Maygi’s Priest Guide !

~Latest Update~
I made a Discord server for Priests! ​Join it here <3
The MapleStory2 Combat Analyzer (MSCA) is now publicly released!
Download it here​.
6/27/19: Scathing light is fixed! Updated builds to reflect.

♥ Awakening FAQ ♥
Q: What epic set to get?
A: Any! They’re all the same.

Q: What HD to run?
A: ​Madrakan’s Heart ​until you get a useable weapon. Then, you can
focus on ​Guardian of the Seas​, or ​Icethorn Ridge.​ Or, you can
continue running ​Madrakan’s Heart ​for ​Pride Bolt.

Q: What legendary set to get?

A: They’re all decent. Behemoth is good all-round, Dark Vanguard is
strong for DPS with early enchantments, and Enigma can be really
useful for giant Light Sword windows.

Q: What gemstones to use?

A: Refer to the ​gemstone section​.

Q: What build to use?

A: 4/4/1 left side, 4 right side. ​Purifying Light ​is bugged and stacks, so
if you have more Priests, you shred defense by EVEN MORE. After
clearing Chaos Raids, use 4/4/3/1 left side and 4 right.
 ♥ Introduction ♥

Hiii! I see a lot of questions for

Priests thrown around all the time so I
thought I should put together a guide
to help everybody out! I hope you find
the information in here useful uwu

I don’t think I need to delve too much into what Priest as a class
does~ it can do damage, provide buffs, heal allies, and of course,
summon a cute flying pig !! If you have any questions about things, feel
free to PM me in-game on NA West (May) or send me a message at
Maygi#4987​ on Discord!
♥ Table of Contents ♥

Skills

Builds
Base Tree: Standard Hybrid
Base Tree: Pure DPS
Base Tree: Pure Heal
Awakening Hybrid (DPS focus)
Awakening Hybrid (Heal focus)

Lapenshards

What is Priest DPS Like?

Attribute Points/Gearing
Gear Attributes
Stat Weights
Item Guide
Gemstones
Pets

Consumables

Advanced Tips
Media
  

♥ Skills ♥

I will use (R) to denote Ranged skills and (M) for Melee skills!

Base Tree Skills

Steadfast Faith This is your starting passive! It’ll give you 50% increased SP
regeneration if an enemy suffering from the ​Celestial Light
or ​Purifying Light d
​ ebuff (note: multiple enemies doesn’t give
more SP regen).

Heavenly Wings
Your “dodge”! It makes you grow pretty wings and fly
forward, healing you and an ally while increasing both your
movement speed.

A basic attack with decent range that applies a

Celestial Light damage-over-time effect. The debuff from this skill
(R) activates ​Steadfast Faith ​passive, but after Awakening, you
can apply this with ​Scathing Light ​or use ​Purifying Light​ in
its place. This skill hits mobs up to 3 times - meaning if there
is one mob, it will hit it all 3 times.

This is your highest DPS skill pre-awakening, and it’s amazing

Holy Blast (M) for AOE (besides the fact that it slowly pushes monsters
away from your other skills/party members…). To do the
maximum damage, the enemy needs to be affected by
Celestial Light.

Shield of the
Archon (M) This is an instant-cast skill (that can be used during other
skills) that increases your resistances by a large amount
while dealing damage to enemies in range.
 Holy Relic (M) Drops a relic in front of you that pulses every second,
dealing damage and knocking enemies back. It’s great as a
DPS tool, and also to drop in front of certain objects to
constantly knock mobs back while you can channel safely!

Healing Prayer Heals you and nearby allies, at the cost of 15 spirit. This is
your basic, spammable heal ability.
This heals up to 6 people, including yourself, ​based on
proximity​ (the closest people to you get healed).

Scourging Wave
(R) This skill is pretty and does a large conal AOE of holy
damage. Not very useful in current content, however.

Sanctuary Creates a cross (size increases in intervals with rank) that

heals allies and damages enemies. It lasts for 10 seconds, and
can help cover your job while you focus on DPS or deal
with other mechanics!

A channeled skill that can be held down forever, dealing

Smiting Aura (R) damage and applying a debuff every half second to up to 3
enemies in front of you. This debuff increases all the
damage taken by the target, making it very useful at world
bosses and raids!

Celestial
Guardian Summons a cute flying pig, increasing your magic attack by
a sizeable amount. Consumes 45 spirit.

Celestial
Blessings When you have the ​Celestial Guardian ​out, you can use this
powerful skill to heal allies a large amount, while increasing
their defense and attack. Consumes 45 spirit.
 Creates a super powerful buff area on the floor, which
grants a buff that increases physical and magic damage,
Holy Symbol attack speed, and accuracy by a large amount (19%).
Additionally, allies standing on top of the symbol will restore
spirit every second. However, the buff can only be
received by each player once per 3 minutes, regardless of
source.

Increases the duration of ​Celestial Guardian, Celestial

Disciple Blessings, ​and ​Holy Symbol ​buffs. This is a really helpful
passive, as ​Celestial Guardian/Celestial Blessings ​are really
expensive buffs to cast, and having them last longer means
you have more SP to spend on other things!

Scepter
Mastery
Passively increases weapon damage. Simple as that!

Healing Mastery
Passively increases ​Skill Recovery Bonus​, a stat that
increases healing output and spirit recovery of ​Holy Symbol.

Angelic Ray (R) Deals a large amount of holy damage in a line, that also heals
allies it hits by a sizeable amount. Can be tricky to aim, but
it’s very powerful! Consumes 30 spirit.
 Awakening Skills

General Skills

Life’s Guardian
Can be activated to increase Skill Recovery Bonus and
Movement Speed by 20% for 12s.
Additionally, makes ​Healing Prayer ​prioritize the lowest health
target while the effect is active.

Left Tree (Damage focus)

Scathing Light
(R)
Deals two hits of damage and applies ​Celestial Light.

Deals damage, with a burst of much greater damage after

a short delay. Consumes 30 SP.
Light When standing in the ​Heaven’s Wrath a ​ rea of effect, this
Spear/Sword turns into ​Light Sword, ​which deals high damage with no SP
(R/M*) cost.

*Light spear’s first hit is Ranged. Its second hit, which

carries the bulk of the damage, is Melee.
Light sword’s first hit is Melee. Its second hit, which also is
most of the damage, is typeless and cannot critically strike.
 Clarity
Passively increases magic attack, critical rate, and
accuracy.

