Mystic Primer [Archive] - EQ2 Forum Archive @ EQ2Wire

View Full Version : Mystic Primer

Banditman

11-25-2009, 06:46 PM

Updated 2.25.2011 for Destiny of Velious.There is a lot of bad information about Mystics floating around, and I want to get some of it cleared up. My goal is to create a "guide" of sorts for people considering becoming a Mystic, and just beginning as Mystics. We see so many posts here from folks who just don't understand the class, the AA's, etc. I want a one stop shop for those people to get a handle on the class.Also included here is what I hope will be a very in depth and comprehensive guide to Mystic AA's. How to use them, when to use them, etc. I'm going to do my very best to avoid putting too much of my personal preferences in, and when I do, I will do my best to carefully note that it is that, my personal preference.The MysticThe very first thing you need to understand is "what" a Mystic really is. We are, first and foremost, a Healer. Our job, our role is to keep our group alive. If that isn't why you are rolling a Mystic, you are not going to be happy.In pursuit of that goal, it's vital to come to terms with how we do that. This also starts to define the strengths and weaknesses of a Mystic as well. A Mystic is not really a very good "true" healer. We can replace lost HP, but not nearly as well as a Cleric or Druid.What we do better than anyone is prevent damage from occuring in the first place. Our primary method of "healing" is Warding. A Ward is a spell cast upon an ally that prevents any damage from occurring. The Wards are of finite value, and once that value is expended, damage begins to occur. Wards are also of finite duration, and once that duration expires, the Ward disappears and damage can again occur.Thus, the theoretical goal of a Mystic is to prevent any damage from ever occurring. In reality, this goal is almost never achieved, but nevertheless, if you start with a goal lower than that, you'll often find yourself struggling to catch up replacing hit points, when preventative measures would have served you far better.Mystics are also debuffers. We weaken our opponents so that they are less capable of inflicting damage on our allies. We supress the defenses of our opponents so that they are easier to kill. In general, mobs do not like to see us coming.When called upon to deal damage, Mystics are generally most effective standing right on top the mob, attacking it with melee weapons. We have no effective means for keeping a mob at range on our own, and thus our abilities lean heavily in the direction of the "in your face" approach.Still want to roll a Mystic? You want to be a Healer, who can situationally deal damage and debuff mobs, right? That's what you want to do, isn't it? Great. Do it. If that's not what you want, don't roll a Mystic.Situation AwarenessA Mystic is a character that must understand the situation he is faced with, and develop strategies and tactics based upon the situation he finds himself in.SoloWhen a Mystic is soloing, he must rely completely on his own tools to succeed. In this situation, a Mystic really has no option: He's going to be toe to toe with the mob, and needs to deal with that.We have exceptional tools available to us for this. Our Wards can be cast before combat begins, allowing us to focus our efforts during combat on getting the mob dead. Our AA's generally support the idea that a Mystic is primarily a melee based character.A solo'ing Mystic is most effective when he finally realizes that the best defense is a good offense. In the game today, a Mystic can expect to end most fights against solo content within 10-15 seconds. The faster the better.GroupingWhen in a group, a Mystic changes his role dramatically. Damage dealing is a secondary consideration to keeping the group alive and functional. While a Mystic is capable of dealing damage, the true damage dealing classes do it far better and more efficiently. The best thing you can do for your group is make them completely unconcerned for their own health and allow them to focus on doing their job.Due to the current game mechanics, heroic (group oriented) content doesn't really have much need of our debuffing capabilities. While powerful, our debuffs just don't matter much in most content. Absolutely, there are situations where they matter, but 90% or more of heroic content simply dies too fast for debuffs to really shine.As such, your role is to maintain your power level so as not to slow your group and obviously keep everyone alive. Good Mystics will make their group extremely confident in their abilities to deal with anything that comes up.RaidingA raid situation is where a Mystic truly has a chance to put all the pieces together and shine. Everything a Mystic can do is important here: Damage dealing, Healing and Debuffing. Against most raid content, you'll end up doing all of this. I know of very few raid guilds who don't welcome a Mystic in their raid force. Most raid guilds actively pursue them.Understand the gameAs a new Mystic, you've really got to understand the game as it exists today. Everquest 2 is now a "mature" game. Most of the population of the game is far, far ahead of a newly minted character. It's your responsibility to catch up to them. It can be a daunting task at times, but it is far from impossible.Right now, the "level cap" as most folks term it, is Level 90. Unfortunately, that only tells part of the story. What they often neglect to mention is that there are another 300 levels of "Alternate Advancement" that also have a large impact on your effectiveness.In order to catch up to the majority of the population, you'll need to climb not only the 90 "Adventure" levels, but a vast majority of the 300 "Alternate Advancement" levels as well. Keeping those two in balance is often one of the more frustrating and non-intuitive goals in the game.Your climb is going to require that you spend a lot of time in solo situations. Thus, you need to initially learn how to be an effective solo'er if your goal is to catch the bulk of the population and enjoy the "Massively Multiplayer" aspect of the game. You can embrace that truth and work within it's mandates, or you can ignore it and become frustrated. It's your choice.Getting there fastIf your goal is to get there fast, this section is for you. I'll talk about AA allocation that makes you an effective solo'er, gear that will help and generally how to make the fastest progress towards catching up to the community at large.The thing to remember here is that until you've got 46 AA's, you're still a Priest trying to do things that a Priest is just not very good at, namely, deal damage and kill things. You can do it, but it's going to feel slow until you start getting close to 46 AA's.Initial AAYour first 25 AA need to go into your Shaman tree. Some folks like to get into the Mystic tree first, but honestly, you're going to get more bang for your buck out of the AGI line. For a newly minted Mystic, I would spend this way: 1 into Spiritual Companion, 4 into Phalanx, 10 into Ancestral Authority, 8 into Ancestral Spirits and 2 into Tribal Rage. This gives you greater damage, a haste proc (which is rare at early levels) and some crit.The next 21 AA need to go into the Mystic tree. I recommend using the following sequence to maximize your gains quickly: 3 into Chilling Strike, 1 into Plaguish Strike, 3 into Ursine Avatar, 1 into Glacial Strike. Just those 8 AA's are going to make you feel *immensely* stronger, provided you have previously taken care of the AGI line.Those 46 should be easily in place around Level 20. Yes, you'll have to "level lock" to do that, basically diverting all your XP into AA. Run at least three of the four "new" starting zones: Timorous Deep, Darklight Woods, Frostfang Sea and Greater Faydark. I personally prefer the first three, though "good" characters need to take some added precautions in Darklight as it is an "evil" zone. I generally lock at L18 until I've finished at least three, if not all four of the starting zones. The AA is well worth it.Following that, I recommend: 2 in Chilling Strike, 4 in Plaguish Strike, 2 in Ursine Avatar, 4 in Chilling Strike and finally 1 in Weapon Mastery. You'll still have some room and time later to grab Circle of the Ancients, and I do recommend it . . . eventually. At some point you'll probably also want to grab Dazing Bash with one point, just to add another attack to your arsenal.ChoicesThere are really two paths to choose from next.First, you can go into the STA line, in the Shaman tree and put 8 points into Block Harm. The shield portion is largely useless to us, as our style doesn't really lend itself well to use of a Shield, but the 16% double attack is a very strong option.Second, you can go into the Shadows tree and dig for the Litany of Combat AA in the Priest line. This one actually takes a little longer to get to, but has the advantage of giving you the opportunity to drop 4 points into Circle of the Ancients.Litany of Combat is probably a little stronger in the end, because you get those 4 points into Circle, but STA is probably a quicker goal. Eventually, you'll want both, but how you get there is up to you.Additional "Damage Dealing" AA'sThe STR line in the Shaman tree has a Haste ability, Aura of Haste. In the end it gives 2 Haste per AA for the group. Early on, 16 Haste is actually a lot of haste, and so may be valuable to the leveling Mystic. It has a pre-requisite of Leg Bite, which is a damage dealing ability for your pet.There's a deep dive down to the Ancestral Avatar AA in the Mystic tree, which provides INT and WIS bonuses to your buff, but those are really very minor DPS considerations.

