Is cleric stance any good?

Simple question. I normally use Larges but have started slotting CS when the duty is fairly light on the heals. Is the 5% boost really that helpful? I haven't really noticed a big difference with that or Mind potions I've been using.

Not really but if you're not using Largesse you might as well take it I guess.

Define "good".

In some situations it's okay, others it's pretty terrible. May I ask what you currently have selected? I use both CS and Largesse, as well as the other "useless" skill Eye for an Eye so I'm just curious (not trying to say you are picking wrong!)

Cleric Stance is pretty good for AOE spamming, and it's okay if you want to dish out more DPS during raids and what not. Other than that it has very miniscule returns.

I personally thinks it terrible garbage but I still usually use it over other skills because Esuna is pretty situational (replaces CS when needed) and Protect is usually just a "one and done" skill. I don't like Rescue, Surecast is very situational, and Break is so situational it shouldn't even exist (I can think of 1 fight where it would come in handy).

My skills are always:
1. Swiftcast
2. Largesse
3. Lucid Dreaming
4. Eye for an Eye
5. Protect/Esuna/Cleric Stance
My final slot is usually CS. But really you can't pick wrong (except if you don't take Swiftcast or Lucid Dreaming).

It's a "better than nothing" skill if you really want to minmax your DPS.

Old cleric stance was better. :(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VanilleFang

My skills are always:
1. Swiftcast
2. Largesse
3. Lucid Dreaming
4. Eye for an Eye
5. Protect/Esuna/Cleric Stance

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This list is missing Surecast, which has proven to be extremely useful in many situations lately.
Also, Eye for an Eye is only good if you can get it to proc. In fights where the vast majority of attacks are magic, Eye for an Eye is mostly useless.

So, I'd argue that slots 4 and 5 are actually both situational.

Agreed with 2 slots being situational.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by VanilleFang

My skills are always:
1. Swiftcast
2. Largesse
3. Lucid Dreaming
4. Eye for an Eye
5. Protect/Esuna/Cleric Stance

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I always have Swiftcast, Largesse and Lucid Dreaming. For dungeons I also have Eye for an Eye and Cleric Stance. Esuna for those instances where I need it and haven't agreed the other healer takes it (doing Byakko we had 1 healer take Esuna and another Protect, for example). Surecast for those instances where it's useful (Shinryu ex and OS5, for example). I think Eye for an Eye goes more to waste than Cleric Stance on single targets, and for multiple targets I like having both. When on White Mage, Cleric Stance should be paired with PoM as much as possible.

At most, it's better than nothing.

But it's an extremly weak buff that doesn't last really long and don't align with any of the three healer classes it supposed to be used with (chain stratagem and celestial opposition are 2 minute and presence of minde is 2 min 30).
But then, 5% damag up is 5% damage up, it's little but it's something. It synch with litany/battle voice every 3 minutes and with everything else every 6 minutes. Wich isn't that amazing for something that small.

As a DPS WHM, Cleric (while not awful) is swimming on the 'meh' line of variable choices. As it stands, it'll punch up an extra 1k damage on Stone, but the real strength is in using it while spewing out Holy vs trash-packs, so Cleric is what I throw in the last slot when there are no viable alternatives (based on content).

For me the list is pretty clean-cut.

1. Swiftcast
2. Largesse
3. Lucid Dreaming
4. Protect
5. Variable (typically Cleric Stance).

I keep Protect on my bar simply because there are plenty of situations where you'll raise people during content, to which (while not mandatory), re-applying Protection is essentially saving a bit of Healing, however small it may be. You could macro-cast it at the start of a fight and use something else in the slot, but given the poor selection (with only 3 regular choices and a bunch of 'meh'), I'd rather just save myself the trouble and give myself another option during downtime (especially when everyone is healthy, all DoT's are up and there's no way to cast stone, such as a boss-transition phase >> re-protect the raised).

Cleric Stance is the last slot, swappable to Esuna for dispel-heavy content. E4E has an obnoxiously long CD for its (limited) worth, and given it's proc-based to boot, even using it in its optimal scenario has variable results. It's simply not worth it. Surecast is not something I ever bother with nor find a need for. Rescue? No. Just, no. Esuna? Nothing (other than Doom, or maybe Paralysis) is dispel-worthy, though again, this is dependant on content and we've plenty of things that can be sacrificed for it if required. Break? Maybe in PvP, otherwise no.

In short, Cleric is the best of the 'generic/variable options', though that isn't saying much.

If you're running dungeons I would run CS for AoE pulls, in raiding then it varies. For prog I don't run CS until I feel more comfortable with the fight.

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Originally Posted by Canadane

Old cleric stance was better. :(

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Well, old Cleric Stance gave us caster level potencies, but stance dancing can die in a fire.

I don't use it. It's in the same category as Break for me. Waste of space. I'd rather keep Esuna around.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fyce

This list is missing Surecast, which has proven to be extremely useful in many situations lately.
Also, Eye for an Eye is only good if you can get it to proc. In fights where the vast majority of attacks are magic, Eye for an Eye is mostly useless.

So, I'd argue that slots 4 and 5 are actually both situational.

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I never said that you can have more situational slots, that's just my personal build.

I've never found much use for Surecast yet, but that's because I haven't done anything that really warranted it's use yet.