The Ultimate PvP Cleric Guide for Ashes of Creation
Mastering the Cleric archetype in Ashes of Creation for both PvE and PvP content requires a deep understanding of its healing-focused skills, utility, cooldowns, held abilities, and resource management. This guide will equip you with the strategies, builds, and tactics needed to excel in both PvE and PvP content as a Cleric.
Introduction to Cleric (PvP)
The Cleric archetype in Ashes of Creation is a cornerstone of group play and a powerful presence in PvP combat. Using radiant energy to heal, shield, and smite their enemies, Clerics are both lifelines for their allies and harbingers of divine retribution. Their versatility allows them to support their team while staying deadly in one-on-one or group combat scenarios
Clerics excel in providing heals, purges, and defensive support, but they are far from passive. With the right skill setup, Clerics can dominate the battlefield, shutting down opponents with crowd control (CC) and overwhelming them with Judgment. Whether you prefer to focus on healing and support or unleash radiant damage, the Cleric archetype offers dynamic and adaptable gameplay for PvP enthusiasts.
This in-depth guide will cover everything you need to know about Clerics in PvP: strengths and weaknesses, skill prioritization, best gear options, talent trees, consumable recommendations, and advanced strategies to maximize your performance in competitive encounters.
In the event you were looking for the PvE-focused portion of the guide, it is linked below.
Cleric Strengths and Weaknesses
- Exceptional healing capability.
- Support versatility.
- Sustainable playstyle.
- Self-sustaining skill options for Health and Mana.
- Offensive potential.
- The only form of Resurrection currently in the game.
- Low mobility.
- Reliance on Mana.
- High target priority.
- Long Cast times.
- Hard to hit CCs.
Cleric's Role in PvP
The Cleric in Ashes of Creation is the lifeline of any team, combining powerful healing abilities with utility and offensive capabilities to dominate the battlefield. In PvP, the Cleric’s role is to ensure the survival of their team while disrupting and outlasting their enemies. Success as a Cleric comes down to mastering the balance between supporting allies and applying pressure to foes, all while maintaining strong positioning and managing your resources effectively.
At its core, the Cleric’s primary responsibility is healing, and this begins with Deliverance, your go-to single-target heal. While its charging mechanic allows for potent healing, full charges often result in wasted overheal during fast-paced PvP skirmishes. Instead, deliver quick, moderate heals to maintain mana efficiency and keep up with the chaotic flow of battle. Flash Cure is invaluable in emergencies, offering instant healing while you prepare Deliverance or other cooldowns. For critical moments, Defiant Light can turn the tide, but its high mana cost requires careful consideration. Debuffs are common in PvP, making Purify an essential skill to counter healing reductions or crowd control effects, keeping your team functional in high-pressure encounters.
When the battle intensifies and damage affects the whole team, the Cleric’s AoE healing toolkit shines. Resplendent Beam is excellent for clustered teammates, offering chain healing that scales with charge time. Divine Flare adds another layer of group utility by placing a delayed healing circle that can be upgraded for additional magic mitigation ( Divine Protection) or offensive power ( Divine Retribution) to disrupt enemies. Consecrating Wave, with the Restorative Consecrating Wave upgrade, provides both healing for allies and the Volatile debuff on enemies, making it perfect for coordinated team damage. Communal Restoration, while mana-hungry, offers consistent healing for the entire party and is especially valuable in prolonged engagements.
Beyond their healing capabilities, Clerics also possess offensive tools that add depth to their role in PvP. The Judgment + Smite + Condemn combo is a reliable method for stunning enemies, buying critical time for your team to gain the upper hand if you can get it off. When facing buffed opponents, abilities like Divine Retribution and Consecrating Wave allow you to dispel enemy advantages, disrupting their flow and leaving them vulnerable. Opening with Consecrating Wave applies the Volatile debuff, amplifying the damage of your team’s follow-up abilities. While your primary role is support, knowing when to shift into an offensive playstyle can catch enemies off guard and secure kills in critical moments.
