Full Battle Priest Guide ver: 1.2.1! Now with (correct) DPS Calcs~!

My little priesty is too low to see the third rank tooltip, and the skill sim just says if a target dies grants 3 holy waters. Going to have to wait and see, if it is extra dps then I need to figure out what I can drop instead to get HH >.<

Edited by Serapheen, 10 May 2013 - 05:59 PM.

My little priesty is too low to see the third rank tooltip, and the skill sim just says if a target dies grants 3 holy waters. Going to have to wait and see, if it is extra dps then I need to figure out what I can drop instead to get HH >.<

It's tricky eh? I'm working on concrete examples with my DPS formulae (done standard boss fight with 2000 matk and crit ranging from 0-20%, as well as 2000 matk, 0 crit, 2 target fight. I wont post until I've done all permutations though), once I do up DPS during execute phase calcs I'll include both rank 2 and 3 Lex comparisons for you ^^

Hi, I'm really really interested in building a DPS priest. It is my first time playing ever and this guide will help make my very first character. So I read that DoTs (dmg over time) do not crit but it seems like I will be spamming holy light forever and ever. Instead of maxing int, wouldn't something like 40 int and 40 agi be better, so that I can crit holy light more? Of course, there's that skill Aspersio that allows me to crit with holy light, which is why adding lots of agi is unnecessary I assume, but what if I want to use aspersio for other skills or what if I'm spamming holy light too fast for the aspersio cooldown to finish? My understanding of aspersio may be lacking, so I feel newbish for asking, but yeah this is all totally new to me. What if I choose to max agi instead? Would I crit a lot higher than 20% of the time?

sorry a lot of questions. appreciate the help thanks!

Hi, I'm really really interested in building a DPS priest. It is my first time playing ever and this guide will help make my very first character. So I read that DoTs (dmg over time) do not crit but it seems like I will be spamming holy light forever and ever. Instead of maxing int, wouldn't something like 40 int and 40 agi be better, so that I can crit holy light more? Of course, there's that skill Aspersio that allows me to crit with holy light, which is why adding lots of agi is unnecessary I assume, but what if I want to use aspersio for other skills or what if I'm spamming holy light too fast for the aspersio cooldown to finish? My understanding of aspersio may be lacking, so I feel newbish for asking, but yeah this is all totally new to me. What if I choose to max agi instead? Would I crit a lot higher than 20% of the time?

sorry a lot of questions. appreciate the help thanks!

Actually the reason I suggest against adding crit is due to scaling. Only 2/6 of the skills we use in a regular rotation benefit from agi and crit (HL and RoG), which means we get more bang for our buck with Int. This is coupled with the fact that Priest gear has a complete and total lack of Agi, meaning all the agi we don't scale well with will be coming from Runes and our own stat points only. An expensive investment for minimal return.

As for HL while it is our most cast filler spell according to my math we'll only be able to cast around 25 or so per minute, 9 of which will be instant crits. So without a single point in Agi your HL is already rocking a 36% crit rate with Aspersio. The other thing to take into account is that in a fight anything that detracts from your filler casting, such as big adds or multiple targets, reduces the number of HLs you're casting. On a two target fight like Vador Twins where you're applying DoTs to both targets every refresh the number of HL you're casting per minute drops from 25 to 15 or so. Since Aspersio HLs are priority you end up with 9/15 (or 60%) of them guaranteed to crit.

It's sort of like the Suffragium argument: 10% haste IS nice, but we benefit so little from it. Critting IS nice, but not enough of our skills benefit from it that it's hard to justify.

And it should be mentioned at level 50, if you were to max Agi (50 points) you would only be gaining 4.58% crit.

My 2 cents on AGI:INT and Holy Light in general :-

No doubt mathematically using Holy Light 5 with Aspersio gives you the maximum damage output in a perfect rotation scenario, but in practice HL comes with a lot of issues :-

1. The rotation of 3 DOT's, Genesis, Aspersio, 3x Holy Light leaves very little time for doing anything else once you hit 15% Vigor. You'll often have to sacrifice the 3rd holy light to Aqua Benedicta to keep Aspersio going. The part in bold is where the main weakness of HL lies since it roots you to a single spot for 2-3s while you cast 3 of it.

