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.

Tips

 * An early point in will significantly increase Alchemist's gold income.
 * Smart opponents will 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. While the enemy cannot see your timer, they will still be able to see the "shaking" animation (Alchemist shaking his vials) and hear the sound if you cast it while they had vision over you. 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.
 * Use to dissuade enemies from defending their towers, or pushing into yours.
 * Feel free to use for its healing effects; it will even regenerate its own mana cost over the duration, and even more if you have percentage mana regeneration from items like  or.
 * Avoid skirmishes if your is on cooldown, especially in the early/mid-game stage when you have few items.
 * 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 ancients 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's 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.

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 Caustic Steel cosmetic set may be a reference to Master Blaster in Mad Max: Beyond The Thunderdome. Master Blaster was a ogre like human with a metal helmet that covered up his face with a dwarf on his shoulders. He also coincidentally threw explosives.
 * '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.
 * When Alchemist last hits a creep, he would sometimes say " Alch_lasthit_01.mp3 Only ninety eight percent pure? ", this a direct reference to AMC's TV series Breaking Bad.
 * When Alchemist picked a Haste Rune, he will sometimes say " Alch_haste_02.mp3 Run, buddy, run!", which may be a reference to Forrest Gump, since sometime in the movie there is a line "Run, Forrest, Run!"
 * When Alchemist is using his second ability he sometimes says better living through alchemy, which is a reference to the phrase "Better Living Through Chemistry", a popular variant of a DuPont advertising slogan which later became a common phrase.
 * The cosmetics for Al in the Caustic Steel Set are a reference to Edward Elric from the Anime and Manga series "FullMetal Alchemist"