RustyCat's Guide to EverQuest: The Basics

Refers to an enemy monster.
Folks often speak of attacking, pulling, or rooting a mob.
Any NPC can be considered a mob if you are attacking it, including Vendors.

Non Player Character.
A character in the game controlled by computers.
Mobs are one form of NPCs. Vendors are another.

Vendors (also known as Merchants) are a form of NPC. These NPC's are commonly located cities, though they can also be found elsewhere. Mouse clicking on them will permit you to see their wares, buy items from them, and sell items to them.

Certain items in the game can be stacked. That is, they have a little number in the corner of the icon, ranging from 1 to 20, and you can put up to twenty of them in a single inventory slot.

These items are usually used, or required, in quantity. Players will often sell them by the stack, rather than individually. Vendors will sell by the stack, sometimes at a discount, sometimes for a little extra, if you hold down the shift key while buying the item.

That's actually more of a general rule. If you have a stack or a partial stack of items, you can work on the entire stack at once if the shift key is depressed. Or you can work with (grab) just one item at a time if the control key is depressed. Thereby circumventing the standard popup pick-how-many-items-you-want window.

Note: Stacking affects WEIGHT

Priest of Discord
A special NPC. Located near most major cities, the PoD can be used to change a PvE character into a PvP character.
(There are really good reasons why you DON'T want to do this.)

Soulbinder NPC. A recent addition to most major cities, this NPC will perform a bind spell upon your person. Extremely useful for those classes who cannot cast bind, or who do not have yet have the bind spell capability.

Every player has his "soul" bound at a particular point, known as his bind-point. This is where you reappear when you die. Certain classes, notably the pure-spellcasters, can cast the Bind spell to change a player's bind-point. These classes may bind themselves anywhere, but may only bind others in certain special places, such as cities and a few other locations. Players without the bind spell may obtain a bind through the Soulbinder NPCs.

The /charinfo command reports where you are currently bound. The Gate spell, if you have it, will transport you to your own bind point. At level 50, wizards get a spell that will transport another player to that player's bind-point.

Extreme care should be taken when binding to avoid bind-death-loops. Bind-death-loops occur when, after you die, your bind point is situated such that you die again immediately. For example: Bound in mid-air between platforms in the wood-elf treetop city while levitate was cast upon you. After you die, you no longer have levitate up, and immediately fall to your death, over and over again! Or being bound next to a nasty mob's  spawn point, whom you cannot defeat without having your spells up.

If you get into a Bind-death-loops, turn your computer off and go LD. It's your only option. Try to come back in as another character and get help. But watch out for your corpse poofing during your CR.

After a period of time, anything left on the ground decays, and is removed from the game. This is known as "poofing". It happens to any gear dropped on the ground, as well as any bodies, be they mobs you have killed, or your own body.

Approximately 30 minutes after leaving the game, any NORENT items on your character, or in your character's bank account, will poof as well. If you have any NORENT   containers, ALL the items in those containers, regardless of whether they are NORENT OR NOT, will also poof after 30 minutes. Unless, of course, you reenter the game before this time limit expires.

An UNDERCON is a mob who cons as being easier to kill than he really is. In other words, you con him and he seems easy to kill (green/light-blue/blue), but he fights like he's red and really kicks your arse.

In EverQuest, one cannot directly tell the level of a mob. Instead one can consider the mob, and see how it cons. (The keystroke to consider can be set under the keyboard options. Or you can use /consider (or /c) to consider the current target.) Consider will return a color code of how the mob compares to your level. (It also returns a brief description, which allows you to determine faction.) The color code goes:

	Color	Level	Experience	Will Ignore you?
	Green	Far below your current level.	None.	Will probably ignore you, unless your faction is bad and you sit down.
	Light Blue (Aquamarine)	Well below your current level.	50% / 25% of normal.	Will attack you, if faction is bad.
	Blue (Dark Blue)	A little below your current level.	Normal.	Will attack you, if faction is bad.
	White (Black)	Exactly at your current level.	Normal.	Will attack you, if faction is bad.
	Yellow	A little above your current level.	Normal.	Will really hurt you, if faction is bad.
	Red	Quite a bit above your current level.	Normal.	Will kill you, if faction is bad.

In EverQuest, each NPC belongs to one of something like 138 different cliques. Faction refers to how well you get along with that particular NPC's clique, or faction.

