This HD video is narrated PVP footage of my level 15 Cleric in the MMORPG Rift in Patch 1.2.1, queued solo for the Black Garden warfront.
I noticed watching the footage that you can’t see the healing or damage numbers over my targets because Dwarfs are vertically challenged. I will zoom out a bit in the next video so you can see the numbers and get a better sense of what I’m doing.
Here is the 12 Justicar / 8 Shaman / 0 Warden spec used in the video:
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=00rne.xuMo.Voz
As I mentioned in the video, I use a mouseoverui macro for healing with the Warden HoT Healing Spray:
#show Healing Spray suppressmacrofailures cast @mouseoverui Healing Spray cast Healing Spray
This macro will heal:
1. a player whose party/raid portrait you are mousing over, or
2. the player you have targeted, or
3. yourself
Note that @mouseover and @mouseoverui behave differently. The @mouseover option will heal a target if you mouseover their character or party/raid portrait. The @mouseoverui option only heals a target when you mouseover their party/raid portrait. I prefer the @mouseoverui option so that movement by players can’t cause me to cast the heal on a target I didn’t intend to cast on.
Taugrim's MMO Blog 
Thanks for the video. It was great viewing. I think I might start up a build like this from scratch and see how I go.
Are you using only Justicar melee attacks or are you also using Shaman attacks in your rotation? I am curious because the Shaman abilities seem to have slightly better DPS stats, but are not light based damage so won’t proc convictions.
Shaman abilities seem to have slightly better DPS stats, but are not light based damage so won’t proc convictions.
That’s right.
The only Shaman GCD ability I have been using is Lighting Hammer. Of course I do use both Fated Blow and Glory of the Chosen which are off the GCD.
I don’t use Crushing Blow or Massive Blow for the reason you stated – they don’t generate Convictions. Offhand I don’t there is much of a gap in damage between Crushing Blow and Justicar’s Strike of Judgement either, in which case SoJ is better because it’s non-Physical damage and builds 1 Conviction.
At lower levels, you can’t invest the points in Shaman that synergize CB with MB.
I’ll need to decide by the mid 20s whether to continue to invest in Shaman or go back to Justicar. Right now at 21 this is my 12 Justicar / 16 Shaman / 0 Warden spec:
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=00rne.xuMo.Vgd00z
I’m still typically top 3 in healing done in 20-29 Codex, even at level 21. So the spec is still working :)
Hey mate..
Wondering why in ur lvl 21 build u didnt take jolt before endless winter?
Fair question. I’m more concerned with Mana than I am with burst damage.
My next 2 talent points will be to max Endless Winter and get Jolt.
Yeah I can understand mana starvation, but the crit doesnt always happen and at this stage you have 2 spells that would increase your mana per hit on sepearta 60 sec cooldowns. But yeah, I guess its all interchangeable, I would definately take jolt first for the extra burst.
After testing, I agree with you. Jolt hits hard! So it should definitely be taken before Endless Winter.
Hi Taug,
Great vid. I would suggest that you do include Massive Blow in your macro/rotation as it has a 15s cooldown (untalented) and will not significantly impact your conviction generation. At later levels, your massive blow can be talented for additional crit and bleed effect, further increasing its burst.
I agree with using SoJ in place of Crushing…I’m also not a fan of the talent Long Memory as I feel 5 points is a very steep investment for only a 30% chance on Crushing resetting the cooldown on Massive Blow.
Have you tried pairing Inquisitor with 12pt Justicar?
I would suggest that you do include Massive Blow in your macro/rotation as it has a 15s cooldown (untalented) and will not significantly impact your conviction generation.
I’m still thinking about it. The main issue is I have been Conviction-starved at times and I don’t want to worsen it. Right now I have Lighting Hammer in my macro and that’s the only non-Physical GCD ability I use as part of my melee rotation.
Have you tried pairing Inquisitor with 12pt Justicar?
Only as a 0-pt 3rd tree. At endgame I’m looking at a spec that includes 12 points in Inquisitor.
Taugrim, which Mien are you using? Also do you expect to be more of a healer or DPS towards level 50?
Honor. The 50% increase to Doctrine healing is huge.
At 50 I want to be able to provide functional healing. Whether I can do that as a hybrid or must spec as a full healer I’ll have to see.
Howdy, been a big fan of your warrior videos. Anyhow,
Healing is actually pretty good at higher levels. The real problem you’ll run into is people hitting you with spells like Purge. A Justicar can get shut down really quick between a void knight and an inquisitor.
