So by now you've probably seen a little bit about the current Alchemy shake-ups. But if you haven't been on the PTRs, you might not necessarily know the specific numbers involved. Fortunately, Eyonix made a nice post a little while ago about a specific example of the reduced effect and ingredients of flasks. Ready? You might want to be sitting down for this, it's a big nerf. Here we go:

Flask of Mighty Restoration - Current
Instant
Regenerate 70 mana per 5 sec for two hours.

Dreaming Glory x20
Mana Thistle x10
Fel Lotus x1

Flask of Might Restoration - Patch 2.1
Instant
Regenerate 25 mana per 5 sec for two hours.

Dreaming Glory x7
Mana Thistle x3
Fel Lotus x1

(Please Note: The drop rate for Fel Lotus is also being increased by approximately 15% in the same patch)

Players will notice that while the effect of the flask has been dramatically reduced, so has the cost to create one. All alchemy flasks will be adjusted similarly.

In short, the effect and cost of the flask have been reduced to about a third of their previous values. This is a big deal -- Tigole wasn't kidding when he said earlier that flasks had been significantly reduced. He then goes on to compare this to a similar elixir:

Lets look at an elixir with the same effect for comparison:

Elixir of Major Mageblood
Instant
Regenerate 16 mana per 5 sec for 60 min.

Ancient Lichen x1
Netherbloom x1

While the flask still requires more materials than this elixir, it also allows 9 more mana to regenerate per 5 seconds, lasts twice as long, and persists through death. The flask is probably best used when facing encounters that are especially challenging to your party or raid.

So if you're likely to wipe, flask. If not, elixirs are a cheap alternative, and much closer in power to flasks than they used to be, especially now that you can drink two elixirs but only one flask. Ah, balance by nerfing, you are so bittersweet.

Finally, we get the four elixir recipes that are being added in 2.1. Those are some nice tanking buffs, and it looks like Earthen could be good as an option for a Rogue's defensive slot.

Also, we've seen players request details on the four new elixirs scheduled to go live with the next content patch and as a result, they've been detailed below.

• Elixir of Draenic Wisdom: Intellect and Spirit are increased by 25.
  
• Earthen Elixir: Reduces both spell and physical damage taken by 20.
  
• Elixir of Ironskin: Resilience is raised by 30.
  
• Elixir of Major Fortification: Increases health by 250 and provides 10 health every 5 seconds.

Tags: 2.1, 21, alchemy, elixir, flask, patch, patches, pot, ptr, raid, raiding, test, warcraft, world of warcraft, wow

Filed under: Alchemy, Patches, Raiding