Cleric or Druid

Stumps_Bertox · September 14, 2006, 02:11:30 PM

Bah, druid all the way!
I guess it depends on play style. I really cant think of a situation in which I would need a cleric over Stumps. I box illsalin named regularly (Forgotten Guardian sucks when he has the boomstick hehe) , so above that I really cant think of much duo-able content thats worth the effort.
Im kinda surprised no one has mentioned the use of reptile with maxed heal crit aa's. There is alot of content I would be unable to do efficiently without the use of reptile and attack debuffs.

Inphared · September 14, 2006, 08:19:22 PM

Reptile is roughly the equivalent of Pious Elixer. Accept that I tend to think the elixer is better. :-D

Jaeren · September 14, 2006, 08:49:07 PM

I couldn't really decide between cleric & druid at first when i started them, didn't seem like many beastlords 2 boxed then. So, I did both :p

Overall, I'd say druid though for just 2 boxing, you just need to put the work into getting the druid up to the point of getting the larger heals to be able to heal better.

Phumog · October 25, 2006, 09:41:00 AM

Well just an update. With TSS comming out last month the cleric was put on hold for the grind to 75. With that in mind and with my playtime starting to dwindle away. My cleric is now 53. 50% done with clicky stick....farming shards is almost as bad as sitting in lake rathetear for 12 hours waiting for a spawn. Although he is only 53 He is a very nice healer to a 12.5k beast.

Also...I recently regained access to an old main from one of my many attempts to quit EQ. So now I have a 3rd Box and very glad on my decision on sticking with the Cleric. So now my 3box army consists of a 75 Beastlord, 68 Paladin and my little 53 Cleric. Trying to get the hang of 3boxing. Not too bad now since my paladin is lacking gear in the worst way. 6K unbuffed is horrible for a tank. Win EQ will not work on my PC for some reason so trying to get it down. Running my Beast and Paladin on my PC with just using windows mode and have my cleric on my laptop.....figure I would have better chance at survival with him being on his own box.

Taiglin · October 25, 2006, 11:56:50 AM

I have been of mixed emotions regarding this topic since TSS came out. On one hand you have the spiky damage and I would like to 3 box in IG/DW. On the other the zones are so big that it is nice to have the druid port ability. In the end I just settled on the druid and fought quite a bit in the Steppes and Sunderock to this point with limited 3 boxing excursions into the zones further north.

Kroe · October 25, 2006, 01:44:39 PM

Well, I did try duoing a cleric for some time and a druid prior to that, I eventually got the cleric to 66 or so before I went back to duoing bst/shaman.

In the end, I guess the 'guaranteed' to be slowed + the almost ae agro ability they can bestow on a melee via sloth, won out for me over both the mobility and utility of the druid and the healing/buffing expertise of the cleric, not that any mob being slowed is the be all or end all of survivability or productivity, it provided an edge when utilised with the other tools of a shaman.

Besides the shaman having been mildly aa'd (he was previously on my beastlords account) prior to being split off to his own account, I guess it is just what you get used to.

There are times I would kill for the tools a suitably geared/aa'd druid would bring to the table but for better or worse I discounted both of the other healers for the shaman.

The downtime changes basically meant I could full burn on the shaman as far as healing/dps and still be ready to go again within 1 minute. For example, any of the pit named in Vald will drain the shaman down to 30-40% mana via fast heals and 1 round of 2 dots + grp panther on engagement but with the ooc changes plus canni (spell + aa), he is FM after 60 seconds.

Not that it has much bearing to the topic at hand, just dont discount shaman as viable healers in duo content.

bham · November 03, 2006, 08:11:14 AM

If you dont raid the ability to kill the biggest possible mob to get upgrades is what grouping in EQ is all about.

I went with a cleric for my healer and do not regret it all. Granted, I have other bots to make up for the lack of utility in the cleric, but the healing power of the cleric is unmatched, and its the combination of healing and tanking ability that determines how big a prey you can go for. Beastlords are far from the best tanks around, so take the best healer to give you an edge.

Fightclubx · November 03, 2006, 10:03:12 PM

druid was my first toon I got above level 20 =P, and was my main character for years so I know druid class well, just recently went beastlord and love bst even more, but since I got druid established allready I just kept him for 2boxing.

my brother has a cleric thats better geared then the druid but I much prefer druid, only cus i'm used to it and know what he can/cant do.

a properly geared/AA'd druid can heal anywhere a cleric can no problem. the right AA's on a druid really make them outshine clerics in alot of ways. but it takes alot of work to get to that point.

I much prefer druid buffs over cle buffs any day as well.

bham · November 17, 2006, 09:44:06 PM

Quotea properly geared/AA'd druid can heal anywhere a cleric can no problem. the right AA's on a druid really make them outshine clerics in alot of ways. but it takes alot of work to get to that point.

This is just not true. Nothing matches the healing power of a cleric.

If the tank is overgeared for the content a druid is ok.

If the tank is borderline for the content, such that that Divine arbitration, epic click and DI are needed to keep the tank up through damage spikes, then no amount of gear and AA on a druid will allow the druid to heal in that content.

Fightclubx · November 18, 2006, 10:35:50 PM

the question is.. does a healer HAVE to be a cleric? no

I can 2box anywhere with my druid that I could with a cleric, and sometimes its not true the other way around.

my druid can keep me alive as well as any cleric can. and in some cases can do a better job of it then any cleric could.

blah blah blah yea yea clerics are the true masters of healing and hp buffing /yawn

most importantly I like adaptability, a druid can adapt to alot of different situations, they have alot of spells to cover different areas.

Stumps_Bertox · November 23, 2006, 03:30:22 AM

It depends what your setup is. If you are going to box 2 chars exclusively, then a well geared druid adds a tremendous amount of utility you cant get with a cleric alone. If you have several characters, then a cleric would be better.
Plus clerics are boring :-P

kharthai · November 23, 2006, 02:24:42 PM

Clerics are boring, and (non-female) druids are ugly. It's a tough choice. Given the new elixirs and promised renewal, along with the things Bham mentioned, I'm liking cleric.

"I can 2box anywhere with my druid that I could with a cleric"
Have to disagree, really.

Of course, lately I've been botting my wizard instead and just duoing in lesser content, and had more fun than botting a healer at all. But that's a different thread!

Et^Cetera · November 23, 2006, 04:57:16 PM

I had/have this problem, still to this day. I really dont like Druids that much as a class, yet do recognize that they are arguably the best partner for a BST until you hit top end content, and even there its debatable.

I started with a Cleric, and levelled him to 56, mainly so I could have a rez anytime I wanted it. But after a while, I noticed that most of the heals were landing were healing me for between 2000 and 4000hp (at the time only having 7k, duo-buffed). So when grouped with my Cleric, all that extra super powerfull healing was totally wasted on a bazaar based non-raider like me.

As someone said, the higher the content, the more the balance leans to cleric, but I would say that until your HPs break 10k+, Druid healing is fine for your needs.

YMMV of course, and probably does.

Taiglin · November 28, 2006, 01:10:33 PM

The Druid's ability to knock off ~20% of the mob's damage is great and a big winner in my book. Helps stretch their healing in a big way. As Et pointed out though I wish their healing scaled a bit better but am enjoying pure life rk I.

(Random thoughts that have already been brought up am sure)

Jaeren · November 28, 2006, 01:14:07 PM

Well my druid account is inactive and I can't really afford to pay for 3 right now (ok, afford 2 really) so I've been using my cleric / shaman account. My biggest problem with doing just cleric that I find now is lack of snare. The stuff in steppes for instance runs pretty darn fast when it's low hp heh