Builds based on Alchemy

[Dobri 55]

Since the topic about Alchemy is heating up in other threads, I think it's prudent to make a new one about it. I've been tinkering up in SC SP with a level 75 Inquisitor toon who had extra skill points and no last skill pick, so I decided to try it out (I backed up the save file in advance of course), and I was amazed. With over +150 all skills (alchemy at 20+ hard points) I had light mentor pots running over 3 minutes (these are the lowest time pots), improved evasion, and so on and so forth. This provides great leveling options, longer mentor pot duration (the mentor pots are the narcotic in Sacred 2... this topic shows it - http://darkmatters.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=11979), and of course, mentor pots aren't so easy to come by, which makes them a very sought after commodity

 

Alchemy is an interesting skill. It is a first-tier skill for the Dryad (she can utilize with with minimum skill sacrifice in her builds) and second-tier skill for everyone else, except for the Temple Guardian. Poor frowny-doggy-looking TG doesn't know how to utilize these things, but it's not his fault... The Creators didn't program him with such knowledge. Bad Creators!

 

This brings up the topic of proposing and discussing builds based on alchemy. All of your chars will be finding items worth using provided one of your chars has alchemy. Why not put them to good use rather than simply selling them for a few measly bits of gold?

 

The build I tested the Alchemy on was a Ranged Inquisitor I had retired like 5-6 months ago and this was the setup:

 

level 2 - Bargaining

level 3 - Ranged Lore

level 5 - Tactics Lore

level 8 - Armor Lore

level 12 - Concentration

level 18 - Astute Focus

level 25 - Netherworld Focus

level 35 - Constitution

level 50 - Toughness

level 65 - Alchemy

 

That's a left click build with 2 buffs and minimal micromanagement. Alchemy most certainly made it better

 

So what are your ideas? Proposals? Whatever?

Edited August 11, 2009 by Dobri

[topaz 0]

nice post..dobri

so as of now the only problem I see with the mentor potions is the farming of them. other then that I'm really interested on stat results and so forth. so please keep posting. and keep us die-hards in the loop without having to waste a charactor slot...lol I look forward to your findings

[gogoblender 3,350]

Great topic. I can't stand it anymore, I'm gonna kill my level 76 SW ranged in a few days, soon as I post his ranged tank build, and then start him up again with horse mounted. I'm gonna stick to no-Combat Arts because I'm convinced that Alchemy is all I'm going to need regarding enhanced damage versus Bosses.

 

Here's my last Alchemy Build:

 

Ode to the Overconfident Knight

 

 

 

This time around, with the clan account of network bargainers, I'm not even going to take Enhanced Perception as I can probably buy all my gear with a better resolution on levels. While EP is super fun, and wondering what will drop is a fantastic way of beating away the blues of leveling...I'm reckoning on the mentor pot elongation of times as you have mentioned Dobri to make that even better.

 

I'll use Riding again to increase the level of my horse as well as all the lovely stats that mount comes with which only get better with higher levels of Riding.

 

Mounts away!

 

 

gogo

[chattius 2,672]

I feel so guilty. In january most people said that alchemy would be a total senseless skill. Then our play group (all adult volunteer firefighters and sitting around at fire watch building at weekends) decided to do characters with at least 3 green/general skills. We wanted to limit our damage output so that party playing would be needed. So I started a melee elf with no weapon skill but having alchemy. Magic Coup was doing more than enough damage and my only fear to die in hardcore wit ha melee elf before niob were reflections. So I said no to double-hits from a weapon skill to have a better chance to survive reflections. Attack speed of magic coup is not affected by weapon skill, again no weapon skill needed. Higher level weapons just reduce attack speed, which I don't need. Weapon skill would unlock weapon modifiers, but most uniques don't have modifiers which have to be unlocked.

Link to this elf:

Self sufficient alchemy based weapon-skill-less HC melee elf

A shadow warrior my daughter is playing:

Shadow Warrior with alchemy

Our family dryad to test out nearly all dryad ideas in a single build:

Dryad build to test a hell of possible dryad guides

The PvP Melee elf my daughter uses to slaughter her classmates, sadly noone answered to this post, guess lacj of alchemy knowledge:

PvP Melee-Elf with alchemy

 

I did a guide about alchemy into the german forum, when I noticed that most people never considered alchemy and called my idea not playable (Its 161 in HC niob now). In this alchemy guide I mentioned some ideas, which characters could use alchemy:

 

Melee inquisitor:

At bosses without souls he may have a problems to hit. But low hit chance against bosses is something where alchemy shines. Boosting attack value by 1000% at 300 alchemy in niob.

