Starting a Cleric & level 1-70
Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2022 10:08 pm
So you want to be a
Target audience: New to Rift or never played a Cleric.
Though i expect you to know how movement, combat, camera etc works.
Core mechanics to consider:
Cleric is a mystical class- which means it scales off Spell Power and spell crit.
Even on physical melee attacks, only Spellpower matters- your weapon's damage has 0 effect for abilities.
On melee attacks, every weapon type has a fixed delay between pressing an attack- your character swinging- and the damage happening. 1h weapons have a lot less delay so try to opt in on 1h + totem(shield) if the stats allow for it.
2h animations delay by over a second and at 1 sec gcd- an attack may even hit after the gcd finished and you are casting the next ability. A 1h animation delay for melee is only some 0.3s and will be a lot more reliable.
Spell casts have universal animation times.
Stats:
Comprehensive game info for total beginners:
https://www.cadrift.net/gameplay/charac ... er-guides/
Sidekick and Mentoring (temporarily adjust your level for free stats)
viewtopic.php?p=134#p134
Character creation
Pick The preset Seraphic Guard to start with a shield. Just having ANY shield in your bag may come useful even though you will get new weapons quickly.
Deciding to tank with 0 shields around happens way too often and any level 1 shield ''activates block''.
We can change our specialization right after entering the game.
Race and Faction have no impact on a level 70 Cleric. High Elves and Bahmi have a leap which can be useful in open world exploration. Runeshaper (dlc) also has a memory capture which can come in handy as reset point on jump puzzles.
-> Don't get too caught up on the creator sliders. All its settings + a credit race swap are available in the in-game barber shop.
Rather make sure you like the animations and overall feel and don't hesitate to try some races/ genders before settling.
You 100% will change something on the appearance in the barber shop later on anyway.
Level 1 - A legend in the making - maybe not quite yet
The approach presented below has the goal to have frequent new tools and mechanics unlocked and have you learn game fundamentals with great performance results.
Speed level hacks may do a thing or two 'faster' but nothing of it has any value or reason.
We are going for something that presents the whole class with mechanics which are actually used in the current game.
We will start with some casts before going for a Heavyweight melee and then transition into Shaman or Inquisitor.
First we want to get Shaman's Massive Blow- which unfortunately only unlocks on level 16.
Let's find something fun until then!
Press N (default) to open your soultree. The blue arrow indicates where your preset would spend the next point for you.
Click any of the middle icons (Red framed here) to get a selection of alternate souls to put into that slot.
You can combine all souls in a set of 3.
Click on the icon of Justicar and select Druid.
You will have a popup warning like this. This looks dramatic but it only warns you that you disable the preset autopilot now. We do want this, so hit okay.
Select the 3 souls like here (exact position in the 3 sets not relevant). Put your first point into Inquisitor Castigation like shown here and hit SAVE on the bottom right, then close.
You are able to customize your interface by default. Hit escape- EDIT LAYOUT and play around a little if you like.
Write /exportui and look for a confirming message in the chat- to create a backup in case you delete this character for another race etc. Load it with /importui.
You can also import a range of settings from characters on the same shard. Esc -> import.
Level 1-15 - The thirst period
Just like in DnD, Cleric starts in its weakest and most vulnerable state, spending over 3 seconds on a mob- absolutely disgusting, we need to change that.
All we do here is find something useful until Shaman's Massive Blow is available on level 16.
Cleric is too well balanced at those early levels- with only Runeshaper (dlc) and Defiler (dlc) sticking out.
So if you have the Runeshaper dlc, now is the time to use it.
Cleric is cursed with an unavoidable 1.5 second gcd and poor run speed options until very high levels. Your default casts are 2 seconds and take some points to become quicker.
Only Runeshaper-for no reason- starts with a 1.5sec cast, giving it high value for the first 5 levels.
Inquisitor's Bolt of Judgement can also reach 1.5 second cast time on level 5 and hits harder.
Getting the most value out of 1.5 second gcd is the play- either with hard hits on a cooldown or with spells which would take 1.5 seconds anyway. Good point to get first contact with Inquisitor- which is a top 70 soul.
Here is your free to play starter:
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#Dd/ng/l8G
> Start with 5/5 Inquisitor Castigation to get those Bolt of Judgements rolling.
> Continue in Shaman to get Avalanche Strike and the crit boni.
> Get Shield of Oak in Druid (absorbs A LOT at those levels + a minor run speed bonus).
> Continue spending points into Shaman until you reach level 16.
Access your new spells and buffs by pressing P (default) where you can find 3 tabs representing your 3 souls in use. Then simply drag them on your hotbar.
Your ability bar has a little lock icon on the left- unlock to move abilities around.
Your main abilities are:
Druid- Summon Satyr Protector (Shield of Oak), Fervent Strike
Inquisitor- Armor of Devotion, Bolt of Judgement, Vex
Shaman- Vengeance of the Winter Storm, (Avalanche Strike)
The tanking pet will prevent mobs from disrupting your spellcasting.
Your BoJ may already hit for 60-100 damage on mobs with 200 hp
You can also pull some more mobs with Vex and aoe them with Avalanche Strike once available.
Level 16 Shaman - Boy oh boy here we go!
Massive Blow got buffed in 3 ways without considering lower levels in the slightest:
1) It 100% crit- even on a low level where you may only have 5% crit.
2) Shaman calculates more spell power for more points spent in Shaman.
3) Brutalize, the bleed from Massive blow now deals 100% (instead of 35%) of Massive Blow's initial damage.
So the name of the game is to oneshot things with Massive Blow and proceed working on reducing its cooldown.
Link to a Gif showing what i mean: https://imgur.com/a/do68ORE
Jared gave great feedback to finetune all this.
Open your Soultree and purchase a SOUL RESET.
You can shuffle around the 3 souls in a role as long as no points are spent in a soul.