Banditman

11-27-2009, 06:20 PM

AA's, The Long VersionThis section takes a deep look at all the AA's, including the less popular ones, and perhaps some of the reasons why they are less popularShaman TreeOne of the most interesting things about being a Mystic is this tree. There are so many good things in this tree, you simply can't take them all with the AA's available. There are a lot of very good Mystics who do things radically different in this tree, yet are each effective in their own right.In short, there is really no "wrong" way to do this tree, just options that may be situationally or personally more desireable.Strength (STR) BranchThis line is one of the more popular lines for an end game Mystic. How valuable it is, well, that's really up to you to decide based on your experience with it. I run this line on my Mystic. I love it. I can easily see why others choose to omit it.The major issue with this line is that unless you go "all the way", you may as well not go here at all. Without the end ability, the rest of this line is worthless. More on this in the explanations.Leg Bite - A little extra damage for your pet. It's an activated ability, which means you must actively use this in order to give your dog the extra damage. Bonus: this ability can be used while another spell is casting. So, while casting that long group Ward, you can also cast this ability on your pet for a little extra damage.Aura of Haste - When you are at the end game, this ability isn't quite as valuable as it is early on. Still, if you are going down this line, there is really not a better place to spend those extra points you need for the end ability.Aura of Warding - This is the big draw down this line. If you're going down Strength, you are going there to get Aura of Warding to eight points. This AA gives your pet the ability to proc a Ward on each member of the group. It's important to note that each group member (and each pet!) gets their own individual Ward. More points here give a greater chance to proc the Ward(s).Spiritual Foresight - This is what makes the whole line work. Spiritual Foresight makes your pet immune to *MOST* AE's in the game. It does *NOT* make your pet immune to riposte, AE Auto attack or direct AE's. It is those exeptions that cause most of the controversy. If Spiritual Foresight made your pet immune to anything but a direct attack, I believe this line would be a defacto standard for all Mystics. As it stands, it's still very heavily used.Agility (AGI) BranchThis line is also very popular in Mystic land. Many valuable bonuses come in this line. I also run this line, complete with end ability, on my Mystic.Phalanx - More damage for the Mystic, mostly used when solo'ing. The root portion of the AA is largely irrelevant, due to the duration.Ancestral Authority - This is really what makes a Mystic effective at melee. Without this AA, you're just spinning your wheels for damage dealing. At the upper end of the game, you can use gear to make up some of this melee crit, and spend points elsewhere.Ancestral Spirits - Crit is always welcome, and 16% overall is nothing to sneeze at. It's also a good place to pull AA from at the end game, if you manage to get more crit than you really need.Tribal Rage - This AA is most useful while solo'ing, as the chance to proc when being hit is far greater than the chance to proc upon landing a blow.Stamina (STA) BranchThis line has declined in popularity some with the numerous casting speed enhancements in Sentinel's Fate.Dazing Bash - It dazes the target when it hits, which prevents the target from making auto attack swings. With Destiny of Velious, this ability no longer requires a shield, and therefore is worth at least one point to simply have another button to click.Block Harm - This is a two-fold bonus to Mystics. There is an increased chance to block when using a shield, which again, not really very useful in most situations, but if you are going after heroic content solo, it can be helpful. The main advantage is the 2% per AA to Double Attack.Herbal Expertise - This was a very, very useful AA in TSO. Faster, more efficient cures are a godsend. If you are not a raiding Mystic, this AA is probably less useful to you. In DoV content, it's become less valuable as cast speed is everywhere. Still, the recovery portion still applies, but personally I don't find myself casting very many single target cures, as healing for raids tends to favor full group cures.Coagulate - Adds unconcious health to the group. Enables more purple club saves. Depending on how you play, this may or may not be useful to you. If you aren't coming for Herbal Expertise, it's probably too expensive to grab. If you're already maxing Herbal Expertise, maybe consider it for the extra 4 AA.Wisdom (WIS) BranchThis is a less used line. Full disclosure: I do use this line when I am part of the MT groupThere are some useful things here, and some less useful things. Mystics tend to disagree over how useful this line is. It's really something that each has to answer for themself.Ritual - A boost to the next heal spell cast. This ability formerly did not work on Wards, but at the moment, it does work on them. Keep an eye on it.Ritual of Magic - Increases the casting skills of the Mystic. Theoretically, these increases yield fewer resists when a Mystic is debuffing a mob. The difference is so small that you would have a very difficult time trying to parse it, even over a long course of casting.Ritual of Mind - Improves the re-use speed of the Mystic. Your spells are able to be recast faster. This is actually a pretty powerful ability. Pop quiz: Which is better, 8% cast speed or 8% re-use? A. In most cases, re-use is superior. It also applies to a lot of unexpected things . . .Ritual of Alacrity - This is a really powerful ability, with the major "drawback" being that it cannot be cast on yourself. It's very comparable to the Troubador ability Jester's Cap, and who doesn't love a Jester's Cap? Srsly! No vowels! When I'm in the MT group, I coordinate this with the group, using it either on the Cleric or MT on pull.Intelligence (INT) BranchThe least used line. I'd be hard pressed to find a non-PvP Mystic who runs this and has any hopes of justifying it. All bets are off on PvP servers.Rabies - An interesting little DoT spell. With one point, it's not a bad investment for something else to throw at the mob. I doubt I'd ever go more than one point here in current mechanics, but it's not a bad pickup for the price.Virulence - Improved base spell damage. Again, with the heavy melee focus of the Mystic, this is a rough sell since it doesn't really apply to our prefered method of deal damage.Immunities - A chance to absorb / eliminate a spell cast at the Mystic. In PvP, this can be awfully handy. In PvE, far less so. Keep in mind this applies only to profession and racial spells, meaning anything another player could cast. It does nothing for raid mob AE's.Scourge - An interesting debuff that damages as it removes beneficial effects from the target. Once again, in PvP, you can cause some real havoc with this, especially against classes with a lot of buffs.Mystic TreeThis is sometimes referred to as the "EOF" tree. It's specific to Mystics alone. It's got some of our best possible AA's, as well as some of our worst. Taking AA's in this tree can be kinda tricky, with all the different links between the various branches. I highly recommend using an AA calculator before you start spending points here. Sometimes you can find better ways to get the things you want without spending too many AA's in things you don't want.Resurrection BranchThis is the branch that makes a Mystic pretty effect battle rezzer. There are some end game encounters where a Mystic is actually the preferred battle rezzer, provided they have taken this line. However, during the course of leveling up, and in most Heroic content, this entire branch is fairly useless. It's mostly a raiding thing. Like I said, this tree is very situational, but when you need it, man, you really do appreciate having it.Resurrection Restoration - Gives your rez spells more power and health restoration when accepted. It may not seem that important, but believe me, there are times . . .Resurrection Range - Gives you greater range and radius on your rez spells. Ask a Dirge how frustrating it can be getting close enough to rez someone. Makes life a lot easier, and in some situations it makes something possible that otherwise wouldn't be. The radius is especially nice on Spirit Dance and Supplication of the Fallen.Resurrection Haste - Makes rez spells cast faster. If you are going to rez, take as little time doing it as possible.Resurrection Cycles - Improves re-use. Super situational. Still, in those situations . . . yea.Resurrection Efficiency - Improves power cost. By the time you get to the point where this branch is useful, power cost is not really a huge consideration.Spirit Dance - An 8 target, AE rez. In a raid situation, consider it a "blue" AE rez. The 8 people, regardless of group, closest to you. It also restores them with over 50% power, which in certain situations . . . yea, you get the idea.Augmenting BranchThis is a crucial branch for Mystics. It allows us to beef up some of our shortcomings and further improve some of our really cool abilities. The problem with the branch is that there are some "less useful" AA's that seem to always lie between what you have and what you really want. Annoying. This is where having the full complement of 200 AA's helps, in that you can plan things out ahead of time instead.Premonition - Improves the HP of our single target HP / Power buff. Very nice indeed.Spirit of the Mammoth - Improves the STA portion of this group buff. With the new changes to Stamina and how it works, this is almost a must have for any Mystic.Spirit of the Wolf - Improves the speed of Spirit of the Wolf and adds a slow fall component. A new character with little money might get some use out of this, but probably not. By the time you have AA's to spare for this, you've got enough money for a mount. I can't remember the last time I cast SoW for the group, aside from in a dungeon, and even there, you typically get more bang for your buck out of Pathfinding or Selo's.Lunar Attendant - I'm trying to think of something nice to say about this, but I'm coming up blank. I'm still hoping we get improvements to this spell so it's worth casting. But I'm not holding my breath.Ancestral Avatar - This is actually a pretty nice improvement. It adds INT and WIS to Avatar, which is nice for Mystics who otherwise have no way to buff those stats. It can make deciding who to put Avatar on more difficult. Usually it's the tank, but sometimes I put it on myself.Oberon - This is a pretty strong AA. Once the stun component for Oberon was removed, the spell went from highly situational to the point where it is a go to spell in numerous situations.Bolster - Not quite as strong as it was back when it was initially released, Bolster is still a very, very strong spell. 10 extra seconds of it isn't bad, and remember, when your tank doesn't need it, your Necro will still love to get it right before Lifeburn.Ancestry - One of our best AA's, hands down. Increases trigger chances for the recipient, meaning everything procs more often. While leveling, it's "nice" but not earth shattering. At end game, it becomes an extremely powerful tool for a Mystic.Combat BranchThis is the branch that turns Mystics into melee priests. For the most part, it simply gives our spells a combat art equivalent. These CA's share a timer with our spells, so you cannot cast both. They all cast faster than our spells, and crit based on melee crit, which as you know, we get tons of in the Shaman tree. Further, their damage is based largely on Strength, which we buff well.Chilling Strike - Replaces our primary nuke, complete with the absolutely useless snare. There may be situations where you will want to use the spell version over the CA version, but spec this anyway.Plaguish Strike - Replaces our specialty DoT, doing extra damage against Nightblood and Shadow types. Whoever came up with the name, however, needs to be shot. Plaguish Strike. ffs.Ursine Avatar - This adds a damage proc to our self buff. For those who don't remember, our self buff used to have this built in, but now we have to spend AA's to get it.Glacial Strike - Replaces our cold DoT.Circle of the Ancients - Replaces our AE nuke. Note that this version is a BLUE AE, which means it can hit mobs across separate encounters. Be careful.Weapon Mastery - A very nice AA for the Mystic. Parry was taken away from Priests some time ago, this AA gives it back to us. It has improvements for our weapon skills and our pet as well. A very strong offensive ability.Immunities BranchOtherwise known as "that other branch". It was never the strongest branch, but a change (read: nerf) after release further weakened it to the point of being almost useless. They all operate identically, adding a Ward to your target *when you cure something*. The last part is the nerf. Formerly, you could simply cast at a target, cure nothing, but put a Ward on them. No longer. If you cure nothing, no Ward or other benefit is bestowed.Immunities is a nice, temporary immunity to control effects. It's simply not worth 21 AA.

