Battle for Azeroth: Alchemy preview

We are closing in on the launch of BfA. It is time to head start looking at the professions. In this post I will give you my first look at Alchemy, what I expect to sell, and how I think it looks.

The recipes

There is very little data on where you obtain recipes. On the beta most recipes are obtained from the trainer and then higher ranks are purchased using marks of honor. There is currently nothing more concrete and I guess we will see how it turns out.

One thing to note is that using the current data in the wowhead database ALL the alchemy recipes have three ranks. Rank 2 and 3 have the same costs for all of these recipes. This means that the rank 3 recipe will most likely give additional procs as in Legion.

What can you craft?

Alchemy in BfA is looking very similar to how it worked in Legion. Below you can see the list of item types that alchemy can craft and there is really only one innovation here. The new crafted BoP champion equipment. Alchemists craft an item that gives them herbs surprisingly.

  • Trinkets
  • Flasks
  • Battle potions
  • Novelty/utility Potions
  • Transmutes
  • Champion Equipment

So let’s go through these categories and take a look at what they have in store.

Trinkets

BfA brings you a total of 4 trinkets. Two of them requires level 120 and two of them requires level 111.

The Alchemist Stones set requires you to have alchemy to be able to equip them. I expect these will have a limited market. These also function as philosopher’s stones for transmutes.

The Endless tincture set is much more interesting as these can be equipped by anyone. The level 120 version has an item level of 300 currently. This is slightly lower than normal mode level 120 dungeon drops. This seems low, and might mean that crafted gear is in a really bad place for launch. With the stat squish it’s kinda hard to find directly comparable numbers for Legion. I remember the base version of crafted gear was 815, and could be upgraded 5 times up to 840. This was definitely above normal mode gear, so this is a nerf compared to Legion. On the other side this represents a 19 item level jump from level 119 dungeons, so for people wanting to very quickly gear up when they 120 these items will be perfect.

The level 111 trinket however is very interesting. It gives a hefty heal on killing a mob and will likely be very useful when leveling as you can pull larger pulls with less downtime. The recipe might be too common, and the crafting cost is not too high, but it looks promising.

Flasks

This market is completely similar to legion. 4 flasks, and they are all going to be best in slot consumables. Getting rank 3 early will be key, and can make you millions during the first raid tier if you are active on your undercuts. This will always remain the main reason to pick alchemy, and will be a GREAT money maker in BfA, just as it was in Legion.

Battle Potions

Battle potions will also be high in demand for raiders and other PvErs. The rank 3 recipes will be key here as well as procs will typically be the way this market is turned profitable. Get to work on obtaining recipes and you can make a lot of gold here as well.

Utility / Novelty potions

This market is more of a mixed bag. None of the utility potions seem to give too strong effects, but they might be useful for getting achievement or soloing stuff. They can also be a good source of Expulsom, depending on herb prices. Expulsom is the new Blood of Sargeras equivalent that you obtain from scrapping various items at the scrapper (essentially a new Obliterum Forge).

Transmutes

It looks like all of the BfA transmutes share a cooldown with old world transmutes. Depending on yields and relative costs some of these might be worth it, but it is not unlikely that you will be better off spending your transmutes on Pyrium bars or Living steel. Personally I am not excited by this at all, and I thought transmutes were very boring and bland In Legion.

Champion Equipment

All the crafting professions can craft equipment that makes your champions bring back some materials. I’m not much of a fan of this, but it will net you some free materials and help you make some easy money on the side. The equipment is BoP, so you will only be able to get materials for the professions you have. I don’t know how the yields look, so it’s hard to say what the optimal setup will be. IT could be raw gold is better, depending on how champion gear and missions look.

Overall view

Alchemy will remain a really strong gold making profession in BfA. The biggest question is how large the proc chance for rank 3 recipes will be. Getting rank 3s will be crucial. Flasks and potions will always be some of the strongest markets in the game, and BfA is no different. Transmutes are looking fairly useless, but I have some hopes for the trinkets, and I think both can turn out to be profitable. If flask rank 3 require discovery as was the case in Legion then this will be a very capital intensive profession. I would be surprised if Blizzard go this way again, but keep that in mind.

If you want to level up your gold making consider supporting my Patreon, because you will get early access to all my posts! 

5 thoughts on “Battle for Azeroth: Alchemy preview

  1. For the 111 trinkets the initial cost for rank 1 requires two expulsoms plus 20 of two herbs. Rank 2 reduces the cost to 1 expulsom and 19 of each herb. Rank 3 just reduces the herb cost to 18 of each herb. Right now I don’t think rank 3 is worth it for the sake of two herbs particularly since it requires revered with Tortollan Seekers. Getting expulson to craft this item is what will keep this market limited to a few in the initial weeks. Alchemists can transmute it and get 5 but it requires 10 of two common herbs and 3 of a rare herb Anchor Weed. These pop in the same spots where other herbs spawn……..so I don’t expect to see many of them and for cheap

    1. The 2 expulsoms will be a limiting factor for sure. Based on the current reagent costs I expect rank 3 alchemy recipes to have a chance to proc extra items as it has in Legion. If that is the case rank 3s will be very desireable.

  2. Do you think that considering Alchemy was a very strong gold making profession in legion, more people might take it, resulting in a bigger offer and less profit margin?

    I am considering dropping inscription on my main for alchemy before launch. Any comment is welcomeed

    1. I don’t think it will move the needle. Alchemy will be dominated by players getting early rank 3 recipes. It’s most likely going to be a fairly high barrier to entry.

Have a question or a thought? Leave it here:

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.