Offensive priest (multiclass?) build question

[foxinspace]

Hi all,

Thinking about a second playthrough I decided to give priest a try as a class that I completely ignored earlier and frankly don't know much about. Ideally I would like to build this character as a nuker with debuff and support spells here and there. Have been thinking about priest of magran (for the fire spell nukes), possibly multiclassing with an evoker (as echo spell also works for priest spells with evocation keyword AFAIK). Another option is the priest of berath, but I am not sure if I am sold on the unique spells this priest gets. Alternatively, if priests don't make good nukers I might be inclined to try a melee priest with buffs, but that sounds sort of tedious to play.

Could you share your insights on building a good damage-focused priest? I am not very sure about stats either - I guess might > int > dex (for faster cast time?) > perception (is accuracy a big issue?), then dump con and resolve? Is solo better than multiclass to get awesome abilities beyond level VII ?

Thanks a lot!

[Boeroer]

Priests are good nukers after a certain level. Their major shortcoming is that it's mostly fire spells which can be a big problem in some encounters (e.g. with Ironclads or Fire Nagas etc.). And Iconic Projection is not enough to balance that out.

That's why some people prefer Berath - because that will give you corrosion alternatives.

Magran gives you good nuking options early on which is nice - you can start as nuker-priest right away. So using a second class that has alternative dmg types isn't a bad idea. Evoker for example can use other evocation spells that are not for (e.g. missiles). So that can work well. Afaik even the Firethrower Gloves do provide +1 PL for the Magranite bonus evocation spells that are borrowed from Wizard (correct me if I'm wrong).

Marux Amanth (soulbound dagger) has a somewhat similar effect as the Evoker passive by the way - but for priests.

Other secondary classes that work well are Helwalker: +10 MIG from passive, +12 ACC from Enduring Dance, +2 PEN and +5 MIG (stacks with +10) from Thunderous Blows, +10 INT from Duality oMP and Stunning Surge with is great to use with Hand Mortar/Fire in the Hole to prepare a nuke. Imo mortars also totally fit a Priest of Magran. What's also cool is to use Magran's Blessing and combine it with Swift Flurry+Heartbeat Drumming: because the Fire Shield which Magran's Blessing emits counts as melee attack and it can trigger Swift Flurry/HBD attacks. Those will get executed with the main hand weapon then. So I'd pick Sun & Moon as main hand weapon because it has a lot higher chances to turn Swift Flurry/HDB into a long chain of crits. Since it's caused by retaliation you can cast your nukes while you may cause crit-chains with your main weapon. Which I think is very cool. You can also use Magran's Favor instead of Sun & Moon. It's less impactful but Bleeding Cuts with Swift Flurry/HBD is still very nice and thematically it's obviously [emoji]chefs_kiss[/emoji]. With both weapons you'll also get +2 fire Power Levels. 

Another would be Assassin. The +25 ACC, the +4 PEN and the +50% crit damage from stealth/invisibility are great to have. Arguably Skaen would be a good priest subclass for this because it grants you some additional invisibility uses.

Tactician also fits a Priest of Magran. With Disciplined Strikes you can increase the amount of crits and Armored Grace lets you wear heavier armor without becoming a slug. Refreshing Defense is always great to have. If you have a Cipher I the party and use some flanking immunity on your front liners (or CC the hell out of enemies) you will be having the Brilliant inspiration lots of times which is great to have as nuker since your spells get reloaded.

Streetfighter with blunderbuss(es) (includes mortars) ist also a good pick. Especially if you use spells that have rel. short casting times but long recovery times this is very nice: the recovery gets cut in half. 

Chanter, especially Troubadour or Bellower  work well: while you cast priest spells you can load up phrases for invocations. Also you get good non-fire alternatives. 

Psion is also good for the same reasons as Chanter: load up focus while casting priest spells.

I personally find the Helwalker variant most interesting, especially with Magran's Blessing. It still has the "only fire" problem a bit though. But the melee capabilities still make sure you'll be useful even if fire immune enemies emerge. 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2021 by Boeroer

[Exanos]

I'm not a priest expert, but I would say it depend how you want to play :

• For a pure caster/nuker, i would go SC Magran or Rymrgand (available with mod).

