Priest Spell Ratings

I started with a Priest, and almost switched early on due to him being very one dimensional. I still kept playing, and he grew on me. His abillities are crap, his level up bonuses are crap, but his spells are a different story, even if they look a bit crap on the first look, there are some real gems hidden amongst the lousy ones. So, I decided to rank them for everyone sticking with him for some power, and hopfully finding some uses that I overlooked.

 

 

1st level:

 

Armour of Faith [2/10]

Very good duration, but +4 damage reduction becomes negligible later in game.

 

Barbs of Condemnation [6/10]

Mainstay in priests repertoire as one of his few direct target offensive spells. Great range, but effects loose importance later in game.
 

Blessing [6/10]

Nothing spectacular, but that extra +5 accuracy can often mean hit or graze.
 

Divine Terror [7/10]

-15 accuracy vs. Will, good duration, and good effect compensate somewhat small area of effect.

 

Halt [?]

 

Holy Meditation [6/10]

Good duration, and decent buff on will saves, makes it useful for whole game.

 

Prayer against Fear [2/10]

Fairly useless because priest has more universal solutions to same problem.

 

Restore Minor Endurance [3/10]

Early healing spell that losses usefulness early on, only to get a tinny bit of it back when it becomes per encounter with lvl.9.

 

Withdraw [10/10]

Single most useful first level spell in the game. Even it's intended role is a lifesaver for whole game, it will save target from dying, and it'll make them immediately useful when they get out of it because enemies will already be engaged elsewhere. That last characteristic makes it also a superb tactical spell. Throw it on squishy character early in battle and enemy will forget him when he gets back, throw it on rogue and he'll get free backstabbing opportunities, or just time it on decoy that runs into a pack of enemies a second before you obliterate the area with fireballs. Possibilities are endless.

 

 

2nd level:

 

Suppress Affliction [2?/10]

Whenever I try to use it, the thing I try to 'suppress' does not count as an affliction.

 

Restore Light Endurance [4/10]

Better healer.

 

Consecrated Ground [7/10]

Healing effect is good, but this spell really needs good Intelligence for it to last longer and gain wider range. Being centred on caster, makes it also a bit situational. Great for 2nd row priests.

 

Divine Mark [8/10]

2nd direct target spell. It attacks will, and has long lasting deflection penalty, so it stays useful. What I'd give for it to have better range...

 

Repulsing Seal [7/10]

I misused seals as traps early on, only when I started using them as fire and forget aoe spells, they became godly. Just jug them over your tank when he's got plenty of enemies around him, and watch them burn, or in this case, watch them fall on their asses.

 

Prayer against Infirmity [3/10]

It has it's uses, then again, they aren't many.

 

Instill Doubt [?]

 

Iconic Projection [?]

I really don't know where to put this one. It's healing/damaging spell with huge ray-aoe that does not report damage in battlelog. It actually offers a bit more healing than lvl.2 healing spell, but it's not instant.

 

Holy Power [6/10]

Aura centred on caster with very small aoe, but it lasts for base 30 sec, giving +3 might and small resolve bonus. That might bonus makes it very useful even if it affects priest alone.

 

 

3rd level

 

Pillar of Faith [7/10]

Crush damage and prone in one spell with 10/15 accuracy bonuses. Still, a bit awkward targeting makes Warding Seal a more flexible choice.

 

Watchful Presence [6/10]

Fire and forget healer. I used it a lot when I first got it. As game progressed it became a tinny bit underpowered.

 

Warding Seal [8/10]

Another of those lovely seals. Good electrical damage, no accuracy bonus against reflex, but being foe only aoe means you get twice as many enemies even in it's somewhat small circle.

 

Restore Moderate Stamina [6/10]

A good and reliable healer.

 

Prayer against Restraint [?]

In its self it has little use, but in combo with Wizards and Druids restricting spells?

 

Despondent blows [6/10]

With good duration, this accuracy and criticals reducing spell has it's uses.

 

Dire Blessings [8/10]

One of the best Priests boosting spells, effective for whole game, and natural combat started for harder battles. Good duration, sufficient area, and with companions focused on criticals, it gets even better. Everyone gains from it's 20% on critical hits.

