Analyzing The Alchemist Class

[Davion Fuxa]

So I've been busy playing Alchemists as of late, in part to come up with ideas for the Melder Class Concept I posted in the ToME: Orcs board. After playing a few Alchemists up to and just past the Master (I'm currently on one run that looks like it could get decently past the Master), I have to say there is quite a bit I dislike about this class.

Now, this isn't my first Analysis Thread that I've done. I did one for the Wyrmic Class a couple years ago. Unlike when I posted that thread back then, there wasn't much discussion going on regarding how to improve the class. Hopefully this thread might help in getting the ball rolling for generating ideas to improve Alchemists in game.

For those who don't know, I tend to go into detail quite a bit and I'll be making multiple posts as I go through my analysis. I'm going to color all my posts for those just looking for just my analysis posts in what I hope will be a thread full of discussion by other players. I'll try not to go into too much depth to cut down on the reading, but don't be surprised to see Walls of Text. Maybe I should put more emphasis on that....

~!~!~!~WALL OF TEXT WARNING IN EFFECT~!~!~!~

On page two of this thread, I'll begin to go into more detail on redesign discussion and what I think could be done to change Alchemist so that they can be a more palatable choice to choose.

Without further ado - let's begin discussing Alchemists!

Playstyle and Class Structure

When describing Alchemists, one should note that they are describing not just one but technically two characters. Alchemists are an interesting sort of Summoner/Caster hybrid, in that they travel around with a Golem at their side. This Golem is a permanent fixture that can be equipped with gear the player finds in his travels, has its own stat and talent categories it can invest in, and can even be somewhat managed by the Alchemist player if he so wishes. Some of the Talents that the Alchemist himself uses can be bolster the abilities of the Golem, discussed n the paragraph below.

The Alchemist himself is 'technically' a Mage who uses his arcane abilities via external materials that use magic - which outside of the mentioned Golem include Gems and Staves he may equip in his travels. With his Staff he can discharge bolts of energy - which he can produce in a variety of different elements. He has some Passive Talents which will either permanently or temporarily improve the performance of his Golem. If the Alchemist desires, he may use some Body Enhancement abilities to improve himself or unleash elemental chaos upon enemies nearby. Primarily though, he will make use of Gems which he can transmute to bring forth magical effects - which is Alchemist speak for 'Blow Sh*t Up'.

In terms of Generics, the Alchemist will find his Staff Combat related abilities here, as well as a Category for the management of Gems - be it to extract gems from equipment for your alchemical uses or to imbue them into equipment to improve it. You also get a powerful escape called Gem Portal and an attacked called Stone Touch. They have Survival, though they will need to Unlock it. They do not start with Combat Training - so players will have to purchase that in Last Hope.

Stat Investment

For Stats, Alchemists will focus on Magic as their Primary Stat, which is used to unlock their Talents, improve their Spellpower for more damage, and generally do anything and everything for the class. Outside of that, they have No Secondary Stat.

They may focus on Constitution, Willpower, and Cunning as Tertiary Stats to invest in. Constitution is an important stat to invest in, as Alchemists don't have much in the ways of defending themselves when enemies get past their Golems and have a negative life rating. Willpower may be important if investing in a Class with Racials powered by the Willpower Stat or for Class Escort Talents the player may pick up, or just for increasing the Alchemists Mana Pool. Cunning is a high recommendation stat to invest in as it is useful if the player picks up Survival, but needed to get the most damage out if your Bombing abilities.

Strength and Dexterity are less useful to Alchemists. Strength is generally only useful for carrying more equipment and Prodigies. Dexterity has a bit more use as it improves Defense and Critical Shrug off, but more then likely it would only be invested in for Prodigies as well - though it is notable that Dexterity Prodigies are worth looking into.

Strength of Alchemists

Alchemists are interesting in that their Strengths come from rather indirect areas of combat as opposed to what they themselves can do. Obviously their Golem is a notable strength as it keeps attention off the Alchemist. They can also be a lot more tactical in the use of their abilities.

Starting with their Golem, the Alchemist can make great use of them both on the offense and the defense. Offensively, the Golem can attack enemies on its own while the Alchemists stays back - or even runs out of sight from combat. Defensively, the Golem can distract foes from targeting the Alchemist or serve as a buffer between them and the Alchemist. Eventually Alchemists can swap places with their Golems or summon them to their side.

Something to note as well is that the Golem can be directly controlled by the player if so desired. Likely not something you should do often - as it leaves your Alchemist player to AI control, this can make the Golem excellent for stepping forth into the fray at times.

As for the Alchemist himself, their Throw Bomb ability is extremely versatile. It can be used to attack enemies around corners, hit massive groups of them, and power up their Golem depending on Elemental Infusions activated by the player. Players can Throw Bombs in a retreating manner, and do so quickly due to a 4 turn cooldown.

Weakness of Alchemists

While Alchemists have some notable strengths, it could be said that it is also a bit of weakness, as they are really their only strengths. They have some options to cause detrimental effects to enemies and some character centered aura-like abilities, but these don't come off as being particularly powerful or useful in some situations.

