TERA - Priest Mystic Comparison (NA CB2)

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Hey everyone, TERA North america Closed Beta 2 (CB2) drawn a close this weekend and I was fortunate enough to have time to level both a priest and mystic to the level cap for CB2 (level 27). I will give you some of my personal perspectives on the two healing classes in TERA up to level 27 and also some comparisons of the later abilities available for each class.

1. Overall Impression
2. Healing: Single target
3. Healing: Additional group healing options
4. Healing: Self Heal
5. Healing: Cleanse
6. Self mana regeneration and mana usage
7. Ranged attacks
8. Melee range attacks
9. High level ranged AoE attacks
10. CC abilities
11. Buffs
12. Movement and Transport
13. Priest Unqiue Skills
14. Mystic Unique skills
15. Gameplay videos from mystic and priest POV

Overall Impression

Both clsses are definitely capable of healing all of the dungeon content (Secret Base and Sinistral Manor) so far – priests do have an easier time as they have a lot more healing options and not as dependent in the overall “group smartness”. Mystics, on the other hand, are not as laid back and have to know how to proactively heal (plan ahead and anticipate damage). I really enjoyed both classes immensely but if I have to pick up a favourite, I would have to say I am slightly biased towards the mystics as they are slightly more challenging and a lot more fun to solo with.

As i never played World of warcraft – I can’t really make a Wow reference but if you have healed Everquest 1 (EQ1), priest are sort of like clerics while mystics a bit like druids. Both can heal decently but mystics do have a bit more fun when soloing – especially since it has abilities that allow them to kite multiple mobs efficiently.
Healing: Single target

Both mystics and priests have a similar single target lock on heal (can be locked on 2 group members but when glyphed it can expand to 3 group members). If you are not familiar with a lock on heal – its essentially an ability you can activate and once activated you can aim at multiple people and once you are done aiming, you can press the button again to send a heal to these people.

The priest one is called Focus Heal – first obtained at level 10 and upgrades available at Level 18, 24, 30, 46, 42, 48, and 54. Glyph available to increase lock-on targets to 3 and increase its range by 3 meters.

The mystic one is called Titanic Favor- first obtained at level 18 and upgrades available at 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, and 54. Glyph available to increase lock-on targets to 3 and increase its range by 3 meters.

As you can see, they heal for very similar amounts and are very similar except that the mystic one has a very minor Hot (Heal over time) attached to it which heals for roughly 40% of its initial heal value over 10 seconds.

The difference between the two heals isn’t too big and the additional Hot from the mystic isn’t something that I have really noticed. You can’t really rely on the Hot but if you are just topping someone off, the Hot can push someone to full health if you just fall short of it.
Healing: Additional group healing options

In addition to the lock on heal, both classes have other options to heal party members. Priest do win out in this field as they have three additional skills while mystics only get one.

Priests have the following three abilities, all of them available once you reach level 26: Restorative Burst, Regeneration Circle, Healing Circle.

Restorative Burst – first obtained at level 6 and upgrades available at Level 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54. Glyph available to increase its duration to 6 seconds and decrease its mana cost by 275.

This one is fairly useful but do cost a lot of mana – I use it to top off multiple groups members (especially melee) or use it as a proactive heal on the tank if i predict incoming damage to help “soften” the blow while I try to heal the tank up with my Focus heal after the hit. Heals slightly more than the Focus Heal on multiple targets in a span of 5 seconds.

Regeneration Circle – first obtained at level 18 and additional upgrades available at 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54. Glyphs available to extend its duration to 13 seconds, decrease its cooldown to 16 seconds, and reduce MP cost of its chained skill – Focus heal by 85.

This is the one healing skill that i don’t find myself using too much. It has a pretty long cast time (2. 4 seconds) and doesn’t heal a lot – only roughly 40% of your Focus Heal over a span of 10 seconds. Its sort of like the small Hot that gets attached to Mystic’s equivalent of Focus Heal.

