Analyzing The Alchemist Class

[Davion Fuxa]

I'm posting this here and plan to edit this later.

This post will contain a sort of Redesign Concept for how I think the Alchemist could be improved.

I'm be slowing editing as I go along.

Currently I've added in enough to show my ideas on how all the current content of Alchemists could fit in to a new design.

Opening Thoughts

To be honest this isn't a class I think much of as I'm not really one for pets, but I do think the concept of its abilities to have various Arcane Elemental abilities is cool. Regardless, as it is now the class could be fleshed out more - with new abilities, folding similar talents into each other, and perhaps doing other changes which I'll discuss as I go further into discussion.

Alchemist

Locked Description (I realize Alchemists are Unlocked, I think they should be Locked)

Deep within the labs of Eyal
Delving into creating magical devices
Learn from our past works
And help us with our current ones.

Unlock Prerequisites

Help complete one Alchemical Potion for the Brotherhood of Alchemists
Discover the remains of Atamathon

Description

An Alchemist is a manipulator of materials using magic. They do not use the forbidden arcane arts practised by the mages of old - such perverters of nature have been shunned or actively hunted down since the Spellblaze.

Alchemists can transmute gems to bring forth elemental effects, turning them into balls of fire, torrents of acid, and other effects. They can also reinforce armour with gems and infuse themselves in Alchemical enchantments to protect them from foes, and themselves.

Eventually they can use their gems to create illusionary copies of themselves to confuse their foes and disorient them in battle or powerful offensive abilities to knock down foes and isolate them.

Though normally physically weak, most alchemists are accompanied by magical golems which they construct and use as bodyguards. These golems are enslaved to their master's will, and can grow in power as their master advances through the arts.

Their most important stats are: Magic and Dexterity.

Gameplay Mindset

To be filled out later as this concept is filled out. What I can say is that it will be a lot like it is now - but with talents redistributed and changed around.

Alchemist Talents

Class -

Explosive Admixtures
Golemancy
Alchemist Techniques
Alchemical Mixtures
Advanced Golemancy - Locked
Gem Tricks - Locked
Gem Illusions - Locked

Generics -

Stone Alchemy
Staff Combat
Survival - Locked

Starting Specs

Alchemist start with the standard inscriptions of their race
Alchemist start with 4 Inscription Slots as opposed to the usually 3.
Alchemist start with a Manasurge Rune and a Controlled Phase Door Rune

Starts with class talents Throw Bomb, Golem Power, Alchemist Fatigues
Starts with generic talents Channel Staff
Wields an Elm Staff
Wears a Linen Robe

Alchemists gain +4 Magic, +3 Dexterity, and +2 Constitution stats on startup.
Alchemists start with 100 Health and have a Life Rating of -1.

Class Talents Indepth

Create alchemist gems - Active
Costs 30 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
No Cooldown

Carve 40 to 80 alchemist gems out of a natural gemstone. Number of Alchemical Gems Created is based on Dexterity Stat.

Alchemists gems are used for many other spells, and each gem type creates a different effect.

Note: This talent is granted upon learning Stone Alchemy/Extract Gems. It cannot be unlearned by itself, nor can it be improved beyond level 1.

Refit Golem - Active
Costs 10 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
20 Turn Cooldown

Take care of your golem:

If it is destroyed, you will spend some time to reconstruct it. This will take 15 alchemist gems and 20 turns to complete; turns to complete decreasing with Dexterity Stat, and becoming instant at 50 Dexterity. Your golem will be brought back with 1/3 of its maximum life.
If it is alive but hurt, you will be able to repair it with 2 alchemist gems for (44 + 0.8–3.3%cTL:20% * Golem Max Life + [15]550cTSpD) life.

The repair amount scales with your Golem Power talent level, and uses an effective spellpower equal to the average of your spellpower and the gem's spellpower (20/35/50/65/70 per tier).

Note: You will learn this talent automatically upon learning Golem Power.

