This is something I put together a while ago but apparently never posted.

Disclaimer: These are my personal observations on what works, based upon experiences with my own cleric. Your mileage may vary. Poster assumes no responsibility for user being eaten by kobolds. The fine print may contain lines that bind your soul to General Broccolitos of Shavarath. Cash value is 1/100 of a copper piece.

1. Manage your spell points and practice triage

Your primary goal isn’t to keep to people healed, it’s to keep people from dying. In most raids, you’ll probably be using mass heals on a tightly gathered group and this won’t be much of an issue. But in your average quest, focus in the order of injuries and don’t worry too much about keeping people at 100%. A good rule is to maintain people at around 90% with your cures. If you constantly overheal topping people off, you’ll find yourself going through your sp quicker than you really should.

Now, that said - as a cleric you have an incredibly valuable tool that can keep people topped off. This is your Radiant Servant Aura, and you should use this as your topping off tool. If you can slot a +6 charisma item, you can make these go even further. I’ve found that a good cleric with bursts and an active aura can keep pace with a favored soul in terms of healing simply because you can have over a dozen of these and they cost you zero SP. Learn them, use them, love them.

If you find yourself in the unfortunate situation where you have to choose who lives and who dies - ask yourself the following questions. Who has the best survivability, and who will contribute the most. Sometimes you may have to let someone stay down to save the rest of the raid.

2. Know when to let people die.

This may seem harsh, but sometimes it’s not worth saving someone. Maybe they’re taking so much damage you won’t be able to keep them up. Maybe they zerged ahead and aggroed half the dungeon while the rest of you are still buffing. And maybe they decided their toon only needed an 8 CON. If someone’s consuming more resources then they contribute, ease off on them. It’s a tough lesson, but one they’ll need to learn.

I suggest a three-strikes-you’re-out policy. If someone dies once, don’t worry about it. Lag/bad luck/mistakes happen to the best of us. Raise them and get them healed. If someone dies twice, ask them to be more careful. Still, raise them up and get them healed. If someone dies three times, it’s time to start asking some questions about their gear/build. Don’t be a jerk about it, because sometimes people are just new. If they are new, take some time to explain the finer points of +Con items, false life, DR, and being prepared in general. You’ll be doing other clerics a favor and half the time they’ll take your advice. After the fourth time, it’s time for them to watch while you go to the next shrine.

Okay, apparently this is four strikes. But you get the idea.

3. Know who to target for mass heal/cure, and announce it.

Your party has just starting wailing on a large intimating monster with a creepy purple/red name, but it’s okay because you’ve got your masses going off like clockwork. Suddenly your heal target runs out of melee and half the party dies. Oops.

Don’t let this happen to you. Target someone who you know will never leave melee unless their painful death is imminent, and maybe not even then. Barbarians are the best choice. A paladin, monk, or fighter make good backups if you don’t have a barb to target. Also, announce your target. This way people know where the heals are going, and the target knows to not leave melee if at all possible.

4. Know your clickies, and hunt them down.

From the humble Archivist’s Necklace to the god-like Epic Ring of Spell Storing, there are countless SP clickies you can use to maximize your shiny blue bar’s potential. Would you rather drink a major, or use a Mysterious Bauble?

These items are your friends:

ML 0: Archivist’s Necklace: End reward for completing Misery’s Peak on Korthos Island. 2 uses, restores 10-35 sp.

ML 0: Shard Trinket of Mnemonic Enhancement: Turn-in for 3 Medium Eberron Dragonshard Fragments to Davyd Turner in the Marketplace. 20 uses, restores 105-600 SP. Non-rechargeable.

ML 7: Twisted Talisman: End chest loot from The Last Stand (Red Fens Adventure Pack). 3 uses, deals a certain amount of untyped damage based on difficulty (7 casual/15 normal/20 hard/26 elite/38 epic or raid) in exchange for 50 spell points. Can be made epic to increase to 5 uses, as well as increasing the negative spell boost.

ML 11: Ring of Spell Storing: Loot from General Tanankh’s chest in the Sands of Menuchtaran Explorer Area (Demon Sands Adventure Pack). 3 uses, restores 25 sp per use. Can be made epic to increase to 3 uses that restore 105-600 sp per use.

ML 13: Vile Blasphemy: End chest loot from Ascension Chamber (Necropolis pt. 4 Adventure Pack). 3 uses, restores 2-12 SP every 6 seconds over 1 minute.

