Do priest feel weak?

I currently have a party of humans, 1 of each class and my priest feels the weakest of the 3.

Here is what seems wrong to me:

The priest specific effect like, healing, card drawing, etc. seem really weak. The few that are good are too rare. For instance, I think mass frenzy is awesome, but I haven't found a card with more the 1 instance of it. The other frenzy buffs, can't self-target, so they’re only useful if my warrior is alive and has attack cards. Heals are weak. The few that aren't are rare, or heal everyone. Healing for 2 would be good if it healed the entire party, but using a turn to heal for 2 is a waste when every enemy hit for at least 2. Discarding a card so the enemy can discard one is a bad deal that can be useful but usually is a waste.
Using a card to draw a card has me wondering why not just have a good card instead.

The biggest problem with priest is the lack of deck consistency. Looking over the list of divine items that require no tokens 12 of the 45 have 3 different effects, with 2 of the 45 have the 1 effect, the rest have 2 effects. Since the priest only has 3 slots for the divine items, it becomes hard for me to actually focus on any particular thing. This seems to exaggerate the weakness of each effect. I could try and focus on heals, but if I only heal 2 damage a turn, that sort of sucks. I could focus on buffs, but then if my warrior dies, my priest is useless.

Often if feels like every priest item is weak, has a few strong effects attach to some disadvantage, or unfocused. Where are the solid boring items like Stilletto, Heirloom Assegai, Malachite Orb, Penetrating Chain, or Blasting Rod, etc.
I’m starting to consider dropping the priest for another warrior. However, since it took a fair amount of time to get to level 9, that will probably discourage me from playing.

 

Yeah in the lower levels he is kind of weak as you have many abilities with a drawback that don't count as one or abilities with very specific use e.g. Misguided Heal or Wavering Faith or Healing Burst or Bungled Heal while powerfull healing cards seem to be very limited. Don't like it very much at all. But in the later game you have more options and there are some skills that make him very strong and you can have better combination of items.

 

My priest has been a valuable addition to my party since day one. I do feel however that more of their cards (especially frenzies) should be self targetable.

 

I was just thinking that if all the lower level spells were self target-able, that would go a long way to making the priest better.

However I would like to know how your priest contributes? Right now the only thing a priest has done to actually contribute to the winning is mass frenzy. If my priest isn't' using mass frenzy, then a warrior or a wizard would have been just as good, if not better.

Healing is just not strong enough. If a priest can't heal a player who is being focused on by only ONE enemy, then you're better off just bringing damage.

 

See, I'm not finding healing to be too weak. There have been several instances when my priests healing kept the rest of the party in the game long enough to win. Also regular frenzies and unholy frenzies buff your warrior just fine. The priests own attack cards are on par with those given warriors and there are several ways for them to debuff enemies.

 

Purging and dispel are also useful on occasion. But debuffs only happen every so often.

 

So then it just priest at low levels that are weak.

 

This is how I see it, I can use my priest's turn to cast a heal for 2 or 4, so that my warrior/wizard can deal 4-10 damage, OR if I had another warrior/wizard, I could just cast another attack spell to finish the enemy off. It's sort of the same reason I don't really like inspiration. I could spend a turn to draw a card, or I instead I could have just had a good card to begin with.

The other frenzies are ok, but they depend on you warrior staying around. If you warrior is unable to attack then they are just dead cards. That's the other thing about priest, the other classes have few if any dead draws, the same can't be said about priest.

 

They didn't want to make healing too powerful, if it cancelled out too much damage it tends to slow games down and cause other problems.

In campaign healing can still be quite good. Cards like Help The Weak are quite handy, you don't need line of site and it heals a good amount. Couple that with Altruism and your priest can draw 3-4 cards a turn when they are casting heals. This is the power of the healing priest, they draw a lot of cards.

Card draw is always good. Martyr Blessing is still very good, and will normally draw you at least a couple of cards. The other cards can be found on lower level items with drawbacks. Learn to play with the drawbacks, the card draw is worth it.

