[Class Build] The Unfaithful (Solo Priest - PoTD) + Strategies

[MimeTactics]

First of all I would like to thank MaxQuest for inspiring me to try this run by posting his Fire Priest build.
​That inpired me to try my own priest build, wich worked vey well and was able to solo the game.
 
CHARACTER
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Class: Priest
​Deity: ​Skaen/Wael
Background: ​Old Valia - Drifter
Race: Wood Elf
Solo: ​Yes
PoTD:​ Yes​
Trial of Iron:​ If you avoid the Luminescent Caves
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STATS
--------------------------
 ​Pre - Level 09:
Mig: ​18
Con: 05
Dex: 18
Per:  13
​Int: 18
Res: 03
 
Post - Level 09:
Mig: ​18
Con: 03
Dex: 18
Per:  15
​Int: 18
Res: 03
------------------------
 
​SKILLS
----------------------
Stealth: 02
Athletics: 03
Lore: 04
Mechanics: 11
Survival: 02
----------------------
 
TALENTS
-----------------------------------
(?) = Can be replaced.
 
Base
Weapon and Shield Style
Scion of Flame
Inspiring Radiance
Interdiction
Aggrandizing Radiance
Painful Interdiction
Deep Pockets
Envenomed Strike (?)
 
Event Based
The Merciless Hand
Gift from the Machine
Song of the Heavens
Blooded Hunter
Dungeon Delver
Hylea's Boon (?)
Flick of the Wrist
Dozen's Luck
Sever the Soul
Scale Breaker
-----------------------------------
 
MASTERED SPELLS
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Barbs of Condemnation / Blessing/Holy Meditation
Repulsing Seal / Iconic Projection
Pillar of Faith / Dire Blessing
Shinning Beacon / Devotions for the Faithful
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EQUIPMENT
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End Game
Head: Maegfolk Skull
Torso: Angio's Gambesson
​Arms: Gauntlets of Swift Action
​Legs: Viettro's Formal Footwear
Neck: Mantle of the Excavator
Waist: Girdle of Eoten Constitution
​Ring I: Gwin's Band of Union
Ring II: Ring of Changing Heart
Weapon Set I: Bittercut if they fix the Infestation of Maggots bug, otherwise: Drawn in Spring/Steadfast and Little Savior / Aila Braccia
​Weapon Set II: St. Ydwen's Redeemer / Abydon's Hammer
Pet: ​Concelhaut's Skull
Potions: Deleterious Alacrity of Motion, Llngrath displaced Image and War Paint
Scrolls: Paralysis, Moonwel and Insect Swarm
 
Early-Mid Game
Head: Hermit's Hat
Torso: Angio's Gambesson
​Arms: Gauntlets of Accuracy
​Legs: Malina's Boots / Shod In Faith
Neck: Lilith's Shawn / Finrhea's Grace
Waist: Blunting Belt
​Ring I: Ring of Defflection (Ring of Thorns if you are able to rush it)
Ring II: Ring of Prottection
Weapon Set I: Whispers of Yenwood and Small Shield
​Weapon Set II: Blunderbuss / Arquebus
Pet: ​Tiny Spider (You will fail the game with other pet)
Item Slots: Figurines, Potions of Wizard's Double and Eldritch Aim
 
P.S. Aways carry a set of Gloves of Manipulation around
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STRATEGIES:
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(remove the space from the word youtube in the link)

Dragons
Sky: https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=54cwqbB-kwk

Adra: https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=9R8UvKjtZ-4
​Alpine: https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=yPuvUjX5dJw
​Gafonercos: https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=9yw8mfdqIeQ
Turisulfus: https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=9yw8mfdqIeQ
 
 
Mages
Concelhaut: https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=kZ0LnKGlynA
​Llengrath: https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=9yw8mfdqIeQ
Thaos: https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=3fhRirQZ3BQ
 
 
Monsters
Kraken: https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=yCYgNGdD-74
​Radiant Spore: https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=G7NNgaF2560
 
Bounties
Nalrend the Wise: https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=KUhQ86iJDWU
​Brynlod: https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=7ZYUguAISfI
Magran's Faithful: https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=i4X6Zlxufh0
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Edited September 18, 2016 by MimeTactics

[r2d23]

Very interesting. Can you clarify more on how do you approach earlier stages of the game with such character?

