I can see how firelord is very abuseable, when in 4v4 3 people meet at a tavern and one of them can get to level 3 just off of the spawn battle.
I havent had the chance to try him out much, but alchemist didnt seem to be a very good early hero. The healing he offers at level 1 is nothing.
Theres just something about ultimates like charm, and transmute that i dont like. They can be very useful in FFA game where you have plenty of time snipe units for money or gather forces above the 100 mark, but in 1v1 or team battles, they just dont add up to ultimates such as animate dead, or meta where your almost guarenteed unit kills.