Essence As a Core Game Mechanic

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Qarl wrote:

we wanted to keep the Essence items in Path of Exile, though at a lower frequency. The occurrence of Essences will be around one sixth of what it was.

There were several balance tweaks we wanted to make to the mods offered by essences:

• Essence of Woe now gives slightly lower values of flat energy shield, % increased energy shield, and spell damage on the higher level brackets of the essence.
• We are reducing the Decay damage from Essence of Delirium. This will be retroactive, as it will affect all instances of Decay.
• We are reducing the Socketed Gems have 20% more Attack and Cast Speed on Gloves from Essence of Insanity.

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Coal48 wrote:

"

Qarl wrote:

we wanted to keep the Essence items in Path of Exile, though at a lower frequency. The occurrence of Essences will be around one sixth of what it was.

There were several balance tweaks we wanted to make to the mods offered by essences:

• Essence of Woe now gives slightly lower values of flat energy shield, % increased energy shield, and spell damage on the higher level brackets of the essence.
• We are reducing the Decay damage from Essence of Delirium. This will be retroactive, as it will affect all instances of Decay.
• We are reducing the Socketed Gems have 20% more Attack and Cast Speed on Gloves from Essence of Insanity.

DAMN, that's harsh, haven't played the league but I guess I'll just get a extremely watered down version of it

And again, I ask, why did Talisman and Perandus not make it in the final game?

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Qarl wrote:

Essence league started in early September 2016. It was an encounter-based league that had crafting items (that is, the essences themselves) as its reward.

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The Essence crafting items are designed to give players some more control in crafting.

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... provide a broad and powerful set of tools for crafting rare items going forward.