Many of these factions are at odds with one another, making it difficult to raise your faction with one group without lowering it with another. Depending on your actions, it is possible to lower your faction beyond the point of ever recovering it again. (Though this is somewhat rare, and somewhere at the very bottom end of Scowls.)

Your standing with a particular faction can be determined by Considering a member (NPC) of that faction. The words Consider returns indicate how that NPC, and any other members of that NPC's faction, feel about you.

Note: The Wild-ass guesstimate has no real correspondence to anything in the game. It merely reflects some wild-ass guesswork as to just how non-linear this scale really is... Also, as a convenience mechanism, green-conning   mobs won't necessarily attack you, even if they are scowling.

	Description	Comparison	Wild-ass guesstimate			Will Attack you?	Will Trade with you?
	Scowls	Hates your guts.	-10000	to	-5000	Yes-KoS (Long-distances)	You won't live long enough to find out.
	Threatening	Doesn't like you.	-5000	to	-2500	Yes-KoS (Short-distances)	You won't live long enough to find out.
	Dubious	Barely tolerates you.	-2500	to	-1000	Won't KoS, but will argo if you attack any of its friends.	No.
	Apprehensive	Tolerates you.	-1000	to	-250	No.	Yes.
	Indifferent	Doesn't think much of you one way or the other.	-250	to	+250	No.	Yes.
	Amiable	Likes you a little.	+250	to	+1000	No.	Yes.
	Kindly	Likes you a lot.	+1000	to	+2500	No.	Yes.
	Warmly	Best of Friends.	+2500	to	+5000	No.	Yes.
	Ally	You are blood brothers.	+5000	to	+10000	No.	Yes.

Kill on Sight
Implies that the relevant NPC will kill you as soon as he sees you.

EverQuest, from a purely technical perspective, is arranged as a series of independent server processes, each of which controls one section of the realm. These sections are referred to as Zones. Zoning is the process of moving between zones.

Moving across a zone boundary will cause you to change system server processes on the system, with the result that any messages you would normally receive are interrupted (lost) for a brief period of time. Certain spells drop when zoning. (Most notably the enchanter illusion spells.) And any agro that you might have accumulated will be cleared (reset).

In EverQuest, new mobs are continuously being spawned to replace the ones that have been killed. (Generally after a period of time has elapsed since their death.)

These new mobs are called POPS

When a mob dies, after a period of time has elapsed, a replacement is SPAWED. The time period between death and popping is the Spawn Time. This time period can be zero, or it can be a matter of days. It all depends on the mob.

The location where the mob SPAWNS is known as the Spawn Point.

Oftentimes, a particular mob that you really want to kill, be it for loot, or for a quest, will merely be one of several possible mobs that can pop when the spawn time expires.

These other mobs are known as placeholders. Killing the placeholder restarts the spawn timer clock. And, after the spawn time expires again, you have another chance that the mob you want will be the one that actually pops.

Now, figuring out which mob is the placeholder, and killing it, that is a challenge in and of itself.

Waiting for a new mob or mobs to pop so you can kill them is known as Camping. Oftentimes, folks will use /ooc or /shout to ask which mobs in the zone are currently being camped.

While it is rude to steal a mob somebody else has camped, Verant, the makers of EverQuest, do not recognize any particular camps per se. And some rather obnoxious players like to lay a camping claim to ridiculously large chunks of Norath. Use your best judgment.

During combat, sometimes new, additional mobs that are wandering by, or who have just POPPED, will decided to join in the fun.

These extra mobs that are joining in are known as ADDS.

In EverQuest, groups will commonly put the bulk of the party someplace relatively safe, and send one member out to attack a mob, gain agro, and PULL it (or them) back to the safe-area fighting spot.

When one PULLs, sometimes other mobs who are nearby will also agro upon the puller. If too many mobs are thus pulled, you have an OVERPULL situation, usually followed by either (1) a party wipeout, or (2) a TRAIN to the zone.

When one is fighting more mobs than one can handle, or more difficult (harder) mobs than one can handle, one often needs to escape by running to the zone. The mobs all follow, usually doing damage in the process, creating a TRAIN of mobs behind you.

Leading this TRAIN of mobs over another player, or group of players, will sometimes get them off your back at the expense of the other players. This behavior is outlawed by the Verant GMs, and can get you banned.

A more common problem is that, after you zone, the TRAIN of mobs slowly walks back to their usual locations, in the process frequently agro'ing on any other players in their path. Often resulting in high-level mobs killing low-level players.

