Dungeonborne’s developers often release patches that fix bugs and adjust weapons and classes to balance the game. There have been a lot of class buffs and nerfs, but the unbalanced Priest misses the changes it desperately needs.
The July 29 Dungeonborne update focuses on fixing the network stability of the game’s Asian servers and balancing the Druid, Death Knight, Fighter, and Cryomancer classes. The Druid’s mobility and scouting abilities are nerfed in exchange for buffing all of their Panther Form damage; the Fighter and Death Knight are both buffed, with the Fighter having decreased E skill cooldowns and the Death Knight’s Q skills given a 15% damage reduction effect. Meanwhile the Cryomancer sees their Frost Echoes passively nerfed and a new 25 Soul Energy charge to their Ice Armor skill. These modifications will do a lot to improve the flow of the game, but one class in particular has been missing—the Priest.
The problems with Priest in Dungeonborne
I poured hours into testing Dungeonborne and all of its 8 classes. The Priest is the only one that is really a struggle to play. I can count the number of times I’ve encountered other Priests in team compositions on one hand, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one in person in solos. The issues start with their low health and defense. Their fragility makes them an easy target for every other class in the game. Mages can easily pick them off from a distance, melee fighters can rain down blows to hit a Priest, and even Rogues won’t have much trouble paralyzing then killing an unsuspecting Priest.
The weaknesses of the Priest are reinforced compared to the bonuses given to other classes in this patch. The druid’s increased Panther Form damage leaves priests unable to either out-damage or out-heal the druid, giving the druid an easy advantage. The movement buffs of both the Death Knight and the fighter similarly increase their chances against Priests. The only exception is the Crier, whose changes were made to balance the class’s defensive capabilities.
The Priest’s low health and defense would balance out if their strength or spells were somehow strong. However, Priests don’t do enough damage to push their enemies away, and even their spells are only marginally helpful. They cannot hold a shield to defend themselves, instead having to rely on theirs Guard E capacity as a form of protection. Additionally, their healing spells do not restore enough health to justify using them over bandages or potions when playing alone. They can help in a pinch when in a team, but your teammates will have to divert a lot of attention to keep you alive and safe. If an enemy passes through your teammates, especially Rogues, you can be wiped out before your team knows what’s going on.
The slide show below illustrates the healing abilities of the clean up Q skill. The first picture shows my starting mana and health as a new Priest casting Purify. The second image depicts how much mana Purigas requires and its charge time. Finally, the final image shows how much health the spell actually increased when fully charged.
Often, you won’t have enough time to fully charge the spell while fighting. In addition, players cannot take any other action while casting. This means you are wide open to any damage and unable to fight back until your spell is canceled or cast. This can be worked around when fighting monsters, but enemy players will easily see this weakness and use it against you.
Dungeonborne class balance data shows that Priest needs buffs
Don’t just take my word for it about the Priest class’s desperate need for a buff. The data table in the patch notes reinforces how much the player base finds the Priest unplayable. Between July 27th and July 28th, the pick and extraction rates were calculated for each Dungeonborne class at level 20. Every other class has a minimum pick rate of 10%, with the Rogue being picked most often at 19.94 % of the time. In contrast, the percentage of people choosing to play Priest is at an all-time low of 1.83%.
The improvements made to the other classes may make these stats worse as the game progresses. With that in mind, it’s important to look at how the priest class can be balanced in future updates.
Possible fixes for the Dungeonborne Priest class
These fixes are by no means the perfect solution to a balanced Priest class. However, they are a good place to start in the process of making the Priest a more playable figure.
- Buff the healing done by clean up and Divine Light.
- Increase the healing bonus of the Faith stat.
- Allow the Priest to carry a shield along with his mace.
- Decrease the loading time for clean up and make it heal over time instead of all at once.
These potential changes make me wonder what the Priest really needs to be successful without being omnipotent. Hopefully, the devs are asking themselves this and the Priest class buff is a work in progress behind the scenes that will be out soon. If not, the class may fall into obscurity entirely due to the strength of the other seven.
Want to take on Dungeonborne alone? Check out our guide to the Best Solo Classes in Dungeonborne here on Pro Game Guides.
