Class review: The Priest

[mutonizer]

disclaimer:
All the information below was collected during BB301 in an enclosed environment and tests were conducted between characters only using all weapons and armor available in the beta. Monster balance is therefore irrelevant.
Due to some lack of details on some mechanics as well as poorly detailed tool-tips, I probably got a couple things wrong as well. This is also just me testing **** with the tools we have available (and simple modding to make it easier to recruit adventurers). I also could only do level 1 to 7 reliably, but should be a good start.
I ran tests with all classes to get a good feel for them before judging each class individually, and I plan on trying to do more class specific reviews under similar conditions as time allows.

 

Note:

I considered 2 main roles here: Support Priest and Healer Priest.

• Support Priest will be very close or in the battle, in melee with the others, usually wearing heavier armor for protection. They cast a lot of control/offensive spells and support spells on friendlies nearby.
• Healer Priest will be in the back, wearing light armor and spending most of their time idling, never attacking, so that when they need to cast a heal or buff, they'll be able to instantly react.

RACES

• Human: Irrelevant overall
• Aumaua: Coastal as usual is nice but situational, Island can be interesting as it should make the Priest move around faster, but the bonus is so small, it's hardly a factor.
• Dwarf: Somewhat irrelevant though Boreal might be nice for Wilders and Primordials since these might be tougher opponents with higher defenses, so 15 ACC boost might offset that, making these probably tougher fights a bit easier if you're going Support Priest.
• Elf: Pale elf is irrelevant but Wood elf in theory is awesome. Very hard to test properly though and not yet sure if it's working.
• Orlan: Not bad but not great.
• Godlike: Irrelevant

 

ATTRIBUTES

• MIG isn't that great, even on pure healer priests. The effect on ticking heals is minimal at best, while the effect on larger heals is decent, it's a lot of attribute points just for that and I think there are other, better attributes to raise.
• CON is somewhat useless, but as usual, don't dump
• DEX is very nice for support priest as it allows you to react faster even when you're doing something else (melee, etc) as well as allow you to cast spells at a distance, even when locked into engagement range (once the range bonus is implemented). However, pure healer priest who stand idle and in the back most of the time will not find much use in DEX, not even with the range bonus, since you'll usually have the freedom to move around and far from the melee pack and possible engagement swaps, allowing you to easily re-position, unlike a Support Priest.
• PER is nice as usual for it's flat bonus to ACC, which helps land your spells. I'd max this out first for support priests, can ignore for healer priests.
• INT is nice with the new AE sizes for spells on the priest, often making it much easier to grab a couple more of your guys within the AE rather than just one or two. Offensively the gain is ok, but defensively, it's quite good.
• RES is very good with 40% boost duration at 18 RES. I'd raise this just after PER if you're support, after INT if you're pure heal

All in all:

• Support Priest: Max out PER first, then either DEX or RES. INT is nice as well, but points are just lacking. I wouldn't dump stat on Support Priest because you might need all your defenses since you'll be much closer to the actual fight and might get cast on or otherwise engaged/attacked.
• Healer Priest: INT and RES is all you need here, then maybe some in MIG if you got left overs but I'd personally go PER instead, just in case you want to cast a couple control/offensive spells and a bit more chances to land a crit empowered interdiction. You can dump stat a little since Healer Priest will be far from harm most of the time. Personally, I'd dump DEX and CON a bit to get some more MIG or PER.

CORE ABILITIES
(level 1) Holy Radiance: One of the best "oh **** heals" simply because it has a very, very short casting animation compared to the others and almost no recovery frames. The heal itself is not awesome, but it's a decent AE. If suddenly **** hits the fan, click this first, then see what you else can do.
(level 1) Interdiction: Use all the time ability, but use properly as well. This massive AE spell on a per encounter system will stack up Dazed status on everything it touches though for a short duration, especially since you'll probably just graze (5 seconds on graze overall) without Empowered version. However, the slower attack speed and penalty to ACC on both ranged and melee attacks it causes is pretty awesome and actually works on all abilities as well. It also ignores friendlies. Overall, wait a couple seconds after engagement for combat to stabilize a bit, then pop this out on melees. If you're going against ranged/casters, pop this out as your other guys rush forward to reduce chance of anything landing before you reach them.

