Ten Ton Hammer's Alchemy Guide |
Alchemy Guide - Potions, Elixirs, and Flasks
This is an extension to our Alchemy Guide. It goes over the finer points of various Potions, Elixirs, and Flasks. From how elixirs and flasks stack to when best use a potion this guide serves as a one stop information station for everything related to the various consumable goodies available through Alchemy.
Return to the Alchemy Guide to read up more about Alchemy itself.
Stacking Elixirs and Flasks |
Elixirs and Flasks are in one of four categories:
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Battle Elixirs Elixirs/Flasks that increase your offensive ability. They also increase your ability to heal more. Example: Elixir of Firepower.
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Guardian Elixirs Elixirs/Flasks that increase your defensive ability: Example: Elixir of Major Defense.
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Flasks Count as both a Guardian and Battle Elixir.
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Other Elixirs Elixirs that dont do either of these. Example: Water Breathing Potion.
You can only have one Battle and one Guardian Elixir up at one time. Alternatively, you can have one flask up instead. The choice is yours, although the majority of the time a flask will be more powerful then doing two elixirs. There are always exceptions though.
Potions are not included in the elixir limit, although potions have a much higher recharge time and a generally lower duration (maxing out at about 3 minutes). Elixirs will generally last half an hour to a whole hour.
Cauldrons |
Cauldrons are discoverable recipes that allow an Alchemist to create a cauldron on the ground that can dispense potions to your party/raid. The raid/party simply has to right click the cauldron to receive the potion in which they can then use. The potions created are like any summoned item and disappear on logout. Its only useful for giving potions directly to your party/raid. They can be used a max of 25 times and last on the ground for 5 minutes.
Efficient Potion Usage |
Effective use of potions in battle is very important due to their generally long recharge time and the high expense of most potions. Most MMORPGs are unlike Diablo 2 where you attempt to spam the potion button as much as possible. No, potions in World of Warcraft are tactical choices in the dance of battle. Use one too early and you may find that you wasted the potion. Use it too late and well, your luck may not be as good as you think.
Generally for any non-group situation you should use a potion whenever your health is at a point where youre at a risk of dying but are pretty confident that you can win the battle. Worst thing out there is to either die with the enemy two hits from being dead or using a potion and dying anyway. So you have to kind of get the feel for what your character is capable of. Walking back is harder then getting the money up for potions so if in doubt use it anyway.
For group situations youre in a different scenario all together. Assuming that a healer is in your party, its always best to trust their judgment. When you fall below 10% go ahead and use the potion if you dont think theyre casting a spell. The only problem is, if they heal you and that potion wasnt necessary but a few seconds later it does become necessary then well you see the point. This is the kind of stuff that comes with experience though.
If youre caster and your health is low, then yeah use a potion. You cant expect the healer to heal you in a timely manner as you arent the tank. Now, if nothing is attacking you and your health is low then wait. Unless you expect to get hit by something you shouldnt need to use the potion.
Like all things in any kind of game, practice makes perfect. Playing through the game normally will teach you these viable lessons. Dont sweat the details too much, just have fun playing.
Discussion |
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