Managing Maddening Mystical Mayhem - A Mystic Guide

Marista - Lost City

Managing Maddening Mystical Mayhem
Or, What Mystics Are and What Mystics Are Not

The introduction of mystics to pwi marked the rise of one of the most interesting classes available, but also one of the most misunderstood. The most common description I have encountered is a cross between a cleric and a veno. Whilst there are some similarities, calling mystics such a thing is insulting both them and the other two classes. They cannot replace either of the other two, nor should they be. The mystic class brings a diverse range of abilities, from healing to DD to debuffs, but no area is greatly specialized. Without amp and purge, they certainly cannot debuff as well as a venomancer, nor are summons designed to hold agro or tank things, and without a reliable purify or heal over time, they cannot heal as well as a cleric. And naturally. no magic class can DD as well as a well-geared BM or sin.

What makes them interesting, however, is the unique combination of these abilities that allows them to fill something of a "jack of all trades" position. It does not--and should not--allow them to replace a cleric for healing in any situation where a cleric is honestly required, which is perhaps the biggest misconception I have seen. The idea that a mystic could heal for 8x frost--we DO NOT HAVE BB (regeneration aura)--is absurd and silly, and the resurrect buff will never be as good as a same-level res from a cleric, but it could allow said cleric to save valuable exp themself.

Beyond the unfeasibility, however, it is rather irritating to both clerics and mystics to expect the former to fill the role of the latter. Yes, mystics can heal in many situations, although without a heal over time such as ironheart this is always a risky business, but whilst it is somewhat reasonable to expect someone rolling a cleric to be a healer, the varied abilities of the class make it frustrating for those players who do not enjoy support roles to find squads. In this, we must be proactive as mystics as well; if you cannot or do not want to heal, your squad should be informed of this immediately upon joining. It is important that we, as mystics, nip the stereotype that we are a cleric replacement in the bud before it grows even more prevalent. And many clerics I have spoken to are only irritated by "wannabe cleric" mystics, so do not imagine that you are doing them a favor by healing in their place if you are squadded with one.

But, I digress. The purpose of this document is to give both mystics and non-mystics a look at skills, stat builds, and other aspects of play, as well as suggestions on what I personally feel are the best choices. Naturally this should be taken as a guide and not the only way to play. Everyone's gaming experience is different, but I hope to provide useful and thought-provoking suggestions to enrich your enjoyment of this versatile class. If you disagree with what I say and feel you can support it logically, I welcome civil debate on the matter. I feel I have had significant success in playing the class, but I do not pretend to be infallible or that I could not have missed something. This will always, to some degree, be a work in progress. However, flaming or saying we should just heal because only interval can DD will be summarily ignored.

Table of Contents
I. Overview and terms
II. Stats and Builds
III. Skills
IV. Summons/Plants
V. Demon or Sage?
VI. PvP Tips

Marista - Lost City

I. Overview and Terms

Before embarking on this endeavor, I feel it is wise to codify certain terms which I may use; if you are familiar with game jargon, please feel free to skip to the next paragraph. "BHxx" refers to the Bounty Hunter quest for the instance obtained at level xx. "TT" or "X-X" refers to Twilight Temple, called "HH" by some players. If used in the latter format, then it refers to the specific version of TT; for example, 3-3 refers to Aria of Dawn on Doom setting, and so on. Pets may refer to venomancer pets or mystic summons, depending on the context, but will primarily be used for the former. "Ulti" refers to a two-spark ability learned initially at Lv 59, 79 skill refers to the skills made with apocalypse pages for Lv 79, and 100 skills are those for Lv 100 made with Chrono Pages. Fly(ing) mount may be used as a reference to aerogear. BM is short for "blademaster," veno for "venomancer," barb for "barbarian," sin for "assassin," psy for "psychic," and mage may be used to refer to the wizard class. GV refers to Rebirth of the Gods/Valley of Reciprocity, generally in its +86 incarnation.

Nix refers to the venomancer pet Baby Blazing Phoenix, and Herc refers to the pet Baby Hercules. Frost refers to Frostcovered City. BB refers to the cleric skill regeneration aura, and RB refers to Heaven's Wrath. NV refers to Nirvana, either as a type of gear or the instance Palace of Nirvana. Rx refers to the xth rank of reputation, which is currently capped at x=9. Mdef refers to the five elemental resists, which are assumed to be equal for a player using decent equipment, and pdef refers to physical defense. Mobs and monsters will be used interchangeably. PvP refers to player versus player, and pve revers to player versus enemies (ie mobs). AoE refers to area of effect abilities. DoT/dot refers to damage over time abilities.

With that said, as I said in the introduction, the mystic is a very versatile class which can do many things. Several healing skills and a shield make them more able as secondary healers than wizards or psychics, and access to a variety of debuffs--though most weaker than those of other classes--allow for some leeway in choice of classes for a squad taking a mystic. And a combination of more magic attack per magic point and low channeling times, as well as summons which deal 100% damage on Lv [?] bosses who only take 25% damage from normal skills allow for a fairly decent amount of DD as well.

Many people imagine, however, that having summons is much like a veno having pets and would try to solo tank things using them, which is generally folly. Although a summons' stats are directly effected by the stats of its summoner (at the time of summoning) and so a well-refined, high level mystic could potentially solo things with a summon, this is risky and generally of little value. However, several other abilities allow for a different kind of soloing. With the summon Salvation (available at Lv 34), a mystic has access to a damage-absorbing shield, and the skill Falling Petals heals the target only after they have taken damage. Combining these with the spammable and fast-casting heal, Break in the Clouds, can allow a mystic to solo many bosses on their own, especially those which attack from range using magic, a category which includes many.

One area where venomancer pets and mystic summons serve the same purpose, however, is in luring monsters or bosses. When a pet or summon hits a monster and then dies or is recalled (in the case of mystics, summons cannot be recalled directly, but summoning the same or another summon once a hit has been made will serve the purpose), only the monster which was attacked will have agro on the mystic or veno, which allows for the luring of single mobs or bosses from a great distance.

However, mystics should be cautious in this because, like everything else about the class, it is extremely mp-intensive. Having played most classes, I can say with some certainty that mystic uses the most mp by far. This is primarily due to transference, the skill learned at Lv 19 that allows a mystic to transfer a portion of their mana to a summon, allowing that summon to use skills (note that the summon cragglord is an exception to this; his skills do not require mana due to his 20 second time limit). Given this, luring with a summon whose mp has recently been replenished can waste a great deal of mp, and use of a zeal genie may be preferable in these situations. Given that venomancer pets require no mp, a veno is often preferable in luring as well, if both are present in a squad, although it is also worth noting that if a veno's pet dies in luring, it will require food to replenish loyalty, whilst a mystic summon is unaffected by dying.

In AoE situations, mystics should take care. Although our aoes are not as limited as those of sins or venos, we still lack a continuous aoe skill, and our aoes come with their own issues, primarily that two of them have the potential to seal without immobilizing, which will cause the monsters to run away. In situations such as GV or frost aoes, this can cause melee classes to complain about the monsters running out of their aoes. Despite this, at times this ability can actually be useful, such as if the squad is taking too much damage. The issue is also less prevalent for a mystic with Lv 11 demon Gale Force, which has an increased chance to immobilize as well as seal. However, in these situations using Cragglord for aoes may be preferable to casting Thicket (see III for in-depth skill descriptions) due to this risk of sealing only. The most important thing is to be aware that this can happen, for better or for worse.

