Lineage II/Elven Mystic

=Current Status: Mostly complete, Still Updating= =The Elven Mystic= The Elven Mystic class is the starting magic user class for Elves.

Equipment
The Elven Mystic class has several key advantages at the start of game that helps it trememdously in the area of equipment.

First, the Elven Village area is very peaceful in contrast with other starting locations; the majority of creatures within the area is non-aggressive (non-aggro), and it is not until around level 15 do mobs become more aggressive. The land area is flat and the mob concentration tends to be low (per square foot). As a result, social mobs do not group up against a player unless the player made major mistakes.

Second, the Elves have access to two of the more lucrative early quests. One requires hunting for Spore Sacs in return for 2000 adena, while the other, Spider Legs for 1000 adena and Experience Points. Between these two and the drops from the mobs, it is extremely easy for Elven Mystics to quickly acquire very good Non-grade (NG) equipment.

In addition, the Level 10 weapon quest that is common across all races is, at least from experience, significantly easier for Elves. This translate to a very quick and high return on efforts in hunting, and this gives Elves a good starting advantage in terms of equipment.

Armour
In terms of armour, Elven Mystic is better off using the Devotion Set (Tunic of Devotion, Stockings of Devotion and Leather Helmet) than the (slightly) better Tunic of Magic and its equivalent in Lower Body armour. While the Tunic of Magic is better slightly in terms of defense and MP bonus, the 15% casting speed increase a Devotion Set provides gives any magic users an edge that offsets the defense and MP gains.

And of course, there is no real reason for Elven Mystics to wear light and heavy armour. They simply do not gain much from these armour aside from defense, and in fact loses out in terms of casting speeds.

Weapons
For weapons, it's a simple affair -- the best you can afford, and quickly. It's up to personal prefence whether you wish to have a two-handed staff, or a book, or some... stuff (a Voodoo Doll is a weapon...?). In terms of magical damage added to your spell, equivalent staff, book and... stuff all add the same amounts of magic damage.

The difference is largely in terms of speed of physical attack, the amount of damage added, weight and appearance. As a mystic, you won't really be that concerned about physical damage at this stage -- you should be easily able to kill off most mobs in Elven Village with magic attacks.

As for appearance, some players like using a book because it looks better. :)

Skills
This class has skills that focuses on the following areas: Passives, Magical Attacks, Buffs & Debuffs and Healing.

Unlike the fighter classes, this class need not much thought in terms of skills progression; everything within the skills inventory available between Levels 1 through 19 are useful even after your 1st Profession Change.

Passive Skills such as Armour Mastery, Weapon Mastery and Anti-Magic are stacked skills and are necessary for later skills progressions. These Skills increases defensives (mundane and magical) and mundane offensive power, so taking these are default.

The remaining Passives increases attack, spell casting and mana recovery speeds, and are thus a no-brainer for magic users.

Magical Attacks are the primary offensive capabilities of any spell casters, so the 2 spells available at these levels are key essential skills. Short of a Mystic running around with a Fighter weapon hacking apart things for fun and laughter, there is little reason not to take these two Skills.

Buffs & Debuffs are a sort of in-between. Buffs are certainly nice to have, and should be taken; the two available at these levels are attack and defense increases, so both are good. The two Debuffs though, are very nice to have but not strictly mandatory.

Lastly, the Healing Skills. Mystics get a lot of healing spells, and they are very nice indeed. The ability to extend a hunting run through healing spells means a great deal, and Elves are notoriously fragile.. and Mystics even more so, since they tend to wear robes and not full-on armour.

However, if you are really dead set on becoming a Wizard (and its subclasses), Healing skills may not be that critical. If you feel the Skill Points can be better used elsewhere, you can skip these, but it's not really recommended and can be really useful.