So what are Essences?
Essences are special type of Currency that can be used to get specific type of Modifier on items, can be obtained from special Rare Mobs that are trapped in Crystals in Maps, or simply bought from other players.
Using Vaal orb on Essence
You can use Vaal Orb on Essence mob in maps to get one of those outcomes:
- No change
- Instant Essence mob release
- Additional random Essence added to that mob
- Upgrade Essence by 1 tier (Normal to Greater, Greater to Perfect, Perfect to Corrupted)
Using Vaal Orb always worth when mob has perfect essence, you have chance upgrading it to one of 4 Corrupted Essences, only 2 of which are expensive: Horror and Hysteria
Types of Essences:
- Lesser, found early during campaign, not worth using past campaign.
- Normal, those Essences get much higher values than Lesser ones in some cases, some of them worth using.
- Greater, those Essences get slightly higher values than Normal Essences, in some cases much higher, mostly used in endgame.
- All 3 Essences above used on Magic item to turn them into Rare with guaranteed modifier.
- And lastly Perfect, those essences work differently, they replace one of modifiers on Rare item with guaranteed modifier from that Perfect Essence.
List of available Essences:
- Essence of the Body (Used on Armor and Jewellery to add flat Life)
- Essence of the Mind (Used on Armor and Jewellery to add flat Mana)
- Essence of Enhancement (Used on Armor to add #%Increased Armor/Evasion/ES)
- Essence of Abrasion (Used on Martial Weapons to add flat Physical Damage)
- Essence of Flame/Electricity/Ice (Used on Martial Weapons to add flat Fire/Lightning/Cold Damage).
- Essence of Insulation/Thawing/Grounding/Ruin (Used on Armor and Jewellery to add #%Fire/Cold/Lightning/Chaos Resistance)
- Essence of the Infinite (Used on any Equipment to add flat Str/Dex/Int)
- Essence of Command (Used on Scepters to add "Allies in your Presence Deal #% Increased Damage)
- Essence of Battle (Used on Martial Weapons to add flat Accuracy)
- Essence of Sorcery (Used on Wand, Staff and Focus to add #% Spell Damage)
- Essence of Haste (Used on Martial Weapons to add #% Increased Attack Speed)
- Essence of Alacrity (Used on Wand, Staff and Focus to add #% Cast Speed)
- Essence of Seeking (Used on All Weapons and Focus to add #%Critical Hit Chance)
- Essence of Opulence (Used on Helmet, Gloves, Boots and Jewellery to add #% Increased Item Rarity)
- Essence of Hysteria (Has list of Modifiers it adds to specific type of Equipment)
- Essence of Delirium (Used on Body Armor to remove random modifier and add random Notable Passive from Skill Tree)
- Essence of Horror (Used on Gloves and Boots to remove random modifier and add modifier that grant 100% Increased Effect of Socketed Items)
- Essence of Insanity (Used on Belt to remove random modifier and add modifier that cause Belt to get two Enchantments on Corruption)
- Essence of the Abyss (Used on any Equipment to remove random modifier and add modifier called "Mark of the Abyssal Lord").
About Mark of the Abyssal Lord from Essence of the Abyss.
When used, it replace random modifier with "Mark of the Abyssal Lord", which guarantee that next Desecrated currency will replace that modifier, and modifiers you will get on reveal will have higher tier than modifier that Essence replaced.
VERY IMPORTANT ABOUT PERFECT ESSENCES!
All Essence modifiers are either Prefix or Suffix, it's important in case of Perfect Essences that used on Rare items and replace random modifier on that item.
So, for example:
- Perfect Essence of the Body grant 8-10% Maximum Life on Body Armor, this modifier is Prefix.
- If your Body Armor has 3 Prefixes filled, it guaranteed to remove one of those 3 Prefixes without risk removing Suffix.
- But if your Body Armor has 2 Prefixes and 1 Prefix is Empty, then there's risk that it will replace one of Suffixes with that 8-10% Maximum Life modifier.
- While it works other way around, if you have Body Armor with 2 really good Prefixes, 1 Empty Prefix, and Suffixes you not care about, you have lower chance removing one of 2 good Prefixes because Essence can remove one of Suffixes you not care about.
- So if you crafting with Perfect Essences, make sure your Prefixes or Suffixes are filled, so you not risk with removing other half of Mods. As long as your other half of Mods is important and you don't want to risk it.
Another Example:
- Perfect Essence of Sorcery that grant +3 Spell Levels on Focus, very strong, since normally focus roll only up to +2 Spell Levels.
- And you thought, what if i get really good Focus with +2 Levels, and just use that Essence that will guaranteed replace that +2 Levels with +3 Levels.