Outside of their Golems and Bombs, Alchemists lack a lot of options for what they can do. While Throw Bomb is on cooldown, they don't have any real damaging talents they can use outside of their Channel Staff ability. Additionally, as their Golem is knocked out of commission, the Alchemist is left with very little defense for protecting himself.

As for their Golem and Bomb Talents themselves, they are a heavy investment in Talent Points, and some of the Bomb Talent investment in Elemental Infusions may not be all that useful as you can only have one Elemental Infusion on at a time.

[Davion Fuxa]

An Overall Look at the Alchemist Talents

Sort of an in between look at the Alchemist Talents, but not directly at the specific talents, this is meant to be and overview of the synergy between different Talents in the Alchemists Class. I'll follow up with a direct look at each individual talent in a following post.

Unlike (or moreso) then other Classes, Alchemists have a lot of interconnection between they talents. This is due to some directly effecting their Golem, or at least benefiting it in someway, and the power of their Throw Bomb talent which can be adjusted in many ways.

For example:

• Your Throw Bomb has the following talents directly associated with it - Throw Bomb, Alchemist Protection, Explosion Expert, Flame Infusion, Frost Infusion, Acid Infusion Lightning Infusion.
  
  Your Golem has the following talents directly associated with it - Golem Power, Golem Resilience Invoke Golem, Golem Portal, Life Tap, Gem Golem, Supercharge Golem, and Runic Golem.
  
  Worth noting, Throw Bomb also has some indirect association with your Golem due to - Alchemist Protection, Ice Armor, Caustic Golem, and Dynamic Recharge.
  
  Technically Smoke Bomb should also be mentioned as have some association with Throw bomb - though that is mostly due to the Burning Effect that come after.
  
  Your Staves also has some association with the Staff Combat category - though this is to the usual extent one would expect with weapon related categories.

This inter-connectivity is actually one of the interesting things that Alchemists have going for them. It plays very well thematically with the Alchemists class theme as a dabbler in Arcane materials.

Unfortunately, as it is somewhat presented now, it can lead to some waste of Talents Points that could be used elsewhere - and not in the sense that your Throw Bomb and Golem talents are a huge talent point sink to be made effective (though there obviously is a bit of that).

Some major problems I can identify with the Throw Bomb talent for example is that you have separate talents for the individual Elemental Infusion Talents - the Flame Infusion, Frost Infusion, Acid Infusion, and Lightning Infusion talents; and the corresponding talents that effect your Golem when he is hit by a Throw Bomb - Ice Armor, Caustic Golem, and Dynamic Recharge.

Specifically, when you are investing your Talent Points, you can invest them into any of the Elemental Infusions; however, you can only have one of the specific Elemental Infusions active at any given time. On top of this you have Ice Armor, Caustic Golem, and Dynamic Recharge to invest in. These passive talents are linked to the associated Elemental Infusion corresponding to them and will only trigger when those specific Elemental Infusion types are active when you use Throw Bomb.

I'll go into each and every talent listed specifically, but on a grand scale one is wasting talent points when investing in more then one general Elemental Infusion type and its associated effect to your Golem; and regulating the other talents as just simple placeholders for the most part.

Recommendation

For the most part, I'm not really complaining too much regarding the direct Golem talents. There are eight of them in total which can represent a huge sink of talent points if you plan to heavily invest in your Golem, but they work pretty well for the most part.

I would however consider condensing or reworking some of the Throw Bomb Talents, or perhaps revisiting how the synergize with each other. For example, I would either change the Alchemists categories as that instead of them being broken down into different elements, it could be broken down into some new categories such as -

Elemental Alchemy - A Category (possibly locked) that would revolve around being able to Infuse your Throw Bomb with a different Element of your choice, provide beneficial effects to your Golem corresponding to the different elemental types you infuse into your Bombs, perhaps a suped up Thunderclap in the element damage and associated detrimental effects of your choice, and some other type of talent.

Character Centered Alchemy (Feel Free to Make an Appropriate Name) - This would be the talents such as Body of Fire, Ice Core, Living Lightning, and perhaps an Acid flavored talent; condensed into one or two talents. Along with them would perhaps be some Aura based talents such as Fire Storm.

Burst & DoT Alchemy (Again, Feel Free to Make an Appropriate Name) - Your Flash Freeze, Caustic Mire, and Smoke Bomb type alchemy talents would go here.

****

Outside of re-categorization like above, another less intrusrive idea would be to change how all the talents would work. I would recommend maybe changing the different Infusions to not have any Cooldown or to be changed to be Active Buffs that only last temporarily. The Caustic Golem, Ice Armor, and Dynamic Recharge should be folded into their respective Infusions, Flame Infusion should provide some benefit for your Golem (or perhaps provide your beneficial effects, or just detrimental effects to your enemies), and some new talents should be made to fill in the void left by those talents.

