Research

Research lets spell casters create spells by combining components — paper, pen or quill, inks, words, runes, and hides or parchments — in a Spell Research Kit. The spell you create doesn't have to be for your own class: researchers can make spells for any class's spellbook, as long as the spell exists.

Who can research

Research is the spell casters' trade. Which classes can train it on EQL, and at what level, is not documented on the EQL wiki yet — check in-game with your class guildmaster (or the tradeskill window) before committing a practice point. As with other trades, train one point to get started rather than dumping points up front.

Where to combine

• Spell Research Kit — the portable research container.
• Spell research vendors in home cities sell the kit and nearly all basic materials (inks, quills, heat sources); hides and parchments are mob drops.

The classic shape of a research combine: paper or parchment plus a writing implement plus components like words, runes, or writs, bound in the research kit. In the classic patch timeline EQL follows, the earliest form of the trade is researchers crafting the components (quills, inks, waters) and then combining toward actual spells.

The two ingredient streams

• Vendor-bought: the research kit itself, quills, inks, heat sources, water flasks — the predictable costs.
• Drops: words, runes, and hides/parchments come off caster mobs and general hunting. Need-rolling on these in groups is the standard way to stock up — they vendor for pennies, so most groups don't mind.

Caution: the classic-EQ reference sites (EQTraders, Allakhazam) document research recipes and trivials in depth, but those numbers reflect live EverQuest's later research revamps, not EQL's classic-era tuning. Treat them as leads to verify in-game, not as gospel.

Every other EQL trade skill on the wiki states "Intelligence or Wisdom, whichever is higher" governs skill-up chance. Research's EQL wiki entry is too thin to confirm whether it follows the same rule.

Practical advice: as a caster you'll already be stacking your casting stat, which is the likely candidate either way. If you want to be certain before a long skilling session, test with a buffed stat and watch your skill-up rate — and report what you learn to the guild so this guide can be completed.

There is no confirmed EQL leveling path for research on the wiki as of September 2026, so no table of skill ranges below — the classic pattern for this trade is to skill on component subcombines (quills, inks, waters) made from vendor materials, then transition into spell combines as your stock of dropped hides and parchments allows.

• Train 1 point at your guildmaster to open the skill.
• Buy your kit and a stock of the cheapest vendor components from a spell research vendor in your home city.
• Make your own inks and quills rather than buying the finished versions — the subcombine is the skill-up, and it's cheaper.
• Group up and Need roll the word/rune/hide drops while leveling — that's your spell-combine fuel later.

Once you've worked through a stretch of the trade, tell an officer — the guild wants to fill in this guide's missing path with real EQL trivials from member testing.

Honest answer: there isn't a verified one yet. The EQL wiki has no research leveling table, and the era-specific trivials haven't been published. What the classic pattern tells us:

• Early: vendor-material subcombines (quills, waters, inks) — cheap, no drops needed.
• Mid: spell combines scale with the spell level you're researching; the dropped words/runes/hides gate your progress more than platinum does.
• The real limit is drops, not money: finding enough research sheets, words, and parchments for your tier is the bottleneck. Bank everything that drops while you're leveling your caster.

Do not copy a live-EQ research guide's trivial list and treat it as EQL-accurate — live EQ revamped research recipes multiple times after the classic era. Verify every recipe in EQL's tradeskill window, which shows each recipe's trivial for your skill.

Research is a caster-service trade, not a vendor-profit trade:

• Research-only spells: some spells are only obtainable through research — a researcher who can make them has a captive market.
• Spells for alts and guildmates: casters who skipped the trade will pay for finished spell combines. Be the guild's researcher and the requests find you.
• Don't expect vendor profit: components are expensive relative to vendor sellback. This trade pays in guild value and player sales, not merchant flipping.

Because the EQL wiki doesn't document which spells are research-gated in EQL's current era, ask around in-game and in the guild Discord before pricing anything.

Research is mostly self-contained — its materials are vendor goods and mob drops — but it has a few touchpoints:

• Research → every caster: the whole point of the trade. Your output is other members' spellbooks.
• Hunting feeds research: the drops come from ordinary caster mobs, so your leveling groups are your supply chain — coordinate with guild hunters.
• Watch for pottery overlap: some later-era research recipes historically used clay-based components; whether EQL's tuning includes them is unverified — see the Guild Pottery Guide.

Step-by-step and reference

• EQL Wiki: Skill Research — the canonical page; thin as of September 2026, worth re-checking as the wiki grows.
• EQTraders: Research — deep classic-era research documentation; verify every trivial in-game before trusting it on EQL.
• EQL Patch Notes (official) — tradeskill rules change; check here first.

Guild references

• Guild Pottery Guide — the clay trade, in case EQL's research tuning uses clay components.
• Guild Alchemy Guide — the other caster-adjacent trade with real EQL numbers.
• EQL Crafting hub — all twelve trades, skill-up mechanics, and platinum strategies.