 

Circle of Protection [4/10]

+15 on defences, and huge area sounds good, then you see it's low duration.

 

 

4th level

 

Triumph of the Crusaders [6/10]

200 endurance per kill for base 60sec. Sounds really good, but endurance can also be regenerated in other ways, and with it's low aoe it becomes a bit hard to target it mid battle when it's effects would be most needed. It's also a bit unpredictable. You never know when your Druid will take a kill from a fighter that would need that 200 endurance boost.

 

Prayer against Bewilderment [3/10]

It's in no way worse that other status reducing/preventing spells, but taking precious 4. lvl slot???

 

Baring Death's Door [1/10]

Utterly useless. It does nothing that Withdraw can do better. Maybe there's a tinny bit of use for it in Ironman mode, but that's it.

 

Devotions for the Faithful [9?/10]

A very interesting spell. I'm not quite decided on rating, but it appears to be high.

First it has -10(!) Might and -20 ranged/mele accuracy penalty on enemies vs will at naked role. Slight accuracy bonus would alone make it a golden spell. Then it has +4 Might, +20 ranged/mele accuracy boon on allies as well. Might bonus does NOT stack with Holy Power (eliminating it's usefulness?), but it appears to work with Blessing (+5 accuracy) and Dire Blessings (20% on criticals). That should make for some quite powerful ranged and mele damage output, while that +4 on might still helps casters.

 

Restore Major Stamina [6/10]

Healer.

 

Searing Seal [6/10]

Big area seal. Damage is not at all good for 4th level spell, still, it's nearly certain to blind someone in it's large area of effect, even with it rolling without bonus. There are times for it instead of Beacon.

 

Shining Beacon [10/10]

Huge damage dealer, big aoe, foe only, 15 accuracy bonus against will. Oh, and -10 on all defences. That's rivaling every Druid and Mage aoe spell, with added flexibility of it being foe only. This one turns Priest into an offensive behemoth.

 

 

I'll do the last two if there's any interest.

Edited April 7, 2015 by dododad

Excellent synopsis, I'd agree with most of your assessment as the Priest is probably my favorite, or second favorite class. 

I also agree with most points, but rating down Armour of Faith to 2/10 because it "becomes negligible later" is nuts. +4 DR is absolutely huge for the first few levels of the game.

Edited April 8, 2015 by Bubbles

Blessing also says it increases damage done by 10%. That's like +3 might, without actually being a might buff. I'd rate it even higher. Also, I'm surprised you gave Withdraw a 10 without including the choke point exploit in your motivation. Regardless, you still got to factor in that you're CC'ing yourself too so that's a drawback to push the score down.

 

But do continue with the list. I've been halfway to asking about priest spells myself a few times so I'm wolfing down the opinions

You think Priests' level 1 DR spell is bad?  Paladins can choose a +3 DR aura at level 3.  The only particularly good thing about it is that it isn't per rest and it lasts all combat long.  I think it's pretty boring.

Suppress Affliction is a 10/10. It works, and some of the most devastating effects are countered by it, including terrified which is super frigging annoying.

 

The issue is that it doesn't remove the effect from the character's little buff/debuff icons, so it looks like it hasn't done anything to those used to standard dispel mechanics.

 

Edit: It's also extra confusing because effects that get reapplied post-suppress affliction will override it. It definitely needs clearer indications. You have to pretty much check your stats. I have spam-suppressed some effects just to keep decent accuracy on some fights, because many enemies spam terrified effects.

 

 

 

Iconic Projection is also great, it's my main heal because it's bursty and easy to affect most of the targets in need with. The damage isn't spectacular(I wouldn't take secrets of rime for it) but it's still nice.

Edited April 8, 2015 by Odd Hermit

In the interest of brevity, this will be "what was Durance spamming during my Hard playthrough?"

 

Lv 1: Nothing notable. Withdraw disappointed because a guy sitting out the fight for 30 seconds might as well be KO'd

Lv 2: Divine Mark and Iconic Projection are excellent, but Mark's low range makes it a liability at higher levels

Lv 3: Circle of Protection and Pillar of Prone

Lv 4: Worth bringing a Priest just for Devotions of the Faithful

Lv 5: Restore Critical Endurance, Shields for the Faithful, Revive the Fallen

 

Heals are fairly weak in my opinion, but they become more useful later because enemy AoE usage increases steadily throughout the game. Also a custom Priest with higher Int and Mig than Durance would get a lot more mileage from them.

