Cleric/Druid: more spell options or passives?

[claudius]

Generally for Cleric (Edit: Priest) and Druid how do you choose between having more spell options (at a given level) versus having fewer spell options but more passives?

At one extreme you could have a very small number of spells to cast but yet have lots of passive abilities and on the other extreme you could have no passive abilities but tons of spell options.

I'm playing a first playthrough of PoE2 after having played PoE1 with automatic access to all spells for Druid and Cleric (Edit: Priest)

 

Edited February 10, 2020 by claudius

[Boeroer]

With Cleric you mean Priest in this case I presume? Cleric is the name of the multiclass Fighter/Priest.

Since spells of the same Power Level compete with each other for spell uses (usually 2 per encounter) and since Priests and Druids don't have trinkets/grimoires I usually only pick one or two spells per Power Level and the rest goes to passives. Except with single class Priests/Druids because there aren't that many useful passives to take then.

 

 

Edited February 10, 2020 by Boeroer

[Elric Galad]

Depends on Spell Tier.

On some spell Tier, there's often a spell that can be used for most fight, so you don't really have to select another (Druid's Storms, Devotion for the Faithful, Healing spells).
If you're multiclassing with a class that requires a lots of ability points (such a monk), you may want to  do this for a few Tiers.

For other spell Tier, you might prefer getting complementary spells to face most situation.
Also, there might be a couple of situational spells that you want to pick anyway (such as various resurrection).
If you're multiclassing with a calss that does not requires a lots of ability points (such a rogue IMHO), you may want to pick a lot of various spells.

Ultimately, it is a matter of playlist, but if you plan to pick few spells, be sure to pick spells that are always useful.
Priests and Druids subclasses become extremely relevant in this case. For example, Priest of Eotas isn't the best priest subclass in the general case, but it provides a backbone of Healing spells that can save a lots of ability points for multiclasses.
 

[claudius]

12 hours ago, Boeroer said:

With Cleric you mean Priest in this case I presume? Cleric is the name of the multiclass Fighter/Priest.

Since spells of the same Power Level compete with each other for spell uses (usually 2 per encounter) and since Priests and Druids don't have trinkets/grimoires I usually only pick one or two spells per Power Level and the rest goes to passives. Except with single class Priests/Druids because there aren't that many useful passives to take then.

 

 

Yes I meant Priest.  That makes sense and I was thinking about single class because so far I'm taking the games advice to not use multi class on my companions until I've played the game more.  Making a first playthrough and hopefully I won't restart like I usually do ha!

Edited February 10, 2020 by claudius

[thelee]

19 hours ago, claudius said:

At one extreme you could have a very small number of spells to cast but yet have lots of passive abilities and on the other extreme you could have no passive abilities but tons of spell options.

truth be told, there's not really that much of a point having a lot of different spells to cast, even if you had no limits to spell casts per encounter, simply because of the action economy.

in any given situation, there's a #1 best spell to cast, then a #2 best spell, then a #3, etc... Mostly what having more spells does is extend how large that list of spells is, and not necessarily increase the quality of your actions. (this is especially true for priests, who are less like a spell-casting toolbox in the way druids and wizard can be; druids and wizard have different damage types, for example, so diversity can increase your spell quality by improving the odds that your #1 best spell is really effective in a given situation.)

Typically with priests especially is that I pick up generally at most two spells per tier (and sometimes just one), because combined with the bonus spell, you're already set for spells you want to cast most of the time. In rare situations, I'll pick up another if there's a particular niche that just isn't fulfilled otherwise and is all-or-nothing sort of thing (so even if it's situational and rarely ever the #1 best spell to cast, those situations in which it is useful are extremely impactful, like the various revive effects). Otherwise, even though single-class priests don't have particularly amazing passives, a weak passive that is active all the time is a much better use of finite level-ups than an extraneous spell you pick up and is almost never used.

Edited February 10, 2020 by thelee