Table of Contents

1) Introduction

2) Cleric Soul Specializations

3) What do I want to be?

4) Equivalence (WoW only)

5) Druid Mid-level Analysis

6) Summary

1. Introduction

Hey there guys, I’m a friend of Taugrim. I’ve watched his videos since ever; in fact I think I can remember the first commentary he ever uploaded. It was about Lord of the Rings Online and one of the Creeps he played, am I right?

The reason why people respect and simply appreciate what Taugrim does is because there aren’t many people who go to the effort of compiling stats and numbers, and making smart commentary. Let alone go through all the theory-crafting, for another person’s benefit.

Most online PvP videos are a simple music mash-up type thing, which I am guilty of too, though there isn’t anything wrong with it, it can be refreshing to watch something smarter, especially if you’re new to the game and you don’t know what the hell is going on!

So I hope to bring to you the same kind of aid and helpfulness that Taugrim manages to always convey so well.

(If you would like to know more about me and the games I’ve played, visit the previous post or About section.

2. Cleric Soul Specializations

Firstly, let us get the basic soul specializations out of the way, here is what equals what:

• Purifier – Single Target Healer
• Sentinel – Area of Effect Healer
• Warden – Heal over Time Healer
• Justicar – Defensive Tank
• Inquisitor – Single Target Ranged DPS
• Cabalist – Area of Effect Ranged DPS
• Druid – Pet Based Melee DPS
• Shaman – Non Pet Based Melee DPS

What do you notice first?

You should notice that although the word ‘Cleric’ springs a healer to mind, there are more DPS variants to a Cleric than healers!

This may seem weird at first. You might be glancing at every Cleric in your Warfront hoping for a quick heal and nothing comes, you’ll soon get used to it.

3. What do I want to be?

Now that is a tough question to answer. It totally depends on your play style. The first thing to get out of the way and decide upon is; do you want to Heal, DPS, or Tank?

Pick one and go from there. Though do NOT scrap your Purifier at level 10 just because you think it isn’t for you. If you don’t enjoy it, that’s fine, but come level 15-ish you can simply go to and fro from your Factions main City and collect all the Souls available to your chosen Calling, be it Rogue, Mage, Cleric or Warrior.

4. Equivalence (WoW only)

A ton of people that play Rift have departed from World of Warcraft.

So here is an easy way of comparing the Clerics Soul specializations into WoW classes and/or particular specs. This might help you in your decision of making a Cleric, if you indeed have come from WoW.

• Purifier – Discipline Priest (Absorptions, Single target preference)
• Sentinel – Holy Priest (Raid-wide Preference)
• Warden – Restoration Druid (HoTs, Very low hard-casting, Mobile)
• Justicar – Protection Paladin (‘Convictions’ are very similar to Holy Power mechanic)
• Inquisitor – Shadow Priest (Death-based debilitating magic)
• Cabalist – Fire Mage or Balance Druid (Death-based AoE magic)
• Druid – Death Knight or Enhancement Shaman (Melee, Permanent Pet,  Elemental Magic
• Shaman – Enhancement Shaman (Melee, ‘Jolt’ talent similar to Maelstrom Weapon)

I hope that helps for the WoW guys looking for something very similar to their previous playing style.

5. Druid Mid-level Analysis

I’m currently level 30 as of writing. I’ve played 90% of the time in my Druid/Shaman/Warden designed spec. So unfortunately, you’ll have to wait for other Soul analyses because I don’t want to give false information.

My spec at the moment is:

http://rift.zam.com/en/stc.html?t=10ane.Vqhqhk0R.Vxzz

What would my role be?

Front-line harrasment, melee DPS with functional off-healing capability.

This involves getting stuck in there, in your face, using the two-hander mostly. One thing is for sure, not many people expect the burst capability and decent survivability that the Druid possesses in PvP combat. They take one look at your Fairy and laugh! And then you kill them.

What Pets do I get?

There are three Pets.

One huge put-off for a lot of would-be Druids, who instead rolled Shaman, was the art for your first two pets. They’re awful, or adorable, depending on which you prefer. If little Fairies rock your boat then more power to you!