Healing Circle – first obtained at level 26 and upgrades available at level 32, 38, 44, 50, and 56. Glyph available to increase its HP regen by 10%.

This is pretty much my favorite skill and my most used skill after Focus Heal. It is super useful and heals for quite abit (at level 27 it heals for around 3. 3 k). If your party member’s HP are low, what I do is run in and stand next to them to cast Healing Circle. This will bring their HP back to to the “safety zone” if not to full. Then i just use my jump back ability (Fiery Explosion) to move away from the melee range of the boss so i don’t get whacked accidently. This is the one spell that makes priest really stand out and something I wish my mystic would get.

Mystics have one additional spell other than Titanic Favor for group healing and its effectiveness its highly dependent on your group members.

Arun’s Vitae – first obtained at level 1 and upgrades available at Level 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54. Glyph available to increase the casting speed of its chained skill – Arun’s Tear by 25%.

This is an orb you can drop on the ground that heals roughly twice as much as your lock-on heal – Titanic Favor over a span of 7 seconds. This is pretty much the spell that defines mystic’s proactive way to healing. Before a fight begins and especially before boss fights, I drop as many of these orbs on the ground as i can in places where I predict my group members would stand near by while fighting the boss. During a fight I try to drop them off in places near the boss/mob whenever possible so tanks and melee dps have an easier time to grab them.

Whether or not your group members use these orbs is really up to them – I like to announce whenever I join a PuG group on my mystic that people should feel free to pick up orbs on the ground if they need a heal. “Smart” group members will run out to grab an orb to heal themselves up if they don’t think I can get to them in time with my Titanic Favor.
Healing: Self Heal

The priest self heal is will instantly heal you for a large amount while the mystic self heal is a pet that heals you continuous for 12 seconds and cleanse you of harmful effects with every heal. I personally do like the mystic one better as the pet heals for a large chunk of damage with every heal and it is a heal overtime so definitely helps when you are continuously taking damage (the additional cleanse is a nice bonus as well).

Priest one is called appropriately Heal Thyself – first available at level 1 and upgrades available at Level 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48 and 54. Glyph available to increase its heal amount by 20%

It heals about the same amount as your Focus Heal (around 2k, 2. 2 k when glyphed) and has a 5 second cooldown.

Mystic version is called Thrall of Life - first available at Level 16 and upgrades available at level 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, and 56. Glyphs available that increase the defense of the pet by 100%, and decrease the cooldown by 20%.

As this is a pet, it does have a chance to be killed before the 12 second duration is over – so you have to becareful where you cast the thrall to ensure that it doesn’t get killed right away (there is a glyph that can increase the defense of the pet by 100% to help with that) – it heals me for 20% of my HP (around 8k) every second so that is 1. 6 k every second for 12 seconds.
Healing: Cleanse

Cleansing is the art of removing harmful effects – priest definitely do win out in this category as their cleanse is an AoE cleanse that affect 15 allies within 12m of the priest while the mystic one is a lock on cleanse that affects 2 group member (maximum of 3 with glyph). Mystic one do have a much shorter cooldown though (2. 5 seconds) while the priest one have a cooldown of 20 seconds (down to 15 seconds once Glyph’ed).

In terms of the importance of cleansing – so far there is only one boss in Sinistral Manor (level 26-27 dungeon) that requires rapid cleansing – if not cleansed it will take affected group members down to 20%. This can be healed through and for the first couple runs I simply healed through without really noticing it.

Priest version is called Purifying Circle – Available at Level 20. Glyph available to reduce cooldown to 15 seconds.

Mystic version is called Arun’s Cleansing Touch – Available at level 20. Glyph available to increase lock on targets to 3.

Based on my experience, it is a lot easier to cleanse with the priest as you simply have to be in range of whoever needs the cleanse. With the mystic you have to actually find the target to cleanse – which can be a hassle especially if there are multiple people/mobs bunched up together to obscure your view. This also means that priests can cleanse faster – which makes a big difference.
Self Mana regeneration & mana usage

Priest in my opinion have a big advantage in this field. Both priests and mystics share a mana regen ability that last for 20 seconds but cancels itself if the user is damaged or use a damage spell. Priest also have a self mana regen skill that can be used on the move while mystics get an orb thingie that can drop on the ground to be used by either party members or themselves.