Success as a Cleric in PvP hinges on versatility and adaptability. You are not only responsible for keeping your team alive but also for managing your positioning to avoid becoming a target. As a high-priority focus for enemy players, staying on the move, leveraging terrain, and timing your crowd control abilities like Chains of Restraint are vital to your survival and effectiveness. Pairing with classes like Fighter or Bard, whose Battle Cry and Chilling Lament can synergize with your root abilities, makes the Cleric even more impactful in a coordinated group. By adapting to the ebb and flow of combat, balancing healing, utility, and offense, the Cleric becomes the backbone of any PvP team, capable of swinging battles in their favor through precise decision-making and teamwork.
For a full list of Cleric abilities and passives, visit the Cleric Skill Glossary.
Cleric Gear Options
The Cleric archetype excels when equipped with gear that boosts their healing output, survivability, and offensive potential. In the current Alpha, Magical Power plays a dual role, as it not only increases your offensive capabilities but also contributes directly to your Healing Power. Because of this, prioritizing Magical Power and Intelligence is far more effective than relying solely on Healing Power, as these stats scale better and offer a much broader selection of gear to choose from.
It's also important to note that, due to the current limitations in the Alpha, coal is not available, which restricts players from crafting certain high-end gear that would typically be optimal for Clerics. This guide reflects the current state of crafting and gear availability, but it will be updated as new materials and crafting options, such as steel-based equipment, become accessible in future updates. For now, focus on maximizing your Magical Power and Intelligence through available gear to ensure you're performing at your best.
Key stats to prioritize for PvP Clerics include:
- Magical Power – Increases the potency of both your damage and healing abilities.
- Intelligence – Boosts your overall healing and magical damage output while improving your ability to bypass enemy resistances.
- Constitution – Reduces incoming damage, enhancing your survivability.
- Mana Regeneration – Ensures sustained healing and offensive casting during prolonged battles.
For armor, the type doesn't matter and there aren't really any set bonuses worth going for, all we really care about are the states we're looking for. Here are some recomendations to aim for:
- Shade of the Three Moons – The recipe and key material are dropped from the named mob "Undertaker Zon" in Gravepeak.
- Arcane Mind's Pauldrons – Basic Intelligence gear that can be crafted at level 10.
- Spindlehemp Cloak – The recipe can be bought at the journeyman tailoring vendor.
- Red Frayed Robe – The recipe and key material are dropped from the named mob "Seeker of Myths" in the Wreckage of Carphin.
- Cognoscente Forearms – The recipe and key material are dropped from several caster trash mobs in the Wreckage of Carphin.
- Cognoscente Gloves – The recipe and key material are dropped from several caster trash mobs in the Wreckage of Carphin.
- Belt of the Hushed Words – The recipe and key material are dropped from the named mob "The Hushed Librarian" in the Wreckage of Carphin.
- Toren Administrator Leggings – The recipe and key material are dropped from several trash mobs in the Befallen Forge.
- Sweeper's Dusty Shoes – The recipe and key material are dropped from the named mob "Eternal Sweeper" in the Wreckage of Carphin.
- Iridescent Iris – The recipe and key material are dropped from the named mob "G'Lympes" in the Wreckage of Carphin.
- Doomsday Necklace – The recipe and key material are dropped from the named mob "Doomed Researcher" just southeast of Winstead.
- Ring of Invocation – The recipe and key material are dropped from the named mob "The Tormented Invoker" in the Wreckage of Carphin.
For weapons, due to the absence of coal in the current Alpha, players are unable to process steel, which limits the ability to craft some of the best end-game gear for casters, including Clerics. As a result, we recommend opting for weapons like the Two-Handed Great Spellsword and the Long Spellbow as your primary choices. These weapons provide excellent stats that scale well with the Cleric’s needs, such as Magical Power, Magical Penetration, and Intelligence, while also offering significant utility through their associated skill trees. Consider items like the Iron Great Spellsword and Rividium Long Spellbow for optimal performance in the curent Alpha.
