Category:Clerics

Originally, there was only one caste of clerics. They were formed under the goddess of Tul-Sith. With her as their guide, clerics stretched far and wide healing the sick and wounded and protecting all from danger with their clerical spells. The prime requisite of Clerics is WISdom. They are specialists in healing hit points, creating protective spells, and many clerical enchantments. Unlike in the past, they can now worship any of the pantheon.

Abbreviation: Cle.

Prime Requisite: Wisdom.

Clerics in General

Clerics specialize in casting both curative and protective spells and are the only "core class" that does this; because of this, players who enjoy serving in healing roles may find this class very appealing. As many groups, regardless of tier, will not run without including a healer, clerics may have less trouble than average finding groups. Also, because popular cleric deities, namely Tul-Sith and Kra, will increase their worshippers' buffing-spells' armor class, clerics who worship these deities may find their buffing spells in great demand, as well. Although clerics may find groups more easily than average due to their healing abilities, they may find soloing much more challenging than average due to their relatively low capacity to do damage, via both weapons and spells.

Cleric Creation

Characters of any race may be clerics but some races are better suited for clericry than others. Characters of races with relatively-high wisdom, such as centaurs, deep gnomes, and gnomes, tend to make excellent clerics. Likewise, characters of races with relatively-low wisdom, such as gargoyles, giants, and kobolds, tend to be poor clerics with high rates of spellcasting failure, although some people still choose to play mages of such races because they enjoy their novelty or difficulty.

See also Wiseman's Avatar race comparison chart and/or Another Avatar MUD Site's Race-Class Comparer for some excellent comparative data to aid you in choosing your new cleric's race.

Clerics at Lowmort Tier

Training

As with any new character, a new cleric's first priority should be to train wisdom, either as much as is possible or enough that it may be maximized using level gear, so as to gain as many practice-points per level as possible.

Clerics should next train both their intelligence, which will both give them larger average mana gains per level and allow them to become adept at skills using fewer practice points, and their constitution, which will increase their average hit-point gains per level.

Clerics should then consider training both their dexterity, which may help them avoid combat damage, and their strength, which will increase both their carrying capacity and their melee damage, although training these two statistics is less urgent and may be postponed if desired.

See Statistics for more detail about each of these five statistics and their effects.

Practicing

After maximizing their wisdom, intelligence, and constitution, clerics may consider practicing skills.

Clerics may practice skills only with trainers; see both Trainers and, more specifically, Cleric Trainers for more information on these trainer mobs and on where they may be found.

Clerics should generally keep their intelligence as high as possible (usually three more than their maximum trainable amount) while practicing skills so as to avoid needlessly wasting practice points; see Intelligence for more detail about skill-practicing costs. Lowmort clerics may practice their skills up to 95%.

See Cleric Lowmort Skills and Spells for more detail about what skills clerics may practice at lowmort tier, at what level these skills may be practiced, and how useful they are.

Worshipping

Clerics, as with all classes, may choose to worship a god or goddess at level 10 or beyond. Some deities, though, are better suited for clerics to worship than others, particularly Kra and Tul-Sith. Clerics intending to become druids at level 50, though, must worship Roixa in order to qualify.

Kra versus Tul-Sith: Kra and Tul-Sith are most popular among Avatar MUD's clerics. Both of these deities will benefit their worshippers by improving both their buffing-spells' armor-class and healing-spells' mana-costs, although Kra does the former more than Tul-Sith wheras Tul-Sith does the latter more than Kra. Tul-Sith also both decreases melee damage and increases regeneration of both mana-points and hit-points, while Kra does the reverse. Both of these deities are relatively detrimental for enchanting gear. Kra also reduces practice-point gains per level at lowmort tier (and possibly also at hero tier), whereas Tul-Sith reduces experience-point gains, which may be an important consideration for characters with high racial tnl. In summary, both Kra and Tul-Sith help clerics enhance what they already do best, though Kra is a bit better for buffing and Tul-Sith is a bit better for healing.

Shizaga: Shizaga is an uncommon choice for clerics but, for some, may still be worth considering. Although Shizaga normally increases her worshippers' healing-spells' mana-costs, she decreases these costs for clerics, though not as much as either Kra or Tul-Sith does, and she also increases mana rengeration slightly. Clerics wishing to enchant gear would find her most beneficial to worship.

Roixa: Roixa is not generally beneficial to spellcasters, including clerics, and greatly reduces her worshippers' buffing-spells' armor-class, though she will improve their (non-magical) combat damage. Clerics who intend to become druids must worship Roixa but would probably find it advantageous to delay doing so for as long as possible. Clerics who do not intend to become druids would do better to worship someone else.

See Worship for more detail regarding worship options and their effects.

Fighting

As with characters of other classes, most lowmort clerics should have little trouble soloing from level 1 to level 20 very quickly. Afterward, gaining experience alone will grow increasingly difficult and clerics should seriously consider grouping with other characters.

Soloing: Clerics are not well-suited for soloing and will likely find this terribly challenging.