 

SPELLS
(level 1) Armor of Faith: The DT gain is universal, which is nice and with a decent RES, it's 21s duration isn't bad either. Overall a good spell to stabilize a fight going a bit haywire, and it's radius, even unboosted by INT, should cover a melee pack nice and easy.
(level 1) Barbs of Condemnation: For a level 1 spell, it has decent damage though the penalties to defense are lackluster for it's duration. Even with boosted RES, this will barely last 7 seconds on a graze and then the penalties will be really small. This is however the only Priest finisher spell at this level, so when you really need to speed things up, might be good, if lucky.
(level 1) Blessing: Very good defensive spell (+10 to all defenses) with decent duration (22 seconds on 18 RES). If you're going against casters or mobs that can trigger effects (poison, etc), it's duration and AE size make it one of the best in my book at any level.
(level 1) Divine Terror: Despite it's small AE size and the fact that you'll only get a grazing effect most of the time (making it duration 11 seconds on a 18RES, though crit make it 33 seconds), it's useful for one thing: -10ACC on targets and this seems to affect everything, from melee/ranged attacks, to spell checks, to control checks, poison, etc. Decent for level 1 though, all in all, I'd really cast Blessing instead of this.
(level 1) Halt: Somewhat useful to control someone, but where this really comes into play is to quickly kill a target. Even on a graze the -20DEF/REF stands unchanged and if you have a couple of big hitters ready for this, then pop up their big damage abilities and unleash. Remember however that it's just a root type spell, the target is not actually paralyzed and will hit back. However, combine this with other -DEF abilities (such as Fighter KD) and critical hits will start popping up like candies at Christmas.
(level 1) Holy Meditation: It's hard to get hard data on interrupts mechanics, but Blessing seems better in every way.
(level 1) Prayer against Fear: Blessing is once again better and durations are about the same (just couple seconds difference really). Add to that a ridiculously small AE and I have no idea why anyone would ever use this spells unless you REALLY want to stack up defenses against Fear or something.
(level 1) Restore Minor Endurance: Decent and fast to cast healing spell. Does it's job just fine all in all
(level 1) Withdraw: This is your get out of jail free card for anyone who needs saving in a rush. Fast to cast, somewhat long duration, it'll make sure whoever you need saved, is saved. Or regular difficulties, unless you really mess up an engagement and one of your weakling is suddenly surrounded by tons of nasties, you probably won't be needing this much. On Trial of Iron however, I foresee this being a game changer, allowing you to recover from catastrophic mistakes very easily, especially since the IA currently is dumb as nails and will most likely keep hittig the impenetrable barrier, allowing your other guys to bash their heart content.

 

(level 3) Consecrated Grounds: This long lasting (43 seconds on 18 RES) heal over time zone is quite decent and should keep everyone topped off nice and easy. The ticks are about 4 seconds apart so while it will not keep a weak/lightly armored character under heavy fire alive, it'll free your priest and allows him to do something else. Especially nice for Support Priest in the melee, since once that spell is cast, you got a nice 40 seconds free time  ahead of you to bash heads in peace.
(level 3) Divine Mark: While the damage is interesting in itself, what really makes this shine is the -25DEF for a decent duration. Like all DEF debuffs, prepare your entire team to make use of this time-frame to focus fire like crazy. Best way to do this usually is to cancel all actions on them, cast the spell, then order attack once it lands.
(level 3) Holy Power: Good spell for long attrition fights though it's a shame that it's RES bonus and not PER bonus. That said, with a very long duration (almost 90 seconds on a 18RES), pop this one out if you're going against mobs with high DT, and it'll help a wee bit. As a note, it seemed to bug out and not actually cast properly quite a bit however during my tests.
(level 3) Iconic Projection: Handy quick to cast healing and damaging spell. The heals are the same as level 1 Minor Heal but it'll affect everything in it's path on a much wider scale than the visual effects would make you think. From what I could see, you got a good 2m on each side of the path that will be affected, which is really cool. It's casting range (4m) makes this awesome for Support Priest, but a bit risky for Healer priest as you'll need to get really close to enemies to position yourself properly, risking getting an engagement swap on the way.
(level 3) Instill Doubt: Long duration, smaller radius Interdiction. If you like one, you'll like the other. Sadly, you cannot boost it's ACC from talents like you can for Interdiction, and Interdiction is per encounter, this one per rest.
(level 3) Prayer against Infirmity: Long duration but very specific. Like Prayer against Fear, Blessing is better as a base, then you only pop this one out against specific foes.
(level 3) Repulsing Seal: Hard to test the Seals properly. Sadly, you'll probably just Graze at best on this and it's only useful if the AI is completely retarded. I'd rather have a good AI, than this spell be useful...so there. Range is also very short though it does not seem to affect friendlies, making it somewhat interesting for Support Priest, especially if you're ready to stack up other DEF penalties then gang up.
(level 3) Restore Light Endurance: 50 END heal, fast cast. It's a heal...
(level 3) Suppress Afflictions: Decent spell because of it's AE size, but duration is really short, it has a bloody long cast time and is very situational. That said, if you get your entire party rooted away from where you want to be, pop this one out and re-position before the root resumes it's effects. For poisons and the like, I'd pop a quick Holy Radiance, then this, then triage among who needs what during the suppression. For single target big nasties (pertrification, etc) I'd just pop a withdraw really, so not that great here, though if the mobs are nearly dead, Suppress Affliction will help finish that fight in good health in peace.

