|
(Frequently Asked Questions)
Questions taken from "Prissy's Guide to Alchemy", the VN Tradeskill boards, email, PM's and from in-game.
Alchemy Tradeskill Basics
Tools, Costs, and Limits
Recipes, Ingredients, and Merchants
Dyes, Poisons, and Potions
Effects, Charges, and Reactives
Miscellaneous
- Q. Can anyone take up alchemy as a craft?
- A. Yes. As of patch 1.87, Mythic has lifted the class restriction for all tradeskills, including Alchemy.
- Q. Can I become an Alchemist before I reach level 5 and choose my class?
- A. No. You can choose a tradeskill only if you are level 5 or higher.
- Q. How do I become an Alchemist?
- A. You need to visit and speak with an Alchemist Master. Please see the Merchants section of this website for names and locations.
- Q. Can I become an Alchemist if I already have a tradeskill?
- A. Yes. As of patch 1.87, players can have as many tradeskills as they like on a single character.
- Q. Can I level up to Legendary status as an alchemist and another tradeskill (like Spellcrafting, Tailoring, etc?)
- A. Yes. As of patch 1.87, there are no longer "secondary skill" restrictions in place and players can cross train in any combination of tradeskills they prefer.
- Q. How do I know when an alchemist is Legendary status? There seems to be varying definitions.
- A. Mythic considers a crafter as "Legendary" when he or she reaches 1000 in tradeskill and awards an option of a title to display. However, it can be a little misleading because alchemists, even at that skill level, do not yet have the ability to make certain items on their recipe lists. Therefore, don't assume by title alone that a crafter will be able to make what you need - just ask.
- Q. What tools do I need as an Alchemist? Don't alchemists need a kit? Why do merchants sell them?
- A. Patch 1.84 did away with requirements for an alchemy kit and a mortar/pestle. Currently, the only requirement to craft an item is that you stand near an alchemy table Table locations can be found listed for each realm and region in the Merchants section of this site. Merchants currently still sell these but at this point, it's merely a "fluff" item.
- Q. What is the maximum skill you can have in Alchemy?
- A. After patch 1.85 which introduced a higher skill recipe for the new Reactive Draining Arcanium Armor Tincture, the maximum skill level was raised to 1148. (The basic calculation to determine a skill cap level is to take the skill level of the highest recipe and add 50).
- Q. How “easy“ is Alchemy?
- A. With the advent of crafting changes in patch 1.87, it's relatively faster to skill up in alchemy; however, much like fletching, after a skill level of 500, the cost of materials can rise significantly, depending on the recipes that are used for skilling up.
- Q. How much does it cost to get to 1000 Alchemy, or how much does it cost to max out Alchemy?
- A. In days of old, it took upwards around 20p or more to reach legendary status. However, with recent changes to the crafting system such as city crafting bonuses and no skill-up failures which result in loss of materials and increased sell-back prices, many alchemists now report that they can skill up to 1000 on 7p or less, depending on which recipes they skilled up on.
- Q. Will the skill gain tools gained from one craft work while leveling a new one?
- A. No. They are skill-specific.
- Q. I read about crafters getting a tool that gives them guaranteed MP's. How can I get one?
- A. Per patch 1.87, Mythic introduced a "Legacy Crafter Reward" that allows the user a guaranteed chance of creating a masterpiece (100% quality) item. All crafters with at least 400 skill at the time of patch are eligible to receive a Major Crafter's Focus tool with 5 charges and crafters with at least 1000 skill at the time of patch are eligible to receive a Legendary Crafter's Focus hammer with 10 charges. They are a one-time only item given by Steward Elirnus, Steward Arva, and Steward Barnas in in their respective realm capitol cities and are not tradable, sellable, or rechargeable.
- Q. Is this some sort of joke that Mythic is giving Alchemists the same masterpiece tool that the other tradeskills such as weaponcrafting are receiving? I thought quality doesn't apply to alchemy?
- A. Quality doesn't make a difference as far as alchemy is concerned. I think the incentive Mythic intended is that you can use the tool if you choose to also level up in another tradeskill on your alchemist toon that could benefit from masterpiece items.
