Alchemist - doubts, bugs and (hopefuly) fixes comming

[Zaalaos]

To begin with… I do enjoy alchemist, it’s a new class, it’s got a bunch of cool quirks, reaction system is really fun, crowd control is beyond amazing but… There’s a bunch of bugs, or changes compared to what preview and later proper patch notes stated. I’m only level 8 atm, so there’s probably more bugs to find at higher levels, but what i’ve seen so far is enough to warrant a short forum post. Everything in quotation marks is copied directly from U45 release notes.

Enhancements:

Wave of poison SLA states it’s cerulite primer, while in fact it’s crimsonite (probably WAI, still tooltip should be changed)
Tier 2 apothecary core doesn't grant magic missile immunity (i was being hit by "greater arcane skeletons" magic missiles in delera's, not sure about other magic missile casters)

Spells:
All drinking buffs can’t be used under water. While it’s not a big problem i think those should work like potions. Especially Gills Extract. Still probably WAI, I bet it simply would take too much time Dev time to tag those spells in way that would let you cast them underwater.

LVL 1
"Elemental Skin (resist one of the four elements, has faint vfx) 5 Spell Points 5s cooldown"
Grants resistance to all 4 elemenets on single cast. Cool QoL change i guess?

Vial Smash: Frost (1d6+2 damage per Caster Level to a small AoE (like burning hands) (MCL 10), 4.5 second cooldown) 2 Spell Points.
Does 1d6+1, max MCL is 5. Base cost is 4. Can't argue with that change, version in patch notes is insane. Same goes for other flavors of Vial Smash

LVL 3 elemental crimsonite spells are all flavors of fireball.

“Molotov Cocktail (Firewall but a big circle) (Firewall but a big circle, 15 Spell Points, 30 second cooldown)”
In fact it does 1d6+3 per caster level instantly, like fireball. Has shortish cooldown.

“Voltaic Induction (short Damage over time, Electric (nonstacking)) 15 Spell Points, 30 second cooldown”
In fact it does 1d6+3 per caster level electric damage instantly, like fireball. Has shortish cooldown.

Same goes for “Bitter Frostburns” and “Caustic Solvent”, those are just 1d6+3/CL fireball variants. Which is okayish damage wise, but incredibly boring. I wonder, were those mixed up with tier 5 Bombardier enhancement SLA?

“Flash Freeze (Frozen in Ice PBAoE) 25 Spell Points, 60 second cooldown”

Actually has 40 sp base cost, short cooldown. I do love it the way it is. I find it fair to cost so much, given it’s pretty much better hold monster mass. Doesn't work on reapers, hits every single corporeal enemy even oozes/undead/vermin. I wonder if it'll hit reapers and other ghost type enemies if you make them corporeal 1st with Iron Shavings? It should flavor wise.

“Choking Smog (AoE, enemies are blinded and slowed inside) 30 Spell Points, 30 second cooldown”

Doesn’t blind, Silences and Slows instead.

So "bugs" (or not announced changes) aside - class is cool, but it suffers from low mana pool, with massive spell point costs. I tend to run out quickly running quests at level, with multiple past lives and vibrant purple ioun stone boosting my spellpoints considerably. Class is propably almost unplayable in 1st life solo enviroment. Spell damage is on low end too, sorcs do significantly more, with lower spell point costs, and higher mana pool.

[SocratesBastardSon]

Nice review and insights. Very helpful.

+1

[Falkyron]

Interestingly enough I'm finding that it does very well in reaper with a group. Due to it having a low spell point pool and its bread and butter SLAs / potions being rather low-cost, if your team is letting you nom souls you can go all day. I had a run through the new catacombs just spamming spells like crazy since I was getting fed the souls and it was rather powerful.

Edit: Also soothing poultices is kickass in reaper. My character is by no means stacked (has just 4 past lives) but at level 4 it's tossing curative admixture SLAs that reliably heal for about 45 (higher on characters with amp) and give 30 temporary hit points on a 4 second cooldown. With it getting more potions to toss it should actually be a great support.

[Zaalaos]

I have to agree, group play is significantly better, since you can just turn into amazing CC machine, but healing is good only in very good groups, or in low level content. Admixtures have long casting time you can't shave off with quicken, fly slower than damage comes in in higher level content, and they have tendency to miss. Your allies can move in front of you to block healing from your target, mixture can fly into a wall doing nothing, or (my favorite) ceiling might be hanging too low, intercepting your healing flask like some sort of sci-fi orbital defense system. Also if you want to selfheal you need to target yourself, then make 100% sure there's no terrain directly in front of you, otherwise your mixture won't hit. What I believe happens is that casting animation clips through wall, and "effect" begins behind it, blocking mixture splash from affecting you. Also don't jump too high, or it'll miss.

Other bugs I've found - none of restoration admixtures works. No stat healing, no neg level healing (which was a bummer in Von 3) on self. Didn't check it on other players since I've been running that quest solo. Melt lock doesn't work on anything. Majority of spells don't do what U45 release notes say they should do. Wildly different cooldowns/spellpoint costs/numbers/additional effects. If you want to see what spells actually are ahead of time you need to go to house J and check them 1 by 1 at vendor in House of Wizardry.