Ragnarok Online 2 Priest DPS Pure Guide

Ragnarok Online 2 Priest DPS Pure Guide by ExeltusPendragon

This thread is for all those people out there who don’t particularly care for healing and wish to be the best dang DPS Priests ever! I fully understand going into this thread that most people think a Priest should heal, and that DPS Priests aren’t as good as pure DPS classes. While the latter is true it doesn’t mean we still can’t min/max the heck out of out game!

I’m a long time WoW Shadow Priest player here looking to do some theorycrafting! From what I’ve seen and played skill-wise both the Shadow Priest and DPS Priest are set up very similarly, which means that DPS priests have a crazy amount of potential. The following guide-like thing is based on my experiences in seaRO2, and everything is subject to change in iRO2.

Pros & Cons of DPS and Hybrid

Full DPS
+ Extremely easy to level
+ Amazing AoE ability
+ High damage on multi-target fights
+ Packs a punch in PVP Colosseum (easy to farm PVP eq)
+ Good for farming stuff
– Below average single target damage
– Pretty much unwanted in Raids, for obvious reasons
– Skills do not scale well with Agi & Critical (only Holy Light and Genesis does)
– Priest EQ have virtually no AGI = low Critical

Hybrid
+ Decent Leveling Speed
+ Can still do well in PVP but requires a lot more skill especially with timing last hits
+ Can fit a unique role of being flexible to switch between damage and support in raids
– Mostly unwanted in RHM (upon hitting 50, you can only farm blue eq in party of 5 and people usually need a FS for that)
– Takes a lot of good judgement on which skills to use at any time, mainly the dilemma to use aspersio for damage or healing.
– Generally still suffers the same dps scale problem though you’re still useful in providing buffs, heals, assumptio and help with some damage – just don’t claim to be a pure dps

Skill & Stat Builds

Pure DPS
http://ro2base.com/b…1.1.3/0.0.0.0.0

Stats:
51 Int
26 Agi
3 Vit

Int is where the majority of your damage comes from. Sure Agi is great for Crit, but the bottom line is DoTs don’t crit and Holy Light, more often than not, will be auto-critting from Aspertio. We scale horribly With Agi due to HL and Ray of Genesis being the only damage skills we regularly use that are able to crit. Vit is just leftovers.

Priest Skills Breakdown

Damage Skills

HolyLight (Cast Time: 1 second || Cooldown: Instant || Range: 20 meters)
Attacks the enemy with Light and inflicts an amount of MATK as Holy damage. Aspersio: The next 3 Holy Lights are critical hits.
[Level 1] 27% Holy damage.
[Level 2] 30% Holy damage.
[Level 3] 33% Holy damage.
[Level 4] 36% Holy damage.
[Level 5] 39% Holy damage.

About HL: This is the main filler attack you’ll be using from mob one. Benefits amazingly from Aspersio. Max it, love it, use it when everything else has been cast/is on CD.

LexDivina (Cast Time: Instant || Cooldown: 10 seconds || Range: 20 meters)
Throws a Holy hammer at your target and inflicts an amount of your MATK as Holy damage.
[Level 1] 22% Holy damage.
[Level 2] 26% Holy damage. Critical hit if target’s HP <20%.
[Level 3] 30% Holy damage. Critical hit if target’s HP <20%. If it’s a deadly blow, you acquire 3 Holy Water.

About Lex: Max it. A decent instant cast that also triples as a source of Holy Water and an execute. Can be used while moving and should be. Great to throw out when you’re chasing down someone in PvP, or need to move to avoid something in a raid and don’t want to stop DPSing.

Oratio(Cast Time: Instant || Cooldown: Instant || Range: 20 meters)
Recite the Holy Lord’s prayer to inflict an amount of your MATK as damage every 2 seconds for 20 seconds.
[Level 1] 8% damage. (80% total damage.)
[Level 2] 9% damage. (90% total damage.)
[Level 3] 10% damage. (100% total damage.)
[Level 4] 11% damage. (110% total damage.)
[Level 5] 12% damage. (120% total damage.)

About Oratio: The first of your DoTs.It may be the weakest but benefits from being an instant that you can cast on the run.

