People need to speak up more for Alchemist buff.

[ToraFomalhaut]

The problem here is that you're not necessarily arguing against potions: you're arguing that encounters are too easy and nothing needs high enough stats to warrant the purchase. However, again, food is the same, and not everyone is in your position where the game is "so easy" that none of it is needed. People want and need both gear and food. They could want and need potions too, they just misjudge them.

Yes that is exactly what we've been arguing. In the current game, there is no outstanding need for potions to clear content. As I outlined earlier about food, no it's not needed but because of the 'persist through death' buff food got it became a safe and cost effective investment that had little downside to the long term passive buff it applied.

If I were geared in all BIS, had eaten food, and danced to the scripted fight perfectly and still struggled to beat it. Then I could consider potions in their current format as a viable and needed option. However in the current game, there is no need for that additional edge to drive the market for potions thus leaving alchemist as a dud craft.

So without changing how encounters behave, potions as they are now are useless and the only way to make them viable is to buff the way they operate. If combat encounters became situations where even in the best gear you still needed a small edge to make it through the fight while allowing for margins of error, then potions in their current format would make sense.