End-game Alchemy/Spellcrafting Guide (Full Version)

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Loftyz -> End-game Alchemy/Spellcrafting Guide (8/13/2021 1:52:09)

End-game Alchemy/Spellcrafting Guide
(work in progress)



Table of Contents
1. Alchemy description
2. Ranking up the rep
3. BiS theories (no more boring stuff)
4. Quick reagents
5. BiS T/E/P Combinations
  • Tonics BiS
  • Elixirs BiS
  • Potions BiS
    5. Spellcrafting description
  • Spellscrolls (damage)
  • Spellscrolls (buff)
  • Spellscrolls (debuff)



    Alchemy Description



    Alchemy is a minigame at /alchemy. You do the minigame which consumes 2 reagents, and makes tonics/elixirs/potions (T/E/P). When you make a T/E/P in alchemy, you receive 6-8 of it. Alchemy also has a reputation that you need to get to 8, before you can make the best mixtures available.

    If you click Continue, you select the 2 reagents, and then mix them to create a T/E/P that can be made from those reagents. Choosing this option is not recommended.

    If you click 'Help Me Please', you select the T/E/P you want to make, and Alina will suggest the combination of 2 reagents in your bag that have the highest chance of giving the T/E/P you want. This is how I figure out the correct reagent combinations. Do not trust the combinations in the wiki, because they are mostly wrong.


    Ranking up the rep



    Go to /lair and farm the Water Draconians in the first screen. They will drop Ice Vapor and Dragon Scale, which are 2 different reagents that have the same drop rate, and can be used to make weak healing potions for Alchemy reputation. You can also use a Rep Boost consumable and equip a Rep boosting gear when you're training Alchemy.

    If you don't want to farm reagents for ranking up your rep, you can also buy reagents with Gold.

    The 1st method to acquire reagents, which is about 17k per reagent, is:
    1) in /alchemyacademy, go to Alina, and buy honor potions with 200k vouchers
    2) move forward 1 screen, and in Lim's Turn In Data (Gebo Data), exchange Honor Potions for Academic Merit
    3) Go back to Alina, and in Buy Reagents, buy your Reagents with Academic Merit.
    (only Roc Tongue, Dragon Scale, Ice Vapor, Moglin Tears, & Nimblestem can be bought through this method)

    The 2nd method, which is 30k per reagent, is to go to Swindle, buy some Receipt of Swindle, & use the Receipts to buy reagents in Swindle's shop
    (only Necrot, Doomatter, and Chaoroot can be bought through this method)

    The 3rd method, which is 50k per reagent (but 33k per Fish Oil), is to buy Dragon Runestones, and exchange those Dragon Runestones for reagents in Alina's shops.
    (Every reagent except Chaoroot and Chaos Entity can be bought through this method)

    The 4th method, farming it from mobs. Some are easy to farm, and some have low drop rates or drop from high HP enemies.


    BiS theories (no more boring stuff)



    BiS refers to Best-in-Slot.
    Every class will have a specific combination of Tonic + Elixir + Potion that is the mathematical best combination for that class.

    You can have 1 Tonic, 1 Elixir, and 1 Potion effect active at a time.
    each T/E/P effect has 3 tiers, and up to 4 different variants in each tier. All of them come from the same combination of reagents.
    The 3 tiers will have a different name from eachother (e.g. for Strength+%, there are Brawn Tonics, Power Tonics, and Might Tonics)
    The 4 variants are Basic, Normal, Potent, and Unstable.

  • Basic T/E/P are weak.
  • Normal T/E/P are decent.
  • Potent T/E/P are slightly stronger than Normal, but only by a little bit.
  • Unstable T/E/P are slightly stronger than Potent, but also have a negative effect that sometimes makes them bad.

    Some T/E/P have a Potent variant, but no Unstable variant. Some have an Unstable variant, but no Potent variant. And some have both.

