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Alchemy: How to specialize? [Answered!]
Dear readers,The time for decisions has arrived! I, an alchemist, have surpassed both level 68 and a skill of 325, and Alchemist Gribble here has informed me that I am eligible to become a Super Special Master of Alchemical Stuff! But the problem is, I have to choose which alchemical stuff to super-specially master. Now before the Dark Portal opened, I was very happily buying Thorium Bars and Arcane Crystals, and transmuting them into Arcanite Bars for a tidy profit once a day. But now that we have all these newfangled Outland concoctions, I'm a bit confuzzled as to what I should tell Master Gribble. I'm sure some of you have vast depths of experience with which you can advise me and other burgeoning alchemists as to the best choices we could make with our alchemy specializations, whether for profit or just for helping our friends. Focus on transmutations for extra profity goodness? Elixirs for raiding? Potions for making friends?Please leave us some wisdom in the comments below. If someone has an especially useful suggestion, I shall update this spot in order to feature it for everyone to see!Answer: Most of our commenters have found that each specialization has its own advantages, and it really depends on what you would personally use most. People who use potions or elixirs most (or make them for their friends) find their respective specializations invaluable. Since I'm a druid, though, I still can't use potions in any of my forms, and my small guild doesn't habitually use lots of elixirs anyway. So it seems that for me the way to go is transmutation after all -- with one caveat: on some servers, primal might, which is the most readily available transmutation, sells for less than the materials needed to transmute it, due to an overflow of other alchemist with similar dreams of uncountable wealth. Getting revered with the Sporeggar will allow you to transmute Primal Earth to Water, though, and that is apparently more reliably profitable.
Alchemy hotfix: No more discoveries for now
Last night, Alchemists everywhere lost a wonderful ability. One which many (including my Druid) have not been able to savor the sweet success of. According to Tseric, there was a bug causing an exploitable situation in regard to potion/transmute discoveries. So, as was done with rogue poisons staying on when entering an instance, Blizzard has opted to temporarily remove the ability altogether for all alchemists to learn new potions, flasks and transmutes through discovery. Per Tseric on the Profession forums: We have been working on the resolution of a serious exploit in game which has led to certain consequences that we wanted everyone to be aware of. A hot fix has been recently applied to the alchemy profession, with regards to discoveries. For the time being, we have disabled all chance of a discovery, until we can implement the proper fix through a patch , as we can not resolve this matter solely with hot fixes. We apologize for the necessary but temporary removal of discoveries, and are working to have them re-implemented with an upcoming content patch.While disheartening for the moment, at least it is only a temporary removal and not a permanent one. I'm sad to hear that my Druid will have to wait for some discoveries (she was so close, too!) but I'm certain Blizzard will get this remedied. It's just a question of if we'll see the alchemy discovery fix patch prior to, with, or after the 2.1 patch. That is, considering the focus on everything going on in the PTRs at the moment...[image via Mario Caruso]
The naked Night Elf (who does more than dancing for gold)
Our old friend the Naked Troll has a new fellow nudist (or a rival, I guess, depending on whether you play PVE or PVP). AntiTweak is a Night Elf Druid who's leveling her way up completely naked ("without weapons or armor," she says), and livejournalling the whole thing.First, I'll get the formalities out of the way, and say it's an accomplishment for both of them to do it, and that both are taking on (and succeeding at) pretty impressive feats. They're great, good for them, and so on.But more importantly, let's decide: which is harder? A Druid definitely seems harder to level naked than a Hunter (the class Juffowup was leveling with), but then again, Druids can heal and Hunters can't. But Juffowup definitely used weapons, and AntiTweak isn't using any. But AntiTweak seems like she's getting a lot of help from her boyfriend and guildies, and I think Juffowup mostly played with only his pet. And let's not forget, Juffowup plays Horde, and Alliance is EZ mode...Whoops, did I say that last one out loud?AntiTweak's latest debate is whether potions count as "armor and weapons" or not. I say no, but then again some PVP duelers consider potions cheating, while other PVPers drink pots in battlegrounds like their life depends on it. Whatever she decides, grats again to AntiTweak. I'm kind of glad she's doing it, just so I don't have to.
Raiding and the consumables dilemma
Praetorian, over on Elitist Jerks has posted an interesting examination in the role that consumable buffs play in raiding. While this just popped into my own guild's forums, and although it's a couple of weeks old now, the point is still current and relevant.Praetorian summarizes by saying:"Consumables are too powerful, such that Blizzard's raid designers are forced into the untenable position of balancing around unbuffed groups and having their content steamrolled, or balancing around buffed groups and forcing players into a cycle of unpleasant farming in order to even have a chance."He goes on into great detail, breaking down the differences between the different tiers of raiding gear in terms of how they help in raiding, and then into the consumables. In the end, he calls for a change in how raids are approached by Blizzard in the development phase of the game.What do you think of Praetorian's analysis? Do you carry a lot of consumables with you, and do you think things need to change?[Thanks to Forge for the submission!]
Consumables in druid forms? Maybe... not.
I don't think I'd want to be in a room with these very angry druids... On the live realms at present druids cannot use consumables in forms -- the lack of useful things like health potions and healthstones is certainly an annoyance, but after playing a druid for a while you start getting used to the trend of shifting out of feral forms whenever you need to do anything important. However, on the beta realms Blizzard dangled a carrot: for a brief period of time, "certain consumables were flagged as usable in some forms, and that has since been reversed." Drysc claims this was a bug and a mistake -- but even after his comments, countless druids insist that he is uninformed and that the change can't be a bug, pointing at recent changes to the text of Thistle Tea (restores energy) and Rage Potions (restores rage) to include druids under their class restrictions. And while I admire so many druids for believing so whole-heartedly in the power of their dreams, I wonder how much hope there is for a change after it's been confirmed as a bug.[Thanks, Atrius]
Upcoming Potion Changes?
Well, maybe. In response to a posted complaint about health and mana potions sharing a delay, Eyonix tells us that the mechanics of consumable items are currently being re-evaluated. According to this explanation, he goal seems to be to categorize items based on their effects and then have cooldowns based on category. This is an interesting change which would have repercussions on both PvP and PvE content - but we'll have to wait to see how these suggested changes show up in finalized form.
