Discovery

From WoWWiki

You have a small chance to discover a recipe from a specific list of discoverable recipes every time that you perform a transmutation or that you make a potion, elixir, or flask that was introduced in the Burning Crusade. The discovered recipe is learned automatically. Non-factors include physical location, level, and skill level.

When you discover a recipe, your character will perform an animation, and a message describing your discovery will be visible to nearby players of both factions.

Discovery of Cauldron Recipes

The Cauldron recipes will only be discovered when making a related item. For example, producing enough Major Shadow Protection Potions will allow you to discover the corresponding Cauldron of Major Shadow Protection. It appears that discoveries of cauldron occur with a much higher frequency than other discoveries. Comments on Thottbot for the cauldron recipes report that only 1-5 batches seem to be required before the discovery is made. One estimate for the discovery rate is 30%.

Note: there appears to be no Cauldron of Major Holy Protection.

Discovery of Non-Cauldron Recipes

For the non-Cauldron recipes, the following requirement applies:

• It is generally believed that you can only make a discovery when using a Burning Crusade recipe.

Alchemy Myths

Based on reported examples of discoveries:

• You don't have to be physically located in Outland
• You don't have to have a mastery
• You don't have to have 375 Alchemy skill
• You don't have to have reached level 70
• You don't have to use a yellow or orange recipe (even grey recipes have been reported to trigger discoveries)
• You don't have to be making a related potion (for example, to discover Flask of Shadow Fortification, you don't have to make a Major Shadow Protection Potion or Elixir of Major Shadow Power).

It is believed by many alchemists that transmutations are discovered while transmuting and that new potions and flasks are discovered while making potions, flasks, or elixirs. However, there are several reports of discovering a transmutation recipe while making an elixir or potion, and vice versa. It may be the case that the item made doesn't affect what is discovered at all, or it may be that the chance of discovering a new transmutation is reduced when making a potion.

The exact chance to discover a new recipe is not known, and cannot be known without disclosure from Blizzard or extensive analysis collected from logs. From discussion on the official World of Warcraft professions forum, and via comments about the recipes on third-party web sites, most players believe the discovery chance is tiny. One estimation was 0.01% prior to patch 2.1. In the patch notes for 2.1, the discovery rate was described as being increased significantly. However, the new chance is still not known. One estimate is 0.1%, but there is no evidence for that number.

Immediately prior to the release of patch 2.1, Blizzard introduced a hot fix to prevent discoveries from occurring. This was reportedly to prevent an exploit where alchemists who repeatedly tried to create potions with no bag space would still make discoveries even though no potion was created nor potion ingredients consumed.