Is it true that potions don't scale once they're originally created?

I feel like I may remember this from previous TES games, but I'm not sure. Regardless, this is unacceptable. Conceptual deal breaker for me and I'm happy I only rented the game.

To have a combination of ingredients stuck at Restore Health 20 points, regardless of upgraded perks, because I combined them early in the game is infuriating. Are we expected to eat ingredients or combine useless potions/poisons to get our alchemy to 100 before creating potions of worth?

I truly hope the answer is no, that this IS an issue, and they are planning to resolve it. As of now, I'm returning the game and trying to forget I ever wasted any time on it.

wow. fail troll is fail.

edit: your already made potions don't scale with you... thats stupid and game breaking

Uh no, they work. I was making potions at 22 health restore and after some perks I was at 35.

They CAN scale. But if you recombine the same ingredients as when you first made the 22 health restore, if WILL STAY at 22 health restore. The same way if you later combine the ingredients that now create 35, they will stay at 35. Only new combinations of ingredients will scale. However, THEIR strength will be set, permanently, at the level they're first made at.

Does that clarify at all?

You clearly didn't read my entire post. That "Combinations of ingredients" won't continue scaling. Use Imp Stool plus Blue Mountain Flower early on to create restore health 20, and that combination used to create a restore health potion will FOREVER be stuck at restore health only 20, even if a new, unused combination of ingredients could create a restore health 50.

That kinda explains something. I make "Damage health" poisons that do 40-80 damage depending on what ingredients I use, and my Alchemy is Lv 90. I just figured that maybe the damage depends on what ingredients you use; some give stronger effects while some give weaker.

Gheeze,I haven't had this problem.
Even if it is true it's hardly worth geting so angry about,I'm sure it would be fixed soon.
Are you absolutely sure this happens,or is this something you just heard?

Well at Lv 90 Alchemy, I make a "Damage health" poison that does either 39, 59, or 98 damage depending on which ingredients I use.

Yes, I am absolutely sure. This just happened to me. Belmonkey's description fits perfectly with mine. No ingredients are "stronger than others", unless you combine two early on and then that combination will forever be nerfed.

I think I only had trouble with the "Damage health" effect. Everything else seems ok. "Damage health" is an important effect though.

WHAT !!?

Oh no.... I have been making NEW positions constantly like a mad man in my 1 to 9th level. So now ALL my work early in will now result in low level damage forever ? omg....

I assumed the refining process would get better as I got better at Alchemy, So I need to STOP making new potions now and wait until I am high level (via training I guess?)

That is

This is like so game-breaking for my character.

You are fairly lucky, I suppose. There are 14 different ingredients that have the Damage Health effect, making for... 91 possible different combinations, so you wouldn't often encounter the problem, aside from the most common ingredients you would have first used to create your damage health poisons.



I wish it weren't the case. It's enough to turn me away after wasting so much time.

Not true. I just proved this wrong. I was at alchemy table and combined Fly Amanita and Blisterwort for a frenzy poison that said worked on creatures and people up to lvl 5 for 10 seconds. I was 29 in alchemy and just about to lvl up the skill. When I hit 30 from making that poison the SAME ingredients Fly Amanita and Blisterwort now say that they work on creatures and people up to lvl 6 for 10 seconds.

I've been mixing Fly Amanita and Dragon's Tongue to make a Resist Fire/Fortify 2-Handed potions. I've made it repeatedly, always with the same ingredients, but it has varying levels of strength. I'll have to check to see if this is because I tossed in some other Resist Fire ingredients or if its scaling properly.

I'm confused as to what you're saying.

Your potions dont suddenly have a greater effect. You learn how to make better potions. so any new potions you make will be benefiting from your perks. old ones wont change


edit: never mind, i understand now. Yeah seems like a bug. Should be patched. relax perhaps? I know it svcks but I feel the same way with there being no magical damage gear, leaving my destro mage useless at level 50 unless i lower the difficulty

Here's a quick video I just posted on youtube. http://youtu.be/aqr4JOis0BQ

I still feel like I recall perhaps a similar bug from Oblivion. Remember the Value of potions not going up once they were created? So Cure Disease would always be sold for the value at when it was first created? This might be similar in that it only effects poisons and potions that do NOT have the duration attribute. (Restores and Drains, for example?)

So are we supposed to start new characters without alchemy while waiting for a fix?

I just bought a 1500 gold circlet that increases my alchemy potion effectiveness by 20% too...all for nothing?

Oh goodness...I've also been mixing everything like crazy to figure out new potions and level alchemy. That would be seriously lame if it means I'm stuck with "heal 10hp" (made up example) potions when I'm level 50. Should I stop trying to figure out new combos until it's fixed, or until I'm higher level? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but that's what it sounds like :/

I dont have this problem, at least not on most of the potions/poisons i make. And i repeatedly make use of the same old ingredients. It is possible there is some combination where this happens that i havent noticed i guess, but it is at least not happening as a general rule.

I play on xbox with the 1.1 patch.

I made some tests by increasing my alchemy skill to 100 and here's the facts I found:


- potion effectiviness increased, but only by very little
- it seems gaining the actual skill level in alchemy matters very little, it's mostly a way to get to the powerful perks
- therefore gaining a level in alchemy does not necessarily increase your potions effectiveness, you might need 2-3 levels for an increase for example.


I also removed my circlet of alchemy and my potions were worse.

I also did a test where I looked at how much my potion with certain ingridients (already made a potion with those) increased health, then added a perk +20% to potion effectiveness, and I got an increase from 39 to 45.

EDIT:

Damage health potions with Nirnroot seem very bad, worse than any other for me. This would confirm the bug weren't it for the fact that perks still increase the effect, also increasing skill to 100 increases the dmg health from 11 to like 15. My alchemy skill was 24.

Hmm, interesting. I didn't notice it but I guess I was just not that observant. If this is indeed the case (which I assume it is) then it is another thing in need of fixing...either officially or unofficially.

I haven't noticed this with alchemy. When I first started making health potions they restored 20HP and as my alchemy skill increased they were eventually restoring 28HP from a skill level of 15 or so to 30. Plus I had some perks to improve effectiveness. So it wasn't improving in effectiveness that much but it still did. I'm playing on Xbox.

Wow, this is bad if this is true. Completely ruins alchemy.

Um. Yep so.. deleting my alchemist/mage and making a new char.