This seems like a flawed currency. Maybe less so for all the other professions, but for alchemy it seems unreasonable. The only way to get mettle are:
Skill knowledge, up to 30 point
1 weekly repeat quest for 60
And hopefully you find some out in the world.
That’s it.
And it’s taking 5-10 per phial (low end), 5-50 for each experimentation (which I’ve been seeing at higher alch levels/advanced research is a 90% fail rate while still consuming the 50 mettle)
And it’s BOP, so my alts can’t send any over, or my guildies can’t send me any. And yes, I see people talking about dropping and learning all the proffs up to skill 30 for that mettle but again, that’s really only a one time deal.
And the WoWhead article on getting it is just as bad. It makes it sound like mettle will be so easy to obtain, how we’ll have stockpiles of mettle, etc. I get that they don’t want us blowing through professions but then don’t make even the lower level training require mettle, or if an experiment is going to fail for 50 mettle, don’t consume it.
And then later on, itll be around 300 mettle to get epic gear crafted. Which if it didn’t take more than that just to level the profession, fine. But Alchemy is absolutely terrible right now because of mettle. And really who is going to put in work orders for alchemy vs gear?
Where are you getting these absurd outrage numbers?
Experiments cost five. All experiments. This number doesn’t change. It’s five. Potion, phial, Adv potion, adv phial: Five. They were five last week, they were five this week.
Failed experiments don’t consume mats. You don’t lose your five when you fail, nor do you lose either of the other materials needed.
The only phials that cost mettle are the crafting/gathering phials, at a 1:1 rate per phial (not including multicraft or resourcefulness procs).
The full list of mettle consumers for complete clarity:
Phial Exp: 5
Potion Exp: 5
Adv Phial Exp: 5
Adv Potion Exp: 5
Deftness Phial: 10 (1:1 ratio)
Finesse Phial: 10 (1:1 ratio)
Perception Phial: 10 (1:1 ratio)
Illustrious Insight: 50
Lesser Illustrious Insight: 10
Alchemy’s priciest item is made by every profession, the illustrious insight at 50 mettle, which at higher knowledge levels only becomes vital for crafting your own personal alchemy stone and Ultimate Potion of Power - and it’s completely optional and up to you if you need to use illustrious insight as it cannot be explicitly requested through work orders. Instead it’s something you’d haggle with personally over the price of your insight and could charge a high premium for.
Crafter/Gather phials can also only be exchanged through workorders, which means the buyer would supply the mettle, not the crafting alchemist.
And I don’t know where you’re getting your numbers for crafted gear either. Crafter equipment, yes, costs you 225-300 mettle and will only be crafted once ever. But real gear? Epic gear. Costs 0 mettle. At most it costs 50 mettle for a spiritual insight, but buyers have no control over whether a crafter uses a spiritual insight and is entirely optional and possibly unnecessary based on a crafter’s skill and knowledge levels.
Cutting edge raiders will absolutely be placing orders for ultimate potions, which again doesn’t cost you the alchemist any mettle unless you choose to add spiritual insight at their request and haggle a premium price for it.
There are only three things you’ll ever spend a high amount of mettle on as alchemist:
When you put in a work order in for your own Crafter set, total 750 mettle, which is the same for every profession and is meant to be expensive as it’s the endgame gear for crafting for this season. Only crafted once.
Recipes and skill books from Rabul via the Artisan Consortium rep.
Levelling alchemy to 100, which costs roughly 200 mettle.
Can you please now write a specializations guide, because it seems you have figured out this meticulous system. I would love to level my alch but am scared to even learn it at this point based on all the alchemy is f****d posts.
I’m flying as blind as everyone else putting out points to what feels right.
But having played around with all of the professions now, Alchemy is probably the simplest to get to 100. Other professions get hardblocked somewhere in the 60-70 range, at which point they require crafting orders for the last ~30 points. Depending on which specs you took, that could be easier or harder. And it also depends heavily on whether you’re guilded or the population of the server or whether people are aware of the work order system to begin with or even how much competition you have from other crafters of the same profession sniping those orders.
Alchemy however can be levelled 1-100 entirely on your own, without requiring any outside source of points. The problem people are having with alchemy is that the thing that gets you to 100 is the thing everyone hates: the experiments are complete RNG.
As noted above you don’t lose mats when you experiment, but you lose time. You might get 5 points in a row! You might get 0. Either way, you eventually land on the explosion roll and then you’re locked out from progression for 4 hours. And as luck has it for people, 4 hours again and again and again.
I’m in the early-90s as alch. If you want advice, speccing into either Phial or Potion experimentation talents (bottom left spec) is important to reaching 100. Doesn’t matter which, as either will get you the last twenty points as you make your way through the RNG of it.
But I’ve also been level 70 inscription for five days without gaining a point because I can’t find a single person in guild or in trade who needs an epic darkmoon deck box crafted.
I know that Alch will reach level 100 eventually. I can’t say the same for inscription or my other professions. But it’s also only the eighth day and I’m not super ready to panic about it yet.
My inscription is bricked until i have renown 22+ or get crafting orders completed, I am at 66. On a low pop server, and zero work orders…I put my knowledge in the wrong specialization and have no way to fix it. I feel dead in the water. I would drop it and do different but I spent alot on the drake customization patterns already to fulfill work orders, which there are none of, yet. I won’t unlearn it, cuz it makes no difference, can’t reset the spec points and fix them anyways. But will probably not play this toon as much anymore. I am very disappointed.
I made a post about this in another thread: it doesn’t matter which spec you would have picked as scribe, either way you’re bricked without a healthy number of work orders in the system. There’s not a right choice without a population of people willing and able to interact with the work order system.
It’s a short quest chain to unlock them. They’re a random drop from treasures (expedition packs, digging spots) and give you one knowledge point + mettle per turn in.
never fomo, I wanted to make staves from the beginning but I didnt understand pointing until it was too late. So I had to go a different route because I cannot go back…but thank you for your input.
And im not trying to be 100 from the get go…I just want to be able to make the things I wanted to make…aka staves…only way to fix it is to be 100 which will be awhile…
Can you clarify on this a bit? I was actually trying to figure out how to farm these. I got a couple in the first week from quests but google was failing me.
What activities, specifically, reward the dragon shards?
Super rare drop but if you’re looking to farm rares and expedition rep, you will often pick up a few every day
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