 

Dryads with bargaining:

They need bargaining unlocked, why not alchemy. If it is a caster dryad, she will get left click life leech shurikens at 150% attack speed against bosses for free. And no need for tactic lore or a weapon skill. Or take these double staff dryads. Double-wielding for more damage and hit chance with staves. Alchemy would be one staff, but you have a shield.

 

Kungfu Dryads:

The animations for fist attacks are there, just no weapon skill. Alchemy can be used for criticals, hit chance and attack speed. While rings with damage x-x do the base damage. Modify hunter Combat Arts so that a combinations poisons your fists and then knockback the enemies for better crowd control and let damage lore do poison DoT. Funny build, nice animations.

 

Horse-Builds:

No Combat Arts or Buffs on a horse. Alchemy helps a bit.

 

PvP:

Trophies to block root effect and arrows or give physical armour.....

 

seraphim's:

None of my family played a seraphim's higher than gold yet, so no experience. But archangel's wrath is close to magic coup so that may work too

 

All my new builds have alchemy. Once you get used to it you use the trophies without thinking. Too bad that alchemy is kinda clumsy to use on consoles.

 

Dobri: Your guide to the respawning orc cave was very useful. An alchemy build which needs troll trophies can get them there in greater numbers than are needed to empty the cave. My melee elf does 3 runs while 1 trollteeth trophy and finds 2-3 trophies in these runs. Also more than enough mentor potions to have them up all the time during the runs and have some saved for other areas.

Edited August 12, 2009 by chattius

[Chrona 83]

An alchemy build which needs troll trophies can get them there in greater numbers than are needed to empty the cave.

anyone need these tophies? I'll store them

[Dobri 55]

I'm glad it works for you, chattius. I was thinking about that as well. There are many locations that provide a surplus of alchemy-based items while costing a lot less to run and maintain. This means you can stock up on them like crazy and support numerous alchemy builds.

 

I'm taking a long hard look on the guides now. Some of them are pretty interesting. Dryad with full Voodoo + Nature focus (for acute + buffs) has a lot of free skill picks and alchemy is a good opener for bargaining. I really like the idea. What I don't like is the overpowered acute mind-based dryad, but I'm certain I'll make a dryad soon. That's the only char I've been avoiding...

[Shadow_Walker 0]

Makes me wish I had saved a skill slot , I will try this with another character. Thanks for idea.

[coolsteve77 0]

I' making an alchemic seraphim and think she is going to kick some goblin butt.

 

She was going to be my bargainer but after reading all the posts on alchemy I decided to give it a try and see how far I can get. So far I was level 15 and making mince meat of level 28's.

 

Love her !!

[chattius 2,672]

To revive this thread a bit. Several people seem nowadays try out a dryad bargainer with staff shooting (AddON). Something like

 

Shopper Dryad with mass Area of Effect staff attacks and boss killing spells, so no real need for Detheya, shuriken and alchemy for RpH and x% life leech:

Alchemy->bargaining

tactics-> staff lore

nature lore->nature focus, ancient magic

shield lore->armour,constitution

every point into vitality

 

Shopper Inquisitor with Area of Effect staff attacks, and alchemy boosted life leech weapons versus bosses.

staff, inquisition focus, armour, concentration, tactics, supremacy focus, bargaining, alchemy, dual wielding, constitution

 

My new pure arcane elf, the Lady in Black, is using alchemy with potions lasting more than 11 minutes.

 

So what is your experience with alchemy nowadays ?

What are the reasons to take it, other than me mentioning it in a guide?

[gogoblender 3,350]

Alchemy ( will reduce your need for socketing experience boost at higher levels because of the huge increase to this skill coming from socketed plus all skills which will increase duration of Mentor Pots/and or efficiency in battle by increasing crit (damage), cth (Chance to Hit), defense, etc... beautiful skill)

 

Awesome thing for Alchemy is that it duplicates so many of the effects of other Combat Art's. What has to be it's most spectacular ability is it's ability to extend how long Mentor pots last.

