Cleric

Alpha-2 Cleric utilizing Chains of Restraint, Deliverance, and Divine Infusion skills.^[1]

Alpha-2 Cleric gameplay in The Ruins of Thanalas.^[2]

That was super easy. Either that or I'm just a literal god of a healer!^[3] – Steven Sharif

Cleric is an archetype in Ashes of Creation.^[4]

In a world often fraught with peril, a Cleric is never wanting for friends. They can protect their allies in a number of ways, and when necessary, snuff the life out of others. As masters over the very essence of vitality, they can sense the broken and corrupted... The strands of this essence connect everything and everyone. Clerics find themselves particularly attuned to the threads that channel life and motive energy. By reinforcing these tendrils, they can heal and even resurrect those that have been wounded. By tearing them, they can steal energy from their foes, turning their enemies’ powers against them amid the frenzied heat of battle.^[5]

In Ashes of Creation a Cleric's powers are not directly imbued by the gods. Instead, their powers are tied intrinsically to the use of manipulation of The Essence as a as a source of magic.^[6]

One of the probably biggest delineations from your standard trope in MMORPGs is that the Cleric does not receive their powers from a divine source. At least not in the sense that is standard. It is still something that is tied intrinsically to the use of manipulation of the Essence as a source of magic. Now, the source of that Essence is up to question: There are some claims about it that might apply a divine interaction, but generally it's not as though you're being imbued by these powers from the gods and that the gods can take them away should you step out of line in your alignment.^[6] – Steven Sharif

Overhealing indicated by a blue temporary health bar overlay on a player's health bar.^[7]^[8]

Cleric classes are the only classes that can fill the role of a primary healer.^[9] Classes with Cleric as a secondary archetype will have self-healing benefits as well as limited healing benefits to other players.^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]

No one is going to fill the role of a primary healer other than the healer archetype; but there will be secondary class options that you can select, which will provide you with some level of sustainability under restoration, most of that will be centralized to yourself, especially in the case of a Paladin.^[9] – Steven Sharif

In general, templated AoE heals will heal any non-combatant players.^[13]

Q: Will AoE and action heals also heal raid and alliance members?

A: Depending on the type, if it's a templated AoE, yes it would heal any non-combatants essentially.^[13] – Steven Sharif

Players cannot heal enemy mobs.^[14]

You cannot heal enemy mobs. There's just really not a a relevant use-case for that when it comes to the design mechanics of such a thing, other than its primary use, which would be to grief other players.^[14] – Steven Sharif

Certain healing abilities, such as Communal Restoration, can overheal. This is indicated by a blue temporary health bar overlay on top of a player's health bar.^[7]^[8] If the temporary health points expire without being consumed they do not count as effective heals.^[7]

Fighters may have debuffs that can reduce healing received on a target.^[15]

Q: Do you plan to add any sort of counters for healing? For example, a debuff that applies a reduced healing effect or maybe even cause damage upon healing?

A: Ashes aims to be a more difficult leveling experience than perhaps we have been accustomed to over the past decade of MMO gameplay. And with that in mind, when it comes to balancing during Alpha-2 and thereafter, there is not going to be an overage of healing that's available. We will tune those things. We'll have an opportunity to balance those things... Some of the debuff options that the fighter class has within their class kit are debuffs that can reduce received healing on the target.^[15] – Steven Sharif

Cleric classes

Class	Primary	Secondary
Apostle	Cleric	Tank
High Priest	Cleric	Cleric
Oracle	Cleric	Mage
Protector	Cleric	Ranger
Scryer	Cleric	Bard
Shadow Disciple	Cleric	Rogue
Shaman	Cleric	Summoner
Templar	Cleric	Fighter

Skills/abilities

Restoration. Enhancement. Debilitation. Clerics keep their team in the fight by bolstering their combat abilities and cursing their enemies. Far from simply supporting their allies through healing, a Cleric is also capable of wielding destructive force in the face of danger.^[5]

Clerics have control over life and this may relate to utility abilities that relate to corruption.^[16]

There will be a healthy combination of healing and offensive spells available to allow a Cleric to level and progress as a solo player. It's left to the player to decide whether they will spec into more solo or support-oriented group-focussed gameplay. Choice of a secondary archetype will enable further customization in this respect.^[17]^[18]

There's going to be a significant amount of offensive capability for the Cleric because we don't want to create that dynamic where cleric as a support class is inoperable without a companion or a party to go with. We want that Cleric to still be able to survive on their own: to be able to level and progress as a solo player.^[18] – Steven Sharif

This section contains potentially outdated information from Alpha-1 testing.

