1-15 PvP Environment
Little has changed in the 1-15 PvP arena save the St. Patty's Day Helms. Nos still dominates with Archers/Hunters being the favored recipients. Most fighting occurs at the spawn points or altar. IMO range is still better than melee, but the new St. Patty's Day Helms help give some added durability or offense depending on your build. Popular atm is Wit lapis in helms, which is a blow for casters in general, but hurt mages and pagans more imo. I'll go more into detail on that later.

1-15 PvP Battle Priest Play
Your "bread n' butter" as you might have already might have expected is Magic Spot. Sure it costs 130mp, but it adds +130 magic dmg and its spammable.

-----OFFENSIVE CAPABILITIES-----

The Theory...
As a Battle Priest your shooting for roughly ~300 Magic Atk Pwr. ~170 Magic Atk Pwr from stats and gear/lapis plus the 130 from Magic Spot. Your aiming to hit your target for 200+ a shot and kill them with 4-5 "Spam Shots" as I call them. In the builds section of this guide I will lay the foundation for moderate and high-end DPS Battle Priest builds. If you are hitting for over 300+ with "spam spot" then your doing quite well.

Targets...
This is relatively simple in the 1-15 PvP environment once you recognize your normal "spam spot" damage. Typically from my experience it tends to be other casters than seem to have significant Magic Resistance. Its obvious when I hit for 300 normally and when I switch targets... 100. If you find your damage output to drop drastically don't keep hitting the same target... SWITCH. Having a battle with a heavy MR target is like bringing a knife to a gun fight. Stick with the targets that you can pummel. I find Hunters/Sins very squishy and about 50% of Warriors/Guards to be fairly easy prey. Tougher opponents include obvious Nossers, 1h Axe/Shield MR Warriors, and traditional Wis oracles. The nice part about the tougher opponents is if you follow the builds in this guide only nossers will affect you.

Extras...

A Battle Priest imo is the only 1-15 PvP toon that can fully capitalize on an elemental weapon lapis. Given the high base damage on "spam spot" and a decent magic attack power rating you can easily see 70+ extra dmg from an ele lapis.

Sonic lapis is nice to have for the obvious reasons, but has some nice utility when used with Ice Ball. Catch up to a fleeing opponent and slow him down for a few seconds while a fighter pops stinger... good night.

-----DEFENSIVE CAPABILITIES-----

If your a UM then you already know the value of Self Heal. As there is almost no small incursions in 1-15PvP follow common sense practices for healing. Magic Protector is a life saver. Use it right before a push or in conjunction with a dispel pot when your hit with a root. Body Protector adds another 12 Def to help against the heavy melee environment... who doesn't want more Def?

[*]Extras...

Pots are a very important part of PvP and even more so to a 1-15 Battle Priest. HP, MP, and Dispel should all be staples. You can expect to consume loads of MP ones as the cost of magic spot is steep. Some use untouchable and Etain pots for 1-15, but that begins to more closer to the Nos luxury side of play.

Speaking of Nos... should you have the resources $$$ I think HULK comes to mind. KO, wizardship, and Def Nos can make you a beast in 1-15 PvP and quite popular to boot. Don't let it go to your head too much as being popular draws attention and 10+ enemies will still probably kill ya. This kinda play is more than my wallet can take, but more power to those who can.

Affordable AP... Yeah, It sounds odd, but hear me out. Some people don't mind spending a little here and there on AP items and there are a few that are cheap and add a lot to a Battle Priest in 1-15 PvP. HP(+500) and MP(+700) remedies come in stacks of three for 99AP and last for three hours. From a Battle priest perspective +500HP is a 33% increase on your health and +700MP is an additional four magic spots. Occasionally there are overnight AP Promos that offer "Buy x remedies & Get x remedies". If your like me you want more bang for your buck.


