Alchemy 450

After many years I have finally managed to level Alchemy, which is the last remaining profession that I hadn't mastered on my main server (Alliance). A couple of weeks back I decided the time had come for me to learn Alchemy on my priest and max it out. I didn't start earlier because my philosophy is that unless you're very close to max level, you'd be better off with two gathering professions.

Initially I had planned to wait until level 80 before I learned Alchemy. Then, I figured that 75 was enough. At 73 I caved in and decided to learn it, mostly because my bank was overflowing with mats and I wanted to clear some of that stuff.

For leveling Alchemy I used this guide. The guides on this site are very good and I recommend them. I used them to level most of my professions. The trick to power leveling a profession is, of course, to have all the mats beforehand. Because my priest had learned herbalism from the get-go and because I knew he would be my future alchemist, I kept all the herbs I gathered while leveling him.

As it happens in these cases, I didn't have 100% of the required mats. I missed a stack here, a stack there but since those particular herbs were very expensive on the auction house, I decided to farm them myself. So that's what I did. It didn't take me long though.

When you're close to 450 you'll probably get stuck and leveling will be much harder. Not to worry. I would suggest transmuting Titanium bars until the recipe turns gray at 440. If you don't have saronite bars, just buy them off the auction house and then sell the titanium bars back if you can't use them. Or alternately advertise on trade chat that you will transmute titanium for free. If you're a transmutation master, you'll even get extra bars which is very cool.

Speaking of mastery, I've chosen to be a Transmutation Master. I've always dreamed about being one, ever since Burning Crusade. By the way, there's a quest for becoming one, just read the comments on Wowhead.

The rest of the way to 450 is easily attained by crafting some flasks such as Flask of Endless Rage. Lucky for me I had enough mats to craft a ton of flasks which I promptly sold afterwards. Once again, if you don't have mats, just buy them off the AH and then sell the crafted flasks. You won't lose much gold or you might even turn a profit and that's especially true if you gather the herbs yourself.

One other tip that I will share is this: if you have access to a character who's exalted with a certain faction (for example a capital city or the Kirin Tor), get them to buy all the vials for you, for a discount.

Alchemy is pretty cool and it is synergistic with many of the other professions, such as jewelcrafting and blacksmithing. I had the pleasant surprise to discover a few things that I wasn't aware of before I leveled alchemy. One of them is this cool trinket called Mercurial Alchemist Stone. It's a level 75 item so I had to wait 2 levels before I could equip it. Still, it gives some very nice stats. That particular one is a caster trinket but there are dps and tanking ones too.

Then there's this awesome "flask" called Flask of the North which doesn't have a cooldown and gives you a nice buff depending on your class/spec. Essentially it's an extra buff that you can cast on yourself, which costs no resources and can be refreshed at any time.

But wait, there's more! Alchemists also get an Endless Healing Potion and an Endless Mana Potion. Think of them as two health/mana potions that never run out, yet only have a short cooldown. Note: the cooldown starts when you're not in combat. The beauty of it is that when you combine these two potions with the Flask of the North, you get 40% extra benefit from them! The mana potion is proving especially invaluable for my discipline priest when I'm healing. These days I seldom have to drink because I don't really run out of mana anymore.

As far as making gold is concerned, I've mostly used alchemy for transmuting titanium but also for transmuting gems. Remember, the titanium transmute doesn't have a cooldown but the epic gem transmutes have a 20-hour cooldown. Being a transmute master, I sometimes get procs and my best proc so far was from an Eye of Zul transmute which gave me 4 Eye of Zul. If I can't use the gems themselves I will send them to my jewelcrafter who will add value by cutting the gem into something useful.

So there you have it, Alchemy 450, the final piece in my profession puzzle. To be honest I'm a bit relieved that there won't be another primary profession in Cataclysm but on the other hand I'm looking forward to the expansion because there are rumors of an alchemy mount. Woohoo! I hope it's a flying flask!