Playthroughs/Yeoman Johnson03

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The Adventures of Yeoman Johnson, Episode 3: The Priest by OrigamiGuy

With double damage to Undead, full health gain on health potions, and lots of HP gain, the Priest is a good bruiser character. God selection can be tricky, but there are plenty of options with so much good stuff going for him. Given the right circumstances, a god isn't even necessary some of the time. Ironic that the "religious"-type character would be so effective on his own, without spiritual help.

I've also added an Analysis section at the end, to talk about the different techniques used in the playthrough and shed some light for those who may be confused as to why I made some of the decisions I did.

Small Discrepancy

I had already done an annotated run with a Priest before this writing, but decided to scrap it because it turned out almost identical to the Thief run (lots of potion use, Taurog as the god of choice, and even Aequitas and his beard as the boss). This is the second run-through of the Priest class, which should be more illustrative, the only difference here being slightly different shop choices and there are now snakes on the map.

Race Selection

With health potions being so effective, we're going to want lots of them, and that means a Halfling. I click Normal and off we go!

Beginning Exploration

Some enemies, some powerups, some potions. I find IMAWAL right next to Earthmother's altar, then GETINDARE and BURNDAYRAZ across the way. Looks like I'll need to explore some more to find a suitable altar. Earthmother isn't terrible, per se, but I'd rather find something else if I have the chance.

Not much to see here.

That shop to the west has a Fine Sword, but I'm one gold short. Time to open up another hallway. A quick fireball and a swing takes out a lv2 Gorgon, opening up the hallway to the northeast. The next hallway over has WONAFYT and LEMMISI, Dracul's altar, and more potions and powerups. Further down we find the boss, Lord Gobb. 81 attack and 286 health, with 20% resistances across the board. Let's do this.

Rising to Power

There are too many Zombies and Wraiths to make Dracul worth going for, so we'll try for something else. First off, I clear a path north by killing off a lv1 Zombie, getting clvl 2 in the process.

Past the bad guy is some more powerups, and Taurog's altar. I only count four snakes on the map, so Earthmother looks like the way to go. Stoneform will make things easier in the long run. First, I use the gold I've found to backtrack and buy that Fine Sword. Then, to scum some XP before the worshipping starts, I kill off a lv4 snake with two fireballs and a hit, getting me to clvl 3. I move to Earthmother's altar and start worshipping.

I kill off a lowbie to open up some squares for regenerating mana, then use IMAWAL on three lv1 monsters (in the middle or corners). With 30 piety I'll need 9 out-of-the-way bloodstains to get Stoneform after using Plantation. I knock off a lv5 Gorgon, a lv4 Goblin, and some more low-level stuff, which gets me clvl 4 in the meantime. At the altar I use Plantation, then Stoneform immediately.

Making sure plants and walls aren't in the way.

As you can see from the screenshot, I've now got access to just about half the monsters on the map, and it's now time for serious killing. A two-one attack kills off the lv6 Zombie, thanks to my double damage to Undead. A fireball and swing kills the lv5 Warlock up north, getting me clvl 5 and a refill. Another two-one kills the lv8 Gorgon nearby, and I'm clvl 6.

Killing the lv2 Wraith gets me access to the rest of the enemies on the map. It takes two fireballs, a mana potion, then another fireball and a swing to kill off a lv9 Goblin next to the boss. Speaking of the boss... he's got First Strike, so GETINDARE is going to do nothing for me. It gets converted, and I pick up LEMMISI instead, use it to restore some health, then pick on some more baddies.

Gobbs of Fun

Once I hit clvl 7, I use the refill to start chipping away at Lord Gobb. After my two-one attack, I turn back to the rest of the low-level stuff around the map (ignoring the remaining Snakes, of course). It takes one more potion to get me to clvl 8, due to all the random Gorgons having first strike. LEMMISI is now pretty much useless, so I convert it to a potion and use the empty slot to pick up and convert the WONAFYT on the ground as well.

After the refill, two more fireballs and a hit gets Gobb down a significant amount. I quaff a potion, swing again, rinse and repeat. With each potion taking me to full health and all the XP catapulting we did earlier, I end up with 4 potions to spare when the boss dies.

Since this was the second win with this class (see Discrepancy above) I didn't get the regular unlock message. Had this been the first, however, I would have unlocked the Monk class, the Serpent enemy, and more shop stuff. Until next time, when we tackle the final Tier 1 class: the Wizard!

Victory screenshot:

Sweet, sweet victory.

Ending Analysis

This battle was probably winnable without much help from the gods, but the combination of enemies and available glyphs made it easy to get Stoneform from Earthmother, which combines extremely well with the Priest's innate abilities. Ending up with 140 HP at only clvl 8 is overkill, no matter how you look at it.

I would never have used Earthmother unless absolutely sure that I could get away with it, meaning enough monsters in out-of-the-way places to turn into walls and plants, not too many snakes or goats, and nothing really better to take (a.k.a. Pactmaker or GG).

Taurog would have also been a good choice for a god, but would have been repetitive to use again (see Discrepancy above).

Chatter

Leave your religious prejudices (if any) at the door; all your other feedback can go here.