Skill	Source	Description
Barrier	Alpha-2	Sacrifice 25% of your maximum health to place a health shield on target ally for 10 seconds. Does not stack.^[19]^[20]
Bless Weapon	Alpha-2	Imbues your target's weapon with radiant light, causing each of their weapon combo attacks to deal additional radiant damage and applies a mana regeneration buff to the caster. Each hit extends the duration of the mana regeneration buff, up to a maximum of 15 seconds. Has a 10% chance to proc bonus radiant damage and apply a stack of Burning to the target.^[21]^[22]
Castigation	Alpha-1	Lashes your target with holy energy whip, dealing direct damage and restoring health and mana to yourself over time.^[23]^[24]^[25]^[26]
Chains of Restraint	Alpha-2	Call forth spectral chains in a target area that stagger enemies within or stun enemies already under the staggered effect, then leave behind an area that deals radiant damage each second over 8 seconds.^[27]^[28]
Communal Restoration	Alpha-2	Restore health to all party members in range instantly, plus additional healing over time. Allies under the HoT also receive +10% maximum health for its duration.^[7]^[29] This can overheal.^[7]
Condemn	Alpha-2	Stun target enemy for 3 seconds.^[3]^[30]
Consecrating Wave	Alpha-2	Send forth a cone of radiance that deals radiant damage to all enemies while healing the ten nearest allies.^[31]^[32]
Defiant Light	Alpha-2	Heal target ally for 50% of their maximum health over 10 seconds. If that target would receive fatal damage while under this effect, this effect is consumed and prevents that target's death, healing them for 25% of their maximum health instead.^[33]^[34]
Deliverance	Alpha-2	Held ability: Charges up healing energy that heals a target ally upon release, scaling in power the longer it is charged and the more % missing health of the target.^[35]^[36]
Devotion	Alpha-1	Launch an orb of energy into the air that will fall upon your target, healing them.^[37]^[24]^[38]^[26]
Divine Censure	Alpha-1	Hurls a radiant spear at the target, dealing damage.^[39]^[24]^[40]^[26]
Divine Flare	Alpha-2	Place a targeted area heal on the ground that heals all targets within after several seconds. Total healing is split between all targets hit.^[41]^[42]
Divine Infusion	Alpha-2	Consume Divine Power to instantly complete the remaining cast time of any healing spell currently being cast. The amount of Divine Power consumed is proportional to the amount of cast time remaining upon activation.^[43]^[44]^[45]^[46]
Divine Light	Alpha-1	Heals your target with a flash of light. Reduces the cooldown of Devotion and Radiant Burst.^[47]^[24]
Flash Cure	Alpha-2	Instantly heal target ally. This may be used during other ability activations.^[48]^[49]
Healing Touch	Alpha-2	Heal target ally in melee range for a large amount of health.^[50]^[51]
Judgment	Alpha-2	Cast a heal on target ally for a large amount of health. If this is cast on an enemy, it instead deals radiant damage to the target and applies 2 stacks of Burning.^[52]^[53]
Mend	Alpha-2	Instantly launch a healing projectile toward target ally. Each charge of this ability consumed after the first has no mana cost, and restores an increasing amount of mana to the caster based on the number of missing charges. Consecutive uses of the ability will gain bonus healing.^[54]^[55]
Radiant Burst	Alpha-1	Heals allies around you in a wide area for a large amount.^[56] Stacks up to 3 times.^[24]
Regeneration	Alpha-1	Bathe your target with restorative energy that heals them over time.^[57]^[24]
Resplendent Beam	Alpha-2	Held ability: Fire a beam of healing energy toward a target ally. Charging this spell allows the beam to bounce to up to 5 additional friendly targets closest to the original target, based on how long it was charged. The amount of healing is reduced for each subsequent target.^[58]^[59]
Resurrection	Alpha-1	Resurrects a dead ally with 25% health and 15% mana.^[60]^[24]^[61]^[26]
Smite	Alpha-2	Smite your target, dealing instant damage and applying a stack of Burning to target enemy. Has no cast time and deals increased damage if activated within melee range of the target. This attack always critically hits on targets under the effect of Condemn.^[3]^[62]
Soothing Glow	Alpha-2	Apply a healing over time effect to target ally. Reapplying this effect extends its duration on the target by its base duration value.^[63]^[64]
Wings of Salvation	Alpha-2	Sprout phoenix-like wings and leap to target ally, then grant a small amount of temporary health to that target on arrival.^[65]^[66] An ally is defined as any non-combatant player or non-mob NPC.^[67]

Cleric skill upgrades

- None -

Cleric augments

Classes with Cleric as a secondary archetype are able to choose between life or death augments.^[11]^[12]

Choosing life augments will provide self-healing benefits as well as limited life-giving benefits to other players.^[9]^[10]^[11]
Some cleric augments applied to certain skills will indirectly provide the ability to heal others. These will not replace the need for a cleric archetype.^[68]
Cleric augments will radically change the type of summons available from the summoner primary archetype.^[69]
- Skeletons, zombies and other undead summons will be possible with death-based augments.^[69]^[70]

Any class that's going to choose Cleric as a secondary class will have the ability to pick from those augments to influence their skills to affect the life of others around you.^[11] – Steven Sharif

Cleric timeline

The Cleric archetype is expected to be present at the start of Alpha-2.^[71]

Cleric was released in Alpha-1.^[72]^[73]

Visuals

Archetype list

Archetype	Type.^[74]	Role.^[75]	Resource.^[76]^[77]
Bard	Arcane	Support	-
Cleric	Arcane	Support	Divine Power
Fighter	Martial	Damage	Combat Momentum
Mage	Arcane	Damage	-
Ranger	Martial	Damage	-
Rogue	Martial	Damage	-
Summoner	Arcane	-	-
Tank	Martial	Tank	Courage