However,I have yet to find a calling/spec that can “tank/support” a BG like a Justishaman. Everything from aoe interruptus to surprisingly decent group heals.
Just watch out for dispels and mana drains – they are kryptonite.
Looking forward to seeing your take on this calling as you level up.
Just watch out for dispels and mana drains – they are kryptonite.
Absolutely, dispel vulnerability and mana starvation are the Achilles heels for Justicar at endgame.
That being said, my impression is that of the various buffs that Justicar/Shaman (or Shaman/Justicar) have, the 2 most critical ones to keep up at all times are Cavalier (for Conviction building) and Mien of Honor (for the huge +50% modifier on Doctrine heals).
Part of what I’ll have to learn is keeping an eye on my buffs, esp those 2. And it’s the reason I put my buff bar down by my character.
Regarding mana concerns as a Justi/Shaman, the mana regeneration from purpose and ageless ice DO stack, and BOTH spells are off GCD, meaning you can macro them with your standard damage macro and have extremely effective mana regen. I’ve been able to recover my entire mana bar using this macro. 60s cooldown on both means that it is far more beneficial to burn both rather than stagger them, as they will likely be off cooldown before you are OOM.
If you do end up going deep Shaman, Endless Winter will pretty much remove mana concerns at higher gear levels due to Shamans itemizing for spell crit over spell damage.
and by “macro them with your standard damage macro” I mean have a second (identical) damage macro with Ageless Ice and Purpose inserted in front to be used only when you are low on mana.
Regarding mana concerns as a Justi/Shaman, the mana regeneration from purpose and ageless ice DO stack, and BOTH spells are off GCD, meaning you can macro them with your standard damage macro and have extremely effective mana regen.
Yep, casting both mana regen abilities rocks. I am getting Endless Winter too for the 4% mana on Crit, so that should help too.
That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing for my cleric PvP. Funny how you can be totally stupid in PvP, but if you have the most healers, you’ll win. I wonder how this will effect the game as people get more disillusioned as they hit 50
I wonder how this will effect the game as people get more disillusioned as they hit 50
What are your criticisms at 50?
IMO the game needs a World PVP zone and Valor scales too linearly IMO, giving Rank 5-6 players a significant advantage over fresh 50s.
Playing a Warrior without decent healing can be a rough experience. Playing a healer now, I’m seeing an 80+% win rate (even at lowbie levels in the 20-29 bracket) in warfronts.
In my little group Ive been running with (3 clerics and a mage) were starting to see almost 90% win ratio, mostly due to superior healing. Not only that but in most of the battle groups we run in im seeing 35-40% cleric population in the 20-29. Is is beginning to carry over to LFG Dungeon runs as well.
Its pretty obvious to me is the Cleric is the most important calling. It might not have the DPS of a melee Warrior or Pyro, the support ablities lag behind the Bard and Archon, but its incredibly strong healing coupled with good dps souls and excellent defensive ablities make it the MVP for warfronts in most cases.
Investing in healing souls also doesnt preclude you from DPS is many of the early branch ablities in healing souls grant nice DPS passives and good low level root healing ablities. No other calling can tip the balance between wins and losses like the Cleric.
As a fresh 50 I played a more healer oriented version: Justicar/Sentinel/Templar. I didn’t play enough to fine tune the spec, but it seemed to be the most viable healing spec as a newly dinged 50 due to the survivability from Justicar.
The obvious downfall to this version is melee damage being reduced to wet paper bag status. I would generally use the 3 Justicar range abilities while pillar humping, and then move in while those were on cd. The benefit of the sentinel tree was increased healing effectiveness and utility, along with the ability to heal in a conviction starved situation. Shield of Faith, Resilient, and the series of senticar instant heals make the initial gearing up stages tolerable. Also between the instant heals and sentinel cleanses, one is able to use nearly every GCD on instant abilities, which opens up a world of mobility and survivability.
As in your video I was able to top healing meters while pugging, and I was certainly more effective healing with this spec than I was with the purifier and warden combinations I tried. The weakness’ mentioned in the video mirror those at 50, though I generally found my mana would last until I had an opportunity to drink. I disagree with those above who use both mana return abilities at once in a justicar/shaman spec, because it is possible to be rooted or snared out of melee range after popping both.
The group healing from Justicar is great for offsetting the aoe damage from stormcallers etc., the survivability as mentioned above was superb, and I found the utility possibilities suited my taste (righteous mandate on flag carriers/ focus targets, cleanses and so on).