Since this is annoying, rude, causes all sorts of friction, and subsequent issues from that friction, it is strongly recommended that everyone create a social macro that shouts "TRAIN TO ZONE", and place it as a hot-button where it can be easily hit while running for your life...

Refers to meditation. After one reaches a particular level (4 for pure spellcasters), one can train a single point (or more if you want to waste them) into meditation. Thereafter, when one opens one's spellbook, there is button that is automatically depressed that enables "meding". (Above level 35, one can merely sit down to med. The spell book does not need to be open.) The meditation skill level gives a boost to one's mana regeneration rate, and is capped based upon your skill level. [(level + 1) * 5 for pure spellcasters.]

Refers to aggression. Folks often speak of holding agro.
Mobs attack the person with the highest agro.
See Agro management 101.

A very popular spell line that prevents mobs from moving.
It is also instrumental in controlling agro.

Refers to a set of movement-speed bufs, the most common of which is "Spirit of Wolf". These allow players to move around zones much faster, and make kiting feasible.

SoW and similar spells are generally cast by Druids, Shamans, Rangers, Beastlords, and, of course, the Bard song. Certain items in the game can give a SoW like effect, such as jboots, tboots, and horses.

Refers to a set of mana-regeneration bufs. Very much sought after by pure spellcasters, these spells are only castable by enchanters. (Though Shaman's can now create clarity potions.)

Sometimes referred to as "crack" by folks who DON'T want to get buffed by my enchanter. (You ask me for "crack", and I'm going to cast illusion troll, cast levitate, turn around, and remove my pants. Believe you me, that's more "crack" than anyone ever wants to see!)

Refers to a set of combat-speed bufs. Very much sought after by pure the melee types. These spells allow the target to attack with weapons significantly faster, thereby shortening combat and reducing damage.

Enchanters get a line of haste bufs. As do Shamans. And a number of items in the game will give a haste effect.

Refers to a set of combat-speed debufs. Very much sought after by anyone taking damage. These spells cause the target to attack with weapons significantly slower, thereby significantly reducing the damage they inflict.

Enchanters get a line of slow debufs. As do Shamans. And a number of items in the game will give a slow effect.

Refers to the enchanter Mesmerize spell line. These spells temporarily prevent a mob from doing anything but just standing there -- Until the spell wears off, or until the mob takes any sort of damage whatsoever.

Certain mobs cannot be Mezed. What can I say? Verant hates us enchanters...

Refers to the charm spell line. Enchanters get a good set of charm spells. Some of the other classes, like Druids and Necros, get a more limited version.

These spells temporarily make a mob your pet to command (with the /pet commands). Casting Tash before Charm tends to make the Charm last longer. But when Charm does wear off, the mob only has one thought in it's fuzzy little mind -- Kill it's previous owner! (You get major agro.)

Certain mobs cannot be Charmed. What can I say? Verant hates us enchanters...

Any of the many Direct Damage spells.
Some DD spells may only damage certain types of mobs, or may be resisted based on the different resistances (poison,magic,disease,fire,cold).

Any of the many Damage over Time spells.
Some DoT spells may only damage certain types of mobs, or may be resisted based on the different resistances (poison,magic,disease,fire,cold).

Area Effect spells. There are a number of varieties of AE spells, including:

• PB: Point Blank, only affecting the area immediately around the caster.
• RAIN: Affecting a particular area, with the location not changing over the lifespan of the spell, generally centered around the current target, sometimes with multiple waves over time. (E.g. Like a DoT)
• DD: Immediately Affecting all mobs in the vicinity of the current target.

A Buf is a spell that benefits the target. Typically it lasts for a period of time, and raises some attribute: Attack speed, resistances, abilities, AC, mana or health regen, etc.

On the blue servers, Bufs can only be cast on friendly creatures -- players and charmed mobs. The system prevents you from accidentally buffing the mob you are trying to kill. (There were too many cases of players trying to hurt other players by "helping" the mob out...)

Players can remove bufs, should they ever want to, by clicking on their buf spell icon with the mouse.

A Debuf is a spell that puts the target at a disadvantage. Typically it lasts for a period of time, and lowers some attribute: Attack speed, resistances, abilities, AC, health regen, etc.

On the blue servers, Debufs can only be cast on enemy creatures and yourself. You are not allowed to harm other players, unless both you and they have gone the PvP route at a PoD.

