Spells, Songs, Disciplines, and AAs

Here is some information about Spells, Songs, Disciplines, and Alternate Advancement (AAs).

Obtaining spells: With the March 16, 2012 free-to-play patch, the scholars of the Library of Myrist in the Plane of Knowledge have expanded their inventories. They now carry many spells, tomes, or songs that an adventurer will need. They do not carry ancient spells or advanced spell ranks.


 * Arcane specialization
 * Auras
 * Hero's Special AAs
 * Mercenary AAs
 * Progressive (Dichotomic, Dissident, Composite) spells
 * Skills
 * SPA list - SPA is SPell Affect, which refers to a specific set of values for each spell which controls what they do.
 * Special AAs
 * Veteran Rewards

Spell links

 * AllaKhazam's Spell Database (includes Songs and Disciplines) If you feel that you have some important information that AllaKhazam's does not contain, feel free to add it to this wiki.
 * EQ Resource - Spell Search
 * RaidLoot.com Spell Dat Parser - Provides technical information on exactly what each spell does, with data taken from the game files.


 * The Serpent's Spine Rank III Spells, Tomes and Songs quest
 * Secrets of Faydwer rank III spells
 * Seeds of Destruction spell info
 * For Druid only spell info, see: Druid.

AA links

 * SOE Current AA Status thread - A single place you can reference for AA updates. - LINK DEAD
 * Allakhazam EQ AA wiki
 * RaidLoot.com AA Search - Provides technical information on exactly what each AA does, with data taken from the game files.

Discipline links

 * For Monk disciplines, see: Monk.

AA bonus scale
Considering how many AA people have to get these days to be a capable player in the minds of the min-max'er crowd.. I've moved the AAXP bonus scale to reach 0% bonus at 2500AA for House of Thule. The bonus degrades linearly from 500% at 0, to 100% at 2500.

Changed the AA experience boost for low AA counts from [0 to] 2500 to [0 to] 4000 AA. The bonus now tapers linearly from 1000% to normal experience over this new range. Progression servers will not get this bonus until Veil of Alaris is unlocked.

Level 65 to 70 spell runes

 * Level 65 - Taelosian Geomancy Stone Eril, Taelosian Geomancy Stone Jelki, Taelosian Geomancy Stone Yiktu, Chaos Runes
 * Level 66 - Minor Muramite Rune or Minor Shadowspine Rune
 * Level 67 - Lesser Muramite Rune or Lesser Shadowspine Rune
 * Level 68 - Muramite Rune or Shadowspine Rune
 * Level 69 - Greater Muramite Rune or Greater Shadowspine Rune
 * Level 70 - Glowing Muramite Rune or Glowing Shadowspine Rune
 * Level 70 (Ancients) - Ancient Muramite Runes or Ancient Shadowspine Rune

Spell drop rates
Statistically there are (I think - going from memory here) 16 clerics for every 1 Berserker, and Clerics have lots of spells. The chance to get a spell is weighted by the % of players (active) who play that class at a high level.

Banking AAs
With the release of Empires of Kunark, the maximum AAs you can bank is two times your level.

- Stored AA points greater than 3 times your level will now be removed after logging out. The earned-limit remains 2 times your level. - - You will now be prompted to purchase any available AA abilities prior to camping if you are over the stored-limit. - - Free-to-play members who exceed the stored-limit will be allowed to purchase abilities until their stored AA total is below the stored-limit.

Slow mitigation
Slow mitigation simply lowers the effectiveness of your slow spell. The exact details have not been released by SOE but the information below has been compiled from various sources. Take what is written here with a grain of salt.

If, for example:


 * Shamans use a 75% slow spell.
 * Enchanters use a 70% slow spell.

If a mob mitigates to 50% effective, then shamans get 37.5% slow and enchanters get 35% slow.

You can determine how much a mob mitigates by the emote given, when they are slowed.