Your build on level 16 may look like this:
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#Df/rc/l8Jy60
-> Macro up!
#Main Massive Blow slammer
#show Massive Blow
suppressmacrofailures
cast Massive Blow
//cast Inscribe Fate
cast [shift] Strike of Judgement
cast Combined Effort
//cast Essence Strike
cast Fervent Strike
//cast Bolt of Radiance
cast Lightning Hammer
cast Shield of Oak
#eco button- for when you don't want to waste a Massive BLow
#show Combined Effort
suppressmacrofailures
//cast Inscribe Fate
cast Combined Effort
cast [shift] Strike of Judgement
//cast Essence Strike
cast Fervent Strike
//cast Bolt of Radiance
cast Lightning Hammer
cast Eruption of Life
cast Shield of Oak
( The // disables the line, the idea is to just remove the slashes when you have the ability available)
Strike of Judgement will generate more heals from Justicar's Salvation but also costs A LOT more mana than Fervent Strike.
You now have Salvation+Glory of the Chosen healing off attacks, the option for a healing faerie and Shield of Oak.
Oneshot mobs with 600 dmg bombs on lvl 16 and overheal any damage anyway. Starting off good!
-> When you have the Runeshaper dlc, you can replace either Druid or Justicar with 0 Runeshaper for Inscribe Fate- a free hard hit.
Level 16 - 23 - Maxing out Massive Blow.. what else?
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#D8/l8t4Ag/rd
Your main concern is to get Massive Blow's 3/3 Pattern of Violence cooldown reduction-by-melee attacks as well as
3/3 Brutalize.
Brutalize deals 100% of the damage done by Massive Blow over 3 seconds. So if MB hits a mob just below 50%, you can already go to the next.
Justicar AOE sub version:
-> When you do a lot of instant Adventures or even dungeons with friends, consider filling out Justicar instead of Druid!. Not only do you get some splash heals for your group but 16 points Justicar unlock EVEN JUSTICE, hitting 10 instead of the usual 5 targets (splashing heals off every target hit by Even Justice- maxed out Salvation on a full Even Justice swing may splash 70(!!!) ticks of Salvation in one swing)
Strength of a leveling Cleric is to be extremely tough. A friend pretty much solo tank+healed + high dps-ed lvl 35 dungeons with a Massive Blow + Even Justice combo on freely available leveling gear.
With your weapon attacks completely ignoring your weapon's effective damage, you can run a 1h+shield with close to no damage loss. Higher Justicar only shines when searching for a lot of aoe fights though.
Level 23-48 - Fill out Druid
Once you have Brutalize on 3/3, put points into Druid into everything that gives flat % boni like crit, damage or spell power. Skip specialized boni like Eruption of Life or Fervent Strike.
Do not hesitate to pick up utility like Slumber of the Fae Step's run speed bonus!
You will want to play it hyper aggressive, dive in and oneshot the mobs you need, then just slumber/ evade the ones you do not need.
You can even Ride the Lightning or Fae Step random mobs in your path to trigger the run speed of Pierce the Veil.
Random non elite mobs give super little experience, avoid wasting time with any mob that has no quest attached.
Goal is to KILL mobs, not 'fight' them- we avoid fights by either one shotting mobs or leaving areas quickly- Assassin- style. Druid Slumber is just perfect for that.
Example (some unlocks are fundamental as in Shaman- and some can be shuffled around. You can go custom and try around in Druid!):
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#Dtc8E55i/l8t4Ag/rd
Level 48 - New toys, new paths
The core gameplay does not change a whole lot and is mainly based on what utility (interrupts, stuns etc) suits you best as most are optional picks.
Note that Shaman has very little boni for physical attacks. The +50% MB damage from Shaman's Frostbite and Heavy Weight (31-35 points) are very easily achieved with Druid already.
Now, with Resounding Blow you get flat +50% damage on demand on top.
Example of a free to play bis single target questing Cleric:
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#Dvc ... w/l8t4Ag/r
Note that I put points out from Justicar since getting Resounding Blow asap is more important than Bolt of Radiance.
Simply purchase a spec reset on level 48, it will be very cheap.
Use the opportunity to re-consider utility unlocks- what you liked or what you didn't need. Maybe try the faerie seer?
We primarily use Druid for global % benefits. Do not hesitate to pass on +1% damage in order to pick up utility like the greater tanking pet.
Your ideal combo now is -> Fae Step > Massive Blow > Combined Effort (if still alive)
On tougher Targets you may -> Fae Step > Resounding Blow > Massive Blow > Combined Effort > Essence Strike
The 20% damage bonus from Combined effort carries over to consecutive targets for some time.
You can also finish off a mob with Resounding Blow and then open on a new mob with Fae step and +50% Massive Blow.
We can also now utilize Eruption of Life. Its leveling damage is pretty bad but damage from it reduces the cooldown of Resounding Blow. Nice enough to cast it from range and it also counts as a weapon attack for Massive Blow's cooldown.
I would not macro Resounding blow and Massive Blow together since they may desync hard, and it's overkill most of the time- so let's keep some manual gameplay on this aspect.
#Main Masive Blow slammer
#show Massive Blow
suppressmacrofailures
cast Massive Blow
//cast Inscribe Fate
cast [shift] Strike of Judgement
cast Combined Effort
cast Essence Strike
cast Fervent Strike
//cast Bolt of Radiance
cast Eruption of Life
cast Shield of Oak
#RB opener
#Resounding Blow
suppressmacrofailures
cast Resounding Blow
cast Fae Step
#eco button- for when you don't want to waste a Massive Blow
#show Combined Effort
suppressmacrofailures
//cast Inscribe Fate
cast Combined Effort
cast [shift] Strike of Judgement
cast Essence Strike
cast Fervent Strike
//cast Bolt of Radiance
cast Eruption of Life
cast Shield of Oak
As long as you got Shaman's 3/3 Pattern of Violence, 3/3 Brutalize, Druid's Resounding Blow and skip the Water+frost theme in Shaman (taking a lot of points to become good), there is nothing to do wrong.
