Mystic Mana cost--Getting the Extra Mileage

xenocratia

Hi, I just started a Mystic, and I have a couple of questions for you higher-leveled Mystics/Players.

My title sums up my most important question. Mana Mileage! Other casting classes either have a Mana exchange like Venomancers, Mana Regen buff like Clerics and Wizards,Or use only a couple of tolerable spells that don't drain your MP. Mystics don't, and to add to that, we have massive costs to some of our fundamental spells! I won't even talk about the Resurrection Buff...

Anywho. I have a couple of techniques I do to try to lower my consumption of my Precious Mana. But I want to know what everyone else does! I'm curious about a couple of things:

1. Any obvious tips to conserve Mana? Is it possible to get away with casting one or two spells per mob late-game?

2. What spell is the BEST to use to conserve mana (Assuming you cast once-twice per mob)?

3. Do Mana costs go down because of your Mana pool at later levels, or because the spell themselves lower in MP costs?


My Current techniques are either use Absorb soul once and let my Summon kill it, or use Nature's Vengeance once or twice. (The latter using more MP is you count Summon healing.)


Second question deals with the Earth-Guard quests Post-20. I did them for a while; and I hit level 27. There are still quests for me to complete there. I want to know if it's better to hold off on them and go to Archosaur and do my Cultivation for level 29 first and come back, or just hold off on them for a while. Any tips?


Thanks in advance! b:thanks

Daltia - Sanctuary

1. unless you plan on doing something crazy, don't worry too much about the rez buff. meditate every chance you get, and don't bother with plants too much in solo play.

2. your tactic is about sound for the class, if you lead with absorb soul (and keep primary attack skills up to level), your pet should hit it only a couple of times before it goes off, which should either kill it, or put it close enough to death that your pet will finish it off quickly...if the mob has a fair amout of HP left, Nature's vengeance will shave off the rest of its life. this way you will kill fairly quickly and consistently, and should pull you through several mobs before needing to stop. you can vary it up on high pdef mobs/mag resist mobs by doing the nv/as combo for double damage. leading with NV will invariably end with you taking a slug from the mob, but it will end the fight fast.

3. mana costs never go down. as you increase a skill's level, its cost to cast increases...your manapool however, will get larger and your mana regen will increase as you allocate more stat points to magic.

as far as questing...the 29 culti is actually kind of long...the earlier you get a start on it, the better...I'd say finish 29 culti, and go back to get the rest of the quests done.

Caterpie - Dreamweaver

As Daltia said, the mana cost never goes down (save for a few alleged sage bonuses on summons), but once you max a skill, the mp cost never goes up any more for that particular skill, while your mana pool/mp regen does. So it does get more manageable.

And I would definitely say go get a jump on your 29 culti.

violetvalor

Some things not mentioned:

1) Not fully max out the heal skills as soon as I can. Instead I pace it. Namely, level them up enough to be able to heal a satisfactorily large chunk of hp and leave it there.

1.5) Same concept with the main attack skills Nature's Vengeance and Absorb Soul. Plus even just one of each will remove such a large chunk of the creature's life.

2) Level up the summons and plants slowly (or some not at all past level 1) as well. If the summon does not need to use its skills but only for the occasional umph, then just let the summons regen their own mana natrually rather than using Transference.

3) Use Verdent Shell if you are tanking, not the summon.

Aerladiel - Heavens Tear

Thanks for all the replies! I really appreciate the sound advice. I will go ahead and get a jump on that Culti. Thanks!

Vorken - Archosaur

I'm finding that swirling mist is pretty efficient in terms of MP.
It does base magic plus a DoT of (base magic +nnn) every 2 seconds for 9 seconds. If all 5 ticks of the DoT occur, this skill does a total of:
6*base magic + 5*nnn

NianZu - Raging Tide

About conserving mana, if you're not gonna give mana to your pet, you have to send him before attacking, then Nature's Vengeance > Absorb Soul (mine's at lvl 4 and does 7k damage to lvl 49 mobs)
-
I think you should finish the EG quests before going to Archosaur...
You can finish them all really quickly and they'll get you to lvl 30, after that, the whole 29 cultivation will be really easy to do, since you'll be about 5 levels above all mobs you'll have to kill.
I finished the EG quests at lvl 30, then went to Arch, did all the culti in a couple of hours and got my FB done at lvl 31, all that in only a day. Since you're already lvl 27, it's a lot faster to finish the quests first.

violetvalor

Vorken - Archosaur wrote: »

I'm finding that swirling mist is pretty efficient in terms of MP.
It does base magic plus a DoT of (base magic +nnn) every 2 seconds for 9 seconds. If all 5 ticks of the DoT occur, this skill does a total of:
6*base magic + 5*nnn

The amount of damage it lists is what is delivered each tick rather than what is delivered over the 9 seconds? If confirmed, this sounds great! One thing to keep in mind though is that for it to work, the target needs to have 60% of its hp or less.

