MapleStory 2 Priest Build, Guide and Introduction

MapleStory2 is the MMORPG developed by NSquare and published on October 10, 2018, by Nexon. The game features 10 classes at the time of writing this guide (February 2019), one of which is Priest. Today we are going to focus on this class, talk about how it works, it’s skills, mechanics, builds, and attributes in detail. I will try to take a more in-depth look into the Priest, to share with you the most comprehensive PvE guide I am able to put together for beginner players who simply want to learn more about Priest class. People that search for guides or tips on other characters such as Heavy Gunner, Knight, Soul Binder, Berserker, Wizard, Thief, Assassin, Archer should consider checking the link below, there’s a general class guide with list of links to separate classes.

MapleStory 2 Classes Guide >>>

Now let’s start with the overall view of the MapleStory 2 Priest Build and Guide.

Priest Overview

Class role: Healer, Support, DPS
Weapon Used: Scepter and a Spellbook
Bonus Attributes: Holy
Main Statistics: Intelligence
Difficulty to play: 2/5

Priests are dedicated and the best healing class, keeping friends well and alive by casting spells and helping them by sharing their powerful buffs with the party. Because of the things mentioned in the previous sentence, they are a must-have in almost every party and most of the dungeons. Priest players have to learn to always stay vigilant as the difference between life and death of other players is often the matter of seconds. If you enjoy the playstyle of a healer, pick the Priest. Also, it’s not that hard class to play as.

Pros and Cons

Priest’s Skills

• The percentages in the brackets are the upgrade range of the skill, usually from rank 1 to 10.

• Active and Passive besides skill names designate whether they have to be activated manually in case of active skills or are always in effect in the case of passive skills.

• “Available at lvl” informs at which level skill first becomes available to use.

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Offensive Priest Skills

• Angelic Ray (active) (required: main hand scepter, off-hand codex) (available at lvl 46) - Channel a light beam that deals (662% - 1076%) Holy damage up to 8 foes in the 12 meters radius. If allies are hit, it increases their Health by (365% - 599%) of your magic attack.

Costs 30 Spirit.

Both damages enemies and heals allies in a line making it not a  bad choice to use on your Priest it isn’t that easy to use though.

• Celestial Light (active) (required: main hand scepter) - Smites your opponents with Holy Light that deals (53% - 89%) of Holy Damage up to 3 monsters in the 8-meter range in front of you, applies a damage over time debuff, dealing (4% - 13%) Holy damage per second for 6 seconds.

Celestial Light should always be kept on enemies at all times because of its synergy with Steadfast Faith, giving you additional Spirit. In addition, it’s a nice damage-over-time skill.

• Holy Blast (active) (required: main hand scepter) - Causes an explosion that deals (147% - 237%) Holy damage up to 8 enemies in the (3 - 4) meters radius, pushing them 0.5 meters. If Celestial Light debuff is on the target at the time of casting Holy Blast it causes an additional explosion dealing (71% - 107%) Holy damage to foes within 2 meters radius.

Costs 16 Spirit.

Holy Blast is the highest damage skill in your arsenal and a great AoE skill.

To make its damage output even better, you should use it on enemies debuffed by Celestial Light.

• Holy Relic (active) (available at lvl 28) - Summons a holy cross dealing (174% - 282%) Holy damage up to 8 enemies within a 3 meters radius for 8 seconds. Pushes them back 1 meter, and reduces their stamina to 0.

It’s good both as high DPS source and as an obstacle you put between yourself and enemies to cast safely.

• Sanctuary (active) (required: off-hand codex) (available at lvl 31) - Blesses the ground, creating a (5 - 21) block cross for 10 seconds dealing (227% - 362%) damage to opponents. It also increases the health of team members by (60% - 123%) of your magical attack.

If you properly place it, it deals massive damage to enemies and also helps to keep your team members alive.

• Scourging Wave (active) (required: main hand scepter) (available at lvl 22) - Unleashes your power in 7.5 meters radius, dealing (180% - 297%) Holy damage up to 5 opponents. The skill has to be channeled by holding down the skill button.

Costs 18 Spirit.

A good AoE skill with decent damage, if you are not close enough to use Holy Blast, Scourging Wave is a perfect replacement.

• Smiting Aura (active) (available at lvl 40) - Engulfs the closest enemy in the 8 meters radius around you with Holy power, that deals (124% - 196%) damage up to 3 enemies in 1.5 meters area around the target. Also increases the damage taken by the target by (1% - 6.4%).

A channeled skill that has to be held down to apply the debuff every 0.5 seconds, skill is very useful mainly because of the increase in damage taken, it’s a great boost to the DPS for your team.

Support Priest Skills

• Celestial Blessings (active) (required: off-hand codex) (available at lvl 25) - Blesses 10 team members within 6 meters radius for 10 seconds. Buff increases their physical and magical resistance by (10 - 190) and physical and magical attack by (1% - 6.4%), also regenerates their health by (320% - 608%) of your magical attack.

Requires your angel to be active to use this skill.

Costs 45 Spirit.

It has to be paired with Celestial Guardian to use, it acts both as powerful AoE and a buff for both offense and defense.

• Celestial Guardian (active) (required: off-hand codex) (available at lvl 16) - Calls an angel to help you, increasing your magical attack by (2% - 11%) if you have codex currently equipped.

