People need to speak up more for Alchemist buff.

[C-croft]

The cool downs are terrible for potions. And there are a lot of potions that I've asked ppl if they even use, so far they've said no but someone buys them. The are the potions(hi,mega,etc) of vitality, mind, dexterity, etc. The effect lasts 15 seconds. So many people I've asked said they really aren't useful.

If someone has experience with the potions raising an attribute for 15 seconds, let me know. It's just such a short time.

I use VIT potions on my WAR in certain cases. I treat it like a mini thrill of battle. Or I can go balls out and drop a VIT and thrill for some cases like catching the orbs in ultima EX.

[Shakarlyn]

The cool downs are terrible for potions. And there are a lot of potions that I've asked ppl if they even use, so far they've said no but someone buys them. The are the potions(hi,mega,etc) of vitality, mind, dexterity, etc. The effect lasts 15 seconds. So many people I've asked said they really aren't useful.

If someone has experience with the potions raising an attribute for 15 seconds, let me know. It's just such a short time.

I buy HQ Int potions. Due to the duration, it's only good 1 maybe 2 spells at best, so I use it with Raging Strikes + Swiftcast + Shadow Flare. A boost is a boost.

That said, due to the cooldown it's very hard for me fit it into a regular rotation, it's very very situational. I wish it wasn't, I'd use more of them. The CD is disproportionate to the duration. If they want to keep the outrageous CD, they need to increase the duration to make it worthwhile. And there's a small animation lock to it, not very happy about that.

[Sotek]

Potions really suck in XIV. Even if they did fix them though, the game still throws them at you, making crafting them fairly redundant... I find it annoying that X-Potions, X-Ethers, Hi-Elixirs and Mega-Stat potions are thrown at people constantly through dungeons/Treasure Hunts...

[myahele]

At the very least get rid of the shared global cool down for all. There no reason that I cant use elixer > hi elixer > mega elixer as a rotation. The 5m cooldown for such short effects is not worth it.

[Espon]

Alchemy should let you transmute materials into another kind.

Potions could stand to last 5 or 10 seconds longer.

I also find it weird that Alchemy isn't the go-to class for dyes. Last I checked, cutting a log with a saw does not produce a bottle of dye.

[Wadoka]

Someone on the dev team might be a fan of the old AD&D "Potion miscibility" chart

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dnd/20060401b

Consuming a second potion (in D&D and 2.0 AD&D) while still under the influence of a previous potion could have... undesirable effects.

[AjoraOak]

potions were useful in ffxi where you had so little to do that popping an elixir/potion with a 2hr added up but in the current state they should have been made a 15m buff that wears after death (much like the previous incarnation of food). There are plenty of other problems for SE though at the moment, I'd say more useful consumables would come after spicing up their extremely dull stats/lack of customization available to endgame armor.

[Empressia]

Agreed. Crafting needs work overall, but Alchemy and Culinarian especially, considering their intended use.

huh the hell u talkin about, culinary is printing monies like crazy and both alchemy+culinary saved u TONS of monies for raiding

[Hvinire]

We spoke with the Item Lead who brought up a few points about medicines.
Currently items were designed to be used sparingly, and as a result the re-use duration is set longer. We don't want to create a scenario where players are expected to regularly have a whole host of healing items taken to each activity, nor a situation where players in a healing or enhancing role would not be necessary solely because of items.

Food is designed with a different duration in mind specifically as well, because the concept of these items are quite different.

[Orophin]

We spoke with the Item Lead who brought up a few points about medicines.
Currently items were designed to be used sparingly, and as a result the re-use duration is set longer. We don't want to create a scenario where players are expected to regularly have a whole host of healing items taken to each activity, nor a situation where players in a healing or enhancing role would not be necessary solely because of items.

Items are used as an emergency fail safe (in the case of restorative items) or a temporary boost. (in terms of stat boosting potions) As it is, the high end restorative potions are a joke. The amount they heal versus the amount of damage you take at the end game are disproportionate. A Hi-Elixir can't even heal for the amount of damage a Tumult does.

1.0 handled consumables a lot better I think, in terms of potency anyway. An Elixir in 1.0 was good for a full heal I think (could be wrong) but they were good enough to consider having on you for top tier progression. It had a 15 minute cooldown so a choice had to be made between using it or a stat boost potion. If it came down to completely saving my life though that's a choice I'm willing to make. The healing power of a Hi-Elixir in ARR is just laughable.