“ALCAMIST”

This guide was min-maxed over 22 million reaper exp, several lives, and some of the most difficult endgame raids. I hope it helps and I look forward to seeing what the future brings for Alchemist!

Gisty

Lava Divers of Khyber

DPS Alchemist Write up U47 UPDATE AT BOTTOM

Stats: Max Con, Int, rest into Wis. Con and Int are our two main stats, the last 4 points on a 36 point character can go anywhere. I prefer Wis because will save is a weak point of alchemist. All level ups go into Int.

Skills: You have about a bazillion and one skill points. You’ll want to grab Spellcraft, Search, UMD, Concentration, Heal, and one of the social skills (Bluff or Diplo). Beyond that you can pick what you like. I grab haggle for plat and tumble because its fun.

FEATS

1:Empower Dborn: Fire

3:Completionist

4:Alchemical Studies Orchidium

6:Maximize

8:Alchemical Studies Pyrite

9:Quicken

12:Accelerate Alchemist: Liquid Luck

15:Heighten

16:Advanced Studies Orchidium

18:Spell Focus: Conjuration

20:Advanced Studies Pyrite

21:Wellspring of Power

24:Master of Spellvials

26: Epic Spellpower Fire

27:Embolden

28: Mass Frog

29: Deific Warding

30:Arcane Insight

This set-up is based on maximizing the burst potential of alchemist. If you prefer a less active play style, the two epic boosts can be switched out for intensify and another casting feat. Wizard PL and Mental Toughness are two other options.

ENHANCEMENTS

Assuming +2 racial +1 universal and racial completionist

Dborn: 23

Dragonborn nets lots of goodies for alchemist: the most important ones are the +2 MCL in tier 3, and the conjuration DC in tier 4. Wings are invaluable for a class based on melee range CC, and brutal spellcasting gives you flexibility in your aggro control. If you do not have full AP, this is the tree to pull from first.

Bombardier: 41

Bombardier is our main tree. Grab all the crit chance and int, spell threat reduction, burning ambition and smoke bomb. These points are a bit flexible, but 41 points for the capstone is a must. I take efficient quickening because i run quicken full time.

Falconry: 25

Falconry is a fantastic tree for dps casters because it offers some sturdiness, some casting stat, and most importantly 30% helpless damage.

The above enhancement lay out with full action points leaves you with 6 points. There are two defensive options for these points; VKF for deflect arrows, or apothecary for permanent shield. I prefer to use a shield clicky and have deflect arrows, but both options work.

Epic Destiny

Draconic is the most obvious choice for a blaster caster. Big things in the tree are conjuration DC, energy burst/breath, +3 MCL, and draconic hunger. Draconic hunger paired with pyrite spikes can allow you to consume almost no sp.

Twists

Twists allow you to adapt this build to any situation. Rather than giving an exact layout, here are some of my favorites at each tier

T4: Sense Weakness

T3: Meld*, Empyrean*, Conjuration Augmentation

T2: Conjuration Specialist, Flames of Purity

T1: Endless Faith, Int, Stay Frosty

For low DC content, I use Sense/Meld/Emp/Conj specialist. For sharn, swap sense for conjuration augmentation.

Gearing

Full disclosure; This gear set is designed to be fully min-maxed. It involves a 4 piece LGS set, and raid goggles.

Goggles: Attunements Gaze (Slot Globe/Topaz of Conj)

Head: LGS Fire Crit/Fire Crit/Neg Energy Resist

Neck: Zarashk Ward (Slot Vitality/Topaz of Trans/Sapphire of Defense)

Trinket: Slavers False Life/Resist/Spellcraft/Quality Int

Cloak: Legendary City Champions Cloak (Slot Topaz of Power)

Belt: LGS Triple Fire Resist

Ring1: Shattered onyx +10 INT (Slot Festive Int)

Ring2:  Celestial Sapphire +21 Con

Gloves: LGS Triple Unconscious Range

Boots: LGS Con Skills/Con Skills/Elec Resist

Bracers:  Aetherband

Armor:  Orders Garb

Weapon1:  Wild Flame (Slot Ruby of Devotion)

Weapon2: LGS Fire SP 150//Negative Quality MRR// Fire/negative Fire SP (ASH)

Filigrees: Double Raid Int, Double Eye Int, Double Raid Int Zarrigans, Zarrigans Int, Ottos Int/Con/SP/PRR, Random int.

