Ugh. Why so hard?

Clione - Harshlands

Lately I've been getting really mad at being a psy.

1. I die the most in every squad I'm in.

2. Constant need of mana pots which lead to me being broke b:sad

3. Squishy, even though were supposed to be the magic tanks?

Well, to the point, I've been feeling really disappointed in how I've been finding only bad things about the psy class (even though I love my psy) and I can't really find what we're good at.

I'd just like some reasons of why psys are super cool awesome and not, useless half-clerics-half-dds-half-tanks-half-whatever.

please help b:sad

Born_Free - Harshlands

Your failness might just be your stats or your gear. Can you gimme a list?

Clione - Harshlands

Mag: 192
Vit: 55
Str: 37
Dex: 20

Gear, umm I don't know what you mean

(Noob o.o)

DocSavage - Dreamweaver

are you remembering to level and use your voodoos? The proper use of them can save your life if you pull agro by increasing your defence level massively.. and give you time to pot or use your heal.

also if in doubt.. run.. kiting a mob is a perfectly valid method.. if your hp is getting low, run, pot, pot.. then attack again when you are ready. if in a squad others may also be free to help you by that time.

if in squads. try and attack only the mob the tank is attacking.. less chance of you being targetted and hit unless you crit a few times, unless the tank is many levels below you

Clione - Harshlands

I'm proud to say that I do know when to put on black/white voodoo .

For example *Tank is fighting 3 mobs. Clione has on black voodoo and accidentally Glacial Shards. 2 mobs head towards Clione. Clione puts on white voodoo, and empowered vigor. Clione uses hp pots. Clione soulburns one and DoTs it. Clione Heals. Tank or DD saves Clione.

The question I'm asking is what are psy's specialized in, so to say.

For example (again): Barb=tank, Bm=2nd tank or DD, Cleric=healer, Archer/Wizzy=DD, Sin=DD or sometimes Tank, Veno=DD or Cleric/Tank

Psy=DD/Emergency Cleric/Robe Tank? b:surrender

MagicHamsta - Lost City

Simple answer?
psi = DD (this be when everyone else be playing their roles properly)

Nukesrus - Harshlands

I'm laughing so hard at this thread right now. I'm just glad you guys all rolled psys. :P


In all seriousness and not arrogant mage-ness, you're a DD, not a magic tank. You HAVE to learn to manage your aggro, or you will get wrecked in squads when you draw too much. Know your limits, and press right up to them.

Mana pots are a necessary evil, spend some time grinding and pay for em, or save up for tokens and horde event pots.

Rangergod - Raging Tide

Nukesrus - Harshlands wrote: »

I'm laughing so hard at this thread right now. I'm just glad you guys all rolled psys. :P


In all seriousness and not arrogant mage-ness, you're a DD, not a magic tank. You HAVE to learn to manage your aggro, or you will get wrecked in squads when you draw too much. Know your limits, and press right up to them.

Mana pots are a necessary evil, spend some time grinding and pay for em, or save up for tokens and horde event pots.

I agree with you dude i don't think we are a mage tank... if theres a mage tank it would be wizards since they don't have to lower their attack to keep hitting hard, but dude most of us know to hold aggro, it comes over time. when you hit like 60 maybe 50 you should master the art of aggro.

Nukesrus - Harshlands

Rangergod - Raging Tide wrote: »

I agree with you dude i don't think we are a mage tank... if theres a mage tank it would be wizards since they don't have to lower their attack to keep hitting hard, but dude most of us know to hold aggro, it comes over time. when you hit like 60 maybe 50 you should master the art of aggro.

Yeah, you start having to be concerned with aggro as soon as you start BH runs cause most of the time you're with people your level for them, therefore there's less room for error.

It's just something that comes with experience and you have to actually play the game in a squad to really get a good grasp on.

