Cleric's Equipment Guide

Recent Update: This article was written before the coming of Focus Items. These magical items help casters of all sorts improve their spells in many ways. These effects have the largest impact on your performance of any pieces of equipment. If you are levels 44 and below, many of them can be easily acquired. There are a few focus equipment lists around but the following items can be purchased easily and contain very powerful effects. Runed Mithral Bracers (reagent conservation 3), Mithral Runed Tunic (spell haste 2), Book of Obulous (improved healing 2), Black Alloy Medallion (mana conservation 2), Batfang Headband (Extended Duration 2), and Golden Bracers (Improved Range 2). In short, Focus Items are the best way to improve your character through equipment. End of Update.

Though I have accepted my life as a vehicle for Tunare's love across Norrath, I have the merchants blood flowing through my veins. While the joy of helping Tunare's citizens out is my true love, I too am a sucker for the latest wares at the East Commons Tunnel Bazaar. This guide is designed to help clerics with their choices in equipment in Everquest. We first discuss some of the important issues surrounding equipment and then go into some details at different levels for items you might want.

First let me start with the number one rule to loot in Everquest. Equipment really doesn't matter. I know you are asking how that can be true, so let me explain. Your Level matters far more than any equipment you can buy. Verant doesn't want any particular character to be picked over another because of the equipment they possess. While boosting your wisdom might get you more total mana, it will do nothing to your overall mana regeneration rate. How often do we start at full mana in a typical group? Nothing matters more to your character than your level. The spells you get, the abilities you gain and your power compared to the monsters you face is mainly based on level and hardly based on equipment at all.

When thinking about spending time gaining a particular item, really ask yourself whether it is better to spend your time camping an item, or simply gaining experience. More often that not it will be the latter. Equipment simply comes and goes, but levels last forever (unless you die a lot =)

We are all here to have fun and your equipment should be no different. Wear the items you like the best, whether it be something with a fun little proc (like the Holgresh Spirit Beads) or some truly wonderful stat boosting item (Herophant Cloak for those of you with too much money).

So within this constraint. Knowing that really, equipment doesn't matter that much. How DOES it matter? The following are guidelines on determining what items are the ones to go after.

Statistics

Now that we have determined to use the equipment we liked best, we should know a little about what stats are important. After all, while one item will make little difference, a lot of items will. For clerics, certain statistics should be considered when looking at an item. They are in order from most important to least important:

Wisdom: Every point of wisdom offers you more mana. At level 50, each point of wisdom gives you 10 extra points of mana. The lower your level, the less mana you will receive per point. Casters Realm has a good mana calculator for determining how much mana your wisdom will give you. Remember, this is your TOTAL mana, and not your regeneration rate, so having a very high wisdom will not make you that much better a character in a group situation where you are casting a lot. Also, points above 200 don't give you any more mana than below 200.
Mana: Think of every ten points of mana as another point of wisdom. Bonus mana can be a good way to get more mana once you have reached 200 wisdom. At lower levels, bonus mana can mean a lot more than wisdom, since mana is the same at any level while wisdom gives you less mana the lower your level.
Armor Class: Clerics do get attacked a lot, and it is very handy for us to be able to take a few hits before having to run behind our local tank. Make sure your armor class is good, and don't sacrifice it just for that little extra bit of wisdom.
Saves: While saves are more important at higher levels where raids against large mobs are more likely to occur, there are a lot of casting mobs out there and good saves can keep your resistances to their spells high.
Strength / weight: For clerics, strength only really effects your ability to carry items and money. Think of strength and weight as the same statistic. An item that weights 5 stones but offers +5 strength is the same as an item that weighs 0 stone. Also, weight reducing bags (like the Bag of the Sewn Evil Eye) are a wonderful way of increasing your carrying capacity.
Agility, Dexterity, Stamina, Hit Points: These do have an effect on your character, but not much of one. Agility helps protect you from attacks, dexterity will help you dodge and increase your weapon proc. Stamina and hit points will add to your total hit points. Don't pay too much attention to these, but if items also boost their stats, it can't hurt.

Remember though not to worry about these TOO much. If you sacrifice all your other stats just to reach 200 wisdom as fast as you can, you will have a hell of a time carrying all your loot as well as getting cut to ribbons by the first mob who hits you. You also might not be wearing the items that best define you as a character. Dare to be unique and roleplay!

Fun Factor

I am personally a big fan of items that fit my character from a roleplaying perspective. As a snobby cleric of Tunare, you wouldn't find me caught dead in a bloodstained tunic, but the golden armor might be a little harder to resist. I always look at items to see if it is something I would expect my character would use. I also like to pick items that help define clerics. If an item is cleric only, that is weighed higher than something that you would find on anyone. Balancing the items that define your character along with their statistics is a hard job, especially when the options are many. Just try to remember that the numbers aren't the most important thing.

Equipment Examples

The following is a short list of equipment for clerics that offer the best bang for the buck. They also represent some of the best items you can get for a cleric realistically.

Dwarven Ringmail Tunic (Ac 13, +8 sv fire, magic and cold): With the relatively high AC and the very nice save bonuses, this piece can make an excellent primary chest piece until you are able to get your initial class quest armor. Even then, you will want to keep it around for the occasional dragon raid.
Adamantite Epolets (AC 9 Wis +7, 200p): This is another amazingly cheap item for the stats you get. I bought one of these at level 20ish and wear it even at level 54. Only some of the items in the Plane of Sky rival it and they are not even for sale.
Platinum Ruby Veil (+7 Str, +7 Wis, 500p) and Platinum Jasper Rings (+6 wis, 250p): Now that the pricier and higher stat Velium jewelry is out, there is a significant price drop on the Platinum stuff. The stats are very high for the cost, and can really help fill out the stats that are important without sacrificing your look. This way you can wear armor that might not necessarily help out your wisdom.
Charred Guardian Shield (AC 10, +9 wisdom, 500p): This is a truly excellent item. For about 500p you get 10AC and +9 wisdom for your secondary hand item. Instead of spending the eight hours camping Dyllin Starshine for the Testament of Vanear, go save up while earning some excellent experience and buy one of these. While it is 1 wis lower, the 10AC more than makes up for it.
Golden Cleric Quest Armor: The quest armor can be purchased or acquired from level 20 to level 40. While many complain that it does not boost wisdom as much as it should, it does a good job of offering you high AC and some nice general stat boosts. It also gives you the unique look of a cleric. Use jewelry and hand held items to boost your primary stats if you need, and use the quest armor for good looks and nice AC as well as secondary stat boosters.
Donal's Armor of Mourning: Donal's armor all has the wonderful ability to cast an effect when clicked on. Sometimes this effect is not too useful such as the bracer which casts Pacify or the Helm which casts Yaulp2, but other times it is a real mana saver. The Donal Gauntlets and Vambraces in particular will truly change the way you play your character as spells that used to drain your mana are now free. On a raid, you can now buff 30 folks with Armor of Faith and not have to med when done. Unfortunately, the chestplate and leggings are very difficult to get.

While I just brought up a couple of examples, there are some truly wonderful and relatively inexpensive items to be had out there. I started a thread on Best items per Plat on the Healers United bulletin board to discuss your favorite cheap items.

Remember, the important thing is to have items you enjoy. As you progress through your levels, equipment will find a way to you, never get caught up in any particular item. Level means a lot more, but having fun means the most.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution, Share-Alike License. Contact Loral at mike@mikeshea.net.