I can have tons of ideas, but when it comes to them, I'm taking a full stop and I never know how to build them properly. Priests. I have no idea how to make a specialized or mixed priest. Whether it's Frenzy dispenser (with stuff like Bleneth's Skull and Amulet, Unholy Nimbus, Axe of the Raging Soul, possibly also Iljin and Darkblood Glaive for Savage Curses), Draw priest (with Inspirations, Inspirational Presence, Demonic Power and/or Demonic Feedback, Altruism procs only on half of these), something for other attachments (Curse of Fragility, Stone Feet, Martyr Blessing) or just a plain Healing Priest (...heals), I have no clue how to build them to be even slightly consistent. Right now they kinda aren't. And I can't for whatever reason find the right proportions. For example, I've made a priest for one of my weird decks, that went as follows (at least vaguely, I don't have that build saved): Axe Of The Raging Soul Darkblood Glaive Skull Of Savage Iljin The Deadonomicon The Deadonomicon Aegis Of The Defender Zod's Vile Spaceplate Zachary's Boots Advanced Flexibility Novice Ablution And, for some reason, I was always ending up getting the Unholy Wellspring, but never the Savage Curse. That thing discouraged me from playing that and I gave up. I don't really know, maybe it's just me not being able to play properly, or maybe I have a horrid luck, regardless, in the past few days it's been kinda, quite frankly, making me really angry, that I can't make anything work. Even with the tested decks, like the Mimetic Armored hand extentions, I couldn't do a thing. So I decided to ask you for some advices.
Well , i my self as well found always hard to make a dependable priest. So priest people throw some ideas about the underlying principles of religious deck buliding
First of all, don't ever doubt your ability to get lucky. Especially with your name! Also if you get angry easily, congrats, you are a competitive bastard like me! but also, that anger can affect your play. Anger leads to the darkside of the force you probably need to get out more! Or, you can just try pushig through it, just play a bunch f games with the expectation that you will lose. Get used to losing, and being comfortable with losing/ bad beats. Even congratulate the guy when he beats you! This will make you less angry. Besides CH is a game for the patient. Patience with cards, patience with winning. I could rabbit on some more about how to build your priests but it honestly looks like you've got the bases covered. It's generally best to have a focussed priest on just one or two things. Healbot priests should be just that- healing. Have you tried making a rad spray priest yet? They can be fun and combine well with lots of wiz. Good luck Edit- don't expect your priests to be 100% reliable in getting the cards you want! Like you've noticed, even with cards like deadonomicon you still don't always get the draws you want. You can streamline priests a little by using dwarves for blind rage trait, those 2x slippery boots, vmpires blade and "focussed" traits, even certain shields. Just typey in " trait" in the search field in your keep next time, under whatever priest item category you want.
Here's the priest build that I've used (pretty much unchanged) since Attack of the Artifacts came out. Spoiler: It's a Priest! The Holy Tool Level 20 Human Priest St. Olf's Fiery Pike Gauixl's Sacred Maquah Glowing Hide Armor Aegis Of The Defender Hawkwind's Moccasins Purging Charm Bleneth's Skull Spellstripper Relic Trainee Command Advanced Piety 2 x Dangerous Maneuver 5 x Mass Frenzy 2 x Defender's Block 2 x Stab 1 x Bloodied Block 1 x Greater Heal 1 x Reliable Hide Armor 1 x Purge 4 x Purging Burst 1 x Vulnerable 1 x Thick Hide Armor 3 x Sundering Strike 2 x Fiery Stab 2 x Team Heal 1 x Lunging Bash 1 x Walk, Team! 1 x Invigorating Touch 1 x Weak Chop 1 x Enervating Touch 2 x Altruism 1 x Escaping Run Another variant I've used to good effect in certain metas swaps out the St. Olf's Fiery Pike and Gauixl's Sacred Maquah for Huetotl's Firebrand and St. Blenko's Knife. The design ethics behind that priest is that its job is to buff and support, triggering altruism whenever possible, and occasionally have a high-damage attack or vamp to play when an enemy gets too close. They are designed to work with a pair of warriors or a warrior and a priest best - if you wanted to run wizards, I'd recommend changing this quite a but, but that would also be a bit out of my expertise. What I find priests excel at is having a good mix of buffs and moderate to high damage attacks, so whatever build you run should take advantage of that whenever possible. Of course, there are builds that get buy find without doing so - like the whole Cursed Radcannon thing or a pure support Unholy Wellspring priest - but those are played very differently, and I have little experience with them.
@Inkfingers - Thanks for posting an actual deck list! I've been hoping to see more. I'd contribute, but I don't think this thread is geared to SP priests.