Banditman

11-27-2009, 06:21 PM

AA's, Long Version, ContinuedShadows TreePerhaps the most diverse of the trees, with a lot of really nice abilities sprinkled throughout. I'm not going to go over the general branch, just not worth it.Priest BranchLitany of Combat - A set of three buffs which improve different areas of your character, and mostly revolving around the offensive abilities. Only one of these buffs can be active at any one time, but still, these are quite useful. I highly recommend them.Ally Revivification - Improves the re-use speed of your in-combat rez spells. As you know, we already have some improvements to this in our Mystic tree. Thus, to us, this AA is not terribly useful. The cap on re-use is 100%, and if you've already got 75% from the other tree, this will likely have little to no effect on your recast.Prayer of Healing - Improves your small, direct heal. This is pretty handy, as Mystics are not the strongest HP replenishers. If you are at end game, with 100% heal crit, this boils down to a 25% total increase. Not bad at all for 5 AA.Protective Prayer - An absolute must have. Improves the physical mitigation provided by your group buff. You never know what sort of tank you'll have, and this helps boost those weakly geared tanks up to the point where they aren't quite as tough to heal.Secular Protection - Some folks might find some value in this. It improves the amount of Noxious resistance we buff. I haven't yet been able to justify taking it over some of the other choices in the Shadows tree.Seal of Faith - Increases your shield effectiveness. I just can't think of any good reason for a Mystic to have it. When we solo, we use 2H weapons. In a group or raid, we aren't getting hit. Clerics love this for Shield Ally, but it's just not very useful for a Mystic.Supplication of the Fallen - Raidwide Rez. You can use it to rez your group in a heroic situation, but most likely, you'll only want this if you're a raiding Mystic.Shaman BranchAncestral Curse - Improves the Haze line. Once you are raiding, the chances are that the mob is already at the debuff caps and this would simply be wasted. Back when debuffing Heroic mobs helped, it might have been handy, but in today's game, I can't really think of many situations where 5 AA's spent here would save the day.Tribal Frenzy - Improves HP and Power of our single target buff. Extremely nice! Take it. I mean that. Take this AA.Spiritual Storm - Improves the damage of our cold DoT / CA. Yes, it appears to work on the CA version. The problem obviously is that it's 5 AA's to improve one spell that accounts for only a small portion of our overall damage output. Very difficult to justify.Kindred Restoration - This is an extremely valuable AA. It's never going to account for huge numbers, but often it gives you that help exactly when you need it the most. Basically, when your group Ward breaks, it heals the entire group. Healing help exactly when you need it. Timing, as they say, is everything.Prophetic Spirit - Improves your Single Target Ward. If you don't take this one, you can't even call yourself a Mystic. There just isn't any other way to say it.Ethereal Weaponry - An extremely powerful AA for a solo'ing Mystic. It has a very large impact on your overall damage output. Weapon Damage Bonus is just not available on any gear, ever. Double attack is huge for your overall damage output.Ancient Pedigree - This is a pretty good AA, especially since it's so cheap. It adds a significant amount of HP to our dog, which he desperately needs. The special attack, Ancient Claws, isn't all that hot, but the extra HP are super helpful.Mystic BranchAncient Demise - This is trying hard to be a good AA, but doesn't really quite make the grade. In heroic content, you just don't have time for this to make a difference. In raid content, you're probably close to debuff caps. Sigh.Infusion of Spirit - Extra *raw* hitpoints on the Mammoth buff. At Level 80, this is a bit more than 500 HP to each group member. Great AA, highly recommended.Prophetic Ailment - Another of those, "not quite good enough" AA's, but not awful. Improves any of our spells which do disease damage. It appears to work on CA's also, but again, it's just not enough to justify the cost.Spirit of the Ancients - Improves Ancestral Sentry. It's a decent option I guess. I have trouble justifying it. I just don't get enough use out of Ancestral Sentry to justify the somewhat minor upgrade.Ancient Ritual - Improves our "big" heal. The problem I have with this AA is that even with the improvements, this heal casts so slowly that by the time we complete it, the need is usually gone. It's a good improvement, no arguement. It's just that of all the tools in the Mystic arsenal, this one is so far down the list, the five AA's are hard to spend.Spiritual Salvation - This is a no brainer. Mystics struggle most with replacing HP across an entire group, and this AA makes that task somewhat easier. You'll want this one.Ravenous Protector - Also known as the Mystic's "offensive" stance. Improves your dog and your damage dealing abilities, while supressing your healing abilities. When you are going solo, or in a situation where there is little need for healing and DPS is at a premium, this ability is great. Both stances cast pretty quickly, so moving in and out of them is no real drawback.Ritual of Protection - This is known as the Mystic's "defensive" or "healing" stance. It's incredibly powerful. You'll want to get this as quickly as possible once you're running heroic and raid content. It's actually a "must have" for raiding.

