Cleric of Ares

From RoH Wiki

Ares is the god of war, destruction, bloodlust, and violence. Conquest is his chief goal, and anywhere he can increase it, he gains more influence. As such, priests of Ares tend to be of a less civilized mindset and are not very adept at healing compared to other clerics.

Contents 1 General Information 2 Benefits from Stats 3 Playable Races 4 Tips on Playing 5 Training Locations

General Information

• Ares clerics are much like berserkers. They are able to berserk in combat in order to do more physical damage.
• Like their fighter counterparts, they may to bash their opponents to stun them for a short duration at the beginning of a battle encounter. Since they are still clerics, their ability to do this is not comparable to that of a fighter or berserker, of course.
• If Ares clerics become too sided with an alignment (either blue or red), they risk losing their ability to berserk and become significantly weaker at healing.

Armor type: Able to wear all, but works best with Plate armor.
Restrictions: Must sustain neutral alignment for optimal performance. Healing spells heal for 1/2 the value, compared to normal clerics.
Roleplaying Tips: Clerics of Ares despise clerics of Ceris, often openly attacking them or driving them away.
Summary of Skills: pray, teach, bash, berserk

Benefits from Stats

Suggested prime requisites are in magenta.

• Strength: Since Ares clerics are all brute, it's important that you put a lot of points into strength. This is their main route for damage and their awesome attack power bonus proves it.
• Piety: While Ares receives a penalty for healing spells, any cleric still benefits from having a substantial amount of PTY. Because they still have a large MP pool to support healing, it might be a good idea to put points into this stat.
• Intellect: While Ares clerics already have high physical protection from Plate armor, you may choose to rely on the stun spell like mages do. It is up to you and your play style to determine whether or not you would like a casting cleric.
• Constitution: Lower CON may result in longer durations of being poisoned, but any cleric may cast cure-poison to remedy this.
• Dexterity: Ares clerics are not considered finesse fighters, and thus DEX does not benefit them as much. Hopefully with healing and brute force, an Ares cleric won't even have to worry about dodging hits before his enemy is dead.

Playable Races

• Suggested = *
• Natural Infravision = *

Barbarian, Cambion*, Goblin**, Half-Elf, Half-Giant, Half-Orc*, Human*, Kataran*, Kobold, Minotaur*, Ogre, Orc*, Troll

Tips on Playing

There are two spells that you must must MUST get your hands on before you do anything: vigor and know-aura. Vigor is essential for healing and know-aura will help you keep your neutrality.

Bash is good. Make sure you keep your bash skill up to par. While a few seconds of stunning doesn't seem like such a big difference, at higher levels it will be very helpful. Higher leveled mobs often have skills, which can be prevented or delayed if you bash them first.

It's a slow start, patience is key. Ares clerics do not shine until later. Like any other hybrid-like class, they are hard to level (in this case, because of aura restrictions), but are extremely rewarding as they grow stronger. Because Ares clerics are an interesting mix of berserker and cleric, there are some things in the game that they can easily kill that berserkers and other clerics have trouble handling.

Picking the right weapons. To reap the most benefits from berserk, your bet deal is using slower, hard-hitting weapons. Because the bonus of berserk is based on your weapon damage, bigger numbers mean more bonus damage. Since you have the ability to heal yourself with MP, unlike berserkers, it isn't such a big deal to prolong the battle due to weapon delay.

Maintaining Your Aura. The hardest part of playing an Ares cleric is living with the aura restrictions. But this doesn't mean you aren't allowed to kill bluish/reddish mobs. Know-aura is your best friend. Establish an aura cycle:

• First, know your limits. Once you become reddish or bluish in aura, your healing will be decreased by half. Furthermore, you will not be able to use berserk anymore.
• Find mobs that are pinkish or reddish that give good experience. Find mobs that are light blue or bluish that give good experience.
• It is a major plus if the opposing aura mobs are within close vicinity of each other, to reduce downtime from walking back and forth.
• The best way to maximize your experience gaining is to find pinkish/light blue aura mobs that give good experience. This way, they don't change your aura too quickly and you can sit there for a long time. Then find blood red/royal blue mobs that aren't necessarily good in experience, but will bring you very quickly back to the proper aura in order to return to the mobs that will help you level fast.

There are a few mobs in the game that give adequate experience and are grey, but hard to find. Your best bet is to sit in one spot until your are bluish/reddish, then switch. This gives you an adequate amount of time to gain experience without being hindered by the aura restriction.

Training Locations

• Level 1-7
  • Pits in southeast Highport
• Level 8+
  • Temple of Ares in Schnai Village. Schnai Village is northeast of Highport.