Heaven’s Wrath Creates a giant explosion, doing 3 hits of increasing damage

and leaving behind an area of effect that buffs your
stamina recovery, movement speed, and max HP!
Standing in this AOE turns ​Light Spear​ into ​Light Sword.

Right Tree (Heal focus)

Purifying Light
(R) Deals 3 hits of damage and reduces the target’s defense
for 8 seconds. Also acts as ​Celestial Light ​for SP
recovery.

Divine Wave (R)

Zap lightning at the enemy, dealing damage and having a
chance to heal allies and do bonus damage. Consumes SP as
you hold it down.

Greater Healing A giant AOE heal over time that also gives a burst heal to
the two lowest health allies within it. Additionally, can store up
to 3 charges, and increases your damage by a large amount
for a short duration after use!

Vitality Passively increases damage of ​Purifying Light​ and ​Divine

Wave​, while adding a 30 second buff to ​Divine Wave ​and
Greater Healing​ that increases ally physical/magic attack by
7%. This overrides ​Celestial Blessings.
That’s a lot of skills…! But which ones are worth getting - and in what
situations? Read on in the Builds section to learn more!
  

♥ Builds ♥
Here are a few builds that I like to run with ~ of course, you can
adjust them to your preferences! I’ve done some maths and whatnot,
but still, they may not be 100% optimal ~ please read the notes about
each build!

Awakening
- Base Tree: Standard Hybrid
- Base Tree: Pure DPS
- Base Tree: Pure Heal
- Awakening Hybrid (DPS focus)
- Can spec full left tree if there’s another Priest
- Awakening Hybrid (Heal focus)

Pre-Awakening
- Solo/Levelling Build
- Hybrid Build (Party)
- Support Build (Party)
- Smiting Aura Build (Raid/World Boss)

What Build Should I Use?

- If you are the only Priest...
- Use the ​Awakening Hybrid DPS/Support​ tree along with:
- Standard Hybrid base tree​ for general purposes
- Heal-focus base tree​ for heal-heavy encounters
- If your party has multiple Priests…
- The more geared Priest can run the ​Pure DPS​ ​base tree,
and full left-side Awakening tree, taking out points as
necessary for backup heals as needed depending on the
encounter
 - The lesser geared Priest can run the ​Standard Hybrid​ base
tree and either Awakening tree
- If you are severely undergeared or building full support...
- Use the ​Pure Heal​ base tree and a full right-side Awakening
tree

Need More Healing?

If you require stronger heals, here are steps you can take to
increase it, ordered by healing gained to DPS lost:
1. Swap out ​Offense ​gemstones (Bonus Attack) to ​Wisdom
(Inteliigence)​ ​gemstones
DPS: -1%, Heal: +4% per gemstone swapped
2. Use the ​Heal Focus​ ​base tree
DPS: -10%, Heal +40-60%
3. Use the ​DPS/Heal​ awakening tree
DPS: -20%, access to ​Greater Heal
 Base Tree: Standard Hybrid

This is your standard base tree build. It picks up all necessary buffs
while maximizing damage output! One point is taken in Angelic Ray to be
used as a spot heal.
Variations
- If more healing is necessary, you can consider taking points out
of ​Celestial Guardian ​to put into ​Healing Mastery
- If even more healing is necessary, consider dropping ​Sanctuary
down to 5 as well for more ​Healing Mastery ​points.
- If needed, you can also consider removing some points from
Disciple​. The only important part of a high rank ​Disciple​, aside
from a bit of QOL for not having to refresh buffs as often, is
getting one extra second of the ​Holy Symbol ​buff per rank.

Notes
- This is the standard build to run when you are the only Priest. You
will have strong DPS capabilities while providing support to your
team with this!
- This can be paired with either of the suggested hybrid Awakening
trees - the standard DPS/Support tree, or the Heal focus tree.
However, I would recommend doing with the DPS tree. If you
need more healing, you should run the ​Heal Focus base tree​ with
the DPS/Support Awakening Tree.
 Base Tree: Pure DPS

When you have another Priest in your party running the standard
buffs, you can run this instead for more damage! We pick up ​Disciple
for the sole purpose of increasing the duration of ​Celestial Guardian,
and keep ​Celestial Blessings ​at rank 9 as a back-up heal while
preventing it from overriding the other Priest’s longer-duration
blessings. We can keep ​Angelic Ray ​at level 1 for spot healing, as even a
max level ray is a DPS loss (light spear damage is superior).

Variations
- Drop ​Celestial Blessings​ to 4 for more points in D ​ isciple, ​so
Celestial Guardian ​lasts longer
- Drop ​Celestial Blessings​ to 4 and ​Disciple ​to 1, to max out ​Holy
Symbol ​for more bonus spirit to the party (use your Holy Symbol
after the first one disappears)

Playstyle
- Drop ​Holy Relic ​and ​Sanctuary ​off cooldown, as long as you
know the boss isn’t going to move.
- Use ​Shield of the Archon ​off cooldown, when you are in melee
range.
- Use ​Angelic Ray ​to spot heal allies without sacrificing as much
DPS loss as casting ​Celestial Blessings​ or ​Healing Prayer
- DO NOT CAST ​HOLY SYMBOL​ BEFORE THE OTHER PRIEST
DOES!
 Base Tree: Heal Focus

In certain situations that require a lot of healing, this is a powerful build

to run. You do not lose too much DPS by not running relic in current
raids, and healing becomes miles easier.
 Awakening Hybrid DPS/Support

This is the general-purpose Awakening tree. We take one point in

Heaven’s Wrath​ and 4 points in ​Purifying Light, ​as the defense debuff
is a huge increase to both your own (and team’s) DPS! If there is
another Priest in the party, you can drop ​Purifying Light​ and dump the
remaining points into ​Clarity ​and H
​ eaven’s Wrath.

Skill Priority

- First, we get ​Purifying Light. ​This is a powerful defense debuff

to greatly amp up our team’s damage!
- Then, we spec down the left tree, maxing everything except the
passive, in order to have one point to get ​Heaven’s Wrath. ​Most
of the benefit of Heaven’s Wrath comes from ​Light Sword,
which scales damage based on the rank of ​Light Spear.