Judex (Cast Time: Instant || Cooldown: 3 seconds || Range: 20 meters)
Drops a Thunder of Judgement on an enemy and 2 surrounding enemies to inflict an amount of your MATK as damage. Aspersio: All targets hit are stunned for 3 seconds.
[Level 1] 14% damage.
[Level 2] 17% damage.
[Level 3] 19% damage.

About Judex: Meh. If you want to AoE just Multi-Dot. It’s VERY useful for it’s Aspersio stun, but that’s about it.

Credo (Cast Time: Instant || Cooldown: Instant || Range: 25 meters)
Recite the Apostle’s Creed to inflict an amount of your MATK as damage every 2 seconds for 30 seconds.
[Level 1] 9% damage. (135% total damage.)
[Level 2] 10% damage. (150% total damage.)
[Level 3] 11% damage. (165% total damage.)
[Level 4] 12% damage. (180% total damage.)
[Level 5] 14% damage. (210% total damage.)

About Credo: Your second DoT and the most powerful. It has the advantage of having a 25m casting range (5m farther than you other spells) which makes it the perfect opener for any situation. Also instant cast but DOES have a casting animation that will keep you from moving for a second.

Adoramus (Cast Time: 1 second || Cooldown: Instant || Range: 20 meters)
Calls upon a Holy Light to inflict an amount of your MATK as damage every 2 seconds for 20 seconds.
[Level 1] 10% damage. (100% total damage.)
[Level 2] 11% damage. (110% total damage.)
[Level 3] 13% damage. (130% total damage.)
[Level 4] 14% damage. (140% total damage.)
[Level 5] 15% damage. (150% total damage.)

About Adoramus: Your third DoT and the second most powerful. The down side to it is that it does have a 1 second cast time.

Magnus Exorcismus (Cast Time: 1 second || Cooldown: Instant || Range: 20 meters)
Generates a field to inflict an amount of your MATK as damage to a maximum of 10 enemies. Aspersio: All enemies affected will receive the Oratio debuff.
[Level 1] 24% damage.
[Level 2] 28% damage.
[Level 3] 32% damage.

About ME: This would be an amazing skill if it wasn’t for its abysmal casting animation. Only really useful for throwing up Oratio on 3+ mobs with Aspersio.

Ray of Genesis (Cast Time: 2 second || Cooldown: 20 seconds || Range: 20 meters)
Calls forth the wrath of God onto a single target to inflict an amount of your MATK as damage. Aspersio: Eliminates cast time.
[Level 1] 95% damage.
[Level 2] 106% damage.
[Level 3] 117% damage.
[Level 2] 128% damage.
[Level 3] 139% damage.

About RoG: This is your heavy hitting nuke. 2 second cast, 1-2 second long casting animation, 6 hits that can crit. Using Aspertio is a complete waste on this unless you’re on the run and can finish someone off in PVP. In any other situation you spend 1 second of global cooldown casting Aspertio, meaning you’re only really saving on a 1 second cast time. Still amazing though!

Support Skills

Blessing (Cast Time: Instant || Cooldown: 3 seconds)
Increases the max HP of all party members within sight for 30 minutes.
[Level 1] 3% max HP.
[Level 2] 6% max HP.
[Level 3] 9% max HP.
[Level 4] 12% max HP.
[Level 5] 15% max HP.

About Blessing: Decent for PVE, but will be most likely overwritten in a raid/party.

IncreaseAgi (Cast Time: Instant || Cooldown: See below.)
Increases the movement speed of all party members within sight by 40%.
[Level 1] Lasts 10 seconds. 260 second cooldown.
[Level 2] Lasts 11 seconds. 240 second cooldown.
[Level 3] Lasts 12 seconds. 220 second cooldown.
[Level 4] Lasts 13 seconds. 200 second cooldown.
[Level 5] Lasts 14 seconds. 180 second cooldown.

About AGI up: Great when you need to change positioning fast, or make a quick escape!

