Looking for Tips for a Priest of Berath

[Koshnek]

When I start my next playthrough, I want to make a Death Godlike Priest of Berath. It's for semi-roleplay (I often get sidetracked by sweet loot and xp, but I do my best :p). I don't want him/her to be a healer, but a few buffs might not be a bad idea. I'd prefer to lay down some pain and debuffs. I'm open to adding in a multiclass, but I was looking at Priest only. What do yall think?

Semi-related, I thought it'd be fun to run Pallegina and Xoti with their own holy beliefs if there's a good way to work them in without being overly disadvantageous. I'm going to try hard because normal has been kind of easy even when I started up-scaling it.

[Scrapulous]

I think single class priests of Berath are fairly balanced casters. The Berathian spells give you some offense that priests don't usually have. They tend to deal in corrode damage, which I think is a strong type. Some of the spell descriptions are very lacking, though.

PL 1: Touch of Rot (druid spell): the description makes it sound like Chill Fog, which creates a hazard zone that will hurt your team. It's not like that. It's more like fireball: the area of effect is a circle, the base radius of which will hurt your allies if they're in it when the spell fires. Any AoE size buffs (usually from high Intelligence) you have will create an ally-friendly extension to the radius of the base circle. Anybody hit by the spell when it goes off will also get a strong and long-lasting corrode damage over time effect. This is an unusually good level 1 spell in my opinion, and a rare damage powerhouse for a priest, with a targeting utility that I associate with non-priest casters.

AL 2: Holy Meditation: this is a pretty good buff in the early game, before your team has their concentration abilities in place, but I found less use for it later on.

AL 2: Spiritual Weapon (Berath): It's a greatsword with a corrode lash. This is a strong weapon all game long and makes a great fallback if you need to change damage types and didn't plan ahead. If you want to multiclass with something martial that likes two handed weapons, you could make this your primary weapon, but I think weapons you find later, like Marux Amanth, might make you reconsider that plan.

PL 3: Spreading Plague (druid spell): gives the level 1 Dex affliction, Hobbled, and the level 2 Con affliction, Weakened to the target. After that, at regular intervals, the target will emit "jumps," basically recasts of the spell. The jumps seem to happen whether the target is alive or dead. It defaults to 5 jumps; my endgame Priest of Berath has 11. I'd say this spell is good for the beginning of a tough fight with several enemies, but the later you cast it, the less impact it will have. If you have different results, I'd be interested in your take. This does give you a fortitude-targeting ability in PL 3, which priests besides Xoti otherwise don't have.

PL 4: Divine Terror: drops the tier 2 Resolve affliction, Frightened for a base of 30 seconds. 30 seconds is a long time, and the fact that this debuffs resolve means in practice it's longer than other 30s spells would last - and will make anything else you do to affected enemies last longer, too. Frightened is a great affliction imo: it drops enemy power levels by 3 and makes them unable to use abilities that target your party. I'd say this is a strong free spell, despite the fact that it's something any priest can get.

PL 5: Rot Skulls (druid): there was a period where this spell was seriously broken in PoE 1, and it's hard for this non-broken version to live up to the impression formed during that time. But it's good. The description fails to make clear that the aoe corrode damage of the skulls is foe-only. This is similar to Kalakoth's Minor Blights without the advantage of exotic damage types. The projectiles do crush damage to the target and the aoe effect gives a corrode DoT to enemies in the area of effect. Having a summonable ranged weapon alongside a summonable melee weapon can add flexibility if you think of them as additional weapon slots. Not a bad bit of tactical flexibility.

PL 6: Salvation of Time: this is a spell that people use in combination with other abilities to break the game, so getting it for free is a pretty good deal. None of the four spells in this level are bad, though.

PL 7: Rusted Armor (druid): reduce one target's armor rating by 4. That's good for boss fights or certain constructs. Unique among your PL7 options in that it targets Fortitude.

PL 8: Symbol of Berath: each symbol puts a mark on the ground that pulses damage and an affliction to enemies in the area. Berath has a strong damage type, corrode, and an okay affliction, Weakened (-5 con, -50% healing received). Weakened can be great when healing is part of the enemy's kit, but some of the other symbols appear more useful to me (Magran and Eothas).

