[Skullcatrons]

Welcome to the Priest problem thread, the 73th time.
____________________________________________

______________________________________________
PREFACE
Let it be known that this is simply raving of a madman, who have better understanding of his own class' capability than other classes, could describe. Do bear in mind that this is just raving of madman, and nothing more. A man who wishes for a better day, and probably is wasting his time on making a thread for a class that's probably going to get reworked anyway.

___________________________

So what is wrong with Priests?
It's not because they don't have bad spells, or their passive sucks.
I mean, they do have bad spells, and passives. But they're best examined, and understood.
The problem with priests is simple objective fact;
It's a very good sub-class pick.
Too good even.

____________________
GOOD STUFF

STAFF MASTERY
The passive that does not even require a Main-class. For every stave equipped, you get a +1 increase to WILL, and FAITH. With the talents, you can have up to whopping five staves. Meaning you get +5 to WILL and FAITH! Insanely strong!

PIETY
Coupled with this passive, you can get another +6 FAI. Meaning that you can have +11 FAITH all together from just passives, and staves. That's big jump in Faith number.

DETAILED CARE
Detailed Care are in a sense, very good passive to take up when you need to heal a friend. With a 50% boost to healing, as long as they're within a tile of you. You can heal them for well over 300 heals if you're standing right next to them. It's generally hard to get party-member to cooperate to get healed, but it's very strong healing if you can reach them regardless.

MALMELO

Malmelo is very, very good. With high enough faith, you can heal all your party-members regardless of distance 30% of their health. Making it very strong heal that applies to whole party. While it have good uses, it have cooldown of seven turns. Don't expect to use this much.

DIVINE SHOWER
   I'm not gonna talk about how great this spell is, after the evasion rework and how it finally can hit anyone without much trouble.
Honestly, it's great that this ability no longer sucks.
____________________
MEH STUFF

Mercalan Mist 
On paper, the idea of it sound good. In reality, it's pretty much meaningless. It's decent spell for when you want to grant a basically +25 evade to whole party, some health regen, and lightning resist of 15% reduction to your enemies but realistically; Well you wouldn't waste your time casting it unless you're planning on running idol for that sweet sweet 35% lightning resist reduction

Sanctuary
In lot of way, sanctuary do provides quite a lot of benefit. But the problem with Sanctuary is that you have to stay within it, and while you can enlargen the sanctuary to cover almost most of the map. It become pointless when someone kicks you out of it, or swap position with you to remove the effect immediately in a round.

Strong Legs
Strong Legs is actually decent treatment skill for counterplay in PVP. If your party-member get feared, hesitated, or knock-downed. You can use Strong legs to get them up fast into action without suffering a 3M cost if they hadn't gone yet.

Shine Rays/Needles/Holy Shock
Nothing wrong with them. They're pretty much better DPs alternative for Holy Arrows, that's for sure.

Gentle Torrent
This'll never really see a formal use, but it does fulfill it's very niche condition. Which was basically a line-AOE. Issue it requires you to line up with an enemy, and allies who may, or may not be suffering a status debuff. Which is not always a case. It only reduces debuff by 1 rounds, and have Water Damage scaling of 128%, which doesn't see much uses in combat.
____________________
BAD STUFF
(HONESTLY THE WORSE)

 Purify Poison/Cool Burns
Legit just use Stave of Antidote, and Stave of Cooling. They have scaling, and can cure way higher level debuffs than these. Also waste of skill points.

Longterm Cure
Looks good on paper. In reality. It requires a literal Treatment skill to be used, which is waste of skillpoints on it's own. Maybe good for Strong Legs, but honestly why?

Mercalan Tenants
I don't care if goddess holds me at gunpoint. I'm never taking this.

[i]Divine Judgement
[/i]Okay so here's a thing. It's technically not a bad invocation. The issue is, the invocation is just single-target version of Mercalan Mists, but it only: 1. Negates the Light resistance entirety, and 2. Converts the RES/DEF into a single stat; Faith. Theoretically, this spell should be good. But really why would you?


Shine Knight
Okay. Here's the thing. The reason why this spell sucks, is because of two things; One. They take a whooping 15 monument. Meaning you have to spend two rounds, and a half just to summon two level-60 Shine Knights that while their benefits once summoned are great, you can be interrupted. Believe me when I say this; but because it takes two rounds. A player can knockdown you continually to prevent you from casting Shine Knight in first place. So it's kind of lame, and intensely situational outside of party-fights.

God Rod
Only needed for Priest Monk staff, otherwise you can use the gem staves instead.

