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Dragon Quest IX: VUST - Priest's Faith
Introduction
VUST stands for Vocation Unique Skill Tree, and is a series of Dragon
Quest IX articles I will be creating as time passes for each of the
vocations. In this, the seventh article of the series, I will be talking about Faith, the Priest's vocation unique skill tree.
Characters who have invested in Faith will gain several abilities that the priests in chapels around the game world have, such as Divination and Benediction. In addition, this skill tree boasts the only ability that blocks instant death attacks as well as considerable boosts to Magical Mending, making this an essential skill tree for would-be healers.
Faith Skill Tree Rundown
I am going to list the perks you get for leveling up this skill tree. The format will be:
Skill points required. Skill name here MP Cost (if applicable)
Description/Thoughts
Read on, Priests and Priestesses! ;)
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8. Divination 0 MP
You've probably already experienced what this ability does, given that every single priest in the game that can save your progress has it. On the off-chance that you've never used Divination before, what it does is tell you how much experience each character needs to level up. As a learnable ability it stinks (is it THAT important for you to know that you can't spend a minute to find a priest to tell you instead?), but you'll have to get it to get the goodies locked in this tree anyway, so bite the bullet and just do it!
16. Natural Magical Mending +20
Here's the first stat boost of the Faith skill tree. The more magical mending a character has, the more he/she heals when he/she casts a healing spell. Like most other stat boosts in the game, this one is great and a definite upgrade for anyone looking to heal in a battle.
28. Benediction 2 MP
Our next ability in the Priest skill tree is another pick from the town priest's list of options. What Benediction does is lift curses from your characters. However, the only way you're going to get cursed is if you equip a cursed item and, you have been saving the game before trying something so reckless as trying to equip an item that looks like trouble haven't you? If you haven't, then you've been breaking the golden rule of RPGs which is: "Save often!"
As it stands, it's better than Divination, but not by much. Too situational for my tastes.
40. Natural Maximum MP +10
After the mediocre ability that is Benediction, just about anything else would seem better. :P
Of course, boosts to MP are awesome if you're a healer, a magic damage dealer or just about any other type of party member actually. A lot of this game's abilities cost MP, so the more you have the better. 11/10 Highly recommended. :D
48. Rotstopper 4 MP
The next ability that is unlocked in Faith is Rotstopper. This is another situational ability that only serves to protect against the secondary effects of Undead attacks (such as poison, for example). There's not nearly enough tough Undead monsters in the game for you to even be thinking of using this. It's not like your party is going to fall apart if you get poisoned and don't heal it off before the end of the battle. :P
(Envenomation, on the other hand...)
(Noticing a trend in this skill tree's abilities? And I bet you STILL wonder why I maxed this tree out so late! :P)
56. Natural Magical Mending +60
Dragon Quest IX loves to see us suffer. It drinks of our tears of sorrow. That's why it places this awesome stat boost AFTER Rotstopper, so you have to invest yourself more heavily in the tree. :/
With that said, you know what I say about stat boosts...and 60 points in Magical Mending is gold if you're leveling up a healer, so get it!
70. Alma Mater 3 MP
This ability is actually not half-bad. However, I haven't used it. The reason for me not using this ability is quite simple. Alma Mater protects the user from instant death attacks (such as Whack). Very few monsters use instant death attacks, so this just turned into another situational ability. :P
*sigh*
80. Natural Maximum MP +20
More MP for your healer? Yes, please, and thanks greatly! Nothing else to see here. Move along. :P
90. Care Prayer 2 MP
The penultimate perk unlocked in this skill tree also happens to be the last ability you earn as well. Fortunately, it's also the best one out of the skill tree as well (sneaky little developers saving the best for last like that! :P). If you recall Spellcraft (the Mage's VUST), they had an ability called Channel Anger that increased their Magical Might greatly. This is Channel Anger, but for Magical Mending instead. It just about makes up for the fact that you've had to suffer through several dud abilities in the process of getting here.
100. Natural Magical Mending +100
To finish off Faith, we have another stat boost that's going into, you guessed it, Magical Mending! A 100 point boost to this essential healer stat is priceless. Too bad we had to wade through a lot of so-so stuff to get here. :/
Conclusion
This is all for my seventh article of the VUST Series! :D
Feel
free to comment on the Priest vocation in the comments section. As I mentioned a long time ago, my favorite roles in a party are being a tank or a healer. While this skill tree leaves a lot to be desired for abilities, the stat boosts complement the healer's role perfectly.
Until the next time, take care and have fun! ;)
-Winterfate
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