Combat Systems

Invocations & Stances

Stances and Invocations are toggleable combat states that reshape how you fight, a melee stance for your body, an invocation for your spellcasting. The trick that makes them deep: because you play a fused trio, you can run one of each at the same time.

Lv 0
Available from the start
Toggle
On until you turn it off
1 + 1
A melee stance AND an invocation
END
Fueled by endurance
The basics

What stances and invocations are

Both are level-0, toggleable abilities: you switch one on and it stays on until you switch it off (or run out of the resource that fuels it). A stance is the melee/defensive mode your body is in; an invocation is the caster equivalent, a permanent modifier on how your spells behave. You can only have one melee stance active at a time, but an invocation runs in tandem with it.

Stances

Your melee mode

Melee and hybrid classes pick a stance that trades offense, defense, and endurance. You can run exactly one at a time. Pure-melee classes get the widest menu (balanced, offensive, striker, evasive, ranged); hybrids get a mix, and casters get a channeler stance.

Invocations

Your caster mode

Casting classes toggle an invocation that reshapes their spellcasting, faster casts, cheaper mana, group healing, or turning spells into weapon procs. Which invocations you get is tied to your Intelligence or Wisdom classes.

Melee stances

Common stances and what they do

StanceEffect
BalancedReduces incoming damage ~10%, +10% hit chance, and doubles endurance regen, at no endurance cost. The safe default.
OffensiveRoughly doubles your outgoing damage and +25% hit chance, but burns endurance as you deal damage. All gas.
DefensiveHeavy damage mitigation (large cut to physical, some to magic). The tank's survival mode.
Striker / Evasive / RangedFurther pure-melee options tuned for crit pressure, avoidance, or bow play, so you can shape your role on the fly.
ChannelerThe caster-side melee stance, for classes built around spellcasting rather than swinging.

Stance names and exact numbers are community-sourced and still being tuned, so confirm the current values in-game.

Caster invocations

Invocations and what they do

Invocations are the caster's toggle. Several of them scale with how many casting classes you've fused, which is where the trio system rewards leaning into your archetype.

InvocationEffect
Arcane MasteryCuts spell cast and recovery time by ~20%, plus another ~10% for each additional Intelligence class in your trio.
DivineWhenever you spend mana, it heals the lowest-health group member by that amount, turning your casting into passive group sustain.
OverchannelLowers your targets' spell resistance (a large flat cut, deepening per non-hybrid caster class), so more of your spells land.
Spell BladeFires a chosen spell from your melee attacks, stripping its cast time but locking out your other spells for that duration. The signature hybrid toy.
RecoverRoughly doubles mana regeneration and shaves a little off spell costs, the sustain option for long fights.

Invocation names and numbers are community-sourced and evolving; confirm in-game.

Why the trio makes it deep

Run a stance and an invocation together

Here's the payoff. Invocations run in tandem with a melee stance, so a fused hybrid can be in an Offensive stance and a caster invocation at the same time, hitting like a melee while your spells still get the invocation's boost. A Shadow Knight / Cleric / Monk, for example, can swing in Offensive stance while Spell Blade turns a slow, high-impact spell into an instant on-hit proc.

Match the invocation to your classes

Because several invocations scale per Intelligence or Wisdom class, doubling down on an archetype (two casters, say) makes Arcane Mastery or Overchannel noticeably stronger than a single-caster splash would.

Stance for the moment, invocation for the plan

Swap your melee stance situationally (defensive for a scary pull, offensive to burn), while your invocation stays set to the role your trio is built around. Two independent dials, one character.

Using them

How to activate stances and invocations

Open the window

Alt + C

Press Alt+C to open the discipline window, where your available stances and invocations live. Toggle one on and it stays on.

Make a permanent button

Macro it

Buttons dragged off the discipline window vanish when you log out. For a permanent hotbutton, make a macro with /disc discname, e.g. /disc defensive. Invocations can be toggled with a /doability macro.

Mind your endurance

They cost resources

Aggressive stances drain endurance as you fight, and a stance ends if the resource runs dry. Keep an eye on the bar in long fights and drop to a cheaper stance when you need to.

Keep going

Where to next

Stance and invocation mechanics are sourced from the community EverQuest Legends wiki (eqlwiki.com) and early developer coverage; the game is new and being tuned, so treat names and numbers as a strong guide and confirm in-game.