Best Consumable Options
Consumables play a crucial role in maintaining your effectiveness during PvP encounters. Here are some of the best options for Cleric.
- Rations – Provides a cheap and reliable form of both health and mana regeneration out of combat over a period of 20s.
- Health Potions – Provides instant health restoration, critical for surviving burst damage.
- Mana Potions – Restores mana to keep you casting throughout extended fights.
- Scroll of Intelligence – Boosts intelligence, enhancing your support capabilities and damage for 3 hours.
- Elixir of Intelligence – Boosts intelligence, enhancing your support capabilities and damage for 60 minutes
Cleric Passives and Skill Trees
Support PvP Cleric Build
Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!
As a Cleric in PvP, your role is to sustain your team, control the battlefield with healing and mitigation, and ensure your mana lasts throughout the fight. Unlike other healers, you are not a passive support, you must actively manage your cooldowns, anticipate enemy burst damage, and use your positioning to stay alive while maximizing your healing output. Every engagement is different, and knowing when to heal, mitigate, or reposition is the key to success. Your priority is sustaining your team while ensuring you don’t run out of resources before the fight is over.
One of the most effective ways to approach a PvP encounter is by maintaining a steady healing rotation while ensuring you always have mana available. Opening with Soothing Glow on your frontline ally (or yourself) ensures that small, consistent healing is already in place before combat begins. Once damage starts rolling in, Flash Cure should be your go-to heal, as it provides the best burst healing for its mana cost. When multiple allies are taking damage, Communal Restoration offers a powerful group heal as well as HoT (Heal over Time), making it invaluable in sustained fights.
When enemy burst damage is imminent, Defiant Light is one of your strongest defensive tools. This ability should be preemptively cast before large incoming damage to ensure survival, especially for your tank or other priority targets. Similarly, Divine Flare is an excellent tool for mitigating incoming magic damage, as its upgraded version grants 50% magic mitigation to allies inside its radius. This should be used before heavy magic-based abilities or raid mechanics hit, ensuring both healing and damage reduction in one cast.
Your mobility and positioning are key to staying alive in PvP. Wings of Salvation is your only movement ability, making it your primary escape tool when being pressured by enemies. However, it can also be used offensively to quickly dash to a teammate in danger and follow up with Healing Touch, your instant melee heal, to save them in clutch situations. Be mindful that Wings of Salvation is also your only crowd-control break, so using it too early can leave you vulnerable to stuns and roots.
When facing high-pressure situations where multiple allies are taking damage, your AoE healing abilities become essential. Consecrating Wave is a fast, mana-efficient AoE heal that can hit up to 10 targets, making it a solid choice when your team is grouped up. Resplendent Beam is another strong AoE heal but requires charging for maximum effectiveness. Use it when you have time to prepare a stronger group heal, but don’t hesitate to tap-cast it for quick emergency healing if needed.
Mana management is crucial in PvP. Bless Weapon should always be maintained on a high-uptime DPS or tank to passively regenerate mana over time. Barrier can be used as an emergency life-saving tool but comes at a cost, sacrificing 25% of your HP to give an ally a large temporary health boost, so use it wisely. Judgment can be cast offensively to contribute some damage and apply burning stacks, but should only be used when healing is under control and mana permits.
Mastering the Cleric in PvP requires precision, resource management, and anticipation of enemy actions. You are the backbone of your team—your ability to keep your team alive while maintaining your own safety and mana will determine your effectiveness in battle.
Two-Handed Swords for Cleric Utility
Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!
Two-handed swords are a fantastic option when the Cleric needs to jump into the fray and deal AoE damage, though you should always prioritize using the weapon that provides the most Magical Power for your build. The flexibility of two-handed swords makes them a viable choice for Clerics looking to enhance both their offensive and support capabilities.
By choosing specific nodes in the two-handed sword skill tree, the Cleric can bring significant utility to their team. These nodes allow Clerics to provide 15% attack speed buffs to Fighters and Rangers in their party, ensuring a notable boost in their DPS. Additionally, selected passives grant 20% longer crowd control (CC) durations, giving the Cleric more control over the battlefield.
