Clerics and Soloing
From EQ Clerics Wiki
There are a number of cleric solo strategies.
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[edit] Melee soloing
The most effective way for a cleric to solo is the "melee" soloing strategy, or sometimes called the "pincushion" where we use Damage Shields and Defensive Procs. With the relatively new spells which are available to a cleric, the cleric can do some useful soloing. (I use melee in quotation marks, as very little of the damage actually comes from melee damage).
There are four important spell components to this soloing technique:
- Vow of Valor line
- Ward of Retribution line
- Mark line (reverse damage sheild line)
- Damage shields
First, lets look at the Vow of Valor line of spells, this has a damage proc, which when it hits, the proc will also start a heal over time (HoT) spell on you. Generally this heal over time is the best heal over time you have, so for example, Vow of Valor's heal proc Valourous Strike Recourse will overwrite Pious Elixir, which you can use to your advantage. If you fight a really though mob, you start healing yourself with the Elixir on incoming and the Recourse will take over when the proc hits. In general this healing takes care of the majority of the healing that you need. It also adds some decent damage per second (DPS) to your damage output.
Second, the Ward of Retribution line is a parry proc, which will hit back at anyone hitting you. This means that if you have many mobs on you, which you may have if you are fighting lower level monsters, it can hit quite a lot. Substantially damaging your opponents even if you are just standing there.
The third component is the Mark line, which started with Mark of Karn, which does a number of things. It removes damage shields on the opponent, it hits the mob who has the mark on it, as if you had a damage shield, and it heals anyone hitting the mob, with the main hand weapon, for a small amount. Interestingly enough, Mark of the Righteous and the higher Marks, such as Mark of the Devoted actually stack. So Mark of the Righteous and Mark of the Devoted will stack for 34+62=96 worth of damage per hit you take.
The third component is damage shields. You can get damage shields from many things, but the favourite for clerics tend to be the clicky spells you get from the Velium Coldain Insignia Ring (sometimes called 8th Dain ring) and the Blazing Vambraces which you get from Ragefire, the dragon for the Cleric Epic 1.0. There are also damage shield potions, such as Ro's Breath and Distillate of Skinspikes.
On top of this you have a number of tools which you can use that will help you survive longer. Your Vie line of spells, both the Aura and the rune like spell will mitigate damage, specially early on in a fight. You can have Divine Intervention on yourself for a particularly hard fight. You can use the Divine Aura line of spells and the AA to protect yourself whilst the HoT heals you. The Ward proc will still be procing on a monster on you even though you are invulnurable from incoming damage for a short time. You can use instant heal potions, your Epic shield 1.5/2.0 for a quick heal and of course your normal heals on yourself.
Further damage can be had from so called Boom Sticks, or weapons which proc a big damage component, or the Cleric summoned hammers which have a high proc rate. You can also stick a proc augment in the weapon, like the Deepsky Stone, which is a Dragons of Norrath vendor item, which has a 125 damage lifetap. You can use your hammer pet spell and AA and of course direct damage spells, which often has to be used if the monster runs away when it is low on life.
A twist some use with this tactic is to fight monsters which they can stun, then they stun their enemies and give themselves a few seconds to think, to cast, to wait for a tick of a HoT or for a recast timer to ungrey. Stuns, when they land can effectively reduce a monsters DPS, possibly to a level the cleric can manage to tank.
[edit] Root dotting
Another is the use of Root spells to keep the monsters far enough away from the cleric that the monster can't hit the cleric. Clerics can then nuke the monster re-rooting as necessary. If clerics fight undead in this manner they can choose to use their more powerful undead nukes and/or their undead DoTs (Damage over Time spells). Using DoTs and Roots solely is called Root-Rotting. This tactic can really only be used on creatures which don't summon. Most creatures below level 55 don't summon, after level 55 most monsters gain the ability to summon and one has to look for those that don't. If a root breaks with this strategy the cleric should be far enough away to be able to recast Root before the monster reaches them. Root has a quick cast time but stuns may be faster and are an option if the cleric can't channel a Root to get a monster off them a fast stun may help.
[edit] Area of Effect farming
When farming lower level creatures Clerics like many casters can use their AoE spells. This requires the cleric to collect as many monsters in as small a space as possible and to chain cast their AoE nukes killing many creatures quickly. Combined with the Defensive Proc Buffs this can be an interesting way to farm faction or tradeskill components.
[edit] Other tricks
If a cleric chooses an opponent badly or if things go wrong they have the option of gating out or of using one of their invulnerability abilities (like their Spell:Divine Aura) to escape or at least die someplace safe.