 

(level 5) Circle of Protection: Combat only slightly improved Blessing, with shorter duration. Unlike Blessing however, it's treated as a Hazard, which means it'll be a fixed area and not an actual buff. You enter it, you get the buff, you leave, you lose it. It's nice, and it stacks with Blessing, but for a level 3 spell that is a fixed area, I'd like longer duration personally.
(level 5) Despondent Blows: Ok, this is one is pretty groovy. Really long duration and effects are variables, which means on a graze they'll suck a bit, but on a crit, they'll be massive. 65 seconds -22ACC and +22% crittohit chance means whoever's affected by this won't bother you whatsoever for the rest of the fight usually. The size of the AE isn't that good, but it ignores friendlies so a Support Priest can pop this one in the melee easy enough, and affect most involved mobs. Sadly, as with most Priest spells, you'll rarely get anything but a Graze at best against the mobs you really need to use this against. If you can somehow debuff the targets WILL defense before casting this, do so, every little bit helps.
(level 5) Dire Blessing: This one is a bit crazy especially with current DT mechanics. It has a very good duration and it's AE size easily grabs all your DPS if done right. +20% hit to crit bonus is good in itself, but on Fighters and Rogues (or anything with already high ACC or the same kind of boost), this is just crazy talk. Nothing can survive this as it stands currently and you'll be left wondering wtf happened to all the mobs that were there a moment earlier. On DPS that can't hit however, this is utterly useless.
(level 5) Pillar of Faith: I could have sworn this had some kind of KD effect before, but it seems to be lacking now. The base damage is good and it's against REF so you can try to prep up with other abilities before using this (ie: Halt) but the Priest is somewhat ill suited for pure damage abilities because the risk of missing/grazing vs the cost of such a high resource is just too high in my opinion. Other DPS can do just as much damage more reliably.
(level 5) Prayer against Restraint: Usual with Prayers, good for stacking up on a Bless/Circle of Protection, but very situational. Suppress Affliction is a surer way to handle Stuck I think though this has a good duration.
(level 5) Restore Moderate Endurance: Yet another upgrade to heals and as with the others, it'll usually cap out any non high END party member.
(level 5) Warding Seal: Hard to test again, but just as with Pillar of Faith, I have issues with pure damage no utility spells on a Priest, simply because it's not reliable due to low ACC. Damage is pretty good though, even on a graze it'll hurt a bit.
(level 5) Watchful Presence: This spell is awesome, period. At the level you'll be getting it, it's a nearly guaranteed full heal to everyone affected by it (and radius is really large) the moment they should collapse from Endurance loss. There is no duration, target number limitation or anything like that either. It'll vanish soon as you leave combat however, so be careful if you got dots still running on some characters.

