Spell Upgrade Guide

What a rank costs, what each kind of spell gains, and which values this site will not guess at. Every spell page shows its own upgraded numbers; the header slider applies a rank across the site.

What a rank costs

Ranks are bought with spell experience, which comes from Motes of Potential. Each rank costs twice the one before, so +10 takes 1023 experience in all. Unlike items, a spell takes any grade of mote at any rank, so a single Infinite mote covers the whole climb.

Motes of Potential

The same motes are worth far less on items, which also refuse grades above their tier. See the item merging guide for that side of it.

What each rank gives

Rates are per rank, applied to the spell's base value. A spell's category follows from what it does, and decides which of these apply.

Healing and damage per tick grow 3% of the spell's base value a rank, measured in game rather than taken from a write-up: Kragg's Salve healed 701, 722, 743, 764 at Tiers 0 through 3 and Envenomed Bolt ticked 352, 363, 384, a flat step each rank. (Those logs run about 2% above the file because the character carries a small passive bonus; the site shows the file's values.) The opening hit of a spell that ticks grows 6% a rank: Envenomed Bolt's 41 reads 65 at +10, and its opening hits in combat land near that. A nuke's damage does not grow at any rate the site can confirm, so it is left alone. Durations grow in whole ticks, rounded down for buffs and to the nearest tick for spells that tick, so a short spell may not lengthen until its second or third rank. Healing and damage round down, as the window shows them: Slugs Healing's 200 a tick reads 259 at +10, not 260.

Stats, resists, and damage shields grow 2% of the spell's base value a rank, rounded to the nearest point, as the upgrade window shows them: at Tier 4, Strength IV's 67 strength reads 72, Stamina IV's 40 stamina reads 43, and Talisman of Jasinth IV's 45 disease resist reads 49; Spirit Quickening's 30 strength reads 33 at Tier 5 and 34 at Tier 6; Force of Nature's 5 damage shield reads 6 at Tier 6. A debuff's cuts grow the same way: Malosi VIII's 60 cuts to each resist read 70 at Tier 8. Armor class and offense grow 3% a rank: Force of Nature's 20 offense reads 22, 23, and 24 at Tiers 4 through 6, and Spikecoat's armor class 21, 23, and 24 at Tiers 0, 4, and 6 (the window shows armor class as a quarter of the spell's figure, which spell pages give). Attack speed grows a point a rank on Spirit Quickening, 20% to 25% and 26% at Tiers 5 and 6, and is left at base until a haste of another size shows whether that is a flat point or 5% of base. Other effects, such as mana and endurance regeneration, do not grow.

What this site does not model

• Mana for nukes and utility spells. Mana falls by a share of base that depends on the category: 2% a rank for heals, instant or over time, and for damage over time, and 4% for buffs, debuffs, and pets, each read rank by rank. Nukes and utility spells have not been read that way; their mana is left alone.
• Over-time duration is approximate. Heals and damage over time grow at about half a buff's rate and round to the nearest tick; readings bound the rate to between 5.2% and 5.4% a rank, and the table uses 5.3%. A spell can be one tick off at the ranks where those differ.
• A nuke's damage. Left at base. Conflagration hit 918 at +10 against a base of 900, which is exactly the measuring character's 2% Banestrike bonus and nothing more, though a ticking spell's opening hit grows 6% a rank, the write-ups' figure for direct damage. A nuke's upgrade window at any tier would settle which rule it follows.
• Reagent skipping. Upgraded spells sometimes keep their reagent: Rune IV used 20 Peridots in 20 casts at +1, 7 in 10 at +4, and 5 in 20 at +6. That fits the guides' 10% a rank (the three readings together put the rate between 8% and 14%); whether +10 never uses one is untested. Not shown in the table yet.
• Crowd control level caps. Described in guides without a rate, and not yet checked in game.
• Disciplines and combat abilities. Treated as not upgradeable at all, so they show no table and ignore the slider.

A blank column means the rule is unknown, not that the value stays put. Anything measured here is recorded as a test, so a correction is a one-line change.

Where these numbers come from

• EQL Tools: Spell upgrade scaling -- read from the in-game upgrade window and combat logs.
• Spell Upgrade +1 to +10: what each mote tier gives -- derived from client files dated 2026-08-17.

Mote costs, which effects grow, and the pet level gain were checked in game by this project. Fuller credits are on the about page.