A non-melee mystic

[Valarouko]

<p>Are mystics that DON'T melee viable for solo?</p>

[Formangenavn]

Been wondering this myself (casting instead), especially since healer gear seems suited better for casting then melee. This isnt just bad for Mystics of course, also applyes for Wardens and Inquisitors.

[Finora]

<p>I imagine so. I did a lot of soloing long before aa's were out there, it was much slower than it is melee but still workable.</p><p>And with the various aa's that you can get (in the shaman tree at least), you can make a decent caster build.</p><p>I'd say probably wisdom line for the bonuses to casting and to the spell crit part of the intel line would be the most ideal for going pure caster.</p><p>On my defiler I have gone to the spell crits in the int line, and so far I like it. I did also take the str line, because I like the pet, but I know he's not popular with everyone. She has no issues at all with soloing decently.</p>

[AziBam]

In fairness though, prior to the existence of the melee line, defilers were considered to be the higher dps of the two classes.  If you intend to solo, I think you'd really be slowing yourself down dramatically by not taking the melee AAs.  It's possible to do just not nearly as much fun due to it being tediously slow.  I'd also say that a melee mystic can handle mobs that a non-melee one would just run out of power on.  If you are a young mystic you also save a lot on spell upgrades that you won't need to buy over your time levelling.  All that said, I'm sure spell crits will help now.  Those didn't used to exist so they would certainly have to improve matters over what they used to be prior to any of those AA choices. 

[Urian]

If you plan to play a mystic, theres really no reason not to go combat even if your solo/group/raid centric. IMO the rest of all the other AAs are either medicore or crap <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/136dd33cba83140c7ce38db096d05aed.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />

[iduckie]

<p>Yes a non melee spec'd Mystic can solo </p><p>I throw on Avatar and Foretteling and use Bolster/heal pet when I can and try to keep Ward/Torpor up and throw my pet at the mob while I nuke - poof.. Either my pet, me or the mob dies lol...</p><p>Personally I'm not big on soloing and would rather group :/</p>

[Happa]

Are Mystics that do not melee viable for soloing? The answer is a resounding yes as the class had to be before the AA's were introduced. Viability is a very loose term though. Just because something is workable, doesn't mean it's a good thing. To be perfectly honest with you, all the talents are set up for the Mystic to be, at some level, a melee combatant while soloing. In fact, simply going down the Mystic's melee line will give you 15-20% increase in DPS. Continuing down the Shaman AGI line will increase the DPS by at least 50% due to the 100% critical chance rate (that affects the base strike of all the Mystic's melee spells). Taking away all of those abilities leaves us being nothing more than a weak Defiler with little mana regeneration. Not only that, but it limits the amount and frequency for which one can solo mobs. I know my Mystic (STR/AGI line in KoS, buff/melee line in EoF) can solo more and tougher mobs than when I was a Defiler. A non-melee Mystic truly is missing out on its capabilities when soloing.

[Ordate]

<p>You can solo as a caster build mystic.  You can also nail your hand to a board.  Both are going to be about on the same level of fun.  Prior to the release of EoF I did not use the agility line.  As such if I solo'ed, I solo'ed casting style... And while I could slowly go through PoA solo and fight and kill many mobs in there solo, it was a long and tedious process.  Now I go places and solo things and actually have a fun time doing it.  And when raiding and there isn't much healing that needs to be done I get to help burn those crap mobs down faster.</p>

[thedu]

There having been two major combat changes LU13 and the release of EoF.   Prior to LU13 (before AA's and combat changes) you could solo quite effectively especially non-melee (and the bear form had the attack proc).  After LU13 it sucked bad.  With some of the other changes in EoF, AP's and the combat changes, I can actually take down a  regular ^^^ level 65 mob.  Sure you can solo non-melee, but in my opinion, your slowly killing your self with a blunt pencil.

[Rythen16]

Like others have said, a non-melee specc'd mystics can do the job soloing. However, you will run into some problems with power on harder mobs. Another thing to consider is that we don't really have any roots to keep them away from you while you are casting. So, since they will be up close to you during the fight, might as well go with the melee spec to do more damage and keep from being interrupted.

