Depends on the cooldown, doesn't it? They could even do a "Inflicts Potion Weakness (50% decrease in effectiveness, cumulative) on use" part, and remove any cooldown, effectively limiting you to the power of two pots in one fight which should not overpower it. Having a "until combat is over" cooldown would also make it work similarly (at the benefit of just consuming two pots). Or perhaps an "On Use: Duplicate the effects of the last potion used."

It is quite an interesting idea, given the right constraints.

The new Alchemy buff (called Mixologist) only affects elixirs and flasks.

Which doesn't address the fundamental issue. Blizzard are trying to reduce consumability dependence, which isn't itself a bad thing, but the way they're going about it is reducing the moneymaking potential of crafting professions by reducing the number of things you can sell. That isn't healthy. If there's not enough items worth making for profit, it inevitably leads towards people taking professions for the minimaxing perks - which is exactly what Blizz are trying to negate with effects like Tinnitus.

My take on potion sickness, if it's going to be included: the debuff should be temporary - between 3-5 minutes; I favour towards the lower end of the range - and instead of preventing potion use entirely it should reduce the effect (or duration, if it has one) of potions by 10%. If you drink another potion before the debuff wears off, the duration is refreshed and the debuff stacked. This would make chain-chugging less desirable, but at the same time not screw you completely if you have to take a second pot for whatever reason. And if you can hold off on your pot for long enough, there's no drawback at all - thus encouraging players to manage their resources more effectively.

Honestly, what makes you think they want potions in the raid game at all? They've obviously been more of a burden to raiding than anything else for *years*, when it's plainly obvious that they're designed as more of a situational "oh shit" sort of thing. Why the burning desire to shoehorn them into the raid game?

Without potions, Alchemy will only be able to sell Elixirs and Flasks, which is apparently not enough for alchemists to make money. (Worse still, elixirs and flasks might be available through other channels in somewhat-below-needed levels, meaning that there will be a reduction in people's use of elixirs.)

The problem seems to be that the "money-maker" for Alchemy worked primarily by making other players leap through hoops to manufacture money so that it could be given to Alchemists, because otherwise it wasn't possible to do things they actually do. Increasing raiding's money flow and reduces its money drains make raiding a mostly self-sustainable lifestyle. End result is that, like PvP, raiding ends up not requiring that you level an alt to go pick flowers or that you do dailies for an hour or two a day. I don't really see how a reduction in Alchemy's money-making viability is going to do anything but bring it closer to other professions. (Making other professions as profitable means that people need to do more work, because even considering that everyone will have improved income, everyone will also have at least 2-3 times the spending to get the Blacksmith-only service, the Tailor-only service, etc.)

Of course, I also don't really believe the hype about other crafting professions not making money, either. Selling nethers at a measly 50g-100g a pop fairly early on was enough to more than pay for the cost of leveling Blacksmithing, my Enchanting pre-BC was usually good for 10g tips on any pattern it had taken me longer than ten seconds to rustle up, and overall, the worst part was that I had to advertise both occasionally and actually find/buy patterns. (I AH'ed most of the patterns I acquired, and most paid for themselves and then some. The most extreme example was a Felsteel Reaper pattern that led to my getting paid a 2700g crafting fee from somebody, but the rest was all just normal exchanges. "You can make Bracers of Awesome?" "Yeah." "How much?" "100g for the nether/craft, you bring the other mats." "That's steep." "Darn." "Okay, meet in Shatt?")

In the end, the worst that happens is you decide Alchemy is not a viable money-maker because you can only provide Elixirs now, and you switch to another profession (or dailies) for your money-making instead.

What do you think would happen to alchemy if they remove potions from raids? Keep in mind that they are already removed from arenas, and flasks can be attained free from raid drops meaning the use of crafted flasks and elixirs are already reduced?

I think we need to, instead of criticising, come up with some constructive ideas that are balanced and will help Blizzard out with the obvious problem they have with alchemy.

Why not change potion sickness to a debuff that "reduces the effects of potions by 50%, stacks 2 times. Lasts 5 minutes"? That way you can use a potion every 5 minutes with full effect, or a second potion 2 minutes after the first with half effect. Will this make such a difference that you will be *required* to use a 50% pot every 5 minutes? I wouldn't have thought so. 50% of a potion is quite a small buff, but it might be enough if used in a clutch moment. It also gives a strategy to using potions instead of chugging them every 2 minutes

No, it really doesn't. It means you chug every 5 minutes instead of every two if the fight is 6 minutes or more, or chug every two if it isn't. All you've done is situationally modified the cooldown. It's still a dumb mechanic.

Hell, they're still not clever with the potion sickness debuff, but that's acceptable because they're an "oh crap" button.

I reiterate: I do not care what happens to alchemy.

I have been an alchemist, and I made 50g or more every day simply by pressing a button in Org and then going to the AH, listing my earthstorm diamond, and buying a few primals and gems to get my mats back so I could do it again tomorrow. I never sold a single potion or flask and did quite well out of the profession - obviously your economy may vary, but transmutes should always be a steady low volume (almost passive) money maker.

However, even if all the transmutes are useless, I will still not care what happens to alchemy, because alchemy is not more important than raiding. I will wholeheartedly support any measure that makes raiding more fun if the only cost is to make alchemy less profitable/viable. Swapping professions is easy. There is no option to swap to a raid game without consumables.

All that alchemy needs is to give it 5-6 best-in-slot, upgradeable BoP trinkets (come up with clever names and give them interesting but-not-consumable-dependent effects) and voila, mains will be alchemists.

I did the math for my proposition a few posts back, and it hovers between 50-60mp/5 if you chug current mana potions as often as possible, as opposed to the current 100mp/5 with only a 2min cooldown. I was going to post it, but then I re-read most of the thread and realised I'm arguing against what most people want. Most people want raiding changed to not require or allow multiple potions to be drunk.

I personally like that it requires quite a bit of preparation to raid (in a kind of Role-play way I guess). Makes it feel more epic. I am an alchemist purely for my own benefit and I farm all my own consumables. I used to run BM tribute, hand in zg heart and get every known consumable for loatheb tanking back in the day. I guess these days of requiring raid preparation are passing...

There was nothing epic about farming 50 stacks of dreamfoil 3-5 times a week. That level of preparation several times a week gets old incredibly fast, and looses all meaning. If such things do add to the "epic" feel of some raids it is perfectly possible to do them without the millstone of consumables around our necks. I am sure there must be a few good ideas for prep beyond resist gear and consumables.

The idea of ZG heart / ony / nef heads is kinda cool. Hard to work the current mechanic into the actual preparation that makes sense for a raid.

I can easily see that being developed along with timed events; "Beat X bosses in Y time and you get an npc spawn to buff you for Z boss"