As one of the original five classes, Priest has undergone many changes. Priests used to be completely armor-less, had no ability, but could equip two rings. They gained the ability to heal allies in Build 47, and were given robe armor in Build 97. The style of their ability has changed as well, from spell scrolls like the Wizard’s offensive variety to Tomes. The tomes’ healing capabilities and MP costs were reduced in Build 113; the same build changed Priest’s graphics slightly so that he no longer held a shield. Their main weapon, the wand, gained the ability to pierce enemies in Release 25.0.0. More recently, Exalt 1.1.0.0 made Tomes scale negatively with player count, but gave some much-needed offensive capability.
Even then, the Priest can be considered one of the best support classes in the game due to his ability to instantly heal himself and his allies from damage. However, as a wand class with low attack and dexterity, he is also the least offensively oriented class. To unlock the Priest, reach level 5 with the Wizard. See his stat gains, caps, and averages here.
As a robe class, the Priest has a higher MP capacity along with quick MP regeneration with 75 WIS. His high WIS also bolsters the healing capabilities of his tome. However, like other robe classes, he is very prone to damage, and with a vitality cap of 40, he is more reliant on his tome to keep his HP topped off. As a wand class with attack and dexterity capped at 50 and 55, respectively, he is effectively the weakest class in the game in terms of raw damage-per-second, at least without some endgame items. This skillset makes Priest a support-oriented class, a role that Priest can fulfill very effectively.
As mentioned earlier, the Priest’s weapon is the wand. Wands are low damage, long-ranged, piercing weapons; while they make the Priest offensively feeble compared to other classes, it allows for him to engage targets at a very long distance.
Tiered Wands have unmatched utility for the Priest.
In order, the Wand of Ancient Warning, Wand of Recompense, Wand of Evocation, Wand of Retribution are the highest tiered wands available. Most UT wands sacrifice one or both of range and piercing; these wands help keep the Priest in a safe distance. Retribution is a soulbound drop from Oryx 3, but the others are tradable.
The St. Abraham Wand is a decent beginner drop from the Manor of the Immortals. While its damage is comparable to the T9 Wand of Deep Sorcery, it’s superior 10 tile range helps during phases that would be dangerous with a tiered wand (mainly, Oryx 1/2’s dance phase).
The Crystal Wand, dropping from the Crystal Prisoner, sacrifices some damage and piercing in order to ignore a target’s defense. Comparible to the T12 Wand of Recompense against single foes, it shines against enemies like the Stone Guardians, the Avatar of the Forgotten King, and especially against enemies found in the Nightmare Colony.
These wands boast very high damage, but sacrifice piercing.
The Conducting Wand (Condu) gives a higher rate of fire and an additional +4 DEX and WIS. For a relatively easy boss, the Horrific Creation, this wand outdamages even the T14 wand (against low/decent DEF). As a downside, it sacrifices a tile of range, in addition to its nonpiercing.
The Wand of the Fallen is excellent in single target boss fights, with better DPS than the Condu and only really beaten by endgame UTs in turn. Its boss, Daichi the Fallen, isn’t an endgame boss. However, it only has a range of 6.6 tiles, much lower than most wands.
The Wand of the Bulwark from Stheno the Snake Queen is a unique weapon that fires extremely slow, parametric shots. This makes the wand nearly impossible to aim. But with the same effective damage as the Doom Bow, this weapon is great to pre-fire against a pack of chasing enemies, or bosses with invulnerability phases.
While the Soul’s Guidance has fairly weak, wavy main shots, it has an interesting proc: creating blue souls that follow the user to deal good AOE damage. At the end, they explode with a Curse effect (though at a small radius).
The Magic Wand is an ST wand that drops from the Puppet Minions from the Puppet Master’s Encore. With 150% rate of fire and the ability to pierce shots, it’s most comparable to the Thousand Shot bow. Along with it’s unique property of both ignoring obstacles and shots that boomerang back, it’s the perfect wand for clearing the godlands.
These endgame wands give the Priest competitive levels of DPS.
The Dusty Catalyst’s great damage is at least comparible to the Wand of the Fallen, beating it until ~38 DEF. However, it inflicts Silence for 0.4s if you fire it In Combat, meaning that either your shots or your healing is gone if you take decent damage. This weapon might be better on other wand classes, though it’s still very strong. While weaker than the Lumiaire, it also pierces enemies, making it amazing for clearing gods and weak dungeons.
The Lumiaire’s two shots deal amazing damage, the clear highest of any non-sitting wand. The only drawback is its very slow shot speed, meaning that you either have to be able to predict the enemy’s movement or have to get incredibly close to the enemy in order to deal damage. It also has no piercing a slightly shorter range of 7.2 tiles, but don’t let that discourage you from using a very strong wand from Archbishop Leucoryx.
