Jistuma

@Heero, all the finished potions have more then 18seconds. Even the Moderate healing potion gives Regen II for 25 seconds (gives 10 hearts) or instant 8 hearts. Yes they have side effects, but for example, a moderate celerity potion gives Speed II and gives -1 dmg (half a heart). -1 dmg is removing 1/4 of the Orc buff (Weakness debuff is weak as hell, level II weakness only does less half a heart damage, that's going to be fixed in 1.9 making it -2 heart dmg per level.).

And those are only the Moderate potions. Stoneskin potion leaves you partically immortal but you can't jump for 3 mins. Healing gives you 16 hearts and 20 seconds slow. Accuity gives speed II and Jump II for 2 mins with Hunger V (you have to eat a lot to run a lot). Alchemist fire creates lava where the potion lands, meaning it has the potential to cause a lot of damage to an enemy.

Besides the abuse of using Stoneskin potion with a horse, all other potions I believe are pretty well balanced. Yet it's for balance that I take a while to add new potions. Example, how am I going to balance Speed III or IV? Can't be poison or wither because it kind of breaks the use of speed. I can make it that the drinker gets more damage, but then players will think it gives resistance. Mining fatigue is useless, slowness doesn't work if you have speed, and nausea doesn't actually do much besides annoy. Blindness stops sprint jumping. What remains is hunger, weakness, instant damage and maybe the reverse resistance (more damage instead of less).

As someone that was part of a group that wanted to be alchemists and really focus on supplying them to the community we found that 1) the ingredients are far to rare and hard to come by and 2) because of the rarity, prices for potions would have to be high to make it worth the time, and who really wants to spend 300 Minas(or more) to use in ,say, banditing someone on the street?

the current rarity and pricing of potions makes it hard to justify its use in everyday PvP and makes you want to use it in high stakes battles, like a war. 

However, 99% of war claims make potions illegal, so it really makes them useless. 

They cant deny potions if one side wants them due to them being a nexus thing.

But yeah, the important regents are too rare. Speaking as an aengulic alchemist with all? of the recipes it is much too difficult unless you have an entire team supplying you that completely focuses on getting them.