Explosive Admixtures

Throw Bomb - Active
Costs 5 Mana
Range (R + X * Dexterity)
Usage 1 Turn
4 Turn Cooldown

Imbue an alchemist gem with an explosive charge of mana and throw it. Dexterity determines distance that bomb may be thrown.

The gem will explode for [15]150cTSpD physical damage in a radius of 1, with effective spellpower equal to the average of your spellpower and the gem's spellpower (20/35/50/65/70 per tier).

Each kind of gem will also provide a specific effect.

At Talent Level 5, you bombs explode in a radius of 2.

Elemental Infusion - Sustained
Costs 30 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
30 Turn Cooldown

When you throw your alchemist bombs, you infuse them with Fire, Cold, Acid, or Lightning Damage. In addition to this, your bombs will:

With Fire Infusions your Bombs will burn your foes for a few turns.
With Cold Infusions your Bombs will freeze your foes solid for a few turns.
With Acid Infusions your Bombs will blind your foes for a few turns.
With Lightning Infusions your Bombs will daze your foes for a few turns.

In addition all damage you do is increased by 5–25%cTS.

Only one of Flame Infusion, Frost Infusion, Acid Infusion, and Lightning Infusion can be active.

Coat Golem - Passive

When you throw your Alchemical Bombs, they no longer have any effect on your Golem.

In addition, while Elemental Infusion is active you coat your Golem in elemental properties. Depending on the infusion active, your Golem will:

• With Fire Infusion, talent level detrimental effects are stripped from your Golem, and your Golem gains X% Attack Speed.
  
  Frost Infusion provides your Golem with [10]25cTSpD additional armour, melee attacks against it deal [5]70cTSpD Cold damage to the attacker, and adds X% Cold Damage on top of your Golem's regular damage.
  
  With Acid Infusion, melee attacks against your Golem has a chance to trigger a radius 4 cone of acid towards the attacker that does [5]120cTSpD Acid damage to all caught inside. (This can only happen once per turn.) The triggering chance is 20–55%cL:100% as (0.03 * Spellpower * Talent Level) varies from 0–8.
  
  With Lightning Infusions, all talents on cooldown on your Golem have 20–75%cTL:100% chance to be reduced by 1. At talent levels greater than 6, the cooldowns will be reduced by 2 turns.

The effects increase with your talent level and with the Spellpower and damage modifiers of your Golem.

Explosion Expert - Passive

Your Throw Bomb gains an area of radius of (Talent Level * 2/5), increasing on the radius already granted by Throw Bomb.

Explosion damage may increase by (100 / (6 - Raw Talent Level) )% if the explosion is not contained, to ( 194 * Log10(2 * Radius + 1) / (6 - Raw Talent Level) )% if the area of effect is confined.

Golemancy

Golem Power - Passive

Improves your golem's proficiency with weapons, increasing its accuracy, physical power and damage.

The bonus is equivalent to investing the same number of raw talent points in Combat Accuracy, Staff Mastery, Weapons Mastery, Dagger Mastery and Exotic Weapons Mastery for your golem.

Golem Resilience - Passive

Improves your golem's armour training and damage resistance.

At raw talent level 3, increases armour, armour hardiness, and reduces the chance of being critically hit as if the equivalent number of talent points were invested in Armour Training. For raw talent levels above or below 3, the bonus to armour is adjusted by ±1.4, armour hardiness by ±5%, and the reduction in critical hit chance by ±1.9% per level.

Increases damage resistance as if the equivalent number of raw talent points were invested in Thick Skin.

Increases healing factor by (10 + Raw Talent Level)%.

The golem can always use any kind of armour, including massive armours

Invoke Golem - Active
Costs 10 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
Cooldown 20 Turns

You invoke your golem to your side, granting it a temporary melee power increase of [15]50cTSpD and causing it to regenerate (60 + [15]450cTSpD) life over 7 turns.

Golem Portal - Active
Costs 20 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
Cooldown 10 Turns

Teleport to your golem, while your golem teleports to your location. Enemies that where attacking you will be confused, and those that were attacking you will have a (25 + 15 * Raw Talent Level)% chance to target your golem instead.