I've been using the prone seal often. It's a great spell for that low of a level that is still really useful later in the game.

Holly Radiance + talent + max might + max int  - 12/10 the fkin best spell in this game 

Holly Radiance + talent + max might + max int  - 12/10 the fkin best spell in this game 

 

It was a bit nerfed in the last patch right? I didn't list it because I only listed actual spells. Radiance is more an ability.

 

 

I tried to re rate some based on feedback, but somehow can't edit my initial post anymore. Ether I got blind and lost sight of edit button, or they have some weird editing rules on this forum.

 

So in the mean time:

@Bubbles. Agreed on Armour of Faith, it should be higher. 6/10? I still think it gets pushed back in the line when better beneficial spells become available.

@Odd Hermit on Supress Afliction. So it does work! Still certainly not 10/10? I'd be willing to boost it to 7/10.

@Omg Fireballs. I don't know how I missed that +10% on damage in Blessing, so yea that should bump it up. I mean, it's 10% on everything. 7/10. It still does nothing to accuracy. As for Withdraw, I never even thought of that one.

Iconic Projection. Base on feedback 7/10.

 

Anyway, if I can't find a way of editing it, I'll post the rest under here later.

Here are the rest. I'll need a bit of help on 6th level. They appear to have some broken tooltips and besides that I didn't test them thoroughly.

 

 

5th level:

 

Revive the Fallen [7/10]

Useful resurrect. That it only gives a bit of Endurace back is of little concern because the way ai targeting works in this game. But with health/endurace system it actually has a drawback, it's sometime better to leave low on health party member down.

 

Salvation of Time [8/10]

Combo extender spell. It's duration is fairly short. Only base 10 seconds increase duration of all active beneficial effects, but that includes, all Priests beneficial spells, all Fighters activating abilities, Paladin's Hastening Resortation, Wizards Martial Power... You can extend huge number of effects with just one spell. It has big potential, but also required a lot of micromanagement.

 

Champion's Boon [9/10]

+10 might +6 perception 5 damage reduction for base 30 sec. What's not to like, it creates a juggernaut out of the recipient. I think the best use for it is on spellcasters. Ether for damage, or for quite as important interrupt bonus it provides.

 

Restore Critical Stamina  [6/10]

It has a use, but what you gain with better healing numbers, you loose in spending 5th level spell.

 

Prayer Against Imprisonment [5/10]

Protection vs Paralysed/Petrified. No idea what's doing up at this level.

 

Pillar of Holy Fire [8/10]

Good damage, not that much better than Shining Beacon. Both are very useful late game damage output of a Priest.

 

Shields for the Faithful [7?/10]

One of very few deflection boosting abilities. +25 on it, with 30 sec base duration is quite a big boost, I just didn't went far enough into the engine into how big an improvement that is.

 

 

 

6th level:

 

Crowns for the Faithful [6/10]

+6 perception/intellect and some added resolve for base 30 sec on small aoe. Decent bonus on those stats, but only useful in boosting people at start of the combat.

 

Cleansing Flame [7/10]

Chain lightning kinda spell with one target and then two extra. No accuracy bonus, but it has -5 duration on duration of beneficial spell on target for base 5 sec. Damage at first look isn't spectacular, but it's deal over time, so it makes it effective for high int. characters. Shame that it rolls without accuracy bonus.

 

Minor Intercession [6?/10]

Firstly, tooltip is broken. Judging by tooltip alone this is 1/10 spell. On my 7 might Priest it's +22.7 endurance, -5 duration of active hostile effects. But when I cast it I also get it's duration of 8.5 sec (19int), and that makes it a fairly powerful regeneration spell. Now all that needs to be determined is how many times in those 8 seconds does it give endurance, and what all that -5 duration on hostile effects does. Is it effecting hostile effects on my party, beneficial effects on enemies, or what?