Resurrection(Cast Time: 3 seconds || Cooldown: See below. || Range: 30 meters)
Resurrects a fallen player. Usable in combat. Aspersio: Eliminates cast time and the player will be resurrected with full HP.
[Level 1] 50 minute cooldown. (5 minutes in kRO2)
[Level 2] 40 minute cooldown. (4 minutes in kRO2)
[Level 3] 30 minute cooldown. (3 minutes in kRO2)

About Res: This is one of the big reasons people will bring you to a raid. Extra resses never hurt!

AquaBenedicta (Cast Time: Instant || Cooldown: 60 seconds)
Instantly restores 15% of your SP and generates 3 Holy Water charges. You can only keep 3 charges at a time.
[Level 1] 15% SP. 3 charges.

About Aqua: Costs 1 skill point, Restores Mana and gives holy water. Enough Said.

Aspersio (Cast Time: Instant || Cooldown: See below.)
Uses up 1 Holy Water charge to improve one skill. Skills improved:
– Holy Light (Next 3 Holy Lights become critical attacks.)
– Judex (Stuns enemy and 2 surrounding enemies for 3 seconds.)
– Resurrection (Eliminates cast time and fully restores HP of fallen player.)
– Heal (Next 3 Heals become critical heals.)
– Highness Heal (Boosts your Highness Heal by 50% and players affected will receive a 10 second heal over time for the same amount.)
– Magnus Exorcismus (All enemies affected will receive an Oratio debuff.)
– Ray of Genesis (Eliminates cast time.)
– Sanctuary (Increases the max HP of all players inside by 15% for the duration of the skill.)
[Level 1] 60 second cooldown.
[Level 2] 40 second cooldown.
[Level 3] 20 second cooldown.

About Asp: Awesome in that it modifies a lot of your spells, but generally you’ll be using it for crits on Holy Light (or heal if you’re in a pinch).

Gloria(Cast Time: Passive || Cooldown: Passive || Range: Passive)
Chance to instantly cast the next Holy Light or Heal when either Holy Light or Heal is cast.

[Level 1] 5% Chance
[Level 2] 10% Chance
[Level 3] 15% Chance

About Gloria: Is it luck based? Yup, but a free instant cast is always a welcome DPS boost! You don’t need to max it, but if you’re going full DPS there aren’t too many skill variations.

Recovery(Cast Time: || Cooldown: . || Range: meters)
Remove all abnormal conditions of X ally within the targeted area.
[Level 1] 1 Ally
[Level 2]2 Allies
[Level 3] 3 Allies
[Level 4] 4 Allies
[Level 5] 5 Allies

About Recovery: We’re looking into it, but this skill isn’t that great. Only get it if it’s needed as a pre-req.

Suffragium(Cast Time: 0 || Cooldown: 0. || Range: self buff)
Increase your Haste Rate X for 30 min.
[Level 1] 2%
[Level 2] 4%
[Level 3] 6%
[Level 4] 8%
[Level 5] 10%

About Suff: This skill is a bit controversial. On one hand, if you want to maximize your DPS then you should in theory max this. On the other hand the benefit you get from it per skill point is negligible since most of your non-instant cast times are only 1-2 seconds long. That means at a whopping 5 points you’ll shave off a barely noticeable 0.1 seconds from Holy Light & Adoramus and 0.2 seconds from Genesis Ray. The points used here are more beneficial somewhere else.

Angelus(Cast Time: 0 || Cooldown: 120 seconds . || Range: 12 meters)
Increase Defense for yourself, Party and Attack Squad members X for 10 sec.

[Level 1]3%
[Level 2]6%
[Level 3] 9%

About Angelus: Just put a pre-req point in it and forget it. Even at 3 points it’s kinda meh.

Archangel(Cast Time: 0 || Cooldown: 90 seconds. || Range: Self buff)
Archangel descends and increases your Attack Power X for 30 sec.
[Level 1]5%
[Level 2] 10%
[Level 3] 15%
[Level 4] 20%
[Level 5] 25%

About AA: A 30 second long self buff that ups damage and healing by 25% and has a 33.3% up time (before vigor). Need I say more??