Alchemist Techniques

Alchemists Fatigues - Passive
CANNOT BE UNLEARNED

Alchemists are known for wearing special clothing which protects them from blowing themselves to smithereens by their own mixtures. They do not take damage from any of their bombs or other Alchemist talents.

In addition to this, their clothing also grants them (X * Dexterity + Talent Level)% chance to evade damage from enemy spells, taking no damage from them.

Alchemical Coating - Passive

The Alchemist infuses his fatigues to absorb mana from spells that hit the Alchemist. When the Alchemist fails to evade damage from enemy spells, he will instead absorb X% of the damage and convert it into Y% Mana. Talent Level determines the maximum about of damage that can be absorb, while Dexterity effects the amount of Mana that will be gained. If the Alchemist reaches his maximum Mana, then he will not absorb any of the excess damage, and it will hit the Alchemist as it regularly would.

Elemental Storm - Active
Costs 70 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
Cooldown 20 Turns

You create a furious random elemental storm that rages around the caster, doing [5]120cTSpD elemental damage in a radius of 3 each turn for a duration of 5–12.67cS as (0.05 * Spellpower + Talent Level) varies from 0–7.66.

At Talent Level 2, you can choose to a target for your Storm. Enemies may make a Saves check.
At Talent Level 4, you can choose the element for your Storm from Fire, Ice, Acid, or Lightning.

You closely control the storm, preventing it from harming yourself or party members.

Elemental Body Infusion - Sustain
Costs X Mana
Usage 1 Turn
Cooldown 40 Turns

Turn your Body into a pure fire, frost, acid, or lightning. Each body infusion provides you with X% Resistance, Y% Damage affinity, and Z% Damage Retaliation to the corresponding element picked, and provides and additional effect corresponding to the specific element.

With Fire you randomly project slow moving fire bolts at enemies dealing (A% * Talent Level Damage). Projectile Speed of Fire Bolts increases with your Dexterity Stat.
With Frost you have Critical Hit Damage against you reduced by (B * Talent Level Damage)%. Damage will always do at least Normal Damage.
With Acid you bolster your Defense by (C * Dexerity * Talent Level).
With Lightning you bolster your Movement Speed by (D * Talent Level) and gain (N + E * Talent Level)% of a turn when you take over 20% of your Maximum Life in Damage.

You may only have one Elemental Body Infusion active at any time.

Alchemical Mixtures

Flash Freeze - Active
30 Mana
Instant Usage
20 Turn Cooldown

Invoke a blast of cold all around you with a radius of 2–6cTS, doing [10]250cTSpD Cold damage and freezing enemies to the ground for a duration of 2–10cS as (0.03 * Spellpower * Talent Level) varies from 0–8.

Affected creatures can still act, but cannot move.

The duration will increase with your Spellpower.

Fiery Engulf - Active
30 Mana
Range 10
Instant Usage
20 Turn Cooldown

You engulf a target in flame doing [10]250cTSpD Fire damage over Talent Level Turns. Each turn, the enemy may get disoriented and become confused or blinded for a duration based on Spellpower and Talent Level. (This is essentially a single target Circle of Death, but on a single enemy and without them having to be in an area of effect)

Caustic Mire - Actiive
50 Mana
Range 10
1 Turn Usage
30 Turn Cooldown

A radius 3 pool of acid spawns at the target location, doing [7]60cTSpD Acid damage each turn for 6–10cTS turns.

All creatures caught in the mire will also suffer a 10–40%cTL:100% slowness effect.

The damage will increase with your Spellpower.

Electric Short - Active (This is essentially Dissolving Acid)
Costs 45 Mana
1 Turn Usage
12 Turn Cooldown

You zap target, dealing [25]320cTSpD lightning damage.

The lightning attack interferes with an opponents brain, and may remove up to 1–3cTS:log beneficial physical or mental temporary effects or mental sustains (depending on the Spell Save of the target).

The damage and chance to remove effects will increase with your Spellpower.

