Cleric

The Cleric is Perfect World's primary healing class. Clerics are both loved and hated; but this is only because their job is so important. If played skillfully, the Cleric will always have a valued place in any party and can easily make friends. Clerics can also do more than just support; with their powerful attack skills, party attack buffs, along with their Violet Dance skill the Cleric can turn into an offensive force to be reckoned with in just a second.

Pros:
 * Some of the strongest heal and buff skills in game
 * Cheap to play
 * Long-lasting sleep & immobilize skills
 * Magical and physical defense reduction skills
 * Can deal both magical and physical damage
 * Can be offensive as well as defensive in a party
 * In high demand for dungeon and group play
 * Can fly from level 1

Cons:
 * Low physical defense
 * Draws mob aggro with heal skills
 * Reliant on skills to become resilient enough to survive
 * Slow movement speed

Weapons
Magic Damage Chart: Lower-Low-Medium-High-Higher-Highest

Choosing a weapon is generally up to personal choice, unless the Cleric opts for Rank 9 gear where your weapon is chosen for you. For a Cleric focusing on healing, wands are recommended. Wands have the highest low-end magic attack and lowest high-end magic attack. This makes healing numbers more reliable. Magic swords and glaives are also good weapon choices for those who would like to have a balance of reliable healing and good damage output. Patakas are an uncommon choice due to their unreliable spike damage. This can be a good option for those Clerics who like to focus on high spike healing or damage, however. The gap between low-end and high-end magic attack is large, making heals potentially weaker, but also giving a chance at incredibly high critical hits.

Armor
Clerics are generally built with high Magic to strengthen their healing, so therefore Arcane Armor is recommended. Physical and HP shards for armor are the most popular choices, while either Reduced Channel stones or Magic Attack gems for weapon are the best options.

"Off-Meta" builds are also possible for Clerics, with a small section of the population experimenting with Heavy Armor and Light armor for increased defenses. These can be challenging builds until after reawakening due to the limited amount of stat points in the first 105 levels. Lower levels restricts builds in particular.

Additionally, Heavy and Light armor has drawbacks. Giving a Cleric build enough strength to equip heavy armor or enough dexterity to equip light armor can leave a Cleric's heals with a lot to be desired due to the low amount of stat points invested in Magic. That said, some players enjoy the extra defenses these builds offer and are willing to accept even gear ten levels lower to make the build work for them.

Clerics in PvE
Clerics are obviously very good PvEers as they have both magical and physical damage, plus their own healing skills. However, it is in a party where the Cleric really comes through as they have some of the strongest buff skills in the game. Clerics can help the squad not only stay alive, but also deal more damage.

Clerics at Lower Levels
Clerics at the beginning of their journey have a quite easy time due to their high sustain. While Clerics are incredibly squishy at lower levels, once the player becomes familiar with their stack-able healing skills and shields such as Plume Shell, surviving daily questing is simply a matter of engaging enemies fully prepared.

Clerics have both physical and magic attacks which give them an edge against enemies with resistances. Clerics also have several crowd control skills including sleeps, freezes and debuffs. Because of their varied kit Clerics are easily able to lock additional mobs while focusing down quest targets one at a time. That said, take caution when engaging large groups of mobs as a Cleric's crowd controls at low levels are limited. It is recommended to invest in a Zeal Genie with its default skill, Earthflame, to allow the ability to separate a single mob from the group. It can be safer, though time consuming, to handle targets one-by-one if engaging solo.

Growing pains exist most acutely around level 50 as Clerics will encounter dungeon group play more frequently and must become accustomed to keeping sometimes squishy tanks and damage dealers alive while avoiding the very real risk of stealing aggro with their varied group support heals and buffs. This task can be made easier if the Cleric commonly quests at lower levels with friends or other classes as they will already have begun learning the best ways to use their healing skills on their friends while ensuring their own safety.

Additionally, the Cleric can resurrect whole parties. In the case of a squad wipe, the Cleric's job is to resurrect back at town, accept any loss of experience from their own death and walk back. Once returned to the scene, the Cleric's powerful resurrect skill will bring allies back to life while reducing or eliminating any experience loss. Being the sole "resurrecter" of a party can be a tough pill to swallow at lower levels as you must accept your fate to lose experience while the rest of your team enjoys the benefits your skills offer. Investing in resurrection scrolls and guardian scrolls as a Cleric can lessen the occurrence of these tough jobs and negate any of your own experience loss while also saving you a long trek back to the group.

