Alchemy, why bother

Grimtooth · March 2015

With the increased cool-down on potions from 30 seconds to 45, why bother spending over a 100 hours of game time building up alchemy and searching for reagents only to be able to use one potion in a fight and then being killed before you can use another one. Potions are meant to keep you alive in a fight but seem to be just something else to do with no benefit. A lot of enemies in the game can kill you with just 1-3 hits. If I have to wait until I'm more than 10 levels higher to come back and fight them with a reasonable chance of survivability then I miss out on any loot I would have got when I was equal level with them.

Kragorn · March 2015

To be honest if you're struggling as badly as you seem to be saying you are (1-3 hits, on level?) then the extra cooldown isn't really going to make a hell of a lot of difference I would suggest.

Seth_Black · March 2015

100 hours?

where did you get that number?
First of all... don't bother crafting potions till vet1-5
All the time while leveling your character gather plants and flowers and all types of water
at the time you reach vet1 you will have enough to level up alchemy from 1 to 50 in one hour maybe ...or less.
Advantages:
1. you can create 4 potions from 1 plant of each type, using 3 types per potion (with stack of 200 for 3 basic healing plants it gives 800 potions - gold making)
2. you can create VERY useful potions like invisibility one that will help you steal stuff in towns and get even more gold
3. various potions that increase you weapon/spell power while restoring stamina/magicka really help in dungeons and trials
It's not useless AT ALL

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO · March 2015

Wow. Dead in 1-3 hits? Pardon the question, but do you even block, interrupt or move away from heavy hits when they are telegraphed?

If anything, I find this game a little too easy at times. And to answer the question about alchemy, I find potions useful for an extra boost in the borderline cases and if I mess up and need a second chance, but only in some very tough boss fights (things I wasn't even supposed to do solo) have I needed to rely on chugging potions. Even then, I think the cooldown is about right even at 45 seconds. I can't do it like other TES games: walk into any fight with a bag full of potions and be invincible. I have to use planning and manage my resources even though I have some extra support from potions.

And seriously, leveling up alchemy takes a few hours of your time, not hundreds of hours, and finding ingredients is not a huge effort. If you don't feel like doing that, there are plenty of other players who will happily sell you their crafted potions.

Grimtooth · March 2015

You guy's must be some type of Master gamer superb player's then. A lot of the enemies that I have run into, it doesn't matter if you block or dodge you still take the full damage it seems. And if your in heavy armor it doesn't matter if your running around to avoid them to heal up some they move faster and are able to do twice the damage with a single blow than anything you can come up with. The only thing that has done me any good is to have a lot of soul gems handy.

Zimnel · March 2015

Dear Op, you don't have to be a master player in this game for the majority of situations : )

I don't know your class nor your level, but a part of the leveling process is learning how to be successful in combat with any class. I'm what you can call a medium player, not involved in hardcore gaming but caring about my character and trying to learn as much as I can.

So, for alchemy I'd say: it's one of the easiest craftings in this game alongside with provisioning. You should bother developing them up to lvl50. I disagree on the fact of not bothering doing pots until vet 1-5. They help a lot and give you a boon when you need it even at low levels.

For the one-three hits issue. It matters a ton if you block and/or dodge. I say that from experience. Learn the patterns of mobs, they repeat them a lot of times. When they split for attack from the rear they always do the exact same move. Dodge right or left and stun the baddie for example.

My advice: re-read all the skills you're using and check your armor and class / racial passives. Read some posts about your class here in the forums and you'll understand it better.

So yes, you have to bother about your class, alchemy and even provisioning!

Grimtooth · March 2015

Zimnel, I get what you and the other's are saying about a lot of this. The thing is for myself, no matter if I've got their moves down or not, what get's me past one group may not get me past the next. Sometimes these groups are so close together that a battle with these three guy's ends up turning into a fight with these three other guy's also. By then I can't use a potion because of the cool-down and I'm all out of stamina and magic from fighting the other guy's and I end up dead because you can't out run from them while they hit you in the back. This is my first MMO and for myself it is hard in some aspects and easy in others. If any of my friends played video games, I'd probability have a easier time until I got use to using a K-B & mouse. Right now that is a burden due to physical limits, and the lack of PC knowledge to hook up a controller. As far as provisioning goes, I find it the most dependable option. Problem with it now is that you can't get your hands on items for food, only drinks. Unless all your characters are criminals, and you steal what you need. I think this sucks to high heaven. There is also items for recipes that can't be found in the game at all, example- Frost mirriam or however it's spelled. I took one of my characters and searched everything in every area for three straight day's and haven't found one. That's all of the DC/AD/EP and Cyrodiil.

Rosveen · March 2015

Frost Mirriam and Bervez Juice are purple ingredients that can be acquired only through Provisioning writs and hirelings. The old system also had such ingredients (Oats, Tomatoes).
You don't have to steal. Many delves have tons of unowned containers, you can also find them pretty much anywhere in the wilderness and sometimes even on the outskirts of towns.