Banditman

11-27-2009, 06:26 PM

AA SuggestionsHere are a few suggestions for AA specs that might help young Mystics trying to find their way around. As with most of what a Mystic does, everything is very situational. If your situation is different, these specs may not work well for you. I'll do my best to describe the situation I use each in.I'm also showing you the minimum amount of AA for the given situation. The more AA you have, the more flexible you can be. For instance, at 200 AA, there really isn't much difference between a "healing" setup and a "solo'ing" setup. However, at 150 AA, it's a lot different, and yet again more different at 100 AA.Keep in mind therefore, the total AA's I'm showing you for each, as they apply differently.Also, you'll see that I use a lot of different specs. That's probably something that's unusual. Most folks only have 2, since that's the limit on mirrors. Sort of. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" />I can make mirrors on my Mystic. And I do. Often. I also don't pay for respecs anymore. Ever. Here's my trick.I paid for a full respec. Once. All my trees reset to nothing spent. I then put one point into Spiritual Companion and one point in Premonition. I have to have that no matter what, and you have to spend "something" to save it in a mirror. I then saved the spec into a mirror as "Blank".Now, I spend my points as I like, tweaking my character into whatever direction I need. When I need to change my spec, I go to the mirror and load my "Blank" profile. Then, I take down the mirror with my spent AA's in it and destroy it. "Poof!". I walk over to the table in my house, make a new mirror and store my current spec ("Blank") again, and respec as I see fit.If you can make mirrors, this is a great way to try different things out for a lot cheaper than a respec.In the specs below, I try to take this into account. If I were able to have only two specs, I'd probably take the Heroic and Raid MT specs as my two. The others have things that are extremely situational, and put points into things that are utterly useless for most folks. I'm just trying to show you what's possible, not what's most efficient.You'll also note that I never spend more than 188 points. Probably because I only have 188. If I didn't have easy access to mirrors, I'd probably have gotten 200 a long time ago so I could get by more easily on only 2 specs.<a href="http://www.beetny.com/eq2aa/?d02i14aa18a814a@61@488@2212q@55@15355@15555555@15 @15@111155555@1121q@35@15@25@25@455355@1555@31131e @1a@1a8@2a@1a1" target="_blank">Soloing</a>This is my current solo spec. It sacrifices a great deal of healing ability for DPS ability. Of particular note, this spec yields 81 multi attack from "always up" buffs alone, and also has the 35 multi attack available with the Rage proc from Agility as well. I find that I do very little actual "healing" with this spec, and will purposely pull 5-8 no arrow solo mobs just to make sure I have something to kill. You could probably pull a lot more mobs as your gear improves.<a href="http://www.beetny.com/eq2aa/?d02n148a14a811@384a11@488@2212k553255@15@15@15555 52@25@3111@25555@1121r@35@15@25@25@4535551@155@251 131e@1a@1a8@2a@1a1" target="_blank">Heroic Healer</a>This is what I use most of the time. This spec tries to strike some balance between DPS and healing. While I label it "Heroic", this is why I typically use in a raid when I am *not* being asked to be a MT healer. The main loss here is the 16 Multi Attack in the Shaman tree, sacrificed to give Ritual of Alacrity a spot. It moves points in the Mystic tree from Immunities over to Spirit Dance. Note that Cure Curse still gets 5 points.<a href="http://www.beetny.com/eq2aa/?d02l148a148a1@484a1@588@2212o553255@15@15@1555552 @25@3111@15@15554121p@35@15@25@25@2155@155@1155@35 1131e@1a@1a@1a@1a8@21" target="_blank">MT Raid Healer</a>This is a very peculiar spec that really puts you in a small box. If your guild uses you in the MT group, this might be something you want to look at. You can be a MT healer, your guild will not suffer healing issues because of it. You can do more from another group, but if you don't have a good Defiler, you'll get farther with a talented Mystic in the MT group than a sucktacular Defiler. Equally skilled, you'll be able to do more from another group.The emphasis in this spec is on healing, buffing and debuffing. Totemic Protection in the Heroic tree is a controversial choice in many specs, but in one where your only concern is healing, I feel like this is the choice. It gives you another tool to replace HP, which is the weakest link a Mystic has.More AA ShenanigansAnother neat AA trick that (apparently) not everyone knows about is getting your Shadow End Line abilities (Ritual of Healing, Ancestral Protector) with less than 184 AA. It can get expensive, and you can't use the mirror trick I talked about above, but here's how it works.The "trick" is really not so much a trick as it is just understanding exactly what the game is saying, and then using that to your advantage by following the rules. The final line in the Shadow tree says that it requires "170 points spent globally" in order to start picking abilities in that line.I generally don't recommend doing this with less than 174 AA's, 176 makes it a one respec shot to get one endline, usually Ritual of Healing. Anyway, here's how it works.Let's say you have 176 AA's. I assume you've spent six points in the final Shadow line. You now respec one of the OTHER trees, Mystic for instance. Respend your points in the Mystic tree until you have six points left to spend. Now, switch back to the Shadows tree.Viola! You can spend those last six points in the bottom line of Shadows. Remember, 170 points spent GLOBALLY. This *includes* points spent in the last line of the Shadows tree.Technically, you could do this with 171 AA, but it would be hugely expensive.

