Editing Earth priest tips

Some information about being an Earth Priest.

Do not take these as the Word of God, but use your own heads, try out different things!


== Saving your minions level ==


Step 1: Make a minion of any type, but note that if you switch types, the saved exp will be gone.

Step 2: level the minion to lvl 5, then keep exping a little more (because you will save 80% of its CURRENT exp when you do the following steps, so overleveling will ensure it will stay at lvl 5)

Step 3: Cast conjure undead at (miniontype). You have now saved 80% of its current experience. This also banishes the current minion, so be sure to unwield any weapons from it (armours cannot be unweared from minions)

Step 4: Now you just make a new minion of the same type, and it should be lvl 5, or 4 if there was not enough overleveling done. After step 3, never use "conjure undead at (same miniontype)" to banish your minion, or you will overwrite the saved exp, and depending
on how much you made exp for the current minion, it might save it as lower level than before (if you only did very little exp with current minion). 

From step 3 onward, if you need to banish your minion for whatever reason, use "eps_cmd banish" so it will not affect the saved exp.

Please note: as mentioned in step 1, if you conjure a different type minion than what you have saved, the saved experience on the previous miniontype will be reset, and you will get a lvl 1 (or 2 if enough mastery) minion of the "new" type.


== Haunt ==


The Haunt-spell is very potent. You gain it in the last subguild of Earth Priests, and when you cast it at your minion,the minion will be gone (so remove any weapons from it), and you will gain various powers and effects, depending on what type of a minion you haunted. 
Your spells will gain little more power (except Ghostflame, atm) and their cast speeds will be lowered as well. This turns you into a blaster (ranged damage dealer that uses Spell Points), but keep in mind that as your spell cast speeds have been significantly lowered, 
but the added power in them is not much, the result is that you need to spam a lot of them to make damage, and it will drain your SP fast. Please note that using Haunt at a minion will also save the minions experience, but not overwrite the experience you saved with Conjure Undead (afaik), 
as insctructed earlier. I have not tested if this effect will save the exp over boot or not, I only used the Conjure Undead-save myself.

Haunt will be more powerfull if used on max lvl minion (5). Once you have haunted a minion, you have access to ALL of the different minions (rather, their Haunt-effects), regardless if you can actually conjure them yet or not (so you can access Herald of Death's haunt-effects without being able 
to conjure one yet (to be able to conjure Herald requires 200% combined mastery of necromancy & Necromancy skill, and I believe the Necromancy-skill only counts towards THIS up to 115%).
Haunt also changes all of your spells damagetypes according to the list below. Please note, that for some reason there was some sort of problem regarding Touch of the Nether (and iirc Bane of the living too), so it wont work on undead monsters no matter what damagetype it does 
(unless something has been done to this).


=== Tips and tricks ===


You can switch from one haunt-effect to another while in combat, so you can test out which of your damagetypes might do more damage (by looking at damagemessages, if get any) by using "eps_haunt (miniontype)" command. eg. "eps_haunt herald of death". (Note, for some reason
you must type this command twice for it to take effect, unless it has been fixed).

If you are undead (for example, while wearing Embrace of the Wraith), you can heal yourself with Bane of the living (used against living monsters). It heals more when there are more monsters, cant remember if it was a guaranteed heal, or if it had some sort of chance of occurring. But if happens often.

(Wed Sep 21 00:38:37 2011) Belannaer <news>: Dhubr's care can now be casted on players while haunted. It allows the target to escape death if an attack is going to kill him, although it doesn't work on 100% chance and some damage and effects might be carried over that can still kill you. 
It also works only against eq and prestigious monsters. The caster must have a valid earthbind location set for the effect to work. The player who escapes the death will be spirited away to this location.


In some cases this gives also resists to the player, maybe if target player is also undead? Cant remember. This effect is not 100%, and sometimes when this procs, the player will be teleported to the bind location, but still be killed. (its a feature). Will drain players sp when proc happens.


