Deadfire Priest of Berath

[Samugol]

Hi, I like to play PoE 1 first and then continue into Deadfire with the same character (as much as deadfire mechanics allow). I have already done so with a wizard and a cipher.

Now, I would like to do so with a priest of Berath death godlike that I have been enjoying tremendously (thank you @Boeroer,  a variation of your St. Gangrene with tidefall has been a blast so far and probably my favorite build in PoE and boy have I done lots of builds...).

The only issue is that I have 0 experience with priests in Deadfire. The questions are the following:

-Death godlike is such a great fit for a priest of Berath, but is one of the weakest racial choices overall. I am managing in PoE1, but that is only because I know the game much better than Deadfire. Would it still be viable/OK? Roleplaying is more valuable to me than metagaming and I dont plan to play at the highest difficulty, but I do like to play on trial of iron to compensate for this. Is there any way to take advantage of death godlike racial ability or am I doomed with the suboptimal choice?

-Would it be better to have have a single class priest or to multiclass? I understand that last level spells are very strong, but I like jack of all trades builds that are good at everything (casting, melee, support etc.) and are more survivable since I often play on trial of iron.

-The most common multiclass suggestions I have seen are either a Devoted/Priest or Helwalker/Priest. The issue is that I have 0 zero experience with these subclasses in Deadfire (monk I have never played any variation of whatsoever...). That means I cannot even begin to fathom why these are chosen, what kind of equipment they use and what is important to make them successful. Which of these would be better? What are their advantages/disadvatages? I know that some battles in deadfire are very long so when I played wizard blood mage I was able to retain my power throughout the whole battle, that makes me lean toward helwalker (is able to generate wounds) but I am not sure if that is a good argument since there is no way to recover priest spells and priest/helwalker without spells might suck terribly. Also I am not sure about the survivability of such approach, monks need to get hit a lot from what I understand.  Would that make priest/devoted better and easier to manage?

-I would really like the build to be for the turn based mode in Deadfire as that is my preferred choice, but I would be willing to play RTwP if there is a great build that checks multiple boxes.

-If possible I would like to stick to roleplay (priest of Berath, death godlike, greatsword, heavy armor, stoic and rational) but I am willing to compromise a bit if there is some item/weapon that drastically improves the experience (but not too many compromises as I play mostly on normal and if it is 10-20% worse than the meta option I choose roleplay all day). Would maybe some of you that have been through the game multiple times suggest some cool thematic equipment for my roleplay?

I have been going over some older posts, but I am at a loss to be honest. These posts often debate different deities, races and lots of min maxing with very specific equipment. I tried to learn what I can from those but at this moment I cannot differentiate what is a general advice for a priest multiclass vs very specific advice for a specific build (for example I saw a post about a priest of eothas/helwalker build with some soulbound dagger but I cannot tell if what was discussed applies to priest of Berath/helwalker with a greatsword or if that would work totally differently and my variation would totally suck.) Thank you very much for any advice.

 

[dgray62]

I wouldn't say that Death Godlike is one of the weakest choices overall. You get a bonus to damage against near death enemies, which is very nice, and the +3 PL when near death is very strong. Also, I'd say that this choice is best with a priest, since you can cast Barring Death's Door to keep yourself alive when near death. The only thing you need to keep this going is renewable priest resources, and for that you need brilliant. You can also bring along a cipher to grant you brilliant, which you can extend with Salvation of Time. However, you can make yourself completely self sufficient if you multi class as a chanter, as is discussed in this thread. You can reliably get brilliant (and all other tier 3 inspirations) by empowering a chanter invocation, Her Revenge or Her Tears, while wielding Sasha's Singing Scimitar and wearing the Least Unstable Coil. With this build, however, you'll pretty much be a dedicated caster. Here chanter, with its focus on lightning and cold spells, complements Priest of Berath nicely, with its fire and corrode spells. But if you want to do a martial priest MC, just bring along a cipher and you'll be fine.

[Samugol]

Damn, that is some crazy meta :), now I gotta look into whether this is still viable with some adjustments. I would still like to hear some thoughts on hellwalker and devoted multiclass with a priest of Berath. But thanks for pointing me to that build...it looks insane.

 

Edited January 23, 2022 by Samugol

[dgray62]

You might also consider tactician/berath for another relatively easy source of brilliant, especially if you're going for death godlike. But I love contemplatives. Helwalker/berath would be particularly good if you are going for a build more oriented toward casting spells. If you are going for a more melee oriented build, I'd recommend forbidden fist/berath, with a higher RES (18 would be good). The forbidden fist ability is amazing, inflicting enfeebled, which is a devastating affliction, and it heals you and gives you a wound as soon as the curse expires. The key is to have it expire quickly, with high RES, the Clarity of Agony ability, and Mohora Wraps food. You could wield the great sword as your main weapon, and use FF every few seconds, as soon as the curse expires. The death godlike PL boost will increase the damage, accuracy and PEN of this attack, and when you crit (which you often will), swift flurry and heartbeat drumming will often proc attacks with your main weapon, the great sword, which will hit hard due its lashes.

