The constat question...Holyknight or Guardian?
 

I know, you've heard this one a hundred times before XP But I want to hear both sides :p I want to go Guardian, when I get there, but some argue Holyknight is better. I like Guardians because they use hammers, but a friend told me her Guardian always misses, and can't solo at all. which wouldnt bother me too much, because I'd just party. Guards have the better heal right??

But I still can't decide.

OK, let's take a look at the skill sets for both -

Guardian gets the new skills of Rebirth (auto revive upon death), plus Dispel Pillar and Dispel Field, which are both debuff removers (healing) spells. Heal and Rejuvenate are the skills that Guardian can upgrade, but HK cannot at L100.

Holy Knight gets Deadly Blessing (crit rate buff), plus Dispel Purge and Purification, which are buff removing spells (offensive). Holy Knight gets to upgrade Bash, Protect, and Endure at L100.

From this, I assume that all other spells that clerics have - the party heals, etc., are shared by both classes. As assumed, Guardian is much more of a pure healer, while Holy Knight is the offensive, clanking type player. The only thing that doesn't make any sense is the weapon choice, with HK getting the weaker mace. However, looking at the L108 maces and hammers that are showing up in stores now, the maces seem to close on the hammers in attack power, maybe my imagination, as I only took a quick glance at them. I will be interested to see what happens when OS releases the T5 perfect enhancing stones to see how the weapons change.

Ultimately, I think the choice comes down to the style you play. Healer, go Guardian, and know that you will need to party virtually all of the time as you get to higher levels. Solo or clanking player, go Holy Knight, with the realization that your healing power will weaken as you hit higher and higher level mobs. The person to talk to would be Slient Wizard, as he has both a Guardian (Doylen) and a Holy Knight (Slient Wizard). However, I haven't seen him post in a very long time.

My problem is, I love to party and heal, but It also drives me crazy if I don't get a chance to be crazy and clank sometimes XD

This is good info, thank you Helion, but it's making my choice harder XD I will hate not being able to upgrade Endure (and protect), but not getting better heals will just be unbearable :/ I think it stinks either way xD Dang.

In the end I think I will end up going Guardian, since I do value my healing skill. The only problem is my build.... END and STR xDDDD I will need a reset pill If I ever hit 100.

Thank you Helion, knowing what skills I will and won't have really clears it up. I couldn't get an answer like this on the outspark forum xD

Sorry if I made the choice harder. Now, before you decide, and by the way, Guardian is probably your correct choice from what I have seen in your posts previously, OS is starting to rebalance the classes again - they have a monumental screwup right now with overpowering the mage's flamewalker skill - so things may change a bit. Second, you will still be able to use your old skills, they just can't progress after you choose, so while your damage won't get better, you will still be able to clank some. I would consider, if you are going to change your stat points, look at going with spr or dex to replace the str instead of pure end, as some of the Guardians I know have done. The dex is great for getting missed, and spr great for the magic defense. As for me, I'm going HK and will be happily clanking away. Plus, since OS is rumored to be capping Fiesta at L120, I won't miss much from the heal upgrades - besides, it has such a fast turnaround that spamming it should be good for my needs. :laugh:

Awww they might just cap it at 120? But the GMs are 150! unfair! D;

Good to know. It will be a toss up if i can chance my stats or not, I don't know when the next I'll get sparkcash is. Although I suppose I have plenty of time... I'm only level 74 ^^

Haha, I'll be the crazy Guardian clank xD

Good luck :p You're much closer than I am! :D

Thanks -I'll hit 96 on Friday, and then will get to do the Mimic repeat until L100, so when these pesky kids go back to school, I'll have the 2 spots all to myself for several hours a day. Hope to hit 100 by October. I guess the Korean version goes to L150, but rumor says US will only go to 120. And besides, what's the point of being a GM if you can't pwn all that are around you. :laugh:

:O by October? Go Helion!! :D


Pfft I guess xD I'd love to be able to go toe to toe with a GM tho :3

I saw former GM Dakkon destroy a group of fighters that were capped back when the cap was 89. The trash talking alone was worth it. :laugh:

Oh, and after L74, things go pretty quick for awhile. You should be 90 in no time at all. 91 - 96 suck though.

bleh .-. the seventies suck xD I hope it goes faster.

Gah...I don't even want to think about 80 XD

91-96...? *faints*

IMO:

1. Both Prestige paths for Clerics are somewhat bugged. Heal 18 (the first Heal that only Guardians can use) still heals the same amount of HP as Heal 17, 2000 HP. Which is stupid. In addition, the HP upgrades for Rejuvenate 11 and 12 (the Rejuvenates that only Guardians can use) are only 150 HP, which is less than any HP upgrades for the entire Rejuvenate skill tree. A lvl-89 cleric with Levan Set (lvl 75 blues) using Rejuvenate 9 can heal more HP than a Guardian using Rejuvenate 12.

Which is also stupid.

2. The Protect bonus for HKs is also terribly lame. The best Protect increase is received at lvl 91, when damage/defense increase goes from 127/117 to 300/270. The next level of Protect (the first one that only HKs can use) increases only to 315/365, and the last one, at level 104, only increases to 330/400. Which is stupid.

The Endure bonus for HKs is also lame. At level 95, the last level of Endure available before it becomes an HK-only skill, Endure provides a 920/860 HP/SP bonus. Using a Safe Set (level 85 blues), a Guardian can increase this by 25% to 1,150/1,075, which is awfully close to the bonus provided by the level 104 HK-only version of Endure of 1,180/1,100. Which is, again, stupid.

3. The notion of an HK being better at "soloing" is a red herring. At the 9x/10x, clerics are SO ridiculously slow at killing a mob, relative to the other classes, that soloing essentially becomes pointless. Clerics HAVE to pt in order to gain xp at anything even resembling a reasonable rate. So there's no need to become concerned with "how well will I solo?" as a cleric. As a corollary, there's no need to become concerned with "mace or hammer?" Both cleric prestige paths will suck at soloing so it doesn't matter.

4. Since clerics will have to party thus, here's my take: Deadly Blessing (the HK crit buff) is just awesome for AOE mage grinding parties. There's nothing like Quicken-DB-DB on two 9x/10x mages that have +10 wands. It makes black bears, phouches, mutant snakes, and big mud men disappear in a puff of mage smoke. Deadly Blessing, even unempowered, has a reasonable 1-minute cooldown time, which makes it very useful.

Guardian's Rebirth, however, is awesome for Helga raids. As a cleric on a Helga raid, you will typically have many bodies to revive, so much so that it will overwhelm your Revive cool down. You can theoretically make up for this by simply bringing as many clerics as humanly possible, but there may not be that many clerics available. But this is a very specific function.

You may look at the HK's pvp skills and say cool, I'll do PVP, but clerics and archers in general SUCK at pvp, so unless you have lots of SC to spend, or you like getting killed, there's little point in being a PVP cleric. It's a waste of time.

So the question, "HK or Guardian" is really asking, "Which is the better of 2 flawed choices?"

My answer would be HK, by a small margin.