Alchemy Guide for The War Within

As has been the case since the start of World of Warcraft, Alchemy will be responsible for creating most of the consumables used in the end game, as well as some rare materials, through transmuting. It will also have the new Thaumaturgy ability, which allows you to transform 20 materials of your choosing into 10 random materials and some side reagents.

Besides short-duration combat potions, such as Tempered Potion, Alchemists can also make long-duration combat Flasks, such as Flask of Tempered Aggression, and profession Phials, such as Phial of Bountiful Seasons.

Alchemy is also one of the few professions that provide combat bonuses, in the form of double duration Flasks with just 15 profession knowledge points required. You will also be able to unlock nice quality of life features such as getting a free conjured Flask or 5 free conjured Potions that mirror your first daily craft of each, perfect for a Mythic+ or Raiding session!

The Algari Alchemist Stone trinket can also be crafted for yourself and other non-Alchemist players with Crafting Orders and is a decent starter option.

Due to its personal benefits, Alchemy is an excellent choice for any character that cares about min-maxing its Raid and Mythic+ performance.

If you are a Horde player, Goblin will grant you +5 skill points, while Alliance players can be Kul'Tiran for +2 skill points but for the most part you will want to have it on whatever character(s) you play the most.

Alchemy can make great use of all four stats, but you might want to focus on specific stats for different playstyles. We go into detail with Alchemy stats and the gear you can use to boost them in the specialized guide below:

Increasing your skill is done by crafting items that grant skill points as usual, and in order to be efficient, we recommend trying to get as many first-craft bonuses while leveling as possible, which also grant experience if you are not at maximum level.

Get started with your Wild Experimentation Alchemy research quickly also, as it can fail and go into a lengthy cooldown if you are unlucky! You will also quickly need to craft discovered recipes in order to progress further, as vendor recipes do not take you very far.

You will be able to track all weekly and one-time sources of profession knowledge with Myu's Knowledge Points Tracker, a very helpful Weak Aura!

There are multiple treasures around Khaz Algar that you can loot for up to 24 extra knowledge. You can find them all easily in-game with the aforementioned Weak Aura or the Rarescanner addon, which will put up small treasure icons with a hammer underneath at their map location, as exemplified below.

If you are going into Alchemy for the personal benefits or for Flask crafting, unlock Fantastic Flasks, assign knowledge up to 15/30 and continue into Bulk Production 20/25 for double duration flasks and a free soulbound copy of the first Flask you craft every day. The rest of the points are also useful if you are looking to craft Rank 3 Flasks and Phials without needing to use Concentration.

After unlocking the personal benefits for Flasks or if you want to focus on Potions instead, unlock Potent Potions, assign knowledge up to 15/30 and continue into Bulk Production 20/25 to get 5 free soulbound copies of the first Potion you craft every day. Just like the Flask tree, put in the remaining points if you wish to eventually craft Rank 3 Potions without needing to use Concentration.

The Thaumaturgy tree / node boosts the power of its namesake Alchemy craft, turning it from a straightforward gold loss as you need to input 20 materials to only get 10 and a handful of low value reagents back to a money maker once you unlock the ability to generate more Transmutagen materials at 5/55, Coreway Catalysts at 15/55, gems at 25/55, Gleaming Transmutagen at 35/55 and extra Transmutagen on your first craft of the day with the 55/55 capstone.

Investing 15/30 into the Transmutation node is also recommended to reduce your transmutation cooldown and give you more charges, allowing you to sleep without losing potential transmute crafts, for instance. The Gleaming Transmutagen node is also a must-have in order to boost your acquisition rate of Gleaming Transmutagen, and its capstone allows you to convert this rare material into Blasphemite which is needed for end-game gear crafts, gems, and even for Binding of Binding resets. The remaining nodes allow you to discover more profitable cooldown transmutes which use their Transmutagens namesakes.

Finally, Alchemical Mastery is the only tree / node that increases your skill with every facet of Alchemy, unlocks the Harmonious Horticulture reagent, and has sub-nodes that improve your Potion / Phial / Flask skill with each node's herb namesake, thus being essential to maximize for creating Rank 3 consumables without Concentration.

Ideally, Alchemy allows you to convert cheap materials into expensive Potions, Phials, Flasks, and other reagents such as Harmonious Horticulture. You will initially have to use Concentration in order to get Rank 3s, stopping you from mass producing them, but eventually with maxed gear, talents, and skill you will be able to produce natural Rank 3s, at which point you can finally start getting massive value from the Potion / Flask Spillover mechanic present in the talent tree.

Due to the commodity producing nature of Alchemy, it is very likely that the consumable market will quickly get loaded with potions that are only marginally more expensive than the materials used to create them, especially once mass Rank 3s can be produced with the method detailed above, so make sure to set up and use a lot of Concentration alts while it is still very profitable to do so!

We have a specialized guide for The War Within gold-making below, which contains a gold-making tier list and goes deeper into techniques and habits for successful gold making, as well as websites and addons that can help you on your journey!