I am a level 98 alchemist with 3 master and 1 expert alchemy tools. I occasionally see in the game a standard or elite health potion. It will restore something like 50 hp in 3 sec. When I make my own potion its always closer to 5 hp per sec for 60 sec. Can I make standard health potions?
Nope, the standard ones require a full lab to make. You can't make them with just the four basic alchemy pieces. That's why your potions don't sell for as much as the standard potions. Still, with your skill and pieces you should be doing more than 5/second. I have about 75 alchemy and I heal at 14/second for 30 seconds or something like that and I'm just using journeyman stuff.
Unfortunately we have no idea how to fine-tune alchemy. There is (I think) something like a GMST for the general power of player-mode potions, but we can't control the powers of the particular effects (the magnitudes have no effect in game). At the moment, player-made shield potions are way too strong, and player-made health potions are way too weak (just to name two examples). If we vary the GMST, either of these problems may be solved, but the other one will worsen.
I think your shield problem is solved by how rare it is to find ingredients with shield. You've got 2 that I've found and one is very rare. The other is fairly common. It's hard to find metamana or whatever it's called. I have a 40% shield spell with it, but I"m very careful when I blow a shield pot.
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