The Shamans' Way: New play diary (Summoner Cleric)

Gr8Scott

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Joined
06/01/2022
Messages
66
Gr8Scott, that finally puts your doubts to rest. My mana pool is almost 300, and I no longer invest in either Int or Per, just Str now, and even then it's still more than enough for all my needs, so yeah, Sacred Fire, FoF, Heal and B.Prayer, I have 'em all and I can effectively use them all as needed without ever having troubles with mana for them.

Aww! All that cleric love just warms my heart.
Glad it's working for you- and on IM to boot. I may have to revisit my summoner to figure out why I was always mana-poor. Maybe too slow in healing?
 

Kakost

Active Member
Joined
06/12/2022
Messages
375
Aww! All that cleric love just warms my heart.
Glad it's working for you- and on IM to boot. I may have to revisit my summoner to figure out why I was always mana-poor. Maybe too slow in healing?
I dont know. Like I said, I already had some good experience with mana-management from playing with Elementalist... Or perhaps, having entered this game with one of the most challenging builds there is (although powerful as it is) may have turned all others easy in comparison.

What I can effectively say about mana is that you dont want to walk around with your mana pool with a low tank. I mean, it is fine to do it when you're exploring and dealing with critters and low thugs, but before entering the room of a boss it's always better to use a rest. If you dont have a rest, you consume potions, heal your entire party to FULL health, and eat mana potions until close to full. Unless you're facing some Big Bad Boss that you absolutely shouldn't, it will be more than enough, and you'll probably wont even need to use potions during the fight, or you'll need very few. Some bosses required me to feed a few health potions to Griss, because her life were decaying faster than my heal, even with B.Prayer 3, FoF and my heal.

That brings us to the King of Korne itself. I just tried to bring that massive hulking beast down and... It was a disaster. No, I didnt die, courtesy of Intervention, but I had to retreat to fight another day. I killed all the minions around it, all those annoying shamans, but that thing is simply too strong, even with my full arsenal. My Intervention got triggered some 3 times, I danced around running the entire cave until I could finally face it alone after killing all minions, dropped a wolf for distraction, I runned away to wake up Griss, fully recovered my entire team, drank a ton of potions to get back at him at full health and hp, I waited an entire 1 min for my wolf, went back at him once more with everything I had - B.Prayered my team, Arbenos Might for myself, FoF on our feet and Sacred Fire'ed him as often as I could, Heals and Hp potions to Griss... And it was still not enough. In the end, Griss went down, wolf went down and I was on the run back again.

Despite that defeat however, I must say that the build is working perfectly fine, as intended. So Im not complaining at all, quite the opposite. In fact, I only stood a fighting chance - and managed to get rid of the goons around it - because this build is so perfect. But he was simply too damn strong for me.

Funny how that guy was so "easy" with the Elementalist (yes, I had to run in circlea while raining down nukes in its head, but that's just playing Elementalist as intended, so it wasnt any different from what I always did with any other boss or big groups already).

Thus, I'll probably have to wait to try it again at lvl 20 or 21, when I'll actually have FoF lvl 2 or 3, which will be a lot more damage and healing, so that might make an actual big difference in this fight.

But again, this build works perfectly regardless of that step back.

Now, as to why you had all those problems with mana, it may be this reason, mana management. I try to save potions as much as possible, so I push even with almost zero mana, but I always keep my team very healthy, and after mana is depleted, I let us take a last round on common critters, and then I rest. But before Big Bad Bosses, I heal up mana and hp of the team all the way up, and that way Im never lacking. And if Im taken by surprise, I just run and refil.
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As to how to have a decent mana pool size, a few considerations:

In order to buy the skill "Summon Wolf", you need Int 3. Now, Clerics gain +1mana/lvl for every 2 Int. Thus, it is absolutely mandatory to increase Int to 4 instead of just 3, since you need Int 3 regardless anyway, increasing it from 3 to 4 has the same effect as increasing your Per for your mana pool. Also, Int is overall better than Per, particularly because for every 2 lvls of Int you'll also gain +5% Perception, thus going Int 4 will also make you better at spotting traps and hidden doors; my Awa is only 2, but with Amulet of Dark Whispers it goes to 4; with Int 4 and Awa 4, I am finding almost all traps and doors without even needing Thelume's Wisdom (or scrolls).
Therefore, get Int to 4 asap. There's really no reason not to do it.

Per 5 has been more than enough for my needs; Im not entirely sure, but if memory serves you need it for buying FoF, which is why I bought it. Over most of the Mid game I also had the Per+1 ring that you buy at the Golden Hand library; now I have the Bishop Ring from the quest "Dead God" which gives Per+2.

I also favor items that increase my mana pool, much much more than items that increase my health. The Amulet of Dark Whispers for example gives exrra 50 mana alone (and -25hp), but it's not the only item that increase my pool. Im using a Crown that gives +15, boots that give +2 or +6 (I dont recall precisely), and Im wearing the pants of the "Mad Wizard" dropped by the Ahroun werewolf from the quest "Defend the Outpost" that also gives me some +15 mana (I think, once again I dont remember).

The point is, always favor mana over life for the items that you choose. That will make a huge difference in your gameplay, trust me.

That same advice goes for Mages too, althought they can have even greater mana pools by having colossal Int and taking that skill which increases their mana pool, but regardless, Mages should favor items that increase their mana over hp just the same.

