Dark Mystic guide

Powerful damage spells. Fast casting speed. Fast movement speed.

Low CON and consequently relatively low hit points (HP).

As soon as your character is created, equip your items and set up your quick bar with your preferred spells, actions and other items. To equip yourself, double-click on them in your inventory; you have:

Apprentice's tunic

Apprentice's hose

Apprentice's wand

You start out in the Dark Elven Temple. A few things to keep in mind as you get to know your surroundings and your character's abilities:

Talk to everyone you see and pay close attention to what they tell you. This will save you time in the long run, because you will not have to make multiple trips for things you may have forgotten to do on your quests.

Avoid dying at all costs. Death after Level 4 is very costly. You can and will eventually drop your precious hard-earned items for someone else to pick up. Additionally the experience loss can be very painful and costly in terms of time. Do not take big risks! The risk is not worth the reward this early on.

Pay attention to the con level (color) of the creatures you are fighting.

Be aware of which creatures will group and which are aggressive. This is very important to your ability to level quickly.

You will want to get started running quests right away. They are a good way to earn adena and exp while getting to know your character's abilities and see some of the land. Do not waste your time fighting creatures without being in the process of doing a quest. You can kill two birds with one stone: always have a quest going.

Start out with the Dark Elf's Tutorial quest by talking to one of the Abyssal Celebrants. This quest will introduce you the Dark Elven race and history. Doing this quest, you will also learn basic concepts of the game. As a reward, you receive a world map which will come in very handy throughout the game.

Mass of Darkness

Talk to Abyssal Celebrant Undrias just outside of the Dark Elven Temple to start this quest. It will give you an opportunity to visit and explore the Dark Elven Village. Make sure you kill anything in your path from the temple to the village to keep the XP and adena machines rolling! As a reward, you will be given adena and experience.

Delivery Supplies

Talk to Sentry Jenna outside the DE Village to start this quest. Again, kill anything you come across during this quest, but do not get too side-tracked. Your reward for this quest: more adena.

Shillens Hunt

Talk to Sentry Nelsya at the eastern entrance to the Dark Elven Village. You will get a quest to kill Ashen Wolves. The reward for this quest is about 1900 XP.

Chains of Slavery

Talk to Sentry Kristin at the western entrance of the Dark Elven Village. You will get a quest to hunt Imps. Each Imp you kill will drop some shackles. Each shackle you collect is worth 5 adena. In addition, the Imp, and Imp Elders particularly, are very good exp at this point.

You get your first set of new skills and skill upgrades at Level 7. Max out your Wind Strike and Ice Bolt attacks first. The wind attacks will be the damage-dealing DE Mystic's bread and butter for most of your journey to DE Wizard. These attacks do a goodly amount of damage. Ice Bolt can slow an enemy's movement speed. Because of its fast cast speed, it can also be used to interrupt a creature that is trying to cast a spell against you. These should be followed up by learning Weapon Mastery, which increases both your physical attacks and magic attacks power.

Avoid any fast-moving creatures that would cause you to spend a lot of time running — this will slow down your level progression.

Stick to creatures that take you only one or two hits to kill in the beginning. This will allow you to spend your time actually making kills without having to run around a lot.

Know your strength. If you shoot at an enemy and it only has a sliver of health left, use your physical attack to finish it off. Do this as long as it will only take one hit. A creature can quickly reduce your health in a physical confrontation early on. The occasional physical strike will help you to conserve your MP and reduce down time.

Concentrate on your offensive attacks unless you plan on going the Oracle route. Save the buffs and heals for when you have extra SP to spend.

Remember to avoid fighting multiple creatures at the same time early on.

Do not be afraid to run from a fight if you can escape, or ask for help if you can't. Death really hurts your progress toward the next level.