Weapon choice for a priest

[Gromnir]

 

keep in mind you will only have the equivalent of very high accuracy with a single weapon.  one.  is an extreme narrow tailored choice.  luckily, the theoretical combat priest is not limited to weapon use.  all those underappreciated offensive priest spells are quite handy.  even so, one is a small number.  pick wisely to fit your playstyle and your priest.  

 

did we mention seal spells?  am not certain why folks don't notice the wacky maths for seal spells and rage at how over-powered they is.  am suspecting is 'cause so few folks play priests.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

I'm actually considering a Skaen priest with a Stilettos and the peewee sneak attack.

 

skaen were kinda the defacto deity amongst the beta players who chose to play combat priests.  the weapon dr bypass for stilettos stacks with vulnerable attacks talent.  make a hearth orlan character for racial bonus.  makes for a very potent (if squishy) combatant... who can spam repulsing seal that is almost guaranteed to crit.  is a dangerous character indeed.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited April 12, 2015 by Gromnir

[Infares]

 

 

keep in mind you will only have the equivalent of very high accuracy with a single weapon.  one.  is an extreme narrow tailored choice.  luckily, the theoretical combat priest is not limited to weapon use.  all those underappreciated offensive priest spells are quite handy.  even so, one is a small number.  pick wisely to fit your playstyle and your priest.  

 

did we mention seal spells?  am not certain why folks don't notice the wacky maths for seal spells and rage at how over-powered they is.  am suspecting is 'cause so few folks play priests.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

I'm actually considering a Skaen priest with a Stilettos and the peewee sneak attack.

 

skaen were kinda the defacto deity amongst the beta players who chose to play combat priests.  the weapon dr bypass for stilettos stacks with vulnerable attacks talent.  make a hearth orlan character for racial bonus.  makes for a very potent (if squishy) combatant... who can spam repulsing seal that is almost guaranteed to crit.  is a dangerous character indeed.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Yeah, Hearth Orlan was what I had in mind. A lot of your defensive failings are also made up for with Priests' myriad defensive spells as necessary.

 

Thinking of doing some cheese late level with Salvation of Time to refresh buff durations and chain pulling an entire dungeon floor with Chanter summons. 3 skeletons can run in 3 different directions and pull 3 different encounters, lol.

[Luckmann]

 

 

Based on how I'm using Durance in my game, I'd suggest a reach weapon like quarterstaff. I usually have him standing directly behind my front line (tank + offtank), where his Brilliant Radiance AOE can reach forward of the tanks. That ability would be less useful if I had him more to the rear with a ranged weapon. Close to the tanks, I can still get a few hits in with the quarterstaff's long reach if I'm trying to conserve spells.

 

But frankly, he's so useful as a spellcaster that I don't think of him as a weapon user, and it would be a waste to put any talents into it. He almost never runs out of spells, because he and Aloth are the only ones carrying all the scrolls we find as a backup. I would probably use this same setup as a main character Priest.

Something to consider for Durance is that as a priest of Magren, he has a special class talent that you can eventually select that gives him a +10 accuracy with Sword or Arqabus. They're not in the same Weapon Focus, but what the heck. (I think of it as the special Magren Weapon Focus!) So I have Durance using Sword (and shield) and an Arqabus. If Magren wants to bless him with a +10 accuracy with those weapons, who am I to turn away such a blessing?

 

Please understand, the +10 accuracy talents only get a Priest up to the point they'd be with the weapon baseline without the talent as a "Very High" accuracy class. It's a compensatory talent, it's not really as much of a boon as people think it is.

 

Once you're level 9 you never need to fire a gun again anyways.

 

That's a bit arbitrary, though; +10 Accuracy is +10 Accuracy. It's fairly major, whether it's compensatory or not. While it's questionable whether someone wants to build a weapon-focused Priest or not, and I'd say it's doubly so for Priestesses of Eothas, due to the lack of a ranged alternative (which may still be entirely thematically fitting, so I'm not complaining), priests can spend a lot of time auto-attacking and similar, if you see no reason to expend their spells.

 

It doesn't turn the Priest into a Fighter, for sure, but that Talent does put them on-par with the highest starting Accuracies (Fighters start with 30, Priests with 20). I'm getting *a lot* of mileage out of the Arquebus I gave Durance because of this.

 

keep in mind you will only have the equivalent of very high accuracy with a single weapon (actually, two, but if you wanna keep pace with the big accuracy folks, you need one o' the general weapon focus feats as well.) one.  is an extreme narrow tailored choice.  luckily, the theoretical combat priest is not limited to weapon use.  all those underappreciated offensive priest spells are quite handy.  even so, one is a small number.  pick wisely to fit your playstyle and your priest.  

 

did we mention seal spells?  am not certain why folks don't notice the wacky maths for seal spells and rage at how over-powered they is.  am suspecting is 'cause so few folks play priests.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

I think it's more likely that no-one is paying attention to the math, because PoE is extremely forgiving. Even when you sorta-miss, you hit, and you just sorta note that down as a "Eh, it hit" and carry on. Like I said in another thread, you can stumble through PoE like a drunken fool and not pay attention to anything, and still prosper.

 

I would not depend on the Mechanics buff to Seals, though. It's obviously a bug, and they'll probably get around to fixing it.

 

That said, I didn't respond to complain, but to actually support your idea and mention Aggrandizing Radiance, an excellent choice for a "Cleric" or "Warpriest" build of any kind. With a Deity Talent, Weapon Focus, Aggrandizing Radiance and a quick spell or so, I'm pretty convinced that a Priest could slug it out with the best of them, or at least to a reasonable degree.

