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Learn Alchemy
Getting Started in Alchemy
This guide originated on the now-closed Belgar's Alchemy site. It has been adapted and updated here with permission. So you wanna make potions for fun and profit? Well, maybe just for fun anyway. Here's a suggested step by step way to get your new skill started. The Initial Step: Alchemy is a shaman-only skill which shamans of level 25 or higher can learn, gaining the unique ability to make potions. Unfortunately, unless you like throwing away money, the skill cap on alchemy is so low at level 25 that you'll likely fail on most attempts to make potions and lose your platinum very fast. What is the skill cap on Alchemy? Put simply . . .
Hence, at level 25 the maximum alchemy skill you can achieve is 5 or [(25-24)*5]. At level 26 the maximum skill is 10 or [(26-24)*5], and so on until you reach 200. We are not sure right now whether the Powers That Be forgot to extend alchemy beyond 200 when we were given levels beyond 60 or whether it is intended to always stay capped at 200. Since the easiest potions become trivial at 17 skill, we recommend that you reach level 29 before attempting any Alchemy. The trainer at any shaman guild will allow you to put 21 initial practice points into alchemy skill, but no more. This is true whether or not you actually put any training points in before 21. Skill above that level must be obtained "in the field", which means to get further skill increases above 21 you will need to attempt to make potions. So unless you'd prefer to throw several hundred plat getting there the hard way, be sure you've saved 21 guild practice points by the time you hit level 29. The Influence of Stats: Originally the general consensus was that Intelligence helped you gain skill faster, while wisdom helped you successfully create items more often. This is incorrect.
This is still not terrifically precise. Further clarification on the official message boards and at various fan faires has led to the current, statistically supported belief:
To Make your First "In the Field" Potion:
Optional Method #1: Blood of the Wolf It has been suggested by some shamans that making only the Blood of Wolf potions from skill 21 through 37 (trivial level for Blood of Wolf) would provide the alchemist with a more viable product for sale to the public, thereby decreasing their learning costs as they can recoup their platinum. This is a valid method and you may want to choose this method of increasing your alchemy skill. What generally happens when using this method is your inventory becomes overloaded with Blood of the Wolf potions (commonly referred to as SoW potions), forcing the shaman to sell quickly to clear up enough space to continue making more potions and gain more skill increases. Naturally, this tends to deflate the price charged in zones with the herb vendors. I've often seen shamans selling SoW potions in Firiona Vie for 8 platinum per potion which, when you consider failure rates, is very close to actual cost of making the SoW potions. It's all about supply and demand. SoW is in high demand which tends to push the price up, but by overloading supply in the SoW zones with herb vendors, the price is pushed down, at least in those zones. Either method of increasing skill is valid, but as much as I hate to see one of our best potions get undersold, I too would recommend the Blood of Wolf method to increase skill from 21 to 37 to save the shaman some money in the learning process. Naturally, if you're the only shaman in the zone selling SoW at that time, you can still charge a fair market rate for the potions and will likely recover a greater amount of platinum for furthering your skill, although it might take a little longer to sell out your inventory. Optional Method #2: Dye Extracts High end smiths use dyes to tint fine plate armor any of a variety of colors. Part of the process of creating a dye requires a shaman using alchemy or a rogue using poison making to turn the raw material into an extract of the appropriate color. Anyone can then turn the extract into the appropriate dye. The great thing is that the extracts are trivial at 36 and only cost 2-3 silver pieces for ingredients. The downside is that one of those ingredients is not standard vendor stock anywhere, so you will have to either do some Merchant Mining or spend time collecting the ingredients from creatures and ground spawns. I highly recommend this method to get you from 21 to 36 if you are of the right level to be hunting in the areas where any extract ingredients are collected, or if you are really strapped for cash. For recipes see the Alchemy Recipes - Dyes. What Do I Do With the Potions I Made?: You have three basic choices:
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