EQ Traders Corner
  
Alchemy: Getting Started

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 Skill Cap:

The only restrictions on alchemy are that only shamans can do it, and they must be level 25 to start. Alchemy used to also be capped at five points of skill per level. That has changed, so that a shaman at level 25 can go all the way to 300 skill.

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 spend considerable time and/or plat getting there the hard way, I recommend saving 21 guild practice points to start your alchemy off.

The Influence of Stats:

Originally the popular theory was that intelligence helped you gain skill faster, while wisdom helped you successfully create items more often. This is incorrect. For alchemy, it is either the highest of your intelligence or your wisdom that determines how quickly your skill improves. Given that shamans need wisdom for our spell casting, and have no use for intelligence whatsoever, you can ignore intelligence and focus on wisdom.

Only your skill (and certain AA abilities), and not any stat, determines how often you succeed at making something. For more on this, see the Stats and Tradeskills FAQ.

New to Tradeskills?

The basic system of tradeskills is that you have certain ingredients which are combined in a certain tradeskill container. For example, to make a Distillate of Alacrity I, get one Arnworth, five small vials and a medicine bag. When you first open the medicine bag, it may open to a window that looks just like any other container, except with a Combine button in addition to the Done button. Or, it may be more complex, with a search interface and buttons for "favorite recipes" and an Experiment button. That is the recipe book, which lets you create things more quickly, by automatically combining the right ingredients when you select that recipe in the "book". The catch is that not all recipes are available in your recipe book to start. Some of them you will have to make once to learn them, after which they will be in your recipe book.

So if you want to use the recipe book to make a Distillate of Alacrity I, search for Distillate of Alacrity. Then select it in the result list box and hit Combine. It will automatically find the right six ingredients in your inventory and attempt the combine for you.

If you would rather use the experiment mode, or are attempting a recipe that you need to learn first, open the container in experiment mode and put the five ingredients in. Remember that multiple quanties of the same item must be placed into each slot unstacked in order to perform the combine. Click combine to attempt the combine.

Whichever way you choose to attempt your combine, you will receive one of five possible messages and success/failure outcome combinations

a) You fail and receive a message indicating you do not have the skill to make that potion. (This message is the same when you fail, regardless of your actual skill relative to the recipe difficulty.)

b) You will fail but receive a message indicating your skill in alchemy has increased. (One of the best messages!)

c) You will succeed> in making the potion and receive a message indicating you have created something new, but receive no indication of whether the potion is trivial. (That means it is not trivial yet.)

d) You will succeed> in making the potion and receive a message indicating your skill in alchemy has increased. (Twice as good!)

e) You will succeed in making the potion and receive a message indicating that you can no longer advance in skill from making this item. (That means that recipe is trivial to you, so that you can no longer improve your skill by making it.)

Created: 2003-05-14 01:13:13          
Last Modified By: EQTC Editor Aanuvane          
Last Modified on: 2010-11-27 12:00:14          

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