VenoAtHeart - Dreamweaver

My mystic is 68 for the most part every mob I come across in quests are dead after NV>AS... I don't bother with sending my pet in first with my -chan(18% without Rapid Growth) I'm able to kill the mob while it's still channeling its first attack.

If the mob is Increased Life, NV>Spark>AS works well.

If it is Sac Assault or Weak just open with AS and between you and your pet it'll be dead in 1 hit.

Azealiacia - Archosaur

forgot to mention that NATURES VENGENCE casted first, followed up by Absorb Soul will save mana and hit like a Biiiiiitch. Try it. it 2x the dmg as it usually is without the vengence on it.

Sirrobert - Dreamweaver

I find it funny how people complain about the cost of the res buf.

it's NOT a needed buf when your griding, so why the hell would you drain your entire Mana with a useles buf? You probably won't die at those quests, and even if you do, it's only a few minutes delay as you fly back to the quest spot (and don't even start about exp, you get it back in a single quest and you have alot more quests than you need to lvl).

Also mediate every now and than (in a safe spot), and go get a drink. When you get back your mana pool is full again, AND it's good for your eyes

RainbowVidel - Sanctuary

My mystic twins (low to mid 30s currently), for the most part, has the devil summon basically do all the fighting (basic attacks only) and I heal it when its hp gets down to about half. Usually, only one heal is needed either during the battle or after it. When they get to higher levels, both will follow the same mp reserve tactics of my cleric twins. Gear with loads of mp regen on them.

Oh, and in case you're now wondering, I have 3 sets of twins. Veno, cleric and mystic... O.o

Anyways, about mana usage, I have a platinum mp charm but still bring potions and herbs with me to try and reserve the charm as much as possible. I rarely ever use the mana transfer and will only cast the rez buff if it's actually needed. Sometimes, I'll throw in a Swirling Mist on increased life mobs.

Yhumy - Dreamweaver

If primary healme demented reason, there is a simple way of getting out enough heals without **** over your mp. this takes a bit of practice to gauge the distance. You have 2 healer plants. Vital and Healing Herb. If you are fighting something, place the two plants, one to your left, one to your right, far enough that they dont cancel out and one dies, close enough, that everyone in between gets the benefit of both. This is usually enough to handle aoe bosses. For the tank, falling petal on them once a minute with the 2 plants is almost enough to keep him alive. Use salvation and dont tell it to attack. Meditate in between the occasional break in clouds and u are now okay for mp during bosses.

Now offensively. I suggest to send pet to tank while u meditate. Assuming your stats arent screwed up, your pet will have decent hp. Your pets are based off your stats. If your a glass cannon, you have glass cannon pets. If you have decent hp, your pets will have decent hp. Knowing this, you should try and get a balance for your stats.

Another suggestion, gear.

The Weak Stream of Many Miles is amazing. +12mp regen +4% xp.

Good tome for grinding and mana recovery. Mana recovery gear while meditating will help u while your pet attacks. You will still be in combat, meaning only 1/4 regen, but meditation turns in to 1/2. It will save u a ton on pots. I'm still using the free pots u get from lvling up. its definietly worth it.

Listless blossom is great for crowd control, just place it down, group the mobs together and pick them off 1 at a time. Since they are all asleep, u can take your time and not even worry about mp. There are tons of tricks that just need practice.

Ephemera - Raging Tide

Yhumy - Dreamweaver wrote: »

If primary healme demented reason, there is a simple way of getting out enough heals without **** over your mp. this takes a bit of practice to gauge the distance. You have 2 healer plants. Vital and Healing Herb. If you are fighting something, place the two plants, one to your left, one to your right, far enough that they dont cancel out and one dies, close enough, that everyone in between gets the benefit of both.

Vital Herb will never cancel out another plant, so where you place it doesn't matter at all. Proximity doesn't matter, afaik, if you summon two plants (neither being Vital Herb), they will still cancel each other out and one will disappear. You can put Vital right on top of Healing Herb and they'll still both heal.