Shattered Kingdoms

Im all for dodge for priests :)

Dodge might well make up for the huge nerf to tanking they took with the changes to sanc/pro/MP and the huge nerf of shield block. I just assumed this was intentionally done to weaken priests, amoung other things.

Opinionatively, I don't think the nerf was that big of a nerf. If you take say, 50 damage from an attack and your platemail reduces oh say...10 points of damage from that...and let's say protection soaks 20% of all damage.

Do the math.

Before you'd have something like:

(50*0.-10=d

Where d is the damage dealt.

But now you have something like:

(50-10)*0.8=d

Again there's not a huge difference.

Ultimately though, it's not the nature of a priest to take hits. That's the role of barbarians, swashbucklers and mercenaries, and anything that would weaken their function, I am definitely against.

Priests dont take hits well at all currently and adding dodge wont give them much of a boost compared to mercs, barbs and swashies. Though it will give them a slight more chance to actually survive if they get targetted.

If a priest gets targetted there are a lot of options they have for escape.

wimpy, flee, word of recall.

If they are in the front row, however, they are probably going to get bashed, and having dodge isn't going to save them at all.

There's no way a priest is going to outperform a mercenary or barbarian, or giant in melee.

If there's no way they will outperform one then why not give them dodge. Wimpying isnt a good idea unless you want your group to die, coming back into the battle after wimpying could very well put you in the front if your group isnt very large.

It's a small boost to give, and as you said it wouldn't make them outperform a merc, barb, or swashie who are the main tanks.

It's not about outperforming. Of course they will not outperform those classes. But there's really no reason to give it to them when they have so much other [REDACTED] in their favor. They're a spellcasting class.

It's like giving mercenaries the armor spell, just because it would give them a bit more survivability.

Sorcs and Necros get dodge don't they? They're even more of a spellcasting class than priests. So that arguement shouldn't really matter.

Fine, give priests dodge, take away shield block.

No need. Since even the most spellcaster of classes has dodge, its only logical priests should.
Now since a priest isnt as much of a spellcaster as a sorc is, keeping shield block is also a good idea.

They can't go ethereal or teleport out. They cant get good tanks or raise armies. So they should be able to shield block and dodge.