Lack of potion/Ether use

[TheFatHousecat]

I thought 1.21 would give a huge boost to Alchemists, but it doesn't seem to have turned out that way.

The biggest thing holding me back from using potions and ethers is their effective duration and re-use times compared to food items.

As a mage, I'd love to have Hi- or Mega-Potions of the Mind and Piety, but at just 40 seconds effect duration and a 3 ~ 4 minute re-use it hardly seems worth it.

Elixirs, on the other hand, look very interesting despite their long cooldowns.
But they are scarce in the markets on Saronia and very overpriced when they do appear.

Hopefully SE will keep an eye on the situation and adjust things to make them more appealing and accessible.

I'd also like a longer duration and/or a shorter recast, because that means that you have to understand a fight before going into it. For example, in the Coincounter fight, a lot of BLMs will pop nerve drops because it's a fairly stable fight and you'll get more attacks over time out of a negative enmity potion. But at Chimera I use ethers, because the fight is somewhat of an mp drain (for me, at least), so the little boost helps.

I mean, it's not necessarily a bad thing that you can't stack potions or use them in succession, but it'd be more useful if the recast were shorter, or if perhaps the 4 min. recast only counted for potions of the same category (can't use 2 ethers in a row), but for other types (drops, INT pots, etc) the recast were something like 10-30 seconds. That way you could get the most out of a type of potion, but you couldn't spam that type over and over again.

I don't know if increasing the duration over 1 min. or so would be beneficial overall though, because the longer potions last the smaller the need for food. Stat. pots are intended for your strongest actions to provide an extra burst, if they lasted longer than a minute it would be a little overkill. Or at least if they do decide to add potions that increase stats which last longer, the ingredients need to be very rare in order to keep a bottle neck on their supply, so that the food market doesn't crash.

[Mikita]

Or at least if they do decide to add potions that increase stats which last longer, the ingredients need to be very rare in order to keep a bottle neck on their supply, so that the food market doesn't crash.

That's true. They need to make sure the food and medicine markets both remain viable.

Perhaps I'll experiment with medicines for their recovery powers rather than enhancing effects (leaving that to food).

Potions or Ethers for HP and MP recovery could be very useful if a fight starts going badly, or in places like the poison rooms of Aurum Vale.