Post by Kieran on Feb 8, 2011 11:31:26 GMT -5
For the most current Mind Guide go to page Six of this thread and scroll down.
Introduction:
From my experience, the Mind is quite unlike the other Archetypes, as it is mainly meant as a support class (think Monk or Cleric in any other MMORPG), but it also can deal a nice amount of damage. Additionally, the Mind has incredible energy management in the later levels, so it's admittedly a late bloomer - you'll might have some difficulty at first, but it becomes much easier later on. Don't let this discourage you, though - the Mind is a great Archetype with profound levels of synergy (mostly showing later on), and if the support playstyle is for you, then I highly recommend playing a Mind.
Generic Preface:
All of my builds are meant to be equally playable in both PVE and PVP. Because of this, if you're a PVE-only kind of guy, feel free to remove the PVP advantages (mainly Nailed to the Ground and Crippling Challenge) and replace with the next Rank up - or allocate the advantage points somewhere completely different, as it's ultimately up to you. I would like to say though that even though my builds can do PVP, they also built to perform great in PVE, so it isn't like you're losing anything by having that PVP aspect to the build.
Powers:
Level 1: Psi Lash
Level 1: Ego Blast (R2, Mind Opener, Rude Awakening)
Level 6: Teleport
Level 6: Ego Sprites (R2, R3)
Level 8: Aura of Radiant Protection (R2, R3, RUNIC GLOW FTW!!!)
Level 11: Empathic Healing (R2, R3)
Level 14: Telekinetic Shield (R2, R3, Telekinetic Reinforcement)
Level 17: Ego Sleep (Plagued By Nightmares, Nailed to the Ground)
Level 22: Telepathic Reverberation (N/A)
Level 27: Ego Hold (Mass Effect)
Level 32: Ego Storm (R2, Malevolent Manifestation)
Level 35: Whatever travel power floats your boat.
Level 40: Mindful Reinforcement (R2, Revitalizing Boost)
Talents:
Presence/Endurance
Presence/Recovery
Endurance/Recovery
Presence/Intelligence
Endurance/Intelligence
Recovery/Intelligence
Power Explanations:
Psi Lash: This is your energy builder and nothing more - I wouldn't recommend any of the advantages because the energy gain from Accelerated Metabolism isn't that much, the damage is too low to warrant upgrading, and you're going to have fantastic energy management later on anyways.
Ego Blast: This power is going to be one of your two spam damage skills. The range is awesome and the damage is great, especially when boosted by Mind Opener (damage increases when you gain Telepathic Reverberation) and Rude Awakening (does 15% more damage to sleeping targets). Take up to Rank 2 for increased damage.
Teleport: I highly recommend this power over any other travel power because it allows you to get out of dangerous situations very quickly and painlessly. Say you’re surrounded and being pummeled to death by a number of baddies – all you gotta do is pop into teleport, launch straight up, and keep going until you lose aggro. If you’re in a building, just use teleport to retreat the way you came until you’re in the clear. Additionally, teleport allows you to skip the hordes of hallway baddies that are a pain in the rear. Unfortunately, I was unable to rank up Teleport because of a lack of spare advantage points. However, if the lack of R2 doesn't fly with you, feel free to remove either Telekinetic Reinforcement or Rude Awakening (I'd recommend removing the former over the latter) in order to level up your Teleport.
Ego Sprites: While the damage may not seem on the level of Ego Blast, the catch with this power is that Ego Sprites will not wake up a sleeping target. This allows you to put your target to sleep (once you gain Ego Sleep later on) and spam this until they wake up. As for the advantages, while Slave Mentality might seem great, research has shown that the healing effect is minimal, so you'll be wanting to take Rank 3 on this instead.
Aura of Radiant Protection: A passive protection buff for you and your allies, I highly recommend grabbing Rank 3.
Empathic Healing: I chose this over Psionic Healing for a number of reasons. First of all, with the arrival of Free-To-Play, Empathic Healing is no longer interruptable and it no longer has a recharge time, which makes this power much better than it used to be. Moreover, this heal is a maintained heal, which means you can pop it off on an ally and not worry about it, while Psionic Heal is a charged heal that takes three seconds to fully charge. While three second many not seem that long, battle can be won and lost in that time (yay for old words of wisdom). Seriously though, you could be charging up Psionic Healing and your ally could be dead by the time you cast it. On the other hand, Empathic Healing has an activation time of .67 seconds, which allows you to cast it very quickly. To top all this off, a fully maintained Empathic Healing heals for more than a fully charged Psionic Healing. The only downside to Empathic Healing is its 50 foot range, but honestly, your teammates are going to wanna stay within fifty feet to take advantage of your Aura of Radiant Protection anyways, so this isn't really a limiting factor. At the start of an instance, just make sure to briefly remind your allies to remain within range and you'll be good to go. Oh, and you'll definitely want to take Rank 3 with this power.