[astralInferno]

I've been complaining about the redundancy of multiple infusion talents for a while now. Glad to see someone who knows what they're talking about agreeing with me.

[Davion Fuxa]

Looking Directly at the Alchemist Talents

Similar to my Analysis of the Wyrmic Class, this is an indepth look at the individual talents in the Alchemist Class. Much like with Alchemists, Talents generally fall within their own set parameters. Unlike with Wyrmics though, these talents interact with each other, so this also needs to be taken into account.

When looking at the Talents in the Alchemist class, I look at them as follows:

-What Talents Work Well and Don't Need Improvement
-What Talents Work Well but Could Use Improvement
-What Talents Aren't Working Well but Should Remain and Be Fixed
-What Talents Aren't Working Well and Should Be Folded Into Other Talents

I'll be looking at every Talent in the Alchemist Class as they are all pretty important to the overall working of the class. This includes Stone Alchemy and Staff Combat in the Generic side of things. However, this first post here will mostly cover those Talent Categories and Talents which I really don't have anything too negative to say anything of.

I won't be suggesting if talents should be moved or put in their own/different categories - I think I covered that in my previous post. This will mostly relate to the individual talents on a basic 'stay or go' mentality.

Explosive Admixtures

Throw Bomb - Works Fine & Doesn't Need Improvement

The bread and butter attack of the Alchemist class, you throw out a bomb that detonates and damages enemies. Depending on the gem used you will get different special effects associated with the gems, and gain more spellpower with higher tier gems used. As you get better Gems, increase Talent Level of Throw Bomb, and gain more Spellpower it becomes a high powered Nuke.

What's interesting about Throw Bomb is how it can be influenced by other Talents, and those talents specifically need to be looked at in how they interact with Throw Bomb.

Alchemist Protection - Works Fine & Doesn't Need Improvement

An important talent to help protect you and your Golem from damage from your Bombs, as well as any friendly characters that may be accompanying you. This may not seem important initially, but as you up the radius of your Throw Bomb with Explosion Expert and you begin to invest in talents that let your Golem benefit from being hit by your Throw Bomb it begins to gain some significance.

Really the only problem with it is that you need to invest in this for your Throw Bomb Talent - but seeing as how the Throw Bomb is a staple Talent I don't see this as necessarily a bad thing.

Explosion Expert - Works Fine & Doesn't Need Improvement

This turns your Throw Bomb into a room clearing talent as your explosion radius is greatly increased. Excellent Early on for turning your Throw Bomb talent from a short range Nuke to one that practically will hit everything in sight, this is another talent you'll need to invest in to get the most out of Throw Bomb.

Shockwave Bomb - Works Fine Thought Could Be Improved

Sort of an odd Capstone talent, Shockwave Bomb is a variation on your Throw Bomb talent that inflicts Knockback on Enemies. It is a bit high on Mana cost and can't be used that often due to a moderate cooldown, but it gives you another Bomb to use when your regular Throw Bomb is on cooldown and can be helpful for keeping enemies back.

Personally though, I think it is a bit weak. If the Knockback fails it just does weak damage that took a fair bit of Mana to cast, and if the Knockback succeeds it only knocks enemies away so much. Maybe it could do a little more such as Daze or Stun enemies on top of everything else.

Golemancy

Golem Power - Works Fine & Doesn't Need Improvement

Useful for making your Golem more capable of killing things, some players may wish to skimp on this for when they just want their Golem to be a meatshield while others may fully max out the talent to make it shred everything in comes across to pieces. The talent does quite a bit so I don't think much should be done to change it.

Golem Resilience - Works Fine & Doesn't Need Improvement

Similar to Golem Power but more on the defensive side, this is a talent that improves your Golems ability to weather attacks and recover from them. It also improves your Golems Heal Modifer which helps with the Refit golem ability in restoring lost hitpoints from your Golem.

Invoke Golem - Works Fine Though Could Be Improved

You summon your Golem to your side and give him a temporary boost in Physical Power. A pretty useful talent if you need to get your Golem out of harms way for some reason, but perhaps a little pointless to invest in past a single point. While a Physical Power boost is fine and all, it comes off as a bit lacklustre and not all that useful.

Maybe instead of giving Phyiscal Power, it could also grab current aggro off the Alchemist within Talent Level Range with X% Chance and draw it to itself; much like Gem Portal does now. That could arguable by more useful then what Gem Portal does, as no matter where your Golem is, you'll have more control summoning it to your side.

Golem Portal - Works Fine Though Could Be Improved

You swap places with your golem and have a chance of switching aggression of enemies with it. Obviously very useful for having your Golem tank for you, a key problem that can occur with this is that your Golem may not always be in the best place to teleport you. I'd rather have it as above myself where Invoke Golem would be your tanking talent and perhaps Golem Portal could be a possible escape but a key way of powering up your Golem to fight enemies.

Advanced Golemancy

Life Tap - Works Fine Though Could Be Improved

You drain the life of your Golem to replenish your own. It's a way to heal yourself, so there is little to complain about; other then the fact that it might kill your Golem - but better you then it I guess!

