Class Build: Berathian Priest

[masterty66]

Noticed Boerer talking about the joys of a Berathian priest in another thread here so thought I'd give it a stab. This is what I went with:

 

Race: Death Godlike (fits the theme). If you just want to focus on power I guess a Boreal Dwarf or Coastal Aumua could be nice for the +accuracy or extra stun resistance respectively. 

 

Str: 19

Con: 8

Dex: 19

Per: 10

Int: 19

Res: 3

 

 

Talents:

 

Aggrandizing Radiance

The Pallid Hand(!)

Two Handed Style

Runner's Wounding Shot

Veteran's Recovery

Scion of Flame

Quick Switch

Sanctifier

 

Equipment:

 

Head: N/A 

 

Neck: Swaddling Sheet

 

Chest: Sanguine Plate or Wayfayer's Hide

 

Belt: Girdle of Mortal Protection

 

Boots: Shod in Faith Boots

Gloves: Celebrant's Gloves/Gauntlets Of Swift Action

 

Ring 1: Bartender's Ring

 

Ring 2: Ring of Overseeing/Gathbin's Signet

 

Weapon: Tidefall / Ydwen's Redeemer

 

Weapon: Engwithan Scepter

 

So the point of this build is to buff up and swing Tidefall at your enemies. Once your enemies are dotted up from Tidefall you can then cast a cleansing flame to really ruin their day. You also have the option to open with the Engwithan Scepter with a Runner's Wouding shot followed by a Cleansing Flame to do the same thing. I chose the Scepter because it's a fast weapon and you'll want to be able to quickly get off a cleansing flame and/or switch to Tidefall after firing that first shot. 

 

Because you're swinging a big two hander you want high dex for both faster recovery and so you can still cast spells as needed. This build also figures to have poor deflection most of the time unless you focus on it with buffing and so you'll be hit and crit a lot which means you want items which will help you with that. Shod in Faith will give you the healing to survive the hits while you buff up, and Celebrants will help your poor concentration score (you can also open with a quick holy meditation when needed as well if you really need to not be interrupted). Sanguine Plate will keep you attacking fast and give you a bit of a bonus there and then you can also pop Aggrandizing Radiance which from what I understand stacks meaning you'll get a nice bonus to physical stats when you've got both up.

 

The Bartender's Ring and Sanctifier plus your ridiculous might score means you can also ruin the day of vessels. Doubly so once you've got Ydwen's Redeemer and you'll be able to use that as well vs Vessels. 

 

I don't think you want this character in the very front row due to his poor concentration score. I figure put him in the second row and let your front line get the enemies' attention while you pop a quick buff or three, and then wade in and conquer. Because you're in the thick of things and have high might you'll be able to drop AOE bombs on the enemy as well if you need to. So you can function well as both a melee hard hitter and an excellent nuker. For single targets if you get dots on them your cleansing flame will wreck faces.

 

Haven't tested now and am going to give it a shot but I think it should be great fun. Boerer I used you as inspiration so I'm sure you've tried this already and have your own spin on it . 

Edited April 3, 2017 by masterty66

[Boeroer]

Cool. One thing though: Runner's Wounding shot does raw damage based on your physical damage you rolled. So optimally you would use a weapon which has the highest damage per hit possible. I normally used Tidefall itself after casting Cleansing Flame because that way you could apply two DoTs which get double damage at the same time and do good damage with Runner's Wounding Shot itself.

 

I did basically the same thing but used some other talents because I didn't take the vessel slaying route (which is totally fine):

 

Envenomed Strike because of Cleansing Flame. High MIG and INT are very good things for Envenomed Strike and it's easy to cast Cleansing Flame afterwards because Env. Strike takes a long time to apply completely. An even better alternative would be to have it on another team member I have to admit. I played the priest solo and thus had to use it myself.

 

I also used Savage Attack because it can be beneficial for the wounding damage - as high MIG is.

 

And since I used Aggrandizing Radiance like you did - it stacks with everything - I also added Inspiring Radiance for the +10 stackable accuracy which I think is neat. This means that I couldn't fit in Scion and Sanctifier.

 

But those are all matter of taste.

 

Sanctifier with Bartender's Ring is also a nice "undead hunter" approach - and my beloved Envenomed Strike doesn't work on vessels anyway. So good decisions from your side I would say.

 

Sidenote, just in case you didn't know: Scion of Flame doesn't work with Shining Beacon or Holy Radiance because those are DoTs. It works perfectly well with Pillars of Flame and all other direkt burn damage spells of course - so absolutely viable pick.

 

Since you have Scion of Flame you could also test if Firebrand is a good alternative before you can get Tidefal. It it very good for Runner's Wounding Shot and works with the Scion talent. It doesn't add any DoT effect of course.

 

Edit: I mistyped Shining Beacon as Shining Bacon and now I'm really hungry.

 

By the way: I used a boreal dwarf and took the Maefolc Skull to get the "Berath Vibe" - but Death Godlike with aumaua body shape and a fat two hander looks totally badass.

