Priest fighting capability

[Lazarus]

Hi guys,just a quick question here probably for those who already play/ed BB. Are priests able to deliever some real pain in melee combat? For my first playtrough i am planning some kind of warpriest badass hero but i am not sure if a game mechanics allows to build such a type of character...

[Flayeriv]

Pretty sure it will be possible to tailor your priest for combat, but it won't ever be as tanky as a fighter for example.

[morhilane]

Priest have low health and endurance, so that would mean resting more if they get hit often. Their spells have short range though so you need to keep them mid-ranged anyway.

 

The game mechanics have no gear restrictions, so you can give a Priest melee weapon and a shield if you want (although that's more tanky than damage oriented).

[Ark Evensong]

Their Accuracy and Deflection are pretty poor, too.

You can get Accuracy up to that of the more offensive classes for two weapons (based on Deity) via a Talent, though.

[Lazarus]

hmm so second-tier fighter at best...anyway thanx for replies guys

[Voss]

Their Accuracy and Deflection are pretty poor, too.

You can get Accuracy up to that of the more offensive classes for two weapons (based on Deity) via a Talent, though.

Well, no.  You can get accuracy up to average with the god-favored weapon talents.  And up to high with the general weapon talent on top (though the classes that start high can take that one too)

[Ark Evensong]

Hmm?

The God-Favored weapon Talent gives +10 accuracy at the moment. Which is the difference between the base accuracy of the Priest (20) and a Fighter or Rogue (30)

 

Of course, another character could've taken a regular weapon Talent by then (+6 accuracy for 4 or 5 weapons), sure.

[White Phoenix]

They reduced priest offensive nature (I don't like it, I prefer that one in recent builds where it was average). If you want to build battle priest I think you should invest in one hand weapon (I had a spear with additional accuracy) and shield, and then take a defensive talent with that style (must have), it increases priest's deflection and reflex. And good medium or heavy armor (I used scale armor and brigantine, but scale is less heavy, you can quickly switch between casting and fighting). Brigantine is the best (your health and endurance goes down rarely), but you cast not so fast (but not so terrible slowly like before). And high Might for such priest is must have.

Edited March 14, 2015 by White Phoenix

[Voss]

Hmm?

The God-Favored weapon Talent gives +10 accuracy at the moment. Which is the difference between the base accuracy of the Priest (20) and a Fighter or Rogue (30)

 

Of course, another character could've taken a regular weapon Talent by then (+6 accuracy for 4 or 5 weapons), sure.

Ah, my mistake.  I thought the various numbers were different.  Old information, probably.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Voss

[Gromnir]

Hmm?

The God-Favored weapon Talent gives +10 accuracy at the moment. Which is the difference between the base accuracy of the Priest (20) and a Fighter or Rogue (30)

 

Of course, another character could've taken a regular weapon Talent by then (+6 accuracy for 4 or 5 weapons), sure.

however, there aren't that many accuracy boosting talents.  by level 6, you is likely gonna be having near optimal accuracy, but that accuracy will be tied to one or two weapons.

 

poor health/endurance and poor deflection is issues, but it also depends on how you spend your attributes.  regardless, you can make a highly effective combat priest o' berath who dual wields maces and has the entire priest spell catalog at their disposal as well.  a priest o' skaen dual wielding stilettos is also viscous.  berath gets 2-handed sword and can be made quite effective with such a weapon.  am thinking the quarterstaff is gonna be a surprisingly good weapon choice in poe.  there appear to be more than a few unique quarterstaves in the game.  am suspecting that priests o' wael will predictably become popular if there are indeed excellent quarterstaves available in the game. as a support character, a priest can be very good in combat.

 

oh, and am not certain how many times we had wished we had one more priest while playing the bb.  priests get some excellent spells.  got near indispensable buffing spells, heal spells, underused but excellent cc spells and a handful o' very good offensive spell. am knowing other classes is more powerful, but when that BB MVP thread were still at the top o' the board, we were unabashed about naming the priest as our clear mvp.  not most powerful, but most valuable. 

