Thoughts about Psychic

SacredPride - Heavens Tear wrote: »

I think that the AoE skills Psychics get are for PvE purposes, and at higher level we will probably get PvP/PvE AoE skills (never checked skill tree lol) like a cleric (tempest).

But the Non-AoE skills are pretty ranged, I like it.

Btw, I've been setting my APs as 9mag and 1str every 2 levels (or when I have 10 APs). Is this a bad idea? Just wondering because I don't wanna get owned in PvP.

Baalbak - Dreamweaver wrote: »

lolwut? aqua impact is ftw for kiting. treat as you would a clerics cyclone. and heck, if the mob gets too close while kiting with aqua impact... landslide his **** and aqua impact again (or throw in a torrent if you think you have time to do so). I've kited many a IMR mobs like this.b:victory

as much as I don't like the fact that aqua cannon puts you into attack range of mobs, it does have the add on effect of slowing drastically (moreso than aqua impact) all enemies which it hits. But then again, aren't you the one who said in another place that you didn't level aqua impact? with each new level, the chance to slow - the % of slow applied, and the duration of slow, all increase. This is your best friend. this is your kiting tool. learn it, use it, love it. The damage may be minimal - but the speed debuff is lovely.

Baalbak - Dreamweaver wrote: »

you do realize that when you use your slow skill it has a decent duration of 6.4 seconds of -40% speed, with a fair enough chance to proc at level 6? The skill will become even better at level 10. I find that more often than not, despite at the current level having a less than 50% chance to hit, it does hit. That speed reduction right there will put you ahead of the mob obviously. oh, and the last I checked.. wizards move at 4.8 as well. Of course they get distance shrink - but it comes with a 10 second cool down at level 10 (19 at level 1) and costs 20 chi. If that right there is what you are used to using to kite, get holy path on you're genie and/or apo speed pots as a replacement.

Of course the knock back doesn't work on all mobs, but I can tell you from my experience with SLAM on my barb, that it works on most. And most is enough for it to be extremely beneficial to level up. If not for the knockback, at least for the damage it deals, which is better than either aqua or spirit.

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a wizards gush skill may have a much higher percent chance to proc the slow, but lets also look to the fact that with a 1 second channel and 1 second cool down, we're looking at the same amount of time to begin next strike as with a psychics aqua (.5 second channel, 1.5 second cast). Both have a cool down of 3 seconds. Aqua's speed reduction increases with level (i think, but I may be wrong.. afaik the speed reduction is in blue), gush does not. Both knock back skills for both classes require 2 seconds to use before attacking again, and both have a cool down of 8 seconds. Will of the pheonix is frontal multi target however, while landslide is single target (both have their benefits and drawbacks depending on the situation at hand though). But as far as I can tell, wizards don't have many spammable skills like psychics do, or else they require more time to channel + cast - which means you're sitting in one spot longer. true, they have higher damage output in return for longer channeling, but psychics get faster channeling and spammability in return for a bit less damage.

as far as I can tell, things are pretty much balanced in those regards. if you find that you take out mobs easily without landslide - very good for you. why not try something tougher? How about trying some different kiting methods on an IMR mob?

because I try to do the most efficient way. For now, AI, SB, AI is good enough to kill ALL mobs i get from quests. I am working on a way to aoe kill mobs successfully. Other than that, pve is rather stupid.

Psychics get faster channeling but longer casts. Wizard is more balanced channeling/cast. If you look at similiar skills, we do them in the same total time, its just that we channel it faster and cast takes forever. I wish landslide was an aoe, it would make chaining aoes for aoe grinding so much more easier plus the aoe knockback , but its not so i probably will only use it as a nuke to one shot archers/LA like i do on my wiz with WotP.

Baalbak - Dreamweaver wrote: »

but... you're on a PvE server.

yeah, we have AoE skills of course, and they are mostly centered around us, rather than ranged. I see where you are coming from that it makes you think psychic is supposed to be a close range magic user because of that fact. However, I'm not so sure about it myself. The fact that we start with 2 spammable ranged skills tells me we are supposed to be ranged. I'm sure we could do some aoe grinding on magical mobs such as the level 50'ish pyros down by the fb 59 cave. Our water aoe skill will be nicely implemented there to do some decent damage against them, and being a mage class we will have good magical defenses. The fact that pyros won't use physical attacks on us is a bonus. On top of that we shall receive a self purify skill to use in nullifying the burn damage that will stack up on us, and the bubble of life to restore health if needed.

However, I think trying to aoe on melee magical mobs can prove to be a bad move. I think that aqua cannon would be best used in those cases either before/after white voodoo as a means to drastically slow the enemies and make a hasty retreat to safety. I don't think we are meant in those circumstances to stand around and chain our aoe skills. The fact that they've got status modifier add ons to them makes me think they are meant more for either defensive maneuvers or squad support (IE white voodoo + earth vector + glacial shards + aqua cannon + sandburst blast) makes for a nice effect of stun/immobilazation/slow/accuracy decrease. Not sure as yet which of these may be off self skills, but according to skill description on ecatomb, they all sound as though the are self centered skills - which puts you in the midst of harms way.