I am playing a SC priest currently, and have reached level 9. I've already selected Devotions for the Faithful and Triumph of the Crusaders, which are great spells IMO. I was wondering if Shining Beacon is worth selecting too, given priests' limited ability points. It seems great as a DOT that targets will and reduces defenses, although the duration (10s) is rather short. I suppose it will get better as you gain PLs. Any advice regarding the use of this spell would be appreciated.

Yes, Shining Beacon is a blast. It's easy to underestimate how much combat will swing in your favor when you have a decent DoT and everyone is much easier to hit; because of the nature of the debuff, it even stacks with more specific debuffs and afflictions (-all defenses is considered a seperate "category" from e.g. -deflection or -will, and both the former and latter are also separate from afflictions).

But as you've seen, the priest is flooded with good choices at tier 4. I would just go with what "theme" your priest is angling for, and not worry if you are picking something suboptimal, because it's hard to go wrong with any of the spells you mentioned.

 

If you still want the benefit of shining beacon without straining priest ability points, you can also craft/buy scrolls of it.

Edited September 16, 20214 yr by thelee

Thanks for answering, Thelee. I picked devotions and triumph per your recommendation in your guide. You didn't mention Shining Beacon, however, so I wondered if it has any shortcomings. But indeed, as you say, it does not. I picked it up when I leveled up and haven't regretted it all.

yeah i only call out specific spells if i think there's some very interesting to discuss, or something not obvious, both good or bad. un-listed spells may very well be good (or bad), just not as interesting to talk about.

 

though actually the -all defenses stacking with the other stuff is interesting (and is only a relatively recent discovery, along with the chanter fear invocation that does the same thing) so maybe it's worth an update to include shining beacon in.

Yes, I agree, that is a noteworthy feature of this spell! It's also much more effective in battle than I realized by its text description. It really seems to melt non-fire immune foes.

Shining Beacon in combination with Miasma of Dull-Mindedness:

@dgray62are you party or solo with this priest?

Ranndar, I'm playing in a party, as this is my first time playing a SC priest. I might try solo later, perhaps as a Priest of Skaen. But I'm also considering a solo run as a Thaumaturge, for the nice interaction Boeroer mentions. You can also use the Grimoire Imprint exploit to steal the Skaen lvl 2 spell "Escape" from the Celebrants in Fort deadlight. It's nice to have infinite casts of that "spell."