Neverwinter Heart of Fire Devoted Cleric Balance Changes

The upcoming Neverwinter Heart of Fire update comes with a full balancing pass that affects all classes to some extent. We’ll be going over all relevant aspects and tackle the most important points related to the current meta and builds within our extensive preview series. Today we analyze Devoted Clerics, which primarily see the Divine Oracle path nerfed to break the current multi-DC meta.

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Move Over Divine Oracle Clerics!

Breaking the multi-DC meta has been a long-term plan and the devs took further steps towards the goal with the Heart of Fire changes. Two nerfs to crucial buffing powers primarily hit Divine Oracle DCs that are running full support builds. Forgemaster’s Flame will completely lose its buffing component and Terrifying Impact’s group buffing gets halved. On top of this the debuff from Prophecy of Doom gets reduced by 50% as well.

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These are fairly significant nerfs to the buffing capabilities of DO DCs, which first and foremost means AC will take over the reign from their peers. DOs in buffing roles are not quite dead however. They can still bring Hallowed Ground, and nerfed Prophecy of Doom plus Terrifying Insight, which is still better than what most of the competition can field. The math changes significantly if your AC DC is able to maintain both the HG and AA dailies, but only very few are capable to and at least in 10-char content DOs will still be able to contribute effectively.

Divine Oracles as DPS

As compensation to the buffing capability nerfs, DOs get a nice bump in terms DPS through an improved “Avatar of the Divine” Righteous capstone and higher personal buff from Terrifying Insight. Some players had quite some fun with DPS DCs on preview and already see the class filling roles as buff/DPS hybrid. The only real annoyance in that regard is that clerics can’t queue as DPS for randoms. The devs mentioned in the feedback that they are aware, but that changes to role management won’t come before Module 16.

Anointed Champions and Healers

While the other Paragon Path gets this big overhaul, little changes for Anointed Champions. You will most likely continue to run your current rotations and are not affected. If anything, AC/DCs will be even more requested. Also the update doesn’t do a lot for pure healing specs. But the way the game works now, nobody should play their Cleric that way anyway. Healing theoretically can be potent, but it’s simply not needed.

If you were playing DO and plan to migrate to the now superior AC support spec, don’t expect things to go smooth by the way. The required gear differs by a lot. Additionally ACs generally need higher item levels to be most effective, because they rely on power sharing. DOs on the contrary get most buffing from their powers and need less high-end gear.

Conclusion

Devoted Cleric players were already ready to trash their DOs, but in the end things might turn out ok for the Paragon. Buffing has been dialed back considerably, but even with all the nerfs the class is still viable in support slots. And then you might also have new DO DPS powerhouses incoming.

What you should discuss however is the question whether the devs chose the right path to fight the current meta. As players rightfully pointed out in the feedback threads, the issue isn’t necessarily two DCs in groups, but the current support heavy focus of the game. So instead of targeting a single Paragon, a more global solution might have been the better approach. But like we mentioned in other posts, this whole balancing thing is a two-part process that will extend until Module 16. We will definitely see more changes in the near future and we’re fairly sure power sharing and a general buff/debuff rework both are on the devs’ agenda.


What’s your take on the Devoted Cleric balance changes? Share your thoughts and experience on our social channels, in the comments below, or visit our message board!

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j0Shi

j0Shi plays the Neverwinter MMORPG since the open BETA in 2013 and is a regular contributor to the blog and the whole UN:Project. Originally a Guardian Fighter, he has built up ALTs of all classes and plays on BIS/near-BIS level.

7 thoughts on “Neverwinter Heart of Fire Devoted Cleric Balance Changes

  • November 2, 2018 at 4:51 pm
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    So glad I spent all that time and effort building a dedicated support DO. Meh, just 18k IL, I guess it can go set on the bench next to the SW.

  • November 2, 2018 at 6:41 pm
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    i wouldn’t quite discard healer builds for DC yet. The K team challenge should be all about survive-ability. In theory those healer builds and even the faithful capstone may have a home in that content, but we will see. Obviously that doesn’t do anything for DO since AC’s CC immunity abilities will be in demand for that content, but healers may have a role to play. Could see some use of foresight + benefit of foresight + Astral Shield to help in areas where people commonly fall (ex the hill in FBI).

    Waiting to see how that shakes out but its certainly possible.

  • November 2, 2018 at 7:29 pm
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    no mention of the nerf to forgemaster flame and how AC will no longer using the glitch that gives fully empowered forgemaster + exalt.

  • November 3, 2018 at 10:23 am
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    IMHO they nerfed FF because they couldn’t find a way to stop that glitch, not to stop the 2-DC meta

  • November 6, 2018 at 4:52 am
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    The problem isn’t only the 2-DC meta, imo the problem is the ONE DPS-FOUR SUPPORT meta.

  • December 6, 2018 at 3:45 pm
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    I believe the do dc is balanced compared to the other classes. Why not buff up the npc’s and buff other characters in general. Whys it always gotta be nerf this so no one can use it anymore just like AA for acdc. You guys are the ones that break the class and then us consumers either see past the changes or leave the game entirely. Its like why wear vorpal for crit severity when you just nerfd crit severity entirely for pvp. Everything should go back to when the game came out. Buff armor for each class in different ways. Take things away from the gear or cap a certain stat for that class. I think all this nerfing garbage is down right wrong. Jumanji a known daily pvper 2 year experience in both ac and do. I find it fair compared to an always stealthed rogue that can decide to just throw daggers at you and kill you or no matter if you have 60% dmg resistance and 50% deflection can still one shot you on top of 250k or more health. Other classes have been buffed way more than do/ac clerics and weve always just been nerfed accept for when they finally gave us a little more dmg for do, we
    struggle to fight the other classes. Keep the buffs normal, buff npc’s or increase or decrease stats on gear. We built our characters around powers that should never change unless in fact that you give us more powers to work with. You keep nerfing it and youll just keep having to nerf anothers guys character that has stacked 30k arm pen. Come on devs. Make the game better and not worse. Make neverwinter great again. Need to ignore the people that has never played a cleric and seen the struggle only to whine about how much dmg our dmg buffs give and why its op. I could see a problem with stacking 2 ffs but you could also tinker with the cooldown rate. Like you guys ruined the control aspect of Geas. 3 times and you cant stun another target for 10 seconds. Rangers as a trapper can make you stand there for as long as they want even if youre stacking control resist. But no all pallys buffs still stack. 2 gfs buffs still stack. You need to really focus on the root of the problem and stop focusing on quick fixes. You can do better than this.

    • January 15, 2019 at 7:59 am
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      Preach Jumanji!!!! Preach!

      PS4 (AC DC) “The Phoenix”

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