AOE Justicar example:
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#p/lv5h940k/rt95gH88
Even Justice deals life damage for convictions and gets you very quick Hammer of Duty bombs.
Main benefit is easy damage on 10 targets, splash healing and controlled hard hits.
Again, this is only useful when you do a lot of instant Adventures where pets don't scale well and you get a lot more value from aoe.
When reaching level 48, you may want to go back to a more single target focused approach for the reasons below:
Lvl 48 New world who dis - New continent with a lot better quest rewards is available!
Level 40- 48 is the longest stretch in the game. Instead of grinding level 48-50, you can already jump into brand new zones.
You can enter the Storm Legion continent from level 48 onward. You will get at least 10x the exp from quests and Gear as good as lvl 50 raiding Tiers. This means lvl 50 within minutes. Storm legion even offers two separate lvl 48-60 continents and journeys!
Your capital city (Meridian/ Sanctum) will have an ambassador next to the portal with talk options.
- Business in your city teleports to Tempest bay
- Brevane sends you to cape yule (Best early quests)
- Dusken sends you to Kingdom Pelladane (More core story but more running around)
The early quests are meant to be done with ungeared characters and will deck you out with most gear slots in no time.
Lvl 50 - Planar Attunement - Fundamental story mission
A little sidetrack from questing: Level 50 allows for Planar attunements.
For that, you need to get attuned in the solo- Chronicle 'Ceremony of Attunement'.
You should receive mail as you hit level 50. This solo instance unlocks Planar attunements for you.
Planar attunements are some minor unlocks with separate exp systems.
Get into DEATH first, the Unlock Vampiric Essence in the second Death panel is amazing for anything solo.
After that you may enter War for mount speed and then Water for the water rift group summon.
More info on Attunement levels (PAXP) and tricks with quests and zones:
https://www.cadrift.net/gameplay/character/levelling/
Level 60-66 - Full souls available, now pick your pokemon!
Hitting level 60, only now you can fully fill out a soultree. Cleric- and especially its dps souls are quite dependent on the 61 point buffs in order to fully function.
Though Shaman, Inquisitor and Druid are all nice, I would only recommend Shaman and Inquisitor for solo play. Druid takes way too long to buff up on every new target.
Note that all 3 now have a 1 second gcd compared to the 1.5 seconds you are cursed with all this time. Things may become a little bit more hectic so we will keep it simple and practical!
Decide on the caster or the melee path. Both are A tier.
Shaman impression:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R39oBJwufEY&t
Frontline st/ aoe melee Massive Blow style
Inquisitor Impression:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiRviJtQYhI
Very controlled caster with dots, casts and channels
DISCLAIMER: The following explanations are easy entry lunchboxes and by no means comprehensive Shaman/ Inq guides!
You may want to pick up and learn the ''proper'' version for both at one point.
Both are definitely good to practice as soon as possible so I promote picking one of the two on level 60.
Shaman may be easier first.
Level 60-70 on Shaman (Powerful allround dps on 70)
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#D88 ... ll4/p|XcXg
The basis is quite comparable to what we have used before.
The core of old Shaman is Frostbite which makes any magical attack (also magical melee) buff the next physical attack by 30%.
You can run the easy mode here, using only magical attacks but Massive Blow.
#Easy 1b
#show Massive Blow
suppressmacrofailures
cast Frozen Wrath
cast Massive Blow
cast Glacial Strike
cast Jolt
cast Icy Blow
cast Eruption of Life
cast shield of Oak
Buff Furious Assault, it will apply the 3 additional animal 'courage' buffs
Buff Glory of the Chosen
-> 'Proper way' is to maximize Frostbite by alternating physical and non physical attacks- but a level 66 Shaman already ignores this mechanic. Great moment to not bloat this quick introduction with redundant mechanics.
Massive Blow is still your bread and butter.
Frozen Wrath is a decent dot and will double the damage of your Vengeance of the Winterstorm proccs
-> Use Deep Freeze offensively for damage, best with (Frostbite) Deep Freeze - Massive blow - nonphysical like Jolt + Rush of Strength - Massive Blow or defensively for it's aoe freeze.
-> Windwalk is a powerful cooldown giving both runspeed and dodge
-> On raw aoe, buff Vengeance of the primal North. You can toggle between your 2 Vengeances on the fly mid fight.
On level 61 you will notice the Mastery portion on your soultree opening up. Here are the sockets:
61: 4/4
62: 3/4
63: 1/4
64: 3/4
65: 2/4
Your 65 Mastery Soulstream is a powerful self heal, able to FULLY heal yourself once a minute and even mid fight.
Punishing Strike is usually used for dps but on such short engagements it's not of great value.
Level 65-66 on Shaman
Level 66 will have you get one LEGENDARY POINT per level. Those are used to socket special framed abilities in your soul tree. Each soul has 5 legendary abilities.
Number of legendaries to select is determined by your level and points spent in a soul.
0-14 = max 1 leggy
15-43 = max 2 leggies
44-61 = max 3 leggies
With a 61 spec you can choose 3/5 on the main soul and 1 each on the offsouls.
Or 2 in a 61 soul, 2 in a 15 point of soul and 1 in the 0 point offsoul.
Legendary Distribution for a leveling Shaman:
With each level giving a new legendary point to spend, when to unlock what has significant impact:
66 - Furious Assault. A no brainer it's a flat and very high passive bonus making Frostbite obsolete
67 - Icy Blow. Using Icy Blow just once gives ALL magical attacks + 48% damage for 20 seconds. With Furious assault this already doubles your water+air damage.
68 - Legendary Summon faerie - now proccs A LOT of self healing passively without any pets out.