[Samugol]

Wow, that is some good advice. I will look into these suggestions and see if any questions arise. I have a lot to think about thanks to you

[Elric Galad]

Single Class Priest of Berath has maybe my favorite Nuke of the game : Symbol of Berath.

Long duration of pulsating corrode damages with Weakened affliction. Corrode damages is basically the reason why I love it so much compared to other symbols : it is much less resisted than Fire, Pierce or Cold, and Weakened will lower foes HP before obliterating them.

Symbols are foe-only and since they are Tier 8, you will get ultimately get 2 casts.

Berath Incarnate isn't bad : you are basically summoning another lvl 20 Priest (Usher Incarnate) along with a Fighter meat shield (Pallid Knight Incarnate is bad because it is equipped with a freaking normal Greatsword).

[Samugol]

I definitely considered it. I feel that pure casters fare a lot better in Turn Based compared to RTwP. There is lots of bonus actions and a big spell always has an impact. Compared to a melee class that just hits once...

How would you build a SC priest of Berath? Would you use weapon and shield for some extra deflection? How survivable would such a character be? Thanks for the reply BTW.

[Not So Clever Hound]

On 1/23/2022 at 8:43 PM, dgray62 said:

The key is to have it expire quickly, with high RES, the Clarity of Agony ability, and Mohora Wraps food

@dgray62 actually because of inversions, with High Res (I mean Max RES ) the added benefit of Mohora Wrap or other "small" % negative effect duration modifiers is almost negligible after RES and CoA effects.

With 35 RES and CoA you get: 1/1-(-3)-(-1)=80% net % negative effect duration reduction

With 35 RES, CoA and Mohora: 1/1-(-3)-(-1)-(-0.43)=82% net % negative effect duration reduction

If you also add Ring of Solitary Wanderer, Cabalist Gambeson and Strand of Favor, your total reduction "jumps" to 84% I think...

So basically Max RES is the absolute most impactful and when you add CoA on top (second most impactful) you have kind of peaked your impact.

[dgray62]

That's nice to know; this gives more flexibility. Either you could max RES and use a different food, or drop RES a bit and compensate (I hope!) with the wraps.

[Not So Clever Hound]

1 hour ago, dgray62 said:

Either you could max RES and use a different food, or drop RES a bit and compensate (I hope!) with the wraps.

Yep. Though because of the inversions system, maxing RES is impossible to beat for maximum impact. Also because it will boost two defenses (Deflection and Will) on top, so maximizing your chances to get Grazes on attacks, which nets out another -50% duration.

But for example if you kept RES neutral at 10 and had all the other negative effect duration modifiers: CoA + Mohora + Ring of Solitary Wanderer + Cabalist Gambeson + Strand of Favor you would get a coefficient of .32 so you'd have a net % duration modifier of -68%. Not bad! I'm not considering here the +1 RES from Ring of Solitary Wanderer. And of course the latter is only helpful when soloing..

Edited January 25, 2022 by Not So Clever Hound

[Not So Clever Hound]

On 1/23/2022 at 10:12 PM, Samugol said:

I feel that pure casters fare a lot better in Turn Based compared to RTwP.

Casters are amazing in RTwP too, Priests are really rewarding when you hit Tier8/9. AoE + pulsing + high DMG is really great with Deadfire's inflated enemy health pools.

On 1/23/2022 at 10:12 PM, Samugol said:

How would you build a SC priest of Berath? Would you use weapon and shield for some extra deflection? How survivable would such a character be? Thanks for the reply BTW.

If you're not planning on using your weapons, it's hard to beat weapon+medium shield with the modal. No drawback whatsoever (OK  -4 ACC...)-. You can use the Gladiator Sword from the Digsite or the Griffin Blade, or Magran's Favor but it might be better in the hands of someone actually using it . There is a variety of great medium shields, the best being Lethandria's Devotion. SC Priest has several tools on top to seriously help survivability.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Not So Clever Hound

[Samugol]

Thanks, I have decided that I will go for a caster priest next time around (probably fire godlike that is either SC or multiclassed with some chanter - I like the idea of having Sasha's scimitar early and empower spells + other shenenigans), but since I am already playing a Death Godlike with aumaua physique with a huge greatsword in PoE 1, it would feel weird to play a pure caster/caster focused build in Deadfire.