Justicar/Sentinel/Templar.
The obvious downfall to this version is melee damage being reduced to wet paper bag status.
Thanks for weighing in with your experience at 50!
That sounds like a beastly AOE healer. Although as you said the offensive capability is reduced quite a bit. Shaman definitely adds some punch, esp when you go up to Jolt, for Justicar.
I disagree with those above who use both mana return abilities at once in a justicar/shaman spec, because it is possible to be rooted or snared out of melee range after popping both.
I haven’t decided whether to go up Shaman for the charge ability, which would offset the issue you mentioned about being CC’d.
Charge is a a game changer.
Yea, it not only closes the gap but removes movement-impairing effects.
It looks like 12 points in Justicar will be solid for healing even at 50, so I feel comfortable about spending more points in the Shaman tree.
The snare break and 6 seconds of snare are great for surviving. While leveling with a shaman/justicar spec I was frequently jumped by melee. After surviving the initial stun lock I could battle charge and then build convictions while hopping away. This would be familiar to warriors, and it’s even better because one can effectively self-heal during the gap time.
I think 23 was the deepest I went in Justicar for Shield of Faith and Devout Deflection. I like how it’s easy to place points in the shaman tree.
If you spend 12 points in Justicar, you almost have to spend more points into it.
The upper part of the Justicar tree is perfect for PVP:
– Shield of Faith combined with Devout Deflection is just too great.
– Humility and Supremacy for CC.
– 32 points for Interdict.
Yout still have enough points for Shaman’s damage abilities/Battle Charge and Templar’s Resilient.
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=00rnx.EuMo0xckMR.VedztM00z.x
Nice videos/blogg. Am a bit new to the game, so tryd out the following spec based on the comments + the video from here. (lvl42 2h cleric)
31 shaman, 12 justicar and 13 Inquisitor. think its loads of fun: nice dmg, ok healing, good mana regain whit ageless, purpose, endless winter and aggressive renewal, + rage of the north is fun like hell.
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=10nrd.Exzzzrsck.xuMo.VLkb
Done one spam macro like this: cast jolt, fated blow, sanction heretic, lightning hammer,bolt of radiance and cast strike of judgment. not sure if that is the best order to put them in tho or if should toss in anything more.
would love some feedback ;)
Your points in Justicar are fine, but I would make some changes:
– ditch the 13th point in Inq (the channeled ability you won’t need)
– move 5 points out of Dauntless Courage (+5% Phys dmg) to Thick Skinned (3% mitigation) and Favored of the Valnir (10% healing received)
– ditch Vengeance of the Frozen Earth, with the current diminishing returns / CC immunity, you will make your targets CC immune. And you have Battle Charge
So something like this:
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=00nrd.Ved0tMoVk.xuMo.VLzb
Don’t forget that Stormborn buffs the damage from Jolt, which is an awesome burst ability.
The order of your macro looks fine. Where are you putting Massive Blow?
Hey, big fan of the vids. Question for ya, currently in my macro (lvl 13) Justicar/Sham/Warden I have
cast Bolt of Radiance
cast Censure
cast SoJ
Should I replace Lightning hammer for Censure? if so just curious as to why.
Side note, love this build been owning the healing and dps is pretty solid.
I would add Lightning Hammer to the macro. I’ve been debating whether to keep Censure in my macro. I have it right now. It’s good for focus-firing a target, but Censure itself is a GCD loss of damage relative to SoJ.
I try to no use censure as it is indeed a loss of a gCD and tbh not really worth the effort
I don’t really get what the macro means, you guys are talking about.
so if type
cast jolt
cast fated blow
etc..
then how will it work? sorry for the noob question >_<
@Maxi
No worries, I’m still new too but the way macros work (I could be very wrong) is like this:
So like I have 3 abilities I wanna bind to one button
Bolt of Radiance (8 sec cd)
Lightning Hammer (6 sec cd)
SoJ
So the thought process is ok make the macro like this:
#show SoJ
cast Bolt of Radiance
cast Lightning Hammer
cast SoJ
The reason to put it like this is because of the cooldown timers, so say you switched it around and put it SOJ, LH, BoR….you would never cast anything other than SOJ because it has no cd. I guess there would be no issue moving around LH and BOR.
Hope this helps.
The order of your macro looks fine. Where are you putting Massive Blow?
Forgot to type that in. Putt that after fated blow.
