Alchemy: How to specialize? [Answered!]
by David Bowers 
May 30th 2007 at 9:00AM
The time for decisions has arrived! I, an alchemist, have surpassed both level 68 and a skill of 325, and Alchemist Gribble here has informed me that I am eligible to become a Super Special Master of Alchemical Stuff! But the problem is, I have to choose which alchemical stuff to super-specially master.
Now before the Dark Portal opened, I was very happily buying Thorium Bars and Arcane Crystals, and transmuting them into Arcanite Bars for a tidy profit once a day. But now that we have all these newfangled Outland concoctions, I'm a bit confuzzled as to what I should tell Master Gribble. I'm sure some of you have vast depths of experience with which you can advise me and other burgeoning alchemists as to the best choices we could make with our alchemy specializations, whether for profit or just for helping our friends. Focus on transmutations for extra profity goodness? Elixirs for raiding? Potions for making friends?
Please leave us some wisdom in the comments below. If someone has an especially useful suggestion, I shall update this spot in order to feature it for everyone to see!
Answer: Most of our commenters have found that each specialization has its own advantages, and it really depends on what you would personally use most. People who use potions or elixirs most (or make them for their friends) find their respective specializations invaluable. Since I'm a druid, though, I still can't use potions in any of my forms, and my small guild doesn't habitually use lots of elixirs anyway. So it seems that for me the way to go is transmutation after all -- with one caveat: on some servers, primal might, which is the most readily available transmutation, sells for less than the materials needed to transmute it, due to an overflow of other alchemist with similar dreams of uncountable wealth. Getting revered with the Sporeggar will allow you to transmute Primal Earth to Water, though, and that is apparently more reliably profitable.
Filed under: Alchemy, Tips, Odds and ends
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Laura May 30th 2007 9:28AM
Every guild needs a master transmuter. Works best if you have someone else who can log on to your account and help you do them as often as possible. Saving mats in the bank for the days you just can't find someone who needs it is helpful too. Takes alot to get started 4 primal mights but if you or people in your guild need them...and you know you do....anything extra for free is cool. Free extra potions that are 5-15g say or free primal thats more like a free 100g.
innajunglestylee May 30th 2007 9:30AM
I took my alchy Transmute Mastery after thinking "Wow, I can get extra mights and swap out mats and keep a factory going when people need transmutes." I had starry-eyed dreams of bags full of primals that I had traded after building up a reserve from my numerous procs that were going to occur.
Instead, it seems like half the server's alchys are all transmute specialty, Primal Mights are going for 60-80g a pop now so nobody wants to get a transmute done, and the stupid thing has procced once. It's nice when it does (er, when it did), but I am considering switching to elxirs since, well, I chug those things in raids.
Sandtiger May 30th 2007 9:29AM
Well, in our guild we have one of each and they specialize in helping guildies. Any time we need a transmute, we go to one person and they give us all that drops off the transmute. We have someone who makes nothing but raiding flasks and another person who makes nothing but pots. I would see what your guild needs most and go with that - if you are raiding and don't have flasks you might think about that, although its nice to hand out a bunch of mana pots before kara.
We do this with all of the various specializations - we have a spellcloth, a mooncloth and a shadowcloth. As a Blacksmith there isn't much for other people as far as my specialization goes, but they can get all of my little armor extras for the tanks and weapon 30 minute enchants. We also have a few people with alts whose sole original purpose was to get another variant of a profession so that the guild has one of everything.
Ryan May 30th 2007 9:30AM
A lot of it depend on what kind of seller you want to be. Elixer/potion specializations provide a nice, steady rate of procs, but of course, they're likely to sell for less if at all. Such specializations are also the most beneficial for your own use, since you can make yourself more for less. Transmutation mastery, on the other hand (which I am), offers "less" procs (due to the time restriction), but those procs are more valuable and are consistent sellers. From the sound of things, if you enjoyed making a small, tidy, guaranteed profit every day from arcanite transmutes, you might enjoy the occasional DOUBLE (or more) profit from a Transmutation mastery.
L May 30th 2007 9:30AM
Oh and its not a huge money maker, but I'm doing it to help my guild. I've probably netted a value of 900g and would have been more if I wasn' saving them for my guildlings.
Fai May 30th 2007 9:42AM
It kind of depends what you're planning to do with your character.
First of all, transmutation mastery requires the 4 primal mights, which on my server amounts to roughly 380g. Secondly when considering transmutation, ask yourself: do you actually NEED primal mights, and are you enclined to farm the mats yourself? Yes, primal might proc is *very* nice, but.. you get a proc like 1/5 maximum I think, and at least on my server the primal mights sell for less than their seperate components, so every time you DON'T proc, you're actually loosing money. Except for primal might, what are the other transmutes out there making money for you? On my server, the difference between primal earth-primal water is about 15g (that's the recipe from the funguses rep) so that's a nice transmute to do, with a guaranteed 15g, and if you get lucky a bonus.
