Alchemy for Beginners

[HousePet]

I've never survived long enough to try it, I didn't know there was a bug.

So, I have no idea.

[Mandabar]

Yeah, I got 6 rune slots on my golem at runic golem 5.

[velk]

Staff Command lets you change the damage type that Channel Staff uses. Usually you'll want to leave it at fire to take advantage of your infusion, but if you aren't doing much damage or are facing a lot of one type of enemy, changing damage to their weakness can save you a lot of hassle.

This might have been invalidated by a change since the last update - if you are using an infusion other than fire, commanding your staff to fire will cause a massive decrease in bomb damage.

[Robsoie]

A few questions, as i'm currently running a very promising yeek alchemist (that after a very hard beginning due to the weak health of the yeeks is now at a very good state) and i'm starting Dreadfell and just hit level 30 (i did every other dungeons to get the XP).

- I read it's recommended to equip the golem with several shields, but unless i am mistaking something, aren't all the shields greyed when 1 is activated ?

- My golem is dealing very nice damage, supported by its eye beam and molten skin, but i'm facing a problem in which weapon to give it , i decided to make him 1 handed weapon to benefit from shields bonus.
Currently i have this equipped on my golem :

For a single handed weapon it deals a ton of damage, is dealing additional one in darkness too and i really like that it has a +28% damage vs humanoids as most monsters enter that category

But while exploring Dreadfell i just killed the undead Dwarf unique (the one that in the lore fought against the Master but got transformed into a servant of his) and found Corpathus


In a past version as a melee character i had used Corpathus and became disapointed by its ability to very regularly create a Vilespawn that was actually hostile to you and was a huge pain as it was constantly blocking your path to retreat.

But since then i have read that apparently in more recent version the Vilespawn was now friendly, making then a potential very decent additional target for the monsters instead of just me.

If that is true, would the golem using Corpathus would then be better than using the already very good weapon he has ?

- Runic Golem : as i have not followed much the rune upgrade regarding the runes that allow to shoot things, in the current version what could be the best runes to use there ?

- Blighted Summoning, is it -really- interesting for the golem ? it has so few skill points and some skills very usefull that you want to max, would it be really that good to get the additional tree for him ?

[GlassGo]

This might have been invalidated by a change since the last update - if you are using an infusion other than fire, commanding your staff to fire will cause a massive decrease in bomb damage.

Can you explain in detail? I do not quite understand.
If you are using acid, and your staff command - fire, then bomb dmg is low?

[velk]

Can you explain in detail? I do not quite understand.
If you are using acid, and your staff command - fire, then bomb dmg is low?

If you are using an acid infusion, and you command staff to acid, it will give a significant bonus to acid damage, which makes your bombs much stronger. If you command it to fire instead, you'll lose that bonus.

[Niknud]

Personally I think Cornac is the best choice. I open up fire alchemy at level 1 and proceed to max heat for easy boss killing fun. I then max acid infusion for any fire resistant enemies. At level 10 I will buy my first inscription slot and then depending on my escort success at 20 I may either open adv golem or some generic skill I got from the escorts.

[rod]

Since this is a beginner's guide, I'd like to see some more info on just what this golem thing is all about.

Some points that I don't see covered anywhere:

Behavior: Default/Tank/Melee/Ranged...
- What do these actually do?
- Suggestions on when to use which?
- I saw mention of "making the AI prioritize shield runes" or the like... how?

Leveling the golem...
- How fast are talent/stat points gained?
- How best to spend stat pts?

Gearing the golem...
- Mention the steps to actually equip them, and what the slots are.
- The body armor slot seems straightforward, but perhaps what egos/bonuses to prioritize.
- Weapons: Sword & Board? Two Hander? Double Dagger? Can I give her a Bow/Sling/Staff?
- If I give her an item with +light range, do they glow such that I can see in distance?

Misc...
- When hitting "rest" or the "rest before auto-explore", do you wait for golem's stats to recharge too?
- Any addons out there to intercept the Transmog process, and extract gems from anything it can instead of T-mogging it?

Note: these are all questions I've just had in getting my Alchemist to Level 2 after reading the guide, and after playing other classes for a while.

[Nelagend]

Seeing as the golem's eyebeams tend to hit harder than its weapons, would it be worth it to give the golem a rank or 4 of Staff Mastery from escort quest rewards? It seems to me that would let it focus more on Magic as an attack stat?

[Nelagend]

I've had the option for Staff Mastery from a quest reward. Seeing as Golems do more damage with their arcane attacks anyway, would it be worthwhile in some way to specialize a Golem in staffs this way so as to make almost all their damage run off of Magic?

[Mewtarthio]

The Golem Power talent boosts the golem's proficiency with all weapons except mindstars. No extra specialization required.

...That being said, there is one trick that I'm hesitant to suggest because it's pretty cheesy and I haven't tried it myself (though the theory's sound). So, with those caveats:

Manually transmog a bunch of items and keep giving the gems to your golem instead of keeping them yourself. Find a shop whose inventory you don't mind flooding (like, say, the dagger store), and have your golem sell the gems (take direct control and send it into the stores in your stead) until it has 500 gold. Send it to Angolwen for staff training.

Your golem should now have the Staff Combat tree unlocked. Unfortunately, it can only get up to four generics in the game: Two from the Arena quest, and two from the Elixir of Foundations. Luckily, that's still enough to invest three points into Staff Mastery, so long as the alchemist has no more than two points of Golem Power. Once that's done, you can safely max out Golem Power, giving your golem a respectable 8/5 in Staff Mastery (+80 physical power, +63% damage with staves).

Not cheesy enough? Keep your alchemist's Staff Mastery at 4/5 or less, and any alchemists you rescue can further boost your golem's Staff Mastery. Give your golem another 750 gold's worth of gems and purchase the mastery boost. Give your golem the Wyrm Bile for another mastery boost: At this point, even if you saved no alchemists at all, you're looking at an effective talent level of 11.4 (+114 physical power, +163% damage with staves).

The downside, of course, is that you've spent two generics, an alchemist quest Elixir, the Wyrm Bile, and 1250 gold's worth of gems that don't even count towards Fortress Energy to improve your golem's bump attack. But hey, you asked for a staff-specialized golem.

[Doctornull]

The downside, of course, is that you've spent two generics, an alchemist quest Elixir, the Wyrm Bile, and 1250 gold's worth of gems that don't even count towards Fortress Energy to improve your golem's bump attack. But hey, you asked for a staff-specialized golem.

Then take Blighted Summoning and give your golem two short staves with the broken Magewarrior ego.

Watch the staff bump-attacks proc on Eyebeams.

[Requia]

I've never even seen a short staff, is there some trick to them?

I'm gonna have to try the staff specialist thing if I ever run alchemist again. Bit late now as I've already spent my free generics.

What about corrupted shell? I figure with the dwarf boosts to saves on top I shouldn't have to deal with stat effects much.

(A+ guide, all the way to level 42 right now!).

[Darkmere]

Shortstaves are kinda rare, though they get more common in the east. It's just an ego the same as any other, you only need to get lucky enough to have one drop.

Taking corrupted shell for the save scores wouldn't be my first choice on a dwarf simply because you can get +10 all saves by imbuing a single gem, which you can do three times (with crafty hands). You only get 2 prodigies, so I'd go for something you can't easily replicate with existing class skills.

[Mewtarthio]

Bad news; it seems the staff training exploit is a dud. Any money the golem earns is automatically transferred to the alchemist.