I have an hard time getting how people build a vampire priest. It need buff to be effective but unless you have like the frenzy skull i suppose you dont have enough slot for attack and spell. Or are just a bounch of legendary simply needed? There are go to item for vampire priest, like for warrior?
Most vampire builds keep buff (draw and or frenzy) priest and vampire priest separate. So they might run 2 vampire priests and 1 support priest. One "buff" the vampires can run themselves is Frenzy Aura (eg. Burnished Plates) to get through opponent's armor.
You still need to get in range, so something like Sticky_Slippers (two Immovable and a Wild_Run for a minor token) will be useful for when you realize that you're up against three wizards built to keep y'all at bay. Draining_Console is pretty neat; a major token gets you two Invigorating_Touch attacks and a Healing_Beacon.
I've only played Draining_Console in SP, and it works pretty well. Healing Beacon lowers the attack density, but the stronger attacks can compensate, even though the beacon can sometimes be a dead card. I haven't tried Zod's Vile Spaceplate yet, but it's in today's DD so I soon will. Edit: Zod's works pretty well in SP. Cushioning Armor helps a lot if you're trying to hold a VP or take down a high damage opponent. (Replacing Frenzy Aura might be a problem for some, but I rarely kept it long enough to make much of a difference.) Unholy Energy gives decent card draw. Invigorating Touch is Invigorating Touch.
Note Draining Console is to be ignored and has nothing to do with a good vamp build. But more seriously Healing Beacon counts as a heal spell for Talented Healer. The most difficult thing is deciding on race once you have 2 vamp weapons and 3 vamp divine items and of course Focused Healer. Dwarves give you opportunities for Blind Rage, War Cry or a second Frenzy Aura, but they can get stuck for 2+ turns not able to make an attack, even with high mobility boots you can get left out of the action. Elves can give you a 2nd Healing Dash (triggers TH) and more mobility in general, but with 21 HPs can be killed easier before you can drain health back, especially if you run up against a parry heavy opponent although as far as I've seen is the most popular. Humans give you the balance of Humans but not much Vamp specific synergies, but they disguise the threat of being a vamp since most human priests are support focused... until you pop a TH or Loner. On a 3 Vamp build can make a nice hybrid buff and drain build (with the right items). Personally I love Frenzy Aura on my Vamp I prefer Vampire Blades over any other weapon and love, Love, LOVE Draining Console (which you should NEVER use). The other high synergy card is Matryr's Blessing which of course requires at least 2 priests. A priest with TH and Martyr's is basically the king of melee encounters as long as there is someone to attack (no Force Field, Nimbus or far off wizards)
I highly recommend Jet Armor for vampire priests. Yes, you can't equip Stargod's Raiments as a result, missing out on Bless. But you do get frenzy aura, which hits like a truck, and ignores armor. Finally, you get unholy wellspring on an item that only requires a minor token, with a "handicap" of travelling curse. I can attest that unholy wellspring + frenzy aura will make your opponents cry. Even a 2 damage attack will turn into a Penetrating Stab that also heals you. Scary.
If you can cycle Travelling Curse AND cast Unholy Wellspring without triggering Frenzy Aura's armor, then you've already won the whole game. Gongrats! I'm still fan of the Burnished Plates, btw.
Flanking move is really strong with the range 2 drains and talented healer. You wait for someone to draw TH, stack attacks on them with demonic inspiration and flanking move yourself into range. You can get 5+ cards played before your opponent can react. Add Unholy wellspring to taste.
As we have discussed some items for a priest, I am curios, which weapons you would recommand. Vampire's Blade is an obvious choice, but I think you would want only one of that. Or does someone have good experience with a two Vampire's Blade build? I think I would prefer something like the Bynzer's Black Spear or Chalchu's Hammer as second weapon. As devine item the Hand Of Melvelous is the obvious tokenless choice, right? I guess the Flax's Thirsty Vial and Wuuna's Vampiric Shroud are fine substituts. For a major token there is the Defender Of Aegis the new armors and the Draining Console as well as the Perfect Command to consider. As for the race, which you can choose, Dwarfs would have the chance to play some War Cry, which would partialy solve the big problem blocks. Chalchu's Hammer the armor problem. May be I should go into the tank and try to build some vampires. Not sure if the current meta is ok for it, but I am in the mood to play vamps.
Uf, my first game was against heavy armored warriors with the encumber and other armors. I confused the Unnerving Strike with a Sundering Strike on the Chalchu's Hammer. Fortunatly for me I tried the Ripping Mace for the Purges and it had the needed Sundering Strikes. But I am not sure, whether I want to run it in the future. What do you do against armor? And the other thing is, I dont think my build has enough damage. I think about trying the Darkforce Nunchako. Or something for Unholly Wellspring, like the Axe Of The Dark Soul on a more supportive Vamp.
You can build a decent vampire deck without legendary items, if you use the epic substitute... Vampire blade will only get you that far you will need some buff and some dark spears. Shruderring relic is nice if you can fill the weapon slot with a good punchy double major token weapon like healing mace and keep a good movement potential. My vampire deck use no support priest and buffs are scatterred across the three priests but I really have a lot of very good major token buff items. You should certainly seek for some martyr blessing too, it is one of the best priest cards after all.
