Psychic skill guide

Here's my little skill guide for the psychic class. Here I will give my opinion on which skills are worth levelling and which are practically useless (not counting in demon/sage versions, as these are unknown as of now.). This guide was originally intended to give new psychics an impression of the skills they get, since not much was known about psychics then. I've given up on my psychic a long time ago and kind of forgot all about this guide..

Now there's higher psychics who can give you much better advice than me. But if you still wish to read
my advice, go ahead.

Index:
1.Attack skills
2.Buff skills
3.Debuff skills
4.Misc. skills

With each skill I put my own advice of how you should level this skill, but to make it a bit easier to see I also put stars next to the skill names:
no star = don't get it at all

▲ = only get level 1 for the purpose of moving on in the skill tree
★= only get level 1 of this skill because levelling it doesn't do anything.
★★ = worth levelling if you have SP to spare.
★★★= very important, always keep this up to your level

☆ = Important for duel/PK/TW purposes (can be in combination with the above)

I will update it as I get more info ofcourse b:thanks
1.Attack skills

Lvl. 1:

★★★aqua impact & spirit blast
these 2 skills are the main skills used in grinding by a psychic. Spirit blast has better damage and aqua impact has (a relatively low) chance of slowing an opponent.
-Always keep these up to your level.

Lvl. 19:

★★torrent
You could compare this with ''crown of flames'' for wizards. A damage over time skill really doesn't benefit psychics much because most mobs don't last those 15 seconds during which this skill deals damage. One major advantage with this skill is that the damage does not get reduced by white voodoo and if a mob/boss does last those 15 seconds, it's quite a handy spell.
-Level it if you have SP to spare

★★★Landslide
An important nuke right next to aqua impact & spirit blast. The knockback on this skill really works well on physical mobs, aswell as cancelling the channeling on magical mobs.
-Keep it up to your level.

Lvl. 29:

★★Aqua cannon
To be blunt, this skill is pretty bad at lower levels. It's a close range AoE with a high equipment bonus (110% a lv1). It might have it's uses in group AoE.
-Leave it at lv.1 until at least lv70.

★★Sand trap
See torrent.

Lvl. 39:

★★★Glacial shards
A great AoE due to the fact that it has a chance to immobilize enemies. It also has quite nice damage.
-Worth levelling, should take priority after you've maxed both aqua impact and spirit blast.

★★★ ☆Sandburst blast
A nice AoE with slightly better damage than glacial shards. It has a chance to reduce enemy accuracy which won't benefit you much since you want to stay as far away from mobs as possible.
It would be very useful in group AoE where a BM or barb is taking the hits. It's short casting time and high damage would probably make this an important nuke in PvP
-Same as glacial shards, or keep it up to your level if you like to PvP.

Lvl. 49:

★★★ ☆Soulburn.
Does damage equal to your soulforce each time the target attacks for 5.3 (lv1) to 8.0 (lv10) seconds. Needless to say, the dps this skill does is based on the attack speed of your target (fist BM sandwich, anyone?). A very useful PvP skill as you might have guessed, but it will also do some nifty damage in PvE.
-The added 3 seconds might not quite be worth the money/spirit on first glance, but it means the skill is about 50% longer, meaning the skill does 50% more damage.

Lvl. 59:

★★ ☆Red tide
The strongest direct-damaging skill a psychic can get. But that's not all! It also has a chane to do bleeding damage equal to your soulforce (note: bleeding damage is physical, you can figure the effect this has on robe users). The rate at which bleeding occurs is 53% at lvl1 and 80% at lvl 10
-Works great in PvP against heavy armor users (like most of your spells..) aswell as robe users (IF bleed activates). You can't expect the bleed to be as devastating as the greatly loved/hated ''flesh ream'' on venomancer pets, but it will surely give you an edge in PvP.


★★ ☆Earth vector
Rather similar to wizards' ''mountain's seize'' spell, though many times weaker in terms of damage. The rate at which th stun activates is also lower, but the stun duration is the same. What makes this skill quit a bit better though, is that the channeling time is 4 seconds (!) shorter and that it costs only 1 spark.
-The AoE stun is the main idea of this skill, sandburst blast has better damage than this and the AoE range is 2m wider and doesn't cost chi. Compare it to 'roar of the pride' blademaster skill with a shorter AoE range
and lower stunning rate.

2.buff skills

Lvl. 9:

★★★ ☆Black voodoo
Your main buff used in grinding. Increases your damage by 22% but also increases the damage you take by 11% (assuming your base attack and defense levels are 0). In PvE you shouldn't get hit too much so the loss of defense shouldnt be too bad.
-Keep it up to your level.

★★White voodoo
Not a very practical buff, useful if youre in a tight situation though. Reduces the damage you deal by 99% and also reduces damage you take by 66% at max level.
-It might be wise not to level this skill all the way to lv10, since your damage will be absolutely horrible. On the other hand, damage is probably not your priority when this skill is active. Either level it to about 5 or level it all the way to 10 on which you prefer:
> (~lv5): still decent damage, quite a boost in defence. Nice for soloing bosses that manage to outdamage your healing without white voodoo
> (lv10): Crappy damage aside from your DoT skills which don't get reduced and a major boost in defence which might be wanted in some situations, since you can just switch to black voodoo after.

★Soul of vengeance
A psychic doesn't (or at least.. shouldn't) take that many hits in grinding. Also never cast this buff on the tanker in your squad, as the effect takes MP from the one who it's casted on, which would be a big problem for barbarians.
-It's certainly worth getting, but leveling does absolutely NOTHING except increase the casting range. Keep it at lv1.

Lvl. 29:

★ ☆Soul of stunning
Aside from the fact that it's a very pretty buff, it's usefulness depends on your soulpower.
Like Soul of vengeance, leveling this skill does nothing. (it's a self buff so you dont get any extra range either..)
-Keep it at lvl. 1

Lvl. 39:

★Soul of silence
Has a low chance to cast a pretty long silence effect on the attacker. Shares a cooldown with Soul of vengeance. Unlike Soul of Vengeance, this skill can be cast on your tanker since it activates only rarely and doesn't cost as much MP. The effect silences the attacker, which makes the tanker take less damage.
-Levelling doesnt do anything so keep it at lv1.

Lvl. 44

★★★ ☆Empowered vigor
Great in all aspects: Cast it on the tank so clerics heal more, cast it on yourself while grinding so pots heal more (it would be rather MP-inefficient, though.), cast it on yourself in PK so your charm has a lower cooldown.
-Keep it maxed.

Lvl. 59:

☆?Tide spirit
A rather short buff and costs 2 sparks. The damage increase is a joke compared to even a 1 spark eruption, but it does reduce channeling times (need info on how much it actually reduces channeling time)

★★★ ☆Psychic will
Despite the skill description this is a self-cast buff.
Purifies and immunizes you against physical damage for 5 seconds at lv1, and 8 seconds at lv10.
This would make grinding on poison mobs much easier, and it could just save you if you managed to pull aggro.
-At least get lv. 1 on this, if maxing it is worth those 3 extra seconds is up to you.


3.Debuff skills
Lvl. 34:

★★ ☆Diminished vigor
Very useful in PK, the only downside is that it shares a cooldown with empowered vigor.
So you have to choose: Reduce the healing ability of your enemy, or increase those of your own (or an ally).
-In PvE this skill is pretty useless, leave it at lv. 1
-In PvP it has it's uses, max it if you like to PK.

Lvl. 49:

★★ ☆Disturb soul
Increases channeling time by 53% at lv1, and 80% at lv10.
Say a wizard casts Gush, which has a channeling time of 1.0 seconds. After this skill it would take 1.8 seconds, pretty deadly in PvP.
Also very useful against most AoEing bosses since if the AoE takes longer to cast, your barb/bm has more time to react and interrupt it.
-Max it.



4.Misc. Skills

Lvl. 9:

Tide form
Utter ****. You can only use normal attack in this form.
Maybe in an underwater dungeon this skill would give you:
+10 def level from tideform
+66 def level from white voodoo
+10 def level from dominance blessing
= defense level 86
Pretty nice, but I wouldn't level it. And I'd rather fly for transportation.
-Get level 1 for the fun of it, or don't get it at all.

Lvl. 24:

★★Life bubble
An AoE version of the cleric's main heal, ''ironheart blessing''. It only has a much longer cooldown and its range is very short.
-Certainly worth levelling you have SP to spare.

Lvl. 29:

★★★ ☆Passives
Increase your damage.
-I'd advise to wait until the late 40's with levelling these since theyre quite costly in both money and spirit. Since earth skills deal more damage than water skills, you would get the most extra damage from levelling earthen spirit. So if you don't have enough money/spirit to upgrade both at some point, upgrade earthen spirit.

Special thanks

Andracil - for pointing out that psychic will is self-cast only
LiXiuYi - Her 15 cents