Alchemy

The alchemist mixes herbs found by Herbalism and reagents in order to generate elixirs, potions, oils, flasks and cauldrons with a variety of effects. A player can create healing, invisibility, elemental resistance and mana potions; oils to coat weapons; and much more.

Alchemy is useful to all character classes. Melee fighters can use alchemy to create buff and healing potions. Spell casting classes can use alchemy to create mana potions and related buffs. You can create potions for yourself, sell them to others, or give them to your party members and friends. Alchemists are well loved when they hand out potions.

Alchemy Training
All Potions, Elixirs and Flasks will require a Crystal Vial, which can be purchased from any trade goods or Alchemy vendor. Prior to Patch 4.0.1 and Cataclysm, there were five types of vials: Empty, previously used to create lower-level potions; Leaded, used to create mid-level potions; and Crystal, Imbued, or Enchanted vials, used to create higher-level potions and flasks. Following the Cataclysm, all non-Crystal vials were converted to poor quality.

Herbalism is not technically required, but is highly recommended as nearly every alchemy recipe requires Herbs to make and herbalism can alleviate most of the cost of leveling up. Also, the wide variety of different herbs makes it difficult to simply purchase what you need from other players, because many potions will require more than one type of herb to make and the herbs are often very expensive.


 * Herbalism - You probably can't afford to buy all your herbs at the Auction House, so you might as well harvest them yourself.
 * Enchanting - Not as good a second choice as Herbalism, but nice if you want to be a one stop item and buff shop.

Transmutation
High-level alchemists can also perform transmutations on gems, elemental materials, and some metals for use with other tradeskills. Arcanite, which is used in pre-TBC Blacksmithing recipes, cannot be mined – it can only be transmuted from Arcane Crystal, which is derived from Thorium. Similarly, Truegold has no other source than alchemy. Many other transmutations are possible; see recipe lists.

Before an alchemist can perform any transmutations, he or she must create a Philosopher's Stone. This stone must be in the inventory or equipped to perform any transmutations, and it is not consumed when a transmutation is done. Making multiple Philosopher's Stones will not reduce the cool down time. Philosopher's Stones are also soulbound and cannot be disenchanted, so it is not advised to create more than one.

Higher level alchemists can replace their Philosopher's Stone with any Alchemist's Stone, including the Lifebound Alchemist Stone introduced with Cataclysm.

Some transmutations have a cooldown. This cooldown is shared across any transmutation that requires a cooldown. The cooldown resets at midnight server each day. So a transmute performed at 11pm server will prevent any other transmutes requiring a cooldown from taking place for one hour, but a transmute performed at 8am server will prevent cooldown-required transmutes for 16 hours.

(Previously, alchemy cooldowns required 24 hours and later 20 hours, but switched to a midnight reset system as of patch 4.0.1.)

For specific details on how elementals, gems, and ore can be transmuted, see Transmute.

Discoveries
Discovery is a mechanic used to learn certain alchemy and inscription recipes. You have a small chance every time you perform a transmutation or when you make a potion, elixir, or flask that was introduced in Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King. The recipe is learned automatically.

Alchemy Specializations
Once you reach an Alchemy skill of 325 and level 68, you may begin a quest to learn one of three specializations: Potions, Elixirs or Transmutations.

Being specialized gives you a chance to create an extra 1 to 4 (for a total 5) items while crafting in the field you have selected. For example, a Master of Potions may be able to craft more than one for the same material cost as one.

While the exact percent is not known, people have speculated that this ability can happen as often as 10-25% of the time. A frequently cited figure in the official World of Warcraft Professions Forums is 15%.

One theory is that each extra item created also has a 15% chance to create its own extra item. Probability in this type of case is multiplicative and luckily analytical – we do not have to do a Monte-Carlo analysis to determine the probability. It works the same way as the probability of flipping N number of heads in a row with a coin. The chance of flipping 1 head is 50% or a 0.5 probability. The chance of flipping 2 heads in a row is 0.5 *0.5 or .25 or 25%. The chance of flipping 3 heads in a row is 0.25 *0.5 or 0.125 or 12.5%

So, if the 15% assumption is correct, when creating an item, you have approximately a 15% chance of creating exactly two items instead of one, a (0.15*0.15) or 2.25% chance to create three items instead of one, a (0.15*0.15*0.15) or 0.3375% chance of creating four items instead of one, and a (0.15*0.15*0.15*0.15) or 0.050625% chance of creating exactly five items instead of one.

Changing Specializations
You may unlearn a specialization in alchemy, and then select a new specialization. This is a repeatable choice, but costs 150 gold each time you unlearn your specialization. To unlearn a specialization, see the NPC who gave you the specialization. Once you are unspecialized again, you can see any of the three specialization trainers and specialize with no cost or quest required. It may be worth considering taking Potion mastery, as you will generally make all the needed quest items in the course of leveling Alchemy, and then switching to Transmutation or Elixir. On the other hand, Transmutation mastery is the only one of the three that does not require drops from an instance to complete, so it may be more suited to quickly gaining a specialization if cost is not a factor.

Note: You must speak to the correct specialist to learn and unlearn that mastery. The NPC in Shattrath City no longer offers all 3 quests to re-specialize and is only the elixir master.

Note: Each of the Mastery quests below has an optional lead-in quest available from:
 * Alchemist Gribble in Honor Hold or
 * Apothecary Antonivich in Thrallmar

Master of Potions
Trained by Lauranna Thar'well in Cenarion Refuge, Zangarmarsh. This quest requires:
 * from High Botanist Freywinn in The Botanica, Tempest Keep
 * &times;5
 * &times;5
 * &times;5

Master of Elixirs
Note: Flasks also benefit from Elixir Mastery. Trained by Lorokeem in Shattrath City. This quest requires:
 * &times;10 from Rift Lords/Keepers in The Black Morass (Caverns of Time)
 * &times;5
 * &times;5
 * &times;5

Master of Transmutation
Trained by Zarevhi in Stormspire, Netherstorm. This quest requires:
 * &times;4

Abilities Gained
Sufficiently skilled alchemists gain the passive Mixology ability.