    Here are some examples (T1-T4 = Tier 1-Tier 4, V1-V4 = Variant 1-Variant 4)

    Potion for Incoming Damage-% (all made from Roc Tongue + 1 of any other Reagent)
    T1V1: Basic Guard Potion 10sec: Incoming Damage-10%
    T1V2: Guard Potion 10sec: Incoming Damage-15%
    T1V3: Potent Guard Potion 15sec: Incoming Damage-15%
    T1V4: N/A
    T2V1: Basic Protection Potion 10sec: Incoming Damage-15%
    T2V2: Protection Potion 10sec: Incoming Damage-18%
    T2V3: Potent Protection Potion 15sec: Incoming Damage-18%
    T2V4: N/A
    T3V1: Basic Shield Potion 10sec: Incoming Damage-20%
    T3V2: Shield Potion 10sec: Incoming Damage-25%
    T3V3: Potent Shield Potion 15sec: Incoming Damage-25%
    T3V4: Unstable Shield Potion 15sec: Incoming Damage-35%, Outgoing Damage-10%


    Tonic for Strength+% (all made from Rhison Blood + 1 of any other Reagent)
    T1V1: Basic Brawn Tonic 5min: Strength+8%
    T1V2: Brawn Tonic 5min: Strength+10%
    T1V3: N/A
    T1V4: Unstable Brawn Tonic 5min: Strength+12%, Endurance-10%
    T2V1: Basic Power Tonic 10min: Strength+14%
    T2V2: Power Tonic 10min: Strength+16%
    T2V3: N/A
    T2V4: Unstable Power Tonic 10min: Strength+18%, Endurance-10%
    T3V1: Basic Might Tonic 15min: Strength+18%
    T3V2: Might Tonic 15min: Strength+20%
    T3V3: N/A
    T3V4: Unstable Might Tonic Strength+22%, Endurance-10%


    You may have noticed that this system is clunky and super annoying.
    Thankfully, if you use a Dragon Runestone, your T/E/P is guaranteed to be Tier 3 & the highest or second highest Variant possible. So as an example, this method can make a Might Tonic (since there is no Potent Might Tonic), but it will never make a Shield Potion (because Shield Potion has a Potent and Unstable).
    If you want to make useful T/E/P, or if you are low on bag space, you should always be using Dragon Runestone.


    Also, a special note on a certain Elixir.
    spoiler:

    Potent Destruction Elixir 15min: Critical Damage+50%
    This Elixir sounds like it is BiS. However, it is not BiS. It's not even good.

    If you are using Luck Enhancements, your Critical Damage Modifier (Crit Mod) will be around 4.1 depending on the classes' base Luck. This means Critical Hits do 4.1x as much damage as normal attacks.
    Even without Luck Enhancements (with a base Luck of 107), your Crit Mod is 2.17.

    The important factor, is that Critical Damage+50% actually means Crit Mod+0.5
    Crit Mod 4.1 -> 4.6 is a 12.1% dps increase (assuming that every attack is a critical hit)
    Crit Mod 2.17 -> 2.67 is a 23% dps increase (assuming that every attack is a critical hit, which is less likely with lower Luck)

    You will gain a 25% dps increase by using a Potent Malevolence Elixir for magical classes, or a Potent Battle Elixir for physical classes, so Potent Destruction Elixir is not worth using.
    But it is possible that Potent Destruction Elixir is BiS for some weird classes with some combination of the following factors.
  • The class has both magical and physical attacks
  • The class has low Crit Mod because it has low base Luck
  • The class has low Crit Mod because it is using Enhancements that don't raise your Luck (Fighter, Thief, Healer, Hybrid)
  • The class has skills that guarantee critical attacks
  • The classes skills are able to critical strike, and your Crit Chance is Near-100% from party buffs

    For example, Void Highlord with Fighter Enhancements would have a Crit Mod increase from 1.79 -> 2.29, which is a 27.9% dps increase (assuming every attack is a critical hit), and their Shackle & Unshackle is a guaranteed critical hit, but not getting critical hits on their autoattack, 3, and 5 would be a huge dps loss. However, Potent Destruction Elixir would be BiS if you were receiving party buffs that pushed your Crit Chance to Near-100%. However, party buffs may also be raising your Crit Mod, and that would be making Potent Destruction Elixir slightly less effective compared to a Potent Battle Elixir.