Xendyn · March 2015

Ah now that's an issue I can empathize with. I have nerve damage in my left hand that has left it partially numb and using the wasd keys cramped up on a keyboard painful. This has made a huge difference for me:

gaming.logitech.com/en-us/product/g13-advanced-gameboard

I use the thumb joystick for movement and program the keys to make things easier for me to reach, plus it allows a bit more room for my hand to relax. Combined with a programmable mouse, it's made my gaming much easier.

Grimtooth · March 2015

Rosveen, wish I had known that before wasting three day's. But in all the containers that I searched those three day's, 99% were for drinks and I kept finding the same thing. Melons, apples, corn and that's it. I still think also that Grocer's should sell every item, not just some. It's my gold, if you know what I mean.

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO · March 2015

You are probably going to be just fine. Before you know it you will make it through the fights that seem too difficult right now.

I think you just need to take your time, try different things and learn the game. It took me some time as well, but it was not a frustrating experience for me. I died a lot until I learned to block, and it took me quite some time to learn when to interrupt and when to get out of the way, but those are absolutely essential skills in the game, like it or not. Block, interrupt, dodge. Dodge right and you can almost avoid taking damage against some hard hitting but slow bosses, and learn to interrupt at the right moment and you can reduce the damage a whole lot from some really nasty enemies, including the dreaded Harvesters and many overworld bosses. Blocking reduces most forms of damage considerably, but since update 6 you can't just block every hit without running out of stamina. Stay out of the way when you can, and interrupt and use stun and knockdown to get the upper hand.

I am not a super skilled player, quite the contrary. I am 49 years old and don't have the time or energy to become a "pro" with any computer game. However, I do have a couple of decades of experience from first person games with real time combat, and that actually helps. ESO has a combat system that plays more like a real time FPS game than a typical MMO where you can often stand in one place, tab-target the enemy and just push buttons. Staying mobile is very useful in most fights.

Grimtooth · March 2015

Stefan.gustavsonb 16_ESO, you've never been killed by any creature with one hit. I've had that happen many times. The last time was a week or two ago. In the AD, running down the beach and out of no where I get hit by something from a blindsided smack. One hit that did over 23,000 points damage. Needless to say, it killed me with one hit and it was a lower level than me.

Yusuf · March 2015

Because the cooldown on player-crafted potions is 40.3 seconds if you invest in the 3 passives from the alchemy-skillline. That way you can drink potions that grant you the crit and spell-/weapon-power buffs and can skip using the equivalent skills in your rotation.

stefan.gustavsonb16_ESO · March 2015

By the way, the main sources for Frost Mirriam and other purple provisioning ingredients are hirelings and provisioning writs, as far as I know. Like it or not, but that's the way it is. I have only seen one or two purple ingredients in random loot since 1.6 hit, and I open every crate and barrel I find that isn't owned.

However, you don't have to use purple food for everything. Blue recipes can actually work better for some characters that use more of one resource than the other. I run out of magicka all the time on my healer, but everything else is mostly fine, so for that purpose I use pure magicka regen drinks (green recipes). My DPS character needs tons of stamina, so I buff that one with stamina/health blue food, stamina regen jewelry and armor that gives buffs to stamina and stamina regen. Purple food is nice, but not always the best option, and considering the rarity of the ingredients and the market value of the purple food and drink, I often sell what purple stuff I make and manage with lower quality stuff myself.

Zimnel · March 2015

Grimtooth, if this is your very first MMO then you need a bit of patience because you're experiencing a learning curve : )

Not all places are overfilled with mobs; it only happens in some specific places. First thing you have to learn in an MMO is looking at your back first before attacking what you have in front. That way you avoid attracting groups of mobs and being killed.

I also have physical limitations. Chronical pain is one of them. I play with cotton gloves and use a flat keyboard (logitech illuminated keyboard g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/aplus/detail-page/B001F51G16_K740-final_layered-rgb_lg.jpg) and a very simple gaming mouse not intended for mmo's (steelseries kana mouse v2 techfresh.net/steelseries-kana-v2-gaming-mouse/).
Those help a lot both working and gaming. I have the change weapon feature tied to the side button aka mousebutton 4.

In fact this game and the combat are good for me because it uses aiming and free camera. Many MMO's tie their cameras to the interface and that is very painful for me. Give yourself a bit more of time and you'll be good at combat in no time : 3

About food, you can get loads of provisioning stuff from bandit camps and solo delves scattered in all maps. Blue foods are more than enough for a good bonus. If you have real problems finding mats for blue foods, write me an ingame mail to @Zimnel and I'll see if I can help with that : )

Grimtooth · March 2015

Thanks Zimnel, my disability is a chronic pain disorder that affects my entire nervous too including my eye sight. I more than believe that once it comes out for the XB1 I'll be better off as far as combat goes, because the buttons are locked in to memory and it's more comfortable than sitting with a K-B & M. I say this because I've been playing since the Beta's and still hit the wrong key when thing's get crazy and my highest level character is only VR4. Thanks also for the offer to contact you, but I still can't figure out how to do the chat thing. The explanations are in gamer language and I don't speak it. Too old to learn new tricks I guess.