EQTC - Getting Started in Alchemy

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 Initial Step:

Alchemy is a shaman-only skill which shamans of level 25 or higher can learn, gaining the unique ability to make potions. Unfortunately, unless you like throwing away money, the skill cap on alchemy is so low at level 25 that you'll likely fail on most attempts to make potions and lose your platinum very fast.

What is the skill cap on Alchemy? Put simply . . .

(Your character level minus 24) times 5

Hence, at level 25 the maximum alchemy skill you can achieve is 5 or [(25-24)*5]. At level 26 the maximum skill is 10 or [(26-24)*5], and so on until you reach 200. We are not sure right now whether the Powers That Be forgot to extend alchemy beyond 200 when we were given levels beyond 60 or whether it is intended to always stay capped at 200.

Since the easiest potions become trivial at 17 skill, we recommend that you reach level 29 before attempting any Alchemy. 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 throw several hundred plat getting there the hard way, be sure you've saved 21 guild practice points by the time you hit level 29.

The Influence of Stats:

Originally the general consensus was that Intelligence helped you gain skill faster, while wisdom helped you successfully create items more often. This is incorrect.

When the Ruins of Kunark Guide came out, it explained that Intelligence affects how fast you learn many skills. For a necromancer, wizard, magician, enchanter, shadow knight or bard, it also affects maximum mana at each level. Wisdom affects how fast you learn specific skills. For a ranger, paladin, cleric, shaman or druid, it also affects maximum mana at each level.

This is still not terrifically precise. Further clarification on the official message boards and at various fan faires has led to the current, statistically supported belief:

Whichever attribute is higher, intelligence or wisdom, determines your rate of skill increases. So, if your wisdom is 200 it does not matter whether your intelligence is 50, 100, or 150. Likewise if your intelligence is 200, any wisdom under that does not matter as far as alchemy is concerned. However, since wisdom is important for shamans to increase our mana pool, the logical thing is to focus on getting your wisdom up and completely ignore intelligence. Your rate of success has nothing to do with stats and can only be improved by improving your skill in alchemy. This, of course, can only be done by actually practicing to get it up higher or by acquiring an item that gives a % bonus to alchemy.

To Make your First "In the Field" Potion:

1) Go to the Herb Vendor of your choice. (Check the Alchemy Vendor List for vendor names and locations).

2) Choose a potion to make. You will have a better chance of succeeding at one with a low trivial, so use the Prices Chart sorted by trivial as your guide. Just be sure that your chosen potion is not trivial below your current skill if you chose to put training points into alchemy before starting.

3) Check the recipe for the potion you've selected on the Alchemy Recipes page and purchase 5 or 6 of each of the two required herbs.

4) Purchase a Medicine Bag from the same vendor.

5) With the Medicine Bag in one of your 8 general inventory slots, right click on it to open it.

6) Place one of each of the herbs you purchased in step 3 into the Medicine Bag and hit "Combine". Note: For this level of potions, there should only be two kinds of herbs (for example, one Lucern herb and one Birthwart herb if you're attempting to make one Lesser Vigor potion) in your Medicine Bag when you hit "Combine". If you put a stack of 2 or more herbs into the Medicine Bag, it will be treated as one herb when you combine. So putting in a stack of Lucern and a stack of Birthwart will give you only one potion if you succeed.

7) After hitting Combine, you will receive one of five possible messages and success/failure outcome combinations in making a potion as follows:

a) You fail and receive a message indicating you do not have the skill to make that potion. (Unfortunate, but it happens...a lot.) There is no indication of whether the potion was trivial if you have failed.

b) You will fail and receive a message indicating your skill in alchemy has increased. (Yay! You are getting better!) There is no indication of whether the potion was trivial if you have failed.

c) You will succeed in making the potion and receive a message indicating you have created something new, but do not get a message indicating it was trivial. That means it was not trivial, and you could still skill up off of further attempts at that potion. (Good work, you are a succesful alchemist!)

d) You will succeed in making the potion and receive a message indicating your skill in alchemy has increased. (Two rewards, excellent!)

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, which means the potion is now trivial for you to make. (Time to move on to the next harder potion!)

Optional Method #1: Blood of the Wolf

It has been suggested by some shamans that making only the Blood of Wolf potions from skill 21 through 37 (trivial level for Blood of Wolf) would provide the alchemist with a more viable product for sale to the public, thereby decreasing their learning costs as they can recoup their platinum. This is a valid method and you may want to choose this method of increasing your alchemy skill. What generally happens when using this method is your inventory becomes overloaded with Blood of the Wolf potions (commonly referred to as SoW potions), forcing the shaman to sell quickly to clear up enough space to continue making more potions and gain more skill increases. Naturally, this tends to deflate the price charged in zones with the herb vendors. I've often seen shamans selling SoW potions in Firiona Vie for 8 platinum per potion which, when you consider failure rates, is very close to actual cost of making the SoW potions. It's all about supply and demand. SoW is in high demand which tends to push the price up, but by overloading supply in the SoW zones with herb vendors, the price is pushed down, at least in those zones. Either method of increasing skill is valid, but as much as I hate to see one of our best potions get undersold, I too would recommend the Blood of Wolf method to increase skill from 21 to 37 to save the shaman some money in the learning process. Naturally, if you're the only shaman in the zone selling SoW at that time, you can still charge a fair market rate for the potions and will likely recover a greater amount of platinum for furthering your skill, although it might take a little longer to sell out your inventory.

Optional Method #2: Dye Extracts

Smiths use dyes to tint fine plate armor any of a variety of colors. (This is a completely different system than the armor tinting available with the Legacy of Ykesha expansion.) Part of the process of creating a dye requires a shaman using alchemy or a rogue using poison making to turn the raw material into an extract of the appropriate color. Anyone can then turn the extract into the appropriate dye. The great thing is that the extracts are trivial at 36 and only cost 2-3 silver pieces for ingredients. The downside is that one of those ingredients is not standard vendor stock anywhere, so you will have to either do some Merchant Mining or spend time collecting the ingredients from creatures and ground spawns. I highly recommend this method to get you from 21 to 36 if you are of the right level to be hunting in the areas where any extract ingredients are collected, or if you are really strapped for cash. For recipes see the Alchemy Recipes - Dyes or see the Dye Information for drop information and other details on use.

What Do I Do With the Potions I Made?:

You have three basic choices:

1) Sell them to other players. The going rate is typically twice the cost of the component herbs that go into it. This varies somewhat according to the usefulness and difficulty of the potion, but is a good rule of thumb. See the Alchemy Prices guide for a handy reference to actual cost per attempt.

2) Sell them back to the vendor for about one tenth of what you paid for the component herbs.

3) Drink them if they are drinkable, or destroy them.

Using the references on this website as a guide to trivial levels, recipes and herbs, and as you level your shaman up and raise your skill cap, pick the next harder potion to make, taking into account herb price differences in similar-level potions, and go for it!

The fine print: All text on this site is copyright by the respective authors. The game EverQuest is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. This site is not meant to represent official EQ policy, and we are not responsible for errors/omissions that occur due to changes in EverQuest trade skills.