The primary problems of Alchemist:
- * On higher difficulties the Golem has little use; it dies quickly and while dead every point invested in a golem talent does nothing.
* Many high threat creatures like Worms that Walk are immune to certain elements, alchemists that specialize in that element are forced to turn off their infusion to combat them as they have no built in resistance penetration.
* Lack of mobility. Most classes have access to a ground targeted movement spell or teleport, all an alchemist has is Golem Portal and Gem Portal, both of which are situational. Gem Portal is pretty great, but nowhere near as good as Rush or Phase Door.
* Limited category choice. Alchemist has only 5 unlocked and 2 locked class categories, along with 2 unlocked 1 locked generics. Most classes have at least 3 locked class trees, and while less generic trees allow you to invest heavily into escort trees, that relies on both getting the escorts you want and managing to save them. The 0.8 mastery also reduces the effective value of those extra unused generics.
Now for my proposed solutions to each of these problems:
Golem fragility and loss of investment on death
The Golem's primary reason for being so fragile is the small number of slots with which you can itemize. It is often difficult to get the defensive stats you need in only 3 slots + 2 gems. Furthermore, the Golem's very low stat gain per level prevent you from investing much in anything that isn't magic or strength, even the extra 4 hp + healmod from con could be significant. To fix the fragility problem, I suggest stats per level for the golem is increased from 2.0 to 2.5, and at least the addition of Hat, Belt, Cloak, and Tool slots. Lore wise I see no reason a Golem couldn't wear those items while gloves/rings wouldn't fit Golem hands and a Golem's Feet should function as boots innately. I excluded Necklaces since they pair with rings, and lanterns because I am unsure how a secondary light source without shared vision would work. I have a feeling that granting Golems ALL item slots would be too powerful. As for the loss of investment on death, lowering the cooldown on Supercharge Golem or giving a small percentage of the Golem's stats to you even while dead could ease the loss of power while Golemless.
Resistance Penetration
Being forced to toggle off your infusion to fight high threat creatures significantly reduces your damage against these creatures, exacerbating the danger of these encounters. Unless you get lucky and find gear with high damage penetration, all the investment in your selected damage type is eliminated. 5 points in an infusion provides 25% damage, and staves grant roughly 15-25% at the point where immunity comes into play, without taking into consideration the bonus from other slots. Alchemist already struggles with single target damage, losing 50% of your damage output as an Acid alchemist against a Worm that Walks or Randboss Corrosive Worm can easily spell your death. My suggested solution to this is to add resistance penetration to each infusion at 3 raw points of investment, that either scales with spellpower or simply scales with talent level. Alternatively, making Channel Staff instant cast for Alchemists (with a cooldown) would be a less powerful solution.
Lack of Mobility
With sufficient prep time digging zig zag corridors for corner sniping, Gem Portal is a sufficient escape. However, many level layouts significantly reduce the effectiveness of Gem Portal, especially when first entering a floor when you may not be adjacent to a wall. I propose that gem portal is changed to function like the dwarf racial Stone Walking allowing you to target a wall up to X grids away, perhaps costing additional gems per square if necessary. Another possibility is the addition of a talent in a new category that functions similar to a movement infusion. I would suggest a "haste potion" talent, but I know that conflicts with the lore. Perhaps crushing alchemist gems to partially animate the earth beneath you to move you to a location or hasten your movespeed? A completely broken suggestion would be a sustain like the Never Stop Running prodigy that costs a bunch of alchemist gems per tile moved lol.
Limited Category Choice
Alchemist doesn't have much in the way of versatility. There are only a few spells worth taking outside your chosen element in the infusion trees (Smoke Bomb, Ice Core, Dissolving Acid) but beyond choosing one of the 4 elements most Alchemists are built the same. It is important not to overwhelm new players with too many options, so I suggest some hidden locked or unlocked categories be added. This would both increase your options while also being hidden to new players.
Tree ideas:
- A Poison category. Given that Alchemists are often associated with poisons, this would be a sensible addition. Unlocked for all characters by siding with the assassin lord?
A Physical category that more directly manipulates gems or earth. Manipulating the terrain by growing crystal walls, bombs laced with shrapnel dealing additional physical and bleeding damage, all reasonable possibilities. Unlocked by defeating Vor, the Grand Geomancer.
A Light category would be really cool, focusing on reflecting and refracting light through gems. This might be way too complicated for the easy design goal, but growing crystal mirrors from the earth that reflect a light beam spell from the same category to all other mirrors in range would be awesome. Alternatively, making the Light infusion deposit a highly reflective dusting of gems on all enemies hit by your bomb, making the light spell(s) in the tree bounce to all dusted enemies could also work.
A category that has you don your Golem as (power) armor with a sustain. Increased movement speed via Golem legs would fit here.
The lore states that Alchemists do not use magic that perverts nature, a Nature tree would be neat. Obviously while Antimagic Alchemist works in the lore, I don't think it could fit into the class, much less a single category. Animating trees and stuff would be cool.
I know a Potion category doesn't fit the lore, perhaps an "herbal remedy" tree? Focusing on buffing and healing, enhanced mobility via movement increasing stimulant could fit here as well. Could also work as a Generic tree, I recall the Arcanum addon has something like this though I don't like how they did the category.
Crystal Alchemy utility generic tree. The above mentioned growing crystals from alchemist gems could fit in here. I'm thinking being able to create your own walls would combo quite nicely with Gem Portal. Too far away from a wall to gem portal? Create a crystal wall in a line, now you can. Enemy melee closing in fast? Sharp shards of crystal will slow your enemy's approach. A version of Stone Wall would probably be too powerful, Stone Wall is an amazing spell.