Another important note about aoe situations to note is that you do not have BB. This means that you will never be able to replace a cleric in GV or lower-level frost, simply because your aoe heals do not offer the 50% damage reduction that BB does. However, mystic healing plants can offer a supplement to BB, as can the aoe heal skill. As far as plants, it is important to note that vital herb may be summoned at the same time as another plant, which allows for healing to coincide with further healing or with a useful debuff. Any plant could potentially be useful in aoeing, so I leave to the discretion of the reader to figure out which one they find the most useful.

On that note, it is important to distinguish between mystic plants and mystic summons. Each will be detailed in the skills section, but the two are completely independent. Plants have their own skill chain, and can be summoned independent of summons. They provide various effects and most have a one minute time limit. Unlike summons, plants do not require mp, and may not be healed using the skill "Heal Summon."

Except the healing plants, plants also require a target to summon, and will appear near the target. Note than on large bosses such as Ancient Evil: Lethal vengeance, plants may be ineffective because they summon too far away from the boss. Like pets and summons, plant damage is not reduced on Lv [?] bosses, and the skill Thicket technically summons four plants. As with pets and summons, if a plant damages a target and then dies or disappears, the plant's summoner will agro the target unless it is otherwise agroed. However, due to their aoe nature, plants should not be used for luring. Healing plants will take heal agro if they heal an ally and that ally does not have more than token (ie visual or lure) agro on monsters.

Marista - Lost City

II. Stats and Builds

Like wizards and clerics, mystics can be considered a "full magic class" in that a point of vitality only gives 10 HP. This is the lowest tier, making vitality a stat of limited usefulness, but one which some may wish to invest points in. Strength is entirely useless beyond the amount required to wear the class of armor desired; the physical defense boost from strength is negligible. Dexterity is an entirely useless stat to any mystic not choosing to wear light Armor, unless he or she is using gear such as the TT99 boots which give dex. In these cases, a mystic might include enough to reach the nearest multiple of 20 for the 1% crit, but the crit is not worth the wasted points without such items being present.
This leads to the selection of armor types.


Arcane Robes are the most suitable armor for a mystic. The strength requirement for this armor is the same as that for magic weapons, which, excluding stat bonuses, amounts to the initial 5 str + 1 point per odd numbered level, maxing out at 54 for TT99 or NV gears, or 55 for R9. Arcane users have high mdef and rather low pdef, and so should always wear Protection ornaments. If Elemental ornaments are desired for -% channeling stats, the player should have both ornaments available and hotkeyed. Arcane gear should be sharded with a mix of physical defense (garnet) and hp (citrine) shards, the mix determined by the player's preference. Personally, I favor almost full hp sharding, as arcane armor refines very poorly for hp and because of Verdant Shell, which grants a mystic nearly double his or her base pdef.

For a mystic wearing robes, after the base strength for armor, the option of vitality can be viable. Personally, I prefer a full magic build, however, which entails putting all points after the str required for gear into mag. This gives high damage output and higher mp regeneration, easing slightly the mp consumption rate. There is also a negligible mdef boost from this; the main point, however, is higher damage. A mystic using pure magic build will need better shards and refines to maintain good hp, however. But with the current state of the game, both of these are much more readily available than in the past.

If one does choose vitality, the options are to put 1 vit every even level for a total of 500 extra HP by Lv 100, 1 vit every level for an extra 1000 HP by Lv 100, or ever 3 vit 1 str 6 mag every two levels for 1500 extra hp. However, it should be noticed that the damage output of the latter will be as bad as that of a light armor user, but without the boosted crit percentages. I strongly dislike both of the latter builds, and they will make solo pve situations much slower, but it may fit some playstyles. If uncertain about the utility of vitality points, one can always experiment and restat points as desired at higher levels.


Light Armor is the second armor option for mystics. Light armor has higher physical defense but lower magic defense than arcane armor, and requires 1 str 1 dex per level to wear. This means that the amount of magic is increased drastically and damage is lowered, in exchange for what is theoretically more defense and crit from the dexterity required for the armor. Light armor also refine more hp than arcane. However, due to the nature of mystic--being a rather damage-oriented class--and the availability of shards and ornaments to offset arcane pdef lackings, I find LA to be a highly undesirable choice.

If one should wish to pursue it, however, shards should be full hp, with one protection ornament and one elemental ornament to continue keeping the two defenses somewhat balanced. Ornaments such as the Cube Puzzle Badge and the Paradise Sachet/Guard of the Thundershock are particularly desirable because they increase both defenses. The stat build for LA mystic is 1 str 1 dex 3 mag per level, not counting whatever points max be added by gear. If attempting LA build, I suggest finding gear that provides as many stat points as possible without sacrificing quality to offset the lack of magic from the build. One other advantage, however, is the ability to wear helmets rather than hats, which can provide significant hp bonuses.


Heavy Armor mystics would potentially be possible, but the idea is rather pointless in my view, and even if one were to attempt it, it would be an advanced project beyond the scope of this document. For my purposes, HA will not be considered as a potential mystic armor type.


Since all mystic damage is based on magic attack, including physical spells such as Absorb Soul, the only rings worn should be magic rings, with the exception of might rings such as the rank badges which increase both physical and magical attack. The slight pdef refined from a might ring will never be worth the lost magic attack. If one desires pdef on a ring, then the lunar rings (Sign of Antiquity - Chaos) are a wise investment. On the whole, since mystics have low channeling times on all skills except absorb soul, I find crit mods to be more useful than channeling mods. However, when possible, both are preferable.


Aside from gear and stats, it is important to consider, in building your mystic, if you prefer support or a more active role in the squad. The two influence gear, stats, and which skills to level, as well as the playstyle. And, of course it is quite possible to take a middle-ground, but presenting it as a digital dichotomy gives one the idea of which extreme interests them more.


For a support mystic, your emphasis will be on, obviously, supporting the rest of the squad. This usually means being an auxiliary healer, or in a few limited circumstances the main healer, and so naturally healing skills should be maxed. The debuff plants and healing plants are both important to this type of mystic, since debuffing can be more useful than healing if the cleric is handling the latter without any trouble. However, make certain that your debuff pet of choice does not over-debuff a superior debuffer in squad. Sage venos provide a 40% pdef debuff, and a Lv 5 veno pet mdef debuff provides 36% mdef debuff, while befuddling creeper only provides 20% reduction and casts so frequently that it will overdebuff. Assassins also have a 50% attack speed debuff, but if there is no other defense debuffer, this should not stop you from using the creeper. But if a better defense debuffer is present, spidervine provides a useful alternative, since few things give a long-term attack debuff the way it does.

