I've sometimes been accused of being a 'bad cleric', 'hard ass', 'asshole',
'arrogant', etc, for my opinions on how to be a Cleric. On the opposite
side of the spectrum I have been told I am one of the best Clerics there
are, that people will swear their lives to me knowing that with me they
will not die when in my group. I have the rare privilege of saying that
somewhere under a dozen people is all I have ever lost when grouped.
To me, in order to be a True Cleric, there is only one path, that is the way of doing Harm as well as Healing, Buffing and ensuring you have the mana to be functional after. It is about ensuring the safety of the group, the prevention / avoidance of incoming damage, and the preservation of self. For without you, the group can not function. (Especially if your of a level you can Resurrect them after you escape combat.)
To me the Cleric should always be the true decision maker in a group. It may be on an unspoken understood fashion, or it may mean the Cleric must argue their points.
To me a True Cleric is far more than just a Healer. Let me explain.
Buffing / Prevention
One of the most commonly ignored abilities of people who are looking for a Healer is the Clerics ability to Buff and Prevent incoming damage. This is really the key difference between a True Cleric, and a simple Healer.
A True Cleric will buff before combat. All members should receive your best free HP Buff. If you can afford it, they should receive the best Symbol buff. These two things will greatly increase the time it takes your group to go down. Especially the casters. I call these the 'Primary Buffs'. (After about 25 th level you start to gain a few plat per kill. Now nearing 48 th I use not my most recent symbol, but the one below. It costs a meer 1 p per casting, and gives 300 hp. Half of a Superior Healing in itself.)
At my level at the time of this writing, this will change a characters life span from 3 seconds to about 10+ when under direct fire. I have seen unbuffed group members go down faster than I even knew what happened. Keep them buffed, this will give you time to absorb the combat, realize what is going on where, but most importantly increase the time it takes for someone to go down, thus giving you a longer time to cast that big healing spell, or get off a damage spell or two.
'Secondary Buffs' are any that will also decrease damage in your area, on an as needed basis. Which Resists or Endures do you need in your area? Keeping these up can also increase your life span (especially against casters or poisoners). But these can also be mana and time costly. Balance the benefit of downtime to damage prevention. Sometimes it's better to keep these up, sometimes there not necessary.
Remember each additional buff is that much more time it takes to keep everyone buffed. Each buff is like putting a little timer on a character. The more timers, the more often they will go off. Only buff as much as med time will allow, but try and keep those Primaries on at all times.
PS on Buffing - Any buff which adds HP will do so. Thus if someone is hurt, and also needs buffs, buff before healing. You may find healing is not necessary as the buffs may heal for you.
Doing Harm
Your god gave you these damage spells for a reason. At all times a Cleric must understand how much potential harm he can cause. (S)He must weigh this against how quickly the combats can be resolved.
Removal of the incoming damage source is the best way to prevent the need to heal. Removing the target entirely, takes away that incoming damage, thus reducing the amount of damage you need to heal.
Healing
Healing and harm is a fine balance. Healing is our specialty. As Clerics, past 34 th, there is no better. However our Harm matches that of the best casters at times.
Healing is our specialty but it is not our sole existence. We heal better than all others, but that does not mean it is all we do.
Those that believe a Cleric should heal only, not buff, not damage, etc, are wrong in their perception and understanding of a True Cleric.
Be careful of cross healing. That is casting a heal on someone while someone else heals them. I recommend if there is anyone else in the group who can heal, that you designate a primary healer, the person who is expected to heal, and secondary healers, who must call targets they are healing, or heal only by instruction from the primary healer. (Read also my Group Roles and Tactics).
Mana
Any Cleric, or any caster, should be very clear and sure how much mana they need to operate efficiently. A Cleric oom is a cleric saying 'we all get to die now'. Inform your group if the demands are too high and you need a mana enhancer (clarity, mana song, etc.) or small break from pulls.
As I always say "Mana is life". Don't let anyone push you beyond your limits, they put the entire group at risk if they do. Don't let them push you into thinking it's your fault for not having enough mana.
