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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 4750044" data-attributes="member: 2011">Those are the benefits. As for other Cleric benefits, Longtooth Shifting saves on healing resources due to regeneration and also increases damage to all attacks, even laser attacks. Have you ever played a Laser Cleric? I have. They get in trouble when surrounded if they do not have a high Str so they can use a melee weapon. Big trouble because of OAs.A Shifter Cleric is almost never in trouble surrounded. He just switches to Str attacks instead of Wis attacks until he is no longer surrounded.Sure, one could play a 16 Str 18 Wis non-Shifter Laser quasi-Battle Cleric with a few melee capabilities. Or, one could play an 18 Str 16 Wis non-Shifter Battle quasi-Laser Cleric.But typically, most people prefer to not bump Str this high and use Dex and Light Armor if playing a Laser Cleric.Compared to the non-Shifter clerics, the Longtooth Shifter averages more damage, regardless of which type of attack (being +2 damage to all attacks when bloodied is nice).Laser Clerics have limited range. The Shifter Cleric does not worry about that. He armors up and wades into combat. That way, he is close to his Defender and gives Combat Advantage.Sure, a normal Battle Cleric can do this too. But he's not as good with things like Radiant damage. The Shifter dominates the normal Battle Cleric and can still Paragon Path into the good Laser Cleric paths (best of both worlds).Let's look at the to hit math:First level 18 Str 18 Wis Shifter Cleric vs. 16 Str 18 Wis non-Shifter Laser quasi-Battle Cleric Foes tend to have AC level +14, other defenses level +12Mace +6 vs. AC 15, Laser +4 vs. defense 13 vs. Mace +5 vs. AC 15, Laser +4 vs. defense 13The Laser damage is the same excepted when bloodied. The Mace damage is better all of the time. How much better? Average damage per attack against same level foes is:Non-bloodiedShifter Mace: 5.275Other Mace: 4.3Shifter Laser: 5.275Other Laser: 5.275BloodiedShifter Mace: 6.475Other Mace: 4.3Shifter Laser: 6.475Other Laser: 5.275The only time the other Cleric evenly competes is if they are doing Laser attacks and they are still not bloodied.The Bloodied surrounded (high Str) Non-Shifter Cleric that is forced to use a melee weapon does 2/3rds the average damage as the Bloodied surrounded Shifter Cleric.4E is about action economy. The Shifter Cleric takes out foes quicker, hence, the party finishes encounters quicker and uses fewer resources doing it. He also wades into combat in order to give Rogues and Defenders Combat Advantage more often which in turn finishes encounters quicker. The Laser Cleric hangs back and doesn't give this advantage.The Cleric has finally arrived. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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