Advanced Golemancy

Life Tap Golem - Active
Costs 25 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
Cooldown 12 Turns

You tap into your golem's life energies to replenish your own. Drains (70 + [15]450cTSpD) life. Your Golem also does 20% * Talent Level less damage to you.

Gem Golem - Passive

insert a pair of gems into your golem, providing it with the gem bonuses and giving it (X * Talent Level) additional Elemental Damage to its melee attack of the gems damage type.

You may remove the gems and insert different ones; this does not destroy the gems you remove.

Gem level usable: (Raw Talent Level)

Gem changing is done in the golem's inventory.

Supercharge Golem - Active
Costs 20 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
Cooldown 24-20 Turns

You activate a special mode of your golem, causing it to regenerate (60 + [15]450cTSpD) life over 7 turns.

If your golem was dead, it is instantly brought back to life with 27–55%cTL:100% life.

While supercharged, your golem is enraged and deals 25% more damage.

Runic Golem - Passive

Increases your golem's life, mana and stamina regeneration rates by (Raw Talent Level).

At raw talent levels 1, 3 and 5, the golem also gains a new rune slot.

Even without this talent, Golems start with three rune slots.

Gem Tricks

Gem Clap - Active
Costs 40 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
Coodlown 12 turns

By crushing a couple alchemist gems you generate a thunderclap in a cone of radius 3–8cTS.

All creatures caught inside are knocked back and disarmed for a duration of 2–7cS as (0.03 * Spellpower * Talent Level) varies from 0–8.

The duration and damage will increase with your Spellpower.

Gem Cacophony - Passive

You Gem Clap will now deal [10]250cTSpD damage, split evenly between physical damage and elemental damage corresponding to the type of gem crushed.

(If Gems don't already, they should list their Damage Type)

Your Gem Clap will also cause a detrimental effect associated with the Gem Type used. Apply Power increases with Talent Level.

Cold: Slow
Fire: Confuse
Nature: Manaburn
Lightning: Stun
Light: Blind
Acid: Disarm
Arcane: Silence

Shockwave Trap - Active
Costs 32 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
10 Turn Cooldown

Crush together two alchemist gems, making them extremely unstable, and plant them into the ground under you.

When an enemy comes within 1 tile of radius they explode, dealing [15]120cTSpD physical damage, based on the average of your spellpower and the gem's spellpower (20/35/50/65/70 per tier), and knocking back and/or pinning any creatures in a blast radius of (X + Talent level) Tiles.

The blast will ignore walls as it travels through the ground. Each kind of gem will also provide a specific effect.

Diamonds are Forever - Active
Costs 100 Mana
Range is Line of Sight
Usage 1 Turn
100 Turn Cooldown

Using 10 alchemical diamonds, you trap targets within (1 + 2/5) radius of a targeted tile for (X * Talent Level) turns. Time moves normally for those trapped inside and they are able to act; but they cannot be harmed or harm anyone outside of the Diamond. Targets can however harm or be harmed by those trapped inside the Diamond.

At talent level 3, if you are one of the targets to be trapped, it cannot fail on enemies you use it on. The Alchemists Golem can be pulled out of or into the diamond to the Alchemists side if desired.

Gem Illusions

Gem Copies - Active
Cost 15 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
Cooldown 30 Turns

You throw out (Talent Level) alchemical gems to random locations within a radius of (R + Talent Level) if your character and move to a random location within that radius. Your gems will spawn copies of yourself which the enemy will be unable to distinguish from your character. The copies will last for (N + 2 * Talent Level) turns and can move around but are unable to attack enemies.

At Talent Level 3, you can choose a target for your gems to be thrown around in a radius of instead.

Gem Relocation - Active
Costs 20 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
Cooldown 30 Turns

You throw an alchemical gem to a specific location up to (N + Talent Level * Dexterity) tiles away and appear at that tile. You leave behind a Gem Copy of yourself which enemies will focus on instead.

Colorful Sparkle - Active
Costs 10 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
Cooldown 12 Turns

You hold up an alchemical gem and imbue light into it, which explodes in a dazzle of colors on nearby enemies. Enemies within a radius of (R + Talent Level) become confused by the flashing colors for (N + Talent Level) turns. They will also briefly lose sight of their current target, and even who is friend and who is foe around them. When targeting foes they may accidentally target their friends, and their attacks will hurt their friends where otherwise they wouldn't be able too.