Comforting Mist is a passable aoe heal, but if the cleric is too busy to handle aoe heals, you would likely do better to use Healing Herb, as it heals constantly over time and allows you to cast other things, whilst only eating a single lump sum of mana to provide heals for over a minute. Vital herb's low duration means it isn't particularly useful in long boss fights, but it is still worth leveling for aoe pulls. As far as summons go, salvation will be the most important for support, allowing you to cast a shield on any particularly vulnerable party member for a situation such as Ancient Evil: Lethal vengeance where the boss has powerful random agro. Support might entail a bit of vit as well, since staying alive is more important as a healer, but heavier vit builds will damage your already sketchy healing abilities further. Support mystics might have an easier time finding squads, but don't try to heal things you can't, such as BH69, in which polearm's debuff will likely destroy your squad due to lack of purify. In this roll you will also likely lure quite a bit, assuming no veno is present.


If you are, like myself, however, you may find that the support role is a rather uninteresting one and that the class lends itself much better to other things. Taking a more active role as a DD may make it more difficult to find squads due to those short-sighted individuals who will only see you as a potential cleric replacement. Getting beyond this, however, I find that it is far more interesting. Gale Force and bramble tornado are important to max for this build, especially if you choose a pure magic build, as you may well find yourself pulling agro on mobs, and these skills allow you to protect yourself, especially from physical mobs. Falling petals is useful in this as well, either as a self-cast or on others, If you expect to take heavy damage, salvation allows you to eat quite a bit of it without your hp moving at all, or if you're not overly worried about that, Storm Mistress increases your damage output considerably, particularly on bosses, and as a caster she is less vulnerable to aoe damage.

If you wish to avoid agro, however, Thicket and Absorb Soul are your friends; the former only gives token agro because it is technically enacted by four plants, and the latter apparently behaves the same way, likely as a result of the implementation of its inability to cause a critical hit. Take care if aoeing with Thicket and then Storm Mistress, however, as she will take all the agro in this scenario, perhaps unexpectedly. If you are LA, I would suggest not bothering much with these two skills, since neither can crit, which voids your only advantage in doing damage. If you are LA though, I would suggest this path over the other given that heals also cannot crit.

Naturally, being a more active mystic doesn't mean you should ignore support entirely. If someone is dying and healing them won't give you agro, you should do so. Falling Petals is also a great preventative measure for any situation where damage is caused directly (ie not by dots), so throw it on the person luring the boss or the barb/BM before they agro a pull in frost or elsewhere. And good use of plants is still advised, perhaps less the healing and more the debuffing but still as described above.


On the whole, I would advise most mystics to take the latter approach, since as I have said, those trying for full support don't even really make clerics happy and are inferior to them in most situations. I understand that it fits the playstyle of some people better, which is why I presented it, but on the whole I find that they are not particularly useful and that filling only a support role wastes the potential of the class greatly. Even if you prefer support, be ready to react to situations that require another approach. Mystics are a versatile class, something of a jack of all trades without any specific focus, and should be respected as such, not treated as a way to ditch having a cleric along. Remember that even Lv 11 sage resurrect buff will not be as good as a proper res, and Lv 10 is only as good as a Lv 9 res. But even a Lv 9 res is better than losing all exp for a cleric, so that even if you do not care to waste the mp in keeping the whole squad res buffed (because you really don't need to be doing that at 2.6k mp a pop), ensure that the cleric's is always refreshed, or that your own is if you are trying to solo heal.

Marista - Lost City

III. Skills

I will not waste your time and mine by including the in-game skill descriptions or statistics in this section. Those may be found via the easy to use database found here. Instead, this section is intended to give an accurate description of what the skill does, as well as its utility and my opinion on how important learning or leveling it is. The skills are split by trees. Successive skills in a tree require at least Lv 1 of the previous skill to be learned.

Damage Tree

Nature's Vengeance
This is your primary spam damage skill. It deals damage as well as slowing the target and inflicting "Nature's Vengeance" status. Its cooldown is equal to its cast time, so that it can be spammed infinitely, and for pure dding this is your primary skill due to its lack of chi cost. Sage version gives a chance for more chi, which is always nice for sparking or bringing out Cragglord/Thicket, while demon version adds extra damage. Max this asap. Lv 11 books are available via Mysterious Pages.

Swirling Mist
This is a strange Damage over Time skill (dot) which only takes effect when the target is below 60% health. Like most other dots, it is of limited usefulness, but worth casting once in a while. Demon version makes it useful by adding a wood damage debuff, while sage adds extra damage. Level at your leisure. Lv 11 books are available through Mysterious Pages.

Absorb Soul
Primarily a pvp skill, this skill does physical damage and double damage to a target with "Nature's Vengeance" status, but cannot crit and has a ridiculous 5 second channel time that make it poor for dps. However, it does not gain agro, and can pass through many defensive buffs that do not directly increase pdef, making it a valuable tool. Skills it bypasses include plume shell, wings of protection, bramble hood, and your own Salvation shields, so take care for other mystics using it against you in pvp. Sage version gives extra chi, demon adds a potentially useful 80% chance to interrupt target channeling. Level at your leisure. Lv 11 books are available via Mysterious and Old Book Pages.

Gale Force
Your main aoe, this skill has an undisclosed (but high, from personal observation) chance to seal and/or immobilize. It is a self-centered aoe rather than a target-centered one. Take care not to make the melees rage too much by making their targets run away, but useful for self defense for the same reason. Minor chi usage so not suitable for boss dding. Sage version slows targets by 70%, which could stop them from running away as fast. Demon increases immobilize chance, which is quite useful. Max this asap. Lv 11 books are available via Old Book Pages and Pages of Fate.

Bramble Tornado
Very important PvP skill; single target knockback, and currently the only knockback which works in pvp as well as pve. On the whole it's also perhaps your hardest hitting non-ulti except absorb soul but costs 30 chi, so is not suitable for bosses. Sage version gives 25% chance to cast without using chi. Demon version adds an extra knockback meter. Both are relatively useful. Max this asap. Lv 11 books are available via Advanced Mystical Pages and Pages of Fate.

Thicket
Perhaps your most useful skill on the whole. Summons multiple plants (I believe four) which each deal aoe damage and have a chance to seal or immobilize. In my experience, the main target usually has both enacted, and the effects last at least as long as the eight seconds of parasitic nova, with half the cast time. This makes it an extremely useful pvp skill, giving you time to kill a target, and a strong aoe spell, though again careful of melee qqing about those mobs which get sealed but not frozen. Costs two sparks but does significant damage to Lv [?] bosses because Thickets do not take damage reduction. However, in my experience sparking or other ways of increasing magic attack do not boost the damage of this skill. Sage version adds extra damage, which is nice. Demon version has a chance to curse (the same debuff as bm's Heaven's Flame/dragons) the target for an undisclosed amount, making it even better in pvp. Max this asap. Lv 11 books are available via Pages of Fate.

Healing Tree

Break in the Clouds
This is your main healing skill. Casts fast and cools down fast, but it's only a heal and does not stack. Great for quickly replenishing hp, but not ideal for keeping it up. Slightly stronger and faster than the cleric skill wellspring surge. Sage version has a 25% chance to purify, which is decent but should not be counted on. Demon version gains extra chi, which is always good. Max this asap. Lv 11 books are available via Mysterious Pages.

