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)
- Essences get re-rolled into different Essences of same Tier
Using Vaal Orb always worth when mob has cheap 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 level of modifiers 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.
Another important thing, Perfect Essence cannot be used on item that has same type of modifier than Essence provide, so for example if Staff has +4 to Cold Spells, you can't use Perfect Essence of Sorcery to replace it with +5 to All Spells.
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, then you can use Omen of Dextral Crystallisation which ensure than Perfect Essence will remove only Suffix modifier.
- 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, or use Omen of Dextral/Sinistral Crystallisation to remove Prefix or Suffix when using Perfect Essence.
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.
This list has examples of good uses for each Essence, but it doesn't mean it's best Essence to use overall, meta changes, rebalance and so on.
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, since you rather try getting high %ES from Abyss.
- 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.
- Perfect Essence is very good option for good budget Weapon.
- So for example, you managed to get Rare Weapon with high %Physical Damage and Flat Damage and empty Prefix, then you take Omen of Dextral Crystallisation with Perfect Essence of Abrasion, which add Extra Physical Damage to Prefix and remove random Suffix.
- While Extra Physical Damage isn't as good as having hybrid %Physical Damage purely for DPS, it has benefits. Some attacks convert all Physical Damage to Elemental, making it impossible to Leech without using uniques, but with Extra Physical Damage on Weapon, you add Physical Damage to those skills allowing you to leech with them without using anything else.
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, or want to get Extra Lightning/Cold/Fire Damage to apply Ailments.
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 specific type 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, but it compete with Hybrid %ES/Flat ES.
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 use for Support builds that for example use
Blasphemy, 
Overwhelming Presence and other stuff. - 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 +3/+5 Levels on good Weapon is insane, and it's also Suffix unlike regular Essence of Battle which is Prefix.
- So using this Essence with filled Suffixes has no risk of removing Prefixes, and you just get +5 Levels, on weapon without 6 Mods, you probably should use Omen of Dextral Crystallisation to make sure Essence only remove Suffix.
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, +5 Levels on Staff.
In 0.4 Perfect Essence of Sorcery can no longer be used on Focus to get +3 Levels.
- 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 it compete with Cast Speed or Crit Chance Essence which are usually better choice.
- Perfect Essence is kinda meh on Wand or Staff, +3 on Wand is low, +5 on Staff is maybe ok, but if you have good Wand/Staff with no Levels, then it's definitely worth trying.
- For Example if your Wand/Staff has 2 very good Suffixes (Usually it's Crit Chance/Cast Speed) and 1 bad Suffix, you have 33% Chance to get +3/+5 Spell Levels instead of that bad Suffix.
- Or if you have Wand/Staff with 2 good Suffixes (again, Crit Chance and Cast Speed), empty Suffix and bad Prefixes, you can use Omen of Sinistral Crystallisation that ensure this Essence will remove random Prefix and add +3/+5 Spell Levels.
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.
- 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. But it's usually worth using because why not.
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, while atleast you can get something decent without risking.
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 unless you're on Hardcore.
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. Or use Omen of Sinistral Crystallisation in case you have 2 Good Prefixes and don't want to risk them.
- 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 realistically you use it only to craft Body Armor for yourself.
17. Essence of Horror (Suffix, Effect of Socketed Items)
Used on Gloves or Boots that grant modifier "60% 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: Thorns Damage.
The Greatwolf's Rune of Claws: Physical Damage on Gloves per socket.
Courtesan Mannan's Rune of Cruelty: Magnitude of Damaging Ailments.
Thane Grannell's Rune of Mastery: Magnitude of Non-Damaging Ailments.
Fenumus' Rune of Spinning: Cast Speed.
Farrul's Rune of the Chase: Movespeed.
Soul Core of Tacati: Chaos Resistance.
Estazunti's Soul Core of Convalescence: Increased Speed of Recoup Effects.
Serpent Talisman: Curse Magnitude.
Talisman of Sirrius: Attack Speed.- Few other socketables are decent, but not as impactful.
- Plus newly added socketables that might be very strong with this.
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!