And it's not easy; I had a decent handle on my mage's aggro limits, then hit level 89 and got demon skills which required me to learn it all over again. I still haven't mastered it yet and as a result I've died quite a few times more than I really should have. Same story with my lowbie psychic as the DPS is much different for them. In this game DPS > Spike damage for drawing aggro, so psys have it extra rough. Good luck, OP.

Longknife - Harshlands

The only way you're a mage tank is that you have far more ailments to prevent the enemy from hitting you than the other casters do. You're not meant to simply take the hits, but you have plenty of options to stop a mob from ever hitting you. I've AOEd a couple times and been able to kill a whole mob train without any of the targets ever hitting me. (Wouldn't recommend solo AOEing though cause all it takes is two or three mobs getting through your ailments to kill you. I'm just a crazy ****. 8D )
Other than that, you ARE of course a tank for the short period that Psychic Will is on.


I'd be patient and hit 59. Hitting 59 means you get your stun spell and Psychic Will, both of which are very useful for saving your life.

Thunder_fist - Harshlands

Idk about you but for me psys are really unique in pvp, once u hit 59+ u will get skills that will help u survive alot more so just keep it up for now =P(got to love the way psys pk <3b:laugh )

Born_Free - Harshlands

Exactly Long...
You can tank....It's just not a good idea.

If you WANT to tank...Get some VIT, get some STR (although I note that even the end game gear doesn't require that much, it's a good idea to have some since it raises Pdef) and of course spend some money on magic.

My Stats (ungeared):

Vit: 60
Str: 75
Mag: 180
Dex: 30

Believe it or not, I JUST hit 2000 HP. >.>; But if your gear has PResist and you put on white voodoo (I have a pdef necklace, which also helps) you can take quite a few hits from other players, even with robes on.
It's also a good idea to save up your celestones! If you get any, use them for refining end-game gear.

...by that, I mean things you're actually going to keep. It's a waste of time and stones to go on and refine gear you're going to throw out...unless you magically obtain millions of celestones. (Do quests. Don't....do Cube.)

KayLinda - Sanctuary

Clione - Harshlands wrote: »

Lately I've been getting really mad at being a psy.

I'd just like some reasons of why psys are super cool awesome and not, useless half-clerics-half-dds-half-tanks-half-whatever.

please help b:sad

IMO, you first have to think pf the Psychic as a different type of caster than a wizard or a cleric. The wizard has much more natural physical defenses, and, thus takes a physical beating better than a Psychic.

First rule of a Psychic: Keep your distance from the mobs - Freeze them, slow them, stun them, push them back, and kite.

So what are we good at:

1) Area Effects - We can attack several mobs simultaneously doing massive damage. Many of our AEs do not require sparks. If you get in a zhen group you can just nuke away.

2) Rapid fire nukes - with short casting time we can pull mobs and slay them before they reach us.

3) Soulburn and retaliation- especially good when fighting magic resistant mobs. Nuke the mob, put on retaliation and vengeance, hit soulburn just before mob hits you or fires at you. You can most likely get 2 retaliations on them before soulburn wears off.

4) Group heals. Not as strong as a cleric but provides a nice "subtraction" from damage taken while it is effective.

As other posters have said, a lot goes into your build. I have built my psychic in a pure offensive style. Lots of magic and dexterity (for critical hits). The strategy is to kill the mob before it reaches me.

To compensate for lower vitality and strength stats, I put 4 sockets on all my armor. Good shards for physical and magic defenses are expensive. I try to put the best I can afford of these type shards in two slots of each piece. The other two slots I use elemental resistances. You can buy high level elemental resistance shards cheap in the auction. I also refine my armor as much as I can -- this helps build soulforce.

Also, increase or max your main skills before leveling. Better to be a strong level 60 than a weak level 75.

Build you genie skills up. They come in more handy than what you think. We deal earth and water damage. Try building a genie strong in wood and metal damage (or buffs from these)

Ok, what if the mob(s) reaches me? Then push back, kite, use Psychic Will followed by aqua cannon; genie heal, Bubble of Life, heal pots, 4000 hp restore pots, white voodoo; invulnerability pots (buys 8 seconds of invulnerability ), or fly away and start again.

