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AION 2 Cleric DPS Build: Skills, Stigmas, Macro and Arcana

This guide covers a damage-focused Cleric build for AION 2, from skill specialties and the opening rotation to the stigma loadout, macro, Arcana and pet wheels. It is for Clerics who want to deal high damage in dungeons while keeping their healing tools.

Intermediate 12 min read 3 viewsUpdated 2 days ago
Adapted from STOP Playing Cleric WRONG! Rank 1 Ultimate Cleric Guide | Aion 2

This build turns the Cleric into one of the highest damage dealers in a dungeon party without giving up the big heals. You will set the specialties for every damage and healing skill, open a fight in the right order, bind a macro that fires your damage stacks, and pick the stigmas, Arcana, titles and pet wheel stats that hold the build together.

Quick answer

WhatAnswer
Main spamCondemnation, with Chain of Torment on the target
Key stigmaEarth Punishment (guaranteed Condemnation crit from level 5)
OpeningAttack buff, Earth Punishment, Chain of Torment, then Bolt
Bolt usageCast on cooldown
Big healRadiant Recovery, cooldown 12 seconds base, 9 with specialty
ArcanaBlue bell and two-set magic armor

Choose specialties for your damage skills

The whole build rests on one interaction: Chain of Torment opens the target up for Condemnation, and Condemnation refunds its own cooldown every time it crits. Everything else either feeds that loop or fills the gaps while it is down. Pick specialties in this order of priority:

SkillWhat it does for youSpecialties to takeAt level 16 and beyond
CondemnationMain spam skill; castable only while Chain of Torment is on the target 2:55Fourth specialty: resets its cooldown on a critical hit16: multi-hit (otherwise 12% damage on fewer targets). 20: all three remaining specialties 3:25
Chain of TormentLowers the enemy's damage tolerance so the whole party hits harder, and enables CondemnationDuration and debuff strength, so it stays up longer—
BoltSingle-instance AoE charge skill with very high damage; cast on cooldown 0:29Skill speed, and more damage when fewer targets are hit16: the crit specialty, which guarantees the crit
Right clickYour second-highest damage skillSecond specialty, plus the fourth or fifthGet it to 16 as early as you can
Left clickFiller that feeds BoltExtra Discharge proc chance; the fourth specialty makes Discharge cut Bolt's cooldown—
Divine AuraHigh-ranking damage skillDamage16: minus 10 seconds, for much better uptime
Stagger skillCooldown reduction when a boss is staggered—Only worth casting at 16; skip it otherwise
Debilitating MarkMakes you tankier by cutting the enemy's damage boost—Only worth slotting for hard content

Left click is easy to undervalue. It does little damage by itself, but each Discharge proc shortens Bolt's cooldown, so dropping left click out of the rotation means fewer Bolts per fight.

Level 16 first

The level 16 specialties on Bolt, right click, Divine Aura and Condemnation are where most of this build's damage comes from. If you can only push a few skills to 16, push those.

Specialize your heals

You still carry the party's healing, and three skills do nearly all of it.

Light of Regeneration is a heal over time with a 30-second cooldown and a 30-second duration, so cast it every time it comes back and it never drops. At level 16 take the damage tolerance and move speed specialties; below 16, take incoming heal instead 1:58.

Healing Light is a single-target heal that restores you and the party member with the lowest HP at the same time. Take the two extra charges so you can cast it more often. At level 16 add the minus two seconds cooldown specialty, then HP restored.

Radiant Recovery is your big AoE heal and the most important of the three 2:27. Take extra consecutive use and the cooldown reduction, which brings it from 12 seconds down to 9. Once it reaches level 20, add HP restored.

HealTypeCore specialtiesUpgrade
Light of RegenerationHeal over time, 30s cooldown, 30s durationIncoming heal16: damage tolerance and move speed
Healing LightYou plus lowest-HP allyTwo extra charges16: minus two seconds cooldown, then HP restored
Radiant RecoveryBig AoE healExtra consecutive use, cooldown 12s → 9s20: HP restored
Dungeon swap

Some dungeons punish you harder for a lingering debuff than for missing health. In those, slot debuff removal on Radiant Recovery in place of the 5% heal bonus — the Fire Temple debuff is the usual example.

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Run the opening rotation and set up the macro

The macro holds two skill stacks: the right-click stack in the first macro, and the Condemnation stack in a second one you create with Add Macro 4:21. Keep the attack buff outside the macro so you can time it yourself. Putting it in is fine if you want a relaxed setup for easy dungeons.

The macro editor is where the skill stacks are slotted in, and Add Macro creates the second one.

To bind it, open key settings, go to General, and assign the macro a hotkey. A side mouse button works well, because you will be holding it down together with left click.

Then open every fight in this order:

  1. makes every Condemnation crit
  2. 4:51
  3. keeps damage up until Chain is back
  4. Discharge procs shorten the wait

The failure to watch for is Condemnation going quiet. If the macro is firing but Condemnation is not landing, Chain of Torment has fallen off the target — that is your cue to fill with left and right clicks rather than keep mashing the macro.

Pick your stigmas and passives

Earth Punishment is the stigma the build depends on. At level 5 it makes Condemnation land as a guaranteed critical hit, which is what turns the cooldown-reset specialty into a reliable loop. At level 20 it stays active for 20 seconds, cutting the downtime between windows, so get it to 20 as early as you can 5:20.

Earth Punishment's tooltip spells out the guaranteed Condemnation crit and the 20-second duration that make leveling it to 20 worthwhile.

