Talk:Alchemy

This article asserts that alchemizing for potions of gain level is not worth it. I happen to disagree, and I would very much like to see the author of this claim justify it.

The inputs to a potion of gain level are potions of levitation and enlightenment. Levitation is something that even the potion of levitation page admits is useless, and the only benefit of enlightenment is that it raises intelligence and wisdom when blessed (the self-knowledge part of the potion is much better accomplished with a wand of enlightenment). The problem is that potions of enlightenment are so rare that the number of opportunities for stat boost is just not worth it. In most cases it's worth mixing a single potion of enlightenment with a much larger stack of potions of levitation to get gain level.

In fact, even if your main aim is to get the stat boost, it's often better to alchemize for potions of gain level anyway, since gain level can mix with full healing to produce gain ability, and gain ability raises all your stats, not just intelligence and wisdom.

Gain level is very useful not only for the (obvious) level gain but also because cursed gain level lets you (literally) ascend the dungeon quickly. If your alchemy attempt fails, you will either end up with a stack of random potions (30% of the time) or an explosion that loses one of each potion (10% of the time). In the latter case, you can just alchemize again, and in the former case, well, you were going to blank those potions of levitation anyway, so the only loss is the potion of enlightenment that you were dipping into. In most cases I would gladly trade a potion of enlightenment for a 60% shot at a stack of potions of gain level, and I can't see why someone would claim otherwise. Djao 09:24, 16 October 2006 (UTC)

Well, since nobody has come forth to defend the article text, I went ahead and reversed the offending text. I also cleaned up the rest of the article and fixed a number of other bugs in the process. Djao 21:11, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

I also disagree with calling the potion of sickness recipe "mostly useless". Although !oS aren't everyone's cup of tea, poisoned missile weapons are strictly superior to unpoisoned if you're not lawful, plus it's nice to have a few to chuck at your quest nemesis or Death. Besides, !oFJ are even LESS useful and hard to dilute, so it's not like you're losing much. --66.23.133.55 16:09, 27 August 2007 (UTC)