Falling Petals
Closest thing to a heal over time you have, this recovers target's hp up to a certain amount after it takes damage. Great for avoiding spamming heals on self while soloing, for pvp, and for throwing on someone about to lure or pull, but not a significant source of healing since it cannot stack. Sage version gives a chance to recover roughly half the mp used in casting. Demon version extends the max duration if the heal is not used up. Max this asap. Lv 11 books are available via Advanced Mystical Pages and Pages of Fate.

Resurrect
Buffs the target to allow resurrection upon death. Exp loss is roughly the same as if ressed by a cleric with a res 1 level lower (not exactly; cleric increases from 0% to 100% by 10% increments; mystic increases from 8% to 88% in 8% increments). Very useful for helping keep the cleric alive and preventing their exp loss, or avoiding your own in solo endeavors. Also quite useful in pvp situations since you recover with 50% hp at level ten, meaning no instant charm tick. Sage version decreases exp loss to 5%. Demon version recovers target with full health, which is excellent in pvp situations or when under an aoe to avoid target dying again as soon as they resurrect. Max this asap. Lv 11 books are available via Advance Mystical Pages and Pages of Fate.

Comforting Mist:
AoE heal centered on yourself. Not hugely useful; healing herb is better in most situations, but decent for an occasional aoe when you'd rather have a debuff plant up. Sage version reduces mp cost by 15%, which is good. Demon version has a 35% chance to purify, which is nice but of limited usefulness. Level at your leisure. Lv 11 books are available via Old Book Pages.

Summon-Related Tree

Heal Summon
This heals your summon. Useful to any mystic, but not necessarily important to level depending on how much damage your summons tend to take. Note that targeting another mystic;s summon or a veno's pet will cause that summon/pet to be healed instead of your own, even if it is hostile and you have pvp protections on. Level as needed.

Transference
This gives some of your mana to the currently active summon. Vital for allowing summons to cast skills, but the value of leveling it depends on the mp use of your summon of choice. Salvation users will find they use less mana that those of the attack summons. Level as needed.

Energy Leech
This skill sacrifices your currently active summon to give you a buff based on the summon and what lv it is, as well as a short antistun. This makes mystics, aside from demon venos, the only magic class with an antistun skill and makes energy leech vital in pvp. However it is of little use in most pve situations as it costs a spark and removes your summon as well. Max once you reach 8x or 9x. Sage version adds an extra 3 second antistun, which is epic. Demon has a chance to give a 60% speed boost, which is... /care. Lv 11 books are available via Advance Mystical Pages and Pages of Fate.

Tree-less Skills

Verdant Shell
This is a pdef (and two elemental resists also) selfbuff. Very useful, since it stacks with both BM and cleric pdef buffs and allows a mystic to focus on hp without sacrificing pdef. Sage version gives an extra 10% pdef whilst demon gives a temporary chance to avoid negative statuses. Max asap. Lv 11 books are available via Old Book Pages.

Wood Mastery
Standard magic mastery, this increases your damage from wood spells. Very important for your damage in general. Sage version adds 5% more damage while demon gives 2% crit rate. Max asap. Lv 11 books are available via Old Book Pages.
Lysing
Explodes your non-healing plants to deal negligible damage and debuff all targets within 10 meters of the plant. Not hugely useful, and leveling it only increases range and the already brief cooldown, but not a bad skill. Max at leisure.

Rapid Growth
Increases your magic attack and gives -20% channeling for 8 seconds. Not bad for 30 chi, but more of a pvp skill than pve. Note that, since it has a unique buff icon, this stacks with sparks, including the channeling bonus from demon spark. Sage version has a chance to clear cooldown. Demon version adds another -10% channeling, making it quite useful with absorb soul. Max at leisure. Lv 11 books are available via Advance Mystical Pages and Pages of Fate.

Nature's Barrier
Cuts damage in half for 8 seconds and immobilizes you. For only costing 30 chi, it's pretty useful, and the 90 second cooldown is far less crippling than those on many other classes' 79 skills. Get this one asap.

Clear Thoughts
Recovers you mp based on current mp +2k. Mystics can always use more mana, but 5min cooldown makes its utility rather limited. No rush to get this one.

Lucky Break
Next hit will be a crit. Very useful pvp skill, but pvewise one crit isn't worth the 50 chi when dding a boss. Still quite the awesome skill. and cooldown is reasonable. Probably first 100 skill to get for pvpers.

Swinging Cloud Dance
A strong heal which also increases the target's max hp by 8%. Also semi-spammable, but not hugely useful since it's still just another heal. It does heal significantly more in one go than Break in the Clouds, but longer channel time; think of it as a weaker Stream of Rejuvenation, lacking the heal over time component. I dunno if this one is worth the 20 chrono pages, honestly.

Weeping Breeze Dance
Does a significant amount of damage and reduces target's max hp by 8%. The 10 second cooldown makes this relatively spammable, especially for a 100 skill, and the fact that it's 250% weapon damage makes it likely your strongest non-ulti if you can get your 3rd fairy and afford it. A fine choice for both pvp and pve. First 100 skill for pve-based mystics, second for pvp.

Summons and plants, although technically skills, will be addressed in the next section due to the need for more in-depth analysis.

Marista - Lost City

IV. Summons and Plants

Due to their nature and the fact that there is much more to say about these than about individual skills, this section will provide a more in-depth discussion of each summon and plant, as well as my thoughts on their utility and importance. Note that the sage versions of all summons except cragglord reduce the summoning mp cost by 10%, while the demon versions give ten extra chi for summoning.

I also cannot provide any useful data on the exact stats of summons, as their stats are based on their summoner's stats at the time of summoning. So, refining your gear will increase your summon's stats as well, making them potentially stronger than venomancer pets for very high-tier mystics. However, as a general note, our summons are on the whole much less durable than veno pets, and make for poor tanks in comparison. Note also that all mystics share the same four summons, and they cannot be given custom names as venomancer pets can, nor learn new skills via skill scrolls.


Devil Chihyu
This is the initial summon. The devil is a fully physical attacker, with one physical skill and one stun. Stun range is slightly higher than the melee skill range, it still not particularly high. Many players erroneously treat this as a standard veno tank pet, which it is not. Hp and defense are significantly lower than those of even weaker veno pets, never mind Hercs, and the skills do not provide as much agro as Bash or flesh ream. On the whole, I personally haven't touched this pet since I got Storm Mistress. However, his somewhat higher physical damage makes him a decent choice for lower levels, when fielding the kind of mana reserves needed to keep Storm Mistress's mp up can be difficult.

As far as pvp goes, I don't find him hugely useful there, either. Although he provides access to the only mystic stun, it is roughly melee range and so poor for preventing an opponent from running (which I find to be the main problem with out lack of stuns). Anyone who has tried to stop a fleeing opponent with a nix using pounce will know this difficulty--the pet will attempt to stun from its max range, but by the time it's casting the target will have moved out of range. It also cannot keep up with anything higher than a 2.5 flying mount.

