Those Crazy Mystics.

[Zetetic]

Jumpkick should be more susceptible to being dodged. Flying through the air towards someone gives them more time to move out of the way. Give it a modifier to make it more easily dodged - to the point where using kick or punch against really high +dodge mobs/players becomes an option.

I agree. I seem to remember that jumpkick was meant to have a high accuracy penalty, but considering accuracy tends to be higher now due to the power creep since jumpkick was implemented, maybe this needs to be increased and kick also given a slightly increased accuracy penalty. I also remember at some point that low accuracy meant easier dodge for the opponent - whether this was ever or is still the case I do not know, but it sounds like a good idea.

Add in more defensive abilities to lower player damage output. This is badly needed to extend pvp to the rounding situation we see now.

Class with shield - block ability. Absorbs all damage for the attack.
Class with weapon - parry ability. Also absorbs all damage, lower % than block. Classes wearing a shield+weapon can block and parry.
Class with no weapon (really just mystic) - fend ability. Can fend off martial arts attacks well, fends against blunt weapons still takes damage but the hit can't crit, fends against sharp weapons take half damage.

For a mystic fighting another mystic straight up, punch might be the best option because while the damage is lower, they can fend off more attacks. Combat is more dynamic.

I like the idea here, but whatever name you put on it, parry or fend is just dodge with a different label. You could stem it's % chance of activating from a different set of stats, but this really sounds like we are trying to fix the overall combat problems in MajorMud, and I feel that is best left for a different discussion (but a more important one than just fixing a single class, and one that I'd love for everyone to get involved in).
As a suggestion, why not try to work within the current systems that MajorMud and GreaterMud already have? Instead of Block, how about we make DR effective against spells as well as pysical damage attacks. It doesn't make much sense that armour has no effect whatsoever against damage from spells. I would also propose that shields be given MUCH higher DR. So a shield you obtain in the first few levels might have 3-5 DR. Give the Aegis Shields  25 or 30 DR. Give all shields a higher penalty to accuracy, or possibly to max damage instead. This will make tanks much 'tankier' and reduce their damage output.