So as I am preparing to craft the cauldron’s for our guilds weekly raid nights I was perusing my alchemy window and I began to ponder… I have both of the flask and potion cauldron specializations maxed when it comes to getting skill increase from those tabs. The other options are multicraft and resourcefulness which don’t add towards your skill options. Each recipe has a difficulty of 835, and in order to get as close to that as possible, you use the best quality reagents. The only reagents that are leveled would be the Harmonious Horticulture and the Gilded Vials. Now the gilded vials required for each are different, 80 for the potion and 20 for the flask, my skill should be equal when using the same quality of items between the two. However when using 3 star gilded vials for the potion cauldron I have a higher skill than using the same in the flask cauldron ( 576 skill for the potion vs 538 skill for the flask). When crafting normal flasks and potions and using equal level ingredients my skill is the same between the two there is no variation and this should be such between the cauldrons as well. Now getting to the title, with the variation between the potion and flask cauldrons being such a difference when using the 3 star gilded vials, the opposite happens when dropping to a 1 star flask. The flask cauldron now has a higher skill setting ( 320 in my case) than the potion cauldron ( 282 ). The weight of all the ingredients should be equal between the two cauldrons. This change in skill level is only based on changing from 3 star gilded vials to 1 star.
When using equal level items to craft each of the cauldrons they should mirror the same skill required. On top of the already ridiculous cost it is to craft cauldrons ( the time and effort of all the items) there should at least be an expectation of my skill level being equal between the two when my specializations are both the same ( Alchemical Mastery 50/50 (going towards skill), Fantastic Flasks 30/30, and Potent Potions 30/30).
I know there are higher priorities, but crafting this expansion has been a lot more unfriendly with the amount of time needed to put into it and the costs associated with it. However; the expectations of knowing what my skill is and should be when crafting things is something that shouldn’t change when all skill options are equal.
The reason for this is because they are different recipes.
You need 80 gilded vials for potion cauldron. Vial skill contribution represents more or less (as part of the whole as a result.)
I understand they are different recipes and that the vial contributions for each individual vial would give more or less based on each recipe. However; that means that the skill difference with the potions cauldron should still be higher no matter what level vials you are using. This is not the case, which means that either the coefficient being used for the 1 star vials are set wrong or the coefficient set for the 3 stars are set wrong.
The settings for all the other flasks and potions even though they use different materials are all equal when switching between 3 star mats and 1 star mats. The skills are all the same even though they are different recipes and different mats being used. So logically the two cauldrons even though using different mats should have the same skill level based on your gear and mats being used. The only difference between all the potion and flask recipes when it comes to individual skill level is when crafting the cauldrons. This is where I believe there is an issue with the weight differences between the 1star vials and the 3 star vials when crafting cauldrons.
Just as a point of reference rank 1 materials give 0 skill regardless of the weighting. The general gist of TWW crafts is:
If all mats are rank 3 you get 40% of the base difficulty as skill points.
If all mats are rank 2 you get 20% of the base difficulty as skill points.
If all mats are rank 1 you get 0% of the base difficulty as skill points.
In the mix and match case: for each recipe individual reagents are additionally weighted based on their item ID and the amount needed for the recipe. In addition, these weightings can also end up being relative to the other mats in the recipe. And all of it is relative to the base difficulty.
My guess here is since both recipes require the same amount of Harmonious Horticulture but different amounts of vials, it makes them have different weightings for the two different patterns.
EDIT:
Here’s the math:
Base difficulty = 835
All rank 3 mats => 40% = 334 skill available
All rank 1 mats => 0% = 0 skill available
Vial itemID weighting = 29
harmonious hort itemId weighting = 39
For the potion cauldron:
80x vial and 8x hort
80x29 = 2320 weighting points for vial
8x39 = 312 weighting points for hort
2320+312 = 2632 total weighting points
relative vial weighting => 2320/2623 = ~88%
88% of 334 = 293.92 skill
Your potion cauldron skill diff rank 1 vs 3 was 294 skill points (UI often rounds up for display)
For the flask cauldron:
20x vial and 8x hort
20x29 = 580 weighting points for vial
8x39 = 312 weighting points for hort
580+312 = 892 total weighting points
relative vial weighting => 580/892= ~65%
65% of 334 = 217.1 skill
Your flask cauldron skill diff rank 1 vs 3 was 218 skill points (UI often rounds up for display)
So you can see that the reason you get more skill for the potion cauldron is because you have much more vials relative to horts for the potion cauldron. If the potion cauldron required more horts such that vials took 65% of the weighting points, then you would have the same skill increase for both. Or if they took the same amounts of vials for both patterns would also fix it