The Virtuous Devoted Cleric

[tornnomar]

The Virtuous Divine Oracle by Tanith Rain
"I have seen your fate, written in the wave of the Astral Sea."


The DC can be a very fun, or frustrating class to play. You not only have to watch out for yourself, you must also watch out for the other members of your group, however many there are. Buffing/Debuffing/Healing/Switch to Divine Mode/Empowered this and that/ so much going on!


What the DC is not:
Tank - No, just no. Thats a Symbol, not a Shield.
Walking Potion - We can't be everywhere all the time, you have potions/stones of health, etc, use them!
On Adds or Kiting duty - Think about it, if we're keeping Adds entertained and kiting, we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing

Paragon Paths:
There are two Paragon Paths you can choose from, Divine Oracle and Anointed Champion.
As with all Paths, Class Feats and Powers that are respective to that Path are present. With the DC I feel its a personal choice as to which path you take, as both are effective at what they do. And unlike the other classes their can be variation to a DC's build, we are not locked into the whole "only one Path and Tree are viable" thing.
The three trees are Virtuous, Faithful, and Righteous.

Virtuous: The Heal Over Time Machine. This is where Gift of Haste, Purity, and Unbreakable Devotion come from. And Shield of the Divine, our Capstone.
Faithful: The Mega Healz! These are your near death to full health DC's. Alot of the Feats require you being close to allies. But those Heals!
Righteous: The Killer Cleric. Feats that give 100% weapon damage for 15 seconds when you crit, raising players within 30' of you Power by up to 10%, increasing your ArmPen, and the Almighty Avatar of the Divine. Run a dungeon with a Righteous thats geared to the nines and just enjoy the ride.

Today I will be focusing on the Divine Oracle down the Virtuous Path and everything further is dedicated to the DO Virt DC.

Choosing Race:
For the Lulz, I rolled a Drow! But really you should aim for any race that offers Wisdom as a choice to give a +2 to. There are no races in Neverwinter with a Primary Stat bonus to Wisdom, so you'll have to find WIS in the secondary stats.
However Humans can put +2 to any ability score and Dragonborn can +2 to any two ability scores!

Wisdom is everything. STR and CHA are the secondary. These two can be leveled as you see fit, but at every ten levels, put one of those points into Wisdom.

Onto...

Feats: Heroic and Paragon

NW Calc Link here: http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/dc?b=23ci ... &h=0&p=dvo

I just did the Feats on NW Calc, so click over to Feats. Powers will be explained later.
I'll go into these feats some. First the Heroic Feats, top to bottom, left to right;
Healing Action: I have no points in this as AP will come elsewhere
Greater Fortune: Wisdom grants 3% more healing. 3 Points in this.
Toughness: 2 Points gives enough of an HP boost.
Holy Resolve: Long cooldown but it can/will save your bacon.
Domain Synergy: A little more Recovery can never hurt.
Weapon Mastery: For the Crits! Critical Heals are rather nice.
Initiate of the Faith: I took no points in this. There is Weapon Mastery for the added Crit.
Repurpose Soul: This is a really nice feat. Since a Virt is constanly healing, and in those constant heals, there is a crit heal somewhere, this is a must have.
Battlewise: lol, no. You are the healer, your going to get threat. The Class Feat Sooth better effectively deals with threat. (more later)
Cleanse: 2 points into this. 20% chance to remove a debuff from an ally, and again, since a Virt constantly heals, there's a pretty good chance that this will fire.
Templar's Domain: 0 points.
Bountiful Fortune: I put the last two ponts into this, generating Divine Power is rather nice. Gives just enough of boost for how I play.

The Virtuous Feats:
Lasting Wishes: 10% more healing? Sign me up!
Have Faith: 5% more damage resistance to allies affected by HoT effects.
Urgent Prayers: When below 50%, any target who is healed by an HoT heal gets an extra 25% of my weapon damage as an extra heal!
Second Sight: No points as I dont run Pro. of Doom often enough to feat it.
Gift of Haste: 4 points here. 4% AP gain is always nice. The HoT's are always incoming and this procs on everyone of them.
Gift of Life: Only 2 points here, because I am rarely ever at 100% during battles. Useful for after the fight to heal those that need a top off.
Unbreakable Devotion: Always good to have some damage mitigated, in this case 40% of my weapon damage for six seconds.
Purity: 5/5 in this. A 10% to heal for an additional 200%!
Virtues Gift: When above 75% health I heal for 20% more with my HoT's
Cleansing Fire: Damaging Encounters have a 50% chance to apply a Heal over Time to all allies within 30' of the target. This heals for 350% of my weapon damage for 15 seconds!
Divine Glow is the Encounter I use for this.
Capstone: Shield of the Divine. 500% weapon damage heals for 10 seconds when me, or an ally within 30' feet of takes damage.
When this procs is when you see me drop Bastion of Health. It will no longer heal allies, but instead adds a regenration effect to affected allies. This regen is doubled and last 12 seconds.

