| “ | Support unit with no combat capability. Automatically inspires Villagers to greatly improve their gather rate. Can pick up Relics, convert enemy units, and capture Sacred Sites starting in the Castle Age (III). | ” |
| —Age of Empires IV description | ||
The Prelate is a religious unit in Age of Empires IV that is unique to the Holy Roman Empire and the Order of the Dragon, and which can be created as early as the Dark Age for the Holy Roman Empire. It replaces the Monk. Prelates cost only 100 gold instead of 150 gold like generic religious units.
Prelates can be produced at Town Centers, Monastaries, Regnitz Cathedral and the Palace of Swabia. Like other religious units, the Prelate has no combat ability, but can pick up Relics (from the Castle Age onward), convert enemy units, heal friendly units, and capture Sacred Sites (from the Castle Age onward). In addition to these, Prelates also have the unique Holy Inspiration ability.
Ability[]
Heal (passive/active): Heals friendly units at 7 hit points per second up to full health from a distance of one tile. This can be targeted by right-clicking on a unit, or the nearest unit within a 5 tile radius will automatically be healed. Targets in combat are healed 50% slower.- Toggle Automatic Healing (toggle): Toggle automatic healing on or off. For the Prelate, this command has added importance since it may be more desirable to have Prelates automatically inspire units rather than heal them.
- Drop Relic: Drop a held Relic at a particular location. This can only be used to drop-off a Relic on the map, not in a building such as a Monastery, which must be right clicked while holding the Relic.
- Conversion (active): While carrying a Relic, attempts to convert all units within a 4.75 tile radius to its side. Any enemy units remaining within the radius at the end of a 6 second countdown are converted. Siege engines, hero units, and other religious units are not affected. Has a 120 second cooldown.
- Holy Inspiration (passive/active): For the Holy Roman Empire only, Holy Inspiration gives Villagers the Inspired enhancement, allowing them to gather 40% faster by default. By researching Devoutness, this gather rate bonus can be increased to 50% and inspired Villagers can also construct buildings 25% faster. For both the Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon, the ability to inspire military units can also be unlocked by researching Inspired Warriors. Inspired military units gain +1 melee and ranged armor and deal +15% damage. The Inspired enhancement lasts for 35 seconds on Villagers and 60 seconds on military units, and it takes about 4 seconds after inspiring a unit before a Prelate can inspire another unit. One Prelate can therefore keep about 8 Villagers or 13 military units inspired at a time. The ability can be targeted, but Prelates will also automatically inspire units on their own within the five-tile ability radius.
Combining healing and inspiration[]
If idle, a Prelate will heal or inspire units on his own. However, the priority is not straightforward. Like other religious units, the Prelate has a 1-tile healing range but will automatically move to heal damaged units within a 5 tile radius. When there are both units to be healed and inspired, the order of actions will be:
- Heal any units within a 1-tile radius.
- Inspire or heal remaining units with equal priority depending on which one is closer.
Units that are healed will automatically be inspired, but units that are manually inspired will not be healed. Once an idle Prelate has started walking to heal a damaged unit, it will not interrupt the action to inspire any units until it returns to its original position, even if those units are closer than the targeted unit to heal. A Prelate will not venture more than 5 tiles from its original position to heal a unit, even if another damaged unit comes within 5 tiles of its temporary position. While attack-moving, the Prelate will heal and inspire units with equal priority depending on distance.
Civilization differences[]
The Order of the Dragon also has access to the Prelate, but with significantly less focus on this unit. It can only be created in the Castle Age from Monasteries, it cannot inspire Gilded Villagers, and they don't start the game with one. However, as the Order of the Dragon has fewer military units on the field, it is easier to take advantage of the inspiration, and the large health pool of Order units make them more valuable to heal.
Further statistics[]
| Technologies | |
|---|---|
 Hit points
|
 Piety (+40)
|
| Armor |  Fitted Leatherwork (+1 melee) Insulated Helm (+1 melee) Master Smiths (+1 melee) Iron Undermesh (+1 ranged) Wedge Rivets (+1 ranged) Angled Surfaces (+1 ranged)
|
 Movement speed
|
 Inspired Warriors (+10%)
|
| Healing |  Herbal Medicine (+60%)
|
| Ability | Inspired Warriors (Can inspire military units) Devoutness (+25% inspired villager build speed, additional +10% gather rate bonus,  Holy Roman Empire)
|
| Aura and ability enhancements | |
|---|---|
| Damage resistance |  Wall Defense (-25% ranged, -50% siege)
|
| Civilization bonuses | |
|---|---|
| Other | Holy Roman Empire (Available in Dark Age and from Town Center also)
|
Dialogue lines[]
- Main article: /Dialogue lines
Changelog[]
- Originally, Prelates move speed was always 1 tiles per second. With patch 11009, Prelate move speed was increased to 1.12 tiles per second. With Server-Side Patch 12973, Prelates with Relics move 25% slower.
- Originally, Prelates had an inspire range of 3 tiles. With patch 11009, the range was increased to 4 tiles. With update 10.0.576, it was further increased to 5 tiles.
- Originally, the inspiration from the Inspired Warriors technology lasted for 30 seconds on military units. With the Season One Update, it lasts for 60 seconds. With patch 20249, the Prelate Inspiration Ability now respects cooldown time.
- With the Season One Update, Prelates are now affected by Marching Drills. With update 10.0.576, the movement speed bonus for Prelates was moved from Marching Drills to Inspired Warriors, which also helps the Order of the Dragon's Prelates as well, since Inspired Warriors is also available to them.
- With Season Two Update 17718, Prelates will also inspire units while they start healing. It also fixed a bug where Dark Age and Feudal Age Prelates were only healing for 3.5 hit points per second instead of the intended 7.
- Originally, Prelates from the Monastery took 45 seconds to train. With the Season Two Update, they take 30 seconds to train.
- Originally, the Benediction technology was available for the Prelate. With update 7.0.5861, the tech was merged with the Devoutness technology and its effect increased from 15% to 25%.
- Originally, inspiration on Villagers lasted 30 seconds. With patch 11.1.1201, it lasts 35 seconds.
Gallery[]
See also[]
- Buddhist Monk ( Japanese)
- Dervish ( Ayyubids)
- Imam ( Abbasid Dynasty, Malians, Ottomans)
- Monk ( Byzantines, Chinese, English, French, Jeanne d'Arc, Zhu Xi's Legacy)
- Prelate ( Holy Roman Empire, Order of the Dragon)
- Scholar ( Delhi Sultanate)
- Shaman ( Mongols)
- Shaolin Monk ( Zhu Xi's Legacy)
- Shinto Priest ( Japanese)
- Warrior Monk ( Rus)