[grausch]

I also have been toying with another run with a priest similar to yours which is also based on MaxQuest's idea.

 

Great videos and love the way you control the battlefield. Some of those encounters did get pretty close though, but you pulled through in style.

Edited September 19, 2016 by grausch

[Ben No.3]

Just watched all of the videos... I'm impressed O.o

Congrats on that awesome character of yours, congrats on awesome micro timing

 

Nice work, thanks for posting

-Ben Neb

Edited September 22, 2016 by Ben No.3

[Dr <3]

Thks for the great work!

[MaxQuest]

I'm always glad to inspire 

 

I was most curious on how will you handle the Adra Dragon. Wounding coupled with Scrolls of Insect Swarm (plus optional Tanglefoot) indeed do the job nicely.

[MimeTactics]

Thanks for the awnswers!

 

Very interesting. Can you clarify more on how do you approach earlier stages of the game with such character?

 

 Well, for the early game:
​First I needed to get experience items and money without combat, this way I could have some spells equipment and the figurine at hand wich make the fights bearable. The point to remember is that the early level (lvl. 2 specially) spells of the priest are really good. Divine Mark do a lot of damage and does a massive debuff to deflection. Iconic Projection is almost broken at chokepoints (doing a lot of damage that ignores DR, in a line, and Healing my figurine on top of that? Sign me up!) In fact Iconic projection was possibly my most used spell in this playthough, even at late game fights. Also, for farming a little of exp, Holy Radiance melts almost any vessel at the beggining of the game, this way Raederic catacombs, for instance, are a cakewalk.
​Basically my strategy was creating chokepoints, blocking the way with the figurines, and spamming Iconic Projection. Sometimes I used repulsing seal on individuals (and on the bear cave) If any enemy survived the iconic projection spam I used stilettos to finish them off. Also a good one is to start the battle with an Arquebuss shot. (Sorry Kana). Once you get the level three spells Pillar of Faith give you a good advantage on the battle by giving you that sweet prone effect that lasts forever.

 

I'm always glad to inspire 

 

I was most curious on how will you handle the Adra Dragon. Wounding coupled with Scrolls of Insect Swarm (plus optional Tanglefoot) indeed do the job nicely.

If fact wounding and envenomed strike aren't even necessary. Three scrolls of Insect swarm + Cleansing Flame + the Symbol (Wael or Skaen) do the job. Just land that Pillar of Faith prone on her to ensure you are safe and everything you go fine. It was a very easy fight.
​Still, I was surprised on how hard the Radiant Spore was. I am not happy with my result on that fight. But hey, I finished it without freeing the Vithraks. The problem on that fight is that you have no time to cast any spell before getting hit by the Vithrak Brutes, so the only way I managed to get over that was to make them give me a lot of Defences by wearing two preservation items.

[JerekKruger]

Just noticed something about this build: you've got three additional points of Attributes unspent. Your current total is 75 but a starting character can have up to 78. Given that, I assume you'd go with something like

 

Mig: ​18

Con: 08/05
Dex: 18
Per:  16/13
​Int: 18
Res: 03

 

before level 9 (I'm guessing 5 Con and 16 Per since presumably 5 Con was enough?) and

 

Mig: ​18

Con: 03
Dex: 18
Per:  18
​Int: 19 <- Old Vailia required here
Res: 03

 

afterwards?

 

Anyway, I'm planning on taking this build for a spin, although I'll be going with a group and since I don't like dumping stats below 8 I'll probably go with something like 16/8/18/10/18/8. My thinking is that since I'll have a group I'll probably be buffing a bit more than doing damage, so Might and Perception become slightly less important than they are in solo play.

 

By the way MimeTactics: I just noticed your sig. Your English reads very well to me, there are a few minor mistakes but most of those are probably typos, and you certainly write better that the majority of natives in the United Kingdom.

[Bhall]

Just finished The Ultimate with this build. Great fun and total face roll after early game to be honest. Compared to solo Wizard much easier.

[harf4ng]

Wonder, on normal difficulty with such a build, for someone kinda new to the game, is it doable? 