If you're into the heavy raiding, then elixirs can definitely be useful. It all depends how many elixirs you're actually gonna need i guess. Basically, say you're making primal waters and they sell at 20g. As far as I know the "sometimes" for elixirs, potions, transmutation is exactly the same amount of sometime. So then the question is, will you use (or sell) 20g worth of elixirs in between the two times you will log to do your transmutes? (not everyone logs in once a day at the exact same hour :p). Furthermore, keep in mind, if you have a friend with elixirs that has all the elixir recipes your little heart desires, it costs him nothing to do your elixirs too, since elixirs are NOT on a cooldown.
I guess about the same applies for potions.
Gerik May 30th 2007 3:16PM
When you're choosing an alchemy specialization, it really boils down most to your play style. When I leveled up alchemy on my priest, I knew that a potion mastery would help me the most since I use so many in raids.
Kyane May 30th 2007 10:04AM
Transmute used to be "the thing" until everyone went that way. Now it seems xmutes are a dime a dozen and the primal mights actually seem to sell for less than the primals which is disheartening.
I have a elixir alchey and xmute alchey and been toying with changing the mute to potion mastery ( since you can unlearn a mastery without unlearning the profession at the cost of some gold ).
Elixirs and Potions make for a happy raid.
EvilCheese May 30th 2007 10:59AM
I'm a potion master, which is very handy since I'm a raiding priest. I chug mana potions like nobody business. Not to mention, who doesn't need a health or mana pot, or both? Because I make them so much, the proc rate is very high. Quite a bit I'll be mixing potions and get 2 extras, 3 extras, or even a whole stack of extras. Stacks of mana or health potions usually go for 10-15 gold on my auction house, but honestly, I rarely sell them.
If I wasn't potion, I'd go with elixir mastery, since I make a lot of them too.
I say: specialize in what you make the most. If you use potions a lot, go for that. You could try transmute to get some money, but you might as well specialize in something that you can actually put to work for yourself.
Dabura May 31st 2007 9:33AM
#6 The earthstorm and skyfire diamonds, abd ur server sucks if mights go for less than the mats, or ur server is full of retards. Anyway I once made 3 earthstorm diamonds at once and sold them for 750g, tell me tht isnt a nice profit
Blah blah blah May 30th 2007 11:58AM
i went xmute on a high pop server, made enough for my epic bird off the procs (and other stuff obviously, but the might selling was a large part) - then as part of a guild move moved to a low pop server and paid the 150g to go pot spec (for raiding).
and yes, it appears, at least on my server, that the primals themselves sell better than the mights (mana/air/fire/water - 20g each, while mights go for 65g)
and i have to tell you that after being xmute sepc essentially since TBC came out, that crap almost never procs. once a week, maybe twice if you're lucky. screw that..
Pyrohh May 30th 2007 1:22PM
Im a noob. But my Mage has currently 268 alchemy, and I have never seen a "proc". What am I doing wrong?
Whats an elixir, and why is it different then a potion ?
Do i need to be in town to increase chances of these "procs" while making potions?
Take it easy on the acronyms, not all of us have been reading this site for years, some of us just got here. Courtesy of Sigil.
Laurens Holst May 30th 2007 2:22PM
@Pyrohh: you need to specialise via a quest before you can get the occasional extra item, and you need to be level 68 and have a skill of 325 before you can specialise.
See http://www.wowwiki.com/Alchemy#Alchemy_Specializations
Note that this is different from discoveries, which are new recipes you have a certain chance to discover while creating Outland-recipe potions, and you don’t need to specialise or anything for that.
~Grauw
Theserene May 30th 2007 2:27PM
I haven't specialised my alchemist at all, to be honest I can't see the benefit.
aggregate May 30th 2007 3:18PM
After dithering for a while, I picked Xmute and have been very happy with it. Since doing so(maybe a month ago) I have made enough money to buy 300 riding skill. How? Watch the AH like a hawk for deals on mats and farm your own to fill in. Each transmute will net me approx 20g. If it procs (which it does very often now), it's 100-110g.
Jayimbanda Jun 30th 2007 1:12AM
My rogue is elixirs specc, when you sometimes get 10 greaater agilitys for the price of 5, and yes, I got 5 for the price of one before, it makes it worth it for elixir chuggers.
Chronoweaver Sep 24th 2007 4:02PM
I myself do not raid, yet I do enjoy farming gold. As such, I've gone the route of elixirs, or will be in the near future. Just gotta find someone to run BM with :x
I make a ton of the blasted things, so if this will give them a chance to give 1 to 5 for the cost of one..all the better! :D