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Alchemy is one of the primary professions in World of Warcraft. Those who take up Alchemy become an Alchemist which is able to brew potions, elixers, oils, and flasks. These various consumables can restore health and mana, grant invisibility, give elemental resistance, and much more. They can also convert various metals and high level essences into different properties through the power of transmutation.

The ability to brew various consumables is highly sought after in both the market and by other players. Some flasks are so powerful that they make some encounters in the game much easier by boosting a player’s health or damage by an extremely considerable amount. For instance, the Flask of Fortification grants 1,500 additional health and 30 defense rating for 2 hours!

Alchemy is a primary profession which means that it counts towards the two primary profession limit.  You can unlearn Alchemy at any given time; however doing so resets your skill at zero and unlearns any recipes you may have found. It’s inadvisable to do so once you’ve begun discovering new recipes.

Be sure to check out our Profession Forums should you require any additional help with Alchemy! Our community is always looking to help anyone with any questions they should have.

Curious about how various elixirs stack? Check out our Alchemy Guide - Potions, Elixirs, and Flasks today!

To begin, seek out an <Alchemy Trainer> who can teach you Apprentice Alchemy. These trainers are located in every major city, like Stormwind and the Undercity. If you need help finding an Alchemy trainer, simply speak with any guard in a main city who will flag your map with the location of an Alchemy trainer.

There are several ranks to the Alchemy profession. You must get to a certain skill level along with your character level before you can advance to the next rank. Opening new ranks allows you to increase your skill more. To advance to a new rank, simply revisit an Alchemy Trainer in any major city or an Alchemy Trainer in Outland for the Master Rank. Below is a table of the ranks and when you can advance:

Need to get to 375 as fast as possible? Then have a look at our Alchemy 1 - 375 Leveling Guide!

Alchemy only goes along well with one other primary profession: Herbalism. Herbalism allows you to gather herbs which can then be used to make potions. You are not required to take Herbalism along with Alchemy, however, buying the herbs from the auction house to level up and brew certain potions is way more expensive and time consuming then gathering them yourself.

If you’re level seventy and have lots of spare money and don’t mind the very expensive cost of leveling Alchemy up yourself then some would suggest taking Enchanting or Tailoring. Both of these professions are not dependant on another profession and give you access to more ways to make money.

Alchemy is for every race and class. It’s useful for EVERYONE. For Warriors, Rogues, Hunters, Mages, and Warlocks all have very little to nothing to help heal them in combat. Alchemy allows them to cheaply create healing potions will save them from tough fights. Rogues and Hunters will find the agility boosting potions to be a blessing while Mages, Warlocks, Priests, Shamans, and any other class who uses mana will find the mana potions to be that one or two extra spells to finish the enemy.

Using Alchemy to brew your own potions is often much cheaper then buying the potions off the Auction House. That’s even if you have to buy the materials yourself! It’s a great profession for anyone. Not the mention the ability to turn herbs into gold with a few potions that everyone needs. The ability to make flasks is very highly sought after in guilds as well! It’s an all around great profession for every class.

Alchemy is very easy to use and works like the majority of the other production professions. After you’ve gone to the trainer and learned the require skill just simply open your spellbook. On the first page will be the Alchemy skill. You can either right click it to begin using Alchemy or drag to your hotbar where you can left click to use it. Either way, you should get screen that lists what you can make along with a few buttons.

To make something, you’ll first need the materials. Find what you want to make and see what it takes to make it. For instance, the Swiftness Potion requires 1x Swifthistle, 1x Briarthron, and 1x Empty Vial. For Alchemy, the assorted vials are available at various tradeskill, alchemy, and herbalism vendors. The herbs have to either be bought at the Auction House or picked up in the wild by an Herbalist.

When you have the materials a number will show up next to what you can make in brackets. That number will tell you how many you can make (based on the materials in your inventory). If you have enough materials, select the item and click “Create”. If you want to make multiple you can adjust the number to make selector or if you want to make as many as possible click create all. Congratulations, you’ve created something through Alchemy!

If the item was colored orange, then you’ll have a pretty good chance of gaining a skill point in Alchemy. If it was yellow, the chance will be decent. Green has a kind of low chance. On anything colored grey you will not gain any skill points. Remember, in World of Warcraft, there is no failure in crafting. Don’t be afraid to make anything orange colored!

That’s basically how Alchemy works. Even when you transmute metals and essences or refine the philosopher’s stone, the same process works every time.  

Those with the Burning Crusade, a level 68 or higher character, and Alchemy at 325 skill can embark on a question to gain a specialization in Alchemy. You can only learn ONE specialization and can’t switch without dropping Alchemy (and losing all of your skill, recipes, and discoveries). If you do drop Alchemy to switch then note you won’t have to do the quest for the other specializations.

Blizzard has mentioned the rate to create additional items is at around 10-15%. You can end up getting 5 additional items in the creation of the same item. All of the items are duplicates of whatever you are creating. In most cases, you can only get additional items off of high level recipes.

Master of Elixirs

Allows an Alchemist to sometimes create more than one (up to 5) elixirs. Flasks are considered Elixirs, making this a very good specialization for any raiding guild Alchemists. For the more casual players who focus on potions or transmutes for cash then this wouldn’t be that great.

To gain a mastery of elixirs travel to Shattrath city and speak with Lorokeen. You’ll need 10 Essence of Infinity, 5 elixirs of major defense, 5 elixirs of mastery, and 5 elixirs of major agility. Return with the items and you will have gained the mastery of elixirs.

Master of Potions

Allows an Alchemist to sometimes create more than one (up to five) potions. This is a great mastery for anyone who brews potions often for PvP or to sell on the auction house. If you find yourself doing elixirs more often for your guild or for the buffs then this wouldn’t be that great of an idea.

To gain a mastery of potions travel to Cenarion Refuge in Zangarmarsh. Find Lauranna Thar’well and take on her quest. She’ll want the Botanist’s Field Guide, 5 Super Healing Potions, 5 Super Mana Potions, and 5 Major Dreamless Sleep potions.

Master of Transmutation

Allows an Alchemist to get greater results when transmuting which basically means you can get up to five additional items during a transmute. Very useful for those who do transmuting often to take inexpensive metals/essences and turn them into something more profitable.

If you want to gain a mastery of transmutation, head to Stormspire in Netherstorm. There Zarevhi waits and he wants four Primal Mights.

Sometimes when you make a high level elixir, potion, or do a high level transmute you’ll find that you may have discovered a new recipe. The chance is VERY low, but it’s still there. There are many recipes that have to be discovered which makes the discoveries very valuable in terms of recipe advancement. You’ll discover a new potion when crafting potions, a new elixir when crafting elixirs and a new transmute when you do a transmutation.

As a note: Discoveries != Mastery. You can have Potion Mastery BUT STILL get an elixir discovery. It only matters based on what you're currently making and if what you're making is high enough level. Generally anything you learned from TBC will spark a discovery. That's so you can't make a million copper bars and learn it all.

In patch 2.1 the rate to discovery rises.

We at TenTonHammer have produced a complete list of Alchemy items, their abilities, skill and items required to create them and much more. We maintain them in HTML format and as a PDF ready to download and print as a handy reference.

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TenTonHammer's Reference Guide to Alchemy	TenTonHammer's Reference Guide to Alchemy (PDF) .

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TenTonHammer's Reference Guide to Alchemy

Join us on our forums to discuss Alchemy and the other professions! Need more help? Why not ask the community! Want to comment directly to us? Email us! Xerin@TenTonHammer.com