And can we beat everything and go everywhere? 

Also, according to the weapons you chose, isn't magran a better choice then? 

Thanks

Edited January 13, 2020 by harf4ng

[Boeroer]

Hmm, why do you think Magran?

First of all he didn't use the specific weapon talent of priests in his build and secondly Magran's talent (Inspired Flame) will only work with Swords and Arquebuses - which he didn't use. Since he used Drawn in Spring or Bittercut the Priest class doesn't matter (in this regard) because non of them has bonuses to Dagger or Sabre. 

St. Ydwin's Redeemer and Abydon's Hammer are soulbound weapons and will work with every weapon focus talent and also with every priest weapon talent (+10 ACC) no matter the deity.

By the way: if you want to play a high MIG/INT priest like this one but want to do a bit more melee then Priest of Berath with Tidefall (Great Sword) is very nice. Or use Forgemaster Gloves + Royal Cannoneer Belt and use Firebrand as your main weapon. Since it's a summoned weapon it doesn't matter which deity you pick (all the talents give +10 ACC to Firebrand - like with soulbounds) but of course a Priest of Magran would fit best thematically.
I played such a solo Priest of Berath ad it was fun. Tidefall's wounding (like Drawn in Spring's wounding) scales with MIG. So if you have very high MIG (like this Priest) you will do very good damage with the additional wounding lash. Of course you'll have no shield and thus be more vulnerable. I compensated with thicker armor, more CON and RES and less DEX. After all it's the spell damage that will do the heavy lifting for you. But you also might want to have some fun poking things with a weapon.

A solo Priest is certainly doable for you on normal difficulty - however you have to know that the early game will be extremely hard with a Priest. He starts quite weak because he has a very limited spell portfolio and very few spell uses while his starting values are bad. Luckily his power curve is very, very steep and from mid to late game I think there is no more (potentially) powerful class - but be aware that you have to kite and cheese a bit in the early game in order to make it to Defiance Bay. From there on it's going to get much much better. This is the case with all per-rest casters by the way - Druid being a little better because his Spiritshift helps a lot early on and Wizard has helpful stuff like Concelhaut's Parasitic Staff. Preist mostly has support stuff in the early levels which don't benefit you as much in a solo game. Later on his spells just kick butts (like Shining Beacon with high MIG and INT).   

Edited January 14, 2020 by Boeroer

[harf4ng]

My bad I thought sabres are considered as swords

Though Whispers of yenwood is definitively a sword. 

I should admit I have no clear idea on how to kite in this game. Especially with a priest. 

The issue with per rest casters is that you have to rest often, whereas a ranger or chanter has per encounter talents. 

Still unsure about the deity if I'm going that route, which one is more fun for dialogue options. Magran is kinda cool with clever and aggressive options. In the beginning of the game I especially liked the clever options. Cruel may be cool as well but unsure I'll like the deceptive ones. The same with wael. 

I have read somewhere we can kill all the people in the beginning of the game? That will go well with cruel behavior unsure how to do that though. 

How work summoned weapons? They stay only the time of the fight? 

So any idea of a good viable build for a melee priest? Priest of berath, tide fall, good armor, and what is your build when it comes to stats, and skills? Do you upgrade mechanics a lot? 

Another idea would be, I am not against having a companion but I don't like micro managing so I may choose a party of two or three max, then I'll have to figure out what could be a good small team. Unsure what could be more fun between a solo play or a two or three team play. A rogue could be fine for mechanics to have with but the only one is in white March. Or I can build my own companion but I'll loose the background quest, though maybe this is not that important. 

A lot of things to think about also if you can give me your priest build including how many points you put in more, mechanics and the like, that would be helpful for me. Seems mechanics is very important to find hidden treasure. And if we solo of course we need that on our main character... 

Thanks

[harf4ng]

About weapon summon... Means we need a spell to summon that, and it lasts a few seconds? Seems hard to do then to play a solo priest who uses only summon weapons. 

[Boeroer]

The summoning of a weapon is almost instant (0.5 secs I believe) and it has no recovery. The weapon itself lasts for 30 seconds (base duration) which scales with INT. You can always wear a backup weapon. You don't need to switch weapons: the summoned weapon just replaces the backup weapon and once the summoned weapon disappears you'll have your backup weapon again.

