Scarlet Legacy Mystic PvP Opinions

Scarlet Legacy Mystic PvP Opinions by omgitsjava

Hey guys, just a quick bit of info before we get started:

I played a level 30 Mystic named Javasocute.
I was #1 on the PvP kills ladder at the end of CBT (something around 800 kills 100 deaths).
This review is written from the perspective of the only class I played, the Mystic.
The term “distance closer” refers to a skill that either teleports you to, or quickly moves your character to a targeted opponent.
The term “CC” refers to a crowd-control effect (i.e. a mesmerize, snare, stun, or root).
Everything in this review is my own opinion and is by no means “right”, anyone and everyone may have their own opinions about the Mystic and that’s perfectly alright with me.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s begin!

I’ll start this off by saying that PvP as a Mystic is very fun, but definitely has some balance issues (at least at level 30, and that’s not to say it couldn’t be balanced at higher level caps). There are some things a Mystic can do that raise them into a league the other classes can only dream of being in. Throughout my entire CBT experience, I found noone from the other 3 classes that could best me in a 1v1. Even starting at half health, or without a shield, they just couldn’t do it. I’m not saying this to brag, I’m actually stating it in disappointment, and in this article I intend to outline some of the reasons why I feel it was happening.

My first point is the inherent advantage of attacking from a range. Having the exclusive ability to devastate an opponent while maintaining a safe distance is an invaluable asset to the Mystic, allowing for a wide range of tactical and maneuverability options not afforded to other classes. Some examples of this are:

1. In the Open-PvP zone, there are many locations in which a Mystic can pull some rather nasty and somewhat unfair tricks. One of which takes place in the main town area, where a Mystic can CC an approaching opponent, hop onto the edge of a roof, and proceed to attack his enemy. In this position, when the enemy’s CC is broken, his distance closer charges him to melee range with the Mystic (leaving him in mid-air, just off the roof), and he simply falls to the ground, allowing the Mystic to shoot more spells while the opponent scrambles to climb the building, having wasted his distance closing cooldown.

2. At the fence near the middle spawn point in the Open-PvP zone, a Mystic can jump up, just barely gaining line-of-sight of an enemy on the other side of the fence, start casting a spell, and the spell fires off successfully despite the enemy not being able to attack/cast on the Mystic.

3. At the climbing rocks leading up to the main town’s spawn point in the Open-PvP zone, a Mystic can attack up or down them with ease while any other class can take upwards of 45 seconds climbing them to reach an opponent who may then simply jump off, unscathed.

4. In Rain of Blood, a Mystic can camp on the top-level bridges and safely rain hell upon defenseless enemies on the bottom-level, due to having numerous skills that out-range the short distance to the bottom. There are even several spots on the top-level bridges where a Mystic can make it impossible for the opposing team to capture a flag, while denying them the chance to do anything about it.

My second point is: Mystics having the ability to run while casting, while an insanely cool and unique feature of Scarlet Legacy, just isn’t fair in PvP situations. When spells can be fired at a fleeing adversary without pause, he is left with little hope of escape. This is in stark contradiction to the Mystic, where it’s nearly impossible to be denied circumvention from any assailant with ease. Their combination of a shield, a heal, extra preparation and reaction time from the ability to maintain a distance, and their broad selection of CC abilities make death for a Mystic more of a failure on his part than a success for his killer.

Which brings me to my final point. Lullaby (15sec cooldown, 13 sec duration) and Freeze Aura(25sec cooldown, 10sec duration) providing long CC times while being on relatively short cooldowns when all 3 other classes are melee-range is crazy. They may all have distance closing skills, but unless they get a way to remove CC mechanics they simply can’t win against a Mystic. Possible scenarios include:

1.The enemy uses his distance closer to engage. The Mystic Freeze Aura’s him and steps back to 400yards. He does 2 Burning Orbs followed by Lullaby, sleeping the enemy right as he closes the gap to the Mystic again. The Mystic backs away to 400yards again, charges a Falling Star followed by more Burning Orbs and Singe Shot. If by some miracle the enemy is still alive, Freeze Aura is already recharged provided the durations on the first 2 CC’s were waited out. The cycle repeats itself while the Mystic maintains Flow Shield and avoids damage altogether.

2.The enemy waits until the first CC on him is broken to use his distance

closer. The Mystic uses Heavenly Thunder Call, stunning the enemy before he can get a combo off and giving the Mystic plenty of time to use another CC and restart his chain.

3.The enemy simply doesn’t use his distance closer and accepts his inevitable
fate, knowing no matter what he does, he’ll be visiting a nearby respawn point in the immediate future.

Many of my enemies have largely fallen into the third category after countless campaigns demoralized them into no longer trying. I feel this is a failure of class balance and denies players the thrill of competition as well as the opportunity to execute artful play, which in my opinion, is what PvP is all about.

In closing, while playing Mystic in Scarlet Legacy has been a refreshing change of pace from my recent gaming ventures, I’m happy the CBT has ended, and I hope some things have changed before OBT comes up.