In terms of mana usage – my mystic tend to run out of mana a lot faster due to the usage of auras (group buffs)– those drain me at 30 MP every 2 seconds for every aura I have up. My only option to regen mana is really to use the shared Mana Infusion ability or use those Mana orbs (which doesn’t regen much mana since it requires a big chuck of mana to cast it as well). On my priest I am not really limited, whenever I am moving around and not healing I can just use my self mana regen to quickly recuperate any mana loss.

Shared skill – Mana Infusion – available at level 20. Glyphs available that can increase its mana regeneration by 20% or speed up its casting by 25%.

Priest skill – Mana Charge – Available at level 12. Glyphs available to speed up charging by 25%, increase MP regen by 15% and increase power of next chained skill (Shocking Impolsion) by 25%.

Remember that you can use this while on the move – so if you are moving and not looking for targets to heal – hold down this button and move!

Mystic Skill – Arun’s Tears – available at level 28. Glyphs available to speed up it casting of next chained skill – Arun’s Vitae.

It costs 500 MP to cast and regens only 639 MP so the net MP gain is only 139 MP. The side benefit is that anyone can use it, not just you.
Ranged attacks

Priests and mystics have a very similar basic ranged attack – there is a limitation on the mystic version however. The mystic one decreases in damage the further away you are, which make it kinda inferior to priest’s. Both have a max range of 18m.

Priest skill is called Divine Radiance. First obtained at level 1 and upgrades available at level 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54. Can be glyph’ed to increase its power by 25%.

Mystic skill is called Sharan Bolt. First obtained at level 1 and upgrades available at level 4, 10, 16, 22, 28, 34, 40, 46, 52, and 58. Glyph available to increase its power by 25%

Priests also have another ranged DD (Direct Damage) attack that can be used upto 3 times while mystics get a Dot that can be stacked upto 3 times. The mystic one is really handy for kiting since you can cast it on the move and can be glyphed to affect two targets. I personally do perfer the priest DD skill for DPSing on boss fights as i often can’t maintain the 3 stacks of the mystic dot on the boss for maximum effectiveness.

Priest skill is called Triple Nemesis. Available at Level 4 and upgrades at 10, 16, 22, 28, 34, 40, 46,, 52, 58. Glyphs available to reduce enemy’s endurance by 10% or increased the power of the chained skill – Metamorphic Blast by 25%.

Much like the mystic basic ranged attack – this one decrease in damage if you are at max ranged (18 m).

Mystic skill is called Volley of Curses. Available at level 14, upgrades at 20, 26, 32, 38, 44, 50, 56. Can be glyphed to increase its effect duration by 20%, reduce the mana cost of next chained skill – Volley of Curses by 33 and increase the number of lock-on targets by 1.

Melee range attack

Priests and mystics share a skill in this category – Metamorphic Blast. Additionally, they have one skill that are very similar (Final Reprisal and Metamorphic Smite) while another that are quite different (Shocking Implosion and Corruption Ring). These attacks work on multiple mobs but decrease in damage per target the more mobs that are affected by the attack.

Shared skill – Metamorphic Blast. Available at level 2 and upgrades at level 8, 14, 20, 26, 32, 38, 44, 50, 56.

Different glyphs are available for the priest and mystic versions of the spell. Priests get glyphs that can decrease its MP consumption by 33 and decrease opponent’s attack speed by 15% for 7 seconds while mystics get a glyph that increase the power of Metamorphic Blast by 25%.

Priest skills: Final Reprisal and Shocking Implosion

Final Reprisal: Available at level 10, upgrades at 16, 22, 28, 34, 40, 46, 52, 58. Glyphs available to decrease its MP consumption by 62, 40% chance to eliminate cooldowns, and 20% chance to decrease opponent’s speed by 30% for 4 seconds.