[tornnomar]

Powers- At-Wills:
Astral Seal: Too important to not have as an At-Will IMHO. Sealing a target(s) allows those attacking to regain some Hit Points. Not an uber heal, but still its worth it. I have 4 points in this. (now an Uber heal if feated)
Lance of Faith: An At-Will where the 3rd hit does more damage. Good damage, but long animation. (more damage now)
Sacred Flame: This is my primary At-Will. Third hit does extra damage and gives a small amount of Temp HP to those around the target. 4 points in this. (raised the Temp HP)
Brand of the Sun: Quite frankly, useless for a Virt or Faithful. Righteous DC's can feat Brand of the Sun and DoT everything in sight, especially if they crit with it, but Virts and Faith's? don't bother with it. (STILL STAND WITH THIS STAEMENT)

Class/Paragon Features:
Healer's Lore: Increases potency of heals by 5% for each point put into this. I have 4 points.
Divine Fortune: Build Divine Power Faster. I have 3 points.
Sooth: Decrease Threat from Healing Spells by 20% for one point and 10% for each addional point. I have 3 Points.
Holy Fervor: Generate more AP! 4 Points here for 20% more AP gain when I run this.
Foresight: My Hot's give a 5% resistance buff. And honestly, without Linked Spirit, this isn't what it used to be. I think I have a point in it. But it does give a 2% less incoming damage buff to those you heal.
Terrifying Insight: (OKAY, This has been reworked and is a must have. At 4, its a total of 20% more damage for you and party)
Prophectic Action: (no, no, and no,)
Light of Divinity: (With the recent changes, no)
Hastening Light: (No, just no)
Powers:
Sunburst: The leveling DC's best friend. Damages and keeps you healed! Terrible in a party that wants to keep things bunched together, but in Divine Mode it doesn't knock back, does more damage and heals for more as well. I have 4 points in this.
Healing Word: Heals and applies a HoT to the caster and targets in a line. Has 3 charges and if applied to the same target again it stacks. Divine it it does the same thng thing basically but doesn't consume an encounter charge. Empowered, it heals for 35% more per stack consumed and is an immediate heal, not a HoT.
Searing Light: I have this pointed but do not run it.
Chains of Blazing Light: A rune that locks down enemies for 3 seconds, does damage.
Divine, it immobilizes for 1 second and up to 3 runes can laid down. Empowered, the immobilize duration is increased by 2 seconds and damage is increased by 10% for each stack consumed.
Daunting Light: The DC's IBS. Can hit very very hard. This will be on your solo bar along with Chains. Lock em down, then burn em down.
Divine, fires off instantaneously. Empowered, consumes all stacks dealing 33% more damage for each stack consumed.
Prophecy of Doom: Very rarely do i slot this as its not feated. Its a fantastic power but I feel that Divine Glow achieves the same thing, just without the pretty effects. But as a Virtuous, you can feat Pro. of Doom.
Forgemasters Flame: Sounds good, moving on.....
Bastion of Health: My goto heal. Short cooldown, applies so many of my goodies like Gift of Haste, Purity, Cleanse, etc.. It is just that good.
Break the Spirit: This seems to be in a constant state of DOES NOT WORK. Its been complained about since day one. (fixed now works)
Divine Glow: Another of my party favorites! Deals damage, lowers DR by 10% for 6 seconds, allies at target location are Healed, granted a HoT and get a 10% DR Buff for 6 seconds! And because its a HoT it too procs Gift of Haste, Purity, Cleanse and other goodies.
Divine the buffs/debuffs are reduced to 5%, but can stack three times.
Empowered, everything is increased, Radius by 5' per stack, and the buff/debuff is increased by 2 seconds per stack.
Astral Shield: The Yellow circle of Damage Resistance. Inside your defenses are raised by 10% (Must have in a party)
Divine you will also recieve Temp HP, and the circle doesn't last as long.
Empowered AS consumes all stacks to absorb a fixed amount of damge for each stack consumed. Each stack is equal to 3% of the casters max HP.
Warding Flare: Never use it because of the 'periodic' nature. Again, like Prophectic Action it may block a minion attack and let the one-shot through.
Geas: Would be great in a party of nothing but single targeters, but AoE's unfortunately make this rather useless. Compel the target not to attack for 60 seconds unless they take more than 500% of the casters weapon damage. Reduces the damage you do by 90% and last ten seconds on players. (Ok no, just no)
IMHO, not worth the points I put into it at this time.

