Ragnarok Online 2 Priest Full Support Build Guide

Ragnarok Online 2 Priest Full Support Build Guide by ggnoobnore

Hello and welcome to my full support priest guide. I previously played a priest healer in World of Warcraft and thoroughly enjoyed it and have thus decided to continue playing a priest moving on into RO2. Over the course of this guide, I will cover what I believe to be the ideal skill builds as a full support priest as well as some tips on healing in raids and dungeons. As stated, this is a FULL SUPPORT priest guide and as such I will not be covering hybrid or damage skill builds. 


The Skill Build

The basic cookie cutter build I feel for a Lv50 Priest Healer should look something like this http://www.ro2skills...odDrbqnadeBooqA or http://www.ro2skills...dDrbqnadeBroqA. There are many possible variations in skill builds such as http://www.ro2skills...odDrbqnadeDrBqN (as a priest in a raid with another priest already providing max blessing). I believe these are some of the more stable priest builds available, providing sufficient single target healing and utility. 

Healing Tree

x5 Heal - Many would debate having 5 points in heal given the low percentage increase in heal per level. Depending on your role in dungeons/raids, a Tank healer would definitely want to pick up the 5 points in heal. For a tank healer, the main healing spell used would be heal. Under such circumstances, the 13% overall increase on heal compared to 25% increased MATK from Archangel on a 90s cd would likely net a higher amount of healing done. Unless you are raid healing with renovatio and highness heal, the 5 points in heal are highly recommended. 

x3 Renovatio - 3 points in Renovatio is a definite must. Large amount of healing done over time and an instant cast. One of the key healing spells in a priest's arsenal.

x1 Meditatio - Meditatio is something that scales better as your gear improves. Gear that will allow meditatio to outweigh the benefits of archangel in terms of healing output are not available in the current raid content as such the one point here is sufficient. The scaling after the first point in meditatio is very poor and investing a further 4 points is not worth it.

x5 Highness Heal - Highness heal is an amazing raid healing spell and I would almost insist having 5 points in here. I use Aspersio with highness heal very often to top the tank + melee or just nearby raid members and the healing output is very high for an instant cast spell. 

x5 Sacrement - 10% addition healing on all your spells? yes please! its basically a 10% increase in healing output and I see no reason not to put the 5 points here.

x1 Coluceo Heal - I only place 1 point in Coluceo heal because the cooldown reduction does not make up for the loss in overall healing output. 

x5 Assumptio - 5 points into Assumptio is a necessity (40% dmg reduction for 10s) and works as an amazing cooldown for helping allies or even yourself survive stuff like meteors(The giant blue circle)or other damaging boss mechanics or helping tanks live through periods of massive damage eg. Hardmode Humbaba 200% damage increase. Also its on a 2min cd which is relatively short. 

x1 Sanctuary - I have placed 1 into Sanctuary as I believe 1 point in this area is sufficient. I primarily use it as a raid cooldown with aspersio providing 15% extra health to the raid on boss mechanics where there is raid wide damage ie hardmode gearsaw, hardmode baphomet. Lv1 Sanctuary also can heal the raid adequately (mine heals for 1.5k+ per tick at level 1 and that is sufficiently fast most of the time. Having 1 point in here for an extra raid cooldown is something I would definitely not recommend forgoing. 

Utility Tree

x5 Blessing - If you are the only priest in the raid this is an absolute necessity. 15% extra hp to the entire raid is too good to miss out on. HOWEVER, if there is another priest in the raid with maxed blessing, you can afford to skip the points in blessing and place them elsewhere instead. For my raid, I run with x5 blessing as the tank healer while the raid healing priest in my raid drops points in heal and blessing to pick up archangel and angelus. If you have a stable raid group with another priest providing the blessing buff, dropping points here for greater utility or healing power is definitely something to consider. 

x1 Increase Agility - Useful Spell to help with raid repositioning but not worth extra points to reduce its cooldown. Also necessary in order to take spells further down the tree.

x1 Resurrection - Some people may feel that 3 points in resurrection are useful but personally i feel the points can be put to better use elsewhere. Having a quicker resurrection cd is nice but half an hour is still an awfully long time and I would much prefer to have increase healing output elsewhere so that I don't have to resort to this spell. 

x1 Aqua Benedicta - Provides Holy water and restores mana. Definitely will want to have the point in here.

x3 Aspersio - Combining Aspersio with many spells provides for excellent healing output boosts as well as a raid cooldown with sanctuary. The reduced cooldown on aspersio translates into increased healing output. 3 points are a must here. 

x3 Gloria - Personally I love having instant cast heals. It gives me great mobility being able to pop out a heal while I reposition myself at times. In addition. I usually use aqua benedicta when I see I have the gloria buff so I know I can react to any tank damage instantly with the instant cast heal. 

x1 Recovery - A dispel and a point that is required to go further down the tree.

x5 Suffragium - 10% haste is a big boost to overall healing output and while some people may not feel the effects of the increased haste, it actually allow you to squeeze out extra casts and some of those may just be life saving!

x1 Angelus - A neat defensive cooldown but generally not worth the loss in healing output as the damage reduction is not that high.

x4 Archangel - 20% MATK is always a great boost. Dropping further points in skills such as sacrement/saffragium/heal to max this out are possible but do note that your overall healing output will take a minor hit in exchange for better utility. This comes down to personal preference and for myself I prefer to keep 4 points in this area. 

