[Preview] Neverwinter: The Devoted Cleric Smites

BillMurphy · February 2013

We dove deep into the nooks and crannies of Neverwinter yesterday, and tried out three of the game's five classes in the process. Bill took on the Devoted Cleric, Neverwinter's main healer. See what he thought of the class beyond the break.

The basics are pretty straightforward. The Cleric is a holy warrior, and true to the rulebooks the Devoted Cleric is a ranged healer, which some pretty spiffy attacks that help him hold his own. There are three main stats to help the Devoted Cleric perform his role aptly: Wisdom primarily, then Charisma secondary, and Strength tertiary. As Suzie pointed out in her lengthy preview, you actually will roll dice and select your racial stat bonuses at character creation. But every so often as you level you’ll gain more stats to add on as well, so keep that in mind.

Read more of Bill Murphy's Neverwinter: The Devoted Cleric Smites.

Arcona · February 2013

I think it helps target those who need heals if you turn on health bars for party members

BillMurphy · February 2013

It's a lot harder than it looks. You can't click to target like in a traditional tab-targeting game, so you have to pinpoint target them with the mouse aiming cursor... and that becomes trouble when your mates are constantly moving around and mobs are all over the place.

bobfish · February 2013

Watched the stream yesterday and I have to say that the Devoted Cleric really impressed me, I love D&D Cleric anyways so was always drawn to it, but it looked like a lot more fun than you usually get from healers in MMOs.

The only thing I'm disappointed about is the lack of defence, a good Cleric in D&D isn't just good at healing and smiting, but they're pretty damn tough too, when you have some good plate armor and a shield.

BillMurphy · February 2013

Hey Bobfish,

You're thinking of the more widly known Battle Cleric build, who won't be making an appearance at the beginning of NW's life, though I'm hopeful that class will be added. The Devoted Cleric is the lesser known ranged variant. I suspect when they decided they'd only have time to do five classes, they looked at the Battle Cleric and thought it was too closely related to the Guardian Fighter.

theAsna · February 2013

I'm still undecided whether to give it a try or not.

After playing 3rd edition D&D (i.e. DDO) with its huge character build options) I'm a bit sceptical towards NWO, which uses 4th edition rulesets (and additionally has streamlined options down to a few selected archetypes).

Let's see if the rest can make up for that shortcoming.

gaeanprayer · February 2013

Am I reading this correctly, you have to roll dice during character creation? As in, stats? Because the only time I want to spend 5 hours in a creation menu is when I'm having that much fun with the costume parts. Rerolling constantly until you have the perfect character on the other hand, not so much.

Gravarg · February 2013

I never liked clerics in DnD, but watching the stream, it looked fun. I was always a tanky type in PnP

Akumawraith · February 2013

Originally posted by gaeanprayer
Am I reading this correctly, you have to roll dice during character creation? As in, stats? Because the only time I want to spend 5 hours in a creation menu is when I'm having that much fun with the costume parts. Rerolling constantly until you have the perfect character on the other hand, not so much.

Think of it this way there is no perfect character rolls in Neverwinter. if you watched the video then youd know that Bill started with a 19 in Wisdom and rerolled a few times and settled finally with a 17 Widom. its all based on preference of course, and if you are one of those fools who would sit hoping to get straight 18s then dream on. I dont know if Cryptic would even allow somethng like that but id hope not.

I watched the stream yesterday and have to admit prior to it i had serious doubts as i play STO and Cryptic has been totally wasteful when it comes to content for the klingons. However after the stream yesterday all my doubts were washed away. it looked so much fun and the mechanics though will take some getting used to look fitting. the spell effects were great and i loved the settings. Looking over the edge of the walkway and down into the chasm was amazing. the level of details was great. I am so looking forward to this game now.

Xiaoki · February 2013

As a HUGE fan of Forgotten Realms I loved the lore stuff.

Hopefully the origin stuff actually makes a difference in-game.

Choosing your diety is also cool but I have a little nitpick about it.

The Cleric power "Sun Burst" would make sense if your diety was Amaunator(God of the Sun) but not Selune(Goddess of the Moon).

Would be better if they renamed it to "Holy Burst" or something.

Lastly, when nothing came of Valindra in the Drizzt Neverwinter trilogy I figured it was so they could put her in the game. Would be nice if she wasnt just some lame first tier raid boss after building her up in the books.

WolfClaws · February 2013

Remember Bill, Zeke said there would be more classes that would make it to launch

Foncl · February 2013

I always play healer as my first and main character, the cleric does seem like a new take on healing which I like. The most fun healer in any game I've played is warrior priest in WAR, cleric does seem to have some small similarities in that you can heal and deal damage without healing output suffering in the process.

I really like the idea of heals that you aim with a crosshair, I hope there are ways to perform better by aiming well and that it's not too easy to perfect.

evilastro · February 2013

Originally posted by BillMurphy
Hey Bobfish,

You're thinking of the more widly known Battle Cleric build, who won't be making an appearance at the beginning of NW's life, though I'm hopeful that class will be added. The Devoted Cleric is the lesser known ranged variant. I suspect when they decided they'd only have time to do five classes, they looked at the Battle Cleric and thought it was too closely related to the Guardian Fighter.

Yeah, I am surprised by how few people actually know about the DnD classes. Like all the threads about 'Trickster Rogues' and 'Great Weapon Fighters' being bad names for Cryptic to pick.... they didn't pick them, they are in the handbook.

Really looking forward to new classes being released in this game, will happily pay for classes that I want to play as. Hope they release them relatively frequently too, as there are a lot to get through.

My friend was upset that there was no druid, but your Devoted Cleric video sold him on playing that instead!

BillMurphy · February 2013

I'm personally hoping for a Beast Master Ranger soon!

And yes, a Battle Cleric could be nice. Probably going to go with the Devoted Cleric at launch. Like being helpful.

vmoped · February 2013

Thanks for the stream and article Bill!

Cheers!

Luther1972 · February 2013

This is really interesting.

I have played PnP on a casual basis on and off for many years. We just finished giving 4th Edition a proper testing (6 months) and franking compared to the 3e or pathfinder its pretty terrible, As a table top game its horrible as written if the GM plays encounters to their full potential there will be 2-3 party deaths a session atleast. The very physic's of the universe work different depending on if you are a player or a GM controlled monster. As a player it feels like playing a board game against somebody who is constantly cheating, coming up with illogical rules and restrictions that only apply to you and not him.

But something all of us commented on it that 4e felt like trying to play a PnP game based on a computer game. So I am hopful with a few sensible ammendments that 4e may work very well as a an online game. I will be giving it a try for sure.

Nanfoodle · February 2013

Watching this made me think of my healer in Warhammer. Getting dirty in combat dishing out damage and still able to keep the team alive. This looks fun. Great tools to keep the team alive like the debuff on the mob that heals team mates that hit it. I have to say I really wana try this class =-)