- Q. When I'm skilling up I occasionally get double or triple Herbcraft skill ups with one success. Is this a bug?
- A. Since Alchemy/Spellcrafting have no secondary skill trinkets to skill up with, they are programmed to catch up with your main skill if they start to fall behind. Alchemists that try their hand at Spellcrafting as well as Alchemy will find that their Gemcutting skill will jump ahead of their Spellcrafting skill as it tries to catch up with their primary tradeskill Alchemy.
- Q. I'm new to alchemy. Is there a general guideline as to how I should price my crafted items that I wish to sell on my consignment merchant?
- A. I've always found that prices vary from server to server due to "supply and demand", population, and whether something "new" was just introduced to the game that enhances the player experience (e.g. armor and weapon effectiveness, buffs). Also, some players use the time it takes to craft items, service tips, and their game availability into consideration when determining a consignment price.
Take some time to browse the housing explorer on your server or cluster and do some price comparisons to get a ballpark idea of what others are charging for the same items (i.e. some may charge 30g for black dye but more may be charging closer to 20g). Also, tradeskill forums are a great place to solicit feedback on what is reasonable and what isn't. Finally, check the Recipes page on this site to find out your base price (how much an item costs to make) and calculate your tip percentage off of that price.
- Q. If 99% or 100% alchemy items (such as potions and tinctures) aren't any different from 96% ones, why do I see the MP ones marked up higher on consignment merchants in housing?
- A. P.T. Barnum once said "There's a sucker born every minute" and unfortunately, for every sucker, there's a greedy person in housing hoping to profit on that. Buyer beware!
- Q. Where are the merchants that sell supplies for Alchemy?
- A. For merchant names, locations, and supplies available, please see the Merchants section of this website.
- Q. I can't find <insert alchemy material> on any of the merchants, where is it?
- A. Make sure that you completely scroll through the merchant pages as often a merchant can up to 4-5 pages of materials. Also, double-check whether or not the item you're seeking is a "drop" from higher-level mobs. (For reference, see the Drops section of this website).
- Q. When I farm for alchemy drops, I'm getting them in small stacks of three or more. Is this a bug?
- A. No, stacked drops were introduced in patch 1.85 to accommodate the new potion and tincture recipes.
- Q. Why is there no cost associated in your recipe information for dropped components (i.e. lich teeth)? What is the standard price for dropped components?
- A. I left this out because Mythic didn't assign a value when associating the ingredients to the overall cost of making the item. I'm not aware of any information out there for a player cost standardization "cheat sheet" for these type of recipe components and believe it really boils down to "supply and demand" which varies from cluster to cluster.
- Q. Are Ancient Fiery Heart and Ancient Mummy Knuckles alchemy drops? How come they aren't on the drop list?
- A. Ancient Fiery Heart and Ancient Mummy Knuckles were for the Bloodfire and Soulrot poisons. The drops went in with the 1.53 patch, however during testing those poisons were removed from the game and in turn removed from the drop list.
- Q. Does quality impact the effectiveness of poisons and potions?
- A. Quality has absolutely no importance in alchemy or how it impacts the use of poisons and potions. most tinctures.For example, a 96% and a 100% healing potion will result in the same value of heal points when used.
- Q. Can anyone use potions or is there a level limit on them?
- A. Each potion has a minimum level requirement (which is listed by delving the potion). You must be at least that level or higher to use the potion. Please refer to the Recipes section of this site for a list of potions and their level requirements.
- Q. What are the reuse timers on various potions and poisons?
- A. It varies. There is recast information for potions and charges in the Recipes section of this site.
- Q. Do the Stat Buff Potions stack with player cast buffs?
- A. Stat Buff Potions use the same stacking rules as player cast buffs.
e.g. Single stat buffing potions (str, con and dex) will stack with combination stat buffs cast by a player (str/con or dex/qui). Duel stat combination potions (str/con or dex/qui) will stack with single stat buffs cast by a player (str, con, dex).
- Q. Are "insta" potions bugged? Shouldn't they be working better than the normal potions?
