anyone try MC priest?

[snuggleform]

I was considering a priest or priest + cipher, because the watcher can get a special ability that grants herself brilliant through the plot, then of course use salvation of time to extend it. Anyone try something like this, and how was it?

With a pure priest I could eventually get sparks of the righteous which sounds really cool with summons.

With a priest/cipher (scion) could pass around ancient memory to everyone all day long in one character, without having to split them. Of course, this becomes no sooner than level 19 whereas a pure priest + pure cipher could do this at 13; on the other hand there's no particular rush to that combo. Yet on the other hand, a pure cipher can get a nice T9 buff that a dual class can't.

Sorta undecided, what do you guys think?

[Stardama69]

Sounds good. If scion generates focus fast enough you'll always have a reserve of cc/damage spells for when you run out of main spells. Cipher is really the only class I would multiclass a caster with, apart perhaps from chanter which goes well with everything

[snuggleform]

I'm still torn though, a pure priest gets spark of the righteous which looks spicy! But a cipher/priest means I don't have to include a cipher elsewhere on the team, I kind of don't like the cipher nowadays because on potd everything is so hard to debuff with will or fortitude defenses being monstrous (well the tough encounters anyways, any fights against things with low will are essentially trash fights), even with max perception and empty soul and stuff.

[snuggleform]

Been experimenting a lot with dru/wiz/cipher, and I really don't like how they feel on potd. There are too many battles where the hit rating is 40% due to high fortitude and/or will. Yes there are weapon modals that could help that, but even then 65% hit rating isn't amazing, and comes at a lot of opportunity cost (could be shooting with a ranged weapon instead of risking melee, have to debuff one at a time unless running a barb which has its own set of issues).

Wiz does feel a lot better once you get concelhaut's crushing hammer since deflection is usually their lowest stat anyways, and both wiz/dru feel a lot better if they single class and hit 19, but there's a slog zone between 13 and 19 where it's just eh. Maybe priest will hit the spot for me better since you can't miss buffs on your own team?

[snuggleform]

Oh fook me sideways, I was getting all hyped up on devotions for the faithful (everyone recommends it), then I realized it doesn't stack with the arquebus modal. Why didn't anyone warn me about that? I'm not sure whether I should turn off the modal and use the buff, or just not use the buff. 3 of my team is using the arquebus. This makes my mc priest less appealing, although I still have hopes for using salvation of time to extend some interesting buffs ( I hope it works on scordeo's pistol recovery time and dragon dowry and kitchen stove 1 per rest buffs, if not I'll be triggered, and yes I know it works on scordeo's sword but that is late game and I'm not building around that one).

And yikes the crusader buff overrides the might from devotions as well. I might just have to dump devotions of the faithful out of my rotation given the other buffs and weapons that I'm using.

[Stardama69]

Well they're both straight active accuracy buffs so yes they wouldn't stack. You were the one who told me how stacking works :)

[snuggleform]

Priest MC so far in the beginning felt mediocre, buffing your guys with +5 str and awareness is...all right, but not earth shattering. Reaching PL8 though and tackling some end game stuff the priest came into its own; there is an incredible density of dismissable targets in the shrouded cove and beast of winter DLC, I don't think even the fury druid or evoker wizard can look down on dismissing hordes of angry spirits/vessels. and I expect there to be more uses as well in SSS. Spark the souls doesn't always perform well but when it does, it certainly shines. Having barring death's door and withdraw available have been occasionally useful in a way that I've not really experienced with say, a healing paladin/troubadour.

Paladin/troubadour passive healing is absolutely insane but it doesn't have great instant protect moves. The priest IMO offers a more rounded package; it can do some recovery over time with the circle which is about as strong as endurance aura and it has good nearly instant protects.

Having brilliant available is nice, but I haven't used it that often because it's per rest and I don't want to rest that often since I want to preserve the wael's wind effect. I guess I could farm shops for wael's wind and rest after every battle but it sounds tedious.

I would say overall priest mc is positive, but definitely not strictly required to be MC for the brilliant. I learned to love arcane archer because wow, pull of eora without the 6 second initial cast is amazing, and so is driving flight with binding web to lock down an enormous patch of enemies.

I still don't think I've found the sweet spot 5th character, but this one came closer than any other. The problem I have is in some ambush battles when surrounded or starting off in close quarters, it would feel better to have some sort of tanking or cc'ing that can keep enemies off of me before the summons arrive. Priest did ok sometimes with that with withdraw/barring death's door but still didn't feel quite right. It could definitely be user error; I learned that the chanter's pushing shout and charm shout in T1 and T2 are extremely good at peeling melee off of you. Maybe all 5 chanters is the way to go, but then again the priest's dismissal has been real good to me and being able to extend the +3 pen buff is pretty good.