dotnet54 wrote:

yes alchemy level does not decide the things that can be compounded, theoretically lvl 1 alchemy also can give a very good compound

alchemy level decides the "chance" or probability to get higher level items

generally the higher the alchemy lvl the higher chance to get high lvl compounds

but one important thing is many people have noticed that certain alchemy levels can increase the chance to achieve certain levels of compounds easier

rawr have a post about this in forum
http://wlodb.com/topics/253