Note: This is NOT a guide on how to be a good cleric/priest; this is just thoughts from a priestess.

I was reading a blog earlier about Clerics: link
and I must say how I’ve felt the same pain when I was a cleric. However I probably had it easy because when I was a cleric, ludibrium was still under construction and had not been released yet. When it came out, I was already lvl 52. I was upset that Wizet didn’t release Ludibrium sooner but after reading the post I think I’m quite lucky.

Being a cleric isn’t easy, regardless to what other people may say. When we solo/train, we tend to stay at the same map for 10-20 levels. I remember how I was training at zombie lupins from lvl 40 to 50, wraiths at lvl 50 to 65, and zombies (coolies) from lvl 65 to 84 (the point where I max holy symbol.) Training like this is boring and other classes have more choices of monsters than we do.

Becoming a priest is probably the motivation or goal for most clerics. (I said most because some people make clerics just to fund their main characters, and I’m going to clear up this point later)

Once you’ve passed lvl 50, or the point where you can’t pq anymore, be prepared to feel utterly useless in ludi and hours of training by yourself and getting ksed.

1) Clerics/Priests are alot weaker than other classes, and so if other classes want to steal your map from you, you will probably struggle to defend your map (unless you have high lvl friends who can back you up.)
2) There’s nothing you can do in ludi other than soloing at chronos/platoon/master chronos, but at lvl 5x you’re better off going to wraiths which give more exp.
3) Training at zombies by yourself is almost never possible. Zombies are crowded and almost all classes train there and hog the maps, so it’s better if you share a map with someone.
4) Even after turning lvl 70 and becoming a priest, you may feel all “pro” and powerful. Congratulation on becoming third job, but the road may get even harder now. I said that it’s harder because you get this feeling of accomplishment, yet people are making you feel “noob.” Main reason is holy symbol not being maxed.

Even at lvl 7x, you’ll probably still train at zombies because all the monsters in Ludibrium are too hard (soul teddies at this point are too challenging still, and the map is bad compare to zombie map) Because of this, we have no choice but to rely on partying others in Ludibrium; however, no one wants a priest whose holy symbol is not maxed.

Once you max holy symbol, things will get different. People will beg to party you because of holy symbol. Now I must refer back to the blog/link that I pasted at the very beginning. This is really when you feel exploited, with a tint of sweetness attached to it, and without all those bitterness.

Parties in Ludibrium don’t really require the priest to heal, unless it’s a party of 2~3 of a dragon knight/priest/some other class. At maps like Vikings (very often a party of 6 people,) priests are only expected to holy symbol. At this point, no one will really yell at you for not healing because holy symbol is the priority. However, keep in mind that with a party of 2~4 people, you’ll probably be expected to heal and holy symbol.

While you’re enjoying the attention that you’re getting from people who desperately need a priest, you’ll meet a few “priest-haters” along the way.

Sometimes I feel clerics and priests should be well liked by everyone in the Maple community; however I’ve met some people who absolutely do not like priests for reasons such as:
– all they ever do is heal/holy symbol and leech from their party members
– they don’t need to waste pots; all they do is spam heal, and that is so cheap
– they ks. (when I see this explanation, I almost went ‘what?!’)
– a few more that I’ve forgotten.

Now I must argue with those people who hate priests for the reasons above (and if you have a different reason, please let me know.)

– Clerics/Priests are invited to party because they are expected to heal and holy symbol others. As a return of this, we leech a small portion of exp. Most of the time, it’s because we are incapable of attacking high level monsters. Remember that I mentioned earlier about clerics/priests being weaker than other classes? At higher levels, it’s becoming very obvious that you cannot miss it. I’ll take a chief bandit as an example. At lvl 8x, a chief bandit can make 4k-6k damage while a priest make 1k-2k damage. That is a big difference; therefore, you do not expect a priest to kill because we simply cannot even if we’d like to.

– Not wasting pots is nonsense. Sure we don’t waste hp pots, but we waste alot of mp pots such as water or sundaes while healing the party. Most of the time to prevent dying, I put on magic guard. Maybe because I feel extra responsible for my party members’ hp bars, sometimes I might just charge into a herd of monsters that make 1k damage to me just to heal them. When I get hit, my mp decreases FAST, so I have to use mp pots to recharge my mp to avoid dying. Also, priests dying in Ludi parties happen quite often, for reasons such as: invincible wore off, or magic guard/mp went out.

– Clerics and priests ks? Okay, maybe at lvl 2x-3x we were able to ks with our oh-so-almighty-magic-claw, but levels after that, it’s almost unlikely for us to ks, simply because Wizet has decided to make us weaker. Now, if you’re talking about a lvl 100+ priest ksing a low level in Victoria Island, then that’s a different story, and I make no comment to that.

Anyways, this is just my thoughts, feel free to debate.