 

you gotta spend talents wisely to be a decent combat priest, but it is viable.  however, you are gonna be fragile. am s'posing you could spend enough points in constitution to make you less anemic, but then you is taking points away from might or dex or intelligence and perception.  no matter what kinda combat priest build you end up with, it is unlikely to have a particular good constitution.  chances are that you is gonna die if you attract aggro, so be careful. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Voss]

The fact that Con is a percentage increase rather than a multiplicative bonus makes it difficult to be beneficial for most classes.  Barbarians benefit a lot, fighters monks and paladins can get decent mileage out of it, but it falls off pretty quickly.  And other stats are better at boosting your health indirectly, by killing enemies faster or making the character harder to hit.

[Striped_Wolf]

Better idea might be to build a Paladin with focus on 'priesty' talents...

This is due to the class stat templates. Sure you can heal as a priest but most heals are Endurance heals, which means that the health pool will still dwindle fast, even though you heal your endurance. If Ive understood it correctly.

[Lazarus]

cool, so with carefull attribute/talent spending and some luck i might be able to make decent warpriest....i was considering to play a paladin as well but i want to play Eothas follower due to lore aspect...i really want to see how to world that hates eothas guts will react to my eothas loving character

[Gromnir]

Better idea might be to build a Paladin with focus on 'priesty' talents...

 

This is due to the class stat templates. Sure you can heal as a priest but most heals are Endurance heals, which means that the health pool will still dwindle fast, even though you heal your endurance. If Ive understood it correctly.

out of endurance = out of the fight.  ideally, you keep your health from dwindling fast by keeping up endurance, 'cause endurance gets drained first. you are gonna need to be healing frequently.  

 

a priest can actual have better accuracy than a paladin.  the difference in starting accuracy between paladins and priests is a +5 in favor o' the paladin, but the favored weapon talent is a +10 modifier.  sure, the paladin gets zealous focus aura, but the priest has spells that boost accuracy as well.  

 

the paladin requires less hand-holding, and he/she can be a very capable tank, at least at lower levels.  you can boost paladin deflection through the roof, but it is tough to hold aggro with a paladin. however, depending on the player, the paladin's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness: it requires very little micromanagement. if you wanna furiously click buttons in combat, the paladin ain't gonna be your thang.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Tamerlane]

Endurance and health go down equally.

[Gromnir]

and you have less endurance... far less.  endurance gets drained first.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Tamerlane]

Right, I get what you're saying, but, like... you see that your sentence has two meanings, yeah? "Endurance gets drained first" is simultaneously correct and incorrect depending on how you read the word "drained" ("emptied" vs "reduced"), which can cause confusion.

 

This is the most pedantic post I have ever made holy ****.

[Gromnir]

Right, I get what you're saying, but, like... you see that your sentence has two meanings, yeah? "Endurance gets drained first" is simultaneously correct and incorrect depending on how you read the word "drained" ("emptied" vs "reduced"), which can cause confusion.

 

This is the most pedantic post I have ever made holy ****.

no prob, and yes, there were an ambiguity.  point is that you are far more likely to run out o' endurance than health in combat, particularly in hard mode when the damage is coming in extreme big chunks and it is difficult to replenish endurance fast enough through healing.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Osvir]

I believe a melee oriented Priest would have to debuff their enemies pretty hard and then use that debuffed window to buff themselves to be viable in melee. Stat and Gear optimization too...

I noticed on my solo Rogue that having Light Armor, with tons of deflection/evasion focused gear, allowed it to interrupt the enemy all the time (they could barely auto-attack because of the interrupts). Meaning, in that instance, the Rogue barely took any damage whatsoever (but dealt no damage either unfortunately... but in a party that could be fairly useful. I'm definately going to try an interrupting Fencer Cipher :D).

I would presume something like this for the Priest:

- Enemy Debuffs into Self Buffs into clobbering time.
- Gear: Light Armor or Hide Armor for attack speed/recovery time.
- Deflection and Evasion focused items.
- Rest Bonus+potential Food Bonus

Gonna try it.

Edited March 15, 2015 by Osvir