I have settled on a Devoted(greatsword)/Priest of Berath as that should be a bit more survivable than Helwalker/Priest of Berath. To be honest the micromanagement aspect of helwalker really appeals to me but I hate playing glass cannon builds. I even toyed with the idea of using Death Godlike racial for +3PL (I would boost CON to make this more viable) and then go to town with some greatsword or nuke with spells but since this will be my first Deadfire priest playthrough it feels scary and daunting. I will probably not play on Trial of Iron this time, but I am not very comfortable with risky builds. I mean...how likely are you to beat trial o iron with +50% dmg taken when have 10 wounds? Maybe some meta masters can, but I would be worried to say the least.

Actually, I might as well ask about the chanter/priest with SSS. Is it a hard build to play? Is it squishy? Tanky? Good for Trial of Iron run(probably solo/normal)? I will not play for some time because I want to finish this death godlike playthrough but that will not stop me from planning other builds...

Thanks again for the great feedback guys

[Boeroer]

I don't want to convince you to play Helwalker/Priest, Devoted/Priest is fine.

I just wanted to say: one can mitigate the "glasscannon" aspect of Helwalker in two ways:

a) use your wounds frequently when you think you're receiving too much dmg. Stuff like Blade Turning and Thunderous Blows etc. are good for this. Use Enlightened Agony to still get enhanced INT (and lower hostile effects, too)

b) use Iron Wheel and keep the wounds. When doing it right the higher CON and the higher AR will more than offset the higher damage you receive. Get bonus INT via Enlightened Agony. This combo also gives you an absurdly high fortitude defense when at 10 wounds - which is awesome imo. Especially in combination with Enlightened Agony you will only get affected by most nasty disables shortly (if at all). 

 

 

[Samugol]

2 hours ago, Boeroer said:

I don't want to convince you to play Helwalker/Priest

You may have done just that. After reading your tips I am honestly torn between the two (helwalker or devoted). Just tell me which one you had more fun (gameplay, gear or roleplay) with, that is the one I will go for. Maybe I am overthinking it...I don't plan to play on PotD so either is probably fine. Lately I have been busy with a new job and other things and finding enough time to play 100+ hour RPGs is hard... That is why I wanted to get the most fun out of it and I sometimes (read always) overanalyze things.

[dgray62]

20 hours ago, Samugol said:

Actually, I might as well ask about the chanter/priest with SSS. Is it a hard build to play? Is it squishy? Tanky? Good for Trial of Iron run(probably solo/normal)? I will not play for some time because I want to finish this death godlike playthrough but that will not stop me from planning other builds...

Chanter/priest is not hard to play, and is a very viable build, including for solo play on PotD. From the chanter side you have summons, which are tremendous when playing solo. You have buffs for yourself and the summons on both the chanter and priest side, and you have the amazing combo of Barring Death's Door and Salvation of Time, which makes even Trial of Iron not too stressful, as you basically become unkillable. You can get all of the tier 3 inspirations every battle with Sasha's and the least unstable coil, which you can extend with SoT. You also have great fire nukes on the priest side, and two great lightning and cold ones (Her Revenge and Her Tears) on the chanter side. You can also debilitate and perm-interrupt foes when energized with your chants, particularly if you pick troubadour and turn on fast recitation. Overall, it's a very powerful and fun to play combo. But keep in mind with this build you'd basically be a caster, alternating between chanter invocations and priest spells. If you want more of a melee orientation, then I'd recommend Helwalker/skald, wielding sun & moon for incredible crit fests that give you phrases. It's not quite as sturdy as the celebrant, but very fun to play. The goal here is to control aggro through hard CC, by permanently paralyzing and/or stunning dangerous foes. There are some great builds for this combo that have been previously posted.

[Samugol]

@dgray62 Thank you so much . You have provided a good write up of the core concepts. I will look through forums to get the details, but I think you have nailed the key points in playing that combination. If I ever play a chanter/priest combo I definitely want to be a caster first and foremost, especially since I want to do more melee with my death godlike now.

(totally off topic, but I tried tagging drgray62, I wanted to test this since I have no idea whether it works or not, if it does... I know that in some forums it is considered rude to bother people with tagging them, but I personally like to either 1. be mentioned when the reply is directly for me, so I immediately get a ping on my phone or 2. I want to address someone specific when I want to thank them/ask them a question in response to their previous comment... thanks for any advice on this, I really have no idea what is considered nice/polite/standard here, I barely have 70 posts and I certainly want to be more active, especially with playing a bit more Deadfire, avowed coming - I am so pumped for that one :D)

[Not So Clever Hound]

1 hour ago, Samugol said:

(totally off topic, but I tried tagging drgray62, I wanted to test this since I have no idea whether it works or not, if it does... I know that in some forums it is considered rude to bother people with tagging them, but I personally like to either 1. be mentioned when the reply is directly for me, so I immediately get a ping on my phone or 2. I want to address someone specific when I want to thank them/ask them a question in response to their previous comment... thanks for any advice on this, I really have no idea what is considered nice/polite/standard here, I barely have 70 posts and I certainly want to be more active, especially with playing a bit more Deadfire, avowed coming - I am so pumped for that one :D)

Not to speak on behalf of @dgray62 or anyone else, but you're totally fine  . This forum is a quote and tag fest, and contributors are mostly good-humored, considerate, willing to help, and just looking to talk about intricate and less intricate Deadfire shenanigans until the end of the Wheel. Cheers mate!