Actually, @Sir Veza , I would totally love to see a SP priest deck list if you feel like posting one. I've tinkered from time to time, but I am not an expert like you are - MP is much more my bailiwick.
Priests are complicated characters. They have to have melee attacks, blocks, and supportive spells (that can be replaced by vampire attacks). When building one, think about where you would position such a priest in a fight, and what the priest would do. Here are some things about when I build priests: WEAPON/ATTACKS. What kind of attacks would be appropriate for the priest's position? Range 2 attacks and step attacks are very good for characters that are too fragile want to stay behind. This is what you should consider when choosing between Coruscating Blade and Unholy Cudgel, aside from token cost. If you can get both weapons to have similar attacks, that's great. Notice that backline support weapons like Knife Of St. Blenko have range 2 and step attacks while weapons like Healing Hand Mace are better for characters at the front. SHIELD. Aside from position, the meta should also be considered when picking a shield. Multipurpose block shields are good in wizard-heavy metas for frontline support priests. Magic block shields or trait-bearing shields should be used for back line support priests in wizard-heavy metas. Melee block shields are usually better otherwise. CONSISTENCY. Consistent priests are usually much better than mixed ones. Look for consistency in cards beyond having more of the same kind of card. Inspiring Presence is similar to Team Heal and Inspiration. Mass Frenzy is similar to Unholy Frenzy, and they would work together. Team Heal is actually similar to Help the Weak, but note that Help the Weak is dissimilar to Inspiring Presence. COMBOS. Cards like Cleansing Ray are great with Bless, Radioactive Spray, and the like. Damage from Unholy Energy can be easily recovered with Bless or Healing Blessing. Vampiric attacks are good with strong "finisher" cards for a Cantrip chain (which is why Lifesuck Spear works). Martyr's Blessing is better paired with heals than Impenetrable Nimbus. If you feel you've got these areas covered, you should be fine.
For a healing priest, following is a good build. Got me to my highest rating. Spoiler: Priest Build Gifting Bag Level 18 Human Priest Storge's Proboscis Purging Mace Unholy Nimbus Twisting Shield Naugus Hide Boots Medical Kit Oak Roots Medical Kit Superb Flexibility Superb Piety 1 x Arcane Feedback 1 x Draining Touch 1 x Escaping Run 1 x Hard To Pin Down 1 x Enervating Touch 3 x Entangling Roots 2 x Pushback Parry 2 x Altruism 2 x Purging Strike 3 x Purging Burst 4 x Greater Heal 1 x Violent Spin 1 x Chain Harness 1 x Sneaky Bloodsuck 1 x Predictable Stab 2 x Radiation Bolt 2 x Wings Of Faith 1 x Subtle Parry 1 x Invigorating Touch 1 x Healing Rays 1 x Weak Strike 2 x Unholy Frenzy 1 x Advanced Battlefield Training Explanation of every item: Storge's Proboscis : This item gives some vamp attacks which can be used by the priest or sent to the warrior or wiz and help them heal an additional 17. Also gives wings for the priest or wiz to escape. Purging Mace : More purge cards for same small token. Unholy Nimbus : Great token less armor but since it is Legendary you can invest in the one with 2 x Cleansing Ray. Naugus Hide Boots : token less violent spin to escape or to trap weak foes. Medical Kit : Range 8, Heal 8 and some radiation. Such wowness doesn't exist on all common items. Oak Roots : Equals to dead elves. Gives you the advantage in many battles. Superb Flexibility : Initially I intended to run this item to transfer rad bombs to the frenzied wiz but I gave up on the burst builds coz I sucked at using burst. Still the ABT won me a game against a guy with tonnes of obliterating sparks on 3 dwarf wiz. Now I use it to transfer the heal/ vamp cards. Superb Piety : IDK but it was the last item that I put on the priest and it looked like a good choice.
So I finally gave this a thought and I have come up with a few ideas: Ballet Shoes, Altruism and in my opinion ballet shoes work better than trait cycling as you can chose your facing and draw extra cards and also altruism can trigger extra meaningful draws. And you may want to switch the aegis to a tokenless shield and upgrade those holy items. Also look to keep weapons to minor tokens if possible and go for better holy items. The main problem with priests though is that you need to find some room for purge and hence you either build a healer or a boost priest. And whatever you do, altruism will win you games.
