[Silvana]

Basics

The cleric has 4 classes of skills: Training, Battle, Bless, and Curse.
The Training skills are: Mace/shield Mastery, and Maul Mastery.
The Batlle skills are: Holy Bolt, Holy Blast, Smash, Rush, and Sweep.
The Bless skills are: Heal, Purify, Avenge, Sanctuary, Focus, and Fortitude.
The Curse skills are: Weaken, Holy Prison, and Holy Silence.
I'll add other skills as I remember/discover them.
I believe all skills have been added for the cleric class. I will create a new guide for the priest class when I change my class and learn the new skills. I will not create a guide for witch skills, as that would require building another cleric to level 50+, which just isn't easy enough for me to spend the time on it.

Training skills

Mace/shield Mastery
Description: Adds 10 points to damage level (accuracy) and 1 point to damage per skill level.
Requirements: Level 10
Required for: Level 10 for Priest class change

Maul Mastery
Description: Adds 10 points to damage level (accuracy) and 1 point to damage per skill level.
Requirements: Level 9
Required for: Level 10 for Witch class change

Notes: If you wish to become a priest, you should not add to maul mastery. If you wish to be a witch, you should not add to mace mastery. Mauls are higher damage than maces, but the added defense of a shield makes up for the damage reduction of a mace. Pick your class/weapon, then stick with it as much as possible and save your skill points for the better skills later in the game.

Battle Skills

Holy Bolt
Description: Weak "Holy" elemental attack spell.
Requirements: Level 5, I think.
Required for: Level 10 for Holy Blast.

Note: Weak skill, but with the added MATK of any rare weapon, it is quite useful for slaying bosses at long range. Unless you plan to get Holy Blast, put only 1 skill point on this. Currenlty, rings/amulets of elemental damage also raise MATK, as well as ATK, by 10 points each. Better for maul users due to aded MATK of rare mauls.

Holy Blast
Description: Theoretical: Similarly weak "Holy" elemental Blast spell, similar to Lightning blast for mages. I have not learned and cannot verify.
Requirements: Level 25, Holy Bolt level 10.
Required for: None known.

Smash
Description: Three physical strikes. Good against a single opponent.
Requirements: Level 10, I think.
Required for: None known.

Notes: Quite similar to the warrior skills, all of the cleric's physical skills are useful for dealing damage quickly to either a single or multiple target(s).
Update: Smash is very effective even at level 1, and can be used to take down strong opponents quickly, but the cooldown prevents rapid fire usage. Best for hit and run on bosses, also can be combined/chained with sweep to deal massive damage very quickly. All physical skills should be learned for maximum fighting effectiveness, but leveling them up beyond 1 is not necessary.

Rush
Description: A physical line attack, like Hyperslash. Good for multiple targets in a close group.
Requirements: Level 15.
Required for: None known.

Sweep
Description: A multiple spinning strike attack against a large group. Deals 4-5 hits at full strength to all opponents next to the user. Excellent for dealing with large groups or strong enemies.
Requirements: Level 40.
Required for: None known.

Bless Skills

Heal
Description: Primary cleric skill. Heals hp. Currently heals to max with single use, may change in future updates to heal based on luck stat.
Requirements: Level 5.
Required for: None known.

Notes: ALL clerics should learn Heal ASAP. Its usefulness cannot be overrated. Leveling increases MP cost, but may decrease cooldown time. Currently no need to level beyond 1, except for quickness.

Purify
Description: Heals status effects.
Requirements: Level 10.
Required for: None known.

Notes: Not useful yet as there are no status effects to be healed. To be avoided until further updates.

Avenge
Description: Raises critical atk damage and rate for a set amount of time. Effectiveness, time limit, and MP cost increase with skill level. ATK buff.
Requirements: Level 15.
Required for: None known.

Notes: Hasn't been useful for me, but most other clerics seem to like it. I get criticals half the time anyway.
Buff Notes: The effectiveness at level 1 can generally be multiplied to determine the effectiveness at each additional level. EX, 1% more critical hits at level 1, 2% at level 2, etc. Casting an ATK buff will cancel any ATK buffs already on the target char. The same is true of DEF buffs. From what I have seen, all buffs lst 40 seconds at level 1, and increase by 10 seconds per level to reach 130 seconds (2 min, 10 sec) at level 10

Sanctuary
Description: Raises DEF, Def lvl(evasion), and MDEF for a set amount of time. Effectiveness, time limit, and MP cost increase with skill level. DEF buff.
Requirements: Level 20.
Required for: None known.

Notes: Extremely effective at level 10. 3 points DEF, 4 points MDEF, and 40 points evasion per level, the end total at level ten is 30 DEF, 40 MDEF, and 400 EVD. A must for any cleric, whether in a party or solo.

Focus
Description: Raises accuracy for a set amount of time. Effectiveness, time limit, and MP cost increase with skill level. Effectiveness cannot be determined as it adds an "accuracy" stat, rather than damage level, which doesn't actualy exist on the char info page. ATK buff
Requirements: Cannot recall, possibly level 30.
Required for: None known.

Notes: Between the two ATK buffs, I would choose Focus. I cannot confirm the effectiveness at this time, but accuracy has always been more of a problem than critical rate for me.
Update: Upon close inspection and testing in DC4, I have found that focus really does seem to work. I miss about 50% of my attacks without it, but I only missed 1 time out of about 50, or 2% of my attacks, with focus active. It could be coincidental, but it seems unlikely that that is the case. Combined with the physical skills and sanctuary, focus can make any cleric almost as effective as a warrior in front line combat. If only there were a buff to raise your atk damage...

Fortitude
Description: Raises block rate of shields for a set amount of time. Effectiveness, time limit, and MP cost increase with skill level.
Requirements: Level 35, I think.
Required for: None known.

Revised: Notes: This skill cancels out sanctuary, but, with the right group it could be very effective at high levels. If used at max level on a character with a high level rare shield, that character would become a much more effective tank as they would be able to block most hits. However, the usefulness at low levels is minimal.

Curse Skills

Note: Currently, all curse skills seem to be ineffective against chars and monsters. Avoid all curse skills until future updates.
I will not learn curses anymore, either to test them out or to actually use them in battle, so if anyone has learned curses, please message me when/if they become effective.

Weaken
Description: Reduces opponents damage and hit rate(?) for a set amount of time. Similar to an ATK buff. Cancels out ATK buffs, theoretically.
Requirements: Level 25, I think.
Required for: None known.

Holy Prison
Description: Prevents an enemy's movement for a set amount of time. Unknown if it actually works or not.
Requirements: Level 40.
Required for: None known.

Notes: At level 1, it lasts, supposedly, for 1 second. That length of time is too small to even test, as they would only be stopped long enough for your casting animation to finish. At level 10, it should last for 10 seconds. Even at max level, the length of time the curse is active is simply too small to be of much use. Only useful at max level when you have a large party, as part of an ambush strategy, possibly for the demolator.

Holy Silence
Description: Seals enemy skills for a set amount of time.
Requirements: Level 45.
Required for: None known.

Notes: Ineffective currently. When made usable, this would mainly be a skill for PVP/PK. Extremely useful in that context, lasting 40 seconds at level 1. Useless otherwise. If you want to build a char for PVP, I would recommend one point to this skill, and to check it in the arena at every update. Could also be useful in proteting yourself from PKers, as you would disable their powerful skills, leaving mages especially helpless.

This post has been edited by Silvana on February 03, 2007 12:05 pm

[GenomXraider]

this thing are helpful alot from clerics