Melee
When we are young, our melee skills are good. We can damage with the best of them, wading into combat. However, as the shift begins to complete around 30-35 th, where everyone else is getting double and triple attacks, not to mention special high end weapons, we can no longer compete.
When your young (1-20) your 1 attack a round is great. Your med speed slow, and melee ability just as good as any other fighter. (Example - Average fighter attack 10-15 per round, yours 0-10 per round.)
During mid life (20-35) we begin to lack at melee. Others are getting, or have gotten, dual wield and double attack and our med speed is beginning to increase. This will begin to be the time that instead of meleeing something off someone when oom, you will start to med and prey you get the mana, as it's far more effective than meleeing. (Example - Average fighter attack 20-30 a round, yours 0-10 per round.)
During later life (35+) our melee skill is useless. At this point there is really no reason to melee unless you don't want to spend the mana because the monster is nearly dead and you just want to give a little help, or it's 100% magic resistant and med time is not needed. At this stage in life, medding to solve the problems is the only answer. At this point, our melee is simply a 'let me hold this for you till you kill that other one', or 'I can't damage it by spells, but don't need to med' tactic. (Example - Average fighter attack 30-60 a round (not counting criticals which can in themselves do 200), yours still that 0-10.)
Tactics / Adjustment
As the primary healer it's your job to be sure that your enemies are under control if the puller and / or leader are not. You must voice your opinion that things need to stay under control.
You need to have a controllable number so you can heal as few targets as possible. If damage occurs on targets your not expecting things can go bad quickly.
If a mistake does occur, especially if someone dies, you need to back up. Take a moment to figure out what went wrong and why. You need to find a way to either prevent it, or let the group know how to handle it better next time.
Example 1: Barric, a bard who will swear his life by me, who seems to have disappeared from the world, was grouped with me one day. This was during my earlier times in L Guk. We were attacked by casters and this poor bard was ripped down in 3 seconds flat. I said WOAH, what happened there? I backed up the messages, I asked Barric how much he took from which types of damage. I discovered he was taking cold damage. In addition to the Magic shielding he already had, I then gave him Cold. Again we were attacked by casters and sadly again he was ripped down in 3 seconds. I said WOAH, what happened there? I scrolled back, asked Barric to check again, and found this time it was Fire. Now equipped with Fire, Cold, and Magic, Barric lasted the remaining 8 hours of that day without coming even close to dying. In the days after he never died again because he could inform other Clerics to keep those 3 shields up all the time on him as Secondaries, as he was a fragile Bard.
Example 2: A few nights ago, someone who shall remain nameless pulled too much. Not his fault, things back spawned on him. However we were caught completely off guard and unaware. The 3 targets ran amok in our group nearly killing him, and me, before I called tactics and got things under control. Sadly, he was resistant and completely mis-understanding what I was trying to say after the combat, and is one of the 3 people for which I have ever left a group. My points were simple. Next time we get unexpected targets, we immediately call which ones we want to root, thus removing them from combat.
Watch where the group has flaws. If they do not adjust for them, voice your opinion on how they should. Remember damage prevention is paramount as your life as a True Cleric. If the group can't keep things controlled and preventable death will occur, it will not be your fault, yet you will be blamed, and it will scar your soul.
Rage, Crossing the Line
There are invisible circles around all things, that I call the 'rage' range (aka 'agro'). Whenever a spell goes off, or you cross this line and are of a class / faction the monster dislikes it will 'rage' on you. Any other creatures who's rage radius crosses within this range will also 'rage'. I call it a 'ping'. A 'ping' is active whenever the creature rages, or is in combat. Similar to a sonar ping, about every round, the rage radius will ping. As long as there is no ping, the radiuses cross harmlessly.
As a Cleric you will need to pay special attention to these radiuses. Think of these invisible circles, and think of the combatants.
