first of all i'm using the german client and therefore i discovered some strange and new things at least for me in the description of some items, especially for consumables. for example the caster meta gem that got changed from "2% chance that next cast is an instant cast" to "5% chance -50% cast time next spell" always had the newer description for me, that means it was "5% chance -50% casttime next spell" since weeks at least for me. other players that use the german client had the correct description. but this is only an example of some weird things.

however, coming to consumables, a few days ago i've noticed that the description of consumbles (esp. elixiers) was changed. all elixiers are now categorized. elixiers like adepts, insane strength, heal power, ... are called "kampfelixier" (=engl: combat elixir). elixiers like the 120 hp elixir, major defense, resistance pots (not sure about that one), ... are called "wächterelixier" (engl: guardian elixir). they all got their category in the description, at least for me.

i think like with the gems meta gem i mentioned earlier, it's a change that will come with one of the next content patches and it looks like blizz will solve the problem of the massive consumable use with this categories allowing only one elixir of each category to be used at the same time. if requested i will upload some screenshots when i'm back at home.

There was a Blue Post recently stating they are planning on changing how potions work. I am sure that a Blue Post will again be made soon explaining what these new classifications hold for us in the future.

I will be happy if it allows people to spend more time playing the game than farming for gold / herbs etc.

Looks to me like they're going to prevent potions from the same category to be used at the same time. Just a wild guess.

Do, for instance, Flask of Mighty Restoration and Mageblood potion share the same category?

This is really good news.

It means they can tune encounters to be beatable by much smaller consumeable use.

We spend less time farming, also our actual gear makes a bigger difference than how many pots we can chug. All in all, about time.

Do you have any item information enhancing addon? none of my potions have any extra category on them nor have i found elsewhere about this.

no, even with all addons disabled i still see the categories and like i said, i asked other people using the german client and some of them don't have them, too.

Without changes to chain-chugging or the power of Flasks, such a measure will only go so far in limiting the need for consumables. Hopefully if they are changing the way pot buffs stack, Blizzard will look at those two issues as well.

This makes me a bit worried. If we get 3-4 pots cathegories which you can fill, you can be pretty sure that one of them will remain the flask slot. And because you will be limited in the other slots, everyone will be "forced" to use flask to be max buffed for buffs heavy encounter. In the end, this could mean less potions overall but more flasks.

good thing then atleast for a healer that flasks are one of the easier buffs. in 2h of wipes keeping up one of the new mageblood pots is surely a bigger cost than keeping up a flask of restoration.

sounds too good to be true but this is exactly what most people are asking for.

Not if everyone is doing that.
Note that manathistle is quite limited in supply and you need 10 for every flask.
At the moment 10 cen be bought for ca 50G on our Server. That cost is in for a rise ... for sure.

And keep in mind that dreaming glory is a dime a dozen, but teracone is waaaay rarer. You need 20 of these for the melee flask. And a stack is at 45g at the moment.

Im not euphoric when i think of flask costs of more than 100g on our server. And I'm not sure how that would drive the consumable cost down.

Fact is, NOW many people do not even consider flasks (because there are many ways to pot and flask are often considered overkill)... when there is no other route to go, they will.

Let us hope they dont add new potion cathegories in the next patches then

Well assuming this is true, it's certainly a step in right direction. Potion categories would somewhat limit the issues of massive consumable stacking required for some bosses as long as pots from different categories don't stack. However, encounters would need to take such a change into consideration.

As for healer mana, since there are encounters that actually require a percentage of overhealing on tanks to be on the "safe side", so to speak, I would personally appreciate anything that would ease the strain of having to fully repot after the odd wipe.

It's a step in the right direction of course but I'll be very disappointed and would probably quit the raidgame a few months down the line if this is the only change they make to the consumable issue.


Flask
Chainining potions
2+ elixirs at a time

Sure, that amounts to a minor improvement but it still means well beyond 100g/hour when going all out, which is the only time when this change will even make an impact.

Yeah, to put this into different terms, as a healer, when I want to fully buff up for something, this is what I use:

Flask of Mighty Restoration (flask)
Major Mageblood (elixir)
Healing Power (elixir)
Superior Mana Oil (weapon buff)
Sporefish (food)
Rumsey Rum (alcohol)
Chain-chug Super Mana Potions (potion)

Now, if you just condense things into categories, then I'll just drop Healing Power from my list of buffs. That doesn't really change much. If they make it flask OR elixir, but not both, that'd be better.

And, of course, the potions issue. Mana pots continue to be dumb (Super Mana > Flask), and I'd like to see them add more sources (how about turning in Spirit Shards for stacks of hp/mana pots so they don't gather dust in my bank?). The biggest offender is probably Stoneshield/Ironshield. Those really need to be changed -- it's just mindless chugging and doesn't fit the nature of the potion timer at all. Make it like the new Haste/Destructive/etc. potions, and have it add 6000 armor for 15 seconds or something like that. Would make their use more situational and intelligent by far.

Potions should get a 5-6 minute cooldown imo, as (atleast for healers) they are just way too powerful. Make them a once-per-fight thing and I'd be happy. With this you'd also have to change some of the offensive potions to make them a bit better of course.

