Raid time starts
Ready Check!
Fooded – flasked – and ready. ( or RL will start calling out people who’s flasks have fallen off)
Opps – Strats for new people on fight – 52 odd min left on my flask
3 attempts at Razerback
Get told to go on a 5 min break so we can get our heads straight- with 15 min left on flask
5 min Break is over. Ready Check!
“Who’s not ready!” Poke – Poke – Poke
Ready check! – Everyone ready
5 min left on flask
1st add pull is 4 mins on flask
So at what Point do you take your next flask? There is going to be an overlap of time, I could set up a mod to tell me what a flask is due to come off, but with the raid leader standing there going through the list of people who don’t have flasks you pop it because you don’t want to be caught not having one.
Sure it can be handy when your only raiding for 3 hours , but when you raid for 4 hours, thats 4 flasks with time overlaps .
You will probably end up losing at least 5 min on each flask so thats at least 20 mins. So that means that before the raid is called, and your are now on your 5th flask because you need to make up that lost 20 min with a new flask. Its progression raiding. You are Always flasked and fooded.
5 flasks for a 4 hour raid = aprox 125gold Ah = 11 dailys x 4 days of raiding
( unless you are doing Leviathon and then you don’t flask for that)
I fear that the flask will fall off mid boss fight and so I have to take it early – plus when the raid leader is checking flasks expiry times.
So yes it sounds like a moan about gold – but its a moan about the raiding effectiveness of 1 hour flasks.
Bring back 2 hour flasks!
( and besides now that they are 1 hour flasks people are charging more for the single flasks then a 2 hour flask was worth)
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You’re so right. I struggled to buy two hour flasks, now they’re even more expensive. I’ve stopped buying them now, and just make do with spellpower/mighty thoughts elixirs. But even then, I only drink at bosses. I need to level an alchemist 😦
I have an elixir master alt so getting flasks is not as big of a deal to me. Though on my server/faction at least – flasks now cost half of what they should have, if one divided the original price of 2 hour flask in half, so I’ve stopped farming/buying mats to sell flasks and now only make them for personal use.
but other then that – I’m in the same situation as you are – more often then not, I end up using 5 flasks rather then just 4. because I don’t want to end up unflasked midway through progression fight
And even though we don’t have draconian raid leaders checking time left on everyone’s flasks, I don’t want to risk even a tiny bit of underperforming. I understand where blizzard is coming from, in my old guild we used to have 3 hour raid nights so I would habitually waste an hour worth of flask each raid. On the other hand – this new system is not much better.
the only solution I can see is allowing us to refresh a flask mid fight, the way you can refresh inner fire or water shield etc, without putting it on the same CD as potions.
P.S. am I having a case of selective blindness or do flasks not show up among buffs on WWS? I was looking through the report for our last raid, analyzing my performance and realized that it didn’t show neither flask, nor a buff from my totem of wrath glyph O_O At least not that I could see.
Perhaps Blizzard could also implement a time stacking feature?
Instead of replacing your current time left, say 5 min, with the 60 min marker. They could make it so that its accumulative, say you have 5 mins left, you pop a flask, and it turns into 65 minutes, pop another flask right after that, and you have 125 minutes of uninterrupted flask time.
That would save the hassle of looking at your timer and worrying about whether to flask now or later
Funny that they cost more. When the flask nerf came, Blizz practically stated it was a way to reduce the cost of flasks on the AH. I guess their thought was that if they don’t last as long, then they can’t be worth as much. The problem is that the drop rate for frost lotus was reduced in a previous patch (though they may not have admitted it). It can take me an hour or more to find one. The cost of frost lotus is what will drive a price increase more than the duration.
As an alchemist, I saw this last patch as a nerf. Flasks lasted 4 hours for me and now it lasts 2. Also, if JC’ers and BS get can get extra stats from special gems or extra slots, then it would be nice if alchemists got more than the listed AP/SP/Stam from their flasks. Or let us make epic alchemy trinket with special herbs only found in ulduar or heroic naxx. I think this is another area where they will lose people to burnout if they don’t start changing things up.
Then again, when it was a 2 hour flask, and you knew the raid was going to finish in 30 minutes, didn’t you feel it was a waste to chug a 2 hour flask? I know I did.
I always pop my flask when the RL says ‘Let’s go’.
I don’t see that as a problem, and they shouldn’t either.
@Melissa. Alchemists get the Philosopher’s Stone trinket that increases the duration of their flask to twice that of everyone else’s. In other words, a saving of some 50 gold minimum a raid night.
I think that is a pretty good bonus, never mind the savings from Elixir Mastery (get lucky and get 4,6,8,10 flasks instead of 2).
@vlad.
I know. I’m an alchemist. I’d rather have a better buff than just an extra hour. I’m disappointed in the profession and an extra hour won’t change that.
@Melissa – Mixology increases duration AND EFFECT of Elixirs and Flasks. So our flask last longer, and is more effective, than the flask used by non-Alchemists.
@merlot – ohh nope raiders have to have the best 😛 The money is managable, just a bit more expensive then it used to be..
@leah you shoud find how many times a flask was taken in the WWS log by looking at browse – then Abilities and Buffs it will be amongst all there
@Sherry – I like that idea about the refreshing with extra duration – that way Id still get my 2 hour flask effectively… quick stick it in their suggestion box..
@mel/Vlad and Dorgol – nerf Alchemists! ( Kidding) So does that mean a flask of the frost wyrm means additional +spell power with mixology.. cause that would be awesome then everyone would be alchemists though – I have a alchemist that never did the speciallty quest( she is very scrub though) and her flasks do have increased duration, but say Guru’s Exlixor is +20 stats, it doesnt increase the effects when she has mixology..
Its not a bad deal for alchemists.. they can proc twice as much and it lasts twice as long as normal..
Before the patch came out I knew the prices would hike up for Ulduar and encouraged guildies to buy up before the patch. Not sure if anyone did other than myself.
Since my daughter is an herbalist and my husband an alchemist, I farmed my buns off before the patch. I bought 139 Frost Lotus which converts into 278 flasks. Most of them I’ve been selling and always keep a stash on hand for myself.
I think getting the double time span of the flask for alchemist is a fair bargain. If you get your flasks made, always make sure to get a Flask specialist so that you can enjoy the procs. Depending on your server its often cheaper to get the mats and have them made especially if you are fortunate to get a couple of procs.
I like not wasting 40 minutes on a 2 hour flask at the end of the raid. However, I am also finding that I forget to take a new flask when one runs out mid fight. And it can take me a while to realize that…