Thanks for the pointers, been helpful =)
I have a question for Taugrim or any of you melee/Justicar clerics: Do you bother using a buckler and 1H or are you straight 2H. It seems you can get some nice block from the third Tier branch abilities, does the loss of spell power impact your DPS that much?
For anything other than tanking, use a 2h. Spellpower is a primary stat, and the physical mitigation doesnt offset the dmg/healing loss. Also a significant portion of your healing comes from your damage done, which is much greater with a 2h.
I learned this the hard way using a 1h/shield spec testing with a 7-pack even level rift mobs. It was an easy pull with minimal risk/ mana loss with 2h shaman/justicar spec, but I had to pop a pot and flee with 1h/board. This was in an ideal setup with only physical damage, which is a minority in warfronts.
For PVP as a melee Cleric (Justicar/Shaman or Shaman/Justicar), I would go 2H. You’ll do more damage, which will in turn increase your Salvation / Reparation healing.
If you are going healer with points in Justicar as a secondary or tertiary tree, you can use 1H + shield to increase survivability.
For PVE instance tanking, I would use a 1H + shield.
just one quick thing that has helped improve the effectiveness of my healing, i have a 5 button mouse and i wrote my mouseoverui macro and bound it to one of the two side buttons so one hand is doing all the work, right mouse button while mashing the side button when you are strafing out of combat or (i kept my w button as forward) HOTing the whole raid when running into combat
my macro
#show glacial shield
suppressmacrofailures
cast glacial shield
cast @mouseoverui Healing Spray
cast doctrine of bliss
Greetings Taugrim:
I used to post on your old PVP Prot Pally guide and lemme say Kudos to you for your amazing work on theorycrafting and maximizing game mechanics. I rolled a Warrior on Sunrest as my first character back in march/april and you Riftblade guide helped me lots. Looking forward to meet you in game and PVP together once you hit 50. Didn’t know the @mouseoverui macro. It does wonders.
and a question for taugrim, every time i look at the the justicar tree the level 25-30 talents seem like the bread and butter, you get your “lay on hands” a root and a stun, but if you spec deep into the shaman tree all is battlle charge, 7 seconds auto crit every minute, and 30% extra crit with crushing blow (which if you that deep in the shaman tree most of the time it seems you are running around on the edges until you can battle charge in with your 7 seconds of crit then battle charge out)
it seems (i’m not a professional here) that 24 shaman 12 warden 30 justicar
http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=00rne.xuMo.Voz
all you lose is
battle charge
30% crit massive blow
7 seconds auto crit
you gain (not including justicar tree here cause you can easily go only shaman/justicar and 0 in the other tree)
2 second big heal for flag carriers etc
+10% damage on instant cast spells i.e. sovreignty, bolt of radiance, jolt, water jet ( find i spend alot of time chasing people spamming these)
+10% instant cast heals (i.e. every heal we cast)
8 seconds every minute of free movement (and i find that is, in my experience a gift, your health starts to get low, you pop your shield, then you get out of the melee with free movement to heal yourself and everyone back up)
20 meter range knockback
+50% to your next heal every 45 seconds (when you are healing everyone in your raid, this amounts to a huge amount of extra healing)
instant cast cleanse (which doesnt solve the issue with snares, but reduces the issue, put this at the bottom of your self heal macro and when you 8 seconds free movement wears off you can knock out most of the rest)
instant cast (+10%) AOE HOT which means if you macro this with doctrine of loyalty, if you run out of convictions you can pop this while you build them back up
i’d love some feedback, it seems 12 pts in warden seriously out does really filling out the shaman tree, i could be wrong, i’ve never played the lvl 50 battle grounds
Awesome post, very insightful.
Do you favor Staff over 2H Mace? I heard that Staffs tend to have more Spell Crit / Int on them compared to 2H Maces, and for melee Clerics Spell Crit synergizes terrifically with Shaman (Endless Winter, Jolt, etc) and Justicar (Light Makes Right).
I think you’re right about int being more desirable than wis, if the choice comes to that. Not only does the crit synergize, but Purpose/Endless Winter/Ageless Ice use %maximum mana, which int benefits.
Gear never comes in a vacuum so I would recommend that people try to pick their items based on their current situation as far as what is available and stat capping etc. From what I’ve seen they’ve made it fairly easy to choose the upgrade (weapons with more spellpower also have higher damage).
the @mouseoverui macro doesn’t seem to work for me.
I mouse over, and nothing happens? I still have to click the spell? i’m confused.
You mouseover the party or raid portrait (the bar not the player’s character), and then use the macro.
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