== List of different Haunt-effects ==


(please note that this is a list from long ago, some effects may have changed since then because I had not maxed all my skills when I did this list, nor masteries. Most of these are accurate, but I only use the ones that grant specials, as well as damagetypes.)

 Animated dead: I think this one just gives hpmax and resists, not sure if it altered damagetype (for mainguild EP)

 Zombie: damagetype: Poison. +Resists 
 Walking dead: damagetype: Cold. Gives HPmax + resists.
 Skeleton: Damagetype: Cold.
 Wight: Damagetype Asphyxiation, +resists.
 Skeleton warrior: Damagetype: cold, + resists
 Graveborn: damagetype:cold, +hpmax,+resists
 Wraith: damagetype: cold, +resists, + wail special (sometimes after a cast you let out a scream that makes enemies ears bleed)
 Lich: damagetype: Macigal, +resists, +terror special (sometimes you cause your enemies to be Terrified, reducing their combat assigns)
 Strigoi: damagetype: Asphyxiation, +hpmax, +resists, + spellbreak effect (can also break heals casted at you, dont remember if it could break party member spells too)
 Ethereal: damagetype: Magical, +resists, +hpdrain special (sometimes after a cast you get a heal, to my knowledge it will only bring you up to 75% hp, so it can also lower your hp if you are above that number when heal occurs, no idea why it is like that (this is with buffs etc))
 Herald of Death: Damagetype: Magical, +hpmax,+resists, +instant spellcast specials (you can get special momentums for Touch of the nether, Soulburn, Bane of the living, used with "use Soulburn"-command for example.)



== Spells in general ==


[[Earthbind]]: You'll need this for Dhubr's Care's death-escape effect, I believe the max distance this works (in OW rooms!) is 17 rooms, but I could remember it wrong, as it was a loong time ago I "tested" this. It would seem, however, that if you set a earthbind location (it only works on OW rooms btw) outside the area, you can run quite further inside the area and it will still work. This is done by "cast earthbind at bind" when you are in the room you wish to make the "escape" to (in OW). Another use for this spell is to use it manually, "cast earthbind at gate" and it will move you across 80 rooms in OW, to a earthbinded locarion. (This distance might not be accurate, this test was also a long time ago and I did not use this much)

[[Dhubr's care]]:  Spell to buff your minion. Second use can be found at "Haunt tips and tricks."

[[Soulburn]]: Use this spell once the enemy is at 30% or below hp, as it will do more damage then, it is not very usefull before that. Single target spell. Magical damage (changes with Haunt)

[[Earth coffin]]: Your main spell. This will block melee attacks of monsters (not prestigious), and deal damage, and is best used from 100% to 30% hp (enemy hp). Single target spell. Can only be cast in OW, unless you have the Earth priest vestment from guild's quest chain. Physical damage (changes with Haunt)

[[Touch of the nether]]: Deals less damage than Earth coffin or Soulburn. Has a built-in possibility of draining power from the enemy, boosting your stats for quite some time, low chance tho. Asphyxiation damage(?) (changes with Haunt)

[[Ground seal]]: AOE spell against undeads, does nothing to living. Magical damage (changes with Haunt)

[[Bane of the living]]: AoE against the living. Does nothing to undeads. Can heal your minion, (or you, if you are undead, dont remember if it also required Haunt or not). Magical damage(?) Changes with Haunt.

[[Ghostflame]]: Kinda meh, does more damage than Touch of the nether, but does not get bonuses with Haunt and has no specials I can remember of. Magical damage(?). Does not change with Haunt (unless something has changed)

[[Resurrection]]: You can resurrect players with this spell. First you need the corpse of the player in the same room as you (you can cast "summon corpse at (playername)" to get the corpse, or just drag the corpse with you), then you "cast resurrection at (playername)".
A "portal" will then open at the players current location in the nether. Please note, that it is advised to "enter glowing portal", when you know some EP is ressing you, because a random, "normal" portal can also happen to spawn in to the room, which would not resurrect you in the room where the EP is, but in the Death Temple.

[[Protection against nether]]: Doesnt work as far as I know. It should remove/prevent nethers. It doesnt.