Telekinetic Shield: As the Mind's only source of protection, I highly recommend grabbing Rank 3 in order to increase your already-low survivability. Additionally, Telekinetic Reinforcement is very nice because you can just tap your shield in order to activate it, granting you a nice resistance to physical damage in the blink of an eye.
Ego Sleep: This power is fantastic. Tapping it applies Sleep to your target while Charging increases the area of its effect. Use this power to put your foes to sleep before beginning a fight, spam Ego Sprites on them until they're about to wake up, then smack them upside the head with Ego Blast coupled with Rude Awakening. With a 12 second duration and a fifteen second recharge (and that's assuming that Ego Sleep lasts the full 12 seconds), there is going to be a three second interlude until you can put your target to sleep again, so while waiting for those three seconds to pass, feel free to do whatever you want; turtle up behind your shield, temporarily Teleport away, or just go with the flow - it's your call. While R3 could cause this power to be spammed, I recommend Plagued By Nightmares for the awesome 10% damage debuff, while Nailed to the Ground is just absolutely necessary for PVP. But if you're a PVE-only kind of guy, feel free to take the advantage points away from Nailed to the Ground and invest them in R2 instead.
Telepathic Reverberation: An amazingly incredible power, this will solve any energy problems you have. Because it gives you energy for each target you hold as well as for held targets that you damage, this power allows you to spam your other powers to your heart's content. This power also gives a boost in damage to Ego Blast via Mind Opener, which is also very nice.
Ego Hold: This power is pretty nice, but ranking up is unnecessary because it has a 12 second duration and a 10 second recharge time (of course, that's assuming that it lasts the full 12 seconds), so it is already spammable. The reason I recommend Mass Effect is because the 16 second duration makes for longer-lasting holds, while the 15 foot AOE allows for more targets to be snared and grants you more energy by means of Telepathic Reverberation. I personally prefer Ego Sleep over Ego Hold, but regardless, it is still a good power.
Ego Storm: This power is a fantastic AOE DPS machine, and with Rank 2 and Malevolent Manifestation, it also grants you extraordinary amounts of energy via Telepathic Reverberation. I recommend this power over Summon Nightmare because it is able to grant you great energy, it does awesome damage, and it is the Mind's only AOE attack. Even though Summon Nightmare is wickedly cool, it just isn't as good as R2 Ego Storm with Malevolent Manifestation.
Mindful Reinforcement: This is an awesome shielding power that will shield up to 1,000 base damage at Rank 2. If the shield doesn't absorb the full damage, it heals the target for two times whatever amount of shieldable damage was remaining. On the other hand, with Revitalizing Boost, if the shield absorbs the full damage, then you gain a boost of energy. With the energy gain and the lack of a cooldown, you're able to spam this skill until the cows come home. Either way, it's a win-win situation.
Talent Explanations:
Presence increases the amount of healing and damage shielding you do while also decreasing the amount of threat you generate, thus making you less of a target for NPCs. Intelligence reduces the energy costs of your powers and decreases your cooldown times, Recovery increases the amount of energy you go into battle with and increases the amount of energy gained from your Energy Builder, and last but not least, Endurance increases your overall amount of energy and also boosts your Energy Builder gain.
I recommend getting the ones listed because by choosing +5s for +8s essentially gives you two extra Talent points than you would get by sticking with +8s (10 compared to 8). Additionally, there is a complex system of Diminishing Returns for most Characteristics once you get beyond 200-220, so over-leveling your stats can have marginal results later on while balancing them out guarantees that you have good, high level stats in multiple Characteristics.
Extra Note:
I would like to quote GammaBreaker on the subject of Crippling Challenge's side effect: "Crippling Challenge, while an essential block-breaker in PVP, is also a *taunt* in PVE. It will make whatever you're shooting come over and sock you in the chops. Even if it's a cosmic boss being tanked by a Behemoth."
So please be aware of this when you use a power with Crippling Challenge.
To be honest, the reason I don't recommend this advantage with Ego Blast is because in PVP, your role is primarily support and crowd control - it's the job of your allies to do the damage, and they'll all probably have Crippling Challenge. Meanwhile, in PVE, the taunt aspect of Crippling Challenge could get you and your teammates killed if you pull aggro. But these are just my two cents on the matter.
Extra Note #2: Unfortunately, I was not able to spec Teleport to Rank 2, so your speed is going to be somewhat Enslaved (forget the "Odyessy to the West" part... and yeah... this doesn't really make sense...) - LAME PUN INTENDED!!!
Conclusion:
Well, that’s all for now – if you have any input or advice for improving this guide, please feel free to let me know! Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me either by PM or in-game! And if I have errors anywhere in my guide, please let me know and I’ll fix them as soon as possible!