Tidalira - Archosaur

Oh this is nice. Now I know how to PROPERLY survive.
I mostly fail at using white voodoo at critical moments.
Annnnd being AN HERO.
orz

Also... kay I thought it was worthless to put points in for dex. I heard it does nothing for us.

ThanosQRt - Dreamweaver

Tidalira - Archosaur wrote: »

Also... kay I thought it was worthless to put points in for dex. I heard it does nothing for us.

it improves evasion, accuracy and critical hit rate
accuracy is useless, evasion would be too little to be any good
so the only possible use would be to improve the crit (and maybe wear some LA)

dont forget that by putting points to dex you sacrifice your regular dmg
personally i dont think it's worth it

btw I think it's better to shard with citrines and garnets instead of sapphires or elemental shards
you have all the mdef you want, you are lacking pdef+hp
it is true that elemental shards are cheap but there is a reason for that... nobody wants them xD
if you cant afford the best citrines your armor can take you could use lower level citrines. for example a immaculate citrines is around 800-900k and gives +50hp while the flawless citrine is ~160-200k and gives +40hp
the average citrine is ~60k and gives +25hp
therefore, if you have sockets to spare 2 average would be like one immaculate (and much cheaper)

you dont really need to bother with sharding/refining at lower levels

oh, and I strongly recomment hypnos' guide, the pdf version

KayLinda - Sanctuary

Tidalira - Archosaur wrote: »

Oh this is nice. Now I know how to PROPERLY survive.
I mostly fail at using white voodoo at critical moments.
Annnnd being AN HERO.
orz

Also... kay I thought it was worthless to put points in for dex. I heard it does nothing for us.

First, this post was not directed at you. It was in reply to someone who felt frustrated with their Psychic. The OP thought the Psychic dies too easily and wanted to know what advantages there are to the class. So, I gave my input as to the advantages and ways to compensate for "squishiness".

There is no "PROPER" way to survive. Any way you survive is PROPER. And, as stated before, I wasn't telling you (whoever you are behind the alt). I was telling the OP. And in my opinion, White Voodoo is nice, but it is not a failsafe nor is it the only way to defend yourself. Reading comprehension and synthesis of information cannot be overstated when responding in forums. But I thank you for using the the word "fail" as a verb instead of an adjective.

However, because "Hero" starts with the consonant "H", the proper phrase is "and being A hero" not "being AN hero".

As far as dexterity being useless ... no stat is useless. It depends on your play style and build. True, dexterity is used more by Assassins and Blade Masters who need the avoidance. But dexterity also increases critical strike rate. Just as there is no PROPER way to survive, there is no PROPER build (although a HA Psychic would need some explanation). Because my play style is heavy attack and weak defense, critical strike rate works well for me. I have added 7% to my critical rate through dexterity and tomes. Add another 4% through + stats, and I crit at 11%. I enjoy frequently getting twice the hit.

As far as the "orz" - you really need to remove your head from somewhere else before you can bang it on your knees.

KayLinda - Sanctuary

ThanosQRt - Dreamweaver wrote: »

it improves evasion, accuracy and critical hit rate
accuracy is useless, evasion would be too little to be any good
so the only possible use would be to improve the crit (and maybe wear some LA)

dont forget that by putting points to dex you sacrifice your regular dmg
personally i dont think it's worth it

btw I think it's better to shard with citrines and garnets instead of sapphires or elemental shards
you have all the mdef you want, you are lacking pdef+hp
it is true that elemental shards are cheap but there is a reason for that... nobody wants them xD
if you cant afford the best citrines your armor can take you could use lower level citrines. for example a immaculate citrines is around 800-900k and gives +50hp while the flawless citrine is ~160-200k and gives +40hp
the average citrine is ~60k and gives +25hp
therefore, if you have sockets to spare 2 average would be like one immaculate (and much cheaper)

you dont really need to bother with sharding/refining at lower levels

oh, and I strongly recomment hypnos' guide, the pdf version

I agree and disagree with several of the points here. This does not mean I think they are invalid. I agree with the heavy choice of citrine and garnet shards should your build be balanced between offense and defense or slanted towards defense. That is, if your character expects to get several melee strikes on them.