Using energy leech on the devil may be the most effective use of it in pvp; a 30% crit rate boost for Lv 11 is significant, and very useful against melees, as is the physical defense buff. However, use of energy leech for dd purposes would be somewhat wasteful, and I find the only time the devil should be used for such is if you cannot field enough mana to supply storm mistress and salvation wouldn't be of much use. Lv 11 devil gains an extra 20% attack buff, potentially making it more useful as a dd. Lv 11 books are available via Mysterious and Old Book Pages.


Storm Mistress
The second available summon, and my personal favorite. If kept fed with mp and her initial skill (Luna Blade) is kept on auto use (auto use of one pet skill on cooldown max be toggled by right clicking the skill; the skill currently marked for auto use, if any, will be indicated by a yellow border), she is an entirely ranged dd, who will never close to melee range. This is very useful both in pve (avoiding aoes, or to take the usually lower damage from ranged attacks if she pulls agro, which is far from unlikely on Lv [?] bosses with only a barb or other low-dd tank) and pvp, and a change from venomancer pets whose damage is primarily physical, barring the elemental bashes.

She is also unique of the permanent (ie, Devil, Mistress, and Salvation) in that she has a fairly powerful AoE skill, which, like her main skill, does metal damage. This makes up somewhat for the low number of aoes available as normal skills, and should be used in all aoe situations in which salvation is not necessary and you do not wish to spend two sparks on cragglord. In pve, her metal damage is also a great boon against wood monsters, who take less damage from mystic skills in general.

Energy leeching her can be a viable strategy versus arcane classes in pvp, granting a bonus to magic defense as well as 200% magic attack at level ten, which not only has the initial antistun (to avoid cleric sleep and the like, but lasts for longer than even demon spark. Given this, it can be a viable dd strategy, but only if you are willing to give up the Storm Mistress's own dd, or resummon her and waste part of the time you have the buff from this skill. Note that, as it has a unique icon, it stacks with both Rapid Growth and sparking for the magic attack bonus, and cleric buff for mdef bonus. Lv 11 Storm Mistress gains a 3 second seal skill, which can be greatly useful in pvp, especially since antistun skills such as Will of the Bodhisattva do not block seal effects. Lv 11 books are available via Mysterious and Old Book Pages.


Salvation
The third available summon. Unlike the other two, Salvation is effectively useless as a dd. Her strength lies in defensive buffs, Aegis Sphere and Martyrdom. These may be self cast (note that in order to do this, you must target your own character by clicking your portrait in the upper left hand corner) or cast on any buffable target, including other squad members or npcs. Aegis Sphere gives a shield that absorbs a set amount of damage per level, and can be cast relatively constantly. Note, however, that recasting it does not overbuff an existing instance of the shield.

Martyrdom acts something like a cleric's plume shell; once cast, it absorbs a % of the damage taken by the target out of the summon's mp. However, unlike plume shell, the buff does buff vanish if the summon runs out of mp, so this skill should be used with caution. Attempting to refill Salvation's mp to cast Aegis Sphere will result in it immediately being depleted by Matyrdom if the buffed target is taking heavy damage. Note that resummoning Salvation, however, will clear the martyrdom buff from the target and prevent this situation. This skill is primarily useful as a self-cast in pvp.

Energy leeching Salvation offers a strong Aegis Sphere buff and falling petals state, which can be useful in pvp. In pve, though, simply self-casting the Aegis Sphere buff would usually be more economical. Lv 11 Salvation gains Warp Shield, which gives a 600 damage shield to all party members nearby. Not the most useful thing in the world, but vaguely useful in gv or other aoe situations where multiple party members are expected to take damage. Lv 11 books are available via Advanced Mystical and Old Book Pages.

Cragglord
The final summon, and the other 2 spark ulti. Cragglord is unique in that he has a limited appearance time, and that his skills do not require mp to cast. Both his skills are fire elemental aoes, with the first being lower-range but also adding a fire dot. This makes Cragglord a fine choice in aoe situations. His normal physical attacks are also quite strong, making him a fine choice to use sparks on for dding a boss so long as you are willing to lose your current summon to do so. His aoes also do not seal, making him a useful answer to melee complaints about that.

PvPwise, Cragglord hits quite powerfully and can potentially out-damage Thicket, but he lacks the seal and immobilize, and can be pushed back or killed before his twenty seconds are up. A player could also potentially kite him. Due to these factors, use of Cragglord in pvp should be thought through carefully, as he could turn the tide of a battle or just as easily waste your chi and leave you bereft of Salvation's protection. Overall, use with caution, but potentially a very powerful weapon.

Energy leech cannot be used with Cragglord. Sage version allows him to stay up an extra 3 seconds, which is never a bad thing. Demon version has a 25% chance to cast using only one spark, which is risky to count on but can be a powerful boon when it procs. Lv 11 books are available via Pages of Fate.



That wraps up the summons, leaving plants. Plants are entirely separate from summons, and having one in use does not prevent the other from being used. Plants do not require mp, and cannot be controlled once placed. They are "always on," as it were, spamming their ability on any target within their range. Note that this includes npcs, and using a plant in a duel in safezone can make you go temporarily pink if there is an npc in range. Barring vital herb, only one plant may be summoned at a time. Summoning a plant replaces a previously summoned plant.

Except for healing herb and vital herb, which appear near the caster, plants are summoned near the targeted hostile target. Plants except vital herb last for one minute, and have some undisclosed % chance to avoid taking damage from attacks. Plants may also be exploded (sans the healing ones) using the lysing skill to cause a 10 meter aoe of their effect centered on the plant itself, which kills the plant regardless of the % to avoid damage. Plants and associated versions do not have Lv 11 versions available. With that said, on to the individual plants.


Punishing Sting
This plant does a small amount of physical damage to targets. Like pets, it does not take damage reduction on Lv [?] bosses and can potentially be used to increase your damage on bosses. However, its damage is relatively weak and I find it of little use except in the Celestial Tigers event, where debuffing the boss is not something I wish to do. Level it if you find it useful, but I would not suggest prioritizing it. Pvp use is nigh-nonexistent.

Befuddling Creeper
Perhaps the most useful plant in group pve, Befuddling Creeper does an aoe pdef, mdef, attack speed, and channeling debuff. If no venomancer is present and the barb is not spamming Devour, then this is the plant of choice for increasing the squad's overall damage output. Be aware that most bosses are immune to channeling debuffs however. The attack speed and channeling speed debuffs make it potentially useful if lysed in pvp. Level this one fairly quickly. For comparison, other class pdef debuff %s are:

Barb: 50% (Lv 10-11 devour), 30% (Lv10 Penetrate Armor); 35% (Lv 11 Penetrate Armor)

Venomancer: 30% (Lv 10 ironwood scarab); 40% (Sage Ironwood Scarab); 0% (Demon Ironwood Scarab, though 20% chance of 100%), 36% (Lv 5 Penetrate Armor pet skill)

Cleric: 36% (Lv 10 Dimensional Seal), 40% (Lv 11 Dimensional Seal)

Blademaster: 50% (Lv 10-11 Glacial Spike)


Spidervine
A decently useful plan, this one debuffs physical attack, magical attack, and movement speed. Use on bosses who pose a significant threat to the party, or in dangerous aoe situations. Very few other class skills debuff these attributes, so doing so can be tremendously useful if the wizard or other aoe dd is dying in gv. In normal pvp this is effectively useless, however, as attack debuffs do not have their full effect in world pvp. In TW, this plant is excellent however, as the debuffs do take full effect in the TW environment, and planting in in the middle of a lane can significantly slow the advance of a push. Lysing in this situation can also be highly advantageous.


