Alchemy!

[Kage]

So, I was on Krest, getting bored and wanting to do something, so I made his third talent Alchemy. Then I saw something. You can transmute with a philosopher stone. Instantly I thought of Full Metal Alchemist and so I bring this post up. Where as it would not be possible to start going around and clapping your hands to make what ever you want, would it be possible to create things out of other things? And if so, perhaps make a new class of fighters who just use alchemy to fight with.

/shrug The idea popped in meh head and so I figured I'd post it up and see.

[Piroska]

Strictly abiding from what we see in-game, transmutation appears to be the process of transforming one substance (or multiple substances) into an equal amount of another. It would be difficult to somehow utilize this as a form of combat since I don't see a lot how it could be beneficial.

"Oh no! An opponent is attacking me and all I possess on my person is a single nugget of pure gold! Unfortunately, gold is soft and won't help me. -- wait! I shall transmute it to a less malleable material and then throw it at the dastardly person! *plunk!*"

There would most likely also be constraints in how often you could do such a transmutation, thereby reducing its effectiveness in combat. While the cooldowns on transmutations are considered an in-game mechanic, it seemed that most of the people that spoke in this old thread on transmutation liked the idea of having in-character limitations.

[Kage]

Well, if one has watched Full Metal, you would have seen Alan, the older brother, transmute the ground into a weapon such as a spear and his arm into a punching dagger. Where as we don't have working arms in WoW, perhaps one trained in such things could make there own weapons. I'm not saying they change the ground into a massive wall that cannot be destroyed, but simply allow a weapon change/being able to make your when when needed.

[Piroska]

Except that, in-game, transmutation does not appear to alter the shape of the materials. At best, materials become bars if I remember correctly.

[Krent]

I think what Piroska's getting at is that the alchemy in WoW, specifically that related to transmutation, doesn't allow for an individual to radically alter the molecular structure of an item instantly. In FMA, characters have this ability, thus letting them do all that cool stuff like make giant stone walls and spears from the ground.

But, in WoW, you won't be able to turn a block of wood into a wooden sword, or a chunk of iron into a sword. You might be able to transmute one substance into another substance (i.e that Gold - iron thing Piroska pointed out), but at the end of day, you'll still end up with a lump of whatever.

If ya wanna turn that lump into something combat-worthy, you'll need to take it to da smiiiiiiiiiith.

[Reigen]

Transmutation for alchemy is very limited. You turn one object into the same object of different make. Gold becomes silver. A iron sword becomes a silver sword. You don't turn a sword into a rock, nor a rock into a sword.

[Piroska]

Ah! But what if you wanted a sword made of rock, Reigen? Then it would be perfect!

[Reigen]

...Well there are stone swords in game...

Hrm!

[Ben]

You could carry around a sword made from, say...foam. And transmute it into steel when needed.

That's all I came up with.

[Binkleheimer]

Wouldn't work.
Since foam has very little density (especially compared to iron).
So, you'd either get a very hollow ironfoil sword or a very tiny iron sword.

[Kage]

Well in that sense.. Couldn't alchemy be used to turn copper into gold?

[Aadora]

Well, if one has watched Full Metal, you would have seen Alan, the older brother, transmute the ground into a weapon such as a spear and his arm into a punching dagger. Where as we don't have working arms in WoW, perhaps one trained in such things could make there own weapons. I'm not saying they change the ground into a massive wall that cannot be destroyed, but simply allow a weapon change/being able to make your when when needed.

What do you mean by that?

[Kage]

Robotic arms like Alan has. The auto mail.

[Aadora]

Annabelle has a fake arm.

[Kage]

Wait.. WoW has auto mail!?