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Wings Over Atreia: Class builds -- Cleric
Last week we discussed how personality influences class choice, so after some deep reflection, you have decided that it is time to reveal your true nature and be reborn as a cleric in Aion! Either that, or maybe you just wanted to solo some dungeons to horde all the loot. *cha-ching* Perhaps you already became one to impress that really cute voice in vent who is always looking for a healer. Whatever your reason, the life of servitude is for you. Now what? Welcome to Build-a-Cleric. While some Daevas are content to just play with what they get from drops or quests, a number actually want to outfit their characters the best they can. Even if leveling too quickly to worry about uber gear thanks to mentoring and an easier grind, it is never a bad idea to keep an eye on endgame. And with the plethora of manastones, armor sets, weapons, and stigmas available -- not to mention advice, both solicited and unsolicited -- it can be a daunting task to maximize your potential. So to help you wade through the possibilities, Wings Over Atreia will be exploring each class individually and highlighting popular and effective builds. With any luck, some advance knowledge will help you make informed decisions and avoid the catastrophes of expending all of your energies in obtaining the wrong gear for your needs. Nothing shouts broke like having to re-socket entire sets or enchant new ones! Roll up your sleeves and explore various builds for Aion's Cleric class after the cut.
Behind the Mask: Being a good team player
The holy trinity is a sort of abolished concept in recent MMOs, and Champions Online is really no different. It's easy to make healer-tanks, tank-DPS, healer-DPS, and all sorts of variations on those themes. I commented previously that I like the idea of the trinity, but that was a year ago, and I've got a little more to say. Champions is a hard game to explain in terms of role, so I don't really expect the community at large to actually accept a lot of what I'm explaining here. However, this is a breakdown of the real contributions each person can make to a team. Although there is no real "crowd control" role, there are still a lot of ways people can contribute to victory.
Behind the Mask: Primal Rage
Before we get started, let me note that I'm pretty aware of the current progress on the new Devastator Archetype and the Heavy Weapons set. Things seem to be going well for both, so when we finally see them (soon!) I'll be giving some in-depth coverage. Normally I give a preview prior to the content's going live, but in this case I wanted to talk about something else first. That something else is Aura of Primal Majesty. Champions Online has four different aura passives, and for a long time, all but one of them (Aura of Radiant Protection) were pretty bad. During the Free-for-All launch, the three underperforming auras were buffed extensively. After the buffs, the Primal aura emerged as one with the most unique and interesting interactions. In fact, it is one of the most truly interesting powers in CO, because something as simple as raising stats has one of the most unusual consequences in CO's complicated stat system.
