Wurmpedia - User contributions [en]

Player:Redeemed

2015-09-16T17:46:37Z

Nappy:

A vynora priest residing in Napland on the island of Exodus in the Freedom cluster.

Has 76 soul depth, 100.0000 Hot Food Cooking, 94 channeling, 96 ropemaking.

[[Category:Players]]

Guides:Priests - Nappy's observations

2015-04-17T21:06:34Z

Nappy: /* Mag */

== Priests - Nappy's observations ==

=== Important Note ===

This article is very much still under development. If you identify an area which is incorrect, needs expansion or in some other way can be improved please drop a forum note to Nappy or place a comment in the Wurm forums\Wurmpedia so that this article can be improved

=== The different feeling of the priests ===

On the Freedom Isles, with the exception of Chaos, there are three types of white light priests available to play. Each type of priest plays remarkably differently. If you have only tried one type (most people seem to only try Vynora) then I strongly encourage you to try at least one of the other types.

==== Vynora ====

Vynora is, for me, the cold and bitter priest type. While often desired for their ability to put some fantastic enchantments on tools like circle of cunning (skill gain) and winds of ages (speed gain) or awesome weapons enchantments like nimbleness (chance to hit), mind stealer (steals body characteristics from animals) and self-healers demise (helps increase chance to hit against trolls etc) this is a priest that has a terrible attitude especially at the lower levels of channeling where they are known to have an almost permanent frown faced expression occasionally enhanced by the shattering of items as their temper flares up.

==== Fo ====

Fo priests by comparison are the spreaders of love and happiness. Frustration is minimal and the ability to complete good deeds is unprecedented amongst all of the priest types. Popular and fun spells include Wild growth (can rapidly grow a forest in an extremely fast time), Humid drizzle (tends to animals instead of you grooming them) and a huge variety of healing related spells to help you cure badly hurt comrades or animals.

==== Mag ====

Mag priests seem to be devoted to mining and hunting. Once again the feeling is different when playing this priest type. Going on a hunting trip even at lower levels of fighting skill you feel like you are almost invincible to the monsters all around you. For mining one handy spell is the light token. Often used for increasing channeling ability at the lower levels, it is also very helpful when exploring or working in a very dark mine.

==== Dark Light ====

I haven't had the opportunity to play a Dark Light priest yet so unfortunately no observations to report.

=== Key skills for priests ===

==== Primary skills ====
===== Faith =====
Faith controls the amount of favor able to be provided by a priest and also impacts what spells they are able to try casting. A 100 faith priest has more spells available then a 50 faith priest and can also cast for longer before needing to recharge.

===== Channeling =====
Channeling represents how closely focused the cast is. Casts can range from an intensely negative value (which leads to shattered items) to intensively positive values (which leads to great casts). The channeling skill level seems to help keep the cast focused to a more narrow range.
General thought seems to be that once a priest reaches 70 channeling then the odds of a shattered item are greatly reduced.

Ranges:

70+ - Chance of shatter greatly reduced
80 – 85 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
86+ - Considered to be very high quality of priest with shatters being extremely rare and unusual.
Generally it should be easier to attain good casts (70+) without significant difficulty
provided soul depth is also high.

===== Soul Depth =====

Soul Depth seems to impact the amount of power a cast can attain. The higher soul depth levels allow for much higher powered casts. A popular "good" value to have for soul depth is 50 – 55.

Soul depth is heavily used for enchanting tools and weapons by Vyn (circle of cunning, wind of ages, mind stealer etc) and Fo (Life Transfer is the most common).

Ranges:

50 – 55 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
56 - 69 - Great
70+ - Exceptional

===== Soul Strength =====

Soul strength appears to be heavily used by Mag priests and to a more limited degree by Fo priests (genesis, wild growth, humid drizzle etc for items that are not enchantments of tools or weapons)

===== Preaching =====

===== Alignment =====

==== Supporting skills ====

===== Rope making =====
===== Farming =====
===== Animal Husbandry =====

=== Main or Alt? ===
Follower versus priest

=== Gaining Favor ===
In order to cast spells favor is required. Three ways exist to gain more favor that I am currently aware of.

==== Batteries ====

The first option is to use priest "batteries". These are priests that typically only have high levels of faith allowing them to hold large amounts of favor. If you link these batteries to your primary casting priest then you can draw on the favor of the primary priest and any linked batteries when casting. You may add one linked priest for every 10 levels of channeling ability. Linking priests seems to increase the level of difficulty when casting. I have not yet been able to verify that this is indeed the case although it is very commonly mentioned and there is the feeling that this is true.

When using linked priests you can often just click the casting button from time to time after favor has regenerated enough to do so. The number of linked priests directly impacts how often you can click that button. Six linked priests make it very possible to skip sacrificing items entirely for favor gain without having to wait an extremely long time between casting attempts.

Favor gain is always faster when it is at its lowest storage levels. This means that you will be able to cast more if you cast as early as possible rather than waiting until the batteries are all full.

The trade off with using batteries is that you require premium for each one.

==== Sacrifice ====

A second way to gain favor is to sacrifice items. Commonly used is cordage rope.
10 cordage ropes at 70 ql will often fill a 100 favor bar fully. Things to consider include the difficulty of producing the higher ql levels of cordage, the need for high ql wemp, requirement for a good rope tool, your rope making skill and the actual time it takes to create the cordage in the first place.

Each priest type has double favor item as well at various difficulty levels. This means that when sacrificing those items you are granted double the usual amount of favor.

==== Regeneration ====

Another option for favor generation is just to wait while the favor regenerates. Two additional things to consider are that if you do stuff while waiting it significantly slows down the regeneration process and if you pray, occasionally your god will grant you faster regeneration.

=== Skill grinding ===
==== Using batteries ====

Using Fo as an example, it is possible to vessel < 10 ql gems non-stop using two Fo batteries to draw upon. By doing this you eliminate the requirement to either sacrifice gems or spend time waiting for favor

==== Why grind? ====

Sometimes the more enjoyable way to gain skill is to just keep working on deed projects where casting plays a strong support role.

===== Example 1 – Wild growth for hedges =====

If your deed needs hedges, plant a 3 x3 or 5 x 5 square of the desired hedge type (camellia shrubs for example). Cast Fo wild growth and pick the spouts until you have the numerous sprouts required. In this way you achieve the goal of gaining channeling skill while also building those new hedges for the deed

===== Example 2 – Going hunting =====

Take your Fo priest hunting either as the main participant or in a support role for someone else who is hunting. Make it the priest's job to heal any damage that occurs. Bring a bag of prefilled gems along to make this an exercise that can occur numerous times during the trip.

===== Example 3 – Mining party =====

Help a neighbor expand their mine using your mag priest and a pickaxe. This will help you gain soul strength and if you cast light tokens as each tile is cleared then you can also work on your channeling while providing needed lighting.

===== Example 4 – Warm hot food =====

Use your Vyn priest to make some hot meals for the neighborhood. Add salt to make the meals resist decay longer. Once made cast opulence on the food so it will also go further in feeding your neighbors. This will help you build mind logic, soul depth and channeling.

===== Example 5 – Go hunting =====

Use you priest to do some hunting while on horseback – put them in studded leather (no casting penalty), equip them with a good Life Transfer weapon and send them out hunting. Perhaps start the attack by using a combat spell on the target giving you some channeling. All priest types receive fighting skills and Fo will receive channeling by casting healing. Keep a close eye on damage levels and retreat early when required.
If you hunt as part of a group then it is even easier to ask someone to heal you (if non-fo) or for you to gain channeling experience (as Fo) doing healing casts on the hunting party as required.

==== Spells for skill grinding ====

==== Vynora ====

Low = bless
Med = opulence
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Fo ====

Low = bless
Med = heal/dirt
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Mag ====

Low = light token
High = Gems or Lurker on a seryl pendulum

=== Seryl pendulum ===

Create a seryl pendulum. Usually quality of the pendulum is unimportant because seryl rarely shatters when casting. Once the pendulum is created cast Lurker spells upon it (Lurker in the dark, lurker of the deep, lurker in the woods etc). Dispel occasionally to start cycle again.
This technique avoids the need to obtain and manage gems while also providing skill gains right into the highest levels of channeling. At lower levels of channeling casting vessel on gems seems to provide better skill gains. At the higher levels of channeling this changes.

=== Using Gems ===

==== For Channel grinding ====

===== Using < 10 ql gems for channel grinding =====

< 10 ql gems do not store power when vessel is cast upon them. This is an advantage when trying to quickly improve your channeling skill because you are able to cast multiple times in quick succession on a gem without needing to worry about removing stored power between each round. Each cast causes damage to the gem so eventually it will disappear.

===== Using 10+ ql gems for channel grinding =====

When you cast vessel on gems that are 10+ ql power is actually stored in the gem for later use. This means that before you can do a second vessel cast on the gem you must first "use" the power that has been stored in the gem.
The most efficient way (albeit time consuming) to use 10+ ql gems is to drain your favor until it is at 7.5. Each time the favor reaches 7.5 cast vessel on the gem. You will actually store 2.5 power because the spell itself uses 5. Use the power and then recast again and again until the gem becomes < 10 ql.

==== For Casting ====

When you cast "vessel" on a gem it stores power in the gem. When you withdraw that power from the gem you receive double the amount of favor that was stored. For this reason a good strategy to follow when casting enchantments is to sacrifice items to create favor, vessel the favor into 10+ ql gems and then use the gems to provide the power for the casting. Favor will go a much longer way using this strategy plus you also achieve more skill gain due to the extra casting involved.

This strategy is also recommended if you are going to go into combat where quick access to spell casting is required and time to wait for link recharging etc will be too long to positively impact the battle.

==== To transfer favor between religions ====

A priest is unable to directly link with a priest from a different religion. It is possible to have a priest from one religion store favor in a gem and then have a priest from a different religion use the stored power.

==== General prices for purchasing ====

Current market rates seem to be as follows:

< 10 ql = 2.0 to 2.5 copper per ql
10+ ql = .8 to 1.2 copper per ql

This pricing reflects the current bias towards using gems for channel grinding. As noted above using gems as part of the casting process for non-channel grinding can make a significant difference that is not reflected in the price differences shown.

=== Settlement Info bonuses ===

The information in this section can be located by right clicking on your settlement deed and selecting settlement info.

==== Village bonus ====

Village bonuses are enhanced by performing sacrifices. These sacrifices can be made by both followers and priests and can be made by all religions (so you could sacrifice from Fo altar and Vyn altar with characters of the appropriate faiths and all will contribute to the village bonus). This is important because you can leverage the double favor items for each faith to enhance the bonuses with less time and effort.
When you perform sacrifices using a follower, everything they sacrifice goes directly into the village bonuses since followers have no way to spend favor. If you use a priest output from sacrifices will fill the priest's favor bar first. Only when the favor bar is full at the start of the sacrifice will the results add to the village bonus.

==== Rare bonus seconds ====

This increases the number of rare seconds. Maximum possible is 10 seconds currently. Sacrificing beyond this level will not increase this number

==== Enchantment bonus ====

If performing enchantments on deed this value provides an additional bonus to make your casting that much better. Maximum possible value appears to be 30%.

==== Number of people on deed matters? ====

I've heard rumors that the number of citizens on a deed greatly impacts how quickly the deed bonus declines. This is something I plan to look into at some point.

=== Gaining faith ===
==== Prayer ====

At lower levels of faith (< 60) the best way to gain faith appears to be to pray five times per day at 20 minute intervals. Sermons do provide you with more opportunities to pray provided you preach once every three hours. The skill gained from preaching at the sermon is less than the amount gained from each prayer at these lower faith levels.

==== Sermons ====
Preaching sermons provide the best way to gain faith and correct alignment at the higher levels of faith (60+). When you preach a sermon it also resets your prayer counter so that you can once again pray five times at 20 minute intervals.
Sermons require seven premium characters in attendance and it is equally important that non-of these characters have had an alignment changing event in the previous 30 minutes. Non-premium characters do not count towards the seven character requirement. Characters must be disembarked from large carts and wagons as well.

Sermons generally provide between 0.01 and 0.02 faith per person involved in the sermon.

You can sometimes find a sermon group on your server by asking in Freedom and/or Freedom-GL or by searching the forums.

=== Gem Farming ===
Gem Farming relies on your Wurm God providing you with occasional gems when praying constantly. These gems will range from low to high ql gems and, as noted in the gem section above, they carry a value, play a significant role in channel grinding and are very useful to provide favor for casting.

=== Conversions ===
Conversions are surprisingly uneventful considering the importance of either the decision to become a follower or a priest. It is important to note that the preaching level of the converting priest divided by 5 becomes the starting faith level of the converted.

=== Confessions ===

Improves preaching skill which in turn increases the initial faith level of the converted (see conversions section)

=== Purchasing a priest ===
==== What to look for in a high end priest ====
Channeling – 80+
Soul Depth – 50+ (Vyn and Fo (if planning to do life transfer casts)
Faith – 90 – 100 with 100 being preferable

Some type of favor support skill like rope making (All), cloth tailoring (Fo) or lock smithing (Mag).
Other key skills include animal husbandry, farming and meditation. The choice of meditation path and level on the path is also important.

=== Looking for a high end priest (Fo) however can only find Vyn. What to do? ===

Faith is one of the easier items to rebuild from zero if required especially if you can use a combination of sermons and praying sessions. An option often overlooked is to obtain a priest with high channeling and convert it to Fo. This would require you to rebuild faith from zero back to the 100 desired. Same applies for converting a high end Fo or Mag priest to Vyn.

Soul Depth is often the other consideration especially for Vyn priests. Pan filling is currently the fastest way to raise soul depth. While expensive there are panfillers who will assist you with gaining soul depth. Alternatively you can do the work yourself although it is very time consuming and requires great focus.

=== PVE Combat support roles ===
Priests can play essential combat support roles for major undertakings like removing 34 trolls from an island or assisting with the slaying of a dragon. Some spells that make a difference are listed below.
Many of these spells are area of effect spells that cover a certain area around a casting focal point. To help as many people in combat as possible it is important to either pre-define where the focal point will be and/or have some sort of communication about when/where the spell is going to be cast during the battle

All comments below are from a PVE perspective initially. PVP perspective is welcomed and will be added to a following section if reader feedback is forthcoming.

==== Fo ====
Light of Fo provides healing to the entire combat group usually within an area of the casting focal point

==== Mag ====
Mass Stamina provides a stamina refresh to the entire combat group within an 3 x3 area of the casting focal point

==== Vyn ====

Please provide feedback

=== To dispel or not to dispel? ===

Sometimes enchantments like circle of cunning or life transfer seem to get stuck at a certain level and despite repeated casts the value does not improve. Each additional improvement cast seems to run a risk of shattering the item being improved.

My 85 chan/51 soul depth Vyn seemed to have a point around 55 – 60 where it was generally better to dispel an enchantment then to attempt more than 2 or 3 improvement casts.

The same dispel tipping point for my 94 chan/76 soul depth priest seems to be around 75. Higher then 75 and I am better off dispelling and recasting. In the case of this priest there is far less chance of an actual shatter however favor is still being lost on the repeated casts

=== Battery quality ===

One question under investigation is if the quality of the actual battery priest makes a difference. For example if you use a priest with high faith but non-existent channeling and other skills does it make a difference?

=== Armor bonus and penalty ===

When casting it is important to consider the armour you are wearing. Metal armour including plate and chain imposes a 30% casting penalty. Studded leather does not impose a penalty. Wearing cloth or nothing at all provides a 30% casting bonus.
It is important to note that the special +30% bonus symbol only rarely appears on its own even when wearing cloth or no clothes. In order to encourage it to appear, put on an item like a studded leather cap and then remove it. Following the removal you will see the bonus symbol appear.

=== Spell effects window ===

=== Choice of meditation path for a priest ===

This is very much a personal decision. I will share the choices I made with my priests.

==== Vyn ====

Vyn priests will spend an incredible amount of time increasing channelling and soul depth knowledge. In many cases far more time then the other types of priests.

For this reason I chose the Path of Knowledge since it contains bonuses from faith level and if you reach a high meditation level you also gain an additional 25% permanent skill gain. This path also protects against skill loss on death.

==== Fo ====

Fo works with animals and crops. For this reason I chose the Path of Love for Fo priests. The ability to enchant grass is a very useful one that comes at a relatively easy meditation level to attain.

==== Mag ====

Mag is about mining. Path of Power provided the ability to turn a tile (even an ore I believe) into lava and then later freeze that tile back to rock. This is a great option to have if you will be mining tunnels, cave canals etc.

Some people choose path of insanity for more warlike Mag priests. I understand Shield of the Gone is a very compelling reason for choosing this path.

=== Time to usefulness ===

From least time required to be useful to most time required.

==== Mag ====

Can make light tokens right away and after a relatively quick ascent to 70 faith can also do strongwall.

==== Fo ====

The most common uses for Fo priests seem to be genesis, wild growth and courier. All of these are available at low levels of chan and faith.
Life Transfer is popular for weapons. It takes a Fo priest a long time to become Life Transfer effective compared to genesis effective.

==== Vyn ====

Vyns like to shatter things at lower levels and for this reason can be quite frustrating. Opulence does make meals last a lot longer giving them some usefulness at a lower level.

The primary focus for people who own Vyn priests seems to be to be able to do high level casts of Circle of Cunning and Winds of Ages. To be truly effective with 70+ casts will take a lot longer.

Guides:Priests - Nappy's observations

2015-04-17T21:06:14Z

Nappy: /* Choice of meditation path for a priest */

== Priests - Nappy's observations ==

=== Important Note ===

This article is very much still under development. If you identify an area which is incorrect, needs expansion or in some other way can be improved please drop a forum note to Nappy or place a comment in the Wurm forums\Wurmpedia so that this article can be improved

=== The different feeling of the priests ===

On the Freedom Isles, with the exception of Chaos, there are three types of white light priests available to play. Each type of priest plays remarkably differently. If you have only tried one type (most people seem to only try Vynora) then I strongly encourage you to try at least one of the other types.

==== Vynora ====

Vynora is, for me, the cold and bitter priest type. While often desired for their ability to put some fantastic enchantments on tools like circle of cunning (skill gain) and winds of ages (speed gain) or awesome weapons enchantments like nimbleness (chance to hit), mind stealer (steals body characteristics from animals) and self-healers demise (helps increase chance to hit against trolls etc) this is a priest that has a terrible attitude especially at the lower levels of channeling where they are known to have an almost permanent frown faced expression occasionally enhanced by the shattering of items as their temper flares up.

==== Fo ====

Fo priests by comparison are the spreaders of love and happiness. Frustration is minimal and the ability to complete good deeds is unprecedented amongst all of the priest types. Popular and fun spells include Wild growth (can rapidly grow a forest in an extremely fast time), Humid drizzle (tends to animals instead of you grooming them) and a huge variety of healing related spells to help you cure badly hurt comrades or animals.

==== Mag ====

Mag priests seem to be devoted to mining and hunting. Once again the feeling is different when playing this priest type. Going on a hunting trip even at lower levels of fighting skill you feel like you are almost invincible to the monsters all around you. For mining one handy spell is the light token. Often used for increasing channeling ability at the lower levels, it is also very helpful when exploring or working in a very dark mine.

==== Dark Light ====

I haven't had the opportunity to play a Dark Light priest yet so unfortunately no observations to report.

=== Key skills for priests ===

==== Primary skills ====
===== Faith =====
Faith controls the amount of favor able to be provided by a priest and also impacts what spells they are able to try casting. A 100 faith priest has more spells available then a 50 faith priest and can also cast for longer before needing to recharge.

===== Channeling =====
Channeling represents how closely focused the cast is. Casts can range from an intensely negative value (which leads to shattered items) to intensively positive values (which leads to great casts). The channeling skill level seems to help keep the cast focused to a more narrow range.
General thought seems to be that once a priest reaches 70 channeling then the odds of a shattered item are greatly reduced.

Ranges:

70+ - Chance of shatter greatly reduced
80 – 85 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
86+ - Considered to be very high quality of priest with shatters being extremely rare and unusual.
Generally it should be easier to attain good casts (70+) without significant difficulty
provided soul depth is also high.

===== Soul Depth =====

Soul Depth seems to impact the amount of power a cast can attain. The higher soul depth levels allow for much higher powered casts. A popular "good" value to have for soul depth is 50 – 55.

Soul depth is heavily used for enchanting tools and weapons by Vyn (circle of cunning, wind of ages, mind stealer etc) and Fo (Life Transfer is the most common).

Ranges:

50 – 55 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
56 - 69 - Great
70+ - Exceptional

===== Soul Strength =====

Soul strength appears to be heavily used by Mag priests and to a more limited degree by Fo priests (genesis, wild growth, humid drizzle etc for items that are not enchantments of tools or weapons)

===== Preaching =====

===== Alignment =====

==== Supporting skills ====

===== Rope making =====
===== Farming =====
===== Animal Husbandry =====

=== Main or Alt? ===
Follower versus priest

=== Gaining Favor ===
In order to cast spells favor is required. Three ways exist to gain more favor that I am currently aware of.

==== Batteries ====

The first option is to use priest "batteries". These are priests that typically only have high levels of faith allowing them to hold large amounts of favor. If you link these batteries to your primary casting priest then you can draw on the favor of the primary priest and any linked batteries when casting. You may add one linked priest for every 10 levels of channeling ability. Linking priests seems to increase the level of difficulty when casting. I have not yet been able to verify that this is indeed the case although it is very commonly mentioned and there is the feeling that this is true.

When using linked priests you can often just click the casting button from time to time after favor has regenerated enough to do so. The number of linked priests directly impacts how often you can click that button. Six linked priests make it very possible to skip sacrificing items entirely for favor gain without having to wait an extremely long time between casting attempts.

Favor gain is always faster when it is at its lowest storage levels. This means that you will be able to cast more if you cast as early as possible rather than waiting until the batteries are all full.

The trade off with using batteries is that you require premium for each one.

==== Sacrifice ====

A second way to gain favor is to sacrifice items. Commonly used is cordage rope.
10 cordage ropes at 70 ql will often fill a 100 favor bar fully. Things to consider include the difficulty of producing the higher ql levels of cordage, the need for high ql wemp, requirement for a good rope tool, your rope making skill and the actual time it takes to create the cordage in the first place.

Each priest type has double favor item as well at various difficulty levels. This means that when sacrificing those items you are granted double the usual amount of favor.

==== Regeneration ====

Another option for favor generation is just to wait while the favor regenerates. Two additional things to consider are that if you do stuff while waiting it significantly slows down the regeneration process and if you pray, occasionally your god will grant you faster regeneration.

=== Skill grinding ===
==== Using batteries ====

Using Fo as an example, it is possible to vessel < 10 ql gems non-stop using two Fo batteries to draw upon. By doing this you eliminate the requirement to either sacrifice gems or spend time waiting for favor

==== Why grind? ====

Sometimes the more enjoyable way to gain skill is to just keep working on deed projects where casting plays a strong support role.

===== Example 1 – Wild growth for hedges =====

If your deed needs hedges, plant a 3 x3 or 5 x 5 square of the desired hedge type (camellia shrubs for example). Cast Fo wild growth and pick the spouts until you have the numerous sprouts required. In this way you achieve the goal of gaining channeling skill while also building those new hedges for the deed

===== Example 2 – Going hunting =====

Take your Fo priest hunting either as the main participant or in a support role for someone else who is hunting. Make it the priest's job to heal any damage that occurs. Bring a bag of prefilled gems along to make this an exercise that can occur numerous times during the trip.

===== Example 3 – Mining party =====

Help a neighbor expand their mine using your mag priest and a pickaxe. This will help you gain soul strength and if you cast light tokens as each tile is cleared then you can also work on your channeling while providing needed lighting.

===== Example 4 – Warm hot food =====

Use your Vyn priest to make some hot meals for the neighborhood. Add salt to make the meals resist decay longer. Once made cast opulence on the food so it will also go further in feeding your neighbors. This will help you build mind logic, soul depth and channeling.

===== Example 5 – Go hunting =====

Use you priest to do some hunting while on horseback – put them in studded leather (no casting penalty), equip them with a good Life Transfer weapon and send them out hunting. Perhaps start the attack by using a combat spell on the target giving you some channeling. All priest types receive fighting skills and Fo will receive channeling by casting healing. Keep a close eye on damage levels and retreat early when required.
If you hunt as part of a group then it is even easier to ask someone to heal you (if non-fo) or for you to gain channeling experience (as Fo) doing healing casts on the hunting party as required.

==== Spells for skill grinding ====

==== Vynora ====

Low = bless
Med = opulence
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Fo ====

Low = bless
Med = heal/dirt
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Mag ====

Low = light token
High = Gems or Lurker on a seryl pendulum

=== Seryl pendulum ===

Create a seryl pendulum. Usually quality of the pendulum is unimportant because seryl rarely shatters when casting. Once the pendulum is created cast Lurker spells upon it (Lurker in the dark, lurker of the deep, lurker in the woods etc). Dispel occasionally to start cycle again.
This technique avoids the need to obtain and manage gems while also providing skill gains right into the highest levels of channeling. At lower levels of channeling casting vessel on gems seems to provide better skill gains. At the higher levels of channeling this changes.

=== Using Gems ===

==== For Channel grinding ====

===== Using < 10 ql gems for channel grinding =====

< 10 ql gems do not store power when vessel is cast upon them. This is an advantage when trying to quickly improve your channeling skill because you are able to cast multiple times in quick succession on a gem without needing to worry about removing stored power between each round. Each cast causes damage to the gem so eventually it will disappear.

===== Using 10+ ql gems for channel grinding =====

When you cast vessel on gems that are 10+ ql power is actually stored in the gem for later use. This means that before you can do a second vessel cast on the gem you must first "use" the power that has been stored in the gem.
The most efficient way (albeit time consuming) to use 10+ ql gems is to drain your favor until it is at 7.5. Each time the favor reaches 7.5 cast vessel on the gem. You will actually store 2.5 power because the spell itself uses 5. Use the power and then recast again and again until the gem becomes < 10 ql.

==== For Casting ====

When you cast "vessel" on a gem it stores power in the gem. When you withdraw that power from the gem you receive double the amount of favor that was stored. For this reason a good strategy to follow when casting enchantments is to sacrifice items to create favor, vessel the favor into 10+ ql gems and then use the gems to provide the power for the casting. Favor will go a much longer way using this strategy plus you also achieve more skill gain due to the extra casting involved.

This strategy is also recommended if you are going to go into combat where quick access to spell casting is required and time to wait for link recharging etc will be too long to positively impact the battle.

==== To transfer favor between religions ====

A priest is unable to directly link with a priest from a different religion. It is possible to have a priest from one religion store favor in a gem and then have a priest from a different religion use the stored power.

==== General prices for purchasing ====

Current market rates seem to be as follows:

< 10 ql = 2.0 to 2.5 copper per ql
10+ ql = .8 to 1.2 copper per ql

This pricing reflects the current bias towards using gems for channel grinding. As noted above using gems as part of the casting process for non-channel grinding can make a significant difference that is not reflected in the price differences shown.

=== Settlement Info bonuses ===

The information in this section can be located by right clicking on your settlement deed and selecting settlement info.

==== Village bonus ====

Village bonuses are enhanced by performing sacrifices. These sacrifices can be made by both followers and priests and can be made by all religions (so you could sacrifice from Fo altar and Vyn altar with characters of the appropriate faiths and all will contribute to the village bonus). This is important because you can leverage the double favor items for each faith to enhance the bonuses with less time and effort.
When you perform sacrifices using a follower, everything they sacrifice goes directly into the village bonuses since followers have no way to spend favor. If you use a priest output from sacrifices will fill the priest's favor bar first. Only when the favor bar is full at the start of the sacrifice will the results add to the village bonus.

==== Rare bonus seconds ====

This increases the number of rare seconds. Maximum possible is 10 seconds currently. Sacrificing beyond this level will not increase this number

==== Enchantment bonus ====

If performing enchantments on deed this value provides an additional bonus to make your casting that much better. Maximum possible value appears to be 30%.

==== Number of people on deed matters? ====

I've heard rumors that the number of citizens on a deed greatly impacts how quickly the deed bonus declines. This is something I plan to look into at some point.

=== Gaining faith ===
==== Prayer ====

At lower levels of faith (< 60) the best way to gain faith appears to be to pray five times per day at 20 minute intervals. Sermons do provide you with more opportunities to pray provided you preach once every three hours. The skill gained from preaching at the sermon is less than the amount gained from each prayer at these lower faith levels.

==== Sermons ====
Preaching sermons provide the best way to gain faith and correct alignment at the higher levels of faith (60+). When you preach a sermon it also resets your prayer counter so that you can once again pray five times at 20 minute intervals.
Sermons require seven premium characters in attendance and it is equally important that non-of these characters have had an alignment changing event in the previous 30 minutes. Non-premium characters do not count towards the seven character requirement. Characters must be disembarked from large carts and wagons as well.

Sermons generally provide between 0.01 and 0.02 faith per person involved in the sermon.

You can sometimes find a sermon group on your server by asking in Freedom and/or Freedom-GL or by searching the forums.

=== Gem Farming ===
Gem Farming relies on your Wurm God providing you with occasional gems when praying constantly. These gems will range from low to high ql gems and, as noted in the gem section above, they carry a value, play a significant role in channel grinding and are very useful to provide favor for casting.

=== Conversions ===
Conversions are surprisingly uneventful considering the importance of either the decision to become a follower or a priest. It is important to note that the preaching level of the converting priest divided by 5 becomes the starting faith level of the converted.

=== Confessions ===

Improves preaching skill which in turn increases the initial faith level of the converted (see conversions section)

=== Purchasing a priest ===
==== What to look for in a high end priest ====
Channeling – 80+
Soul Depth – 50+ (Vyn and Fo (if planning to do life transfer casts)
Faith – 90 – 100 with 100 being preferable

Some type of favor support skill like rope making (All), cloth tailoring (Fo) or lock smithing (Mag).
Other key skills include animal husbandry, farming and meditation. The choice of meditation path and level on the path is also important.

=== Looking for a high end priest (Fo) however can only find Vyn. What to do? ===

Faith is one of the easier items to rebuild from zero if required especially if you can use a combination of sermons and praying sessions. An option often overlooked is to obtain a priest with high channeling and convert it to Fo. This would require you to rebuild faith from zero back to the 100 desired. Same applies for converting a high end Fo or Mag priest to Vyn.

Soul Depth is often the other consideration especially for Vyn priests. Pan filling is currently the fastest way to raise soul depth. While expensive there are panfillers who will assist you with gaining soul depth. Alternatively you can do the work yourself although it is very time consuming and requires great focus.

=== PVE Combat support roles ===
Priests can play essential combat support roles for major undertakings like removing 34 trolls from an island or assisting with the slaying of a dragon. Some spells that make a difference are listed below.
Many of these spells are area of effect spells that cover a certain area around a casting focal point. To help as many people in combat as possible it is important to either pre-define where the focal point will be and/or have some sort of communication about when/where the spell is going to be cast during the battle

All comments below are from a PVE perspective initially. PVP perspective is welcomed and will be added to a following section if reader feedback is forthcoming.

==== Fo ====
Light of Fo provides healing to the entire combat group usually within an area of the casting focal point

==== Mag ====
Mass Stamina provides a stamina refresh to the entire combat group within an 3 x3 area of the casting focal point

==== Vyn ====

Please provide feedback

=== To dispel or not to dispel? ===

Sometimes enchantments like circle of cunning or life transfer seem to get stuck at a certain level and despite repeated casts the value does not improve. Each additional improvement cast seems to run a risk of shattering the item being improved.

My 85 chan/51 soul depth Vyn seemed to have a point around 55 – 60 where it was generally better to dispel an enchantment then to attempt more than 2 or 3 improvement casts.

The same dispel tipping point for my 94 chan/76 soul depth priest seems to be around 75. Higher then 75 and I am better off dispelling and recasting. In the case of this priest there is far less chance of an actual shatter however favor is still being lost on the repeated casts

=== Battery quality ===

One question under investigation is if the quality of the actual battery priest makes a difference. For example if you use a priest with high faith but non-existent channeling and other skills does it make a difference?

=== Armor bonus and penalty ===

When casting it is important to consider the armour you are wearing. Metal armour including plate and chain imposes a 30% casting penalty. Studded leather does not impose a penalty. Wearing cloth or nothing at all provides a 30% casting bonus.
It is important to note that the special +30% bonus symbol only rarely appears on its own even when wearing cloth or no clothes. In order to encourage it to appear, put on an item like a studded leather cap and then remove it. Following the removal you will see the bonus symbol appear.

=== Spell effects window ===

=== Choice of meditation path for a priest ===

This is very much a personal decision. I will share the choices I made with my priests.

==== Vyn ====

Vyn priests will spend an incredible amount of time increasing channelling and soul depth knowledge. In many cases far more time then the other types of priests.

For this reason I chose the Path of Knowledge since it contains bonuses from faith level and if you reach a high meditation level you also gain an additional 25% permanent skill gain. This path also protects against skill loss on death.

==== Fo ====

Fo works with animals and crops. For this reason I chose the Path of Love for Fo priests. The ability to enchant grass is a very useful one that comes at a relatively easy meditation level to attain.

==== Mag ====

Mag is about mining. Path of Power provided the ability to turn a tile (even an ore I believe) into lava and then later freeze that tile back to rock. This is a great option to have if you will be mining tunnels, cave canals etc.

