Hiya guys! I am new to this game, and I am thinking of trying this game for the first time on a live server, I will probably worry about making a character on a TLE server later. I decided I want to make a healer for my first character, and after looking over the class options, I decided I want to be a shaman, always loved placing absorption shields on other peeps to absorb damage, and preventing damage altogether over refilling health bars, and plus, they seem to be the best healers at the moment when looking over the forums. The only issue is deciding between making a defiler, or mystic for my first healer, since I know NOTHING about them at the moment, and from what I can tell, there is nothing I can find that shows the difference between the 2 classes when I tried to look it up myself. So, can you guys help out, and provide the pros/cons of the 2 classes, and any major playstyle/ability based differences between the 2 healers in question when I start raiding with either one of them, so I can figure out which one I would like better? Also, are both of the healers good at levelling, or is one of them strictly better at levelling than another? I want to know that early on, so I will not have a major headache, and just give up on it early on, and I would know whether or not I have to betray my healer at cap to pick my preferred healer when I start raiding. Thanks in advance!
I raid as a Mystic. The biggest thing about Mystics is they are a TOTAL ward class. Biggest and best wards. They also have a couple slightly smaller buffs that are very nice also. Like Bolster, it increases a person's stats by a large % and their Mitigation, Fervor, give them a dps proc, and does other stuff. Very nice to drop on a DPS class because of the fervor. Since the expansion one of the Unlimited spells (ancestral avatar I think) now gives fervor in addition to other stuff also. The only real negative to the class is its DPS. It does a little less than other classes in general. (I'm sure someone will spout off "oh but the mystic in my group does massive amounts of damage, more than most Wizards!") Don't believe them because they are full of sh**. Mystics don't seem to be as popular as Defilers right now from what I've seen but things change in the game so one class isn't always better than another. Whatever class you pick will work out fine.
Alright, so mystics focus more on actual wards, and protecting the group, so for a pure warder/absorbtion shield based healer, I should go with mystic, their buffs also seem pretty nice, but it looks like they are around the same skill level as defiler at this point, despite the lower popularity of mystics, so I am curious what defilers can provide to the raid now. It also seems like defilers are better when levelling than mystics ATM due to their higher DPS. Can any defiler raider tell me what their class is like then, so I can compare the 2, and figure out which one I like better? Thanks!
Mystic: Easier Single Target Ward Stacking Better Utility Buffs (especially for DPS) Better cast while moving abilities/options. Defiler: Better group Power Regen (Maelstrom>Spirit Tap) Better mop up heals (Defilers have direct heals tied to their wards in addition to nightmare/maelstrom also healing) Better Debuffs Minor Damage Reduction on a couple of their wards if specced (whether they're worth taking or not depends) More Passive DPS Group Ward capabilities basically break even between the two. That being said if you're raid healing you should maintain single wards across your group in addition to group wards on the high pulse fights. This is where the difference between mystics and defilers in a raid is most obvious. So basically, when it comes to healing: Wardable 1 shot (Or very high pulse) damage across an entire group: Mystic>Defiler. Non-Wardable Damage: Defiler>Mystic The rest: Defiler=Mystic Note: This is all assuming equal gear and skill between the two. Obviously if you dig deeper into either class there are more pro's and cons for each one but this is just a basic overall of having raided as both mystic and defiler.
remember all .. it's TLE. no spirit tap yet. lvl 70 max. first AA tree (maybe EoF AA added now) but at this point both classes are quite similar. up to lvl 50 both classes are quite similar in term of buffs/debuffs. After lvl 50, they gave the defiler more debuffs and mystics more buffs. you can see that through AAs. the level 50 spell is a big solo ward for mystic and a group HoT/PoT + encounter DoT on defiler side. during EoF, mystics got the ability to trade their spells for CA versions of it. So mystics also became morecombat oriented healers (defilers are still spellcaster healers) by RoK (lvl 80) the mystic epic 1 gave them better wards and added more heals to the defiler. so as previous people said, at first both are quite similar and the more levels you get, the more you'll see the differences. Buffs and big wards for mystics. debuffs, wards and more heals for defilers. I guess mystic were prefered for main tank healers opposed to defilers. up to some point at least.
TLE mystic is going to be far more fun to level I think because of the combat arts. Those are useless at 110. but early on until 100 they are so much cooler than weak and slow defiler spells
Hi! Haven't played since EQ was on PS2. One question: There was a Shaman spell call Spirit of the Wind (SoW) that Shaman could cast to increase a toon's running speed. What healers have castable speed spells in EQ2? Don't want to roll a healer without such a spell.
Druids (Fury or Warden) have Spirit of the Wolf, which gives run speed buffs - but they aren't brilliant except at low levels, All classes have access to mounts which are much better. If you follow your starting city quest lines, they all reward a horse at around level 19. There's more info at https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/Mounts Also woodworkers make various speed buffing totems that are level dependent. See https://eq2.fandom.com/wiki/Totems
Both mystics and defilers also have spirit of wolf as well, though with mounts being as easy to get as they are, it's not a big deal except in the handful of zones where the mount speed buff doesn't work. And even then, particularly at higher levels, you can use totems that are faster.
The biggest difference between the two is that defilers play the game while mystics make threads on the forums about how shaman are useless because bleedthrough makes them have to learn their class.
At the beginning of the game, these speed buffs were very useful. Once mounts became easily obtainable, they're not nearly as useful. You can purchase mounts, get mounts by questing, and some mounts fall as loot in certain instances.
Thanks to all who replied, very helpful. Yes, I know these questions can be answered on Wiki or the Forums or FAQs, however; my new gaming laptop arrives in February and I'm reading all about 6 or 7 MMOs trying to pick the one best for me. It's hard to keep track of everything. I just want one MMORPG that's PvE based. PvP is fine but I don't want it to be the focus.
So like you to write something like that, always so negative. I never played a Defiler but from what I heard Maelstrom was really nerfed in POM xpac and Spirit Tap is now far superior. The most important reason to choice one healer over another is to pick the one you like playing the best. Possibly if you enjoy playing one type of toon over another you will play it better.
I guess you could say I'm negative if negative is defined as "somebody stating facts". When this forum is just full threads nobody cares about and casual players whining about the state of the game then of course realists will seem more negative. People on here are absurd and the developers listening to them has slowly caused its transition to its current state. That's why I seem bitter toward casual players (or "hardcore" players that are clueless) crying about balance changes when they clearly have no business offering an opinion. Stop asking developers to ruin the game and tilt it in your favor because you never learned how to play it. That's pretty simple logic. I don't go around offering my opinion on topics of which I'm completely ignorant. You should try that.
Maelstrom is great for damage and a hot to mop up bleedthrough, but the power regen is only good enough to give someone else a mana trickle so they can cast their mana regen on the group.
The post which you are quoting is from nearly a year ago. Long before maelstrom was nerfed and quasi early in last xpacks timeline. As it stands a lot would change in regards to my original post if I were to answer the same questions now.
I know your post was a year ago, that is why I said what I did about Maelstrom. As I said I never played a Defiler but talk with defilers who said how maelstrom did very little group power regen anymore and Spirit Tap really rocks on group power regen.
I hope you have help. Soloing a Defiler on Live was painful enough. And I had guildies helping with PL-ing for the final levels. I can't imagine what it would be like on the TLE. Casting speed is a huge issue. Mystic at least has some strikes, but I'm thinking most of those were AA?? Not sure though, switched to a defiler yrs ago...my mystic languishes at lvl 100 now. But the way the game has been going for the last few years has cured me of my raging altaholism. Too much work to keep all the alts current.