You get your first Fairy for free; she comes with a small HoT which she will automatically cast on every nearby ally who is taking damage, and a tiny attack. But, every little helps and it does all add up. With your Combined Effort melee attack buff up, and your pet Rage active, the pet will be much, much more efficient and actually do some decent DPS and HPS. I have just got my second Fairy and she basically does that same, aside the fact she has a cast-time direct heal that she will spam on you or your allies when taking heavy focus fire. The AI is really quite decent sometimes.

Last but by no mean least, you get a Satyr, and this is right at the top of the Druid soul tree and he is a complete beast. He face palms everything in his way (no joke) and you would use him for the extra DPS (which is a lot), alas you would lose the healing components, but gain an AoE. I think I’ll be using him mostly. Though as aforementioned, this is all speculation and word of mouth; I haven’t got that far yet.

Why Shaman?

A few things here are crucial; I really do think Shaman is a very solid choice to sub-spec into. Some people have just dismissed it as just another melee spec where you get a lot of useless melee abilities, cluttering your action bar even further, this is not the case.

Glacial Shield is a huge help when trying to gain a gap to an enemy at ranged, allowing you to absorb damage (nearly as much as Shield of Oak from Druid) whilst doing a little bit of damage back. Trust me, those numbers add up.

Also from Shaman is the Crit Chance increase and Crit Damage increase, an extremely important Reactive ability (ability only used in certain conditions) that aids tons against high dodge opponents a la tanks or Rogues.

Also given is the 10% healing increase on you for a measly two points (although I haven’t managed to pick it up yet, it will be one of the best investments of the tree).

Other things include the Courage spells (which are akin to auras), another high DPS melee ability which you can fit in your close-range rotation, a 50% snare which activated on every melee attack, and most important of all, Glory of the Chosen.

Druid without Glory of the Chosen (which I didn’t pick up until 25ish I think), relies almost entirely on the HoT from Warden, the Absorb Shields and Balm of the Woods to survive. Balm of the Woods is a nice instant cast small chunk-heal that unfortunately has a 15-second Cooldown, those 15 seconds can seem like forever in the middle of a scrap, trust me on that!

What’s so special about GotC? Every single time you receive a Crit, it pops up, and you can instantly heal for nearly the same amount as Balm of the Woods. So we know it’s a reactive, but if it had no Cooldown it would be most definitely on the OP side of things, hence it 6-second Cooldown.

Don’t under-estimate this ability, when taking focus fire you can double insta-heal (GotC is off of Global Cooldown) and Shield up, giving you huge survivability in times of retreat. This, coupled with the Warden HoT, makes for what I think is a brilliant combination.

Why Warden?

I find managing the free HoT from Warden very easy. Its instant, has a low mana cost and lasts 12 seconds. So if you’re really good you should never be in combat without that HoT on you.

You will get a ranged earth-based attack from Druid that, if you spec into, can snare an opponent to ensure death before escape. But that ability has a 6 second Cooldown.

So Waterjet from Warden, pretty much guarantees spammable ranged attacks if you need to finish someone off or apply pressure from afar.

All you have to do is make a simple macro:

#show Bombard

Cast Bombard

Cast Waterjet

How Do I Manage All These Melee Abilities?

You near enough need to macro them up to be efficient. You don’t have to I suppose but it helped me ten-fold.

This is the best thing I could come up with to show you what I do, Paint skills for the loss!



 

Don’t worry if it seems confusing, everyone has their own personal way of adjusting their UI and bar layouts. That just works for me so feel free to use it as a template. Also, it will make more sense when you see some footage of Druid in action!

Stats

Stack wisdom, wisdom and more wisdom. With the Justicar, Shaman and Druid you gain a passive buff at 0 points that converts any Spell Power into Attack Power, Spell Crit into Physical Crit etc. Just stack that and you’ll be fine. Intelligence is okay but not recommended, and usually found more on Cloth items, just leave it for the Mages. Endurance you’ll want if you’re a Justicar no doubt.

6. Summary

Hopefully by the end of the week I’ll have a video narration going up of some World PvP I encountered in my 20’s and a Warfront or two!

The videos will be posted here, alternatively wait for it on my Youtube channel page here: www.youtube.com/vgsensation

Please if you have any questions, leave them in the comments section. If I’ve made any mistakes let me know also.