Okay time to give my feedback on the alchemy changes now that I've tinkered a bit with it for the last ten-twenty minutes.
To be blunt it doesn't look to me like the required xp per alchemy level was reduced
at all. Or if it was it was so minuscule that it doesn't even matter or have any major effect on the skill. I've checked and before when I made a post in the Alchemy thread I was level 550 and required 16,770 xp to gain a single level. Now at level 552 I require 16,820 to level, only two levels later. Only 50 xp more than at 550, not really helpful hate to say it.
Now onto xp per potion, it was barely increased. Before the increase it was:Water -> Awkward: 25 per stand
Awkward-> Speed: 50 per stand
Speed->Time Extension: 99 per stand
For a total of 174 per stand.
Now after the increase it's:Water-> Awkward: 27 per stand (2xp increase)
Awkward->Speed: 55 per stand (5xp increase)
Speed->Time Extension: 110 per stand (11xp increase)
Total of 192 per stand (18xp increase)
Again, to be blunt, not a lot of increase. It's very miniscule for the amount of work that you have to do to even get started with gaining xp.
Things one has to do for Alchemy:-Load three potions into stand
-Place netherwart into each stand
-Place potion maker in each stand (After potion sloooowly brews)
-Place extender/strength/splash in each stand (After potion sloooowly brews)
-Take potions out of each stand
-Drink and refill each bottle (Sloooow...), or replace entirely new water bottles in (Faster, uses up lots of sand/glass)
-
Replace bottles into every stand
So yeah... all that work and at level 552 I require 16,820 xp to level, or 88 brewing stands to get a single level. And it can take me quite a while to go through my 86 brewing stands through aaaaall the steps of loading, unloading, placing materials. It probably still only gets me 1 level for 30 minutes, at which point I could get more than 10 levels in that time for another skill at 552.
Which when you factor in that you're using up lots of glowstone, redstone, netherwart, and potion-making-materials (and potentially glass if you don't care to drink your potions and just /ci them and replace whole new ones) is barely any kind of reward for going through that many materials.
I can understand that alchemy is
supposed to be hard to level, but 1 level every
30 minutes for me at 552 is kind of ridiculous to me. That's only
48 levels a day if you're spending
all 24 hours of the day doing alchemy (Which no one is going to do).