Does Daily Alchemy pay off?

Salvas_Aren

Considering that you have to hand in 3 plants each time you do the daily.

DeadlyRecluse

You get more back, though. Plus survey chances.

I haven't firmly tracked the value proposition, but I think the consensus is that it is worth it, maybe with skipping certain days if you don't want to re-up on those flowers.

VaranisArano

Considering that you get 3 types of plants back, plus a chance for surveys (which you can cheese to get more of the plants you want)? I've always figured it was worth it now that they increased the variety of plants required. I haven't done a full cost-benefit analysis for it, but I suppose you could always skip days that asked for expensive materials if you wanted to.

Back when it was 3 nirnroot all the time, that was annoying.

Asardes

Yes. You usually hand in cheap stuff like Nirnroot, mushrooms & Mudcrab Chitin and get back Corn Flower, Lady Smock, Columbine and other more expensive ones, even Mother of Pearl sometimes. Another advantage is that is easy to do it on multiple characters since you can craft many potions & poisons in bulk, and only pick them up from bank for each character. Also Alchemy is a skill that is quite easy to level and you level it anyway for Medicinal Use. From my experience the Alchemy Master Writs you get are the cheapest to craft, as low as 200 gold/voucher (considering prices on EU-PC but proportionally they should be the same.

sevomd69

VaranisArano wrote: »

Considering that you get 3 types of plants back, plus a chance for surveys (which you can cheese to get more of the plants you want)? I've always figured it was worth it now that they increased the variety of plants required. I haven't done a full cost-benefit analysis for it, but I suppose you could always skip days that asked for expensive materials if you wanted to.

Back when it was 3 nirnroot all the time, that was annoying.

How do u cheese a survey?

tmbrinks

Yes, not quite as profitable as the other crafts, but still worth it!

Based on my calculations, with selling everything you get, as well as the cost of the materials based on PC/NA MM prices, doing the master writs, selling the items bought with vouchers, etc..

Alchemy nets you 34.1k gold per month per character at maximum level

Compared to the other crafts
Enchanting - 57.1k
Provisioning - 24.7k
Woodworking - 42.9k
Clothing - 77.5k
Blacksmithing - 82.2k
Jewelry - 89.1k

These are all per month, per character

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11dEEnHBccrDPo0yY4a5BattPjlivjdVrfiy9eO_gMTo/edit#gid=1067338994

This the link to the spreadsheet where I've done my calculations. I haven't updated the MM prices in a month or so, so they might be slightly off... and MM is based on the guilds you're in, but I'm in 3 fairly large guilds in 3 different major cities.

THEDKEXPERIENCE

I’ve had a master alchemist for 5 years. I wish I could sell my surveys because they take up way more bag space than I’d like. Still, it’s very profitable in a return on mats way. You won’t make much selling potions but you’ll save tens of thousands of gold in the long run.

Just pre-make your potions. I only have to make an alchemy writ like once every year.

tmbrinks

sevomd69 wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

Considering that you get 3 types of plants back, plus a chance for surveys (which you can cheese to get more of the plants you want)? I've always figured it was worth it now that they increased the variety of plants required. I haven't done a full cost-benefit analysis for it, but I suppose you could always skip days that asked for expensive materials if you wanted to.

Back when it was 3 nirnroot all the time, that was annoying.

How do u cheese a survey?

running away from the alchemy survey will "reset" it, as long as you have not interacted with any of the plants. Alchemy is the only one it works with because you can 'see' the different plants before interacting.

sevomd69

tmbrinks wrote: »

sevomd69 wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

Considering that you get 3 types of plants back, plus a chance for surveys (which you can cheese to get more of the plants you want)? I've always figured it was worth it now that they increased the variety of plants required. I haven't done a full cost-benefit analysis for it, but I suppose you could always skip days that asked for expensive materials if you wanted to.

Back when it was 3 nirnroot all the time, that was annoying.

How do u cheese a survey?

running away from the alchemy survey will "reset" it, as long as you have not interacted with any of the plants. Alchemy is the only one it works with because you can 'see' the different plants before interacting.

Did not know that...You learn something new everyday in this game...

Now makes me wanna do all those surveys that are just sitting in my bank...maybe...probably not...

Asardes

tmbrinks wrote: »

sevomd69 wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

Considering that you get 3 types of plants back, plus a chance for surveys (which you can cheese to get more of the plants you want)? I've always figured it was worth it now that they increased the variety of plants required. I haven't done a full cost-benefit analysis for it, but I suppose you could always skip days that asked for expensive materials if you wanted to.

Back when it was 3 nirnroot all the time, that was annoying.

How do u cheese a survey?

running away from the alchemy survey will "reset" it, as long as you have not interacted with any of the plants. Alchemy is the only one it works with because you can 'see' the different plants before interacting.

