Alchemist Guide
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Important, Outdated
This guide is outdated. Please use the e200-300 pins in the discord. Also note, gear and time listed in t1 guides is generally optional. It's recommended in case you have it, not because it's required.
Alchemist Guide by Vandammetje
Edits by Dirich: VIP 5 optimisation, and High Myst variation.
Information:
- Range: e200-e240/e300
- Important information (usage of Draught Of Midas, Transmute and other Alchemist spells): Some of Alchemist's spell cost Mana sources to be cast. Like for example Crystallization, to get around having to keep on buying sources you can use the spell Transmute. The Transmute spell costs 100 Mana Gems and gives, depending on your all time mana and current sources (you can find the formula on the wiki page), 100+ of a random source that isn't Mana Gems. Casting Draught Of Midas will make sure you go back to that exiles highest amount of Mana Gems, so you don't have to buy any sources and can keep on going.
Attributes:
In order of usefulness:
- Dominance: Max as high as you can up to 200, the Alchemist benefits mostly from autoclicks.
- Spellcraft: Almost all of the perks in Spellcraft are significant, at 25, 50, 75, 100, 125 and 175. The Void Mana boosts from evocation efficiency with Void Decompression is nice but less essential.
- Insight: 60 is required for Voidterror, but going up to 75 for the void mana profit perk is nice. Note that the alchemist only benefits from Void Profit, not entities or spawn rates, so you should almost never go higher with Insight. Void Mana Profit is handled by these 2-3 perks, your pet, and an evocation spell only.
There is more flexibility with:
- Intelligence: Helps gains, is required for certain items, and 100 is ideal to also use Artificer's Shoulderpads during buildup periods.
- Patience: Helps gains, is required for certain items. 50 is required for Companionship Ring, 75 for Grasp Of The Grave, 100 is ideal to also use Artificer's Shoulderpads during buildup periods.
- Empathy: 35 is required for Companionship Ring, 50 is required for Whiplash. That should be as high as you need to go, but can potentially go to 75 for more of the Falconer's set after you've completed your Mastery requirement.
- Mastery: 0 if you're hurting for points, but 25 is a good base for evocation/summoning efficiency and The Great Journey. 175 has some potential with Collar Of Obedience, but other attributes are usually more important.
- Wisdom: 0. The Alchemist gets no benefit from wisdom, thanks to Crystallization.
Old attribute sets are below (this is likely no longer valid):
- 575 (590) attributes: 0 wisdom, 100 intelligence, 50 (65 is preferred) insight, 150 patience, 25 mastery, 100 spellcraft, 0 empathy, 150 dominance.
- 640 attributes: 0 wisdom, 100 intelligence, 65 insight, 150 patience, 50 mastery, 100 spellcraft, 0 empathy, 150 dominance.
- 665 attributes: 0 wisdom, 100 intelligence, 65 insight, 200 patience, 25 mastery, 100 spellcraft, 0 empathy, 150 dominance.
- 690 attributes: 0 wisdom, 100 intelligence, 65 insight, 200 patience, 75 mastery, 100 spellcraft, 0 empathy, 150 dominance.
- 690+ attibutes: dump point in patience, after that's full you can start empathy.
Note: You can run empathy for the falconer's set, this will make pet leveling faster but you can also do that with Void items. If you're going to run empathy don't invest more than 50 points.
Note: it is tempting to spend points differently, a usual example is spending points in empathy. While this is useful, the payoff is usually bad, and the reason why many players can't get profits with this class.
Spellsets:
Simulacrum phase
Start of run character/voidfiend levelling to obtain burst spell access (evocation elixir)
Buildup/Pre-burst spell stacking phase/low-medium myst (evocation elixir)
Burst (summoning elixir)
Simulacrum phase (optional, recommended)
Buy only Mana Gems and Alchemy Desks (Laboratories) as apprentice, while Simulacrum is building your building cast try to level to ~130 using the first spellset above. The reason for only buying Mana Gems and Laboratories is because the spell Draught Of Midas is based on highest amount of Mana Gems and the reason for only Laboratories is because every Laboratory increases profit and Laboratories aren't used to cast spells. Other Mana sources will be used to cast spells so they aren't worth maxing since you'll lose them before bursting anyway.
Note: Items don't matter much at this stage but if you use Whiplash this phase will be faster.
Start of run burst
When you start a run you are missing plenty of upgrades that you can easily get if you immediately go to the pre burst phase (vm buildup) and then burst. After this fast burst you can start the real run with a much more powerful character!
Buildup Phase (Stacking Spells/Gaining XP)
Alchemist has access to many accumulated spells during this period we will stack them, the most notable of which are Void Decompression, Ritual Of Power and Condensed Energy.
For this use the second spell set above on reckless and Voidterror. This should last 2-10 hours before moving onto burst, but multiple bursts throughout the run are beneficial.
Note: Stacking Denaturation instead of Condensed Energy is also an option.
Buildup Gear
In order of priority:
- Shadow-Scryer's Crystal Ball is a Weapon slot item that will give you many, many more persistent casts. By far the most important item, otherwise you will need much longer alchemist runs before exiling. This won't unlock in crafting before e260, but once you reach e260, prioritise finding it.
- Pet Experience gear such as the Falconer's set and Companionship Ring are useful for gaining more void mana profit when bursting.
- Whiplash including a few enchants will help level up Voidterror faster and continues to be useful during burst.
- The Great Journey for character XP and therefore summoning efficiency during burst.
- Evocation Efficiency gear such as the Empowering set is nice to boost Crystallization for faster Void Decompression stacking at pre-burst.
