Tree of Savior Forum

Should I even keep Alchemist anymore?

Class and Rank Wizard
#1

One of the biggest issues that I’ve had with Alchemist was that outside of potions and Item Awakening, he’s incredibly useless. Sure, I could go Alchemist C3 and gain one damage skill, but that’s a huge investment for little gain. I hate to draw comparisons, but I feel it must be said: Alchemists in TOS are a pale mockery of the fun and dynamic class they were in RO. I cannot craft anything unique or high in demand outside of HP/SP Pots, and maybe Crit Attack pots; the rest I’ve never, ever seen anyone ask for.

I could sell pots I made in the market, effectively making a money-making build, but the potions have so little to no variance that it ultimately comes down to who sells the cheapest, and how low can I go without making a profit loss. With RO Alchemists, I could at least take materials I have, rare ones, and make pots that might actually be useful, and that’s not even counting the Acid Demo which effectively trades away 10k Zeny for an extremely volatile high DPS splurge of raw power.

I don’t know. I’ve been racking my brain whether I should keep Alchemist or not, in hopes they may actually do something to Alchemist that isn’t completely boring or useless in almost every aspect.

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#2

Depending on the build you can make and homunculus to help as a offensive/buff helper.

Pots are always required for classes, also it can make buff pots.

I don’t see where the class is useless tbh.

#3

While the Alchemist can create and use a homonculus to help, I have not seen a single Alchemist ever use one. In fact, I completely forgot that it was possible until you mentioned it. So I’m questioning the usefulness of the homonculus in and of itself, because if it’s that uncommon from my own personal experiences, then I’m not sure what to make of it.

You’re also correct in that pots are required for classes, even buff pots, but how does that help me as an Alchemist? I would have to severely undercut my pot prices, to nearly the point of financial loss, in order to see any return from those pots. At this point, I could simply just make something else and buy pots off of someone else. That’s what I’d do anyway.

I find it difficult to justify any of the Alchemist’s skills. Gem Roasting is such a situational skill with no variance, Item Awakening is outshined by Transcending, it’s a battle of attrition with marketing HP/SP pots.

He’s such a niche/situational class that going Alchemist 1 is probably your best bet, and save Level 5 pots for yourself, and even then, store-bought pots are probably a better option.

#4

I think this is situational, since, all mats except the potion pot are farmable.

So your main waste in silver would be only the empty pots.

With the Mysterious Merchant you can get Gems up to Lv 7 in no time now, maybe even to Lv 9 if some do heavily sink silver on it, not to count that certain maps are good to farm gems.

Lv 5 pots are useless after 180, specially if you have lots of Collections done, so you either go all the way to C3 or leave it be.

TLDL: It will depend on your feelings, if you think it’s a useless class to you, it’s more than obvious you should get something else instead.

Awakening is not supposed to outshine Transcendence, it’s a complement for your final damage, they reworked it to reflect the same stats from the gear it’s been awakened, for example:

  • Lv 315 weapons have cap around 23 Crit. Rate (could be higher it’s just that the max I saw was 23 or 24).
  • Awakening will do the cap close to that value too as I have seem in some items on shout.

I do agree that it’s better to buy pots from others if you don’t have the patience to farm all the mats you need to, but if everyone think that way, in the end, we would ended up using NPC pots, and those have a long ass CD.

I find Combustion a pretty useless skills, at least it’s mechanic, it either should be reworked, removed or substituted by something more Alchemist-ish.

#5

About the alchemist homunculus i think there are some reasons why people doesn’t use it right now:

  1. Most of the people creates their alchemists only for pots making, which means once they’re done with it having the spell maxed to make pots, stop using it for anything else.

  2. The homunculus you craft in tos isn’t like in ro, you have to remake it every two weeks, three weeks or month, cause it will die in this time. (Don’t remember which is the real duration of his life) Note that you don’t have to feed him though, so that’s cool on that point.

  3. When they introduced alchemist c3 ia, it was the worst ia of pet they made. Since then though there were some patches that updated ia of most of the summons, maybe it also affect the alchemist one, so we need to test that! ^^ > At that time, giving him spells (which is the only good thing of the pet) was kinda useless cause he would always fail to aim.

  4. Last point, when you first use your homunculus you can give him some spells. But once you register the spells, you won’t have any mean to change these spells before the homunculus dies out (reseting circle makes it die too if i remember). :x Meaning that if you wanted to test what spells you should give to him so it’s cool, you had to fail some homunculus at least. I even remember people giving him only one spell to think about what else they should give it, and poof the homunculus would be stuck at one spell even though all other slots were free. ^^

So all of that needs to be test, also since it seems they are removing “briquetting” to alchemists of ktest, which is one of the assets of upgrade which made another difference to the good points of alchemists, i wonder if they thought about something to give them in exchange or not. ^^

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#6

I feel they could introduce more to Alchemist to make him more viable. Like for example: The ability to toss potions and heal his team, or make debuff pots for enemies, or even things like molotovs and damage enemies with fire. Anything to make him more useful, I think.

If the Rank Resets are perm in the Steam Store, then I’m going to swap out of Alchemist until they improve him.

