Tactics: Support Classes Comparison Guide

Know you want to play a support class in TERA but need help deciding which?

Our final entry in the class skills features follows the same format as our previous one for melee classes. This one covers TERA's support classes: Mystic and Priest. What is each class like and how do they compare to each other? This overview will not only cover a bit about each class and the use of its skills, but also look at the pros and cons of each and see how both fit into different play-styles and roles.

Continue reading if you want to learn more about these two classes, to broaden your understanding.


Roles: Similarities and Differences

 

Similarities

  • Low damage attacks.

  • Direct heals.

  • Heals over Time (HoTs).

  • Buffs.

  • Crowd Control (CC).

  • Resurrects.

  • Status cures.

  • Peer Summoning (teleports party members to you).

  • Wears cloth/robe armor.

 

So what's different?

 

Mystic

  • Ability to drop healing balls for on-demand pickup and healing. An interesting form of healing able to be used with non-conventional healing tactics.

  • Has skills which allow you to give MP to yourself and your party members.

  • More total CC in the form of a super long range and large AoE stun which is practically impossible to miss and can even hit people out of their evasive movement skills and a long range mega snare which provides a 90% slowing effect for 6s.

  • Can use Teleport as a movement skill for traveling, positioning or as a quick get-out or get-in.

  • Unique buff which resurrects nearest party member while the effect is active.

  • A variety of auras; two can be used simultaneously. Auras can provide powerful and constant in-combat support, assuming you can support the also constant MP drain. Without having to repeatedly stop to cast heals or buffs you can become less susceptible to pressure and interrupts.

  • Can provide in-combat movement speed buff.

  • Nature of total skill set allows for more freedom in movement around the battlefield.

  • Lack of dependence on frontal ground placed AoEs can be considered to be more convenient by some people. Due to TERA's action combat system, it is often wise to spread out to reduce damage taken simultaneously by the team from various attacks which would increase the difficulty of making optimal use of said AoEs. However, some team builds may take this into account and be designed to not spread, making those AoEs more practical.

Priest

  • Has more methods of healing, including big direct heals and full party heals.

  • Can heal themselves easier and faster.

  • More skills for HP upkeep.

  • Party barrier buff provides for immense protection and is capable of buying valuable time.

  • Party curing is possible.

  • Capable of standing up knocked down party members within a long range.

  • Long duration buffs to increase overall team efficiency and effectiveness.

  • An additional close range AoE attack allows more offensive contribution via direct damage.

  • Sleep, with a 10s duration, is very powerful for disabling.

  • Lack of cool-downs on some of their heals means they can pump out heals repeatedly with enough MP in reserve.

  • In addition to summoning party members, they can also teleport their party to camps.



Page 1: Roles: Similarities and Differences
Page 2: Attacks, MP Recovery, Knockdown Recovery and Movement
Page 3: Healing, Cures and Resurrects
Page 4: Buffs, Crowd Control and Utility

« Previous 1 2 3 4

Comments

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not just healers!
# Apr 23 2012 at 2:25 PM Rating: Default
I feel like I chose the wrong server as all people invite mystic for is healing, they can chunk out decent dps, while supplying buffs. Best party I had for dungeon BAMs so far had priest healing mystic dps/buff/offheal and then tank and 2 dps. Mystic can heal no problem but people are missing the boat if they think thats all that they are. Was able to Duo all the BAMs up to lv33 with a slayer yesterday in OB. Fun stuff, just watch aggro and keep your thrall up.
Mystic
# Jul 28 2010 at 9:06 PM Rating: Decent
Mystics are looking better and better, and truly do seem like a viable support class. I'm not such a big fan of Essence of Rejuvenation, as it would probably be awkward in PvP to have to run around picking those up - but excellent spells like Sanctuary of Leach, Binding Shot, and Flash Shot are great party skills that look perfect for groups that want to PvP. If the healing of a Priest can't counter the use of those skills, I might be forming most of my groups with Mystics.
Mystic
# Jul 25 2010 at 2:50 PM Rating: Decent
This is the first piece mentioning the Mystic that's made the class seem interesting to me.
Mystic
# Jul 25 2010 at 5:43 PM Rating: Excellent
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137 posts
What about other pieces make mystic not seem interesting? I happen to like mystic a lot, they have a lot of cool uses and support. Of course, priests have their own strengths too.
Mystic
# Jul 26 2010 at 1:58 AM Rating: Decent
I hadn't heard about auras before, or that more than one could be used at once. This is also the only place I got any details about Essence Leech. I guess they left out details and that made the class seem less interesting.
Mystic
# Jul 26 2010 at 8:29 AM Rating: Excellent
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137 posts
It seems that people are more commonly biased toward preferring priest, perhaps because of their numbers and skills but overlooking the trade off of their potential output vs mobility and other utility in actual uncontrolled situations.
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