69 - Fervent Strike for more damage globally- randomly use it once and get buffed for a minute. You will use Legendary FS ALOT on 70 so better get used to it.
(Your 62 Mastery Blessing of Penitence even gives it some range)
70 - Bolt of Light or Deep Freeze after preference. Note that this all is a solo approach-
Full Shaman informations for maximum performance on level 70:
viewtopic.php?t=58
A Lot of details to squeeze out.
Level 60-70 on Inquisitor (Inq is bis raid dps on 70)
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#l8G ... h0/pd|X-Xg
There are quite a lot of things to pick up at once now but you will be rewarded.
Note: Some people are genuinely afraid of learning Inquisitor because ''it's so complex''. But Inquisitor has no random procs or chances. What you press is what you get and getting better at it will 1:1 translate into better results.
Inquisitor basics:
Bolts: You have Life and Death damage (light & shadow). Dealing 4x Life damage gives you an instant hard hit (Bolt of Depravity BoD). Using that hard it gives you reduced casting time for the next 2 medium Bolts (Bolt of Retribution BoR).
Dots: Sanction Heretic, Vex and Scourge are standard, off the shelf dots ticking for 15 seconds. Make sure to only use them on mobs which will live long enough.
Channels: Aggressive Inquisition, Nysyr's Rebuke (Harsh Discipline)are situational HARD HITS, able to oneshot a mob.
Buffs:
Spiritual Scrunity. Makes your weakest Bolt, Bolt of Judgement (BoJ) instant and gives your a 1 second global cooldown. This buff alone changes Inquisitor by so much that anything below 58Inq is not worth talking about.
Shroud of Agony. After taking damage you can procc a dot aura.
Armor of Awakening: Uneventful but good buff.
Since we are leveling and questing, you want to prioritize hard hit oneshot potential- even if it means using cooldowns 'ineffectively'. Rather use your hard hitting channels than sitting on them unused.
Aggressive Inquisition is only a 30 second cooldown and Nysyr's Rebuke counts as life damage for your BoD mechanic.
You can even use all channels, hit Radical Coalescence and channel again.
Ideal way then is: Fanaticism - AI - NR - Coalescence - AI - NR (absolute overkill for anything that isn't a boss)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fpzpigYEgNE
#Inquisitor gang
You may notice a blue icon popping up on your screen. This means Bolt of Depravity is ready to be used. Only use BoD when it procced like this. A hardcasted BoD does not give the cast time bonus for BoR.
#Default - this will only hardcast BoR but will use the next best instants on the move.
#show Bolt of Retribution
suppressmacrofailures
cast Bolt of Retribution
cast Bolt of Depravity
cast Sanction Heretic
cast Bolt of Judgement
cast Spiritual Scrutiny
cast Perseverance
#Coal cooldown
#show Radical Coalescence
suppressmacrofailures
cast Radical Coalescence
cast Aggressive Inquisition
-> You will want to use Aggressive Inquisition and Nysyr's Rebuke within 10 seconds after Popping Coalescence.
AOE: Inquisitor aoe is nothing to write home about but good enough. When facing some 4-5 mobs, apply Scourge to all, then popp Fanaticism - Soul Drain when they are clumped up.
Soul Drain affects enemies close to your target and gets more ticks the more targets are affected.
1 Target = 1 tick (1x1)
2 Targets = 4 ticks (2x2)
3 Targets = 9 ticks (3x3)
4 Targets = 16 ticks (4x4)
Fanaticism makes ALL ticks critical. A dream for Planar invasions, usually being 4 grouped up mobs.
Level 63 - The mastery Faith's Reward allows your Sanction heretic to apply Vex (purple dot) This makes Vex completely passive for single target use.
Level 65 - The Mastery Soulstream is a powerful self heal, able to FULLY heal yourself once a minute and even mid fight.
For damage it acts like Nysyr's Rebuke to allow more BoD proccs. (3/4 stacks)
Level 66 will have you get one LEGENDARY POINT per level. Those are used to socket special framed abilities in your soul tree. Each soul has 5 legendary abilities.
Number of legendaries to select is determined by your level and also-
points spent into a soul:
0-14 points = max 1 leggy
15-43 points= max 2 leggies
44-61 points= max 3 leggies
With a 61 spec you can choose 3/5 on the main soul and 1 each on the offsouls.
Or 2 in a 61 soul, 2 in a 15 point of soul and 1 in the 0 point offsoul.
Legendary Distribution for a Leveling Inquisitor. With each level giving a new legendary point to spend, when to unlock what has significant impact:
66 - Radical Coalescence. Passive boni for dots. Additional to all previous effects, it now DOUBLES the tickrate of your Inquisitor channel for 10 seconds. IA now fires 5 instead of 3 BoD's, Nysyr's Rebuke now ticks 7 instead of 4 times.
For 10 seconds, Nysysr's Rebuke also does 3 times the damage. So 300% damage and 3 more ticks. Is it overpowered? Yes absolutely. Oneshot city.
67 - Bolt of Retribution. Now fires two bolts and as a result, dealing two times life damage, giving more Bod proccs, which gives more cast time benefits for BoR. Short circuit your core mechanics for effectively double output here.
With L.BoR, you may rather cast for 1.5 seconds without cast time benefits instead of a 1sec BoJ (unless moving)
68 - Perseverance. Not amazing but flat passive damage for ALL BoD which affects BoD and Aggressive Inquisition (Firing BoD's)
69 - Bolt of Light. Sentinel is mainly there for the active selfheal- Use Bolt of Light on tougher targets you may hit for at least 15 seconds.
Note that this all is a solo approach-
Full Inquisitor package with most mechanics from above carrying over.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220121023 ... sitor.html
(Archived website may take a while to load)
When you hit level 70, here is your next halt:
https://www.cadrift.net/gameplay/charac ... l-70-gear/
If things are too convoluted, unclear or anything feeling off please do just toss in a response here i am happily going over it.
