Cleric guide
From Elanthipedia
Contents |
Introduction
Welcome to the Cleric's guild! The roles of the Cleric are many, and the personalities and preferences of the Clerics are as various as those of the 39 Gods we serve. Clerics are first and foremost, however, only two things: we are the instruments, prophets, and warriors of the Gods, tasked with bringing their worship to the world. We are also students - and eventually masters - of magic, surpassed by none in our ability to control the chimerical threads of mana, and rivaled only by Moon Mages and Warrior Mages in this mastery.
The life of a Cleric is demanding. We cannot sit in towers and theorize about the stars and alternate planes of existence like Moon Mages, for our place is with the people of Elanthia, sowing the seeds of belief among them. We also cannot devote ourselves solely to the pursuit of combat and power like Warrior Mages; likewise, though, we cannot neglect these pursuits, for often we must raise sword and banner to defend the temples of our deities. In short, the Cleric must be many things: teacher, scholar, and warrior all in one. Luckily, as a result of our studies, both the Gods and our magic have bestowed upon us wondrous gifts that no other can claim!
Abilities
Clerics have two primary sets of abilities: communes and magic spells. In addition to this, Clerics also have a unique connection to the Gods that no other guild can claim. Since this connection is so central to the Cleric guild identity, we shall begin by discussing devotion.
Devotion
Devotion represents a Cleric's personal connection to the Gods. By performing Rituals to pay tribute to the Gods, Clerics are able to raise their devotion level, sensing their connection to the Gods grow ever stronger. This provides the Cleric with many gifts. The first is that high levels of devotion give the Cleric a bonus to their Power Perception skill: communicating with the Gods and paying tribute to them allows the Cleric to more easily detect the holy mana that results from their presence. Secondly, devotion is used to power communes. Communes represent power gifts from the Gods, capable of utility (boosting the room mana), combat (offense and defense boost), or roleplay (marry and divorce couples). Remember that, over time, the Cleric will slowly lose devotion, so never cease in your efforts to please the Gods.
Infusion
Infusion represents a Cleric's special mastery of harnessing and controlling mana. Infusion is used to bolster the power of a held mana spell. You can use infusion to increase the stats of Shield of Light, increase your balance and activate the anti-stun function of centering, and is a must to find souls in the void while using Resurrection. Infusion works really well with the Osrel Meraud orb where you can put your held mana spells into the orb to keep the spell active without having to worry about holding the mana for the spell. This is much safer for the caster's nerves, and also allows the Cleric to cast offensive spells without causing the held-mana spell to fall. Resurrection can also be a mana beast sometimes; trying to harness hundreds of points of mana without Osrel Meraud would be tiring even for an adept caster.
Resurrection
Resurrection is the Cleric's ultimate gift from the Gods, allowing them restore life to the fallen (eventually, even themselves). Resurrection is a fairly self-explanatory ability, and only Clerics are capable of it. The ability to restore life to others comes eventually; even later, Murrula's Flames allows a Cleric to invoke a mighty phoenix to pull themselves from the ashes of death!
Other Spells
Being magic primary, Clerics have a large arsenal of spells at their disposal. Cleric magic is a mixture of many potent factors. Spells such as Uncurse, Rejuvenation, and Soul Bonding allow the Cleric to aid cursed or slain warriors. Conversely, Clerics have a number of curses like Malediction, Curse of Zachriedek and Huldah's Pall to trouble their enemies. Clerics also have the unique potential to manipulate their spirit energy to achieve unique effects: spells like Vigil, Bitter Feast and Aesrela Everild represent this. Slaying the undead beasts that the Gods despise is another caveat of Cleric life, as seen by spells like Bless and Harm Evil. Finally, Clerics have a number of combat boosts like Shield of Light and Major Physical Protection. Overall, Cleric spells serve several unique functions while striking a nice balance between a Warrior Mage's power and a Moon Mage's utility.
Training a Cleric
As stated previously, Clerics serve many roles, and their circle requirements reflect this. Clerics cannot lose themselves to battle or ignore it completely in favor of lore: the Cleric must be ready to serve many roles.