2. Unless you are planning to pot for HP, you'd want to keep reno on yourself throughout, that'll add some delays to the rotation above. Same goes with Archangel and most importantly - Summon Pet, which has a 1-2s 'after skill delay'. All in all, you might end up finding that in between 3 DOTs, Genesis, Reno and other misc skills, you don't really have the buffer to throw another 3 holy lights.

3. Being forced to stand at 1 spot can be fatal in this game. From multi-mob farming to PVP Collesseum to Raids, there's many benefits to being able to quickly get out of the way when a situation arises. Having 3 HL's in your rotation severely limits that choice.

4. If you want to farm a bit faster, you'd want to DOT more mobs at a single time, and you'll often find that Reno won't keep you alive to handle more than 3 mobs. If you mix Reno in with Aspersio+HH to double your HOT effect, you'll be able to handle up to 5-6 mobs at a time (it also helps not to stay stationary in one place #1). And this is truly where Crit makes a difference as the full Crit HH effect is passed to the HOT. This is also very useful in both PVP and raids to keep you alive (a luxury many other DPS don't have)

5. Priest EQ gives a lot of INT and VIT but pitiful Agi, a full PVP set priest will have close to 1000 INT but only 150-200 Agi. As such, a 4.5% crit increase is actually quite a lot when you consider they only have 15-20% to begin with. But generally a 40/40 build is quite good and balanced.

In the end its up to the player whether they want to chase that 'optimum' DPS cycle and deal with the risks or maximize your priest benefits in exchange for a slightly lower damage dealt. Though in my opinion if you can level your Mermaid Pet to level 3, its added dps will easily blow 3 crit holy lights out of the sky.

Edited by feed3r, 13 May 2013 - 05:19 PM.

Figured out a mistake in the DPS formulae, fixing it up. Sadly, it means I need to re-do my examples -.- but I think I've nailed it now!

Stupid crit lol

My 2 cents on AGI:INT and Holy Light in general :-

No doubt mathematically using Holy Light 5 with Aspersio gives you the maximum damage output in a perfect rotation scenario, but in practice HL comes with a lot of issues :-

1. The rotation of 3 DOT's, Genesis, Aspersio, 3x Holy Light leaves very little time for doing anything else once you hit 15% Vigor. You'll often have to sacrifice the 3rd holy light to Aqua Benedicta to keep Aspersio going. The part in bold is where the main weakness of HL lies since it roots you to a single spot for 2-3s while you cast 3 of it.

2. Unless you are planning to pot for HP, you'd want to keep reno on yourself throughout, that'll add some delays to the rotation above. Same goes with Archangel and most importantly - Summon Pet, which has a 1-2s 'after skill delay'. All in all, you might end up finding that in between 3 DOTs, Genesis, Reno and other misc skills, you don't really have the buffer to throw another 3 holy lights.

3. Being forced to stand at 1 spot can be fatal in this game. From multi-mob farming to PVP Collesseum to Raids, there's many benefits to being able to quickly get out of the way when a situation arises. Having 3 HL's in your rotation severely limits that choice.

4. If you want to farm a bit faster, you'd want to DOT more mobs at a single time, and you'll often find that Reno won't keep you alive to handle more than 3 mobs. If you mix Reno in with Aspersio+HH to double your HOT effect, you'll be able to handle up to 5-6 mobs at a time (it also helps not to stay stationary in one place #1). And this is truly where Crit makes a difference as the full Crit HH effect is passed to the HOT. This is also very useful in both PVP and raids to keep you alive (a luxury many other DPS don't have)

5. Priest EQ gives a lot of INT and VIT but pitiful Agi, a full PVP set priest will have close to 1000 INT but only 150-200 Agi. As such, a 4.5% crit increase is actually quite a lot when you consider they only have 15-20% to begin with. But generally a 40/40 build is quite good and balanced.

