There is a perk for that,wear poisons last for two shots.

The words "alchemy" and "useless" should never be in the same sentence with each other, unless "not" is between them.

See also:
*Oblivion
*Full Metal Alchemist

rather it last for 2 mins then 2 shots... it be more useful and i would care about alchemy again

in oblivion i would make chameleon and invisibility potions to make thieves guild quest the easy sauce.

I'm honored to be the conductor of the Quote Train Express.

"Concentrated Poison - Poisons applied to weapons last for twice as many hits " <--- means that you get to hit them twice with the same poison application. I've tested it and it works. In Skyrim you can also make invisibility potions that make any quest easy sauce. I fail to see how Oblivion is better in that regard. The Alchemy in Skyrim is ridiculously powerful when maxxed out with all perks.

I don't agree. A well-timed paralysis posion has saved my character's hide more than a dozen times.

What? Alchemy is the single most powerful Skill in Skyrim, you can replicate effects from Enchanting (raise skill levels) and Superboost other skills.

Alchemy is the foundation of the tri-craftskills synergy.

Alchemy, useless?



At 100 skill and the relevant perks, you can make potions that easily surpass any you'll find or buy, with the possible exception of full heal potions. Add Fortify Alchemy enchantments, and you can easily surpass even those.

Even when you can't surpass their values you can still surpass their performance, because hand-made potions can have multiple effects. For example: Fortify Health + Fortify Two-Handed + Fortify Stamina Regen, which is godly for melee characters. For mages: Fortify Magicka + Fortify Magicka Regen + Fortify Destruction. True, potions that cover one of those effects may have greater values for that effect than the multi-effect ones do, however the fact that they are only covering one of the effects means they're actually markedly inferior in comparison.

You do need a fair number of perks to make good potions, but once you do, the multi-effect ones blow the single-effect ones out of the water, and if you add enchanting on top of that they get insane. Fortify effects, for example, can, depending on which skill you're boosting, reach +168%, far more than the best found or bought potion.

One thing I miss in Oblivion was making poisons with two types of damage, such as damage health and fire damage. Now you've just got damage health.

My warrior doesn't even soil himself by using that elf loving Restoration magic, instead I am an Alchemist. Sure, it was tough in the beginning, for the first 15 levels.....
There is a solution to every encounter in Skyrim, and all of those solutions can be found in alchemy.

Lock too hard to pick? Locks are now 40% easier to pick for 90seconds.

Elder Fire Dragon messing up your ****? Resist Fire Magic 40% AND increase Heavy armor skill by 22 for 90 seconds

Want to try one handed weapons even though you have no perks? Increase one handed weapon damage by 50% for 90 seconds

Can't sneak? You are now 30% harder to detect when sneaking for 90 seconds

I will stop listing examples now as I could literally sit here all night telling you how amazing alchemy is....

Actually, I agree with the OP to a certain extent. Alchemy is very powerful at lower levels. It allows you to buff your skills and add large amounts of damage to low level weapons. It also allows you to use offensive effects like paralyze, fear, frenzy, etc. without paying any perk points into the magic schools. At high levels though, the usefulness of alchemy begins to taper off. Even with potions crafted while wearing fortify alchemy gear and with all the perks and 100 skill, you'll find that most high level enemies are immune to your poison effects. At some point, magic surpasses alchemy in this area. With dual cast and the modifying perks, frenzy, calm, etc. remain viable spells long after they lose there utility in poison form.

slipping paralyze poisons into people's pockets is a fun little mechanic that is new to the series in Skyrim, avoided many, many fights this way.

kinda have to agree with everybody here... you have to invest into perks into the alchemy tree. Then, it becomes so godly you won't believe your eyes.

There are dual effect poisons. One that I found through experimentation applies damage over time and paralysis. I saw someone else here mentioned it as well. There are others I just don't remember them right now. I never looked anything up because half the fun of Alchemy to me was the process of discovery. I mixed a lot of random plants and made a ton of potions to unlock the properties of items. It is definitely my favorite trade skill and the most fun to level even though it takes a good while to get to 100. I spent a good many hours just wandering around looking for plants and other items. There are a massive number of items that can be used.

Even without perks Alchemy still has it uses.

I've got plenty of resist potions on hand thanks to Alchemy. Sure they're not quite as powerful as the bought ones, but considering that even the weakest of the bought is around 100+ gold each it's not the big of an issue.

The Alchemy system makes no sense the more I think about it, wth kind of drink increases Armor skill? HOW? Why? a little description varying with ingredients would be nice. everything is riddle with stats and numbers, so much for the Drumbeaters going on about no numbers in mah games.

I prefer damage health with lingering damage health (imp stool + mora tapinella + skeever tail, for example) useful when attacking dragons with bows. For melee combat i use slow + damage health (deathbell + skeever tail + salt pile, for example).

I've never been too much into alchemy, can anyone tell me a good way to improve my alchemy skill efficiently?

I agree it's not useless but its definetly not as fun anymore.
Alchemy like magic got most of the unseful and fun effects removed. In the previous games you can basically make a potion equivalent of a spell (which made it much more useful). In skyrim you can't even make a potion of light anymore or find a ingredient that does. Now in Skyrim alchemy is basically used for healing and poision which is boring compared to the previous games (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Alchemy_Effects).

You alchemy skill increases depending on the value of the potion you create. A popular potion to make is giant's toe + wheat + imp stool (?) which is worth something like 3k septims. I had found another one worth over 4500 septims but I forget what was in it... something with fortify health and then a bunch of negative effects.

Not going to argue there.

I was curious about the coordinates in your location, so I looked them up on Google Maps. I find it hilarious that I was standing in that exact spot today.

Pick every plant you see, items from certain fish and animals as well. Go to an alchemy station and make every potion you can. Sell everything you make and use the money to buy more ingredients from the different trade stores and alchemy shops that sell them. Pay attention to how much your alchemy skill increases each time you make a potion. Certain potions will make the level go up more than others. The ingredients for those are rare but are also used in other potions that may not level you as much so save those special ingredients for the potions that level you the most. Just keep gathering ingredients and making potions. They're easy to find as you walk along and you can make plenty of money. That's also the best way to learn what all the different ingredients do instead of cheating by going to a website. Of course if you really want a cheating way to do it there are methods but I'm not going into that here. Google it if you want to do it that way. But that totally strips the fun out of it.