How about just making it so using a flask negates all other consumables aside from super mana potions, which could use a cooldown increase I think. 2 minutes is far too low for fights that take 8+ minutes.

As it stands, a flask is usually a little more than all of your other elixirs/food/oils combined for healers (and I think every other class as well). So this way flasks will still be considered the ultimate consumables as Blizzard intended initially but they'll be used only for the "fully potted attempts." For anything else you can moderate consumable use by mixing and matching the other elixirs/food/oils.

Flask or elixir would hit the tanks, a lot. Flask vs elixirs of mastery, brute force, major agility, major defense, our very elixir of fortitude. I wouldnt complain, though

This would explain why Gruul and the like weren't changed in this patch. If they are redoing consumables, it's only fair that they re-test the encounters with the new consumable rules too. Rather unfortunate, but there have been an awful lot of references to the next content patch of late so hopefully that's the next patch they are working on right now and it's closer than we'd expect.

My two cents to overhaul consumables:


#1. Long-term elixirs: Change elixirs to be a non-stacking replacement for class buffs. This would eliminate their raid utility while keeping them useful in soloing, heroics or 10-mans where you were missing a buffing class. No priest? Bring "Stam" and "Spirit" elixirs. Make them 10% weaker than the untalented class buffs.

#2. Mana Pots / Armor pots. Variable cooldown based on power, so that the MP5 of chugging Super pots is the same as chugging Superior pots. You can still use the Super pot as a last ditch "I need a big shot of mana right now" but then you can't drink another for 5 min. Reduce the sustained MP5 attainable by chugging these pots.

#3. More interesting situational pots. Pots should ideally be used to close the *execution* gap when learning an encounter not the *numbers* gap. The designers should create more pots that help avoid an oops, with a variety of very short term interesting effects, like Fade. Encounters should NOT be tuned for the use of these pots. To prevent reliance on them, these pots could have negative side-effects. Intelligent use and timing of these pots would require skill.

#4. Per-attempt buffs. Should be food only. Cooking is perfect right now. Good buffs for every class, easy to farm, no profession requirement, minimal competition over supply. Tune raids for a "well fed" group.

#5. Flasks. Just remove em. Cool idea, but cut your losses and kill em. Would it make the game worse or better?

#6. Zone-pots / zone-reagents. With a heavy cosumable nerf I am suggesting, alchemists might feel less useful. To compensate, the designers should add some new elixirs in the spirit of the karaz books: make boss kills drop a few zone-bound reagents that create minor zone-bound elixirs. This would add value to bringing an alchemist to a raid. Encounters should NOT be tuned for the use of these elixirs. As an extra twist, the quantity dropped by a boss could be related to the quality of the kill (number of attempts, speed of the kill, number of deaths, whatever) This would reward solid attempts, and could even serve as a "high score" type of thing to spice up farm encounters.

Part of the problem, Obould, is that dungeon set 3 -> tier 4 -> is not nearly as much of an upgrade as t0->t1->t2->t3 was, and in a few cases, the "lower" set has items that are actually better.

There has been mention of Blizzard doing work on the auction house to make it easier to find things. This includes adding in more sub-categories so you can narrow down your searches quicker. That could provide a different expanation of why there are suddenly categories against the potions. The quote mentions gems and enchanting mats, but consumables would seem like another candidate for improving the search on auction house if you just generally want some sort of dps consumables but dont know the names for example.

Hopefully that is not the reason and they are actively looking at limiting buffs and consumable use, but I guess we will have to wait and see.

Well alcohol should probably be in the food category. Any rum that can give me 15 stam should probably whet my appetite as well.

What about putting mana potions on a somewhat longer cooldown (say 3 minutes) and then introducing the following debuff:

Mana Sickness -- 3 min. duration -- You have consumed too much arcane energy recently and receive no benefits from elixirs or flasks.

I'm assuming here that a flask counts in one of the rumored elixir categories (as all they are is "big" elixirs -- they share the 3s elixir drinking cooldown and can proc Elixir Mastery.) This would effectively put potions into the same category as elixirs. If you want to chain-chug mana potions, you can do that -- they will effectively "count" as your one elixir. If you are using an elixir but need an on-the-spot boost, you can chug a pot and lose your elixir effect for the potion cooldown. If you are using a flask (because you're just that leet) then you're taking a much larger hit for a small short-term gain -- i.e. the flask would probably win out in most cases, as it should, just due to the cost-inefficiency of chain-chugging potions.

This would give three avenues for consumable buffs:

1 buff from food or alcohol
1 buff from enchanting/blacksmithing (oils and stones)
1 buff from alchemy (elixir OR flask OR potion use)

Compare that to my current loadout if I'm full-bore DPSing:

Flask of Relentless Assault
Elixir of Major Agility
Elixir of Mastery
Fel Strength Elixir (AP)
Elixir of Major Strength
Warp Burger/Grilled Mudfish
Rumsey Rum Black Label
Elemental Sharpening Stone (they work on druid staves YAY)

And I could even chain-chug mana pots to keep up a powershifting routine, but I've gotten lazy.

Going from 8 consumables and chain-chugging pots to three, or two with chain-chugging...that wouldn't be too bad. Tanks save even more.

/pray