Listless Blossom
This plant has a chance to perform AoE sleep. The sleep debuff acts like a stun in that the target can do nothing except use defensive genie skills while under it, except that taking damage removes the effect from the character. This has few pve applications since, in AoE situations, continuous aoes will immediately wake any mobs that are slept. However, the sleep effect when lysed at Lv 10 is 12 seconds, which is a significant amount of time in pvp, or in tw. Use carefully, however, and ensure when using that your summon does not attack and wake the target prematurely.


Healing Herb
This plant does an aoe heal on party members nearby. The healing is not significant, but can help to avoid charm tick and reduce the stress placed on the cleric, or be used in combination with falling petals for self-healing in solo pve situations. In high risk aoe situations like GV or frost, it may also be worthwhile to use this plant to supplement BB. The healing herb heals a small amount of hp every 2 seconds. Due the movement in pvp and the weakness of its heals, healing herb is of little use in pvp. Healing Herb cannot be lysed.

Vital Herb
This plant aoes heals for an undisclosed amount every second and increases party member hp regeneration. In exchange for its short duration (20 seconds), lack of chance to evade hits, and 1 spark cost to cast, it can coexist with any other plant. This allows it to be used for double healing in aoe situations, or used in combination with spidervine or any other plant desired. Due to its lack of damage evasion, however, make certain it does not take heal agro and die prematurely, wasting your spark. Vital herb also cannot by lysed.

Marista - Lost City

V. Demon or Sage?

As with every other class, there is no single answer to this question. Both demon and sage cultivation paths offer advantages and disadvantages. Having listed the demon and sage effects above, I will not relist them here. They may also be viewed at ecatomb above, or by using the in-game encyclopedia's skill database feature. This section will instead attempt to offer advice on which might better suit your style, and assumes you are at least somewhat familiar with the effects, having examined them from at least one of the three listed sources.

Sage and Demon triple sparks are the same for mystic in the % of damage they add. Sage, however, offers 33% reduced damage taken, while Demon grants -25% channeling. On the whole I find the latter more useful, as it allows faster dd or casting in general, but for a support mystic, the damage reduction from sage is potentially useful as well, and it could be helpful in pvp situations, or aoe ones if for some reason you should acquire significant agro in the latter. I am not certain if it stacks with BB reduction, as my only sage class is venomamcer, whose sage spark lacks the reducing effect.

Sages also receive a chi skill which gives 50 chi, with a 60 second cooldown. The demon equivalent is a 50 chi drain to the target with a 30 seconds cooldown. Of these, there is little doubt that the sage is more useful, given that more chi available is always good, while the demon version has no use in pve at all, and isn't hugely useful in pvp, due to its relatively low cast range. The 3 level 100 skills are the same for sages and demons and require the 3rd level of cultivation to learn. However, the effort required for both is roughly equal (4th past map + full gv).

Support mystics would likely favor a sage mystic. Sage Break in the Clouds allows them the potential to purify squad members much more easily than demon Comforting Mist (which has a significant cast time and nonzero cooldown). Sage summons also preserve your mp somewhat, as do sage falling petals and sage comforting mist. If you are bothered by the mystic skill mp consumption, then sage might be the way to go for you. Also for the support path, sage resurrect will allow your squad to save more exp if you should try to solo heal something, and will likely make clerics happy.

On the whole, the sage path also gives more assured damage, Several sage skills increase the direct damage dealt, and the chi given by sage Nature's Vengeance can help to use ultis or spark more frequently, as can the chi skill. In this vein, sage mastery also gives a solid 5% damage increase, which helps a lot in dding bosses over time, and sage Cragglord stays around longer to do more damage. In this way, the sage path could be considered superior for pve dding as well as support.

Saying that somewhat drops me into the cliche of saying "sage is for pve, demon is for pvp," but it is somewhat true. That is not to say that these hold true always, however; although sage does produce more assured damage, the more 'risky' demon skills can still improve dd. The critical hit rate from demon mastery allows for more hits to do double damage, and the demon Cragglord can save a spark to use for something else. As well, the damage of Nature's Vengeance is directly increased, allowing both for harder hits in pve and in pvp.

In this vein, especially in AoE situations, demon Thicket is incredibly nice for increasing the whole squad's damage output, as long as the demon mystic using it is careful not to waste the debuff by using while Heaven's Flame or Demon Parasitic Nova is still in effect. In aoeing, as noted before, demon Gale Force is superior for the purpose of reducing complaints from melees about mobs running from their aoes, which is always a plus. Demon summons also give extra chi, which can be a boon if you tend to lure a great deal, and so does Break in the Clouds. Absorb Soul, if well timed, could be used to cancel boss aoes or magic damage, as well as adding to its value as an anti-arcane weapon in pvp. Demon Rapid Growth also offers more of a chan boost, which makes it even better with Absorb Soul.

PvPwise, demon Thicket, Bramble Tornado, and Resurrect are superior, but the value of the 3 extra seconds of antistun on sage energy leech is hard to overstate. The speed boost on demon is somewhat irrelevant, since most pvp takes place in the air. The demon swirling mist effect is useful both for increasing your damage in pve and hitting harder in pve. Sage shell is certainly better in most pve situations, but the 20% chance on demon to avoid negative statuses is invaluable in pvp, especially since cooldown permits that, mana allowing, it could be kept in effect for 75% of the time.

Thus, although sage is indeed more geared toward pve and demon toward pvp, it would be absurd to say that either path is limited to one or the other. Both paths offer significant advantages in either arena, and I suggest taking what I have said as a guide, but looking through the individual skills yourself and making your own comparisons as to which effect you find more useful. Personally, I have chosen the demon path for pvp reasons, but it was not a simple choice to make and I'll always look at sage energy leech with quite a bit of envy.

Marista - Lost City

VI. PvP Tips

Given that much of this document has focused on pve aspects and I am an avid pvper, I could not help but include this section. I find mystic a very fun class in pvp, though this will naturally be updated somewhat as I continue to gain experience in the area. And, of course what I have already mentioned about pvp is still applicable.

On the whole, I find Salvation to be the most useful summon in PvP. Her shield allows me to take a significant amount of extra damage, and can be used in combination with charms and pvp pots, as well as recast as soon as 15 seconds later. This allows me to survive many mistakes that would otherwise be fatal. It also allows me to fight sins better, since it can be self-cast while waiting for them to appear. In my experience, like defensive genie skills, it can also be cast while asleep or stunned. Falling Petals is a valuable preventative measure in almost any situation.