Some handy swaps to have that are particular to alch- besides hood and the like.

Trinket/Offhand- Swap your trinket to bloodrage Chrism and your off hand to Concentrated Chaos. This is going to bump your HAMP up, and if you take the orb stance in bombardier it'll give you an extra 20 MRR to put you at 90 cap.

Belt/Gloves- The belt and gloves are built entirely opposition, so removing one wont upset your LGS set bonus. Crystalline gauntlets are a very handy spell absorb swap, and if you switch to the Chrism/Concentrated Chaos set above you can replace the lost SP from the LGS offhand by equipping burnscar sash.You can also throw on silverthread for a quick boost to your healing.

Reaper Points

Reaper points are pretty straight forward. 21 Into defense, then get max dcs, then max defense, then max casting tree, then start getting boosts from melee tree.

Spells

1: Fine Dust, Elemental Skin, Stiffen Skin, Feathers Extract, Gills Extract

Pretty Straight forward selection here as far as buffs, but fine dust is an invaluable part of alchemists toolkit. Its a trip centered on you with no spell resistance check; perfect for golems or as a fallback CC. Make sure to heighten it!

2: Melt Armor, Remove Curse, Augment Armor, Glue Bomb, Salt Crystals

This spell level can be a bit tougher, but this is my set up. Augment armor gives us a bit more PRR, and remove curse is handy for large curse situations (KT, PN, Shroud, soon to be VOD). Melt armor debuffs for -4 PRR, and will make your melees very happy. Glue bomb is probably the most invaluable part of the alchemist toolkit; it is your only long distance CC. We’ll use it to open almost every encounter. Salt crystals is probably lowest on the totem pole at this level, but it is good for interrupting reapers.

3: Molotov Cocktail, Flash Freeze, Displacement, Greater Heroism, Melt Lock

Melt lock is very good utility, and greater heroism potion is nice for the skills/saves. Flash Freeze is another one of your most powerful CCs. It has a spell pen check, but works on a large amount of targets because it works based on freezing them, rather than turning their flesh into gold. Use it for constructs, undead, and any other non fleshy targets. Displacement is a god send, and its very useful for adjusting your reaction. I typically use it to leave pyrite stance. Molotov Cocktail is relatively low damage, but it's a good filler for your dps rotation.

4: Caustic Overload, Cindersmoke, Voltaic Burst, Sprint boost, Hypnotic Combination

This level is probably the tightest on spells. This is just my recommendation. Caustic Overload is another -5PRR to help melees out, and voltaic burst is -5 MRR to boost your own damage. Cindersmoke blinds enemies and does some decent damage, we’ll use it as a filler in our dps rotation. It also has nice combo potential with flashbang; more on that later. Sprint Boost is essential for alchemist, as you need to engage, CC, and disengage as quickly as possible. Hypnotic combination is great for directing enemy aggro to a specific target, and it also functions on reapers and resets their AI. Confuse also lets enemies deal their full damage to other enemies in reaper, as it is not a charm.

5: Multivial of Flame, Flashbang, Flesh to Gold Mass, Greater Evolution, Frog

Buy 5000 level 5 spell components at a time. Seriously. This is your POWERHOUSE spell level. Flesh to Gold does not have a SR check and is your most effective AOE CC, and flashbang will stun enemies blinded by cindersmoke at distance. Greater evolution gives the exclusive +4 alchemical intelligence, and Frog works on a huge number of targets and is your only instakill. Multivial, well…..its multivial.