The rest of the loadout depends on your party:

SituationChange
No Chanter in the partyRun Mantra and level it as a high priority
Chanter in the partyDrop Mantra; slot resurrection or another heal
Solo contentEarth Punishment 20, attack buff 20, then Mantra as high as possible; Aura can sit at level 1 to 5 5:49
Hard contentReplace Noble Aura with another heal, or with Benevolence, a heal over time

Benevolence earns its slot once you clear content quickly: it keeps the party topped up passively, so you can stay focused on your damage uptime.

For passives, put points where they scale 6:48:

  • Earth's Grace and the other main damage passive: as high as possible.
  • The heal boost passive: worth leveling, because it scales with your attack and grows as you do.
  • Noble Power: good when you have crowd control on you, since it grants damage tolerance.
  • Radiant Benediction: scales poorly, so give it only a few points.
  • Prayer: leave it at 15 and put the points into Noble Aura instead (see below).
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Build Arcana to fix mana and reach level 20

This build burns mana fast. The fix starts with Arcana: run a blue bell and a two-set magic armor bonus 8:13. The most reliable source of the blue card for that set is the parchment. Carry mana potions as well — crafted ones are worth the effort.

The other job of Arcana is pushing your core skills to level 20. Plus four from Arcana on a skill gets it there, and the rest comes from rings.

Aim for plus four from Arcana on the skills you want at level 20, using gold Chalice, Compass and blue Parchment.
PieceTargetWhat to roll
ChaliceGoldCondemnation and Radiant Recovery levels; plus two on Radiant Recovery here
ParchmentBlueCondemnation plus four; plus two on Radiant Recovery here, for plus four total 9:39
CompassGoldAn even spread, aiming to get a few skills to 16
Bell and mirror—Earth's Grace as high as possible, then heal boost
Rings—Radiant Recovery and Condemnation, to close the last levels to 20

Level Empyrean Lord's Grace too; it is the second damage passive and stacks with Earth's Grace.

If you want Judgment Thunder at level 20, put plus four on it in place of Healing Light and take the remaining two levels from rings 10:09. Whether it deserves that investment is debated — see the last section.

Choose titles, wings and pet wheel stats

Titles and wings to work toward 7:44:

ItemHow you get itWhy
Unbound by Genus titleMax every pet wheel in the genusVery strong; the reason to finish your wheels
Sentinel's Guard titleLevel 30 feathersSolid pickup on the way
Empty Closet titleLong-term progressionStrong goal title
Through Hell and Back title—Close alternative to Empty Closet
Forest Spirit Wings—Best for bosses
Darkveil Wings—Strong across all content

Each level 10 pet wheel has nine slots. Slots 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 and 9 want the same stats on every wheel; slots 4 and 7 change from wheel to wheel 10:38.

SlotsStat to roll
1 and 5Attack bonus or max attack
2 and 8HP increase percent
3, 6 and 9Mostly accuracy, some crit
A maxed Cogni wheel shows which stats fill its slots, so you can see what to aim for when rolling each one.
WheelSlot 4Slot 7
CogniCrit damage boost or PvE damage boostDamage tolerance
FerraWeapon damage boostDamage tolerance 11:06
NaturaPerfect chanceDamage tolerance
SpecialDouble chanceDamage tolerance
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Also worth knowing

Before you commit
  • Level Noble Aura to 20 before Prayer. Most players' base attack is still low, so the +15% attack from level 20 Prayer adds less than Noble Aura at level 20. Stop Prayer at 15.
  • Judgment Thunder in the macro is often a damage loss once Condemnation is level 20. Weaving basic attacks with Condemnation keeps Bolt's cooldown ticking down through Discharge and costs less mana. A two-column macro with Condemnation and Judgment Thunder is the alternative; test both on a training target with your own gear.
  • Debuff removal on Radiant Recovery can beat the 5% heal bonus in dungeons built around a nasty debuff, such as the Fire Temple.
  • Light of Regeneration can go in the macro. Its 30-second duration matches its 30-second cooldown, so firing it from the macro keeps it up permanently without tracking it yourself.
Unresolved

Whether Debilitating Mark belongs in the Condemnation stack or should be cast by hand has no settled answer. Since it only matters in hard content, casting it manually on pulls where you need the extra survivability is the safe default.

Frequently asked

What is the best opening rotation for a damage Cleric in AION 2?

Start with your attack buff stigma, then Earth Punishment and Chain of Torment, and cast Bolt. Hold left click together with the macro button so the stacked skills fire in sequence. Once Chain of Torment drops off the enemy, fill with left and right clicks so damage is not lost, and cast Bolt again whenever it is off cooldown or a Discharge proc has reduced its cooldown.

Should I put Judgment Thunder in my Cleric macro?

Opinions differ and the choice depends on your gear. Many players report that Judgment Thunder is a damage loss once Condemnation is at level 20, and that weaving basic attacks with Condemnation uses less mana. A two-column macro with Condemnation and Judgment Thunder is the alternative if you prefer it, so test both on a training target.

Which Cleric skills should I level to 20 first?

Condemnation and Radiant Recovery are the main targets, since level 20 unlocks their strongest specialties. Earth Punishment should also reach level 20, because it then stays active for 20 seconds. Arcana bonuses of plus four on a skill are the usual way to push these past level 16.

How do I fix mana problems on a damage Cleric?

Use a blue bell Arcana and a two-set magic armor bonus, and carry mana potions, ideally crafted ones. Leaving left click in your rotation also helps, because Discharge procs reduce Bolt's cooldown and restore resources between big casts.

Can I use the damage Cleric build if I have a Chanter in my party?

Yes. With a Chanter you can drop the Mantra stigma and use the slot for resurrection or another heal. Without a Chanter, Mantra is a high priority and should be leveled as far as you can.

AION 2DPSarcanabuildclericmacrorotationstigma

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