Essence league is excellent and should be rolled into the core game in some form

I disagree with op.

The essences were nice for a challenge league, but they just take up too much damn space.
If they were condensed, with only three tiers, and could stack to something higher than 9, maybe. Or maybe make a premium tab able to convert to an essence tab, that organizes and can hold all your essences. Maybe.
But as they are now? Not a fan going forward. Too much of a clusterfuck.

Don't get me wrong though, I liked this league. Just for making the chaos receipe easier, the essences have been great. But the system itself is just so damn.... WhyCantIHoldAllTheseEssences.jpg

did not play much this league (atlas exploration incentivized standard anyway)

but from what i see right now:

- essences removed rares from the game. the drop ones.
essences seem to be very common thus allowing spam-crafting (calling random spam crafting is abomination..) cheaply. no reason to pick yellow items in maps if one is looking for upgrade. essences are easier way to do that

- leveling is 'all rares' right now. i do not know if it is bad or not but it is like removing childhood from the game. the short yet interesting period of exploration and growth. this is style thing but i do not like it

- essences are very shallow. what they are used for? ES crafting. ES chest crafting. ES shield crafting. ES helmet crafting. noone cares about this 'top' life roll because this roll means nothing in practice. there are few other mods (like guaranteed %fire damage on rings, +2 fire gems on bows and few other) but these are just that - few mods. there is nothing NEW out there. only strictly better than other options

- strongbox playstyle gets old after a while. playstyle that means little as ranged characters run away from the mobs immediatelly and ignore 'the trap'. while melee guys are AGAIN put at risk.

- stash space. it couldnt be more obvious incentive to more stash tab purchases.


items essences grant are in most cases BETTER than old ones (ES items in particular, life items noone cares) with very few DIFFERENT/NEW concepts. this does not solve 'unique BiS' situation at all (and ES items were always rare ones, not unique), this does not make rare items more impactful. it makes FEW rare items - obtainable only via luck rng 'craft' - more powerful. but not rare items in general, no.

i wouldnt add essences into the game - i would add some mods into the rare pool instead and move on. but pretty please - axe the obscene ES mods will ya?

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RagnarokChu wrote:

Personally I think the game needs more shit, add every single zana mod/league mod into the base game.

Engine cant handle it, remember when they did some flashback league they had to turn off some feature (rampage?). And yeah, I agree, core game needs more stuff added in.

One very easy way to enable more content is to make Zana free already. Paying for actual game content got old long time ago, and that bullshit will have to end eventually. May as well end now.

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scale_e wrote:

The essences were nice for a challenge league, but they just take up too much damn space.

That's by design.

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sidtherat wrote:

- essences removed rares from the game. the drop ones.

Bingo!

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sidtherat wrote:

- essences are very shallow.

Minion stuff was a nice touch, the rest of essences was ES crafting or "roll some shit on a bow, so I can use Soul Strike". I'd add minion life and speed into mastercrafting options, delete everything else and forget Essence league ever existed.

It was a very weak league, indeed. I'm ready for a good league next time. It's been too long.

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sidtherat wrote:

what they are used for? ES crafting. ES chest crafting. ES shield crafting. ES helmet crafting.

I really like essences but that's a thing that bothers me. Why do some mods go above T1 and others don't? flat physical damage (essence of contempt) is only T2 on a T7 essence.

Top tier essences are hardly spammed even in the parent league, and only through heavy trading.
Once the essence spawn rate gets nerfed when implemented in perma leagues, it would be even harder. The destiny of essences will be of an expensive chaos orb with limited supply.