Really though, I'd like it perhaps this talent did more. Maybe your Golem could have reduced damage against you and you against it, or boost up your hit point regeneration when it is nearby.

Gem Golem - Works Fine & Doesn't Need Improvement

Much like Golem Power or Golem Resilience, this is mostly a straight up buff for improving your Golem. Give it a couple of Gems of Talent Level Gem Tier and make your Golem that much stronger. With some Gems you can make your Golem very powerful. For the most part, I think this is fine as is.

Supercharge Golem - Works Fine & Doesn't Need Improvement

This is certainly a must have talent that needs to be picked up by all Alchemists and maxed at some point. The ability to immediately revive your Golem can allow you to overcome sudden burst damage killing it; whereas without you don't have a means of immediately brining back your Golem (Refit Golem takes 20 turns, and some Alchemical Gems). Additional Talent Levels will mean your dead Golem can come back with more health. The talent can also be used while your Golem is alive as well - allowing your Golem to quickly regenerate health as well as get a 25% Damage Boost; which will also be applied after brining back your Golem if it was previously dead.

Really, this is an all around awesome talent that helps out greatly.

Runic Golem - Works Fine & Doesn't Need Improvement

This talent will boost your Golems ability to regenerate Health, Mana, and Stamina; with additional Talent Levels increasing the amount. Outside of this though, you also get an additional Rune Slot on your Golem for it to use. While perhaps weaker then Supercharge Golem, this is still quite a useful talent to pick up. If you have Runes for your Golem to use, then it can use them - though be careful with giving it Offensive Runes as you aren't shielded from the damage by them.

It's a fine talent as it is for the most part.

[astralInferno]

To clarify before I give any more specific comments, I've never been a big fan of alchemists. I just managed to get an alchemist to Tannen, but I did so by using addon races and utility options to give myself deathknight talents and the golem necromancer talents, so... while I think my opinions on feel are valid, they're coming from a strange place, and my power level opinions could be completely wrong.

Alchemist Protection - One thing I noticed a lack of was a way to prevent your golem hurting you, which was a problem for me as my golem new chill of the tomb and cold flames. I'm unsure if this will ever come up with a normal alchemist, though. (And I see you bought up a similar idea for life tap (and then later I see you mentioning offensive runes can hurt you! answers that question))

Shockwave Bomb - I would like this talent 100% better if it matched the damage type from Throw Bomb.

[Davion Fuxa]

Fire Alchemy

Flame Infusion - Talent Doesn't Work Well & Should be Folded into Another Talent

The weakest of the Elemental Infusion talents, Flame Inferno will set your Throw Bomb to deal Fire Damage and cause enemies to Burn for a few turns. This is the weakest one for the simple reason that it's damage type of negligible due to it being commonly resisted and Burn damage is nothing of any real importance.

The key problem with any of the Elemental Infusions - and Flame Infusion is no exception to this, is that you can't use them all at the same time. Now, Flame Infusion doesn't really have any associated talent with Throw Bomb and it's Golem, but it does have some association with the next talent, Smoke Bomb; which I'll discuss in Smoke bomb. I've already made my overall recommendations that the Elemental Infusions should all be folded into just one talent, or they should be adjusted to be Active Buffs instead of Sustains that provide buffs to your Golem when a Throw Bomb is thrown.

My recommendation for the Fire Aspect of an Elemental Infusion talent would be that perhaps it could burn effects - detrimental from your Golem (and perhaps you), and beneficial ones from your enemies - sort of like Wildfire, but all at once. Another idea is that it could boost your Golems Physical Power, Mindpower, and Spellpower (perhaps your Alchemist too) while reducing it from your enemies.

Smoke Bomb - Talent Doesn't Work Well & Should be Replaced

Smoke Bomb essentially will cut off line of sight for your enemies, unless an enemy is burning in which case it will replicate the Burning effect on all non-Burning enemies and bump up the duration of the Burning effect. Additionally talent levels will also cut down on the Mana cost for using this talent.

To be blunt, this is a talent that you won't be using unless you pour a few Talent Points in it, and one you will never use unless an enemy is Burning for quite a bit of damage. It can be somewhat useful for enemies using it against the player to block their line of sight, but not so much useful for the player using it against the enemies.

I'd advocate for the replacement of this talent, and giving Smoke Bomb to some Fire Specific enemy.

Fire Storm - Talent Doesn't Work Well But Should be Improved

Fire Storm gives you an Aura effect that will cause fire damage to nearby enemies over a small duration. While an interesting talent to come up against when enemies use it - Alchemists aren't melee based characters and they don't have the ability to absorb a lot of damage - that's the Golems job. The inclination of Alchemists is to keep their distance from enemies anyway - or just survive long enough to get their Golem in position to tank the damage.

This isn't to say that the idea of an Aura effect on an Alchemists isn't a bad one - it's just that it should do something other then damage. Looking back at the Wyrmic, they had the Corrosive Mist talent which gave an Acid Aura that would make lower an enemies Accuracy, Armor, and Defense. Alchemists could do something too - but more on the defensive side of things.

