Best Priest Subclass for Damage Spells/Spiritual Weapon

[hansvedic]

What is the current consensus on which Priest subclass is the best in terms of damage spells, to include Spiritual Weapon?

 

Berath gets Touch of Rot and Rot Skulls, which add corrode damage to the mix.

 

Magran adds more fire spells.

 

Wael gives the Spiritual Weapon "Rod", which is fairly good.

 

I'm not going to play Skaen, although Finishing Blow is neat.

 

Finally, Eothas mainly gives more healing spells.

 

I'm torn between Magran, Berath, and Wael, mainly. Wael gives good support and gets Gaze of the Adragan, but that's at level 19 for multiclass characters. Really, the reason I'd go Wael is for the Spiritual Weapon it gets.

 

Any thoughts? I'm open to ranged or melee, if that matters.

[antoniokolano]

Definitely not the priest of Eothas - you basically only get a level 1 druid spell (Sunbeam) that other priests don't get access to. 

 

The priest of Wael gets some nice illusion spells, Llengrath's Displaced Image is still a pretty powerful defensive spell even after the nerf. The problem with the Gaze of the Adragan is like you said, you get access to it so late in the game as a multiclass that I'm not sure it even matters - as most folks you'll probably make Aloth a pure wizard in which case he can cast it at level 11 (as it's also a level 6 wizard spell). 

 

Magran - some cool spells that only Wizards can get, Torrent of Flame is quite powerful... but as above, you get access to it at level 19. So late it's irrelevant right now, maybe when all three DLCs come out. Spiritual weapons - sword and pistol is basically a flavour combo, as your character will only use one anyway depending on how far away you are from the enemy. 

 

Berath - Touch of Rot is actually a very decent spell, haven't experimented much with Spreading Plague but on paper it looks like a solid debuff especially against healers. Now, rot skulls is a fun spell, not sure how does it compare to dual wielding pistols/blunderbusses, but it IS fun to use. And a solid level 19 spell, but see above. 

 

All the spiritual weapons have identical properties (the lash on them is different but that's it), so I guess use whatever you like best. 

 

IMO, as I spent some time thinking about it myself in the past, the priest of Berath could be the most damage oriented subclass when combined with a melee class like Devoted (spiritual weapons count, 100% sure).  Wael is clearly more about defenses, Eothas is imo just meh. 

 

These are just my thoughts, I'm not saying I'm 100% right about this but yeah. Priest of Berath/Devoted fighter sounds like a solid combo, so much penetration between Rusted Armour/Penetrating strike + scaling from your spiritual weapon. Plus let's say you make your MC a death godlike = a really solid roleplaying character. You use savage strike weapon modal all the time, between priest and fighter buffs to accuracy you shouldn't have problem hitting things. 

 

Edit: typos

Edited June 19, 2018 by antoniokolano

[Gromnir]

am thinking eothas is underrated. am suspecting eothas doesn't get much love 'cause is almost no unique spells other than sunbeam.  wrong way to think 'bout it.  with limited spell selection, getting essential spells for free is a big advantage.  as a support priest, we would choose pretty much every eothas bonus spell save for fact we would choose resurrection or revive the fallen rather than both.  the other subclasses have bonus spell catalogs which is far more situational or build dependent to be useful. also, sunbeam is one o' the better bonus priest spells given its low level, extreme range and ideal affliction-- blind snipers and ranged casters forces 'em into melee range.  however, am gonna note how at lower levels, or if one is building a tanky priest, wael defensive spells are soopergrooveykeen.

 

the skaen spiritual weapon options is great for an evil dual wield build, but we rare play cruel.  the wael blast rod is likely the most deadly spiritual weapon choice, but 2h is kinda meh.  the main reason we would go with a 2h weapon focused priest is to take advantage o' the wael spiritual weapon... and perhaps the soul bound bardiche.  eothas choice is flexible as we can go weapon and shield route or 1hand, and with all the abilities and weapons which is current crit-based, am much liking going hearth orlan 1h route. oh, and we would argue the current four best weapon modals is flail, club, morningstar and rod, with the scepter being situational op. 

 

eothas is easy overlooked 'cause seeming offers little new or unique.  is truth in such criticism.  even so, the no-frills priest option which is the eothas subclass is highly effective both as single class and as a multi.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

[hansvedic]

I wonder... do poisons, when used on a Rod with the Blast modal, apply to all enemies in the AoE? if so, that would be a point in favor of using a Rod.

 

Also, can you apply Poisons to Rot Skulls?

 

EDIT: If these are the case, it could make the Wael & Berath options more appealing.

Edited June 19, 2018 by hansvedic

[Ophiuchus]

I've been having some good fun with a Devoted/Priest of Berath (Cleric) lately. Touch of Rot is obscenely powerful early on, and the Fighter portion provides a good degree of defense. Casting times on Priest spells are horrid, though, so I modded the Spiritual Greatsword summon down to a .5 cast time and reduced the recovery on Berath's version of Spreading Plague.

[Wolken3156]

Skaen needs more love.

 

A Priest/Assassin combo is pretty scary. You can use 5th-level Priest casts to use Shadowing Beyond to gain extra opportunities to make use of that delicious sneak attack bonus. It also helps that most 5th-level Priest spells are highly situational as well. This combo works especially well with a ranged weapon like a Arbalest or Arquebus.

 

Who cares if you have to be a huge jerk while doing it; a lot of the Cruel interactions are actually pretty fun. Companions definitely don't like it though so maybe play without them if you're worried about your reputation to them dipping to the lower end.

 

Now, rot skulls is a fun spell, not sure how does it compare to dual wielding pistols/blunderbusses, but it IS fun to use. And a solid level 19 spell, but see above.

Rot Skulls is still incredibly effective, though not nearly as strong as it was back in the first game. Rot Skulls is gotten much earlier with a Priest of Berath though. Its a 5th-level spell for Priest so you actually get it much much earlier than level 19.

[antoniokolano]

I've been having some good fun with a Devoted/Priest of Berath (Cleric) lately. Touch of Rot is obscenely powerful early on, and the Fighter portion provides a good degree of defense. Casting times on Priest spells are horrid, though, so I modded the Spiritual Greatsword summon down to a .5 cast time and reduced the recovery on Berath's version of Spreading Plague.

 

I've tried this build myself and yeah, spiritual weapons shouldn't have 3 sec. cast times, not sure what's the reasoning behind it. How did you mod it to 0.5 sec? 

 

Edit: Wolken, it was actually a formatting mistake on my part - when I said level 19 I had the Rusted Armour spell in mind. Thanks for pointing this out though, now that I look at it it indeed looks confusing. 

Edited June 20, 2018 by antoniokolano