Healing Skills

Heal (Cast Time: 1 second || Cooldown: Instant || Range: 25 meters)
Heals a player for an amount of your MATK as HP. Aspersio: The next 3 Heals are critical heals.
[Level 1] 30% MATK as HP.
[Level 2] 33% MATK as HP.
[Level 3] 36% MATK as HP.
[Level 4] 40% MATK as HP.
[Level 5] 43% MATK as HP.

About Heal: You’re stuck with one point in it, and really that’s all you need for the occasional patch up.

Renovatio (Cast Time: Instant || Cooldown: Instant || Range: 20 meters)
A player with this buff will be healed for an amount of your MATK as HP every 2 seconds for 12 seconds.
[Level 1] 16% MATK as HP.
[Level 2] 19% MATK as HP.
[Level 3] 22% MATK as HP.

About Reno: This will make you more or less unkillable in standard PVE. In a raid/party environment it can be used to top yourself up, again taking pressure off the healers. In PVP it’s going to make you very hated. If you really wanted to max your actual DPS you could drop the 3 points here into Suffragium, but as I mentioned above the survivability you gain here is way more valuable in my opinion.

Meditatio (Passive)
When your heal crits, and if your existing hit rate exceeds 95%, the percentage of the surplus hit rate will be added to your heals that crit.
Bonus heal from Meditatio = ((A% – 95%) x B x Level C).
‘A’ being your existing hit rate, ‘B’ being your original heal amount and ‘C’ being the level of this skill learned.
[Level 1] 340% bonus.
[Level 2] 380% bonus.
[Level 3] 420% bonus.
[Level 4] 460% bonus.
[Level 5] 500% bonus.

About Meditatio: It’s useless for healers, even more useless for you. 1 point for a pre-req and forget it.

HighnessHeal (Cast Time: Instant || Cooldown: 10 seconds || Range: 25 meters)
Heals a player and 2 surrounding players for an amount of your MATK as HP. Aspersio: Boosts your Highness Heal by 50% and players affected will receive a 10 second heal over time for the same amount.
[Level 1] 44% MATK as HP. 66% with Aspersio.
[Level 2] 49% MATK as HP. 73.5% with Aspersio.
[Level 3] 54% MATK as HP. 81% with Aspersio.
[Level 4] 59% MATK as HP. 88.5% with Aspersio.
[Level 5] 64% MATK as HP. 96% with Aspersio.

About HH: You’ll only be taking this if you go for a PVP build, but lordy it helps you out! Instant and if you use it with Aspersio it’ll restore a nice chunk of life.

Sacrement(Cast Time: 4 seconds || Cooldown: 3 seconds. || Range: Self buff)
Carry out a holy ritual to change to an appropriate state capable of handling healing. Increases Healing by X but decreases Attack by 10%.

[Level 1] 2%
[Level 2] 4%
[Level 3] 6%
[Level 4] 8%
[Level 5] 10%

About Sac: No. Just no.

Coluceo Heal(Cast Time: Instant || Cooldown: See below || Range: meters)
Instantly and fully recover your targets HP. (Recast after 300 sec.)
[Level 1] 300 second cooldown
[Level 2] 270 second cooldown
[Level 3] 240 second cooldown
[Level 4] 210 second cooldown
[Level 5] 180 second cooldown

About CH: An invaluable PVP tool. You’re hard enough to kill and if used right this gives you an extra life. Its up to you if you’d rather max this or Assumptio, both are viable options.

Assumptio(Cast Time: Instant || Cooldown: 120 seconds . || Range: meters)
1 Decreases damage taken by X for 10 sec.
[Level 1] 8%
[Level 2] 16%
[Level 3] 24%
[Level 4] 32%
[Level 5] 40%

About Assumptio: in PVP damage reduction is king, and can be the deciding factor between you getting insta-gibbed by someone popping cooldowns and you proceeding destroy them with their ammo spent. With such a short cooldown its regularly available! Great when you need to cut and run when being focus fired.

