Priest Spell Scaling Questions

[jintegrity]

I know the spell has a pretty low base damage (20), so scaling it probably isn't worth it, but you spam it so often, so I wondered what all we can scale it with. I know Secrets of Rime gets us to 24. Is there anything else?

Also, I read Shining Beacon does not benefit from Scion of Flame. Is this true? 

Train of thought is to go Secrets of Rime Priest with 1 to 2 Seal(s) of Faith, Bonus 2nd Level spell, use things like The White Spire and Scath Gwannek, and use an unconventional damage type on Priest on a spell I'm going to be casting anyway. Any chance this isn't horrible? I would straight up consider Arms Bearer if I got multiple Scath Gwannek to spam Winter Winds.

[Silvaren]

You mean Iconic Projection? Its damage has to overcome only 1/4 of DR (all spells which deal fixed number of damage do that) so it's pretty good option.

Shining Beacon is DoT effect - those don't work with Scion of Flame, Secrets of Rime etc and don't gain bonuses from slayer talents too. Shining Beacon is great damage spell though. It's stacking with itself, so you can cast it several times in a row. Cleansing Flame will twice the damage from DoT effects. Enemies will melt quickly. Cleansing Flame has to overcome only 1/4 DR too, thanks to fixed damage.

Best option to scale spell damage: incrase your Might.

Penetrating Shot talent will overcome 5 DR so it is 5 more damage most of the time - it affects spells which hit only one target (can do splash damage near the target) and spells which hit in the line (eg. Crackling Bolt, so I guess Iconic Projection qualify too). Best part of Penetrating Shot is that recovery malus doesn't affect your recovery while casting spells, only base weapon strikes. You can use Vulnerable attack for spells like Divine Mark in the same way - it will decrease enemy's DR too for such spell.

I've read that Glanfathan Stalking Boots and similar items increase spell damage too, but I didn't checked it. You have to flank the target by 2 party members or cast cipher power - Phantom Foes to activate damage bonus. 

 

Edited January 10, 2020 by Silvaren

[jintegrity]

Hmm... Penetrating Shot synergy sounds pretty good... might be able to work with that. Thanks for the info'. Might come up with something.

[Boeroer]

The important thing about Iconic Projection is - as Silvaren said - that it only has to overcome 25% of DR. This makes it a viable spamming option. And of course it heals which we shouldn't forget.

Shining Beacon (as nearly all DoT effects) profits additively from MIG (which adds +x% of the base dmg per tick) and then multiplicatively from INT (adds more ticks) and crits (+50% duration, also adds more ticks). DoTs don't profit from Scion of Flame and such and also don't get increased dmg per tick from crits. So stuff like Merciless Hand won't work either. This would simply be too good since we already have MIG * INT * crit bonus which can lead to absurdly big dmg numbers.

Priests have the ability to not only raise their MIG into stellar regions (Aggrandizing Radiance, Champions Boon, Minor Avatar) but also their INT (Aggrandizing Rad., Minor Avatar) and Accuracy (for crits, Aggrandizing Rad., Champion's Boon, Minor Avatar, Inspiring Radiance, Devotions...). Those mostly stack (Champion's Boon doesn't stack with Minor Avatar). This makes Shining Beacon one of the most devastating spells - I mean if you build around it. Also because it can be used as spell mastery later on and thus becomes 1/encounter.

If you had 6 Priests and they all had Inspiring  + Aggrandizing Radiance, Minor Avatar and Shining Beacon you could cast 6 beacons with +70 accuracy (since Inspiring Radiance stacks with itself) and +30% additive dmg (if you had only 10 MIG before) and if you crit (easy with +70 ACC) with an unbelievable duration. Everything that isn't immune or extremely resistant to fire will most likely die. If you already start with 20 MIG and 20 INT it's even more ridiculous of course.

Edited January 10, 2020 by Boeroer

[jintegrity]

*nods* Thank you very much for the detailed reply.

I probably should have just asked about Iconic Projection though, as that's mostly where my mind is focused (I'll definitely be using Shining Beacon, and already planned for it to be my mastery. I was mainly asking to make sure I wasn't losing anything valuable to my plans by skipping Scion of Flame). I mainly wanted to see how hard we could scale it.

So, for ol' Durance, assuming level 7 (I try to theorycraft at lower levels) with his starting 14 MIG, +4 from Devotion, +2 from Agg. Rad., +2 from gear (easily attainable) is +36%, Secrets of Rime is another 20%, Bracers of Spiritual Power is another 10%, and Blessing is another 10% for a total of 76%. All of that together would bring Iconic Projection to 35 damage a cast. With Azalin's Helmet (and Dire Blessing to help us crit more) we could do 56 damage on a crit'. Does this look correct? Is there anything more I could add (exempting things like higher level spells)? Do the Rabbit Fur Gloves stack with Azalin's Helmet?

- and, in this context, Penetrating Shot gives a pseudo-20 DR to Iconic Projection, ensuring max damage against most targets?

Mostly asking to see if there are little things that I could do to push this further that I'm not currently aware of.

[Boeroer]

I don't really know if Penetrating Shot works with Iconic Projection. If so then good.

Azalin's Helmet doesn't stack with Rabbit Fur Gloves. Merciless Hand (+30% crit dmg, Doemenel) and Dungeon Delver (+10% cri damage) would stack with Helm or Gloves for a total of +100% dmg on crit (50% regular + 30% + 10% +10%).

Edited January 10, 2020 by Boeroer

[Silvaren]

I did some tests of all priest's spells with Penetrating Shot and Vulnerable Attack.

Barbs of Condemnation, Divine Mark, Pillar of Faith benefit from Vulnerable Attack. These spells are good as debuffs so I would skip Vulnerable Attack and use different source of damage like Shining Beacon.

Edited January 10, 2020 by Silvaren

[Boeroer]

Pillar of Faith? Interesting! Those spells all do single target dmg only so I guess it's maybe not worth it if you don't want to take it for your weapon anyway. But good to know.

If there was an AoE spell that accidentially worked with Vulnerable Attack - that would be really neat. 

[Silvaren]

2 hours ago, Boeroer said:

If there was an AoE spell that accidentially worked with Vulnerable Attack - that would be really neat. 

I've seen this topic some time ago and it looks like Penetrating Shot affects some cipher's powers and wizard's spells. I will test if this is still valid. Probably only a part of it. If Crackling Bolt is affected by Penetrating Shot it's shame that Iconic Projection isn't. I guess it's because fixed damage vs 25% DR.

Edited January 10, 2020 by Silvaren