The Priest is a long ranged healing class with an instantaneous heal, affecting every player within the vicinity of the Priest. Your party heal reduces in potency as there are more players around, but you’ll always be healed for the full amount. Most tiered tomes also provide a lingering healing buff that increases players’ HP regeneration beyond the initial healing. Tomes are also affected by your character’s wisdom, so the more wisdom your Priest has, the stronger the heal is and the longer the healing lasts.
The Priest’s ability is what makes him such an amazing support class and a long-lasting soloing class, even with a robe. His ability can turn the tide of the battle, help out players who are taking large sums of damage, and even prevent them from dying. Although healing others is not necessary, often you’ll find that fellow adventurers will appreciate and respect you for doing so.
The Tome of Holy Guidance is the best tradable tiered tome, healing the most HP and having the longest Healing duration. The Tome of Hallowed Language grants a bit more healing per use, but it is a soulbound drop from Oryx 3. However they have a fairly high cost of 120/130 MP to cast a heal.
The Tome of Purification heals more than the T6 Tome of Holy Guidance, with a lower MP cost, when considering its sublime +10 WIS and +10 VIT. In addition, it uniquely removes negative status effects from the user. Unlike the tiered tomes, it does not grant Healing, though it does have one of the best MP per heal ratio of all tomes.
The Book of Geb costs only 100 MP and is the only tome that grants Speedy, making it a good choice for rushing dungeons or clearing realms. The added +5 DEF, +3 VIT and +3 WIS also helps when taking damage while rushing. It costs and heals as much as the T4 tome, while retaining the Healing status.
The Tome of Holy Protection (Prot) grants the Armored status, increasing your defense by 50%. This gives the Priest a Warrior-level amount of DEF, which with the healing, is an unfathomable amount of survivability. In exchange, it heals less with an extreme MP cost (150 MP); bringing MP potions and a high level pet makes things easier.
These tomes have offensive abilities, but sacrifice durability.
The Tome of Pain gives the priest an AOE offensive ability (500 damage) that also heals. However, this tome’s healing is expensive and weak (80 HP / 120 MP). The stat bonuses are great: +4 ATT, +4 SPD +2 DEF, but affect the overal health of a player with penalties of -5 VIT and -20 HP.
The Necronomicon is an even riskier alternative; in addition to Cursing enemies, they Curse yourself as well. It shoots out a row of shots; it is impossible to hit all of them, but you can hit 3. Small groups can use this to increase their damage, but may not need it if there are Mystics nearby to curse instead.
These tomes provide sublime offensive stat bonuses, in exchange for a weaker heal. It’s best to pair them up with a strong, offensive wand.
The Ceremonial Merlot gives an amazing +20 ATK on use, along with -5 DEF. It also provides one of the lowest ST heals, equal to the T1 tome. In addition, there is a 1% chance to be inflicted with Drunk whenever you are hit hard enough. It drops from Oryx 1.
The Tome of Holy Furor, from Oryx 2 is similarly DPS oriented, providing a slightly weaker +15 DEX for slightly longer. But along with a better heal, this tome actually increases your survivability, giving you +55 max HP and +7 speed on equip.
The Tome of the Mushroom Tribes (Fungal Tome) places a healing mushroom on your cursor, which heals up to 10 players for 120 HP per second, for 3 seconds. Most notably, the mushroom’s heal does not decrease by player count. This, along with the fact that other players know that they’ll be healed, makes this tome one of the greatest support tomes in the game. While it is uneffected by Wisdom, you can spam multiple for massive group healing. It drops from the Crystal Worm Mother.
The Chaotic Scripture, dropped by Archbishop Leucoryx, practically outclasses both aformentioned damaging ability tomes. This tome summons a Chaos Beam on your cursor that also armor pierces, allowing the Priest to behave more like a Wizard, as you can choose where to deal your damage. As usual, the disadvantage is a low heal for high MP, so you might want to carry a swapout. The Chaotic Scripture is a great tome for if you want the Priest to deal high amounts of damage.
While robes have the least defense, their MP and WIS boosts pair well with the Priest’s tomes.
The Robe of the Grand Sorcerer, Robe of the Star Mother, and Robe of the Ancient Intellect are the primary armors of the Priest. All three provide ample defense, MP, WIS, and boosted ATT. While these robes may not be as powerful in specific areas, their versatility cannot be ignored - one can never go wrong with these.
Both of these robes are good for increasing the Priest’s utility.
The Robe of the Mad Scientist from Dr. Terrible gives a pretty decent +7 WIS/VIT, and a special proc that reduces MP cost by 25%. This stacks with the Twilight Gemstone, reducing your MP cost by a whopping 47.5%. This robe is great for healing as much as possible.
The Ritual Robe is obtained from Malus. While slightly weaker in terms of MP and defense, it has an amazing +20 WIS bonus, increasing how much you can spam tomes, in addition to their potency (around +60 HP). It doesn’t work well for the Fungal Tome, but is a great support robe otherwise.