- 111CLERIC.png (109.64 KiB) Viewed 3322 times
Though i expect you to know how movement, combat, camera etc works.
Core mechanics to consider:
Cleric is a mystical class- which means it scales off Spell Power and spell crit.
Even on physical melee attacks, only Spellpower matters- your weapon's damage has 0 effect for abilities.
On melee attacks, every weapon type has a fixed delay between pressing an attack- your character swinging- and the damage happening. 1h weapons have a lot less delay so try to opt in on 1h + totem(shield) if the stats allow for it.
2h animations delay by over a second and at 1 sec gcd- an attack may even hit after the gcd finished and you are casting the next ability. A 1h animation delay for melee is only some 0.3s and will be a lot more reliable.
Spell casts have universal animation times.
Stats:
Spoiler:
Comprehensive game info for total beginners:
https://www.cadrift.net/gameplay/charac ... er-guides/
Sidekick and Mentoring (temporarily adjust your level for free stats)
viewtopic.php?p=134#p134
Character creation
Pick The preset Seraphic Guard to start with a shield. Just having ANY shield in your bag may come useful even though you will get new weapons quickly.
Deciding to tank with 0 shields around happens way too often and any level 1 shield ''activates block''.
We can change our specialization right after entering the game.
Race and Faction have no impact on a level 70 Cleric. High Elves and Bahmi have a leap which can be useful in open world exploration. Runeshaper (dlc) also has a memory capture which can come in handy as reset point on jump puzzles.
-> Don't get too caught up on the creator sliders. All its settings + a credit race swap are available in the in-game barber shop.
Rather make sure you like the animations and overall feel and don't hesitate to try some races/ genders before settling.
You 100% will change something on the appearance in the barber shop later on anyway.
Level 1 - A legend in the making - maybe not quite yet
The approach presented below has the goal to have frequent new tools and mechanics unlocked and have you learn game fundamentals with great performance results.
Speed level hacks may do a thing or two 'faster' but nothing of it has any value or reason.
We are going for something that presents the whole class with mechanics which are actually used in the current game.
We will start with some casts before going for a Heavyweight melee and then transition into Shaman or Inquisitor.
First we want to get Shaman's Massive Blow- which unfortunately only unlocks on level 16.
Let's find something fun until then!
- Clericstarter1.jpg (63.17 KiB) Viewed 3320 times
Click any of the middle icons (Red framed here) to get a selection of alternate souls to put into that slot.
You can combine all souls in a set of 3.
Click on the icon of Justicar and select Druid.
- Clericstarter2.jpg (71.46 KiB) Viewed 3320 times
- Clericstarter3.jpg (99.67 KiB) Viewed 3320 times
You are able to customize your interface by default. Hit escape- EDIT LAYOUT and play around a little if you like.
Write /exportui and look for a confirming message in the chat- to create a backup in case you delete this character for another race etc. Load it with /importui.
You can also import a range of settings from characters on the same shard. Esc -> import.
Level 1-15 - The thirst period
Just like in DnD, Cleric starts in its weakest and most vulnerable state, spending over 3 seconds on a mob- absolutely disgusting, we need to change that.
All we do here is find something useful until Shaman's Massive Blow is available on level 16.
Cleric is too well balanced at those early levels- with only Runeshaper (dlc) and Defiler (dlc) sticking out.
So if you have the Runeshaper dlc, now is the time to use it.
Cleric is cursed with an unavoidable 1.5 second gcd and poor run speed options until very high levels. Your default casts are 2 seconds and take some points to become quicker.
Only Runeshaper-for no reason- starts with a 1.5sec cast, giving it high value for the first 5 levels.
Inquisitor's Bolt of Judgement can also reach 1.5 second cast time on level 5 and hits harder.
Getting the most value out of 1.5 second gcd is the play- either with hard hits on a cooldown or with spells which would take 1.5 seconds anyway. Good point to get first contact with Inquisitor- which is a top 70 soul.
Here is your free to play starter:
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#Dd/ng/l8G
> Start with 5/5 Inquisitor Castigation to get those Bolt of Judgements rolling.
> Continue in Shaman to get Avalanche Strike and the crit boni.
> Get Shield of Oak in Druid (absorbs A LOT at those levels + a minor run speed bonus).
> Continue spending points into Shaman until you reach level 16.
Access your new spells and buffs by pressing P (default) where you can find 3 tabs representing your 3 souls in use. Then simply drag them on your hotbar.
Your ability bar has a little lock icon on the left- unlock to move abilities around.
Your main abilities are:
Druid- Summon Satyr Protector (Shield of Oak), Fervent Strike
Inquisitor- Armor of Devotion, Bolt of Judgement, Vex
Shaman- Vengeance of the Winter Storm, (Avalanche Strike)
The tanking pet will prevent mobs from disrupting your spellcasting.
Your BoJ may already hit for 60-100 damage on mobs with 200 hp
You can also pull some more mobs with Vex and aoe them with Avalanche Strike once available.
Level 16 Shaman - Boy oh boy here we go!
Massive Blow got buffed in 3 ways without considering lower levels in the slightest:
1) It 100% crit- even on a low level where you may only have 5% crit.
2) Shaman calculates more spell power for more points spent in Shaman.
3) Brutalize, the bleed from Massive blow now deals 100% (instead of 35%) of Massive Blow's initial damage.
So the name of the game is to oneshot things with Massive Blow and proceed working on reducing its cooldown.
Link to a Gif showing what i mean: https://imgur.com/a/do68ORE
Jared gave great feedback to finetune all this.
Open your Soultree and purchase a SOUL RESET.
You can shuffle around the 3 souls in a role as long as no points are spent in a soul.
Your build on level 16 may look like this:
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#Df/rc/l8Jy60
-> Macro up!