Notes
- This build requires all 16 Awakening skill points. As such, we won’t
get the benefit of running ​Heaven’s Wrath ​with this hybrid build
until we have all 16.
- If you have another priest running ​Purifying Light​, feel free to
fully spec into the left tree, and use the ​Pure DPS​ ​base tree.
- If you are the only Priest, use the ​Standard Hybrid​ base tree.
 Awakening Hybrid DPS/Heal Support

This is what I believe will be an effective hybrid build that takes the
right tree.

Skill Priority
 - Like the DPS focused hybrid build, we get ​Purifying Light f ​ irst.
It’s a strong debuff that can’t be passed up.
- Next, we go down the healing tree to get ​Greater Healing. ​This
gives you a powerful heal over time that should trivialize any
healing requirements in current raids.
- Because ​Vitality​ is extremely underwhelming, we opt to grab
Scathing Light ​as a more effective filler when ​Purifying Light​ is
already up.

Notes
- Greater Healing ​provides a self-damage buff that is powerful at
max rank but only lasts 5 seconds. Time these charges with
Sanctuary ​and other DPS cooldowns/spirit dumps to maximize
your output.
- Vitality ​is only useful at rank 1 (to provide a whopping extra 0.6%
damage to your team). Any further points put into it are only for
damage increase, which is why we spec into ​Scathing Light
instead.
- Vitality ​overrides ​Celestial Blessings, ​so if you need the resistance
buff from it, consider not taking it at all in favor of ​Light Spear
- With this tree, you should run the ​Standard Hybrid​ build, or the
Pure Heal​ tree.
  

Pre-Awakening: Solo/Levelling Build (Pure

DPS)
Forget buffs! It’s all about the DPS! This build focuses on
maximizing damage - and nothing but!

Skill Priority

- Holy Blast​ is our bread-and-butter DPS. Max it out!

- Holy Relic ​does insane DPS and has a low cooldown. It is a
must-get in any DPS-oriented build!
 - Sanctuary ​does big damage and keeps us healed up so we can
keep on DPSing without worrying about healing ourselves!
- Angelic Ray ​is our biggest nuke - very fun to use!
- Celestial Guardian ​gives us a hefty 11% damage buff, but costs a
ton of spirit and is annoying to keep up without ​Disciple​. For the
most part, taking ​Scepter Mastery ​and ​Angelic Ray ​should do you
better, so we get those first.

Variations
- If you have high attack speed (110%+), consider dropping 1 point
from ​Celestial Guardian ​and 6 points from ​Scepter Mastery ​in
order to get level 10 ​Celestial Light
- Take up to 3 points out of ​Celestial Guardian ​and 6 points out of
Scepter Mastery​ to put points in ​Celestial Blessings ​as a backup
heal. This can be really useful in ​Chaos Papulatus ​and sometimes in
Chaos Devorak. ​Make sure you do not put the full 10 points into
blessings, because we don’t want to override the main priest’s
long duration buff with our short one.

Playstyle
- Drop ​Holy Relic ​and ​Sanctuary ​off cooldown, as long as you
know the boss isn’t going to move.
- Use ​Shield of the Archon ​off cooldown, when you are in melee
range.
- Use ​Angelic Ray ​off cooldown, but make sure​ Celestial Light i​ s up
as to give yourself a second to recover bonus SP with the
passive
- Tag mobs/bosses first with ​Celestial Light​, then start spamming
Holy Blast​ on them.
  

Pre-Awakening: Hybrid DPS/Support Build

(Party/Raid)
This build is for maximizing damage in a 4 man party or raid,
through buffs as well as your own damage! If you’re undergeared,
consider using the Smiting Aura build for raids.

Skill Priority
 - Going down the ​Holy Relic ​line gives us a lot of damage, but due to
SP constraints, we can only get 3 points in Relic.
- Grabbing level 5 ​Sanctuary ​gives us some additional damage, while
helping out with healing.
- Next, we focus on the buff line, maxing out​ Celestial Blessings,
Holy Symbol, ​and ​Disciple. ​This gives us some nice healing/buffing
potential… and not to mention that nice self-buff from the pig!
Since ​Celestial Guardian ​is a self-buff, we only lose 4% magic
attack by not maxing it out, and get more damage by putting
points elsewhere.
- Last, we get ​Angelic Ray. ​This is a very useful skill that can be
used to cover some long-range healing duties, while dealing some
damage!

Variations
- Drop the ​Sanctuary ​line to max out ​Holy Relic ​and ​Celestial
Guardian​ (the overall damage potential is very similar, but you lose
the healing - it depends if you really need it or not, though,
because a poorly placed Sanctuary can be a big DPS loss)
- Drop ​Scepter Mastery ​and​ Angelic Ray ​to minimum values, and
drop​ Disciple​, and ​Holy Symbol ​to get ​Sanctuary ​for more DPS
and sustained healing. Recommended in fights where you cannot
make much use of Holy Symbol.
- Drop a point from ​Disciple/Celestial Guardian​ to max out ​Holy
Symbol
- Drop max level ​Holy Blast ​for max level ​Celestial Light ​or
Scourging Light​ if you need longer range.

Playstyle
- Summon your ​Celestial Guardian ​before the fight, refreshing as
necessary..
- Avoid using ​Healing Prayer ​when necessary. Instead, heal with
Celestial Blessings, ​which also will give a decent damage/defense
buff.
- Drop ​Holy Relic ​off cooldown, as long as you know the boss isn’t
going to move.
- Use ​Shield of the Archon ​off cooldown, when you are in melee
range.
- As you run low on SP, drop a ​Holy Relic ​for a breather while
 your passive restores your SP, or use some ​Celestial Light​ casts
- Tag mobs/bosses first with ​Celestial Light​, then start spamming
Holy Blast​ on them.
  

Pre-Awakening: Smiting Aura Build

(Raid/World Boss)

OK. There’s really not much variation or other thought that goes into
making (or playing) this build. It’s probably the mooooost boring build out
of all, although it can be really effective in maximizing output, while
requiring little from the priest.

Variations
 - The four skill points in ​Healing Mastery ​can be put anywhere, but
it doesn’t matter too much.

