Insider Trader: Faction recipes for alchemists
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Last week, Insider Trader examined the factions that a new tailor in Outland will need to buddy up to, including what recipes they had to offer, and how far you'd need to go.
Today, we will continue through the series with the following guide to faction recipes for alchemists in Outland. Here is the quick breakdown of what you will need to grind:
Honored with Honor Hold or Thrallmar.
Honored with the Violet Eye (Kara).
Revered with Kurenai or Mag'har. *This one may not be worth it.
Revered with Scryers. Aldor has nothing for alchemists.
Exalted with the Cenarion Expedition.
Exalted with Sporeggar.
Exalted with Lower City.
Exalted with Shattered Sun.
Exalted with the Sha'tar.
Exalted with the Keepers of Time.
As you can see, you might be pretty busy running dungeons and doing quests for the next little while in order to get your recipes. Of course, not all recipes are going to be worth the effort.
Honor Hold and Thrallmar
Once you reach honored with either faction, you won't need to continue grinding reputation, at least not for professions purposes. You will be able to purchase a great moneymaker, [Recipe: Elixir of Major Agility], and what will likely be your first diamond transmutation, [Recipe: Transmute Skyfire Diamond].
On many servers, you can purchase all of the materials for the agility elixir and still turn some profit. You can also advertise your transmutation in trade and get your clients to supply the materials. Overall, this is a profitable first faction to encounter in Outland.
Violet Eye (Kara)
Although you won't be able to grind reputation with the Violet Eye until you are level 70, geared for Karazhan, and involved with a guild that will give you a raid slot. Still, you will only need to reach honored status in order to acquire [Recipe: Flask of Chromatic Wonder]. This is a relatively cheap flask to manufacture, considering one of the main ingredients is the plentiful Dreaming Glory.
At first glance this might not seem like the most useful flask out there, but considering how many raid encounters are indeed determined by the tank's, or party's, magical resistances, you'll probably find a market for them. In fact, it even stacks with resistance auras, Mark/Gift of the Wild, and totems, allowing you to really bump up your resistance without having to swap out as much gear.
For druid tanks, who have no talents to mitigate magical damage other than their Mark of the Wild buff, this flask will come in handy.
Kurenai and Mag'har
Around level 65, you'll be bombing around Nagrand, grinding reputation for nifty things like Talbuks. Unfortunately, the faction recipe you will acquire at revered is not likely to see much use. Unless your economy has more demand for Primal Earth than Primal Fire, blowing your cooldown on [Recipe: Transmute Primal Fire to Primal Earth] is not advisable.
Scryers
Should you choose to ally yourself with the Scryers, you will be able to pick up [Recipe: Elixir of Major Firepower], which is great for warlocks and mages, once you are revered. Unfortunately, there are no alchemy recipes that the Aldor have to offer, so if you find yourself needing to go in that directions for class reasons, you won't get an equivalent elixir recipe.
Cenarion Expedition
This faction seems to hold the reputation to grind for all things alchemy. At honored, you can pick up [Recipe: Earthen Elixir] and [Recipe: Transmute Earthstorm Diamond].
As far as the elixir is concerned, you'll have to weigh the positives and negatives. The use is somewhat situational. If you are going to be taking light hits from several sources, or wearing Blessing of Sanctuary, with which it stacks, this might not be a bad choice. It is also a cheap choice, consuming only small amounts of the very plentiful Dreaming Glory and Ragweed.
Overall though, the [Elixir of Major Defense] is likely to be more useful in Outland dungeons and raids, although earthen has the added bonus of mitigating magical damage. Defense is also much more expensive, consuming three Ancient Lichen and one Terocone a pop.
Because earthen can be used starting at level 50, it is actually quite useful in the old world, even for tanks.
Fortunately, the diamond transmutation is an all around win, and you'll likely see requests from friends and guildmates with a few handfuls of primals and green gems. You might even be able to strike up a relationship with a jewelcrafter who is pre-cutting and auctioning meta gems, and who is therefore willing to buy the transmutation up front.
At revered, you'll be able to purchase [Recipe: Transmute Primal Water to Primal Air]. On many servers, the two primals are fairly equally priced. In this case, you might consider blowing your cooldown in order to acquire a Primal Air without having to purchase one outright, or to make a one to three (or so) gold profit, but you might just as well sell the water and buy the air. In this way, you could blow the cooldown on something more profitable.
At exalted, you can purchase two more recipes. [Recipe: Major Nature Protection Potion] can be handy for some fights, although cooking it up is the way to discover how to conjure a [Cauldron of Major Nature Protection], which is more beneficial in raid settings, in that it will supply 25 people with a nature resistance potion.