[[Replenish stamina]]: Guess. It replenishes targets Endurance points. 

[[Erosion]]: These days it is just another damage spell, efficient only against prestigious monsters with really high hp pool. Has a super low chance of giving a debuff that.. does something, lowers max hp at least iirc. Does only magical damage, does not change with Haunts damagetypes iirc. Cannot crit. Long cast.

[[Essence of the nether]]: when in melee combat, this spell can drain ep/hp/sp from enemy. Also lowers your cold resists. A LOT when maxed. Could be a bug, who knows. Can be casted: at, "at front row", or at multiple targets with AND-command, cant remember if at party too.

[[Power of earth]]: Buff, gives hpmax and strength depending on targets own stats. Can be casted at party, or with AND/at commands.

[[Summon minion]]: Summons your existing minion to you.

[[Haunt]]: explained earlier.

[[Conjure altar]]: You can create an Earth Altar with this to sacrifice stuff on, works for all earth worshippers.

[[Conjure undead]]: Used to create/save your minions. "Use conjure undead at skeleton warrior" to make a skeleton warrior, and so on.

[[Seismic shockwave]]: Low-ish damage AoE spell, I believe this did Physical damage, has a low chance of knocking down an enemy i think. Did not use this much at all in last few years.

[[Bless]]: Idk, it gives like 1-3 maxhp to target for the rest of the the boot, iirc. Target can only receive one Bless per boot, iirc. Each priesthood has own effect

[[Gift of elements:]] Not a Earth Priest spell, but a "must-have". You get this, and Aspect of elements from Teaching of Elements-open guild (2levels). It gives +40 all regens when maxed (and Lore of Elements maxed as well). One of the best buffs in game, available only to Earth priests (other priestshoods grant a different kind of buff with it)


[[Aspect of elements]]: Not Earth Priest spell, but another usefull spell from Teaching of the Elements. Gives you 100 hpmax and some resists. Selfbuff.


[[Purify soul]]: Third spell from Teaching of the Elements, useful in some EQ-parties. Can remove debuffs such as Erosion, Soul Phtisisis, Werewolf bite etc. Should also be able to remove offensive Fire Priest spells.




== "What race should I pick? What _sec guilds?" ==


Depends. If you want to be a caster, pick race with cheap int, wis, and good spr & heartbeat. Like Spellweaver or gnome.
If you want to throw from behind your minion, pick some race with better dexterity.


For EQ parties, probably only a "caster" build will work. Because you need spmax to spam spells and buff and ress.


One EQ-party build: 

 60 lvls Earth priest.  
 15 levels Crossbow Militia (instant shooting, uses endurance points which you can replenish yourself at regens, instant reloads, so free damage. dont even need to wield the weapon, but need to wear a quiver tho). 
 15 levels of Changelings (stun immunity (Tree Form), or spregen if can be stun immune with Embrace). 
 2 levels of Teaching of Elements. 
 5 levels of Chronomancers. 
 3 Levels of Clan of the mountainfolk (crossbow virtuoso, earthforce etc). (cant remember if you could take Weapon maintenance with profession levels, if not, then just take 2 racial guild lvls)


or some combination of: 

 60 EP, 10 levels Unification of Dhubr (Vestment of souls for own survivability, Phantasmal Shroud for party buff (breaks skills and spells))
 15 levels of Vampire Thralls (necrosis to increase other players damage if no Scions around), 
 or maybe 15 Changelings, 
 or  15 Gathering of Assassins for Shadow barrier-partybuff, 
 or 15 Scions of Pain for dream-buffs and Venom Ward etc. 
 2 levels of Teaching of Elements. 
 5 levels of Chronomancers. 

This will allow you to take full racial guild levels, and maybe some stat guild levels. 
(60 + 10 + 15 + 5 + 5 + 2 leaves you with 3 "extra" levels)

=== Racial guilds === 


For max spell damage and caster-related thingies such as potion making perks (potions are important for EP!) go with [[Little people's league]].

