Best gear for end-game priest?

[Zikke]

So I've never gotten a priest up to end-game before, so I don't really know how to itemize. I have the Quarterstaff of Olorin, but what should be my end-game gear? What should I be bribing the RNG to grant me?

Any advice from top-end priests?

[Estie]

Priest has arguably the easiest endgame, between (almost) unlimited healing, word of destruction and enlightenment.

The only problem is damaging the big uniques, and for that you need some big weapon, melee and/or shooter with appropriate ammo. With 4 base attacks in melee, any weapon with +2 attacks increases damage by 50%, so thats a good mod to have especially for casters.

Looking at your dump, I notice:

- Youre carrying beginners handbook, drop those. Detection and enlightenment is all youll need from now on.

- With resistances to both blindness and confusion, theres no need to carry teleport staves. Scrolls (tele or tele level) are better because of no chance for failure, and then youll need them only when youve run out of mana assuming you have 0% spell fail.

Things to aim for (besides the obvious):

- con 18/200+; yes, everyone wants that, but priest mostly so (imo).
- 0% spell fail without wisdom from weapon(s), so you can wield whatever does the most damage without drop in caster performance.

Lastly, treasure potions of restore mana. A stack of those and one of speed boost are the only consumables you really need.

Theres one spell in the priest arsenal that I havent used much: rune of protection. Maybe someone who has can comment on its usefullness or lack thereof.

[Pete Mack]

- With resistances to both blindness and confusion, theres no need to carry teleport staves. Scrolls (tele or tele level) are better because of no chance for failure, and then youll need them only when youve run out of mana assuming you have 0% spell fail.

If you don't have RSound, keep some escape scrolls in case you get stunned. (and in case you get kicked by a GMM.)
Also, Teleport Level is much safer than any priestly escape (until you get 0-fail Alter Reality, *Destruction*, and or Banish Evil.)

[Schroeder]

for strong weapons, a MoD of slay evil will allow you to roflstomp evil (if you have 4bpr). Of course, what is even better is Deathwrecker. Because of the weight, the crits are *stronger*, which just complaments the dice and the slay evil.
These facts will make it much easier to kill the *strong*, high HP evil uniques. And fortunately, most of the last uniques are evil (except the tarrasque. That one presents more of a problem, unless you wear narya and nenya to fight it for double imunity).

You may also want to use alter reality+clarvoyance to skum for specific arts like cubragol if you know their base depth, simply because of how overpowered they are. It shouldn't take too much time, imo, if you know what your doing.

[Pete Mack]

PS: deathwreaker gives fire immunity, so you would only need Nenya for double immunity... not that you have any chance whatsoever of finding Deathwreaker. You don't need to kill the Tarrasque. Just keep double-resistances when fighting M or S (or Maeglin), and teleport the Tarrasque away when it appears. It's just not worth killing.

[Zikke]

Thank you all for the advice! This end-game priest thing is pretty wild. Having Clairvoyance and endless heals and TO makes vault scumming pretty damn efficient. I have now found 2 of the Rings of Power plus my shield, so I have 3 swappable immunities, but my current bottleneck is my lack of melee damage, so I've been trying to find some uber weapon.

And that Maeglin guy is a royal pain in the ass... he always destroys my vaults before I can pick it apart and has a ton of HPs.

[miner]

PS: deathwreaker gives fire immunity, so you would only need Nenya for double immunity... not that you have any chance whatsoever of finding Deathwreaker. You don't need to kill the Tarrasque. Just keep double-resistances when fighting M or S (or Maeglin), and teleport the Tarrasque away when it appears. It's just not worth killing.

I read this post this morning, and then just a moment ago found Deathwreaker! As a 1/2E Ranger at DL85, would you wield Deathwreaker or Anduril, which I have had DL34? This is the furthest I've ever gotten...

[LCC]

So I've never gotten a priest up to end-game before, so I don't really know how to itemize. I have the Quarterstaff of Olorin, but what should be my end-game gear? What should I be bribing the RNG to grant me?