Firebrand can also be useful as a backup weapon when you meet enemies who are vulnerable to burn damage and reistant to other sources of damage (e.g. a lot of stuff in the White March DLC).

 

[harf4ng]

Thanks for all the info. 

Will consider that for the deity. Unsure maybe berath or another one and I'll just forget the weapon bonus. So will try the same build as the OP with less dex and more con and res to be a more melee oriented priest... 

Do you think killing the whole caravan is doable as a priest? I would like to try that, sounds... Fun ?

Will have also to decide about the talents like mechanics, lore, survival and athletics. No stealth I guess. And for the race, maybe moon godlike, maybe not, unsure if the lack of helmet worth the bonus... 

All that in a solo play in normal difficulty. 

 

[Boeroer]

If I would want to go into melee often I personally would not skip the priest's weapon talent that gives +10 ACC and brings him on par with a fighter.

Caravan: without massive cheese (that I can't imagine right now) it will be undoable to kill the caravan as a priest. If you can do it then you'll get points in the "cruel" reputation which - depending on your deity - might hurt your Holy Radiance scaling. Priests have certain favorite and disfavored dispositions. If you get points in a disfavored disposition you will get weaker scaling. Holy Radiance with high MIG, INT and the proper dispositions scales very high (same mechanics as Shining Beacon) and can one-shot (non-burn-immune) vessels later on. I had it do 300+ dmg spikes. This can make several fights a lot easier. So before slaughtering the caravan you should first check if points in "cruel" would displease your deity. I believe Berath and Eothas condemn cruelty.

Skaen fits. He likes being cruel. 

Skaen's also the best pick when it's about weapon dps (because of his weapon talent which not only adds the aforementioned +10 ACC but also a smaller version of Sneak Attack that can be stacked with Apprentice's Sneak Attack to a total of +45% iirc). Real nice with Firebrand which loves damage bonuses due to it's high base dmg. If you don't use summoned or soulbound weapons you are bound to stiletto and club though (for the +10 ACC). But stuff like Abydon's Hammer with an additional +45% dmg passive is nice. 

[harf4ng]

Yes I have tried and too hard as a priest to kill the caravan

If I could rest that would be OK but there is no inn to rest. 

About skaen wonder how good it could be to dual wield stiletto and use firebrand later on... Though I dislike the skaen look. 

Or berath and 2h sword, hard on the beginning of the game though a so slow weapon. 

Or maybe magran with sword, shield and later on firebrand. 

Have to think about that. 

Thanks 

[harf4ng]

The advantage I could see with magran and sword and shield is that if I want better acc I can remove the shield and have just a sword. Though wonder if there are great 1h swords and shields in game. And I'll miss tidefall this way. 

Oh BTW the 10 acc with deity weapon is automatic? Or is it a talent to take? So if I'm a priest of berath and I have a 2h sword at the beginning of the game will I have this bonus? 

Also you say no shield, so better armor, but it also means slow casting and slow swinging because of the slow weapon and recovery time isn't it? 

[Boeroer]

What Skaen look do you mean?

Great Sword is as slow or fast as a normal sword, a sabre, a hammer etc. All two handed melee weapons are as fast as the heavier one handed melee weapons.
Only with dual wielding a sword would be faster than a Great Sword. With a shield you'd have the same speed, lower dps but higher protection. With two swords you'd have higher dps, same protection but more problems with Damage Reduction. Especially in the early game where you'll have only few dmg bonuses that would help you to overcome DR. 

If you want to test out attack speed an recovery setups you can do that here: https://naijaro.github.io/poe-speed-calculator/

That handy online tool is from @MaxQuest and very good.

So, if attack speed is your concern then a Great Sword is not a problem.  

[harf4ng]

OK thanks. Just the armor that slows down attack speed then. 

But on the sword description there is the attack speed and it is displayed slow if I remember well. 

Skaen look I mean the deity description

BTW what means cheesing? 