PL 9: Hand of Berath: this gives a single target -10 to all power levels for a base of 30 seconds. That's no joke, but it's not as broadly useful as the Skaen, Eothas, or Magran PL 9 spells.

PL 9: Incarnate (Berath): I really like Berath's Incarnate. You lose 1 PL for 120 seconds, which is not nothing. But in exchange you get a giant bruiser, the Pallid Knight, and a giant caster, the Usher. Right after this spell might be a good time to drop your free AL 2 spell, Holy Meditation, to reduce the time you lose a PL.

 

I haven't done much multiclassing with priests, so I'll leave that commentary to wiser posters.

[thelee]

27 minutes ago, Scrapulous said:

PL 5: Rot Skulls (druid): there was a period where this spell was seriously broken in PoE 1, and it's hard for this non-broken version to live up to the impression formed during that time. But it's good. The description fails to make clear that the aoe corrode damage of the skulls is foe-only. This is similar to Kalakoth's Minor Blights without the advantage of exotic damage types. The projectiles do crush damage to the target and the aoe effect gives a corrode DoT to enemies in the area of effect. Having a summonable ranged weapon alongside a summonable melee weapon can add flexibility if you think of them as additional weapon slots. Not a bad bit of tactical flexibility.

just to add - it's totally not clear from the description, but the DoT this applies does not stack, so you're best off intermixing attacks with rot skulls and spellcasting, or switching up targets. also, i semi-remember the attack being keyworded as disease, so won't work on disease-immune enemies. i could be misremembering.

 

28 minutes ago, Scrapulous said:

PL 6: Salvation of Time: this is a spell that people use in combination with other abilities to break the game, so getting it for free is a pretty good deal. None of the four spells in this level are bad, though.

if you plan on actually takin advantage of your death godlike's +3 PL when near death, you will pretty much need to use Barring Death's Door + casts of Salvation of Time. 

 

29 minutes ago, Scrapulous said:

PL 8: Symbol of Berath: each symbol puts a mark on the ground that pulses damage and an affliction to enemies in the area. Berath has a strong damage type, corrode, and an okay affliction, Weakened (-5 con, -50% healing received). Weakened can be great when healing is part of the enemy's kit, but some of the other symbols appear more useful to me (Magran and Eothas).

personally i think berath's symbol is extremely baller, probably second-best after eothas. all the symbols can wreck house (especially if you empower) but adding weakened to the mix makes it easier for many of the other stuff in berath's kit to hit (-10 fortitude) and also effectively amplifies how much damage you do.

 

i highly recommend supplementing your berathian priest with a morningstar somewhere in your party. so much of what you want to land is fortitude-based and a morningstar or two can really help. willbreaker is probably best choice, because it also debuffs will, synergizes with berathian's free tier 4 resolve affliction, and has +10% action speed.

i multiclassed a fighter/berathian and really enjoyed it. there were some action economy issues, but Tactical barrage (for +1 PL and 50% miss to graze), mule kick (synergy with fortitude debuffs), armored grace, and confident aim for my morningstar was a nice package, with fallback on the spiritual weapon for slash-vulnerable or low-deflection foes. didn't really optimize rot skulls, it was just there in case there was a doorway or tight hallway that i couldn't squeeze next to enemies and needed a ranged weapon.

i also did a single-classed berathian at range and also enjoyed it quite a bit. used a lot of perception just to help debuffs land, and rot skulls is a nice ranged attack. and again, once you get the symbol and pick up empower talents you can basically single-handedly clear most trash fights with just that.

regardless of what you do, helm of the white void seems like it'd be of particular use. +10 acc to mind/body afflictions potentially covers a bunch of stuff that you'd want to cast for a damage+debuff oriented priest. just be sure it's a spell that actually has an affliction (and isn't just a random debuff). 

[Scrapulous]

50 minutes ago, thelee said:

personally i think berath's symbol is extremely baller, probably second-best after eothas. all the symbols can wreck house (especially if you empower) but adding weakened to the mix makes it easier for many of the other stuff in berath's kit to hit (-10 fortitude) and also effectively amplifies how much damage you do.

