New to EQ2 and picked Illusionist

[Aumelen]

<p>I decided to pick playing as an illusionist as it seems to be very much like an enchanter from EQ1. I loved playing a supporting role in groups. I was wondering if any race has some advantages over others in this class. I am currently playing as a gnome. Or if the differences are so minor it doesn't matter.</p><p>Also, should I tradeskill as a sage to make my own spells or some other trade to compliment my class? I don't really plan to try to make money off the skill, but something else to do when I want to break from adventuring. Or is it easy to development my class without the aid of a tradeskill?</p><p>Also have a question about spells. Are there any difference between spells like Phantasmal Shock, Jolt, or Blast? I noticed they share the same cooldown timer. There are other spells like this also. I am asking this because should I worry about upgrading the lesser spells or even placing them on the hotbars?</p>

[Sigunn]

<p>Welcome to EQ2!</p><p>The racial abilities are not important enough for me to take them into account when I choose race for my toons. But if you want to, check them out on <a href="http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Character_Race">http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Character_Race</a> and see if you prefer to be able to jump without hurting (fae/Arasai) or perhaps running 5% faster (half elf) etc.</p><p>If you like to tradeskill, sage is probably a good option, however you can always hire a sage to craft the spells for you, or buy them off broker. If you find a good guild, the guildmates might craft stuff for you free or cheap. I never charge guildies for crafting, on t8 I charge fuel costs though.</p><p>The spells in your spell book will upgrade to better versions as you level. If they have the same timer, they are versions of the same spell (same line). Look at them and see how much damage they do. If you have Master 2 on one, it is probably better than Apprentice 1 of the next version of the spell. So if you have spells on same timer, replace the old spell with the new as soon as you do more damage with the new one. Generally, higher lvl spells dont resist as much as lower ones.</p><p>In you spell book (press K) you can sort the spells by level or by category. If you sort by category you will see the spell lines.</p><p>Happy hunting!</p>

[Aumelen]

<p>Thanks for the reply.</p><p>I'm looking through the broker at the moment, and I don't see any difference between an Apprentice II spell and an Apprentice IV spell. Am I missing out on something that I don't know about? For example, I don't see anything in the description between Trance Apprentice II and Trance Apprentice IV. What is the advantages of upgrading this spell? Or is it worth to just upgrade to Adept and Master? Should I even worry too much about my spells until higher level (I'm level 17 at the moment)?</p><p>The prices of spells seem pretty high compared to their level. Gotta love inflation in MMOs.</p>

[Sigunn]

<p>Look at the spells that do damage, and you will see the difference between the different upgrades. Trance will have a slightly less risk of resisting when its higher quality but it is harder to measure.</p><p>I agree the prices are high, on the other hand you can make tons of money selling ad 1 books that you dont need. And dont forget to pick up any shinies you see! (They are the little ? that you see glittering in the grass.) My lil illusionist sold a beetle from Greyter Faydark for 1 p 50 before she was a day old.. that made upgrading her spells a lot easier <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>What level you choose to start seriously upgrading everything is depending on your playstyle. Do you intend to max your AA.s, and turn off your xp? Then you will be this level range a while, and you might want to upgrate. If you level as fast as you can, you might feel it is too short use for the spells to keep them at high quality. I would suggest at least buying app IV if you can, and I personally use the root a lot so I pay lots to keep that one at max.</p>

[TygerMeow]

<p>Illy is a very fun class and very challenging. I started a coercer, betrayed to illy for 30 levels, then went back for 20 more. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>Occasionally a spell isn't worth upgrading, but as said above you have to look at damage and chance to resist to see if the upgrade. You may have 1 or two spell lines that aren't worth getting above App IV. Also, in the Splitpaw expansion there is a spell you can get after you get your recall called Word of Force that will do 10% more damage than your primary damage spell and it upgrades in damage as you level, so it's good to 40 or so, I think. It's on same timer as the rest you mentioned, so it replaces them, not adds to them. That's a fun expansion and you can do the solo arena on medium difficulty even with decent gear.</p><p>One thing you should learn early is to summon your ally and either click the button or put /pet ranged in a <strong>separate</strong> macro. Mezz the group and root your single target the this will keep your pet on ranged magic attacks and drastically reduce the amount of damage either of you take. Work through the group one by, keeping them rooted as much as possible. Having your root the best quality you can afford helps here as an earlier poster pointed out.</p><p>Tailor to make your cloth armor or sage to make your own spells are good options if you want to tradeskill. Otherwise get it from friends, guildies or the broker for now and figure out tradeskilling later. It's pretty easy to get started now, but as you get to 40, 50 and beyond, it takes a bit of time to keep levelling tradeskill to keep up with your adenturing. For the first 10-20 levels, though, it's really easy, rares and super cheap and you can make almost everything at first.</p><p>Kerra, Dark Elf and one other class (Arasai maybe) get an invis speed boost of 15% which is really nice. But do check out all the racials and see which ones fit your playstyle best. None of them are truly gamechanging, so if you have any RP leanings, go with the race that suits you best.</p>

