Psychic Common Stat Builds
Here are the most common and best basic builds for psychics. While other builds are possible, they are usually either poor builds for most situations (though they may work well in a few specific areas) or are very expensive to do right (like the heavy armor build).
Pure Magic Build
- 1 Str & 9 Mag per 2 levels
Only put in as much strength as needed for the psychic weapon and arcane armor of your level (check the Tailor and Blacksmith to find out what you need, or just do 1 Str & 9 Mag per 2 levels), and put the rest of the stat points into magic. If you have +Str bonuses on your gear you might consider adding magic instead of strength sometimes, just be careful when you upgrade that gear and lose the item's strength bonus.
This build allows for the maximum damage possible with a high magic defense, though you are easily killed due to low HP, especially against physical damage, almost making you a "glass cannon". The main difference between this and a glass wizard is the White Voodoo skill, which drastically decreases damage for 15 minutes and can be swapped with Black Voodoo when you want to do high damage again. The White Voodoo skill combined with this build allows you to be one of the best tankers against magical damage dealing creatures in the game, including many bosses.
One other downside to this build is that it is much easier to steal aggro from your squad's tank, which can be quite dangerous with such low HP. Learning aggro control is a must for this build.
Vit Build
- 1 Str, 1-2 Vit, & 8-7 Mag per 2 levels
Only put in as much strength as is needed for the weapon and armor for your level (same as above), add 0.5 to 1 vitality per level (your choice), and then put the rest of the stat points into magic (generally 1 Str, 1-2 Vit, & 8-7 Mag per 2 levels). This makes you less easily killed at the cost of doing slightly less damage. (This build is recommended over the pure magic build on PvP servers.)
Many people start out using the vit build for the early levels, and then switch to leveling using the pure magic build once they've reached a comfortable amount of vitality.
Little suggestion from Hell_Cat_Jay: I have built a psychic to lvl 81 now and from what I've experienced, psychics can be best described as magic barbs. Psychics have massive damage which allows them to pull agrro too easily for thier own good and without many interruptions can hold it quite well. Psychics are best suited with a vit build to keep themselves alive and allow them to tank most occurances. The best way to build a Psychic is to keep in mind that you need 30% vit compaired to your magic. (ie. 90 magic = 30 vit) But be sure to check ahead on upcoming weapons and armours to know when to add str points and build that str gradually. Dex is not required of a psychic but personally i would suggest a gradual build to dex dex MAX. Because psys have no physical attacks they need no accuracy but some evasion comes in handy against melee enemies. As a psy levels so do rival barbs with skills meant to hold agrro, if a psy is faced with tanking they will need the extra crit percentage to hold agrro as well. As far as gears go a psychic needs to look for the highest vit or hp gear available as well as a few crit % gears for better agrro holding. It is also helpful to carry 2 sets of necklaces and belts, 1 set of elemental and one set physical to swap for engaging different targets. It has been long debated on whether or not a crit arrow really adds to your crit rate, I can tell you from personal testing on several classes that yes this WILL actually add to your crit chances so get one. With the 1 base crit, 1 crit from dex points, and 1 from a crit arrow, you will only need to find around 2% more in gears. A psy with 5% crit tends to land a critical hit 1-2 times every 5 hits, anymore crit points in gears is overkill and should not be wasted money on. Garnet shards, don't even think about it. Garnets add to your physical defence but not much. Even if your charecter had 4 sockets on every armour with pure flawless garnets, that would still only equal to an extra 960 physical defence. Givin the fact that a psychic is not about to go out and grind on physical mobs an extra 960 hp sounds a little more helpful right? Never buy gear already sharded with garnets if you can get one with citrines, even if its a little cheaper the hp is more useful and will save you more often. A vit tome would be a good addition to your gear set.
For a little perspective on the vit build here is my current stats on my own 81 psychic: Without gear add-ons: Vit=89 Mag=266 Str=45 Dex=20 With gear add-ons: Vit=151 Mag=271 Str=45 Dex=20
REMEMBER check your upcomming gear frequently so you can add stats where you need them!
Light Armor Build
- 1 Str, 1 Dex, & 3 Mag per level
Put in enough strength and dexterity for the light armor of your level and put the rest into magic (generally 1 Str, 1 Dex, & 3 Mag per level). This allows you to wear both arcane and light armor, giving you the option of greater physical protection from the light armor or greater magical protection from the arcane armor. However, this is a fairly restrictive build in how you spend your stat points, because spending less on strength or dexterity means you usually can't wear the current level light armor, and spending less on magic means you usually can't use the current level arcane armor or psychic weapon. This means that there are rarely spare points to spend on vitality, and even when there are you're better off getting more magic.
Besides better flexibility on damage resistance, this build also gives you a higher crit rate and better evasion due to the added Dex, but it is at the cost of having a bit less magic than the other two builds, which means doing slightly less damage on average, having lower magic defense, less MP, and lower MP recovery.
