Thursday, October 25, 2007

Mad Alchemists Potion

Remember a time not so long ago when Alchemy was an insanely awesome profession? Not only was it a fantastic money-maker (selling a single Flask for 120g FTW), but it was a very necessary compliment to any raiding guild, supplying much-needed potions, elixirs, and flasks for those all-important wipe nights. After Alchemy's potency was nerfed, the introduction of elixir types with limitations on their use, and the ability to purchase powerful flasks linked to specific raid dungeons, the profession lost much of the luster that it once expressed. Well, and finally, might I add, Alchemy is getting a little bit of love in Patch 2.3.

Alchemy

* Added a new potion to alchemy trainers: Mad Alchemist's Potion. This new potion requires Alchemy to consume.


A potion only Alchemists can use? Makes sense. There are plenty of profession-specific items that are only to be used only by those who can create them (many Engineering and Tailoring items come to mind), so why not Alchemy? And what does this potion do, exactly, that it would require an Alchemic specialty to consume?

Blizzard Blue Drysc sheds some light on the subject, stating that

"It's a trainable alchemist-only rejuvenation potion (replenish health/mana) and will also give a random elixir buff. It won't replace existing elixir buffs though; if you already have one on."

Nice! So it's pretty serious stuff in that with one potions-cooldown, you can regen your health and mana. Gotta love that. And the random elixir buff is a nice little additive too, but it has me wondering if it abides by the 2-elixirs-only rule. Drysc said that it won't replace existing buffs, possibly implying that a THIRD elixir buff would be applied, but it could also mean that the buff portion of the Mad Alchemists Portion can fail if two elixir buffs are already active. I'll guess we'll just have to wait for more info. to figure out exactly how this will work.

Oh, and another thing about the random buffs. With what else Drysc had to say, I don't think it will be an issue to keep popping those potions until you get the elixir buff you want. Apparently, the pots will be very inexpensive to make, on the order of a single Crystal Vial and a Ragveil or two. That's not a bad deal at all, especially when you consider the cheap cost paired with Potions Mastery. Yikes at the thought!

So while these changes won't bring Alchemy back to the grand-old profession that it once was, they're definitely something worth toasting to. So here here, Alchemists. Drink up to a small buff, but a good buff none-the-less.

Here's to hoping it makes us foam at the mouth. ;)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

From what I read and understand, much like engineering shit, the alchemy potion has a chance to give you a negative buff as well... not positive on that, but if you're bored.. check into it!

-jade (too lazy to login)

Anonymous said...

hmm, misread your post - you already clarified what I was talking about.

I thought you could get the negative debuff anytime, not just after so many of the good.

rawr... work makes me way too tired. :(

-jade, again!

Demordrah said...

I was hoping it would really be a "Mad Alchemist" type side effect, like turning the user into Mr. Hyde or something similar.

That would have owned.

GG to Blizzard mediocrity =/

Jagoex said...

lol... it's be sweet if it had an after-effect or something like that, yeah. But I'll take whatever I can get at this point -- I hardly use Alchemy for anything these days.