 350 per hit is such low damage, and my 1038 DEF at the same time is so low I'll be healing constantly? Nö.

I hate people...?

They hate me...?

Of course I want all the Exp I can get... doesn't everyone?

Your guide is completely biased against me =/

sry...it was not intended to offend.
it was only a *guide*, not a gospel :D … and a rather tongue-in-cheek guide at that!

The bottom line is it is a game, so you should play to have fun. So play/build/do whatever that gives you the most enjoyment out of this form of entertainment.

Uhm…I never said clerics can’t pvp effectively. I said I don't do pvp so i dunno about pvp builds.


If a cleric can be an effective tank in a party of similarly leveled players then the game is unbalanced in my opinion.
This is not to say clerics cant/shouldn’t be able to draw agro away for a moment, but i think clerics shouldn’t easily be able to hold agro effectively over time, otherwise what is the point of the warrior class?

So no one parties at lvl 79, or just no one aoe parties? The whole game dynamic changes then? If so could this be because the game is unfinished? Could it be because there is little to do in any game once it’s “cap” has been reached?
Also, I believe I mentioned I was only lvl51 and my opinions may change later.

…because a DD cleric will deal less damage than any other class built for DD?
Also, I didn’t say you would be *constantly* healing, but you will be healing more often as a full/mostly STR cleric compared to an full/high END cleric.