Banditman

11-27-2009, 06:30 PM

EquipmentOne of the "drawbacks" if you will of being a Mystic is that, for the most part, one set of equipment will not work for you. If you are going to solo or do damage, you need equipment entirely different from what you need when healing. Some items at the high end of the game can work both ways, but even then, there is probably a piece that will do better for one job or the other.Thus, let's break it down by what job you're trying to do.I'm not making much attempt to tell you exactly what pieces of gear to get. That's not really my goal. My goal is to explain what TYPES of gear to look for so you can find the things you need more easily.Solo / Damage DealingMystics, and for that matter all Priests, derive all of their damage based on their WISDOM. This was new from the Sentinel's Fate expansion, but applies to Priests of all levels. Wisdom is the only stat you need concern yourself with insofar as dealing damage is concerned.Next, look for gear that has +Ability Mod. As you level, this is one of the things you'll have access to earlier. Potency, Crit and Crit bonus are certainly very important, but for a new / leveling Mystic, those things don't really start showing up until the 70's.After that, you're looking for things like Multi Attack, +Damage per second and Haste or +Attack Speed.Generally speaking, when leveling, Mastercrafted gear gives you everything you need. Again, look for Wisdom and Ability Mod here. The Mastercrafted Strength ring which procs a +Damage per second boost is a must have every 10 levels.Also keep your eyes open for Mastercrafted cloaks with Haste. At some point, those cloaks begin giving Haste. When leveling, there aren't many sources of Haste, so as soon as you can get some Haste, get it. Keep in mind that Haste does not stack with itself. The highest one will take effect. However, Haste does stack with +Attack Speed, which is how Aura of Haste (our dog AA) works. Equip accordingly.For weapons, you want a two handed weapon with a four to six second delay on it. Longer delays can be ok, but they can also be a hindrance. Many times you can finish a fight in three swings of a five second weapon. It's probably still gonna take you three swings with an equivalent 8 second weapon, but it's gonna take you 9 seconds longer. And if you miss, another 8 second wait for the next swing can seem like an eternity.Wisdom is completely responsible in determining how much power you have, and thus when your Wisdom is low, your power pool is smaller. Since you are already working hard on Wisdom for damage dealing, this should be no problem.HealingThis can be a completely different set of gear for a Mystic. The first thing you need to keep in mind is this: Wisdom does absolutely nothing to make you heal better. Your heals are not bigger. They don't cast faster. They don't come back up faster. I swear, I've heard it all. None of it is true.Wisdom gives you more power. That is ALL IT DOES. The one single exception to this is a Mystic with a Mythical Epic gets a bonus to his Wards based on his Wisdom.Wisdom gives more power and power is important. Since there isn't really another stat that helps much, that's sort of what you focus on. Hit points and Stamina are helpful, in case you have a tank that forgets how to taunt.What you really want early on is anything that gives Ability Mod. In the early levels, you won't be healing much for groups, unfortunately. However, Ability Mod applies to damage as well, so learning to watch for Ability Mod on gear helps you on two fronts.One thing I have not yet mentioned is Potency. That is pretty much the best ever. It's also *exceedingly* rare prior to Level 80. Having one or two pieces with this is LOT for all but the most advanced Mystics. I only mention it here in case you happen to see it. Grab it. However, for most Mystics, especially leveling, you're just not gonna see this stat.Finally, you have Crit Bonus. This is the stat that increases the size of your heals when they crit. If a heal (or Ward!) doesn't crit, Crit Bonus does absolutely nothing for you. Further, Crit Bonus only applies at half value for your Wards. If you have, for instance, 40 Crit Bonus, only 20 of it will apply to your Wards. Sucks, but there it is.So . . . Potency > Crit > Ability Mod > Crit Bonus.When you're healing, you most likely want to get away from the two handed weapons. You get more stats by using two items, one weapon, one off hand item be it shield or symbol. As soon as humanly possible, you'll want your Fabled Epic weapon. There are plenty of guides for getting it, just look around a bit.Don't be shy about wearing Leather Armor when healing, if that armor is better for healing than what chain armor you may have access to. It's all about being the most effective healer possible right? Right?!?!? I thought so too. This is generally not as much of a problem as it used to be, there is a lot of good chain healer armor out there now. Still, if a good piece of leather drops and a Druid doesn't need it and it's an upgrade, grab it.I wanted to throw out a quick note about healing and tank types. Every now and then I still see people who believe that Mystics (really Shaman in general) are better for healing Brawler tanks. While this might be true from the tanks perspective, it is most certainly not true from your perspective.You are equally effective for all tank types. Period. End of discussion! Brawlers simply like to have those huge Wards sitting between them and the mobs because when they do get hit, they get hit harder. Hear this: Wards take on the mitigation of the person they are cast on. Thus, casting a Ward on a Plate wearing tank is FAR more effective than casting a Ward on a Leather wearing tank.There is far more "room for error" with a Plate tank than a Leather tank. Look, I've healed some OUTSTANDING Leather wearing tanks through the hardest Heroic zones this game has to offer. I've healed a Leather tank as an off tank for a raid. Brawlers are pretty capable tanks in the hands of a skilled player. The problem here is that there are WAY more crappy Brawlers than you can shake a stick at, and those crappy Brawlers leave you less margin of error than a crappy Plate tank.Ok, the note wasn't so quick. Fine. I just get tired of hearing that Shaman aren't as good on Plate tanks. We heal all tanks just fine, thank you very much.ClosingThat's really about all I can think of. Hopefully this has been of use to some of our newer Mystics. I've played with some really bad Mystics in my travels. Usually they have no idea that I even have a Mystic, and they'll say some really stupid things. I just shake my head. I even once had a Mystic try to quote me from the forums (incorrectly! dork!).Don't be one of those. Be one of those Mystics that makes everyone go "Wow. That was easy." They don't have to know how hard you worked at it. They shouldn't know. Just make it happen.Incidentally, if anyone sees any glaring problems or ommissions let me know and I'll throw an edit at it. I'm still just human.

AziBam

12-01-2009, 02:18 PM

Wow, I can't believe this has gone 4 days without a comment. This should be stickied.Good stuff here. Now, can we just get people to read it?Banditman, I haven't seen a big write-up like this from you since back when you and Mystique (sp?) used to debate with..erm...the old school defiler guy. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> You know, way back when wards didn't factor mitigation yet. /shudder.Anyway, nice work.

denmom

12-01-2009, 03:19 PM

<cite>Azian@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>Wow, I can't believe this has gone 4 days without a comment. This should be stickied.Good stuff here. Now, can we just get people to read it?Banditman, I haven't seen a big write-up like this from you since back when you and Mystique (sp?) used to debate with..erm...the old school defiler guy. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /> You know, way back when wards didn't factor mitigation yet. /shudder.Anyway, nice work.</blockquote>I just came back to the forum after tanking Real Life(tm) over the holiday weekend, so this is the first I've seen this post.Agreed, it's extremely helpful, covering areas that I never considered and gave me a real clear explanation of just how a Mystic works.I've solo'd my little L18 Mystic, but I know I need to learn how to handle groups.The only thing I could see added is perhaps a recommendation of what sort of mastercrafted gear to use, armour and jewelry.I am aware the recommended way is to shoot up to L80, blowing thru tiers and disregarding the mc'd gear. But I like to level slow, staying in content until I've done all of it for that tier or have had enough and move on. I have Antonica, Commonlands, Fallen Gate to do, plus what I can sneak out of in Darklight Woods as well as hitting up Greater Faydark, both of the latter for the L10 and higher quests for AA collection.Anyhow, wonderful post, thank you very much!