I don't agree that "we have all the magic defense we need". The vast majority of mobs you face after level 50 are not physical mobs. Most attack by casting. Thus magical and elemental defenses are called on during the course of battle more than physical.

If your approach (like mine) is to kill the mob before it melees you, then magic and elemental defense and increased critical hit rates make sense. HP charms, buffs, pots, heals, etc... can make up for some of the hp deficiencies in this battle style. This is with the knowledge that if a melee mob cannot be evaded it will be a quick death. However, 10 flawless citrines only adds 400 hps. That's one extra swipe from many melee mobs.

The theory is to try and augment my strengths (strong hits, stuns, DoTs, etc..) instead of compensating for my deficiencies (physical defenses). Its just "A" way to build not "THE" way to build. There is no Swiss Army knife build where you are strong everywhere (at least not until the very end game). This is why many mobs need teamwork.

If your approach is that you stand toe-to-toe with mobs as part of your battle style, the need for increased hps and physical defenses is more imperative. Yes, I know there are mob AEs that hit heavy (Room 47 in cube comes to mind) but increased magical defenses should lessen those AE effects.

Anyway, the build you choose also effects your fighting strategy. It also makes you strong against some types of mobs while weak against others. Personally, I have played melee types forever in MMORPGs. I wanted to build something with a fighting style completely alien to the way I have fought for years. A nice feature of this game is that you can customize your strengths and weaknesses to your play style. Plenty of games won't let you.

Maybe we should carry two sets of armor (with different shards) and switch out based on the mobs we face - LOL. I know that I switch out rings and genies depending on the situation.

I also agree and disagree with shards and refines at lower levels. If you are racing through your levels, then I agree. Don't waste money on equipment that you will replace in a week. If you build like I do, you stay at levels until skills are maxed. Thus, you may be in your 60s, 70, 80s for over a month at a time. The increased toughness by refining and socketing pays off with faster kills and less deaths on your part. Plus, it feels good to own mobs that a week ago owned you.

Tidalira - Archosaur

KayLinda - Sanctuary wrote: »

First, this post was not directed at you. It was in reply to someone who felt frustrated with their Psychic. The OP thought the Psychic dies too easily and wanted to know what advantages there are to the class. So, I gave my input as to the advantages and ways to compensate for "squishiness".

There is no "PROPER" way to survive. Any way you survive is PROPER. And, as stated before, I wasn't telling you (whoever you are behind the alt). I was telling the OP. And in my opinion, White Voodoo is nice, but it is not a failsafe nor is it the only way to defend yourself. Reading comprehension and synthesis of information cannot be overstated when responding in forums. But I thank you for using the the word "fail" as a verb instead of an adjective.

However, because "Hero" starts with the consonant "H", the proper phrase is "and being A hero" not "being AN hero".

As far as dexterity being useless ... no stat is useless. It depends on your play style and build. True, dexterity is used more by Assassins and Blade Masters who need the avoidance. But dexterity also increases critical strike rate. Just as there is no PROPER way to survive, there is no PROPER build (although a HA Psychic would need some explanation). Because my play style is heavy attack and weak defense, critical strike rate works well for me. I have added 7% to my critical rate through dexterity and tomes. Add another 4% through + stats, and I crit at 11%. I enjoy frequently getting twice the hit.

As far as the "orz" - you really need to remove your head from somewhere else before you can bang it on your knees.

ok wow... thanks.
And I wasn't offending you. I'm still new at this and I was really told by someone who played the game for a long time.

I'm sorry. I was just interested in what you said and wanted to learn more. That's all.

And that orz means how much of a fail I am.
the o = head
r = torso and arms
z = legs
It looks like I'm slumped.

