Last night I decided to try something new. I went with Draconic Cleric’s armor with Runes of Dwayna, Cleric’s Trinkets with Exquisite Sapphires, and Cleric’s weapons. Ran a build of 10/0/30/30. Used mostly the Banner Damage skill from Strength, Defensive traits from the Defense line(duh)…don’t recall specifically which I used, and the Banner buffs from the Traits tree with Stronger Bowstrings for added range. Went with the Longbow over the rifle for the F1 skill so that I could create my own blast finishers with the banners. Off hand was sword/shield and slots were Regen signet plus ALL banners.
We were getting blitzed pretty badly on Kaineng for a while so I was spamming the Regen from the Banner of Tactics and Fury from the Banner of Discipline to support those around me. Off and on I was using my Longow to deliver damage, nothing major but I really was not expecting that. Lots of pushing back and forth for about an hour. I could see my Regen was ticking in the 300s on my allies around me. Not bad, and the Fury was always welcome as well. I even beat down a few opponents with my banner for laughs and damage was decent. The +Healing really helped, both myself and those around me. Revived a lot of allies while being pelted from range which didn’t put too much of a dent in my health unless I was focused on. Even when focused I was able to get away most of the time.
The most interesting development was when an enemy Guardian and myself battled 1v1. I figured what the heck and engaged. He couldn’t take me down and I clearly had the upper hand with all of the banners down as he for some reason engaged me on my terms as opposed to trying to draw me away from the banners. It ended with him running off and me joining up with the closest Zerg.
Overall I enjoyed the tactical side of the experience as I needed to think things through differently. I might consider dropping the Runes of Dwayna for the Sapphire Orbs. I would lose 40 Healing but gain 84 Power/Toughness. Might be worth it but I have not done the math yet. Might also consider a combo of Monk and Water for increased Boon Duration on the Regen and Fury.
In closing I would not recommend a build like this unless you already had most of the items available to you. I didn’t really need to buy much and already had all of the mats for the Draconic armor. You really need to be OK with being a support platform because that’s all that you really are. You deliver decent damage at best and are pretty much a bulls eye when on your own. The build excelled in keep defense/assault and in the Zerg. Condition removal was non-existent so I may grab a Warhorn and switch the ranged to rifle. I will lose the self created blast finishers but being able to remove the conditions would really help. I will also try dropping a banner for shake it off. I also did not have any Sigils in my weapons. Did not want to commit the $$ yet. If you guys have any questions about my experience feel free to ask.