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Aion In-Depth Class Interview - The Cleric

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Posted August 16th, 2009 by Cody Bye

This Cleric is definitely more than a simple heal-bot.
Over the last few months, Ten Ton Hammer has brought you the in-depth details – straight from the mouths of the developers at NCsoft – concerning the eight major classes in Aion, NCsoft’s upcoming fantasy-themed MMO. Today we continue our interview series with the Cleric class! Again, we sat down with Associate Producer Lani Blazier, and she gave us all the info we desired regarding the playability of the Cleric in groups, solo, and even some strategies on how to excel with this particular healer. Check it out!

Ten Ton Hammer: The two Aion healer classes are the Cleric and the Chanter. Let’s talk a little about the Cleric today. Can you tell us where the Cleric’s divine powers originate from and how they wield those powers?

Lani Blazier: The Cleric’s divine powers ultimately originate from Aion itself—from the Aether that suffuses the world of Atreia. Asmodian clerics serve Marchuta, the Shedim Lord of Destiny, and Elyos clerics serve Yustiel, the Seraphim Lord of Life.

A Cleric wields power by taking the Aether stored within itself and radiating it outward—often to heal its compatriots or even resurrect the soul within the body of a fallen ally. As long as the Cleric’s stored energy remains intact, the Cleric’s allies can withstand even the most furious assault. Exhaust the Cleric, and the rest of the team becomes vulnerable.

Ten Ton Hammer: Healers often have varied roles: battle clerics, buffers, straight healers, and so on. What is the primary focus of Aion’s Cleric?

Lani: Clerics focus on primarily healing and buffing. They also enhance the abilities of party members and remove debuffs. They are the heart of a group—they keep everyone together (quite literally).

Ten Ton Hammer: Throughout various games, healers have been notoriously difficult to solo because their damage output tends to be low.  How has Aion avoided this pitfall? Will the Cleric be a viable choice for soloing?

Lani: The Cleric is absolutely, unequivocably viable when soloing. In my opinion, it’s easy to solo with a Cleric. It just takes a little longer to down a monster because, yes, a Cleric’s damage per second is lower. However, if you are having a problem soloing with a Cleric, you have missed the most fundamental thing about your character being a Cleric—it can heal itself. Heal early and often! Is your character down 15% to 20%? Use a healing over time skill, like Light of Renewal or Light of Rejuvenation. Feeling a little pressure? Cast a direct heal on your character like Healing Light and top off with a heal over time skill while your character attacks an opponent with a ranged skill or use a Hallowed Strike that decreases the opponent’s attack speed and chains to a followup skill. Your Cleric can tear almost anything apart in just a few more seconds than other classes and then walk away from the dead corpse while brushing dust off its fully healed self. You just need to liberally pepper your character with heals in between attacking the opponent.

While it takes a little longer to kill a particular opponent, your character can take on monsters equal to its level (or one level higher than it is) either one-on-one, or once you are comfortable with your charater’s abilities, two-on-one, or even three-on-one. You just have to remain cool under fire, and watch your character’s mana points.

Clerics also shine during group play, of course! Join up with a tank or a damage-dealer (especially a melee damage-dealer), and your teammate and your Cleric can play and play and play. Group as the triumvirate of tank, damage-dealer, and Cleric, and nothing can stop you. Well, maybe not nothing, but between the buffs your charcter can add to itself and others and your Cleric’s ability to heal, your group’s longevity becomes amazing.

Ten Ton Hammer: How will Clerics do in PvP combat? What do these healers have in their bag of tricks that will give them a fighting chance amongst some of the more devastating classes?

Lani: Clerics can immobilize opponents with Restraint, and can summon an immobile spirit that can attack at range for a short time, giving them a breather while they heal themselves. They can clear quite a few debuffs, and have some accomplished ranged attack skills that have a damage over time component to eat up enemies. At level 37, they can pop a Prayer of Focus to boost their ability to not be interrupted by a damaging attack, allowing them to heal themselves and attack their enemy more effectively for 10 seconds. At level 40, they can cast an immediate Blessed Shield on them that absorbs some damage and boosts healing skills. The biggest threat for a Cleric is anything that makes it unable to cast—either to cast a damaging skill, or to heal itself. That’s also why mana conservation and consumption is something that Clerics monitor constantly.

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