 

Spark the Souls of the Righteous  [11?/10]

Not sure about this one. Description is crypted, and it's effect aren't properly displayed. Not in battlelog, and not on character. It appears to be a long duration based aoe effect on allies that deals electrical damage to all close to them, and apparently it uses no hit roll! On my Priest it's 43.5 sec duration of 11-8 shock damage. All party members and all summoned creatures in aoe of this spell gets the benefit. While there's nothing said on how often that electrical damage is dealt, it looks to be frequent.

 

Prayer Against Treachery [2/10]

If I was questioning myself what Prayer of Imprisonment was doing at 5th level, I'm just baffled what this one is doing here. Priest has five lvl. 6 spells and one of them is this?

Edited April 8, 2015 by dododad

Repulsing seal is a bit imba i think. It has huge acc bonus as far as i see it in the logs and the duration is huge. Slicken on steroids.

Edited April 8, 2015 by MaxDamage

Iconic Projection is such a good spell for level 2 because it has a huge area of effect it basically heals all your party and damages all the enemy party. The check is made against reflex so if you debuff reflex the effects are huge. If you keep spamming it it's direct win for some toughest fights. Cast accuracy buff, reflex debuff then spam the spell 4-5 times and the fight is over. I'd definately make it 10/10

Iconic Projection ... keep spamming it ... 10/10

 

That is pretty effective, except in the most annoying fights of all: critters in the Shadow family. All those things (and undead in general) tend to have mega Freeze DR. You did mention trying to go for spell crits, but still.

 

Reading this thread makes me think the Sanctifier talent (+25% damage vs undead) might actually be worth taking for Priests, to augment all their Burn damage spells (e.g. the Burn damage from Holy Radiance). If you could get the damage multipliers high enough with Might, Sanctifier, etc. it might be enough for Ico Pro to blow out the Shadow family too.

Edited April 8, 2015 by mazeltov

Iconic Projection is by far my favorite priest spell. It's brilliantly designed, and cleaves to the heart of what priests in PoE are good at.

 

Wish it dealt Burn damage, though. :/

Checked the wiki about creature types, and it turns out that undead are actually split into two groups: vessels and spirits. So a Priest wanting to specialize in hunting them as I mentioned above would have to burn two precious talent slots, instead of one. Balance! I'm sure many people running on D&D autopilot like me have wasted Holy Radiance uses trying to Burn Shades and such.

 

 

Edit: Just realized creature types are listed in each Bestiary entry. I must be blind, 'cause I specifically looked for them and never found them during my ~80 hour playthrough.

 

P.S. there should be a separate general thread for each class to raise little issues like this that don't warrant their own threads.

Edited April 9, 2015 by mazeltov

 

Holly Radiance + talent + max might + max int  - 12/10 the fkin best spell in this game 

 

It was a bit nerfed in the last patch right? I didn't list it because I only listed actual spells. Radiance is more an ability.

 

 

I tried to re rate some based on feedback, but somehow can't edit my initial post anymore. Ether I got blind and lost sight of edit button, or they have some weird editing rules on this forum.

 

So in the mean time:

@Bubbles. Agreed on Armour of Faith, it should be higher. 6/10? I still think it gets pushed back in the line when better beneficial spells become available.

@Odd Hermit on Supress Afliction. So it does work! Still certainly not 10/10? I'd be willing to boost it to 7/10.

@Omg Fireballs. I don't know how I missed that +10% on damage in Blessing, so yea that should bump it up. I mean, it's 10% on everything. 7/10. It still does nothing to accuracy. As for Withdraw, I never even thought of that one.

Iconic Projection. Base on feedback 7/10.

 

Anyway, if I can't find a way of editing it, I'll post the rest under here later.

 

 

 

I don't care how high you put it, but it's basically an AoE dispel for all hostile effects on allies, and it works on every negative effect I've tried it against. The only issue with it is how confusing the way the game displays it is. For me it's a 10/10 on PotD and a staple of my tactics against tough fights.

 

Prayer Against Treachery might not deserve to be lvl6, but it is very useful in a LOT of fights. Mind control in a huge pain in the ass and neutralizing it with a very fast cast at the start of a fight makes a big difference. 

