[TBC] Alchemy Flasks - New vs OldFollow

There's 5 new Flasks in the expansion, two of which are outstanding and two of which are situational. The last one, Flask of Mighty Restoration, could see a lot of use depending on how harsh raiding is on casters mana pools. Only time will tell for sure, but right now I'd wager that Flask of Fortification and Flask of Relentless Assault will be the new primary raid consumables.

Of the old Flasks, I think only the Flask of Supreme Power will see continued use in the expansion. Petrification and Chromatic Resistance were always a joke, while Distilled Wisdom and Titans will become largely obsolete.

If the Flask recipes can be 'discovered' by making potions then eventually all alchemists will be able to make all Flasks. As Fel Lotus is randomly added to other herb spawns it will be generated constantly unlike the Black Lotus which was hard to seek out. The limiting factor on Flasks is likely to be the Mana Thistle (10 is used in each Flask) or the Netherbloom, Dreaming Glory, Terocone, Nightmare Vine and Ancient Lichen (20 of one of those used per flask). For anybody planning to run a TBC raiding guild I'd start stocking up on Fel Lotus, Mana Thistle, Terocone and Ancient Lichen from day one.


Any other thoughts and opinions on Flasks?


Flask of Fortification
Description: Increases the player's maximum health by 1500 and Defense Rating by 30 for 2 hour. You can only have the effect of one flask at a time. This effect persists though death.
Comments: Direct replacement for Flask of the Titans, 300 more health and 30 Defense rating makes this superior. Expect to see it used extensively by tanks in new raid content.

Flask of Relentless Assault
Description: Increases the player's attack power by 360 for 2 hour. You can only have the effect of one flask at a time. This effect persists though death.
Comments: Finally a Flask for rogues, hunters and DPS warriors. This will see a lot of use for any encounters where max DPS is needed, especially if threat management is not an issue. The Onslaught Elixir only grants 60 AP for 1 hour, so the Flask is far better.

Flask of Shadow Fortification
Description: Increases the player's resistance to shadow spells by 75 and health regeneration by 40 every 5 seconds for 2 hour. You can only have the effect of one flask at a time. This effect persists though death.
Comments: In fights with a lot of shadow damage this would help players reach the mitigation cap and also restore 2400 health in a 5-minute fight or 9600 health in a 20-minute fight. The health/5sec seems fairly week considering size of health pools in TBC and the far cheaper Major Trolls Blood potion which gives 20 health/5sec for 1 hour. Basically this Flask seems highly situational.

Flask of Arcane Fortification
Description: Increases the player's resistance to arcane spells by 75 and health regeneration by 40 every 5 seconds for 2 hour. You can only have the effect of one flask at a time. This effect persists though death.
Comments: As per Shadow fortification.

Flask of Mighty Restoration
Description: Increases the player's mana regeneration by 70 mana per 5 seconds for 2 hour. You can only have the effect of one flask at a time. This effect persists though death.
Comments: Theoretically restoring over 100k of mana, in practise most of the duration will be consumed out of combat and at full mana. For a 5-minute boss fight the flask will give 4200 mana, for an 'end boss' type fight of 20 minutes it's 16800 mana. It will shine in long multi-wave encounters or where many bosses are cleared in quick succession without lots of trash pulls in between. Superior to the old Flask of Distilled Wisdom altough it doesn't provide the instant mana restore. The old Flask of Supreme Power will still remain an attractive choice to casters for any fight where they don't expect to go out of mana. Elixir of Major Mageblood only provides 16 mana/5sec so the Flask is far better.

Rated up for good info and thoughtful critique. Thanks!

Question: Is there an Alchemy Lab in the Outlands that isn't in a raid or dungeon? Would hate to have to run BWL/Scholo just to make flasks in the expansion.

Thanks for the reply Morth, definitely great news.