You will also have access to [Recipe: Flask of Distilled Wisdom], which you will probably be able to sell for a profit. Although it was an old world flask, it still sees a fair amount of use, especially for healing priests.
Unfortunately, reputation with the Cenarion Expedition can be a bit of a pain to grind, and isn't as easy as Mag'har/Kurenai or Sporeggar. Of course, exalted also brings [Earthwarden] and the [Cenarion War Hippogryph], so there are definitely additional incentives!
Sporeggar
Grinding reputation with Sporeggar has the potential to make you a fair amount of gold, as hitting revered will allow you to purchase [Recipe: Transmute Primal Earth to Primal Water]. Considering how cheap earths are compared to waters on many server (1/4 of the cost on my server), this transmutation might make its way into your regular roster.
At exalted, you'll also be able to grab, aside from a nifty non-combat pet, the [Recipe: Shrouding Potion]. This will effectively dump 1500 aggro within a 30-yard range, although it has one major drawback; it shares a cooldown with mana and health potions, gems, and the like.
In a raiding, or even heroic, situation, pulling aggro is likely to kill you and perhaps the whole raid/party, and popping a healing potion is not likely to save you. Of course, you should be managing your aggro anyway, but mistakes do happen. For classes with no aggro-dumping talents, these can be especially useful.
Check out our guide to reaching exalted with Sporeggar.
Lower City
Lower City is another faction grind that isn't necessarily on the favorites list of many players, but reaching exalted might be worth your alchemical-while. At revered, you can purchase [Elixir of Major Shadow Power]. The potions are purchased by warlocks and shadow priests, so you might be able to make a profit on the auction house.
At exalted, you can purchase [Recipe: Flask of Chromatic Resistance]. If you are unlikely to reach honored with the Violet Eye from running Karazhan any time soon, then this recipe will probably come in handy, although it is not cheap to make. Containing a Black Lotus and seven Mountain Silversage, you should double check to see if you could sell the flask for more than you could sell its raw materials, before making any.
Shattered Sun
At level 70, you can begin doing daily quests for this faction, and indeed, not only will the reputation grind move swiftly, but the money from the quests is very good. At exalted, you'll be able to purchase four alchemical stones, each of which makes a bind on pick-up trinket.
[Recipe: Assassin's Alchemist Stone] will make a trinket that is great for any alchemist that stacks attack power, as it packs a whopping 108.
[Recipe: Guardian's Alchemist Stone] is a nice tanking trinket for anyone attempting to reach, or needing to maintain, their defense cap, as it holds 54 defense rating.
For healers, [Recipe: Redeemer's Alchemist Stone] will increase healing by up to 119 and spell damage by up to 40.
For spell wielders, [Recipe: Sorcerer's Alchemist Stone], which increases healing and spell damage by up to 63, might be the best choice.
All of the trinkets, upon equip, increase the effect of healing and mana potions on the wearer by 40%, without stacking. They are especially useful for long boss fights when potions are being consumed in chains, and can be very helpful in oh-crap situations.
Because this is an equip effect and not a use, there is no need to update your macros or to worry about having another button to push, which is another point in favor of it being useful in emergency situations.
Check out our guides to the Shattered Sun daily quests.
Sha'tar
Once revered with the Sha'tar, you'll be able to purchase [Recipe: Transmute Primal Air to Primal Fire]. Similar to the water-air exchange, you may or may not actually want to go ahead with the transmute. In fact, on my server, you'd lose a few gold in the process.
At exalted, you can acquire [Recipe: Flask of the Titans]. Another old world recipe moved to a faction vendor, you may or may not find use for it, although you might be able to sell it to level 50-58s. While the materials farming would be a bit of a pain, if you can sell it for more than you can purchase the materials, it might be a nifty little side project to earn a bit of gold.
As far as Outland usage is concerned, [Flask of Fortification] is a better choice, and when shelling out the money for a flask, raiders will usually offer a bit more to get the better item.
Keepers of Time
Yet another old world recipe, [Recipe: Flask of Supreme Power] is available from the Keepers of Time at exalted. While there are better options, this is still marketable to players pre-Outland.
Each week,
Insider Trader takes you behind the scenes of the bustling sub-culture of professional craftsmen, examining the profitable, the tragically lacking, and the methods behind the madness. For some of the best ways to maximize your alchemy skill, check out our guide to reaching 375. Itching to know about alchemy in Wrath of the Lich King? We have information from the Beta testing!