 

(level 7) Barring Death's Door: Any damage that should cause Health death (not Endurance) will just be ignored for the duration. However, this spell bugs out currently, with characters surviving after this spell is triggered just stop being usable until you rest (can't even select them). Situational, but in a Trial of Iron run, probably want to save a spell slot for this baby
(level 7) Devotion of the Faithful: One of the these spells that just breaks the game currently. Long duration INSANE boost to everyone in a large enough radius while also putting insane debuffs on all enemies. Nothing can survive until this spell ends, period. This affects spells and abilities too btw. Combine this with Dire Blessing and you'll be spending the next hour looking for tissues to clean up all the gibs splattered around on your screen.
(level 7) Prayer against Bewilderment: Same old, same old. Situational.
(level 7) Restore Major Endurance: Bigger heal that heals more. Progression on heals seems on par with Endurance progression overall as this will, as with all heals relative to when you get them, cap out your average END ratio classes.
(level 7) Searing Seal: Ok, now we're talking big numbers AND effects? 100 base burn damage and Blinding effect makes this thing really nasty. For your Priest, it "can" be somewhat nice to use, but if you ever see that cast by an enemy, you do NOT want to step in it as a crit might just insta kill anyone without Above average END ratio and even a graze will leave you blind for a really long time.
(level 7) Shining Beacon: Another spell that falls victim to the current combat mechanics. Awesome in potential, this spell is actually useless on anything with some burn DT. The base tick damage is about 14 and with most armors apart from padded and hide, you won't feel this one much. With Padded and Hide, it tickles and you'll probably need to do throw a heal somewhere. On someone naked, it'll empty you healing resources just to try and keep them alive through the duration. This spell does 300 burn damage over a period of time and is not modified by graze/crit hit factors, only by DT. 300 damage is 3x your average END character at the level you'll be getting it AND it persists beyond collapse, only being suppressed by it, which means the moment your downed guy gets back up, this spell will tick again. The penalities vary with graze/crit but really that's not the point of this spell but if you can lower burn DT on a target, it's godlike. If you can't, it's near useless.
(level 7) Triumph of the Crusaders: Long duration full heal on target death for the character who gets the kill. It's interesting and with some INT, the radius is big enough to grab all your melee guys. If you got fast but weak killers, probably don't even need a tank with this on though it's probably best used when fighting large amount of mobs, or when your DPS characters need to go in the back rows of the enemy lines, far from your Priest support/healing powers.

 

EXTRA TALENTS

• Untroubled Faith: No idea, can't really test it proper.
• Empowered Interdiction: +20ACC (!!) on your Interictions. This is a massive must.
• Painful Interdiction: Does nothing whatsoever as far as I could test it. Well it bugs out Interdiction actually, but very weirdly. Need to check again once fixed.

• Weapon Focus: If you're a support Priest, it'll allow you to participate a bit more in melee. Otherwise, just ignore.
• Hold the Line: Nope...
• Defensive Talents: +10 to a specific type of Defense. Can be nice to up a defense that is low due to a dump stat, but otherwise, not really worth it when there are other goodies around and so few talent points.
• Savage Attack: Nope, Empowered Interdiction and Weapon focus are more useful here.
• Cautious Attack: Good for any Priest but especially good on Support Priest. +15 DEF will help a lot should you get focused while in melee. Sadly, not many talent points...
• Envenomed Strike: Useless.
• Fast Runner: Tested a couple races but this doesn't seem to do anything noticeable and didn't see any button to trigger it. Personally I'd convert this into a per rest ability, granting a big speed boost, but we'll see once it's working/fixed.

Priests, like Fighters, are common cornerstone of any given party. All in all, also like Figther, they are pretty well designed and balanced, with interesting all around buffs, good healing capabilities, no real dump stat and a couple very handy utilities. Most of the Priest spells are solid for the roles he can take, though his low base ACC and DEF can be an issue if you want to involve him a bit more into the action but even then, it's highly unlikely that he'll be in any real danger unless you're running low on spell slots for the day. Managing your animation frames, casting time and recovery time properly is key however so the Priest can be much more high maintenance than the Fighter.

