Many Ra players did not calculate and plan and just *thought* priest empowering is always beneficial --
Each priest costs 100 units of resources!
If the town center is not busy, just make 1 or 2 more villagers. They are better than an empowering priest in early age (unless you have 8 to 10 villagers per dropsite, but it is not likely except the granary).
If the town center is very busy, you better simply retask villagers and put fewer in gold mining! Saving villager-time in gold mining will be faster than making a new priest for empowering.
Using Rain:
Pharaoh empowering TC is already good enough. The difference between 300% and 200% bonus will be magnified. 400% x 1.25 = 500%, while the Greeks are harvesting at 300% rate. If the Greeks don't go early farming, the difference is 500% rate and 100 something % rate (in hunting).
Hades --
classical: Ares Enyo's Bow, using hippikons & toxotes;
heroic: Aphrodite economic techs, using hippikons & toxotes;
mythic: Hephaestus forge of olympus and weapon of the titans, using hippikons, gastraphetes & nemean rex.