Playstyle
- Use ​Sanctuary​ primarily for healing, so you don’t have to
interrupt your ​Smiting Aura ​to heal
- Maintain the ​Celestial Blessings ​buff on your party to increase
their damage and defense
- Use ​Holy Symbol ​during good DPS periods when it’s up
- Use ​Angelic Ray ​when you need to spot heal
- Have lots of fun holding down the ​Smiting Aura​ button /s

Why Raids/World bosses only? Should I be using this in a 4-man

dungeon?
As math may have it, using this build in a dungeon isn’t too bad of an
idea. It does do some respectable damage, and amps up your party’s
DPS by a bit. But, is the increase in the rest of your party’s damage
worth the sacrifice of your personal DPS loss from losing ​Holy Blast
and ​Holy Relic​? In a 4-man party, unless you are significantly outgeared
by your group members, this is questionable. However, in a 10-man raid
or a world boss with a massive amount of people hitting a boss, amping
up all their damage can definitely be worth it!
  

♥ Rotation ♥
General Notes
Always use ​Life’s Guardian​ in conjunction with ​Holy Symbol, ​for the
increased spirit recovery!

Hybrid DPS
Video Example

Notes:
While we don’t benefit from the spirit regen of ​Holy Symbol​ during
Light Sword​ spam, other classes do! So, pop ​Life’s Guardian ​to
increase the spirit regen by 20%.
We use ​Purifying Light ​right before the start of the burst window to
proc ​Pink Bean’s Prank. ​While we don’t get the immediate benefit of
the defense reduction on ​Heaven’s Wrath ​and the first few ticks of
Holy Relic​ and ​Sanctuary​, having it up during the burst window is far
better for DPS.
  

♥ Lapenshards ♥
WIP.
I’m not sure how necessary certain Lapenshards will be for clearing
RGB raids, so until I can learn how exactly those work, please take
these suggestions with a grain of salt!

Required for RGB 4-man Dungeons:

- Emerald Prison:​ Sword of TIme​ red Lapenshard
- Azure Flux: ​Eupheria’s Barrier ​green Lapenshard
- Terminus of TIme: ​Space Rift ​blue Lapenshard
The only one of these that isn’t recommended to be taken below is the
Sword of TIme.

Red Lapenshards (Active effects)

- Lumarigon’s Pride - Increases physical/magical attack by up to
216, while decreasing defense by 30% for 10s.
- Pride Bolt - Deals 335% damage, and 335% damage per second for
20 seconds. 60s CD.
Alternatives
- Song of Selene - Shoots 3 hearts that deal up to 1174% damage
and a 1-second stun per hit. 30s CD
- Slightly less DPS than Pride Bolt, but better against mobs
For Eye of Lapenta
- Sword of TIme.
Green Lapenshards (Passive effects)
- Guardian’s Rage - Increases damage but reduces defense by up
to 6%
- Eupheria’s Protection - Increases damage by up to 6% and health
by 1332. Deals damage over time if your health falls under 20%.

Blue Lapenshards (Random proc effects)

- Pink Bean’s Prank - Increases physical/magic attack by up to 33%
for 8s (also increases body size by 30% for the same duration)
- Erda’s Chill - Chance to deal up to 1012% damage when using ​Light
Spear. ​10s CD.
For Eye of Lapenta
- Space Rift - Chance to deals up to 1686% damage when ​Scathing
Light​ is used, or any skill while ​Vitality​ is active. 20s CD. Also
inflicts a large amount of skill break and is the only way to break
Ishura’s shield in the red​ Eye of Lapenta​ dungeon.
  

♥ What is Priest DPS Like? ♥

It’s far from horrible, I’ll tell you that! A DPS oriented priest can
probably output around 70% of the damage that an equally
skilled/geared DPS class can output, while a Hybrid build priest might
put out around 50%. However, you make up that difference with
buffs and heals!

Tired of this?

Me too! Priests are capable of healing and providing damage buffs to

the team WHILE outputting some decent damage.! People think running
with Priests slows down runs by a lot… but that is not so! If you
optimize and play well, you can outdo most average DPS players~

Should I be DPSing as a Priest?

This is a common question, because Priests are support, right?

Supports are supposed to focus on healing/support, and not DPS, no?
In MapleStory 2, where all classes have easy access to party healing
lapentiers, ​Priests are not “required” to clear most content​ (especially
seeing as there is not too much in terms of unavoidable damage coming
out from bosses). Early on, there were often a lot of “NO PRIEST”
parties. But! Priests are totally capable of increasing party DPS more
than a 4th DPS would. Not only is Priest base DPS good enough to rival
some DPS, but you can also buff your teammates to make up the
difference!
  

♥ Attribute Points & Gearing ♥

Attribute points
Put these all in ​Intelligence​. While adding
these points, you may notice that your
attack hardly moves - but that’s your
total attack rating (which is super
inaccurate)! Intelligence affects ​Magic
Attack​, which directly increases your
damage. Every point of Intelligence
equates to 0.4725 Magic Attack (before
multipliers).

Alternatively, you can spec points into

health to increase survivability if
necessary.

Crit Build?

What about ​Critical Rate​? I did a LOT of math regarding the viability of
critical + critical damage (even considering crit tonic + sharp eyes).
The end result is, if you stack crit, you can reach upwards of 37%
critical rate fully buffed, and if stacking crit damage, the total
average damage will only be about 1% higher than an Intelligence build that
stacks boss damage instead. However, level 60 content has higher
critical evasion, so with everything else the same, crit builds will be
weaker than normal builds. But, with debuffs such as a Soul Binder’s
Soul Dissonance​, crit damage can be extremely effective, so it varies
depending on your party composition.

HOWEVER! For Fair-Fight content (World Bosses, Fortress Rumble),

there is a soft cap for your total damage multiplier that comes from
weapon attack and magic attack, and as such, if you’re well-geared,
apply as many points as you can into critical rate instead!

Gear Attributes

There are lots of random attributes you can get on gear, but a few
are worth prioritizing. Aim for equipment with as many of these
attributes as possible!

I didn’t put Accuracy in the list for armor, as it is one of the highest
opportunity-cost sources of Accuracy (you should be using more
Gemstones, not accuracy lines on gear!). Before sharp eyes, here are
accuracy goals for different content. Note: these are not the
accuracy requirements for 100% hitrate, but just a decent goal to
shoot for!