The thing about these ratings, is that they vary depending on your team composition and general playstyle.

 

Also, are we rating them as a whole, or based on their level? Because higher level spells tend to be better (but certainly not always).

 

For me, armor of faith is 9/10, I open every fight with it, because I try to minimize the amount of times that I need to rest, and damage reduction is the most effective way of doing so. The same goes for blessing, as +10% dmg and 5 acc. is more or less equal to 20% crit, except it has a much larger aoe.

 

Atleast we agree on Devotions for the faithful (easily his best spell), as well as shining beacon and withdraw. Repulsing seal is also a 10/10 in my book, as it can be placed tactically before the fight, and is one of the most effective ways for the priest to dump aggro.

 

Iconic

Edited April 10, 2015 by cavemandiary

The thing about these ratings, is that they vary depending on your team composition and general playstyle.

 

Also, are we rating them as a whole, or based on their level? Because higher level spells tend to be better (but certainly not always).

 

For me, armor of faith is 9/10, I open every fight with it, because I try to minimize the amount of times that I need to rest, and damage reduction is the most effective way of doing so. The same goes for blessing, as +10% dmg and 5 acc. is more or less equal to 20% crit, except it has a much larger aoe.

 

Atleast we agree on Devotions for the faithful (easily his best spell), as well as shining beacon and withdraw. Repulsing seal is also a 10/10 in my book, as it can be placed tactically before the fight, and is one of the most effective ways for the priest to dump aggro.

 

Iconic

 

I rated them overall, and I took into account the amount of them that you can cast per encounter as you level up.

 

Anyway since I see no way of editing my post, I'll leave it as it is, although I did change my mind somehow. 1st and 2nd level healing spells, for instance, become very useful when those levels become per encounter. But for them to be, you need Priest in low armour on fairly high dexterity. That way their poor healing power is quickly offset by the quickness he can cast them.

Repulsing seal is a bit imba i think. It has huge acc bonus as far as i see it in the logs and the duration is huge. Slicken on steroids.

 

repulsing seal doesn't have a huge acc bonus.  what it does have is synergy with mechanics.  the priestly seal spells count as traps.  therefore, if you have high mechanics skill, you get the same boost to your seal spells as you would get for setting a trap.  this synergy results in potential near guaranteed crits with seal spells for priests who max mechanics.

 

*shrug*

 

go figure.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Salvation Of Time was already out of my mind the moment I read the spell description. 

 

I completed poe on potD a few days ago and I used it once.

 

Why would it be a fun thing to cast a spell to...extend your buffs?

 

Some times I swear devs arent playing their own game lol.

 

I agree with all the rest  people had to say in this thread though, some really good reflections

Salvation Of Time was already out of my mind the moment I read the spell description. 

 

I completed poe on potD a few days ago and I used it once.

 

Why would it be a fun thing to cast a spell to...extend your buffs?

It can be VERY powerful when you bother to stack enough buffs for a giant boss fight.

But the benefit is directly related to how much you need all those other buffs in the first place.

I spammed it for fun on the Adra dragon and was rolling in the 100+ damage hits (PotD).

But if you are already mowing through everything without it, it adds nothing.

 

Repulsing seal is a bit imba i think. It has huge acc bonus as far as i see it in the logs and the duration is huge. Slicken on steroids.

 

repulsing seal doesn't have a huge acc bonus.  what it does have is synergy with mechanics.  the priestly seal spells count as traps.  therefore, if you have high mechanics skill, you get the same boost to your seal spells as you would get for setting a trap.  this synergy results in potential near guaranteed crits with seal spells for priests who max mechanics.

 

*shrug*

 

go figure.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

This appears to be false.  I just tested Repulsing Seal on a priest with no points in Mechanics.  I then used the cheat console to add 10 points in Mechanics and retested.  The accuracy score for Repulsing Seal in the combat log was the same regardless of the priest's Mechanics score.

Problem with shining beacon is its centred on the priest, so if Im playing mine like a squishy caster I'd rather use the seal of fire instead.

 

Oh nvm it isnt, I was confusing it with something else.

Edited April 12, 2015 by Mungri