Mystic Preview

by Charabis

Hello. My name is Charabis, and I'll be your guide on today's Search for Rare and Wonderous Creatures of the Gaming World. Today, we will be after the mysterious Mystic. Little is known about these creatures, but there is much speculation. Today, we will examine all the research to date, and see what we can uncover.

These elusive creatures can only be found in one place in the world, Perpetual Entertainment. Here, they are being bred to be the eyes and ears of their players. The Perpetual homepage gives us a brief overview of what they expect from the Mystics once they're released from the breeding program:

The Mystic is a seeker of arcane knowledge and aspires to live a life dedicated to true spiritual wisdom. Sheer magical force is the Mystic's weapon of choice. Mystics are not keen on hand-to-hand combat; they attack from a distance, and thus rely on the support of their companions - especially the Gladiator or Soldier - to protect them. They are far from helpless, however, as Mystics can summon unimaginably destructive powers and unleash them on multiple foes at the same time. They are also often known to use a variety of curses upon their enemies to weaken them. At the same time, they possess the ability to heal their companions. Mystics devote themselves to Trevia, the dark goddess of sorcery, or Bacchus, the earth god.

Seeking to learn more, we began to look at other resources. We discovered a little snippet from Stieg Hedlund on the Warcry site. We quickly zeroed in on the brief discussion of the Mystics we were studying:

The Mystic is a ranged magic damage-dealing role. He gets a good variety of spells such as massive direct damage spells, area of effect spells, debuffing spells, summoning spells and crowd controlling spells. A Mystic can draw a lot of aggro by carelessly using their high damage abilities which is a bad idea since his hand-to-hand fighting ability is quite weak.

Clearly, these Mystics are more advanced than most creatures! They have religion, and powers that are far beyond what my team can muster. Clearly, this would be a dangerous journey should we have to track them in the wild!

Probing into Deodatus' blog on the official forums, we found more information to work with:

As some of you may or may not have noticed, the Mystic is the possibly the darkest class Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising, especially when you consider that the god choices available are Bacchus and Trevia. While Bacchus is arguably the more "good" of the two, the Mystic presents a definite role-playing challenge to those who seek to play the more traditional hero-type. When compared against the other classes, even the Rogue, the Mystic rises to fill the role of the anti-hero to the letter. The Mystic's design is heavily influenced from ancient Etruscan culture and this translates to a more "shamanistic" influence. If the Priests are the direct line to the gods, then the Mystics are the perversion of that line with their darker magics and relationship with the spirits they summon to their side.

The Mystic has a strong command over a variety darker magic and even has the capability to summon various spirits and even snakes (do they come on a plane?) to their side. While some people think of Necromancy as raising an undead army to fight for you, the Mystic follows the more traditional definition, a practitioner of sorcery and magic qualities. The Mystic has the capability to drain energy and health from opponents to replenish their own, and they are exceptionally skilled at damage against the undead.

In addition to the massive amounts of damage, summoning, and life depleting powers of the Mystic, they are also able to help control enemies by stunning them (this is often referred to as 'mezzing'). As the Mystic becomes more proficient, they can then tap into their squad for additional support, including using them as a wall of sorts to delay and even stop advancing enemies. The squad can also be utilized in an elaborate summoning spell to call up a squad creature.

To even further twist the line between Priest and Mystic, the Mystic also has the ability to erode opponents weapons and armor during battle, thus causing equipment to fail and rendering the opponent all but helpless against the vicious attacks of the Mystic's nefarious powers. There are so many things that the Mystic is capable of, and what's more, the level 50 summon truly sets the Mystic apart as one of the most ruthless and devastating classes in the game. When it comes down to it, the Mystic is more than just your typical nuker, they're adept at rendering an opponent helpless, powerless, energy less, and defenseless.

A smart player will find the Mystic as one of the most challenging, but quite possibly one of the most rewarding classes that Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising has to offer, especially when they realize we've only brushed the tip of the iceberg with this article.

We knew we had to learn more. Probing into the lands of mmorpg.com, we found some information regarding the tentative feat trees at mmorpg.com, but you'll have to head over there to view the tree and related article.