Bramble Tornado is useful against almost any class. For melees, the utility is obvious in pushing them back, allowing you to escape or damage them. If on the ground this combines well with the movement speed debuff from Nature's Vengeance, and allows time to use further control skills such as Gale Force or Thicket. Against arcanes, the use is more subtle, but if they are any significant distance away, then using it will often knock them beyond casting range, canceling any skill they are channeling at the time. It is also useful to get a breather to recover or allow charm cooldown to finish.

Note however, that as a mystic you are in the lowest range bracket for arcanes and so careless use could push a target to a range at which they can cast and you cannot. Mystics and venomancers max out at 27 meters for Lv 11 skills; clerics and psychics are 28.5 meters, while wizards are 30, demon archers are 32, and sage archers are 34. Bramble pushes back 12 meters (13 if demon), and has the same max range as your other skills, so push back ranged classes prudently.

In my personal experience, Thicket is a godly skill in pvp. Around 90% of the time, from what I've seen, the target it is cast on will be both immobilized and sealed, and I have never seen a target not using an antistun be unaffected by either one. This allows a significant amount of time to finish them off, and at 8x I was able to defeat 9x and 10x players this way. It is especially effective if used after bramble, which gives you time to move away or take other action if they survive, as well as putting you out of the range of genie skills such as Occult Ice and True Emptiness, which can be cast through a seal effect.

Speaking of genie skills, I find Fortify a very useful skill in dealing with melee targets, if kept at Lv 1, and that holy path is incredibly useful for ground pvp. Absolute Domain is also excellent for surviving surprise attacks, or Faith/Belief for enemies with a lot of control skills. At a later time I will create an entire section detailing my thoughts on genie skills.

Be wary of nixes, though, as arcane classes are vulnerable to their glitched bleed skill, and if you try to tank their normal hits in the air while healing yourself from bleed, you may find yourself taking significant damage. However, tanking a nix's normal hits on the ground is safer, as they take air to ground reduction in pvp. Note that this will not stop bleed from doing full damage, however, and whenever possible bleed should be resisted or purified off as soon as possible. if fighting a weaker venomancer, killing them may be easier than killing the nix, which has as much mdef as any arcane class or more at 10x and significant HP. If you do wish to kill the nix first, sleeping the veno via Listless Blossom's lyse effect is a good way to do so.

The latter strategy is also a good way to allow yourself the time to channel absorb soul on an arcane, if you are not demon and/or do not have the chi to demon spark for the channeling bonus. Rapid Growth is a less chi-intensive way to speed the channeling of absorb soul, and both the mag attack and channeling bonuses from both skills can be stacked. Note that absorb soul will bypass a cleric's plume shell, despite doing physical damage rather than magic. I have yet to test if it also bypassed Aegis Sphere, but I believe that it does.
This section will naturally be expanded at a later time, though I can't give away all my secrets.


I hope this document has proved helpful to you, whether you are a nonmystic, prospective mystic, or even an experienced one looking for other perspectives. I encourage feedback, critical or otherwise, but I will again pay flames no attention beyond reporting them to the forum moderation team. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope I have managed, in some small way, to improve your play experience.

lizrau

I didn't read ALL of it, but it looks pretty good, just think you need a little more color and break up the paragraphs a little more, otherwise it's a very readable guide.

Marista - Lost City

I've added some colored headers and bolded them. Are there any paragraphs in specific that you feel should be broken up more? And thank you. ^^

VoItaire - Harshlands

Yes absorb soul seems to ignore all buffs except maybe ones that increase pdef.

Mraochan - Lost City

Excellent guide, nice work!

Even though currently only 8x, I consider myself to be a fairly decent mystic, and I still learned lots of things from this, like this part of Absorb Soul, one of my favorite skills: "However, it does not gain agro, and can pass through defensive skills such as Plume Shell or your own Salvation Shield."

As there is only one other "complete" guide in the forums, I submit that this should get a sticky.

Thanks again, I'll definitely look forward to whatever parts might be updated in the future! b:thanks

Also, nice title, try saying that 5 times fast! b:laugh

Avianse - Archosaur

Very very nice guide. Even though you picked demon, you kept the sage vs demon part non biased. not alot of people can do that lol

RosangeIa - Heavens Tear

Have a feeling you already know my feelings about Mystics healing for FFs. I would have to argue that I love the Cleric + Mystic team-up in dungeons like FF and more often than not, the cleric is always thankful for the help. Just think of it like having a secondary cleric to just help out when needed. I have never run into one who told me I was trying to take their job whenever I healed someone lol. That's just silly.

Though I would have to agree that trying to solo heal in FF perhaps lower than 9X would be unwise, but it is entirely possible in the right squads at the right levels. I'd honestly never want to replace a cleric, I already played one long enough haha. But these days it's increasingly harder to find one for FF runs, so sometimes you just do with what you got.


Anyhow, very nice guide by the way! Seems very well thought out, mostly non-biased, and your grammar, punctuation, spelling etc is a joy to read. I almost forgot what well thought out posts were like. XD Anyway, look forward to updates and I also have to thank you again for not being completely biased on the Demon/Sage section especially. Too many people are really opinionated about that. So it was nice to see to say the least.

VoItaire - Harshlands

RosangeIa - Heavens Tear wrote: »

Have a feeling you already know my feelings about Mystics healing for FFs. I would have to argue that I love the Cleric + Mystic team-up in dungeons like FF and more often than not, the cleric is always thankful for the help. Just think of it like having a secondary cleric to just help out when needed. I have never run into one who told me I was trying to take their job whenever I healed someone lol. That's just silly.

Though I would have to agree that trying to solo heal in FF perhaps lower than 9X would be unwise, but it is entirely possible in the right squads at the right levels. I'd honestly never want to replace a cleric, I already played one long enough haha. But these days it's increasingly harder to find one for FF runs, so sometimes you just do with what you got.


Anyhow, very nice guide by the way! Seems very well thought out, mostly non-biased, and your grammar, punctuation, spelling etc is a joy to read. I almost forgot what well thought out posts were like. XD Anyway, look forward to updates and I also have to thank you again for not being completely biased on the Demon/Sage section especially. Too many people are really opinionated about that. So it was nice to see to say the least.

Honestly, I end up solo healing almost every run I go on since clerics are pretty hard to come by most of the time. I don't really mind though lol since I get squads really fast because of it.

DaichiOni - Dreamweaver

Reread and edit for grammar mistakes and misspelling. I would go back and find them all but too lazy atm. Maybe tomorrow.

Daedallus - Sanctuary

Bump for a great guide b:victory

Crescendia - Harshlands

Thats funny, i'm a sage veno and I rolled a demon mystic too xD haha

Marista - Lost City

Thank you, Mrao. Glad that you enjoyed it, and that I could give you even that tidbit. And I'm honored by the suggestion--it would appear someone listened.

Avianse - Thank you, I try to keep things balanced since I know that not everyone shares my priorities. I'm glad it came across as such.

RosangeIa - Yes, I can see your point, although my comments about clerics not liking mystics trying to heal was mostly directed toward those who act as though they were trying to solo-heal in situations where a cleric is present. Obviously, just helping out, especially with healing party members who do not have agro, will usually be welcomed. I may edit to make my intent more clear if it was not.

