I recently started playing Vanguard and chose to play the cleric. For roleplaying purposes I've always enjoyed playing clerics of death (such as in D&D). When I read of the death affinity for Vanguard clerics that sounded perfect. I am totally willing to wear INT gear, even cloth, to be a cleric of death. The problem is that even though I'm only level 16, my damage is absolutely pitiful. I never die, but the people around me are ALL killing 3-5x faster. Will a damage oriented death cleric even work or has this class just has all of its damage potential been removed for various reasons?
Borcenn wrote: The classes in Vanguard are very narrow in thier callings, only a very few of them can approach another class of another archetype. The simple answer is "no" you will never be half as competitive with any class that is a dps archetype. Clerics are notorious for being, quite likely, the lowest dps in the game. It's a trade off for (excluding the disciple maybe) the most survivable class in the game. No matter what affinity you choose you need to keep in mind that you are and always will be a healer on your cleric. That's the archetype the class is. The same goes for shaman and the other healing classes, they are healers first, some can dps when needed but the dps archetypes are far better at it than any of the healers. I think shaman and bloodmages do decent dps (I've heard disciples are very good if not the highest dps among healers at the momment). If you want to be a damage dealer, however, do not choose a healing class, it's not what they do. On a side note, this is one of the things that attracts me to Vanguard. I grew tired of all the classes in most games being able to do the same things as each other. Most of the healers don't need to do significant dps as they are pretty hard to kill and can survive thier way through most solo content regardless. Hope that helps.
If going Death affinity won't even make you slightly competitive for damage, why even have it in the game? Why is there even the illusion of choice? I would be totally cool with middle-of-the-road damage while bringing the occasional heal and some cleric buffs. I may be a new player to Vanguard, but I've played MMOs for a very long time. There is an alarm just ringing off in my head about the Cleric here in Vanguard telling me that something just isn't right. I keep getting new attacks which cost more and more endurance, yet the damage is totally negligable. Between running out of endurance insanely fast and having no real damage ability, all I do while soloing is put the HoT on myself and hit the stun attack and hope it crits so that I get the reactive attack. That's it. If I read the abilities I have and ignore damage values, I can see a lot of synergy in the Cleric. Yet when you put in the pitiful damage values it doesn't matter - it's terrible damage no matter what. My MMO spider-senses are basically telling me that the cleric used to be an all-around beast machine (like a D&D cleric) and then just got neutered in the damage department. I'm only level 16. I know how much more time MMOs require as you get higher level. This class is extremely boring already. I can't see how it's fun to be able to "survive through solo content".
You will be able to see the affinity when you are level 20 and complete the quest for it. I am sure you have done research about the affinities, based on what I read in your Post. If you haven't found it, here is a guide to the affinities. http://www.thetelonproject.com/cleric-affinities I have read that several clerics enjoy this affinity, but won't use the stance if they are grouping and just use the standard Cleric DPS stance. Bare through this and get to level 20 before you make your choice.
Borcenn wrote: Maybe I wasn't very clear. By "competetive" I meant in dungeons and raids. The War and Death affinities are higher damage and will make soloing faster. Clerics are not and were never intended to do dps. They are a pure healer class and that is their only function in (excluding a few in-combat buffs) in a raid or dungeon. They do not and are not intended to be able to compete with classes that are dps classes. As a cleric if your in a group, no matter what your affinity, and are not healing your essentially being carried. The class is designed to be a healer. If you don't want to be a healer do not play a cleric. WoW innovated the classes being able to do multiple archetypes, Vanguard does not do this and excluded this feature in it's inception. That's the design of the class, having competitive dps with the survivability of a cleric would be a bit imbalanced. I'd imagine there would be some very angry rogues in the game if a cleric could do dps close to them and retained the durability that they are rather well known for. For the most part heavy fighters: tank, casters: dps, light fighters: dps and healers: heal. The classes were designed to be narrow in thier function. It's supposed to be that way. Bards buff, but bards are wierd (joking). Again, and I'm not trying to be rude I'm trying to be clear, if you don't want to be a healer do not play a cleric. (just so you know I'm not blowing smoke out my butt my main is a 50 Preservation cleric, leveled in that calling. I make the joke that I think I actually heal mobs when I hit them my dps is so low. Solo leveling a cleric is a slow process due to what they are designed for. You will never die but you will never kill stuff fast. But you will never die.)