UPDATE:
I fixed numerous spelling and grammar mistakes, and I reworded some areas to allow for clearer explanation.
Introduction:
From my experience, the Mind is quite unlike the other Archetypes, as it is mainly meant as a support class (think Monk or Cleric in any other MMORPG), but it also can deal a nice amount of damage. Additionally, the Mind has incredible energy management in the later levels, so it's admittedly a late bloomer - you'll might have some difficulty at first, but it becomes much easier later on. Don't let this discourage you, though - the Mind is a great Archetype with profound levels of synergy (mostly showing later on), and if the support playstyle is for you, then I highly recommend playing a Mind.
Generic Preface:
All of my builds are meant to be equally playable in both PVE and PVP. Because of this, if you're a PVE-only kind of guy, feel free to remove the PVP advantages (mainly Nailed to the Ground and Crippling Challenge) and replace with the next Rank up - or allocate the advantage points somewhere completely different, as it's ultimately up to you. I would like to say though that even though my builds can do PVP, they also built to perform great in PVE, so it isn't like you're losing anything by having that PVP aspect to the build.
Powers:
Level 1: Psi Lash
Level 1: Ego Blast (R2, Mind Opener, Rude Awakening)
Level 6: Teleport
Level 6: Ego Sprites (R2, R3)
Level 8: Aura of Radiant Protection (R2, R3, RUNIC GLOW FTW!!!)
Level 11: Empathic Healing (R2, R3)
Level 14: Telekinetic Shield (R2, R3, Telekinetic Reinforcement)
Level 17: Ego Sleep (Plagued By Nightmares, Nailed to the Ground)
Level 22: Telepathic Reverberation (N/A)
Level 27: Ego Hold (Mass Effect)
Level 32: Ego Storm (R2, Malevolent Manifestation)
Level 35: Whatever travel power floats your boat.
Level 40: Mindful Reinforcement (R2, Revitalizing Boost)
Talents:
Presence/Endurance
Presence/Recovery
Endurance/Recovery
Presence/Intelligence
Endurance/Intelligence
Recovery/Intelligence
Power Explanations:
Psi Lash: This is your energy builder and nothing more - I wouldn't recommend any of the advantages because the energy gain from Accelerated Metabolism isn't that much, the damage is too low to warrant upgrading, and you're going to have fantastic energy management later on anyways.
Ego Blast: This power is going to be one of your two spam damage skills. The range is awesome and the damage is great, especially when boosted by Mind Opener (damage increases when you gain Telepathic Reverberation) and Rude Awakening (does 15% more damage to sleeping targets). Take up to Rank 2 for increased damage.
Teleport: I highly recommend this power over any other travel power because it allows you to get out of dangerous situations very quickly and painlessly. Say you’re surrounded and being pummeled to death by a number of baddies – all you gotta do is pop into teleport, launch straight up, and keep going until you lose aggro. If you’re in a building, just use teleport to retreat the way you came until you’re in the clear. Additionally, teleport allows you to skip the hordes of hallway baddies that are a pain in the rear. Unfortunately, I was unable to rank up Teleport because of a lack of spare advantage points. However, if the lack of R2 doesn't fly with you, feel free to remove either Telekinetic Reinforcement or Rude Awakening (I'd recommend removing the former over the latter) in order to level up your Teleport.
Ego Sprites: While the damage may not seem on the level of Ego Blast, the catch with this power is that Ego Sprites will not wake up a sleeping target. This allows you to put your target to sleep (once you gain Ego Sleep later on) and spam this until they wake up. As for the advantages, while Slave Mentality might seem great, research has shown that the healing effect is minimal, so you'll be wanting to take Rank 3 on this instead.
Aura of Radiant Protection: A passive protection buff for you and your allies, I highly recommend grabbing Rank 3.
Empathic Healing: I chose this over Psionic Healing for a number of reasons. First of all, with the arrival of Free-To-Play, Empathic Healing is no longer interruptable and it no longer has a recharge time, which makes this power much better than it used to be. Moreover, this heal is a maintained heal, which means you can pop it off on an ally and not worry about it, while Psionic Heal is a charged heal that takes three seconds to fully charge. While three second many not seem that long, battle can be won and lost in that time (yay for old words of wisdom). Seriously though, you could be charging up Psionic Healing and your ally could be dead by the time you cast it. On the other hand, Empathic Healing has an activation time of .67 seconds, which allows you to cast it very quickly. To top all this off, a fully maintained Empathic Healing heals for more than a fully charged Psionic Healing. The only downside to Empathic Healing is its 50 foot range, but honestly, your teammates are going to wanna stay within fifty feet to take advantage of your Aura of Radiant Protection anyways, so this isn't really a limiting factor. At the start of an instance, just make sure to briefly remind your allies to remain within range and you'll be good to go. Oh, and you'll definitely want to take Rank 3 with this power.