In any case, I'm glad you liked it--yes, such things are rare anymore, are they not? <.<; And glad that you also felt I stayed fairly neutral there, since it was one section I really hoped to give a good overview of both for. I'm something of a perfectionist in examining and comparing the value of sage/demon skills to make an informed decision, so I hope this will help others do the same.

DaichiOni - I fear I am a terrible proofreader of my own work, but I have asked several friends to read it and already corrected several instances of such. If you notice one that you feel we have missed, however, bringing it to my attention would be appreciated.

Daedallus - Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.

Crescendia - Sage venos ftw! XD I might've ended up envying demon Thicket instead of Sage Energy Leech if sage spark for mystic was as nice as it is for veno. ?<.>?;

And thank you to whichever mod stickied this topic. I'm honored that you felt my work deserving of such, and I hope it will be of greater use to new players this way.

Aveidha - Dreamweaver

I have read a fair few guides on these forums an imo this is the best one in content and lack of bias,plus good grammar/spelling.*Gives cookie for good effort*

Caydon - Heavens Tear

IT'S A VERY GOOD GUIDE. Applause.

But I think what you can do is try to use some different colored text every now and then, and adding more headers and sub headers, because it looks like a very formidable passage right now, like my college readings.

BUT, I still think you've got excellent analysis and evaluation and it helps me alot, especially since I'm having problems with Ms Salvation, and I think now I have a better idea on how to utilize her in instances. (:

Marista - Lost City

Aveidha - Thank you very much. I'm flattered that you find it to be so, and I hope future additions can continue to live up to that.

Caydon - Thank you as well. I'm glad to be of help with that... As to the formatting, I can look into it. I know my text is rather dense, but being an avid reader myself, I'm not the best at breaking that up. Are there any specific places you would suggest adding such?

Voltaire: I wasn't sure how to respond to your comment before, since I was somewhat skeptical that it would ignore the immunity pot buffs. However, today I tested it with them and bramble hood and have come to the same conclusion as you. I also verified that it does not ignore pdef debuffs. I will update the guide with this taken into account--that you for pointing me to it.

obliviondemon

very nice guild but there is 4 points i disagree with you :

1 - a mystic can debuff better than most of the classes thanks to their plants

2- mystic damage is compared to the damage of the psy i readed that in pw wiki and i saw it in the game

3- about the BB healing of a cleric the mystic got 2 healing plants that can be used togather , you can even cast 2 VH and HB in the same time , well it is not as good as the cleric BB because if the boss got aoe thre plants will die

4- the summons can tank in the highh lvls dule to their high hp , and because fo their high magic res

well at last that what i think xD every thing alse i agree with you and awesome guild

Marista - Lost City

Thank you, though I would maintain I am correct on most of those:
1. If you look at the numbers I listed for other classes, 20% pdef is about the weakest available as a Lv 10 skill

2. I have not extensively played psy, so I cannot comment from personal experience, but given their greater array of damage skills, and aoes especially, I find it unlikely we can dd quite as well as they.

3. True, but the importance of bb is not from the strength of its heals, but the half damage reduction. In many cases, such as doing Snakefist in warsong, this is required to prevent a boss's aoe from oneshotting the squad, and in situations like gv, to keep those party members who have multiple mobs on them from dying before the heal procs. BB is essential in these situations, and the plants cannot replace it.

4. Barring a high-refined mystic whose summons have a lot of HP, they have relatively low HP and defenses compared to common veno tank pets. Storm can do things at range in some cases, but even then they do not keep agro well due to a lack of agro skills.

Still, thank you for your feedback, and if you feel still that I am wrong, I'm open to further debate.

On a more general note, I recently acquired Demon Rapid Growth and found that the description of it on Ecatomb was incorrect. The effect is actually -10% more channeling according to the skill book. This has been updated, and I hope to add a list of what kind of pages are used to get each book soon, as well as a genie section and others.

malsal

at what lvl should a mystic recive new spells?

l3zardvaleth

I have nothing against the OP, it's a nice guide in which you have dedicated lots of time.

Yet, it's still the least red guide while there are other guides about useful stuff with double or triple views, yet this got an INSTANT sticky. Is there a biased moderator, Admin or GM that acts on your favor?

Rakshasis - Lost City

Nope it's probably because this is the most detailed mystic guide on the forum. Plus it actually shows an oppinion about the pets.

AKB - Archosaur

any tips to fight those r9/ nirvana dagger sin ? b:surrender

good guide btw b:pleased

ArchAngeLi - Harshlands

l3zardvaleth wrote: »

I have nothing against the OP, it's a nice guide in which you have dedicated lots of time.

Yet, it's still the least red guide while there are other guides about useful stuff with double or triple views, yet this got an INSTANT sticky. Is there a biased moderator, Admin or GM that acts on your favor?

I never picked up on this but now that I think about it you are kinda right lol.

Rakshasis - Lost City wrote: »

Nope it's probably because this is the most detailed mystic guide on the forum. Plus it actually shows an oppinion about the pets.

I have a detailed guide too with opinions about sage/demon. Biased, obviously, as any opinion is, and now that I think about it this guide was instantly stickied way before someone even read it.

And why is some new created alt is posting this?

Rakshasis - Lost City

ArchAngeLi - Harshlands wrote: »

And why is some new created alt posting this?

This is my main. Deleted my other chars, decided to start over. Clean slate and all that.

Before that when I first started playing a mystic I was annoyed that the only good mystic guide at the time had no real oppinions on pets, since they're a main source of power for mystics. I mean this is the area where our spirit points would have to be well spent.

Kodama_xx - Archosaur

Id just like to add my two cents, as iv been playing this game a long time and my gf is a mystic herself... one thing I agree upon NO other class can replace any of the other classes, because no class has the exact same buffs, debuffs, or skills as another class.

That being said i would like to point out a flaw I noticed saying that mystics dont have regeneration aura's and cant makeup for a BB. Part of this is true, mystics cant do the damage reduction part of the BB, but a vital herb works and heals almost as well as BB, and ontop of that it isnt interuptable, meaning it can be used where a BB cant such as say against bubble boss in fc as an example or the dragoon pull in fc as another example. To add even more to it vital herb can be stacked with a healing herb, allowing for even more healing at a continuous rate, all while leaving the mystic free to do party heals or spot healing on tank or even DD'ing the boss.

Again I dont think vital herb or healing herb or combination of that can REPLACE a BB mainly because BB does have that damage reduction which is very good, BUT I feel it can be a VERY good substitute for where a BB is needed, and especially in those cases where a BB would be awesome but is not available due to interuption of the skill.

Thats my 2 cents, and my experience and opinion not everyone will agree with it, and thats fine just keep it in mind. Thanks for listening, or I guess reading lol.

Yamchayama - Sanctuary

Kodama_xx - Archosaur wrote: »

Again I dont think vital herb or healing herb or combination of that can REPLACE a BB mainly because BB does have that damage reduction which is very good, BUT I feel it can be a VERY good substitute for where a BB is needed, and especially in those cases where a BB would be awesome but is not available due to interuption of the skill.

Plant summons can be interrupted.....by killing them.