Making Potions Useful

I would like to make a simple suggestion that could make potions more useful. Personally, the current effects of most potions seem to be reasonable to me except for the buff potions like vitality. However, the issue with all potions is the Recast. The fact that every single potion goes on cool-down despite them being different types makes potions useless.
For example, let's say I have the following potions in my inventory.
X-Potion 2m Recast
X-Ether 5m Recast
X-Potion Strength 5m Recast
Antidote 1m Recast
Eye drops 1m Recast
I decide to use an X-Ether which has a 5 minute Recast time, however once I use it every single potion in my inventory can't be used for 5 minutes. This makes the other cool-downs of the potions pointless and makes using potions in general worthless.

The solution to this problem is simply making every category of potions having their own unique cool-down that only effects potions in that category. Using a potion that buffs a stat should not put a potion that recovers Hp on cool-down but should put other potions that buff stats on cool-down.

yes i hope they fix this

This is a perfect solution. The recast is ok, it's just insufferable for actual use because hp/mp pots are pulled in emergencies and stat pots are pulled to get just a bit more oomph. Different cooldowns make them more useable.

On another note... Chemist class makes them more useable... And if chemists nix that cooldown completely ROCK!

Make HP/MP potions have no recast, but instead confer a potent regen/refresh so you can't chug them.

Seperate potions into two kinds: attack (str, dex, int) and defense (vitality, mnd). Give the latter drastically increased durations. Give both their own "antivirus" debuff to keep you from using them once they wear off.

I agree that something should be done with the recast timer. I'm up for any suggestion that will result in more potions flying off the shelves :cool:

All they need to do to make potions useful and Alchemists absolutely essential is to introduce the Heavy-Ward Potion.

Instantly removes heavy effect!
Can be used while mounted!
10 second recast timer!

Whilst I will not disagree that potions are pretty weak, there comes a problem with making changes that so potions too useful, a problem that occurred back in the early days of WOW: Raid content had to be designed with the assumption potions would be used by all players as often as they could. This means that HP pools of bosses would be increased to keep the level the same, without doing this, you lessen the impact of dps checks, resulting in too many people clearing content too fast. If you do increase the HP pools, players that don't currently chug pots every 5 minutes, will need to start doing so. It's all about balance.

content should be designed around not using potions.

potions however should give you an edge if used, the recast timers seem pretty long even for hq pots,

hq potions should give a much shorter re-cast timer to make them more viable to a broader amount of people. however the strength of the potions probs don't need changing other than to pure % based increases, cus capping them at certain amount of stat points seems counter productive for future content and will eventually lead to a massive amount of redundant recipes in alchemists lists.

however no one should be sceptical on the effects of potions when used at the right time as they can certainly help, but just not as much as food.

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Originally Posted by Darra

Whilst I will not disagree that potions are pretty weak, there comes a problem with making changes that so potions too useful, a problem that occurred back in the early days of WOW: Raid content had to be designed with the assumption potions would be used by all players as often as they could. This means that HP pools of bosses would be increased to keep the level the same, without doing this, you lessen the impact of dps checks, resulting in too many people clearing content too fast. If you do increase the HP pools, players that don't currently chug pots every 5 minutes, will need to start doing so. It's all about balance.

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Hi Darra,

For sure, good points. I think it could be balanced if the resulting cost to farm & craft (or buy off the MB from crafters) wasn't trivial:

* So, if they became more potent / useful, but their inherent cost (time/gil) was greater, I think it balances out the advantage it gives.

Basically players that use them are putting in more time into the game (gathering, crafting, or earning gil to buy them), which translates into more Time spent in FFXIV = More Income for SE in the long run. So if it ends up being the equivalent of a player spending an additional X# of hours to be able to afford using them, there's extra effort being made and a resultant payoff.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Darra

Whilst I will not disagree that potions are pretty weak, there comes a problem with making changes that so potions too useful. Raid content had to be designed with the assumption potions would be used by all players as often as they could.

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Potions are essential at least in PVP, and very helpful while leveling. Our FC saves Tab 1 just for pots, food, and low level HQ gear. So nice to have a raid group with HQ mega potions for burst dps during phases, or when Im tanking and give the healer breathing room with a HQ Mega VIt pot. HQ x-ethers are equivalent to and extra Convert for Blk mages, making trash pulls that much faster to burn. Spine Drops, Smelling Salts, Slow Ward Pots and X-Elixirs are almost mandatory for a good pvp experience.

At last, if potions are far powerful than actually, the healers task wouldn't needed really and they lost a lot of importance they got. I guess they put potions for strategic uses, like other comraders say before.

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest something that runs counter to the gist of this thread : make HQ potions stronger, longer, but a much longer recast than their NQ counterparts.

If a stat potion is 10%, lasts 15 seconds, and has a reuse of 180 seconds, it is only offering a 10% boost for 8% of the time, or a grand total of 0.8% increase. Its HQ counterpart should be more like 20% for 15 seconds, with a 300 second reuse. That would confer grand total of a 1% boost overall.

This would bring relevancy to the NQ, an element of strategery as to which is more important, a smaller boost more frequently, or a greater boost less frequently.

HP/MP potions, and poisons, could work in a similar fashion. HQ providing the bigger boost, but NQ being usable more frequently.