 

Pure Healer roles are what the Priest excels at, no surprise there since it's the most reliable mechanic, disconnected from any random factors. Hanging in the back with light or medium armor, never taking any action and ready to react instantly to anything that needs doing. I personally would not recommend auto attacking with a Healing Priest because not only he will participate very little damage wise, but you'll also lock him into recovery states constantly and the last thing you want from a healer, is to be locked for these crucial couple seconds when a heal is needed or an enemy spell is about to be cast on your entire melee pack. Sadly, and it's a common issue with Healer Priest, the better you'll do as a team, the less he'll be of any use.

Personally I consider them like condoms: Best to have one and not need it, than need it and not have one.

 

Support Priest role is a bit harder to handle, but much more fun, especially if the Priest is your main dude. With Weapon Focus, Cautious Attack as backup modal, an aura or two to boost ACC, a fast weapon and some decent armor, he'll be right there when you need a little buffing, dps, control or group heal. I'd recommend just a small shield and fast 1hd (stiletto was nice overall), but reach 2 weapons are a good option there, allowing proximity and safety. The main downside is that unlike the Healer Priest, he'll be much less able to react to sudden damage spikes/combat events and you'll have to wait for his recovery to be done with to do anything. To good thing however is that he'll be able to really stay close and therefore able to use his short range abilities properly.

 

In most of my early runs, I used Healer Priest types, focusing only on buffs and heals, ignoring anything hostile simply because the ACC wasn't there, making casting offensively a risk with dubious reward at best. However, I tried a couple runs with Melee focused Support Priests (mostly stileto/rapier/flail and light shield) and he was allowed to contribute more. Iconic Projection was my usual goto ability then as it's perfect for Priest who stand in the middle of it all. Sadly, taking Weapon Focus and Cautious Attack meant no Empowered Interdiction (something I always take on my Healer Priest and is usually the only offensive ability they use). Due to it's per encounter system, I'd ignore Cautious Attack (never really needed it) and grab Empowered Interdiction instead next time around. I'd also stay away from ranged weapons because of their long recovery time though I did not try wands and rods.

 

All in all, great, powerful class currently and will probably remain so even after mob re-balancing. It's highly functional in either Role I tried, though if you plan on using offensive abilities/debuffs, you'll usually want to make sure you max out PER, grab every little bit of ACC you can and plan things around getting grazes duration at best, as hits/crits on any spell other than a boosted interdiction might be rare.

 

 

As with the Fighter, this is mainly a thread to talk Priest.

Edited September 29, 2014 by mutonizer

[swordofthesith]

This is epic Mut. Thanks for taking the time to write this up for the rest of the Backers/fans. + 1

[TheNationer]

How do you mean the human is 'irrelevant overall'? Specific to this class irrelevant or literally irrelevant overall? Ie not the best for any specific build

[mutonizer]

How do you mean the human is 'irrelevant overall'? Specific to this class irrelevant or literally irrelevant overall? Ie not the best for any specific build

 

Sorry, maybe should clarify a bit but can't edit, I'll keep it in mind for other reviews.

Overall it just means that the human racial bonus are not really relevant to this class specifics roles/abilities/etc.

[TheNationer]

 

How do you mean the human is 'irrelevant overall'? Specific to this class irrelevant or literally irrelevant overall? Ie not the best for any specific build

 

 

Sorry, maybe should clarify a bit but can't edit, I'll keep it in mind for other reviews.

Overall it just means that the human racial bonus are not really relevant to this class specifics roles/abilities/etc.

Ah, ok. I was just wondering. I know that in a lot of games humans represent the conservative build with no specific strengths, I should really look at the racial bonuses when creating a character xD

[mutonizer]

I usually pick the one that looks fine to me personally and tend to ignore racials and whatnot, favoring look and feel over gameplay advantages. Just listing them because...reasons but they're not really that powerful overall, though Orlan and Wild elf ones stand out in my opinion.

[Sensuki]

Area of Effects of everything have been absolutely nerfed to the bone in this patch, doesn't feel right.

[Seari]

Priest spells are just boring and everything is AoE, a real disappointment.

[mutonizer]

Well, they do what they're designed for, mostly.

