Mystic

The Mystic is the Earthguard's magic class. It attacks with Wood skills and has heals for itself and its allies. As it levels it gains plants, each with its own job: damage, area debuffs or healing teammates. Instead of taming pets like a Venomancer, it gets a fixed set of five summons that add physical, Fire and Metal damage and shield effects.

Some key skills: Lucky Break makes the next three skills of the Mystic and nearby allies critical hits; Vital Herb can be upgraded to the Neverfall version, which has many useful Glyphs; and the Argent Glyph on Thicket and Nature's Barrier can briefly disable other players' Genies.

• Strong: great healing for itself and its squad, and good debuffs.
• Strong: plants and summons make it good alone and in a squad, and summons can pull monsters.
• Strong: high physical defense and resistance to Water and Wood.
• Weak: slow movement, few escapes and low HP.
• Weak: a complex class that uses a lot of mana.

Wands are the usual recommendation because their damage and healing are steady and predictable. Glaives and patakas swing the most: they can give the biggest hits and heals, but also the weakest. The summons take their stats from the weapon and armor worn at the moment they are called, so gear matters for them too. Mystics wear arcane armor and put most points into Magic, sometimes with a little Vitality for extra toughness.

At low levels the Mystic is mana hungry, because its skills cost about twice as much mana as other casters' skills, but its plants, summons and constant self-healing make questing easy. Some monsters take more damage from the summons or are immune to Wood, so learning to use the summons pays off. In squads it can be the only healer and adds buffs; its later Morai skills include Invigorate (+20% skill damage against monsters), Mass Resurrect and Gaia's Blessing, and the Verdant Glyph on Vital Herb gives the squad chi every 35 seconds.

In PvP the Mystic survives well: Break In The Clouds heals it instantly, Falling Petals keeps healing, Verdant Shell adds physical defense and Wood and Water resistance, and from level 79 Nature's Barrier cuts all incoming damage for a while. Its ultimate, Voidbringer, either absorbs direct damage or raises its attack and defenses through Energy Leech. Support Mystics stay behind the squad or fly above it, watching for flankers such as Duskblades and Assassins. Damage Mystics rely on the Nature's Vengeance and Absorb Soul combo.

The Earthguard race and its first two classes, the Seeker and the Mystic, arrived with the Genesis expansion, which went live on March 1, 2011. Genesis also added Tellus City in the south-west of the map and the Runecrafting skill. The race later got a third class, the Bloodspirit.