- And funny thing is, you can't use Essence on Item if that Item already has same type of Modifier as that Essences. So you can't replace low tier Life with high tier, low tier Flat Damage with high tier, etc.
List of best uses for each Essence:
All Essences other than Perfect used on MAGIC items, all suggestions for gear below are Magic items, and preferably you use essences on Magic items that have good prefix and good suffix. In some cases even one good mod is enough, for example weapon with high %Physical Damage.
1. Essence of the Body (Prefix, Life)
Regular Essence grant flat Life, Perfect Essence grant 10% Life on Body Armor:
- Amulet with +2-3 to Any Skill Levels with any decent Prefix, as result you get Amulet with +2-3 Levels and high Life which will cost a lot.
- Any Armor or Jewellery with High Resistance.
- Obviously Body Armor with Perfect Essence if you get like very good piece with good suffixes and 1-2 good Prefixes since that essence will replace random Prefix with that 10% Life.
- Maybe Gear with high Attribute, but it isn't as valuable.
2. Essence of the Mind (Prefix, Mana)
Regular Essence grant flat Mana, Perfect Essence grant 4-6% Mana on Ring:
- Maybe Amulet with +2-3 Levels as well as for Life Essence, but Mana stacking isn't really meta, so might be less valuable than Life.
- Perfect Essence used on Ring, as long as that ring has GG Suffixes and high tier flat Mana and 2 bad Prefixes, that grant you 66% chance to replace one of those bad Prefixes with 4-6% Mana.
Should be really good for Casters that only have 2 good prefixes that work for them: Flat Mana and %Elemental Damage.
3. Essence of Enhancement (Prefix, Defenses)
Regular Essence grant %Armor/Evasion/ES, Perfect Essence grant 20-30% Global Defenses on Amulet:
- Regular Essence kinda has no use on Body Armor, you really want t1-t2 %ES on your Body Armor which is higher than this Essence has.
- Maybe has some use on Gloves/Helmet/Boots, but still there's better options, even %Resist Essences are better almost always.
- Perfect Essence is good if you want to make Amulet for most ES possible, since that "Global Defenses" modifier doesn't block %Energy Shield.
Also in case you don't know, Increased Global Defenses = Increased ES, Evasion and Armor, all at once.
4. Essence of Abrasion (Prefix, Flat Physical Damage)
Regular Essence grant flat Physical Damage for Martial Weapons, Perfect Essence grant Extra Physical Damage.
- Obviously any good base Martial Weapon (Melee, Crossbow, Bow) with high %Physical Damage, even better if it has good suffix, like Attack Speed, or Crit Chance for Dex Weapons.
- Unsure about Perfect Essence, you basically get extra Physical Damage from your Physical Damage so its just more Damage i guess. Only worth using if you have good weapon with high %Physical Damage, high tier flat Physical Damage, and one bad Prefix that you hope to replace with this Essence, or empty Prefix with 3 Suffixes you not care about which has higher chance of success.
5. Essence of Flame/Electricity/Ice (Prefix, Flat Elemental Damage)
Regular Essence grant flat Elemental Damage for Martial Weapons, Perfect Essence grant #% Extra Elemental Damage.
- Currently Elemental Damage weapons are not really a thing at all, everyone using pure Physical Damage weapons. Not to say how bad are values on Greater Essence, for example Greater Essence of Electricity give Lightning Damage equal to only Tier 4 naturally generated Lightning Damage, which is terrible.
- Perfect Essence might have some use, if you playing Elemental build with Physical conversion.
6. Essence of Insulation/Thawing/Grounding/Ruin (Suffix, Resistances)
Regular Essence grant Resistances for Armor and Jewellery, Perfect Essences grant 26-30% Fire/Lightning/Cold Recoup, and Perfect Essence of Ruin grant 10-15% Physical Damage taken as Chaos on Body Armor.
- Obvious usage is high level base Armor with high flat Life, and especially with good Suffix like Resistance or Attribute. Same for Jewellery plus Cast Speed on Suffix and maybe high tier Flat Damage on Rings.
- Perfect Elemental Essences don't really worth using, Recoup for specific Element is very very situational, but might have use on hardcore if you want to craft gear specifically for one boss that does Elemental Damage.
- Perfect Essence of Ruin (it's Prefix), is obviously good for
Chaos Inoculation build, so you basically take 10-15% Less Physical Damage.
7. Essence of the Infinite (Suffix, Attributes)
Regular Essence grant Str/Dex/Int on any equipment, Perfect Essence grant 7-10% Increased Str/Dex/Int.