In the end its up to the player whether they want to chase that 'optimum' DPS cycle and deal with the risks or maximize your priest benefits in exchange for a slightly lower damage dealt. Though in my opinion if you can level your Mermaid Pet to level 3, its added dps will easily blow 3 crit holy lights out of the sky.

This is a TON of great food for thought. I dunno how to even begin processing this

Useful, but I'm a melee type.

*Will re-add my topic when my enter key works on forums lol*

Edited by Godriconian, 27 May 2013 - 05:24 PM.

Just wondering if Lex Divina is included in the OP's standard rotation (in lieu of non-aspersio'd HLs)? In comparison, taking the base time costs of each, HL at 2s, Lex at 1s, maxed dps on both would be 19.5% dps for HL and 30% dps for Lex. Outside of Gloria procs, it is more consistent. Cast time is the detriment because it has the off-chance of being interrupted (cc effects, human error), meaning time waste. In order of priority to cast, It should be: HL+Gloria Proc > Lex off CD > regular HL. Ofc in execute phase, Lex comes back as top priority of the three.

I've been fleshing out a pure DPS Priest though so this was a priority skill investment. My rotation has an avg 17 casts = 64.47 DPS (non-execute, disregarding crit). Replacing those with HL requires an impossible 70% haste rate to yield the exact same DPS, but with 0.3s staggering into your rotation. This is for a sustained rotation considering two full cooldowns of Archangel.

Also a big issue I havn't seen brought up is DoT management. DoTs tick every 2 seconds, but the first tick is delayed to start two seconds after the DoT is applied. This two-second window means any time you re-apply a DoT it will take the time from that last tick and add two seconds for when the next tick procs. Realistically, I would aim for consistently re-DoTing after 0.2-0.4s from the last tick. If you try to time it too close, you risk early casting and adding almost 1.5-2 seconds more to the DoT tick delay. Learning the right timing for re-applying your DoTs and when the duration is ending so you can avoid any downtime will help you maximize your DoT DPS. I just wish we had in-game DPS DoT timers (*hint hint suggestion to CMs)

Gotta pick DPS wherever you can get it ^^

*Edit I also didn't see Aqua Benedicta represented in the Rotation, unless it was accounted for somewhere on the side. I know we go in pre-AB'd, but it should still be at the end of the rotation else your next rotation gets extended. Also I wonder how you have so many HLs in your rotation. With 35% haste and max Gloria working at 15%, I see at least a 68s rotation. Maybe I have more delay

Edited by Ayakaya, 28 May 2013 - 09:35 AM.

4. If you want to farm a bit faster, you'd want to DOT more mobs at a single time, and you'll often find that Reno won't keep you alive to handle more than 3 mobs. If you mix Reno in with Aspersio+HH to double your HOT effect, you'll be able to handle up to 5-6 mobs at a time (it also helps not to stay stationary in one place #1). And this is truly where Crit makes a difference as the full Crit HH effect is passed to the HOT. This is also very useful in both PVP and raids to keep you alive (a luxury many other DPS don't have)

Whether Reno + potting can keep you alive for more than 3 mobs depends on your gear. My battle priest is level 36 and can mob up to 5 level 35-36 enemies at once with just renovatio and red pots because I have the best gear and cards I can get for my level.

PVP and Raids is a completely different thing, but if your battle priest is built just for farming like mine is, then HH isn't necessary.

Depending on target I often can't even get to a mob of 5 because they die before I get that far... and I'm not even full DPS.
Or if they don't, the DoT ran out before they died and I have to take action to kill them anyway, no point in attracting new mobs if there are ones hitting on you that arent taking damage anymore.

thank you so much for this build ~ ive been looking for one!

priest doter not playable until dot crits and appear dot timer. hybrid with ok heal branch 1 lvl dots and 5 lvl rog more playable

after play fs and battle priest  playing priest and changed my mind about archangel. will not up it ill better get max highness heal for pvp.

nice share and really good build.. ill try it.. kindly check my priest full DPS build too at http://www.mmohint.com

nice share and really good build.. ill try it.. kindly check my priest full DPS build too at http://www.mmohint.com

id recommend taking points out from Suffragium and maxing Aspersio