____________________
THE CURE.

The class honestly is garbage if you plans on mono-classing it, or primary-classing it. In fairness, you pretty much don't need to main-class Priest at all. There is no incentive, no encouragement. This is similar issue with Lantern Bearers, but unlike Priests, Lantern bearers provide players choices that can benefit the builds in varieties of way. Priests, on other hand, have mandatory spells, optional spells, and completely ignorable because it's too niche.

How can the class be solved? Obviously, it lacks lot of incentive to be main-classed. It have no encouragement to the players to bother main-classing. It also lacks very much practically anything of essence. It only have cleanses utilities, some defensive utilities, but offers no real mobility of it's own or unique gameplays.

Seriously. People just take this class sub-class because sweet, sweet +11 FAI and +5 WIL.
Big boost, baby.

[adamkad1]

Check the topic from snake, i think it would make mercalan tenets not suck

[Slydria]

I'm just going to pitch a handful of buff ideas for some of the skills. This won't be reinventing the wheel, nor really fixing all the pain points OP has, just trying to bring more options into the fold.

Sanctuary
No longer is immediately removed upon being moved outside of it. Instead the effects of Sanctuary are negated until the caster returns to the location.

Notes: This is just to address the pain point of how easy it can be to stuff a Priest out of Sanctuary. It's not as strong of an effect as it used to be so I think it's fine to not have such a painful downside anymore.


Gentle Torrent
Now covers a wide line (like Kadouha) and no longer breaks when it hits the first enemy. Cooldown reduced to 1 Round from 3 Rounds.

Notes: Making use of both properties of Gentle Torrent is difficult currently. By increasing it's width and making it so the projectile doesn't break on enemies, you don't have to be as precise with your positioning for it and can now more effectively cover allies close to enemies. I also feel it's effect isn't so strong as to warrant it's cooldown, just enough to prevent spam will do.


Shine Ray
Lowered FP Cost to 24/22/20/18/16.

Notes: Shine Ray has always been an expensive spell but that was understandable due to the massive potential level on the Light Shaft which allowed even bulky priests to evade effectively. But since that's no longer the case, I feel it's costs being greatly reduced is only fair.


Treatment Skills
Lowered to 3 Ranks. Rank 3 and 5 effects are shifted to Rank 2 and 3 respectively. Default Range increased to 4 (using a Staff still increases this by a further 3.)

Additional Effect: Restores some HP to the target if you cleanse a status. Healing determined by Scaled FAI & Rank.

Notes: Treatment Skills only rarely get to see use. I think with increased reach, reduced skill investment and the added healing factor, they'll become much more standard picks for a Priest's kit. As for how strong I think the heal should be, I think about the 80-100HP mark for a standard build would be ideal. Decent healing but not strong enough to warrant lengthy cooldowns. (40 Scaled FAI & Rank 3 Treatments would do, e.g. 150% Scaled FAI + Rank*10 for 90HP.)

Oh and since multiple statuses could be cured by some treatments, the heal would naturally only occur once per use.


Purify Poison
Renamed to Purify Ails:

Effect Changed:
Treatment skill. Targets 1 ally (or yourself) within 4 Range and removes any Poison effect they are suffering from, as long as it has a LV equal to or lower than X (based on Rank). If you have a Staff-type weapon equipped, the Range of this skill is increased by 3. At Rank 2, Burn is also affected. At Rank 3, Lingering Damage is also affected.

LV determined by Rank is changed from 8/16/24/32/40 to 20/30/40.


Notes: If Strong Legs can cure multiple statuses then why not the others? This Treatment skill now covers the majority of damage over time effects while also potentially providing immunities with Longterm Cure and a modest heal to boot.


Cool Burns
Removed and replaced with a new Treatment skill.

Bestow Freedoms -
Treatment skill. Targets 1 ally (or yourself) within 4 Range and removes any Slow effect they are suffering from. If you have a Staff-type weapon equipped, the Range of this skill is increased by 3. At Rank 3, Clumsy and Immobilizes are also affected. At Rank 5, Silence is also affected.

Notes: Since Burn cleansing has been lumped into the other skill, this would need an entirely new identity, hence Bestow Freedoms. This covers a range of movement-impairing effects and Silence. While Silence may be a questionable pick due to Curate's Silent Prayer, that skill can't be used on allies.


Longterm Cure
Lowered to 3 Ranks. Immunity duration is equal to Rank+2 Rounds (3/4/5). (This is still halved on yourself.)

Notes: With the other Treatment changes, I think the benefit of this also naturally increases. So the only other pain point I feel is how costly it is to spend SP on this and treatment skills.


Divine Judgement
Additional Effect: If Holy Spark is equipped, you follow up Divine Judgement with a cast of Holy Spark (at no extra cost), centred on the target.

Notes: While I feel it's current effects are pretty good, I do end up finding myself rarely using it due to how slow it is to set up. I think by adding this damage follow up, the time loss from setting up this effect is decreased.