Solo PvE as a Cleric
Solo PvE as a Cleric remains a fairly constant experience until level 80. At this level, Clerics can learn Violet Dance, which is a game changing skill for the solo Cleric. This transformation can give the Cleric quite a lot more lethal potential while also being able to focus on their own survival. This is an exciting day for Clerics, but be forewarned that while "transformed" the Cleric will be unable to provide heals for the team, so this transformation is best used while playing solo or as a squad damage dealer.

Clerics at higher levels are fully capable of soloing dungeons, just like other classes. That said, Clerics have limited AoE skills and are often better equipped for soloing bosses rather than large quantities of mobs. These mob laden tasks can take somewhat more time as the Cleric must constantly stack buffs and heals on themselves and wait for their AoE skills to come off cool-down.

Group PvE as a Cleric
Group PvE as a Cleric is an incredibly rewarding experience. Being a class that is in such high demand, Clerics are always a welcome addition to every dungeon.

Healing as a Cleric
Clerics shine in any group atmosphere as your allies will love you for your strong squad buffs and for keeping them safe. Clerics have several single target heals offering a variety of skills to fit any situation. Single target heals vary in how fast the skills will channel, how powerful the heal is, and extra statuses such as increased physical resistance or heals over time. Clerics also have strong AoE heals that can heal multiple squad mates at once. One AoE, the very popular "BB" also known as Regeneration Aura, is a channeled skill that, once cast, will not end until the Cleric runs out of mana. This is an incredibly powerful skill that allows the squad to be continuously healed while also being buffed with a reduced incoming damage status so long as they stay within the skill's radius. Finally, Clerics are valued for their increasingly important purify skill, which cleanses a single target of most harmful debuffs. This skill is essential in any dungeon, and becomes increasingly important the closer to "end game" the dungeons get.

Lastly Clerics are provided a resurrection skill that at its full potential completely negates any experience loss from death for the target. This skill can be a complete game changer in situations where a dead player is needed back in the fight quickly.

Damage Dealing as a Cleric
Clerics who enjoy dealing damage as their primary goal may become frustrated in group play as they will be expected to perform their primary intended role, group healer. If the cleric does not communicate with their squad before entering the instance squad mates may become hostile as they quickly die without being healed. If you find yourself enjoying the more aggressive Cleric identity, be sure to be up front about your intended role in groups as this will make group play more enjoyable for everyone.

Survivability
Clerics have quite high survivability compared to other classes with their multitude of healing skills and shields. That said, Clerics are the number one priority focus in PvP 9 times out of 10 for the sheer benefits they offer their squads in the forms of buffs, heals and resurrects. Clerics will often find their mettle being tested by full groups of enemy players at once and are often the first to die if their team does not protect them.

For this reason it is always recommended to equip both Spirit Charms and have Mana food at the ready. A Cleric's main skill to keep themselves alive is Plume Shell, allowing them to tank damage at the cost of their Mana. This shield wears out once Mana is depleted so it is important for Clerics, more than any other class, to keep this pool as full as possible at all times.

Positioning
Clerics would do well to position themselves anywhere it is difficult for the enemy team to reach them. Most often this is far behind your squad, but it is recommended to keep an eye out for enemy flankers like Duskblades and Assassins. Another popular place is in the air above your squad as often times the enemy players will tab target other players close to them and neglect to look up.

Support
Clerics, as the number one support class in Perfect World, excel in this role. Clerics can offer their team mates timely purifies to help a stun-locked player escape certain death, buff their teammates to increase their resistances, heal them to allow them to tank more damage and finally and perhaps most powerful of all, resurrect dead players on the battlefield. They also have an Ultimate skill which increases the HP of a friendly target which makes the affected target almost impossible to kill for the duration the skill is effective. Cleric skills are not, however, limited to only friendly buffs and heals. Clerics can also offer support by performing the opposite of all of these on the enemy; Clerics can sleep, seal, and lock enemy opponents, all the while lowering the enemy's physical and magical resistances.

Damage Dealing
While a Cleric's main role is supporting their team, there exists the odd Cleric who enjoys and even excels at damage dealing in PvP. And Clerics are no slouch in this role either. With their unique skills while in Violet Dance, Clerics are able to debuff enemies in unique ways. In Violet Dance, Clerics can debuff the enemy's healing potential, causing their charms and healing pots to stop healing the enemy and instead heal the cleric, and also increase the critical damage they take. They can even cause the enemy to take damage every time it casts a skill.