- Attribute stacking currently out of meta, but if you need Str/Dex/Int to get enough for required Gear or Skill, then why not.
- Perfect Essence is kinda meh because it's random 7-10% for Str, Dex or Int. So if you stack only 1 Attribute, its 33% chance for success just to get right Attribute on top of not removing good suffix.
8. Essence of Command (Prefix, Allies Damage)
Regular Essence grant "Allies Deal #% Increased Damage" on Scepter, Perfect Essence grant 15-20% Increased Magnitude of Auras.
- Regular Essence has really small number of usages, only on Scepter, either for Summoner builds or Support builds for party play.
- Perfect Essence has good but very niche use for Chronomancer support to reach 100% Slow with
Temporal Chains. Since that 15-20% Aura Magnitude works on curses with 
Blasphemy, you get full 15-20% Magnitude ignoring Less Curse Magnitude from Blasphemy, since its Aura Magnitude, not Curse Magnitude.
9. Essences of Battle (Prefix, Accuracy)
Regular Essence grant flat Accuracy on Martial Weapons, Perfect Essence (Suffix) grant +4 to Level of Attack Skills for 1H Melee and Bows, and +6 Levels to 2H Melee and Crossbows.
- Regular Essence is actual troll, everyone hate getting Accuracy on Prefix instead of Physical Damage, except maybe Huntress that get damage from Accuracy on Spear, but even that amount of Accuracy from Greater Essence of Battle is from 237 to 346, while normal Accuracy mod can roll up to 550. Worst Essence in the game, literally has no good use.
- However Perfect Essence of Battle is different talk, getting +4/+6 Levels on good weapon is insane, and it's also Suffix unlike regular Essence of Battle which is prefix.
- Ideally you want weapon with 3 Suffixes, so you not risk removing Prefixes with this Essence. So you just get high pDPS weapon with 3 Suffixes, use this Essence and you just get high pDPS weapon with +4 or +6 Levels, crazy strong.
10. Essence of Sorcery (Prefix, Spell Damage)
Regular Essence grant %Spell Damage on Wand, Staff and Focus. Perfect Essence grant +3 to Level of All Spells on Wand and Focus, +5 Levels on Staff.
- Regular Essence is decently good, on Wand and Staff that already has +# to Level of Spells, so getting high %Spell Damage is good use of that Essence. But not really worth on Focus because there's Perfect Essence that is much stronger.
- Perfect Essence is not really worth it on Wand of Staff, +3 on Wand is low, +5 on Staff is maybe ok. But getting +3 Levels on Focus is crazy since normally it only can roll up to +2.
- Simple and very strong example of using Perfect Essence of Sorcery, get Focus with High Energy Shield + Spell Damage, or Spell Damage + Elemental Damage + %Energy Shield with like 1-2 good Suffixes, then just slam that Essences, and you get giga Focus with lots of Damage and +3 Levels or high ES and +3 Levels. One of strongest Essences when it comes to value you get from it.
11. Essence of Haste (Suffix, Attack Speed)
Regular Essence grant %Attack Speed on Martial Weapons, Perfect Essence grant 20-25% Chance to get Onslaught on Kill on Martial Weapons.
- Regular Essence is decent, Greater Essence of Haste roll 23-25% Attack speed which is equal to normal Tier 2 of Attack Speed modifier. Worth using if you not need +# Levels from Perfect Essence of Battle.
- Interesting part about Greater Essence of Haste, is that on Bows and Crossbows you still get 23-25% attack speed while normally it can roll only up to 19%. Which makes this Essence best option for high end crafting for that higher than normal Attack Speed.
- Perfect Essence of Haste maybe worth it if you want to make Weapons specifically for clearing, since you get it on kill. Onslaught is buff that grant 20% Skills speed and 10% Movespeed for 4 seconds.
12. Essence of Alacrity (Suffix, Cast Speed)
Regular Essence grant %Cast Speed on Wand, Staff and Focus. Perfect Essence grant %Mana Cost Efficiency on Wand, Staff and Focus.
- Regular Essence is decent, Greater Essence of Alacrity grant fairly high Cast Speed, has same use as Essence of Sorcery. So you got Magic rarity Wand with +5 Levels and good prefix, then you have choice, either high %Spell Damage from Essence of Sorcery, or high %Cast Speed from Essence of Alacrity.
- But if you happen to get Magic Wand or Staff with %Spell Damage and +# Levels, then this is best Essence to use.
- Perfect Essence isn't great, on wand it grant up to 20% Mana Cost Efficiency which is same as
Efficient Casting passive. It useful mod, but there's just much better Suffixes you can get.