Body of Fire - Talent Works Well But Should be Improved

Body of Fire essentially gives you an automatic Line of Sight auto-attack ability that will send out slow moving fire strikes at enemies, burn retaliation, and Fire Resistance. Unlike the rest of the Fire Alchemy talents, this one is a passable talent. While costly on Mana to Sustain, you'll be dealing damage all the time - even Ghouls would get full damage out of it.

This doesn't mean it couldn't be improved - it could perhaps cost less Mana to sustain, 250 Mana is quite a huge chunk of resources.

[Davion Fuxa]

Acid Alchemy

Acid Infusion - Talent Doesn't Work Well & Should be Folded Into Another Talent

By far the most powerful of the Infusion types, Acid Infusion cause Acid Damage which few enemies are resistant too, while also causing Blind on them. Generally when leveling an Alchemist, this is a definitive 5/5 Infusion, as you get extra damage from more talent levels and there is little reason to use other Infusions (outside of specific enemies being resistant to Acid) and paired up with Caustic Golem you can help out your Golem too - I'll explain more about that in the next section on Caustic Golem.

But, it should still be folded into a new Elemental Infusion Talent or changed around to encourage the use of the other Elemental Infusion types.

Caustic Golem - Talent Doesn't Work Well & Should be Folded Into Another Talent

Along with Acid Infusion, Caustic Golem will give your Golem a little bit of AoE Acid Retaliation - where your Golem will fire a small Cone of Acid at enemies that hit your Golem on a chance basis; with more Talent Levels meaning a higher chance and more damage.

While a fairly modest effect, this is a fairly decent little addon since Acid Infusions are already fairly powerful. Now, I think that it's effect shouldn't be under its own talent - which I already went into detail enough with; but the effect itself is fairly fine and I see no real problems with it in itself.

Caustic Mire - Talent Works Well But Should be Improved

I like the idea behind Caustic Mire - it reminds me of Devouring Flames on Wyrmics, though instead of draining life it just slows enemies; which is fine really. It hits in Acid which is already pretty decent - only real problem is that it is a long DoT effect and you likely won't get the damage output from it. Mostly this is just useful for slowing enemies that enter it.

I don't think it is necessarily a bad talent - the Slow Effect is extremely powerful. However, perhaps the duration of the effect could be lowered while the damage could be increased. As it is now, it is okay, but I personally don't use it because I feel it is too under powered in combat.

Dissolving Acid - Talent Works Well & Doesn't Need Improvement

Another captstone talent in the Elemental Alchemy categories that is fairly decent. Dissolving Acid is single target nuke, that hits enemies in the Acid element, while providing some debuffing power. This is excellent for bosses that don't resist Acid and make use of sustains or beneficial effects; or even just on very hard enemies you may come across. It also a Line of Sight Targeting, so regardless of what's in the way, you can hit any target you want.

As it is, this is a decent attack to use when Throw Bomb is on cooldown just for its damage; with some nice dressing to it on top.

[Planetus]

I would point out that the idea of having all the infusions in one tree is how it was originally. The problem there was that you had to invest at least one point in lower level talents, and gain certain levels, just to get a different flavor. You could put all the talents in one tree, like poisons, unlocking more as you put more points in, but that still means more points. You could put them all in one tree but make all the talents unlock at lvl 1 with no previous investment, but then you've got a whole tree that's nothing but flavor alternatives. Any of these options, though, suggests that you'd get rid of more advanced specific flavoring, Either that, or you'd have one talent tree where every talent did different things for different elements. Possibly VERY different things.

Honestly, I think having each element have it's own tree is a good idea. It's that those trees are rather lackluster that's the issue. Maybe have more of an elemental-bomb flavor for each tree. Put Explosion Expert in the Fire Infusion tree. Have the same position in the Cold tree make your bombs freeze the ground for a number of turns (easily more than the cooldown at higher levels), thus pinning/iceblocking anyone that walks over it and dealing damage over time. Acid could form an acid pool on the ground that spreads every turn, doing a larger amount of damage, and again lasting longer than the cooldown at higher levels. Lightning... not really sure. I can't think of anything off my head. Then the third position is the golem-interaction talent and the fourth is a sustained talent like Body of Fire or Living Lightning.

This means fire becomes your massive room-clearer, ice is your disabler (and you could fill a whole room with ice over a few throws), acid can make pools possibly with overlapping effects resulting in substantial and wide-area DOT, and Lightning... that should probably be spike damage somehow.

[Davion Fuxa]

I plan to perhaps post this in more detail later, but the basic idea that I would advocate for would be -

Elemental Infusion

You Invest a Talent Point in and you get your choice of element for your Bombs. Further Talent Point investiture increases damage. The additional Burn/Blind/Freeze/Daze effects could unlock after a certain Talent Point investiture.

