A good class to start with, priest ?

[Jourgensen]

Hello I wonder if priest is a good choice.

I like to talk, have the most intelligent choices.. but I wonder if the priest is really so usefull.

I hesitated with a Paladin, or a Fighter.

Nobody speaks about priests, what are you thoughts, advanced players

[falchen]

Priests are great, though one of the early companions you can get is an allright priest so you might not necesary need to be one yourself.

 

I'd suggest a cypher, or maybe druid, int is a good stat for their spells, and the druid and cypher companions you get are kind of rubbish and only avaliable a bit later in the game.

[Anthile]

I wouldn't call myself an advanced player but I played a priest beyond Caed Nua and I believe I can at least give some advice.

 

1. Priests are not like clerics in the old D&D games who were decent fighters with crazy buffs. They are not like the ungodly engines of destruction like in 3rd edition D&D either. In this game priests are mostly casters and not very good at frontline combat.

 

2. You are not nearly as tanky as chanters, fighters or paladins, and your accuracy is going to be awful. In my opinion priests are best with reach weapons or ranged weapons.

 

3. Not unlike like paladins, you choose a deity at the start which demands a certain roleplaying style of you. For example, Eothas wants you to be honest and benevolent. If you are, then your encounter power becomes more potent - and weaker if you don't. There is an option in the menu that shows dispositions for dialogue. Some may find that immersion breaking but I think it's borderline necessary for paladins and priests because it's often not obvious what dialogue choice is tied to what disposition.

 

4. Each deity is also tied to a talent that gives a massive +10 accuracy bonus for two categories of weapons plus a minor daily spell. Personally I'm not too fond of these talents since the weapon groupings are a bit awkward and you will often feel like you lack flexibility. 

 

5. Priest spells are really powerful. However, there are not very many different spells and quite a few of them seem incredibly situational. The priest's spells are not like a bag of tools but more of a collection of variously sized hammers with a couple of chisels.

 

6. As for abilities, well, you want a lot of might, which makes damaging and healing spells more powerful - as well as your weapon damage. You also want intelligence which makes your buffs last longer and your AoEs target a larger area.

[Voss]

Hello I wonder if priest is a good choice.

I like to talk, have the most intelligent choices.. but I wonder if the priest is really so usefull.

I hesitated with a Paladin, or a Fighter.

Nobody speaks about priests, what are you thoughts, advanced players

Rubbish, don't bother.

Also, fighter >>> paladin

 

Basically they do nothing that someone else doesn't do better. Except the things that aren't worthwhile in the first place.

[Fun3z]

Imo paladin is far superior tank if u play single tank setup and more melee based group that needs accuracy / crit / attack speed buffs etc.

 

Overall I think fighter is better for more balanced party with spell casters in it.

[Voss]

Imo paladin is far superior tank if u play single tank setup and more melee based group that needs accuracy / crit / attack speed buffs

ah. I can't imagine playing a melee heavy party in this game. It punishes you for even thinking about it.

[Lasci]

Hello I wonder if priest is a good choice.

I like to talk, have the most intelligent choices.. but I wonder if the priest is really so usefull.

I hesitated with a Paladin, or a Fighter.

Nobody speaks about priests, what are you thoughts, advanced players

 

Priests are not a very stand-out class. I have to imagine most people just stick with Durance because he is so fun to be around and leave it at that.

 

If you want a main character with high intelligence for dialogue options, your best bet is to go with a druid, wizard, priest or maybe cipher.

 

Paladin and Fighter are both good, but one of the first NPC's you get is a fighter and he's frankly one of the better build NPC's in the game. You have to wait a little bit longer to get to the paladin. Fighters are decent damage dealers and good tanks. Paladins are good frontliners that are capable of acting like a supportive tank or a damage-dealer with supportive abilities, but they're under no circumstances 'bad'.

 

I'm not so sure if I could recommend priest as a main character choice, though. They're a bit boring in terms of gameplay and the game does a poor job of acknowledging the fact that you're a priest.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Lasci

[Parsong]

Cipher.

[metsu]

Maybe a ranged rogue? There don't seem to be many rogues in the game. I made a cipher but I'm pumping a lot of points into mechanics cause I haven't found a party member yet to make up the difference and I don't want to use any no-name NPCs.

[cJohnOne]

I don't know if this is true or not but I saw that priests have low health so I was thinking of making him go ranged with a bow or something. 

