Alchemy?

[BG5150]

Do you guys use alchemy a lot? I'm made a crummy healing potion or two.

Sometimes I use a poison on my bow for the first strike, but it becomes burdensome to apply every time. Same for my blade.

Any must have alchemy recipes to make for anything other than money?

 

[Annageckos]

I love alchemy. I don't use it on every hit though. As you level it up you will be able to make better potions and poisons. Also get some gear will increase your alchemy's potions strength. I also put some perk points into it. There are lots of good guilds you can find online, though finding one with all the DLC's might be a bit harder. At least I haven't found a good one yet.

 

[khazan99]

I use Alchemy to get some extra septims early game too, but for other helpful potions, you could try:

Imp Stool + Canis Root creates a Paralysis potion. Adding Deathbell adds a Damage Health effect too.

Salt Pile + Deathbell + Skeever Tail makes a Slow / Damage Health potion

 

[Annageckos]

If you have Hearthfire DLC you can make a water breathing potion that is work about 5,000 gold at the lower levels and goes up as you level. You need salmon roe and either chicken egg, hawk beak, histcarp or nordic barnical.

 

[Chadonraz]

I've had a handful of characters who've used Alchemy actively. My current one has three perks in that tree (going to take Benefactor or Poisoner soon), and has made about a billion healing potions, and also lots of other concoctions (both potions and poisons). He picks up every single Blue Mountain Flower he sees, except ones in towns/other settlements.

In real life I really like chemistry, which has translated into liking Alchemy in the Elder Scrolls games.

 

[sticky runes]

Glowing mushrooms + blisterwart = Fortify smithing (make weapons and armour a bit stronger at the grindstone and workbench)
creep cluster + scaly pholiota = fortify carry weight (carry more stuff, which is usually a must have for my travels)
Tundra Cotton + dragon tongue = fortify barter (buy stuff a bit cheaper)

All these items can be grown in your garden and greenhouse if you have hearthfire.

Ingredients that make up health recovery potions include: blisterwart, wheat, swamp fungle pod, blue mountain flower and imp stool.

I usually sell poisons, or i might use them straight away when I find them instead of placing them in my inventory. a lot of enemies are resistant to poisons any way.

 

[LotusEater]

Do you guys use alchemy a lot? I'm made a crummy healing potion or two.

Sometimes I use a poison on my bow for the first strike, but it becomes burdensome to apply every time. Same for my blade.

Any must have alchemy recipes to make for anything other than money?

Two things you can do to make poisoning weapons less cumbersome:

First is obvious, Concentrated Poison perk allows for and extra shot with your poisoned weapon

Second thing you can do is assign poison to your hot keys. To do this in case you aren't aware:

Mark one or two poisons as 'Favorite'
Open Favorites on your play screen
When the Favorites Menu is open, highlight the poison you want to use with your directional pad (XBox) and push to either the left or right, this will assign them to a hotkey. During play all you have to do is push the pad to either the right or left depending on which direction your poison(s) are assigned. This will open the 'Do you want to poison X weapon' prompt without having to retreat into the main menu screen. You can have up to two poisons assigned to your hotkeys at any given time. One on the right (hotkey 1) and one on the left (hotkey 2).

Hope that was clear.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

Frankly, pretty much all I use alchemy for (other than cash) is for Invisibility potions and to enhance smithing and enchanting potions. I find it far too breaking to immersion to always have to be going in and searching for a poison an enhancement or protection potion when you can get the same thing on an enchantment that is active all the time. I will admit that slow potions can be fun, but really aren't necessary. I don't suck that much at combat that I can't take on an enemy without either paralyzing or slowing them. If I did, I would surely lower my difficulty level.

 

[LotusEater]

Frankly, pretty much all I use alchemy for (other than cash) is for Invisibility potions and to enhance smithing and enchanting potions. I find it far too breaking to immersion to always have to be going in and searching for a poison an enhancement or protection potion when you can get the same thing on an enchantment that is active all the time. I will admit that slow potions can be fun, but really aren't necessary. I don't suck that much at combat that I can't take on an enemy without either paralyzing or slowing them. If I did, I would surely lower my difficulty level.