-> Magran give echo spells passive and lot of fire damage, and there is a ton of item helping it (otto starcat pet, magran's favor, sun&moon, ring of fire). Biggest issue  is lot of fire resistant ennemie in late,

-> Rymgrand give lot of frost spells, completing nicely with the fire's spells priest have. Biggest issue is a full dlc with heavy frost resistant (but you still have somes fire spell for backup).

I don't like multiclass two damage dealing casters cause you lost some PL and action economy is a thing in late game. 

 

• For an hybrid melee/caster, i would go either Skaen/assassin (fun but not a frontliner) or streetfighter/rymrgand with spiritual dual axes (cast some buffs,  barring death door, and go to town)

 

 

[Powerotti]

Berserker (or Furyshaper) fits the theme of enraged priest of war goddes and is fun to play. Grab Magran's Favour and Sun&Moon, throw frenzy for additional might and pen, then drop the fire from the sky (Storm of Holy Fire and Shining Beacon can trigger Blood Thirst multiple times, which can be used for buffs or Pillar of Holy Fire - for even more Blood Thirst). Against fire immune enemies it's viable melee combatant. Ofc monk is better at everything, as always

[Desmodeus]

Berath spirit weapon looks pretty decent(greatsword) for Priest/Figher(devoted) build. Bonus damage as corrode is very useful and dual damage type ensure that you do not stumble into immunities and spirit weapon itself ensure that you will have decent weapon of your choice before you start getting unique and collecting enough money to keep them up to date

Additionally tactical barrage is easy source of both Acute(pitifully not brilliant but well) and Aware inspirations, Conqueror stance is useful for both casting and fighting, Penetrating strike is very cheap and provide one of the most important bonuses in game - penetration. Here is very basic mockup with unoptimised stats and no equipment (except summoned sword)

And with monastic training you can even punch enemies with it dor very hefty damage

Edited February 3, 2021 by Desmodeus

[foxinspace]

Thank you all for the very helpful advice! Having read your comments, I am deciding between a SC priest of magran or helwalker + magran. I really like the roleplay potential of a magran/helwalker with a fiery mortar and magran's favor, but I'm a bit worried about all the extra damage helwalker would receive if I dare to melee with this char. I guess also that would mean no resolve/con dumping. I also feel like losing magran's might and the symbol will cripple the nuking capability of the priest. Hmm..decisions, decisions.

[Boeroer]

I guess SC Priest of Magran with bonus Power Levels stacked to the roof would also be cool. Prestige, Magran's Favor, Sun & Moon, Otto Starcat, Firethrower Gloves, Stone of Power and an Empower Point and *boom*: you're casting with +13 Power Levels. Jeez... that's like being level 49 or so...

[Desmodeus]

2 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Jeez... that's like being level 49 or so...

Wow thwats brutal... Any other priest can stack things up to that or similar level? Corrode for berath or frost for Rymr?

[thelee]

18 minutes ago, Desmodeus said:

Wow thwats brutal... Any other priest can stack things up to that or similar level? Corrode for berath or frost for Rymr?

not as high, but you can still get a bit. there's just a lot of ways to boost fire and/or evocation-keyworded spells, and less so for other keywords.

prestige (+1), the special lance or weyc's wand (+3), stone of power (+1), plus empower point (+5) would get you +10 to any one spell for any caster.

you could get even higher with a nature godlike with a body inspiration, which gives an additional +1 to any build.

also, special just for fire keywords is the ring of focused flame, which gives you +10 acc.

 

though if you're just interested in maxing out fire damage, a single-class priest isn't the way to go. i put together something here; it has less overall PL bonuses, but more overall damage because you can get a lot more from multiclassing than you can from a few more +PLs: 

 

Edited February 3, 2021 by thelee

[thelee]

12 hours ago, foxinspace said:

Alternatively, if priests don't make good nukers I might be inclined to try a melee priest with buffs, but that sounds sort of tedious to play.