Confusion Immunity will prevent both confusion and targets from losing their senses.

Gem Doppleganger - Active
Costs 50 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
Cooldown 100 Turns

A more powerful Gem Copy of yourself, but with the ability to use all your talents and attack enemies. Gem Doppleganger will last for (Talent Level + N) turns and has the same stats as your alchemist character.

Generic Talents Indepth

Stone Alchemy

Extract Gems - Active
No Resource Cost
Usage 1 Turn
No Cooldown

Extract magical gems from metal weapons and armours. At this skill level you can work with materials up to tier (Raw Talent Level).

Note: Grants the Stone Alchemy/Create Alchemist Gems talent.

Imbue Item - Active
Costs 80 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
100 Turn Cooldown

Imbue a body armor up to tier (Raw Talent Level) with a gem, granting it additional powers.

You can only imbue items once, and it is permanent.

Gem Portal - Active
Costs 20 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
20 - (2 * Raw Talent Level) Cooldown

Crush 5 alchemists gems into dust to mark impassable terrain next to you. You immediately enter it and appear on the other side of the obstacle, up to 4–20cS grids away as (0.06 * Dexterity * Talent Level) varies from 0–16.

Stone Touch - Active
Costs 45 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
15 Turn Cooldown

Touch your foe and turn it to stone for 3.6–6.3cTS turns.

Stoned creatures are unable to act or regenerate life, and are very brittle.

If a stoned creature is hit by an attack that deals more than 30% of its life, it will shatter and be destroyed.

Stoned creatures will gain 20% physical resistance, 50% lightning resistance, and 80% fire resistance.

At level 3 the touch will become a beam.

This spell may fail against creatures resistant to being stunned, that are specifically immune to stoning or instant kills.

If the spell fails or if the target is immune to instant kills, they will suffer Petrify Slow. No Save Check is made, but resistances still apply.

Petrify Slowed creatures gain 10% physical resistance, 25% lightning resistance, and 40% fire resistance. They gain a (-X% * Talent Level) Heal Modifer and a (-Y% * Talent Level) Global Speed.

Staff Combat

Channel Staff - Active
Costs 5 Mana
Range 8
1 Turn Usage
No Cooldown

Channel raw mana through your staff, projecting a bolt of your staff's damage type, doing 40–110cTWD staff damage.

The bolt will only hurt hostile targets, and pass safely through friendly ones.

This attack always has a 100% chance to hit, and ignores the target's Armour.

When projecting a bolt with your staff, it gains a 20% damage modifier from your Magic stat.

Staff Mastery - Passive

Increases Physical Power by (10 * Talent Level) and increases weapon damage by (22.4 * √ Talent Level)% when using staves.

Defensive Posture - Sustained
Costs 20 Mana
Usage 1 Turn
30 Turn Cooldown

Adopt a defensive posture, increasing your Defense and Armour by X * Talent Level * Dexterity.

Blunt Thrust - Active
Costs 12 Mana
1 Turn Usage
12 Turn cooldown

Hit a target for 100–150%cTWD melee damage and stun it for 2–6cTS turns. Stun chance will improve with Dexterity.

At level 3, this attack cannot miss.

At level 4, enemies may suffer Amnesia when hit, and have 3 Talents go on Cooldown.

Additional Thoughts

I've said this in both the Runemaster Class Concept and Melder Class Concepts, but along with those class Concepts, Alchemists should be part of a new Meta Class. I've taken to calling the new group Meta-Class Transmuters.

In regards to the Meta-class Transmuters, one of the traits of they would all share would be that they start with 4 Inscription Slots as opposed to the usual 3.

[astralInferno]

I'm not certain I'd approve of locking Alchemists, they're the only baseline usable Mage class.

[Davion Fuxa]

Technically if following all my ideas, Alchemists wouldn't be a Mage class anymore, they would be a Transmuter class.