[Aumelen]

<p>Great info, thanks.</p><p>I just started to find out the value of root playing as an Illusionist, and it has made life much more simplier specially trying to kill the odd heroic.</p><p>And I never did think about turning off adventure experience. I guess I will need to do this if I want to get as much adv xp as possible as my first time heroic kill that is grey won't count. Any sites out there that lists things that count toward adv xp and the level ranges? Edit: oh, and can I mentor down and get adv xp from a kill?</p>

[Sigunn]

<p><a href="http://eq2.allakhazam.com/">http://eq2.allakhazam.com/</a> is a great tool.</p><p>Generally, Achievment xp (AA) is granted by killing named mobs, completing quests and exploring new places. "Regular" heroic-tagged mobs do not give AA.</p><p>I wouldnt worry too much about maxing AA at your first toon. The AA tend to come as you play anyway imo. But thats just me - some ppl I know wouldnt dream of NOT having max AA at all times.</p>

[vinere]

<p><cite>Aumelen wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Great info, thanks.</p><p>I just started to find out the value of root playing as an Illusionist, and it has made life much more simplier specially trying to kill the odd heroic.</p><p>And I never did think about turning off adventure experience. I guess I will need to do this if I want to get as much adv xp as possible as my first time heroic kill that is grey won't count. Any sites out there that lists things that count toward adv xp and the level ranges? Edit: oh, and can I mentor down and get adv xp from a kill?</p></blockquote><p>Also make sure you take advanate of the fact that you can cast mes while running.. If its a really hard heroic.. root it.. use ONLY NUKES, no dots, and when you see root fade, take off runing while you cast mes.. then root, and repeat.</p><p>Yes you can mentor, and you get bonus AA exp when mentored and killing named mobs.  I would say just follow the solo timeline on the eq2 wiki.  What i did was followed that timeline, and got the maps downloaded, and while i completed the quests i used the maps to check on named mobs, doing this you will generally get most of the named dead before you complete the quests in the zone.  Doing the solo timeline to 80 will get you around 140+AA, then you can always go back and complete random quests(even grey quests give AA), and mentor some people to get the named  you missed.  With the new moors/Lava quests, and the new quests that will come with GU52, I wouldnt waste time level locking, since its easiest to find a group once you are lvl 80.</p>

[Hammersmasher]

<p>To go along with the roots, make sure you read what your spells do.  There's 3 spells I use almost constantly while soloing ^^^heroic mobs.  You should get really familiar with Withdrawl (Paranoia @ lvl 13), Drain Consciousness (Overwhelming Silence @ lvl 16), and Lesion (Headache @ lvl 11).</p><p>You should be able to get at least 12 seconds of time where the mob can do nothing but stare at you.  Try leading off with Withdrawl (it's a stun), then a couple hits of direct damage spells like Beam (phantasmal jolt @ lvl 12), followed by both Drain Consciousness (a stifle) and Lesion (a daze), then some more direct damage stuff.  You can basically sit in melee range of the mob for the entire duration of this.  Then you can either try and root/back off, or mez the mob and wait for the 3 spells to be able to recast them (if you mez the mob while still in melee range, make sure you add an "/autoattack 0" into your mez macro - mez macro should also turn your pet auto attack off too "/pet backoff" I think....).</p><p>If you can take a few hits, use your dots in between these 3 spells, but if you have a tendancy of getting 1 or 2 shotted, don't use dots - they will break your root when you try and use it, plus a mez won't stick if you have a damage dot on the mob.</p><p>Please note: the 3 spells I mentioned DO NOT carry a DOT component, so casting a mez while any of the 3 are active will not break the mez on spell termination.</p><p>Happy Hunting!</p>

[Dulsin]

<p>For Trade skills the race is more important than class for starting your first trade skiller. Each race has a bonus ability that will help one of 2 trade skills. (High elves get a bonus to Jewler)  But if you take that you give up an ability that may help you in a fight.</p><p>I would recomend one of the evil Fay. They get bonuses to sage and transmuting plus the unlimited safe fall is the most valuable racial ability in the game.</p>

[Hammersmasher]

<p>High Elves have a choice to get safe fall too.  It's one of the abilities in the group of abilities which you can select from every 10 levels (if that made any sense).  It's a self buff which doesn't use up a concentration slot - so essentially unlimited as well.</p>

[Dulsin]

<p>Dark elves get it too .. only the evil and good fay get it for free</p><p><a href="http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Character_Races" target="_blank">http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Character_Races</a></p>