Will this make me useless?

[Mordimus]

<p>I'm playing a mystic at the moment. I'm level 51 and so far I have put all of my AA into filling out the CA line and working on the agility line with wisdom line filled out.</p><p>There is a major hype about Mystic's CA's and whatnot. I was wondering if it would truely be rediculous for a mystic to play more casterish. Like not to invest points into CA's but use the original spells that you get as you level up? Or is this out of the question now days? I think I would like my mystic 10 tiems more than i do (which is quite a lot atm), if I could play more of a caster mystic.</p><p>Any feedback would be appreciated. I don't want to be the idiot mystic on the server for going that path 8(.</p><p>Thanks</p><p>=Despereaux</p>

[Wullail]

<p>It won't make you 'useless' , it will however make your damage easier to interupt when your being hit by mobs..When you can (AEs etc allowing) you should be in there hitting the mob.</p><p>mystics are melee based priests , I would personally respec for CAs</p>

[Mordimus]

<p>Yeah I understand where you are coming from. I am atm specced for the CA's I was just wondering if switching to a more caster based mystic was a viable option or not.</p><p>Is the interuptability the only reason why 100% Of mystics switch to CA's though? Or are there other deciding factors?</p>

[Anadorn]

<p>Interrupts will likely be an issue especially since the only root you get as a mystic is in the form of a combat art and while again you won't be "useless" mystics are a melee type of priest and your just not going to put out as much dps as a caster style mystic, which will make more time and power consuming encounters.  The safest option would be to try and keep your aggro on your pet but it typicaly takes two seconds to pull aggro from him regardless of how much of a head start you let your pet get before you start dpsing.  It's very possible to make it happen as a caster but I have high doubts that you'll actually be happier as a caster than you would as melee when you see how different and difficult a caster mystic is.</p>

[Edith]

Of course you will still be useful if you go a straight caster route. The "usefulness" of a healer is, after-all, in the healing, not the wielding of a large hammer. Don't get me wrong, I think the combat arts are great for small group/solo play AND my first thought after I read your post was "You might as well be a defiler," BUT your usefulness in a group or raid is all about your heals and cures.

[Miss_Jackie]

<p>My mystic is caster specced.. It's a little more difficult when solo'ing, but most times I'm in a group setting anyways.</p>

[Tehom]

<p>It's the autoattack damage more than the combat arts, really. Your soloing will be enormously slower if you go the spell dps route.</p>

[Banditman]

<p>DPS from a caster based Mystic is just plain lower in most situations.  Consider the following:</p><p>A melee based Mystic can toss off all of his damage abilities in about 5 seconds.  A caster based Mystic would probably need about 10 seconds to do the same.  Even if the abilities dealt relatively equal amounts of damage, who do you think is going to kill the mob faster?</p><p>See, the thing to remember about a Mystic is this:  No matter what we do, the mob is going to be up in our face.  We cannot root/rot like we did in EQLive.  We have to tank the mob.  Given that, why would you use spells that can be interrupted?  Further, why would you fight to find spell crit gear when you can get to 100% melee crit with AA?</p><p>It's not "impossible" to be a caster Mystic, it's just not easy or efficient.</p>