Some people choose path of insanity for more warlike Mag priests. I understand Shield of the Gone is a very compelling reason for choosing this path.

=== Time to usefulness ===

From least time required to be useful to most time required.

==== Mag ====

Can make light tokens right away and after a relatively quick ascent to 70 faith can also do strongwall

==== Fo ====

The most common uses for Fo priests seem to be genesis, wild growth and courier. All of these are available at low levels of chan and faith.
Life Transfer is popular for weapons. It takes a Fo priest a long time to become Life Transfer effective compared to genesis effective.

==== Vyn ====

Vyns like to shatter things at lower levels and for this reason can be quite frustrating. Opulence does make meals last a lot longer giving them some usefulness at a lower level.

The primary focus for people who own Vyn priests seems to be to be able to do high level casts of Circle of Cunning and Winds of Ages. To be truly effective with 70+ casts will take a lot longer.

Guides:Priests - Nappy's observations

2015-04-17T21:05:31Z

Nappy: /* Vyn */

== Priests - Nappy's observations ==

=== Important Note ===

This article is very much still under development. If you identify an area which is incorrect, needs expansion or in some other way can be improved please drop a forum note to Nappy or place a comment in the Wurm forums\Wurmpedia so that this article can be improved

=== The different feeling of the priests ===

On the Freedom Isles, with the exception of Chaos, there are three types of white light priests available to play. Each type of priest plays remarkably differently. If you have only tried one type (most people seem to only try Vynora) then I strongly encourage you to try at least one of the other types.

==== Vynora ====

Vynora is, for me, the cold and bitter priest type. While often desired for their ability to put some fantastic enchantments on tools like circle of cunning (skill gain) and winds of ages (speed gain) or awesome weapons enchantments like nimbleness (chance to hit), mind stealer (steals body characteristics from animals) and self-healers demise (helps increase chance to hit against trolls etc) this is a priest that has a terrible attitude especially at the lower levels of channeling where they are known to have an almost permanent frown faced expression occasionally enhanced by the shattering of items as their temper flares up.

==== Fo ====

Fo priests by comparison are the spreaders of love and happiness. Frustration is minimal and the ability to complete good deeds is unprecedented amongst all of the priest types. Popular and fun spells include Wild growth (can rapidly grow a forest in an extremely fast time), Humid drizzle (tends to animals instead of you grooming them) and a huge variety of healing related spells to help you cure badly hurt comrades or animals.

==== Mag ====

Mag priests seem to be devoted to mining and hunting. Once again the feeling is different when playing this priest type. Going on a hunting trip even at lower levels of fighting skill you feel like you are almost invincible to the monsters all around you. For mining one handy spell is the light token. Often used for increasing channeling ability at the lower levels, it is also very helpful when exploring or working in a very dark mine.

==== Dark Light ====

I haven't had the opportunity to play a Dark Light priest yet so unfortunately no observations to report.

=== Key skills for priests ===

==== Primary skills ====
===== Faith =====
Faith controls the amount of favor able to be provided by a priest and also impacts what spells they are able to try casting. A 100 faith priest has more spells available then a 50 faith priest and can also cast for longer before needing to recharge.

===== Channeling =====
Channeling represents how closely focused the cast is. Casts can range from an intensely negative value (which leads to shattered items) to intensively positive values (which leads to great casts). The channeling skill level seems to help keep the cast focused to a more narrow range.
General thought seems to be that once a priest reaches 70 channeling then the odds of a shattered item are greatly reduced.

Ranges:

70+ - Chance of shatter greatly reduced
80 – 85 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
86+ - Considered to be very high quality of priest with shatters being extremely rare and unusual.
Generally it should be easier to attain good casts (70+) without significant difficulty
provided soul depth is also high.

===== Soul Depth =====

Soul Depth seems to impact the amount of power a cast can attain. The higher soul depth levels allow for much higher powered casts. A popular "good" value to have for soul depth is 50 – 55.

Soul depth is heavily used for enchanting tools and weapons by Vyn (circle of cunning, wind of ages, mind stealer etc) and Fo (Life Transfer is the most common).

Ranges:

50 – 55 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
56 - 69 - Great
70+ - Exceptional

===== Soul Strength =====

Soul strength appears to be heavily used by Mag priests and to a more limited degree by Fo priests (genesis, wild growth, humid drizzle etc for items that are not enchantments of tools or weapons)

===== Preaching =====

===== Alignment =====

==== Supporting skills ====

===== Rope making =====
===== Farming =====
===== Animal Husbandry =====

=== Main or Alt? ===
Follower versus priest

=== Gaining Favor ===
In order to cast spells favor is required. Three ways exist to gain more favor that I am currently aware of.

==== Batteries ====

The first option is to use priest "batteries". These are priests that typically only have high levels of faith allowing them to hold large amounts of favor. If you link these batteries to your primary casting priest then you can draw on the favor of the primary priest and any linked batteries when casting. You may add one linked priest for every 10 levels of channeling ability. Linking priests seems to increase the level of difficulty when casting. I have not yet been able to verify that this is indeed the case although it is very commonly mentioned and there is the feeling that this is true.

When using linked priests you can often just click the casting button from time to time after favor has regenerated enough to do so. The number of linked priests directly impacts how often you can click that button. Six linked priests make it very possible to skip sacrificing items entirely for favor gain without having to wait an extremely long time between casting attempts.

Favor gain is always faster when it is at its lowest storage levels. This means that you will be able to cast more if you cast as early as possible rather than waiting until the batteries are all full.

The trade off with using batteries is that you require premium for each one.

==== Sacrifice ====

A second way to gain favor is to sacrifice items. Commonly used is cordage rope.
10 cordage ropes at 70 ql will often fill a 100 favor bar fully. Things to consider include the difficulty of producing the higher ql levels of cordage, the need for high ql wemp, requirement for a good rope tool, your rope making skill and the actual time it takes to create the cordage in the first place.

Each priest type has double favor item as well at various difficulty levels. This means that when sacrificing those items you are granted double the usual amount of favor.

==== Regeneration ====

Another option for favor generation is just to wait while the favor regenerates. Two additional things to consider are that if you do stuff while waiting it significantly slows down the regeneration process and if you pray, occasionally your god will grant you faster regeneration.

=== Skill grinding ===
==== Using batteries ====

Using Fo as an example, it is possible to vessel < 10 ql gems non-stop using two Fo batteries to draw upon. By doing this you eliminate the requirement to either sacrifice gems or spend time waiting for favor

==== Why grind? ====

Sometimes the more enjoyable way to gain skill is to just keep working on deed projects where casting plays a strong support role.

===== Example 1 – Wild growth for hedges =====

If your deed needs hedges, plant a 3 x3 or 5 x 5 square of the desired hedge type (camellia shrubs for example). Cast Fo wild growth and pick the spouts until you have the numerous sprouts required. In this way you achieve the goal of gaining channeling skill while also building those new hedges for the deed

===== Example 2 – Going hunting =====

Take your Fo priest hunting either as the main participant or in a support role for someone else who is hunting. Make it the priest's job to heal any damage that occurs. Bring a bag of prefilled gems along to make this an exercise that can occur numerous times during the trip.

===== Example 3 – Mining party =====

Help a neighbor expand their mine using your mag priest and a pickaxe. This will help you gain soul strength and if you cast light tokens as each tile is cleared then you can also work on your channeling while providing needed lighting.

===== Example 4 – Warm hot food =====

Use your Vyn priest to make some hot meals for the neighborhood. Add salt to make the meals resist decay longer. Once made cast opulence on the food so it will also go further in feeding your neighbors. This will help you build mind logic, soul depth and channeling.

===== Example 5 – Go hunting =====

Use you priest to do some hunting while on horseback – put them in studded leather (no casting penalty), equip them with a good Life Transfer weapon and send them out hunting. Perhaps start the attack by using a combat spell on the target giving you some channeling. All priest types receive fighting skills and Fo will receive channeling by casting healing. Keep a close eye on damage levels and retreat early when required.
If you hunt as part of a group then it is even easier to ask someone to heal you (if non-fo) or for you to gain channeling experience (as Fo) doing healing casts on the hunting party as required.

==== Spells for skill grinding ====

==== Vynora ====

Low = bless
Med = opulence
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Fo ====

Low = bless
Med = heal/dirt
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Mag ====

Low = light token
High = Gems or Lurker on a seryl pendulum

=== Seryl pendulum ===

Create a seryl pendulum. Usually quality of the pendulum is unimportant because seryl rarely shatters when casting. Once the pendulum is created cast Lurker spells upon it (Lurker in the dark, lurker of the deep, lurker in the woods etc). Dispel occasionally to start cycle again.
This technique avoids the need to obtain and manage gems while also providing skill gains right into the highest levels of channeling. At lower levels of channeling casting vessel on gems seems to provide better skill gains. At the higher levels of channeling this changes.

=== Using Gems ===

==== For Channel grinding ====

===== Using < 10 ql gems for channel grinding =====

< 10 ql gems do not store power when vessel is cast upon them. This is an advantage when trying to quickly improve your channeling skill because you are able to cast multiple times in quick succession on a gem without needing to worry about removing stored power between each round. Each cast causes damage to the gem so eventually it will disappear.

===== Using 10+ ql gems for channel grinding =====

When you cast vessel on gems that are 10+ ql power is actually stored in the gem for later use. This means that before you can do a second vessel cast on the gem you must first "use" the power that has been stored in the gem.
The most efficient way (albeit time consuming) to use 10+ ql gems is to drain your favor until it is at 7.5. Each time the favor reaches 7.5 cast vessel on the gem. You will actually store 2.5 power because the spell itself uses 5. Use the power and then recast again and again until the gem becomes < 10 ql.

==== For Casting ====

When you cast "vessel" on a gem it stores power in the gem. When you withdraw that power from the gem you receive double the amount of favor that was stored. For this reason a good strategy to follow when casting enchantments is to sacrifice items to create favor, vessel the favor into 10+ ql gems and then use the gems to provide the power for the casting. Favor will go a much longer way using this strategy plus you also achieve more skill gain due to the extra casting involved.

This strategy is also recommended if you are going to go into combat where quick access to spell casting is required and time to wait for link recharging etc will be too long to positively impact the battle.

==== To transfer favor between religions ====

A priest is unable to directly link with a priest from a different religion. It is possible to have a priest from one religion store favor in a gem and then have a priest from a different religion use the stored power.

==== General prices for purchasing ====

Current market rates seem to be as follows:

< 10 ql = 2.0 to 2.5 copper per ql
10+ ql = .8 to 1.2 copper per ql

This pricing reflects the current bias towards using gems for channel grinding. As noted above using gems as part of the casting process for non-channel grinding can make a significant difference that is not reflected in the price differences shown.

=== Settlement Info bonuses ===

The information in this section can be located by right clicking on your settlement deed and selecting settlement info.

==== Village bonus ====

Village bonuses are enhanced by performing sacrifices. These sacrifices can be made by both followers and priests and can be made by all religions (so you could sacrifice from Fo altar and Vyn altar with characters of the appropriate faiths and all will contribute to the village bonus). This is important because you can leverage the double favor items for each faith to enhance the bonuses with less time and effort.
When you perform sacrifices using a follower, everything they sacrifice goes directly into the village bonuses since followers have no way to spend favor. If you use a priest output from sacrifices will fill the priest's favor bar first. Only when the favor bar is full at the start of the sacrifice will the results add to the village bonus.

==== Rare bonus seconds ====

This increases the number of rare seconds. Maximum possible is 10 seconds currently. Sacrificing beyond this level will not increase this number

==== Enchantment bonus ====

If performing enchantments on deed this value provides an additional bonus to make your casting that much better. Maximum possible value appears to be 30%.

==== Number of people on deed matters? ====

I've heard rumors that the number of citizens on a deed greatly impacts how quickly the deed bonus declines. This is something I plan to look into at some point.

=== Gaining faith ===
==== Prayer ====

At lower levels of faith (< 60) the best way to gain faith appears to be to pray five times per day at 20 minute intervals. Sermons do provide you with more opportunities to pray provided you preach once every three hours. The skill gained from preaching at the sermon is less than the amount gained from each prayer at these lower faith levels.

==== Sermons ====
Preaching sermons provide the best way to gain faith and correct alignment at the higher levels of faith (60+). When you preach a sermon it also resets your prayer counter so that you can once again pray five times at 20 minute intervals.
Sermons require seven premium characters in attendance and it is equally important that non-of these characters have had an alignment changing event in the previous 30 minutes. Non-premium characters do not count towards the seven character requirement. Characters must be disembarked from large carts and wagons as well.

Sermons generally provide between 0.01 and 0.02 faith per person involved in the sermon.

You can sometimes find a sermon group on your server by asking in Freedom and/or Freedom-GL or by searching the forums.

=== Gem Farming ===
Gem Farming relies on your Wurm God providing you with occasional gems when praying constantly. These gems will range from low to high ql gems and, as noted in the gem section above, they carry a value, play a significant role in channel grinding and are very useful to provide favor for casting.

=== Conversions ===
Conversions are surprisingly uneventful considering the importance of either the decision to become a follower or a priest. It is important to note that the preaching level of the converting priest divided by 5 becomes the starting faith level of the converted.

=== Confessions ===

Improves preaching skill which in turn increases the initial faith level of the converted (see conversions section)

=== Purchasing a priest ===
==== What to look for in a high end priest ====
Channeling – 80+
Soul Depth – 50+ (Vyn and Fo (if planning to do life transfer casts)
Faith – 90 – 100 with 100 being preferable

Some type of favor support skill like rope making (All), cloth tailoring (Fo) or lock smithing (Mag).
Other key skills include animal husbandry, farming and meditation. The choice of meditation path and level on the path is also important.

=== Looking for a high end priest (Fo) however can only find Vyn. What to do? ===

Faith is one of the easier items to rebuild from zero if required especially if you can use a combination of sermons and praying sessions. An option often overlooked is to obtain a priest with high channeling and convert it to Fo. This would require you to rebuild faith from zero back to the 100 desired. Same applies for converting a high end Fo or Mag priest to Vyn.

Soul Depth is often the other consideration especially for Vyn priests. Pan filling is currently the fastest way to raise soul depth. While expensive there are panfillers who will assist you with gaining soul depth. Alternatively you can do the work yourself although it is very time consuming and requires great focus.

=== PVE Combat support roles ===
Priests can play essential combat support roles for major undertakings like removing 34 trolls from an island or assisting with the slaying of a dragon. Some spells that make a difference are listed below.
Many of these spells are area of effect spells that cover a certain area around a casting focal point. To help as many people in combat as possible it is important to either pre-define where the focal point will be and/or have some sort of communication about when/where the spell is going to be cast during the battle

All comments below are from a PVE perspective initially. PVP perspective is welcomed and will be added to a following section if reader feedback is forthcoming.

==== Fo ====
Light of Fo provides healing to the entire combat group usually within an area of the casting focal point

==== Mag ====
Mass Stamina provides a stamina refresh to the entire combat group within an 3 x3 area of the casting focal point

==== Vyn ====

Please provide feedback

=== To dispel or not to dispel? ===

Sometimes enchantments like circle of cunning or life transfer seem to get stuck at a certain level and despite repeated casts the value does not improve. Each additional improvement cast seems to run a risk of shattering the item being improved.

My 85 chan/51 soul depth Vyn seemed to have a point around 55 – 60 where it was generally better to dispel an enchantment then to attempt more than 2 or 3 improvement casts.

The same dispel tipping point for my 94 chan/76 soul depth priest seems to be around 75. Higher then 75 and I am better off dispelling and recasting. In the case of this priest there is far less chance of an actual shatter however favor is still being lost on the repeated casts

=== Battery quality ===

One question under investigation is if the quality of the actual battery priest makes a difference. For example if you use a priest with high faith but non-existent channeling and other skills does it make a difference?

=== Armor bonus and penalty ===

When casting it is important to consider the armour you are wearing. Metal armour including plate and chain imposes a 30% casting penalty. Studded leather does not impose a penalty. Wearing cloth or nothing at all provides a 30% casting bonus.
It is important to note that the special +30% bonus symbol only rarely appears on its own even when wearing cloth or no clothes. In order to encourage it to appear, put on an item like a studded leather cap and then remove it. Following the removal you will see the bonus symbol appear.

=== Spell effects window ===

=== Choice of meditation path for a priest ===

This is very much a personal decision. I will share the choices I made with my priests.

==== Vyn ====

Vyn priests will spend an incredible amount of time increasing channelling and soul depth knowledge. In many cases far more time then the other types of priests.

For this reason I chose the Path of knowledge since it contains bonuses from faith level and if you reach a high meditation level you also gain an additional 25% permanent skill gain. This path also protects against skill loss on death.

==== Fo ====

Fo works with animals and crops. For this reason I chose Path of love for Fo priests. The ability to enchant grass is a very useful one that comes at a relatively easy meditation level to attain.

==== Mag ====

Mag is about mining. Path of power provided the ability to turn a tile (even an ore I believe) into lava and then later freeze that tile back to rock. This is a great option to have if you will be mining tunnels, cave canals etc.

Some people choose path of insanity for more warlike Mag priests. I understand Shield of the Gone is a very compelling reason for choosing this path.

=== Time to usefulness ===

From least time required to be useful to most time required.

==== Mag ====

Can make light tokens right away and after a relatively quick ascent to 70 faith can also do strongwall

==== Fo ====

The most common uses for Fo priests seem to be genesis, wild growth and courier. All of these are available at low levels of chan and faith.
Life Transfer is popular for weapons. It takes a Fo priest a long time to become Life Transfer effective compared to genesis effective.

==== Vyn ====

Vyns like to shatter things at lower levels and for this reason can be quite frustrating. Opulence does make meals last a lot longer giving them some usefulness at a lower level.

The primary focus for people who own Vyn priests seems to be to be able to do high level casts of Circle of Cunning and Winds of Ages. To be truly effective with 70+ casts will take a lot longer.

Guides:Priests - Nappy's observations

2015-04-17T21:05:02Z

Nappy:

== Priests - Nappy's observations ==

=== Important Note ===

This article is very much still under development. If you identify an area which is incorrect, needs expansion or in some other way can be improved please drop a forum note to Nappy or place a comment in the Wurm forums\Wurmpedia so that this article can be improved

=== The different feeling of the priests ===

On the Freedom Isles, with the exception of Chaos, there are three types of white light priests available to play. Each type of priest plays remarkably differently. If you have only tried one type (most people seem to only try Vynora) then I strongly encourage you to try at least one of the other types.

==== Vynora ====

Vynora is, for me, the cold and bitter priest type. While often desired for their ability to put some fantastic enchantments on tools like circle of cunning (skill gain) and winds of ages (speed gain) or awesome weapons enchantments like nimbleness (chance to hit), mind stealer (steals body characteristics from animals) and self-healers demise (helps increase chance to hit against trolls etc) this is a priest that has a terrible attitude especially at the lower levels of channeling where they are known to have an almost permanent frown faced expression occasionally enhanced by the shattering of items as their temper flares up.

==== Fo ====

Fo priests by comparison are the spreaders of love and happiness. Frustration is minimal and the ability to complete good deeds is unprecedented amongst all of the priest types. Popular and fun spells include Wild growth (can rapidly grow a forest in an extremely fast time), Humid drizzle (tends to animals instead of you grooming them) and a huge variety of healing related spells to help you cure badly hurt comrades or animals.

==== Mag ====

Mag priests seem to be devoted to mining and hunting. Once again the feeling is different when playing this priest type. Going on a hunting trip even at lower levels of fighting skill you feel like you are almost invincible to the monsters all around you. For mining one handy spell is the light token. Often used for increasing channeling ability at the lower levels, it is also very helpful when exploring or working in a very dark mine.

==== Dark Light ====

I haven't had the opportunity to play a Dark Light priest yet so unfortunately no observations to report.

=== Key skills for priests ===

==== Primary skills ====
===== Faith =====
Faith controls the amount of favor able to be provided by a priest and also impacts what spells they are able to try casting. A 100 faith priest has more spells available then a 50 faith priest and can also cast for longer before needing to recharge.

===== Channeling =====
Channeling represents how closely focused the cast is. Casts can range from an intensely negative value (which leads to shattered items) to intensively positive values (which leads to great casts). The channeling skill level seems to help keep the cast focused to a more narrow range.
General thought seems to be that once a priest reaches 70 channeling then the odds of a shattered item are greatly reduced.

Ranges:

70+ - Chance of shatter greatly reduced
80 – 85 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
86+ - Considered to be very high quality of priest with shatters being extremely rare and unusual.
Generally it should be easier to attain good casts (70+) without significant difficulty
provided soul depth is also high.

===== Soul Depth =====

Soul Depth seems to impact the amount of power a cast can attain. The higher soul depth levels allow for much higher powered casts. A popular "good" value to have for soul depth is 50 – 55.

Soul depth is heavily used for enchanting tools and weapons by Vyn (circle of cunning, wind of ages, mind stealer etc) and Fo (Life Transfer is the most common).

Ranges:

50 – 55 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
56 - 69 - Great
70+ - Exceptional

===== Soul Strength =====

Soul strength appears to be heavily used by Mag priests and to a more limited degree by Fo priests (genesis, wild growth, humid drizzle etc for items that are not enchantments of tools or weapons)

===== Preaching =====

===== Alignment =====

==== Supporting skills ====

===== Rope making =====
===== Farming =====
===== Animal Husbandry =====

=== Main or Alt? ===
Follower versus priest

=== Gaining Favor ===
In order to cast spells favor is required. Three ways exist to gain more favor that I am currently aware of.

==== Batteries ====

The first option is to use priest "batteries". These are priests that typically only have high levels of faith allowing them to hold large amounts of favor. If you link these batteries to your primary casting priest then you can draw on the favor of the primary priest and any linked batteries when casting. You may add one linked priest for every 10 levels of channeling ability. Linking priests seems to increase the level of difficulty when casting. I have not yet been able to verify that this is indeed the case although it is very commonly mentioned and there is the feeling that this is true.

When using linked priests you can often just click the casting button from time to time after favor has regenerated enough to do so. The number of linked priests directly impacts how often you can click that button. Six linked priests make it very possible to skip sacrificing items entirely for favor gain without having to wait an extremely long time between casting attempts.

Favor gain is always faster when it is at its lowest storage levels. This means that you will be able to cast more if you cast as early as possible rather than waiting until the batteries are all full.

The trade off with using batteries is that you require premium for each one.

==== Sacrifice ====

A second way to gain favor is to sacrifice items. Commonly used is cordage rope.
10 cordage ropes at 70 ql will often fill a 100 favor bar fully. Things to consider include the difficulty of producing the higher ql levels of cordage, the need for high ql wemp, requirement for a good rope tool, your rope making skill and the actual time it takes to create the cordage in the first place.

Each priest type has double favor item as well at various difficulty levels. This means that when sacrificing those items you are granted double the usual amount of favor.

==== Regeneration ====

Another option for favor generation is just to wait while the favor regenerates. Two additional things to consider are that if you do stuff while waiting it significantly slows down the regeneration process and if you pray, occasionally your god will grant you faster regeneration.

=== Skill grinding ===
==== Using batteries ====

Using Fo as an example, it is possible to vessel < 10 ql gems non-stop using two Fo batteries to draw upon. By doing this you eliminate the requirement to either sacrifice gems or spend time waiting for favor

==== Why grind? ====

Sometimes the more enjoyable way to gain skill is to just keep working on deed projects where casting plays a strong support role.

===== Example 1 – Wild growth for hedges =====

If your deed needs hedges, plant a 3 x3 or 5 x 5 square of the desired hedge type (camellia shrubs for example). Cast Fo wild growth and pick the spouts until you have the numerous sprouts required. In this way you achieve the goal of gaining channeling skill while also building those new hedges for the deed

===== Example 2 – Going hunting =====

Take your Fo priest hunting either as the main participant or in a support role for someone else who is hunting. Make it the priest's job to heal any damage that occurs. Bring a bag of prefilled gems along to make this an exercise that can occur numerous times during the trip.

===== Example 3 – Mining party =====

Help a neighbor expand their mine using your mag priest and a pickaxe. This will help you gain soul strength and if you cast light tokens as each tile is cleared then you can also work on your channeling while providing needed lighting.

===== Example 4 – Warm hot food =====

Use your Vyn priest to make some hot meals for the neighborhood. Add salt to make the meals resist decay longer. Once made cast opulence on the food so it will also go further in feeding your neighbors. This will help you build mind logic, soul depth and channeling.

===== Example 5 – Go hunting =====

Use you priest to do some hunting while on horseback – put them in studded leather (no casting penalty), equip them with a good Life Transfer weapon and send them out hunting. Perhaps start the attack by using a combat spell on the target giving you some channeling. All priest types receive fighting skills and Fo will receive channeling by casting healing. Keep a close eye on damage levels and retreat early when required.
If you hunt as part of a group then it is even easier to ask someone to heal you (if non-fo) or for you to gain channeling experience (as Fo) doing healing casts on the hunting party as required.

==== Spells for skill grinding ====

==== Vynora ====

Low = bless
Med = opulence
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Fo ====

Low = bless
Med = heal/dirt
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Mag ====

Low = light token
High = Gems or Lurker on a seryl pendulum

=== Seryl pendulum ===

Create a seryl pendulum. Usually quality of the pendulum is unimportant because seryl rarely shatters when casting. Once the pendulum is created cast Lurker spells upon it (Lurker in the dark, lurker of the deep, lurker in the woods etc). Dispel occasionally to start cycle again.
This technique avoids the need to obtain and manage gems while also providing skill gains right into the highest levels of channeling. At lower levels of channeling casting vessel on gems seems to provide better skill gains. At the higher levels of channeling this changes.

=== Using Gems ===

==== For Channel grinding ====

===== Using < 10 ql gems for channel grinding =====

< 10 ql gems do not store power when vessel is cast upon them. This is an advantage when trying to quickly improve your channeling skill because you are able to cast multiple times in quick succession on a gem without needing to worry about removing stored power between each round. Each cast causes damage to the gem so eventually it will disappear.

===== Using 10+ ql gems for channel grinding =====

When you cast vessel on gems that are 10+ ql power is actually stored in the gem for later use. This means that before you can do a second vessel cast on the gem you must first "use" the power that has been stored in the gem.
The most efficient way (albeit time consuming) to use 10+ ql gems is to drain your favor until it is at 7.5. Each time the favor reaches 7.5 cast vessel on the gem. You will actually store 2.5 power because the spell itself uses 5. Use the power and then recast again and again until the gem becomes < 10 ql.

==== For Casting ====

When you cast "vessel" on a gem it stores power in the gem. When you withdraw that power from the gem you receive double the amount of favor that was stored. For this reason a good strategy to follow when casting enchantments is to sacrifice items to create favor, vessel the favor into 10+ ql gems and then use the gems to provide the power for the casting. Favor will go a much longer way using this strategy plus you also achieve more skill gain due to the extra casting involved.

This strategy is also recommended if you are going to go into combat where quick access to spell casting is required and time to wait for link recharging etc will be too long to positively impact the battle.

==== To transfer favor between religions ====

A priest is unable to directly link with a priest from a different religion. It is possible to have a priest from one religion store favor in a gem and then have a priest from a different religion use the stored power.

==== General prices for purchasing ====

Current market rates seem to be as follows:

< 10 ql = 2.0 to 2.5 copper per ql
10+ ql = .8 to 1.2 copper per ql

This pricing reflects the current bias towards using gems for channel grinding. As noted above using gems as part of the casting process for non-channel grinding can make a significant difference that is not reflected in the price differences shown.

=== Settlement Info bonuses ===

The information in this section can be located by right clicking on your settlement deed and selecting settlement info.

==== Village bonus ====

Village bonuses are enhanced by performing sacrifices. These sacrifices can be made by both followers and priests and can be made by all religions (so you could sacrifice from Fo altar and Vyn altar with characters of the appropriate faiths and all will contribute to the village bonus). This is important because you can leverage the double favor items for each faith to enhance the bonuses with less time and effort.
When you perform sacrifices using a follower, everything they sacrifice goes directly into the village bonuses since followers have no way to spend favor. If you use a priest output from sacrifices will fill the priest's favor bar first. Only when the favor bar is full at the start of the sacrifice will the results add to the village bonus.

==== Rare bonus seconds ====

This increases the number of rare seconds. Maximum possible is 10 seconds currently. Sacrificing beyond this level will not increase this number

==== Enchantment bonus ====

If performing enchantments on deed this value provides an additional bonus to make your casting that much better. Maximum possible value appears to be 30%.

==== Number of people on deed matters? ====

I've heard rumors that the number of citizens on a deed greatly impacts how quickly the deed bonus declines. This is something I plan to look into at some point.

=== Gaining faith ===
==== Prayer ====

At lower levels of faith (< 60) the best way to gain faith appears to be to pray five times per day at 20 minute intervals. Sermons do provide you with more opportunities to pray provided you preach once every three hours. The skill gained from preaching at the sermon is less than the amount gained from each prayer at these lower faith levels.

==== Sermons ====
Preaching sermons provide the best way to gain faith and correct alignment at the higher levels of faith (60+). When you preach a sermon it also resets your prayer counter so that you can once again pray five times at 20 minute intervals.
Sermons require seven premium characters in attendance and it is equally important that non-of these characters have had an alignment changing event in the previous 30 minutes. Non-premium characters do not count towards the seven character requirement. Characters must be disembarked from large carts and wagons as well.

Sermons generally provide between 0.01 and 0.02 faith per person involved in the sermon.

You can sometimes find a sermon group on your server by asking in Freedom and/or Freedom-GL or by searching the forums.

=== Gem Farming ===
Gem Farming relies on your Wurm God providing you with occasional gems when praying constantly. These gems will range from low to high ql gems and, as noted in the gem section above, they carry a value, play a significant role in channel grinding and are very useful to provide favor for casting.

=== Conversions ===
Conversions are surprisingly uneventful considering the importance of either the decision to become a follower or a priest. It is important to note that the preaching level of the converting priest divided by 5 becomes the starting faith level of the converted.

=== Confessions ===

Improves preaching skill which in turn increases the initial faith level of the converted (see conversions section)

=== Purchasing a priest ===
==== What to look for in a high end priest ====
Channeling – 80+
Soul Depth – 50+ (Vyn and Fo (if planning to do life transfer casts)
Faith – 90 – 100 with 100 being preferable

Some type of favor support skill like rope making (All), cloth tailoring (Fo) or lock smithing (Mag).
Other key skills include animal husbandry, farming and meditation. The choice of meditation path and level on the path is also important.

=== Looking for a high end priest (Fo) however can only find Vyn. What to do? ===

Faith is one of the easier items to rebuild from zero if required especially if you can use a combination of sermons and praying sessions. An option often overlooked is to obtain a priest with high channeling and convert it to Fo. This would require you to rebuild faith from zero back to the 100 desired. Same applies for converting a high end Fo or Mag priest to Vyn.

Soul Depth is often the other consideration especially for Vyn priests. Pan filling is currently the fastest way to raise soul depth. While expensive there are panfillers who will assist you with gaining soul depth. Alternatively you can do the work yourself although it is very time consuming and requires great focus.

=== PVE Combat support roles ===
Priests can play essential combat support roles for major undertakings like removing 34 trolls from an island or assisting with the slaying of a dragon. Some spells that make a difference are listed below.
Many of these spells are area of effect spells that cover a certain area around a casting focal point. To help as many people in combat as possible it is important to either pre-define where the focal point will be and/or have some sort of communication about when/where the spell is going to be cast during the battle

All comments below are from a PVE perspective initially. PVP perspective is welcomed and will be added to a following section if reader feedback is forthcoming.

==== Fo ====
Light of Fo provides healing to the entire combat group usually within an area of the casting focal point

==== Mag ====
Mass Stamina provides a stamina refresh to the entire combat group within an 3 x3 area of the casting focal point

==== Vyn ====

Please provide feedback

=== To dispel or not to dispel? ===

Sometimes enchantments like circle of cunning or life transfer seem to get stuck at a certain level and despite repeated casts the value does not improve. Each additional improvement cast seems to run a risk of shattering the item being improved.

My 85 chan/51 soul depth Vyn seemed to have a point around 55 – 60 where it was generally better to dispel an enchantment then to attempt more than 2 or 3 improvement casts.

The same dispel tipping point for my 94 chan/76 soul depth priest seems to be around 75. Higher then 75 and I am better off dispelling and recasting. In the case of this priest there is far less chance of an actual shatter however favor is still being lost on the repeated casts

=== Battery quality ===

One question under investigation is if the quality of the actual battery priest makes a difference. For example if you use a priest with high faith but non-existent channeling and other skills does it make a difference?

=== Armor bonus and penalty ===

When casting it is important to consider the armour you are wearing. Metal armour including plate and chain imposes a 30% casting penalty. Studded leather does not impose a penalty. Wearing cloth or nothing at all provides a 30% casting bonus.
It is important to note that the special +30% bonus symbol only rarely appears on its own even when wearing cloth or no clothes. In order to encourage it to appear, put on an item like a studded leather cap and then remove it. Following the removal you will see the bonus symbol appear.

=== Spell effects window ===

=== Choice of meditation path for a priest ===

This is very much a personal decision. I will share the choices I made with my priests.

==== Vyn ====

Vyn priests will spend an incredible amount of time increasing channelling and soul depth knowledge. In many cases far more time then the other types of priests.

For this reason I chose the Path of knowledge since it contains bonouses from faith level and if you reach a high meditation level you also gain an additional 25% permanent skill gain. This path also protects against skill loss on death.