Banditman

12-01-2009, 04:05 PM

Appreciate the comments guys, really. Yea, I've been around playing a Mystic a long time. Last time I checked Sudedor had over 200 days /played. Crazy. I miss Mystique, she was always great to have around.Anyway, re: Leveling . . . I am actually a little different. I prefer a "slower" leveling curve, completely self imposed. I've actually put a great deal of thought into it, based on my own personal experiences and preferences. My method is this:Level up to 10 as quickly as possible. 10 is where you can start earning AA. At that point, I continue to XP until I hit 90% Adventure XP. I then convert everything to AA until I have earned 3 AA. Level to 11. I then earn 3 AA for every single adventure level until Level 27. You'll be at L27, 54 AA.From that point forward, you earn 2 AA for every adventure level, but do not touch RoK or TSO content. Believe me, there is plenty of other content out there. You'll arrive at L70 with 140 AA's, and be ridiculously overpowered the whole way up. By having so many AA's at L70, you can just cruise through RoK and TSO solo quest lines and you'll be raid ready by the time you finish them. This doesn't even touch on AA from doing the RoK and TSO dungeons. I still have all that AA available for Sentinel's Fate on my Shadowknight.I actually had to work harder than new folks will at it. My SK was created before we had a slider. He was already in his mid 50's by the time it was part of the game, so I lost a LOT of XP using the old "locking" mechanic.As far as armor and jewelry recommendations? I can look into it, but remember, my Mystic is always one of the first characters to the new level caps, so a lot of the newer tradeskilled stuff just wasn't available for me to see back then. Kithicor is a pretty low pop server, and a lot of tradeskill items just aren't readily available to browse there, but I'll see what I can come up with and add it in.

denmom

12-01-2009, 08:51 PM

You're very welcome!I tend to level where I can handle the content. If the mobs are bit tough, I level a bit more to solo or have a guildee and/or my husband join in a duo or small group.As for AAs, one thing I learned with my Swash is that having a high amount of AAs is great leveling. Allows you to do things much earlier like the 100% melee crit. But the other thing I found out is that AAs being too high can put a crimp in latter content. I've Skyfire area of Jarsath, Moors from Firmroot on, plus whatever TSO instances I can get into for my Swash to still do and she's sitting at 193 AA. I really don't want to cap out at 200 just yet. I'm being careful to not wind up in the same situation with my new Mystic.As for gear, I tend to use mc'd on the way up, it serves rather well for me. I have Revenant chain (str/wis/int and available at L12) and right now not sure on jewelry. I have the jewelry from Tim Deep on him currently with one of the Lightstones from the Lightbringer HQ (haven't killed Drull yet). I'm getting his T3 gear ready, have the Revenant, but rather stuck on the jewelry. I'm going with a Str imbued ring, probably a Wis imbued, but not sure on the ratio of the caster/melee jewelry. I'm thinking of a 50-50.The weapon is the 5 sec gavel with a buckler. I know most go with a 2h, but this is just preference. Just my tanking tendencies showing thru. <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />Thanks again!

Zeltaria

12-02-2009, 12:46 PM

Thanks Bandit for the very nice write up. =)

KatrinaDeath

12-02-2009, 04:21 PM

Nice job!

Banditman

12-02-2009, 04:22 PM

Appendix A - Raiding and PowerEdit: I want to leave this appendix in place for future reference. In the current (Destiny of Velious) content, this issue is not important. However, changes to the game could render this information relevant in the future, and I'd rather have it here and available than lose it.I mentioned above that there were some end game situations where having a larger power pool could be a detriment, and I wanted to clear that up. It all boils down to an odd convergence of factors that took me a while to understand completely. It starts with the current tier of raid mobs.What you'll see on a great many of the current raid mobs is a power drain of some kind. Either from an AE they do, or a damage shield reactive they have or some sort of targeted ability . . . whatever the case may be. In 95% of these cases, the power drain applied is expressed as a percentage, ie "will drain 5% power every 4 seconds" or something like that.Now, remember, the goal is simply to have enough power to keep casting spells. It matters not at all "how much" power you actually have, so long as you always have enough power to cast. Keep that goal firmly in mind, it's important to understand and stay focused on that.The next step is to understand power regeneration. This is especially important, because it's one of the factors that converges to make larger power pools problematic.Unlike power drains, there are almost no abilities or items in the game that replenish power as a percentage. I know of only a few: Mana Flow (an Enchanter ability), Signets and Relics of Replenishment (status items) and the Overclocked Manastone (a Tinkered item). There may be one or two others I'm leaving out, but none of these items are by any means common.What you really find is things like "85 power ever 4 seconds" or "63 power per tick" or "replenishes 105 power to group members". Hard numbers. These types of things are quite common, and in fact make up the bulk of the power regeneration in the game.Back to our goal. The goal is to have enough power to continue casting heals. Expressed another way, in the end game, the goal is for your power replenishment to exceed the power drain. If it does not, you rapidly find yourself out of power and unable to do your job.The problem is this: Your power replenishment is fixed! Regardless of how much power pool you have, your power replenishment is the same. Unfortunately, power drain is dyamic! The bigger your power pool, the more power is drained from you. Many people think, incorrectly, that having a larger power pool allows you to cast longer without worrying about running out. In a situation with no power drain at all, this might be true. But when faced with a dynamic power drain, as most TSO raid mobs have, it becomes a huge factor.I think this can best be illustrated with an example, showing the overall effect. These numbers are completely made up and I am making them extreme in order to more easily demonstrate the effect. In game, the effect is far more subtle and insidious.Let's take a hypothetical Mystic with power regen of 3000 points per minute. Remember, that number is fixed! No percentages. We're going to be fighting a raid mob with a power draining AE that goes off every 30 seconds, not subject to Traumatic Swipe. This AE drains 25% of Max Power when it hits.In our first example, we'll look at a Mystic with a 12000 point power pool.This Mystic is going to get hit twice per minute for 3000 points of power, or a total drain of 6000 points per minute. Basically, this Mystic is at a net power drain of 3000 points per minute. After 4 minutes, this guy is dry! No power!Our second Mystic has a power pool of 6000 points. This Mystic gets hit by the same AE, but the AE only drains 1500 points of power per hit from him, or 3000 points of power per minute. Unlike the Mystic with the huge power pool, this Mystic is at a net zero. He is losing zero net power to the AE!Oh, he's still taking the exact same AE as everyone else, but he's manipulated the game dynamics in such a way that his power replenishment balances against the power drain. Winner!Now, reality is that the effect isn't as clear to demonstrate in game. Nevertheless, you'll often find that the folks with bigger pools of power have more trouble with the power drain AE's than folks with smaller pools. Fixed replenishment, dynamic drains. End result: Sometimes it is not beneficial to have a larger power pool.

RootXArtemis

12-05-2009, 03:07 PM

It would be nice to change % powerdrains to be based on current power rather than max power. That would make large power pools preferred again.

Tehom

12-05-2009, 04:48 PM

A few things I didn't see mentioned. Heal crit bonus is a strong attribute, but most people don't realize that the crit multiplier is halved for wards. So you need to take that into consideration when thinking of exactly how strong it might be compared with other stats.Another attribute many people don't realize about shamans is that wards block powerdrains, either in whole or part based on the value of the ward compared to the amount of the drain. This is an enormously powerful ability on the many, many fights in raid content that use drains. Warding people who begin to have power issues on these fights so they can recover is one of the stronger abilities of shamans.

