Cleric

The Cleric is the game's premier healing class and one of the seven true caster classes. The official archetype phrase is Divine Conduit. It heals through prayer and divine magic, wears the heaviest armor of any healer, and carries a dedicated anti-undead toolkit that no other class matches.

Identity and role

The stated direction is a bigger, more situational heal toolkit and a clearer separation from the Paladin: the Cleric is the word and the prayer, the Paladin is martial devotion. Armor durability is leaned into rather than played down, and the class is described as capable of off-tanking because its heavy armor lets it absorb hits while casting.

That separation was not carried through completely. As the rework progressed, the miracles and blessings attached to the Cleric's Holy Strike were well received, and the team walked back on the split a little by bringing miraculous smites over to the Paladin as well. The two classes are still distinct, but the Paladin is not purely martial.

Two structural changes land here first. The armor class system was reworked so that heavier armor provides more defense, which makes plate more effective at reducing incoming damage than it was before. Clerics also gain the Block skill as part of Prayer of the Faithful, which increases the benefit of carrying a shield by reducing incoming damage on a block.

A new starting trait called Blessed was added: Clerics enjoy a favored status, and thus may occasionally receive divine help on their adventures.

Playable races

The Cleric is open to Deep Dwarf, Deep Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, High Elf and Human.

That list covers the full designed race roster. Deep Dwarf and High Elf are designed but are not among the races playable at Early Access launch on October 1 2026, so the practical choice at launch is the remainder of the list.

Healing

Damage

Buffs

Two of those buffs consume a reagent on every cast, which makes them a running cost rather than a free top-up. See Items and Equipment for how reagents and consumables work.

Retained and removed

The retained list is long, and most of it is unchanged in function even where names moved.

Removed: Supplication, which was rolled into Prayer of the Faithful; Oath of Protection; Oath of Freedom, replaced in spirit by Circle of Healing; Snare the Dead; and Cure Blindness, which was removed across every class that had it.

Cantrips and death

Clerics are one of the seven true caster classes that receive cantrips, which lets them assign one memorised spell to be retained on death even without a spellbook to hand. The first cantrip arrives at level 4. For a healer this is the difference between being useful immediately after a wipe and being useless until your corpse is recovered. See Death Penalty for corpse timers, consent and corpse summoning.

Playing a Cleric in a group

Class details below come from the ability rework that rolled onto the closed beta servers through 2026. The developers state plainly that there is a high probability some aspects will change before they reach the beta servers, so treat specific ability behaviour as a snapshot of the beta build rather than a settled launch state.

A Cleric is the reliable pick for any group that expects to take damage it cannot avoid. Its heal list covers a single target workhorse, a cooldown group heal, a cone top-up, a delayed heal and an absorption shield, which is a wider spread of options than any other healer has. It also carries the resurrection line, which directly reduces the cost of a death for everyone else. See Grouping for how experience and corpse access are shared, Combat for the combat basics, and Classes for how the healers compare.