Dailies:
Guardian of Faith: A giant angel comes down, flattens the bad guy, and as it acends it heals allies.
Flame Strike: A fire column that raises enemies into the air and splashes them back down in a wider area.
Hallowed Ground: In a large circle, you sanctify the ground. Allies within this circle have increased offense and Defense.
Divine Armor: In a large area, you encase allies in Divine Armor, increasing DR and granting Temp HP.
Hammer of Fate: The DC's powerhouse Daily. This hits hard, knocks back on each hit, and you have reduced incoming damage and are immune to controls effects.

On my SOLO bar:
At-Wills: Sacred Flame and Astral Seal
Dailies: Flame Strike and Hammer of Fate
Encounters: Chains of Blazing Light, Daunting Light, Divine Glow

In a Party, Dungeon/Skirmish/general stuff
Know your party! If they can facestomp everything adjust powers as needed.
I run the same At-Wills
Dailies: Hallowed Ground and Divine Armor
Encounters: Astral Shield, Divine Glow, Bastion of Health

My two class features are Healer's Lore and Light of Divinity (Have changed to Foresight and Terrifying Insight)

[tornnomar]

All of this comes together very well and I enjoy playing a DC.

Please, if you have questions, comments, suggestions, please post them here, or ask me in game.

Thanks,
Rain

[bluebutton]

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

I have never played DC, so that class has always been a mystery. Even the top half of the first post was all new to me. Not that I'm planning to build a DC, but it was helpful to read through.

[Dayda]

Thanks for the info. Really good guide for a DC. I'm planning on respecing my DC after module 9 drops and this looks like a great starting place. One question, how do you find soloing. My current DC build has a problem dealing out enough dps. Ive tried using a dps companion without luck. My current solution has been a second set of rings belt and help with more Arp and Dark Enchants at rank 7 and 8 and a healer companion with the same and lesser bonding runestones. It is OK, but could be better. At rest I get about 4.9k Arp - better in battle with companions gift. Any thoughts. Also I would be interested in what gear you use.

Thanks
Dayda

[Tundrra]

a healer companion with the same and lesser bonding runestones. It is OK, but could be better.

My healer does pretty good solo, but I used a dps pet and lots of divine chains for mass AoE damage.

[tornnomar]

Hail *NOR/!

What Lord Tundrra said in his post is pretty much where its at Dayda.
Chains of Blazing Light and Daunting Light will be your best friends in Solo Mode.

When I solo, I use Divine Glow, to strip Damage Resistance, also for the heal that comes from it. Chains of Blazing Light and Daunting Light are the other two solo encounters I use.

[tornnomar]

Hail *NOR!

Hmm, okay...It appears that some changes have happened since I last posted to to this thread. While the above build is still viable, a couple of Class Features have changed and rather than write a new thread, I amend this one.

Okay, Powers: Your set up doesn't have to mimic this setup. Plan your build around your Gear/Artifacts. The powers for Virtuous that I recommend are as follows:





Thats my current Powers Setup. I have a lot of Overflow EXP that gives me my extra points, so don't fret if you can't achieve Rank 4 in some.

On to Feats:



As you can see I'm pretty much down the Virt Path, but I did grab Astral Fury from the Righteous Path.

The major change here is Terrifying Insight. In my old build, this wasn't included, but they changed it for the better, so I have adopted it.
As a DC, you only need mouse-over to see the tooltips about each power/feat, etc....

Soloing: (My Class Feats do not change, they are Foresight and Terrifying Insight)
Power Bar: Chains of Blazing Light, Divine Glow, Daunting Light
Dailies: Flamestrike and Hallowed Ground
At-Wills: Lance of Faith and Astral Seal

In a Party as Heals: Same Class Feats as Solo
Power Bar: Astral Shield, Divine Glow, Bastion of Health
Dailies: Hallowed Ground and Divine Armor
At-Wills: Sacred Flame and Astral Seal

With these changes, my previous post still stands. The build is viable with a few changes here and there.
In the last DC change, they corrected a few powers and changed others. By change I mean the damage has been increased 30% for most across the board. After a few years Break The Spirit now works as intended is an example. And terrifying insight is great!

And lastly, I have made some changes to the original post here in this thread. You will recognize them because my comments will be in parenthesis ( ). Just reread the opening post and you'll see my comments.

Rain

[Phelaia]

Thank you Rain! The DC has always been a bit of a mystery to most. I've always called it, "The Gina," "The Rain," and "The Juez."

"The Rain" is "Thanks Rain, my health bar is almost never below half!"
"The Gina" is "OMG, I'm dead! Oh wait, I'm not dead? Thanks Gina!"
"The Juez" is "What is this black magic, I didn't know I could do this much damage!"