==== Fo ====

Fo works with animals and crops. For this reason I chose Path of love for Fo priests. The ability to enchant grass is a very useful one that comes at a relatively easy meditation level to attain.

==== Mag ====

Mag is about mining. Path of power provided the ability to turn a tile (even an ore I believe) into lava and then later freeze that tile back to rock. This is a great option to have if you will be mining tunnels, cave canals etc.

Some people choose path of insanity for more warlike Mag priests. I understand Shield of the Gone is a very compelling reason for choosing this path.

=== Time to usefulness ===

From least time required to be useful to most time required.

==== Mag ====

Can make light tokens right away and after a relatively quick ascent to 70 faith can also do strongwall

==== Fo ====

The most common uses for Fo priests seem to be genesis, wild growth and courier. All of these are available at low levels of chan and faith.
Life Transfer is popular for weapons. It takes a Fo priest a long time to become Life Transfer effective compared to genesis effective.

==== Vyn ====

Vyns like to shatter things at lower levels and for this reason can be quite frustrating. Opulence does make meals last a lot longer giving them some usefulness at a lower level.

The primary focus for people who own Vyn priests seems to be to be able to do high level casts of Circle of Cunning and Winds of Ages. To be truly effective with 70+ casts will take a lot longer.

Guides:Priests - Nappy's observations

2015-04-17T20:53:13Z

Nappy: /* What to look for in a high end priest */

Guides:Priests - Nappy's observations

2015-04-17T20:07:34Z

Nappy:

== Priests - Nappy's observations ==

=== Important Note ===

This article is very much still under development. If you identify an area which is incorrect, needs expansion or in some other way can be improved please drop a forum note to Nappy or place a comment in the Wurm forums\Wurmpedia so that this article can be improved

=== The different feeling of the priests ===

On the Freedom Isles, with the exception of Chaos, there are three types of white light priests available to play. Each type of priest plays remarkably differently. If you have only tried one type (most people seem to only try Vynora) then I strongly encourage you to try at least one of the other types.

==== Vynora ====

Vynora is, for me, the cold and bitter priest type. While often desired for their ability to put some fantastic enchantments on tools like circle of cunning (skill gain) and winds of ages (speed gain) or awesome weapons enchantments like nimbleness (chance to hit), mind stealer (steals body characteristics from animals) and self-healers demise (helps increase chance to hit against trolls etc) this is a priest that has a terrible attitude especially at the lower levels of channeling where they are known to have an almost permanent frown faced expression occasionally enhanced by the shattering of items as their temper flares up.

==== Fo ====

Fo priests by comparison are the spreaders of love and happiness. Frustration is minimal and the ability to complete good deeds is unprecedented amongst all of the priest types. Popular and fun spells include Wild growth (can rapidly grow a forest in an extremely fast time), Humid drizzle (tends to animals instead of you grooming them) and a huge variety of healing related spells to help you cure badly hurt comrades or animals.

==== Mag ====

Mag priests seem to be devoted to mining and hunting. Once again the feeling is different when playing this priest type. Going on a hunting trip even at lower levels of fighting skill you feel like you are almost invincible to the monsters all around you. For mining one handy spell is the light token. Often used for increasing channeling ability at the lower levels, it is also very helpful when exploring or working in a very dark mine.

==== Dark Light ====

I haven't had the opportunity to play a Dark Light priest yet so unfortunately no observations to report.

=== Key skills for priests ===

==== Primary skills ====
===== Faith =====
Faith controls the amount of favor able to be provided by a priest and also impacts what spells they are able to try casting. A 100 faith priest has more spells available then a 50 faith priest and can also cast for longer before needing to recharge.

===== Channeling =====
Channeling represents how closely focused the cast is. Casts can range from an intensely negative value (which leads to shattered items) to intensively positive values (which leads to great casts). The channeling skill level seems to help keep the cast focused to a more narrow range.
General thought seems to be that once a priest reaches 70 channeling then the odds of a shattered item are greatly reduced.

Ranges:

70+ - Chance of shatter greatly reduced
80 – 85 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
86+ - Considered to be very high quality of priest with shatters being extremely rare and unusual.
Generally it should be easier to attain good casts (70+) without significant difficulty
provided soul depth is also high.

===== Soul Depth =====

Soul Depth seems to impact the amount of power a cast can attain. The higher soul depth levels allow for much higher powered casts. A popular "good" value to have for soul depth is 50 – 55.

Soul depth is heavily used for enchanting tools and weapons by Vyn (circle of cunning, wind of ages, mind stealer etc) and Fo (Life Transfer is the most common).

Ranges:

50 – 55 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
56 - 69 - Great
70+ - Exceptional

===== Soul Strength =====

Soul strength appears to be heavily used by Mag priests and to a more limited degree by Fo priests (genesis, wild growth, humid drizzle etc for items that are not enchantments of tools or weapons)

===== Preaching =====

===== Alignment =====

==== Supporting skills ====

===== Rope making =====
===== Farming =====
===== Animal Husbandry =====

=== Main or Alt? ===
Follower versus priest

=== Gaining Favor ===
In order to cast spells favor is required. Three ways exist to gain more favor that I am currently aware of.

==== Batteries ====

The first option is to use priest "batteries". These are priests that typically only have high levels of faith allowing them to hold large amounts of favor. If you link these batteries to your primary casting priest then you can draw on the favor of the primary priest and any linked batteries when casting. You may add one linked priest for every 10 levels of channeling ability. Linking priests seems to increase the level of difficulty when casting. I have not yet been able to verify that this is indeed the case although it is very commonly mentioned and there is the feeling that this is true.

When using linked priests you can often just click the casting button from time to time after favor has regenerated enough to do so. The number of linked priests directly impacts how often you can click that button. Six linked priests make it very possible to skip sacrificing items entirely for favor gain without having to wait an extremely long time between casting attempts.

Favor gain is always faster when it is at its lowest storage levels. This means that you will be able to cast more if you cast as early as possible rather than waiting until the batteries are all full.

The trade off with using batteries is that you require premium for each one.

==== Sacrifice ====

A second way to gain favor is to sacrifice items. Commonly used is cordage rope.
10 cordage ropes at 70 ql will often fill a 100 favor bar fully. Things to consider include the difficulty of producing the higher ql levels of cordage, the need for high ql wemp, requirement for a good rope tool, your rope making skill and the actual time it takes to create the cordage in the first place.

Each priest type has double favor item as well at various difficulty levels. This means that when sacrificing those items you are granted double the usual amount of favor.

==== Regeneration ====

Another option for favor generation is just to wait while the favor regenerates. Two additional things to consider are that if you do stuff while waiting it significantly slows down the regeneration process and if you pray, occasionally your god will grant you faster regeneration.

=== Skill grinding ===
==== Using batteries ====

Using Fo as an example, it is possible to vessel < 10 ql gems non-stop using two Fo batteries to draw upon. By doing this you eliminate the requirement to either sacrifice gems or spend time waiting for favor

==== Why grind? ====

Sometimes the more enjoyable way to gain skill is to just keep working on deed projects where casting plays a strong support role.

===== Example 1 – Wild growth for hedges =====

If your deed needs hedges, plant a 3 x3 or 5 x 5 square of the desired hedge type (camellia shrubs for example). Cast Fo wild growth and pick the spouts until you have the numerous sprouts required. In this way you achieve the goal of gaining channeling skill while also building those new hedges for the deed

===== Example 2 – Going hunting =====

Take your Fo priest hunting either as the main participant or in a support role for someone else who is hunting. Make it the priest's job to heal any damage that occurs. Bring a bag of prefilled gems along to make this an exercise that can occur numerous times during the trip.

===== Example 3 – Mining party =====

Help a neighbor expand their mine using your mag priest and a pickaxe. This will help you gain soul strength and if you cast light tokens as each tile is cleared then you can also work on your channeling while providing needed lighting.

===== Example 4 – Warm hot food =====

Use your Vyn priest to make some hot meals for the neighborhood. Add salt to make the meals resist decay longer. Once made cast opulence on the food so it will also go further in feeding your neighbors. This will help you build mind logic, soul depth and channeling.

===== Example 5 – Go hunting =====

Use you priest to do some hunting while on horseback – put them in studded leather (no casting penalty), equip them with a good Life Transfer weapon and send them out hunting. Perhaps start the attack by using a combat spell on the target giving you some channeling. All priest types receive fighting skills and Fo will receive channeling by casting healing. Keep a close eye on damage levels and retreat early when required.
If you hunt as part of a group then it is even easier to ask someone to heal you (if non-fo) or for you to gain channeling experience (as Fo) doing healing casts on the hunting party as required.

==== Spells for skill grinding ====

==== Vynora ====

Low = bless
Med = opulence
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Fo ====

Low = bless
Med = heal/dirt
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Mag ====

Low = light token
High = Gems or Lurker on a seryl pendulum

=== Seryl pendulum ===

Create a seryl pendulum. Usually quality of the pendulum is unimportant because seryl rarely shatters when casting. Once the pendulum is created cast Lurker spells upon it (Lurker in the dark, lurker of the deep, lurker in the woods etc). Dispel occasionally to start cycle again.
This technique avoids the need to obtain and manage gems while also providing skill gains right into the highest levels of channeling. At lower levels of channeling casting vessel on gems seems to provide better skill gains. At the higher levels of channeling this changes.

=== Using Gems ===

==== For Channel grinding ====

===== Using < 10 ql gems for channel grinding =====

< 10 ql gems do not store power when vessel is cast upon them. This is an advantage when trying to quickly improve your channeling skill because you are able to cast multiple times in quick succession on a gem without needing to worry about removing stored power between each round. Each cast causes damage to the gem so eventually it will disappear.

===== Using 10+ ql gems for channel grinding =====

When you cast vessel on gems that are 10+ ql power is actually stored in the gem for later use. This means that before you can do a second vessel cast on the gem you must first "use" the power that has been stored in the gem.
The most efficient way (albeit time consuming) to use 10+ ql gems is to drain your favor until it is at 7.5. Each time the favor reaches 7.5 cast vessel on the gem. You will actually store 2.5 power because the spell itself uses 5. Use the power and then recast again and again until the gem becomes < 10 ql.

==== For Casting ====

When you cast "vessel" on a gem it stores power in the gem. When you withdraw that power from the gem you receive double the amount of favor that was stored. For this reason a good strategy to follow when casting enchantments is to sacrifice items to create favor, vessel the favor into 10+ ql gems and then use the gems to provide the power for the casting. Favor will go a much longer way using this strategy plus you also achieve more skill gain due to the extra casting involved.

This strategy is also recommended if you are going to go into combat where quick access to spell casting is required and time to wait for link recharging etc will be too long to positively impact the battle.

==== To transfer favor between religions ====

A priest is unable to directly link with a priest from a different religion. It is possible to have a priest from one religion store favor in a gem and then have a priest from a different religion use the stored power.

==== General prices for purchasing ====

Current market rates seem to be as follows:

< 10 ql = 2.0 to 2.5 copper per ql
10+ ql = .8 to 1.2 copper per ql

This pricing reflects the current bias towards using gems for channel grinding. As noted above using gems as part of the casting process for non-channel grinding can make a significant difference that is not reflected in the price differences shown.

=== Settlement Info bonuses ===

The information in this section can be located by right clicking on your settlement deed and selecting settlement info.

==== Village bonus ====

Village bonuses are enhanced by performing sacrifices. These sacrifices can be made by both followers and priests and can be made by all religions (so you could sacrifice from Fo altar and Vyn altar with characters of the appropriate faiths and all will contribute to the village bonus). This is important because you can leverage the double favor items for each faith to enhance the bonuses with less time and effort.
When you perform sacrifices using a follower, everything they sacrifice goes directly into the village bonuses since followers have no way to spend favor. If you use a priest output from sacrifices will fill the priest's favor bar first. Only when the favor bar is full at the start of the sacrifice will the results add to the village bonus.

==== Rare bonus seconds ====

This increases the number of rare seconds. Maximum possible is 10 seconds currently. Sacrificing beyond this level will not increase this number

==== Enchantment bonus ====

If performing enchantments on deed this value provides an additional bonus to make your casting that much better. Maximum possible value appears to be 30%.

==== Number of people on deed matters? ====

I've heard rumors that the number of citizens on a deed greatly impacts how quickly the deed bonus declines. This is something I plan to look into at some point.

=== Gaining faith ===
==== Prayer ====

At lower levels of faith (< 60) the best way to gain faith appears to be to pray five times per day at 20 minute intervals. Sermons do provide you with more opportunities to pray provided you preach once every three hours. The skill gained from preaching at the sermon is less than the amount gained from each prayer at these lower faith levels.

==== Sermons ====
Preaching sermons provide the best way to gain faith and correct alignment at the higher levels of faith (60+). When you preach a sermon it also resets your prayer counter so that you can once again pray five times at 20 minute intervals.
Sermons require seven premium characters in attendance and it is equally important that non-of these characters have had an alignment changing event in the previous 30 minutes. Non-premium characters do not count towards the seven character requirement. Characters must be disembarked from large carts and wagons as well.

Sermons generally provide between 0.01 and 0.02 faith per person involved in the sermon.

You can sometimes find a sermon group on your server by asking in Freedom and/or Freedom-GL or by searching the forums.

=== Gem Farming ===
Gem Farming relies on your Wurm God providing you with occasional gems when praying constantly. These gems will range from low to high ql gems and, as noted in the gem section above, they carry a value, play a significant role in channel grinding and are very useful to provide favor for casting.

=== Conversions ===
Conversions are surprisingly uneventful considering the importance of either the decision to become a follower or a priest. It is important to note that the preaching level of the converting priest divided by 5 becomes the starting faith level of the converted.

=== Confessions ===

Improves preaching skill which in turn increases the initial faith level of the converted (see conversions section)

=== Purchasing a priest ===
==== What to look for in a high end priest ====
Channeling – 70+
Soul Depth – 50+ (Vyn and Fo (if planning to do life transfer casts)
Faith – 90 – 100 with 100 being preferable

Some type of favor support skill like rope making (All), cloth tailoring (Fo) or lock smithing (Mag).
Other key skills include animal husbandry, farming and meditation. The choice of meditation path and level on the path is also important.

=== Looking for a high end priest (Fo) however can only find Vyn. What to do? ===

Faith is one of the easier items to rebuild from zero if required especially if you can use a combination of sermons and praying sessions. An option often overlooked is to obtain a priest with high channeling and convert it to Fo. This would require you to rebuild faith from zero back to the 100 desired. Same applies for converting a high end Fo or Mag priest to Vyn.

Soul Depth is often the other consideration especially for Vyn priests. Pan filling is currently the fastest way to raise soul depth. While expensive there are panfillers who will assist you with gaining soul depth. Alternatively you can do the work yourself although it is very time consuming and requires great focus.

=== PVE Combat support roles ===
Priests can play essential combat support roles for major undertakings like removing 34 trolls from an island or assisting with the slaying of a dragon. Some spells that make a difference are listed below.
Many of these spells are area of effect spells that cover a certain area around a casting focal point. To help as many people in combat as possible it is important to either pre-define where the focal point will be and/or have some sort of communication about when/where the spell is going to be cast during the battle

All comments below are from a PVE perspective initially. PVP perspective is welcomed and will be added to a following section if reader feedback is forthcoming.

==== Fo ====
Light of Fo provides healing to the entire combat group usually within an area of the casting focal point

==== Mag ====
Mass Stamina provides a stamina refresh to the entire combat group within an 3 x3 area of the casting focal point

==== Vyn ====

Please provide feedback

=== To dispel or not to dispel? ===

Sometimes enchantments like circle of cunning or life transfer seem to get stuck at a certain level and despite repeated casts the value does not improve. Each additional improvement cast seems to run a risk of shattering the item being improved.

My 85 chan/51 soul depth Vyn seemed to have a point around 55 – 60 where it was generally better to dispel an enchantment then to attempt more than 2 or 3 improvement casts.

The same dispel tipping point for my 94 chan/76 soul depth priest seems to be around 75. Higher then 75 and I am better off dispelling and recasting. In the case of this priest there is far less chance of an actual shatter however favor is still being lost on the repeated casts

=== Battery quality ===

One question under investigation is if the quality of the actual battery priest makes a difference. For example if you use a priest with high faith but non-existent channeling and other skills does it make a difference?

=== Armor bonus and penalty ===

When casting it is important to consider the armour you are wearing. Metal armour including plate and chain imposes a 30% casting penalty. Studded leather does not impose a penalty. Wearing cloth or nothing at all provides a 30% casting bonus.
It is important to note that the special +30% bonus symbol only rarely appears on its own even when wearing cloth or no clothes. In order to encourage it to appear, put on an item like a studded leather cap and then remove it. Following the removal you will see the bonus symbol appear.

=== Spell effects window ===

Guides:Priests - Nappy's observations

2015-04-17T20:03:15Z

Nappy: /* Mag */

== Priests - Nappy's observations ==

=== The different feeling of the priests ===

On the Freedom Isles, with the exception of Chaos, there are three types of white light priests available to play. Each type of priest plays remarkably differently. If you have only tried one type (most people seem to only try Vynora) then I strongly encourage you to try at least one of the other types.

==== Vynora ====

Vynora is, for me, the cold and bitter priest type. While often desired for their ability to put some fantastic enchantments on tools like circle of cunning (skill gain) and winds of ages (speed gain) or awesome weapons enchantments like nimbleness (chance to hit), mind stealer (steals body characteristics from animals) and self-healers demise (helps increase chance to hit against trolls etc) this is a priest that has a terrible attitude especially at the lower levels of channeling where they are known to have an almost permanent frown faced expression occasionally enhanced by the shattering of items as their temper flares up.

==== Fo ====

Fo priests by comparison are the spreaders of love and happiness. Frustration is minimal and the ability to complete good deeds is unprecedented amongst all of the priest types. Popular and fun spells include Wild growth (can rapidly grow a forest in an extremely fast time), Humid drizzle (tends to animals instead of you grooming them) and a huge variety of healing related spells to help you cure badly hurt comrades or animals.

==== Mag ====

Mag priests seem to be devoted to mining and hunting. Once again the feeling is different when playing this priest type. Going on a hunting trip even at lower levels of fighting skill you feel like you are almost invincible to the monsters all around you. For mining one handy spell is the light token. Often used for increasing channeling ability at the lower levels, it is also very helpful when exploring or working in a very dark mine.

==== Dark Light ====

I haven't had the opportunity to play a Dark Light priest yet so unfortunately no observations to report.

=== Key skills for priests ===

==== Primary skills ====
===== Faith =====
Faith controls the amount of favor able to be provided by a priest and also impacts what spells they are able to try casting. A 100 faith priest has more spells available then a 50 faith priest and can also cast for longer before needing to recharge.

===== Channeling =====
Channeling represents how closely focused the cast is. Casts can range from an intensely negative value (which leads to shattered items) to intensively positive values (which leads to great casts). The channeling skill level seems to help keep the cast focused to a more narrow range.
General thought seems to be that once a priest reaches 70 channeling then the odds of a shattered item are greatly reduced.

Ranges:

70+ - Chance of shatter greatly reduced
80 – 85 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
86+ - Considered to be very high quality of priest with shatters being extremely rare and unusual.
Generally it should be easier to attain good casts (70+) without significant difficulty
provided soul depth is also high.

===== Soul Depth =====

Soul Depth seems to impact the amount of power a cast can attain. The higher soul depth levels allow for much higher powered casts. A popular "good" value to have for soul depth is 50 – 55.

Soul depth is heavily used for enchanting tools and weapons by Vyn (circle of cunning, wind of ages, mind stealer etc) and Fo (Life Transfer is the most common).

Ranges:

50 – 55 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
56 - 69 - Great
70+ - Exceptional

===== Soul Strength =====

Soul strength appears to be heavily used by Mag priests and to a more limited degree by Fo priests (genesis, wild growth, humid drizzle etc for items that are not enchantments of tools or weapons)

===== Preaching =====

===== Alignment =====

==== Supporting skills ====

===== Rope making =====
===== Farming =====
===== Animal Husbandry =====

=== Main or Alt? ===
Follower versus priest

=== Gaining Favor ===
In order to cast spells favor is required. Three ways exist to gain more favor that I am currently aware of.

==== Batteries ====

The first option is to use priest "batteries". These are priests that typically only have high levels of faith allowing them to hold large amounts of favor. If you link these batteries to your primary casting priest then you can draw on the favor of the primary priest and any linked batteries when casting. You may add one linked priest for every 10 levels of channeling ability. Linking priests seems to increase the level of difficulty when casting. I have not yet been able to verify that this is indeed the case although it is very commonly mentioned and there is the feeling that this is true.

When using linked priests you can often just click the casting button from time to time after favor has regenerated enough to do so. The number of linked priests directly impacts how often you can click that button. Six linked priests make it very possible to skip sacrificing items entirely for favor gain without having to wait an extremely long time between casting attempts.

Favor gain is always faster when it is at its lowest storage levels. This means that you will be able to cast more if you cast as early as possible rather than waiting until the batteries are all full.

The trade off with using batteries is that you require premium for each one.

==== Sacrifice ====

A second way to gain favor is to sacrifice items. Commonly used is cordage rope.
10 cordage ropes at 70 ql will often fill a 100 favor bar fully. Things to consider include the difficulty of producing the higher ql levels of cordage, the need for high ql wemp, requirement for a good rope tool, your rope making skill and the actual time it takes to create the cordage in the first place.

Each priest type has double favor item as well at various difficulty levels. This means that when sacrificing those items you are granted double the usual amount of favor.

==== Regeneration ====

Another option for favor generation is just to wait while the favor regenerates. Two additional things to consider are that if you do stuff while waiting it significantly slows down the regeneration process and if you pray, occasionally your god will grant you faster regeneration.

=== Skill grinding ===
==== Using batteries ====

Using Fo as an example, it is possible to vessel < 10 ql gems non-stop using two Fo batteries to draw upon. By doing this you eliminate the requirement to either sacrifice gems or spend time waiting for favor

==== Why grind? ====

Sometimes the more enjoyable way to gain skill is to just keep working on deed projects where casting plays a strong support role.

===== Example 1 – Wild growth for hedges =====

If your deed needs hedges, plant a 3 x3 or 5 x 5 square of the desired hedge type (camellia shrubs for example). Cast Fo wild growth and pick the spouts until you have the numerous sprouts required. In this way you achieve the goal of gaining channeling skill while also building those new hedges for the deed

===== Example 2 – Going hunting =====

Take your Fo priest hunting either as the main participant or in a support role for someone else who is hunting. Make it the priest's job to heal any damage that occurs. Bring a bag of prefilled gems along to make this an exercise that can occur numerous times during the trip.

===== Example 3 – Mining party =====

Help a neighbor expand their mine using your mag priest and a pickaxe. This will help you gain soul strength and if you cast light tokens as each tile is cleared then you can also work on your channeling while providing needed lighting.

===== Example 4 – Warm hot food =====

Use your Vyn priest to make some hot meals for the neighborhood. Add salt to make the meals resist decay longer. Once made cast opulence on the food so it will also go further in feeding your neighbors. This will help you build mind logic, soul depth and channeling.

===== Example 5 – Go hunting =====

Use you priest to do some hunting while on horseback – put them in studded leather (no casting penalty), equip them with a good Life Transfer weapon and send them out hunting. Perhaps start the attack by using a combat spell on the target giving you some channeling. All priest types receive fighting skills and Fo will receive channeling by casting healing. Keep a close eye on damage levels and retreat early when required.
If you hunt as part of a group then it is even easier to ask someone to heal you (if non-fo) or for you to gain channeling experience (as Fo) doing healing casts on the hunting party as required.

==== Spells for skill grinding ====

==== Vynora ====

Low = bless
Med = opulence
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Fo ====

Low = bless
Med = heal/dirt
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Mag ====

Low = light token
High = Gems or Lurker on a seryl pendulum

=== Seryl pendulum ===

Create a seryl pendulum. Usually quality of the pendulum is unimportant because seryl rarely shatters when casting. Once the pendulum is created cast Lurker spells upon it (Lurker in the dark, lurker of the deep, lurker in the woods etc). Dispel occasionally to start cycle again.
This technique avoids the need to obtain and manage gems while also providing skill gains right into the highest levels of channeling. At lower levels of channeling casting vessel on gems seems to provide better skill gains. At the higher levels of channeling this changes.

=== Using Gems ===

==== For Channel grinding ====

===== Using < 10 ql gems for channel grinding =====

< 10 ql gems do not store power when vessel is cast upon them. This is an advantage when trying to quickly improve your channeling skill because you are able to cast multiple times in quick succession on a gem without needing to worry about removing stored power between each round. Each cast causes damage to the gem so eventually it will disappear.

===== Using 10+ ql gems for channel grinding =====

When you cast vessel on gems that are 10+ ql power is actually stored in the gem for later use. This means that before you can do a second vessel cast on the gem you must first "use" the power that has been stored in the gem.
The most efficient way (albeit time consuming) to use 10+ ql gems is to drain your favor until it is at 7.5. Each time the favor reaches 7.5 cast vessel on the gem. You will actually store 2.5 power because the spell itself uses 5. Use the power and then recast again and again until the gem becomes < 10 ql.

==== For Casting ====

When you cast "vessel" on a gem it stores power in the gem. When you withdraw that power from the gem you receive double the amount of favor that was stored. For this reason a good strategy to follow when casting enchantments is to sacrifice items to create favor, vessel the favor into 10+ ql gems and then use the gems to provide the power for the casting. Favor will go a much longer way using this strategy plus you also achieve more skill gain due to the extra casting involved.

This strategy is also recommended if you are going to go into combat where quick access to spell casting is required and time to wait for link recharging etc will be too long to positively impact the battle.

==== To transfer favor between religions ====

A priest is unable to directly link with a priest from a different religion. It is possible to have a priest from one religion store favor in a gem and then have a priest from a different religion use the stored power.

==== General prices for purchasing ====

Current market rates seem to be as follows:

< 10 ql = 2.0 to 2.5 copper per ql
10+ ql = .8 to 1.2 copper per ql

This pricing reflects the current bias towards using gems for channel grinding. As noted above using gems as part of the casting process for non-channel grinding can make a significant difference that is not reflected in the price differences shown.

=== Settlement Info bonuses ===

The information in this section can be located by right clicking on your settlement deed and selecting settlement info.

==== Village bonus ====

Village bonuses are enhanced by performing sacrifices. These sacrifices can be made by both followers and priests and can be made by all religions (so you could sacrifice from Fo altar and Vyn altar with characters of the appropriate faiths and all will contribute to the village bonus). This is important because you can leverage the double favor items for each faith to enhance the bonuses with less time and effort.
When you perform sacrifices using a follower, everything they sacrifice goes directly into the village bonuses since followers have no way to spend favor. If you use a priest output from sacrifices will fill the priest's favor bar first. Only when the favor bar is full at the start of the sacrifice will the results add to the village bonus.

==== Rare bonus seconds ====

This increases the number of rare seconds. Maximum possible is 10 seconds currently. Sacrificing beyond this level will not increase this number

==== Enchantment bonus ====

If performing enchantments on deed this value provides an additional bonus to make your casting that much better. Maximum possible value appears to be 30%.

==== Number of people on deed matters? ====

I've heard rumors that the number of citizens on a deed greatly impacts how quickly the deed bonus declines. This is something I plan to look into at some point.

=== Gaining faith ===
==== Prayer ====

At lower levels of faith (< 60) the best way to gain faith appears to be to pray five times per day at 20 minute intervals. Sermons do provide you with more opportunities to pray provided you preach once every three hours. The skill gained from preaching at the sermon is less than the amount gained from each prayer at these lower faith levels.

==== Sermons ====
Preaching sermons provide the best way to gain faith and correct alignment at the higher levels of faith (60+). When you preach a sermon it also resets your prayer counter so that you can once again pray five times at 20 minute intervals.
Sermons require seven premium characters in attendance and it is equally important that non-of these characters have had an alignment changing event in the previous 30 minutes. Non-premium characters do not count towards the seven character requirement. Characters must be disembarked from large carts and wagons as well.

Sermons generally provide between 0.01 and 0.02 faith per person involved in the sermon.

You can sometimes find a sermon group on your server by asking in Freedom and/or Freedom-GL or by searching the forums.

=== Gem Farming ===
Gem Farming relies on your Wurm God providing you with occasional gems when praying constantly. These gems will range from low to high ql gems and, as noted in the gem section above, they carry a value, play a significant role in channel grinding and are very useful to provide favor for casting.

=== Conversions ===
Conversions are surprisingly uneventful considering the importance of either the decision to become a follower or a priest. It is important to note that the preaching level of the converting priest divided by 5 becomes the starting faith level of the converted.

=== Confessions ===

Improves preaching skill which in turn increases the initial faith level of the converted (see conversions section)

=== Purchasing a priest ===
==== What to look for in a high end priest ====
Channeling – 70+
Soul Depth – 50+ (Vyn and Fo (if planning to do life transfer casts)
Faith – 90 – 100 with 100 being preferable

Some type of favor support skill like rope making (All), cloth tailoring (Fo) or lock smithing (Mag).
Other key skills include animal husbandry, farming and meditation. The choice of meditation path and level on the path is also important.

=== Looking for a high end priest (Fo) however can only find Vyn. What to do? ===

Faith is one of the easier items to rebuild from zero if required especially if you can use a combination of sermons and praying sessions. An option often overlooked is to obtain a priest with high channeling and convert it to Fo. This would require you to rebuild faith from zero back to the 100 desired. Same applies for converting a high end Fo or Mag priest to Vyn.

Soul Depth is often the other consideration especially for Vyn priests. Pan filling is currently the fastest way to raise soul depth. While expensive there are panfillers who will assist you with gaining soul depth. Alternatively you can do the work yourself although it is very time consuming and requires great focus.

=== PVE Combat support roles ===
Priests can play essential combat support roles for major undertakings like removing 34 trolls from an island or assisting with the slaying of a dragon. Some spells that make a difference are listed below.
Many of these spells are area of effect spells that cover a certain area around a casting focal point. To help as many people in combat as possible it is important to either pre-define where the focal point will be and/or have some sort of communication about when/where the spell is going to be cast during the battle

All comments below are from a PVE perspective initially. PVP perspective is welcomed and will be added to a following section if reader feedback is forthcoming.

==== Fo ====
Light of Fo provides healing to the entire combat group usually within an area of the casting focal point

==== Mag ====
Mass Stamina provides a stamina refresh to the entire combat group within an 3 x3 area of the casting focal point

==== Vyn ====

Please provide feedback

=== To dispel or not to dispel? ===

Sometimes enchantments like circle of cunning or life transfer seem to get stuck at a certain level and despite repeated casts the value does not improve. Each additional improvement cast seems to run a risk of shattering the item being improved.

My 85 chan/51 soul depth Vyn seemed to have a point around 55 – 60 where it was generally better to dispel an enchantment then to attempt more than 2 or 3 improvement casts.

The same dispel tipping point for my 94 chan/76 soul depth priest seems to be around 75. Higher then 75 and I am better off dispelling and recasting. In the case of this priest there is far less chance of an actual shatter however favor is still being lost on the repeated casts

=== Battery quality ===

One question under investigation is if the quality of the actual battery priest makes a difference. For example if you use a priest with high faith but non-existent channeling and other skills does it make a difference?

=== Armor bonus and penalty ===

When casting it is important to consider the armour you are wearing. Metal armour including plate and chain imposes a 30% casting penalty. Studded leather does not impose a penalty. Wearing cloth or nothing at all provides a 30% casting bonus.
It is important to note that the special +30% bonus symbol only rarely appears on its own even when wearing cloth or no clothes. In order to encourage it to appear, put on an item like a studded leather cap and then remove it. Following the removal you will see the bonus symbol appear.

=== Spell effects window ===

Guides:Priests - Nappy's observations

2015-04-17T20:02:47Z

Nappy: /* Fo */

== Priests - Nappy's observations ==

=== The different feeling of the priests ===

On the Freedom Isles, with the exception of Chaos, there are three types of white light priests available to play. Each type of priest plays remarkably differently. If you have only tried one type (most people seem to only try Vynora) then I strongly encourage you to try at least one of the other types.

==== Vynora ====

Vynora is, for me, the cold and bitter priest type. While often desired for their ability to put some fantastic enchantments on tools like circle of cunning (skill gain) and winds of ages (speed gain) or awesome weapons enchantments like nimbleness (chance to hit), mind stealer (steals body characteristics from animals) and self-healers demise (helps increase chance to hit against trolls etc) this is a priest that has a terrible attitude especially at the lower levels of channeling where they are known to have an almost permanent frown faced expression occasionally enhanced by the shattering of items as their temper flares up.

==== Fo ====

Fo priests by comparison are the spreaders of love and happiness. Frustration is minimal and the ability to complete good deeds is unprecedented amongst all of the priest types. Popular and fun spells include Wild growth (can rapidly grow a forest in an extremely fast time), Humid drizzle (tends to animals instead of you grooming them) and a huge variety of healing related spells to help you cure badly hurt comrades or animals.

==== Mag ====

Mag priests seem to be devoted to mining and hunting. Once again the feeling is different when playing this priest type. Going on a hunting trip even at lower levels of fighting skill you feel like you are almost invincible to the monsters all around you. For mining one handy spell is the light token. Often used for increasing channeling ability at the lower levels, it is also very helpful when exploring or working in a very dark mine.

==== Dark Light ====

I haven't had the opportunity to play a Dark Light priest yet so unfortunately no observations to report.

