New to the game...Differences between a Defiler and Mystic?

[RaagnarW]

<p>Hello all new to the game so forgive my noobishness. I played a shaman in EQ1 and a shaman "type" in just about all other games I've played since. So i just have a few questions to see if this is the right class for me to choose again. I will most likely be playing on a pvp server as well. Leaning torward the Mystic but would depends on what friends want to play too.</p><p> -Is The Defiler/Mystic playstyle similar to the old EQ shaman playstyle (heavy dots with some nukes/buffs/heals)?</p><p>-Are the Defiler and Mystic essentially carbon copies of each other just on opposite factions? Or does one excel at one aspect and the other excel at a different aspect of the class?</p><p>-Are they both capable of solo'ing and do they bring usefulness to a group if they can solo ok?</p><p>-What would be the best AA path with either (preferably the Mystic)?</p><p>Thanks for any help and again sorry for the noobler questions.</p><p>RaagnarWaR</p><p><a href="http://www.warguild.net" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">www.warguild.net</a></p>

[Karlen]

The biggest difference appears to be the Mystic Combat AA line that gives you Combat Arts to replace each of your offensive spells, making mystics into quite impressive meleers (especially since Mystics buff for STR and not INT).    This ties quite nicely to the Shaman AGI AA line that includes 100% melee crits.

[TheSpin]

<p>This is asked quite a bit. </p><p>This is a brief answer that explains pretty well the differences.</p><p>Mystic = more burst dps, NO Power regen, better buffs overall, better healing against groups</p><p>Defiler = slow dps, amazing power regen (cannibalize), better debuffs overall, better healing against a single mob</p>

[tikasa]

<cite>TheSpin wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>This is asked quite a bit. </p><p>This is a brief answer that explains pretty well the differences.</p><p>Mystic = more burst dps, NO Power regen, better buffs overall, better <u>DEBUFFING</u> against groups</p><p>Defiler = slow dps, amazing power regen (cannibalize), better debuffs overall, better healing against a single mob</p></blockquote>Mystics buff against a diminishing returns cap.  Defilers buff Hit points and attack buffs/debuffs.   If there was no cap the buffs might be equal to Defilers, as it stands they kill us buffing a tank.   Group buffs are identical.  Mystics are better soloers then defilers, but in raids we cannot equal defilers in anything other then our single and group wards.   Groups are about equal

[SnAke19]

<span class="postbody"><p><span class="postbody"><p>"Mystic = more burst dps, NO Power regen, better buffs overall, better <u>DEBUFFING</u> against groups"</p><p><span style="color: #006600;">our buffs are more or less equal - far better debuff against groups <span class="postbody"><span class="postbody">in reality </span></span>has the defiler not the mystic by the way</span></p><p>"Defiler = slow dps, amazing power regen (cannibalize), better debuffs overall, better healing against a single mob"</p><p><span style="color: #006600;">mystic overall can even debuff a little more than the defiler but has to cast much more spells for it - with healing its the same mystic has to cast much more spells to aquire the same than the defiler in term of preventing dmg (but having this time there is no big difference between the two classes)</span></p><p><span style="color: #006600;">thats my experiance about the two classes -played/ing both in end game - if you have an enemy that often interupts/stuns stifles  a defiler much faster comes back to work while for a mystic such situations could mean death</span></p></span></p></span>

[Karlen]

<span class="postbody"><span class="postbody"><span class="postbody"><span style="color: #006600;">>>>if you have an enemy that often interupts/stuns stifles  a defiler much faster comes back to work while for a mystic such situations could mean death<<<However, when soloing it is worth noted that Combat Arts (mystics) cannot be interrupted, while spells (defilers) take a while to cast and can be interrupted.    Spells have a quicker recast when they miss though than combat arts do (but mystics get a +65 to their skills AA so they don't miss).For soloing, I would recommend the mystic due to the combination of combat arts and 100% melee crits.  They can do quite a bit of damage very quickly. For groups, from what I have seen, either defiler or mystic will work fine.   One or the other might be a bit better in one situation or another, but most mystics and defilers can handle healing groups.I can't speak for raiding, but the main complaints I see are that mystics can buff the raid tank for STA which can get capped, while defilers buff for health directly which doesn't cap.   Note that mystics can use spells if they like (CAs are in addition to the spells, they don't replace them), but unless you need some range you won't want to ever cast spells again once you have gotten used to mowing down mobs in melee.EDIT: There is nothing wrong with spells vs combat arts for damage, but mystics (and defilers?) buff for STR, not INT.  STR increases the damage in combat arts and INT increases the damage from spells -- it is a lot easier to get a really high STR due to buff than it is to get INT.   If you load up with INT gear though, spells can do some good damage.</span></span></span></span>

[tikasa]

Really?   How much gear comes with Wisdom and Strength?   VERY LITTLE.     Gear wih Wisdom and Int.   ALOT    If you eqip a Mystic for melee... how much do you give up to heal?  Power regen is already an issue without loosing extra power and resists due to low Wisdom.    Not a fair trade off for a healer in my opinion.

[Karlen]

In grouping (non-raiding) situations, I usually have sufficient power to keep the group alive, although more power regen would certainly be nice.  Fortunately, in RoK, I am getting lots of power regen gear which is helping a lot.One option is to have some backup +WIS +INT gear to use in groups (and pull out your spells) and use CAs and +STR/+STA/+AGI gear when soloing.