Need alchemist to get heroic completion back . But alc sounds awful.

[SlowDM]

I have a +5 heart , so could use that. Could I just use the inq tree . Go warforged 14 arti 6 alc then use the +5 heart . I really don’t fancy being a alc. From what i’ve read sounds awful to lev 12. Don’t see hardly any either after the nerfed far too much balancing.
Any advice ? I’m used to the easy button levelling pm/sorcery/arti. Honestly if alc is too difficult I might as well forget about getting heroic completionist back . Only 1 not triple.

[rabidfox]

You don't even need the 16 arti nor a +x heart. A 2 arti/18 alch build using inquisitive works really well.

[voxson5]

I have a +5 heart , so could use that. Could I just use the inq tree . Go warforged 14 arti 6 alc then use the +5 heart . I really don’t fancy being a alc. From what i’ve read sounds awful to lev 12. Don’t see hardly any either after the nerfed far too much balancing.
Any advice ? I’m used to the easy button levelling pm/sorcery/arti. Honestly if alc is too difficult I might as well forget about getting heroic completionist back . Only 1 not triple.

It's not that bad... if you have contingencies.

There's also the plan to just go harper + inquisitive + vile chemist until 12 and then just respec enhancements into bomber - Bombardier really is the 'easy button leveling' you like, once you get the immunity strip & multivial

FWIW I just tr'd into an alchi and am trying to stick to 100% poison/neg bomber from korthos. As at lv 8 I've only struggled on a few quests, anything with animated armours, lots of undead, & scarecrows, isn't fun. For everything else, flash freeze + cause wounds/greater venom vial is a fantastic combo.

[Syrrah]

I find alchemist actually decent.

You can play a bombardier if you got a good supply of mnenomic pots stored away. Tiefling bombarier with fire focus is strong once you understand the throwing mechanic and are willing to grab the metamagics (throw further, faster and harder). Levels 1 to 8 are brutal though.

Other than that, vile chemist inquisitor just eats away enemies. I'm even using that build to churn through some easy racial and epic past lives right now. Start with some arty levels and once you got a Storm it's easy button straight to level 30.

Currently trying the 18 alch option with 2 art. Start with repeating crossbows, switch to heavy non-repeaters once you got Inq high enough to make up for the loss of speed.

Some other peeps reported good results with paladin or FVS levels in the mix as well.

I think alch 12 would be the minimum to shoot for, anything else just pile on arty/fighter/mechanic/ranger/paladin levels - whatever floats your boat. But 2 arty is going to be hard to beat in any case.

[SlowDM]

Thanks for the replies . Not as bad as I thought. Only want a heroic life. May be I’ll like it after all .

[Seph1roth5]

I've only played an alchemist once but they were pretty cool. They have very strong nukes, whether multivial or the new and improved inflict spells. Tons of CC with sticky/gold/frozen, and plenty of buffs (self-only). They also can get evasion and heals so...yeah they kind of do it all as a spellcaster lol.

[Enderoc]

You have to have a few drinks too many to run an alchy in real time...
Be the ball...
Naaanaaanaaanaaaa...
Good now you are ready to blow up gophers

[Agr33n3]

I am currently running my 11th heroic life as an Alchemist. I have 35 reaper points and am using acid until 12, then swapping to cold.

It is true that levelling as an Alchemist can be painful. The main issue is not having AoE before lvl 6, apart from the Vial Smash (1) and Greater Venom Vial (3). However, given that you have completionist and are likely an experienced player, from levels 4-6 you can grab a mob or two, throw down a Glue Bomb, and whip out a few Vial Smashes and G. Venom Vials to beat stuff down. Before level 4 this caster is REALLY SLOW.

At level 7 you can start to speed up, getting Flash Freeze for helplessness damage and one of the various single vial AoE spells.

After level 12 and particularly after 15, Alchemist flies through quests. Raiding is a different story but they have their place.

[gudal84]

To me alch is the most enjoyable spell class, but I havent done all of them recently. At least once for all, but things have changed since some of them. Was exclusively alch until the belt nerf patch, but got back to it now, and its still decent. A few things are mandatory (to me) though.

Do use the reaction system from the getgo if u are a bombard. Its very useful. Even if the spellpower boost isnt too big in the beginning, the 50% spell cost reduction is well worth a reaction change from and back to pyrite.

