Alchemist Potions: Still Lame, 40 levels later...

[Garlyle]

Xpots and ethers are still useful and always have been.

The design decision was so that players never feel pots are 'necessary' but provide a means for a small power boost for those who choose to use it.

Yup. This, basically.

I was surprised the first time I saw a bunch of raiders in a video calling on poison pots to be used - and then remembered that it was basically free DPS they wouldn't have had otherwise.

Raw HP potions might be less useful, but there's a number of alchemical concoctions worth looking into if you really want to push your limits (and ethers have saved my ass so many times as a WHM when my other healer is useless and I'm having to constantly raise)

[Yumi_umi]

Terminus putty back then and augumented gear were the selling point of alch Xd
What potions? These potionsssssssss. Oh ok thanks i guess.. Oh hey cul can u make me some hq food? Sure! ;3
Alch slowly cries*

[firstsin]

My raid group all now use potent poison since it just adds to their dps and it only has 2min cool down.

I (WHM) have HQ X-Ether which gives me 520 MP every 4.5 min. Coupled with my Shroud my MP is fine even if I need to raise or spam couple of Medica and lets not forget the food buff we have running for 30/40 mins.

OP if the cooldown of the potions were reduced or they were strengthened, they'll be abused by end game players considerably.

I do however like the idea of AoE potions. But there will be a huge balancing issue like I pointed out above.

[shintashi]

What potions? These potionsssssssss. Oh ok thanks i guess.. Oh hey cul can u make me some hq food? Sure! ;3
Alch slowly cries*

^TRUTH.

When people talk about Balance being broken on the premise of potential abuse, I have to laugh. The X potion of High Quality heals 650 hit points, once per 108 seconds. which makes it about 86 times weaker than a healer.
If the X potion were to have a cool down of 25 seconds, it would still be 20 times weaker than a healer, which is the same thing as a 5% modifier, comparable to many foods. But damage and protection percents/durations for protection potions, that needs to jump a lot.
Potent Poisoning Potion for example did ~100 TOTAL damage over 15 seconds, once per 108 seconds. What a joke.
To balance improving potions, they could remove the "triple" production they have during synth.

Potions should be able to do at least a 4-5% effect of whatever a job of similar level could do. That's not asking much.

[Tarta]

Yeah I did Alchemy to 50 because I like being shunned and left alone in corners. *queue linken park music*
Really though, it's not great. Hi-Elixirs are what I use as a healer and, the MP it gives me doesn't even let me cast 1 raise.

[shintashi]

Yeah I did Alchemy to 50 because I like being shunned and left alone in corners. *queue linken park music*
Really though, it's not great. Hi-Elixirs are what I use as a healer and, the MP it gives me doesn't even let me cast 1 raise.

i was thinking same thing not 5 minutes ago. The highest level Ether Potion should provide enough MP back to cast the most expensive mp spell at least once. Maybe more, but not less. I don't know the exact costs, but I think 3 stacks Fire 3 and Raise are the most expensive. Can anyone clarify if that's true and how much MP that requires?

[SummerRider]

i was thinking same thing not 5 minutes ago. The highest level Ether Potion should provide enough MP back to cast the most expensive mp spell at least once. Maybe more, but not less. I don't know the exact costs, but I think 3 stacks Fire 3 and Raise are the most expensive. Can anyone clarify if that's true and how much MP that requires?

I think this highlights the problem though.
Fire 3 is a BLM spell. It was the first class that I leveled, and running out of mana was not a problem. It's easy to regen mana as a BLM. It's been a bit since I've done anything with him, but I think there are 3 abilities that a BLM has to regen mana (Any spell that gives positive Astial Ice, Transpose, as well as Convert).
Then you have the healers (WHM, and SCH). Of the two I think the WHM only has one ability that increases mana regen. (Shroud of Saints). A SCH has at least two (Energy Drain, Aetherflow). Looking at the three magic classes the one really limited with mana regen is the WHM. It's the only magic class that I've ever had where I when I ran out of mana and was forced to use a potion. The other two, it was more of a inconvenience, where I either lost some (DPS, or had to just slightly).

I would love the potions to be useful where I actually make sure and care them, vs now, where it's oh hey this one time this month I'm actually going to have to use a potion to get back MP.

[Ellatrix]

BLM uses ethers more often than any other class.

[Sibyll]

Potions have always been useful. They only seem bad when you compare them to food, which gives a very tangible boosts for minimal cost/effort.

[SarcasmMisser]

If you are a BLM and you aren't using ethers you simply don't know your job to it's fullest.