Rappelz: creating cleric (01/30/2010)

Playing a cleric at the very beginning is much like playing any other sort of character. Your goal here is just to get to level 25 or so. After that point, you should only be doing dungeon parties. You *can* solo at any level to some extent, of course, but other classes are much better at fighting. Don't frustrate yourself by attempting to do it with your cleric - just make an alt to solo with when you don't want to group with people and heal.

Skills:

Staff Mastery - (you only use a staff for Rappelz Rupees the M.Atk, to boost your heals, and Staff Mastery only boosts the P.Atk mildly.. thus, it's worthless. Don't waste your JPs)

Mace Mastery - You can put 3-4 points into this to get you through levels 1-25 if you like. After that, you'll never use a mace again (if you're a good healer). If you want to solo later on, put more points into it then.

So, do quests till you're level 25 or so. Focus on raising your heals as much as possible, along with Wizardry Mind and Mental Amplify.

As far as equipment goes...

Weapons: You can buy an r2 mace when you reach level 20 if you like, but you could just get by with your r1 mace for a few levels also. You won't be needing a mace after lvl25, so the only important thing is to have an r2 staff ready. When you go into a dungeon, don't take your mace - you should never, ever be using it. As far as using strike cubes... it's not a bad idea, but it's not a priority. It's more important *how* you heal and that you sit often, use deluxe spell potions, etc, than how much you heal for. *Don't* dump a ton of money into getting a super staff and then fail to use deluxe spell potions. One strike cube could pay for 44 *hours* of keeping deluxe spell potions on. And higher cast speed does a *million* times more good to you than the benefit of a single strike cube. But if you have the money, then yes, it's good to use some. Over +4 is just if you're bored or want to try making a really killer staff for your DM or something, though - you don't need a +8 or +10 staff, even if it would be 'nice'.

Armor: As far as other equipment goes, you want an r2 robe. You should upgrade its defense when you can, but it's not terribly important. You can also get by just fine with only minimally upgraded gloves/boots/helm/belt/etc. You'll rarely be hit, and when you do, a few points difference won't be that significant. It's good to do, but not essential. Enchanting your robes to +4 with defense cubes is a good idea, because enchanting boosts the MP regen bonus on the robe, whereas upgrading at the blacksmith doesn't. If you're choosing, enchant your robes rather than upgrade their level at the smith. NOTE however that the MP regen bonus you get from this is very small. If your money is tight, this is *not* a priority. We're talking 2-3 extra MP while sitting, verses your existing 50-65 points per tick. Not a big deal.

Rings/Earring: Acquire two +4 dex buy Rappelz Rupees rings. This should be the highest priority after your staff, and possibly even more important than your robe. Why dexterity? Because it increases your cast speed, and that's the single most important thing to a cleric. You'll find out why below.

Cards: the most important one to have is 1 or +2/+3 heal. Why Heal and not buff cards? Because a heal card further reduces your cast time for heal, and heal is your single most important skill of course. It's expensive, though... I bought 5 heal cards at 800k each and broke four of them trying to make +2. I'm still just using a single +1 heal card. Buff cards sell for around 1 million rupees for clerics - I don't have any. I could buy one or two, but I just won't at those prices. I don't blame people for the prices of them - it's just not worth that price for me personally. Kahunas can also buff, and their cards are half the price of cleric cards. I generally rely on kahunas for higher level buffs. If a kahuna doesn't have higher buffs, or there's not one in party, I give people lvl5 buffs and we all still get by fine with that at high levels. Remember, also, that with the release of the new jobs soon, there will be much higher level buffs around from many of the new subclasses. So don't fret too much about getting your buffs high level. If you can, do so, but it's not that important. As far as priorities go, though, you should prioritize: Heal, Bless Weapon, Mental Amplify (because this helps your heals also - matk), Bless Armor (helps the group take less damage).