Level 50
- Devorak/Captain Moc: 95
- Papulatus: 98
- Infernog: 115
- Hard Dungeons (excluding Beyondlink Tris): 92
- Beyondink Tris: 100
Level 60
- Chaos Raids/Eye of Lapenta: 115
- Hard Dungeons: 95
DPS-Oriented Stats
These are the recommended stats to build. This will help you contribute
as much as possible to the team in terms of damage. Building these
stats, you can either support or DPS as needed.
Scepter/Codex: ​Holy Damage/Magic Piercing* > Piercing > Magic
Attack > Total/Boss Damage > Intelligence
Headgear/Suit/Top/Bottom: ​Boss Damage** > Magic Attack >
Intelligence
Gloves: ​Magic Piercing
Shoes: ​Boss Damage** > Magic Attack > Intelligence > Movement speed
(you can get Movement speed alongside one offensive attribute)
Cape​:​ ​Piercing > Boss Damage >>> Holy Damage*** > Crit damage**** >
Critical rate
Belt: ​Piercing > Boss Damage >>> Holy Damage > Crit damage**** >
Critical rate
Necklace: ​Piercing > Boss Damage > Accuracy/Attack Speed > Magic
Piercing* > Holy Damage > Crit damage**** > Critical rate
Earring/Ring: ​Piercing > Boss Damage > Attack Speed > Holy Damage >
Crit damage**** > Critical rate
*assuming you’re running Magic Piercing on your gloves, you only need
a certain amount of Magic Piercing to cap on Chaos Raids (and a much
lesser amount for Hard Dungeons - 16.6% and 8%, respectively). Make
sure you don’t overcap for the content you plan on running!

**with average “end-game” stats, Magic Attack is around 75% as strong

to similar-tier Boss Damage lines. However, it has the added benefit of
increasing your heals by the same amount!

***Holy Damage only goes up to 2.9% on accessories, while Boss

Damage goes up to 6%!
****if you decide to run a critical damage build, focus on critical
damage above boss damage on all accessories!

Heal Oriented Stats

If you prefer to build pure healing stats, these are the stats you want
to prioritize. Because some of these stat combinations are rather
obscure, it can be a lot cheaper to pick up very nice gear with these
lines!
Scepter/Codex: ​Magic Attack > Intelligence > Skill Recovery Bonus >
Luck* > Critical Rate
Headgear/Suit/Top/Bottom: ​Magic Attack > Intelligence > Accuracy >
Luck* > Boss Damage
Gloves: ​Magic Piercing > Ranged damage reduction**
Shoes: ​Magic Attack > Intelligence > Accuracy > Movement Speed >
Boss Damage
Cape​:​ ​Critical Rate > Attack Speed > Movement Speed
Belt: ​Critical Rate + Attack Speed / Shoo and booboo’s belt (Attack
Speed + Skill Recovery Bonus)
Necklace/Earring/Ring: ​Critical Rate > Attack Speed > Accuracy

*Funnily enough, Luck provides more Critical on a weapon (and the only
source of Critical on armor). Priests have the highest Luck
coefficient - meaning every point of Luck adds around 7.34 to the
crit rate formula, whereas Critical Rate adds 5.3 per point (so, 1 point
of luck is a good deal better than 1 points of critical rate)

**If you have 0 respect for your damage, Ranged damage reduction is
a great line as it’ll reduce the damage from CDev shadow (and CMoc
cone), which normally do 100% HP. With Ranged damage reduction, you
will be able to survive these attacks, meaning you don’t have to bother
avoiding them! NOTE: I recommend at least 2% Ranged damage reduction
when tanking CDev shadows, to make sure you will survive at least one
DOT tick afterwards.
Stat Weights
To help you determine which secondaries stats to run, here’s a list of
stat weight estimations.

Piercing Every 1% -> up to ~1.42% DPS

Every 1% -> 1% DPS
Holy Damage These values all stack additively with each other, and
Boss Damage values may get diluted, if you have it on a lot of gear. For
Total Damage example, +2% boss damage when you already have +20%
boss damage isn’t +2% total DPS, but rather 1.67%.

Every 1% -> >1% DPS

Magic Piercing This goes up to a cap, depending on the boss. Refer to
the Magic Piercing section below.

Depends on your Magic Attack value. Remember this is a

Magic Attack separate multiplier, so +10 Magic Attack on 300 attack =
10/300 = ~3.33% more DPS

Intelligence Every 1 Intelligence -> 0.48 Magic Attack

Critical Rate Every 10 points -> 0.8% critical rate -> 0.20% DPS

With base critical, every 30 points -> 0.19% DPS

Critical Damage
With critical tonic, every 30 points -> 0.5% DPS

First 5% Attack Speed -> 3-4% DPS

Attack Speed Aside from that, generally, every 1% Attack Speed -> 0.5%
DPS

How good is Piercing?

Formulas suggest Piercing gets more effective at higher values
(around 1.42% per 1% at 30%). This does affect all your other damage
multipliers, though, so it’s quite strong of a stat, but it’s not the be-all
end-all of stats, especially if you don’t have that much.

How Does Magic Piercing Work?

Piercing affects defense as a whole. Magic piercing affects only
magic resistance, which affects damage independently from damage.
The maximum resistance is 1500 - every and % magic piercing affects
a monster’s magic resist based on a % of this maximum value. That
being said - 1% Magic Piercing is equal to 1% damage, up to a cap (based
on the monster’s resistance). The amount of total Magic Piercing you
need vs various bosses is listed below:
- Chaos Devorak/Captain Moc/Papulatus: 16.6%
- Infernog: 10%
- Nutaman (Rune Temple): 9.9%
- Pyrros Fard/Varrekant (Fire Dragon/Lubelisk): 8.71%
- Balrog: 8.13%

Attack Speed?
In theory, attacking faster means more damage, right? Well, to put
things simply, most of the time, you won’t have the spirit to
accommodate a higher attack speed in situations where you have great
uptime! However, that doesn’t make it a bad stat - it’s useful, but
shouldn’t be prioritized by any means. Definitely at least 5% - from
testing, the first 5% is worth roughly 3-4% DPS; but 5% after that is
only 2-3% DPS or less.

If you frequently run a ​Smiting Aura ​build, however, attack speed not
only translates directly into damage due to no SP consumption, but it
also helps you keep Smite up even if you miss a tick due to low
accuracy!

Skill Recovery Bonus?