The emotes are:
 * Your spell was mostly successful - 75% of slow effect.
 * Your spell was partially successful - 50% of slow effect.
 * Your spell was slightly successful - 25% of slow effect.

Generally, similar content all mitigates the same. But, they can set the value individually. So, whether a named mitigates more than a normal trash mob of the same zone is completely based on what the devs have set up.

Mostly/partially/slightly aren't the same in every zone, but within each zone they're consistent. In the lower tier zones of each expansion, Partially is better than Partially is in higher tier zones of the same expansion.

For example, Partially means slows are 50% effective in Dragonscale Hills, but only 40% effective in Loping Plains. On every mob in Loping Plains, though, even named, if it says Partially then you're getting 40% of your slow.

Any mob (occasional named) intended to be less slowable than its context will get you a Slightly message.

Set AAXP and list AAs
/alternateadv (ON, OFF, or LIST): Allows you to turn AA XP on, off, and also lists all AAs available to you. You can also set the percentage of XP going toward AAs, /alternateadv on #

AA Auto-Grant
With the February 19, 2014 patch, AA abilities are now auto-granted for All Access (Gold) players who check the Auto-Grant Enable box on the "Alternate Advancement" window.

Checking the box will auto-grant AA abilities when the character meets the requirements for those abilities.

For Time-Locked Progression Servers, the Call of the Forsaken expansion must be open before auto-granting becomes available.

All AA abilities up to and including level 85 and those up to: except those noted below, are auto-granted.
 * Underfoot: Originally
 * House of Thule: With the release of The Darkened Sea expansion
 * Veil of Alaris: With the release of The Broken Mirror expansion
 * Rain of Fear: With the release of Empires of Kunark expansion
 * Call of the Forsaken: With the release of Ring of Scale expansion
 * The Darkened Sea: With the release of The Burning Lands expansion
 * The Broken Mirror: With the release of Torment of Velious expansion
 * Empires of Kunark: With the release of Claws of Veeshan expansion

Excluded AA from auto-grant:
 * Mastery of Alchemy, Baking, Blacksmithing, Brewing, Fletching, Fletching/Bowyer, Jewel Craft (Enchanter), Jewel Craft (Non-Enchanter), Poison Making (rogue only), Pottery, Tailoring, Tinkering (gnome only).
 * Arcane Tongues
 * Spell Casting Subtlety
 * Weapon Stances

Once you have checked the Auto-Grant Enable box and zoned or camped, the grant is irreversible. Leaving the box checked after that will auto-grant future auto-granted AAs when they become available in the future.

As each future expansion is added, another expansion's AAs will be auto-granted, in the order they were released (so after Empires of Kunark AAs, it will be the Ring of Scale AAs).

Discipline timers
Each discipline has a reuse timer which it shares with other disciplines. The August 19, 2015 patch implemented a new timer ID (-1) for melee abilities that allows them to be used independently.

Clickable buff item AAs
- Changed the following buff lines that result from activating items so that their effects grant the bearer passive AA abilities: Ancestral Memories, Aura of Battle, Breath of Atathus, Expanding Mind, Form of Defense, Form of Endurance, Form of Protection, Form of Rejuvenation, Grim Aura, Knowledge of the Past / Soothing Breath, Might of Stone, Myrmidons Skill, and Prismatic Ward. - - Activating an item with one of these spells grants you a passive AA ability at a rank that matches the power of the buff. (Activating an item with a weaker buff will not lower your passive AA ability rank.)

- - Activating an item with one of these spells now casts a shadow spell named for the buff line. These shadow spells have no effects but are permanent duration and are intended to allow you to retain the use of these items as a means to reduce the impact of incoming dispel attacks.

- - When you are granted a rank of one of these passive AA abilities you are now also granted an activated ability called Item: Disable Item Abilities. This ability will clear all of your item-granted abilities and allow you to start fresh.