=== Key skills for priests ===

==== Primary skills ====
===== Faith =====
Faith controls the amount of favor able to be provided by a priest and also impacts what spells they are able to try casting. A 100 faith priest has more spells available then a 50 faith priest and can also cast for longer before needing to recharge.

===== Channeling =====
Channeling represents how closely focused the cast is. Casts can range from an intensely negative value (which leads to shattered items) to intensively positive values (which leads to great casts). The channeling skill level seems to help keep the cast focused to a more narrow range.
General thought seems to be that once a priest reaches 70 channeling then the odds of a shattered item are greatly reduced.

Ranges:

70+ - Chance of shatter greatly reduced
80 – 85 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
86+ - Considered to be very high quality of priest with shatters being extremely rare and unusual.
Generally it should be easier to attain good casts (70+) without significant difficulty
provided soul depth is also high.

===== Soul Depth =====

Soul Depth seems to impact the amount of power a cast can attain. The higher soul depth levels allow for much higher powered casts. A popular "good" value to have for soul depth is 50 – 55.

Soul depth is heavily used for enchanting tools and weapons by Vyn (circle of cunning, wind of ages, mind stealer etc) and Fo (Life Transfer is the most common).

Ranges:

50 – 55 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
56 - 69 - Great
70+ - Exceptional

===== Soul Strength =====

Soul strength appears to be heavily used by Mag priests and to a more limited degree by Fo priests (genesis, wild growth, humid drizzle etc for items that are not enchantments of tools or weapons)

===== Preaching =====

===== Alignment =====

==== Supporting skills ====

===== Rope making =====
===== Farming =====
===== Animal Husbandry =====

=== Main or Alt? ===
Follower versus priest

=== Gaining Favor ===
In order to cast spells favor is required. Three ways exist to gain more favor that I am currently aware of.

==== Batteries ====

The first option is to use priest "batteries". These are priests that typically only have high levels of faith allowing them to hold large amounts of favor. If you link these batteries to your primary casting priest then you can draw on the favor of the primary priest and any linked batteries when casting. You may add one linked priest for every 10 levels of channeling ability. Linking priests seems to increase the level of difficulty when casting. I have not yet been able to verify that this is indeed the case although it is very commonly mentioned and there is the feeling that this is true.

When using linked priests you can often just click the casting button from time to time after favor has regenerated enough to do so. The number of linked priests directly impacts how often you can click that button. Six linked priests make it very possible to skip sacrificing items entirely for favor gain without having to wait an extremely long time between casting attempts.

Favor gain is always faster when it is at its lowest storage levels. This means that you will be able to cast more if you cast as early as possible rather than waiting until the batteries are all full.

The trade off with using batteries is that you require premium for each one.

==== Sacrifice ====

A second way to gain favor is to sacrifice items. Commonly used is cordage rope.
10 cordage ropes at 70 ql will often fill a 100 favor bar fully. Things to consider include the difficulty of producing the higher ql levels of cordage, the need for high ql wemp, requirement for a good rope tool, your rope making skill and the actual time it takes to create the cordage in the first place.

Each priest type has double favor item as well at various difficulty levels. This means that when sacrificing those items you are granted double the usual amount of favor.

==== Regeneration ====

Another option for favor generation is just to wait while the favor regenerates. Two additional things to consider are that if you do stuff while waiting it significantly slows down the regeneration process and if you pray, occasionally your god will grant you faster regeneration.

=== Skill grinding ===
==== Using batteries ====

Using Fo as an example, it is possible to vessel < 10 ql gems non-stop using two Fo batteries to draw upon. By doing this you eliminate the requirement to either sacrifice gems or spend time waiting for favor

==== Why grind? ====

Sometimes the more enjoyable way to gain skill is to just keep working on deed projects where casting plays a strong support role.

===== Example 1 – Wild growth for hedges =====

If your deed needs hedges, plant a 3 x3 or 5 x 5 square of the desired hedge type (camellia shrubs for example). Cast Fo wild growth and pick the spouts until you have the numerous sprouts required. In this way you achieve the goal of gaining channeling skill while also building those new hedges for the deed

===== Example 2 – Going hunting =====

Take your Fo priest hunting either as the main participant or in a support role for someone else who is hunting. Make it the priest's job to heal any damage that occurs. Bring a bag of prefilled gems along to make this an exercise that can occur numerous times during the trip.

===== Example 3 – Mining party =====

Help a neighbor expand their mine using your mag priest and a pickaxe. This will help you gain soul strength and if you cast light tokens as each tile is cleared then you can also work on your channeling while providing needed lighting.

===== Example 4 – Warm hot food =====

Use your Vyn priest to make some hot meals for the neighborhood. Add salt to make the meals resist decay longer. Once made cast opulence on the food so it will also go further in feeding your neighbors. This will help you build mind logic, soul depth and channeling.

===== Example 5 – Go hunting =====

Use you priest to do some hunting while on horseback – put them in studded leather (no casting penalty), equip them with a good Life Transfer weapon and send them out hunting. Perhaps start the attack by using a combat spell on the target giving you some channeling. All priest types receive fighting skills and Fo will receive channeling by casting healing. Keep a close eye on damage levels and retreat early when required.
If you hunt as part of a group then it is even easier to ask someone to heal you (if non-fo) or for you to gain channeling experience (as Fo) doing healing casts on the hunting party as required.

==== Spells for skill grinding ====

==== Vynora ====

Low = bless
Med = opulence
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Fo ====

Low = bless
Med = heal/dirt
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Mag ====

Low = light token
High = Gems or Lurker on a seryl pendulum

=== Seryl pendulum ===

Create a seryl pendulum. Usually quality of the pendulum is unimportant because seryl rarely shatters when casting. Once the pendulum is created cast Lurker spells upon it (Lurker in the dark, lurker of the deep, lurker in the woods etc). Dispel occasionally to start cycle again.
This technique avoids the need to obtain and manage gems while also providing skill gains right into the highest levels of channeling. At lower levels of channeling casting vessel on gems seems to provide better skill gains. At the higher levels of channeling this changes.

=== Using Gems ===

==== For Channel grinding ====

===== Using < 10 ql gems for channel grinding =====

< 10 ql gems do not store power when vessel is cast upon them. This is an advantage when trying to quickly improve your channeling skill because you are able to cast multiple times in quick succession on a gem without needing to worry about removing stored power between each round. Each cast causes damage to the gem so eventually it will disappear.

===== Using 10+ ql gems for channel grinding =====

When you cast vessel on gems that are 10+ ql power is actually stored in the gem for later use. This means that before you can do a second vessel cast on the gem you must first "use" the power that has been stored in the gem.
The most efficient way (albeit time consuming) to use 10+ ql gems is to drain your favor until it is at 7.5. Each time the favor reaches 7.5 cast vessel on the gem. You will actually store 2.5 power because the spell itself uses 5. Use the power and then recast again and again until the gem becomes < 10 ql.

==== For Casting ====

When you cast "vessel" on a gem it stores power in the gem. When you withdraw that power from the gem you receive double the amount of favor that was stored. For this reason a good strategy to follow when casting enchantments is to sacrifice items to create favor, vessel the favor into 10+ ql gems and then use the gems to provide the power for the casting. Favor will go a much longer way using this strategy plus you also achieve more skill gain due to the extra casting involved.

This strategy is also recommended if you are going to go into combat where quick access to spell casting is required and time to wait for link recharging etc will be too long to positively impact the battle.

==== To transfer favor between religions ====

A priest is unable to directly link with a priest from a different religion. It is possible to have a priest from one religion store favor in a gem and then have a priest from a different religion use the stored power.

==== General prices for purchasing ====

Current market rates seem to be as follows:

< 10 ql = 2.0 to 2.5 copper per ql
10+ ql = .8 to 1.2 copper per ql

This pricing reflects the current bias towards using gems for channel grinding. As noted above using gems as part of the casting process for non-channel grinding can make a significant difference that is not reflected in the price differences shown.

=== Settlement Info bonuses ===

The information in this section can be located by right clicking on your settlement deed and selecting settlement info.

==== Village bonus ====

Village bonuses are enhanced by performing sacrifices. These sacrifices can be made by both followers and priests and can be made by all religions (so you could sacrifice from Fo altar and Vyn altar with characters of the appropriate faiths and all will contribute to the village bonus). This is important because you can leverage the double favor items for each faith to enhance the bonuses with less time and effort.
When you perform sacrifices using a follower, everything they sacrifice goes directly into the village bonuses since followers have no way to spend favor. If you use a priest output from sacrifices will fill the priest's favor bar first. Only when the favor bar is full at the start of the sacrifice will the results add to the village bonus.

==== Rare bonus seconds ====

This increases the number of rare seconds. Maximum possible is 10 seconds currently. Sacrificing beyond this level will not increase this number

==== Enchantment bonus ====

If performing enchantments on deed this value provides an additional bonus to make your casting that much better. Maximum possible value appears to be 30%.

==== Number of people on deed matters? ====

I've heard rumors that the number of citizens on a deed greatly impacts how quickly the deed bonus declines. This is something I plan to look into at some point.

=== Gaining faith ===
==== Prayer ====

At lower levels of faith (< 60) the best way to gain faith appears to be to pray five times per day at 20 minute intervals. Sermons do provide you with more opportunities to pray provided you preach once every three hours. The skill gained from preaching at the sermon is less than the amount gained from each prayer at these lower faith levels.

==== Sermons ====
Preaching sermons provide the best way to gain faith and correct alignment at the higher levels of faith (60+). When you preach a sermon it also resets your prayer counter so that you can once again pray five times at 20 minute intervals.
Sermons require seven premium characters in attendance and it is equally important that non-of these characters have had an alignment changing event in the previous 30 minutes. Non-premium characters do not count towards the seven character requirement. Characters must be disembarked from large carts and wagons as well.

Sermons generally provide between 0.01 and 0.02 faith per person involved in the sermon.

You can sometimes find a sermon group on your server by asking in Freedom and/or Freedom-GL or by searching the forums.

=== Gem Farming ===
Gem Farming relies on your Wurm God providing you with occasional gems when praying constantly. These gems will range from low to high ql gems and, as noted in the gem section above, they carry a value, play a significant role in channel grinding and are very useful to provide favor for casting.

=== Conversions ===
Conversions are surprisingly uneventful considering the importance of either the decision to become a follower or a priest. It is important to note that the preaching level of the converting priest divided by 5 becomes the starting faith level of the converted.

=== Confessions ===

Improves preaching skill which in turn increases the initial faith level of the converted (see conversions section)

=== Purchasing a priest ===
==== What to look for in a high end priest ====
Channeling – 70+
Soul Depth – 50+ (Vyn and Fo (if planning to do life transfer casts)
Faith – 90 – 100 with 100 being preferable

Some type of favor support skill like rope making (All), cloth tailoring (Fo) or lock smithing (Mag).
Other key skills include animal husbandry, farming and meditation. The choice of meditation path and level on the path is also important.

=== Looking for a high end priest (Fo) however can only find Vyn. What to do? ===

Faith is one of the easier items to rebuild from zero if required especially if you can use a combination of sermons and praying sessions. An option often overlooked is to obtain a priest with high channeling and convert it to Fo. This would require you to rebuild faith from zero back to the 100 desired. Same applies for converting a high end Fo or Mag priest to Vyn.

Soul Depth is often the other consideration especially for Vyn priests. Pan filling is currently the fastest way to raise soul depth. While expensive there are panfillers who will assist you with gaining soul depth. Alternatively you can do the work yourself although it is very time consuming and requires great focus.

=== PVE Combat support roles ===
Priests can play essential combat support roles for major undertakings like removing 34 trolls from an island or assisting with the slaying of a dragon. Some spells that make a difference are listed below.
Many of these spells are area of effect spells that cover a certain area around a casting focal point. To help as many people in combat as possible it is important to either pre-define where the focal point will be and/or have some sort of communication about when/where the spell is going to be cast during the battle

All comments below are from a PVE perspective initially. PVP perspective is welcomed and will be added to a following section if reader feedback is forthcoming.

==== Fo ====
Light of Fo provides healing to the entire combat group usually within an area of the casting focal point

==== Mag ====
Mass Stamina
Provides a stamina refresh to the entire combat group within an 3 x3 area of the casting focal point

==== Vyn ====

Please provide feedback

=== To dispel or not to dispel? ===

Sometimes enchantments like circle of cunning or life transfer seem to get stuck at a certain level and despite repeated casts the value does not improve. Each additional improvement cast seems to run a risk of shattering the item being improved.

My 85 chan/51 soul depth Vyn seemed to have a point around 55 – 60 where it was generally better to dispel an enchantment then to attempt more than 2 or 3 improvement casts.

The same dispel tipping point for my 94 chan/76 soul depth priest seems to be around 75. Higher then 75 and I am better off dispelling and recasting. In the case of this priest there is far less chance of an actual shatter however favor is still being lost on the repeated casts

=== Battery quality ===

One question under investigation is if the quality of the actual battery priest makes a difference. For example if you use a priest with high faith but non-existent channeling and other skills does it make a difference?

=== Armor bonus and penalty ===

When casting it is important to consider the armour you are wearing. Metal armour including plate and chain imposes a 30% casting penalty. Studded leather does not impose a penalty. Wearing cloth or nothing at all provides a 30% casting bonus.
It is important to note that the special +30% bonus symbol only rarely appears on its own even when wearing cloth or no clothes. In order to encourage it to appear, put on an item like a studded leather cap and then remove it. Following the removal you will see the bonus symbol appear.

=== Spell effects window ===

Guides:Priests - Nappy's observations

2015-04-17T19:59:41Z

Nappy: /* General prices for purchasing */

== Priests - Nappy's observations ==

=== The different feeling of the priests ===

On the Freedom Isles, with the exception of Chaos, there are three types of white light priests available to play. Each type of priest plays remarkably differently. If you have only tried one type (most people seem to only try Vynora) then I strongly encourage you to try at least one of the other types.

==== Vynora ====

Vynora is, for me, the cold and bitter priest type. While often desired for their ability to put some fantastic enchantments on tools like circle of cunning (skill gain) and winds of ages (speed gain) or awesome weapons enchantments like nimbleness (chance to hit), mind stealer (steals body characteristics from animals) and self-healers demise (helps increase chance to hit against trolls etc) this is a priest that has a terrible attitude especially at the lower levels of channeling where they are known to have an almost permanent frown faced expression occasionally enhanced by the shattering of items as their temper flares up.

==== Fo ====

Fo priests by comparison are the spreaders of love and happiness. Frustration is minimal and the ability to complete good deeds is unprecedented amongst all of the priest types. Popular and fun spells include Wild growth (can rapidly grow a forest in an extremely fast time), Humid drizzle (tends to animals instead of you grooming them) and a huge variety of healing related spells to help you cure badly hurt comrades or animals.

==== Mag ====

Mag priests seem to be devoted to mining and hunting. Once again the feeling is different when playing this priest type. Going on a hunting trip even at lower levels of fighting skill you feel like you are almost invincible to the monsters all around you. For mining one handy spell is the light token. Often used for increasing channeling ability at the lower levels, it is also very helpful when exploring or working in a very dark mine.

==== Dark Light ====

I haven't had the opportunity to play a Dark Light priest yet so unfortunately no observations to report.

=== Key skills for priests ===

==== Primary skills ====
===== Faith =====
Faith controls the amount of favor able to be provided by a priest and also impacts what spells they are able to try casting. A 100 faith priest has more spells available then a 50 faith priest and can also cast for longer before needing to recharge.

===== Channeling =====
Channeling represents how closely focused the cast is. Casts can range from an intensely negative value (which leads to shattered items) to intensively positive values (which leads to great casts). The channeling skill level seems to help keep the cast focused to a more narrow range.
General thought seems to be that once a priest reaches 70 channeling then the odds of a shattered item are greatly reduced.

Ranges:

70+ - Chance of shatter greatly reduced
80 – 85 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
86+ - Considered to be very high quality of priest with shatters being extremely rare and unusual.
Generally it should be easier to attain good casts (70+) without significant difficulty
provided soul depth is also high.

===== Soul Depth =====

Soul Depth seems to impact the amount of power a cast can attain. The higher soul depth levels allow for much higher powered casts. A popular "good" value to have for soul depth is 50 – 55.

Soul depth is heavily used for enchanting tools and weapons by Vyn (circle of cunning, wind of ages, mind stealer etc) and Fo (Life Transfer is the most common).

Ranges:

50 – 55 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
56 - 69 - Great
70+ - Exceptional

===== Soul Strength =====

Soul strength appears to be heavily used by Mag priests and to a more limited degree by Fo priests (genesis, wild growth, humid drizzle etc for items that are not enchantments of tools or weapons)

===== Preaching =====

===== Alignment =====

==== Supporting skills ====

===== Rope making =====
===== Farming =====
===== Animal Husbandry =====

=== Main or Alt? ===
Follower versus priest

=== Gaining Favor ===
In order to cast spells favor is required. Three ways exist to gain more favor that I am currently aware of.

==== Batteries ====

The first option is to use priest "batteries". These are priests that typically only have high levels of faith allowing them to hold large amounts of favor. If you link these batteries to your primary casting priest then you can draw on the favor of the primary priest and any linked batteries when casting. You may add one linked priest for every 10 levels of channeling ability. Linking priests seems to increase the level of difficulty when casting. I have not yet been able to verify that this is indeed the case although it is very commonly mentioned and there is the feeling that this is true.

When using linked priests you can often just click the casting button from time to time after favor has regenerated enough to do so. The number of linked priests directly impacts how often you can click that button. Six linked priests make it very possible to skip sacrificing items entirely for favor gain without having to wait an extremely long time between casting attempts.

Favor gain is always faster when it is at its lowest storage levels. This means that you will be able to cast more if you cast as early as possible rather than waiting until the batteries are all full.

The trade off with using batteries is that you require premium for each one.

==== Sacrifice ====

A second way to gain favor is to sacrifice items. Commonly used is cordage rope.
10 cordage ropes at 70 ql will often fill a 100 favor bar fully. Things to consider include the difficulty of producing the higher ql levels of cordage, the need for high ql wemp, requirement for a good rope tool, your rope making skill and the actual time it takes to create the cordage in the first place.

Each priest type has double favor item as well at various difficulty levels. This means that when sacrificing those items you are granted double the usual amount of favor.

==== Regeneration ====

Another option for favor generation is just to wait while the favor regenerates. Two additional things to consider are that if you do stuff while waiting it significantly slows down the regeneration process and if you pray, occasionally your god will grant you faster regeneration.

=== Skill grinding ===
==== Using batteries ====

Using Fo as an example, it is possible to vessel < 10 ql gems non-stop using two Fo batteries to draw upon. By doing this you eliminate the requirement to either sacrifice gems or spend time waiting for favor

==== Why grind? ====

Sometimes the more enjoyable way to gain skill is to just keep working on deed projects where casting plays a strong support role.

===== Example 1 – Wild growth for hedges =====

If your deed needs hedges, plant a 3 x3 or 5 x 5 square of the desired hedge type (camellia shrubs for example). Cast Fo wild growth and pick the spouts until you have the numerous sprouts required. In this way you achieve the goal of gaining channeling skill while also building those new hedges for the deed

===== Example 2 – Going hunting =====

Take your Fo priest hunting either as the main participant or in a support role for someone else who is hunting. Make it the priest's job to heal any damage that occurs. Bring a bag of prefilled gems along to make this an exercise that can occur numerous times during the trip.

===== Example 3 – Mining party =====

Help a neighbor expand their mine using your mag priest and a pickaxe. This will help you gain soul strength and if you cast light tokens as each tile is cleared then you can also work on your channeling while providing needed lighting.

===== Example 4 – Warm hot food =====

Use your Vyn priest to make some hot meals for the neighborhood. Add salt to make the meals resist decay longer. Once made cast opulence on the food so it will also go further in feeding your neighbors. This will help you build mind logic, soul depth and channeling.

===== Example 5 – Go hunting =====

Use you priest to do some hunting while on horseback – put them in studded leather (no casting penalty), equip them with a good Life Transfer weapon and send them out hunting. Perhaps start the attack by using a combat spell on the target giving you some channeling. All priest types receive fighting skills and Fo will receive channeling by casting healing. Keep a close eye on damage levels and retreat early when required.
If you hunt as part of a group then it is even easier to ask someone to heal you (if non-fo) or for you to gain channeling experience (as Fo) doing healing casts on the hunting party as required.

==== Spells for skill grinding ====

==== Vynora ====

Low = bless
Med = opulence
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Fo ====

Low = bless
Med = heal/dirt
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Mag ====

Low = light token
High = Gems or Lurker on a seryl pendulum

=== Seryl pendulum ===

Create a seryl pendulum. Usually quality of the pendulum is unimportant because seryl rarely shatters when casting. Once the pendulum is created cast Lurker spells upon it (Lurker in the dark, lurker of the deep, lurker in the woods etc). Dispel occasionally to start cycle again.
This technique avoids the need to obtain and manage gems while also providing skill gains right into the highest levels of channeling. At lower levels of channeling casting vessel on gems seems to provide better skill gains. At the higher levels of channeling this changes.

=== Using Gems ===

==== For Channel grinding ====

===== Using < 10 ql gems for channel grinding =====

< 10 ql gems do not store power when vessel is cast upon them. This is an advantage when trying to quickly improve your channeling skill because you are able to cast multiple times in quick succession on a gem without needing to worry about removing stored power between each round. Each cast causes damage to the gem so eventually it will disappear.

===== Using 10+ ql gems for channel grinding =====

When you cast vessel on gems that are 10+ ql power is actually stored in the gem for later use. This means that before you can do a second vessel cast on the gem you must first "use" the power that has been stored in the gem.
The most efficient way (albeit time consuming) to use 10+ ql gems is to drain your favor until it is at 7.5. Each time the favor reaches 7.5 cast vessel on the gem. You will actually store 2.5 power because the spell itself uses 5. Use the power and then recast again and again until the gem becomes < 10 ql.

==== For Casting ====

When you cast "vessel" on a gem it stores power in the gem. When you withdraw that power from the gem you receive double the amount of favor that was stored. For this reason a good strategy to follow when casting enchantments is to sacrifice items to create favor, vessel the favor into 10+ ql gems and then use the gems to provide the power for the casting. Favor will go a much longer way using this strategy plus you also achieve more skill gain due to the extra casting involved.

This strategy is also recommended if you are going to go into combat where quick access to spell casting is required and time to wait for link recharging etc will be too long to positively impact the battle.

==== To transfer favor between religions ====

A priest is unable to directly link with a priest from a different religion. It is possible to have a priest from one religion store favor in a gem and then have a priest from a different religion use the stored power.

==== General prices for purchasing ====

Current market rates seem to be as follows:

< 10 ql = 2.0 to 2.5 copper per ql
10+ ql = .8 to 1.2 copper per ql

This pricing reflects the current bias towards using gems for channel grinding. As noted above using gems as part of the casting process for non-channel grinding can make a significant difference that is not reflected in the price differences shown.

=== Settlement Info bonuses ===

The information in this section can be located by right clicking on your settlement deed and selecting settlement info.

==== Village bonus ====

Village bonuses are enhanced by performing sacrifices. These sacrifices can be made by both followers and priests and can be made by all religions (so you could sacrifice from Fo altar and Vyn altar with characters of the appropriate faiths and all will contribute to the village bonus). This is important because you can leverage the double favor items for each faith to enhance the bonuses with less time and effort.
When you perform sacrifices using a follower, everything they sacrifice goes directly into the village bonuses since followers have no way to spend favor. If you use a priest output from sacrifices will fill the priest's favor bar first. Only when the favor bar is full at the start of the sacrifice will the results add to the village bonus.

==== Rare bonus seconds ====

This increases the number of rare seconds. Maximum possible is 10 seconds currently. Sacrificing beyond this level will not increase this number

==== Enchantment bonus ====

If performing enchantments on deed this value provides an additional bonus to make your casting that much better. Maximum possible value appears to be 30%.

==== Number of people on deed matters? ====

I've heard rumors that the number of citizens on a deed greatly impacts how quickly the deed bonus declines. This is something I plan to look into at some point.

=== Gaining faith ===
==== Prayer ====

At lower levels of faith (< 60) the best way to gain faith appears to be to pray five times per day at 20 minute intervals. Sermons do provide you with more opportunities to pray provided you preach once every three hours. The skill gained from preaching at the sermon is less than the amount gained from each prayer at these lower faith levels.

==== Sermons ====
Preaching sermons provide the best way to gain faith and correct alignment at the higher levels of faith (60+). When you preach a sermon it also resets your prayer counter so that you can once again pray five times at 20 minute intervals.
Sermons require seven premium characters in attendance and it is equally important that non-of these characters have had an alignment changing event in the previous 30 minutes. Non-premium characters do not count towards the seven character requirement. Characters must be disembarked from large carts and wagons as well.

Sermons generally provide between 0.01 and 0.02 faith per person involved in the sermon.

You can sometimes find a sermon group on your server by asking in Freedom and/or Freedom-GL or by searching the forums.

=== Gem Farming ===
Gem Farming relies on your Wurm God providing you with occasional gems when praying constantly. These gems will range from low to high ql gems and, as noted in the gem section above, they carry a value, play a significant role in channel grinding and are very useful to provide favor for casting.

=== Conversions ===
Conversions are surprisingly uneventful considering the importance of either the decision to become a follower or a priest. It is important to note that the preaching level of the converting priest divided by 5 becomes the starting faith level of the converted.

=== Confessions ===

Improves preaching skill which in turn increases the initial faith level of the converted (see conversions section)

=== Purchasing a priest ===
==== What to look for in a high end priest ====
Channeling – 70+
Soul Depth – 50+ (Vyn and Fo (if planning to do life transfer casts)
Faith – 90 – 100 with 100 being preferable

Some type of favor support skill like rope making (All), cloth tailoring (Fo) or lock smithing (Mag).
Other key skills include animal husbandry, farming and meditation. The choice of meditation path and level on the path is also important.

=== Looking for a high end priest (Fo) however can only find Vyn. What to do? ===

Faith is one of the easier items to rebuild from zero if required especially if you can use a combination of sermons and praying sessions. An option often overlooked is to obtain a priest with high channeling and convert it to Fo. This would require you to rebuild faith from zero back to the 100 desired. Same applies for converting a high end Fo or Mag priest to Vyn.

Soul Depth is often the other consideration especially for Vyn priests. Pan filling is currently the fastest way to raise soul depth. While expensive there are panfillers who will assist you with gaining soul depth. Alternatively you can do the work yourself although it is very time consuming and requires great focus.

=== PVE Combat support roles ===
Priests can play essential combat support roles for major undertakings like removing 34 trolls from an island or assisting with the slaying of a dragon. Some spells that make a difference are listed below.
Many of these spells are area of effect spells that cover a certain area around a casting focal point. To help as many people in combat as possible it is important to either pre-define where the focal point will be and/or have some sort of communication about when/where the spell is going to be cast during the battle

All comments below are from a PVE perspective initially. PVP perspective is welcomed and will be added to a following section if reader feedback is forthcoming.

==== Fo ====
Light of Fo
Provides healing to the entire combat group usually within an area of the casting focal point

==== Mag ====
Mass Stamina
Provides a stamina refresh to the entire combat group within an 3 x3 area of the casting focal point

==== Vyn ====

Please provide feedback

=== To dispel or not to dispel? ===

Sometimes enchantments like circle of cunning or life transfer seem to get stuck at a certain level and despite repeated casts the value does not improve. Each additional improvement cast seems to run a risk of shattering the item being improved.

My 85 chan/51 soul depth Vyn seemed to have a point around 55 – 60 where it was generally better to dispel an enchantment then to attempt more than 2 or 3 improvement casts.

The same dispel tipping point for my 94 chan/76 soul depth priest seems to be around 75. Higher then 75 and I am better off dispelling and recasting. In the case of this priest there is far less chance of an actual shatter however favor is still being lost on the repeated casts

=== Battery quality ===

One question under investigation is if the quality of the actual battery priest makes a difference. For example if you use a priest with high faith but non-existent channeling and other skills does it make a difference?

=== Armor bonus and penalty ===

When casting it is important to consider the armour you are wearing. Metal armour including plate and chain imposes a 30% casting penalty. Studded leather does not impose a penalty. Wearing cloth or nothing at all provides a 30% casting bonus.
It is important to note that the special +30% bonus symbol only rarely appears on its own even when wearing cloth or no clothes. In order to encourage it to appear, put on an item like a studded leather cap and then remove it. Following the removal you will see the bonus symbol appear.

=== Spell effects window ===

Guides:Priests - Nappy's observations

2015-04-17T19:55:53Z

Nappy:

== Priests - Nappy's observations ==

=== The different feeling of the priests ===

On the Freedom Isles, with the exception of Chaos, there are three types of white light priests available to play. Each type of priest plays remarkably differently. If you have only tried one type (most people seem to only try Vynora) then I strongly encourage you to try at least one of the other types.

==== Vynora ====

Vynora is, for me, the cold and bitter priest type. While often desired for their ability to put some fantastic enchantments on tools like circle of cunning (skill gain) and winds of ages (speed gain) or awesome weapons enchantments like nimbleness (chance to hit), mind stealer (steals body characteristics from animals) and self-healers demise (helps increase chance to hit against trolls etc) this is a priest that has a terrible attitude especially at the lower levels of channeling where they are known to have an almost permanent frown faced expression occasionally enhanced by the shattering of items as their temper flares up.

==== Fo ====

Fo priests by comparison are the spreaders of love and happiness. Frustration is minimal and the ability to complete good deeds is unprecedented amongst all of the priest types. Popular and fun spells include Wild growth (can rapidly grow a forest in an extremely fast time), Humid drizzle (tends to animals instead of you grooming them) and a huge variety of healing related spells to help you cure badly hurt comrades or animals.

==== Mag ====

Mag priests seem to be devoted to mining and hunting. Once again the feeling is different when playing this priest type. Going on a hunting trip even at lower levels of fighting skill you feel like you are almost invincible to the monsters all around you. For mining one handy spell is the light token. Often used for increasing channeling ability at the lower levels, it is also very helpful when exploring or working in a very dark mine.

==== Dark Light ====

I haven't had the opportunity to play a Dark Light priest yet so unfortunately no observations to report.

=== Key skills for priests ===

==== Primary skills ====
===== Faith =====
Faith controls the amount of favor able to be provided by a priest and also impacts what spells they are able to try casting. A 100 faith priest has more spells available then a 50 faith priest and can also cast for longer before needing to recharge.

===== Channeling =====
Channeling represents how closely focused the cast is. Casts can range from an intensely negative value (which leads to shattered items) to intensively positive values (which leads to great casts). The channeling skill level seems to help keep the cast focused to a more narrow range.
General thought seems to be that once a priest reaches 70 channeling then the odds of a shattered item are greatly reduced.

Ranges:

70+ - Chance of shatter greatly reduced
80 – 85 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
86+ - Considered to be very high quality of priest with shatters being extremely rare and unusual.
Generally it should be easier to attain good casts (70+) without significant difficulty
provided soul depth is also high.

===== Soul Depth =====

Soul Depth seems to impact the amount of power a cast can attain. The higher soul depth levels allow for much higher powered casts. A popular "good" value to have for soul depth is 50 – 55.

Soul depth is heavily used for enchanting tools and weapons by Vyn (circle of cunning, wind of ages, mind stealer etc) and Fo (Life Transfer is the most common).

Ranges:

50 – 55 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
56 - 69 - Great
70+ - Exceptional

===== Soul Strength =====

Soul strength appears to be heavily used by Mag priests and to a more limited degree by Fo priests (genesis, wild growth, humid drizzle etc for items that are not enchantments of tools or weapons)

===== Preaching =====

===== Alignment =====

==== Supporting skills ====

===== Rope making =====
===== Farming =====
===== Animal Husbandry =====

=== Main or Alt? ===
Follower versus priest

=== Gaining Favor ===
In order to cast spells favor is required. Three ways exist to gain more favor that I am currently aware of.

==== Batteries ====

The first option is to use priest "batteries". These are priests that typically only have high levels of faith allowing them to hold large amounts of favor. If you link these batteries to your primary casting priest then you can draw on the favor of the primary priest and any linked batteries when casting. You may add one linked priest for every 10 levels of channeling ability. Linking priests seems to increase the level of difficulty when casting. I have not yet been able to verify that this is indeed the case although it is very commonly mentioned and there is the feeling that this is true.

When using linked priests you can often just click the casting button from time to time after favor has regenerated enough to do so. The number of linked priests directly impacts how often you can click that button. Six linked priests make it very possible to skip sacrificing items entirely for favor gain without having to wait an extremely long time between casting attempts.

Favor gain is always faster when it is at its lowest storage levels. This means that you will be able to cast more if you cast as early as possible rather than waiting until the batteries are all full.

The trade off with using batteries is that you require premium for each one.

==== Sacrifice ====

A second way to gain favor is to sacrifice items. Commonly used is cordage rope.
10 cordage ropes at 70 ql will often fill a 100 favor bar fully. Things to consider include the difficulty of producing the higher ql levels of cordage, the need for high ql wemp, requirement for a good rope tool, your rope making skill and the actual time it takes to create the cordage in the first place.

Each priest type has double favor item as well at various difficulty levels. This means that when sacrificing those items you are granted double the usual amount of favor.

==== Regeneration ====

Another option for favor generation is just to wait while the favor regenerates. Two additional things to consider are that if you do stuff while waiting it significantly slows down the regeneration process and if you pray, occasionally your god will grant you faster regeneration.