Edit: People who complain that they can't play a mage would likely state that Alchemists aren't Mages.

[Davion Fuxa]

For those viewing along with this thread and noticing my 'Redesign Concept', I've reached a point where I've 'Technically' condensed the Call Categories down into just 5 Talent Categories.

I say Technically because Gem Clap and Gem Cacophony could be condensed further into their own talent - but I figured I should put them in two because that seems just a bit overpowered.

I have some ideas for some completely new techniques, but I've spent a little over 5 hours posting all this, and I think I should do some recordings. I'm leaving this as is for the day.

Edit: I forgot about Shockwave Bomb. I put in a sort of similar talent to it - though this time it's a Trap Talent that can be deployed.

Edit2: I swapped some talents from what is now Gem Tricks and the Alchemical Technique categories and filled out their talents so that all the current categories are full. I created a couple of new talents for this - in Alchemical Techniques I created a Mana regaining sustain talent, and in Gem Tricks I created a talent called Diamonds Are Forever - which is essentially a combination of the likes of Ice Wall, Fearscape, and Time Prison all in one talent.

[Planetus]

I think I see a problem. Or, at least, a major nerf:

Explosion Expert - Passive

Your Throw Bomb gains an area of radius of (Talent Level * 2/5).

That means at TL5, your radius would be (5*2/5) = (2*5/5) = 2. First, radius 2 is a LOT smaller than what they currently have, and second, you're already granting that at TL5 of Throw Bomb. So, problem is it's redundant, unless you mean it gains additional radius (just 'gains radius' is a bit ambiguous).

The nerf, even if you mean the radii to stack, is that I don't see anything to protect the Alchemist from the bombs. Your golem is protected, and you have some defense from 'enemy' spells (love the mechanics of that, btw), but I don't see any protection for the alchemist himself. That's a big thing if this is the primary attack for the alchemist at least in the early levels. What are you going to do when you're surrounded by enemies?

I also still think the secondary effects of the alchemist infusions are a little bland. Everyone and their brother gets those effects, it seems.

And I concur with astralInferno on locking the class. Alchemist is supposed to be an intro to the mechanics of mana (which are a little different than in other games), and be a simpler class than any of the other mana-using classes.

[Davion Fuxa]

unless you mean it gains additional radius

I do indeed mean it gains additional radius, so it would be a radius of 4; down from a radius of 6.

I think I see a problem. Or, at least, a major nerf:

The nerf, even if you mean the radii to stack, is that I don't see anything to protect the Alchemist from the bombs.

Alchemists Fatigues - Passive

Alchemists are known for wearing special clothing which protects them from blowing themselves to smithereens by their own mixtures.

Perhaps it needs to be worded to specifically refer to the Alchemists bombs instead of just mixtures or what not; but the intention is that Alchemists are automatically protected from anything they do.

...but I don't see any protection for the alchemist himself. That's a big thing if this is the primary attack for the alchemist at least in the early levels. What are you going to do when you're surrounded by enemies?

I haven't even touched on new class categories yet. I may have added in a few new filler talents, but if you look there are only 6 Class categories atm - and 3 of them are locked. I was thinking of given them some unlocked categories which could give them some defense in the early game.

I also still think the secondary effects of the alchemist infusions are a little bland. Everyone and their brother gets those effects, it seems.

Feel free to suggest different effects. Much like any of my 'concepts' I've put up, I don't intend it to be followed to the letter. If you are a coder and you see a good idea as it is, feel free to implement it; if you think it can be improved, go for it.

And I concur with astralInferno on locking the class. Alchemist is supposed to be an intro to the mechanics of mana (which are a little different than in other games), and be a simpler class than any of the other mana-using classes.

This is pretty well and age old debate, but personally whether it is locked or unlocked I can shrug and say 'do what you want with it'.

Edit:

I did some edits, to note that Explosion Expert adds to Throw Bombs range (not replaces it), and that Throw Bomb increase the range to 2 at level 5.