I ran a couple clerics (fighter/berath, fighter/wael) and have run a couple zealots (two streetfighter/waels, assassin/skaen), a templar (kind wayfarer/eothas), a shaman (corpse-eater/skaen) and frankly i think the melee priest + buff/debuff approach is a very solid one. if you're worried about repetitive casting or tedium, you can set up AI scripts to automate the most important buffs.

of course, the priest deity really helps a lot. wael and skaen work particularly well for meleeing, in case you didn't notice a pattern in my list.

 

edit: deadfire is not as strict about various classes going "out of role" since much of the melee capability for traditional melee class comes in their passives that you have to actively pick as opposed to inherent, automatic gains. I say this because i've also done a single-class Skaen that was also a melee-focused build, and it worked fine enough; I just had to build it and play it more of like a melee class. It wouldn't output as much damage or survive as much as a well-built fighter or rogue, but all the various spells added a lot of versatility

Edited February 3, 2021 by thelee

[foxinspace]

2 hours ago, thelee said:

not as high, but you can still get a bit. there's just a lot of ways to boost fire and/or evocation-keyworded spells, and less so for other keywords.

prestige (+1), the special lance or weyc's wand (+3), stone of power (+1), plus empower point (+5) would get you +10 to any one spell for any caster.

you could get even higher with a nature godlike with a body inspiration, which gives an additional +1 to any build.

also, special just for fire keywords is the ring of focused flame, which gives you +10 acc.

 

though if you're just interested in maxing out fire damage, a single-class priest isn't the way to go. i put together something here; it has less overall PL bonuses, but more overall damage because you can get a lot more from multiclassing than you can from a few more +PLs: 

 

Thanks a lot, this looks like a fantastic build! I am very inclined to try it. Maybe I will start the run with a singleclass priest and restart with a helwalker/priest approach if I don't like it. Really want to get to those high level abilities... 

[dgray62]

I found that a Magran/Bellower Celebrant is a lot of fun. You get the great priest firepower as well as two really powerful chanter nukes that complement them, Her Revenge (lightning) and O'Eld Nary (cold and crush) which are really powerful. Her Revenge in particular can annihilate mobs, especially with the bellower's PL boost. It's also great since you get it so early, unlike most of the priest nukes. Plus, if you get Sasha's Singing Scimitar and the Least Unstable coil, you can empower Her Revenge every encounter, get multiple tier-3 inspirations, and extend them with salvation of time.

[foxinspace]

40 minutes ago, dgray62 said:

I found that a Magran/Bellower Celebrant is a lot of fun. You get the great priest firepower as well as two really powerful chanter nukes that complement them, Her Revenge (lightning) and O'Eld Nary (cold and crush) which are really powerful. Her Revenge in particular can annihilate mobs, especially with the bellower's PL boost. It's also great since you get it so early, unlike most of the priest nukes. Plus, if you get Sasha's Singing Scimitar and the Least Unstable coil, you can empower Her Revenge every encounter, get multiple tier-3 inspirations, and extend them with salvation of time.

Thanks, sounds interesting! What would attributes look like for this build? I assume this char would be just for chants and spells, no melee, right?

Edited February 4, 2021 by foxinspace

[dgray62]

With buffs from priest spells and the chanter's invocations you could engage in melee; the priest spell Champion's Boon is particularly effective for this. However, this build would be primarily a caster, so you'd want weapons that could boost casting, namely Sasha's Singing Scimitar (definitely) and also Sun and Moon or Griffin's Blade, and later Magran's Favor  and the Weyc's Wand. Late game, you'd want to start with Sasha's Singing Scimitar and the Weyc's wand, empower Her Revenge, and then cast Salvation of Time to sustain the inspirations and the PL boost from the Wand. Then you would switch over Magran's Favor and Sun and Moon in your second weapon set, and start casting the priest's fire spells.

As for attributes, you'd want high STR, DEX, PER and INT, and could have relatively low CON and RES. I'd probably go with 16/7/14/17/18/6, 18/9/16/19/20/8 with Berath's Blessings.

Edited February 4, 2021 by dgray62
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