2nd, use the apothecary slas. First the inflict light wounds, then the inflict serious wounds. inflict serious will be your hardest hitting aoe spell and can oneshot anything not boss until the reapers get a hp boost at 10ish. I actually didnt put more than 4 point into bombard until both illusionist and apothecary where at 11, cause except for the first sla, bombard isnt a dps tree to me in the beginning. When you get more burning ambition dice and access to tier 5 though, I spec out of apothecary and fill out the stuff I want in bombard.

3rd, when you first get multivial, the cost increase of that one makes it even more important to reaction spike every now and then.

With these things, both pre nerf and now post nerf, I have never had more sp left on my casters when reaching shrines than with alch.

This said, I DO prefer upping difficulty over running fast, so experiences may vary if u are a zerger, no clue, as I leave zerg groups immediately after finding out it is one. It feels more powerful than sorc to me, though I could do sorc wrong.

One thing that makes it a lot more enjoyable for me than other casters is the fact that there is no "facing your enemy" mechanic on alch. When playing other casters I get the "you are not facing your target" message on between a quarter and a third of all spellcasts, due to high latency. Especially bad when bouncing around. This never happens on alch.

[mr420247]

If you don't like them that much i'd say just do a fast itr and start at 14

DG works ok 1 wiz 19 alch or a 9 xx 1 wiz 10 alch, just go shiradi at 20

Save yourself a 5 heart then, might do some itrs like that on an alt with lock

[Agr33n3]

This said, I DO prefer upping difficulty over running fast, so experiences may vary if u are a zerger, no clue, as I leave zerg groups immediately after finding out it is one. It feels more powerful than sorc to me, though I could do sorc wrong.


I also prefer upping the difficulty rather than running faster, and Alc makes a great backbone for this because of the burst mechanics of reaction-spiking and the distance between mobs. If you run a quest like Grim and Barrett, you can clear through one or two mobs, possibly three if you want to go fast, but have more than enough time and space to relax and spike again before moving to the next mob(s). This also makes it incredibly effective at soloing long content, though diligently using your spiking is certainly a habit to get into mid-combat.


In my opinion, an Alchemist can mimic a Cleric or Druid in terms of healing (though not getting Quicken on Admixtures really hurts, especially in higher difficulty) or can mimic Sorc in terms of damage. Assuming you are a pure caster (and I would argue the capstone and caster levels are better than most if not all splits, apart from possibly from monk and Poison Alc), you spend at least half your points (41) in Bombadier. Having 39 points and any Racial or Universal AP makes the remaining enhancements key to boosting whatever aspects you want. I would add that I prefer to play FVS casters as opposed to anything else, mostly due to massive SP pool, useful Beacons and SLA's, as well as overall survivability over a non-Warsoul Cleric

For more damage, I prefer 24 in Falconry (2 INT, +5% Quality HP, some Heal-Amp, and a whopping 30% HELPLESSNESS damage and extra INT and 8 in Gnome (2 INT, 2 Dodge, and color spray, and yes I gear for Illusion DC's), whereas if I am spot-healing consistently I will put anywhere from 12 to 31 points in Apothecary (12 gives 3rd core Cure SLA and 1 AP in Panacea SLA, 31 gives all the healing crit and Heal SLA). The healing spec becomes less important as of the ED revamp with renewal, Cocoon, and a host of other abilities, but having a collection of potent heals is nice for all characters regardless.

Furthermore, the 24 points in falconry is excellent if you have a Sorc, Wizard, Warlock, or even your own Flash Freeze if you have Transmutation DC's (or Color Spray from Gnome or Feydark using Illusion DC's).

[Propane]

You could do a 6X/6Y/8 alchem build and not even worry about it.
6pall/6Arti
6ranger/6monk
....

[Dendrix]

I found alchemist rubbish at low level as a bombardier. As others have suggested going Arti2 then Alchemist 18 works really well.
Go with repeaters initially - at low levels they are awesome.

At 6th level (2 art/4 alc) you get Batallion Brew. Swap to inquisitive tree and use a non-repeating crossbow. Vile chemist has all the stuff for powering up simple weapons (non-repeating crossbows)

With your Alchemist spells mostly get heals and buffs and crowd control stuff (glue is awesome)

Being fleshy rather than warforged is pretty good - your self healing comes from alchemist potions. Gnome is excellent if you use light crossbow and have a bunch of racial points available to get damage for that - make it outperform heavy crossbows I think.

Better (but more expensive) is to do the above, but at 12 lesser reincarnate out of the Arti levels and switch to a caster/bombardier role, I find the AOE damage of the alchemist much more satisfying than the pre-pew of a shooter.

[mr420247]

They do 2 things really well 1 strip immunity 2 cheap aoe n dots n thats all u need for epics