With all of these, you should never have any mana problems. Oh, and try to be conservative in it's use. Dont go around nuking every single goblin that crosses your path with FoF and Sacred Fire; keep your divine wrath for those that actually deserve it
 
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Kakost

Active Member
Joined
06/12/2022
Messages
375
I just got to lvl 20 while killing a Manticore Rumor Boss.




Notice how little of my mana I used to take out on the boss, and I used 2 heals, FoF 1, B.Prayer 3 and Sacred Fire twice. My mana pool now is over 300, for a lvl 17 boss I used half of it (it was a bit overkill to use all of that on that one I must admit).

Anyways, I got FoF lvl 2 now and increases my End to 3; after being saved some 3 or 4 times by Intervention while facing the King of Korne, I've come to the realization that from lvl 22 above it may be a good idea to have Body Development. I dont know, Im not entirely sure on that one.

I tried to enter the Abbey of Saint Admus and... I didnt even got to go inside. Those tons of cats and damn Hags, they end up killing Griss and Wolf too damn fast because they gang up on them, and on top of it their lightning speed means they also gang up on me, so I have to retreat in order to avoid being "Intervened". It's been a hell, the one spot Im actually struggling with.

Lets see if now at lvl 20 it gets a bit easier. And, there's one Lich Rumor Boss waiting for me inside, such a great news. Oh well, wish me luck.
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What a massive difference does a single lvl do! This time, I went back to the Abbey and things have been a LOT easier. Still, I ended up consuming quite a big amount of mana, due to the endurance needed in this place (too large and too many critters), but I already cleared the entire first lvl, including a lvl 20 Rumor Boss Lich that coincidentally was there.

I had to temporarily retreat before going down into the hellish cave thou, but not because I needed a rest (I still had enough potions to push it through), but because my inventory was absolutely full (including the bag), thus I had to go back and sell it all.

Oh yes, and courtesy of the Lich, I finally got my last piece of the Eye of Tol, so now I just need to wait for that ghost to summon me, and off to the Ark we go.

I have only one doubt, which is if Im able to take down a certain spoiler Big Bad Boss at the helish cave... I dont know if I can do it, Im starting to feel that this build has one small weakness: lack of explosive damage.

On the other hand thou, this may be offset by me having got Flames of Faith to lvl 2. I gotta say, the difference from lvl 1 to lvl 2 is super noticeable, and it's crazy how powerful that spell is, really really powerful. FoF with Sacred Fire feels a lot like the atomic Elementalist in terms of raw damage (the difference being that the Cooldowns for the Elem. are far shorter, thus enticing a gameplay that revolves around runnind over and over while raining death on enemies, while the Cleric has a "stand and fight" approach). Maybe my FoF 2 will be the edgy I needed for that fight - and now Im feeling confident that my FoF 3 will garantee my victory against the cursed King of Korne when I go for another round next lvl.

So, final word after testing the complete build: FoF indeed is an absolutely indispensable skill for it, and a very powerful one for that matter.
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That's it, the Abbey has been cleared, and it was super easy, including the 2 bosses (the Abbey and the Demon bellow)




Seriously, Flames of Faith is so absurdly powerful that it almost feels like cheating.

FoF lvl 3 will make me unstoppable! This spell truly is ultra powerful, massive spirit damage plus heal for all? This thing can heal up to 180 hp total (60 for each one at my party. It's insanely powerful, and probably the reason why Im having such an easy time right now.
 
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Kakost

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Joined
06/12/2022
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375
Father of Wolves, Path of the Deer both completed. I had also killed the Flaming Prophet for some time now, I finally that damned ghost has summoned me to go find the Ark.




Man, Flames of Faith is so absolutely overpowered... Bunch of Wargs killed in instants. I finally have the proper tool to dispatch massive concentrations of critters. There were some 6 or 7 Wargs in that picture, a pity it took me so long to take it, and even more of a shame that in the middle of a battle I cant just stop to take a screenshot. I wish I could post a small video just to show exactly how powerful FoF really is, Im absolutely in love with that spell.

Now Im doing a few townhall quests for Ilmara just to buy to house in Nivarian... Just because.

Just because Im a kind of a perfectionist/completionist.

Now, I believe I have already done every single side quest besides the ones at the Ashen Cape, Sewers of Horrors and the ones leading to the Temple of Ancients. All that remains is to slain the King of Korne (curse it be its memory!), the Shadow Dragon at Mt Orogg and to slain the witches at the Undergrove.

Oh yes, now I remembered. I still havent done Cold Trail... And in that place there's plenty to be done - althought Im not entirely sure I can deal with the spoilers there after Hidalix.

One more thing: Im thinking about resetting Griss back to 1H/shield. I've come to the conclusion that some of the best weapons in the game are actually 1H or Light. There aint that many good 2H weapons except perhaps spirit cleaver, and the damage output increase aint that impressive to justify the lack of a shield and the heavy skill investment into 2H mastery.

Paradoxically, I very much favor 2H hammers for my cleric instead. That's because I most usually dont stand in the line of fire, letting Griss be my meat shield, and Arbenos Might 1 gives extra bonus for 2H, thus for the Cleric it is much better to have them. But for Griss, I believe the extra survivability for the shield (especially late game ones) is far better over some tiny amounts of extra damage.
 

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