- A. Regarding healing refresh, power refresh, and endurance refresh potions that have "Instant" in their name, Mythic states they are "working as intended". Despite the higher skill level and cost to make these, "insta"-potions do not have a higher refresh value than the strong potions/elixirs/draughts which is why some consider it "bugged. This is how they are intended to work:
Normal potion:
Drop from combat, wait 3 seconds, use potion and then go back to combat.
Instant potion:
Drop from combat, use potion, go back to combat.
- Q. What happened to the Bloodfire and Soulrot magical poisons?
- A. They were removed in 1.54d patch due to balancing issues. There were making an already powerful set of classes (assassins) more powerful. If the assassin classes were ever deemed to be underpowered there is a possibility of them returning to the game but it is unlikely.
- Q. I would like the white dye effect I've seen on certain TOA armor. How can I get this for my own armor?
A. In a brief answer, you can't due to the graphic schematics of how dye is applied by players to their armor and weapons.. There's a great but lengthy grab bag explanation about white dye that goes into detail of how it all works (or in this case, doesn't work) which can be found at http://www.camelotherald.com/more/2748.shtml. - Q. Can an Alchemist make dye for weapons?
- A. Yes, they were added with the 1.70 Patch. Check out the Crafted Weapon Luster category in the Recipes section of this site. These can be applied to player-crafted weapons, artifact weapons, champion weapons, and specific epic dungeon weapon drops, all which delve as being dyeable.
- Q. Does dying another color over an already player-dyed piece of armor change the new color any? Or do I have to use armor bleach on the piece before applying a new dye?
- A. No. Unlike dyeing clothing in real life, when it comes to player-dyed armor, one color will completely saturate a pre-existing color when applying dye. The armor and weapon bleaches are typically used only if a player would like their armor or weapon restored to the original color it came in when it was either dropped or made. Note the key phrase here is "player-dyed" . Certain pieces of armor and weaponry that are already embedded with a color by design (i.e. TOA drops) do not apply in this situation - see the next question below.
- Q. Can alchemists make "two-toned" dye? If not, is it a drop or sold by NPC's?
- A. Multi-color dye does not exist in the game. What you may be viewing is the result of when a player dyes a color onto weapons and armor that originally had unique color as part of its design (TOA items such as Snakelord's Hauberk, Traldor's Oracle, Cetus Cloak as well as Epic Armor are some excellent examples). Some dyes will uniformly saturate the entire piece of armor and some others, particularly unique dye colors, will appear to only "tint" the armor which may create two or more color tones. Have fun experimenting!
- Q. Does quality on a reactive or effect impact how often it will proc on my weapon, armor, or shield?
- A. Quality has no impact whatsoever in determining the proc rate.
- Q. With patch 1.87, the quality of armor no longer impacts the imbue points for Spellcrafting. Is this also true for alchemy and charges, meaning that any quality of armor will result in the same number of charges?
- A. No. The quality of armor still determines the number of charges that can be imbued in it (i.e. MPs get the 10 charges, 99% get 7, etc.)
- Q. What does "Ablative Aura" do? What is a “Self Melee Health Buffer“?
- A. "Ablative Aura" and "Self Melee Health Buffer" are the same thing. It is an effect that gives the player additional magical hit points. Every time you are hit, 1/2 the damage goes to the Aura while the player takes the other 1/2. This occurs until the Aura is broken, at which time the player will take full damage again.
- Q. Do "celeric" tinctures refer to celerity or haste? How do these stack with celerity and/or haste buffs?
- A. The term "celeric" is used in the names of both types of tinctures unfortunately and it can be confusing, especially when the delve for these tinctures says "self haste".
The level 47 "Stable Celeric Arcanium Tincture" is a self-haste charge. The newer level 49 "Greater Celeric" tinctures provide a celerity charge. Tinctures and potions follow the same rules as player-cast buffs: Haste and celerity do stack with each other - but they will not stack alongside of themselves (i.e. lvl 47 celeric charge will not stack additionally with a theurgist haste buff).
- Q. Regarding the delve information on reactives, is each in percentage of 100 points? Meaning, for example with Omni Drain Procs, will you get up to or will you get exactly 100 health, 60 pow, and 40 end? I say exact points because I saw the number 100 as well and am assuming that the percentages are out of 100 making them more or less exact point values. So this means any enemy that attacks you, you have a CHANCE of getting 100 health points, etc?
