Surviving Orc Priests

[galdon]

I've heard comments about how terrible Orc Mages are; but they are -nothing- compared to the priests. They don't tend to give me trouble when playing a berserker as I prioritize their deaths when I berserk.

When playing a magical class though, I can't seem to deal with them. If they can see me; in other words, when I can even attempt to attack at them, they can instantly knock most of my health down in one smite. Even after reaching lvl 12 as a summoner I've only survived by sending hordes of minions that direction and running away and waiting for messages of combat to stop coming.

I'm getting too deep in the dungeon however for the main branch and have to try some of the side branches, but find that the Orc Mines are terrifying; climb down the stairs to see 3 priests and a high priest on one floor. I ran back up the stairs but took nearly half my health in smite damage.

What can I do to reduce how badly their smites can hurt me?

[Katak]

Only way to avoid smites is high magic resist, and/or a boatload of hit points. I'm not sure magic resistance works for smiting, but I do get the occasional 'You resist.' against orc priests.

[lucy_ferre]

What can I do to reduce how badly their smites can hurt me?

Nothing reduces the damage of smiting, except maybe a deep dwarf's damage shaving.

Only way to avoid smites is high magic resist, and/or a boatload of hit points. I'm not sure magic resistance works for smiting, but I do get the occasional 'You resist.' against orc priests.

MR doesn't affect smiting. Those messages are useless flavor spells.

[KoboldLord]

Most spellcasters are actually even better equipped than non-casters to deal with smiters, but summoners are a possible exception. You can usually tag an enemy priest with a status effect, such as Mephitic Cloud, long before your old berserkers could reach them. Once you've got them confuse-locked, they're not coming back out of it before you can kill their escort and drop another Mephitic Cloud on them to renew the confusion. The few casters who don't have a status effect to work with typically have a powerful nuke instead; this might be a good time to pull out Rapid Deconstruction or Throw Icicle even if the hunger cost is still too steep to do that all the time.

Summoners have a fairly rough time with smiters relative to the time they have with other things, but summoning, ordering the attack, and then running away while your monsters do the fighting is a pretty good tactic.

[Kate]

Only way to avoid smites is high magic resist, and/or a boatload of hit points. I'm not sure magic resistance works for smiting, but I do get the occasional 'You resist.' against orc priests.

MR doesn't affect smiting. Those messages are useless flavor spells.

Orc priests cast pain as well as smiting. That's what the "You resist" messages refer to.

[Whart]

There's also Evaporate, Portal Projectile, invisibility potions...

Seems to me that Orc branch got tougher recently, particularly Orc 4.

[7hm]

Use the terrain appropriately.

When I'm playing a low level berserker (or any melee character) the second I see an orc priest, or a situation where an orc priest could appear, I book it to a safe corner, where I will be in melee range when the priest comes back in LOS. Then I throw most everything I have at it to kill it.

[sigfried von murdock]

Getting a feel for their damage output and range is pretty important.

A load of HP, and a few corners to draw them in for a kill really helps.

[infinitevox]

Ugh.

My Demonspawn Wanderer of Makhleb was blazing through. Had AC+1, Sense Surroundings 2, Pbd 2, and str -2 Dex+2 for mutations.

Long story short. I lay waste to 10 assorted orcs (wizards, regular orcs, and Blork)
So, feeling cocky, I enter the mines, and get instagibbed by 3 Orc priests.
-_-

[Shade]

I enter the mines, and get instagibbed by 3 Orc priests.
-_-

Did you try to run back up the stairs in the range of multiple smiters?

Even if you don't have a source of confusion you do better to use a source of fog / butterflies / invisible / fear and then randomly teleport / blink if you have to. The nightmare scenario is is being at the centre of a square or triangle of smiters, being encumbered, in an open space, with nothing but the stairs and other foes screening the smiters.

[FlyingPants]

Their damage is largely RNG, sometimes they will run up and melee you without smiting, other times they will smite every turn.

[infinitevox]

When I went down the staircase, there were 4 of them close enough that when I tried to run 1 hit me on the way up and 2 followed me. SMITE from 2 of them was too much for me.

[Katak]

When I went down the staircase, there were 4 of them close enough that when I tried to run 1 hit me on the way up and 2 followed me. SMITE from 2 of them was too much for me.

Yea, that's one of those impossible to overcome situations that ends a character prematurely. Only thing that could've saved you was a well-placed blink and then a teleport, as far as I can tell.

[infinitevox]

Had some of the best demonspawn mutations to complement my wanderer skillset ever. RAAGE

Welp, time to roll a new one.