Alchemy
Alchemy is part of the Cooking and Herbalism craft. Alchemical elixirs, tinctures, brews and potions provide significant buffs when used correctly. When used incorrectly, their effects are very insignificant.
Buff Slots and Dosage
Each alchemy item uses 1 of 3 buff slots, and each item's effect is minor until it is dosed correctly. All 3 slots may be used simultaneously. Using a second item that uses the same buff slot will overwrite the currently active buff. There is no "synergy" between buffs on different slots. They act independently. Failure to properly dose results in very low and insignificant buffs. Correct dosages can result in strong buffs which last around 6 hours. Discovering the correct dosage and which buff slot an item uses is a matter of trial and error in game.
The three slots are:
Tincture
Alcohol
Potion
Linked below is a full list of all current alchemical items, effects, buff slots, and optimal dosages. Warning: This chart contains significant spoiler information about the system.
Ultimate Buff
It is possible to use the formula of: Full Dose+(Full Dose-1)=ultimate buff to boost the maximum effect of a buff in any slot by a few percentage points. It is not necessary or common to do this, but it is possible and usually reserved for State of War because this is highly resource intensive for a relatively minor additional effect.
For example, a normal full dose of the Protection Tincture item results in 10% damage reduction. However, using the above formula, one can achieve its Ultimate Buff:
7 Protection tinctures + 6 protection Tinctures = 16% damage reduction.
Recipes
Cooking and alchemy recipes may be bought from Food and Herb merchants in each city near Inns or Markets, looted from humanoid enemies or chests, purchased at the Glory Vendor, or purchased on the player Market. It is not possible to learn recipes by disassembling or consuming food/alchemy items as it is in other professions.
