Trying to start Alchemy for a Human...

• Chihaya wrote on 2010-12-12 03:25
  But I don't know where to start. For melee, range, and magic, I know a good bit, but I realized that I knew NOTHING about alchemy.
  
  I know that Water Cannon is the basic attack, and that you always need to try ranking Alchemy Mastery.
  Other than that, I want to know which of these skills I should rank in order, since I like the usefulness of them.
  
  Frozen Blast
  Heat Buster
  Life Drain
  Barrier Spikes
  Flame Burst
  
  I plan on ranking only the Active and Offensive Alchemy skills, so no Fragmentation or Synthesis.
  I also plan on ranking Chain Cylinder passively along with the rest of these skills. I was also thinking Summoning Golem, but I was worried that it might be too hard and time consuming to make the crystals (I know I can just spam Stone of Silab Cuilin, but you only get one at a time there)
  
  Any advice is greatly appreciated. I finished up most of the bolt spells, so I can incorporate that with the alchemy training.
• Fracture wrote on 2010-12-12 03:59
  Water Cannon for sure, and Barrier + Golem make for some of the best usability. Frozen Blast is good for AM training, due to how easily and quickly you can gather large amounts of snowballs, but Heat Buster and life drain are, I think, skills you may want to work on after you're more comfortable with alchemy. They're powerful, true, but can be tricky to use effectively and require a LOT of training.
  
  Golem seems like a lot, but if you get a person or two with upgraded picks who don't mind mining in exchange for payment, it's not all that bad. Except making Forests, since all those white herbs are a pain. Barrier is a lot of wood-cutting, but the use requirements can be trained in Rescue the Scout Basic for free. 9 barriers per run.
  
  Flame Burst is another good offensive skill to rank early, low-AP, good damage, AoE. It also ignores prot when calculating crit, so fares well against high-prot mobs-- especially seeing as critical is where alchemy suffers.
  
  I'd post more, but gotta go, may add more later. If you want, you can add me in-game (Fracture, Ruairi server) and I can answer any questions you may have.
• Chihaya wrote on 2010-12-12 04:05

  Quote from Fracture;244818:

  Water Cannon for sure, and Barrier + Golem make for some of the best usability. Frozen Blast is good for AM training, due to how easily and quickly you can gather large amounts of snowballs, but Heat Buster and life drain are, I think, skills you may want to work on after you're more comfortable with alchemy. They're powerful, true, but can be tricky to use effectively and require a LOT of training.
  
  Golem seems like a lot, but if you get a person or two with upgraded picks who don't mind mining in exchange for payment, it's not all that bad. Except making Forests, since all those white herbs are a pain. Barrier is a lot of wood-cutting, but the use requirements can be trained in Rescue the Scout Basic for free. 9 barriers per run.
  
  Flame Burst is another good offensive skill to rank early, low-AP, good damage, AoE. It also ignores prot when calculating crit, so fares well against high-prot mobs-- especially seeing as critical is where alchemy suffers.
  
  I'd post more, but gotta go, may add more later. If you want, you can add me in-game (Fracture, Ruairi server) and I can answer any questions you may have.

  
  
  I really appreciate it; I'll add you in game =)
• Fracture wrote on 2010-12-12 04:13
  No problem, glad to be of aide.
• Yogurticecream wrote on 2010-12-12 04:34
  The point of spamming Stone of Silab Cuilin isn't for the end-crystal from golem/chest. The point is to mine the red rocks where monsters are. Beat the 4 monsters, dig the red rocks and then run away when the red rock disappear (you don't need to bother with the 2nd wave). This will help you get enough fine/finest cuilin for the later ranks also.
  
  Order of importance:
  Alchemy Mastery
  <Insert whatever elemental masteries in G13 here>
  Barrier Spikes (reason: inexpensive. you need a lot of crystals for alchemy mastery, and good support skill)
  Water Cannon = Flame Burst = Summon Golem (choose one of these to specialise in)
  Chain Cylinder
  Life Drain
  Frozen Blast
  Heat Buster
• Taliya wrote on 2010-12-12 05:44
  If you're going full time alchemist I would recommend practicing with the tower cylinder. Trust me, its worth it, especially if you get your hands on some nice Thunder/Fireball crystals.
• Chihaya wrote on 2010-12-12 22:49

  Quote from Yogurticecream;244900:

  The point of spamming Stone of Silab Cuilin isn't for the end-crystal from golem/chest. The point is to mine the red rocks where monsters are. Beat the 4 monsters, dig the red rocks and then run away when the red rock disappear (you don't need to bother with the 2nd wave). This will help you get enough fine/finest cuilin for the later ranks also.
  
  Order of importance:
  Alchemy Mastery
  <Insert whatever elemental masteries in G13 here>
  Barrier Spikes (reason: inexpensive. you need a lot of crystals for alchemy mastery, and good support skill)
  Water Cannon = Flame Burst = Summon Golem (choose one of these to specialise in)
  Chain Cylinder
  Life Drain
  Frozen Blast
  Heat Buster

  
  
  I have absolutely no trouble with getting the stones... it's just that mining really isn't my thing (ugh... gotta prof another pickaxe >.>)
  Nonetheless, do you know if the quality of the stones increase with harder difficulty? For example, if I only do Stone of Silab Cuilin for the Cuilin Stones, would the basic mission have similar drop rates of higher quality stones than the Hard Difficulty?
  
  Thanks for your answer Yogurt; I think i'll use your advice with Water Cannon Path =)
• Kazuni wrote on 2010-12-12 22:52

  Quote from Chihaya;245628:

  I have absolutely no trouble with getting the stones... it's just that mining really isn't my thing (ugh... gotta prof another pickaxe >.>)
  Nonetheless, do you know if the quality of the stones increase with harder difficulty? For example, if I only do Stone of Silab Cuilin for the Cuilin Stones, would the basic mission have similar drop rates of higher quality stones than the Hard Difficulty?
  
  Thanks for your answer Yogurt; I think i'll use your advice with Water Cannon Path =)

  
  
  Afaik, the drop rate isn't affected, so spamming on basic would be faster.