I'm still small here so can't contribute much, I just threw in all the items individually and got them out again to see which ones could be suitable for what... I'm only interested in damage and life, at the moment I can only say the Mana Shell and Flying Iris are the best items for troop damage for Barracks.
If one manages to brew a potion with the increased Critical Effect Chance stats, are those stats including Critical Effect carried over into the Sorceress' learning phase, or is this feature optional to use when using the potion?
Another question, once you've gotten into the learning phase, can you go in there every week or do you only get into the learning phase when you've managed to make a new potion?
I know that maybe nobody can really answer that yet, but well, maybe someone can?