[Davion Fuxa]

So, I added in a new category called Gem Illusions with some new talents to help fill out the class. These talents are defensive in nature, and I'm actually wondering if they might be too powerful all things considered.

Edit: I updated it more and added in a powerful capstone talent to Gem Illusions. I'd probably lock this talent.
Edit2: I figured Alchemical Mixtures wasn't really powerful enough to be locked. Also, to help Alchemists out early, Flash Freeze is available as a Tier 1 Talent.

[Davion Fuxa]

I've sort of stagnated here on posting - due to being busy with my Let's Plays and performing the yearly Autumn Yardwork.

I figured I'd post some ideas here though in regards to categories that the Alchemist could have:

Staff Centered Category - I realize that Alchemists have a Generic Staff Category, but this would be a Class Centered one; perhaps giving the Alchemist some powerful attacks or defensive abilities.

Blight Centered Category - Likely Locked, this would be a category centered around Blighted Alchemy.

EoR Steam Gunnner Category - Available with the purchase of the Orc Campaign, Alchemists would get access to a powerful Steam related category that would let them fire their Alchemical Gems at enemies. Likely to balance things out, you wouldn't be able to shoot through your Golem.

A Generic Celestial/Light Type Category - Alchemists are a class with very little on the Generic side of things - and Celestial/Light has so much to offer them. Giving them an alternative would likely be worth investing in.

[astralInferno]

I think there's easily room for a Darkness/Death Alchemy category, as Celia is said to be a junior alchemist.

[Pisastrish]

Currently alchemists are unique among mages to have an acid damage tree, I would love to just see an unlockable lvl 10 spell/acid tree like stone, fire, cold (and sort of lighning/arcane) already have (as long as it wouldn't restrict you to avid infusion). If it were designed anything like the others, it would help with late game damage scaling and provide some utility. And it would work thematically, alchemist~acid mage makes sense to me

[bpat]

Here's a list of major problems with Alchemist, most of these need to be fixed for Alchemist to be viable. Ordering is roughly most to least problematic.

• Point sinks. Why does Throw Bomb take 15 points to be decent? Why aren't Ice Armour, Caustic Golem, and Dynamic Recharge built into their respective Infusion talents? Why are there four different passives buffing Golems?
• No spammable damage other than Throw Bomb and Channel Staff.
• No mobility. Golem Portal sucks because you pretty much never want to trade places with your melee Golem as a ranged and squishy character.
• Incredibly poor defense. Ice Body is good but Alchemist has no other defensive talents.
• Mana costs are too high, especially on sustains. Any Infusion + Body of Fire + Ice Core + Living Lightning is 480 mana, or 96 Willpower worth.
• No good generic talents. The only category Alchemist has is Stone Alchemy which has little utility beyond making your items better and being required for Throw Bomb and Golem stuff.
• No good healing. Life Tap just kills your Golem and also does nothing if your Golem is dead.
• Golems are weak. Not only do they get very few item slots, but they also get few talents and stat points. Golems are not effective melee fighters and the best they can do is tank damage for you and use Runes for debuffing and staying alive longer.
• No reliable stun other than the melee Blunt Thrust. Stone Touch checks instakill immunity so it's useless.
• Infusion talents suck. The status effects aren't guaranteed so they end up being just a minor damage boost a lot of the time.
• Energy Alchemy is locked for some reason meaning you can't get Thunderclap until late. Similarly Gem Golem, Runic Golem, and Supercharge Golem come too late and behind a locked category.
• Alchemist sucks until 5/5/5/0 Explosive Admixtures so much that Mindblast Torques are their best source of early damage. This also means you won't have your Golem passives until later since 15 points is a lot.

[Davion Fuxa]

I think there's easily room for a Darkness/Death Alchemy category, as Celia is said to be a junior alchemist.

While in some games, alchemy and necromancy are closely linked (I'm looking at you Diablo II), I'd be really careful with such a category because it is so close thematically to Necromancers. This isn't to say I couldn't see it coming into being - just that if it did it would have to be accessible to the Necromancer class, and it would clearly have to be defined so that while a Necromancer might use it, an Alchemist using it wouldn't thematically clash by using it.

