Alchemy's use for the classesFollow

Have you actually tried taking a Trolls Blood potion with a Warlock? If you've got your Demon Armor up you will be told that 'a more powerful spell is already active' and the potion will not be consumed. In other words, TB pot is almost as useless for a Warlock as a Rage potion is for all classes but warrior.

I also disagree with the statement that a caster-class benefits more from healing potions. Every class gets exactly the same effect in terms of health restored, for a caster-class it may mean a greater 'percentage of maximum health' restored but in terms of survivability it's more important for a tank. If a mob beats a mage for 100 points and a tank for 50 points (due to higher armor) then a 700 point health potion means only 7 hits margin for the caster, but a 14 hit margin for the tank.

Generally I'd argue that the tank classes are the ones that benefit more from an armor potion as well because they are the ones who are taking most of the blows. If aggro is properly managed then the tank might be taking 100 hits for every hit on a caster, meaning that the potion will have helped reduce damage far more by the time it expires. A healing potion might always restore 700-900 points for any character, but an armor potion might absorb 100 points or 10.000 points depending on your role in the group.




Engineering, alchemy and enchanting benefit all classes greatly and is an excellent boost to any character. Leatherworking, blacksmithing and tailoring are tied to armor type and therefore of limited benefit to some classes.

Yeah, I see your point.
However, a mage DOES benefit more from armor potions(just an example) than a warrior. That's cause he will get LOTS more percentage points in armor than the warrior as armor % bonus gets lower per armor point the more armor you have.
Shadow Oil for example then is much more of use for physical damaging classes like rogue (well, if he doesn't like his poisons that is ...) or dual wield warrior.
On the other side potion of wisdom (+18 Int / Spirit), potions of intelligence and potions of arcane power (+20 spell damage) are almost totally useless for any warrior, rogue, hunter or paladin - eventhough paladins and hunters do have a slight advantage when using this potion at least.

While dexterity and strenght again.....

Hard to decide eh?
That's why I started the topic ;)

greetingz
Eronaile

PS: I wonder why there are so few potions of swiftness available in my local auction house ^^
Me and some 5 other guys are the only ones selling them... I mean... I'm lucky when selling a potion for 70+ S while it costs me about 15 S... But shouldn't it be easy to farm low-level enemies to get the funny recipe?

PPS: Swiftness potions are of use for a rogue too... their cooldown is only 2 minutes, not 5 like the skill.

Edited, Fri Jun 17 09:27:45 2005 by Eronaile

Eronaile,
Have you looked in to some of the late game potions? Elixer of the Mongoose(ya this one is freeking exelent for rouges/hunters/warriors), elixer of giants; 25 str nuff said. To me it is verry Clear that the late game potions are mostly targeted at Direct combat Players. While I admit that exler of greater def is soooo cool for casters, but the same armor boost is even better for folks that already have armor(and 4 stonescale eel is rough. The last of the troll's blood potions are motly unnoticeable past level 50, potions that modify STA and INT are always outshadowed by player buffs(cept exlier of sages, the one super good caster potion)

I am not saying that stuff like Arcane elixer, shadow power elixer, and elixer of sages dosent rock the house for Casters. They just dont stack up to what non casters get out of the gambit, dont even get me started on Flasks.

IMHO casters can benefit form alchemy but non casters(and hunters) seem to see the stronger side.



once again, wisdom is ok, but a make will do better for ya with Arcane Brillance.

However the question was which class does have most use of alchemy.
Maybe it's a good idea to also specify the way the class is build up. A total healer priest will maybe have more or less use of alchemy than - for example - a shadow priest looking for the great damage.

Eronaile

Well, I think it's Shamans. I'm a shammy with alchemy and I've had a LOT of use of potions. I'll use mana potions if I'm running low on health and have time to heal, that way I can throw some totems or cast damage too. If I get crit'ed and don't have time to heal I'll use health. This is also good if you're running away from a battle in an instance and can't GW. Throw a stoneclaw then earthbind - heal potion if you need to.

You also have good intel potions that help you in your spell casting which can also help your health through healing spells and healing totems.

I never use fortitude or TB that much. I'm an enhancement build that melees often, so agility potions for more crits that lead to flurry, strength potions for more dps, and defense potions since we don't have plate are good. Lesser stoneshield is 1000 armor for 1.5 min - good if you're tanking a boss fight. (Couldn't find a warrior for SM?) Sages will be nice when I get the herbs for it. Being the Shammy is the most rounded char, I'd say he gets the widest range of benefit.

I use practically every potion I can get my hands on as a Druid. My mage char is the alchemist and I can't wait for my daily "Care parcel" he sends my main! Greater Intellect (More Mana), Agility (Crits), Strength (Duh) armor etc are all useful as I play both caster and feral forms depending on where I am.

I think this ties in with the above poster who mentioned Shamans - hybrid classes can make use of a lot of the potions in many different situations.