- sticky.JPG (94.87 KiB) Viewed 3320 times
#show Massive Blow
suppressmacrofailures
cast Massive Blow
//cast Inscribe Fate
cast [shift] Strike of Judgement
cast Combined Effort
//cast Essence Strike
cast Fervent Strike
//cast Bolt of Radiance
cast Lightning Hammer
cast Shield of Oak
#eco button- for when you don't want to waste a Massive BLow
#show Combined Effort
suppressmacrofailures
//cast Inscribe Fate
cast Combined Effort
cast [shift] Strike of Judgement
//cast Essence Strike
cast Fervent Strike
//cast Bolt of Radiance
cast Lightning Hammer
cast Eruption of Life
cast Shield of Oak
( The // disables the line, the idea is to just remove the slashes when you have the ability available)
Strike of Judgement will generate more heals from Justicar's Salvation but also costs A LOT more mana than Fervent Strike.
You now have Salvation+Glory of the Chosen healing off attacks, the option for a healing faerie and Shield of Oak.
Oneshot mobs with 600 dmg bombs on lvl 16 and overheal any damage anyway. Starting off good!
-> When you have the Runeshaper dlc, you can replace either Druid or Justicar with 0 Runeshaper for Inscribe Fate- a free hard hit.
Level 16 - 23 - Maxing out Massive Blow.. what else?
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#D8/l8t4Ag/rd
Your main concern is to get Massive Blow's 3/3 Pattern of Violence cooldown reduction-by-melee attacks as well as
3/3 Brutalize.
Brutalize deals 100% of the damage done by Massive Blow over 3 seconds. So if MB hits a mob just below 50%, you can already go to the next.
Justicar AOE sub version:
-> When you do a lot of instant Adventures or even dungeons with friends, consider filling out Justicar instead of Druid!. Not only do you get some splash heals for your group but 16 points Justicar unlock EVEN JUSTICE, hitting 10 instead of the usual 5 targets (splashing heals off every target hit by Even Justice- maxed out Salvation on a full Even Justice swing may splash 70(!!!) ticks of Salvation in one swing)
Strength of a leveling Cleric is to be extremely tough. A friend pretty much solo tank+healed + high dps-ed lvl 35 dungeons with a Massive Blow + Even Justice combo on freely available leveling gear.
With your weapon attacks completely ignoring your weapon's effective damage, you can run a 1h+shield with close to no damage loss. Higher Justicar only shines when searching for a lot of aoe fights though.
Level 23-48 - Fill out Druid
Once you have Brutalize on 3/3, put points into Druid into everything that gives flat % boni like crit, damage or spell power. Skip specialized boni like Eruption of Life or Fervent Strike.
Do not hesitate to pick up utility like Slumber of the Fae Step's run speed bonus!
You will want to play it hyper aggressive, dive in and oneshot the mobs you need, then just slumber/ evade the ones you do not need.
You can even Ride the Lightning or Fae Step random mobs in your path to trigger the run speed of Pierce the Veil.
Random non elite mobs give super little experience, avoid wasting time with any mob that has no quest attached.
Goal is to KILL mobs, not 'fight' them- we avoid fights by either one shotting mobs or leaving areas quickly- Assassin- style. Druid Slumber is just perfect for that.
Example (some unlocks are fundamental as in Shaman- and some can be shuffled around. You can go custom and try around in Druid!):
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#Dtc8E55i/l8t4Ag/rd
Level 48 - New toys, new paths
The core gameplay does not change a whole lot and is mainly based on what utility (interrupts, stuns etc) suits you best as most are optional picks.
Note that Shaman has very little boni for physical attacks. The +50% MB damage from Shaman's Frostbite and Heavy Weight (31-35 points) are very easily achieved with Druid already.
Now, with Resounding Blow you get flat +50% damage on demand on top.
Example of a free to play bis single target questing Cleric:
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#Dvc ... w/l8t4Ag/r
Note that I put points out from Justicar since getting Resounding Blow asap is more important than Bolt of Radiance.
Simply purchase a spec reset on level 48, it will be very cheap.
Use the opportunity to re-consider utility unlocks- what you liked or what you didn't need. Maybe try the faerie seer?
We primarily use Druid for global % benefits. Do not hesitate to pass on +1% damage in order to pick up utility like the greater tanking pet.
Your ideal combo now is -> Fae Step > Massive Blow > Combined Effort (if still alive)
On tougher Targets you may -> Fae Step > Resounding Blow > Massive Blow > Combined Effort > Essence Strike
The 20% damage bonus from Combined effort carries over to consecutive targets for some time.
You can also finish off a mob with Resounding Blow and then open on a new mob with Fae step and +50% Massive Blow.
We can also now utilize Eruption of Life. Its leveling damage is pretty bad but damage from it reduces the cooldown of Resounding Blow. Nice enough to cast it from range and it also counts as a weapon attack for Massive Blow's cooldown.
I would not macro Resounding blow and Massive Blow together since they may desync hard, and it's overkill most of the time- so let's keep some manual gameplay on this aspect.
#Main Masive Blow slammer
#show Massive Blow
suppressmacrofailures
cast Massive Blow
//cast Inscribe Fate
cast [shift] Strike of Judgement
cast Combined Effort
cast Essence Strike
cast Fervent Strike
//cast Bolt of Radiance
cast Eruption of Life
cast Shield of Oak
#RB opener
#Resounding Blow
suppressmacrofailures
cast Resounding Blow
cast Fae Step
#eco button- for when you don't want to waste a Massive Blow
#show Combined Effort
suppressmacrofailures
//cast Inscribe Fate
cast Combined Effort
cast [shift] Strike of Judgement
cast Essence Strike
cast Fervent Strike
//cast Bolt of Radiance
cast Eruption of Life
cast Shield of Oak
As long as you got Shaman's 3/3 Pattern of Violence, 3/3 Brutalize, Druid's Resounding Blow and skip the Water+frost theme in Shaman (taking a lot of points to become good), there is nothing to do wrong.