The Water Dragon Silk Robe is a UT robe obtained from Nikao the Azure Dragon. Compared to T14, robe sacrifces all its MP, 1 DEF and 3 WIS for 2 extra ATT and a hefty 6 SPD. While Priests who are dependent on their tomes to heal, the increase in weapon damage and maneuverability allows increased overall DPS and rushing ability. An additional proc provides more healing on ability use, albiet with a long cooldown. Overall, this robe is a solid choice for a Priest who are playing offensively.
These two robes are amazing for increasing the Priest’s DPS, but sacrifice MP and WIS.
The Diplomatic Robe (Diplo) from Chancellor Dammah is a good balance between DPS and survivability. With its increase in HP and its proc which allows massive DPS, Diplomatic Robe is a good choice for the Priest, giving him more defensive stats and high DPS potential. Meanwhile, the Vesture of Duality from Archbishop Leucoryx is the opposite, giving high DPS but reduced survivability with its proc. While Priests are not normally known for damage, these endgame robes (along with a great weapon) dramatically boost the Priest’s damage potential.
Top choices by many a player, the Ring of Exalted Health, Ring of Unbound Health, and Ring of Decades provide a hefty boost of HP (+140/+180/+190). Pure health rings benefit a Priest by allowing them to absorb more damage, before instantly restoring it again with a simple use of a tome.
The Ring of Unbound Defense (UBDef) is a niche ring as it gives a more dubious stat, but the frailer Priest enjoys the defense. DEF helps get more value out of each heal; +180 HP with 25 DEF is better than +180 HP with 15 DEF. However, defense is a less valuable survivability stat than HP, especially in late game content.
The Ring of the Pyramid is a balanced ring, providing both +100 HP and +4 DEF. It also gives some extra Attack, helping priests who struggle with dealing damage. The Bloodshed Ring drops from a harder dungeon (Cultist Hideout), but provides slightly more HP & DEF (+110 / +6), while also giving a well-needed +6 WIS.
Although even more dubious than the UBDef, the Ring of Unbound Magic (UBMP) is the best tradable ring for pure support. Its +180 MP pushes the Priest’s support role to the extreme level, allowing him to cast more times - a godsend when his teammates need constant healing.
For more defensive or support based priests, one may choose a more wisdom/mana based ring. The Sourcestone and The Twilight Gemstone are endgame rings which don’t sacrifice as much as UBMP. Each ring provides +110 MP and some speed. The Sourcestone helps with an additional +110 HP, though the Gemstone gives +8 DEF and reduces the MP cost of your ability by 30%.
Some priests that want to have a balanced approach may want to consider the Bracer of the Guardian, Divine Coronation, and Omnipotence Ring. The Omnipotence Ring gives decent, balanced bonuses to every single stat.
The Bracer focuses on the defensive side, giving better HP and DEF, as well as +80 MP. The Coronation, however, gives a decent +8 DEX and +110 HP, but a weaker (55) MP boost.
The Priest’s strength lies in his ability; one of the best in the game, turning him from yet another frail robe class to one that can easily solo event bosses. As a support character, he is also necessary at all levels of group play for all kinds of Dungeons.
One of the Priest’s biggest weaknesses is that his MP is much more crucial to his function than any other class; making the Silence and Quiet statuses even more devistating. And without extremely strong (and diffcult to get, if not just rare) UTs, the Priest lacks in terms of DPS.
While the Tome gives a ton of survivability, the Priest is weak to shotguns, pops, and other (near) instant kills, because they still have low defense. But because of his long range, the Priest is debatably the safest class in the game, very suitable class for new players or players committed to a new player experience. A freshly leveled Priest already has a good deal of survivability and utility, able to safely farm the godlands, and will only get better with stat potions. Having a good deal of patience and time is very beneficial to playing a fresh Priest.
Priests can play both offensively, eating shots at mid-range, dealing damage, and healing it up. Or defensively, relying on the tiered wand’s high range.
With the ability to instantly heal himself and his allies, the Priest is probably the most ideal support class in the game. While the Priest is not obligated to heal teammates, any good Priest will generously heal others during all sorts of dangerous situations, from events to dungeon bosses. While typically weak overall, The Priest is a catalyst to speeding up the progress of farming the godlands, taking down bosses, or anything else because his ability makes things easier for others all around.
The Priest excels as a support class. Even though he has the worst DPS in the game, he is capable of almost anything on his own and can do things that other classes can’t do (like walking towards an armies of gods). Used for supporting or attacking, the Priest is almost unbeatable with the correct use of the tome and wand, and almost invincible once maxed. Just watch out for those quiet shots! If you want a very safe class that can attack at long range and effectively support a group, the Priest is for you!
