Spells and Combat Arts

Spells and Combat Arts are where you get most of your effectiveness from. They consume power when cast. Melee classes receive Combat Arts, while spellcasting classes receive Spells. (A few "hybrid" classes receive both.)

Spells vs. Combat Arts
What's the difference between a Spell and a Combat Art? Not much: Otherwise, we can talk about Spells and Combat Arts interchangeably. For the rest of this section, we'll just call them "Spells".
 * Spells must be cast while standing still. Your spellcasting may be interrupted when your enemy attacks you; your Focus skill affects your chance of being interrupted when under duress.
 * Combat arts have shorter cast times than spells, and can be cast while on the move. They can only be interrupted by a stun.

The Knowledge Book
Your spells and combat arts are found in your Knowledge book. Open it by pressing K. You can browse your spells in here, and sort them in various ways to make finding them easier. When you point at an icon, a tooltip will pop-up with a brief description of the spell. For more details about the spell, right-click on the icon and choose "Examine".

Casting Spells
You can cast your spells and arts directly from the Knowledge book, just by clicking on the icons in the book. But it's a much better idea to drag your most useful spells to your Hotkey Bar. That way, you can cast them while your Knowledge book is closed. If you run out of space, you can open another Hotkey Bar (and another...).

When you cast a spell, you'll quickly learn that there's a cooldown timer on each. The icon goes dark, and slowly fills back up as the timer counts down. If you click an icon before it has refreshed, then the spell will be queued as your next action, and will be cast automatically when the timer expires.

Learning Spells
Each time you gain a level, you learn a couple of new spells. Your new spells will enter your Knowledge book automatically each time you level up; there's no need to visit a trainer to learn them (until level 50). Most spells are replaced every 14 levels, so you'll accumulate a few hotkey bars worth of spells before you start replacing your old ones.

The Apprentice/Adept/Master levels
EQ2 allows you to upgrade most of your spells. You do this by finding spell scrolls and scribing them in your Knowledge book. Just as you might find better equipment on your adventures, sometimes you'll find scrolls that teach you a better version of your spells.

You receive basic versions of your spells automatically when you level; these are called "Apprentice I". Each spell has eight more ranks that you might conceivably find in the world. Each rank is slightly more powerful than the previous. An Adept I spell is a common upgrade, while a Master I spell is a rare and precious upgrade.

The most practical way to improve your character's performance in combat is to upgrade your spells. You can purchase minor spell upgrades from merchants in the city, but you can buy better spell upgrades from other players through the broker system. You'll get meaningful upgrades at a reasonable price by buying Apprentice IV and Adept I spells. (If you're short on money to buy spells, read our suggestions on how to raise money in the Community section below.)

Buffs
Buffs are beneficial spells that are persistent: they stay active when you cross zones and even when you log out. Almost all buffs in EQ2 last forever, and don't need to be recast until you die. Almost all buffs require you to group with a friend in order to share them. Buffs are shown in two windows on your game screen:
 * Maintained Spells Window: These are buffs that are produced by you.
 * Spell Effects Window: These are all effects that currently reside on your character, in a sorted list.  Every buff in the Maintained Spells Window is also listed here.

Stances
Melee classes receive special buffs called Stances. You should always have a Stance active if you're one of these classes - so make sure you select one. You'll get to choose between an Offensive Stance or a Defensive Stance, but only one of them can be active at a time. Once activated, your Stance stays active until you change it (or die).

Concentration
There's a limit to how many buffs you can maintain. You have 5 Concentration slots; these are the five bars shown below your character's name on the game screen. Melee classes generally don't run out of Concentration slots, but priests and magicians can run out. Concentration Slots force you to choose which buffs are most important to you and your group. Generally, the choice is between buffing yourself or buffing your friends ; you probably won't run out when you're alone and only buffing yourself.

Heroic Opportunities

 * Main Article: Heroic Opportunities

Heroic Opportunities are combinations of spells that produce a bonus effect. When you perform them yourself, you get a minor bonus. When a group of players performs them together, the bonus can be quite significant.

Heroic Opportunities are started by a starting ability that you receive at level 5. When you use that ability, you'll see the "Heroic Opportunity Opener" appear on the right-hand side of your screen.

(more info coming soon)