AOE Justicar example:
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#p/lv5h940k/rt95gH88
Even Justice deals life damage for convictions and gets you very quick Hammer of Duty bombs.
Main benefit is easy damage on 10 targets, splash healing and controlled hard hits.
Again, this is only useful when you do a lot of instant Adventures where pets don't scale well and you get a lot more value from aoe.
When reaching level 48, you may want to go back to a more single target focused approach for the reasons below:
Lvl 48 New world who dis - New continent with a lot better quest rewards is available!
Level 40- 48 is the longest stretch in the game. Instead of grinding level 48-50, you can already jump into brand new zones.
You can enter the Storm Legion continent from level 48 onward. You will get at least 10x the exp from quests and Gear as good as lvl 50 raiding Tiers. This means lvl 50 within minutes. Storm legion even offers two separate lvl 48-60 continents and journeys!
Your capital city (Meridian/ Sanctum) will have an ambassador next to the portal with talk options.
- Business in your city teleports to Tempest bay
- Brevane sends you to cape yule (Best early quests)
- Dusken sends you to Kingdom Pelladane (More core story but more running around)
The early quests are meant to be done with ungeared characters and will deck you out with most gear slots in no time.
Lvl 50 - Planar Attunement - Fundamental story mission
A little sidetrack from questing: Level 50 allows for Planar attunements.
For that, you need to get attuned in the solo- Chronicle 'Ceremony of Attunement'.
You should receive mail as you hit level 50. This solo instance unlocks Planar attunements for you.
Planar attunements are some minor unlocks with separate exp systems.
Get into DEATH first, the Unlock Vampiric Essence in the second Death panel is amazing for anything solo.
After that you may enter War for mount speed and then Water for the water rift group summon.
More info on Attunement levels (PAXP) and tricks with quests and zones:
https://www.cadrift.net/gameplay/character/levelling/
Level 60-66 - Full souls available, now pick your pokemon!
Hitting level 60, only now you can fully fill out a soultree. Cleric- and especially its dps souls are quite dependent on the 61 point buffs in order to fully function.
Though Shaman, Inquisitor and Druid are all nice, I would only recommend Shaman and Inquisitor for solo play. Druid takes way too long to buff up on every new target.
Note that all 3 now have a 1 second gcd compared to the 1.5 seconds you are cursed with all this time. Things may become a little bit more hectic so we will keep it simple and practical!
Decide on the caster or the melee path. Both are A tier.
Shaman impression:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R39oBJwufEY&t
Frontline st/ aoe melee Massive Blow style
Inquisitor Impression:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiRviJtQYhI
Very controlled caster with dots, casts and channels
DISCLAIMER: The following explanations are easy entry lunchboxes and by no means comprehensive Shaman/ Inq guides!
You may want to pick up and learn the ''proper'' version for both at one point.
Both are definitely good to practice as soon as possible so I promote picking one of the two on level 60.
Shaman may be easier first.
Level 60-70 on Shaman (Powerful allround dps on 70)
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#D88 ... ll4/p|XcXg
The basis is quite comparable to what we have used before.
The core of old Shaman is Frostbite which makes any magical attack (also magical melee) buff the next physical attack by 30%.
You can run the easy mode here, using only magical attacks but Massive Blow.
#Easy 1b
#show Massive Blow
suppressmacrofailures
cast Frozen Wrath
cast Massive Blow
cast Glacial Strike
cast Jolt
cast Icy Blow
cast Eruption of Life
cast shield of Oak
Buff Furious Assault, it will apply the 3 additional animal 'courage' buffs
Buff Glory of the Chosen
-> 'Proper way' is to maximize Frostbite by alternating physical and non physical attacks- but a level 66 Shaman already ignores this mechanic. Great moment to not bloat this quick introduction with redundant mechanics.
Massive Blow is still your bread and butter.
Frozen Wrath is a decent dot and will double the damage of your Vengeance of the Winterstorm proccs
-> Use Deep Freeze offensively for damage, best with (Frostbite) Deep Freeze - Massive blow - nonphysical like Jolt + Rush of Strength - Massive Blow or defensively for it's aoe freeze.
-> Windwalk is a powerful cooldown giving both runspeed and dodge
-> On raw aoe, buff Vengeance of the primal North. You can toggle between your 2 Vengeances on the fly mid fight.
On level 61 you will notice the Mastery portion on your soultree opening up. Here are the sockets:
61: 4/4
62: 3/4
63: 1/4
64: 3/4
65: 2/4
Your 65 Mastery Soulstream is a powerful self heal, able to FULLY heal yourself once a minute and even mid fight.
Punishing Strike is usually used for dps but on such short engagements it's not of great value.
Level 65-66 on Shaman
Level 66 will have you get one LEGENDARY POINT per level. Those are used to socket special framed abilities in your soul tree. Each soul has 5 legendary abilities.
Number of legendaries to select is determined by your level and points spent in a soul.
0-14 = max 1 leggy
15-43 = max 2 leggies
44-61 = max 3 leggies
With a 61 spec you can choose 3/5 on the main soul and 1 each on the offsouls.
Or 2 in a 61 soul, 2 in a 15 point of soul and 1 in the 0 point offsoul.
Legendary Distribution for a leveling Shaman:
With each level giving a new legendary point to spend, when to unlock what has significant impact:
66 - Furious Assault. A no brainer it's a flat and very high passive bonus making Frostbite obsolete
67 - Icy Blow. Using Icy Blow just once gives ALL magical attacks + 48% damage for 20 seconds. With Furious assault this already doubles your water+air damage.
68 - Legendary Summon faerie - now proccs A LOT of self healing passively without any pets out.
69 - Fervent Strike for more damage globally- randomly use it once and get buffed for a minute. You will use Legendary FS ALOT on 70 so better get used to it.