 

The increase in mentor time it affords without even spending points in it is mind-blowing. Less experience boost jewelry to socket because of this , hence more sockets available for socketing for damage. This last build a few of us are running in HC EU has just been an eye opener for me, especially two days ago... going from level 115 to 127 all on Turtle Isle. I'm going to credit Alchemy with that, while stacking the turtle's propensity to drop pots as per tables.

 

A very surprising and yummy day. Furian, this was a wonderful surprise seeing this on the build... course...now I just want to know...what does the Mastery give us?

 

Alchemy FTW

 

 

gogo

 

p

[Spunky 16]

My new pure arcane elf, the Lady in Black, is using alchemy with potions lasting more than 11 minutes.

 

Mentor pots?

[chattius 2,672]

I collected jewelry which makes potions lasting longer, adding to the amount alchemy already gives. I use the new elf as a test for the modified horses. So the main idea is have LONG lasting trophies replacing the buffs you won't have on a horse.

 

A dryad shopper is probably the easiest character to try out alchemy. You can use it to unlock bargaining. Yes the 11 minutes are mentors. Hope to have times for trophies after weekend. Had no time to see if their duration is boosted by the above type of jewels too. If it is then I exspect a third of the mentor time as trophy time. So around 3-4 minutes for a trophy as possible. Cross fingers. A celestial seraphim can make good use of ban undead potions if they last really long.

 

Today is Walburgis Night, so no playing.

[essjayehm 58]

My real interesting question is "What does the Mastery give us?"

 

We all see the description "Allows use of new items". So I tested putting 75 points into it because I had some of those "junk" items: Parchment, Item and Vellum Scoll. No love for those with Alchemy Mastery, so I really do wonder what "new items" they are referring to!

 

 

 

Today is Walburgis Night, so no playing.

 

Awesome! I loved Boogie Nights..... ohwait, you don't mean Marky Mark, do you?

 

But I forget if you're Bayern fans or not... if so, good luck in Champions final!

Edited April 30, 2010 by essjayehm

[gogoblender 3,350]

Me too!

 

I'm praying the devs did not bug out on us with this one.

 

Please, please please... something wonderful!

 

 

gogo

[Spunky 16]

New items means items that have the requirement of "Alchemy Mastery" modifier on them, same bonus as Ranged Weapons Mastery.

 

I have never understood this "bonus" as all masteries unlocks mastery modifiers

[essjayehm 58]

So, I guess I've never seen that unlockable, then.... or I just don't remember 8)

 

That reminds me, I've never seen:

 

Enhanced Perception Mastery

Alchemy Mastery

 

Unlockable modifiers. Anyone have info on those?

[essjayehm 58]

I completed most of my Alchemy on consoles research this weekend.

 

Good news!

 

The health potions do not display the correct healing %. The Light Health Potions have 24% stated in the inventory screen, but they're doing 70-80% healing actually. I didn't have the gusto to try dropping below 10% health, so the best guess so far is that Health Potions are doing 100% OR MORE. I can't think of a test for this, to see if we get more than 100%. I can't find an area where I need to spam potions, so that test will have to wait for now... I know if I deactivate Bark I'll die in 2 hits, so maybe I'll have to go back to Gold to test.

 

I left Alchemy at 10 points, and with +87 all skills, I have Alchemy at level 97. Trophies last about 40 seconds. I think (haven't fully timed) Mentors are a little under 3 mins, almost 4. Hard to time properly when 25 little red scorpions just want to give me a hug/pinch

 

Bad news!

 

Roast Joint trophies cannot be used. I don't have any explaination for that. When I try to use one, I hear the sound, but none leave inventory, and no potion effect (visual) happens. OBV, nothing in-game changes either.

 

Trophies are cumbersome on the console, and I still do not recommend it for consolers. I cannot get a trophy down my gullet faster than 4 seconds, and it seems the faster I try to go, the more mis-clicking (and thus, longer time). Bad news when you're getting wailed on.

 

Other than the Demon Tooth (RpH) and Skull (Critical hits), I don't think I need any trophies. I feel if I was going to use Alchemy in a pony build (or other under-powered style), then yes, there would be some usefulness (for other trophies) if the duration could be expanded enough - which Chattius has already indicated it can be done.

 

 

Question!

 

Do trophies have a "cooldown" or reducing effect if multiples are used? To clarify, I mean if I use a Demon Tooth, Skull, and Troll tooth trophy at the same time, are the durations reduced?

Edited May 3, 2010 by essjayehm