Most RPGs allow players to consume potions or enhance their gear with temporary buffs, but the effects are too menial to be worth managing. The Witcher 3 does this right, granting meaningful benefits from potions and oils with deadly consequences.
Witchers have the ability to consume toxic potions that would kill most normal people, letting them gain insanely strong effects like slowing down time or healing their wounds in seconds. Those who love this mechanic can double down on it with the Alchemy tree in The Witcher 3, allowing for a range of bonuses that can enable certain builds. Conversely, some skills and effects are not worth making a build around. Here are 5 great Alchemy builds you can use in The Witcher 3 and 5 builds you should avoid.
10 Great: Bomb Throwing
While most would consider Alchemy to be the creation and consumption of potions, the Alchemy tree also allows for bomb crafting and special bomb-related bonuses.
With the right arsenal, bombs can be just as viable as using swords in The Witcher 3. Perks like Pyrotechnics make bombs deal significantly more damage to enemies. This can also be combined with Cluster Bombs to have bombs fragment into smaller explosions when thrown, allowing you to deal insane amounts of damage against anything weak to the bomb you’re throwing.
9 Avoid: Poison
Part of the Oil Preparation tree is the ability to coat your blades in poison. While this sounds fun, making a build around this unique mechanic isn’t the best idea.
At max rank, Poisoned Blades grants your blade a 15% chance to apply poison to a target on each hit, provided it has an oil applied. The poison damage amount is not worth scaling on its own, with most of the damage from the ability coming from the oil you chose to use. It is a great support skill, but its unique mechanic doesn’t hold on its own for a build. Now if you decide to stack multiple damages over time effects without Alchemy, you have a potentially overpowered build. It just doesn’t work well for Alchemists.
8 Great: Potion Stacking
With how powerful potions and decoctions are in The Witcher 3, making a build around the brewing aspect of the process isn’t a bad idea.
Brewing focuses on enhancing your potion effectiveness while allowing you to consume more potions, making this an essential tree for any build. Heightened Tolerance is the star of the show, granting a 25% increased overdose threshold, allowing you to consume an extra potion or two. This can be enough to allow multiple superior potions like Thunderbolt and Blizzard to stack, granting you absurd levels of damage output.
7 Avoid: Adaptation
Mutating Witcher DNA is partly why Witchers are so good at slaying monsters. Just like most things, there is a skill tree dedicated to this concept that allows Geralt to get a leg up on his contracts.
One such skill is Adaptation, extending the active duration of all mutagen decoctions by 50%. With how insane decoctions can be, having them last longer sounds like an amazing idea. The issue is that using potions in conjunction with this will require resting to refill your potions. When you meditate in The Witcher 3, your buffs expire, meaning that this bonus is near useless if you plan to use any other buffs, which is the whole point of an Alchemy-focused build. Stay away from builds using this skill.
6 Great: Tanky Alchemist
While oil-heavy builds aren’t the best in The Witcher 3, some of the skills tied to the art of crafting them are some of the strongest in the game.
Protective Coating grants Geralt 25% damage mitigation against monsters that the oil is meant to grant a bonus towards. If you run oils that deal extra damage to Neckers, for example, you will gain damage resistance against them as well. This is fantastic for laying the foundation for a tank build, utilizing life-leeching decoctions and vitality regeneration to always stay at maximum health.
5 Avoid: Sign-Focused Alchemist
Signs are some of the weaker builds in The Witcher 3 since they can not crit without mutations and have poor scaling. Surely Alchemy can help with that, right?
Yes and no. There are ways to scale Signs with mutations like Magic Sensibilities, but the majority of potions and skills around Alchemy benefit swords, not magic. You can absolutely make an Igni build and do most of the game’s content with it, but you’ll have a hard time on Death March with no oils, critical potions, and having to use certain mutations just to scale your Sign strength. It’s best to focus solely on Signs or do another build entirely.
4 Great: Killing Spree
Since you will be consuming plenty of potions as an Alchemy build, making a critically-focused build isn’t too hard to do thanks to the Killing Spree skill.
This bonus in the Trial of the Grasses tree will grant a 50% critical hit chance bonus for every enemy slain so long as your toxicity stays above 0. You can begin fights by consuming Superior Thunderbolt and Blizzard to gain infinite stamina and absurd critical hit chance. Combine runes that grant critical damage and you can take out entire camps of armed soldiers by yourself. Whirl is also fantastic with this build, letting you repeatedly strike targets that surround Geralt.
3 Avoid: Bleed
Damage over time has the capability of being powerful in The Witcher series since it can stun targets, but focusing solely on one is not a great idea for an Alchemist.
Similar to poison, many damages over time effects don’t benefit from the kind of benefits potions give, such as increased damage, Sign intensity, or slowing time. Unlike poison, there aren’t even any skills Alchemists can use to benefit this damage over time effect, meaning you’ll have to invest into other skill trees to make the damage manageable. At that rate, why are you using Alchemy?
2 Great: Euphoria
“Blood and Wine” introduced many Mutations for players to experiment with, but arguably the most overpowered one added was Euphoria.
This mutation makes any Alchemy build work, making every point of toxicity increase damage and sign intensity up to 75% base. Note that the 75% cap is its base cap, meaning that this can be scaled through Acquired Tolerance and other skills. With superior potions, useful decoctions, and skills mentioned in other previous builds, Euphoria-focused builds can combine the tankiness of tank-focused builds with the insane damage critical builds gain, all while increasing the strength of Signs. This is the best build in The Witcher 3, hands down.
1 Avoid: Hybrid Alchemy
Any build that splits its focus between Alchemy and another skill tree or playstyle will have a hard time. Alchemy has too many skills that need to be invested into for it to be good hybrid potential.
Alchemy revolves around consuming potions and decoctions while keeping your toxicity under the maximum, else Geralt will die. Skills that revolve around Alchemy grant more toxicity resistance, extra bonuses, and powerful benefits while your toxicity meter is high. Scaling melee or Signs takes many skills already, so having to forgo some essential skills like Heightened Tolerance, Side Effects, or Killing Spree makes hybrid builds have a hard time doing well until the endgame, which will be outclassed by Euphoria Alchemists anyhow.
NEXT: The Witcher 3: A Guide To Getting Each Ending