This stat increases the effectiveness of your heals, and the spirit
regen of Holy Symbol. I don’t think you really need it, though. If you can
manage to keep everyone alive with no additional healing investment, you
can offer more to your team through damage! However, if you are
on a support-heavy build with little DPS funding, this is a worthwhile stat
to pursue as it’ll make your life easier!
Gearing Tips
Do you ever have any questions about gear? Like, if one item is better
than another? Refer to the Stat Weights above! When in doubt, feel
free to send a message to me on Discord at ​Maygi#4987​! (seriously, I
love questions and will answer you almost immediately)

Capping Magic Piercing

It’s important to cap Magic Piercing, because the values for this on
gear is a lot higher than alternatives. However, you don’t want to
“waste” stats overcapping, so I would recommend something like this:
- 4.2% (highest common roll) to 7.4% - gloves
- Up to 5.6% - either your weapon or codex
The two pieces of gear above will put you at cap for all hard
dungeons. Then, I would consider a few options to top off your Magic
Piercing for raids:
- Up to 5.6% - weapon/codex (whichever one you didn’t use) -
RECOMMENDED
- Up to 5% - pet talent
- Up to 6.4% - necklace (not recommended)
- 5% - ​Weak Point Analysis Tonic
- Purchased from Guild House - 50K mesos for 15 minutes
- 3% - Guild Buff
- 100K mesos for 1 hour. Higher levels cost more and give
more Magic Piercing.
What items to get?
This will be a general guide. Refer to the stat weights above to help
you make your decisions! ​The items are listed in order of priority.

ALL LEVEL 60 EPIC SETS ARE THE SAME. PICK WHICHEVER ONE
LOOKS BEST!

All accessory decisions ​will assume you can open all 3 sockets.

Damage-Oriented Build Support-Oriented Build

Recommended for Priest Recommended for alts or those
mains ♥ who prefer support ♥
Behemoth > Behemoth >
Armor and Enigma > Enigma >
Weapon Dark Vanguard > Dark Vanguard >
Lv60 Epic Lv60 Epic

Kandura’s pendant >

Centurion oathskeeper** >
Centurion oathskeeper** >
Amulet** Siren’s necklace* >
Absolute pendant >
Absolute pendant* >
Kandura’s pendant >
Forgotten heart
Madrakan Monarch
Centurion tear** >
Earrings** >
Absolute earrings* >
Earrings** Centurion tear** >
Nutaman’s earrings >
Absolute earrings* > Balrog’s earrings
Balrog’s earrings
Frost ring* > Centurion ring** >
Ring** Centurion ring** > Absolute ring* >
Absolute ring Pyrros fard’s ring

Ariel’s wings*** > Ariel’s Wings*** >

Cape Madrakan shadow mantle** Centurion cape** >
> Absolute cape* >
 Centurion cape** > MK-52 Propellor >
Absolute cape* > Katvan’s wings >
Balrog wings > Savagery cape*
Varrekant’s wings >
Savagery cape*
Dark Descent belts >
Shoo and booboo’s belt >
Centurion Belt*
Blizzard belt* >
Belt Blizzard belt* >
Absolute belt* >
Absolute belt* > Savagery belt*
Savagery belt*

*assumes decent stat rolls. Refer to the ​gear attributes section​.

**assumes you are using the whole set
***only use Ariel’s wings if you are the only one in the party with it!

Legendary accessories?
Pluto’s accessories are only good when using the full 3-piece set. As of
right now, it is highly unlikely to get a 3-piece set with good rolls. Focus
on Kandura’s or Absolute instead. However, in the event that you can
somehow get a full 3-piece amulet/ring/earring or 2-piece cape/belt
with high rolls, this is definitely the most powerful combination.
Gemstones

For gemstones, focus on one ​Accuracy​ gemstone, and then use ​Bonus
Attack ​gemstones for the remaining slots. ​Bonus Attack ​is multiplied by
a coefficient of 2 for epic/4 for legendary before being added to
our total ​Weapon Attack​. Secondly, the stats on offense gems are
front-loaded making it the strongest gem at lower tiers.

Coming into Awakening, weapon coefficients are not changing but

weapon attack is going much higher. As such, Offense gemstones are
very inefficient.

The gemstone setup I would recommend is:

With Epic Weapons:

- General Purpose: 7 Wisdom, 2 Accuracy
- Pink Bean: 8 Wisdom, 1 Accuracy
If you have Accuracy from another source (e.g. Kandura’s Pendant),
use one less Accuracy gem than suggested.

With Legendary Weapons:

- General Purpose: 3 Bonus Attack, 4 Wisdom, 2 Accuracy
- Pink Bean: 3 Bonus Attack, 5 Wisdom, 1 Accuracy
Here is a link to a spreadsheet​ you can use to create a gemstone
setup, or determine the differences between tiers of the next
gemstone! Simply create a copy and adjust the stats to your personal
values.
Pets

Pets grant ​bonus attack​ roughly equal to 40% of their base damage
(remember, bonus attack is multiplied by a coefficient of 2 for epic
weapons, 4 for legendary, before being added to base attack!). If you
can’t afford an ​Epic​ pet, an ​Exceptional​ pet is still a big boost.
Remember to feed it daily to level it up. Due to the weighting of pet
talents, I would prioritize:
- Piercing > Magic Piercing (if you need it) > Magic attack > Total
Damage > Attack Speed > Accuracy > Melee damage*/Ranged
damage
*Light Spear 2nd hit is melee
Just like armor and accessory rolls, the values on pet talents varies
extremely widely. Make sure to take this into consideration when
picking a pet! Again, refer to the ​Stat Weights​ section if you need help.

The best pets to get are, in order:

- Ishura: 150 bonus attack, 3% boss damage, chance to increase
attack speed by 4% for 5s on hit
 - Landevian: 150 bonus attack, 3% attack speed, bleeding on pet
attack
- Eupheria: 150 bonus attack, 5 accuracy, restores HP over time
if below 30% HP
- Level 60 epic pets

Some older boss pets have useful additional talents, which are
noteworthy:
- Infernog - chance to grant 2% Physical/Magic attack for 10s on
hit (on hit = the pet’s attack).
- Devorak - chance to restore 5 spirit on hit
- Captain Moc - chance to restore 40 stamina on hit
- Kandura - chance to restore 100 health on hit
- Kabo - chance to reduce target’s damage by 2% for 5s
- Nutaman - chance to reduce target’s critical by 90 for 5s
- Pyrros Fard - chance to grant you 5% movement speed for 5s
 ♥ Macros ♥
I get asked this a lot - are there any good macros for Priest?
...not really! The thing is with Priest, a lot of skill usage is situational. I
see a bunch of people macro ​Celestial Guardian ​and ​Celestial Blessings​.
Don’t do this! With ​Disciple​, the ​Celestial Guardian ​buff lasts 60+
seconds and only has a 30 second cooldown. Don’t let it consume your
spirit more than it has to!