Coat Golem

You Invest a Talent Point, and all your different Elemental Infusion flavorings will give their own different beneficial effects to your Golem when it gets hit by a Bomb. Depending on Talent Point investiture this could be Elemental Retaliation Damage, Elemental Affinity, Elemental Damage Conversion, Elemental Resistance, and Beneficial Effect/Buff that could unlock with more Talent Point Investiture or just be improved by it.

Elemental Clap

Elemental Clap would essentially be a customizable Thunderclap in different elements. Based on the Gem Type you are clapping together, you would injure them in half Physical/half associated Gem element and you could produce a multitude of effects against enemies; which could be Disarming, Confuse, Manaburn, Silence, etc.

As a note, the Detrimental Effects could be a part of a Capstone talent; maybe along with Knockback distance or perhaps extending the Range of the Clap.

Going by what you said, it would be a Talent Tree where Every Talent did 'VERY' different things for different enemies. This is extremely thematic with Alchemists too since they likely wouldn't specialize in specific Elemental Flavors, they would specialize in ALL of them.

The only real problem is that it would necessitate the creation of MANY new talents in the Alchemist Class - though that probably isn't a bad thing in and of itself.

[Davion Fuxa]

Frost Alchemy

Frost Infusion - Talent Doesn't Work Well & Should be Folded Into Another Talent

A bit of a mix bagged, Frost Infusion can provide some interesting use for Alchemists. The ability to sometimes Freeze enemies can allow the Alchemist to hold back entire groups of enemies, as enemies the Alchemist isn't focusing on currently will have to break out of their ice cubes. This can be a bit of an issue though if there is only one enemy though, as any damage the Alchemist inflicts on that one enemy will have to go through the Ice Cube too.

As for the damage type, Cold, that's a weak element that many enemies resist - much like Fire. However, unlike fire, does looking to build up to 1 million cumulative cold damage may have some use from Frost Infusion - though outside of that it is less notable.

Just as with Flame Infusion and Acid Infusion, you can't use Frost Infusion at the same time as them; something should be done in regards to this. But whatever, let's just jump into talking about Ice Armour - the associated Golem improving talent.

Ice Armour - Talent Doesn't Work Well & Should be Folded Into Another Talent

Much like Caustic Golem for Acid Infused Bombs, Ice Armor will cause Frost Infused Bombs to give your Golem some benefits. Your Golem gets a bump to his Armor value and some Cold Retaliation Damage. This is great for those looking to give their Golems more Tanking Survivability.

And then it converts half of your Golems Damage to Cold.... That's perhaps not that useful since that may actually cause a Damage drop from your Golem; though I suppose it could be argued that you wouldn't be using Frost Infusions on enemies highly resistant he Cold so there is that. Still, it might be nice if perhaps it just added some Cold Damage on top of its regular damage if going that route.

Overall, I think that the general idea is pretty good and would work well - folded into another talent and all that.

Flash Freeze - Talent Works Well & Doesn't Need Improvement

Now this is a pretty cool defensive maneuver. Essentially this is sort of like Bellowing Roar - except instead of Confuse you Freeze Enemies to the ground. It can be instantly used so even at level 1 you can use it while a melee enemy is directly next to you, and them move away where they can't hit you. On top of all this, they aren't in an Ice Cube, so you can hit them for full damage when you attack them.

I'm happy in how this Talent works and really have no problem with it. It's a good pickup for any Alchemist to help them out. My only real problem with it is that later on, the effect gets resisted too much to be worth while and the damage is of course Cold.

Ice Core - Talent Works Well But Should be Improved

I want to say that I like this talent. This talent gives you a boost to your Physical and Cold Resistance while lowering the Critical Multiplayer against you. However, it comes at a Mana Sustain cost of 100 Mana. It's a good concept but if your Alchemist is taking a lot of melee hits you are either playing in a very odd way or not an optimal one.

Perhaps the Mana Cost could be lowered a bit, or maybe you could gain some Ice Penetration so you can damage enemies more that are in Ice Cubes. As it is though, it's a bit costly to use this just for what it offers.

[Davion Fuxa]

Energy Alchemy

Lightning Infusion - Talent Doesn't Work Well & Should be Folded Into Another Talent

The last of the Infusion talents, Lightning is quite an effective damage type that isn't resisted by too many enemies while Daze can lock down enemies without reducing incoming damage on them when attacked. It is of course part of a locked category and it isn't that much better then Acid Infusion, but it has value for sure.

And it should be folded into a new Elemental Infusion Type, ya-de-ya-da-ya-da.

Dynamic Recharge - Talent Doesn't Work Well & Should be Folded Into Another Talent

In comparison to other Golem/Throw bomb related talents, this one comes off as a bit weak to me. Your Golem has quite a few talents available to it, and will likely be using them quite a bit in engagements already. Plus, it is a chanced base talent so the effect may not always happen.

I don't think it is necessarily a bad idea for a talent, just that I don't think it doesn't enough and would need to warrant a bit more. Maybe it could bolster Movement Speed of your Golem for a bit or give it some Defense too.

