First, lets take a look at the final cost and stats on this underutilized troop. Pre VH4, with her miserable range, she was probably not really usable. Using the priestess, she casts a WD-like black sphere. This is the new final range, with her abilities. The range appears to be approximately 5 squares (5 wall distances) but I didn't zoom in and confirm if anyone wants to take that pleasure. Unfortunately my brute wandered through the flame gate while casting. It seemed to stop when the sphere showed up, but it could have just been because he wandered too far through it. Either way, it doesn't get stunned like other defenses, and seemed to immediately rearm following the spell. If the flame gate did stop during the cast, it wasn't longer than the 2 seconds she casted for. I tried again on normal defenses on a base that had some exposed Notice the time left when they are both initially and finally stunned. right as the sphere finishes right as the stun ends 6 seconds have elapsed, indicating a stun time somewhere in the range of 5-7 seconds. in this scenario we can see she successfully stunned a bunker 4 squares north and 3 squares east of her, which is a distance vector of 5 units(see pythagorean theorem/vector length formula), confirming a minimum range of at least 5. My observations: -approx 2 second cast time -approx 5-7 second stun time, after casting has finished. unsure if stun applies before the sphere disappears. -flame gates do not get stunned -5 square distance She dies incredibly easy, so the toughness path in VH3 tier is certainly useful. She also walks and attacks very slow (brute/jug speed; 1.1 attacks per second) so despite her large damage, she isn't going to be effective as a damage class. This makes the damage path in VH3 unnecessary. It doesn't save a ton of grog/time by skipping it, but its worth considering, as at high positions every grog matters. The 30 extra damage you get isn't likely to do much, as she will be lucky to last long enough to get more than a couple hits in. She is however worth considering bringing ONE with you to stun near-wall defenses so bombers can safely break a hole in it. Defensively, this means to place gun towers so that there are more than 5 squares between them and the far side of the wall, lest a priestess stun them. This is also the distance gunners can hit them from, btw, so that should already have been obvious.
Followup: -I investigated the replays a little closer. Defenses do not appear to be able to fire starting the instant the ability starts casting (2 second cast time), and appear to begin to fire 6 seconds after the casting animation has ended, for 8 total seconds of stun time, starting the instant you press the button. Looking closely at this sphere, you can see that it extends into the square to the right of the wall 6 squares to her right, so her ability will be able to just barely reach over 6 walls directly in front of her (+/- maybe one square in each direction), and 5 squares at an offset of up to maybe 3 squares in either direction.
Very nicely done analysis with the details My priestess has yet to be maxed out (along with HG). Good to see that all the buffed troops seem to be substantially more useful now (although I have only tried Thief and Skellywag so far)
I haven't been trying for PR lately, but next time I go for rank I'm going to bring one priestess when I get to harder bases. For farming or weaker bases she's not worth it, but a skilled player could benefit a lot from bringing one along. More than one is probably never going to be necessary, but that initial 8 seconds of stun while bombers make their opening in the walls is going to be a big deal.
After the Legendary update, she has significantly more damage and speed. I haven't finished maxing mine yet, I've got the final ability but I'm still working on the second upgrade path. I'll try her out when its done
This seemed to go unnoticed, and it is pretty awesome! I had annabelle teleport to the interior base where the juggs and brutes were, then activated SHUT UP. In the mean time the priestess was able to walk in without harm and shut down the defenses as soon as annabelle's effect went away. Annabelle + Priestess is an evil combination.