Edited April 3, 2017 by Boeroer

[masterty66]

Cool. One thing though: Runner's Wounding shot does raw damage based on your physical damage you rolled. So optimally you would use a weapon which has the highest damage per hit possible. I normally used Tidefall itself after casting Cleansing Flame because that way you could apply two DoTs which get double damage at the same time and do good damage with Runner's Wounding Shot itself.

 

I did basically the same thing but used some other talents because I didn't take the vessel slaying route (which is totally fine):

 

Envenomed Strike because of Cleansing Flame. High MIG and INT are very good things for Envenomed Strike and it's easy to cast Cleansing Flame afterwards because Env. Strike takes a long time to apply completely. An even better alternative would be to have it on another team member I have to admit. I played the priest solo and thus had to use it myself.

 

I also used Savage Attack because it can be beneficial for the wounding damage - as high MIG is.

 

And since I used Aggrandizing Radiance like you did - it stacks with everything - I also added Inspiring Radiance for the +10 stackable accuracy which I think is neat. This means that I couldn't fit in Scion and Sanctifier.

 

But those are all matter of taste.

 

Sanctifier with Bartender's Ring is also a nice "undead hunter" approach - and my beloved Envenomed Strike doesn't work on vessels anyway. So good decisions from your side I would say.

 

Sidenote, just in case you didn't know: Scion of Flame doesn't work with Shining Beacon or Holy Radiance because those are DoTs. It works perfectly well with Pillars of Flame and all other direkt burn damage spells of course - so absolutely viable pick.

 

Since you have Scion of Flame you could also test if Firebrand is a good alternative before you can get Tidefal. It it very good for Runner's Wounding Shot and works with the Scion talent. It doesn't add any DoT effect of course.

 

Edit: I mistyped Shining Beacon as Shining Bacon and now I'm really hungry.

 

By the way: I used a boreal dwarf and took the Maefolc Skull to get the "Berath Vibe" - but Death Godlike with aumaua body shape and a fat two hander looks totally badass.

 

Hmm forgot about envenomed strike. That would definitely play well with this too. I had forgotten that Scion doesn't work with Beacon/Radiance but like you said it's still nice for the other direct burn spells. 

 

Savage Attack could definitely be nice and might be worth it. With high might + two hander that +20% damage could be huge. I'll have to think on if I can fit that or not.

 

I hadn't considered the high damage approach with runner's wounding shot. So you were using an Arquebus then or something similar? My worry there is I'd fire the shot off but not have enough time to apply Cleansing Flame before the dot ran its course due to the long delay. But if you tried it and it worked, then it could definitely be nice. The only reason I thought about the scepter was for being able to get the shot off plus then be able to quickly cast CF.

 

I'm going to be trying this in a party so I should definitely bring Sagani and Devil along a lot I would think.

 

Sanctifier/Scion plus the Bartender Ring are totally a matter of taste. I thought it fit the theme well to melt vessels since Berath seems to dislike undead (although in some cases like Raedric etc he approves of it so it's weird?). It's totally viable to do what you did and drop those in favor of Savage Attack, Inspired Radiance, etc. 

 

In truth I just love the Priest nuking spells too much and I love wrecking Vessels (plus fits the theme) so that's the route I took.

 

Thanks for tips

[Boeroer]

 

I hadn't considered the high damage approach with runner's wounding shot. So you were using an Arquebus then or something similar? My worry there is I'd fire the shot off but not have enough time to apply Cleansing Flame before the dot ran its course due to the long delay. But if you tried it and it worked, then it could definitely be nice. The only reason I thought about the scepter was for being able to get the shot off plus then be able to quickly cast CF.

 

You are right.

 

That part is indeed very tricky since Runner's duration and also that of wounding is rather short. That's why I casted Shining Beacon, then CF (also not too long) and followed up with a Runner's Wounding Shot (or Envenomed Strike) with Tidefall. Still tricky. That way you have decent runner's damage (not the max, but good) or posion DoT and wounding applied with one strike. But that was because of my solo run. It would indeed be way less fuzz to apply DoTs with other party members. So you might as well skip Runner's altogether and give Tidefall to a party member while you use another great sword (as I said - Firebrand with high MIG and Scion of Flame is also very nice. Or try Rumbalt - with Inspiring Radiance + Devotions you can crit a lot).

 

Yeah, if you want a vessel slayer I would also say Berath fits best.

[masterty66]

 

 

I hadn't considered the high damage approach with runner's wounding shot. So you were using an Arquebus then or something similar? My worry there is I'd fire the shot off but not have enough time to apply Cleansing Flame before the dot ran its course due to the long delay. But if you tried it and it worked, then it could definitely be nice. The only reason I thought about the scepter was for being able to get the shot off plus then be able to quickly cast CF.

 

You are right.

 

That part is indeed very tricky since Runner's duration and also that of wounding is rather short. That's why I casted Shining Beacon, then CF (also not too long) and followed up with a Runner's Wounding Shot (or Envenomed Strike) with Tidefall. Still tricky. That way you have decent runner's damage (not the max, but good) or posion DoT and wounding applied with one strike. But that was because of my solo run. It would indeed be way less fuzz to apply DoTs with other party members. So you might as well skip Runner's altogether and give Tidefall to a party member while you use another great sword (as I said - Firebrand with high MIG and Scion of Flame is also very nice. Or try Rumbalt - with Inspiring Radiance + Devotions you can crit a lot).