Archangel / Angelus - Both are amazing spells but I feel are optional. Some people prefer to play around with slightly less healing output but more cooldowns to play around with to cope with burst amounts of damage. Some prefer having a higher healing output (like myself). For my raid I skip these spells since my other picks these up with dropping points in blessing so he can pick them up without compromising healing output. All of this will come down to preference and play style depending on what each raid needs. 

Archangel Or Meditatio - This is quite a common question that I have been asked by many players in game and I must say that after going through the wealth of information that Justcalv has provided (https://docs.google....xam9Ca2c#gid=12), I strongly believe that Archangel is probably the better choice, especially for those of you who have recently started raiding and are mostly in blues or non-hm purples. Given that meditatio scales with gear while archangel is a flat percentage gain at all gear levels, Archangel is the definite better choice. The only time we would switch over to max out meditatio is in a scenario where our gear gets ridiculous and we achieve insane amounts of hit and crit. However that does not seem feasible with the current raid content ahead of us.

Do note that there is no one single correct way to play your full support priest (but please don't place all your points in the attack tree and call yourself a full support priest. ^^) There are many skill build variations that are viable depending on what each raid needs. Take note of what your own raid needs and build your priest to best support them.

Stat Points

I am currently running with 36int/36agi/25vit (as recommended by silvach) I think it is a solid build that will help provide you with sufficient hp to tackle the current raid bosses without sacrificing too much output. Other builds are viable but do have an idea why you are building a particular stat build. For example you may choose to drop vitality if you have no requirement for the additional hitpoints if you have sufficient hitpoints from gear. (Although that is quite unrealistic in the current content patch)

Card Choice

Previously I felt that poisona/poisona+ cards would be the best option for priests. However, I have now switched over to Scratch Thief Normal+ which provide +8 all stats except vit which is +21. The main reason is that in the current raid content, unavoidable damage in boss fights can amount to 5-6k. Without a health pool in excess of 6k, it is almost impossible to do the bosses in hardmode arena. For my raid, many of us have decided to switch over to get more vitality as well as farm for the 15% health increase temporary buff to jacket/chest (last for 90mins). This has been our way of coping with the hp requirements for some of the bossfights. Of course, if you merely wish for greater healer output, you can continue to run with poisona cards, but just make sure you have enough hp for the content you are attempting. 

Rune Choice

I have 5 Int runes in all my sockets as Int is our primary stat. However vitality can be a possible option if you really need additional hitpoints in order to survive certain boss mechanics. 

Tips for beginners!

- Maintain Renovatio on Tank
- Precast Sanctuary with Aspersio just before raid wide aoe hits. It will help ensure your raid's survival
- Refresh holy water or cast aspersio when you have gloria buff up so that you can instant heal straight after if needed since you will have to stop healing to use aqua benedicta
- If you need to resurrect, try to use it with aspersio so you have an instant resurrection. Casting resurrection for 3 seconds could cost you another raid member's life. 

Thank you for reading through my guide. I hope that this has given you some insights with regards to how you should build your priest. Do feel free to comment and leave suggestions or questions!

More Healing Tips by Altariel

1) Don't blindly spam the heal button on your tank. Hitting the button once per cast will do; hitting the button more than once per cast may result in a second heal on the tank which could go to another party member in need of it.

2) Aspersio + Highness Heal I feel is better than Aspersio + 3x Heal even for single target healing. Reasons are that if your Highness Heal crits, it'll probably top the tank back up to full, and even without the crit, the extra heal over time will help tremendously when stacked with Renovatio. Not to mention you're still able to spam Heal (which can crit) after a Highness Heal, whereas the Aspersio + 3x Heal combo sorta just locks you into healing 3 times. 

3) Do not spam Renovatio blindly especially when panicking. Try to keep mental tabs on the duration of each cast. A Renovatio at the wrong time may delay your healing and cost someone's life.

4) Get the melee DPS to stand very close to the tank, and the ranged DPS to stand very close to yourself to ensure you cover the entire party with Highness Heal.

5) Know who to heal when. Yes you just got hit by that devastating AOE but your melee DPS being very much closer to the boss are a priority if you know another AOE will only happen much later. Drop Renovatio on yourself and use Highness Heal on the melee DPS. If you can afford to, heal yourself only when Gloria activates and use potions (omg, never knew you could do that right?). 

6) Recognizing animations or debuffs (they usually appear first) that lead to an AOE helps you precast Aspersio first. If you're good enough, you can actually start casting Highness Heal split seconds before the AOE hits so that your heals land immediately. 

7) If you haven't a better use for Increase AGI, in an emergency, cast it and dash straight into your melee DPS and activate Sanctuary. The extra speed boost helps everyone gather fast enough to have their lives saved. 

8) Based on the situation, Aspersio + Sanctuary may not be the best combo. Sanctuary followed by Aspersio and Highness Heal may be a better lifesaver.

9) You can actually move around while casting Heal. Just hold down the directional key once your 1 second cast finishes (when your character is locked in the casting animation). Pretty trivial feature but very useful in tough situations when you need to back off from summons while still keeping the healing up.

10) Do not be afraid to use Assumptio. 2 minutes is actually a lot shorter than you think.