Magic
Being a magic primary, Clerics eat, sleep, and drink magic. The highest circle requirements, by far, are your magic requirements: at all times you should be tinkering with mana streams, whether using target spells to destroy your opponents or renewing some of your buffs to empower yourself. Casting spells alone will teach both Primary Magic and Harness. Training Power Perception by perceiving mana in different rooms is important to a young Cleric, so remember to work it diligently. Getting a runestone to RUB or a piece of cambrinth to CHARGE with mana are both good choices for early experience with Magical Devices. Finally, Targeted Magic is your greatest friend, as it powers your arsenal of offensive spells. Start training it immediately! Energy Bolt is given free to new characters, so take advantage of that! Remember that Cleric spells, both offensive and defensive, are often more powerful against undead: hunting them whenever possible will give you that much more of an advantage. I would suggest choosing Harm Evil as soon as possible. Though it can only be cast against undead and cursed things, its efficiency at killing the wicked cannot be overstated!
Lore
Clerics are holy scholars and prophets; to reflect this, they have substantial lore requirements. The first, and largest, is Teaching. If you are not in combat, you should be either teaching a class, listening to a class (preferably a teaching class!), or using PREACH to speak to others of the Immortals, as that also grants teaching experience. Grabbing an Empath compendium to work Scholarship is definitely recommended, though listening to any class works well too. Appraisal is always useful to check the status and condition of your weapons and armor in combat, or to learn the value of an item. This is easily trained both out of combat (by appraising items) or in combat (by appraising critters), so you will definitely want to take advantage of that freebie. Mechanical Lore can also count towards your lore requirements as well. Foraging for grass and then braiding two pieces of grass together is one free and relatively easy way to learn mechanics that will last for many circles. In combat, filling a wayerd pyramid and then dropping it will automatically grant you mech experience while the sun is out. Free mech experience without roundtime whenever the sun is out? Count me in.
Weapons
Target magic shouldn't be a Cleric's only weapon! Weapon requirements see to that. Training a melee weapon is all but required because of the Parry requirement, so learn to use some sort of blade or hammer. For optimal results I would recommend training both one melee weapon and one ranged weapon, at minimum. Stunning an undead beast with Phelim's Sanction and then blasting them with a throwing hammer or crossbow from afar is a wonderful way to learn weapon experience while you are preparing or targeting a spell. Being weapons secondary, an effective Cleric can easily train three weapons. I recommend Brawling as a third choice (or maybe a first or second choice). It is easy to train, versatile, and effective. Learn to use it. Finally, take advantage of your skill in Multi Opponent. Being able to effectively engage more than one opponent will go a long way in helping to alleviate some of the defenses that the Cleric skillset distribution neglects.
Survival
There's no way around it: survival tertiary is painful. Work with it, though, and train the essentials just like everyone else. Firstly, Evasion is a great defense. It should always be in high mind states whenever you are in combat. Likewise, training Perception - most likely by juggling - will help root out those dangerous hidden threats like vicious werecats and Thieves. Hiding and Stalking are, for non-tertiary guilds, extremely valuable tools. Most Clerics do not bother training them. Lockpicking and Disarm Traps will allow you to pick those boxes boxes that baddies drop, and reap the goodies inside. Though it will be a long road, I recommend that you consider training them. The same for Skinning, as well as Climbing and [Swimming]]. Not being able to get where you need to go can be quite annoying.
Armor
Armor is not a Cleric's focus, but it is still a solid skillset that you should maximize as much as possible. Shield is all but mandatory; many critters (and players) have ranged attacks of some sort. The benefits of Shield of Light are truly remarkable, as is shield as an overall defense. Ignore it at your own risk! As for what armor type to choose, opinions on this are varied. Learning hiding and stalking at a tertiary rate means most Clerics will never be stealth warriors. As such, Cloth Armor and Leather Armor provide very little value for Clerics aside from being able to evade effectively. The hindrance of Light Chain and Heavy Chain is manageable and generally offers more protection that leather or cloth. Finally, Light Plate and Heavy Plate are doable for Clerics, though the hindrance tends to affect evasion. Throwing up Major Physical Protection can offset this, but it is still taxing. Consider a mixture of armors: light and heavy chain can be mixed without penalty. The same for cloth plus leather and light plate plus heavy plate. A mixture of chain and plate, while giving a small mixing penalty, can provide the relative ease of movement chain provides while affording additional protection that plate offers in essential areas like the head, neck, and eyes. Experiment and see what works best for you.
| Guild association is | Cleric + |
