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Formulation

CinandraCinandra
in Alchemist
So does anyone else feel like formulation is a pretty useless skill? I gather it seems to be a support skill? but it seems pretty useless in my opinion I mean Devitalisation seemed decent till it affects you and against say a knight class or monk/bard etc I feel it will work more for your opponent than it would you. Also Mayology yeah I mean half balanced attacks is nice but than 30 seconds come and you're dead... So has anyone came up with any useful ways to utilize this skillset or am I just looking at it wrong?

Comments

  • AhmetAhmet Wherever I wanna be
    Cinandra said:
    So does anyone else feel like formulation is a pretty useless skill? I gather it seems to be a support skill? but it seems pretty useless in my opinion I mean Devitalisation seemed decent till it affects you and against say a knight class or monk/bard etc I feel it will work more for your opponent than it would you. Also Mayology yeah I mean half balanced attacks is nice but than 30 seconds come and you're dead... So has anyone came up with any useful ways to utilize this skillset or am I just looking at it wrong?
    Waitwaitwaitwait, Mayology is 30 seconds? I thought it was 10? I'm rethinking Alchemist now :>
    Huh. Neat.
  • KandraKandra
    You can use endorphins for some healing since you're not doing any damage anyway, and nutritional lets you not carry food. Apart from that the skill is more useful when fighting in a group.
  • CinandraCinandra
    Ahmet said:
    Cinandra said:
    So does anyone else feel like formulation is a pretty useless skill? I gather it seems to be a support skill? but it seems pretty useless in my opinion I mean Devitalisation seemed decent till it affects you and against say a knight class or monk/bard etc I feel it will work more for your opponent than it would you. Also Mayology yeah I mean half balanced attacks is nice but than 30 seconds come and you're dead... So has anyone came up with any useful ways to utilize this skillset or am I just looking at it wrong?
    Waitwaitwaitwait, Mayology is 30 seconds? I thought it was 10? I'm rethinking Alchemist now :>From what I heard it's 30 seconds I don't have the ability so I could be wrong but I am pretty sure it's 30

  • CinandraCinandra
    wow you can tell I'm new to the forums @Ahmet From what I heard it's 30 seconds I don't have the ability so I could be wrong but I am pretty sure it's 30
  • HellenHellen
    Formulation is a skill that has specific purposes. You can use them in skirmishing, but once your group gets ready to move in you should hope that the formulations have worn off. There's no getting rid of them, there is only getting -out- of them. They punish a group for holing up.

    There are other things in Formulation that are worthwhile. Using petrifying and enhancement is a good thing to use, though I suggest using enhancement a moment before you charge and pumping the stability to the max. I don't necessarily agree with all the uses of formulation (I sometimes find it irritating if I'm trying to prep a room I'm in that I can't just throw monoxide at the ground, though I like that alternative attack overall), but overall it's a good skill and very worthwhile.

    As another example, an alchemist tossing phials in a ranged skirmish is a great thing to have. Time corrosive with any snipers and you'll quickly have a way to keep the damage going. Incendiary sticks to the skin so it should probably be among the first of the phials you throw in case the group you're fighting charges. The big issue here really is staying alive long enough to do all of this. If you get caught, tossing concussive will... well, if they're in a single room it won't really help because they're most likely double-blocking the only exit, but give it a shot anyway. Never know, they might have forgotten or something and it can possibly save your ass.
  • VayneVayne Rhode Island
    I think formulation has a lot of raid potential, specifically defense potential, that has not been realized. It has some powerful tools for routing entrenched groups if used effectively.
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  • TaelTael
    Vayne said:
    I think formulation has a lot of raid potential, specifically defense potential, that has not been realized. It has some powerful tools for routing entrenched groups if used effectively.
    I feel like that's been the case for other alchemist stuff historically too. There are definitely some cool ways you could use ETHER DISRUPT, but I have literally never seen it used.
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  • HellenHellen
    Tael said:
    Vayne said:
    I think formulation has a lot of raid potential, specifically defense potential, that has not been realized. It has some powerful tools for routing entrenched groups if used effectively.
    I feel like that's been the case for other alchemist stuff historically too. There are definitely some cool ways you could use ETHER DISRUPT, but I have literally never seen it used.
    For Ether Disrupt, it lasts five minutes, and while theoretically it could be useful I generally find people think the duration of it's too short, while the cooldown too long (roughly thirty minutes). It's also kinda hard to gague the effects of it, so that might be contributing to it. Otherwise, it's a cool skill that's criminally underused due to the aforementioned reasons.

    Something I've talked about at length, actually. If we were going to tweak it, it's difficult to find a balance.

    Really, the biggest problem with most of those abilities is that they're a big niche and we just outright miss the chance to use them. Nobody uses EDUCE SILVER on someone, because why would they do that over an attack? Why would I use intoxicant when we're about to rush into melee? Phosphorous is criminally underused.

    In reality, while these things are true we also generally miss the situations where they would be useful just because we've already punted those kinds of things into the back of our minds in favour of more general attack stuff. Formulations is kind of a big example of that. It hits everyone without a secured mask, and if you're going in for melee that's generally seen as a bad idea since it sticks around for a while even on 1 stability. If you're gonna toss endorphin you'd better hope the enemy doesn't charge in, because it'll heal them too!

    It's sometimes difficult to see the situation where these things fit in.
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