[Boeroer]

Yes, the description is misleading. Maybe it's a remnant from the days of development when two handed weapon were indeed slower than one handers. But in fact they are not. Only light weapons like fists, daggers, rapiers, hatchets, flails, stilettos and clubs are indeed faster. The rapier is the fastest weapon of all - I guess that's not intended. It has a little bit less recovery than the other fast one handers.

By the way: Novice' Suffering (fists) is a viable option for priests with high MIG. Because of the weird mechanics of Novice's Suffering priests can potentially do pretty good dps with fists.

Reason is that with Novice's Suffering the base damage of fists doesn't change. It still stays very low. Since all damage modifiers (includes grazes and crits) use the base damage they don't do much for fist attacks. So it doesn't really matter that much if you do a graze or a crit. So you don't need a priest weaopion talent for the added accuracy that much. The flat damage bonus that Novice's Suffering gives your fists however: that one scales with MIG. Priests can have pretty high MIG with Aggrandizing Radiance and then either Holy Power, then later Devotions, Champions Boon and Minor Avatar. Add some MIG gear and food start off at MIG 21 (like Dwarf or Aumaua) and you can reach nearly 40 MIG which not only boosts your spell damage by 90% but also highly improves your fist damage (same goes for wounding on Drawn in Sping or Tidefall - but let's put that aside for a moment). The good thing is that you won't need to invest any resources like money or enchantments on your weapons since they would scale automatically. Just some food for thought: punchy Priest of Eotahs or something.

Cheesing means that you exploit some quirks of the game mechanics to your advantage. Like for example being faster that the enemy and then using a ranged weapon to kite them. Enemies will always return to their spot once they realize they can't get you - and then you can rinse and repeat the shoot-run-return cycle endlessly. That way a forum member did a PotD solo run with a lvl-1-character (never leveled up - look up "Noober"). Another would be that Chanters don't stop chanting when they are withdrawn by a Priest. They turn invisible and become untouchable but still can dish out a ton of damage with chants like "The Dragon Thrashed". That's cheesing. It's not really cheating because you are not actively breaking the game rules with software or console or whatver but it's not playing like the game's meant to be played either. 

Edited January 15, 2020 by Boeroer

[harf4ng]

A punchy priest sounds more like a monk for me

What about race for a priest? Do you think I need one that could wear a helmet or a moon godlike could be fine? I like the look of the moon godlike. I like less their portraits though, not enough of them... 

[Boeroer]

You can get more portraits online e.g. here: http://www.jasonseow.com/poeportraits

Moon Godlike is especially helpful in the early game. Later you might miss the helmet slot though. But it's a viable choice. 

Only problem with the Silver Tide Healing + Priest is that Priests have low health. So while you won't get knocked out from low endurance (because Moon Godlike's Silver Tide heals you up) you can run out of health pretty quickly. So bring potions of Infuse with Vital Essence to counter the health loss.

 

[harf4ng]

2 hours ago, Boeroer said:

You can get more portraits online e.g. here: http://www.jasonseow.com/poeportraits

 

I doubt it will work on the console version you'll maybe ask why I play that on console. I like to move with a gamepad, but most importantly with the Xbox gaming pass ultimate I have the complete edition for free on console whereas on PC I only have the hero edition, so without the white march expansion. 

[harf4ng]

4 hours ago, Boeroer said:

Moon Godlike is especially helpful in the early game. Later you might miss the helmet slot though. But it's a viable choice. 

 

Maybe Pale Elf then. For a melee fighter, wood elf is useless. The human trait is not that great. Don't like the look of other races.

Pale Elf have cold resistance, though unsure if there are a lot of enemies with cold attacks, except in the white march expansion. And I found a cool looking pale elf portrait ^^ Cold priestess of Berath, stoic and rational, without passion, no cruelty but just what it needs to achieve the goals she has. With a great sword, and maybe sometimes a mace with a shield as secondary weapon slot, and also the Firebrand.

As for stats, the thing as in the original post, with more constitution and resolve, and less dex, something like 8 in const and resolve, and 10 to 13 dex maybe?

Yes, I think I'll go for something like that...

Btw at what level on normal do you think I can solo the temple of Eothas? Also maybe I can play on easy instead of normal, unsure, just for the fun and a bit less difficulty...