Telekinetic Shield: As the Mind's only source of protection, I highly recommend grabbing Rank 3 in order to increase your already-low survivability. Additionally, Telekinetic Reinforcement is very nice because you can just tap your shield in order to activate it, granting you a nice resistance to physical damage in the blink of an eye.
Ego Sleep: This power is fantastic. Tapping it applies Sleep to your target while Charging increases the area of its effect. Use this power to put your foes to sleep before beginning a fight, spam Ego Sprites on them until they're about to wake up, then smack them upside the head with Ego Blast coupled with Rude Awakening. With a 12 second duration and a fifteen second recharge (and that's assuming that Ego Sleep lasts the full 12 seconds), there is going to be a three second interlude until you can put your target to sleep again, so while waiting for those three seconds to pass, feel free to do whatever you want; turtle up behind your shield, temporarily Teleport away, or just go with the flow - it's your call. While R3 could cause this power to be spammed, I recommend Plagued By Nightmares for the awesome 10% damage debuff, while Nailed to the Ground is just absolutely necessary for PVP. But if you're a PVE-only kind of guy, feel free to take the advantage points away from Nailed to the Ground and invest them in R2 instead.
Telepathic Reverberation: An amazingly incredible power, this will solve any energy problems you have. Because it gives you energy for each target you hold as well as for held targets that you damage, this power allows you to spam your other powers to your heart's content. This power also gives a boost in damage to Ego Blast via Mind Opener, which is also very nice.
Ego Hold: This power is pretty nice, but ranking up is unnecessary because it has a 12 second duration and a 10 second recharge time (of course, that's assuming that it lasts the full 12 seconds), so it is already spammable. The reason I recommend Mass Effect is because the 16 second duration makes for longer-lasting holds, while the 15 foot AOE allows for more targets to be snared and grants you more energy by means of Telepathic Reverberation. I personally prefer Ego Sleep over Ego Hold, but regardless, it is still a good power.
Ego Storm: This power is a fantastic AOE DPS machine, and with Rank 2 and Malevolent Manifestation, it also grants you extraordinary amounts of energy via Telepathic Reverberation. I recommend this power over Summon Nightmare because it is able to grant you great energy, it does awesome damage, and it is the Mind's only AOE attack. Even though Summon Nightmare is wickedly cool, it just isn't as good as R2 Ego Storm with Malevolent Manifestation.
Mindful Reinforcement: This is an awesome shielding power that will shield up to 1,000 base damage at Rank 2. If the shield doesn't absorb the full damage, it heals the target for two times whatever amount of shieldable damage was remaining. On the other hand, with Revitalizing Boost, if the shield absorbs the full damage, then you gain a boost of energy. With the energy gain and the lack of a cooldown, you're able to spam this skill until the cows come home. Either way, it's a win-win situation.
Talent Explanations:
Presence increases the amount of healing and damage shielding you do while also decreasing the amount of threat you generate, thus making you less of a target for NPCs. Intelligence reduces the energy costs of your powers and decreases your cooldown times, Recovery increases the amount of energy you go into battle with and increases the amount of energy gained from your Energy Builder, and last but not least, Endurance increases your overall amount of energy and also boosts your Energy Builder gain.
I recommend getting the ones listed because by choosing +5s for +8s essentially gives you two extra Talent points than you would get by sticking with +8s (10 compared to 8). Additionally, there is a complex system of Diminishing Returns for most Characteristics once you get beyond 200-220, so over-leveling your stats can have marginal results later on while balancing them out guarantees that you have good, high level stats in multiple Characteristics.
Extra Note:
I would like to quote GammaBreaker on the subject of Crippling Challenge's side effect: "Crippling Challenge, while an essential block-breaker in PVP, is also a *taunt* in PVE. It will make whatever you're shooting come over and sock you in the chops. Even if it's a cosmic boss being tanked by a Behemoth."
So please be aware of this when you use a power with Crippling Challenge.
To be honest, the reason I don't recommend this advantage with Ego Blast is because in PVP, your role is primarily support and crowd control - it's the job of your allies to do the damage, and they'll all probably have Crippling Challenge. Meanwhile, in PVE, the taunt aspect of Crippling Challenge could get you and your teammates killed if you pull aggro. But these are just my two cents on the matter.
Extra Note #2: Unfortunately, I was not able to spec Teleport to Rank 2, so your speed is going to be somewhat Enslaved (forget the "Odyessy to the West" part... and yeah... this doesn't really make sense...) - LAME PUN INTENDED!!!
Conclusion:
Well, that’s all for now – if you have any input or advice for improving this guide, please feel free to let me know! Also, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me either by PM or in-game! And if I have errors anywhere in my guide, please let me know and I’ll fix them as soon as possible!
UPDATE:
I fixed numerous spelling and grammar mistakes, and I reworded some areas to allow for clearer explanation.