[BlueDagger]

<p>I actually play as a non-melee mystic on Naga and have to say I have no issues soloing. I went down the Int line skipping immunities and maxing spell crit and rabies. Working on wis line right now with lvl 36 with 30aa. i haven't played melee mystic but I can easily take 3-4 heroic yellows ^ and can solo most heroic ^^ and some ^^^. I spread my dots out of the group on mobs and keep my wards up tossing them back up while they pop. Also, chaining HOs with AoE attacks after debuffing. </p><p>In pvp just start out with a Scourge... which typically really hurts, then Dot and ward. While they are busy wailing on a wall of wards their HP gets drained away <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />.</p>

[Karlen]

I soloed to around level 60 before AAs and was quite successful at it.  That said, with the combat art AAs, you can kill mobs much more quickly and it is a lot more fun.Mystics buff for STR, not INT, so getting a high INT takes a lot of effort and planning.   Getting a high STR takes no effort at all.Also, I don't believe that non-melee mystics have any out-of-encounter AoE spells, which can be quite annoying if you have to deal with several non-encountered mobs at once.As noted, since mystics don't have a root, you end up meleeing mobs when soloing anyways, so you might just as well go whole hog and do it right.You can solo without combat arts but I wouldn't recommend it.   If you don't solo, not going the combat art route might work for you, but if you plan to solo, go with the combat arts.

[Heathenistic]

IMHO i see a mystic as someone who stands in the back and concentrates on the mobs not doing damage ..the debuffs can take time to cast and the dots don't last very long .. i don't melee at all and seem to do pretyt well ..if you get in a bind there is always the TRUE AoE spell that lowers hate and mez's the targets for a few seconds long enuf to get another ward up. i usually don't recommend taking on more than one mob at a time with a mystic ..back in my solo days it was slow and more than one mob became a pain very quickly ...

[Karlen]

<span class="postbody">>>>IMHO i see a mystic as someone who stands in the back and concentrates on the mobs not doing damage ..<<<While that works fine in groups, you run into a problem when soloing -- you can't "stand in the back" since we don't have roots.  Mystics when soloing pretty much have to stand toe-to-toe with mobs in which case you might as well use combat arts (which can't be interrupted) over spells.</span>

[lstead]

Honestly, I would rather be run over by a rhino than solo without the combat arts. (I suppose in Kunark, that can be arranged.) The combat arts just make soloing so much easier. Mainly it's the speed. You just dish out a lot of fast damage. You don't get interrupted. You don't have to cast a ward first so you won't get interrupted. You get solid aggro, so dogdog doesn't get killed.Also don't forget that maxing the combat arts Mystic line raises the combat attacks to a level something like adept 3. I was never able to afford that kind of investment on the spell lines for what were, really, secondary spells. My adept 3 money was for healing. Finishing up the combat arts line also gives you a stronger dogdog and I find it almost doubles his damage.I'm less certain about the crit damage line. The vast majority of my damage was from the combat arts themselves.  How much does the crit damage line affect that? Or does it?

[Karlen]

<span class="postbody">>>>I'm less certain about the crit damage line. The vast majority of my damage was from the combat arts themselves.  How much does the crit damage line affect that? Or does it?<<<The combat arts crit just like your autoattack and pretty much every time.  Crits add 30% to your damage for CAs and with autoattack, the damage is upped to the max+1 if it turns out less.I use a Strifewing Bo (50-282).  /weapon shows it to do 73-411 due to bonuses and strength.  Whenever I hit, it rolls 73-411 [EDIT: adds thirty percent to the roll] and if the result [roll of 73-411 plus 30%] is less than 411, then it does 412.  I hit for 412 more than any other amount (sometimes 450-500, but usually 412).The only non-crit numbers I see are generally the dog attacks.</span>

[Banditman]

You have to look at the art and how it does damage.What sort of damage is the art dealing?  If it is dealing Slashing/Piercing/Crushing damage, yea, those melee crits make a huge different.

[EDofEDs]

With the 100% melee crit AA ALL combat arts crit all the time, regardless of what type of damage they do. The initial hit is based on str stat which makes it hit hard. The DoT portion afterwards (when applicable) is effected by int but will still crit every time. So mystics which get enormous amount of str buff do quite well as melee spec but not as well with spell spec because of the lack of int buffs. It is much more costly to raise your int through items then it is to get master/ad3 versions of your str buffs, so in my eyes non melee spec is doable but not recommended.

[BlueDagger]

<p>After reading this thread and a few others I decided to switch from int/wis spec to Agi/mystic melee and there is a pretty huge difference.</p><p>I'm currently lvl 40 with 34 AA points </p><p>I played non-melee (solo mainly) from lvl 1-38 and had no issues with most mobs and rocked at PvP (scourge ftw).</p><p>I respeced to get all of the spell -> melee attacks plus getting the 100% crit from Agi line... and omg. I have MC brigadine everything and only have str on my main hand weapon, chest, legs, one ring, neck, and belt and with 205 str I beat the [Removed for Content] out of things. DPS wise the difference is massive for solo, but damage per mana wise non-mlee is slightly better, though you might spend more mana of wards and heals lol.</p><p>If your on a PvP server like me I actually found non-melee better because you can range those runners easier, but honestly it comes dow nto your playstyle.</p>

[JamesRay]

The nice thing about the melee lines is you just have more options.If you want to drop the spells, you still can...but 5 points into the equivalent CA will do more damage and crit too.