Don't have either.

I believe the priest is the classic heal bot I'm familiar with in any other MMO (fill me in if any of their mechanic is different from other classic MMO roles), but what about Mystic?

Do they have party wide heals?

What's easier to play for someone thinking about player healer in this game for first time?

Personally I can tell you I prefer Mystics in dungeons. I can always pop a mystic ball and time my buffs and heals against them.

Anyone have both and can give me the Pros and Cons?

Priest = Easy

Mystic = Hard

Priest Healing > Mystic Healing (Priests have AoE Healing and Direct Target Healing. Mystics have Direct Target Healing that had HoT but is very low amounts and our Red Skittles which requires other player intelligence. Mystics do have Blue Skittles that restore MP).

Priest DPS > Mystic DPS (just in terms of soloing. My mystic took longer to get to 50 than my Priest by almost 2 weeks.)

Priest has buffs that last for 20 to 30 minutes.

Mystic has auras. One in particular is OP. (Double Crit rate and Constant Mana Regen? Yes please.)They also have a buff that lasts 20 seconds and has melee range casting range but is extremely overpowered. Increasing attack damage by 25.

Where Mystics lack in more buffs they have more Crowd Control skills though. Some you'll never touch unless you're in PvP. (Mire and Ancient Binding) or unless you're in a bind.

So in short Priests will make the party live longer and Mystics will make the party hit like trains but has a higher chance of dying.

I don't have a Priest, but I have a level 60 Mystic so I can give the pros and cons for a Mystic at max level in PvE and PvP.

Pros:
----------------------

Great mobility.

Awesome auras that can increase DPS of a group significantly (Double crit rate and constant mana regen for entire group). Also have a aura to increase everyones speed by 10% and increase everyones crit resistance by 50% which may come in handy in some pvp situations.

Owns at 1vs1 pvp and even 1vs2 pvp, only the occasional slayer can actually kill me. (Although the style of PvP with Mystic is to DoT your enemy up and kite them for 2 minutes until they're dead. Not everyones cup of tea) I just beat a fully geared lvl 60 Slayer and Beserker in a 2vs1 yesterday and didn't even go below 50% hp, so that's pretty OP if you can handle a Mystic correctly.

Balls allow us to heal the group even when we're not near them, which comes in handy in boss fights where the healer has to run to a pool or destroy totems and aren't near the rest of the group. Also, the MP balls makes Sorcerers into living Nukes if you give them a nice supply.

Lots of CC's, slows, and stuns that are good for any situation.

We have a spell we can cast on a single party member to allow them to revive instantly on death. It can be glyped to also allow us to revive on death, as well as the party member. It can be glyphed further to have a shorter cooldown and you can get up to 3 people (including yourself) have the auto rez at a time in a party.

Cons
-----------------------------

Lowest DPS in the game.

Most Thralls are pretty much worthless. Only one you'll ever use is the little healing fairy.

Stats on items to increase your healing only affects your single direct heal. Doesn't affect balls or fairy or totem.

Totem heals suck and the shield it applies to people only lasts like 3 seconds.

No real AoE heals (Fairy does one but it's minimal). No AoE cleans. Although a good Mystic doesn't need either of these if they're good at targetting people.

Our Power buff only lasts like half a minute, and only increases power by 25 (Same amount as priests I believe, but priests last for like 20 minutes) so it has to be constantly reapplied, and it uses a ton of mana.

Not as much self heals as a Priest so easier to kill in PvP. However proper use of stuns and cc can help alleviate that.

Not nearly as many heals as Priests, and our heals only heal for about 60% compared to a Priests heal. So much weaker heals. (although in Dungeons with a good group, ouramount of healing is more then sufficient, and our auras are worth it)



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And if I think of more I'll add it to this post, but those are the main ones I can think of.

My wife has played both Mystic and priest to cap and she hated priest.

Not because it was hard, but because the amount of healing they get isn't really necessary, and she found playing a priest that she was often "bored" in PvE.

