ALCHEMY -- Worst profession in the game

[Vortok]

Edited because I'm terrible at math and for some reason thought Comfort Zone gave 88 CP because I saw the 66 cost, even that would require 11 steps of it being active. So corrected those numbers. Also, I'm bad. Apparently casual, even.

Heck no, are you crafters or are you just casual testers?

I'm pretty casual, only got 50 in all 8 last week compared to a month+ ago like some of the hardcore crafters - leveled too many combat classes methinks. Also still need a couple more melds on a few classes to be able to HQ any item in the game with NQ mats. I'm definitely behind the curve over here. Haven't even shouted in Mor Dhona to buy a tome item yet.


You seem to think I'm saying Comfort Zone is awful. It's not. It's simply underwhelming/uninteresting to use. It's a ho-hum ability you press at the start of your craft before Inner Quiet and then forget about it. Having it lets you be lazier about melding CP or use Fish Soup instead of Boulibasse while doing high level crafts.

If a craft were to last long enough to refresh it and run the duration out again (meaning it was now worth 4428 extra CP) it would be a lot more interesting - partly because then you might have to slightly think about what buffs you might have active at the time that you refresh it - might even make using a Synth mid craft an interesting choice instead of just spamming quality to 100% before 1-3 shotting the progress bar (a possible use for Piece by Piece via the progress bar taking longer? That'd be interesting). Pretty much no craft takes that long though unless you're trying to spam Hasty Touch for the entire quality bar and you're getting lucky with Tricks of the Trades for more CP to blow on more durability - which I've done once or twice on 1 star 40 Dura crafts before I got Byregot's. Of course now that my gear is better melded (more CP to start with, better chance of having enough to use CZ twice) I have no real need to even bother HQing those mats.

Comfort Zone would/will scale the longer a craft goes, there's just no reason to extend the craft duration that long with the recipes that we currently have. With the way Inner Quiet works (and CP if you aren't spamming Hasty Touch), I wouldn't hold my breath for crafts designed to be that much longer than we currently have, either. Would be interesting if some were made under the assumption the person attempting them has access to all the abilities though.



On another note, I agree that Alchemist recipes to break down Clusters/Crystals would be interesting. Not only would it give an alternative to mindlessly farming level 1 shards (aka, feeding the botters), it would significantly increase the value of clusters and let Gatherers focus more on the actual level 50 items they can gather.

[Irenae]

Indeed, there needs to be a way for potions to be able to heal more, as atm it's not worth the inventory space let alone materials to craft them. The cap is way too harsh and it makes potions worthless.

[Irenae]

Also, only 15 seconds on elemental resist potions? Again devs were too harsh on potions that should last for hours gets only 15 secs instead for very minor buff makes no sense to make them. So far the only thing it has going is making Whm weapons making it a one trick pony.

[Yukio]

I see health and mana regen potions... where are the TP regen potions for the DoW classes?

[Wulfies]

I started a post a while back regarding the shard/cluster conversion request. Link below:

Shard/Cluster Conversion Request

But yeah, seems kind of stupid to level alchemy now.

As far as people saying Comfort Zone is pointless... Its a great buff at the begining just for the simple fact in 8 shots you will have 20ish more CP than when you started. and in most cases you have burned 7 clicks on setting up inner quiet, steady hand 2, waste not, great strides, 3 hasties....

[cearka]

Also, wtb recipe to craft Cordial. Just saying...

agreed /10chars

[ZachFair]

I couldn't disagree more with the OP. The original poster says he is rich because he is also a level 50 GSM. I have my ALC and GSM both at level 50 and my Alchemist is FAR and away the bigger money maker of the two.

It is true that the effectiveness of the potions leaves something to be desired and some of the higher level potions don't fetch a price that warrants their crafting. But HQ Hi-Potions and HQ Ethers are lifesavers go low to mid level tanks and mages. Not to mention there are several Alc items that people spam on levequests that always catch a good price. Therefore, it's easy to sell LARGE stacks of items, and despite having to craft large amounts of items, ALC crafting is cheap and fast.

My crafting typically consists of Steady Hand, Great Strides, Advanced Touch, Standard Synth - DONE! Depending on the item, maybe one more cycle of Great Strides and Advanced Touch.

[ZachFair]

My first retainer sells a set inventory that I sell based on cost of crafting, how fast items move, and how much gil they sell for. Of the 20 slots my retainer has available, 16 are used for Alchemy items. Where as Goldsmith has several items that sell in the 5k-8k range, I list stacks of alchemy items that sell for 10-20k. I try to check every day, and on average 4-6 stacks will sell and I'll make anwhere from 40-80,000 gil per day with this method. I spend about 20 minutes replacing the sold items, and then continue on.

The only time I get stuck doing a lot of crafting is when I have to go 3 or 4 days without logging in and there's only 4 items left for sale and I need to replace my entire inventory. Of course getting a 200k payday helps me get over the monotony of replacing the inventory.

[Bufkus]

My first retainer sells a set inventory that I sell based on cost of crafting, how fast items move, and how much gil they sell for. Of the 20 slots my retainer has available, 16 are used for Alchemy items. Where as Goldsmith has several items that sell in the 5k-8k range, I list stacks of alchemy items that sell for 10-20k. I try to check every day, and on average 4-6 stacks will sell and I'll make anwhere from 40-80,000 gil per day with this method. I spend about 20 minutes replacing the sold items, and then continue on.

I really think ALC's profitability depends on your server, because on some servers, potions sell for basically nothing due to lots of folks trying to do the same thing (sell big stacks of potions).

[ZachFair]

I really think ALC's profitability depends on your server, because on some servers, potions sell for basically nothing due to lots of folks trying to do the same thing (sell big stacks of potions).

Even taking potions out of the equation, ALC is still money because potions are my lowest priced items. I have a black mage and I'm trying to work on a white mage and I'm trying to get my Arc up to level 30, so the ethers and int/mind boosts do come in handy. With that said, my ALC money maker items are those that other crafters need, and my Goldsmith is much more useful in terms of crafting items that I actually use.