Which Elemental power for Alchemist focus

[Seydlitz]

Hi,

I'd just like to ask - which elemental power do you focus on with your Alchemist? I'm not running a thrower, so not really interested in what to put on a weapon, etc. And, any explanation or education would also be most welcome.

I've heard poison, but also acid, fire, and cold. Does any one really stand out? And, is there a singular, game changing item that influences the decision?

Thanks in advance

[FuzzyDuck81]

While you can go with any in bombardier thanks to their tier 5 ability, I'd say poison is likely your best bet especially in the early game thanks to poison attack & wave of poison in vile chemist - relatively low hanging fruits regardless of your main focus & thanks to those there's pretty much nothing in the game you can't kill with it plus you can pick up the poison imbue while you're at it. Once you get into epics you can also use insidious spores (tier 1 in primal avatar) which is a really effective damage over time SLA.

Notable gear wise it doubles up a lot with the negative energy stuff for pale masters (who are also INT based as wizards) as well as some cleric gear like the silverthread belt (heroic or legendary) which has stacking negative/poison AND positive spellpower, boosting your curative SLAs too.

[Torkzed]

My experience is limited (only a couple of lives as alchemist) but having studied it a bunch, I don't think it matters much. I'd suggest going with what you prefer for theme.

Above poster's suggestion of the silverthread belt from RL is good for poison, but recognize that equivalent options are available for the other elements (burnscar sash and thrummingspark cord). I would second the general idea though...stacking spellpower is great for dps casting.

One decision I am having a hard time with is the legendary feat at 30. I prefer fire as an element and the scion of the plane of fire looks really nice (25% spell crit damage is tasty), but the scion of earth gives +4 DC to conjuration (the school for most alchemist DPS spells). At the end of the day, ensuring enemies don't make their saves is probably more important than crit damage. So the DC boost probably wins out if your DCs aren't working in the content level you like to play. If so, it kind of seems like a waste not to go acid since you will be getting an extra 10 spellpower in acid relative to other choices. But I haven't really decided yet myself; just thought I'd mention it for your consideration if you plan on staying at 30.

[Lonnbeimnech]

for epic levels, if you are going more dps route and are planning on being in draconic, I would recommend acid, because your main offensive spells are conjuration, and draconic breath is evocation for all but acid, which is conjuration.

saves you trying to slot for evocation

[SirValentine]

If you happen to have any Deep Gnome PLs, they also give bonus Acid spell power, in addition to Scion on Earth or Draconic abilities.

Personally, I'm using Cold, not because it's better, but simply because I already happened to have some gear for it and didn't want to farm up more for a different element.

[redoubt]

Tiefling is a great pairing with fire bombardier.

On the level 30 feat:
110 conjuration DC is good enough for most content up to LR4-6. A few quests you will see archers and goblins making reflex saves against you. I took the +4 DC first time around. I'm on my second run of just doing the earth one for better crits and most of the time I don't miss the extra DC. You can always run the crit and then swap it if you find you are losing too much dps from mob saves.