Mystic is by far way better for PvP, due to the fact that Crit buff is amazing, the warp-away is extremely useful (and fun), and the amount of Crowd Control skills she gets on her mystic are staggering.

She often found herself just healing with her priest, and sitting around being bored.

With mystic, she had heals and a ton of other utilies, and the crit buff mystic has increases DPS so much, she saw no reason to play a priest.

However, we do hear that priest is getting beefed up in future patch....

So in the long run it might even out. Basically the priest has more dps and more healing, but the mystic has a lot more utilities and increase group DPS by a ton.

Quote: CrazedGamer on 06/19/2012, 08:46 PM

I like how you used "Hard" rather than tell the honest truth.

Mystics are in every way inferior to priests apart from one crit buff. If mystics didnt have that buff, they would be laughed out parties.

In PVP... Priest is superior to a mystic in the following areas:

Heals (Obviously)
MP Management
Buffs
Dispells


Only thing Mystics got going for them is CCs.

Mystic MP Management with 2x Auras goes down the drain pretty fast.
Mystic Balls if your on the attack are insufficent in combat and leave them vulnerable to attack.
Mystics are more susceptible to chain knockdowns and your pretty much stuck staring at your screen trying to jump away asap.

(Where did I get all this info? From pvp'ing as a mystic.)

Quote: phantazum on 06/20/2012, 01:13 AM - view

We're already being laughed at cuz priest get these "Energy Stars" which beef up there teams dps and they are more consistent than mystics :|

I know how you feel man. I dont like where mystics are right now. They are actually a rather interesting class and would be fun to play if their numbers were no so horrible. They have so much potential but the devs seam to have gave up on them. I would so like to see them be an effective summoner class and healing support. But no, you get self healing totums...

Quote: phantazum on 06/20/2012, 01:51 AM - view

For advance glyphs on mystic, I have this thrall of protection glyph which gives 10% endurance to the party. I'd like to see advance glyphs of this simliar nature be added on the thrall of vengeance, thrall of life and wrath.

Another change they could do is make Arune Vitae from a "heal over time" to a Instant heal on pickup or do both. Lastly, cut the MP degenration on auras by 30-50% and as a added effect for Arune Tear's add a "Mana over Time" after pickup. Those are some simple fixes I'd like to see.

I personally prefer priests mainly due to the strength of their buffs =x

Stacking the regular power blessing and energy stars gives people a pretty huge (+47) increase on their base attack power.

On top of that, a 10% defense boost, a strong continuous heal(+500/2s or +15,000/min), and a 10% increase to resistances give the recipient of these buffs a very distinct edge over a non-buffed player.

The heal over time buff probably makes the biggest difference in duels and 1v1 pvp that I've observed. Most duels usually last around 30s~1min and in that time the passive heal has recovered 7,500~15,000 hp, effectively extending the average 60's hp by 12~20%. If a duel lasts longer the effect becomes even more pronounced, healing 30,000 after 2 minutes, roughly 50% of the average level 60's hp pool.

Other upsides to being a priest include:

Highest one-shot AoE heal (Healing circle, 30k)

Largest mass dispell(Purifying circle, 19m diameter)

Highest possible hp/second (persistent Healing immersion, 27k 40% CD reset(or 100%, if you think about it))

Strong Group Shield (14k, ~23% of average level 60 hp)

Group Knockdown Recovery/prevention(Arise)

Silly amounts of self-preservation (30% ranged damage reduction & 100% boost to resistances, A gigantic self heal on a 5m cooldown, the aforementioned shield)


The big downside of being a priest:

Only one relatively easy to dodge Control spell (Ishara's Lullaby, Sleep)


From what I've experienced, both mystics and priests can heal just fine in PvE. Larger differences are noticeable in PvP.

In pvp mystics are better off as a supplementary healer and are more effective when they use their many CC options to mitigate damage rather than trying to simply outheal the other side. This stems from mystic's healing options in pvp becoming somewhat limited as *most* damage dealers won't break away to grab an orb when they need one and the targeted heal just does not heal rapidly enough to deal with crits. Mystics are still quite dangerous but in pvp healing they take the second seat to priests.