ML 18: Mysterious Bauble: End chest loot from The Weapons Shipment (Devils of Shavarath Adventure Pack). 1 use, restores 105-600 sp.

While these are not clickies, they are equally useful (and perhaps more, if you stay in melee)

ML 11: Torc of Prince Raiyum-de II: Raid chest loot from Zawabi’s Revenge (Demon Sands Adventure Pack). Roughly a 10% chance to restore 20 sp when you receive damage from a melee attack. Can be made epic, but note that this does not increase the restore-sp function.

ML 11: Greensteel Concordant Opposition Item: Crafted in the Shroud (Vale of Twilight Adventure Pack). 4% chance to grant 30 temporary hit points when you receive damage from a melee attack, and a separate 4% chance to receive 20-30 sp when you receive damage from a melee attack.

Also remember your ardor clickies. Two very nice belts that grant Superior Ardor VIII are available in the Devils of Shavarath Adventure Pack, namely:

ML 18: Amara’s Belt: Chest loot from A New Invasion or Part 2 Chest loot from Tower of Despair

ML 18: Tokala’s Belt: End chest loot from Genesis Point

There are also random items that grant similar bonuses. You should aim for Superior Ardor VI at a minimum to receive the maximum bonus to most of your spells/aura/burst.

5. Contribute in more ways than heals/buffs.

Yes, healbots work. But what’s better is doing something in between your healing. Maybe it’s spells. Maybe it’s melee. But you shouldn’t be standing around doing nothing if no one needs a heal. You have spells like Divine Power and Divine Punishment for a reason. Keep in mind though, you want to know when to disengage and go full healer. Worse than the cleric who stands around and does nothing when no one needs a heal is the cleric who doesn’t realize someone needed a heal and a party member dies because they were too busy swinging their falchion or casting cometfall.

6. Communicate with your fellow divines.

One of the most common problems with clerics and favored souls running dry on SP too early is overheal. Blanketing mass heal/cure is really only useful for a few fights like Epic Demon Queen. In most situations where there is a major raid boss fight, determine rounds. One person takes primary heals while the other spot heals. When the first runs low, the second takes over. You might have three divines in rare cases like an Epic Dragon, but the principle is the same. Communicate, and you’ll save yourself buckets of spell points.

Likewise, communicate on buffs if you have the time. This is most useful in Epic Dragon, where you will not have a single shrine and overlapping buffs is a much more pointless waste of SP then it usually is.

7. Be Prepared

It’s the Boy Scouts motto, and it’s just as true for you. You should try to always carry a 100 stack of Heal/Mass Cure Moderate scrolls, 25 or so raise/res scrolls, and 5 or more majors. If you have to use a significant amount of your supplies in a single event, something’s probably gone very wrong. In which case, don’t hesitate to ask if anyone can reimburse you for major pots. Unless you made an exceptionally bad performance or people just don’t care, odds are good you’ll usually get at least some of your investment back.

It’s up to you to decide how when and how to use these, but the last thing you want to do is have watch a raid fail solely because you didn’t have any consumables. That’s just painful to see.

8. Set your limits and know the party’s limits

Don’t be afraid to let a raid fail if the party is composed of clones of Larry, Curly, and Moe. I’ve done this, and you shouldn’t feel guilty about it. Drinking resources like major pots should be a calculated action. Ask yourself if it will make the difference between success and failure. Saving a raid can be a good thing, but your bank account shouldn’t be the crutch that poor play and poor characters lean on.

I have a general rule of 1 major in difficult quests and 3 majors in difficult raids (not including clickies). Anything more and I will start to seriously evaluate the capabilities of the party to complete and whether I will be losing more than I gain with them.

9. Make friends and influence guildies.

PUGs are fun. I won’t lie to you and say they should be avoided. But there’s a lot to be said for having people you know you can count on to do their part. If you see a particularly good player, make a note of it. And remember that your friends list can have notes too. I have notes like “excellent tank” and “solo-capable arcane” on my friends list. My preferred tactic for groups is a few people I know and PUGing the rest. This gives you a solid base you know you can rely on, and still lets you meet new people.

10. Have fun.

No, seriously. Clerics are one of the funnest classes to play. You will be wanted in every group and will have the ability to easily solo all low-level content, most mid-level content, and some high-level content.