Shocking Implosion: Available at level 14, upgrades at 20, 26, 32, 38, 44, 50, 56. Glyph available to increases power for the next chain skill – Final Reprisal by 25%.

This spell does quite a bit of damage, which makes up for the priest’s inferior damage on Final Reprisal compared to the mystic equivalent.

Mystic skills: Metamorphic Smite and Corruption Ring

Metamorphic Smite: Available at level 6, upgrades at 14, 20, 26, 32, 38, 44, 50, 56. Glyphs available to decrease its cooldown by 20%, reduce the MP cost of next chained skill – Metamorphic Blast – by 41, and increase its casting speed by 25.

The mystic Metamorphic Smite is a lot more powerful compared to the priest Final Reprisal – both have the same range of 4m.

Corruption Ring: Available at level 10, upgrades at 16, 22, 28, 34, 40, 46, 52, 58. Glyphs available that triple resistance to knockdown/immobility, reduces damage taken by 50%, and reduces the MP cost of next chained skill – Arun’s Tears by 100.

This ability is not very useful while soloing – it doesn’t do a lot of damage and without glyphs you stand to take a lot of damage and get knocked down while using it. What this is useful is in group situations to drain HP from nearby mobs and release it as MP to your party members.
High level ranged AoE attacks

These attacks are only available to players that are level 50+. Mystic only available at level 50 while the priest one is only available at level 50.

Priest – Plaque of Exhaustion: Available at level 58. Can be glyphed to decrease its cooldown by 20%.

Cooldown seems pretty long even when glyphed (96 seconds).

Mystic – Shara’s Lash: Available at level 50. Can be glyphed to increase its effect duration by 40%.

Cooldown is relatively short in comparison (30 seconds) and can stun enemies.
CC(Crowd Control) abilities

Mystics win out in this category as they have a lot more crowd- control abilities and their “sleep” ability can affect two targets while the priest ability only affect maximum 1 target (not to mention the mystic one is an instant cast while the priest one takes 1. 5 seconds).

Sleep abilities

Priest – Ishara’s Lullaby: Available at level 14. Glyph available to decrease its cooldown by 20%.

Mystic – Sonorous Dreams. Available at level 14. Glyph available to decrease its MP consumption by 188.

Slow abilities

Mystics have two abilities that reduce the run speed of enemies, priests have none.

Mire: Available at level 32, upgrades at 56 (upgrade doesn’t seem to do anything). Glyph available to decrease its cooldown by 20% to 48 seconds.

This is an AoE snare that can affect up to 4 targets.

Ancient Binding: Available at 42. Glyph available to increase its effect duration by 50% and 50% chance to decrease the opponent’s attack speed by 30% for 6 seconds.

Fear abilities

Mystics receive an AoE fear (upto 4 targets) ability at level 56. Priests do not have anything equivalent.

Curse of Confusion: Available at 56. Can be glyphed to increase its effect duration by 25%.

Buffing

Mystics have buffs that are auras – these benefits the party members within a certain range of the mystic (20m) but drains the mystic’s mana continuously depending on how many auras are up. Priests, on the other hand, bring a different sort of buffs (blessings) that lasts for 15 minutes and does not drain the priest’s mana.

Priests bring buffs that increase their party’s non-combat run speed (10%), strength (17/25), endurance (5/11), resistance to harmful effects 5, and a small Hot.

Mystics bring buffs that increase their party’s run speed (10%), crit resistance (30/40/50%), mana regen (30 MP every 2 seconds), and double their crit rate. Mana regen and crit resistance do not stack, run speed and crit rate do not stack so at max you can have 2 auras running, draining you 60 MP every 2 seconds.

Both classes have also short temporary buffs – priest’s one increase nearby party member’s strength and attack speed while the mystic one increase nearby party member’s strength.