    However, Fighter Enhancements is not the "BiS" way to play Void Highlord, unless you're doing something like a Challenge Boss that requires more Endurance. A Void Highlord with Luck Enhancements using Potent Destruction Elixir would have a Crit Mod increase of 3.76 -> 4.26, which is a 13.2% dps increase, and that is not worth it. The dps increase would be even less if you were using Felicitous Philtre to raise your Crit Mod.



  • Quick Reagents



    There are 16 Reagents, but this guide will ignore Chaos Entity, since that's a reagent that can only be made in Alchemy itself.
    The guide will also ignore reagents that don't make any BiS T/E/P.


    Trollola Nectar: from the Trollolla Plant in /bloodtusk. Farm it on the screen with 1 Trollola Plant and 1 Rhison. Rhison Blood has 2x the droprate, so when you max stack Rhison Blood, move to the screen with 2 Trollola Plants and farm there.
    (or you can buy it with Dragon Runestones, 50k Gold per reagent)

    Rhison Blood: farmed in the above method
    (or you can buy it with Dragon Runestones, 50k Gold per reagent)

    Dried Slime: in /orecavern, farm the screen with 1 Deathmole and 1 Crashroom. Deathmole drops Arashtite Ore, and Crashroom drops Dried Slime.
    (or you can buy it with Dragon Runestones, 50k Gold per reagent)

    Arashtite Ore: farmed in the above method.
    (or you can buy it with Dragon Runestones, 50k Gold per reagent)

    **I recommend buying the reagents below with Gold. They are annoying to farm

    Roc Tongue:

    Doomatter:

    Searbush:

    Nimblestem:


    BiS T/E/P Combinations



    Some T/E/P only have 1 reagent that can make it, so the 2nd reagent can be anything you want. In these situations, I recommend using a reagant from a different BiS T/E/P that also has only 1 reagent.

    for example; Arashtite Ore + Rhison Blood will make Unstable Sage Tonics and Unstable Might Tonics
    Only tiers/variants that can be created when using a Dragon Runestone will be listed below.


    Tonic BiS



    Most classes that crit very often
    Unstable Fate Tonic 15min: Luck+22%, Endurance-10%
    Fate Tonic 15min: Luck-20%
    Trollola Nectar + Dried Slime

    Some Magical Classes
    Unstable Sage Tonic 15min: Intelligence+22%, Endurance-10%
    Sage Tonic 15min: Intelligence+20%
    Arashtite Ore + 1 of any other Reagent (except Chaoroot)

    Some Physical Classes
    Unstable Might Tonic 15min: Strength+22%, Endurance-10%
    Might Tonic 15min: Strength+20%
    Rhison Blood + 1 of any other Reagent (except Chaoroot)

    If you only want more HP to survive challenge boss mechanics
    Unstable Body Tonic 15min: Endurance+22%, Luck-10% **not recommended
    Body Tonic 15min: Endurance+20%
    Roc Tongue + 1 of any other Reagent


    Elixir BiS



    Most Magical Classes
    Unstable Malevolence Elixir 15min: Spell Power+28%, Crit Modifier-?
    Potent Malevolence Elixir 15min: Spell Power+25%
    Doomatter + Searbush

    Most Physical Classes
    Unstable Battle Elixir 15min: Attack Power+28%, Crit Modifier-?
    Potent Battle Elixir 15min: Attack Power+25%
    Doomatter + Rhison Blood

    If you desperately need more Crit Chance
    Unstable Keen Elixir 15min: Crit Chance+20%, Evasion-5%
    Keen Elixir 15min: Crit Chance+10%
    Searbush + Rhison Blood

    If you need more Haste (BiS for solo chrono nukers)
    Unstable Velocity Elixir 15min: Haste+13%, Dodge-5%
    Velocity Elixir 15min: Haste+13%
    Nimblestem + 1 of any other Reagent

    If you need any HoT to reliably survive Ultra Warden's special attack that puts everyone to 1hp, and kills players who were already at 1hp
    Potent Revitalize Elixir 15min: Small HoT
    Revitalize Elixir 9min: Small HoT
    Lemurphant Tears + Necrot


    Potion BiS (from Alchemy)




    Potion BiS (from Shops)


    Most Classes that deal critical attacks
    Felicitious Philtre 45sec: Luck+50% (short cooldown)

    If you need a lot of Evasion and some Haste
    Fleet Foot Philtre




  • Lukrecia -> RE: End-game Alchemy/Spellcrafting Guide (8/14/2021 1:58:48)

    Great, clear yet in-depth, wonderfully done as always Loftyz. Although I'd personally add Roc Tongue to the farmables list, the Balboas on /mountainpath drop them roughly at the same rate as Dried Slime from Crashrooms and they're easy to take down.