VIP 5 optimisation
If you have VIP 5 you do not need Draught Of Midas and Transmute to recover the sources spent using some of the other spells, as you'll be simply buying them back. As such, you can optimise your stacking phase by inserting Denaturation and (for lack of a better option) Gem Resonance in their place.
Also, note that there is a limit to the max number of sources you can reach via cast of Draught Of Midas and Transmute, and this limit is far below the one that Simulacrum can reach. As such, if you maxed your source via this pet, casting those spells will bring you down to a lower amount of sources, thus diminishing your profits and forcing you to go back to Simulacrum before starting the pre-burst.
High Mysts/Blue+ Gear Variation
This phase replaces the normal stacking phase. This section was originally written for e275 mysteries in an older version, whereas in the current version, it is unlikely anyone will have upgraded any gear by e275. This section only applies if you intend on using the Pet Elixir, which increases pet ability power based on the highest pet level since your last exile. This phase is generally not recommended.
Note: At this gear level, I suggest you have blue gear for Falconer Set, Burst and Pre-Burst. Sadly I could only test with bad gear and my max Spellhound level was 161 and yet that was enough to prove Void Decompression useless at this point.
At this range of gear, properly maximizing the Pet Elixir potential by reaching up a very high max level on the easiest pet to level, Spellhound (or potentially Devourer), will cause the Void Mana generation of Voidterror to be orders of magnitude better than Void Decompression, hence we will need to change a bit the way we stack, in order to ensure we also maximize the pet level (e.g. use Anima Synteta since it's the best levelling spell). We can now allow ourself to also stack Denaturation, to increase our profits.
You will need to execute both Stacking and Pet Level Maximization, the former being the most important and the one you should spend more time on, with the latter being optional if you can reach a good enough pet level even without it.
Just make sure to always have Pet Elixir on and never switch from Spellhound until you are ready to burst.
Stacking
Of course if you have the Renown 5 upgrade from the market, you can forego Draught Of Midas and Transmute and insert Crystallization and Void Decompression in their place (the latter just because it makes for better pet levelling).
Pet Level Maximization
If you are not reaching a high enough pet level, you can try switching equipment and spells to help with it.
It would be nice to be able to equip Falconer's Warm Cape and Hollow Eye Pendant, but that requires Legendary quality Bite Sleeves and 100 to 125 Empathy AP, which you are unlikely to get before reaching e300.
One thing you can definitely change in your equipment is Frosty Ring for Companionship Ring.
Spell wise you only need to replace Denaturation with Crystallization.
Pre-burst
Switch to Voidterror and level it to ~90 (the higher the level, the more profit). After having done that cast Void Decompression a bunch of times with the second spell set above, get back all your Mana Gems with Draught Of Midas and Transmute. Pet Elixir and items that give extra Void profit or pet ability power will increase the Void received from Voidterror, resulting in a Voidterror that levels faster.
Equipment wise you won't have the Insight to equip void set items, so you should focus on your incantation/evocation buffing set for this phase.
Note: Wearing the Falconer's set will level Void Terror faster and using evocation gear will grant you more Void Mana from Void Decompression.
Note: Evocation Elixir will give more Void Mana from Void Decompression.
High Mysts Pre-burst (Mysts ~e275)
Once you reach high mysts (around e275-e280) your Pet Elixir combined with Voidterror is the best source of Void Mana, this is your new spell set and gear. Keep in mind you might want to run Void Automaton while levelling Voidterror in order to improve the bonus on Ceaseless Hunger (albeit this won't come into play until after the time you unlock T2 classes).
Note: If you are overgeared and have 150 Int make sure to have enchant level 1 on every piece of gear, as Resonator Ring bonus does not apply to items with enchant level 0.
Template:BiSEmbed Note that you can't have all of these items equipped at the same time due to number of AP available. Take the BiS bot suggestion as an indication of what you should do.
Burst
You're ready to burst when, while watching your void mana, it is no longer really rising from Void Decompression casts.
Use the third spellset from above, and keep manually buying all sources (and upgrades) when they get reset from casting Denaturation and Condensed Energy.
Go back to pre-burst again for more void mana, and burst again until you stop seeing mystery gains.
It's safe to exile once you've reached about +e5 or +e6 from your current mysteries, otherwise go back to buildup and burst again in a couple of hours. It bears repeating that Shadow-Scryer's Crystal Ball during buildup/pre-burst speeds up your alchemist runs immensely, allowing you to exile earlier and/or burst more often.
Burst Gear
Assuming you don't have legendary gear:
- Head Of The All-Eater (from e260). Charge this up for 30 seconds to activate its bonus during buildup, swap it out to Shadow-Scryer's Crystal Ball for the remainder of buildup, and put Head Of The All-Eater in the weapon slot (but don't activate it) during burst.
- The Amplifier (from e220)
- Grasp Of The Grave
- Whiplash
- Miniaturized Accelerator
- Summoning Efficiency gear or Character Ability Power gear, such as Intact Carapace and Empowered Water
- Accumulated Spells Starting Cast Amount gear, such as Boots Of Eastern Blessings
- Click, Autoclick, or Critical gear, such as the Justice of the Seventh set (except the Hands and Neck slot if you have the above).
Legendary Gear
Template:BiSEmbed Note: This BiS takes into account that all your items are legendary. If they aren't, there might be better items I suggest testing what gives you the most profit while working towards getting these items legendary.
Note: I suggest bursting at least 2 times
Note: Ignore the weapon recommendation, use Batstick
Note: For offhand, see what gives you the most profit. I used Ceaseless Hunger