 

Consecration comes to mind as a truly great "in the dead centre of the storm" kind of spell, to boot.

 

I'm not going to try it on my Priestess of Eothas (I just don't think it's fitting for her), but I really want to try a Warpriest at some point now. Maybe as a Priest of Skaen, all stabby-stabby, Prey on the Weak, Weapon Focus Ruffian (I hate that Ruffians get Stiletto instead of Noble, and I think that Prey on the Weak should get Dagger, not Stiletto, but it's fun to note that Prey on the Weak is one of the few Deity Talents that completely overlaps with a Weapon Focus).

[Infares]

 

 

 

Based on how I'm using Durance in my game, I'd suggest a reach weapon like quarterstaff. I usually have him standing directly behind my front line (tank + offtank), where his Brilliant Radiance AOE can reach forward of the tanks. That ability would be less useful if I had him more to the rear with a ranged weapon. Close to the tanks, I can still get a few hits in with the quarterstaff's long reach if I'm trying to conserve spells.

 

But frankly, he's so useful as a spellcaster that I don't think of him as a weapon user, and it would be a waste to put any talents into it. He almost never runs out of spells, because he and Aloth are the only ones carrying all the scrolls we find as a backup. I would probably use this same setup as a main character Priest.

Something to consider for Durance is that as a priest of Magren, he has a special class talent that you can eventually select that gives him a +10 accuracy with Sword or Arqabus. They're not in the same Weapon Focus, but what the heck. (I think of it as the special Magren Weapon Focus!) So I have Durance using Sword (and shield) and an Arqabus. If Magren wants to bless him with a +10 accuracy with those weapons, who am I to turn away such a blessing?

 

Please understand, the +10 accuracy talents only get a Priest up to the point they'd be with the weapon baseline without the talent as a "Very High" accuracy class. It's a compensatory talent, it's not really as much of a boon as people think it is.

 

Once you're level 9 you never need to fire a gun again anyways.

 

That's a bit arbitrary, though; +10 Accuracy is +10 Accuracy. It's fairly major, whether it's compensatory or not. While it's questionable whether someone wants to build a weapon-focused Priest or not, and I'd say it's doubly so for Priestesses of Eothas, due to the lack of a ranged alternative (which may still be entirely thematically fitting, so I'm not complaining), priests can spend a lot of time auto-attacking and similar, if you see no reason to expend their spells.

 

It doesn't turn the Priest into a Fighter, for sure, but that Talent does put them on-par with the highest starting Accuracies (Fighters start with 30, Priests with 20). I'm getting *a lot* of mileage out of the Arquebus I gave Durance because of this.

 

keep in mind you will only have the equivalent of very high accuracy with a single weapon (actually, two, but if you wanna keep pace with the big accuracy folks, you need one o' the general weapon focus feats as well.) one.  is an extreme narrow tailored choice.  luckily, the theoretical combat priest is not limited to weapon use.  all those underappreciated offensive priest spells are quite handy.  even so, one is a small number.  pick wisely to fit your playstyle and your priest.  

 

did we mention seal spells?  am not certain why folks don't notice the wacky maths for seal spells and rage at how over-powered they is.  am suspecting is 'cause so few folks play priests.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

I think it's more likely that no-one is paying attention to the math, because PoE is extremely forgiving. Even when you sorta-miss, you hit, and you just sorta note that down as a "Eh, it hit" and carry on. Like I said in another thread, you can stumble through PoE like a drunken fool and not pay attention to anything, and still prosper.

 

I would not depend on the Mechanics buff to Seals, though. It's obviously a bug, and they'll probably get around to fixing it.

 

That said, I didn't respond to complain, but to actually support your idea and mention Aggrandizing Radiance, an excellent choice for a "Cleric" or "Warpriest" build of any kind. With a Deity Talent, Weapon Focus, Aggrandizing Radiance and a quick spell or so, I'm pretty convinced that a Priest could slug it out with the best of them, or at least to a reasonable degree.

 

Consecration comes to mind as a truly great "in the dead centre of the storm" kind of spell, to boot.

 

I'm not going to try it on my Priestess of Eothas (I just don't think it's fitting for her), but I really want to try a Warpriest at some point now. Maybe as a Priest of Skaen, all stabby-stabby, Prey on the Weak, Weapon Focus Ruffian (I hate that Ruffians get Stiletto instead of Noble, and I think that Prey on the Weak should get Dagger, not Stiletto, but it's fun to note that Prey on the Weak is one of the few Deity Talents that completely overlaps with a Weapon Focus).

The reason daggers are in Noble is because they were commonly carried as ornamental pieces and badges of station by the Aristocracy. 

[C.H.A.R.L.I.E]

I my current playthrough i have a custom wood elf priest of magran. I gave him the +10 accuracy talent, then went straight to Cad Nua to pick up the arquebus.

 

On my way there i also picked up the fire essence in black meadow, and put burning lash enchant on it straight away.

 

Now im doing the eothas temple and he is shooting shades and shadows for 40-60 damage, rarely missing. I think i will take Gunner talent on level 4 to augment his main attack.

[Akimbo]

I went with Durance, Inspired Flame (+10 accuracy for Arquebus) and an Arquebus. Along with a Chanter with the ranged speed chant and the gunner talent my priest packs a punch and at a fairly safe distance.

 

If you don't want a firearm, I suggest an Arbalest. I really don't think going into melee range as a priest is a good idea, though it is certainly possible.