[MadDemiurg]

Multiple priest trap spells are pretty great for holding off enemies that bypassed your tanks, both damage and cc wise. Some buffs are also quite awesome, like accuracy and deflection ones. The issue I have with priest is that his level 1 and 2 spells aren't that great (repulsing seal probably being the best one), so he's not that good at start of the game and doesn't get as much power increase as wizards or druids at levels 9 and 11. But I'd definitely say that he's quite valuable for a 6 man party.

Edited April 2, 2015 by MadDemiurg

[Moira]

It may not be the best choice for the first playthrough, if the game mechanics are new to you, but when I wanted to create a high Intelligence character (to get all Int conversation choices), I went with Cipher. Max Int, high Might and Dex. So far it's been a really interesting class to play, even if I'm generally not that into mage type characters.

 

If not for Cipher, I would have rolled a Chanter - also with high Int. I decided against it this time since I didn't want my CHARNAME in a tanking role. Chanter is a fab class to have in the party, though. My very first character was a Rogue, but I'd go for high(ish) Perc instead of high(ish) Int with that class.

 

Then again, Int is hardly the only stat affecting conversation options. Depending on your playing style, almost any of the attributes can be useful. Just make sure you have some stat(s) pretty high. If you want to be persuasive with words, Int or Perception may be good ones, and if you'd like to be more "physical" about it, Might may get it done. Plus there are other stats (developed during playing) that affect the conversation options as well.

[Wompoo]

I don't know if this is true or not but I saw that priests have low health so I was thinking of making him go ranged with a bow or something. 

They have very low health (3 x Endurance)... they are: Might low, health very low, accuracy very low (which surprises me seeing how often Durance hits) and deflection low. But some how they can survive and survive quite nicely as well, even running around in nothing but a underwear waving a stick that goes pew pew. :D

[Tigranes]

Priests can be pretty powerful, though they're unlikely to ever be the super damage dealer in the party like a cipher can easily be. 

 

As Anthile said they're unlikely to be as good as, say, Eder in frontline combat, or as flexible as a wizard, but the tools they do have are quite potent, and so it's more about playing to the strengths that a priest comes with. 

 

The +10 accuracy talent is an important one (e.g. it can be Sword & Arquebus, and Sword/Shield & Arquebus are good setups for a priest). To me the most obvious way to play the POE priest is have someone who trades deflection & DR for recovery, puts on medium or heavy armour and shield, put some boost into accuracy and concentration, and then sit just off the frontline putting in AOE party buffs, knocking some enemies down, perhaps a weapon with the "bonus for attaacking same enemy as an ally" trait. 

[Gromnir]

Gromnir might be the one guy who likes melee combat priests.  have a priest o' berath dual-wield maces augmented by vulnerable attacks is mighty impressive, or go with the 2h approach and use greatswords.  most folks have a prejudice against quarterstaves in crpgs, but in poe they are reach weapons that do identical damage as all the other 2h weapons.  as a support character who can melee, a priest o' wael using a quarterstaff is potent indeed. regardless, with a melee priest, you end up with a very effective secondary support caster who also has the best possible accuracy in the game with their chosen weapon. yeah, you don't have the melee damage potential of a rogue or even a fighter, but if you got durance focused on buffs, debuffs and heals, you can then focus your efforts on offensive spells and combat, and you can actual be good in combat.  

 

in the beta, we actual played melee combat priests more than anything else.  a few o' the high level priest spells is ridiculous powerful, and priests is far more versatile than paladins and chanters insofar as support casting is concerned.  2 priests is a great support combo that can dish out serious pain.   heck, have two priests spamming pillars of faith is game over in most situations. divine mark targets will, does big damage and lowers deflection.   shades and the like ruining your day?  two priests with access to pillars of fire is making such battles a joke.  with appropriate weapon feats,  and a few holy radiance abilities thrown into the mix, we very much enjoyed our melee combat priest characters.  they sure as hell didn't feel the least bit gimped.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Moira]

in the beta, we actual played melee combat priests more than anything else.  a few o' the high level priest spells is ridiculous powerful, and priests is far more versatile than paladins and chanters insofar as support casting is concerned.  2 priests is a great support combo that can dish out serious pain. 

 

I honestly hadn't considered having two priests in a party until reading this, and now I need to go and try it out!

[Gromnir]

priests have fabulous potential offensive firepower with their spells.  is not many such spells, but they is all excellent.  unfortunately, with a single priest in the party, you is more likely using spells to buff and debuff and heal.  2 priests works surprisingly well.

 

HA! Good Fun!