So: I hadn't considered the synergy between Weakened and the fortitude targeting of a lot of the spells. Great point. There's some internal harmony in the free spell set for sure.

Something else I have never once ever considered: empowering a Symbol. I don't know why. I suddenly feel like I've been missing out.

[Koshnek]

Wow, thanks a lot thats good stuff! No helmet, though. Godlike and all. What's the best way to use the symbols? Obviously a choke point will work, but I've avoided using traps and symbols much except on harder fights. It seems like a turn to set up and hope to get a hit isn't the best, but maybe I was wrong?

[Elric Galad]

Be careful @Scrapulous, you're using values from my mod.

Divine Terror is 20s, not 30s without the mod.

Hand of Berath is only -5PL and does not auto hit in the base game (it targets Fort, which is meh).

Incarnate is -5PL for 35s, not -1PL for 120s and I don't think it can be reduced by Resolve in the base game. Also Pallid Knight is meh cause she has a non magical weapon in the base game, which lead to PEN troubles. My mod gives all Incarnate Legendary equipment, but I nerfed Berath pair duration a bit. Usher is a full Time lvl20 Priest so it is still a rather good summon anyway.

However, SoT doesn't break the game anymore with my mod's tweaks (it is just a good spell with nice combos).

 

By the way, the best part of Berath Symbol is that it deals Corrode damages. Priests offensive spells rely a lot on Fire Damages, so having another type as your main attack spell is extremely useful. I think it might actually be the best Symbol in pratice even if Eothas sounds better on paper.

Edited August 2, 2020 by Elric Galad

[Scrapulous]

Oops, thanks for the correction! I did my Priest of Berath playthrough before I installed your mod, so I didn't pay as much attention to the changes for the priest spells that you made. I should have looked it up before writing this reply

[thelee]

12 hours ago, Koshnek said:

Wow, thanks a lot thats good stuff! No helmet, though. Godlike and all. What's the best way to use the symbols? Obviously a choke point will work, but I've avoided using traps and symbols much except on harder fights. It seems like a turn to set up and hope to get a hit isn't the best, but maybe I was wrong?

symbols are different from traps and seals. symbols are more like persistent aoe effects and have huge radius, doing foe-only damage and debuffs. you don't need to set them up in advance or anything like that to get mileage out of them.

get a tank or two to hold back some enemies and drop an empowered symbol on them. all the enemies swarming around the tank will be brutally hurt tick after tick or round after round.

[Koshnek]

What kind of stat spread should I go for with this build? I don’t really understand how to spread them out yet. They’re all good in Deadfire!

[thelee]

10 hours ago, Koshnek said:

What kind of stat spread should I go for with this build? I don’t really understand how to spread them out yet. They’re all good in Deadfire!

depends on whether it's a multiclass or not.

in either case, maxing out intellect is very good, and then i would put points into dexterity and perception. if you're a caster or someone who can stay safe, i would pull points out of resolve to put elsewhere, though on higher difficulty i would put a couple into constitution. for someone who's closer to the front line, it's a bit more up in the air about whether or not you care about resolve, you might even just want more dex.

example: 10 might/15 dex/12 con/14 per/18 int/8 res

i also tried a single-class berath caster variant that didn't put too much into dex, which is occasionally contra-indicated by most people since dex is so generally useful. the reasoning for me not investing in dex was based on the fact that i was playing on the highest difficulty with lots of challenges enabled and for most of the game this means i run out of spells far before the fight is over, so all dex means in many cases is just running out of spells faster. being a ranged caster also meant that i wasn't as worried about my spellcasting getting interrupted. the stats looked more like:

11 might/10 dex/8 con/13 per/18 int/17 res

this version used a small shield and a pistol or blunderbuss for extra safety and to make sure weapon attack recovery didn't interfere with spellcasting.

in either case, i would recommend choosing a background that gives you +1 intellect (old vailia iirc) because intellect is so useful for a caster. if you're not interesting in that, then +1 perception or +1 dexterity backgrounds are nice too.

[Boeroer]

4 hours ago, thelee said:

in either case, i would recommend choosing a background that gives you +1 intellect (old vailia iirc) 

Yup, that's the only cultural background with +1 INT.