 

It's already clear that PoE will have no utility spells whatsoever, nor any buffing mechanic other than short term and combat only. Once you accept that (and since we're closing on October already, it's about time to accept **** you don't like and move on), there's little left really.

 

Personally I wouldn't mind some kind of "self boost" spell/ability to help turn the Priest into a little beefier melee dude, maybe a modal of some kind, as well as some kind of active concentration based spells (meaning they keep pulsing as long as you don't interrupt/stop them/do something else) but other than that, not sure what they could add. If you got realistic and within context suggestions, feel free I'd say

 

 

 

Area of Effects of everything have been absolutely nerfed to the bone in this patch, doesn't feel right.

Didn't bother much that much during testing, Priest still pretty good at it's core role despite the changes.

Edited September 29, 2014 by mutonizer

[redneckdevil]

Tyvm for this. Was an excellent read.

[Seari]

I have a feeling that after I play this game it will just make me want to replay BG2 for the thousandth time. Which is sad, because I really want it to be good.

[aeonsim]

Another excellent post, good work!

[Fiebras]

 

• Godlike: Irrelevant

OBJECTION

Nature and Moon Godlikes are great complimentary races for the priest class because of the stamina/endurance healing passive abilities. Dont know if Nature´s stam regen applies to their abilities. And Moon Godlikes compliment well if you think your Priest is gonna get hit at all.

 

Anyway:

Repulsing Seal- Is useful for when you have many enemies clumped up on your fighters. Consider it an AOE knockdown or a way to separate groups of enemies in tight hallways (the Spider Queen encounter can be made easy by separating the spides in two groups with Repulsing seal as they cant walk around it if you place it just right)

Pillar of Faith-Its actually really useful when you need AOE crushing damage like against beetles or spiders.

 

Envenomed Strike isnt useless. It gives you an extra ability that basically aplies Deep Wounds (Raw DoT) to an enemy and you can use it 3 times per rest.

Its worth a consideration imo.

 

Other than that I agree with your analysis.

[bonarbill]

Priest spells are just boring and everything is AoE, a real disappointment.

 

Agreed.  They need to get rid of many these overpowered (and boring) AoE support and healing spells, and bring back the variety of spells like the clerics had in the D&D CRPGs games. 

Edited September 30, 2014 by bonarbill

[Fiebras]

 

Priest spells are just boring and everything is AoE, a real disappointment.

 

Agreed.  They need to get rid of many these overpowered (and boring) AoE support and healing spells, and bring back the variety of spells like the clerics had in the D&D CRPGs games. 

 

You mean Cure Light Wounds, Cure Light Wound, Cure Light Wounds, Cure Moderate/Criticals Wounds, Heal and Cure Light Wounds?

[Seari]

Don't be stupid.

[Fiebras]

Oh right there was also Slow Poison.

 

Useful.

 

Diverse.

 

EDIT: Oh yeah and Ressurection. But who ever needs THAT amiright?

Edited September 30, 2014 by Fiebras

[bonarbill]

 

 

Priest spells are just boring and everything is AoE, a real disappointment.

 

Agreed.  They need to get rid of many these overpowered (and boring) AoE support and healing spells, and bring back the variety of spells like the clerics had in the D&D CRPGs games. 

 

You mean Cure Light Wounds, Cure Light Wound, Cure Light Wounds, Cure Moderate/Criticals Wounds, Heal and Cure Light Wounds?

 

 

Um..., what?  I have no idea what kind of point you're trying to make.

 

I'm talking about the spells like domain spells, short duration self buffs, reverse healing spells, summoning spells, utility spells, etc.  Don't get me wrong, the Priest does have a few interesting spells in the game (like the seal spells), but many of them could be more interesting.

Edited September 30, 2014 by bonarbill

[Fiebras]

Im not sure how you played the IE games so your way of playing probably differs from mine.

 

But despite the array of "cool" spells Clerics/Druids had the ones I used the most and the ones that were given the most priority in the Priest Scroll were the healing spells with the ocasional AOE buff spell or "remove antidote/disease/whatever" spell. Theres a reason Clerics are mocked by being called "the healbots". Sometimes you even had them stay to the side twidling their thumbs while your Fighters and Mages did all the heavy lifting since their spells were so important and they were sometimes squishy.

