Early Cleric Balance Thoughts | Patreon Weekly #302

Hey Patrons! In this weekly I’m going to quickly go over some of the balancing data I’ve gathered for the Cleric since v3.0’s release!

There’s also a new Patreon Poll this week! With v3.1 starting up soon, I’m asking you guys what sort of side content additions you might like to see!

Cleric Balance Data

Overall I’m quite happy with how the Cleric is performing currently, and while some things need tweaks, nothing stood out to me as needed immediate patch attention. Here’s a quick summary of all the different elements of the class:

(Note that all winrate differences mentioned here are relative, so ‘50% higher’ would mean 3% vs 2%, for example. Data is from v3.0.0 as of a couple days ago, and will obviously change over time as the Cleric settles.)

• The Cleric’s overall win rate is doing well at the moment. They’re a fair bit behind other heroes due to their newness of course, but are about 50% higher than the Duelist was at this stage (before all her buffs).

• The Cleric’s T1 talents are all pretty tightly grouped in terms of winrate, with satiated spells being a little bit stronger, but also the least popular (especially at low tiers, unpopular talents tend to have higher winrates).

• The T2 talents are also pretty nicely and tightly packed, with enlightening meal standing out a little, probably being a candidate for a mild nerf in v3.1.

• The Priest and Paladin are both doing well vs each other, with the Paladin having about a 4% higher winrate.

• Priest Talents are all very tightly clustered in terms of winrate, with holy lance being notably more popular due to its simplicity. Mnemonic prayer is the least popular, which makes sense as its use is the most fiddly.

• Paladin Talents are also nicely clustered, but with Lay on Hands showing as a little too far on the unpopular and weak side. I agree with the common criticism that it competes with cleanse a bit too directly, though it’s definitely not losing that fight as badly as some people think.

• All of the armor abilities are doing well, with ascended form as the most popular and power of many as the strongest by a decent bit. I’m very pleased that Trinity isn’t too strong (it was a pretty new effect, I usually mess those up) and that Power of Many is doing so well (ally abilities tend to be weaker). I likely won’t nerf power of many, but may lightly buff the other two abilities.

• Ascended Form’s talents have a bit too wide of a power spread currently, with divine intervention still not quite justifying its high cost and flash showing as quite powerful. Flash is somewhat expected though, as T4 mobility effects are always strong. Buffs to intervention and a light buff to judgement are likely.

• Trinity’s three forms are all almost identical in terms of winrate, with mind form being slightly less popular. I’m actually shocked at how close they are, within 0.3% of each other in fact! Mind form’s slight unpopularity is expected given that it deals with thrown weapons.

• Power of Many’s talents are also a little wide in terms of power, with life link showing at a bit weak and stasis showing as a bit strong. Just like with ascended form this makes sense, as stasis and beaming ray are both effectively forms of mobility.

• Lastly, as a quick mention, the ring of energy is doing very well for the Cleric, but not so far that it needs major nerfs. The Rogue also loves the ring of energy about as much for similar reasons.