 

Yeah, if you want a vessel slayer I would also say Berath fits best.

 

 

Yeah I guess given I'm going with a party it might make more sense to drop Runners/Quick switch and use Savage Attack/Inspiring Radiance instead to squeeze out even more dps.

 

Firebrand is interesting, as is Rumbalt. I've never really used Rumbalt much. The accurate 3 it comes with would be nice too on a Priest. I guess if I went that route I'd probably give Tidefall to Pallegina or Maneha. 

[Boeroer]

If you have a rogue or fighter with decent MIG and lowish INT (like Edér for example): those are also good with Tidefall.

 

Pallegina - due to her lame MIG score and the fact that she has no big damage bonuses other than lashes (which don't help the wounding damage) - might not be the best character to give.

 

Tidefall for Maneha would def. be a better pick. She can have high attack speed even with two handers (Frenzy, Bloodlust und Blood Thirst stack) and she has high MIG and not too high INT and she can stack some nice damage bonuses like Savage Attack, One Stands Alone and Blooded (altogether 60%). Plus: the wounding via carnage makes up for the fact that quite a bit of physical damage gets eaten up by enemies' DR because carnage suffers from a damage malus. Aaand she would do wounding in an AoE (Cleansing Flame jumps!) and also drain a lot of endurance via carnage - which is cool. 

[masterty66]

If you have a rogue or fighter with decent MIG and lowish INT (like Edér for example): those are also good with Tidefall.

 

Pallegina - due to her lame MIG score and the fact that she has no big damage bonuses other than lashes (which don't help the wounding damage) - might not be the best character to give.

 

Tidefall for Maneha would def. be a better pick. She can have high attack speed even with two handers (Frenzy, Bloodlust und Blood Thirst stack) and she has high MIG and not too high INT and she can stack some nice damage bonuses like Savage Attack, One Stands Alone and Blooded (altogether 60%). Plus: the wounding via carnage makes up for the fact that quite a bit of physical damage gets eaten up by enemies' DR because carnage suffers from a damage malus. Aaand she would do wounding in an AoE (Cleansing Flame jumps!) and also drain a lot of endurance via carnage - which is cool. 

 

Yeah I usually grab everyone and just cycle them around to keep it fresh. I'll definitely try Tidefall on Maneha then. I haven't done that before - I usually have her dual wield for more carnage hits.

 

Trying to spice up my normal way of building the npcs this run so that should be a fresh change. 

 

One of these days I'll try to solo as well but I usually get bored doing that in other rpgs so haven't yet. 

[Blades of Vanatar]

So, trying a similar build, but starting battle with Interdiction first instead of a Radiance, along side my wizard’s expose vulnerabilities. Then Devotions,  then charging in next to my  Shieldbearer and Barbarian who uses Cladhaliath (marking) ... trying to make Barb who gives party buffs. Tidefall, even in the hands of a Priest, is nasty. 

[Boeroer]

May I ask why you start the battle with Interdiction and not Inspiring (+eventually Aggrandizing) Radiance? Or even better: cast Devotions and then Radiance (since Devotions lasts a lot longer)? They do stack and in my book +10 additional party wide ACC is way better for the first CC spells etc. than a short-lived Daze effect (which might graze or even miss).  

[Blades of Vanatar]

To slow the enemy down. Let’s my Wizzie  and Priestess get their second round of CC or Buffs off depending on the enemy type.

[Blades of Vanatar]

Plus this is a new build type for me.... so I will take any advice. Still in early game, level 7 now, so I can test. I do like dropping Circle of Protection as well, plus the 2nd level healing aura spell before charging.

[Boeroer]

If this works well for you then go for it! 

Circle of Protection is quite cool because it stacks with deflection buffs like Shields for the Faithful. Too bad its duration is rather short. But with high INT it's nice.

Shod-in-Faith boots can come in handy. Sometimes your one Consecrated Ground isn't enough. Also you might want to spare some spell uses every now and then. Getting a crit happens quite a lot as a melee Priest (low startig deflection, no shield) so the boots trigger quite often. 

For the health loss (Priests do have rather abysmal health for a melee setup) I would always keep some potions of Infuse with Vital Essence. To bring health back up by 50. I also used Vetaran's Recovery and stacked healing bonus gear. This helps a lot against knockouts but it won't do anything for your health. Except that those healing bonuses (Fulvano's Amulet for example) also work for the health healing of Infuse wVE (and also Wound Binding etc. - if that's an option for you). 

[Blades of Vanatar]

I agree on the healing aspect. Already using the belt of Bountiful Healing. Vets Recovery is most likely my next talent. 

Shod in Faith boots are used by my Barbarian along with Vets Recovery and Fulvano’s Amulet. It’s tough to choose who gets them. 2 pairs will be ideal. Maybe I will mold them?

[Boeroer]

They are not as impactful in the late game though. Their healing doesn't scale or anything.