Wow! Powerful creatures indeed! Yet we had not come to understand why this creature came to be called a Mystic. Solving

that mystery only took a quick hop to IGN where we found our answer, from Stieg Hedlund no less!

...

There was a wealth of names suggested by the literature. Unfortunately some of the things that were historically used were

unpronounceable, and although they often had modern English language versions, they have come to mean something very

different from what they once had been - these were things like:
- Scientist
- Physician
- Pharmacist

Next I came to a selection of words that still came from historical research, but had more of the flavor I was looking for:
- Oracle
- Sage
- Philosopher

While they described the class pretty well, they all felt a bit inactive. Then I come to some that had the correct flavor, as

well as being more active, and they had all been borrowed by English, while still preserving their original meanings to a

large degree:
- Theurgist
- Thaumaturgist
- Mystagogue

However, these seemed like the kind of words the creators of the SAT torture high school students with. Mystagogue, however,

held the key - a familiar element that I latched on to:
- Mystic

...

Read the full article here

A recent visit to Games Radar has revealed a few additional tidbits to us about the Mystics. Now, we bring you what we've learned about the Mystic's feats. For more on the Godly powers you may be granted, be sure to visit them!

The first ability we learned of, Numinous Flame, hurls a fireball at your target. To add insult to injury, it also causes MORE damage over time after it hits! Burn, baby, burn :) Like all feats, you can add up to 3 points to make it even meaner.

The second ability is a higher-level feat that Mystics can use. This feat, tagged Energy Chant, is sure to make you popular with the other classes that rely on energy to kill things. This feat will increase your target's energy regeneration by quite a bit for a short time. Clearly, additional feat points spent here are going to make you even more popular ;) Originally, MMORPG.com listed this in their Mystic Feat Tree Preview as a level 5 feat. It's not yet known if this has changed or if it's still at this level.

Until next time, this is Charabis saying, goodnight. Join us soon for more updates on Search for Rare and Wonderous Creatures of the Gaming World!

In the July newsletter for Gods and Heroes, they took a nice look at the Mystic class. Giving in to our obsession with this class, we grabbed a copy and were off to revisit the Mystics once more!

We located many pictures we hadn't seen before scanning through it. Not wanting to be greedy, we've added them to this update for your viewing pleasure. Please be sure to enjoy these wonderful glimpses into this most amazing creature!

Within the article, Perpetual has confirmed that the Mystics do have crowd control abilities. The picture above is believed to be one such spell, although the name of it is not currently known. Combined with Damage over Time and instant damage spells, the Mystic is sure to devastate anything they come across.

They did, however, remind us that the Mystic is fragile. They can only wear light armors, making them more vulnerable to their enemies. It would seem a Mystic should seek out a tank early in their career if they want to live long enough to make their name known.

Additionally, the two trees the Mystics have access to, Elemental Feats and Necromancy, allow for some great options. While the elemental feats can inflict crippling damage on their enemies, Necromancy Feats allow them to become more proficient at infecting their enemies with disease, corruption, and poison. The Necromancy Specialization Feats also allow the Mystic to summon a shade from the underworld and bind it to their will, forcing the blighted creature to fight on their behalf.

For us, one of the more interesting things to come out of the article was a brief mention of minions. As expected, each God gives them a different one. As the article says:

Trevia sends Ixion, a Skeletal mage, to her Mystics. Ixion was once a noble king of Thessaly until he committed a grievous crime and was punished severely by the gods. He is being given a chance to redeem himself by following a Mystic of Trevia into battle against the enemies of Rome. Bacchus grants his Mystics the services of Maron, a Silenus (better known as a Faunus). Maron was known to have fought bravely in the Olympians’ war against the Gigantes in days of yore, and his fighting spirit has been reawakened as the Telchine threat looms every more menacingly over Rome. These powerful mythical creatures will no doubt be valuable additions to Mystics’ squads as they seek to quell the unrest in the territories of the Republic.

Having exhausted our resources once more, we were off to our home base to relax. We didn't stay long though! There are just too many rare and wonderous creatures out there to find! Until we find the next one, this is Charabis saying "Good night" for Search for Rare and Wonderous Creatures of the Gaming World.