Cure Light Wounds: Nearly Useless?

[Atomo]

And remember also the Healer's Lore cleric's class feature. Cure Light Wounds is a power with a healing descriptor. So, besides the normal healing allowed, the prayer will heal more +Wis. This does a substantial difference when a high Wisdom priest heals his comrades.

 

[Danceofmasks]

That's not always true. If your enemies killed you in a round and you kill them in 3, improving your damage to the point that you're able to kill them in 2 is not improving your situation.

Offense is the best defense only if you can kill all enemies fast, in 4e, with burst offensive beefy monsters like fire beetles (3d6 at in blast against a level 1-2 party, hot damn) - being able to tank is still important.

Well, with the low level party in question (whether vs. fire beetles or boss fights), say your cleric picked bless instead of cure light wounds ... I reckon it's still an improvement.
Assuming, of course, you have no other sources of power bonuses to attack rolls.

 

[DLichen]

If a cure light wounds saves a party member from death, the damage output increases significantly compared to the boost from bless, not that bless is a bad power. 4e really demands a look away from the 3e max damage viewpoint.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Well, assuming either tactic is equivalent for a second, optimising to take down your foes faster also means you spend fewer surges in total.

 

[DLichen]

Well, assuming either tactic is equivalent for a second, optimising to take down your foes faster also means you spend fewer surges in total.

That kind of reasoning simply does not work when you have discrete cases to work with.

Optimizing for damage might mean that one of your party members dies and then damage output drops which means a cascade of even more deaths, etc. It's really quite simple to die if a party member gets ganged up on in an encounter that is of your party's level.

It really depends on what you're fighting and what the play style of your group is. It's oversimplification to state that one way is always better than the other.

 

[Danceofmasks]

That kind of reasoning simply does not work when you have discrete cases to work with.

Optimizing for damage might mean that one of your party members dies and then damage output drops which means a cascade of even more deaths, etc. It's really quite simple to die if a party member gets ganged up on in an encounter that is of your party's level.

It really depends on what you're fighting and what the play style of your group is. It's oversimplification to state that one way is always better than the other.

But that's exactly what I'm saying, only flipside.
'cos the monsters' damage output decreases when you apply the cascade of deaths to them.

Besides, I never said one way is always better than the other, I said one way is better than the other.

 

[DLichen]

But that's exactly what I'm saying, only flipside.
'cos the monsters' damage output decreases when you apply the cascade of deaths to them.

Besides, I never said one way is always better than the other, I said one way is better than the other.

I denounce that statement since there is no proof, only your opinion.

 

[Danceofmasks]

Exhibit A:
That horrible paragon-level podcast?
Where concentrated fire in the first couple of rounds may have been a swing?

Ok, I take that back.
That podcast is just terrible example of how to be crap.

 

[DLichen]

Exhibit A:
That horrible paragon-level podcast?
Where concentrated fire in the first couple of rounds may have been a swing?

Ok, I take that back.
That podcast is just terrible example of how to be crap.

I counter with exhibit B, where 6 warlocks take out 2 fire beetles and then promptly get breathed on by the remaining 4 for 12d6 damage and then die horribly.

I think party composition determines what gameplan you end up following but if you've done WoW raids before you know having everybody be alpha strikers is a bad idea.

 

[Danceofmasks]

My fighter uses a board, you know
Bought a statline of 20, 13, 13, 10, 10, 8 .. but nonetheless optimised characters and/or parties do not neglect defense.