An unholy cleric build can also work at lower levels. Use the attacks that drain the enemy and heal yourself. The damage doesn't look impressive, but by healing your own Priest they can be quite useful. Spear Of Darkness is good, Invigorating Touch is even better.

Another option is to use cards that improve your other characters, Unholy Frenzy is easy to get at low levels and quite nice to have on your warrior.

Priests can be hard to build, and it takes a bit to figure out how to fit them into your play style, but they can be quite useful given the right items. In campaign I don't think I'd want to play without one.

 

Especially when stacked with Frenzy and in later levels Mass Frenzy or Blind Rage. And, well, when your warrior has an all out attack and/or a regular Bash card plus another card with the Bash keyword . . .

 

Heh, heh, heh. I love how people (and strategies) differ so strongly:

http://www.cardhunter.com/forum/threads/why-should-i-play-a-warrior-over-a-cleric.2132

In case it's not obvious from the title, the person starting the thread saw no reason NOT to prefer Priests to Warriors. You could consult it for further ideas.

 

What makes a healing priest quite good in my opinion are the divine skills like Altruism and Talented Healer, which make the priest draw new cards after healing and buffing the other characters. Draw a few heals in a row and your party can go from seriously damaged to looking good in one turn, PLUS the priest still has the hand full of attack cards or other useful stuff.

 

Priest is a buffer. He is not really strong on his own, but his abilities to grant other party members card draws, healing or bonus damage are invaluable.
Demonic Feedback seems awful at first glance, but it is a very strong card and others are even stronger.

 

I think the priest is a bit weak at the very start, but soon he becomes very flexible, even if he is not great at any one thing. He can trade a few blows in melee if need be, especially if he has life-draining cards. Or he can stand off and support most of the time. I go for the classic tank + healer + ranged-damage paradigm, but the priest is second choice tank.

I use Misguided Heal a lot - on armoured characters it is as good as a Minor Heal, and even on unarmoured it's still two points of healing (so long as they have 3 life left!) If you want a lot of healing early on, you'll probably carry a lot of this.

 

After posting this thread I redid my priest's deck and now I feel like he is worth the slot. Although I still believe that priest items are a little weak at the lower levels.

What I did was build my priest around Altruism and Mass Frenzy. I picked Novice Piety for my divine skill. Since I bought all the multi-player starter packs, I had 2 Incense Of Roiled Air. I then filled my other slots with items that had healing, inspiration, or mass frenzy.

I now feel that priest themselves are valuable, but the low level items are weak. With this build I no longer have the consistency issues I had before, but I can't help but feel that some effects are still weak.

For example Inspiration: I currently use this to stall (passing the turn, with out letting my opponent end the round). This is good for letting the enemy waste his move cards, but I wish it did something more active. Inspiration feels really passive.

I firmly believe that Minor Heal should be bumped up to 3 instead of 2. Misguided Heal should deal 2 damage and heal for 3. Essential I don't think healing a single char for only 2 is worth the turn.

Maybe combine Inspiration and a 2 heal to target.

 

Do you mean it should heal more and damage less? As you've written it Misguided heal would only heal for 1 under normal circumstances.

As it stands, Misguided Heal can be surprisingly versatile - you can use the damage to take out low-health opponents from range, letting your wizard's higher damage attacks focus on more worthwhile targets. You can also use armor to block the damage making the heal itself more effective. Combine that with easy availability (Shoddy Healing Token is a level 1 item) and it can be useful well after more predictable heals are available.

 

I should have said "heal for 5" so the net effect is 1 pt extra healing then what is does now.

 

If you look at the naked/default deck for each class, no one ever does less than 3 damage and everyone can do more. I feel that priest should at LEAST be able to heal thru the weakest base attack.

 

Low heals are the same as low armor. Those 2 points basically negate a small attack, and basically counter lower damage attacks. Just those 2 points shift the balance when trading damage. Just need to get larger heals to feel more potent I guess.