Mystic Strategy

Mystics are the "love child" between a cleric (healer) and a venomancer (pet user). As such, the mystic class can be a complicated class to play. Here are some strategy hints for how to play them.

Mystics in PvE
The most-used skills will be your two starting attack skills, Nature's Vengeance and Swirling Mist for basic damage dealing. The type of pets and skill set you'll use will depend on whether you are filling a "DD", "Support", or "Hybrid" role.

DD (Damage Dealing)
Summon - Storm Mistress. While Devil Chihyu can also compliment a full attack style, Storm has a constantly spammable ranged metal attack as well as her AoE.

Skill Sets - Nature's Vengeance, Swirling Mist, Gale Force, Bramble Tornado, Punishing Sting, Befuddling Creeper, Spidervine, Lysing, Thicket, Craglord, Energy Leech, Transference, Rapid Growth, and Clear Thoughts.

Strategy -  You'll be on the front lines using Storm's range as you send her in while spamming Vengeance and Mist until you build enough sparks to fire Thicket or Crag. In TT, you'll be debuffing the boss (be careful not to overwrite other stronger debuffs) building chi and unleashing your Thicket or Crag while the boss is under your plant's control. After using your two spark skills, try to Lyse your plants to deal extra damage and more lasting debuffs, then resummon Sting to continue the damage. Mana up your summon using Transference (Storm preferably or Devil after he Boosts himself) and send them in, After they burn through all their mana, Leech them then hit Rapid Growth for extra damage. This is where the preferences may differ. If you want more mag attack damage Leech the Storm and Growth will give an insane boost. If you used Devil, Leech him and Growth to have both a boost in mag attack + a nice crit ratting. If you're not MP charmed, replenish your MP using Clear Thoughts and continue all of the above.

Support
Summon - Salvation. While both Devil and Storm have some nice "save your squad's behind in a pinch" control skills such as stuns and seals, you're much better off using Salvation.

Skill Sets - Break in the Clouds, Fallen Petals, Comforting Mist, Healing Herb, Vital Herb, Transference, Rapid Growth, Clear Thoughts, and Nature's Barrier.

Strategy - You are only half a cleric, and while people can come back from the dead with your res buff, you aren't almighty. In most instances you can solo heal, but take note you might have to work double what a cleric would need to work and you do not have Regeneration Aura (A.K.A. "BB") which cripples mystics a bit in preferred healing. You can still debuff but you will not be attacking, you're essentially trying to play the cleric role and because of this, you don't have time to spare DDing. Toss Salvation buffs on your main tank and Fallen Petals. (Helpful tip: Fallen Petals only works when your tank takes damage and only ticks 9 seconds after. It also stacks with Iron Heart.) Also set your plants as they run in to take aggro. If you have Sage or Demon version of Salvation and the boss is prone to AoEs, abuse her AoE shield on the group to massively reduce damage. Drop your Healing Herb and Vital Herb as well and constantly watch to make sure they don't stay off field for long periods of time. Spam your Break in the Clouds while watching the Fallen Petals buff and rebuff when necessary all the while keeping Salvation's mana up and healthy. When using Martyrdom, Transference before casting so that when the hits come in and her mana gets depleted in chunks, her buff will last a bit longer. In a pinch if you need to cast loads of heals in one go, Rapid Growth and if you're not MP charmed, use Clear Thoughts to regain Mana.

Hybrid
Summon - Interchangeable between all three.

Skill Set - Everything at your disposal!

Strategy - If you aren't fulfilling one specific role or the other, this is the role you'll naturally fall into. Do all of the above as needed. There's not much to say except always remember to cast your Verdant Shell on yourself, as you can easily get wrapped up in utilizing all the tools before you.

Mystic in Territory War
Mystics can provide a multitude of roles that support a wide variety of squad set ups in Territory Wars. "Jack of all trades" in this particular case is a good thing.

Resurrection - This buff is great for catapult ("cata") squads, especially the demon version. Coming back without a charm tick in TWs is crucial when a barb goes down and is unbuffed upon resurrecting. Cata clerics also shouldn't mind this too much.

Devil Chihyu - Nice back up stuns when you tab though high priority targets. Unless they've popped their anti-stun this usually traps a good number of people unaware. Great for surprise stunning clerics in the air. Energy Leeching this summon will give you of course crit and PDef bonuses, which shouldn't be ignored.

Storm Mistress - AoE Silence from making it Sage/Demon version, and a nice Metal damage AoE makes her another great choice to have out as well. Leeching grants magic defense and magic attack so comboing it with rapid growth can produce some attacking power.

Salvation - Her shields can save yourself and other people. Leeching her isn't exactly necessary as she acts better as a secondary medic around for catas. Put into a cata team she can AoE shield everyone near by (on ground cata units.)

Bramble Tornado - The only class sporting a knockback skill that works on players, it's indispensable for pushing incoming catas back a few annoying meters as well as incoming BMs and seekers. While Demon Tornado adds an extra knockback meter, Sage shouldn't be ignored just because it doesn't have that extra meter (Sage Bramble has a chance to cast without consuming chi, which is great for saving up for other chi reliant and high damaging skills such as Thicket). Take care while doing it to ranged classes; while it can interrupt channeling you don't want to fall out of range of your max and into easy range of their attacks.

Gale Force - You may or may not be using this skill often, but another seal that has an AoE is nice for control purposes. Also, it makes those pesky veno pets run away form you, giving enough time to dodge a fatal nix bleed.

Thicket - One of the mystic's best two spark weapons aside from Cragglord. What's not to like about a seal, freeze, and additional HF (from demon) or increased overall damage output (sage)?

Depending on what you're going to be asked to do, always keep a few things in mind when TWing as a mystic in any given squad:

If you can always be MP charmed - If you're caught in the middle of skill spamming and forget to pop MP pots you're going to be in a bit of trouble. Since Mystics can troll with knockback, have their res buffs and have have an anti stun skill (Energy Leech), you'll always need to think on your feet.

Have your pet set to defend (unless it's Salvation) - Regardless of whether it's Devil or Storm you main most often, make sure it's set to defend. That way when you're handling someone else, and a sin or some other class decides to gank you, your pet will go scurrying after them.

Resurrect buff cata barbs and clerics when they die, get Purged, or buff wears off - As with most mystic skills it's MP heavy, and a level 10, Sage, or Demon res buff will charm tick you. If you have the time and MP to burn and if you feel like it, you can also res buff your strongest DDs (such as your R9 or your Nirvana armored teammates).