Alchemist essentials

[tylor]

Alchemist is probably easiest class that start unlocked, so it is good for unlocking other classes and trees (such as Wildfire and Uttercold).

Race: Dwarf. Saves are good. Thalore is ok too.

Stats: Magic and Con. We don't need as much need for mana, so can cut on Will.

Escorts:
1. Celestial/Light. Alchemists have not much of protection, so that awesome shield will be of great help. Other spells there are quite good too
2. Arcane Eye. To see around corners, smoke and blindness
3. Chant of Fortitude. Good and free bonuses to saves
Premonition is nice too, as Alchemists have mana to spare.

Skills:
Class:
5/5/5/1 in Explosive. 5/4/5/1 if you plan to use Harmony.
5/1/1/1 in admixtures.
1-5 in Smoke Bomb. 5 in heat and 1 in Body of Fire are useful too

Generic:
5/5/?/0 in Staves. Range is not quite good, but you have not much to do while bomb is on cooldown anyway.
5 Power is Money

Category:
Fire Alchemy first, then Celestial/Light. Optionally, Harmony, if you want that 41% speed from your own bombs. But it is not very reliable, and you are not that desperate for speed, as you are limited by Bomb cooldown. Golemancy is probably better.

Gems to use with bombs:
+mana are good, cut down on rest time and free up Mana Surge inscription slot
Knockback (quartz) is my favorite. Knock everybody (not knockback-resistant) from your smoke fortress.
+damage percentage (rubies) is good too, once you have rubies and diamonds to spare.

Golem:
Give him three shield runes. May be even edit his strategy to give shields very big weight and/or set some other abilities weight to zero.

Strategy:
Drop smoke bomb first thing in battle to get probably best protection in the game. What they can't see they can't hurt (except for area effects)
Cast Arcane eye to see some enemies.
Start throwing regular bombs.
Heat of staffshoot enemies in-between bomb cooldown, or use protective spells/inscriptions/etc.

[bpleshek]

Questions:

Do bombs harm stuff I cannot see? If so, then why do I need the Arcane Eye step? My bomb lvl 5 range is half the screen. It would seem to me to just smoke, nuke, rest/inscribe, rest/inscribe, nuke, etc.... Possibly moving back and dropping another smoke.

What am I missing?