-----BUILDS-----

The Offensively Defensive Battle Priest (~personal favorite) - This simple yet seemingly traditional build is actually just the opposite. Solely designed on Dual Wis 3 (9Wis +12Def) in each piece of gear makes for the most durable and offensive flavor of Battle Priest. Including the St. Patty's Day noble helm and weapon you have six available slots for a total of +54Wis (+270MP = +2 Magic Spot) and +72Def. Factor in a priests base stats, class +1Wis/Lvl, body protector, and Prayer you will be sitting at base 102Def & 82MR. This allows you to place most of or all your stat points per level in an offensive manner. A 6Int/3Rec build to compliment the lapis selection would add an additional +42Def & +210HP giving you an excellent Def rating for a ranged character in 1-15 PvP. On top of that, the +54Wis from the dual lapis gives some healing power for self-heal. At a first glace one would think this might sound silly, but I assure you once you have tried it out... the offensive power and survivability are unmatched.

PROS: very good defense, good resists, good self heal, more MP than other build
CONS: lower HP (but manageable), less Magic Attack Power than other build

The Pure Offensive Battle Priest - This build is a more offensive take on Battle Priests. This build works around Dual Mystic 3 (9Int 8Rec). You still achieve a good defense rating, but pass on Magic Resist in favor of adding Magic Attack Power. With a full ensemble of six slots you will add +48Def (+240HP) and +72 Magic Atk Pwr. Keeping the same setup as the other template utilizing a 6Int/3Rec build and factoring in base stats, body protector, and prayer you will end up with ~120Def and over 250 Magic Attack Power. In essence you have traded off Magic Resist for added damage.

PROS: very good Magic Attack Power, good defense, higher HP
CONS: very little magic resist, lower MP(use pots) than other build, lower self heals

Equipment Options

St. Patty's Day Helm - Some builds will opt for lvl 5 Wit (+75MR) which does impact caster classes in 1-15 significantly. Others will go with +20 helm lapis or Duals/HP lapis to add offensive power or round out their build a little more.

Weapon: If you want to squeeze a little more offensive power as opposed to following the above template you can substitute an Assault lapis.


Where do I stack up?

From my experience as a Battle Priest in 1-15 PvP I advise the following benchmarks for reference:

HP: ~1500ish
MP: 1000+
MR: 75 Acceptable-----100 Good-----125+ Very Good
Def: 90 Acceptable-----120 Good-----140+ Very Good
Magic Spot Dmg: 200+ Acceptable-----250+ Good-----300+ Very Good


Note on builds - Even though this guide is based on UM they are still effective in HM to a lesser degree. Just apply the numbers to HM(7) vs. UM(9).

PvP Cost Tier System - This is a rough system that gauges people based on cost associated for their gear setup. In essence, what its costs to compete in PvP at various grades.

Tier 1 ------ Worship, Elemental Lapis, Sonic Lapis ----- $$$$ ----- ~1-2+ Bil
Tier 2 ------ Level 5's, Duals ----- $$$ ----- ~500-700+ Mil
Tier 3 ------ Duals ----- $$ ----- ~200-250+ Mil
Tier 4 ------ Level 4's ----- $ ----- <75 Mil


Builds described in this guide run in the tier three cost parameters, but play on a tier one level. One of the main focal points for this guide is showing how a player can still do well without having to drop loads of gold or $$$ on AP to be competitive and have fun in 1-15 PvP. The dual lapis I suggest run between 3-4 Mil on Lailah Server so they are very cost effective compared to what people spend to have Level 5's and such.


---------------------Conclusion---------------------

I have always thought of the Battle Priest as a simple and powerful PvP character. I wanted the information within this guide to reflect those principles. These builds are not the only types of Battle Priests , some of which are far more complex in their lapis builds than what is described here. The sample builds are intended to help someone wanting to try a Battle Priest and for others who are familiar to have a competitive reference point. I am glad to go further into the Battle Priest and answer questions. Please feel free to post below and we will help push this movement forward.

For the Future...
If time and energy permits I will put together a 20-30 PvP Battle Priest Guide. It will be much more entailing as there is more equipment, more slots, more skills, and a different environment for consideration. Thanks for the support and I hope this helps casters strengthen their position in 1-15 PvP