Mystic question

[StoneYe]

<DIV>A friend of mine is thinking of playing EQ2 and was trying to figure out what he wanted to be. He likes being a healer and our guild is low on mystics.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Could you guys give me a brief run down on how a mystic plays please. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Are you good for the tank? DPS? Do you spend a lot of time debuffing as well as healing. I just want to get a little flavor to tempt him with.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Thanks.</DIV>

[Banditman]

<P>Start with the descriptions on EQ2Players, they're good about "flavor", if a little short on actual mechanics.</P>

[StoneYe]

<DIV>I know all about the theory behind the class. I was hoping for some actual play perspective. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Can you solo heal in a normal xp group? Is it easy? hard?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Do you have to switch solo buffs like a fury or are most of your buffs group?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>There is a ton of info you guys could help me out with to make the decision easier.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Please give me a bit of perspective on your class.</DIV>

[Moonspinn]

<DIV>Level 52 mystic here.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Most buffs are group. There are two single target buffs, one of which takes up a concentration slot. Group buffs only take up 3 concentration slots, so you can cast the single target one on two people. So there is not a whole lot of switching buffs around. Our buffs are quite good for tanks, enough for them to notice in a raid situation and ask for a mystic to be added to MT group hehe. We don't have much in the way of offensive buffs.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I've soloed the majority of the way to 52 (I took 8 months off so had to catch up), but once or twice a week will group with guildmembers (we've been raiding 3X a week). I am 4-5 levels lower than most of them and we are hitting content that is a challenge for them. Healing in this situation is easy until we get to the named mobs so they tend to invite two healers on these forays for safety. So in normal situations it's easy for a mystic to solo heal a group, but it really depends on the difficulty of the content you are hitting for the group, how well the people you are with play their class (mage/scout aggro management etc) and how well you play your mystic. My friend the other night said that one does not appreciate the power of wards until they aren't available, so I suppose it's evident to him when a mystic isn't in the group. I played an enchanter in EQ1 (which had wards (runes)) so the idea of preventing damage up front apeals to me. It can be difficult to "catch up" if someone is taking alot of damage and has gone down in health, so staying on your toes is important.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>On raid boss mobs and group named mobs, after any initial damage spikes on the main tank are taken care of and I feel it is safe to cast slow I will slow the mob and keep it refreshed. I can often tell when it wears off so it seems to make a big difference in terms of how much damage the tank is taking. I don't usually debuff (other than pulling with the resists debuff when I solo) unless it's a challenging fight. Many group fights don't seem to last much longer than the debuffs take to cast. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Soloing we are hard to kill, but our DPS is so low that it takes us a long time to kill a mob. Rare imbued wands have been my friend since I started playing the game again at level 24. The only abilities I really wish I had are evac and invis... but the invis can be solved with totems.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So in a nutshell... We solo fine. We are valuable on raids for healing, buffing and debuffing. We can heal a group fine (but it really depends on the content you are trying to tackle, which would be the case for any healer). Every healer has a different flavor and I really enjoy my mystic.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Hope this answers your questions!</DIV>