For max crossbow shenanigans go with [[Clan of the mountainfolk]]. (maybe take psi_sec too for unfold mind archery crit access)

For max infusion-related stuff (for minions damage) maybe try [[Nomads of the wild]]. Also offers throwing damage. And archery damage.

[[Slumdogs of czardom]] help you with minion repairing (vicissitude), carrying capacity and treasure chance, more money when selling items etc

[[Civilized city dwellers]] dont offer much: More exp rate when leading, more money from selling, and i am not sure if the infusion bonus worked when it comes to minions or not.

[[Cult of the devourer]]: +heartbeat, +spelldamage,+regens,reduced sleep cd, +1 to all charms. Could very well work for eq parties.



== "Infusions? Why?" ==


(Thu Feb 27 22:36:46 2014) Belannaer <news>: Earth priest minions now will use the owner's infusions while in combat. Giving them an item with infusion will overwrite it and use that one instead. Requires a new minion.
(Thu Jun 12 14:34:09 2014) Belannaer <news>: Earth priest minions now gain benefit from owner's bonus infusion chance (for exampel from charms)

So, at least in low levels, just get crap items to wear that have +2 or more infusions in it, to boost minion damage. They dont scale too well in higher levels, for now atleast, but it is still "free" damage when using minions, if you can afford and want to shard better gear with infusions.


== Necromancy mastery ==


This rises when you kill things of certain exp value and above. I do not know specific numbers, this tune was done later when i was already maxed. Might scale from your totals up to certain value, such as 20k or 40k max. Not sure.
Using Spirit Nexus Gives bonus gains to this mastery when minion drains a spirit from nexus (or it used to, dont know how it works with the previous tune that probably was not in news)


== General advice ==


Get Spr-gear. Assuming you can survive, you can just run with spr gear and still do well while exping and equing, because all you really need is sp, and regens give effective sp. Use potions on cooldown, maxed potions (500-ish potency)

Spell damage shards add to damage, not much, since from what I was told magic infusions do not add to nether spell damage for EPs, so only few slots can be sharded with stat and spell dama shards. But if minmaxing, put the spelldamas where you can.
Obviously get resists on gears. Wisdom and int add to spmax.

But prioritize spr,resist and heartbeat for eq. You get decent bonus to Hpmax from haunt+aspect + poe, but more is always better.

GoE (gift of elements) cannot be renewed, so highlight the message when it drops off other players so you see when to recast it. Always keep it on those who need it, or if you can spare the sp, on everyone. Prioritize yourself, recently deceased players so they get sp/hp/ep faster, healer and casters.

Keep PoE (power of earth) up. when rebuffing this, ask healer to drop Life Boost first, because there is some reason you get slightly more hp if PoE is cast before Life Boost iirc.

EoN (essence of the nether) is ok but dont cast it in places where there will be cold damage (like Frost beast). Only on front row/flanker, maybe archer, dunno if it procs on shooting arrows.

Look at flankers/tanks/archers endurance points and keep them in decent amounts if you can spare the time and sp. Tanks ep much be above 10% of they lose natural armor, and flanker/archer should have enough to keep doing damage. Usually this is not a problem because of GoE.

Keep an eye on people who die, it your job to ress them if it isnt faster to run back to the area.

Make trigger that announces when you ress someone, to remind them of entering "glowing portal".

Remember to set up Earthbind location, and keep Dhubr's Care on backrow people (dont use it on tanks OR party leader unless specifically instructed to do so!), make a trigger to highlite when this drops from other players as well.

Use "effects missing" regularly to check if all got PoE and GoE.

Haste yourself only if got spare mana when enemy is above 30% hp, since Earth coffin is about 2 round spell so Haste wont help too much there, but it will help with Soulburn (and AoE).

Keep Aspect of elements up for resists and hpmax.

Use different Haunt-effects to whatever advantage you can think for them, like if need to, use Ethereal haunt in the middle of the fight to try and get a self heal if the damagetype works.




Disclaimer: All this is by Ezenya, and we all know he can be wrong. Take these with a hint of salt!