There is one macro that I’ve found some marginal use for, however:

By macroing ​Healing Prayer​ by itself (or, for that matter, any other
skill like ​Holy Blast)​, you can move a little bit in between casts while
holding it down.
  

♥ Consumables ♥
There are lots of little things you can use to enhance your
performance! You can use one item from each category. Note that
there are some other consumables available, such as those for large
amounts of rue and red stars, but I think those are too costly to be
worthwhile.

Offensive Elixir

Crispy Fried Chicken / Spicy Maple Noodles (PARTY BUFF)

+6% attack/damage (respectively) for 15 minutes
Can be crafted / purchased with rue/guild coins

Mega Veil Burger (PARTY BUFF)

+7 accuracy for 15 minutes
Can be crafted with Cooking

Pineapple Pizza
+5% Attack Speed for 15 minutes
Can be crafted with Cooking. ​Lost on death.

Weak Point Analysis Tonic

+5% Physical/Magic piercing for 15 minutes
Purchased from Guild shop for 50K mesos, limit 10 per
week
Spirit Boost Tonic / Enhanced Spirit Boost Tonic
+20/30 max spirit for 15 minutes
Crafted with Alchemy
Note that spirit seal effects reduce your max spirit by 100,
so with this it’s still possible to have SP even with the
debuff! Not really relevant for current content, however.

Critical Rate Tonic

+130 critical rate for 15 minutes
Crafted with Alchemy (rank 13). This is a very sustainable
potion that increases both DPS (by a little bit) and Healing.

Defensive Elixir

Heavenly Crepe Cake (PARTY BUFF)

+300 health and 6% defense for 15 minutes
Crafted with Cooking

Fresh Fruit Platter (PARTY BUFF)

+6% max health for 15 minutes
Crafted with Cooking

Ellinian Mega Blueberry (PARTY BUFF)

+6% defense for 15 minutes
Crafted with Cooking

(Enhanced) Survival Instinct Tonic

+200/250 critical evasion for 15 minutes
Crafted with Alchemy
Reduces the critical rate of bosses by 4-5 times. VERY
POWERFUL.
 Offensive Tonic

(Special/Enhanced) Mage Tonic

+3%/4 magic attack for 10 minutes
Crafted with Alchemy (rank 13)

Defensive Tonic

(Special) Health Tonic

+5% max health for 10 minutes
Crafted with Alchemy

(Special) Defense Tonic

+3% defense for 10 minutes
Crafted with Alchemy

Curio

Yarrow Candle
+4% magic attack for 10 minutes
Crafted with Alchemy
Lavender Candle
+3% magic attack for 10 minutes
Crafted with Alchemy (rank 2)

Fox Tail Compound

+4% defense for 10 minutes
Crafted with Handicrafts

Snail Shell Compound

+3% defense for 10 minutes
Crafted with Handicrafts (rank 2)

Food

Caprese Salad
+3% defense, +250 health for 15 minutes
Crafted with Cooking

Orange Madeline
+10% magic resistance, +270 health for 15 minutes
Crafted with Cooking
Due to your inherently low magic resistance, this doesn’t do
that much, and is realistically like 2% reduction at most.

Banana Sandwich
+10% physical resistance, +250 health for 15 minutes
Due to your inherently low physical resistance, this doesn’t
do that much, and is realistically like 2% reduction at most
 Misc

Experimental Potion
+2 accuracy for 1 minute
Obtained from Goldus Pharmaceuticals (mob drops)
You need to refresh these so often that it’s mostly
impractical (it’s not fun to farm, too), but it’s noteworthy.

Lapentiers
All Lapentiers share cooldowns.

Rooted Strength Lapentier

Increases damage by 30%, but reduces movement speed by
80% for 10 seconds. 60s cooldown.
Very strong, but just as dangerous to use. Recommended to
use during Holy Symbol for maximum benefit.
Purchased with 40 red stars (for 10x)

Healing Aura Lapentier

Heals 5 allies (including yourself) within 3m around you for
30% of their maximum health. 10s cooldown.
EXTREMELY USEFUL, when you have no spirit to heal, or
your attack is debuffed and you can’t heal effectively.
Purchased with 10 red stars (for 10x)

Shockwave Lapentier
Deals 812% damage to enemies within 4.5m around you,
knocking them up. 20s cooldown.
A great item to do damage and get a short breather to
regain some spirit.
Purchased with 100 blue stars (for 100x)
Life Drain Lapentier
Deals 240% damage to 5 enemies, restoring 10% health per
unit hit. Not too useful for us but still noteworthy. 20s
cooldown.
Purchased with 100 blue stars (for 100x)
  

♥ Advanced Tips ♥

Jump-casting to keep uptime on the boss while avoiding attacks

- Jump-casting. ​You can jump and cast certain skills as to remain

on-the-go while losing no uptime. However, take note of the
following…
- Healing Prayer, ​unless you time it well, will not heal your
party members (unless they jump as well) but you will heal
yourself. To move while casting ​Healing Prayer​, either
macro it by itself to slide a little between casts, or press
jump + Healing Prayer at the same
- Celestial Blessings, ​however, can still affect party members
when jumping.
- You may miss damaging skills (including ​Holy Blast​) on shorter
targets when jump-casting
- Take advantage of vertical hitboxes. ​Some of your skills can hit
targets a block above where you cast it. Take advantage of this!
 For example, while hiding in holes at Fire Dragon, you can still use
these skills to continue doing damage!
- Holy Blast, Angelic Ray,​ ​Scourging Wave, Shield of the
Archon, ​and ​Holy Relic ​have vertical hitboxes. ​Sanctuary ​can
also be used from lower ground as it’ll create the tiles on
higher ground.
- Animation-cancelling Angelic Ray. ​Angelic Ray is a skill you might
cast very frequently for DPS and spot healing, and it has a very
long aftercast. While cancelling it with your ​Heavenly Wings ​has
roughly the same cast time as not cancelling it at all, it has the
added benefit of healing yourself a little as well as repositioning.
However, against certain bosses such as Pyrros Fard and
Devorak, you can use the grab-on function to cancel the
animation instantly. After grabbing on, you can jump off
immediately, and cast a skill in midair as you land to keep perfect
uptime.

- More coming soon! ...wow, you made it to the end? Thanks for
sticking around ♥ I hope the guide helped !!
  