Thunderclap - Talent Works Well But Should be Improved

In many ways, I should probably note that I really like Thunderclap quite a bit. Technically this could be a fine talent, but as one can already see I sort of 'have a plan' for what could be done with this talent on a grander scale. Anyhow....

For the talent as it works now, it is a terrific talent. Even at one Talent Point, you get a nice little knockback skill; but with more you get a talent that can hit several foes and cause them all a little Physical and Lightning damage; and of course knock them all back. Certainly worthy of a talent in a locked category.

Living Lightning - Talent Works Well But Should be Improved

The final 'Alchemist Body' related talent, Living Lightning bolsters your Movement Speed, will zap a nearby foe that stray too close with Lightning Damage, and when you take over 1/5 of your maximum hit points in damage you gain X% of a turn.

Much like Body of Fire and Ice Core, the other real problem I can note about Living Lightning is its Mana Cost. The rest of he talent works mostly well for what it does - though the close proximity to enemies can be an issue.

[Davion Fuxa]

Stone Alchemy

Extract Gems - Talent Works Well & Doesn't Need Improvement

A simple talent for extracting gems from equipment for your personal use. This is a great way of getting more ammo - hopefully of a specific type you want for your Throw Bombs. You can't unlearn it when you invest in it but for Alchemists you'll want it.

Imbue Item - Talent Works Well & Doesn't Need Improvement

A fairly simple talent that pairs well with the Crafty Hands Prodigy, this talent alone allows you to improve your Armor with the various effects Gems can provide. With Crafty Hands you can imbue your Headwear and Belts too. This can mean getting more Armor, Stun Resistance, or other such goodies.

Gem Portal - Talent Works Well But Should be Improved

This is like the Dwarven Racial Stone Walking - except you use Gems and can go even farther. A great escape technique!

My only real problem with Gem Portal is that it feels like a bit of a 1 Point Wonder talent. Further Talent Points will reduce Cooldown and increase the distance you can travel - but the Cooldown is generally low enough and with an Alchemists Spellpower you can already travel a good distance.

I realize that this is a Generic Category - and one specifically that other characters classes can pick up too so it has to be balanced around them as well. However, perhaps something could be done to make it worth putting more Generic Points into - Alchemists tend to have quite a few to throw around to begin with.

Stone Touch - Talent Doesn't Work Well But Should be Improved

I tried Stone Touch a little but I can't say I like it too much. It is pretty well useless to Alchemists until you make it a beam at Level 3; and even then it is still pretty useless because enemies can resist or be immune to it. If the effects goes off then sure, it's a great talent - nothing says fun like shattering an enemy to pieces, and if you fail to shatter an enemy you can lock him down for several turns.

As an idea, maybe it could apply a sort of 'Petrify Slow' type of ability - where you partially turn enemies into Stone. You wouldn't be able to shatter enemies and they would still be able to act - but their Global Speed could be greatly reduced. They would still gain the powerful resistances - though perhaps part of that could be a -negative resistance modifier to Cold (Cold needs love somewhere); and Alchemists can hit in different elements so they can synergize with having a toughened enemy to get all the benefits from still using the Stone Touch.

Staff Combat

Channel Staff - Talent Works Well & Doesn't Need Improvement

You can use your Staff to fire a bolt of energy at an enemy. Generally with Staves you can select the element of your choice too; meaning you can zap them with elements they are weak too. It also ignores your Golem. This works fine for the most part.

Staff Mastery - Talent Works Well & Doesn't Need Improvement

You can improve your ability to use Staves, which improves your Channel Staff Ability. Obviously this is a talent to be careful of since other classes can pick up Staff Combat, but it works well for what it does and should remain as it is I think.

Defensive Posture - Talent Works Well & Doesn't Need Improvement

Alchemists don't wear Armour, and while they can enhance their Armor (and possibly Headwear and Belt) with Gems that might add some Armor Value, they are rather fragile. This can be a good talent to help make up the difference.

Blunt Thrust - Talent Doesn't Work Well But Should be Improved[

I can't say I think much of Blunt Thrust on Alchemists. Stun is a commonly resisted effect, and Alchemists don't want to get up close to enemies to beat them with their stick. I'm not sure this talent is too beneficial to other classes either.

This could perhaps be a Talent for improvement - maybe it could apply Amnesia to an enemy and put Talents and Inscriptions on Cooldown. That would help make it usable by Melee Oriented characters - and for Alchemists it might put a damaging talent the enemy could use on Cooldown before they can use it on them

[Davion Fuxa]

Figured I'd note that I was holding off from posting here until I finished my run with my now dead Halfling Alchemist. Made it all the way to the Final Bosses in High Peak, but was unable to beat them unfortunately.

Davion ShortBomb

My play with this run will probably 'color' the rest of my Analysis. I'll post more soon.