Jemoo

12-05-2009, 08:16 PM

After reading your amazing post which I'm going back to as soon as I begin playing my mystic when I have time I have one question for you. I remember reading, which a friend helped me find it after having difficultly picking 75-80 gear, that heal crit does help a ward to crit but instead adds much like +heal. This is from memory as I can't find the thread (which unfortunately was on flames somewhere) but it was something like heal crit is divided by two for wards as said above and each point equals roughly 8 +heal. It also said that wards do not crit. Is this true or did someone pull that out of their @$$?

Tehom

12-05-2009, 10:59 PM

<cite>Pattywak@Kithicor wrote:</cite><blockquote>After reading your amazing post which I'm going back to as soon as I begin playing my mystic when I have time I have one question for you. I remember reading, which a friend helped me find it after having difficultly picking 75-80 gear, that heal crit does help a ward to crit but instead adds much like +heal. This is from memory as I can't find the thread (which unfortunately was on flames somewhere) but it was something like heal crit is divided by two for wards as said above and each point equals roughly 8 +heal. It also said that wards do not crit. Is this true or did someone pull that out of their @$$?</blockquote>Wards crit, but there isn't a special message for doing so, so ACT has no way to report it. Your wards simply become larger. The value of a crit is the value of your ward (including all bonuses like +heal), multiplied by half your heal crit bonus for that spell. With no modifiers, the default is 1.30, so a critted ward will be 15% larger. The equivalence to +8 heal is probably what someone worked out from their current ward values when they critted, but will be different for anyone with different gear, quality of spells, buffs, whatever.

Jemoo

12-06-2009, 06:30 AM

Ok, Thanks for the info on that. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

Thor71457

12-07-2009, 06:40 PM

Hello When you get to 80 and shard armor ( T1 / T2 ) comes into play would you get both, the dps set and healing set so you could switch between them ? Thankyou

Banditman

12-07-2009, 07:19 PM

It's an expensive way to go, but yes, that's exactly what I did. I use Molten Eidolon for DPS. For healing, either Umbral Ash (T3) or Beyond the Portal (T4).For DPS, I use the Supple Dogwood Staff (raid dropped, Nexona) as my weapon. There are several good substitutes for non raiding types, the one that comes immediately to mind is the Legendary one that drops somewhat frequently off the final boss in Deep Forge.The Cudgel of Obviation is a fantastic healer's weapon, but it's DPS potential, insofar as personal DPS goes, is lacking.

Thor71457

12-07-2009, 08:21 PM

Hello And Thankyou for info .....

Biswen

12-23-2009, 06:31 PM

Thank you so much for this Bandit. I'm off to create me a new mystic.

Navinia

12-31-2009, 12:22 PM

Thanks for writing up this guide, it's immensely helpful!

Hene

02-03-2010, 09:51 PM

<cite>Banditman wrote:</cite><blockquote>Unlike power drains, there are almost no abilities or items in the game that replenish power as a percentage. I know of only a few: Mana Flow (an Enchanter ability), Signets and Relics of Replenishment (status items) and the Overclocked Manastone (a Tinkered item). There may be one or two others I'm leaving out, but none of these items are by any means common</blockquote>Just thought I'd add an uncommon, but easy to obtain, and powerful power regen item: From the KoS expansion, you can claim a house pet, a carnivorous house plant; feeding this certain combinations of looted fertilizer, bones, and water, it will yield fruit and roots. Feeding it 2 fertilizer, 1 water, and 3 bones (and subsequently 'checking' the plant) will yield a "Power Root" which can vary in level, depending on what tier fertilizer/bone/water you feed it.This item is amazing, and replenishes 10-25% of your power, if I remember right (depending on the tier). Sadly, these items are lore, so you can only have one at any given time, BUT you can have one from every tier simultaneously, since each tier's root is a distinct item.

Ferreus

02-17-2010, 02:02 AM

I'm a new/returning player and have a low lvl Mystic that I just started. I've enjoyed reading your guide as it's helped a lot in explaining Mystic AAs and mechanics to me. However with the new changes to our AAs with the SF expnasion, would you mind suggesting the best way to spend the 22 points needed in the Agility line (Shaman tree) to get Tribal Rage? As I only have about 26 AA points to spend atm and I'm not sure how the changes to the crit system affects a low lvl soloing Mystic. I'm guessing I might go with 4 points in Phalanx (should I max this out later after going down the Chilling Strike line in the Mystic tree?), 10 in Ancestral Authority, and 8 in Ancestral Spirits (can max it out at a later point) . Thanks <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" />

Adegx

02-17-2010, 12:35 PM

Nothing has really changed other than you dont have to put points into + agi first. Should be easy enough to adjust.

AziBam

02-17-2010, 12:45 PM

<cite>Valward@Splitpaw wrote:</cite><blockquote>I'm a new/returning player and have a low lvl Mystic that I just started. I've enjoyed reading your guide as it's helped a lot in explaining Mystic AAs and mechanics to me. However with the new changes to our AAs with the SF expnasion, would you mind suggesting the best way to spend the 22 points needed in the Agility line (Shaman tree) to get Tribal Rage? As I only have about 26 AA points to spend atm and I'm not sure how the changes to the crit system affects a low lvl soloing Mystic. I'm guessing I might go with 4 points in Phalanx (should I max this out later after going down the Chilling Strike line in the Mystic tree?), 10 in Ancestral Authority, and 8 in Ancestral Spirits (can max it out at a later point) . Thanks <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>4,8,10,2 in AGI first in my opinion. Then go get your CAs to the end in the Mystic tree.

Ferreus

02-17-2010, 01:15 PM

<cite>Raz_wolf wrote:</cite><blockquote>Nothing has really changed other than you dont have to put points into + agi first. Should be easy enough to adjust.</blockquote>Quite a few things have changed, most importantly the 100% melee crit chance and the separate heal crit chance abilities are now replaced with a base increase to autoattack damage (i'm assuming that this doesn't affect our CAs only our autoattacks) and max of 16% crit to all abilities. I'd say that's a major change for a new solo Mystic. Plus you can now put 10 points instead of 8 into each of those abilities.<cite>Azian@Everfrost wrote:</cite><blockquote>4,8,10,2 in AGI first in my opinion. Then go get your CAs to the end in the Mystic tree.</blockquote>So maximise the crit chance instead of autoattack damage? That would benefit all of our CAs so might be more helpful I guess. Thank you for the helpful suggestion <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

AziBam

02-17-2010, 02:13 PM

<cite>Valward@Splitpaw wrote:</cite><blockquote>So maximise the crit chance instead of autoattack damage? That would benefit all of our CAs so might be more helpful I guess. Thank you for the helpful suggestion <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></blockquote>You could go the other way around too. /shrug. I don't think you would really "[Removed for Content]" yourself either way. In the long run, you'll want the crit maxed until/unless gear does it for you at end game. For solo leveling, I personally would do what I mentioned, then after getting the CAs maxed I'd go back and put the extra 2 in the damage multiplier.

Ferreus

02-17-2010, 07:45 PM

Thank you, yeah that's what I was worried about. Like you said though, in either case I'll want both maxed out eventually, just 2 points so not that big a deal <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

KsTumbleweed

03-16-2010, 05:41 PM

Thank you so much for this guide. For some idiotic reason, I always thought that since I was a healer (kind of) I needed to stay on the edge of the encounter and lob stuff in, as I did with my illusionist. Thanks for the great ideas. I'm assuming that wisdom may have a little more importance with the SF expansion, it's my understanding that melee, etc. for healers is based on wisdom now. Anyone, please let me know if I'm wrong. Thanks!