I'm sorry.

KayLinda - Sanctuary

Tidalira - Archosaur wrote: »

ok wow... thanks.
And I wasn't offending you. I'm still new at this and I was really told by someone who played the game for a long time.

I'm sorry. I was just interested in what you said and wanted to learn more. That's all.

And that orz means how much of a fail I am.
the o = head
r = torso and arms
z = legs
It looks like I'm slumped.

I'm sorry.

Then I sincerely apologize. Written words don't show tone of voice so all I could go by is the all CAPS. This was mistakenly taken as sarcasm. Thought I was blindsided in the conversation when it was not meant to be.

lunarwolfmaster

I'm rather curious now-
I do see the need for the adding of Dexterity to a psychic, but how would you add it in a build? Twenty points of Dexterity are one point of critical, so should we add it in small numbers, or add them with every level? Let me rephrase, I mean to ask...
Is it in a level to level adding basis, or a sporadic adding of dexterity?

Thanks in advance.

KayLinda - Sanctuary

lunarwolfmaster wrote: »

I'm rather curious now-
I do see the need for the adding of Dexterity to a psychic, but how would you add it in a build? Twenty points of Dexterity are one point of critical, so should we add it in small numbers, or add them with every level? Let me rephrase, I mean to ask...
Is it in a level to level adding basis, or a sporadic adding of dexterity?

Thanks in advance.

Several items have + dexterity points (rings and head gear come to mind). Also, you can craft tomes with dexterity points. This is in addition to using level points to raise. An elevated crit strike rate becomes even more appealing should you decide to go demon. I notice that several of the demon skills boost crit rate even further. Would be nice to crit at a 25% or greater rate some day.

Astrohawke - Lost City

I'm curious what equips you're using to get 11% crit on a psy. Can you make your current build on pwcalc and post the link?

Kagizyu - Heavens Tear

11% crit? thats pretty easy, "1%" base "1%" tome "6%" from 2 3% rings, weapon 2% sometimes, 1% neck/belt and thats not a single dex point

Astrohawke - Lost City

Kagizyu - Heavens Tear wrote: »

11% crit? thats pretty easy, "1%" base "1%" tome "6%" from 2 3% rings, weapon 2% sometimes, 1% neck/belt and thats not a single dex point

Which rings would she be using at level 80 that give 3% each -.-
The best she'd get is 1 exemplary attendance ring for 2% considering her join date. And psy weapons up to level 80 give 1% crit max.

Kagizyu - Heavens Tear

well notice im talking about arcane stats there... she supposedly has dex stats which i do not have >_> if u read that part. i was talking about my arcane for that kind of crit pluss if u get lucky u can find rings with +2% and +1% crit on the same ring. Like a double -6% channel belt

Astrohawke - Lost City

Kagizyu - Heavens Tear wrote: »

well notice im talking about arcane stats there... she supposedly has dex stats which i do not have >_> if u read that part. i was talking about my arcane for that kind of crit pluss if u get lucky u can find rings with +2% and +1% crit on the same ring. Like a double -6% channel belt

I'm aware of what equips you can use to get crit thanks. I wasn't asking for your equips anyway, I was asking for hers. I wanted to see how much of the crit is coming from equips and how much of it is coming from the dex.

KayLinda - Sanctuary

Astrohawke - Lost City wrote: »

I'm aware of what equips you can use to get crit thanks. I wasn't asking for your equips anyway, I was asking for hers. I wanted to see how much of the crit is coming from equips and how much of it is coming from the dex.

Can't access my character now, but from memory it's as follows:

105 points on Dexterity allotted from levels and +dexterity stats from some equipment.
15 points from Tales of Beauty tome. This gives 120 Dexterity points = 6%
I have a ring with a 2% critical hit rate boost
I have another ring with a 1% critical hit rate boost
The necroburn soulsphere gives 1% critical hit rate boost
The other 1% is from other equipment (belt I think)