Currently alchemists are unique among mages to have an acid damage tree, I would love to just see an unlockable lvl 10 spell/acid tree like stone, fire, cold (and sort of lighning/arcane) already have (as long as it wouldn't restrict you to avid infusion). If it were designed anything like the others, it would help with late game damage scaling and provide some utility. And it would work thematically, alchemist~acid mage makes sense to me

I'm not against having a specific elemental category for each damage type (or even just a lone Acid Category by itself), but that also means having to create cool and effective talents and purposely prevent anything like the Elemental Infusion talents from getting horribly split to ineffectiveness again. I'd likely just go for what I perhaps have here - though take out Caustic Mire and Electric Short (which was of course Dissolving Acid) and then create 4 new talents to fill out Alchemical Mixtures and a new Acid specific category - I'd likely name it Acid Mixtures with my lack of creativity.

Here's a list of major problems with Alchemist, most of these need to be fixed for Alchemist to be viable. Ordering is roughly most to least problematic.

• Point sinks. Why does Throw Bomb take 15 points to be decent? Why aren't Ice Armour, Caustic Golem, and Dynamic Recharge built into their respective Infusion talents? Why are there four different passives buffing Golems?
• No spammable damage other than Throw Bomb and Channel Staff.
• No mobility. Golem Portal sucks because you pretty much never want to trade places with your melee Golem as a ranged and squishy character.
• Incredibly poor defense. Ice Body is good but Alchemist has no other defensive talents.
• Mana costs are too high, especially on sustains. Any Infusion + Body of Fire + Ice Core + Living Lightning is 480 mana, or 96 Willpower worth.
• No good generic talents. The only category Alchemist has is Stone Alchemy which has little utility beyond making your items better and being required for Throw Bomb and Golem stuff.
• No good healing. Life Tap just kills your Golem and also does nothing if your Golem is dead.
• Golems are weak. Not only do they get very few item slots, but they also get few talents and stat points. Golems are not effective melee fighters and the best they can do is tank damage for you and use Runes for debuffing and staying alive longer.
• No reliable stun other than the melee Blunt Thrust. Stone Touch checks instakill immunity so it's useless.
• Infusion talents suck. The status effects aren't guaranteed so they end up being just a minor damage boost a lot of the time.
• Energy Alchemy is locked for some reason meaning you can't get Thunderclap until late. Similarly Gem Golem, Runic Golem, and Supercharge Golem come too late and behind a locked category.
• Alchemist sucks until 5/5/5/0 Explosive Admixtures so much that Mindblast Torques are their best source of early damage. This also means you won't have your Golem passives until later since 15 points is a lot.

I mostly mentioned all of this in some order - but this did well to point form it.

[bpat]

I think we should move all the Golem passives from Golemancy and Advanced Golemancy to the actual Golem and giving it a generic talent point every even level except multiples of 10 (so by level 38 it would 5/5/5/5 it and by level 48 have 5 points for Wyrm Bile + escort unlocked category if desired). This would make the Golem's talents make it stronger rather than the Alchemist's so the player can spend points elsewhere. This also allows for Golemancy and Advanced Golemancy to either be merged or have new talents added to them. Also buff Taunt so it has radius 1 instead of 0 at 1/5 because that's just weird and bad right now.

[HousePet]

Might be better to do it the other way around, move the golem's talents to player. I always forget to assign the golem's points.
Moving stuff to the golem's level up screen means you effectively have to balance a second class, and trying to balance Alchemist class talents would be simpler without the addition of a freewheeling golem.
(For example, the current system has the "Alchemist" getting more talent points than other classes, but they are separated into Alchemist and Golem pools. This means that to have them about as good as any other class, their talents need to be slightly weaker than other classes to compensate for them effectively getting more. (which explains Stone Alchemy and Staff Combat...))

[bpat]

Then Alchemist would just be another caster. Also it would be a nerf when Alchemist is horrible. Alchemist needs less point sinks, not more. The Golem still wouldn't be that good so it won't make Alchemist OP or anything.