List (as of October 8, 2021):
 * Item: Ancient Flames x/8 - Overhaste/HP regeneration. Maximum possible (8) is obtained with Ancient Cloak of Flames or Mighty Cloak of Flames.
 * Item: Aura of Battle - Increases HP by 2 per tick and Attack by 10.
 * Item: Aura of Rage x/3 - Increases attack to a maximum of 25 at rank 3.
 * Item: Breath of Venesh x/5 - Increases HP regeneration, reduces mana and endurance regeneration
 * Item: Disable Item Abilities 1/1 - Clears all clicked buff AAs
 * Item: Expanding Mind x/35 - Increases mana pool
 * Item: Form of Defense x/30 - Increases AC
 * Item: Form of Endurance x/30 - Increases HP pool
 * Item: Form of Rejuvenation x/6 - Increases HP regeneration
 * Item: Gnoll Reaver Fortitude x/5 - Increases AC. Obtained from the Anniversary quest War Games.
 * Item: Harmonize x/4 - Bard only increase singing skill. Maximum possible is obtained with Phosphorescent Rapier of Dazzling Light.
 * Item: Might of Stone x/18 - Increases Attack
 * Item: Myrmidon's Skill x/16 - Increased dodge chance
 * Item: Prismatic Ward x/32 - Increases basic resists and AC

You cannot have both of the two below on you at the same time.
 * Item: Aura of Pure Arcanum x/7 - Increases resistance versus Magic, Cold, Fire, Disease, Poison. This will not stack with Form of Protection.  Obtained through The Depths of Darkhollow (quest).
 * Item: Form of Protection x/7 - Increases resist versus Poison, Magic, Disease, Fire, Cold. This will not stack with Aura of Pure Arcanum.

The two below will overwrite each other, requiring you to decide which you prefer as they have slightly different values.
 * Item: Knowledge of the Past x/29 (a/k/a Maelin's Methodical Mind) - Increased HP and mana regeneration. This will overwrite Soothing Breath buffs.
 * Item: Soothing Breath x/31 (a/k/a Aura of Eternity) - Increased HP and mana regeneration. This will overwrite Knowledge of the Past buffs.

AA proc chance
Descriptions for AA abilities that allow you to trigger spells (proc) on offensive and defensive actions now list the "proc chance modifier" as part of the description. These descriptions take the form of 'grants your Action a chance (Chance Modifier) to trigger Spell, Spell Description.

Since procs that don't have a 100% chance to trigger are variable on several factors there's not a clean way to currently display how often the effect is going to trigger, so including the Chance Modifier was the best way I had to convey the difference between two ranks of an ability that only increases the proc chance.

I can see where the confusion comes in because Presence of Fear is the only ability with a reduced chance to trigger (as opposed to most abilities which have an increased chance), Ex:


 * Rabid Bear Rank 6


 * This ability, when activated, grants your melee attacks a chance (with a 150% bonus) to trigger Feral Bite III...


 * Rabid Bear Rank 7


 * This ability, when activated, grants your melee attacks a chance (with a 180% bonus) to trigger Feral Bite IV...

Defensive procs factor in your agility, the attacker's melee speed, and sometimes a level difference, with the theoretical normalization somewhere around 2 procs per minute with a 0% chance modifier.

Spell ranks
Our decision to make spell buffs rankless is probably the biggest functional change we're making to spells for this expansion [Torment of Velious], so I wanted to take the time to post information about why we made the change, the decision making behind what we changed and didn't change, and to get some feedback to see if we missed anything.

What's happening? Starting in ToV, we're making all long term player buffs have just one rank. This rank is as effective as rank III would have been, and will continue to get upgrades as though there are multiple ranks in the future -- just all in one step.

All of these spells will be available on vendors along with all the rest of the rank I spells, which means that as soon as you reach the level you're able to cast them, you can use the best buffs that are available in the expansion.

Since rank II and III of these spells will no longer exist, the rank II and III runes that grant the spells will have fewer spells to give out. It doesn't appear that any class will drop below 5 needed runes per level due to this, so hopefully it just means there's a little bit less need for buffing classes to spend that first rune on buffs every time (or get yelled at for NOT spending their first rune on buffs).

