Tactics to Speed Up Priest Cast Speed

[Yefo]

After reading about all the hate priests get in Deadfire, I hadn't really given them a fair shot in any of my playthroughs. However, I finally decided to make my player character a solo class priest and I'm actually pretty impressed; priests are great! They start off pretty slow, but I find spell levels VI, VII, VIII, and IX to all be full of amazing spells. My character has second most damage in my party and is also great at putting out clutch heals, as well as buffing my top damage dealing wizard before she unleashes.

That said, I do have one complaint: even with 21 dex and only 20% armor penalty, my cast times all feel painfully slow. What are some good ways to speed up cast times for solo priest? Is there some gear I should be using that I haven't though of yet?

One strategy I tried was equipping Dragon's Dowry with Blazing Fury as it gives "40% action speed for 20 seconds" according to the ability description, however upon testing (and reading the description of the ability closer), it only affects attack action speed, not casting speed.

Any other good strategies to speed up cast times? On my wizards, I just pop DAoM and they feel pretty snappy, but there doesn't seem to be any similar options for priest.

[Boeroer]

With solo you mean single class I guess.

You can wear/use everything that gives you action speed and recovery time bonuses.

For example certain food but also Fast Caster (ability). An armor like Miscreant's Leather with a pet that reduces armor pentalty. Because the action speed buff of the armor will be higher than the recovery pentalty then, giving you an overall speed bonus essentially. 

There are weapons that can speed up your casting. I didn't check Dragon's Dowry, but Scordeo's Edge's Blade Cascade works universally, removing recovery from weapon attack as well as from stealth (you can prolong it with Salvation of Time).

Allies can speed you up. A Paladin can make Priests faster with Hastening Exhortation for example. A Furyshaper can drop a Frenzy Ward. Stuff like that.

Spells done from stealth profit from a 80% reduced recovery time.

Besides that there's not so much one can do as single class priest. The most effective approaches to speed up your casting include multiclassing - like with a Barbarian (Frenzy + Bloodlust + Blood Thirst, maybe even Frenzy Ward) or a Streetfighter (Heating Up when flanked).

What really makes a difference in perceived casting length is moving the combat speed slider all to the right. Of course this is only a superficial fix, but it's astonishing how much it helps to remove the feeling of drag. 

Edited September 15, 2020 by Boeroer

[Waski]

Shroud of phantasm: +10% action speed with spell while under INT inspiration).

Squid grasp rapier : +20% action speed while threatened by 3 or more.

Scoredeo pistol. -5% recovery on hit, stackable. 

Scordeo sabre: blade cascade 0 recovery

Both of them abusable by SoT or lil'ooze pet outside combat, 

 

[thelee]

if you're not talking exclusively about single-class, many of the tricks that other classes get to speed up can also apply to priests: frenzy from barbarian, swift strikes from monks, and DaOM from wizard.

the base cast time also matters - wizards can feel real fast because they have almost an entire school of instant cast spells, but priests have very little of that and a lot of their good buffs are in the "slow" category--4.5s. Not only is that slow, but some of the big tricks only shave off recovery time, so won't affect that long cast time. (And a couple spells even fall into the "very slow" category of having 6s). i had a priest that was basically as fast as one could get naturally (scordeo pistol, scordeo sabre, almost 30 dex when buffed, rapid casting) and even then 4.5s and 6s spells definitely still feel slower. i think it's just the price you have pay to have some extremely powerful buffs and other late-game effects which you might not notice as well when doing solo (devotions for the faithful is good but may not feel like it earns its 4.5s cast time unless you're in a situation where you're buffing an entire party). basically what i'm saying is that if you want to feel faster, you can also try to focus on 3s cast time effects or mix more of them in, which absolutely do feel quick compared to 4.5s. there are some pretty good ones in there (triumph of the crusaders, iconic projection, consecrated ground, despondent blows, etc.). as a plus, due to how spell casting times work, "faster" spells also have larger recovery times, which means the various recovery time buffs mentioned upthread (scordeo's, miscreant's leather, etc.) have a greater impact on the fast spells.

Edited September 15, 2020 by thelee