For example; your puller goes out and pulls something. The monsters 'rage' radius is then pinging. As long as you cast no spells or make no attacks, you should be ignored (there is always a small chance a ping will decide your a good target). However, if you cast any spell on something the monster is raged upon, you can then draw a circle around the person you cast upon and you, these circles then are connected between you, your target, and the monster. Thus; any other monsters who were not previously raged on you, may be triggered by that connection. A sort of multiplication and active ping of the rage radius.
Know the rage conditions. If you remember that any spell, especially heals, connect these lines and rage points, you can sometimes learn to avoid them. And avoiding having things pile on you is always a good thing. Remember when this line is drawn by a heal, you may ping on other creatures and set them off. Be careful the lines you form by casting your spells.
Also there are points at which it is 'safe' to cast a certain level heal. Learn what will and what will not upset a monsters rage. To know your enemy is to know yourself.
Resurrection Line
There are currently 3 Resurrection spells. These are cast on the corpse of the diseased, and will return them to that point.
Note: If they are memorizing spells, have a trade window open, zone, lag out, the Resurrection window will be lost, and all your mana will be wasted. Be sure to get a confirmation they are ready to be resed (preferably standing). Resurrection also has a 3 hour time limit, which is an on line clock (thus you can stop the clock by leaving the server. This clock is only active as long as your account is logged in). I call this the "Death Clock". Watch that clock carefully. I have had several group resurrections where that clock got to the very last few minutes of the timer on some people.
Note 2: As of a 7 / 19 / 00 patch experience is as follows: "The resurrection confirmation box will now report the name of the person casting the spell as well as what spell they are casting. Furthermore, experience will not be "removed" from your corpse until you accept the resurrection by choosing YES. Previously, any resurrection spell, if declined, would cause the experience to be unrecoverable."
Note 3: The resurection timer will be wiped clean (reset to "expired") if the servers go down. This means any corpse who had time left on it for rez that was there when the server went down, even if it just winked out for a second, will be reset and lost upon restart. When the server timers are reset, your corpse timer is reset, and unfortunately that reset defaults to expired.
The 3 Resurrection spells are as follows:
Revive - 29 th - zero experience return
Resuscitate - 39 th - random return of approximately 30% exp lost
Resurrection - 49 th - random return of approximately 90% exp lost
Reviviscence - 56 th - random return of reportedly 95% exp lost. The difference between this and the 49 th is negligible.
All have "Resurrection effects". These effects do the following and last approximately 5 minutes.
Being their stats are now 'Flat lined' as I call it, they will be encumbered when they do anything. Even looting the coin of their body will put them encumbered and immobile for a few minutes.
You need to be sure that some things happen during this vulnerable time.
Either they do not loot their body and let themselves recover. By doing so they will be light enough to run and zone if needed (or gate if they are a caster after a few minutes.)
If they choose to loot their bodies, be sure to guard them. Their AC and HP must recover as well, even if you fully heal their health. (Their health will be full, but their max hp must also recover.) They may appear at full health, but if they watch the stats, their Max HP and AC will slowly be recharging. They are not at full capacity until the res effects wear off despite appearance.
I have seen freshly resed, fully equipped, characters (40 th + level) go down in 3 shots. Be very sure you guard the resed during this vulnerable time, or they have group members that will.
Rooting
Never underestimate your ability to root and remove targets from combat. Everyone loves Snare, it lasts longer and works better. However, snare doesn't remove things from combat. If you have no enchanter, you can double as one. Root something, have the group move away from it. Keep your eye on it and the group, and you can effectively remove it from combat for the time being, giving the group the time they need to remove the other threat(s).
Summary / Solution / Truth
Anyone can be a Healer. Anyone can be a Cleric. But to me there are very few True Clerics. To be a True Cleric is to be elite. Follow these simple guidelines. Be aggressive, accept the occasional bad name calling. The benefits you will receive when a group follows these guidelines will be enormous.
A True Cleric will have a following of those who swear their lives to them, and gladly join or invite them to group because they know their lives are in good hands.