Path to increasing spell research?

[kiatek]

Since I have never really played a caster, i know next to nothing about spell research unfortunately. Now I would like to get acquainted with it since i am playing an enchanter, and have no idea where to start besides the main website.

So does anyone have a "guide" to research website link or anything similar? NO i am not doing research just to do spells to sell. I am interested in increasing the skill legitimately instead of just "buying" it through the trainer.

Is it hard to raise? Does it take alot of combines? Do you just have to hunt to get components to raise or can you buy stuff?

I know, basic questions, but I have no idea where to start to get them answered If someone could point me in the right direction, I would be very appreciative

[Nimphe Wildwood]

Mythiran Tower

Site has been around for a long time, but I think it's still a very useful resource. Have a peek

It's also listed here under the Specialized EQ links.

[Eumerin]

Eumerin's simplified guide to raising the Research skill:

Enchanters - buy up all of the faded pages that you can find on vendors, and practice on those. Ignore the other components except when you actually need to create a specific spell.

Wizards and Necromancers - Buy runes or words (depending on your class) and practice your skills on those. At particularly low levels, you might want to try the practice runes, but getting the components is often more trouble than its worth, and the later gems get very expensive.

Magicians - Go to the trainer. Honest. Its probably cheaper than getting a skill up EVERY SINGLE combine attempt (which no one ever gets). Magician spell research requires actual spell scrolls as one of the components, and as a result is very expensive.
Especially if you fail a combine.

[Velurian]

Enchanters - buy up all of the faded pages that you can find on vendors, and practice on those. Ignore the other components except when you actually need to create a specific spell.

I agree, with a qualification.

Don't bother combining anything until you reach level 19. Your first training point spent at the trainer will give you 16 points in research (assuming you train it as soon as possible). You won't be able to skill up any higher until level 19.

There aren't any faded Tasarin's Grimoire pages, and you won't find enough other faded pages that you'll want to waste them going through the low-trivial Tasarin's range. So buy/farm every Tasarin's Grimoire page you can find off of vendors (they tend to be overpriced in the bazaar, like most research components).

Similarly, Velishoul's Tome faded pages are moderately rare; buy them when you see them, but the regular pages are cheap enough off of vendors that it's probably worth buying the ones you see. If servers have been up a while, you can often find a lot of these on vendors in Firiona Vie, along with Salil's pages for the next step. You'll also find some of these (along with Tasarin's pages, frequently) on the vendor in the windmill in LOIO.

Salil's Writ pages are where it really becomes realistic to skill up primarily on faded pages, and given that the non-faded pages get somewhat more expensive at this point, that's a good thing. Not to mention that you can sell any faded pages you successfully unfade back to the vendor for a tidy profit. (Well, a couple plat, but that'll cover buying a bunch more faded pages...) Again, I find that FV is a good place to find these.

This will take you to the 150's, if you keep doing Salil's faded pages all the way to trivial. This is where you seriously want to consider buying your skill higher, should you be interested in going higher. Nilitim's pages cost 5pp+ each. There are no faded Nilitim's pages, so you're stuck combining two pages for every combine, and unlike earlier, you're not going to get a skillup every couple combines. In this range, each point you buy is something like 20-30 plat (escalating quickly, so if you want to get to 200 from the 150's, be ready to drop a couple grand on it...), but this is likely to be cheaper than hunting for Nitilim's pages. If you're determined to do it the hard way, keep an eye out at vendors in the Bazaar and Shadow Haven, and near high-level zones. Nilitim's pages will take you to 182.

If you want to go higher (without buying the points), you need to get your LoY research container and get your hands on some of the new research materials. As far as getting sufficient quantity of these, in the appropriate pairs (or triples, or occasionally even more) to do combines for skillups...well, I can only wish you luck. You can sometimes find these (very expensively) in the bazaar, or a lot of hunting in PoP or a number of very high level zones (Old Sebilis has had the best yield for me, but YMMV) will turn them up now and then.

[kiatek]

re

thanks for the great advice and the link! this will keep me busy for awhile

[Bregalad]

Over the course of time from lvl 16, I would hoard whatever research pages I could find, and tried to keep my Research maxed, topping off with skillup points. Pretty much researched all my spells myself. However, when I was around 148 skill, I succeeded on my last lvl 49 spell. After that, I stopped hoarding pages, either letting other chanters loot them or just selling off whatever I looted. Otherwise, I would heve much higher skill by LoY release.

When LoY went live, I resumed research practice, getting it to 163. Then, a shaman guildie asked to combine a rare lvl 58 spell, and I blew about 900pp to boost it to 190. Combine succeeded, but was not trivial. If I need to attempt another rare spell, I plan to buy it all way up to 200.

[Astroshak]

My advice for training research :

Use your practice points at your guild trainer.

Unlike other tradeskills, research is trainable all the way up. This will be faster and cheaper than making combines, unless you happen to loot the combine material yourself (still faster; looting might make it cheaper).