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Professions
Casting professions (priests, mages, crusaders, and bards) are differentiated primarily by what kinds of spells and abilities they gain. At each branch of a profession path (archetype, class, and subclass), a casting profession gains an amount of spells via spell lists. Priests and mages gain spell lists at archetype, class, and subclass branches; crusaders and bards gain spell lists at class and subclass.
At the archetype level, spell lists focus on fulfilling the primary roles of the archetype. These core functions will continue to be useful as the caster progresses to class and subclass. For example, basic healing spells of all types will be granted to priests, and all priests continue to receive improvements to those spell lines all the way to level 50.
At the class level, spell lists are tailored to each class' unique method of filling their role in the party. For example, clerics receive powerful instant healing (not instant cast time, instant resolution), druids receive powerful over-time healing (or "regens", if you prefer the term), and shamans receive powerful wards (protective spells that prevent an amount of damage; any protection remaining when the spell expires is applied as an instant heal). Casters will also continue to upgrade their archetype spell lists, which provide more basic functionality for the other methods of filling their role. This allows the cleric to have solid over-time and ward healing, druids to have solid instant and ward healing, and the shaman to have solid instant and over-time healing.
At the subclass level, spell lists are designed to markedly differentiate each subclass of a given archetype. Most subclasses receive functionality not generally given to other subclasses of their archetype. For example, paladins, dirges, and necromancers receive single-target, non-combat resurrections. This ability is a marked departure from their archetype role.
Magic in the World
Our magic system is actually the foundation for a lot of functionality in the game world. It is the basis for such things as spells, abilities, arts (both combat and artisan), creature abilities (such as dragon breath or snake venom), item enchantments (like attribute bonuses, potions, and poisons), traps, and other gameplay mechanics. All of these effects are actually seen as spells by the magic system and are treated very similarly in the game. However, the way they are applied is quite different.
For example, let's look at the differences between abilities, spells, and arts. Abilities are learned at certain levels and do not require memorization, similar to Kick and Taunt in EverQuest. Spells require memorization slots, almost always require power as a resource, and generally have a wide range of applications (healing, augmentation, damage dealing, control, etc.). Combat and artisan arts are similar to spells in that they share the same memorization slots and usually require power as a resource, but they tend to have a much more specific application, such as powerful melee or ranged attacks, self augmentation, or situational damage.
Is It Just Like EverQuest?
People tend to use EverQuest as a basis for comparison to EverQuest II, especially in regard to the magic system. While there are some similarities, this kind of thinking tends to produce incorrect assumptions about our game. We did not use EverQuest classes as the basis for our class tree. In fact, most EQ classes share little in common with the professions that have the same name in EverQuest II, other than extremely broad concepts such as healing or damage dealing. The two games vary widely in terms of the secondary abilities given to some professions. Thinking clerics will heal in EverQuest II like they did in EQ is a safe bet, but expecting them to get invulnerability just because their EverQuest counterpart did would be a bad assumption to make. Likewise, don't assume you should play an EQII necromancer because you like to solo, or that wizards and druids will have teleportation spells. If any class-based assumptions prove true, it would be because those functions fulfill part of their archetype role or class method, or were added as a distinction of their subclass. It usually will not be because the corresponding EverQuest class had a certain ability or spell.