6: Elemental Combination, Greater Ice Chill Imbue, Curative Admixture Heal, Dust of Confusion, Goldskin Potion

 Yawn. Level 6 spells are underwhelming, however Elemental combination and Heal are invaluable. Elemental combination deals 3 types of damage, instantly prepping your enemy for vuln stacking from bombardier t5. Heal is a heal. Greater Ice chill lets you use a red spell outside of an instance so you can make your reaction match your cosmetics (cosmetics are the real endgame). Goldskin is a tiny bit of DR in reaper, so i almost never use it, but if you like the look its good.

GAMEPLAY

So you’ve built up your max dps alchemist...now what? Alchemist shines because of the depth to its game play. There is nothing I can write in this guide to turn you into a master. However I can give some tips to speed you along the way.

Reactions. Reactions are the most powerful part of the alchemist class, so we want to lean on them all the time. Pyrite reduces your spellpoint cost by a whopping 50%, and gives you a huge spike of 200 or so SP. Bolster that spike with a Xachosian Eardweller, Revelers Regalia, Draconic fury, Wellspring of Power, Reaper Power Boost, and Stormrage trinket and you can pull aggro off of all but the top tier DPS. Verdanite gives you +5 to your transmutation DCs; Pair it with an arcane insight and a reaper potency boost and you now have +14 to your CC. Orichidium gives you nearly 200 PRR. Use it as a mini meld to tank a doom or a redname after you took aggro with pyrite. The effective alchemist is never not boosting.

CC Combos: Alchemist CC is quick and dirty. It requires you to be aware of who has aggro, how the mobs are moving, and how you can get in and get out without getting hit. You can also build a verdanite spike into your CC rotation. Here is how I approach a situation, assuming I am starting from pyrite reaction as I would be at the end of combat.

Reaper Potency Boost->Glue Bomb (No reaction, blue primed)-> Sprint boost and Dborn Wings to close distance->Flesh to Gold (spike verdanite)-> Flash Freeze as a double tap->Fine Dust as a triple tap if need be. This is not a hard set rotation- If the enemies are not made of flesh, use flash freeze instead. If they are all CCed by flesh to gold, start blasting instead of continuing. If i am worried about landing the glue bomb without a verdanite reaction, I will use displace to leave pyrite, and smoke bomb to go into verdanite. Smoke bomb is INCREDIBLY useful; being invisible when a pack is first aggroed is a huge boost to your survivability.

DPS Combos: Alchemist has a huge advantage as a solo DPS in that it can debuff a huge amount by itself. Applying those debuffs relies on two spells- Elemental Combination to begin stacking vulnerability, and Voltaic Burst for -5 MRR. Luckily, these are also a red and a yellow spell; exactly what we need for a pyrite reaction. In the case of coming from a verdanite reaction, as you would be after CCing a pack, lead with elemental combination. This will put you in no reaction with red primed, and begin vuln stacking. Then, hit voltaic burst. This will put you into pyrite spike, and give the enemy -5 MRR. Dump all your spells and move on to the next pack. If you are coming from an orichidium spike, reverse voltaic burst and elemental obliteration for the same result.

Now the DPS rotation itself- I will simply list the spells i have on my bar and their priority in tiers.. Managing cooldowns is something that comes with experience.

Always on Cooldown, Spike Pyrite/Burst before using

Energy Vortex, Burst, Breath

Almost always on cooldown, opener for big damage dump

Multivial SLA, Mutlivial Spell

Filler, used for changing reactions and between big casts

Molotov Cocktail, Fiery Obliteration, Cindersmoke

Refresh when needed

Voltaic Burst, Elemental Combination

U47

Alchemist got some really cool goodies in U47. I have replaced coalesced magic with 2x Zarrigans Raid int, 1 regular zarrigans int, and added a random int fili for the 9th weapon slot. In addition, feydark color spray gives alchemist a much needed will save spell. I have moved 2 points out of dragonborn spellpower, 6 points out of apothecary, and 2 points out of falconry int. 11 in feydark picks up 1 int to replace falconry, immunity to magic missiles to replace apothecary, and of course greater color spray.

Some alchemist r10 solo runs. Build shown tweaked in a couple places for soloing.

End