No offense, but this is because you, admittedly, only play on Adept. When you are playing on Master or Legendary, having a couple potions/poisons on Hotkey can make a big, big difference.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

Frankly, pretty much all I use alchemy for (other than cash) is for Invisibility potions and to enhance smithing and enchanting potions. I find it far too breaking to immersion to always have to be going in and searching for a poison an enhancement or protection potion when you can get the same thing on an enchantment that is active all the time. I will admit that slow potions can be fun, but really aren't necessary. I don't suck that much at combat that I can't take on an enemy without either paralyzing or slowing them. If I did, I would surely lower my difficulty level.

No offense, but this is because you, admittedly, only play on Adept. When you are playing on Master or Legendary, having a couple potions/poisons on Hotkey can make a big, big difference.

No offense taken! Actually I'm playing on Master at the moment. I moved up from adept almost immediately on this build, but master seems to make it more realistically a challenge (especially against critters in the wild although I REALLY REALLY REALLY hate Mages & Foreswarn archers now! and I still have to drop back to adept for things like drauger deathlords but not dragons oddly).

It's probably me with the poisons. I just can't get in to them since the really don't make an appreciable difference to me in the way of effectiveness of my weaponry or spells. I do have invisibility potions and my many, many Elswyr Fondue's on favorites though that make it very convenient. I had my poison to reduce stamina & magicka regeneration by 100% for 720 seconds and my slow on favorites, but it just wasn't something I ever used so I stopped. I will admit that I make it a point to use the Invisibility potions I create that also give me an enhancement to either magic resistance or magic regeneration for long periods. It just seems like most of the poisons (other than slow of course) just aren't very affective, particularly against higher level opponents, at least to me.

I find enhancements on weaponry to be far more affective. I have paralyze on one of my swords, but, even that just doesn't thrill me and the poison just means I'm beating down a defenseless opponent. Still, at least with paralyze or slow I can just run away and they can't follow me.

 

[LotusEater]

You can run a pure mage build, late game on Legendary with no armor and hold your own.

Fortify Alteration- Extends the duration of your spells (Dragonhide, Ebonyflesh... even Candlelight)
Fortify Conjuration- Same as above (Dread Zombie, Bound Weapons, Dremora Lord)
Fortify Destruction- Spells are X% more powerful
Fortify Restoration- Don't use personally because of glitch
Fortify Illusion- Spells are X% more powerful (this brings opponents that would normally be untouchable right into spell range)

Weakness to Magic+any spell
Weakness to Poison+Poison Rune

For just a few examples

 

[Daelon DuLac]

You can run a pure mage build, late game on Legendary with no armor and hold your own.

Fortify Alteration- Extends the duration of your spells (Dragonhide, Ebonyflesh... even Candlelight)
Fortify Conjuration- Same as above (Dread Zombie, Bound Weapons, Dremora Lord)
Fortify Destruction- Spells are X% more powerful
Fortify Restoration- Don't use personally because of glitch
Fortify Illusion- Spells are X% more powerful (this brings opponents that would normally be untouchable right into spell range)

Weakness to Magic+any spell
Weakness to Poison+Poison Rune

For just a few examples

I agree with the your Fortify stuff, but I just don't use them even though I have them. It just completely breaks my immersion and, since I have my regeneration of Magicka up around +300% (or more) and my cost at nearly zero to Expert level spells (and soon to Master!), I just spam them. Besides, I'm finding, even on Master that there's not a whole lot that can stand up to a spam of chain lightning or incinerate.

 

[Black Orchid]

Master difficulty almost warrants the use of at least some Alchemy to get through some of the tougher battles. Other than the standard Healing/Stamina/Magicka potions, my favs are Paralyzation (including various poisons), Resistance, and Aversion potions.

I usually always collect both Swamp Fungal Pods and Canis Roots from the swampy areas in order to keep a constant supply of Paralyzation poison on hand. Duration-wise, 5-7 seconds is usually all I need to finish off particularily pesky opponents, like humanoid mages and Sabre cats, just to name a few.

 

[Chadonraz]

I usually always collect both Swamp Fungal Pods and Canis Roots from the swampy areas in order to keep a constant supply of Paralyzation poison on hand.

That's my favourite potion.
"That's a truly vile poison you've brewed there. I pity the beast that tastes that."