=== Skill grinding ===
==== Using batteries ====

Using Fo as an example, it is possible to vessel < 10 ql gems non-stop using two Fo batteries to draw upon. By doing this you eliminate the requirement to either sacrifice gems or spend time waiting for favor

==== Why grind? ====

Sometimes the more enjoyable way to gain skill is to just keep working on deed projects where casting plays a strong support role.

===== Example 1 – Wild growth for hedges =====

If your deed needs hedges, plant a 3 x3 or 5 x 5 square of the desired hedge type (camellia shrubs for example). Cast Fo wild growth and pick the spouts until you have the numerous sprouts required. In this way you achieve the goal of gaining channeling skill while also building those new hedges for the deed

===== Example 2 – Going hunting =====

Take your Fo priest hunting either as the main participant or in a support role for someone else who is hunting. Make it the priest's job to heal any damage that occurs. Bring a bag of prefilled gems along to make this an exercise that can occur numerous times during the trip.

===== Example 3 – Mining party =====

Help a neighbor expand their mine using your mag priest and a pickaxe. This will help you gain soul strength and if you cast light tokens as each tile is cleared then you can also work on your channeling while providing needed lighting.

===== Example 4 – Warm hot food =====

Use your Vyn priest to make some hot meals for the neighborhood. Add salt to make the meals resist decay longer. Once made cast opulence on the food so it will also go further in feeding your neighbors. This will help you build mind logic, soul depth and channeling.

===== Example 5 – Go hunting =====

Use you priest to do some hunting while on horseback – put them in studded leather (no casting penalty), equip them with a good Life Transfer weapon and send them out hunting. Perhaps start the attack by using a combat spell on the target giving you some channeling. All priest types receive fighting skills and Fo will receive channeling by casting healing. Keep a close eye on damage levels and retreat early when required.
If you hunt as part of a group then it is even easier to ask someone to heal you (if non-fo) or for you to gain channeling experience (as Fo) doing healing casts on the hunting party as required.

==== Spells for skill grinding ====

==== Vynora ====

Low = bless
Med = opulence
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Fo ====

Low = bless
Med = heal/dirt
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Mag ====

Low = light token
High = Gems or Lurker on a seryl pendulum

=== Seryl pendulum ===

Create a seryl pendulum. Usually quality of the pendulum is unimportant because seryl rarely shatters when casting. Once the pendulum is created cast Lurker spells upon it (Lurker in the dark, lurker of the deep, lurker in the woods etc). Dispel occasionally to start cycle again.
This technique avoids the need to obtain and manage gems while also providing skill gains right into the highest levels of channeling. At lower levels of channeling casting vessel on gems seems to provide better skill gains. At the higher levels of channeling this changes.

=== Using Gems ===

==== For Channel grinding ====

===== Using < 10 ql gems for channel grinding =====

< 10 ql gems do not store power when vessel is cast upon them. This is an advantage when trying to quickly improve your channeling skill because you are able to cast multiple times in quick succession on a gem without needing to worry about removing stored power between each round. Each cast causes damage to the gem so eventually it will disappear.

===== Using 10+ ql gems for channel grinding =====

When you cast vessel on gems that are 10+ ql power is actually stored in the gem for later use. This means that before you can do a second vessel cast on the gem you must first "use" the power that has been stored in the gem.
The most efficient way (albeit time consuming) to use 10+ ql gems is to drain your favor until it is at 7.5. Each time the favor reaches 7.5 cast vessel on the gem. You will actually store 2.5 power because the spell itself uses 5. Use the power and then recast again and again until the gem becomes < 10 ql.

==== For Casting ====

When you cast "vessel" on a gem it stores power in the gem. When you withdraw that power from the gem you receive double the amount of favor that was stored. For this reason a good strategy to follow when casting enchantments is to sacrifice items to create favor, vessel the favor into 10+ ql gems and then use the gems to provide the power for the casting. Favor will go a much longer way using this strategy plus you also achieve more skill gain due to the extra casting involved.

This strategy is also recommended if you are going to go into combat where quick access to spell casting is required and time to wait for link recharging etc will be too long to positively impact the battle.

==== To transfer favor between religions ====

A priest is unable to directly link with a priest from a different religion. It is possible to have a priest from one religion store favor in a gem and then have a priest from a different religion use the stored power.

==== General prices for purchasing ====

Current market rates seem to be as follows:

< 10 ql = 2.0 to 2.5 copper per ql
10+ ql = .8 to 1.2 copper per ql

This pricing reflects the current bias towards using gems for channel grinding. As noted above using gems as part of the casting process for non-channel grinding can make a significant difference that is not reflected in the price differences shown.

=== Settlement Info bonuses ===

The information in this section can be located by right clicking on your settlement deed and selecting settlement info.

==== Village bonus ====

Village bonuses are enhanced by performing sacrifices. These sacrifices can be made by both followers and priests and can be made by all religions (so you could sacrifice from Fo altar and Vyn altar with characters of the appropriate faiths and all will contribute to the village bonus). This is important because you can leverage the double favor items for each faith to enhance the bonuses with less time and effort.
When you perform sacrifices using a follower, everything they sacrifice goes directly into the village bonuses since followers have no way to spend favor. If you use a priest output from sacrifices will fill the priest's favor bar first. Only when the favor bar is full at the start of the sacrifice will the results add to the village bonus.

==== Rare bonus seconds ====

This increases the number of rare seconds. Maximum possible is 10 seconds currently. Sacrificing beyond this level will not increase this number

==== Enchantment bonus ====

If performing enchantments on deed this value provides an additional bonus to make your casting that much better. Maximum possible value appears to be 30%.

==== Number of people on deed matters? ====

I've heard rumors that the number of citizens on a deed greatly impacts how quickly the deed bonus declines. This is something I plan to look into at some point.

=== Gaining faith ===
==== Prayer ====

At lower levels of faith (< 60) the best way to gain faith appears to be to pray five times per day at 20 minute intervals. Sermons do provide you with more opportunities to pray provided you preach once every three hours. The skill gained from preaching at the sermon is less than the amount gained from each prayer at these lower faith levels.

==== Sermons ====
Preaching sermons provide the best way to gain faith and correct alignment at the higher levels of faith (60+). When you preach a sermon it also resets your prayer counter so that you can once again pray five times at 20 minute intervals.
Sermons require seven premium characters in attendance and it is equally important that non-of these characters have had an alignment changing event in the previous 30 minutes. Non-premium characters do not count towards the seven character requirement. Characters must be disembarked from large carts and wagons as well.

Sermons generally provide between 0.01 and 0.02 faith per person involved in the sermon.

You can sometimes find a sermon group on your server by asking in Freedom and/or Freedom-GL or by searching the forums.

=== Gem Farming ===
Gem Farming relies on your Wurm God providing you with occasional gems when praying constantly. These gems will range from low to high ql gems and, as noted in the gem section above, they carry a value, play a significant role in channel grinding and are very useful to provide favor for casting.

=== Conversions ===
Conversions are surprisingly uneventful considering the importance of either the decision to become a follower or a priest. It is important to note that the preaching level of the converting priest divided by 5 becomes the starting faith level of the converted.

=== Confessions ===

Improves preaching skill which in turn increases the initial faith level of the converted (see conversions section)

=== Purchasing a priest ===
==== What to look for in a high end priest ====
Channeling – 70+
Soul Depth – 50+ (Vyn and Fo (if planning to do life transfer casts)
Faith – 90 – 100 with 100 being preferable

Some type of favor support skill like rope making (All), cloth tailoring (Fo) or lock smithing (Mag).
Other key skills include animal husbandry, farming and meditation. The choice of meditation path and level on the path is also important.

=== Looking for a high end priest (Fo) however can only find Vyn. What to do? ===

Faith is one of the easier items to rebuild from zero if required especially if you can use a combination of sermons and praying sessions. An option often overlooked is to obtain a priest with high channeling and convert it to Fo. This would require you to rebuild faith from zero back to the 100 desired. Same applies for converting a high end Fo or Mag priest to Vyn.

Soul Depth is often the other consideration especially for Vyn priests. Pan filling is currently the fastest way to raise soul depth. While expensive there are panfillers who will assist you with gaining soul depth. Alternatively you can do the work yourself although it is very time consuming and requires great focus.

=== PVE Combat support roles ===
Priests can play essential combat support roles for major undertakings like removing 34 trolls from an island or assisting with the slaying of a dragon. Some spells that make a difference are listed below.
Many of these spells are area of effect spells that cover a certain area around a casting focal point. To help as many people in combat as possible it is important to either pre-define where the focal point will be and/or have some sort of communication about when/where the spell is going to be cast during the battle

All comments below are from a PVE perspective initially. PVP perspective is welcomed and will be added to a following section if reader feedback is forthcoming.

==== Fo ====
Light of Fo
Provides healing to the entire combat group usually within an area of the casting focal point

==== Mag ====
Mass Stamina
Provides a stamina refresh to the entire combat group within an 3 x3 area of the casting focal point

==== Vyn ====

Please provide feedback

=== To dispel or not to dispel? ===

Sometimes enchantments like circle of cunning or life transfer seem to get stuck at a certain level and despite repeated casts the value does not improve. Each additional improvement cast seems to run a risk of shattering the item being improved.

My 85 chan/51 soul depth Vyn seemed to have a point around 55 – 60 where it was generally better to dispel an enchantment then to attempt more than 2 or 3 improvement casts.

The same dispel tipping point for my 94 chan/76 soul depth priest seems to be around 75. Higher then 75 and I am better off dispelling and recasting. In the case of this priest there is far less chance of an actual shatter however favor is still being lost on the repeated casts

=== Battery quality ===

One question under investigation is if the quality of the actual battery priest makes a difference. For example if you use a priest with high faith but non-existent channeling and other skills does it make a difference?

=== Armor bonus and penalty ===

When casting it is important to consider the armour you are wearing. Metal armour including plate and chain imposes a 30% casting penalty. Studded leather does not impose a penalty. Wearing cloth or nothing at all provides a 30% casting bonus.
It is important to note that the special +30% bonus symbol only rarely appears on its own even when wearing cloth or no clothes. In order to encourage it to appear, put on an item like a studded leather cap and then remove it. Following the removal you will see the bonus symbol appear.

=== Spell effects window ===

Guides:Priests - Nappy's observations

2015-04-17T19:55:29Z

Nappy:

== Priests - Nappy's observations ==

=== The different feeling of the priests ===

On the Freedom Isles, with the exception of Chaos, there are three types of white light priests available to play. Each type of priest plays remarkably differently. If you have only tried one type (most people seem to only try Vynora) then I strongly encourage you to try at least one of the other types.

==== Vynora ====

Vynora is, for me, the cold and bitter priest type. While often desired for their ability to put some fantastic enchantments on tools like circle of cunning (skill gain) and winds of ages (speed gain) or awesome weapons enchantments like nimbleness (chance to hit), mind stealer (steals body characteristics from animals) and self-healers demise (helps increase chance to hit against trolls etc) this is a priest that has a terrible attitude especially at the lower levels of channeling where they are known to have an almost permanent frown faced expression occasionally enhanced by the shattering of items as their temper flares up.

==== Fo ====

Fo priests by comparison are the spreaders of love and happiness. Frustration is minimal and the ability to complete good deeds is unprecedented amongst all of the priest types. Popular and fun spells include Wild growth (can rapidly grow a forest in an extremely fast time), Humid drizzle (tends to animals instead of you grooming them) and a huge variety of healing related spells to help you cure badly hurt comrades or animals.

==== Mag ====

Mag priests seem to be devoted to mining and hunting. Once again the feeling is different when playing this priest type. Going on a hunting trip even at lower levels of fighting skill you feel like you are almost invincible to the monsters all around you. For mining one handy spell is the light token. Often used for increasing channeling ability at the lower levels, it is also very helpful when exploring or working in a very dark mine.

==== Dark Light ====

I haven't had the opportunity to play a Dark Light priest yet so unfortunately no observations to report.

=== Key skills for priests ===

==== Primary skills ====
===== Faith =====
Faith controls the amount of favor able to be provided by a priest and also impacts what spells they are able to try casting. A 100 faith priest has more spells available then a 50 faith priest and can also cast for longer before needing to recharge.

===== Channeling =====
Channeling represents how closely focused the cast is. Casts can range from an intensely negative value (which leads to shattered items) to intensively positive values (which leads to great casts). The channeling skill level seems to help keep the cast focused to a more narrow range.
General thought seems to be that once a priest reaches 70 channeling then the odds of a shattered item are greatly reduced.

Ranges:

70+ - Chance of shatter greatly reduced
80 – 85 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
86+ - Considered to be very high quality of priest with shatters being extremely rare and unusual.
Generally it should be easier to attain good casts (70+) without significant difficulty
provided soul depth is also high.

===== Soul Depth =====

Soul Depth seems to impact the amount of power a cast can attain. The higher soul depth levels allow for much higher powered casts. A popular "good" value to have for soul depth is 50 – 55.

Soul depth is heavily used for enchanting tools and weapons by Vyn (circle of cunning, wind of ages, mind stealer etc) and Fo (Life Transfer is the most common).

Ranges:

50 – 55 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
56 - 69 - Great
70+ - Exceptional

===== Soul Strength =====

Soul strength appears to be heavily used by Mag priests and to a more limited degree by Fo priests (genesis, wild growth, humid drizzle etc for items that are not enchantments of tools or weapons)

===== Preaching =====

===== Alignment =====

==== Supporting skills ====

===== Rope making =====
===== Farming =====
===== Animal Husbandry =====

=== Main or Alt? ===
Follower versus priest

=== Gaining Favor ===
In order to cast spells favor is required. Three ways exist to gain more favor that I am currently aware of.

==== Batteries ====

The first option is to use priest "batteries". These are priests that typically only have high levels of faith allowing them to hold large amounts of favor. If you link these batteries to your primary casting priest then you can draw on the favor of the primary priest and any linked batteries when casting. You may add one linked priest for every 10 levels of channeling ability. Linking priests seems to increase the level of difficulty when casting. I have not yet been able to verify that this is indeed the case although it is very commonly mentioned and there is the feeling that this is true.

When using linked priests you can often just click the casting button from time to time after favor has regenerated enough to do so. The number of linked priests directly impacts how often you can click that button. Six linked priests make it very possible to skip sacrificing items entirely for favor gain without having to wait an extremely long time between casting attempts.

Favor gain is always faster when it is at its lowest storage levels. This means that you will be able to cast more if you cast as early as possible rather than waiting until the batteries are all full.

The trade off with using batteries is that you require premium for each one.

==== Sacrifice ====

A second way to gain favor is to sacrifice items. Commonly used is cordage rope.
10 cordage ropes at 70 ql will often fill a 100 favor bar fully. Things to consider include the difficulty of producing the higher ql levels of cordage, the need for high ql wemp, requirement for a good rope tool, your rope making skill and the actual time it takes to create the cordage in the first place.

Each priest type has double favor item as well at various difficulty levels. This means that when sacrificing those items you are granted double the usual amount of favor.

==== Regeneration ====

Another option for favor generation is just to wait while the favor regenerates. Two additional things to consider are that if you do stuff while waiting it significantly slows down the regeneration process and if you pray, occasionally your god will grant you faster regeneration.

=== Skill grinding ===
==== Using batteries ====

Using Fo as an example, it is possible to vessel < 10 ql gems non-stop using two Fo batteries to draw upon. By doing this you eliminate the requirement to either sacrifice gems or spend time waiting for favor

==== Why grind? ====

Sometimes the more enjoyable way to gain skill is to just keep working on deed projects where casting plays a strong support role.

===== Example 1 – Wild growth for hedges =====

If your deed needs hedges, plant a 3 x3 or 5 x 5 square of the desired hedge type (camellia shrubs for example). Cast Fo wild growth and pick the spouts until you have the numerous sprouts required. In this way you achieve the goal of gaining channeling skill while also building those new hedges for the deed

===== Example 2 – Going hunting =====

Take your Fo priest hunting either as the main participant or in a support role for someone else who is hunting. Make it the priest's job to heal any damage that occurs. Bring a bag of prefilled gems along to make this an exercise that can occur numerous times during the trip.

===== Example 3 – Mining party =====

Help a neighbor expand their mine using your mag priest and a pickaxe. This will help you gain soul strength and if you cast light tokens as each tile is cleared then you can also work on your channeling while providing needed lighting.

===== Example 4 – Warm hot food =====

Use your Vyn priest to make some hot meals for the neighborhood. Add salt to make the meals resist decay longer. Once made cast opulence on the food so it will also go further in feeding your neighbors. This will help you build mind logic, soul depth and channeling.

===== Example 5 – Go hunting =====

Use you priest to do some hunting while on horseback – put them in studded leather (no casting penalty), equip them with a good Life Transfer weapon and send them out hunting. Perhaps start the attack by using a combat spell on the target giving you some channeling. All priest types receive fighting skills and Fo will receive channeling by casting healing. Keep a close eye on damage levels and retreat early when required.
If you hunt as part of a group then it is even easier to ask someone to heal you (if non-fo) or for you to gain channeling experience (as Fo) doing healing casts on the hunting party as required.

==== Spells for skill grinding ====

==== Vynora ====

Low = bless
Med = opulence
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Fo ====

Low = bless
Med = heal/dirt
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Mag ====

Low = light token
High = Gems or Lurker on a seryl pendulum

=== Seryl pendulum ===

Create a seryl pendulum. Usually quality of the pendulum is unimportant because seryl rarely shatters when casting. Once the pendulum is created cast Lurker spells upon it (Lurker in the dark, lurker of the deep, lurker in the woods etc). Dispel occasionally to start cycle again.
This technique avoids the need to obtain and manage gems while also providing skill gains right into the highest levels of channeling. At lower levels of channeling casting vessel on gems seems to provide better skill gains. At the higher levels of channeling this changes.

=== Using Gems ===

==== For Channel grinding ====

===== Using < 10 ql gems for channel grinding =====

< 10 ql gems do not store power when vessel is cast upon them. This is an advantage when trying to quickly improve your channeling skill because you are able to cast multiple times in quick succession on a gem without needing to worry about removing stored power between each round. Each cast causes damage to the gem so eventually it will disappear.

===== Using 10+ ql gems for channel grinding =====

When you cast vessel on gems that are 10+ ql power is actually stored in the gem for later use. This means that before you can do a second vessel cast on the gem you must first "use" the power that has been stored in the gem.
The most efficient way (albeit time consuming) to use 10+ ql gems is to drain your favor until it is at 7.5. Each time the favor reaches 7.5 cast vessel on the gem. You will actually store 2.5 power because the spell itself uses 5. Use the power and then recast again and again until the gem becomes < 10 ql.

==== For Casting ====

When you cast "vessel" on a gem it stores power in the gem. When you withdraw that power from the gem you receive double the amount of favor that was stored. For this reason a good strategy to follow when casting enchantments is to sacrifice items to create favor, vessel the favor into 10+ ql gems and then use the gems to provide the power for the casting. Favor will go a much longer way using this strategy plus you also achieve more skill gain due to the extra casting involved.

This strategy is also recommended if you are going to go into combat where quick access to spell casting is required and time to wait for link recharging etc will be too long to positively impact the battle.

==== To transfer favor between religions ====

A priest is unable to directly link with a priest from a different religion. It is possible to have a priest from one religion store favor in a gem and then have a priest from a different religion use the stored power.

==== General prices for purchasing ====

Current market rates seem to be as follows:

< 10 ql = 2.0 to 2.5 copper per ql
10+ ql = .8 to 1.2 copper per ql

This pricing reflects the current bias towards using gems for channel grinding. As noted above using gems as part of the casting process for non-channel grinding can make a significant difference that is not reflected in the price differences shown.

=== Settlement Info bonuses ===

The information in this section can be located by right clicking on your settlement deed and selecting settlement info.

==== Village bonus ====

Village bonuses are enhanced by performing sacrifices. These sacrifices can be made by both followers and priests and can be made by all religions (so you could sacrifice from Fo altar and Vyn altar with characters of the appropriate faiths and all will contribute to the village bonus). This is important because you can leverage the double favor items for each faith to enhance the bonuses with less time and effort.
When you perform sacrifices using a follower, everything they sacrifice goes directly into the village bonuses since followers have no way to spend favor. If you use a priest output from sacrifices will fill the priest's favor bar first. Only when the favor bar is full at the start of the sacrifice will the results add to the village bonus.

==== Rare bonus seconds ====

This increases the number of rare seconds. Maximum possible is 10 seconds currently. Sacrificing beyond this level will not increase this number

==== Enchantment bonus ====

If performing enchantments on deed this value provides an additional bonus to make your casting that much better. Maximum possible value appears to be 30%.

==== Number of people on deed matters? ====

I've heard rumors that the number of citizens on a deed greatly impacts how quickly the deed bonus declines. This is something I plan to look into at some point.

=== Gaining faith ===
==== Prayer ====

At lower levels of faith (< 60) the best way to gain faith appears to be to pray five times per day at 20 minute intervals. Sermons do provide you with more opportunities to pray provided you preach once every three hours. The skill gained from preaching at the sermon is less than the amount gained from each prayer at these lower faith levels.

==== Sermons ====
Preaching sermons provide the best way to gain faith and correct alignment at the higher levels of faith (60+). When you preach a sermon it also resets your prayer counter so that you can once again pray five times at 20 minute intervals.
Sermons require seven premium characters in attendance and it is equally important that non-of these characters have had an alignment changing event in the previous 30 minutes. Non-premium characters do not count towards the seven character requirement. Characters must be disembarked from large carts and wagons as well.

Sermons generally provide between 0.01 and 0.02 faith per person involved in the sermon.

You can sometimes find a sermon group on your server by asking in Freedom and/or Freedom-GL or by searching the forums.

=== Gem Farming ===
Gem Farming relies on your Wurm God providing you with occasional gems when praying constantly. These gems will range from low to high ql gems and, as noted in the gem section above, they carry a value, play a significant role in channel grinding and are very useful to provide favor for casting.

=== Conversions ===
Conversions are surprisingly uneventful considering the importance of either the decision to become a follower or a priest. It is important to note that the preaching level of the converting priest divided by 5 becomes the starting faith level of the converted.

=== Confessions ===

Improves preaching skill which in turn increases the initial faith level of the converted (see conversions section)

=== Purchasing a priest ===
==== What to look for in a high end priest ====
Channeling – 70+
Soul Depth – 50+ (Vyn and Fo (if planning to do life transfer casts)
Faith – 90 – 100 with 100 being preferable

Some type of favor support skill like rope making (All), cloth tailoring (Fo) or lock smithing (Mag).
Other key skills include animal husbandry, farming and meditation. The choice of meditation path and level on the path is also important.

=== Looking for a high end priest (Fo) however can only find Vyn. What to do? ===

Faith is one of the easier items to rebuild from zero if required especially if you can use a combination of sermons and praying sessions. An option often overlooked is to obtain a priest with high channeling and convert it to Fo. This would require you to rebuild faith from zero back to the 100 desired. Same applies for converting a high end Fo or Mag priest to Vyn.

Soul Depth is often the other consideration especially for Vyn priests. Pan filling is currently the fastest way to raise soul depth. While expensive there are panfillers who will assist you with gaining soul depth. Alternatively you can do the work yourself although it is very time consuming and requires great focus.

=== PVE Combat support roles ===
Priests can play essential combat support roles for major undertakings like removing 34 trolls from an island or assisting with the slaying of a dragon. Some spells that make a difference are listed below.
Many of these spells are area of effect spells that cover a certain area around a casting focal point. To help as many people in combat as possible it is important to either pre-define where the focal point will be and/or have some sort of communication about when/where the spell is going to be cast during the battle

All comments below are from a PVE perspective initially. PVP perspective is welcomed and will be added to a following section if reader feedback is forthcoming.

==== Fo ====
Light of Fo
Provides healing to the entire combat group usually within an area of the casting focal point

==== Mag ====
Mass Stamina
Provides a stamina refresh to the entire combat group within an 3 x3 area of the casting focal point

==== Vyn ====

Please provide feedback

=== To dispel or not to dispel? ===

Sometimes enchantments like circle of cunning or life transfer seem to get stuck at a certain level and despite repeated casts the value does not improve. Each additional improvement cast seems to run a risk of shattering the item being improved.

My 85 chan/51 soul depth Vyn seemed to have a point around 55 – 60 where it was generally better to dispel an enchantment then to attempt more than 2 or 3 improvement casts.

The same dispel tipping point for my 94 chan/76 soul depth priest seems to be around 75. Higher then 75 and I am better off dispelling and recasting. In the case of this priest there is far less chance of an actual shatter however favor is still being lost on the repeated casts

=== Battery quality ===

One question under investigation is if the quality of the actual battery priest makes a difference. For example if you use a priest with high faith but non-existent channeling and other skills does it make a difference?

=== Armor bonus and penalty ===

When casting it is important to consider the armour you are wearing. Metal armour including plate and chain imposes a 30% casting penalty. Studded leather does not impose a penalty. Wearing cloth or nothing at all provides a 30% casting bonus.
It is important to note that the special +30% bonus symbol only rarely appears on its own even when wearing cloth or no clothes. In order to encourage it to appear, put on an item like a studded leather cap and then remove it. Following the removal you will see the bonus symbol appear.

=== Spell effects window ===

Guides:Priests - Nappy's observations

2015-04-17T19:52:32Z

Nappy: /* Batteries */

== Priests - Nappy's observations ==

=== The different feeling of the priests ===

On the Freedom Isles, with the exception of Chaos, there are three types of white light priests available to play. Each type of priest plays remarkably differently. If you have only tried one type (most people seem to only try Vynora) then I strongly encourage you to try at least one of the other types.

==== Vynora ====

Vynora is, for me, the cold and bitter priest type. While often desired for their ability to put some fantastic enchantments on tools like circle of cunning (skill gain) and winds of ages (speed gain) or awesome weapons enchantments like nimbleness (chance to hit), mind stealer (steals body characteristics from animals) and self-healers demise (helps increase chance to hit against trolls etc) this is a priest that has a terrible attitude especially at the lower levels of channeling where they are known to have an almost permanent frown faced expression occasionally enhanced by the shattering of items as their temper flares up.

==== Fo ====

Fo priests by comparison are the spreaders of love and happiness. Frustration is minimal and the ability to complete good deeds is unprecedented amongst all of the priest types. Popular and fun spells include Wild growth (can rapidly grow a forest in an extremely fast time), Humid drizzle (tends to animals instead of you grooming them) and a huge variety of healing related spells to help you cure badly hurt comrades or animals.

==== Mag ====

Mag priests seem to be devoted to mining and hunting. Once again the feeling is different when playing this priest type. Going on a hunting trip even at lower levels of fighting skill you feel like you are almost invincible to the monsters all around you. For mining one handy spell is the light token. Often used for increasing channeling ability at the lower levels, it is also very helpful when exploring or working in a very dark mine.

==== Dark Light ====

I haven't had the opportunity to play a Dark Light priest yet so unfortunately no observations to report.

=== Key skills for priests ===

==== Primary skills ====
===== Faith =====
Faith controls the amount of favor able to be provided by a priest and also impacts what spells they are able to try casting. A 100 faith priest has more spells available then a 50 faith priest and can also cast for longer before needing to recharge.

===== Channeling =====
Channeling represents how closely focused the cast is. Casts can range from an intensely negative value (which leads to shattered items) to intensively positive values (which leads to great casts). The channeling skill level seems to help keep the cast focused to a more narrow range.
General thought seems to be that once a priest reaches 70 channeling then the odds of a shattered item are greatly reduced.

Ranges:

70+ - Chance of shatter greatly reduced
80 – 85 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
86+ - Considered to be very high quality of priest with shatters being extremely rare and unusual.
Generally it should be easier to attain good casts (70+) without significant difficulty
provided soul depth is also high.

===== Soul Depth =====

Soul Depth seems to impact the amount of power a cast can attain. The higher soul depth levels allow for much higher powered casts. A popular "good" value to have for soul depth is 50 – 55.

Soul depth is heavily used for enchanting tools and weapons by Vyn (circle of cunning, wind of ages, mind stealer etc) and Fo (Life Transfer is the most common).

Ranges:

50 – 55 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
56 - 69 - Great
70+ - Exceptional

===== Soul Strength =====

Soul strength appears to be heavily used by Mag priests and to a more limited degree by Fo priests (genesis, wild growth, humid drizzle etc for items that are not enchantments of tools or weapons)

===== Preaching =====

===== Alignment =====

==== Supporting skills ====

===== Rope making =====
===== Farming =====
===== Animal Husbandry =====

=== Main or Alt? ===
Follower versus priest

=== Gaining Favor ===
In order to cast spells favor is required. Three ways exist to gain more favor that I am currently aware of.

==== Batteries ====

The first option is to use priest "batteries". These are priests that typically only have high levels of faith allowing them to hold large amounts of favor. If you link these batteries to your primary casting priest then you can draw on the favor of the primary priest and any linked batteries when casting. You may add one linked priest for every 10 levels of channeling ability. Linking priests seems to increase the level of difficulty when casting. I have not yet been able to verify that this is indeed the case although it is very commonly mentioned and there is the feeling that this is true.

When using linked priests you can often just click the casting button from time to time after favor has regenerated enough to do so. The number of linked priests directly impacts how often you can click that button. Six linked priests make it very possible to skip sacrificing items entirely for favor gain without having to wait an extremely long time between casting attempts.

Favor gain is always faster when it is at its lowest storage levels. This means that you will be able to cast more if you cast as early as possible rather than waiting until the batteries are all full.

The trade off with using batteries is that you require premium for each one.

==== Sacrifice ====

A second way to gain favor is to sacrifice items. Commonly used is cordage rope.
10 cordage ropes at 70 ql will often fill a 100 favor bar fully. Things to consider include the difficulty of producing the higher ql levels of cordage, the need for high ql wemp, requirement for a good rope tool, your rope making skill and the actual time it takes to create the cordage in the first place.

Each priest type has double favor item as well at various difficulty levels. This means that when sacrificing those items you are granted double the usual amount of favor.

==== Regeneration ====

Another option for favor generation is just to wait while the favor regenerates. Two additional things to consider are that if you do stuff while waiting it significantly slows down the regeneration process and if you pray, occasionally your god will grant you faster regeneration.

=== Skill grinding ===
==== Using batteries ====

Using Fo as an example, it is possible to vessel < 10 ql gems non-stop using two Fo batteries to draw upon. By doing this you eliminate the requirement to either sacrifice gems or spend time waiting for favor

==== Why grind? ====

Sometimes the more enjoyable way to gain skill is to just keep working on deed projects where casting plays a strong support role.

# Example 1 – Wild growth for hedges

If your deed needs hedges, plant a 3 x3 or 5 x 5 square of the desired hedge type (camellia shrubs for example). Cast Fo wild growth and pick the spouts until you have the numerous sprouts required. In this way you achieve the goal of gaining channeling skill while also building those new hedges for the deed

# Example 2 – Going hunting

Take your Fo priest hunting either as the main participant or in a support role for someone else who is hunting. Make it the priest's job to heal any damage that occurs. Bring a bag of prefilled gems along to make this an exercise that can occur numerous times during the trip.

# Example 3 – Mining party

Help a neighbor expand their mine using your mag priest and a pickaxe. This will help you gain soul strength and if you cast light tokens as each tile is cleared then you can also work on your channeling while providing needed lighting.
# Example 4 – Warm hot food

Use your Vyn priest to make some hot meals for the neighborhood. Add salt to make the meals resist decay longer. Once made cast opulence on the food so it will also go further in feeding your neighbors. This will help you build mind logic, soul depth and channeling.

# Example 5 – Go hunting

Use you priest to do some hunting while on horseback – put them in studded leather (no casting penalty), equip them with a good Life Transfer weapon and send them out hunting. Perhaps start the attack by using a combat spell on the target giving you some channeling. All priest types receive fighting skills and Fo will receive channeling by casting healing. Keep a close eye on damage levels and retreat early when required.
If you hunt as part of a group then it is even easier to ask someone to heal you (if non-fo) or for you to gain channeling experience (as Fo) doing healing casts on the hunting party as required.

==== Spells for skill grinding ====

==== Vynora ====
Low = bless
Med = opulence
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Fo ====

Low = bless
Med = heal/dirt
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Mag ====
Low = light token
High = Gems or Lurker on a seryl pendulum

=== Seryl pendulum ===

Create a seryl pendulum. Usually quality of the pendulum is unimportant because seryl rarely shatters when casting. Once the pendulum is created cast Lurker spells upon it (Lurker in the dark, lurker of the deep, lurker in the woods etc). Dispel occasionally to start cycle again.
This technique avoids the need to obtain and manage gems while also providing skill gains right into the highest levels of channeling. At lower levels of channeling casting vessel on gems seems to provide better skill gains. At the higher levels of channeling this changes.

=== Using Gems ===

==== For Channel grinding ====
===== Using < 10 ql gems for channel grinding =====

< 10 ql gems do not store power when vessel is cast upon them. This is an advantage when trying to quickly improve your channeling skill because you are able to cast multiple times in quick succession on a gem without needing to worry about removing stored power between each round. Each cast causes damage to the gem so eventually it will disappear.

===== Using 10+ ql gems for channel grinding =====

When you cast vessel on gems that are 10+ ql power is actually stored in the gem for later use. This means that before you can do a second vessel cast on the gem you must first "use" the power that has been stored in the gem.
The most efficient way (albeit time consuming) to use 10+ ql gems is to drain your favor until it is at 7.5. Each time the favor reaches 7.5 cast vessel on the gem. You will actually store 2.5 power because the spell itself uses 5. Use the power and then recast again and again until the gem becomes < 10 ql.

