iDB Community Forum

From what I have heard, Shining Ray is one of the slowest spells on MapleStory, only slightly faster than Thunder Spear. Since Priests don't have Magic Booster, it looks like they can get hit several times while casting it. Plus, the range is terrible, allowing the Priest to get hit even more if the monsters are knocked back onto him.

Because of this, is it a good idea to max out Holy Arrow, and ignore Bless? Holy Arrow seems to cast much faster than Shining Ray, and has a longer range. Plus, Dark monsters are an option for hunting during the second job advancement, and knock back is more likely on resistant monsters.

Also, since Bless is not percentage-based, it may lose its value over the long run.

If Holy Arrow is maxed, would the extra skill point be better placed on level 1 Bless (+1 acc, avoid, w.def, m.def; 10 seconds), or level 1 Magic Armor (+2 w.def; 54 seconds)?

Thank you for your time.

Edit: Also, how do you cancel a spell, and is the level of a group spell casted visible to party members?

Holy Arrow is an AWFUL skill that is a huge waste of points. DO NOT GET IT. The other Cleric skills are much more valuable; any priest will tell you so. Holy Arrow does the same damage as Magic Claw, but a tiny bit more to dark monsters... but you'll be using heal against those anyways.

I mean, Heal can't damage dark monsters such as Malady.

Is Bless really that effective? +20 doesn't seem too great in the future....

Bless gets you parties. Warriors <3 Bless.

Not for us the cleric, but assasins and warriors will love you. I have make this question a couple of time, and the true is that you will get no advantage having Holy Arrow.

You won't be training at maladies.

Warriors love Bless at all levels, for its +20 accuracy, and other classes like it because of the avoidability bonus. Priests in Viking parties cast both Holy Symbol and Bless on every member of the party.

Do not get holy arrow. As mentioned, warriors love the +20 accuracy from bless.

Thanks, I guess I'll have to be completely reliant on parties to train effectively in the future....

Not necessarily. You can still train by yourself, you just have to know where...meaning undead monsters.

It's not like you'll be relying on parties...rather they'll be relying on you, since high level parties are built around a priest. With no priest, there's no party, most of the time. You won't have any difficulty at all getting a party when you get to the point where that's the most effective training.

At higher levels (after you would even be considering Shining Ray, meaining after HS and ER) the most effective trainning for ANYONE, not just a priest IS parties - in Ludi, as far as I know. That means you'll want to have the best party skills available, instead of having Something like HA. Skip it.