 

[HappyFaceClown]

of course i use it! alchemy is the plops! in fact i personally NEVER enchant an item without first concocting a nice fortify enchanting potion to boost stats of the enchantment higher cause i feel its a waste of a soul gem if u do so.. fortify healing potions are also a life saver especially on master difficulty cause the higher percentage healing potions can sometimes be very scarce, tho blue dartwigs are extremely hard to find so i wouldn't rely on it..

 

[LotusEater]

of course i use it! alchemy is the pl***! in fact i personally NEVER enchant an item without first concocting a nice fortify enchanting potion to boost stats of the enchantment higher cause i feel its a waste of a soul gem if u do so.. fortify healing potions are also a life saver especially on master difficulty cause the higher percentage healing potions can sometimes be very scarce, tho blue dartwigs are extremely hard to find so i wouldn't rely on it..

Blue Dartwings are every where in the waterways.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

of course i use it! alchemy is the pl***! in fact i personally NEVER enchant an item without first concocting a nice fortify enchanting potion to boost stats of the enchantment higher cause i feel its a waste of a soul gem if u do so.. fortify healing potions are also a life saver especially on master difficulty cause the higher percentage healing potions can sometimes be very scarce, tho blue dartwigs are extremely hard to find so i wouldn't rely on it..

Blue Dartwings are every where in the waterways.

How do you catch them? They move so quickly. Would Slow Time help? Is it easier on PC to do this? I just can't seem to react fast enough to catch fish (besides salmon) and the dartwings (frankly, I have trouble with the butterflies and moths too - I've been known to run around like a crazy person for 10 minutes trying to catch them - folks watching must think I'm nuts!). Fortunately I find blue & orange (?) dartwings almost everywhere (alchemy satchels, dead mages, dungeons, etc...).

 

[LotusEater]

of course i use it! alchemy is the pl***! in fact i personally NEVER enchant an item without first concocting a nice fortify enchanting potion to boost stats of the enchantment higher cause i feel its a waste of a soul gem if u do so.. fortify healing potions are also a life saver especially on master difficulty cause the higher percentage healing potions can sometimes be very scarce, tho blue dartwigs are extremely hard to find so i wouldn't rely on it..

Blue Dartwings are every where in the waterways.

How do you catch them? They move so quickly. Would Slow Time help? Is it easier on PC to do this? I just can't seem to react fast enough to catch fish (besides salmon) and the dartwings (frankly, I have trouble with the butterflies and moths too - I've been known to run around like a crazy person for 10 minutes trying to catch them - folks watching must think I'm nuts!). Fortunately I find blue & orange (?) dartwings almost everywhere (alchemy satchels, dead mages, dungeons, etc...).

I rely on my old Mortal Combat button mashing techniques.

 

[Daelon DuLac]

Blue Dartwings are every where in the waterways.

How do you catch them? They move so quickly. Would Slow Time help? Is it easier on PC to do this? I just can't seem to react fast enough to catch fish (besides salmon) and the dartwings (frankly, I have trouble with the butterflies and moths too - I've been known to run around like a crazy person for 10 minutes trying to catch them - folks watching must think I'm nuts!). Fortunately I find blue & orange (?) dartwings almost everywhere (alchemy satchels, dead mages, dungeons, etc...).

I rely on my old Mortal Combat button mashing techniques.

Hmmm... I guess it's time to pull out the 64 (??? sorry, I have no idea what system Mortal Combat was on - I've only played it once and that was on one of those standing macines) and get some practice in!

 

[khazan99]

How do you catch them? They move so quickly. Would Slow Time help? Is it easier on PC to do this? I just can't seem to react fast enough to catch fish (besides salmon) and the dartwings (frankly, I have trouble with the butterflies and moths too - I've been known to run around like a crazy person for 10 minutes trying to catch them - folks watching must think I'm nuts!). Fortunately I find blue & orange (?) dartwings almost everywhere (alchemy satchels, dead mages, dungeons, etc...).

AoE spells will kill fish and dartwings; I've used Ice Storm to harvest them.

Also, once when I was playing an Argonian, I found it easier to catch the dartwings whilst I was underwater; you can see them hovering above the surface and I was able to get a lot closer to them when I was swimming.