13. Essence of Seeking (Suffix, Critical Hit Chance)
Regular Essence grant %Critical Hit Chance for Spells on Wand/Staff/Focus, and flat +#% Critical Hit Chance on Martial Weapons. Perfect Essence grant 40-50% Reduced Critical Damage Bonus Against you for Body Armor.
- Regular Essence is decent, for Caster Weapons it add %Critical Hit Chance equal to T3-T2, but since its Suffix, it's compete with Essence of Alacrity that give %Cast Speed, and overall is just stronger.
- For Martial Weapons has better usage, but limited, since you not going to scale Crit Damage with Maces, plus again, it compete with Essence of Alacrity that grant %Attack Speed and overall is more valuable mod than Crit Chance in almost all cases.
- Perfect Essence is very situational and has very niche use, it will only help you running Waystones with Crit Mod, that's all. Just not worth using.
14. Essence of Opulence (Item Rarity)
Regular Essence grant %Item Rarity on Helmet, Gloves, Boots and Jewellery. Perfect Essence grant 10-15% Increased Gold on Gloves.
- If you have space for mods on gear and don't really need anything then worth using. Or if you doing Item Rarity Stacking.
- Also this is one of two Essences that can replace either Prefix or Suffix, since Item Rarity can appear on Prefix and Suffix.
- Perfect Essence is just troll, unless you actually going to farm as much gold as possible for lets say flipping currency exchange.
15. Essence of Hysteria
This Essence has list of modifiers for each type of Equipment, below some of better cases to use it.
- Thorns on Body Armor (Prefix) that has roll similar to Tier 2 of normal Thorns Mod.
- 30% Movespeed on Boots (Prefix), huge. But reminder, better to use it with 3 Prefixes so you not risk losing one of Suffixes.
- 25-29% Critical Damage Bonus on Gloves (Suffix) also decent.
- 19-21% Life Recoup on Amulet (Suffix) good if you going into Life Recoup.
- 43-50% Increased Damage with Bow Skills on Quiver (Prefix), equal to normal Tier 2 of this mod, really good.
16. Essence of Delirium (Prefix, random Notable)
Mod from this Essence is Prefix, on use it replace random Prefix (if item has 3 Prefixes) with random Notable passive from tree.
- Most RNG Essence in the game, considering how many possible outcomes it has. You have to be very very very lucky to hit right Passive on right Body Armor.
- And even then it will be nearly impossible to sell, because who search Body Armor with notable from this passive? Noone. So it's realistically only to craft Body Armor for yourself.
17. Essence of Horror (Suffix, Effect of Socketed Items)
Used on Gloves or Boots that grant modifier "100% increased Effect of Socketed Items". So simply any rune socketed into that item will get twice as much stats from runes.
List of good Socketable Items for this modifier:
Greater Rune of Tithing: 2 - 200 Thorns Damage per socket, and since we can drop non-corrupted Gloves and Boots with 2 Sockets, that's 4 - 400 Thorns Damage.
The Greatwolf's Rune of Claws: 10 - 24 Physical Damage on Gloves per socket.
Courtesan Mannan's Rune of Cruelty: 30% Magnitude of Damaging Ailments per socket.
Thane Grannell's Rune of Mastery: 40% Magnitude of Non-Damaging Ailments per socket.
Fenumus' Rune of Spinning: 16% Cast Speed per socket.
Farrul's Rune of the Chase: 10% Movespeed per socket.
Soul Core of Tacati: 22% Chaos Resistance per socket.
Estazunti's Soul Core of Convalescence: 20% increased Speed of Recoup Effects per socket.
Serpent Talisman: 10% Curse Magnitude per socket.
Talisman of Sirrius: 16% Attack Speed per socket.- Few other socketables are decent, but not as impactful.
18. Essence of Insanity (Suffix)
Used on belt, replace random Suffix with modifier that grant 2 Enchantments on Corruption.
- If you happen to have good Belt with good Prefixes, and 3 Suffixes, one of which is bad, and this Essence replace it. Then it's worth, otherwise, not really.
19. Essence of the Abyss
This is other of two Essences that can replace either Prefix or Suffix with modifier called "Bears the Mark of the Abyssal Lord".
- When you use this Essence on item, it will replace random Modifier (or specific Modifier if used with Omens) with "Mark of the Abyssal Lord" Modifier, that grant next Desecrated Currency to remove this Modifier.
- When revealing this Desecrated Modifier, options you will get will have higher Level of Modifiers than Modifier this Essence Replaced.
That's all for now, guide will be updated in future if something changes. If you find it informative, feel free to share!