AFAIK if you interacted with a survey node, that survey map is gone from your inventory, and resetting the map prematurely only means you will lose the ones you haven't picked up. Does Alchemy work differently than the other 5?

vesselwiththepestle

Asardes wrote: »

AFAIK if you interacted with a survey node, that survey map is gone from your inventory, and resetting the map prematurely only means you will lose the ones you haven't picked up. Does Alchemy work differently than the other 5?

That's the thing, you don't interact with them, if there are cheap plants! You go back and "reset" the node with maybe better plants. It's similar to savegame-scamming in single player games, where you reload a save game until you get the random loot you desire .

(Just to be clear, I've never done that, and honestly I wouldn't care to waste time on such.)

tmbrinks

Asardes wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

sevomd69 wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

Considering that you get 3 types of plants back, plus a chance for surveys (which you can cheese to get more of the plants you want)? I've always figured it was worth it now that they increased the variety of plants required. I haven't done a full cost-benefit analysis for it, but I suppose you could always skip days that asked for expensive materials if you wanted to.

Back when it was 3 nirnroot all the time, that was annoying.

How do u cheese a survey?

running away from the alchemy survey will "reset" it, as long as you have not interacted with any of the plants. Alchemy is the only one it works with because you can 'see' the different plants before interacting.

AFAIK if you interacted with a survey node, that survey map is gone from your inventory, and resetting the map prematurely only means you will lose the ones you haven't picked up. Does Alchemy work differently than the other 5?

From what I understand (I just know of the process, I don't actually do it to test it) is that once you interact with one of the plants, you've "fixed" the survey, so the others will remain the same no matter how many times you run back and forth. But, if you haven't interacted with any of them it will reset.

I do hundreds of surveys a month (I have 30 crafters on 2 accounts), and I don't bother with resetting the survey, not worth my time.

AndyMac

I have two toons that do low level alchemy writs which often require 3 cornflower. It's pretty annoying that low level alchemy writs need the most expensive plant - and a plant that I need a lot of for pots.

Rightly or wrongly, I just abandon those writs. It may work out OK in the long run with coffers and surveys - but the short term hit means I don't do them.

tmbrinks

AndyMac wrote: »

I have two toons that do low level alchemy writs which often require 3 cornflower. It's pretty annoying that low level alchemy writs need the most expensive plant - and a plant that I need a lot of for pots.

Rightly or wrongly, I just abandon those writs. It may work out OK in the long run with coffers and surveys - but the short term hit means I don't do them.

I agree, that's annoying. The max level writs don't require cornflower at all

Asardes

AndyMac wrote: »

I have two toons that do low level alchemy writs which often require 3 cornflower. It's pretty annoying that low level alchemy writs need the most expensive plant - and a plant that I need a lot of for pots.

Rightly or wrongly, I just abandon those writs. It may work out OK in the long run with coffers and surveys - but the short term hit means I don't do them.

Yep, low level alchemy writs require expensive plants, unlike the high level ones. That's I prefer leveling alchemy on every character I make - it's fast, it takes 20 minutes max, with discovering all reagent properties in the process for more inspiration, and all achievements - those boost the latter master writ drop rate quite a lot once you hit top tier (Solvent Proficiency VIII).

tmbrinks wrote: »

I do hundreds of surveys a month (I have 30 crafters on 2 accounts), and I don't bother with resetting the survey, not worth my time.

Same. I have a system where I do surveys for a day a month, usually takes 4-5 hours to pick up 4 zones or sub-zones - the full zones rotation takes 6 months. On average I have around 15-18 surveys at each location, and resetting them the normal way, after pickup. I don't have the time to "cheese" each of the 60-70 surveys for alchemy alone when time is so limited. I don't care if I pick up apparently "worthless" plants along the way since one thing that's worthless now may become better in the future if new alchemy ingredients are introduced or the properties on the existing ones are changed.

AlnilamE

Asardes wrote: »

tmbrinks wrote: »

sevomd69 wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

Considering that you get 3 types of plants back, plus a chance for surveys (which you can cheese to get more of the plants you want)? I've always figured it was worth it now that they increased the variety of plants required. I haven't done a full cost-benefit analysis for it, but I suppose you could always skip days that asked for expensive materials if you wanted to.

Back when it was 3 nirnroot all the time, that was annoying.

How do u cheese a survey?

running away from the alchemy survey will "reset" it, as long as you have not interacted with any of the plants. Alchemy is the only one it works with because you can 'see' the different plants before interacting.

AFAIK if you interacted with a survey node, that survey map is gone from your inventory, and resetting the map prematurely only means you will lose the ones you haven't picked up. Does Alchemy work differently than the other 5?

As others have said, you don't interact with them. You can tell what they are by looking at the plants.

I don't bother either, but you can also log out and back in to reset the survey if you like.