Spell

A ubiquitous action within many role playing games such as EverQuest is the use of magical spells. A spell is an effect, performance, incantation, process, or instance of using magic, performed by a magic user such as a priest, caster, bard, dragon, other mythical creature or magical equipment. The basis of magical spells varies considerably: a priest requests assistance from their god and/or spirits through prayer, wisdom and faith, a caster evokes spells through recitation of words of the elder dragon tongue which they discovered through intelligence and countless hours of research, bards perform magical songs through dance and dexterous use of instruments, mythical beasts such as dragons are naturally magical and may emit spells through mere speech, magical items exude auras which effect spells when their owners use them.

Types

Buffs

See also Buff Lines

Buffs are beneficial spells which enhance a player's effectiveness in combat, magical ability, or provide some other utility. Some attributes commonly enhanced by buffs include statistics, haste, HP, AC, Damage Shields, Movement Speed, and more. Classes known for casting lots of buffs include Clerics, Shamans, and Enchanters. Many Bard songs are also thought of as temporary buffs.

Debuffs

These are the opposite of buffs, which detriment an enemy's abilities in combat in some way. They include Stuns, Roots, Snares, Mezzes, slows and statistic reducing spells. Necromancers, Shamans and Enchanters are commonly known to employ debuffs, but most magic users can at least use some form of Root.

Heals

These are spells which increase the current health points of a friendly target. Buffs which increase the regeneration rate of health over time are called regens.

Nukes

A.k.a. direct damage spells, these immediately decrease the current health points of one or more enemy target(s). Nukes may break root spells early. Nukes include bouts of flame, blasts of cold, strikes of lightning, smites of holy energy, gusts of wind, undead-only and summoned-only dismissal spells and other immediate damaging effects. A few Necromancer poison spells are also considered nukes, such as Shock of Poison.

Damage over time

Spells which decrease health gradually are called damage over time (DoTs). These include most poisons and venoms, diseases, curses, asphyxiations, and darkness. When an NPC is DoTted, the damage occurs on server ticks (every six seconds). This damage is reduced by one third when the NPC is moving (but not fleeing or feared) on the tick since the September 1999 patch into Velious Era.

Many DoT spells begin with a nuke component, such as Scourge and Venom of the Snake. Many debuff spells also include a DoT component, such as Heart Flutter and Suffocate. Nearly all DoTs deal consistent damage over time, except for a few like Splurt and Curse of the Spirits which have increasing damage on each tick.

Area of Effect

AoE spells affect more than one proximate opponent at a time. There are several types of AoE spells:

• Point Blank AoE or PBAoE - When cast by a player, affects up to 25 NPCs within a certain distance of that player. The caster is never affected by his own PBAoE. When cast by NPCs, the number of players affected is unlimited. This includes Enchanter stuns, the Cleric's Word line of spells, Earthquake and similar priest spells, and certain Wizard and Magician spells such as Project Lightning and Fire Flux. Many dragons and other strong mythical creatures cast this type of AoE, usually as a proc on their melee swings or rarely as a casted spell.
  • PBAoE dispel - Many dragons have an AoE breath attack which also removes one or several buffs. The mechanic of these is such that the removed buffs are usually the top buff (but not always). They can be protected (usually) by junk buffs. AoE dispels cast by faerie dragons and evil eyes are targeted AoEs instead of PBAoE.
  • AoE fear - a.k.a Dragon Roar simply fears all nearby players. It is often very difficult to resist. If the tank or too many healers are feared, an encounter will be significantly complicated.
• Targetted AoE - A.k.a. splash damage, these spells affect a designated target and a number of nearby targets. If the caster is close enough to their target, they may themselves be also affected by it instead of one of their enemies. There are several subtypes:
  • Quad-kiting nukes - These spells affect up to four enemies at once. Wizards and Druids can cast the most efficient quad-kiting nukes, such as Pillar of Frost and Lightning Blast.
  • Rain AoE - These affect a number of enemies near the target in several delayed waves of damage. They include spells like Cascade of Hail and Tears of Solusek.
  • Cone AoE - This is an informal name for a Targeted AoE cast by a raid target such as Ixiblat Fer's Efreeti Fire. It's apparent that there are no true cone AoEs like in other games, but rather they are technically just targeted AoE spells with a wide radius centered on the tank.
  • Other targetted AoE nukes - There are other nukes that affect a different number of enemies such as the Wizard Al'Kabor line which affects five. These spells are usually very mana-inefficient and not recommended to use.

Resistance

A defensive attribute of all characters is resistance. This determines how likely a character is to avoid or mitigate the effects of a spell. If a spell is beneficial, it is irresistible. Spells may be categorized by five types of resistance in EverQuest.

• POISON - Covers all forms of venom and poison, conjured or natural, which burn, paralyze or deteriorate a victim's blood and organs.
• MAGIC - A catch-all category for any general form of magic, such as roots, snares, slows, mezzes, wind, earth, and lightning.
• DISEASE - Infections and parasites of all kinds, conjured or natural, which sicken or rot the victim.
• FIRE - All manner of flames, heat and fire, including natural sources of heat like lava.
• COLD - All manner of frost, cold, ice and hail. Many forms of water magic fall under this as well.

The overall chance of resisting a spell or partially resisting a nuke depends on the relative level of the target to the caster, the resist value of the spell, and the relevant resistance attribute of the target. See the PEQ article Spell Resist Data Analysis to get an idea of the mechanics (not necessarily accurate for P99).