==== For Casting ====

When you cast "vessel" on a gem it stores power in the gem. When you withdraw that power from the gem you receive double the amount of favor that was stored. For this reason a good strategy to follow when casting enchantments is to sacrifice items to create favor, vessel the favor into 10+ ql gems and then use the gems to provide the power for the casting. Favor will go a much longer way using this strategy plus you also achieve more skill gain due to the extra casting involved.

This strategy is also recommended if you are going to go into combat where quick access to spell casting is required and time to wait for link recharging etc will be too long to positively impact the battle.

==== To transfer favor between religions ====

A priest is unable to directly link with a priest from a different religion. It is possible to have a priest from one religion store favor in a gem and then have a priest from a different religion use the stored power.

==== General prices for purchasing ====

Current market rates seem to be as follows:

< 10 ql = 2.0 to 2.5 copper per ql
10+ ql = .8 to 1.2 copper per ql

This pricing reflects the current bias towards using gems for channel grinding. As noted above using gems as part of the casting process for non-channel grinding can make a significant difference that is not reflected in the price differences shown.

=== Settlement Info bonuses ===

The information in this section can be located by right clicking on your settlement deed and selecting settlement info.

==== Village bonus ====

Village bonuses are enhanced by performing sacrifices. These sacrifices can be made by both followers and priests and can be made by all religions (so you could sacrifice from Fo altar and Vyn altar with characters of the appropriate faiths and all will contribute to the village bonus). This is important because you can leverage the double favor items for each faith to enhance the bonuses with less time and effort.
When you perform sacrifices using a follower, everything they sacrifice goes directly into the village bonuses since followers have no way to spend favor. If you use a priest output from sacrifices will fill the priest's favor bar first. Only when the favor bar is full at the start of the sacrifice will the results add to the village bonus.

==== Rare bonus seconds ====

This increases the number of rare seconds. Maximum possible is 10 seconds currently. Sacrificing beyond this level will not increase this number

==== Enchantment bonus ====

If performing enchantments on deed this value provides an additional bonus to make your casting that much better. Maximum possible value appears to be 30%.

==== Number of people on deed matters? ====

I've heard rumors that the number of citizens on a deed greatly impacts how quickly the deed bonus declines. This is something I plan to look into at some point.

=== Gaining faith ===
==== Prayer ====

At lower levels of faith (< 60) the best way to gain faith appears to be to pray five times per day at 20 minute intervals. Sermons do provide you with more opportunities to pray provided you preach once every three hours. The skill gained from preaching at the sermon is less than the amount gained from each prayer at these lower faith levels.

==== Sermons ====
Preaching sermons provide the best way to gain faith and correct alignment at the higher levels of faith (60+). When you preach a sermon it also resets your prayer counter so that you can once again pray five times at 20 minute intervals.
Sermons require seven premium characters in attendance and it is equally important that non-of these characters have had an alignment changing event in the previous 30 minutes. Non-premium characters do not count towards the seven character requirement. Characters must be disembarked from large carts and wagons as well.

Sermons generally provide between 0.01 and 0.02 faith per person involved in the sermon.

You can sometimes find a sermon group on your server by asking in Freedom and/or Freedom-GL or by searching the forums.

=== Gem Farming ===
Gem Farming relies on your Wurm God providing you with occasional gems when praying constantly. These gems will range from low to high ql gems and, as noted in the gem section above, they carry a value, play a significant role in channel grinding and are very useful to provide favor for casting.

=== Conversions ===
Conversions are surprisingly uneventful considering the importance of either the decision to become a follower or a priest. It is important to note that the preaching level of the converting priest divided by 5 becomes the starting faith level of the converted.

=== Confessions ===

Improves preaching skill which in turn increases the initial faith level of the converted (see conversions section)

=== Purchasing a priest ===
==== What to look for in a high end priest ====
Channeling – 70+
Soul Depth – 50+ (Vyn and Fo (if planning to do life transfer casts)
Faith – 90 – 100 with 100 being preferable

Some type of favor support skill like rope making (All), cloth tailoring (Fo) or lock smithing (Mag).
Other key skills include animal husbandry, farming and meditation. The choice of meditation path and level on the path is also important.

=== Looking for a high end priest (Fo) however can only find Vyn. What to do? ===

Faith is one of the easier items to rebuild from zero if required especially if you can use a combination of sermons and praying sessions. An option often overlooked is to obtain a priest with high channeling and convert it to Fo. This would require you to rebuild faith from zero back to the 100 desired. Same applies for converting a high end Fo or Mag priest to Vyn.

Soul Depth is often the other consideration especially for Vyn priests. Pan filling is currently the fastest way to raise soul depth. While expensive there are panfillers who will assist you with gaining soul depth. Alternatively you can do the work yourself although it is very time consuming and requires great focus.

=== PVE Combat support roles ===
Priests can play essential combat support roles for major undertakings like removing 34 trolls from an island or assisting with the slaying of a dragon. Some spells that make a difference are listed below.
Many of these spells are area of effect spells that cover a certain area around a casting focal point. To help as many people in combat as possible it is important to either pre-define where the focal point will be and/or have some sort of communication about when/where the spell is going to be cast during the battle

All comments below are from a PVE perspective initially. PVP perspective is welcomed and will be added to a following section if reader feedback is forthcoming.

==== Fo ====
Light of Fo
Provides healing to the entire combat group usually within an area of the casting focal point

==== Mag ====
Mass Stamina
Provides a stamina refresh to the entire combat group within an 3 x3 area of the casting focal point

==== Vyn ====

Please provide feedback

=== To dispel or not to dispel? ===

Sometimes enchantments like circle of cunning or life transfer seem to get stuck at a certain level and despite repeated casts the value does not improve. Each additional improvement cast seems to run a risk of shattering the item being improved.

My 85 chan/51 soul depth Vyn seemed to have a point around 55 – 60 where it was generally better to dispel an enchantment then to attempt more than 2 or 3 improvement casts.

The same dispel tipping point for my 94 chan/76 soul depth priest seems to be around 75. Higher then 75 and I am better off dispelling and recasting. In the case of this priest there is far less chance of an actual shatter however favor is still being lost on the repeated casts

=== Battery quality ===

One question under investigation is if the quality of the actual battery priest makes a difference. For example if you use a priest with high faith but non-existent channeling and other skills does it make a difference?

=== Armor bonus and penalty ===

When casting it is important to consider the armour you are wearing. Metal armour including plate and chain imposes a 30% casting penalty. Studded leather does not impose a penalty. Wearing cloth or nothing at all provides a 30% casting bonus.
It is important to note that the special +30% bonus symbol only rarely appears on its own even when wearing cloth or no clothes. In order to encourage it to appear, put on an item like a studded leather cap and then remove it. Following the removal you will see the bonus symbol appear.

=== Spell effects window ===

Guides:Priests - Nappy's observations

2015-04-17T19:50:24Z

Nappy: /* Channeling */

== Priests - Nappy's observations ==

=== The different feeling of the priests ===

On the Freedom Isles, with the exception of Chaos, there are three types of white light priests available to play. Each type of priest plays remarkably differently. If you have only tried one type (most people seem to only try Vynora) then I strongly encourage you to try at least one of the other types.

==== Vynora ====

Vynora is, for me, the cold and bitter priest type. While often desired for their ability to put some fantastic enchantments on tools like circle of cunning (skill gain) and winds of ages (speed gain) or awesome weapons enchantments like nimbleness (chance to hit), mind stealer (steals body characteristics from animals) and self-healers demise (helps increase chance to hit against trolls etc) this is a priest that has a terrible attitude especially at the lower levels of channeling where they are known to have an almost permanent frown faced expression occasionally enhanced by the shattering of items as their temper flares up.

==== Fo ====

Fo priests by comparison are the spreaders of love and happiness. Frustration is minimal and the ability to complete good deeds is unprecedented amongst all of the priest types. Popular and fun spells include Wild growth (can rapidly grow a forest in an extremely fast time), Humid drizzle (tends to animals instead of you grooming them) and a huge variety of healing related spells to help you cure badly hurt comrades or animals.

==== Mag ====

Mag priests seem to be devoted to mining and hunting. Once again the feeling is different when playing this priest type. Going on a hunting trip even at lower levels of fighting skill you feel like you are almost invincible to the monsters all around you. For mining one handy spell is the light token. Often used for increasing channeling ability at the lower levels, it is also very helpful when exploring or working in a very dark mine.

==== Dark Light ====

I haven't had the opportunity to play a Dark Light priest yet so unfortunately no observations to report.

=== Key skills for priests ===

==== Primary skills ====
===== Faith =====
Faith controls the amount of favor able to be provided by a priest and also impacts what spells they are able to try casting. A 100 faith priest has more spells available then a 50 faith priest and can also cast for longer before needing to recharge.

===== Channeling =====
Channeling represents how closely focused the cast is. Casts can range from an intensely negative value (which leads to shattered items) to intensively positive values (which leads to great casts). The channeling skill level seems to help keep the cast focused to a more narrow range.
General thought seems to be that once a priest reaches 70 channeling then the odds of a shattered item are greatly reduced.

Ranges:

70+ - Chance of shatter greatly reduced
80 – 85 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
86+ - Considered to be very high quality of priest with shatters being extremely rare and unusual.
Generally it should be easier to attain good casts (70+) without significant difficulty
provided soul depth is also high.

===== Soul Depth =====

Soul Depth seems to impact the amount of power a cast can attain. The higher soul depth levels allow for much higher powered casts. A popular "good" value to have for soul depth is 50 – 55.

Soul depth is heavily used for enchanting tools and weapons by Vyn (circle of cunning, wind of ages, mind stealer etc) and Fo (Life Transfer is the most common).

Ranges:

50 – 55 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
56 - 69 - Great
70+ - Exceptional

===== Soul Strength =====

Soul strength appears to be heavily used by Mag priests and to a more limited degree by Fo priests (genesis, wild growth, humid drizzle etc for items that are not enchantments of tools or weapons)

===== Preaching =====

===== Alignment =====

==== Supporting skills ====

===== Rope making =====
===== Farming =====
===== Animal Husbandry =====

=== Main or Alt? ===
Follower versus priest

=== Gaining Favor ===
In order to cast spells favor is required. Three ways exist to gain more favor that I am currently aware of.

==== Batteries ====

The first option is to use priest "batteries". These are priests that typically only have high levels of faith allowing them to hold large amounts of favor. If you link these batteries to your primary casting priest then you can draw on the favor of the primary priest and any linked batteries when casting. You may add one linked priest for every 10 levels of channeling ability. Linking priests seems to increase the level of difficulty when casting. I have not yet been able to verify that this is indeed the case although it is very commonly mentioned and there is the feeling that this is the case.

When using linked priests you can often just click the casting button from time to time after favor has regenerated enough to do so. The number of linked priests directly impacts how often you can click that button. Six linked priests make it very possible to skip sacrificing items entirely for favor gain without having to wait an extremely long time between casting attempts.

Favor gain is always faster when it is at its lowest storage levels. This means that you will be able to cast more if you cast as early as possible rather than waiting until the batteries are all full.

The trade off with using batteries is that you require premium for each one.

==== Sacrifice ====

A second way to gain favor is to sacrifice items. Commonly used is cordage rope.
10 cordage ropes at 70 ql will often fill a 100 favor bar fully. Things to consider include the difficulty of producing the higher ql levels of cordage, the need for high ql wemp, requirement for a good rope tool, your rope making skill and the actual time it takes to create the cordage in the first place.

Each priest type has double favor item as well at various difficulty levels. This means that when sacrificing those items you are granted double the usual amount of favor.

==== Regeneration ====

Another option for favor generation is just to wait while the favor regenerates. Two additional things to consider are that if you do stuff while waiting it significantly slows down the regeneration process and if you pray, occasionally your god will grant you faster regeneration.

=== Skill grinding ===
==== Using batteries ====

Using Fo as an example, it is possible to vessel < 10 ql gems non-stop using two Fo batteries to draw upon. By doing this you eliminate the requirement to either sacrifice gems or spend time waiting for favor

==== Why grind? ====

Sometimes the more enjoyable way to gain skill is to just keep working on deed projects where casting plays a strong support role.

# Example 1 – Wild growth for hedges

If your deed needs hedges, plant a 3 x3 or 5 x 5 square of the desired hedge type (camellia shrubs for example). Cast Fo wild growth and pick the spouts until you have the numerous sprouts required. In this way you achieve the goal of gaining channeling skill while also building those new hedges for the deed

# Example 2 – Going hunting

Take your Fo priest hunting either as the main participant or in a support role for someone else who is hunting. Make it the priest's job to heal any damage that occurs. Bring a bag of prefilled gems along to make this an exercise that can occur numerous times during the trip.

# Example 3 – Mining party

Help a neighbor expand their mine using your mag priest and a pickaxe. This will help you gain soul strength and if you cast light tokens as each tile is cleared then you can also work on your channeling while providing needed lighting.
# Example 4 – Warm hot food

Use your Vyn priest to make some hot meals for the neighborhood. Add salt to make the meals resist decay longer. Once made cast opulence on the food so it will also go further in feeding your neighbors. This will help you build mind logic, soul depth and channeling.

# Example 5 – Go hunting

Use you priest to do some hunting while on horseback – put them in studded leather (no casting penalty), equip them with a good Life Transfer weapon and send them out hunting. Perhaps start the attack by using a combat spell on the target giving you some channeling. All priest types receive fighting skills and Fo will receive channeling by casting healing. Keep a close eye on damage levels and retreat early when required.
If you hunt as part of a group then it is even easier to ask someone to heal you (if non-fo) or for you to gain channeling experience (as Fo) doing healing casts on the hunting party as required.

==== Spells for skill grinding ====

==== Vynora ====
Low = bless
Med = opulence
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Fo ====

Low = bless
Med = heal/dirt
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Mag ====
Low = light token
High = Gems or Lurker on a seryl pendulum

=== Seryl pendulum ===

Create a seryl pendulum. Usually quality of the pendulum is unimportant because seryl rarely shatters when casting. Once the pendulum is created cast Lurker spells upon it (Lurker in the dark, lurker of the deep, lurker in the woods etc). Dispel occasionally to start cycle again.
This technique avoids the need to obtain and manage gems while also providing skill gains right into the highest levels of channeling. At lower levels of channeling casting vessel on gems seems to provide better skill gains. At the higher levels of channeling this changes.

=== Using Gems ===

==== For Channel grinding ====
===== Using < 10 ql gems for channel grinding =====

< 10 ql gems do not store power when vessel is cast upon them. This is an advantage when trying to quickly improve your channeling skill because you are able to cast multiple times in quick succession on a gem without needing to worry about removing stored power between each round. Each cast causes damage to the gem so eventually it will disappear.

===== Using 10+ ql gems for channel grinding =====

When you cast vessel on gems that are 10+ ql power is actually stored in the gem for later use. This means that before you can do a second vessel cast on the gem you must first "use" the power that has been stored in the gem.
The most efficient way (albeit time consuming) to use 10+ ql gems is to drain your favor until it is at 7.5. Each time the favor reaches 7.5 cast vessel on the gem. You will actually store 2.5 power because the spell itself uses 5. Use the power and then recast again and again until the gem becomes < 10 ql.

==== For Casting ====

When you cast "vessel" on a gem it stores power in the gem. When you withdraw that power from the gem you receive double the amount of favor that was stored. For this reason a good strategy to follow when casting enchantments is to sacrifice items to create favor, vessel the favor into 10+ ql gems and then use the gems to provide the power for the casting. Favor will go a much longer way using this strategy plus you also achieve more skill gain due to the extra casting involved.

This strategy is also recommended if you are going to go into combat where quick access to spell casting is required and time to wait for link recharging etc will be too long to positively impact the battle.

==== To transfer favor between religions ====

A priest is unable to directly link with a priest from a different religion. It is possible to have a priest from one religion store favor in a gem and then have a priest from a different religion use the stored power.

==== General prices for purchasing ====

Current market rates seem to be as follows:

< 10 ql = 2.0 to 2.5 copper per ql
10+ ql = .8 to 1.2 copper per ql

This pricing reflects the current bias towards using gems for channel grinding. As noted above using gems as part of the casting process for non-channel grinding can make a significant difference that is not reflected in the price differences shown.

=== Settlement Info bonuses ===

The information in this section can be located by right clicking on your settlement deed and selecting settlement info.

==== Village bonus ====

Village bonuses are enhanced by performing sacrifices. These sacrifices can be made by both followers and priests and can be made by all religions (so you could sacrifice from Fo altar and Vyn altar with characters of the appropriate faiths and all will contribute to the village bonus). This is important because you can leverage the double favor items for each faith to enhance the bonuses with less time and effort.
When you perform sacrifices using a follower, everything they sacrifice goes directly into the village bonuses since followers have no way to spend favor. If you use a priest output from sacrifices will fill the priest's favor bar first. Only when the favor bar is full at the start of the sacrifice will the results add to the village bonus.

==== Rare bonus seconds ====

This increases the number of rare seconds. Maximum possible is 10 seconds currently. Sacrificing beyond this level will not increase this number

==== Enchantment bonus ====

If performing enchantments on deed this value provides an additional bonus to make your casting that much better. Maximum possible value appears to be 30%.

==== Number of people on deed matters? ====

I've heard rumors that the number of citizens on a deed greatly impacts how quickly the deed bonus declines. This is something I plan to look into at some point.

=== Gaining faith ===
==== Prayer ====

At lower levels of faith (< 60) the best way to gain faith appears to be to pray five times per day at 20 minute intervals. Sermons do provide you with more opportunities to pray provided you preach once every three hours. The skill gained from preaching at the sermon is less than the amount gained from each prayer at these lower faith levels.

==== Sermons ====
Preaching sermons provide the best way to gain faith and correct alignment at the higher levels of faith (60+). When you preach a sermon it also resets your prayer counter so that you can once again pray five times at 20 minute intervals.
Sermons require seven premium characters in attendance and it is equally important that non-of these characters have had an alignment changing event in the previous 30 minutes. Non-premium characters do not count towards the seven character requirement. Characters must be disembarked from large carts and wagons as well.

Sermons generally provide between 0.01 and 0.02 faith per person involved in the sermon.

You can sometimes find a sermon group on your server by asking in Freedom and/or Freedom-GL or by searching the forums.

=== Gem Farming ===
Gem Farming relies on your Wurm God providing you with occasional gems when praying constantly. These gems will range from low to high ql gems and, as noted in the gem section above, they carry a value, play a significant role in channel grinding and are very useful to provide favor for casting.

=== Conversions ===
Conversions are surprisingly uneventful considering the importance of either the decision to become a follower or a priest. It is important to note that the preaching level of the converting priest divided by 5 becomes the starting faith level of the converted.

=== Confessions ===

Improves preaching skill which in turn increases the initial faith level of the converted (see conversions section)

=== Purchasing a priest ===
==== What to look for in a high end priest ====
Channeling – 70+
Soul Depth – 50+ (Vyn and Fo (if planning to do life transfer casts)
Faith – 90 – 100 with 100 being preferable

Some type of favor support skill like rope making (All), cloth tailoring (Fo) or lock smithing (Mag).
Other key skills include animal husbandry, farming and meditation. The choice of meditation path and level on the path is also important.

=== Looking for a high end priest (Fo) however can only find Vyn. What to do? ===

Faith is one of the easier items to rebuild from zero if required especially if you can use a combination of sermons and praying sessions. An option often overlooked is to obtain a priest with high channeling and convert it to Fo. This would require you to rebuild faith from zero back to the 100 desired. Same applies for converting a high end Fo or Mag priest to Vyn.

Soul Depth is often the other consideration especially for Vyn priests. Pan filling is currently the fastest way to raise soul depth. While expensive there are panfillers who will assist you with gaining soul depth. Alternatively you can do the work yourself although it is very time consuming and requires great focus.

=== PVE Combat support roles ===
Priests can play essential combat support roles for major undertakings like removing 34 trolls from an island or assisting with the slaying of a dragon. Some spells that make a difference are listed below.
Many of these spells are area of effect spells that cover a certain area around a casting focal point. To help as many people in combat as possible it is important to either pre-define where the focal point will be and/or have some sort of communication about when/where the spell is going to be cast during the battle

All comments below are from a PVE perspective initially. PVP perspective is welcomed and will be added to a following section if reader feedback is forthcoming.

==== Fo ====
Light of Fo
Provides healing to the entire combat group usually within an area of the casting focal point

==== Mag ====
Mass Stamina
Provides a stamina refresh to the entire combat group within an 3 x3 area of the casting focal point

==== Vyn ====

Please provide feedback

=== To dispel or not to dispel? ===

Sometimes enchantments like circle of cunning or life transfer seem to get stuck at a certain level and despite repeated casts the value does not improve. Each additional improvement cast seems to run a risk of shattering the item being improved.

My 85 chan/51 soul depth Vyn seemed to have a point around 55 – 60 where it was generally better to dispel an enchantment then to attempt more than 2 or 3 improvement casts.

The same dispel tipping point for my 94 chan/76 soul depth priest seems to be around 75. Higher then 75 and I am better off dispelling and recasting. In the case of this priest there is far less chance of an actual shatter however favor is still being lost on the repeated casts

=== Battery quality ===

One question under investigation is if the quality of the actual battery priest makes a difference. For example if you use a priest with high faith but non-existent channeling and other skills does it make a difference?

=== Armor bonus and penalty ===

When casting it is important to consider the armour you are wearing. Metal armour including plate and chain imposes a 30% casting penalty. Studded leather does not impose a penalty. Wearing cloth or nothing at all provides a 30% casting bonus.
It is important to note that the special +30% bonus symbol only rarely appears on its own even when wearing cloth or no clothes. In order to encourage it to appear, put on an item like a studded leather cap and then remove it. Following the removal you will see the bonus symbol appear.

=== Spell effects window ===

Guides:Priests - Nappy's observations

2015-04-17T19:49:18Z

Nappy: /* Faith */

== Priests - Nappy's observations ==

=== The different feeling of the priests ===

On the Freedom Isles, with the exception of Chaos, there are three types of white light priests available to play. Each type of priest plays remarkably differently. If you have only tried one type (most people seem to only try Vynora) then I strongly encourage you to try at least one of the other types.

==== Vynora ====

Vynora is, for me, the cold and bitter priest type. While often desired for their ability to put some fantastic enchantments on tools like circle of cunning (skill gain) and winds of ages (speed gain) or awesome weapons enchantments like nimbleness (chance to hit), mind stealer (steals body characteristics from animals) and self-healers demise (helps increase chance to hit against trolls etc) this is a priest that has a terrible attitude especially at the lower levels of channeling where they are known to have an almost permanent frown faced expression occasionally enhanced by the shattering of items as their temper flares up.

==== Fo ====

Fo priests by comparison are the spreaders of love and happiness. Frustration is minimal and the ability to complete good deeds is unprecedented amongst all of the priest types. Popular and fun spells include Wild growth (can rapidly grow a forest in an extremely fast time), Humid drizzle (tends to animals instead of you grooming them) and a huge variety of healing related spells to help you cure badly hurt comrades or animals.

==== Mag ====

Mag priests seem to be devoted to mining and hunting. Once again the feeling is different when playing this priest type. Going on a hunting trip even at lower levels of fighting skill you feel like you are almost invincible to the monsters all around you. For mining one handy spell is the light token. Often used for increasing channeling ability at the lower levels, it is also very helpful when exploring or working in a very dark mine.

==== Dark Light ====

I haven't had the opportunity to play a Dark Light priest yet so unfortunately no observations to report.

=== Key skills for priests ===

==== Primary skills ====
===== Faith =====
Faith controls the amount of favor able to be provided by a priest and also impacts what spells they are able to try casting. A 100 faith priest has more spells available then a 50 faith priest and can also cast for longer before needing to recharge.

===== Channeling =====
Channeling represents how closely focused the cast is. Casts can range from an intensely negative value (which leads to shattered items) to intensively positive values (which leads to great casts). The channeling skill level seems to help keep the cast focused to a more narrow range.
General thought seems to be that once a priest reaches 70 channeling then the odds of a shattered item are greatly reduced.

Ranges:

70+ - Chance of shatter greatly reduced
80 – 85 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
86+ - Considered to be very high quality of priest with shatters being extremely rare and unusual. Generally it should be easier to attain good casts (70+) without significant difficulty provided soul depth is also high.

===== Soul Depth =====

Soul Depth seems to impact the amount of power a cast can attain. The higher soul depth levels allow for much higher powered casts. A popular "good" value to have for soul depth is 50 – 55.

Soul depth is heavily used for enchanting tools and weapons by Vyn (circle of cunning, wind of ages, mind stealer etc) and Fo (Life Transfer is the most common).

Ranges:

50 – 55 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
56 - 69 - Great
70+ - Exceptional

===== Soul Strength =====

Soul strength appears to be heavily used by Mag priests and to a more limited degree by Fo priests (genesis, wild growth, humid drizzle etc for items that are not enchantments of tools or weapons)

===== Preaching =====

===== Alignment =====

==== Supporting skills ====

===== Rope making =====
===== Farming =====
===== Animal Husbandry =====

=== Main or Alt? ===
Follower versus priest

=== Gaining Favor ===
In order to cast spells favor is required. Three ways exist to gain more favor that I am currently aware of.

==== Batteries ====

The first option is to use priest "batteries". These are priests that typically only have high levels of faith allowing them to hold large amounts of favor. If you link these batteries to your primary casting priest then you can draw on the favor of the primary priest and any linked batteries when casting. You may add one linked priest for every 10 levels of channeling ability. Linking priests seems to increase the level of difficulty when casting. I have not yet been able to verify that this is indeed the case although it is very commonly mentioned and there is the feeling that this is the case.

When using linked priests you can often just click the casting button from time to time after favor has regenerated enough to do so. The number of linked priests directly impacts how often you can click that button. Six linked priests make it very possible to skip sacrificing items entirely for favor gain without having to wait an extremely long time between casting attempts.

Favor gain is always faster when it is at its lowest storage levels. This means that you will be able to cast more if you cast as early as possible rather than waiting until the batteries are all full.

The trade off with using batteries is that you require premium for each one.

==== Sacrifice ====

A second way to gain favor is to sacrifice items. Commonly used is cordage rope.
10 cordage ropes at 70 ql will often fill a 100 favor bar fully. Things to consider include the difficulty of producing the higher ql levels of cordage, the need for high ql wemp, requirement for a good rope tool, your rope making skill and the actual time it takes to create the cordage in the first place.

Each priest type has double favor item as well at various difficulty levels. This means that when sacrificing those items you are granted double the usual amount of favor.

==== Regeneration ====

Another option for favor generation is just to wait while the favor regenerates. Two additional things to consider are that if you do stuff while waiting it significantly slows down the regeneration process and if you pray, occasionally your god will grant you faster regeneration.

=== Skill grinding ===
==== Using batteries ====

Using Fo as an example, it is possible to vessel < 10 ql gems non-stop using two Fo batteries to draw upon. By doing this you eliminate the requirement to either sacrifice gems or spend time waiting for favor

==== Why grind? ====

Sometimes the more enjoyable way to gain skill is to just keep working on deed projects where casting plays a strong support role.

# Example 1 – Wild growth for hedges

If your deed needs hedges, plant a 3 x3 or 5 x 5 square of the desired hedge type (camellia shrubs for example). Cast Fo wild growth and pick the spouts until you have the numerous sprouts required. In this way you achieve the goal of gaining channeling skill while also building those new hedges for the deed

# Example 2 – Going hunting

Take your Fo priest hunting either as the main participant or in a support role for someone else who is hunting. Make it the priest's job to heal any damage that occurs. Bring a bag of prefilled gems along to make this an exercise that can occur numerous times during the trip.

# Example 3 – Mining party

Help a neighbor expand their mine using your mag priest and a pickaxe. This will help you gain soul strength and if you cast light tokens as each tile is cleared then you can also work on your channeling while providing needed lighting.
# Example 4 – Warm hot food

Use your Vyn priest to make some hot meals for the neighborhood. Add salt to make the meals resist decay longer. Once made cast opulence on the food so it will also go further in feeding your neighbors. This will help you build mind logic, soul depth and channeling.

# Example 5 – Go hunting

Use you priest to do some hunting while on horseback – put them in studded leather (no casting penalty), equip them with a good Life Transfer weapon and send them out hunting. Perhaps start the attack by using a combat spell on the target giving you some channeling. All priest types receive fighting skills and Fo will receive channeling by casting healing. Keep a close eye on damage levels and retreat early when required.
If you hunt as part of a group then it is even easier to ask someone to heal you (if non-fo) or for you to gain channeling experience (as Fo) doing healing casts on the hunting party as required.

==== Spells for skill grinding ====

==== Vynora ====
Low = bless
Med = opulence
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Fo ====

Low = bless
Med = heal/dirt
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Mag ====
Low = light token
High = Gems or Lurker on a seryl pendulum

=== Seryl pendulum ===

Create a seryl pendulum. Usually quality of the pendulum is unimportant because seryl rarely shatters when casting. Once the pendulum is created cast Lurker spells upon it (Lurker in the dark, lurker of the deep, lurker in the woods etc). Dispel occasionally to start cycle again.
This technique avoids the need to obtain and manage gems while also providing skill gains right into the highest levels of channeling. At lower levels of channeling casting vessel on gems seems to provide better skill gains. At the higher levels of channeling this changes.

=== Using Gems ===

==== For Channel grinding ====
===== Using < 10 ql gems for channel grinding =====

< 10 ql gems do not store power when vessel is cast upon them. This is an advantage when trying to quickly improve your channeling skill because you are able to cast multiple times in quick succession on a gem without needing to worry about removing stored power between each round. Each cast causes damage to the gem so eventually it will disappear.

===== Using 10+ ql gems for channel grinding =====

When you cast vessel on gems that are 10+ ql power is actually stored in the gem for later use. This means that before you can do a second vessel cast on the gem you must first "use" the power that has been stored in the gem.
The most efficient way (albeit time consuming) to use 10+ ql gems is to drain your favor until it is at 7.5. Each time the favor reaches 7.5 cast vessel on the gem. You will actually store 2.5 power because the spell itself uses 5. Use the power and then recast again and again until the gem becomes < 10 ql.

==== For Casting ====

When you cast "vessel" on a gem it stores power in the gem. When you withdraw that power from the gem you receive double the amount of favor that was stored. For this reason a good strategy to follow when casting enchantments is to sacrifice items to create favor, vessel the favor into 10+ ql gems and then use the gems to provide the power for the casting. Favor will go a much longer way using this strategy plus you also achieve more skill gain due to the extra casting involved.

This strategy is also recommended if you are going to go into combat where quick access to spell casting is required and time to wait for link recharging etc will be too long to positively impact the battle.

==== To transfer favor between religions ====

A priest is unable to directly link with a priest from a different religion. It is possible to have a priest from one religion store favor in a gem and then have a priest from a different religion use the stored power.

==== General prices for purchasing ====

Current market rates seem to be as follows:

< 10 ql = 2.0 to 2.5 copper per ql
10+ ql = .8 to 1.2 copper per ql

This pricing reflects the current bias towards using gems for channel grinding. As noted above using gems as part of the casting process for non-channel grinding can make a significant difference that is not reflected in the price differences shown.

=== Settlement Info bonuses ===

The information in this section can be located by right clicking on your settlement deed and selecting settlement info.

==== Village bonus ====

Village bonuses are enhanced by performing sacrifices. These sacrifices can be made by both followers and priests and can be made by all religions (so you could sacrifice from Fo altar and Vyn altar with characters of the appropriate faiths and all will contribute to the village bonus). This is important because you can leverage the double favor items for each faith to enhance the bonuses with less time and effort.
When you perform sacrifices using a follower, everything they sacrifice goes directly into the village bonuses since followers have no way to spend favor. If you use a priest output from sacrifices will fill the priest's favor bar first. Only when the favor bar is full at the start of the sacrifice will the results add to the village bonus.

==== Rare bonus seconds ====

This increases the number of rare seconds. Maximum possible is 10 seconds currently. Sacrificing beyond this level will not increase this number

==== Enchantment bonus ====

If performing enchantments on deed this value provides an additional bonus to make your casting that much better. Maximum possible value appears to be 30%.

==== Number of people on deed matters? ====

I've heard rumors that the number of citizens on a deed greatly impacts how quickly the deed bonus declines. This is something I plan to look into at some point.

=== Gaining faith ===
==== Prayer ====

At lower levels of faith (< 60) the best way to gain faith appears to be to pray five times per day at 20 minute intervals. Sermons do provide you with more opportunities to pray provided you preach once every three hours. The skill gained from preaching at the sermon is less than the amount gained from each prayer at these lower faith levels.

==== Sermons ====
Preaching sermons provide the best way to gain faith and correct alignment at the higher levels of faith (60+). When you preach a sermon it also resets your prayer counter so that you can once again pray five times at 20 minute intervals.
Sermons require seven premium characters in attendance and it is equally important that non-of these characters have had an alignment changing event in the previous 30 minutes. Non-premium characters do not count towards the seven character requirement. Characters must be disembarked from large carts and wagons as well.

Sermons generally provide between 0.01 and 0.02 faith per person involved in the sermon.

You can sometimes find a sermon group on your server by asking in Freedom and/or Freedom-GL or by searching the forums.