Yeah they have other spells beyond healing. I didnt really used them or felt the need to use them. Your experience may have been diferent so I do apologize because Ive always found Clerics in IE games boring because the main reason you have them in your party is to heal your other characters (Im refering mostly to the BG series here of course).

 

I dont feel that way about Priests in Pillars of Eternity to be honest. I actually find them more interesting than IE Clerics. Shocking I know. Maybe its the freshness, maybe its because I find myself using spells other than heal since Im not limited by having to choose how many times I want to use X spell in my Priest Scroll and am just limited by number of casts of a whole level. Its convenient. It makes me want to try out diferent spells instead of just having the same selection and resting every time I want to change a single spell on it.

 

I actually like that Priest spells are AOE at low levels. In IE games you only had individual healing until you got mass cure and until then you were stuck with healing bits of hp. Considering we cant just rest-spam on PoE it makes sense to have the healing and buffing spells be AOE. It feels fresh. It feels different. Its not objectively better because its fresh or different though. But I like it.

 

So. I find it silly to say "What a boring selection of spells! We should go back to these other boring selection of spells!". YMMV, but you are completely free to disagree.

[Cantousent]

This is epic Mut. Thanks for taking the time to write this up for the rest of the Backers/fans. + 1

agreed. Thanks, Mutie.

[Hiro Protagonist II]

At least half my Cleric spells in the IE games were offensive/attacking spells. I'm surprised you wouldn't use spells like Holy Smite, Animate Dead, False Dawn. And this is by no means half the spells I'd use. Glyph of Warding was awesome in BG1. Then there's the buffing spells as well.

Edited September 30, 2014 by Hiro Protagonist II

[Fiebras]

Animate dead was pretty good, but if I had to choose between that and a healing spell Id choose a healing spell. Still left a space for Animate Dead and some buffing spells of course.

The rest of the Cleric spells always seemed a bit trivial when you had mages who could deal damage and CC in much better ways and fighters and thieves to do the brunt of the damage and fighting. Clerics only had to keep the others alive.

 

You could also heal undead to damage them which is something I hope is in PoE.

 

Like I said, I probably played Clerics diferently than others so my opinon is based on a different experience. I know some people just facetanked with their Clerics, others used them like Mages with a heal and others just gave them a sling+1 and fogot about them until someone needed healing or a buff. Everyone playe IE games diferently, which is one of the great things about those games, and one of the things that makes agreement on them so hard.

Edited September 30, 2014 by Fiebras

[Hiro Protagonist II]

I wouldn't call spells like Draw Upon Holy Might trivial. STR, DEX and CON increased by 1 point for every 3 levels of the Cleric. And this is a level 2 spell. There was some really good spells for the Cleric in the IE games.

[Fiebras]

As there are some good Priest Spells in PoE. But not everyone uses all of them.

 

EDIT: I didnt call buff spells trivial. I also used some buff spells but during the actual fighting it was almost all healing spells as far as I remember.

Edited September 30, 2014 by Fiebras

[Cantousent]

You could make quite a powerful offensive cleric in some of the IE games.  3.x did a great job of making a warrior priest a viable build, but even saying that, I don't know that the PoE priest is bad per se.  It's a matter of getting into the nitty gritty, which is why I read all of these character creation threads, even if only to lurk most of the time.  The problem with a new and innovative system is that you have to unravel some of the class characteristics.  Crunching numbers doesn't always do it.  You have to experiment with different skills, talents, spells, etc.  Then, when you find an unforeseen exploit, you'd best use the hell out of it until they nerf it in the next patch.  ...Or, better yet, they don't nerf it.  This isn't an MMORPG.  If someone finds some super cool unforeseen exploit, they'll have to post about it which means it's after the fact.  Let them have the exploit.  Anyhow, I guess my point is that clerics in the BG games didn't *need* to be healbots, although I tended to play them that way myself.  You could make a damn fine offensive character who could take a beating and dish out some ugly.

 

EDIT:  Sorry, diminished capacity right now and I can't remember the other end of 'not only,' so I removed it.

Edited September 30, 2014 by Cantousent