[Davion Fuxa]

General Thoughts on Alchemists

So after playing a few Alchemists, and even getting to the Final Bosses of High Peak in the Original Campaign with the aforementioned one in the following post, I have a general idea of the Alchemists Playstyle. Specifically, the Alchemist is a character that 'stands back' from the fray and keeps his distance from enemies. To this end he has his Golem to serve as a buffer, an a few skills to prevent enemies from closing in on his position.

However, as the game progresses, Alchemists will get notably weaker. While Throw Bomb is powerful, it is a talent heavy investment to get the most out of it, and one that will begin to lack its bite against foes in the later parts of the game. The Golem will initially be fairly powerful, but it too will begin to lack power and die repeatedly - leaving the player vulnerable and without any real alternatives to protect himself from enemies laying waste to him.

Personally I feel that the Alchemists is under-powered in a few areas. Those areas are Personal Utility, Damage Management, and Burst/Sustainable Damage. Unlike other 'weaker' classes such as the Wyrmic for example, Alchemists don't have a powerful array of tools to use when things get dicey. They can't burrow into the wall or get out of dodge with lightning speed. Unlike other Mage type classes the Alchemists doesn't really have any powerful Damage Mitigation Talents. Archmages have Disruption Shield for example while Corrupters have Bone Shield. And then their is just general Damage Output, which they seem to overall lack in - neither having fairly good Burst Damage or Sustainable Damage.

Some of this feeling of 'lack of power' is obviously a result of them having their Golem - which brings its own abilities to the table, as well as the lack of Talents that can be invested in other areas outside of their Golem and Throw Bomb Talents; but it seems like the Alchemists and Golem together don't have enough to make up the difference. Likely, I'd recommend adding in several new powerful talents to help Alchemists out - in Locked Categories perhaps to prevent immediate access to them. I have some thoughts on this which I figure I'll introduce now.

Meta-Class Transmuter

So I've hinted at this both in the Melder Class Concept and the Runemaster Class Concept, is that there should be a new Meta-Class which Alchemists (and Melder and Runemaster if they were to come into being) should be a part of. What would separate the Transmuter Classes (It could be called something else, but I'll stick to calling them Transmuters) from other classes is these two intrinsics:

-Transmuters would be able to regenerate mana.
-Transmuters would start with 4 Inscription Slots as opposed to the usual 3.

In regards to the class setups, they would generally have more Locked Categories to make up for having that additional Inscription slot - which in the case of Alchemists might help in locking away more powerful talents for later.

Also as a note, Meta-Class Transmuter would be available from the start in the Embers of Rage Campaign - as it seems like a perfect fit that 'Orc Alchemists' likely wouldn't be all that liked from the rest of the Orcs for obvious historical reasons. They also seem to fit in well with the Craftsmen theme as well.

[Davion Fuxa]

Alchemist Orientation

I've mentioned a lot about Alchemists, but I figure it is worth noting that some thought should be given to how Alchemists should end up playing. Right now they have the Throw Bomb and Golem related talents - and then they have their other talents which sort of end up all over the place without any thought to how they synergize with the Alchemists overall playstyle.

Right now, a lot of the talents seem to encourage Alchemists to stay at the fringe of Line of Sight with their enemies while lobbying attacks at enemies. However, talents like Fire Storm, Body of Fire, Ice Core, Living Lightning, and Stone Touch are moreso 'up close and personal' type of talents that don't really mesh with the playstyle of keeping away from enemies.

Personally, I think it might be cool if Alchemists were to be encouraged to stay closer to enemies - and given some protection to help mitigate the incoming damage that would entail to them. It might also be nice if they gained some more utility oriented abilities with and without their Golem that employs tactical positioning.

I may have some ideas for this in following posts that might be of interest.

Prodigies & Stats

Another thing to look at perhaps though would be what Stats the Alchemists employs and what Prodigies should be looked into for the Alchemist to pursue. Going by the Wiki, Alchemists are stated as having Magic and Constitution as their most important stats. However, perhaps if the Alchemist is improved it could look into employing a bit of Dexterity for use as their are some important prodigies for Alchemists to employ from Dexterity. For example, there is the popular Crafty Hands - which allows players to imbue gems in their Helmets and Belts with their Imbue Item talent.

Crafty Hands isn't the only notable talent though for bringing this up. Swift Hands can be useful for swapping out different Alchemical Gems for use, and Alchemists could be tailored to making use of different Gems more to encourage swapping gems. Automated Reflex System could be useful for giving the Alchemists free turn when dealing with ranged threats.

I'll also mention Roll With It and Through The Crowd here. Roll With It might be a useful defensive Prodigy to allow Alchemists to get away from enemies; or just giving them for damage resistance when they come under attack. Through The Crowd is essentially a 'Pet' Prodigy oriented Talent; and I would suggest it could be a candidate Prodigy that could be replaced with a 'better' Pet Prodigy oriented talent. I'd maybe suggest Through the Crowd could be replaced with something like this:

Loyal Underling

Pre-req (Have Pets) - Description: Friendly Creatures gain X% Global Speed, won't die until reaching -X Hitpoints, and draw attention of Enemies with Y% chance when attacking them when within line of sight of the character.