Alchemist

Razzil Darkbrew the Alchemist is a melee strength hero whose alchemical prowess makes him a strange but versatile fighter. He is an unusual carry based upon transmuting fallen enemies into large amounts of bonus gold, with both an early game and late game presence due to his large health pool and the first strike nature of his spells. His low but balanced attributes and the sure promise of gold for items means he can be one of the most disparately built heroes in the game.

Unstable Concoction is his main contribution early on, dealing good damage and a lengthy stun. Acid Spray allows him to rapidly clear waves of creeps for his Greevil's Greed to contribute massive amounts of extra income. A well-equipped Alchemist can then use Chemical Rage to its fullest effect, as the incredible regeneration and base attack time reduction make it one of the best steroid abilities in the game.

Gameplay
Synthesizing extra resources from each and every kill, Alchemist has no trouble gathering the tools needed to destroy his foes. Ambushing enemies with corrosive acid and a host of unstable chemicals, he battles to ensure his greedy escapades can remain uninterrupted.

Recommended items
Starting:
 * es and a, along with a allow Alchemist to take a bit of damage while going for last hits.
 * es are very cheap and give small attribute bonuses.

Early-game:
 * give a nice movement speed boost.
 * gives Alchemist's low starting armor a nice little boost.
 * gives some armor and health regeneration. It builds into.

Core:
 * gives a damage boost and the phase active works well with movement speed bonus to chase opponents.
 * is useful on Alchemist because health regeneration counters the item's health draining effect.

Situational:
 * allows Alchemist to be uninterrupted in his attacks.
 * is a good pickup since Alchemist can get it very quickly with, when the burn damage hurts the most.
 * lowers enemies' armor, which stacks with the armor reduction from . It also provides a useful aura to the rest of your team.
 * provides a useful aura and uses a as one of its components.
 * forces enemies to think twice about fighting back against Alchemist.
 * increases Alchemist's attack speed greatly, and also gives a useful Static Charge to protect Alchemist or his teammates.
 * goes well with Alchemist's high attack speed, and helps greatly in securing an enemy. It also gives bonus attack damage and greater survivability providing bonus HP and blocking damage from incoming attacks.
 * gives some strength and evasion, and also gives the ability to disarm a threatening enemy.
 * gives Alchemist a massive amount of health. Combined with the health regeneration from, Alchemist is extremely hard to take down.
 * grants Alchemist invisibility to brew up his . He can break the invisibility by attacking the enemy for additional bonus damage and at the same time launch his concoction.
 * allows Alchemist to further reduce the armor of his enemies, makes it easier to fight them with his Ultimate, and allows him to further support allies.
 * is a natural upgrade to, and as such it should be purchased as an upgrade after Shadow Blade itself.
 * serves as a cheap, permanent upgrade to Alchemist without using any inventory slots.

Tips

 * An early point in significantly increases Alchemist's gold income. Putting your first skill point into it can gain you a 300 gold advantage if your team can secure the first bounty rune.
 * Smart opponents can make it difficult to land by juking and avoiding your vision, causing the backfire. It may be better to use it immediately when an enemy reaches the treeline, even if you lose damage and stun duration.
 * Fully brewed, is one of the most potent stuns in the game, in both damage and stun duration. The enemy is able to see your timer. It is imperative that you either start channeling within range, or channel a few seconds of the concoction from within fog before revealing yourself. This ability is most devastating to low armor heroes who almost take its full damage upon impact, especially if they are softened up by.
 * Stack the jungle camps often, or ask one of the supports to do it for you, as gives lots of gold when killing large amounts of creeps in rapid succession. Use  and  to clear stacks quickly.
 * Use to dissuade enemies from defending their towers, or pushing into yours.
 * If playing mid, you can use to push the wave before you pick up the rune every two minutes.
 * Feel free to use for its healing effects; it even regenerates its own mana cost over the duration, and even more if you have percentage bonuses for mana regeneration from items like  or.
 * When is on cooldown, Alchemist is extremely squishy due to his poor strength gain and low armor.
 * If you are in a tight spot and have no way to escape with low health, use to deny yourself if possible.
 * is the strongest single target DPS booster in the game (giving a 70% boost in DPS at level 3). This means that Alchemist scales very strongly with attack damage boosting items, however at the same time Alchemist does very little damage without such items. This means if Alchemist is going to contribute into team battles down the road, it is imperative to get yourself some attack damage.
 * With, it is possible for Alchemist to farm ancient creeps safely early on. This, combined with can (if used efficiently) give Alchemist incredible amounts of gold over time. It is not uncommon to have have expensive items like  or  by 14 minutes with this strategy.
 * Beware of heroes like, and . They can remove the little armor you have, making you even more vulnerable and easy to kill. This is especially true in the case of Lifestealer, since  helps him break you down.
 * Though unlisted, is a very good item and valid alternative for Ring of Basilius for Alchemist, helping add both armor and mana regen, as well as increasing damage dealt by physical attacks and spells as well.
 * It is important to understand that the Base Attack Time change of does not alter the value of attack speed, either up or down. You still want to have a good mix of items that give attack speed and damage.
 * His ultimate greatly benefits from 's Ultimate: allowing him to reach the highest attack per second of the game.
 * By far the item that gives the most DPS for Alchemist is, he benefits a lot from the attack speed of the item and triggers the lightning very often.
 * Since is a potent healing ability, it is better to get more armor over health as it increases his effective HP (against physical damage).

Trivia

 * At one point during beta, Alchemist's bio consisted entirely of the following sentence: "Alchemist is named Al and is a chemist."
 * Alchemist's third ability name remained unchanged from its DotA counterpart until after the Diretide event, when it was changed from "Goblin's Greed" into "Greevil's Greed."
 * The Ogre's portion of the Caustic Steel cosmetic set may be a reference to Master Blaster from Mad Max: Beyond The Thunderdome, while the Alchemist's armor and hair are most likely a reference to Edward Elric, one of the two main protagonists of Fullmetal Alchemist.
 * 's Acid Spray.mp3 sound effect has the same reprocessed sound of war2 Oil-platform.wav Oil Platform building from game Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness, created by Blizzard.
 * One of Alchemist's last hit lines Alch lasthit 01.mp3 "Only ninety eight percent pure?" is a direct reference to AMC's TV series Breaking Bad.
 * Another of his last hit lines Alch ability goblin 01.mp3 "Greed is good." is a reference to Gordon Gekko's speech in the 1987 film, Wall Street.
 * Alchemist's line for picking up a Alch haste 02.mp3 "Run, buddy, run!" may be a reference to Forrest Gump, since sometime in the movie there is a line "Run, Forrest, Run!"
 * Alchemist's leveling line Alch level 05.mp3 " Better living through alchemy!" is a reference to the phrase "Better Living Through Chemistry", a popular variant of a DuPont advertising slogan which later became a common phrase.