People need to speak up more for Alchemist buff.

[NyneAlexander]

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.

I see where you guys are coming from with this. However, the situation that is created currently, is one where the players are receiving these items as rewards for other things such as treasure maps and random chest drops. When you couple that with the supply that the alch's of eorzea are crafting, and now you have an extremely saturated market. This effectively renders these items worthless.

Also, look at other crafts, particularly the items that are crafted between the late 40's and early 50's, where a lot of these potions are crafted. Almost all of them have some sort of end game demand. Foods (buttons in a blanket, deviled eggs), jewelry, or armor for spiritbonding. Some of the jewelry made in this level range is best available for some classes (example: red coral earrings).

Sorry Devs, again, I see where your intentions were. But medicines in alchemy just aren't panning out, even to the level of demand shared by comparable synths from other crafts.

[Umero]

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.

Make Alchemist class be able to equip a soul crystal to change into a Job belong to discipline of War/Magic that uses medicines/potions/etc to combat.

[Estellios]

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.

You would be incorrect. Elixirs in 1.0 restored around 1/3-1/2 HP/MP depending on who used it. Still, you are right about the potency issue.

[Billzey]

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.

Please explain why you would not want players to be expected to use these items. Just stating that sentiment alone is inadequate. People are expected to use food these days, why not medicine? Why should the concept be different?

[Rhindas]

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.

That's fine, but what this lead has created is a situation where the items become increasingly useless as you level up. Orophin said it already, the 2 star potions are not worth the cooldown, let alone the effort to make them. I mean, we're not asking to use them back to back, but it'd be nice if they were somewhat useful and could save a wipe since you've created content where one mistake costs the fight.

And items aren't free from scrutiny when soloing either. Let's say you remove Paralysis/Poison with Spine Drops/Antidote, only for the mob to immediately reapply it and you can't do a thing about it now. The answer to this cannot be "bring a healer" because why have the items if they're patently useless? Not even useful "in an emergency" if the debuff will just be slapped right back on you. Some will be resisted over time, but some do not. The story even goes out of its way to encourage you to use these items in a story quest fight, but that's practically the only situation where it's a viable tactic. You also have items that have no use and/or are bugged -- for example why don't HQ Antidotes don't remove Poison+1 (and GMs say that's intentional? I already submitted a bug report)? The regular ones do, but the HQ ones with the shorter cooldown (helpful since, as I've described, the mob simply reapplies the debuffs) do not.

I just hope all of this isn't because the devs are worried about PvP imbalance because the precedent for that was set over 5+ years ago with WoW, and should've been learned already. That game had to nerf/restrict way too much in PvE because of PvP and I sure hope this game doesn't go down that path.

[Gesser]

How about just do this... health/mana pots on their own timer, any other 'buff' pots on a completely separate timer...

That way every other pot in the game won't be utterly useless.

Make Alchemist class be able to equip a soul crystal to change into a Job belong to discipline of War/Magic that uses medicines/potions/etc to combat.

Chemist.

[TyloRime]

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.

So basically you're saying "We know Alchemy isn't very functional, but we like it that way."

[Iymala]

So basically you're saying "We know Alchemy isn't very functional, but we like it that way."

Pretty much...

[WhiteDragon]

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.

The problem being that potions are never used.

[NyneAlexander]

So basically you're saying "We know Alchemy isn't very functional, but we like it that way."

what this guy said