A nice buff to your damage output.

• Disciple (passive) (required: off-hand codex) (available at lvl 43) - Boosts the time Celestial Guardian, Celestial Blessings, and Holy Symbol abilities are active by (30% - 120%).

A good choice since duration of Celestial Guardian, Celestial Blessings and especially Holy Symbol is not really long, and they are very useful skills.

• Healing Mastery (passive) (available at lvl 37) - Thanks to your training the amount of health and Spirit regenerated while using recovery skills is increased by (4% - 17.5%). Healing Mastery does not modify your basic health and Spirit recovery.

Passively boosts your healing skills. Since you are the only dedicated healing class and posses a lot of healing abilities this skill is really useful.

• Healing Prayer (active) (required: off-hand codex) (available at lvl 10) - Using your power of prayer, recovers your health and the health of 6 team members within a 3-meter radius by (160% - 232%) of your magical attack.

Costs 15 Spirit.

Healing Prayer is cheap and effective AoE heal that you can spam easily due to its low Spirit cost.

• Heavenly Wings (active) (required: off-hand codex) - Use your angelic wings and fly to the farthest ally up to 6 meters ahead of you. Upon your arrival, your wings become the magical aura which increases yours and your target’s movement speed 20% for 5 seconds, also regenerating health by 90% of your magic damage. If there are no allies within the skill’s range, you fly 4.5 meters forward.

Heavenly Wings is able to cancel other skills.

Costs 60 Stamina.

Heavenly Wings can act both as a tool to get to teammates quickly and save them or as a dash allowing you to escape danger.

• Holy Symbol (active) (available at lvl 34) - Creates a magical symbol on the ground within a 4.5-meter radius lasting 10 seconds and boosts up to 10 team members that are in its range. The buff granted by the symbol “Clarity of Mind” increases accuracy by (1 - 19), increases physical damage, magical damage and attack speed by (1% - 19%) while also restoring (1 - 19) Spirit per second. This buff lasts for 10 seconds, targets affected by it cannot receive it again for 3 minutes.

A really powerful buff boosting your team offensive fighting capabilities, it has a really long cooldown to balance it out. Also, it’s a good way to restore Spirit.

• Scepter Mastery (passive) (available at lvl 13) - Your experience with scepter weapons increases weapon attack by (1% - 6.4%) if you have a scepter equipped.

Increases your weapon damage, not much more to say about it.

• Shield of the Archon (active) (available at lvl 19) - Creates a shield of judgment that increases physical and magic resistance by (165% - 660%) and dealing (80% - 125%) Holy damage to 5 opponents within a 3-meter radius.

Instant skill boosting your defense and dealing AoE damage to enemies, can be cast while using other skills.

• Steadfast Faith (passive) - Using your patience and devotion, you recover 8 Spirit every 0.5 seconds, plus 4 Spirit additionally for every enemy affected by Celestial Light.

Your starting passive ability that increases your Spirit regeneration and allows you to cast more spells.

Priority of statistics on items

• Piercing damage- Your most important statistic when it comes to gear choices, it offers the most damage in general.

• Magical piercing damage - Not nearly as good as Piercing damage since it only reduced the target’s Magical resistance which is calculated separately and differently than the flat reduction from Piercing damage.

• Boss damage - often one of the best stats for many classes since it increases significantly your damage output on Bosses where it really matters.

• Holy damage - since most of your skills inflict this type of damage, Holy damage is a good choice for gear statistic.

• Movement speed - it helps to mitigate your lack of mobility from your skills.

• Attack speed - useful statistic but by no means, the one you have to focus on, attack speed itself is great but often you won’t have enough Spirit to make use of it. Around 5% to 10% is recommended.

• Intelligence - it’s your most important statistic when it comes to primary ones.

• Health - put point or two into it if you have a problem with survivability.

• Critical rate - it’s a viable option as a full Critical rate build has a very small advantage (around 1%) in damage when compared to Intelligence and Boss damage build.

Priest Builds

Priest Pure DPS and Solo Leveling Build

• Holy Blast - it’s your essential DPS skill in this build, able to damage multiple targets.

• Holy Relic - awesome damage output and low cooldown, same as above.

• Sanctuary - not only does great damage but also heals you, giving you sustainability. without stopping your DPS rotation to heal yourself.

• Angelic Ray - laser of pure energy and damage, max it out.

How to play:

• Before the fight make sure your Celestial Guardian is up, during fight refresh it.

• Shield of the Archon should be in used when in melee range to reduce the damage taken and sustain your damage output on the target.

• Debuff your target first with Celestial Light then use Holy Blast to maximize damage.

• If the target is immobile use Holy Relic on them.

• Your heal should come from Celestial Blessing rather than other healing abilities, as you’re gonna buff up regardless and the heal from it can mitigate the need for interrupting your DPS rotation.

• Use Holy Relic and Celestial Light when you’re low on Spirit.

Smiting Aura Build

How to play:

• Sanctuary should be your main source of healing ideally, this way you don’t lose DPS by interrupting the rotation.

• Try to keep your team buffed with Celestial Blessings.

• Use Holy Symbol when you know your team can DPS safely.

• Angelic Ray should be used for single emergency heals.

• Smiting Aura is your main source of damage, channel it as much as you can when none of the above points apply to the current situation.

Support Build