I hope some folks out there can find the data useful and/or interesting. Enjoy!
---
PrayForMojo's/JahBreeze's Guide to Levelling an Alchemist to 220 Efficiently
My reason for making a guide on tradeskill efficiency is that I've found in some professions that require a variety of ingredients to build a particular item can make finding the cheapest path difficult to figure out. Being that my first experiment with trade skills was as a blacksmith where recipes are pretty straightforward -- i.e., get a bunch of metal "X" and make a bunch of metal "X" items, etc -- the whole idea of getting a few of a bunch of different items at once seemed kind of daunting at first. Upon further inspection, however, it can be cheaper in some professions to get started because if you allocate your resources efficiently you can get levels making items consisting of cheaper ingredients allowing you to bypass some of the more expensive recipes.
The following info attempts to find the most cost effective way to level them up by picking the cheapest skill route (in money terms). Since this is a first draft, I've done my analysis using just by figuring out the cheapest recipe for a given skill range and Using the list of ingredients for each item, I’ve approximated the cost of levelling each item based on the median cost of ingredients from http://wow.allakhazam.com
Granted, prices may vary on your server but hopefully this will give you direction if you just want to level up your skill quickly with as little upfront cost as possible.
Below is the chart of my findings. The "Cost" field is the cost of creating the item, the "From" field is the level at which to start creating that item, "To" is when to stop, "#" is the number of times you make that item, and Total Cost is the total money (silver) spent on creating that item.
Item name Cost From To # Total Cost Minor Healing Potion 1.95 1 50 50 97.5 Discolored Healing Potion 1.2 50 80 30 36 Rage Potion 8.95 80 90 10 89.5 Elixir of Wisdom 9.7 90 120 30 291 Elixir of Poison Resistance 8.52 120 145 25 213 Fire Oil 20.2 145 150 5 101 Elixir of Ogre's Strength 7 150 175 25 175 Great Rage Potion 19.62 175 180 5 98.1 Mighty Troll's Blood Potion 14.75 180 200 20 295 Fire Protection Potion 32 200 220 20 640
Figure 1 - Item for each level range
Now for a little background info...
Here's the stuff you can't make and its cost:
Items not made Cost (in silver) Earthroot 2.5 Silverleaf 1.25 Empty Vial 0.2 Peacebloom 0.5 MageRoyal 2 Disc Worg Heart 0.5 Swiftthistle 15.22 Oily Blackmouth 12 Sharp Claw 1.25 Briarthorn 7.5 Deviate Fish 20 Stranglekelp 22.22 Bruiseweed 3.75 Wild Steelbloom 22 Large Venom Sac 2.77 Leaded Vial 2 FireFin Snapper 10 Del. Feather 1.12 Kingsblood 2.5 Grave Moss 25 Liferoot 9 Fadeleaf 25.4 Goldthorn 19.8 Large fang 15.12 Wintersbite 30 Small flame sac 9.8 Khad. Whisker 12.5 Crystal Vial 25 Firebloom 8.75
Figure 2 - Bought ingredients and cost
Below is the list of stuff you can make, their costs, and levels prior to going green. The level color data was compiled from info at http://wow.allakhazam.com
Item name Get at Green Grey Cost To Make (silver) El. of Lion's Strength 1 55 95 3.95 Minor Healing Potion 1 55 95 1.95 Elixir of Minor Defense 1 55 95 2.7 Weak Troll's B. Potion 15 60 100 5.7 Minor Mana Potion 25 65 105 3.45 Minor Rejuv. Potion 40 70 110 4.7 Disc. Healing Potion 50 80 120 1.2 Elixir of Minor Agility 50 80 120 16.67 Blackmouth Oil 80 80 100 24.2 El. of Minor Fortitude 50 80 120 5.7 Lesser Healing Potion 55 85 125 9.45 Rage Potion 60 90 130 8.95 Swiftness Potion 60 90 130 22.92 Elixir of Giant Growth 90 120 160 22.7 El. of Water Breathing 90 120 160 70.82 Elixir of Wisdom 90 120 160 9.7 Swim Speed Potion 100 130 170 39.62 Holy Protection Potion 100 130 170 19.17 Healing Potion 110 135 175 13.25 Minor Magic Resist Pot. 110 135 175 30 El. of Poison Resist 120 145 185 8.52 Lesser Mana Potion 120 145 185 24.42 Fire Oil 130 150 170 20.2 Strong Troll's B. Pot. 125 150 190 24.5 Elixir of Defense 130 155 195 46.22 Shadow Protection Pot. 135 160 200 29.5 El. of Lesser Agility 140 165 205 39.22 Elixir of Firepower 140 165 205 44.9 El. of Ogre's Strength 150 175 215 7 Free Action Potion 150 175 215 72.62 Greater Healing Potion 155 175 215 13.5 Mana Potion 160 180 220 26.72 Lesser Invisibility Pot 165 185 225 49.4 Shadow Oil 165 190 230 203.6 Elixir of Waterwalking 190 230 35.2 Elixir of Fortitude 175 195 235 43.8 Great Rage Potion 175 195 235 19.62 Mighty Troll's B Potion 180 200 240 14.75 Frost Protection Potion 190 205 245 51.8 Elixir of Agility 185 205 245 44.02 Nature Protection Pot. 190 210 250 33.22 Fire Protection Potion 165 210 250 32 Elixir of Frost Power 190 210 250 74.5 El. of Greater Defense 195 215 255 43.8 El of Detect Lesser Inv 195 215 255 34.3 Catseye Elixir 200 220 260 47.2 Greater Mana Potion 205 220 260 34.3 Oil of Immolation 205 220 260 53.55 Frost Oil 200 220 260 44.5
Figure 3 - Made ingredients and cost
By finding the cheapest recipe for each level range we get the chart shown in figure 1. Now there may be some ways to improve the overall efficiency, say perhaps if it's cheaper to make a particular item after its green a couple of times than to make the next yellow item. If anyone figures out any such situation, please let me know.
Aggregating the data, it's possible to level an alchemist all the way from 1-220 for the measly cost of 20g37s (rounded up) making this the cheapest profession to level from the few i've analyzed so far (engineer, blacksmith, enchanter, alchemist all require over 30g to skill to level 200).
Edited, Fri Jun 10 11:28:08 2005 by PrayForMojo
Edited, Fri Jun 10 11:28:55 2005 by PrayForMojo
Edited, Fri Jun 10 13:18:31 2005 by PrayForMojo