Any advice from top-end priests?

I had Orome, Deathwreaker, sold off Olorin, kept Taratol as swap. I used Deathwreaker on Sauron and Morgoth no problem. See ladder LCC1 for details...

If you play enough turns, something much better than Olorin is bound to show up. Keep on summing for artifacts, dragon pits and wyrms are best source. Stay away from undead and demons until you get a better weapon...

[Pete Mack]

I read this post this morning, and then just a moment ago found Deathwreaker! As a 1/2E Ranger at DL85, would you wield Deathwreaker or Anduril, which I have had DL34? This is the furthest I've ever gotten...

It depends on your stats. Do you get 4 or 5 blows with deathwreaker? Do you have lots (> 600) of HP? If not, you don't want to aggravate. Keep anduril and use the bow.

[Estie]

And that Maeglin guy is a royal pain in the ass... he always destroys my vaults before I can pick it apart and has a ton of HPs.

If hes asleep....TO him. If not (more likely) or he returns, lure him away from the pit, *destruct*, re-clairvoyance, return to business.

[Zikke]

Does that Earthquake spell do a *Destruction* effect? Or does it not banish uniques?

If not I guess I need to find some *Destruction* staves.

[Estie]

No, earthquake wont be sufficient; priest gets destruction as spell, I forget which book it is - holy infusions or wrath of god. If you dont have it yet, carrying staves is an option.

[Zikke]

Okay now I'm stuck at the end. Here's a new dump.

I have taken out Sauron and most of the rest of the uniques I could find, except the Terrasque and probably a couple others I can't find. My problem now is that I can't kill Morgoth because I either don't have enough speed or can't do enough damage.

I can last indefinitely on dlvl 100 but I just can't take him down. I have tried the "stand in a corner and melee" technique and also the "teleport away when he summons and wait for him to come back to you" technique" and the "banish evil whenever he summons evil things" technique, but I just can't do enough damage.

Anybody have advice on my technique? I have been looking around for Cubragol or the boots of Feanor to try to get some speed. I have a =Speed +12 and +10, but I usually don't use them against P so I can wear immunities. Is that wrong?


Edit: I just found Zarcuthra which has crazy damage, but "I don't feel comfortable with this weapon" as a priest. What exactly does that penalize me on?

[Donald Jonker]

Anybody have advice on my technique? I have been looking around for Cubragol or the boots of Feanor to try to get some speed. I have a =Speed +12 and +10, but I usually don't use them against P so I can wear immunities. Is that wrong?


Edit: I just found Zarcuthra which has crazy damage, but "I don't feel comfortable with this weapon" as a priest. What exactly does that penalize me on?

If you're itching to kill him now, I might consider ditching Narya in favor of speed - preserving potions being more important than scrolls in the final fight. A lot of people seem to manage without immunities at all. And I've heard tell that lobbing Orb of Draining until M dies is a viable strategy, though I've never gotten a priest remotely this far.

The pointy penalty docks your SP and adds to your fail rates. Probably not acceptable for the last fight.

[Pete Mack]

Okay now I'm stuck at the end.

Edit: I just found Zarcuthra which has crazy damage, but "I don't feel comfortable with this weapon" as a priest. What exactly does that penalize me on?

The pointy penalty raises your base spell failure rates by 25% and reduces your to_hit by a few points.

If the *Healing*, *Destruction*, and Banish Evil spells are still at 0%, you've got nothing to worry about. Zarcuthra is a fine weapon.

Anyway: I don't see what you mean about not being able to kill Morgoth. Swap Vilya for Narya, and Cambeleg for Cammithrim, and you will be doing 90damage/blow with your current weapon--that's enough damage, for a priest. If you use Zarcuthra, you'll have to wear Vilya and a speed ring, but you'll be doing 95dam/turn and will be at base speed 28. That's more than enough.