Skill build
While levelling this is the ideal way to place your talent points for the PVE build:
Increase Agility – 1
Ressurection – 1
Aqua Benedicta – 1
Aspertio – 3
Holy Light – 4
Renovatio – 3
Lex Divina – 1
Oratio – 5
Lex Divina – 2
Judex – 1
Gloria – 3
Credo – 5
Adoramus – 5
Magnus Exorcismus – 1
Ray of Genesis – 1
Recovery – 1
Suffragium – 1
Angelus – 1
Archangel – 5

PVE
DPS Skill Rotation/Priority:

Questing/Levelling as an Acolyte

Early on as an Aco it’s best to just throw up Oratio on your target and then nuke them down with Holy Light. Once both of those skills are maxed you can start to pull multiple mobs. I found dotting both, then hitting just the first with one Aspertio Holy Light, then hitting the second with the other two Aspertio charges would bring both down rather quickly. With Renovatio ticks rolling you’ll kill fast and never die.

Against tough enemies you’re usually best off saving aspertio for heal and just nuking with regular holy light while Oration chips away. Takes a bit but you’re pretty much guaranteed the kill.

Questing/Levelling/Grinding as a Priest

The following video pretty much perfectly explains how to do it:

For regular mobs you can more or less apply all 3 of your DoTs to 3-4 enemies at a time and never die as long as you have Renovatio rolling. Just make sure to pull them out of agro range to avoid being unable to loot.

For stronger enemies you pretty much follow the below dungeon/world boss strategy, adding in Renovatio.

Single Target Dungeon/Boss Fights

The thing about DPS priesting, where the majority of your damage comes from DoTs, is that it isn’t so much about a tight DPS rotation but instead it’s a more about running a priority system. In theory the ideal priority of casting skills should be the following:

Aqua Benedicta > Archangel > Credo > Oratio > Ray of Genesis > Adoramus > Lex Divina (only if the boss is <20%) > Aspersio > Holy Light

Your main priority is to keep your dots up on the boss as much as possible (which might be hard to do with the current UI). Credo is first due to it’s damage and range, then Oratio. The reason I prefer casting Genesis Ray is due to the fact that it’s only a 2 second cast time: if you’re spending a global cooldown on Aspersio then you’re spending a second ‘casting’ to get free instant cast. Kind of defeats the purpose of the Aspersio bonus imo, especially when 3 critting Holy Lights in theory does more damage than Genesis Ray. Adoramus comes after RoG for the simplicity of timer tracking.

Archangel is where it gets interesting. You’ll want to cast it before anything else at the start of a fight BUT once the fight is under way you’ll want to cast it just before you recast your 30s duration DoTs. That way you’ll be able to recast and clip the DoTs a second time before archangel expires, letting them do boosted damage well after archangel ends.

Lex Divina becomes very important towards the end of fights. Once you hit the 20% mark on a raid boss it’s a free 30% MATK crit attack, which adds up nicely when you’re trying to burn through the final phase of a boss. It’s also great to throw out when you need to move during a fight to make up for not casting at that moment. Oratio works too, as should Gloria-instant Holy Light, but they’re trickier to time.

The important thing to remember is that above all else to minimize the amount of time your DoTs aren’t on the boss when they fall off. They’re the main source of your damage.

Adds and multi-target fights

On fights with adds you’re best off throwing all of your DoTs onto the spawned mobs and then returning focus to the boss. Unless you NEED to burn down an add for whatever reason, you’re better off adding your filler DPS (Holy Light, Genesis Ray) to the main boss. Depending on how long the adds are alive for you may want to consider just throwing Adoramus on them all before focussing on the boss again.

In a multi-target fight there is no reason that all 3 of your dots shouldn’t be up on everyone, unless you’re dealing with 3+ targets, then you should just use your best judgement. Again here just Adoramus on the extras would be advised.

PVP

As far as I can see, there’s two optimum builds for PVP:

http://ro2base.com/b…1.1.3/0.0.0.0.0

and

http://ro2base.com/b…1.1.3/0.0.0.0.0

Both opt to sacrifice Archangel and the few skills leading up to it to gain more personal survivability. In the first it reduces Coluseo’s cooldown so it’s decently available, while the second goes for Coluseo being more of a one shot deal but throws in a 24% reduction Assumptio every 2 minutes. I’m leaning towards the second, personally. Damage reduction is godly in PVP.