Mercalan Tenants
Lowered to 3 Ranks.

Effect Changed:
When you use a healing item (except a Staff) on an ally, they recover additional HP and you regain FP, based on Rank.

Heal: 20/40/60 HP, FP: 10/20/30

Notes: Less investment, more potent FP recovery and a bonus flat heal on your items used on allies. I feel this still may not see much use but if you are into the hard line healing aspect of the class, this can only help.


Shine Knights
Changed from Rank C Invocation to Rank D Invocation.

Notes: I feel bad for suggesting this since it's the only Rank C Invocation in the game and thus gets cool points but making the minions powerful enough to warrant that lengthy set up could easily end up going too far in the opposite direction. I think this should simply fall in line so it's easier to use.


Devocation
Additional Effect: While Invoking a Mercalan spell, the chance to trigger Devotion is increased (additively) by 50%. Devotion reduces any damage taken in a damage instance by your Scaled Faith.

Notes: This one is so forgettable, it didn't even get mentioned. Devocation is not what you want to rely on compared to maxing out the Invocation talent to avoid the issue altogether. So to add some sprinkles... a chance to lower damage based on your Faith while Invoking sounds pretty good. Originally I was thinking 100% of the time but I felt that would be too good for a tanky, Divine Shower spamming priest.

[adamkad1]

Cool Burns
Removed and replaced with a new Treatment skill.

Bestow Freedoms -
Treatment skill. Targets 1 ally (or yourself) within 4 Range and removes any Slow effect they are suffering from. If you have a Staff-type weapon equipped, the Range of this skill is increased by 3. At Rank 3, Clumsy and Immobilizes are also affected. At Rank 5, Silence is also affected.

Notes: Since Burn cleansing has been lumped into the other skill, this would need an entirely new identity, hence Bestow Freedoms. This covers a range of movement-impairing effects and Silence. While Silence may be a questionable pick due to Curate's Silent Prayer, that skill can't be used on allies.

I'd add frozen to bestow freedoms (idk if it should replace something) since freeze is decently common (probably more than clumsy)

[Snake]

dear god don't reply to a massive post like that without cutting the chase lmao-

I'd say Divine Judgment should also have the bonus effect of 'The targeted enemy cannot utilize Mercalan healing spells for its duration, but doubles their the chance of Devotion activating, and they gain Grace of God every round.'

All three treatment skills should probably be simplified into one single named 'Mercana Treatment', with a hefty FP cost and the ability to be enhanced by Mass. It would make Priests feel more impactful.

Gentle Torrent should be reworked from a damaging skill to a support skill that creates a water veil on an ally in range, reducing the next three damage instances they take by 15%.

The rest of what Slydria spoke about is very solid, so I nod and thumb up. I hope this can be touched upon.

[adamkad1]

I'd say Divine Judgment should also have the bonus effect of 'The targeted enemy cannot utilize Mercalan healing spells for its duration, but doubles their the chance of Devotion activating, and they gain Grace of God every round.'

That's surprisingly good for something that's supposed to be a debuff. Not that it would be useful on monsters but players, especially faithful ones? Yikes

[Kazzy]

I'd absolutely love for Priest to not just be Evoker but for Light spells with a bunch of free stats. That'd be great.


I'd also like to see more references to it not being MERCALAN priests, as per its lore entry. You can be a priest of anyone but still have all these Mercala buttons? Like, hello?

[Skullcatrons]

Devocation
Additional Effect: While Invoking a Mercalan spell, the chance to trigger Devotion is increased (additively) by 50%. Devotion reduces any damage taken in a damage instance by your Scaled Faith.

Notes: This one is so forgettable, it didn't even get mentioned. Devocation is not what you want to rely on compared to maxing out the Invocation talent to avoid the issue altogether. So to add some sprinkles... a chance to lower damage based on your Faith while Invoking sounds pretty good. Originally I was thinking 100% of the time but I felt that would be too good for a tanky, Divine Shower spamming priest.

Oh yeah.

I forgot about Devocation. Because it was just bad.

[adamkad1]

I'd absolutely love for Priest to not just be Evoker but for Light spells with a bunch of free stats. That'd be great.


I'd also like to see more references to it not being MERCALAN priests, as per its lore entry. You can be a priest of anyone but still have all these Mercala buttons? Like, hello?

Imagine if we could change the element of the spells like aquamancer can

[Poruku]

Nerf divine shower and malmelo and it would be a start. As someone who played priest many times, those two things are essentially unfair.

I'm also in favor of making priest less focused on mercala, with options to change element or even basing skills on prayer. But honestly, that should probably be its own class because Priest is literally just mercala.