Players cannot easily remove debufs, though certain spells can remove certain specific debufs. (Cure Disease/Poison, for example.) And some classes get enchantment-stripping spells that remove all bufs and debufs, starting at the first icon position. (Which is why, at higher levels, folks go out of their way to create "holes" in the first few buf slots by casting worthless bufs and then removing them afterwards.)

Certain items, such as weapons, can cast spells automatically, and randomly, during combat. When such a spell is cast, it is referred to as the weapon "procing".

Wanted To Sell.
Frequently used with /auction

Wanted To Buy.
Frequently used with /auction

Player vs Player.
Standard on Red Servers.
Players can fight other players, including looting them depending on the server rules...

Player vs Environment.
Default on Blue Servers.
Players fight the environment, and can't harm each other.
(Though they can still harm themselves...)

Blue servers is a term used to refer to servers where PvE is the default.

Red servers is a term used to refer to servers where PvP applies to everyone.

Refers to something exceptionally good/powerful/useful. Especially when referring to items. Most commonly seen as "uber-loot".

Refers to a person who has very little skill in playing their character. (E.g. A cleric who doesn't employ, or even know about, their better healing spells.) Such players have obviously not leveled their characters up themselves, and in all likelihood have illegally purchased the character in question already leveled up to a very high level through ebay.com, or an ebay-like auction site.

Some folks make money the easy (and boring) way, by using a high level character to kill vastly lower-level mobs. They then collect money and/or items-to-sell off their prey. This practice is known as farming. It is the scourge of EverQuest, as it prevents lower-level characters from hunting those mobs.

Several attempts have been made to control farming, including the introduction of LORE and NODROP items, as well as the widely despised Trivial Loot Code.

After leveling one character up, folks will often use their high-level character to obtain equipment for any new Alts they create. This process is known as Twinking, with the newly decked out characters known as Twinks.

EverQuest permits each account to have up to 8 player characters. Usually one of these characters, frequently the highest level one, is your Main character. With the others being Alts.

Tank are characters that fight the mob directly, close up, taking whatever damage the mob dishes out. Warriors are the gold standard for Tanks.

Generally, the fighter-hybrid classes. These classes try to be Tanks, but they don't have the AC, Hitpoints, or skills necessary to cut the mustard when things get rough.

Whenever a player goes up a level, there is a bell sound. This has lead to the use of the word Ding to indicate that a person just leveled up. It is not uncommon for players to exclaim "Ding 21" to indicate they just reached level 21.

With spellcasters this takes on added significance, since new spells may now become available, and level factors widely into spell success rates.

When a player dies, they are transported back to their bind point, with all their spells un-memed, and minus anything they were carrying. All of their equipment and money remains on their corpse. The process of running back to their corpse, before the corpse poofs, is known as the Corpse-Run. It occurs sufficiently often that it's typically abbreviated CR.

The corpse poofs after:

Level	Time
1-5	30 minutes
6+	24 hours online, 1 week offline, Whichever comes first.

Of special note is that the clock keeps running if you play another character on the same account, or even stay logged in on that same account. (E.g. At the character selection screen.) Also, there is only one timer. One hour online equals 7 hours offline. One day offline equals 3.429 hours online. Four days offline, 10.29 hours online, and your body poofs.

If your body has nothing on it, regardless of your level, it poofs after 3 minutes.

If your connection to Verant's servers drops enough packets, or if the game crashes, your character goes Link-Dead. A small <LD> flag appears next to your character's name, you are automatically disbanded from any group that you were a part of, and for about a minute, your character fights as a computer-controlled NPC. After that minute is up, if you can re-establish communications with Verant, you can re-enter the game.

If you were in combat when you went Link-Dead, well, you're probably dead. Welcome to Corpse-Run hell.

If you had any NORENT items on your character, or in your character's bank account, they will poof in about 30 minutes. If you had any NORENT   containers, ALL the items in those containers, regardless of whether they were NORENT OR NOT, will also poof in about 30 minutes. Unless, of course, you can reenter the game before this time limit expires.

AFK stands for "Away From Keyboard". It's one of the commands that can be issued.

A player who is AFK can still be attacked and killed by mobs. They can still move, fight, and cast spells. They can still do everything that they would normally be able to do. The purpose of AFK is more to facilitate communications between players.

When you issue the /afk command, a small "<AFK>" flag appears next to your name, so that other players looking at your avatar, or using the /who command, can tell you are AFK. Any tells that you receive will automatically get a reply indicating that you are AFK, along with an optional message if you chose to supply one to the /afk command.