=== Gem Farming ===
Gem Farming relies on your Wurm God providing you with occasional gems when praying constantly. These gems will range from low to high ql gems and, as noted in the gem section above, they carry a value, play a significant role in channel grinding and are very useful to provide favor for casting.

=== Conversions ===
Conversions are surprisingly uneventful considering the importance of either the decision to become a follower or a priest. It is important to note that the preaching level of the converting priest divided by 5 becomes the starting faith level of the converted.

=== Confessions ===

Improves preaching skill which in turn increases the initial faith level of the converted (see conversions section)

=== Purchasing a priest ===
==== What to look for in a high end priest ====
Channeling – 70+
Soul Depth – 50+ (Vyn and Fo (if planning to do life transfer casts)
Faith – 90 – 100 with 100 being preferable

Some type of favor support skill like rope making (All), cloth tailoring (Fo) or lock smithing (Mag).
Other key skills include animal husbandry, farming and meditation. The choice of meditation path and level on the path is also important.

=== Looking for a high end priest (Fo) however can only find Vyn. What to do? ===

Faith is one of the easier items to rebuild from zero if required especially if you can use a combination of sermons and praying sessions. An option often overlooked is to obtain a priest with high channeling and convert it to Fo. This would require you to rebuild faith from zero back to the 100 desired. Same applies for converting a high end Fo or Mag priest to Vyn.

Soul Depth is often the other consideration especially for Vyn priests. Pan filling is currently the fastest way to raise soul depth. While expensive there are panfillers who will assist you with gaining soul depth. Alternatively you can do the work yourself although it is very time consuming and requires great focus.

=== PVE Combat support roles ===
Priests can play essential combat support roles for major undertakings like removing 34 trolls from an island or assisting with the slaying of a dragon. Some spells that make a difference are listed below.
Many of these spells are area of effect spells that cover a certain area around a casting focal point. To help as many people in combat as possible it is important to either pre-define where the focal point will be and/or have some sort of communication about when/where the spell is going to be cast during the battle

All comments below are from a PVE perspective initially. PVP perspective is welcomed and will be added to a following section if reader feedback is forthcoming.

==== Fo ====
Light of Fo
Provides healing to the entire combat group usually within an area of the casting focal point

==== Mag ====
Mass Stamina
Provides a stamina refresh to the entire combat group within an 3 x3 area of the casting focal point

==== Vyn ====

Please provide feedback

=== To dispel or not to dispel? ===

Sometimes enchantments like circle of cunning or life transfer seem to get stuck at a certain level and despite repeated casts the value does not improve. Each additional improvement cast seems to run a risk of shattering the item being improved.

My 85 chan/51 soul depth Vyn seemed to have a point around 55 – 60 where it was generally better to dispel an enchantment then to attempt more than 2 or 3 improvement casts.

The same dispel tipping point for my 94 chan/76 soul depth priest seems to be around 75. Higher then 75 and I am better off dispelling and recasting. In the case of this priest there is far less chance of an actual shatter however favor is still being lost on the repeated casts

=== Battery quality ===

One question under investigation is if the quality of the actual battery priest makes a difference. For example if you use a priest with high faith but non-existent channeling and other skills does it make a difference?

=== Armor bonus and penalty ===

When casting it is important to consider the armour you are wearing. Metal armour including plate and chain imposes a 30% casting penalty. Studded leather does not impose a penalty. Wearing cloth or nothing at all provides a 30% casting bonus.
It is important to note that the special +30% bonus symbol only rarely appears on its own even when wearing cloth or no clothes. In order to encourage it to appear, put on an item like a studded leather cap and then remove it. Following the removal you will see the bonus symbol appear.

=== Spell effects window ===

Guides:Priests - Nappy's observations

2015-04-17T19:46:26Z

Nappy: Created page with "== Priests - Nappy's observations == === The different feeling of the priests === On the Freedom Isles, with the exception of Chaos, there are three types of white light pri..."

== Priests - Nappy's observations ==

=== The different feeling of the priests ===

On the Freedom Isles, with the exception of Chaos, there are three types of white light priests available to play. Each type of priest plays remarkably differently. If you have only tried one type (most people seem to only try Vynora) then I strongly encourage you to try at least one of the other types.

==== Vynora ====

Vynora is, for me, the cold and bitter priest type. While often desired for their ability to put some fantastic enchantments on tools like circle of cunning (skill gain) and winds of ages (speed gain) or awesome weapons enchantments like nimbleness (chance to hit), mind stealer (steals body characteristics from animals) and self-healers demise (helps increase chance to hit against trolls etc) this is a priest that has a terrible attitude especially at the lower levels of channeling where they are known to have an almost permanent frown faced expression occasionally enhanced by the shattering of items as their temper flares up.

==== Fo ====

Fo priests by comparison are the spreaders of love and happiness. Frustration is minimal and the ability to complete good deeds is unprecedented amongst all of the priest types. Popular and fun spells include Wild growth (can rapidly grow a forest in an extremely fast time), Humid drizzle (tends to animals instead of you grooming them) and a huge variety of healing related spells to help you cure badly hurt comrades or animals.

==== Mag ====

Mag priests seem to be devoted to mining and hunting. Once again the feeling is different when playing this priest type. Going on a hunting trip even at lower levels of fighting skill you feel like you are almost invincible to the monsters all around you. For mining one handy spell is the light token. Often used for increasing channeling ability at the lower levels, it is also very helpful when exploring or working in a very dark mine.

==== Dark Light ====

I haven't had the opportunity to play a Dark Light priest yet so unfortunately no observations to report.

=== Key skills for priests ===

==== Primary skills ====
===== Faith =====
Faith controls the amount of favor able to be provided by a priest and also impacts what spells they are able to try casting. A 100 faith priest has more spells available then a 50 faith priest and can also cast for longer before needed to recharge.

===== Channeling =====
Channeling represents how closely focused the cast is. Casts can range from an intensely negative value (which leads to shattered items) to intensively positive values (which leads to great casts). The channeling skill level seems to help keep the cast focused to a more narrow range.
General thought seems to be that once a priest reaches 70 channeling then the odds of a shattered item are greatly reduced.

Ranges:

70+ - Chance of shatter greatly reduced
80 – 85 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
86+ - Considered to be very high quality of priest with shatters being extremely rare and unusual. Generally it should be easier to attain good casts (70+) without significant difficulty provided soul depth is also high.

===== Soul Depth =====

Soul Depth seems to impact the amount of power a cast can attain. The higher soul depth levels allow for much higher powered casts. A popular "good" value to have for soul depth is 50 – 55.

Soul depth is heavily used for enchanting tools and weapons by Vyn (circle of cunning, wind of ages, mind stealer etc) and Fo (Life Transfer is the most common).

Ranges:

50 – 55 – Considered to be a good range for most priests
56 - 69 - Great
70+ - Exceptional

===== Soul Strength =====

Soul strength appears to be heavily used by Mag priests and to a more limited degree by Fo priests (genesis, wild growth, humid drizzle etc for items that are not enchantments of tools or weapons)

===== Preaching =====

===== Alignment =====

==== Supporting skills ====

===== Rope making =====
===== Farming =====
===== Animal Husbandry =====

=== Main or Alt? ===
Follower versus priest

=== Gaining Favor ===
In order to cast spells favor is required. Three ways exist to gain more favor that I am currently aware of.

==== Batteries ====

The first option is to use priest "batteries". These are priests that typically only have high levels of faith allowing them to hold large amounts of favor. If you link these batteries to your primary casting priest then you can draw on the favor of the primary priest and any linked batteries when casting. You may add one linked priest for every 10 levels of channeling ability. Linking priests seems to increase the level of difficulty when casting. I have not yet been able to verify that this is indeed the case although it is very commonly mentioned and there is the feeling that this is the case.

When using linked priests you can often just click the casting button from time to time after favor has regenerated enough to do so. The number of linked priests directly impacts how often you can click that button. Six linked priests make it very possible to skip sacrificing items entirely for favor gain without having to wait an extremely long time between casting attempts.

Favor gain is always faster when it is at its lowest storage levels. This means that you will be able to cast more if you cast as early as possible rather than waiting until the batteries are all full.

The trade off with using batteries is that you require premium for each one.

==== Sacrifice ====

A second way to gain favor is to sacrifice items. Commonly used is cordage rope.
10 cordage ropes at 70 ql will often fill a 100 favor bar fully. Things to consider include the difficulty of producing the higher ql levels of cordage, the need for high ql wemp, requirement for a good rope tool, your rope making skill and the actual time it takes to create the cordage in the first place.

Each priest type has double favor item as well at various difficulty levels. This means that when sacrificing those items you are granted double the usual amount of favor.

==== Regeneration ====

Another option for favor generation is just to wait while the favor regenerates. Two additional things to consider are that if you do stuff while waiting it significantly slows down the regeneration process and if you pray, occasionally your god will grant you faster regeneration.

=== Skill grinding ===
==== Using batteries ====

Using Fo as an example, it is possible to vessel < 10 ql gems non-stop using two Fo batteries to draw upon. By doing this you eliminate the requirement to either sacrifice gems or spend time waiting for favor

==== Why grind? ====

Sometimes the more enjoyable way to gain skill is to just keep working on deed projects where casting plays a strong support role.

# Example 1 – Wild growth for hedges

If your deed needs hedges, plant a 3 x3 or 5 x 5 square of the desired hedge type (camellia shrubs for example). Cast Fo wild growth and pick the spouts until you have the numerous sprouts required. In this way you achieve the goal of gaining channeling skill while also building those new hedges for the deed

# Example 2 – Going hunting

Take your Fo priest hunting either as the main participant or in a support role for someone else who is hunting. Make it the priest's job to heal any damage that occurs. Bring a bag of prefilled gems along to make this an exercise that can occur numerous times during the trip.

# Example 3 – Mining party

Help a neighbor expand their mine using your mag priest and a pickaxe. This will help you gain soul strength and if you cast light tokens as each tile is cleared then you can also work on your channeling while providing needed lighting.
# Example 4 – Warm hot food

Use your Vyn priest to make some hot meals for the neighborhood. Add salt to make the meals resist decay longer. Once made cast opulence on the food so it will also go further in feeding your neighbors. This will help you build mind logic, soul depth and channeling.

# Example 5 – Go hunting

Use you priest to do some hunting while on horseback – put them in studded leather (no casting penalty), equip them with a good Life Transfer weapon and send them out hunting. Perhaps start the attack by using a combat spell on the target giving you some channeling. All priest types receive fighting skills and Fo will receive channeling by casting healing. Keep a close eye on damage levels and retreat early when required.
If you hunt as part of a group then it is even easier to ask someone to heal you (if non-fo) or for you to gain channeling experience (as Fo) doing healing casts on the hunting party as required.

==== Spells for skill grinding ====

==== Vynora ====
Low = bless
Med = opulence
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Fo ====

Low = bless
Med = heal/dirt
High = Gems or Lurker on Seryl pendulum

==== Mag ====
Low = light token
High = Gems or Lurker on a seryl pendulum

=== Seryl pendulum ===

Create a seryl pendulum. Usually quality of the pendulum is unimportant because seryl rarely shatters when casting. Once the pendulum is created cast Lurker spells upon it (Lurker in the dark, lurker of the deep, lurker in the woods etc). Dispel occasionally to start cycle again.
This technique avoids the need to obtain and manage gems while also providing skill gains right into the highest levels of channeling. At lower levels of channeling casting vessel on gems seems to provide better skill gains. At the higher levels of channeling this changes.

=== Using Gems ===

==== For Channel grinding ====
===== Using < 10 ql gems for channel grinding =====

< 10 ql gems do not store power when vessel is cast upon them. This is an advantage when trying to quickly improve your channeling skill because you are able to cast multiple times in quick succession on a gem without needing to worry about removing stored power between each round. Each cast causes damage to the gem so eventually it will disappear.

===== Using 10+ ql gems for channel grinding =====

When you cast vessel on gems that are 10+ ql power is actually stored in the gem for later use. This means that before you can do a second vessel cast on the gem you must first "use" the power that has been stored in the gem.
The most efficient way (albeit time consuming) to use 10+ ql gems is to drain your favor until it is at 7.5. Each time the favor reaches 7.5 cast vessel on the gem. You will actually store 2.5 power because the spell itself uses 5. Use the power and then recast again and again until the gem becomes < 10 ql.

==== For Casting ====

When you cast "vessel" on a gem it stores power in the gem. When you withdraw that power from the gem you receive double the amount of favor that was stored. For this reason a good strategy to follow when casting enchantments is to sacrifice items to create favor, vessel the favor into 10+ ql gems and then use the gems to provide the power for the casting. Favor will go a much longer way using this strategy plus you also achieve more skill gain due to the extra casting involved.

This strategy is also recommended if you are going to go into combat where quick access to spell casting is required and time to wait for link recharging etc will be too long to positively impact the battle.

==== To transfer favor between religions ====

A priest is unable to directly link with a priest from a different religion. It is possible to have a priest from one religion store favor in a gem and then have a priest from a different religion use the stored power.

==== General prices for purchasing ====

Current market rates seem to be as follows:

< 10 ql = 2.0 to 2.5 copper per ql
10+ ql = .8 to 1.2 copper per ql

This pricing reflects the current bias towards using gems for channel grinding. As noted above using gems as part of the casting process for non-channel grinding can make a significant difference that is not reflected in the price differences shown.

=== Settlement Info bonuses ===

The information in this section can be located by right clicking on your settlement deed and selecting settlement info.

==== Village bonus ====

Village bonuses are enhanced by performing sacrifices. These sacrifices can be made by both followers and priests and can be made by all religions (so you could sacrifice from Fo altar and Vyn altar with characters of the appropriate faiths and all will contribute to the village bonus). This is important because you can leverage the double favor items for each faith to enhance the bonuses with less time and effort.
When you perform sacrifices using a follower, everything they sacrifice goes directly into the village bonuses since followers have no way to spend favor. If you use a priest output from sacrifices will fill the priest's favor bar first. Only when the favor bar is full at the start of the sacrifice will the results add to the village bonus.

==== Rare bonus seconds ====

This increases the number of rare seconds. Maximum possible is 10 seconds currently. Sacrificing beyond this level will not increase this number

==== Enchantment bonus ====

If performing enchantments on deed this value provides an additional bonus to make your casting that much better. Maximum possible value appears to be 30%.

==== Number of people on deed matters? ====

I've heard rumors that the number of citizens on a deed greatly impacts how quickly the deed bonus declines. This is something I plan to look into at some point.

=== Gaining faith ===
==== Prayer ====

At lower levels of faith (< 60) the best way to gain faith appears to be to pray five times per day at 20 minute intervals. Sermons do provide you with more opportunities to pray provided you preach once every three hours. The skill gained from preaching at the sermon is less than the amount gained from each prayer at these lower faith levels.

==== Sermons ====
Preaching sermons provide the best way to gain faith and correct alignment at the higher levels of faith (60+). When you preach a sermon it also resets your prayer counter so that you can once again pray five times at 20 minute intervals.
Sermons require seven premium characters in attendance and it is equally important that non-of these characters have had an alignment changing event in the previous 30 minutes. Non-premium characters do not count towards the seven character requirement. Characters must be disembarked from large carts and wagons as well.

Sermons generally provide between 0.01 and 0.02 faith per person involved in the sermon.

You can sometimes find a sermon group on your server by asking in Freedom and/or Freedom-GL or by searching the forums.

=== Gem Farming ===
Gem Farming relies on your Wurm God providing you with occasional gems when praying constantly. These gems will range from low to high ql gems and, as noted in the gem section above, they carry a value, play a significant role in channel grinding and are very useful to provide favor for casting.

=== Conversions ===
Conversions are surprisingly uneventful considering the importance of either the decision to become a follower or a priest. It is important to note that the preaching level of the converting priest divided by 5 becomes the starting faith level of the converted.

=== Confessions ===

Improves preaching skill which in turn increases the initial faith level of the converted (see conversions section)

=== Purchasing a priest ===
==== What to look for in a high end priest ====
Channeling – 70+
Soul Depth – 50+ (Vyn and Fo (if planning to do life transfer casts)
Faith – 90 – 100 with 100 being preferable

Some type of favor support skill like rope making (All), cloth tailoring (Fo) or lock smithing (Mag).
Other key skills include animal husbandry, farming and meditation. The choice of meditation path and level on the path is also important.

=== Looking for a high end priest (Fo) however can only find Vyn. What to do? ===

Faith is one of the easier items to rebuild from zero if required especially if you can use a combination of sermons and praying sessions. An option often overlooked is to obtain a priest with high channeling and convert it to Fo. This would require you to rebuild faith from zero back to the 100 desired. Same applies for converting a high end Fo or Mag priest to Vyn.

Soul Depth is often the other consideration especially for Vyn priests. Pan filling is currently the fastest way to raise soul depth. While expensive there are panfillers who will assist you with gaining soul depth. Alternatively you can do the work yourself although it is very time consuming and requires great focus.

=== PVE Combat support roles ===
Priests can play essential combat support roles for major undertakings like removing 34 trolls from an island or assisting with the slaying of a dragon. Some spells that make a difference are listed below.
Many of these spells are area of effect spells that cover a certain area around a casting focal point. To help as many people in combat as possible it is important to either pre-define where the focal point will be and/or have some sort of communication about when/where the spell is going to be cast during the battle

All comments below are from a PVE perspective initially. PVP perspective is welcomed and will be added to a following section if reader feedback is forthcoming.

==== Fo ====
Light of Fo
Provides healing to the entire combat group usually within an area of the casting focal point

==== Mag ====
Mass Stamina
Provides a stamina refresh to the entire combat group within an 3 x3 area of the casting focal point

==== Vyn ====

Please provide feedback

=== To dispel or not to dispel? ===

Sometimes enchantments like circle of cunning or life transfer seem to get stuck at a certain level and despite repeated casts the value does not improve. Each additional improvement cast seems to run a risk of shattering the item being improved.

My 85 chan/51 soul depth Vyn seemed to have a point around 55 – 60 where it was generally better to dispel an enchantment then to attempt more than 2 or 3 improvement casts.

The same dispel tipping point for my 94 chan/76 soul depth priest seems to be around 75. Higher then 75 and I am better off dispelling and recasting. In the case of this priest there is far less chance of an actual shatter however favor is still being lost on the repeated casts

=== Battery quality ===

One question under investigation is if the quality of the actual battery priest makes a difference. For example if you use a priest with high faith but non-existent channeling and other skills does it make a difference?

=== Armor bonus and penalty ===

When casting it is important to consider the armour you are wearing. Metal armour including plate and chain imposes a 30% casting penalty. Studded leather does not impose a penalty. Wearing cloth or nothing at all provides a 30% casting bonus.
It is important to note that the special +30% bonus symbol only rarely appears on its own even when wearing cloth or no clothes. In order to encourage it to appear, put on an item like a studded leather cap and then remove it. Following the removal you will see the bonus symbol appear.

=== Spell effects window ===

Guides:Panfilling tips

2015-04-17T18:07:00Z

Nappy: /* Filling pans */

== Panfilling tips ==

Panfilling refers to the activity of creating food (meals, stews etc) usually in frying pans inside a forge. It is commonly used to skill priests because of skill gains it provides for soul depth. Other non-priest character types also gain skills as well including mind logic, cooking, hot food cooking, and soul. For every 10 mind logic you gain the ability to queue an additional action making this a very attractive option to consider for priests and non-priests alike.

=== Meals vs stews vs ? ===

MamaDarkness completed a very detailed study into meals versus stews for soul depth gain. This information can be found on Wurmpedia. Until very high levels stews are the best approach to gaining soul depth while also being the easiest to dispose of.

=== Filling pans ===

Filling pans does not have to be exceptionally painful. It can be easier to perform then the way most people initially try it.

# Go into settings, change the Shift-drag setting to default to 1 and enable shift-drag
# Place 100 empty frying pans into a forge
# Place two satchels, backpacks or cauldrons in your inventory
# Put 100 of one vegetable (corn in the example)
in one backpack (or whatever item you place in step 3 above)
# Put 100 of the second vegetable (onions in the example)in the second backpack
# Expand the backpacks so you can see the summary line for the each vegetable (corn – 100 and onion 100)
# Use the ctrl key to select the corn(100) and onion(100) lines in inventory
# Hold down the SHIFT and ENTER key while left clicking on the bottom vegetable item – the top menu bar should change from words to dashes
# While continuing to hold down the shift and enter keys drag the vegetables across each frying pan in the forge. Each drag should result in 1 onion and 1 corn being placed into the pan
# Continue until all 100 frying pans are placed
# Repeat the steps for all forges

=== Cooking the food ===

When all pans in all forges have been filled then complete the following steps:

# Place sufficient kindling in your inventory for all forges
# Right click on the health bar and select "Show SB". This will result in a new line showing sleep bonus appearing on your stamina/food/water/health bar. When sleep bonus is enabled the line is white. Having this displayed makes it less likely that you will forget to turn off sleep bonus later
# Go into settings and have it display the skill tracker window
# Setup the skill tracker window to show cooking, hot food cooking, soul depth and mind logic
# Turn on sleep bonus
# Light all forges (no need to add logs or other fuel, kindling should be enough – High ql Steel and Flint with Woa will significantly speed up the process)
# In about 4 minutes you should see a dramatic change in the skill tracker window and also in the skills tab
# After no change in skill tracker for 1 minute, turn off sleep bonus (generally this is about 5 – 6 minutes after lighting the last forge)

=== Emptying pans ===

Emptying pans is usually not a wonderfully loved task and part of the reason is due to the way that most people go about it initially. Here is a way that makes it a bit easier:

# Place an empty small barrel or cauldron in your inventory
# Open the inventory of a forge
# Right click on the name column and select "Expand all"
# If you have only frying pans in the forge then the pans will all be open making it easy to see the stews
# Click on the first stew and while holding down the CTRL key work your way down the entire forge inventory of stews selecting each one
# Drag the stews to your small barrel or cauldron
# Expand the barrel or cauldron, right click the stew and select pour on ground
# Repeat until all forges are empty

=== What if someone else fills the pans for you? ===

If someone else fills the pans for you it is important that you cycle all pans through your own inventory before lighting the forge otherwise they will receive the skill gain instead of you. Here is one way to do this:

# Empty your personal inventory as much as possible
# Place an extra cauldron or backpack on the ground
# Open the forge inventory window
# Drag the items in the forge to your personal inventory
# Drag all remaining forge pans directly to the empty backpack on the ground
# Move the pans in your inventory back to the forge
# Move the pans from the backpack on the ground to your personal inventory
# Move the pans in your inventory back to the forge
# Once all pans have been cycled through your personal inventory then it is safe to light the forge

=== Best way to setup the forges? ===

It is possible to use cauldrons and backpacks to fit far more than 100 pans in a forge. As an example you can fit 8 cauldrons each containing 32 pans for a total of 256 pans in a single forge. While this is appealing from a maximum number of pans in a forge viewpoint it actually makes emptying pans more difficult because expand all doesn't open all the pans resulting in alot more clicking as you open the pans.

=== Does pan quality matter for soul depth? ===

Soul depth does not seem to be impacted by the quality of the pan used. Pan quality does impact the ql of the meals/stews produced so if you intend to eat the cooked food then this may be important to you.

=== Maximizing nutrition ===

When you sacrifice a rare or use a refresh it provides you with 99 nutrition which in turn provides maximum skill gain. It is recommended to always have 99 nutrition whenever possible.

=== Sleep bonus ===

Sleep bonus provides double skill gains. With the amount of work and cost involved in panfilling it makes sense to always use sleep bonous when cooking the food. Turn it off when cycling, filling and emptying pans.

=== Setting up a cookhouse ===

When setting up a cookhouse a primary consideration should always be reducing the number of clicks required. If you are trying to create 30,000 stews then even one fewer click per forge can make a huge difference.

Here is one possible layout for 20 forges holding 100 pans each for 2,000 pans total. Notice that the width and length is about 2 tiles so you will be squeezing the forges together very closely. The key is to make it so the panfiller can open any of the objects in that diagram without needing to move location. You want to eliminate opening and closing windows more then once.

<- ->
2 tiles
XXXXXXXX
X X
X C X
X X
X P X
X X
X X
B F W
AAA

P = Panfiller
X = Forge
C = Cauldrons or backpacks on ground
W = Water barrel
F = Food storage bin
A = Altar(s) for sacrificing rares
B = Bulk storage bin holding kindling

=== Hiring a panfiller ===

Some people enjoy panfilling and actually hire themselves out to assist you with your panfilling needs. The safest way to work with them is to keep your account information to yourself and have them fill the pans for you using their own character (or their own alt).

The section "What if someone else fills the pans for you?" is an important section to review in this case.

Another consideration is the cookhouse itself. The more pans you have in your cookhouse the longer the interval is between times when you have to log in to cycle the pans. In this scenario 4,000 pans truly are better then just 2,000 pans.

=== Vegetables ===

Another part of the panfilling job is getting enough vegetables in the first place. While it is certainly possible to farm all the vegetables yourself an alternative is to purchase vegetables from a dedicated farmer. Often these farmers have very high farming skill and 1,000+ tiles of active farmland.

When you have purchased the vegetables a likely requirement will be transporting them from the delivery location to your cookhouse food storage bin.

* Using large crates your wagon can hold about 2700 vegetables.
* With 100 backpacks the number increases to 10,000 depending on the vegetable type.
* If you use rafts, backpacks and satchels 80 - 100 k of vegetables can be transported in a single wagon where each item is inside it's predecessor. Adding flasks inside the satchels can bump the number even higher to approximately 500,000 vegetables per load (again depends on vegetable type - usually corn, garlic, onions are good lightweight choices)

Be warned - it can take a long time to load and unload the wagon especially when using the last option!

An alternative approach for those purchasing vegetables is to ask their favourite farmer to build an onsite cookhouse for you to use. This saves a lot of time shipping vegetables however it does require that you travel to their cookhouse.

Guides:Panfilling tips

2015-04-17T16:37:48Z

Nappy: /* Vegetables */

== Panfilling tips ==

Panfilling refers to the activity of creating food (meals, stews etc) usually in frying pans inside a forge. It is commonly used to skill priests because of skill gains it provides for soul depth. Other non-priest character types also gain skills as well including mind logic, cooking, hot food cooking, and soul. For every 10 mind logic you gain the ability to queue an additional action making this a very attractive option to consider for priests and non-priests alike.

=== Meals vs stews vs ? ===

MamaDarkness completed a very detailed study into meals versus stews for soul depth gain. This information can be found on Wurmpedia. Until very high levels stews are the best approach to gaining soul depth while also being the easiest to dispose of.

=== Filling pans ===

Filling pans does not have to be exceptionally painful. It can be easier to perform then the way most people initially try it.

# Go into settings, change the Shift-drag setting to default to 1 and enable shift-drag
# Place 100 empty frying pans into a forge
# Place two satchels, backpacks or cauldrons in your inventory
# Put 100 of one vegetable in one backpack (or whatever item you place in step 3 above) (corn in the example)
# Put 100 of the second vegetable in the second backpack (onions in the example)
# Expand the backpacks so you can see the summary line for the each vegetable (corn – 100 and onion 100)
# Use the ctrl key to select the corn(100) and onion(100) lines in inventory
# Hold down the SHIFT and ENTER key while left clicking on the bottom vegetable item – the top menu bar should change from words to dashes
# While continuing to hold down the shift and enter keys drag the vegetables across each frying pan in the forge. Each drag should result in 1 onion and 1 corn being placed into the pan
# Continue until all 100 frying pans are placed
# Repeat the steps for all forges

=== Cooking the food ===

When all pans in all forges have been filled then complete the following steps:

# Place sufficient kindling in your inventory for all forges
# Right click on the health bar and select "Show SB". This will result in a new line showing sleep bonus appearing on your stamina/food/water/health bar. When sleep bonus is enabled the line is white. Having this displayed makes it less likely that you will forget to turn off sleep bonus later
# Go into settings and have it display the skill tracker window
# Setup the skill tracker window to show cooking, hot food cooking, soul depth and mind logic
# Turn on sleep bonus
# Light all forges (no need to add logs or other fuel, kindling should be enough – High ql Steel and Flint with Woa will significantly speed up the process)
# In about 4 minutes you should see a dramatic change in the skill tracker window and also in the skills tab
# After no change in skill tracker for 1 minute, turn off sleep bonus (generally this is about 5 – 6 minutes after lighting the last forge)

=== Emptying pans ===

Emptying pans is usually not a wonderfully loved task and part of the reason is due to the way that most people go about it initially. Here is a way that makes it a bit easier:

# Place an empty small barrel or cauldron in your inventory
# Open the inventory of a forge
# Right click on the name column and select "Expand all"
# If you have only frying pans in the forge then the pans will all be open making it easy to see the stews
# Click on the first stew and while holding down the CTRL key work your way down the entire forge inventory of stews selecting each one
# Drag the stews to your small barrel or cauldron
# Expand the barrel or cauldron, right click the stew and select pour on ground
# Repeat until all forges are empty

=== What if someone else fills the pans for you? ===

If someone else fills the pans for you it is important that you cycle all pans through your own inventory before lighting the forge otherwise they will receive the skill gain instead of you. Here is one way to do this:

# Empty your personal inventory as much as possible
# Place an extra cauldron or backpack on the ground
# Open the forge inventory window
# Drag the items in the forge to your personal inventory
# Drag all remaining forge pans directly to the empty backpack on the ground
# Move the pans in your inventory back to the forge
# Move the pans from the backpack on the ground to your personal inventory
# Move the pans in your inventory back to the forge
# Once all pans have been cycled through your personal inventory then it is safe to light the forge

=== Best way to setup the forges? ===

It is possible to use cauldrons and backpacks to fit far more than 100 pans in a forge. As an example you can fit 8 cauldrons each containing 32 pans for a total of 256 pans in a single forge. While this is appealing from a maximum number of pans in a forge viewpoint it actually makes emptying pans more difficult because expand all doesn't open all the pans resulting in alot more clicking as you open the pans.

=== Does pan quality matter for soul depth? ===

Soul depth does not seem to be impacted by the quality of the pan used. Pan quality does impact the ql of the meals/stews produced so if you intend to eat the cooked food then this may be important to you.

=== Maximizing nutrition ===

When you sacrifice a rare or use a refresh it provides you with 99 nutrition which in turn provides maximum skill gain. It is recommended to always have 99 nutrition whenever possible.

=== Sleep bonus ===

Sleep bonus provides double skill gains. With the amount of work and cost involved in panfilling it makes sense to always use sleep bonous when cooking the food. Turn it off when cycling, filling and emptying pans.

=== Setting up a cookhouse ===

When setting up a cookhouse a primary consideration should always be reducing the number of clicks required. If you are trying to create 30,000 stews then even one fewer click per forge can make a huge difference.

Here is one possible layout for 20 forges holding 100 pans each for 2,000 pans total. Notice that the width and length is about 2 tiles so you will be squeezing the forges together very closely. The key is to make it so the panfiller can open any of the objects in that diagram without needing to move location. You want to eliminate opening and closing windows more then once.

<- ->
2 tiles
XXXXXXXX
X X
X C X
X X
X P X
X X
X X
B F W
AAA

P = Panfiller
X = Forge
C = Cauldrons or backpacks on ground
W = Water barrel
F = Food storage bin
A = Altar(s) for sacrificing rares
B = Bulk storage bin holding kindling

=== Hiring a panfiller ===

Some people enjoy panfilling and actually hire themselves out to assist you with your panfilling needs. The safest way to work with them is to keep your account information to yourself and have them fill the pans for you using their own character (or their own alt).

The section "What if someone else fills the pans for you?" is an important section to review in this case.

Another consideration is the cookhouse itself. The more pans you have in your cookhouse the longer the interval is between times when you have to log in to cycle the pans. In this scenario 4,000 pans truly are better then just 2,000 pans.

=== Vegetables ===

Another part of the panfilling job is getting enough vegetables in the first place. While it is certainly possible to farm all the vegetables yourself an alternative is to purchase vegetables from a dedicated farmer. Often these farmers have very high farming skill and 1,000+ tiles of active farmland.

When you have purchased the vegetables a likely requirement will be transporting them from the delivery location to your cookhouse food storage bin.

* Using large crates your wagon can hold about 2700 vegetables.
* With 100 backpacks the number increases to 10,000 depending on the vegetable type.
* If you use rafts, backpacks and satchels 80 - 100 k of vegetables can be transported in a single wagon where each item is inside it's predecessor. Adding flasks inside the satchels can bump the number even higher to approximately 500,000 vegetables per load (again depends on vegetable type - usually corn, garlic, onions are good lightweight choices)

Be warned - it can take a long time to load and unload the wagon especially when using the last option!

An alternative approach for those purchasing vegetables is to ask their favourite farmer to build an onsite cookhouse for you to use. This saves a lot of time shipping vegetables however it does require that you travel to their cookhouse.

Guides:Panfilling tips

2015-04-17T16:35:47Z

Nappy: /* Setting up a cookhouse */

== Panfilling tips ==

Panfilling refers to the activity of creating food (meals, stews etc) usually in frying pans inside a forge. It is commonly used to skill priests because of skill gains it provides for soul depth. Other non-priest character types also gain skills as well including mind logic, cooking, hot food cooking, and soul. For every 10 mind logic you gain the ability to queue an additional action making this a very attractive option to consider for priests and non-priests alike.

