I agree, the blackstone simplification has no real downside especially since you get them in the same places, but the trace/fruits and the rumored meat simplification is going to have biggers problems and ruins diversity in the game. Just because something is easier does not mean it is better, complexity makes things interesting.

Simplifying black stones and Jetina stuff was a great change. Simplifying traces and fruits was not, as it simply removes the variety from nodes and farming, while also completely tanking the market for alchemy products. They could have simply increased the availability of some fruits instead of lumping them all toguether. Now we will have an overabundance of potions and elixirs tanking the prices down, and more dead content in the game. Nobody asked for this...

While yea, it did tank the market of elixirs, you are not mentioning how crafting these items are now cheaper. That's easier on all alchemists, whether you grind, gather or use workers. This change may actually make it easier to profit from Imperial Alchemy, which is what I hope they are moving towards.

They did mention wanting to make it more viable, and as the prices of materials (fruits and traces) continue to dip, with elixir prices, that becomes more viable. Even a small buff to turn in value (% from Alchemy mastery) will continue to make it more viable. If elixirs become so abundant on the market, there's a possibility that people will crate them up. Granted, it's much harder to hit Guru turn-ins, but Master is somewhat in reach. It won't be as good as cooking, and may never, but it's a step.

Speaking as a Guru 50 cook and Guru 28 Alchemist. I'm not complaining, give me my storage back, thank you. My only annoyance is redoing my recipes (lol), but I think I'll manage.

It's wack because it's not like they are going to make all wood the same, all ore the same. Even tho by that definition they should. I also don't think this is at all going to fix the shortage of fruit and traces haha. We shall see about that.

The problem was it was hard to get fruit and traces to do real deal alchemy. They should have changed how gathering them works or make them drop more as trash. Adding in trash drops of traces has helped a little. Getting traces while gathering, etc, I was asking for that for awhile. Until you can buy what you need, the system is broken, and I don't see how this is gonna help that much. It depends on how many people do alchemy, I guess.

It does take away a lot of flavor.

Personally, I think people who want alchemy to stay "flavorful" should be requesting something different. Instead of flooding the game with an endless amount of materials, these afk tasks as a whole should be reimagined. Alchemy should be magical puffs of different color smoke, active gameplay methods of stirring and sprinkling ingredients. I should be able to create an entire alchemy themed room in my house with shelves that have my material THERE not in my town storage, a separate storage from the rest of my loot, with vials and diff bowls of colorful dusts scattered around me on the tables that I can click on and manually sprinkle in. Something... anything... would be more fun and entertaining for Alchemy than just "Well now we have 10 diff goos taking up your storage alongside everything else this game throws at you".  Heck, instead of going out and gathering the material like normal, during alchemy little colorful bugs should flitter around my house that I can take out a net for and collect, then toss into my cauldron. I want colorful candles, astronomy to be relevant in some way, moonlight and sunlight casting chandeliers that I have to angle down on the cauldron to give it "Trace of Moonlight" instead of some goo I got from a node.

I wish this thing I have hovering over my alchemy set would do something instead of just being pretty.

Idk, I want fun in bdo. Not an overcrowded storage.

(also I'm not saying the afk method should be removed if they did this though. Lots of people like bdo because you have the choice to progress afk. I just think this should be an added on thing to make it more interesting, increased yields, something more than just more materials pushed into the same storage...)

I would be cool if there was a "green thumb" for alchemy like there is for gathering. It should have be a toggle as well... in case you don't want to use it and want to have a non-interactive experience 

I've not experienced the "green thumb" feature yet, I've only read it discussed on forums a little bit but have yet to look into what it is. But if it is similar to what I was talking about then yeah it sounds interesting and should indeed be optional. However, I think it's strange they chose to add another element of active gameplay to a feature that was already active gameplay (gathering isn't afk unless you count water collecting). Why choose gathering to add this feature instead of alchemy or cooking...?

I don't want to lose bdo's afk aspect just for the sake of added on gameplay. Then it would just feel more like a chore than actually fun. It has to be implemented correctly (though in bdo's case maybe it's already too late because the game is so used to how it has always been).

Many players may not see it as more fun but simply more work. I'd love it as an optional thing, with benefits to make it worth doing, but doesn't make afk obsolete.

Edit: I suggest it because, I can't tell you how many times I sit here watching my wagon loop and I'm just thinking, "I wish I could play bdo right now. But I simply can't because I have to get these horses leveled." If I do anything else in the game I feel like I'm wasting time I could have spent looping the wagon to get horses leveled faster. If I'm not leveling horses, then I'm not getting a chance at an imperial steed, and then I'm not getting a chance at mythical feathers since they don't sell on marketplace except maybe once every other month. Dailies only take a second and I hate Grand Prix. Somewhat unrelated to alchemy, but my point is every afk feature in the game should have a viable, fun active method for those of us who want to actually play...

I think it sucks traces are no longer sellable on the market and have all been reduced to 500 silver.

This isn't true. You exchange all other Traces besides Trace of Nature with the black spirit.

Alchemy is mentioned here. I will say this: this change is a big plus for alchemy. Fruit and traces had very different prices, which influenced what was profitable and what was not profitable to produce. After change, it does not matter which oil or elixir I produce because cost of materials has become the same.

Additionally, the only sensible way to obtain large amounts of fruit is to collect herbs. But you get fruits randomly this way. Now this will no longer be the case, so the harmful RNG will disappear.
The same applies to traces as drops from mobs. Individual traces were assigned to specific zones. Now we can play wherever we want because we always get the same trace and, in addition, each item box will also give us the same trace from melting items.