Some priests I've used, to good effect: Faith Dwarfhealer is a high-rarity support priest designed to work with a pair of wizards, one fire, and one lighting/control. She wants to be able to sit back, buff, and occasionally debuff or run in for a killing blow. She reads like a list of some of the most powerful items a priest can run, and is an excellent resource as such (Knife Of St. Blenko, Hawkwind Moccasins, Cursed Radcannon, Aegis Of The Defender, Skull Of Savage Iljiin, Advanced Piety, Trainee Command, Glowing Hide Armor... basically everything but Auric Charm, which is a solid, but much more niche item. It just happens that this build is its niche). There is a lot of sustain here, provided you have some way to control enemy position so they can't get on top of you. Watch out for small maps and enclosed spaces. Spoiler: Faith Dwarfhealer Faith Dwarfhealer Level 21 Human Priest Knife Of St. Blenko Cursed Radcannon Glowing Hide Armor Aegis Of The Defender Hawkwind's Moccasins Skull Of Savage Iljin Auric Charm Auric Charm Trainee Command Advanced Piety 1 x Escaping Run 2 x Savage Curse 5 x Inspiring Presence 2 x Spear Of Darkness 1 x Reliable Hide Armor 1 x Vulnerable 1 x Thick Hide Armor 3 x Radiation Bomb 2 x Defender's Block 1 x Greater Heal 1 x Bloodied Block 1 x Invigorating Touch 1 x Walk, Team! 2 x Healing Blessing 1 x Weak Chop 2 x Entangling Roots 2 x Unholy Energy 2 x Dangerous Maneuver 2 x Altruism 2 x Penetrating Lunge 1 x Blind Rage The Holy Tool is a more conventional priest designed to run alongside a pair of elven warriors, providing them with buffs and protecting them with purges. Note that the Shield/Boots/Racial/Class items all stay the same from Faith's build. I've seen versions of this with more Mass Frenzy, but The Holy Tool is built more to mix it up on the front line when they're not buffing or popping that little bit of healing. This priest is designed for a high-aggro composition, built around bursting down opponents with a pair of high-damage attackers, and trusting your ability to catch and kill opponents over preparing to heal through a longer game. Spoiler: The Holy Tool The Holy Tool Level 20 Human Priest St. Olf's Fiery Pike Gauixl's Sacred Maquah Glowing Hide Armor Aegis Of The Defender Hawkwind's Moccasins Purging Charm Bleneth's Skull Spellstripper Relic Trainee Command Advanced Piety 1 x Escaping Run 1 x Vulnerable 2 x Stab 1 x Enervating Touch 3 x Sundering Strike 5 x Mass Frenzy 1 x Reliable Hide Armor 1 x Thick Hide Armor 1 x Lunging Bash 1 x Purge 1 x Greater Heal 1 x Bloodied Block 1 x Invigorating Touch 1 x Walk, Team! 2 x Team Heal 1 x Weak Chop 2 x Fiery Stab 2 x Dangerous Maneuver 2 x Altruism 4 x Purging Burst 2 x Defender's Block The most speculative of the three, Brightbush Gladhand is an attempt at a Vampire priest, designed to be used alongside at least one other support priest (similar to, but slightly different than, the Holy Tool above) and a control wizard (Telekinesis and Winds Of War, maybe a few Lightning attacks to finish people off). The trickiest part of Vamping is finding a way to guarantee you can get next to your opponent. You could easily substitute Diamond Moccasins in this build for Turquoise Boots, and there are a lot of other ways you could trade out specific items to shuffle your blue tokens around. Glowing Hide Armor would have probably made it in here if I had anywhere else to spend that blue token. Tempo is very important with Vampires, as is ensuring that you always have enough of a padding of health to ensure you don't get taken out by a stray Loner. You would typically rather end turns away from enemies, rather than threatening kills, because of your fragile nature. The Control Wizard for this is one of the few places I'd actually recommend Tasty Tasty Staff in competitive play - the ability to check for Parry at range, so your Vamp doesn't hit them, is REALLY nice, and the control via Tongue Grab is a nice added bonus. Remember to have your friendly neighborhood support priest pack Martyr's Blessing! Spoiler: Brightbush Gladhand Brightbush Gladhand Level 1 Elf Priest Vampire's Blade Vampire's Blade Metzli Mail Aegis Of The Defender Diamond Moccasins Draining Console Silver Healing Ring Draining Console Superb Trickery Focused Healer 1 x Wild Run 1 x Frenzy Aura 1 x Crafted Mail 2 x Healing Beacon 1 x Healing Pulse 4 x Loner 2 x Consuming Spear 1 x Help The Weak 2 x Defender's Block 1 x Greater Heal 8 x Invigorating Touch 2 x Elven Trickery 1 x Sparkling Cloth Armor 1 x Limited Heal 3 x Talented Healer 1 x Quick Run 2 x Draining Touch 1 x Brutal Charge 1 x Weak Chop
