Priest Stats
A Pishite discussion
Priest Arranges
Below is an explanation of stats and rearranges that was recently held on the Pishe channel. I thought it was one of the best explanations that I have heard so thought I would post it here so that it may help others.
(Pishe) Aim wisps: can you explain more? I don't understand what stats are.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: if its a choice between unarmed and another weapon skill, and the difference is not big, i would go with a weapon rather than unarmed.
(Pishe) Roywyn wisps: Well, basically there are two aspects to a skill. Your levels in it, and your bonus... your bonus is (usually) the important part, because it's how good you actually are at something. Your stats determine what bonus you have at a specific level... like, if a skill uses int and wis, and you have a lot of those, you'll have a better bonus than if you have them both low.
(Pishe) Roywyn wisps: Your stats also do a few other things... like your strength stat determines how much you can carry.
(Pishe) Roywyn wisps: And your stat arrangement determines how quickly you regenerate gp and hp.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: http://bonuses.irreducible.org/skillstat.php, on the left hand page, 3rd from the top skill/stat relationship, then scroll down to the fighting section.
(Pishe) Roywyn wisps: (This has more details about that http://bonuses.irreducible.org/regen.php ).
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: now you notice that there are a wide range of weapon types and each weapon type has its own stat dependencies.
(Pishe) Aim wisps: indeed.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: ie if you want to be good at that weapon, you'd want good stats in those particular stats.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: so there are 3 main stats for weapons, str, dex and con.
(Pishe) Aim wisps: mmhm.
(Pishe) Roywyn wisps: Unarmed uses a bit of wisdom, too.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: str is predominant in the 2 handed weapon classes, heavy sword, axe, polearm.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: dex weaposn are sword and dagger.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: con is used in a smattering of usually heavy weapon types.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: i would say that the heavy weaposn usually damage very well, however are hard to use.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: they also work well with armour (you need str to go with your armour) and parry.
(Pishe) Aim wisps: str for armour?
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: dex weapons like dagger and sword synergise well with your most imporatnt faith defense (major shield) as all use dex, it also synergises well with fighting defense like dodge or parry as that is predominantly dex.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: good armour is heavy, very heavy.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: a full set of steel armour would weigh around 200 lbs.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: ok back to deciding what you want to do.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: if you want to be a very much faith based priest.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: you would presumably want lots of wis and int.
(Pishe) Aim wisps: okay.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: if that is the way you want to go unarmed is good as it uses 2 parts wis.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: but the consequence is, the damage is fairly low, but thats not a problem since fighting isnt your primary motivation.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: I would probably recommend as an initial fighting type priest to head down the dex weapon path.
(Pishe) Fegreac wisps: also remember if you charge your beads you do get +2 wisdom... so take that into account.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: because it would give you both good defense (faith and fighting), good fighting (dagger/sword).
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: if that were the case you could spend just the minimum stat points into wis/int to give you the minimum gp regen that you like.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: and dump the rest of the stat points into dex with a smattering of str for good fighting bonuses.
(Pishe) Aim wisps: so I'd be sacrificing my faith powers a little bit to be more proficient in sword or dagger?
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: the str based weapons are a bit harder as you really need to get high levels in tactics and weapon skill to use well.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: yes.
(Pishe) Aim wisps: I actually like the sound of unarmed right now then, because I think I'd like to be more faith based.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: fair enough.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: but as i said its really deciding what you want with your char, a fighter, a faith priest, an all rounder.
(Pishe) Fegreac wisps that she also points out that priests get minions to help attack & defend...
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: finding out what stats suit your primary purpose, and then matching a weapon type to your stats.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: so for rearranging, remember do this when you know what you are doing and feel comfortable with it.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: my recommendation for rearranging is, pick the level of gp regen, the website i posted before has a regeneration rates section.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: you would want either 3 or 4 gp regen of course.
(Pishe) Fegreac wisps that she recommends 4.
(Pishe) Llia wisps that she agrees.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: most fighting based priests are on 3 gp regen,
(Pishe) Fegreac wisps: but then Llia and I both idle...
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: and not only that, on the very BOTTOM edge of 3gp regen.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: I would probably recommend being on the bottom edge of either 3 or 4 (depending on what you prefer).
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: so fiddle around with your int and wis on the calculator until you reach the threshold of your desired gp regen.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: for example just playing around with it.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: 8 con 17 int 18 wis gives you 4gp regen.
(Pishe) Roywyn wisps: And con, a bit. Con is a bit underused, though... good for healing and hp mainly.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: giving you only 6 stat points to allocate to something else.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: i mean allocate to dex or str.
(Pishe) Aim wisps: im confused on how to use the regen calculator, how many total points can i use?
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: 65.
(Pishe) Garrion wisps: that is something to consider as a pishite. con plays a part in your res bonus.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: 4 gp regen is quite restrictive to your fighting ability.
(Pishe) Aim wisps: so 4gp is about as high as i can get it.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: yes it is.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: on the other hand for example, 8 con 12 int 12 wis gets you 3 gp regen.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: leaving you 17 points to play around with.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: this is not saying by picking 3 gp regen,you have to have only 12 int 12 wis, but that you have 17 points you can allocate to any stat you like.
(Pishe) Fegreac wisps that she recommends not rearranging for a while, until you work out exactly what you use most... then arranging to suit... otherwise it costs :(
(Pishe) Aim wisps: do i need heavy armor? or will a high dodge get me through?
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: the other option is to rearrange right at the start, playing around with it, deciding if you like it or not, and makign a new char if it doesnt suit.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: at the end of the day, high skills in any fighting defense would work.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: whether you get dodge parry block, they have their little quirks, but all do protect you.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: dodge does have a good quirk that you can dodge while casting (to some degree).
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: however be warned you need good skills to be able to successfully dodge while casting.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: i went for the entire opposite to the dodge route.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: I am a very much str based weapon (polearm = ssscc).
(Pishe) Roywyn wisps: And a huge pile of hitpoints :p
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: I wear quite a bit of armour (32% BURDEN).
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: Yes, i stack on hitpoints and just outsurvive rather than 100% avoid.
(Pishe) Aim wisps: I guess that would make soloing a bit more fun.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: early on that was also a very easy path to take.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: you see, having high str and being able to carry/wear lots of armour means.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: you have a good armour defense even with 0 skills.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: my tactic was to stack up on armour, concentrate on weapon skills, insane mode, attack whatever i could kill knowning my armour would protect me from the damage. Later on, armour becomes less and less useful.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: another common fighting technique is to go with a dex based weapon, raise equal amounts of weapon skill, defense skill and faith.rituals.defensive.self
(Pishe) Aim wisps: because they all benefit from high dex arrangement.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: or a faith priest would dabble mostly in faith and not fight as a primary goal on disc, sadly im not one of those and cannot advise you how that kind of priest is played.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: there is actually no problem in actually creating 2 priests! make one faith based make one fighting based, spend a bit of time on each, decide which one you like better and concentrate on that one.
(Pishe) Roywyn wisps: Indeed! The "army of alts" approach can be fun. :)
(Pishe) Garrion wisps: 3, try the balanced option too.
(Pishe) dIaLAPiShE wisps: (oh and step this way, I would like to show you my oven).