Skills
How do skills work in EverQuest?
In EverQuest your skills are dictated by your class and increase through use. They are capped at a certain "skill level" depending on both your class and your level (though some are race specific and can't ever be increased). This means that a warrior at level 50 may be very proficient at using 2 handed slashing weapons (such as a sword) but hopeless with a 2 handed piercing weapon (such as a spear), depending on how much he or she has used those skills.
How much do I have to use a skill to increase it?
This depends on the skill and to some extent your characters statistics, all skills are "governed" by a specific statistic and will increase faster, the higher this statistic is. There are some limitations such as combat skills not increasing on creatures that are too low level to give you any experience points and gnomes not being able to increase tinkering until they reach level 16. Trade skills are also governed by multiple statistics and will get the skill increase frequency bonus from the one your character has the highest (this is likely to be intelligence or strength).
Does EverQuest have trade skills?
Yes, there are several different trade skills open to everyone (including brewing, smithing and tailoring) and some that are restricted (such as poison making for rogues, alchemy for shamans and tinkering for gnomes). These vary in the investment (money and time) to raise them but can be quite profitable at high skill levels.
How do I make items?
You must combine (combine is a button) the appropriate ingredients in a trade skill container (may be on your person, such as a sewing kit, or fixed such as a forge) and the result will (if it works) be the item from the recipe. It is possible to fail a combine and get nothing or part of the recipe back and your chances of this happening are reduced by increasing your skill level with that trade or obtaining the appropriate alternate advancement abilities. All recipes have what is known as a trivial, which is a specific fixed skill level where using that recipe will no longer give increases to your trade skill (but provides the best chance of that recipe not failing).
Can I learn more than one trade skill?
Yes, you can learn as many as you have access to but you are restricted to increasing only one beyond a certain "skill level" cap (though you can increase more than one beyond this by purchasing the appropriate alternate advancement abilities).