Alchemy - strength of pots going *down* as I level up?

[pmsc]

Hi everyone! I've been levelling up my alchemy recently in order to make the strongest fortify enchanting potions I can so I can get the best enchantments on my gear. However I've noticed that lately the higher I get, the *lower* the strength of my enchanting potions seem to get! For instance, a few levels ago I was getting pots worth a 21% bonus for 30s, but the latest I made are now only worth 12% using the same ingredients! How is that possible? Other potions I use for earning gold (damage magicka regen, resist frost/fortify stamin etc) seem to always be going up in strength.

My only thought is that I'm levelling enchanting at the same time by collection lots of soul gems and enchanting everything I get from smithing, so perhaps the bonuses offered by the potions are constant, and so the % given will naturally go down if my alchemy level isn't raising as fast as my enchanting (which it isn't).

Anyone have any insight? This isn't ruining anything for me (and I can still one-shot pretty much anything in my daedric gear), just want to understand the game's mechanics better for my next playthrough.

 

[murdaface]

hey there, you kinda lost me on your theory, as my brain functions on a one track slow pace elementary level, but here is what i know. your enchanting and smithing levels have nothing to do with your alchemy potency / strength. however, if you are wearing any gear, such as a ring or amulet, with the enchantment "fortify alchemy" on it, your potion strength will increase while the said gear is equipped. maybe you had on a similar piece of gear the first time you had a higher %

 

[murdaface]

welcome to the forum by the way! you will like it here. everyone is cool, an most people are smarter than me and can help you with almost anything

 

[pmsc]

Both times I've been using the same set of enchanted gear when mixing potions so it's not that. What I mean with my theory is this...

Say my enchanting "skill" (whatever number the game uses to decide the strength of enchantments) is 50 and I mix a potion that raises this value by 10. The game would then display this as "new enchantments are 20% stronger (since 10/50 = 20%).

Later on I've levelled my enchanting up so my "skill" value is now 70. Again I mix a potion that raises this by 10, but now 10/70 = 14% so I get a potion that seems less powerful than what I mixed before, even though it's essentially the same base strength.

As I said, my "alchemy outfit" is the same, as are the ingredients I'm using, so that's the only explanation I can think of for what I'm seeing, as my alchemy has been increasing, but my enchanting has been increasing *faster* so the strength of my potions *relative to my base enchanting level* is actually *decreasing*.

At least that's the theory. I'd love to know if anyone has experienced anything similar or contrary to me.

 

[murdaface]

well my friend, i can not confirm or deny that theory, but do you know about the fortify restoration potion buff (aka glitch)?? there is a thread on this forum about it. i think if you search for "infinite damage exploit" it will pop up. i found two videos on the subject, neither of them provide a flawless explanation, but if you decide to try it, i can email you the detailes instructions if you want. i use it but i keep it to a sensible maximum, since you can easily make your character invincible, the game can lose its fun factor.