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i am new to everquest i bought the digital download so it came with no instrutions i have to questions can a mag cast spells to create weapons for pet and if i can what level and how do you get them. second question is what is a raid how do you do them

thanks for the info. what does mmos mean? and are all the spells bought or do you make them

Hey Woalgone - welcome to Everquest.

First of all, the Mage is indeed the character class that can summon weapons, armor, arrows, magic items, and a ton of other great stuff for both pets as well as other characters. The usefulness of mage summoned gear (for player characters) has dropped off a bit over the years compared to the defiant gear now in use, but mage "pet toys" (summoned items optimized for pets) is something no other class can do, and always in great demand.

As far as getting spells, you have to keep in mind that Everquest has grown so large in size that it's no longer really practical to click on every merchant to try to find spells - this game is just gigantic. So, you will want to use allakhazam to locate all your spells you get for the next few levels. I usually write these spells down on an index card, along with what merchant sells them, and whether they are player-crafted.

Buying your spells require you to go to a merchant that sells the spell (obviously). However, even most mage spell-merchants will likely not have the particular spell you are looking for. This is why it's important to know ahead of time what merchant sells the spell you want - just use this site to find out who sells it. You can try to buy all your lower level spells from the spell merchants in the Plane of Knowledge, but spells that can be used by several different classes ("common" spells) may be sold by the last merchant you would expect - so look up who sells it beforehand - seeing a pattern here?

Eventually, you'll probably have to research your own spells - that's another topic for another day, but basically you will buy a spell research kit, and combine several special components to make the spell. You have to have a lot of skill points to make the better spells though, but it's a great way to make money if you're good enough.

A raid is when several groups combine together, generally for the purpose of taking down a boss mob that a single group cannot. A raid can have a huge number of characters in it - over 50 - it's one of the great strengths of Everquest (many say). Normally, you will be raiding with other guild members, and it's (for the most part) an end-game activity. For some folks, raiding is everything; for others, it's just not their preferred style of play. Folks usually raid to get special, rare items you can get nowhere else, though sometimes, raids are done to get people keyed or flagged to enter certain zones that were "locked" to them previously. In general, only experienced, high-level characters will be invited to raids - it's not usually something casual players do.

I hope this answered your questions.

Edited, Aug 19th 2009 1:38am by zirumkin

Welcome to Everquest, hun!

A word of advice to you about spells.

Start learning Spell research as soon as possible, as you will find that starting at the lower levels playing a mage some of your pets you will have to craft in order to get them seeing as they are not sold anywhere. Later in the game there are some spells that you can only obtain in drops, doing the PITA parchment/rune turn in "lotteries" in Firona Vie, PoK, etc., doing alot of repetitive faction quests, spend ALOT of money to buy (if available) or craft yourself. Spell research is is fairly easy to do and level if you start early and read some guides on the subject. The recipes for the spells are listed here on Allakhzams, just click on the spell link and you will see if it is craftable and what the recipe is. BTW-You can also make alot of money on selling spells in the bazaar if you know which ones to craft. I make about 10-30k a week on spell sales.

The following guides you may find to be quite helpful...

Beginner's Guide to skilling up Research
https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/classes.html?class=12&mid=1214223736287694522&num=1&page=1

Complete Tradeskill Guide 5.0
http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/showthread.php?t=30177

Binding Powder Skill Up Path
https://everquest.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=1;mid=124386291949066327;num=0;page=1

As to mage pet gear just ask if someone can cast some for you or if you are playing on Luclin Subatai has his mage pet toy "mart" up in the bazaar all the time.

An excellent guide to mage pets and pet toys can be found here...

Samanna's Pet Info Page
http://samanna.net/eq.general/pets.shtml

FYI your pet is NOT the same level as the spell is! So you will find that your pet may not be able to proc a weapon even tho the spell you used to cast it is the right level-a good rule of thumb is to figure that the pet is 10 levels lower then the spell is. Fist of Ixiblat can be proc'ed by a pet who is level 10 and over, at level 40 they can proc Blade of Walnan and Kedge, etc. ALWAYS give your pets their weapons first because the Elemental Defender is can go in both secondary and back slots, if you give it to your pet first he will equip it in the secondary slot.