- A. This was a question I took straight to the Mythic Tradeskill/Item TL: "Yes, the last I heard the value was 100 points. Of course, there are things that affect that value such as hidden bonuses and use of potions. The value should generally range from 100-120 though and the percentages are taken from that."
- Q. If a tincture has a specified range (i.e. 1350 units), does this mean that damage from an enemy outside of the 1350 range (such as a caster or archer) would not be affected by the reactive but that those that are closer will?
- A. To paraphrase the TL: Yes. If, for example, you are wearing a piece of armor with a reactive tincture having a range 1350 units, an archer who shoots you from 2000 units shouldn't be affected.. However, there's been a long standing bug that it still will "hit" the archer. But in general yes, the enemy still has to be within the tincture's specified range for it to work.
- Q. What is the percentage chance of an Effect / Reactive Effect going off?
- A. The chance for an Effect to 'proc' is based on the delay of the weapon it is imbued into but Mythic has not released the formula for how it is calculated. The base chance for a Reactive Effect to 'proc' is a flat rate of 10% (it was lowered from 20% in the 1.54I patch).
- Q. I previously had a piece of armor imbued with a reactive DD proc. With the new tinctures that came out, I'd like to have it removed and have something else imbued in it. Can this be done?
- A. No. Once a crafted item is imbued, it's there permanently. Alchemists do not have the ability to remove an imbuement from a crafted item or stack another imbuement in addition to it at this time.
- Q. I've heard that there are tinctures that drop as loot in the game. Is this true? How do I use them?
- A. Yep. There are existing if rare effects, charges, and reactive tincture drops that are found in the epic dungeons of Shrouded Isles (Caer Sidi, Galladoria and Tuscaren Glacier). An alchemist can imbue these into player-crafted items and a list of these tinctures and their delve information can be found in the Drops section of this site.
- Q. Can a Reactive Draining Arcanium Armor Tincture (aka "Omni Drain proc") be placed on a weapon? Is there an effect I can place on a weapon that has the same effects as an Omni Drain proc?
- A. No. Technically any tincture can be imbued on a weapon but considering this is a reactive, it will not work on your weapon as it is does offensive damage. There are no weapon effects at this time that have the same properties as the reactive. (I've overheard this question a lot in game - if you have someone advising you otherwise, save yourself the expense and headache and please refer them to the recipe list on this site as to what effects and charges can be placed on a weapon that will work).
- Q. If I place an armor reactive on my weapon that I use with "blocking" styles (i.e. parry), will it go off?
- A. At this time, no.
- Q. What skill level is required for an alchemist to imbue any level of tincture (including level 49)? To recharge tinctures of any level?
- A. An Alchemist can imbue any tinctures with a minimum skill level of 550 and recharge all player-crafted charges on items, including level 47 tinctures, at the skill level of 886 (confirmed).
- Q. What's the rule of thumb of where I need to be with my alchemy skill level to imbue armor with tinctures? To recharge charges imbued on player armor?
- A. Per the Trade Skill TL, "... roughly 1/2 of the skill to make the tincture in order to imbue it. To recharge, you need to be roughly 3/4 of the skill needed to make the charge."
- Q. Can an Alchemist imbue or recharge any kind of dropped armor or weapons?
- A. No, only player-crafted items.
- Q. Can an Alchemist put particle effects on weapons?
- A. Prissy's former site reported that Mythic encountered technical difficulties in implementing particle effects back when they were introducing alchemy and spellcrafting to the game. Instead of delaying things further, Mythic reportedly decided to shelve this with the release of jewelcrafting. However, at this time, there's no indication as to when or if Mythic will implement jewelcrafting in the game.
- Q. What are the reuse timers on effects, charges, and reactives?
- A. It varies. There is recast information for effects, charges, and reactives in the Recipes section of this site.
- Q. Do reactives on shields proc against enemy pets?
- A. Per Mythic, "Reactive shield procs do not fire in PVE by design. Because of the way monster AI works in combination with block rates and shield procs, there are a lot of very exploitable situations with allowing it to exist. Thus, no shield procs against NPCs."
|
