Today’s Patch Will Bring Massive Devoted Cleric Changes and Much Needed Campaign Improvements

Today Neverwinter will release its first major patch in the Cloaked Ascendancy and it’s safe to say it will shake up the current meta by quite a bit. The Devoted Cleric is getting its rework pushed to live after very limited time on preview to test it. Most feel it’s too early (as usual), but you would assume that Module 11b is already looming and will hit preview soon. So that was probably simply the time they had to present the changes to the audience.

Moar damage!

We’ll have a more detailed piece at some point next week with community opinions and an in-depth look at the changes, but want to quickly outline the most important points today. The devs tried to tackle multiple issues with their changes. First of all depending on the build, Clerics can run into severe trouble in solo content. They most likely do not die very much, but since their damage is low they have to drag themselves through dailies. So powers are getting a flat 30% increase in damage, which should actually help a lot. It remains to be seen whether this could also make Clerics a true viable DPS option in endgame.

The most prominent change is the one to Anointed Army. Devoted Clerics relied too heavily on the daily, because it was almost always the optimal choice. On top of massive mitigation, massive power buff, it was also bugged and granted CC immunity for the full duration of the spell. All three aspects have been tuned down or fixed. As a trade-off Hallowed Ground now is able to generate AP while active, but has a 45 second cooldown. In the video below however, Kali Gold demonstrated that this cooldown might not be as much of an issue in endgame content. You seem to be able to nearly turn HG into a permanent buff.

[su_youtube_advanced url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-FVngchuVQ” https=”yes”]

No more cheesy runs!

However, the days of cheesy runs are definitely over. Guys will have to actually play boss mechanics, sorry! Think Fangbreaker Island, where Anointed Army would shield you from Call of Winter? Not any longer! The same applies to Svardborg, where players now probably have to step on the runes again. The nerf to Anointed Army and the Annointed Champion as a whole is really substantial. A general sentiment we’re getting is that people on the buffing front are very tempted to switch to Divine Oracle. Specifically Terrifying Insight was changed to provide a huge buff to the party now, which might be able to offset most if not all of what you grant to the party using Blessing of Battle and Anointed Army. Both Paragon Paths definitely moved closer together.

When looking at the feat paths however, there’s still room to improve. Righteous still seems to be be frontrunner for endgame, especially now that Hallowed Ground probably will become a major part of your daily rotation and the capstone offers a huge cooldown reduction. In any case Clerics will have to revise their build and thankfully the patch comes with a free respec.

Campaign Improvements

Besides the Cleric changes the built is packed with small campaign improvements. Arcanic Focus has been added to the Daily and Weekly quest rewards and the drop chance of Arcane Magical Writings improved as well. Additionally the Illusionist’s Gambit skirmish now rewards daily Astral Diamonds. These are actually nice tweaks for some of the most pressing issues in the campaign.


What’s your opinion on the patch and the Devoted Cleric changes? Do you like them or feel the nerf hammer was swung too hard? Make sure to share your thoughts in the comments below or visit the corresponding thread on our message board.

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