Upcoming patch and Alchemy past 275

[mithridate]

There are, to the best of my knowledge, four items that can take you past 275 in Alchemy. Mature Silkworms (both foraged and looted), Quicklime (looted), as well as Mature Drake and Basilisk Salivas (both looted). Even prior to the most recent patch, I could go on for stacks (I think 4 was my personal high) without receiving a skill up. Post 12 Apr patch, I have had 110 tries and have received one skill up.

Let's face it, we simply don't have enough possible skill up routes. Now, with the next patch, we may see more skill ups with these items. Come patch after next, we may see more recipes. However, we may see no change, or we may see change for the worse (e.g. the wonderful potion descriptions that we have for the awareness lines). Please, don't let the latter two happen.

And while we're on the topic of Alchemy, please allow the Philosopher's Stone to drop somewhere again. =)

[tnexus]

I agree that alchemy needs to have at least one alternate route besides DoN as it's really not fair to a non foraging class, so I do expect in the future (2 months I expect) to see some sort of change, but for now you're stuck. As for the run of one skillup, wait till next patch when the skillup formula is fixed. It seems to be affecting all levels.

Another thing you need to realize is that they are trying to make it hard for anyone to get to 300 in any skill. From what I'm gathering, they don't want to make it an easy run for any skill now. It's supposed to mean a lot more than it currently is. Take a look at how bad tailoring is. You may think you have it bad in alchemy, but tailoring imho is even worse post 290 than alchemy, and I imagine that the other skills will fall in line shortly to be just as sucky.

As for the Philosopher's Stone, Sony is desperating trying to do away with tradeskill mods. Notice how the six 10%+ mod items in the game (Massive Girdle of the Forge, VT gaunts, Ssra Hammer, Shei Shears, VT Alchemy 15% mod item, and Philosopher's Stone) all came from the Luclin expansion. Have we ever seen another one in any other expansion? Nope. Once they realized how overpowered they became (and the problems that could arise in the future), they stopped making items with them, and in your case removed it entirely. This is also why you don't see new GM trophies with higher mods. To their credit though, I think it was a good move. If they were too easy to aquire then tradeskills wouldn't be as good as they are today because everyone would be 300'd modded.

--Tnexus

[mithridate]

Sure, you can look at it from all sorts of standpoints:
"Sucks to be you if you weren't someone big during Luclin and decided to tradeskill now."
"Only if you're 133tz0r enough should you have an old school mod."
"They're oh-so overpowering, and the ones in-game are too many already."

These are all opinions, as is mine. And my opinion is that tradeskills are open to the masses. Unlike Anguish, where only a very well-equipped and organized guild has a breath of chance, tradeskills could always be enjoyed by anyone and everyone at any given time. By having a chance to acquire a higher mod item, e.g. a 10% mod, many mid-range folks would have a nice goal that would accommodate their play style and in-game hobby well without seriously disrupting anyone's world.

With regards to what's really exclusive...
How you got a high skill level in whatever tradeskill is a matter of personal preference. Because I have relatively easy access to high-end materials I welcome the introduction of an ingredient-based chance-to-skill-up flag. However, if the vendor-available recipe trivials are lowered, I can understand the disappointment of many hobby tradeskillers, especially those who preferred to just click away at dull combines, regardless of how remote the chance of a skill up was. After all, I don't question the people who play MS Solitaire on the computer for hours either. Besides, anyone who was still active after DoN went live, and had any desire to go from 1750 to 2100, could knock most of it out with old school combines, unless they are a non-wood elf or missed out on the solstice robes (like I did). How does that make anyone even semi-133t?

While someone's idea of re-envisioning may include 2100 as being something extremely ueber, I think the opportunity has been missed. Had this been the original intent, it should have been done when 300 went live; the new trivials should have been introduced along with the new skill up rates then.

The difficulty in obtaining raw ingredients has always been the limiting factor. In order to maintain balance and a sense of accomplishment, SOE has wisely limited the drops of many of the items that make high-end droppable gear. That, in my opinion, is where the bottle neck is and should continue to be.

[Lickity]

The other thing about the philosopher's stone was that it was overly easy to get compared to the other mods. (Shei Shears for instance /shudder.) There are still mods in game, specifically the 15% mod for alchemy that drops in VT. This is open to the masses, ALL the camps can be soloed by almost any class, and duoed by any two to get the shards, then you can get the keys to the Emp room the same way. Get a few friends together, and even bazaar geared characters can 2-3 group the emp anymore, while it may take a while. Now you have access to the snooze fest that is killing anything in VT, have fun and get some fun skill mods.

[Greeznok]

Ouch!

I hope this was a bad run, I am currently at 264. I did about 200 combines to get from 255 to 264 POST PATCH . This week I did 200 combines with ZERO skill ups.

I know it could have just been a bad RNG day, but it really sucks considering how long it takes to gather components

Edit: Another 27 combines today got 1 skill up then 33 mroe with zero pts

Edit 2: After hitting 265 rom those combines aboce, I just finished another 200 combines to hit 268.