=== Meals vs stews vs ? ===

MamaDarkness completed a very detailed study into meals versus stews for soul depth gain. This information can be found on Wurmpedia. Until very high levels stews are the best approach to gaining soul depth while also being the easiest to dispose of.

=== Filling pans ===

Filling pans does not have to be exceptionally painful. It can be easier to perform then the way most people initially try it.

# Go into settings, change the Shift-drag setting to default to 1 and enable shift-drag
# Place 100 empty frying pans into a forge
# Place two satchels, backpacks or cauldrons in your inventory
# Put 100 of one vegetable in one backpack (or whatever item you place in step 3 above) (corn in the example)
# Put 100 of the second vegetable in the second backpack (onions in the example)
# Expand the backpacks so you can see the summary line for the each vegetable (corn – 100 and onion 100)
# Use the ctrl key to select the corn(100) and onion(100) lines in inventory
# Hold down the SHIFT and ENTER key while left clicking on the bottom vegetable item – the top menu bar should change from words to dashes
# While continuing to hold down the shift and enter keys drag the vegetables across each frying pan in the forge. Each drag should result in 1 onion and 1 corn being placed into the pan
# Continue until all 100 frying pans are placed
# Repeat the steps for all forges

=== Cooking the food ===

When all pans in all forges have been filled then complete the following steps:

# Place sufficient kindling in your inventory for all forges
# Right click on the health bar and select "Show SB". This will result in a new line showing sleep bonus appearing on your stamina/food/water/health bar. When sleep bonus is enabled the line is white. Having this displayed makes it less likely that you will forget to turn off sleep bonus later
# Go into settings and have it display the skill tracker window
# Setup the skill tracker window to show cooking, hot food cooking, soul depth and mind logic
# Turn on sleep bonus
# Light all forges (no need to add logs or other fuel, kindling should be enough – High ql Steel and Flint with Woa will significantly speed up the process)
# In about 4 minutes you should see a dramatic change in the skill tracker window and also in the skills tab
# After no change in skill tracker for 1 minute, turn off sleep bonus (generally this is about 5 – 6 minutes after lighting the last forge)

=== Emptying pans ===

Emptying pans is usually not a wonderfully loved task and part of the reason is due to the way that most people go about it initially. Here is a way that makes it a bit easier:

# Place an empty small barrel or cauldron in your inventory
# Open the inventory of a forge
# Right click on the name column and select "Expand all"
# If you have only frying pans in the forge then the pans will all be open making it easy to see the stews
# Click on the first stew and while holding down the CTRL key work your way down the entire forge inventory of stews selecting each one
# Drag the stews to your small barrel or cauldron
# Expand the barrel or cauldron, right click the stew and select pour on ground
# Repeat until all forges are empty

=== What if someone else fills the pans for you? ===

If someone else fills the pans for you it is important that you cycle all pans through your own inventory before lighting the forge otherwise they will receive the skill gain instead of you. Here is one way to do this:

# Empty your personal inventory as much as possible
# Place an extra cauldron or backpack on the ground
# Open the forge inventory window
# Drag the items in the forge to your personal inventory
# Drag all remaining forge pans directly to the empty backpack on the ground
# Move the pans in your inventory back to the forge
# Move the pans from the backpack on the ground to your personal inventory
# Move the pans in your inventory back to the forge
# Once all pans have been cycled through your personal inventory then it is safe to light the forge

=== Best way to setup the forges? ===

It is possible to use cauldrons and backpacks to fit far more than 100 pans in a forge. As an example you can fit 8 cauldrons each containing 32 pans for a total of 256 pans in a single forge. While this is appealing from a maximum number of pans in a forge viewpoint it actually makes emptying pans more difficult because expand all doesn't open all the pans resulting in alot more clicking as you open the pans.

=== Does pan quality matter for soul depth? ===

Soul depth does not seem to be impacted by the quality of the pan used. Pan quality does impact the ql of the meals/stews produced so if you intend to eat the cooked food then this may be important to you.

=== Maximizing nutrition ===

When you sacrifice a rare or use a refresh it provides you with 99 nutrition which in turn provides maximum skill gain. It is recommended to always have 99 nutrition whenever possible.

=== Sleep bonus ===

Sleep bonus provides double skill gains. With the amount of work and cost involved in panfilling it makes sense to always use sleep bonous when cooking the food. Turn it off when cycling, filling and emptying pans.

=== Setting up a cookhouse ===

When setting up a cookhouse a primary consideration should always be reducing the number of clicks required. If you are trying to create 30,000 stews then even one fewer click per forge can make a huge difference.

Here is one possible layout for 20 forges holding 100 pans each for 2,000 pans total. Notice that the width and length is about 2 tiles so you will be squeezing the forges together very closely. The key is to make it so the panfiller can open any of the objects in that diagram without needing to move location. You want to eliminate opening and closing windows more then once.

<- ->
2 tiles
XXXXXXXX
X X
X C X
X X
X P X
X X
X X
B F W
AAA

P = Panfiller
X = Forge
C = Cauldrons or backpacks on ground
W = Water barrel
F = Food storage bin
A = Altar(s) for sacrificing rares
B = Bulk storage bin holding kindling

=== Hiring a panfiller ===

Some people enjoy panfilling and actually hire themselves out to assist you with your panfilling needs. The safest way to work with them is to keep your account information to yourself and have them fill the pans for you using their own character (or their own alt).

The section "What if someone else fills the pans for you?" is an important section to review in this case.

Another consideration is the cookhouse itself. The more pans you have in your cookhouse the longer the interval is between times when you have to log in to cycle the pans. In this scenario 4,000 pans truly are better then just 2,000 pans.

=== Vegetables ===

Another part of the panfilling job is getting enough vegetables in the first place. While it is certainly possible to farm all the vegetables yourself an alternative is to purchase vegetables from a dedicated farmer. Often these farmers have very high farming skill and 1,000+ tiles of active farmland.

When you have purchased the vegetables a likely requirement will be transporting them from the delivery location to your cookhouse food storage bin.

* Using large crates your wagon can hold about 2700 vegetables.
* With 100 backpacks the number increases to 10,000 depending on the vegetable type.
* If you use rafts, backpacks and satchels 80 - 100 k of vegetables can be transported in a single wagon where each item is inside it's predecessor. Adding flasks inside the satchels can bump the number even higher to approximately 500,000 vegetables per load (again depends on vegetable type - usually corn, garlic, onions are good lightweight choices)

Be warned - it can take a long time to load and unload the wagon when using the last option especially!

Guides:Panfilling tips

2015-04-17T16:24:41Z

Nappy: /* Vegetables */

== Panfilling tips ==

Panfilling refers to the activity of creating food (meals, stews etc) usually in frying pans inside a forge. It is commonly used to skill priests because of skill gains it provides for soul depth. Other non-priest character types also gain skills as well including mind logic, cooking, hot food cooking, and soul. For every 10 mind logic you gain the ability to queue an additional action making this a very attractive option to consider for priests and non-priests alike.

=== Meals vs stews vs ? ===

MamaDarkness completed a very detailed study into meals versus stews for soul depth gain. This information can be found on Wurmpedia. Until very high levels stews are the best approach to gaining soul depth while also being the easiest to dispose of.

=== Filling pans ===

Filling pans does not have to be exceptionally painful. It can be easier to perform then the way most people initially try it.

# Go into settings, change the Shift-drag setting to default to 1 and enable shift-drag
# Place 100 empty frying pans into a forge
# Place two satchels, backpacks or cauldrons in your inventory
# Put 100 of one vegetable in one backpack (or whatever item you place in step 3 above) (corn in the example)
# Put 100 of the second vegetable in the second backpack (onions in the example)
# Expand the backpacks so you can see the summary line for the each vegetable (corn – 100 and onion 100)
# Use the ctrl key to select the corn(100) and onion(100) lines in inventory
# Hold down the SHIFT and ENTER key while left clicking on the bottom vegetable item – the top menu bar should change from words to dashes
# While continuing to hold down the shift and enter keys drag the vegetables across each frying pan in the forge. Each drag should result in 1 onion and 1 corn being placed into the pan
# Continue until all 100 frying pans are placed
# Repeat the steps for all forges

=== Cooking the food ===

When all pans in all forges have been filled then complete the following steps:

# Place sufficient kindling in your inventory for all forges
# Right click on the health bar and select "Show SB". This will result in a new line showing sleep bonus appearing on your stamina/food/water/health bar. When sleep bonus is enabled the line is white. Having this displayed makes it less likely that you will forget to turn off sleep bonus later
# Go into settings and have it display the skill tracker window
# Setup the skill tracker window to show cooking, hot food cooking, soul depth and mind logic
# Turn on sleep bonus
# Light all forges (no need to add logs or other fuel, kindling should be enough – High ql Steel and Flint with Woa will significantly speed up the process)
# In about 4 minutes you should see a dramatic change in the skill tracker window and also in the skills tab
# After no change in skill tracker for 1 minute, turn off sleep bonus (generally this is about 5 – 6 minutes after lighting the last forge)

=== Emptying pans ===

Emptying pans is usually not a wonderfully loved task and part of the reason is due to the way that most people go about it initially. Here is a way that makes it a bit easier:

# Place an empty small barrel or cauldron in your inventory
# Open the inventory of a forge
# Right click on the name column and select "Expand all"
# If you have only frying pans in the forge then the pans will all be open making it easy to see the stews
# Click on the first stew and while holding down the CTRL key work your way down the entire forge inventory of stews selecting each one
# Drag the stews to your small barrel or cauldron
# Expand the barrel or cauldron, right click the stew and select pour on ground
# Repeat until all forges are empty

=== What if someone else fills the pans for you? ===

If someone else fills the pans for you it is important that you cycle all pans through your own inventory before lighting the forge otherwise they will receive the skill gain instead of you. Here is one way to do this:

# Empty your personal inventory as much as possible
# Place an extra cauldron or backpack on the ground
# Open the forge inventory window
# Drag the items in the forge to your personal inventory
# Drag all remaining forge pans directly to the empty backpack on the ground
# Move the pans in your inventory back to the forge
# Move the pans from the backpack on the ground to your personal inventory
# Move the pans in your inventory back to the forge
# Once all pans have been cycled through your personal inventory then it is safe to light the forge

=== Best way to setup the forges? ===

It is possible to use cauldrons and backpacks to fit far more than 100 pans in a forge. As an example you can fit 8 cauldrons each containing 32 pans for a total of 256 pans in a single forge. While this is appealing from a maximum number of pans in a forge viewpoint it actually makes emptying pans more difficult because expand all doesn't open all the pans resulting in alot more clicking as you open the pans.

=== Does pan quality matter for soul depth? ===

Soul depth does not seem to be impacted by the quality of the pan used. Pan quality does impact the ql of the meals/stews produced so if you intend to eat the cooked food then this may be important to you.

=== Maximizing nutrition ===

When you sacrifice a rare or use a refresh it provides you with 99 nutrition which in turn provides maximum skill gain. It is recommended to always have 99 nutrition whenever possible.

=== Sleep bonus ===

Sleep bonus provides double skill gains. With the amount of work and cost involved in panfilling it makes sense to always use sleep bonous when cooking the food. Turn it off when cycling, filling and emptying pans.

=== Setting up a cookhouse ===

When setting up a cookhouse a primary consideration should always be reducing the number of clicks required. If you are trying to create 30,000 stews then even one fewer click per forge can make a huge difference.

Here is one possible layout for 20 forges holding 100 pans each for 2,000 pans total. Notice that the width and length is about 2 tiles so you will be squeezing the forges together very closely. The key is to make it so the panfiller can open any of the objects in that diagram without needing to move location. You want to eliminate opening and closing windows more then once.

<- ->
2 tiles
XXXXXXXX
X X
X C X
X X
X P X
X X
X X
B F W
AAA

P = Panfiller
X = Forge
C = Cauldrons or backpacks on ground
W = Water barrel
F = Food storage bin
A = Altar(s) for sacrificing rares
B = Bulk storage bin holding kindling

=== Hiring a panfiller ===

Some people enjoy panfilling and actually hire themselves out to assist you with your panfilling needs. The safest way to work with them is to keep your account information to yourself and have them fill the pans for you using their own character (or their own alt).

The section "What if someone else fills the pans for you?" is an important section to review in this case.

Another consideration is the cookhouse itself. The more pans you have in your cookhouse the longer the interval is between times when you have to log in to cycle the pans. In this scenario 4,000 pans truly are better then just 2,000 pans.

=== Vegetables ===

Another part of the panfilling job is getting enough vegetables in the first place. While it is certainly possible to farm all the vegetables yourself an alternative is to purchase vegetables from a dedicated farmer. Often these farmers have very high farming skill and 1,000+ tiles of active farmland.

When you have purchased the vegetables a likely requirement will be transporting them from the delivery location to your cookhouse food storage bin.

* Using large crates your wagon can hold about 2700 vegetables.
* With 100 backpacks the number increases to 10,000 depending on the vegetable type.
* If you use rafts, backpacks and satchels 80 - 100 k of vegetables can be transported in a single wagon where each item is inside it's predecessor. Adding flasks inside the satchels can bump the number even higher to approximately 500,000 vegetables per load (again depends on vegetable type - usually corn, garlic, onions are good lightweight choices)

Be warned - it can take a long time to load and unload the wagon when using the last option especially!

Guides:Panfilling tips

2015-04-17T16:23:40Z

Nappy: /* Hiring a panfiller */

== Panfilling tips ==

Panfilling refers to the activity of creating food (meals, stews etc) usually in frying pans inside a forge. It is commonly used to skill priests because of skill gains it provides for soul depth. Other non-priest character types also gain skills as well including mind logic, cooking, hot food cooking, and soul. For every 10 mind logic you gain the ability to queue an additional action making this a very attractive option to consider for priests and non-priests alike.

=== Meals vs stews vs ? ===

MamaDarkness completed a very detailed study into meals versus stews for soul depth gain. This information can be found on Wurmpedia. Until very high levels stews are the best approach to gaining soul depth while also being the easiest to dispose of.

=== Filling pans ===

Filling pans does not have to be exceptionally painful. It can be easier to perform then the way most people initially try it.

# Go into settings, change the Shift-drag setting to default to 1 and enable shift-drag
# Place 100 empty frying pans into a forge
# Place two satchels, backpacks or cauldrons in your inventory
# Put 100 of one vegetable in one backpack (or whatever item you place in step 3 above) (corn in the example)
# Put 100 of the second vegetable in the second backpack (onions in the example)
# Expand the backpacks so you can see the summary line for the each vegetable (corn – 100 and onion 100)
# Use the ctrl key to select the corn(100) and onion(100) lines in inventory
# Hold down the SHIFT and ENTER key while left clicking on the bottom vegetable item – the top menu bar should change from words to dashes
# While continuing to hold down the shift and enter keys drag the vegetables across each frying pan in the forge. Each drag should result in 1 onion and 1 corn being placed into the pan
# Continue until all 100 frying pans are placed
# Repeat the steps for all forges

=== Cooking the food ===

When all pans in all forges have been filled then complete the following steps:

# Place sufficient kindling in your inventory for all forges
# Right click on the health bar and select "Show SB". This will result in a new line showing sleep bonus appearing on your stamina/food/water/health bar. When sleep bonus is enabled the line is white. Having this displayed makes it less likely that you will forget to turn off sleep bonus later
# Go into settings and have it display the skill tracker window
# Setup the skill tracker window to show cooking, hot food cooking, soul depth and mind logic
# Turn on sleep bonus
# Light all forges (no need to add logs or other fuel, kindling should be enough – High ql Steel and Flint with Woa will significantly speed up the process)
# In about 4 minutes you should see a dramatic change in the skill tracker window and also in the skills tab
# After no change in skill tracker for 1 minute, turn off sleep bonus (generally this is about 5 – 6 minutes after lighting the last forge)

=== Emptying pans ===

Emptying pans is usually not a wonderfully loved task and part of the reason is due to the way that most people go about it initially. Here is a way that makes it a bit easier:

# Place an empty small barrel or cauldron in your inventory
# Open the inventory of a forge
# Right click on the name column and select "Expand all"
# If you have only frying pans in the forge then the pans will all be open making it easy to see the stews
# Click on the first stew and while holding down the CTRL key work your way down the entire forge inventory of stews selecting each one
# Drag the stews to your small barrel or cauldron
# Expand the barrel or cauldron, right click the stew and select pour on ground
# Repeat until all forges are empty

=== What if someone else fills the pans for you? ===

If someone else fills the pans for you it is important that you cycle all pans through your own inventory before lighting the forge otherwise they will receive the skill gain instead of you. Here is one way to do this:

# Empty your personal inventory as much as possible
# Place an extra cauldron or backpack on the ground
# Open the forge inventory window
# Drag the items in the forge to your personal inventory
# Drag all remaining forge pans directly to the empty backpack on the ground
# Move the pans in your inventory back to the forge
# Move the pans from the backpack on the ground to your personal inventory
# Move the pans in your inventory back to the forge
# Once all pans have been cycled through your personal inventory then it is safe to light the forge

=== Best way to setup the forges? ===

It is possible to use cauldrons and backpacks to fit far more than 100 pans in a forge. As an example you can fit 8 cauldrons each containing 32 pans for a total of 256 pans in a single forge. While this is appealing from a maximum number of pans in a forge viewpoint it actually makes emptying pans more difficult because expand all doesn't open all the pans resulting in alot more clicking as you open the pans.

=== Does pan quality matter for soul depth? ===

Soul depth does not seem to be impacted by the quality of the pan used. Pan quality does impact the ql of the meals/stews produced so if you intend to eat the cooked food then this may be important to you.

=== Maximizing nutrition ===

When you sacrifice a rare or use a refresh it provides you with 99 nutrition which in turn provides maximum skill gain. It is recommended to always have 99 nutrition whenever possible.

=== Sleep bonus ===

Sleep bonus provides double skill gains. With the amount of work and cost involved in panfilling it makes sense to always use sleep bonous when cooking the food. Turn it off when cycling, filling and emptying pans.

=== Setting up a cookhouse ===

When setting up a cookhouse a primary consideration should always be reducing the number of clicks required. If you are trying to create 30,000 stews then even one fewer click per forge can make a huge difference.

Here is one possible layout for 20 forges holding 100 pans each for 2,000 pans total. Notice that the width and length is about 2 tiles so you will be squeezing the forges together very closely. The key is to make it so the panfiller can open any of the objects in that diagram without needing to move location. You want to eliminate opening and closing windows more then once.

<- ->
2 tiles
XXXXXXXX
X X
X C X
X X
X P X
X X
X X
B F W
AAA

P = Panfiller
X = Forge
C = Cauldrons or backpacks on ground
W = Water barrel
F = Food storage bin
A = Altar(s) for sacrificing rares
B = Bulk storage bin holding kindling

=== Hiring a panfiller ===

Some people enjoy panfilling and actually hire themselves out to assist you with your panfilling needs. The safest way to work with them is to keep your account information to yourself and have them fill the pans for you using their own character (or their own alt).

The section "What if someone else fills the pans for you?" is an important section to review in this case.

Another consideration is the cookhouse itself. The more pans you have in your cookhouse the longer the interval is between times when you have to log in to cycle the pans. In this scenario 4,000 pans truly are better then just 2,000 pans.

=== Vegetables ===

Another part of the panfilling job is getting enough vegetables in the first place. While it is certainly possible to farm all the vegetables yourself an alternative is to purchase vegetables from a dedicated farmer. Often these farmers have very high farming skill and 1,000+ tiles of active farmland.

When you have purchased the vegetables a likely requirement will be transporting them from the delivery location to your cookhouse food storage bin.

* Using large crates your wagon can hold about 2700 vegetables.
* With 100 backpacks the number increases to 10,000 depending on the vegetable type.
* If you use rafts, backpacks and satchels 80 - 100 k of vegetables can be transported in a single wagon where each item is inside it's predecessor. Adding flasks inside the satchels can bump the number even higher to approximately 500,000 vegetables per load (again depends on vegetable type - usually corn, garlic, onions are good lightweight choices)

Guides:Panfilling tips

2015-04-17T16:16:59Z

Nappy:

== Panfilling tips ==

Panfilling refers to the activity of creating food (meals, stews etc) usually in frying pans inside a forge. It is commonly used to skill priests because of skill gains it provides for soul depth. Other non-priest character types also gain skills as well including mind logic, cooking, hot food cooking, and soul. For every 10 mind logic you gain the ability to queue an additional action making this a very attractive option to consider for priests and non-priests alike.

=== Meals vs stews vs ? ===

MamaDarkness completed a very detailed study into meals versus stews for soul depth gain. This information can be found on Wurmpedia. Until very high levels stews are the best approach to gaining soul depth while also being the easiest to dispose of.

=== Filling pans ===

Filling pans does not have to be exceptionally painful. It can be easier to perform then the way most people initially try it.

# Go into settings, change the Shift-drag setting to default to 1 and enable shift-drag
# Place 100 empty frying pans into a forge
# Place two satchels, backpacks or cauldrons in your inventory
# Put 100 of one vegetable in one backpack (or whatever item you place in step 3 above) (corn in the example)
# Put 100 of the second vegetable in the second backpack (onions in the example)
# Expand the backpacks so you can see the summary line for the each vegetable (corn – 100 and onion 100)
# Use the ctrl key to select the corn(100) and onion(100) lines in inventory
# Hold down the SHIFT and ENTER key while left clicking on the bottom vegetable item – the top menu bar should change from words to dashes
# While continuing to hold down the shift and enter keys drag the vegetables across each frying pan in the forge. Each drag should result in 1 onion and 1 corn being placed into the pan
# Continue until all 100 frying pans are placed
# Repeat the steps for all forges

=== Cooking the food ===

When all pans in all forges have been filled then complete the following steps:

# Place sufficient kindling in your inventory for all forges
# Right click on the health bar and select "Show SB". This will result in a new line showing sleep bonus appearing on your stamina/food/water/health bar. When sleep bonus is enabled the line is white. Having this displayed makes it less likely that you will forget to turn off sleep bonus later
# Go into settings and have it display the skill tracker window
# Setup the skill tracker window to show cooking, hot food cooking, soul depth and mind logic
# Turn on sleep bonus
# Light all forges (no need to add logs or other fuel, kindling should be enough – High ql Steel and Flint with Woa will significantly speed up the process)
# In about 4 minutes you should see a dramatic change in the skill tracker window and also in the skills tab
# After no change in skill tracker for 1 minute, turn off sleep bonus (generally this is about 5 – 6 minutes after lighting the last forge)

=== Emptying pans ===

Emptying pans is usually not a wonderfully loved task and part of the reason is due to the way that most people go about it initially. Here is a way that makes it a bit easier:

# Place an empty small barrel or cauldron in your inventory
# Open the inventory of a forge
# Right click on the name column and select "Expand all"
# If you have only frying pans in the forge then the pans will all be open making it easy to see the stews
# Click on the first stew and while holding down the CTRL key work your way down the entire forge inventory of stews selecting each one
# Drag the stews to your small barrel or cauldron
# Expand the barrel or cauldron, right click the stew and select pour on ground
# Repeat until all forges are empty

=== What if someone else fills the pans for you? ===

If someone else fills the pans for you it is important that you cycle all pans through your own inventory before lighting the forge otherwise they will receive the skill gain instead of you. Here is one way to do this:

# Empty your personal inventory as much as possible
# Place an extra cauldron or backpack on the ground
# Open the forge inventory window
# Drag the items in the forge to your personal inventory
# Drag all remaining forge pans directly to the empty backpack on the ground
# Move the pans in your inventory back to the forge
# Move the pans from the backpack on the ground to your personal inventory
# Move the pans in your inventory back to the forge
# Once all pans have been cycled through your personal inventory then it is safe to light the forge

=== Best way to setup the forges? ===

It is possible to use cauldrons and backpacks to fit far more than 100 pans in a forge. As an example you can fit 8 cauldrons each containing 32 pans for a total of 256 pans in a single forge. While this is appealing from a maximum number of pans in a forge viewpoint it actually makes emptying pans more difficult because expand all doesn't open all the pans resulting in alot more clicking as you open the pans.

=== Does pan quality matter for soul depth? ===

Soul depth does not seem to be impacted by the quality of the pan used. Pan quality does impact the ql of the meals/stews produced so if you intend to eat the cooked food then this may be important to you.

=== Maximizing nutrition ===

When you sacrifice a rare or use a refresh it provides you with 99 nutrition which in turn provides maximum skill gain. It is recommended to always have 99 nutrition whenever possible.

=== Sleep bonus ===

Sleep bonus provides double skill gains. With the amount of work and cost involved in panfilling it makes sense to always use sleep bonous when cooking the food. Turn it off when cycling, filling and emptying pans.

=== Setting up a cookhouse ===

When setting up a cookhouse a primary consideration should always be reducing the number of clicks required. If you are trying to create 30,000 stews then even one fewer click per forge can make a huge difference.

Here is one possible layout for 20 forges holding 100 pans each for 2,000 pans total. Notice that the width and length is about 2 tiles so you will be squeezing the forges together very closely. The key is to make it so the panfiller can open any of the objects in that diagram without needing to move location. You want to eliminate opening and closing windows more then once.

<- ->
2 tiles
XXXXXXXX
X X
X C X
X X
X P X
X X
X X
B F W
AAA

P = Panfiller
X = Forge
C = Cauldrons or backpacks on ground
W = Water barrel
F = Food storage bin
A = Altar(s) for sacrificing rares
B = Bulk storage bin holding kindling

=== Hiring a panfiller ===

Some people enjoy panfilling and actually hire themselves out to assist you with your panfilling needs. The safest way to work with them is to keep your account information to yourself and have them fill the pans for you using their own character (or their own alt).

The section "What if someone else fills the pans for you?" is an important section to review in this case.

Another consideration is the cookhouse yourself. The more pans you have in your cookhouse the longer the interval is between times when you have to log in to cycle the pans. In this scenario 4,000 pans truly are better then just 2,000 pans.

=== Vegetables ===

Another part of the panfilling job is getting enough vegetables in the first place. While it is certainly possible to farm all the vegetables yourself an alternative is to purchase vegetables from a dedicated farmer. Often these farmers have very high farming skill and 1,000+ tiles of active farmland.

When you have purchased the vegetables a likely requirement will be transporting them from the delivery location to your cookhouse food storage bin.

* Using large crates your wagon can hold about 2700 vegetables.
* With 100 backpacks the number increases to 10,000 depending on the vegetable type.
* If you use rafts, backpacks and satchels 80 - 100 k of vegetables can be transported in a single wagon where each item is inside it's predecessor. Adding flasks inside the satchels can bump the number even higher to approximately 500,000 vegetables per load (again depends on vegetable type - usually corn, garlic, onions are good lightweight choices)

Guides:Panfilling tips

2015-04-17T16:15:48Z

Nappy: Created page with " == Panfilling tips == Panfilling refers to the activity of creating food (meals, stews etc) usually in frying pans inside a forge. It is commonly used to skill priests becau..."

== Panfilling tips ==

Panfilling refers to the activity of creating food (meals, stews etc) usually in frying pans inside a forge. It is commonly used to skill priests because of skill gains it provides for soul depth. Other non-priest character types also gain skills as well including mind logic, cooking, hot food cooking, and soul. For every 10 mind logic you gain the ability to queue an additional action making this a very attractive option to consider for priests and non-priests alike.

=== Meals vs stews vs ? ===

MamaDarkness completed a very detailed study into meals versus stews for soul depth gain. This information can be found on Wurmpedia. Until very high levels stews are the best approach to gaining soul depth while also being the easiest to dispose of.

=== Filling pans ===

Filling pans does not have to be exceptionally painful. It can be easier to perform then the way most people initially try it.

# Go into settings, change the Shift-drag setting to default to 1 and enable shift-drag
# Place 100 empty frying pans into a forge
# Place two satchels, backpacks or cauldrons in your inventory
# Put 100 of one vegetable in one backpack (or whatever item you place in step 3 above) (corn in the example)
# Put 100 of the second vegetable in the second backpack (onions in the example)
# Expand the backpacks so you can see the summary line for the each vegetable (corn – 100 and onion 100)
# Use the ctrl key to select the corn(100) and onion(100) lines in inventory
# Hold down the SHIFT and ENTER key while left clicking on the bottom vegetable item – the top menu bar should change from words to dashes
# While continuing to hold down the shift and enter keys drag the vegetables across each frying pan in the forge. Each drag should result in 1 onion and 1 corn being placed into the pan
# Continue until all 100 frying pans are placed
# Repeat the steps for all forges

=== Cooking the food ===

When all pans in all forges have been filled then complete the following steps:

# Place sufficient kindling in your inventory for all forges
# Right click on the health bar and select "Show SB". This will result in a new line showing sleep bonus appearing on your stamina/food/water/health bar. When sleep bonus is enabled the line is white. Having this displayed makes it less likely that you will forget to turn off sleep bonus later
# Go into settings and have it display the skill tracker window
# Setup the skill tracker window to show cooking, hot food cooking, soul depth and mind logic
# Turn on sleep bonus
# Light all forges (no need to add logs or other fuel, kindling should be enough – High ql Steel and Flint with Woa will significantly speed up the process)
# In about 4 minutes you should see a dramatic change in the skill tracker window and also in the skills tab
# After no change in skill tracker for 1 minute, turn off sleep bonus (generally this is about 5 – 6 minutes after lighting the last forge)

=== Emptying pans ===

Emptying pans is usually not a wonderfully loved task and part of the reason is due to the way that most people go about it initially. Here is a way that makes it a bit easier:

# Place an empty small barrel or cauldron in your inventory
# Open the inventory of a forge
# Right click on the name column and select "Expand all"
# If you have only frying pans in the forge then the pans will all be open making it easy to see the stews
# Click on the first stew and while holding down the CTRL key work your way down the entire forge inventory of stews selecting each one
# Drag the stews to your small barrel or cauldron
# Expand the barrel or cauldron, right click the stew and select pour on ground
# Repeat until all forges are empty

=== What if someone else fills the pans for you? ===

If someone else fills the pans for you it is important that you cycle all pans through your own inventory before lighting the forge otherwise they will receive the skill gain instead of you. Here is one way to do this:

# Empty your personal inventory as much as possible
# Place an extra cauldron or backpack on the ground
# Open the forge inventory window
# Drag the items in the forge to your personal inventory
# Drag all remaining forge pans directly to the empty backpack on the ground
# Move the pans in your inventory back to the forge
# Move the pans from the backpack on the ground to your personal inventory
# Move the pans in your inventory back to the forge
# Once all pans have been cycled through your personal inventory then it is safe to light the forge

=== Best way to setup the forges? ===

It is possible to use cauldrons and backpacks to fit far more than 100 pans in a forge. As an example you can fit 8 cauldrons each containing 32 pans for a total of 256 pans in a single forge. While this is appealing from a maximum number of pans in a forge viewpoint it actually makes emptying pans more difficult because expand all doesn't open all the pans resulting in alot more clicking as you open the pans.

=== Does pan quality matter for soul depth? ===

Soul depth does not seem to be impacted by the quality of the pan used. Pan quality does impact the ql of the meals/stews produced so if you intend to eat the cooked food then this may be important to you.

=== Maximizing nutrition ===

When you sacrifice a rare or use a refresh it provides you with 99 nutrition which in turn provides maximum skill gain. It is recommended to always have 99 nutrition whenever possible.

=== Sleep bonus ===

Sleep bonus provides double skill gains. With the amount of work and cost involved in panfilling it makes sense to always use sleep bonous when cooking the food. Turn it off when cycling, filling and emptying pans.

=== Setting up a cookhouse ===

When setting up a cookhouse a primary consideration should always be reducing the number of clicks required. If you are trying to create 30,000 stews then even one fewer click per forge can make a huge difference.

Here is one possible layout for 20 forges holding 100 pans each for 2,000 pans total. Notice that the width and length is about 2 tiles so you will be squeezing the forges together very closely. The key is to make it so the panfiller can open any of the objects in that diagram without needing to move location. You want to eliminate opening and closing windows more then once.

<- ->
2 tiles
XXXXXXXX
X X
X C X
X X
X P X
X X
X X
B F W
AAA

P = Panfiller
X = Forge
C = Cauldrons or backpacks on ground
W = Water barrel
F = Food storage bin
A = Altar(s) for sacrificing rares
B = Bulk storage bin holding kindling

=== Hiring a panfiller ===

Some people enjoy panfilling and actually hire themselves out to assist you with your panfilling needs. The safest way to work with them is to keep your account information to yourself and have them fill the pans for you using their own character (or their own alt).

The section "What if someone else fills the pans for you?" is an important section to review in this case.

Another consideration is the cookhouse yourself. The more pans you have in your cookhouse the longer the interval is between times when you have to log in to cycle the pans. In this scenario 4,000 pans truly are better then just 2,000 pans.

=== Vegetables ===

Another part of the panfilling job is getting enough vegetables in the first place. While it is certainly possible to farm all the vegetables yourself an alternative is to purchase vegetables from a dedicated farmer. Often these farmers have very high farming skill and 1,000+ tiles of active farmland.

When you have purchased the vegetables a likely requirement will be transporting them from the delivery location to your cookhouse food storage bin.

* Using large crates your wagon can hold about 2700 vegetables.
* With 100 backpacks the number increases to 10,000 depending on the vegetable type.
* If you use rafts, backpacks and satchels 80 - 100 k of vegetables can be transported in a single wagon where each item is inside it's predecessor. Adding flasks inside the satchels can bump the number even higher to approximately 500,000 vegetables per load (again depends on vegetable type - usually corn, garlic, onions are good lightweight choices)