Combat Mechanics

EQ2 takes a common approach to combat, whether your character is a spellcaster or not. You can always auto-attack to inflict melee damage, but most of your effectiveness comes from pressing buttons to cast spells or perform combat arts.

Generally, battles in EQ2 are decided in 30 seconds or so. You should spend most of that time pressing buttons to perform abilities. Your enemies will also be casting spells or combat arts against you - generally once every 6 seconds or so.

Health and Power
You have two main resources to manage: Health and Power. They are represented by the red and blue bars next to your character's name. Managing these two resources is quite straight-forward: Your opponent's health and power are displayed in two places: in your Target Window, and also above their head. You can judge how the battle is unfolding by comparing your opponent's health against your own.
 * You lose health each time an enemy damages you. If you run out of Health, then you die.
 * You use Power to cast spells or perform combat arts. If you run out of Power, then you can't use any of your abilities - all you can do is auto-attack.

Regenerating Health and Power

 * ''Main Article: Food and drink

Health and Power regenerate automatically - slowly while in combat, quickly when not in combat. It is not necessary to sit or stand still to regenerate. Your food and drink directly affect the rate that your health and power regenerate, when not in combat. If you get hungry or thirsty, then your regeneration rate becomes very slow!

Auto-Attack
EQ2 has auto-attack for both types of physical attack: melee and range. These can be assigned to hotkeys from the Knowledge->Abilities window, or directly bound to keys. The attack icons and the ` key act as toggles, so press them a second time to stop attacking.
 * To start melee auto-attacking, click the melee attack icon on your hotkey bar, or double-click your enemy, or press the ` tilde (~) key on your keyboard.
 * To start range auto-attacking, click the range attack icon on your hotkey bar, or press shift and then tilde (~).

Note: If you use an aggressive combat art, your auto-attack will also turn on (if it's not already on).

Combat Mode
EQ2 has the concept of a "Combat Mode", and the gameplay changes slightly while you're in it.

Entering Combat Mode
You'll enter combat mode whenever you perform an aggressive action against another creature - either auto-attack or a spell or combat art. When you're in combat mode, a small "crossed swords" icon shows beside your character's name. Being in combat has a few consequences to your character:
 * Run speed enhancements are disabled. You can't climb walls.
 * Regeneration of health/power is minimal.
 * Other players are limited in how they can assist you.

Leaving Combat Mode
Normally, once in combat mode you're stuck in combat mode, until the enemy is dead or has given up chasing you. Alternatively, you can choose to leave combat mode at any time by breaking the encounter. To do this, click the "Yell for Help" button that was placed on your hotkey bar, or type /yell.

When you break the encounter, you gain the benefits of being out of combat - namely run speed, regeneration, and assistance from others - but you also forfeit any rewards for beating the encounter. That means no loot, no quest updates, and no experience. Your enemy won't stop attacking, though - you'll still have to finish the fight or escape from it!

Death
When your health drops below zero, you die. (Rarely, you might fall unconscious first, but recovery is unlikely.) When you die, your view remains where you died, and you're given a list of revive locations to choose from. The revive location is a safe spot, but might be far away. Alternatively, another character could revive you at the location of your death. Characters who can revive you are priest classes and a couple of others.

Regardless of which way you revive, you will have to face the consequences of death: EQ2 does not have "corpse runs" or "debt buyback" as seen in other games. You revive alive and breathing, with all of your equipment. There is no reason to re-visit the location of your death. Note again, on a PvP server you may drop items in a chest after you are killed by another player, and anyone of opposing alignment, or yourself may loot this chest.
 * 1) Resurrection sickness afflicts you for a couple of minutes, which reduces your effectiveness in combat.  It's a good idea to avoid combat until the sickness has passed.
 * 2) Your equipment becomes 10% closer to being unusable.  You can address this by asking a Mender NPC to repair your equipment, or using a repair kit.
 * 3) You receive an experience debt.  This shows up as a small red line on your XP bar, which you will have to earn at a reduced rate. Note this does not apply to PvP servers, as XP debt has been removed from them.

Heroic Opportunities

 * Main Article: Heroic Opportunities

Heroic Opportunities are combinations of spells that produce a bonus effect during combat. The bonus effect can be a buff on yourself, or a harmful effect on your enemies. When you perform a Heroic Opportunity by yourself, you get a minor bonus. When a group of players work together to perform more complicated Heroic Opportunities, the bonus can be quite significant.

Heroic Opportunities are granted to players, but not to monsters. They can make a big difference to your performance, even though the bonus effect is random. In general, the less capable your class is at fighting alone, the more significant a difference Heroic Opportunities will make to your combat success. Fighter classes rely least on Heroic Opportunities, while Priest classes rely most on Heroic Opportunities.

To learn how to start and complete Heroic Opportunities, see the Spells and Combat Arts User Guide.

Fighting with a Pet

 * Main Article: Pets

(info coming soon)