Why? Ever since we added spell ranks back in The Serpent's Spine, there's been a great deal of conflict around buffs. If you're a grouping cleric and someone joins your group with raid buffs on them, you just can't do anything for them until those buffs wear off. There's a long period after new spells are available where people have a mix of levels and buff ranks, and it gets really confusing about who can land what on whom.

For the first time in the spell line's existence, we don't have to allow the cleric spell haste buff to stack with older versions since there's no longer a point where you would get more benefit from rank III of the old buff than rank I of the new buff.

Finally, and selfishly, the interaction between cleric, druid, paladin, and ranger HP buffs was just not fun, for players or developers. Getting stacking to work correctly for all the ranks of those four spell lines regularly took more time than it takes to make spell upgrades for an entire class. Reducing the scope of the problem to 4 spells rather than 16 is a huge help.

Why didn't you just remove all ranks from everything? We still believe that spell ranks in general are a good reward in personal power for conquering group and raid content, so we limited this initiative to just the things that caused the most conflict.

By limiting the number of spells that are rankless, we keep nearly everything we like about having ranked spells (further opportunities for character growth). If we were to expand the scope of things that can be rankless to the point where some caster classes need fewer runes per level, that would be too far.

Why did X become rankless? Why didn't Y? Here's our heuristic for making buffs rankless:

Is the spell beneficial? Is it meant for players (not only pets)? Does the spell last an hour or more? Does the spell target other players (Targeted Other or Group)? Does the spell NOT have limited counters or cumulative caps?

The first check is pretty obvious. This is a buff-focused initiative. The second check is what excludes pet buffs like Burnout and odd effects like pacification. These are mainly personal power and we still feel that personal power is a good driver for seeking loot. The third check is where we lose stuff like Savage Growth, HoTs, and bard songs. The fourth check is where we lose self buffs -- again going back to personal power. The fifth check is where we lose runes, proc buffs, limited-use high-power damage shields, and other effects where you need the buffing class to be present and active. What should we be testing? In particular we want to make sure that Unity-style combination buffs still function correctly, AA, worn, and buff focuses function correctly, and that we don't introduce more complexity in our effort to reduce it. I also want to make sure that any combination buff that now only casts rankless effects has been made rankless itself. Please use this thread to ask questions, report bugs and problems that you find, or let us know if you have found other buffs that meet the above criteria but aren't rankless. Time is of the essence here. Once I begin making the reward sets for ranks II and III, it will be time-prohibitive to change any more spells.

Spell casting code
There are 3 big pieces of spell casting code - 1. CastSpell - this is when your mana is checked, cast time, some target requirements are made

2. LaunchSpell - when the spell's cast time has elapsed, check range to target, mana is charged, check if you were interrupted. This is where the game will update your spellbar to not be grayed out, so you can cast a new spell.

3. HitBySpell - when a target is hit by a spell, take damage, add/remove buffs, etc (this is the largest portion of spell code)

When you begin casting a spell (or singing a song), if the spell has at least a 0.1 second cast time, the "currently pending" spell is stored on your character. If you use an item clicky with a cast time, it updates the currently pending spell ID. When it's time for the spell to launch, it looks for the pending spell ID on your character to update it. If the spell ID doesn't match (because you changed pending spell IDs before the first spell finished launching), your spellbar will not update to no longer be locked out. Depending on what happens, your spellbar will sit there waiting for the first spell to finish launching and you will be locked out. There are certain ways to get the client to reset your spellbar in this situation (usually clicking and interrupting an AA with a cast time).

...

Another interesting part of this is those 3 above spell pieces (cast, launch, hit by spell) are the main factors in zone lag. Spells that are instant cast go straight from CastSpell into LaunchSpell. This makes instant spells more performant for the zone itself (and the player). Classes who don't have many instant spells are penalized more in laggy situations.