    As for the spellcrafting part, almost nothing has changed since Kingp's guide so you can use that as reference. I have some addendums on the bottom though.




    Loftyz -> RE: End-game Alchemy/Spellcrafting Guide (8/14/2021 9:22:37)

    Thanks. I added some more theory, although I need to have a long think about spellcrafting scrolls. The only clear BiS I see is Scroll of Blinding Light (for a quick AoE to make ranking up classes easier), Scroll of Dark Grip, and Scroll of Blessed Shard.

    A lot of the others are like, so niche. Scroll of Mystify is good (but is it ever necessary?), Scroll of ShadowBlade could be viable if everyone used it (but would it be worth replacing everyone's 6 button with), Scroll of Enrage is a Taunt, Scroll of Decay is a decay (but LR already applies a Decay with 66% uptime at max haste), Scroll of Ethereal Slumber on Attack Drone can enable AoE strategies that will kill both drones at the same time, Scroll of Dissonance is arguably good (but every BiS class is a mage mana model class that spams every button & never drops below 90 MP, and if they drop below 80MP, but it could enable some Mana Vamp classes to use Spiral Carve or Awe Blast instead), Scroll of Soul Crush could work against future Challenge Bosses if they use Mana, Scroll of Torment maybe works on Challenge Bosses.

    But too many scrolls say they have a chance of increasing/decreasing something, but they don't include what that chance is, or how much they increase/decrease things by.
    If you've had good results from using any other scroll, let me know.




    Lukrecia -> RE: End-game Alchemy/Spellcrafting Guide (8/14/2021 14:06:30)

    It'd be my pleasure, been using scrolls for my Scarlet Sorceress for years now so I know my way around. That being said, it's pretty much the only class that gets any tangible benefits from using them over Felicitious Philtre (the other being Frost Spiritreaver due to +200% Magic-Out buff). So the BiS for those two classes in my experience are:

    - Shadow Bolt: Straight up 100% SP Damage. Single target.
    - Furious Gale: Same as above but with a haste debuff chance.
    - Guardian Blast: 100% SP Damage for main target and 50/50 for two other ones.
    - Exorcise and Purge Despite 100% Hybrid Damage the 2.5x multiplier easily makes up for it when used against Undead. (Great for Chaos Slayer btw).
    - Holy Bolt: A 75% version of the above skills.

    All these have the highest damage-to-cooldown ratio (as all their cooldowns are 17s). There are more that I keep around but they're kind of niché indeed:

    - Sskari's Breath: Good for when you run out of everything else, but otherwise the DoT doesn't make up for the crit damage lost.
    - Enrage: Taunt. Not loopable but saved more than a few lives from one-shot bosses when used with Horc Evader.
    - ShadowBlade: The only debuff scroll that's worth its cooldown.
    - Fire Storm: Nice for PvP against the VHLs who thought an extra 15000 HP would save them from being one-shotted (Fools). But otherwise virtually useless in any DPS setting.

    Spellcrafting needs a massive rework because right about now, almost every one of them deal 100% Spell/Attack Power damage (or a microscopic debuff) with some ridiculous cooldowns which almost every single class can outdo. If you ask me they should make more like Exorcise or Purge which has a multiplier against a specific element, and lower the cooldowns on them all to about 5-15s. But I have a vested interest in the system because I enjoyed putting Void Highlords in their places with them and the BLoD.




    Sokhblep -> RE: End-game Alchemy/Spellcrafting Guide (1/22/2022 5:13:04)

    quote:

    This is how I figure out the correct reagent combinations. Do not trust the combinations in the wiki, because they are mostly wrong.