Priest blessings and temp buffs: Blessing of Zenobia, Blessing of Shakan, Blessing of Seren, Blessing of Balder, and Blessing of Arachne. Energy Stars

Blessing of Zenobia: Available at level 20, can be glyphed to increase non-combat speed by 50%, and increase the non-combat speed of the caster by an additional 35%.

Increase the non-combat run speed of group members by 10% unglyphed.

Blessing of Shakan: Available at level 26. Upgrade available to level 50. Can be glyphed to increase the duration by 30% to 20 minutes.

Increase the strength of party members by 17 at rank 1, 25 at rank 2.

Blessing of Seren: Available at level 34. Upgrade available at level 52. Can be glyphed to increase the duration by 30% to 20 minutes.

Increase the endurance of 5 nearby allies by 6 at rank 1 and 11 at rank 2.

Blessing of Balder: Available at level 36, upgrades at 42, 48, 54. Can be glyphed to increase the duration by 30% to 20 minutes.

This is essentially a tiny Hot on upto 5 allies.

Blessing of Arachne: Available at level 46. Can be glyphed to increase the duration by 30% to 20 minutes.

Increase resistance to harmful effects by 5.

Energy Star: Available at level 40. Upgrades at 48, and 56. Can be glyphed to increase its duration by 25% and decrease its cooldown by 20%.

Mystic auras and buffs: Aura of the Swift, Aura of the Unyielding, Aura of the Tenacious, Aura of the Mercilness, and Titanic Wrath.

Aura of the Swift: Available at level 20. Can be glyphed to reduce the initial MP consumption by 50% (totally useless glyph).

Increase group member’s runspeed by 10% if within 20m of the mystic.

Aura of the Unyielding: Available at level 26, upgrades at 38 and 52. No glyphs available.

Increase group members crit resistance by 30% at rank I, 40% at rank 2, and 50% at rank 3 if within 20m of the mystic.

Aura of Tenacious: Available at level 36. No glyphs available.

Increase group member’s MP (not yourself) by 20 MP every second.

Aura of the Merciless: Available at level 50. Glyph available to reduce the initial MP consumption by 300.

Doubles the crit rate of group members.

Titanic Wrath: Available at level 26, upgrade at 56. Can be glyphed to increase effect duration by 35% or reduce mana cost of next chain skill – Arun’s Vitae by 100.

Rank 1 give 20 strength, rank 2 give 25 strength. This is like the 25 second version of the priest buff.
Movement & Transport

I really like Mystic’s Teleport Jaunt (similar to a “blink” ability) – it makes moving around on your feet a lot faster and helped to avoid many deaths that could have resulted if i didn’t move out of the way of the boss’s attacks. Priests, on the hand, do not fare too badly either. They get a kickback (Fiery Escape) which also slow down nearby enemies by 70%. This makes a good escape and a favourite “combo” of my is to run in to cast a Healing Circle to the melees near the boss and then get out of range right away with my kickback ability.

Priest – Fiery Escape: Available at level 6, upgrades at 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 54. Can be glyphed to reduce its MP consumption by 30.

Note that this kickback is away from the direction your camera faces and not the way your character faces, so you could totally turn around to look at the boss chasing you while running and use Fiery Escape if you judge the distance to be too close!

Mystic – Teleport Jaunt: Available at level 8. Glyphs available with 25% chance to eliminate cooldowns, increased the casting speed of next chained skill – Arun’s Vitae by 25%. and increase the casting speed of next chained skill – Thrall of Life by 25%.

This is probably my mystic’s most used skill. I used it whenever I can. Need to heal someone far away? Teleport Jaunt. Need to run away from the boss? Teleport Jaunt. You get the idea!

Both mystics and priests get a summon party skill at level 22 – these essentially summon all party members within the same province to you – very handy when you are grouping up for a dungeon run as you can do the footwork and allow others to be lazy. Additionally, priest have a spell that can send themselves and their party members to a nearby campfire.

Shared skill – Summon Party: Available at 22. Glyphs available to decrease MP consumption by 800, and decrease its cooldown by 20% to 8 minutes.

