[Weapon choice for a priest]

Unfortunately, the Eothas talent gives an accuracy bonus to two melee weapons, so it won't be much use to you if you want a bow. But none of the deities have a bow as a favored weapon. Wael can improve the accuracy of rods. Quarterstaves work with Wael as well. But you don't actually need to worry about your weapon accuracy if you don't want to. Priests have spells to cast.

[Chanters too slow]

 

I agree. I barely ever get to the point where I get to use an invocation and by then the fight is already won anyway. They need to come one phrase sooner.

It's quite easy, though cheesy, to get to use them in most fights by positioning your party far away from the enemies, then sending a tank to pull the mobs to your already charged up squad of chanters. Boring but safe.

 

Well, if you're not into doing that, you can also just use someone in the group (including summons) to keep pulling monsters for you to fight. People are so used to letting combat end so they can recover. But most of the time I'm perfectly fine after a fight.

[Deflection, Fortitude, Reflex, Will - what determines their base values?]

Are you the same level? Leveling improves your defenses.

 

Edit: Alternatively, it could be a bug.

[Game World Low Resolution]

Try looking into your 3d graphics settings (from your graphics card, not in-game). Switch from Supersampling AA (Anti-Aliasing) to Multisampling. There might be a better solution or a different problem, but this worked for me.