[dgray62]

No problem for me either!

[Boeroer]

Totally normal und useful to tag users imo.

[Samugol]

@BoeroerSorry to bother you, but I think I would like to go for a Helwalker/Priest of Berath as you sold me on the idea. I have some ideas how to build it, but I could use a bit of direction. I would choose all the good stuff you have already mentioned, but I have not settled on a weapon yet. Would you rather use some kind of greatsword (whispers of the endless paths or the twin eals or sanguine great sword) or would a mace + shield be a bit more conservative option (maybe frostfall + some medium shield?, I am not sure how much would frostfall trigger since I assume my CON would be good) that would still do some decent dmg with +15 MIG from helwalker bonuses? I am dead set on using either a greatsword or a mace as those are favored by Berath and roleplay is more important than powergaming to me. Also... I am struggling with stats a bit, I wanted to do more CON with death godlike to hit the low death mark for +3 PL but most of the builds I have seen are lower than 10... so not sure what the heck is going on there.

[Boeroer]

Then why not use the Spiritual Greatsword that a Priest of Berath can summon? It totally fits the theme of course - and with Lightning Strikes and the Spiritual Great Sword you'd have two elemental lashes on your blade which is good (multiplicative dmg bonuses). And if you feel that it's not so hard to stay alive after all you could still use Turning Wheel (instead of Iron Wheel) which would add another lash to the weapon, leaving you at +15% shock, +20% burn (at 10 wounds) and up to 30% corrode iirc. That's +65% multiplicative dmg which is a great dmg bonus, especially when combined with +30% dmg from the higher MIG. 

If you feel that he's too squishy you can still use Iron Wheel. 

I would still use a backup weapon - Effort is good if you enchant it with Hemorrhaging. Because the sicken/hobble effect even works with ypur spells - and the wounding enchantment is good, too. Another fitting two handed weapon is Engoliero do Espirs (Berath-themed). Blade Feast also works with spells (kills from spells I mean). Voidwheel is also nice, but a bit of a suicidal tendency as Helwalker. Twin Eels fits 100% of course, but it would come a bit later. Its heal on kill also works with spells and all sorts of damage you deal.   

 

[Samugol]

@Boeroer Thank you ever so much , the summoned sword seems really fitting. Any idea about what stats should be? I dont need a perfect spread just a general idea (and I promise you shall be left alone for the foreseeable future). I have a good idea about stats in PoE 1, but my Deadfire experience is fairly limited here.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Samugol

[dgray62]

When I play contemplatives I usually set STR around 15 (with Helwalker you'll be able to add another 15 to that!) and put the rest into DEX, PER and INT. I usually keep CON flat at 10 and dump RES (as low as you are comfortable with). With Barring Death's Door and Salvation of Time you'll be able to take a pounding.

[Boeroer]

When in armor (I would aim for plate, even the Blackened Plate, because you know: Breath ;)) you want high DEX. Else your reactivity is too bad. 

MIG can be mediocre bc. Helwalker, PER doesn't need to be super high (bc. Blessings and Devotions).

From a roleplaying perspective I would have highish RES. It also helps with shrugging off afflictions and other hostile effects faster.

As a Helwalker too low CON isn't great. If you pick the Iron Wheel path you can go lower. As a Helwalker I almost always pick the "Tough" ability no matter the route I take with Duality of Mortal Presence.

Also if you start with Breath Blessing points and the merchant you can have a Greater Amulet of Health which helps a lot in the early game with a Helwalker (and not stellar CON). 

All in all I wouldn't minmax this guy much in terms of attributes. Something like 14 to 16 as higher values and 8 to 10 as lowest ones. With Berath Blessing points it's of course a lot easier to achieve a good balanced attribute spread (I mean not going below 10 but still having some high numbers) bc. of the +2 to all attributes.

PS: don't feel like you are bothering anybody with your questions. If we wouldn't want to answer questions we would either just not reply - or not be active in these forums in the first place.

 

Edited January 27, 2022 by Boeroer

[Samugol]

Thank you guys so much You are so kind. While I agree with the fact that you reply when you wish, I can also see that when there are 100 people and each DEMAND a reply (even though you do it out of goodness of your heart and they do not understand that you are under no obligation to do so and they should be thankful if anything) it could get very tedious, very quickly.

Also, Boeroer - great detailed tips as always, the blackened plate is exactly what I will be aiming for and really fits the build. That is more than I needed, I cannot wait to play this bad boy, it should be a ton of fun.