Tanking: Clerics hardly ever serve as tanks at lowmort tier, although there are rare exceptions. Clerics become much better able to tank groups during hero tier after practicing certain hero-tier skills (see below).

Hitting: Clerics have relatively poor capacity to cause damage, either with weapons or with spells, and thus almost never serve as hitters at any tier.

Healing: Clerics usually serve as healers in groups. Cleric healers should normally wear mana gear to maximize their available mana for healing. Clerics who run low on mana during runs may attempt to alleviate this problem somewhat by "catching tics." Cleric healers may also reduce their need for mana by practicing Arcane Knowledge and then using healing brandishes during runs. Cleric healers, when using their mana rather than their brandishes, typically heal with Cure Light by default, because it is most cost-effective, unless they are having trouble "keeping up" with damage being done, in which case they may heal with a more powerful curative spell like Cure Critical temporarily. Many cleric healers configure and use their prompt to monitor their tank's hit-points more easily. Along with healing, many tanks expect their cleric healers to re-cast Sanctuary on themselves (if not on everyone) and Frenzy on their hitters during runs, as these two spells have relatively short durations. Clerics may find white marble crosses especially handy for renewing Sanctuary on group members during runs. When not preoccupied with healing their tank or, as needed, other group members, cleric healers may increase their contributions to combat damage by using their kill command to immediately target mobs that their tank has just begun to fight. In addition, cleric healers who find themselves with both more time and more mana than they need to fulfil their role as healers may choose to use this extra time and mana to cast offensive spells like Cause Light and Harm and Earthquake during combat.

Cleric Prestige Options

Level-50 clerics may choose to become druids instead. As druids, they will wield missile weapons like archers rather than melee weapons. See Druids for more information about this prestige class.

Clerics at Hero Tier

Training

Clerics at hero tier will be able to train their wisdom five higher than at lowmort tier and to train their other statistics two higher than at lowmort tier. They will continue to be able to raise each of their statistics up to three more than they can train them to (respectively), unless they devote themselves to a deity, in which case these amounts may be modified slightly. See Devoting below for more information about this subject.

Practicing

Clerics should continue to practice skills with cleric trainers and should usually keep their intelligence as high as possible while doing so, just as at lowmort tier. Hero clerics may continue to practice their skills up to 95%. See Cleric Hero Skills and Spells for more detail about what skills clerics may practice at hero tier, at what level these skills may be practiced, and how useful they are.

Devoting

Clerics, as with all classes, may choose to devote themselves to whichever deity they have chosen to worship (if any) at hero sublevel 1 or beyond.

Kra: Clerics who devote themselves to Kra will have increased maximum wisdom, constitution, and strength, but decerased maximum dexterity.

Tul-Sith: Clerics who devote themselves to Tul-Sith will have increased maximum wisdom and constitution, but decreased maximum strength and dexterity.

See Devote for more detail about devotion and its effects.

Fighting

Clerics at hero tier, as at lowmort tier, continue to be well-suited and oft-wanted to serve as group healers. Some hero clerics may wish to increase their versatility by learning to tank groups, as well, which becomes easier for clerics to do at this tier.

Soloing: Clerics are not well-suited for soloing and will likely find this terribly challenging.

Tanking: Cleric tanks at hero tier are not common but do exist. In fact, after practicing certain hero-tier skills such as dodge, parry, and shield block, clerics can become highly effective tanks, wearing full tank gear for protection and perhaps using their mana to heal both themselves and their group members.

Hitting: Clerics have relatively poor capacity to cause damage, either with weapons or with spells, and thus almost never serve as hitters at any tier.

Healing: Clerics usually serve as healers in groups. Many, though hardly all, hero tanks expect their low-hero cleric healers to carry both mana gear and hit gear during runs, to wear their mana gear until they reach their base mana, and to change into their hit gear afterward. High-hero clerics with greater base mana may opt to wear only hit gear. Clerics who run low on mana during runs may attempt to alleviate this problem somewhat by "catching tics" or by using brandishes; brandishes may also be handy when multiple group members need healing simultaneously. Cleric healers, when using their mana rather than their brandishes, typically heal with either Cure Light or, as needed, Divinity. When able to do so without it interfering with their healing role, cleric healers may also contribute to their group's combat damage by bash-targeting mobs or even by casting offensive spells during combat. Even when not tanking, cleric healers may still wish to carry a set of tank gear with them that they can quickly change into during moments of mortal peril.

Clerics at Lord Tier

Cleric Remort Options

Clerics at lord tier may remort into either priests (either human ones at sublevel 100 or ones of their current race at sublevel 200) or paladins (either human ones at sublevel 125 or ones of their current race at sublevel 250). See Paladins and Priests for more information about these remort classes.

Clerics at lord tier may also remort into clerics of remort races. Remort races that are well-suited for clericry include high elves (available only to elven and drow clerics at sublevel 25) and tuataurs (available only to lizardmen and troglodyte clerics at sublevel 25). Despite their relatively-high wisdom, griffons are ill-suited for spellcasting and thus tend to be poor clerics.