♥ Credits ♥
I couldn’t have written this guide is it weren’t for the amazing Priest
community… seriously, being able to chat with so many nice people and
theorycraft new things has been so much fun for me! Here are some
notable Priests that you can definitely refer to with questions and the
like~

LilyChi ​(Discord: Lily#7609)

[​Twitch​]
Lily is a great friend of mine who specializes more in the support side
of things! She helped me theorycraft a loooot of stuff for optimizing
support play, whether it’s through playstyles, builds, or gear! She has
also made a guide specific for the support Priest playstyle - which you
can check out ​here​!

Moe ​(Discord: Moe#4063)

Moe is responsible for making the Priest Discord server so much
more interesting and advanced! She helped set up bots to handle
various functions and also provided a lot of cute emoji… the server
wouldn’t be the same without her! Also, she’s a very strong Priest
player who is always open to discussion and theorycrafting on builds
and stuff!

Lacle ​(Discord: Lacle#3423)

Lacle has been a huge help in providing lots of information from the
Korean MapleStory2 servers! With their help I’ve been able to get a big
head start on Awakening theory-crafting. They’re extremely
knowledgeable about multiple classes and often very active in all the
class channels, so if you have questions about future content,
 ♥ Updates ♥
10/11/18: Guide is made! Mainly focused on builds right now~
10/12/18: Added a section comparing the DPS of each build, as well as
other classes!
10/13/18: Adjusted the priority of Magic Piercing as an attribute
10/15/18: By request, added a “Pure Support” build. (basically 99% similar
to Smiting Aura).
10/16/18: Added comparisons for Crit in attribute points, a macro tab,
and adjusted some more stat priorities.
10/17/18: Added a table for stat weights.
10/20/18: Adjusted priority for Magic Attack (up).
10/22/18: Adjusted priorities for various stats, added more information,
and added more notes to the DPS section.
10/25/18: Updated the priority of Magic Piercing (up).
10/29/18: Added a short gearing guide, with a section on how to cap
MPierce.
11/3/18: Added a more in-depth gear guide.
11/4/18: Added belt and gemstone recommendations.
11/9/18: Updated build names (“DPS build” was a bit misleading of a name…),
and added a little section describing when to use which build!
11/15/18: Updated gearing guide with a section on Legendary armor, and
explained how bonus attack works in the Gemstone section.
11/17/18: Added a media section
11/21/18: Added more pictures, a Pet section, and updated stat priorities
with additional notes!
11/27/18: Edited the Hybrid Build for general raid use, and deleted the
Support build (the Hybrid build IS the Support build, pretty much!)
11/29/18: Fixed a few things regarding gearing attributes
12/2/18: Added more CDev footage to media!
12/8/18: Removed the “Pure Support Build”, and adjusted the Smiting
Aura Build to fill the gap. Slightly edited some gear priorities.
12/10/18: Added a consumables section.
12/11/18: Did a ton of math regarding crit, and updated the attribute point
section and stat weight section with relevant information.
12/13/18: Added some CMoc and CPap videos to the media section.
12/17/18: Added some information regarding fair fight optimization in the
attribute point section.
12/22/18: Updated gearing section to recommend Magic Piercing on both
weapons, and added some more media.
12/29/18: Added an alternative build suggestion for solo, if you have high
attack speed.
1/10/19: Been working on a Priest add-on tool lately… below is a sneak
peek! Also added footage for Duel on the Deck.
1/13/18: Updated gear recommendations
1/14/19: Updated the gemstone section with a ​spreadsheet​, and added an
Infernog reference to the media section.
1/18/19: Updated the ​gemstone section​ with a recommended order to
upgrade.
1/26/19: Added a bit more discussion regarding attack speed’s
interaction with smite.
1/27/19: Added a healer build specific to ​Wrath of Infernog.
2/24/19: Updated some attribute priorities. (when was the last time that
was updated!)
2/26/19: Added some details on Holy/MPierce vs double Piercing on
weapons
3/2/19: Added some suggestions for alternate Infernog builds
3/13/19: Updated some gearing tips to reflect current market prices.
3/23/19: Updated some tips and added a link to the Priest Discord
channel
3/24/19: Updated Attack Speed stat weights and recommendations
3/26/19: Updated pet recommendations, as well as the gemstone
spreadsheet. Added recommended support stats.
3/30/19: Cleaned up the gearing tips section.
4/6/19: Updated the INT coefficient from 0.48 to 0.4725.
4/7/19: Added SmiteBlast (aka “Battle Smite”) as an experimental build
 4/22/19: Updated Gemstone recommendations in preparation for the
upcoming update, and added notes on Melee damage in the stat weights
section.
4/27/19: Added more media!
5/8/19: Added alternate gemstone setups
5/19/19: Edited pet stat recommendations
5/25/19: Cleaned up many sections, deleting niche builds and whatnot in
preparation for Awakening.
5/26/19: Added Awakening builds, level 60 gear into gear
recommendations, and updated gemstone recommendations
5/30/19: Updated Lapenshard and pet info
5/30/19: Added media for Pink Bean/Lukarax. Added a rotation section
with media.
6/3/19: Updated a few skill descriptions, and added media for Frostpillar
Temple, Emerald Prison, and Terminus of Time.
6/5/19: Updated builds. Important note: if you want Greater Healing, you
run Divine Wave. Don’t bother with Light Spear.
6/12/19: Updated gearing recommendations with Centurion gear.
  

♥ Media ♥
This is a little section for media in case you want to see some
gameplay examples c:

Awakening Priest
Emerald Prison (Eupheria)
Terminus of Time (Ishura)

Frostpillar Temple (Bjorn)

Madrakan Spire (Lukarax)
Pink Bean

DPS Priest
Duel on the Deck Speedrun (1:26)
Duel on the Deck (S+)

Wrath of Infernog​ - Priest on last phase cannons

Chaos Papulatus
Chaos Captain Moc
Chaos Devorak Speedrun (3:57)
Chaos Devorak ​- a better CDev run where I was more geared, but still
not perfect!
Chaos Devorak​ - an older CDev run with a +14 weapon and mostly
mediocre gear

Hybrid Priest

Chaos Papulatus (S+)

Chaos Captain Moc (S+)

Smiting Aura Priest

Chaos Papulatus​ - Priest at 5
Chaos Papulatus​ - Priest in middle

Pure Healer Priest

Wrath of Infernog ​(8 man)