Here’s a breakdown of the most effective choices for the two-handed sword skill tree as a Cleric:
- Deadly Finisher: Bleed – Adds a bleed effect to your attacks, increasing overall damage over time. This is particularly effective for sustained fights.
- Refreshing Followthrough – A must-have for mana management, this passive restores mana while attacking with your weapon, keeping you in the fight longer.
- Deadly Finisher: Wound – Applies a healing reduction effect to targets, making fights more manageable.
- Weapon Training: Disable Duration – Increases the duration of your crowd control abilities. This passive gives you and your tank more breathing room by extending stuns, roots, or other CC effects.
Keep in mind that in order to benefit from these passives, the Cleric must actively be using a two- handed sword as their weapon of choice. This setup allows the Cleric to contribute to team utility, AoE damage, and CC extension, making it a versatile choice for hybrid playstyles.
Longbow for Cleric Utility
Click on the Talent Tree image to enlarge it!
Longbows are a solid choice for Clerics due to their long-range capabilities and their ability to apply utility-based effects rather than raw damage. As a Cleric, your focus is not on dealing heavy ranged damage but on maximizing Finisher and Deadly Finisher effects, which trigger beneficial effects for both you and your team. The more frequently you land attacks, the greater your chances of activating these passives.
When choosing a weapon, always prioritize the one that provides the highest Magical Power increase, as this directly affects both your healing output and offensive potential. Until you obtain a top-tier weapon (typically at level 20+), use whatever grants the best stats.
The Longbow stands out as a Cleric weapon because it offers the highest Magical Power rating among ranged options and allows for long-range auto-attacks. This enables Clerics to stay at a safe distance while still contributing both offensively and defensively.
Here’s a breakdown of the most effective choices for the Longbow skill tree as a Cleric:
- Weapon Training: Disable Duration – Increases the duration of your CC abilities, giving you and your tank more breathing room during fights.
- Bullseye Effect – With the chosen nodes, the Cleric provides this buff to the party, empowering their next ability after landing a shot.
- Extended Crowd Control – The chosen passives increase the duration of all CC effects by 20%, making roots, slows, and stuns significantly more impactful.
While the Longbow isn't a Cleric's primary weapon for damage, it is a strong utility tool that allows you to contribute debuffs and set up follow-up abilities from a safe range while maintaining a strong healing presence on the battlefield.
Shortbow for Cleric Utility
Shortbows are a viable choice for Clerics who prioritize attack speed over range and magical power. While the shortbow sacrifices both Magical Power and the long-range capabilities of the longbow, its increased attack speed allows for more frequent attacks, which can trigger Finisher and Deadly Finisher effects more consistently. This makes it a good option for Clerics who want to maximize utility effects in fast-paced situations.
By using a Shortbow, Clerics gain access to faster auto-attacks, which can help apply debuffs or trigger passives that enhance both offensive and defensive playstyles. While the shorter range requires the Cleric to position more carefully, the higher attack frequency makes up for it in terms of utility contribution.
It’s important to note that choosing the Shortbow means you’ll be sacrificing Magical Power and long-range safety, which are the primary strengths of the Longbow. However, the Shortbow’s attack speed compensates by increasing the frequency of utility and debuff applications, making it a strong alternative for Clerics who value fast-paced support and adaptability. Use whichever weapon best fits your situation until you can obtain a top-tier magical power weapon later in progression.
Patch Updates
A recent list of Cleric patch updates will be listed below. In order to keep the page condensed, only the most recent changes will be shown if the list exceeds a certain length.
Check back at a later time for an updated list.
Changelog
- 25 Jan. 2025: Guide created.
This guide has been writen and reviewed by Yokai Theater, who has been testing the Cleric ever since Alpha 0. He is currently an officer of Enveus, and has been a member of the Ashes of Creation comunity since 2017, being one of the origenal Phoenix Initiative members. You can often find him streaming over on his Twitch or follow him over on his YouTube.
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