Weaknesses
While Clerics have low physical resistances overall, Clerics can survive a lot through the use of their healing skills and shields. Clerics, like other support classes such as Mystics, depend on their ability to heal themselves and cast defensive skills in order to stay alive. Because of this, Clerics are extremely weak to being controlled through the use stun skills. Knowing this, many Clerics focused on success in PvP often rely on Rank 9 Purify to survive through stun locking.

A Cleric's bane, therefore, is the paralyze status belonging to Blademasters and Duskblades. This status can not be purified and renders the Cleric unable to heal, purify, buff or move. With enough incoming damage during this effects duration, the Cleric can find themselves in a dangerous situation. For this reason it is recommended to equip a genie with expel. As a last measure, a Cleric can use this skill to render themselves immune to physical damage (the damage type which Blademasters and Duskblades use almost exclusively) during the duration of the paralyze.

Cleric as a Support
Cleric has a unique job in Territory Wars. While the majority of the job is similar or even identical to open world PvP, a Cleric on Offense in Territory Wars will need to focus heal their Barbarian or Catapult puller in order to keep them alive on the enemy faction's crystal. In this sense the Cleric is the backbone of all missions in Territory Wars. Clerics and how well their squads protect them can dictate wins and losses through their effectiveness on the battlefield. Healing in Territory Wars therefore can be an incredibly rewarding and challenging task.

Priority Focus
A Cleric's Priority focus as a support never changes. Whether focusing on Defense or Offense, it will always be the Cleric's goal to keep every member of their squad alive and well. Clerics and their squads have a powerful symbiotic relationship; If the squad protects their Cleric from any threats, then the Cleric will in turn be able to protect their squad.

A Cleric's first healing and purifying priority is always themselves first and foremost; if the Cleric dies, no one gets healed. Secondly, The cleric should focus on their Barbarian or Catapult puller if they are on Offense. If the Barbarian is alive and well, or if they are not in an offensive squad, the Cleric should priority focus any other supports in their squads, such as a Mystic, and then any other member that is receiving damage.

Cleric as a Damage Dealer
Though rare, it is possible to be a Cleric Damage Dealer in Territory War. It is recommended to communicate this desire to your faction Officers so that squads are created appropriately for you. Though some factions may not support this, it is possible with the correct communication.

Once approved, the Damage Dealer Cleric should focus targets much like a Wizard or other magical damage dealer. The offensive cleric is an incredibly powerful source of debuffs that are especially effective on targets with high resistances like enemy Catapult Pullers. That said, it is still invaluable to supply minimal support Violet Dance, giving extra squad buffs, purifies and ressurections. Even while primarily focusing damage, the Cleric can do wonders for their team with these limited support skills. Keeping team members in the fight with these small gestures also gives enemies more targets to fight, leaving more room to focus on dealing damage rather than survival.

Targets to Avoid
Clerics, like all classes weak to crowd control, would do well to play extremely cautiously against classes with large amounts of crowd-control abilities.

Assassins can easily stun the Cleric and deal high amounts of damage while they are helpless to move or act, especially if the Cleric does not have a Rank 9 Purify Weapon. Additionally, the Assassin's Tidal Protection buff often prevents the Cleric from sleeping or freezing the Assassin which is their main means of escape. Another class to be very aware of is the Duskblade, who has endless single target crowd control and will easily be able to kill a Cleric before the Duskblade runs out of locking skills. It is often best to avoid Duskblades entirely if you do not have the support of your team. Other targets to play cautiously against are high physical damage classes like Archers, Seekers, and some Barbarians who build with high Strength in mind. Wearing Arcane Armor gives Clerics a relatively low physical defense which can spell disaster if the Cleric receives a high amount of physical damage.

Though these classes can sometimes present a challenge to Clerics, this does not mean that Clerics cannot survive against or even kill these classes, rather that they should gauge the situation carefully and pay close attention to how much support they are receiving from their own team and how much damage they are taking when engaged.

Basics

 * Cleric Builds
 * The IceDrakes Full Cleric Guide
 * Full Support Cleric Guide
 * Support and High Damage Cleric Build
 * Making a Good Cleric

Skills

 * Cleric Skill List
 * Cleric Glyphs
 * Cleric Skill Books