Corybantx

04-22-2010, 10:10 AM

Will putting extra points in your spirit companion not enhance it in any way? It only improves the stats? Is it worth investing any points in since WIS increases your dmg?Thank you for this very thorough guide./C

Banditman

04-22-2010, 11:13 AM

Putting extra points into Spiritual Companion will simply add to your own Wisdom and Stamina. Frankly, it's a waste of points. Pretty much *anything* else you put points into will yield far more useful results.

drakkenshie

06-20-2010, 08:23 PM

Some comments and ideas:Ancestral Authority and Spirits AAs improve autoattacks, which would seem to imply they do not improve CAs. With the relatively slow weapons we have, it seems that we aren't autoattacking very often, even when wards are up and we are fairly idle. This is one reason why I wonder why I should prefer AGI over STR, at least initially.One question too is how much good is going to AGI first if you have no CAs? Is using autoattack a lot recommended, or would it be better to also put at least a point into the CA conversions?In my case, I spent points on converting my spells to CAs first, because you get benefits without waiting on spell levels, and it saved a good bit of plat on spell upgrades. It also fits my playstyle better to get up close with the mobs.I then put some into augumentations for Premonitions and Mammoth to help defense ability of my duo team (my mystic with a friend's paladin).The WIS line has a nite Ritual of Mind AA for speeding up a mystics fairly slow healing and CAs, but it's too much to spend to get that... I don't see much benefit in the first two, and as you indicate, my own testing shows that Ritual of Magic doesn't appear to do much.That leaves a choice between STR, AGI, and STA. This is painful, I want all of it... <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" />STR and AGI have the best end-of-line benefits, I really like both, but at low levels I'll have to choose just one. It would seem that STR's haste would benefit everyone in the group and thus improve DPS more than just boosting my own DPS with the AGI line. This seems especially true on hard pulls where I'm mostly healing, and so the DPS AAs are not being used.On my my few frustrations with my currently low level mystic (24 and locked for AA) is the CA and heal speed is pretty slow, both use and re-use. If I could get haste with equipment somehow I would probably prefer the AGI line, and then STA for improved damage and heals. If not, I'm wondering if STR is not more benefit.Recommendation: your idea about using mirrors for free-respec should probably be its own sticky thread, as it is useful to any class and some might never look here for it.

Banditman

06-21-2010, 10:24 AM

<cite>drakkenshield wrote:</cite><blockquote>Some comments and ideas:Ancestral Authority and Spirits AAs improve autoattacks, which would seem to imply they do not improve CAs. With the relatively slow weapons we have, it seems that we aren't autoattacking very often, even when wards are up and we are fairly idle. This is one reason why I wonder why I should prefer AGI over STR, at least initially.I think you misunderstand the Ancestral Spirits AA. That increases your crit chance. Spell. CA. Heal. Auto attack. Anything. That's very hard to come by early in levels. Honestly, STR isn't something you should bother with until much later . . . after AGI, after CA conversion.One question too is how much good is going to AGI first if you have no CAs? Is using autoattack a lot recommended, or would it be better to also put at least a point into the CA conversions?AGI works, even in it's current form. Whether you do AGI first or the conversion first, really just a matter of preference there, but that's where you should be going for your first ~50 AA.In my case, I spent points on converting my spells to CAs first, because you get benefits without waiting on spell levels, and it saved a good bit of plat on spell upgrades. It also fits my playstyle better to get up close with the mobs.Thus why auto attack is important. You have no means to keep a mob away, thus, if you're going to be there on the mob, you might as well turn on auto attack. If you have auto attack on, you need to have it doing as much damage as possible.I then put some into augumentations for Premonitions and Mammoth to help defense ability of my duo team (my mystic with a friend's paladin).The WIS line has a nite Ritual of Mind AA for speeding up a mystics fairly slow healing and CAs, but it's too much to spend to get that... I don't see much benefit in the first two, and as you indicate, my own testing shows that Ritual of Magic doesn't appear to do much.Ritual of Mind does nothing for your cast speed. Ritual of Mind improves the speed with which abilities are available to use again, not the speed at which they cast.That leaves a choice between STR, AGI, and STA. This is painful, I want all of it... <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" />STR and AGI have the best end-of-line benefits, I really like both, but at low levels I'll have to choose just one. It would seem that STR's haste would benefit everyone in the group and thus improve DPS more than just boosting my own DPS with the AGI line. This seems especially true on hard pulls where I'm mostly healing, and so the DPS AAs are not being used.On my my few frustrations with my currently low level mystic (24 and locked for AA) is the CA and heal speed is pretty slow, both use and re-use. If I could get haste with equipment somehow I would probably prefer the AGI line, and then STA for improved damage and heals. If not, I'm wondering if STR is not more benefit.The STR end line is totally, 100% useless to you. That end line is something used by end game Mystics in raiding guilds. Other than that, the end of that line is useless. The bulk of the STR line, frankly, isn't super useful early. Yes, the Haste is nice, but you get more Haste from Tribal Rage.Recommendation: your idea about using mirrors for free-respec should probably be its own sticky thread, as it is useful to any class and some might never look here for it.Frankly, I'd rather not call a lot of attention to it.</blockquote>

Kromgore

10-14-2010, 12:17 PM

Thank you, thank you, thank you!As an almost complete newb to EQ2 (I played a SK up to about 30 a few years ago) this is exactly what i've been looking for the past couple days, specificly the parts about where to spend my first 50 or so AA. I knew I wanted to go down the cheiftan line first, but after that I was unsure as what would give the best returns from a soloing (grouping when I can) standpoint.One thing I didn't see here, and elsewhere that i've looked is... what spells to Grand Master, again from a solo perspective. I'm sure once I get past 50-60 more grouping situations will open up and the obvious choice seems to be the Wards, but before that I wonder if i'm better off GM'ing the DPS spells?

Banditman

10-14-2010, 01:30 PM

Remember, your goal is to convert all your spells to CA's. If you then upgrade the spells, you've basically wasted a GM choice since you won't be casting them anyway.Don't rush to the cap either. Your reputation is at stake here! If you burn up to L90 and start trying to heal groups as a Mystic who is short on AA, you'll be seen as a "fail" healer, and rightly so. Get those AA's *before* you get to 90 and start trying to be a group mate.With my Alts, I have had good results using 3 AA per adventure level as a goal. The exact settings may change, but where I am at with my current Alt (L58, 147 AA), I generally run about 89% on the slider. It varies though, so once I get my 3 AA, I push the slider to 0% until I level up, then back to 89% until I gain another 3 AA.Good luck!

Kromgore

10-14-2010, 01:43 PM

<cite>Banditman wrote:</cite><blockquote>Remember, your goal is to convert all your spells to CA's. If you then upgrade the spells, you've basically wasted a GM choice since you won't be casting them anyway.</blockquote>That makes sense. I really wasn't sure what the extra points in the CA aa's did, talent calcs didn't show any change at all... but i'm assuming now that it serves the same purpose as spell tiers for whatever rank you've unlocked as you level.And no, I wasn't planning on hitting max level with just solo/combat AAs in place, I realize even a Battle Healer is still a healer. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />