First time DD and player.

If your Going Light armor .. the dex is fine If your just wearing robes .. get rid of the dex its not doing anything for you

Oh and would it be a good idea to mix light Armour with Robes to kinda even out the defense?

The stats, attributes, bonuses, shards, and so forth are very confusing at first. I am still trying to learn some of the added effects and detriments. Anyway, there are a few well written guides to Psychics available through this forum as well as some good threads.

Anyway, let's talk about builds:

What you will find is that builds are very versatile. You will find that opinions vary. Also, you will find that most people in this forum can discuss and disagree peacefully and intelligently (try reading the wizard forum to see the opposite). For the most part, I am just throwing out information to help you decide on your own and not telling you how to build (although I will mention a couple of pet peeves).

The first question is "what is your play style like?" Are you aggressive, defensive, tactical, elusive, etc... This should influence your build.

Regardless of build and regardless of class all characters die when their hps = 0. Therefore, the objective is to cause the opponent's hps to deplete before yours do.

So why not just put on as many hps as possible? Don't get me wrong, any hp added is one more hp a mob has to take off me before I die.

You could have 5,000 hps but if a mob hits for 1000 hps per whack, you last for 5 hits. If you add 500 more hps, you might make it to 6 hits. Pet peeve 1: So many casters panic over the lack of hit points that they stuff every socket they can with nothing but citrine shards (to boost hit points). To me, the hp pool is like a tub with a water leak. If you are leaking water, the solution is not always to get a bigger tub, the solution is also to reduce the leakage.

For melee mobs taking your hit points, three things affect them punching you: 1) how hard they hit, 2) how fast they hit (attacks per second), and 3) how many of their hits make contact (accuracy).

Without talking much about skills, pots, buffs, and so forth, you can mitigate melee damage by: increasing hps (strength, equipment, and citrine shards) AND 1) softening the hits (by adding physical defense - equipment, garnet shards, and vitality), 2) slowing/stunning their attack speed (via skills, buffs), and 3) reducing their contact accuracy by building your evasion (shards, equipment and dexterity). Also, anything you can do to increase hp and mana recovery rates (vitality, magic, equipment, potions) is good.

Other mobs stand back and cast on you. They still take hps off you but not by physical means. Therefore, your magic and elemental resistances come into play. You can mitigate this damage with magic, vitality, sapphire shards (and to some degree elemental resistance shards), and equipment with magic defensive stats. Unlike melee attacks, caster mobs usually do not miss (neither do you), but you can resist or lessen their blows with your build. Also keep in mind that magic attacks can be damage-over-time. They are the gift that keeps on giving. A large mana pool with good mp recovery also comes in handy with these foes.

Most of what I have said has been from a defensive point of view. Defensive stats are Physical Defense (how much you can cushion a melee blow); Evasion (how much you can evade a melee blow); Magic defense (shown as elemental defense levels) - how much you can resist/cushion magic attacks; speed (how fast you can run away).

Offensive stats are: Strength (how hard you hit - melee hits not skills); Magic Attack and Magic (how hard you nuke); accuracy (how often you connect with melee hits); critical rate (how often you strike for double damage - both nuke and melee - also affects how often your genie crits); Attack Rate (how many hits per seconds); casting speed; and the creme-de-la-creme - your soulforce.

As a matter of opinion (pet peeve 2)- there are several posts claiming that dexterity is useless for a psychic. I disagree. I am an arcane build. After magic, I put the points on dexterity until (added with a combination of equipment) I reached a decent critical hit rate (at 13% now that I have my new belt). But this is a personal preference. After years of playing tank roles where a crit hit was 3000 (and seeing my wife the wiz kill 4 mobs in the time it took me to kill 1), I like seeing "Critical Hit 25000 - 50,000" show up a lot. And it's true, with my build if the mob reaches me, I die quicker than a psych with less dexterity and more strength.

Overall, a Psychic is not a tank. We don't respond well to being punched in the face (barbs love it though). A Psychic fights best from a distance. What's the proper build? Any build that keeps you alive. The question goes back to your play style. If you are aggressive and determine to kill the mob before it reaches you (go heavy on magic and dexterity). If you expect physical attack mixed in with distance attack build more on vitality and strength along with magic and ignore the dexterity.

If you know your play style, look for equipment, shards, point distribution, tomes that boost the stats that fit your style (crit rate chance, added magic, magic attack, higher resistances, and so forth). Especially with equipment, shop around and/or do several combines to get what you want. Hunt for good deals on socket stones and shards. And if you zig where you should have zagged there are always point reset stones.