Alchemy

Alchemy is a primary profession. Alchemists mix herbs, sometimes with other reagents, into elixirs, potions, oils, flasks and cauldrons. Their brews can restore health and mana, make you briefly invisible or weightless, change your look for a while, raise your stats for a time, and much more.

Every class can use alchemy: melee fighters drink healing and buff potions, while casters rely on mana potions. Because these one-use items are wanted by groups and raids, alchemists can sell them or hand them to friends. Most brews can be made anywhere, as long as you carry the reagents, which come from vendors, other players or the wild.

Since patch 8.0.1 (2018) every expansion has its own skill bar with a small cap, instead of one long bar that covered all expansions together. Classic runs from 1 to 300; the newer bars are much shorter:

You raise your skill by making items. Recipes are coloured by how likely they are to give a point:

• Red: your skill is too low to learn it.
• Orange: always gives a point.
• Yellow: will probably give a point.
• Green: will probably not give a point.
• Gray: never gives a point.

Recipes older than Mists of Pandaria are mostly taught by trainers for a small fee. Since Mists of Pandaria most recipes come from discoveries instead (see below).

• Every potion, elixir and flask needs a Crystal Vial, sold by trade goods and alchemy vendors. Before Cataclysm there were five kinds of vial; patch 4.0.1 turned all the others into junk.
• Alchemists get the passive Mixology: many flasks and elixirs last twice as long and work better when the alchemist drinks them.
• Goblin characters get +5 Alchemy skill from their racial Better Living Through Chemistry.

Herbalism is the natural partner, because nearly every recipe uses herbs; it is not required but saves a lot of money while leveling (see Gathering Professions). Enchanting adds some extra usefulness, and Fishing helps because a few recipes use fish instead of herbs.

High-level alchemists can transmute gems, elemental materials and some metals that other professions need. A few materials, such as the Arcanite Bar and Truegold, can only be made this way. You first craft an alchemist stone and keep it in your bags or equip it; one stone is enough, since extra stones do not shorten cooldowns. Some transmutes share a cooldown that, since patch 4.0.1, resets every day at midnight server time.

Discovery arrived in The Burning Crusade. Whenever you transmute or make a potion, elixir or flask, you may learn a new recipe on the spot, and that recipe can lead to further discoveries. Discoveries are random within your skill level, have no fixed order, and even gray recipes can trigger them.

At 300 Classic Alchemy skill, alchemy trainers offer quests to pick one of three specializations. Each gives a chance to make 1 to 4 extra items (up to 5 in total) when you craft in its field; a Potion Master, for example, may get several potions for the cost of one.

You can switch as often as you like. Open the Professions window (default key K) and click the red icon next to your specialization, then take the new quest from an alchemy trainer in a capital city. The specialization NPCs are Yelmak in Orgrimmar (55, 46) for the Horde and Lilyssia Nightbreeze in Stormwind City (55, 85) for the Alliance.