    If that is the case, you should update the wiki pages since they are free to edit for anyone. Your discoveries will be of huge help in keeping the wiki up-to-date with correct information. Also, I would be interested in finding out a confirmed 100% combination for Chaos Entity.

    Gold can be saved on buying Nimblestem since they're an easy farm from /mudluk or /cloister with two enemies in each room.
    There is a screen in /firestorm with three monsters in it which all have a chance of dropping Searbush, once again saving gold.
    Sadly there is no redemption for Roc Tongue. It's best bought from the shop.


    Speaking of Best-in-Slots, I'd like to add a few of my own favourites to the list:

    - Mastery Tonic - They could be optimal for Melee classes that struggle with low amounts of Haste, such as Frostval Barbarian when using Enrage, or an Arachnomancer that is playing support but no Stonecrushers are present, or the new Continuum Chronomancer whose auto attack is at 2.5 speed. This increased Dexterity also provides a small amount of DoT boost, evasion and hit chance for Melee classes.
    - Hole-y Cheese - Can be bought from Ol' Spice in /lightguard and is a masterful addition to classes like Void Highlord or Glacial Berserker or other similar Melee classes which almost always perform at full Haste, since its 30 second cooldown at maximum Haste can be looped infinitely for a permanent 40% boost to Strength and Endurance.
    - Potent Honor/Malice Potion - Can be bought from Alina in /alchemyacademy and in my own personal opinion is the best potion choice for DPS classes who have a slot free with maximum Haste when contending with Ultra Bosses, such as Chaos Avenger in /championdrakath or /ultratyndarius. Has an exorbitant 2-minute cooldown but it's balanced out by the monstrous amount of damage you're going to do which is much better than using Felicitous Philtre.

    (I also found out that Unstable Malevolence/Battle Elixirs only reduce your Critical Multiplier by a laughable 10%, which means that the Unstable versions of these Elixirs are much better to have than the Potent versions.)


    Now on to Scrolls. For some reason, all the Hallow Ink scroll combinations result in Flare spells which are legend only, but in the wiki, Scroll of Frost Flare is marked as free player, but when going to make the scroll in the game itself, it does not produce the item. Thus that scroll is currently unobtainable. Several favourite Scrolls of mine are:

    - Scroll of Diamond Cage, which is extremely useful with Glacial Berserker and Frostval Barbarian and grants what is essentially a sixth attack to the class since they're almost always at maximum Haste.
    - Scroll of Scorched Steel. I honestly have no idea what's the difference between Diamond Cage and this, but it's still one of the few scrolls that benefit from Attack Power.

    - Scroll of Firebolt, which in itself does very solid damage to enemies with a chance of applying a very decent DoT on the enemy, and it excels in performance with Necromancer whose Deadly Frenzy skill increases the player's Damage Boost by 150% (which also benefits all scrolls) AND the class is always at maximum Haste after Rank 4. It's also amazing with Continuum Chronomancer since it's a Hybrid class and can make use of the Spell Damage and the humongous DoT boosts it can get when fighting in groups.
    - Scroll of Blinding Light, superior to Scroll of Guardian Blast in the fact alone that it has the same cooldown amount and has a 50% chance of applying a hit chance debuff on enemies attacked. A 20-second scroll (10 with max haste) that hits 4 enemies at once? Hell yeah.

    - Scroll of Holy Flare, a 20-second scroll that hits 5 enemies at once AND does extra damage to undead? Double hell yeah. (Member-only)
    - Scroll of Shiftburn, a super epic scroll that not only reduces your mana costs to 0 for a reasonable amount of time, but also has a chance to apply some nasty debuffs on the enemy. If you use this scroll with Chaos Avenger or Star Captain, then you have a really big brain. (Member-only)


    I wholly, absolutely agree with you that the Spellcrafting repertoire could use a facelift since making scrolls and using them on different classes to achieve different outcomes is a really fun activity, yet here we are... with scrolls such as Geyser and Fireball and Wind Strike and Shadow Bolt being the EXACT same attacks but with slightly modified damage amounts, and scrolls such as Pulse Compression and Petrify and Cripple and Weaken being absolutely useless and obsolete thanks to their 1 minute cooldowns.




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