(Your 62 Mastery Blessing of Penitence even gives it some range)
70 - Bolt of Light or Deep Freeze after preference. Note that this all is a solo approach-
Full Shaman informations for maximum performance on level 70:
viewtopic.php?t=58
A Lot of details to squeeze out.
Level 60-70 on Inquisitor (Inq is bis raid dps on 70)
https://rift.magelo.com/en/soultree#l8G ... h0/pd|X-Xg
There are quite a lot of things to pick up at once now but you will be rewarded.
Note: Some people are genuinely afraid of learning Inquisitor because ''it's so complex''. But Inquisitor has no random procs or chances. What you press is what you get and getting better at it will 1:1 translate into better results.
Inquisitor basics:
Bolts: You have Life and Death damage (light & shadow). Dealing 4x Life damage gives you an instant hard hit (Bolt of Depravity BoD). Using that hard it gives you reduced casting time for the next 2 medium Bolts (Bolt of Retribution BoR).
Dots: Sanction Heretic, Vex and Scourge are standard, off the shelf dots ticking for 15 seconds. Make sure to only use them on mobs which will live long enough.
Channels: Aggressive Inquisition, Nysyr's Rebuke (Harsh Discipline)are situational HARD HITS, able to oneshot a mob.
Buffs:
Spiritual Scrunity. Makes your weakest Bolt, Bolt of Judgement (BoJ) instant and gives your a 1 second global cooldown. This buff alone changes Inquisitor by so much that anything below 58Inq is not worth talking about.
Shroud of Agony. After taking damage you can procc a dot aura.
Armor of Awakening: Uneventful but good buff.
Since we are leveling and questing, you want to prioritize hard hit oneshot potential- even if it means using cooldowns 'ineffectively'. Rather use your hard hitting channels than sitting on them unused.
Aggressive Inquisition is only a 30 second cooldown and Nysyr's Rebuke counts as life damage for your BoD mechanic.
You can even use all channels, hit Radical Coalescence and channel again.
Ideal way then is: Fanaticism - AI - NR - Coalescence - AI - NR (absolute overkill for anything that isn't a boss)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fpzpigYEgNE
#Inquisitor gang
You may notice a blue icon popping up on your screen. This means Bolt of Depravity is ready to be used. Only use BoD when it procced like this. A hardcasted BoD does not give the cast time bonus for BoR.
#Default - this will only hardcast BoR but will use the next best instants on the move.
#show Bolt of Retribution
suppressmacrofailures
cast Bolt of Retribution
cast Bolt of Depravity
cast Sanction Heretic
cast Bolt of Judgement
cast Spiritual Scrutiny
cast Perseverance
#Coal cooldown
#show Radical Coalescence
suppressmacrofailures
cast Radical Coalescence
cast Aggressive Inquisition
-> You will want to use Aggressive Inquisition and Nysyr's Rebuke within 10 seconds after Popping Coalescence.
AOE: Inquisitor aoe is nothing to write home about but good enough. When facing some 4-5 mobs, apply Scourge to all, then popp Fanaticism - Soul Drain when they are clumped up.
Soul Drain affects enemies close to your target and gets more ticks the more targets are affected.
1 Target = 1 tick (1x1)
2 Targets = 4 ticks (2x2)
3 Targets = 9 ticks (3x3)
4 Targets = 16 ticks (4x4)
Fanaticism makes ALL ticks critical. A dream for Planar invasions, usually being 4 grouped up mobs.
Level 63 - The mastery Faith's Reward allows your Sanction heretic to apply Vex (purple dot) This makes Vex completely passive for single target use.
Level 65 - The Mastery Soulstream is a powerful self heal, able to FULLY heal yourself once a minute and even mid fight.
For damage it acts like Nysyr's Rebuke to allow more BoD proccs. (3/4 stacks)
Level 66 will have you get one LEGENDARY POINT per level. Those are used to socket special framed abilities in your soul tree. Each soul has 5 legendary abilities.
Number of legendaries to select is determined by your level and also-
points spent into a soul:
0-14 points = max 1 leggy
15-43 points= max 2 leggies
44-61 points= max 3 leggies
With a 61 spec you can choose 3/5 on the main soul and 1 each on the offsouls.
Or 2 in a 61 soul, 2 in a 15 point of soul and 1 in the 0 point offsoul.
Legendary Distribution for a Leveling Inquisitor. With each level giving a new legendary point to spend, when to unlock what has significant impact:
66 - Radical Coalescence. Passive boni for dots. Additional to all previous effects, it now DOUBLES the tickrate of your Inquisitor channel for 10 seconds. IA now fires 5 instead of 3 BoD's, Nysyr's Rebuke now ticks 7 instead of 4 times.
For 10 seconds, Nysysr's Rebuke also does 3 times the damage. So 300% damage and 3 more ticks. Is it overpowered? Yes absolutely. Oneshot city.
67 - Bolt of Retribution. Now fires two bolts and as a result, dealing two times life damage, giving more Bod proccs, which gives more cast time benefits for BoR. Short circuit your core mechanics for effectively double output here.
With L.BoR, you may rather cast for 1.5 seconds without cast time benefits instead of a 1sec BoJ (unless moving)
68 - Perseverance. Not amazing but flat passive damage for ALL BoD which affects BoD and Aggressive Inquisition (Firing BoD's)
69 - Bolt of Light. Sentinel is mainly there for the active selfheal- Use Bolt of Light on tougher targets you may hit for at least 15 seconds.
Note that this all is a solo approach-
Full Inquisitor package with most mechanics from above carrying over.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220121023 ... sitor.html
(Archived website may take a while to load)
When you hit level 70, here is your next halt:
https://www.cadrift.net/gameplay/charac ... l-70-gear/
If things are too convoluted, unclear or anything feeling off please do just toss in a response here i am happily going over it.