TERA Online Priest Skills Analysis

TERA Online Priest Skills Analysis by Reindal

While being in the CPE I found out that the Priest had a good variety of spells. Not just a supporting type, nor focused too much on the Priest itself. The wide range of spells I had gained till level 17 surprised me, to say the least. Having a couple of damaging skills (which ranged from close quarter medium/high, to ranged mediocre damage) and a lock-on heal spell are just two examples of the Priest’s skill inventory.

Listing the skills (and their explanations) and my own view on them below. Please keep in mind I took the info on the skills and their levels from the TERA EU Forums, since I didn’t take notes of them myself; so I apologize for any errors in the information given.

Level 1:

Divine Radiance I is the basic attack of the Priest. An instant cast ranged, mediocre attack spell that I only used in the first couple of levels. The skill is pretty straight forward and doesn’t have a lock-on, making it one of the skills I ended up using least whilst leveling. It seemed to me that Divine Radiance I will be one of those skill that will end up hardly being used.

• Gained Divine Radiance II on level 6

• Gained Divine Radiance III on level 12

Heal Thyself I is the only self-heal spell the Priest acquired during the CPE. Having an instant cast self-heal was pretty useful during combat. Although the spell is an instant cast, it did take near a second after casting before I could move again, making it one of the more difficult spells to master.

• Gained Heal Thyself II on level 6

• Gained Heal Thyself III on level 12

Level 2:

Spell Recovery I is the first mana regeneration skill obtained. It’s a pretty long cast and allows the Priest to regenerate mana over time. During the event I found out that Spell Recovery I gets cancelled when receiving damage, or when using one of the Priest’s attack spells. It seemed to still be working after casting a heal on party members. Not sure if this is something that needs to be fixed, but I found it very useful and was pleasantly surprised by it.

Metamorphic Blast I is a close quarter, medium attack AoE skill that deals damage to multiple enemies up to 5 meters (could be wrong with the distance, since I couldn’t find any official information on it). Nothing special to it and mainly used when fighting multiple enemies (I guess that’s why it’s called an AoE skill).

• Gained Metamorphic Blast II on level 8

• Gained Metamorphic Blast III on level 14

Level 4:

Triple Nemesis I is a ranged, seeking, multi-shot attack that deals more damage with each shot fired. The first two shots are medium to say the least, where the last shot hurts quite a bit (even on a further distance). It is not necessary to tap the skill button to fire the triple shots; holding down the key will suffice. Triple Nemesis was one of the more ‘reliable’ sources for dealing damage.

• Gained Triple Nemesis II on level 10

• Gained Triple Nemesis III on level 16

Level 6:

Fiery Escape I is every Priest’s best friend. Not only dealing some damage to the person in front of it, but also creating space between the enemy and the Priest whilst slowing down the opponent. Especially useful in tight situations where the enemy closed the gap. The only downside to the skill; it takes a little bit of time to start moving again once used. The animation of landing takes quite a while and gives the opponent time to close the distance with a few meters.

• Gained Fiery Escape II on level 12

Level 10:

Focus Heal I is the only ‘group’ lock-on heal during the CPE. It allowed locking onto two other players and healing them for a reasonable amount of HP (around ¼ of the HP pool). It was quite challenging to get this heal to the players needed, especially when those wounded stayed on the frontlines. The downsides to this skill are quite annoying and overcoming that obstacle needs a steady hand to coordinate the heal towards the right target. One of the problems I experienced was having group members run in front of the lock and thus ‘stealing the heal’ that wasn’t meant for them. The other thing where this skill lacked is that I was able to heal people who were outside my party, making it even more difficult to get the heal to the right player(s).

Final Reprise I is a close ranged, higher damage attack skill. It was the only skill I didn’t add to my skill bar, since I steadily used it as a combo after Shocking Implosion I (gained on level 14). The animation is quite interesting and the amount of casting time seemed to vary with different situations. No information about that floating around the web, so there is no explanation for it thus far.

• Gained Final Reprise II on level 16.

Level 12:

Mana Charge is nothing more but a charging, mana regeneration skill and the second one of its kind the Priest will obtain up to the 17 level cap in the CPE. The longer the skill gets charged (up to three levels), the more MP it will recover. Personally found it very useful during fights, whereas I used Spell Recovery I outside of combat.

Level 14:

Shocking Implosion I is a close combat damage skill. Dealing a fair amount of damage itself and allowing a combo to Final Reprise I – Metamorphic Blast I – Fiery Escape I ~ giving me the opportunity to deal quite a lot of damage and slowing the enemy down; also resulting in me escaping his attacks with last said skill. The only downside to this skill and its forthcoming combo is the amount of time it takes, leaving the Priest vulnerable and thus giving the opportunity for the opponent to steal some of the Priest’s precious HP. Personal experiments showed that this full combo attack is best used before using Ishara’s Lullaby I (also gained on level 14), giving time for a quick Focus Heal I to get the HP back up (especially in 1vs1, but I will cover more about that in an upcoming article about PvP).

Ishara’s Lullaby I is the first and only CC skill the Priest obtained. It seems to be a very reliable skill and only got resisted twice during my entire CPE experience. Stunning the enemy for a good 8~10 seconds, giving enough time to throw Heal Thyself I once or twice and leaving enough time to get the first damage skill out before the stun wears off. Having a 30 seconds cooldown (the CD in the picture is incorrect) seemed very balanced to me, although I would understand if this gets a small nerf and they add time to the cooldown, or shorten the stun.

Level 16:

Purifying Circle is an instant group cleansing skill, removing all debuffs from the members inside the 12m circle. I found myself using this only once or twice during group PvP and didn’t notice any particular reason for it during the CPE. One of the skills I didn’t give too much attention too. It will most likely be better off in a later stage of the game, but throwing heals around seemed to be more effective than actually trying to purify ones special state.