Priest skill- Homeward Bound: Available at 32. Glyph available to decrease its MP consumption by 800.

Priest Unique Skills

Arise – Available at level 24. Glyph available to decrease its cooldown by 50% to 20 seconds.

This is a very handy skill to have but unfortunately I did not get a chance to utilize it as much – it cause knocked down group members to stand up and prevent them from getting knocked down by the next 5 seconds. If you are on the ball and can predict an incoming knock down from the boss, you can cast this and prevent your group members from getting knocked down. I predict this skill will become a lot useful later on.

Prayer of Peace – Available at level 36, upgrades at 46 and 58. Can be glyphed to become an instant cast.

Cooldown seems a bit long to be really effective. I had a lot of aggro issues on my priest so this could come in handy if its cooldown wasn’t so long.

Kaia’s Shield – Available at Level 42. Upgrades at 48 and 54. Can be glyphed to decease its cooldown by 20% (to about 96 seconds), and give an additional 30% endurance to group members.

If anything, this should make a priest’s healing job and overall group survival much easier. Rank 2 of this ability give 7085 hp and rank 3 gives 9083 hp. The amount does not seem to change with your healing bonus.

Guardian Sanctuary – Available at level 50. Can be glyphed to reduce cooldown by 20% (to 48 seconds).

Definitely seems like a nice survivable ability for priests – at least against ranged attackers. Its cooldown its short and duration is fairly long so this means you can petty much have it up quite often.

Divine Respite – Available at level 56. Can be glyphed to reduce its cooldown by 20%.

This is an “Oh-shit” cooldown on a 5 minute timer. Heals 18% of your hp in 10 seconds but it is affected by your heal bonus so it actually heals for abit more.
Mystic Unqiue skills

Mystics have a series of pets called Thralls. The Thrall of Life is already covered in the self-heal section so i will expand on the remainig thalls and other unique skills here.

Thrall of Protection – Available at level 4, upgrades at 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56. Can be glyphed to decrease its cooldown by 10%, increase its power by 25% and increase its defense by 25%.

This little guy is useful when soloing as he never seems to die even while getting whacked by multiple mobs. He is handy when soloing BAMs too as he can held the aggro for a few seconds while I focus on nuking the BAMs rather than dodging their attacks. The only annoying part is that he won’t attack mobs you are attacking unless a) you send him to attack it via a manual command or b) you get attacked.

Thrall of Vengence – Available at level 12. Upgrades at level 12, upgrades at 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56. Can be glyphed to increase its power by 25%, its duration by 25%, and its defense by 25%.

I don’t find him too useful personally – his damage is only slightly higher than my mystic’s basic ranged attack – Sharan Bolt and in dungeons he doesn’t seem to survive the full duration. Since he only stays up for 17 seconds unglyphed, it can be a hassle to having to resummon him. I think I would get a better return if i summon Thrall of Protection.

Thrall of Wrath – Available at level 38, upgrades at level 42, 46, 50, 54, 58. Glyphs available to decrease cooldown by 50%, increase its power by 25% and speeds its casting by 30%.

Its cooldown its 10 minutes – 5 minutes if glyphed. I guess we will have to see how powerful he is and if he is worth the long cooldown.

Mystics gets a really really nice skill that makes my priest jealous. This skill is the Voew of Rebith.

Vow of Rebirth: Available at level 42. Can be glyphed to decrease its cooldown by 40% (to 9 minutes) and allow the mystic to be self rezzed.

Well, I guess this is what mystic’s answer to the priest sheilds and other survability cooldowns – you absolutely need to get that glyph to that allows yourself to be rezzed if killed.

Mystics also have some abilities that really shines in PvP.

Regression: Available at level 24. Upgrades at level 50. Can be glyphed to decrease cooldown by 25%

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Very useful skill for PvP to strip all buffs on nearby enemy players.

Curse of Exhaustion: Available at 46, upgrades at 58. Can be glyphed to decrease cooldown by 20%

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Rank 2 of the skill lasts for 25 seconds.

Source: mmosite.com

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