Is it just me....

[Mindspank]

If you have a solid party of tankers and a mage and are good at fast paced healing, then they are'nt too bad. If you solo, yes. But the tradeoff is that you can solo next to anything because you can heal yourself.

[Loveless]

They are not hard to level. Just slow unless you happen to be like a pure STR build with an enhanced weapon.

Parties are a must though... especially after the 30s when the quests do not give a huge chunk anymore.

[Lady-Loki]

Clerics are slow to level - they have decent defense but only mediocre damage, so it just goes slow.

I retired my cleric after the L60 job change because I found I just didn't enjoy playing her anymore and the job change was the icing on the cake.

One problem I had was trying to keep parties alive if there were people who had the opinion that a cleric in the party means they never have to use stones or pots. I generally partied with guildies and a lot of times it was not a problem, but KQs with randoms would irritate me.

Solo, I did just fine, slow and steady. But I never created my account to play solo - I have solitaire for that.

So because I found the expectations placed on clerics unrealistic in general random party game play and the fact that the L60 job change, IMHO, is hosed for the clerics I chose to retire her.

[Blaaaaaaaah]

I find that a mage and a cleric are often a good match. See if you can find a mage partner to level with~

[Ivramire]

I used to think that Clerics were hard to level until I started playing an Archer. Clerics are generally useful and wanted all the time, so long as you're not black-listed as a sucky Cleric, you'll get partys. But Archers really need help from friends (most of the time)