#7

In my opinion, Alchemist should just get completely reworked, it could be so much more than a potion slave.

4 Likes
#8

Well i think the real reason why they didn’t make alchemist heal with potions is because it would be too much ro-like most likely. But even if you remove that, cause it could be “OP” to have a party healer in the wizzard tree. (remember, you have a tank in cleric tree, so you could say why did they feel that op :p) they could still give them more to that, potions spells that have some effects like buffs or debuffs yep. Some real interractions with your homunculus > combined spells for example?
And even the alchemist itself could have a spell to combine two of his spells to make something new. > you think it would be too complicated, but in real no : the could either make combinations results based only on type of magic > example a thunder spell + a water spell makes an Electrified Water based spell.
Or make it based on classes : Class A spell + Class B Spell = X spell as a result. ^^

#9

A friend used the Homonculus. It’s not bad since it can use skills, but it’s also not good since it uses them randomly. His Homonculus never brought much to our party, especially compared to other minions.
You also have to keep creating it, which is a bit annoying.

@Nirimetus
Alchemists are average at best, even in what they’re supposed to do. Most servers have quite a lot of Alchemists, so potions on the AH end up being underpriced and you lose profit.
If one likes farming to make pots and opening shops, sure, they might like Alchemist. But if they want a class to make good profit or that can be overall useful, Alchemist isn’t a good choice.
But for crafting classes anyway it will always depend a lot on your server. If it’s filled with undercutting crafters, then it’s pointless to make one of your own. Unless your craft can depend on your stats so you can sell a bit higher (like Pardoner’s buffs).

#10

I’m not saying Alchemist is a good source of income, far from that, tho, I think the class is fine, but not perfect. Still need some rework.

In all honesty, craft classes in ToS lack lots, and the profits aren’t even that higher, even with 30% cut from system tax (which I find idiotic but that is IMC for you).

As I said to OP, if he find the class lacking, he can pick something else to his/her needs. And the chance is now since the reset still rolling (I think, I haven’t checked today to see if the NPC is working).

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#11

Unfortunately the NPC is gone, but I suppose I’ll stick with Alchemist a bit more, at least until I fully understand a decent build of it or a Shadowmancer build.

There’s definitely potential to be had with Alchemist, but he’s just in a niche spot right now, and if there’s many Alchemists in the server, then he’s in a tough spot.

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#12

True enough, I have mine but only for self pots, and since I don’t bother farming mats I barely make any tho.

The only one I leave the shop working is my Appraiser, I know there’s lots, but I prefer give myself money than waste other place lol.

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#13

Making them into a healer than uses potions as ammo would be pretty cool ngl…

If you have the extra character slots, I think you should keep the alch and get it to c3. Use it to craft potions for your existing or new main. Just for you yourself though.
Not having to buy lv15 potions from other alchemists is kinda great imo.

As for the class itself, yeah… it’s not really for lategaming. I guess you could throw Enchanter1 at the end of it and have a potion + scroll crafter if you need flame ground or enchant fire, but that’s about it.

#14

I really gave up on Alchemist and go Enchanter instead, is a better crafting class.

BUT, again, each time that i gave in something, IMC sense that and trolls me…
Just today, IMC in Korea removed Briquetting and the c3 attribute. So, they are aactually thinking in made changes to Alchemist… so… they will add something later… how much late? wait for some months…

#15

@Nirimetus I generally keep my Alchemist Gem Roasting Shop up nearby the Marketplace, and let people use it then. That seems to be the hotspot, so I keep it there but in a different channel.

@Tankhime I currently have my Alchemist’s build set at Wiz 1 > Pyro 3 > Linker 2 > Alch 3 and all things considered, it isn’t too bad. I wouldn’t late-game farm with it, but the problem is that I do need to get it to 360 at some point, y’know? So the issue is “how can I get to 360 on this Alchemist in the least painful avenue possible?” I generally keep my Alchemist around for myself and my guildmates, but outside of that, I don’t do a whole lot with it. You are right though, being self-sufficient with pots is a godsend! Wish they’d expand on it a touch though. :confused:

@Crossheart I’m unsure of the idea of removing Briquetting and the attribute, but we’ll see how things go. They could have given the C3 attribute its own skill maybe, or incorporate it to an existing skill like Tincturing, because I personally like the prospect of changing the appearance of a weapon. I hope they do have some good plans in mind, though.

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#16

I changed mine to Wiz 2 > Linker 3 > Alch 3 > Sorc 1 during the event, I found better that way tbh, and my stats are Full SPR so my damage is not that great but link and summon help lots.

#17

I find myself using Pyro skills a bunch, specifically Flame Ground and Fire Breath; it’s great CC, and it helps my team out a lot. I’ll check out that build though in the future, if I get my hands on a reset

#18

I wonder how it would go with Pyro 2 Ele 3, I got it on other build tho, I find it pretty neat the mob blowing up damaging nearby enemies from fire skills.

I just wish they made an upgraded version of Ignition, the burning effect help lots too.

#19

They need to improve the time you spend doing awakening and potions, It’s just too much.

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#20

From what I understand, Meteor goes great with Flame Ground