LFG stands for "Looking For Group". Like AFK, it's a command that can be issued to facilitate communications between players. It's also a commonly used abbreviation in shouts and ooc messages to indicate that that person is looking for a group.

When issued as a /lfg command, it adds a small "<LFG>" flag next to your name, so that other players looking at your avatar, or using the /who command, can tell you are Looking For a Group.

Many players in EverQuest have more than one character, or have friends/guildmates with higher-level characters. PL'ing implies utilizing the benefits that come with access to high-level spells and equipment to facilitate, or speed up, the process of leveling up a lower-level character. PL'ing is not without its perils!

In EverQuest, you are ten times more effective in a group as you are playing solo. Oftentimes, when one doesn't know anyone in the area, or have any friends available to group up with, complete strangers will group together. Such groups are known as Pickup-Groups.

Mind you, if you group with a person who doesn't know how to play, and who is unwilling to learn, well, it's MUCH worse than Solo'ing.

EverQuest is designed to be played in a group, and is geared towards social interaction. Key abilities are split across the different character classes. However, you can play it without anyone else. Such activity is known as Solo'ing.

A person who runs in quick and loots mobs right after they are killed, and especially one who does so out of turn, is said to be Ninja-Looting.

Ninja-Looting is punishable by the GMs, and can get you banned. It's also really rude. Remember, your cleric's the one who heals you during combat. You don't play nice. You don't share. Well, maybe that heal doesn't come just in the nick of time...

Someone who attacks and kills the mob you were fighting, or camping / waiting to pop, is said to be Kill-Stealing.

It's a very rude thing to do. The GM's have been known to get involved, and deal harshly with such folks...

This flag, on an item, indicates that it's magical. On a weapon, this indicates that it can hit certain mobs, such as wisps, which can only be attacked by magical weapons.

This flag, on an item, indicates that you may only possess one of them at a time. You may NOT have a second one in the bank. Though you could have a second one on an Alt.

This flag, on an item, indicates that you may not drop it on the ground, give it away, or trade it away. (Though it can still be given to NPC's for a quest.)

If you decide you no longer want the item, you have to destroy it. (Pick it up on your cursor and click destroy.)

This flag, on an item, indicates that it will poof about 30 minutes AFTER you leave the game. (Be it through the /camp command, or through going Link-Dead.

These items will poof regardless of whether they are in your character's inventory, or in your bank account.

Of particular danger are NORENT containers, since when they poof, they take everything inside them away as well, regardless of whether those items are NORENT OR NOT!

The widely despised Trivial Loot Code.

The idea was to halt farming by preventing the "good" loot from dropping if the mob con'ed Green to you. Naturally, this sucked big time, since suddenly quests were broken, materials one needed could not be obtained, etc. But, hey, it cut down on the farming as everybody fled the zones where TLC was enabled wholesale!

Out Of Mana.

Mana at 10%. 0.5 blue bubbles showing.

Mana at 20%. 1.0 blue bubbles showing.

Mana at 30%. 1.5 blue bubbles showing.

Mana at 40%. 2.0 blue bubbles showing.

Mana at 50%. 2.5 blue bubbles showing.

Mana at 60%. 3.0 blue bubbles showing.

Mana at 70%. 3.5 blue bubbles showing.

Mana at 80%. 4.0 blue bubbles showing.

Mana at 90%. 4.5 blue bubbles showing.

Mana at 100%. All 5.0 blue bubbles showing.

Full Mana. Mana at 100%. All 5.0 blue bubbles showing. Synonymous with 100m.

Good To Go.
Person is ready for the next pull.

Laugh out Loud.

Laughing my ass off.

Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off.

Your Welcome.

Now adays, Fullscreen mode is the only mode, and Windowed mode refers to hitting Alt-Enter to put everquest into a window, and perhaps Alt-Shift-R to free up the mouse, letting one use other software while Everquest continues to run.

However, in the old days, there used to be multiple ways of viewing the world in the EverQuest client. Aside from the top-down and other perspectives, you used to be able to choose to work in one of three viewing modes. (Which was switched between via the F10 key, or whatever key you had bound it to under the keyboard options.)

In the old Windowed-Mode, just a small portion of the screen was taken up by your 3D-view of the EverQuest realms. The old Fullscreen-Mode is a precursor of todays viewing mode, in which the entire screen shows your 3D-view of the EverQuest realms.

OLD Windowed		OLD Fullscreen