The Essence-ials of Drops

Dear GGG/Exiles,

TLDR: Need better loot. Don't increase loot, instead improve existings tools. Specifically, improve Essences (existing system) by adding Alteration Orb effect. Inclusion of such a powerful new sink is deflationary in nature, and good for POE2 economy, while increasing player engagement and experience. Easy to balance in future since single nexus point of optimization. Loot increase not needed.

Currently, there are threads abound about low-drop rates. I tend to agree, but do not wish for there to be an outright increase in raw loot. An increase in loot just means more ferrying of useless items. I want to spend more time mapping and playing the game, less time inventory managing. And when I want to craft, I want to have better tools at my disposal. Therefore I beleive that the real issue at hand is the usefulness of the loot that is dropped juxtaposed against the available tools we have at hand to make use of those drops. I would also like to point out that one of the missing crucial tools we had in POE1 but lack in POE2 are alteration orbs... I will get to this in a bit. Amongsts these competing factors lies an elegant and controllable solution that GGG has already developed... ESSENCES.

In Essences lies the functionality for them to roll -- and here I propose the new idea: reroll -- items. Why would this be good?

1) Essences are a prime vehicle for inclusion of the missing Alteration Orb effect of POE1, and I daresay would be an improved system welcomed by all. As instead of mindlessly spamming alt orbs as in POE1, you can do a more targeted craft of an item.

Would this be too OP - a targeted Alteration Orb? Possibly, but this can be more easily controlled by including limitations (such as max rerolls, certain item restrictions, etc.)
This is an easier balancing act than increasing the raw amount of loot or currency that is currently dropped or their intrinsic power levels. This reduces the amount of variables that need to be optimized, while utilizing an existing system and solution that is already developed. This would also have a positive effect on the POE2 economy by being deflationary to current existing essence quantities. With a system such as this one, you could even envision a world in which there are even less drops & clutter. This is how powerfully deflationary this idea can be.

2) There needs to be a more effective sink and market for Essences. As is, they are a 1 and done, and the drop rate (while small to begin with) easily outnumbers their usesfulness outside of a limited pool and niche scecnarios when "attempting" to craft. I think GGG realized this last wipe by implementing the corruption mechanic, which is great as it increases the usefullness of working with essences, but it doesn't address the limitations of the existing system. By introducing this alteration orb effect to both lower or greater essences (or maybe just lower?), you add an intended item sink to the game, while also availing the concerns of those who bemoan the lack of crafting in POE2.

In the current POE2 environment, you are hardly incentivized outside of a few yolo scenarios to use lesser orbs. They end up becoming a late game gamba of converting into Greater. I beleive this system can be better utilized and better utilization of this system can have immediate and far reaching implications in some of the existing optimization issues in POE2 0.20 with regards to economy & drops.


Crafting can exist in POE2 and it is at all of our fingertips!

Why I care - I've always been a huge essence fan, I like the game play and slower pace it offers. I went all in on essence towers last wipe (which was economicly subpar relative to other methods), and am doing so again this wipe. It seems like they can play a critical part of the crafting scene as well with this added change. You've spent all this time adding a beautifully targeted crafting system, and I'd love to see it used to its max potential.

I want to end by saying I've loved my poe2 experience thus far, and have been excited about each incremental update. Please help me in getting this in front of the developers.

Best,

So what u propossing is that essences were used as an alteration orb rerolling a blue item but forcing on it the essence mod...

Well.. Thats not a bad idea I guess.
It would give essences at lest a worthy use.

For high grade essences Im guessing u would like them to work as an old chaos orb but with 1 granteed mod.
That has at lest a use as a crafting system combined with fractured orbs at lest...

And them are not as common as alteration or chaos were used to be, so u will probably save those for endgame crafting.

Not a bad idea. +1.

Did I get u right?

"

Sarke#5416 wrote:

So what u propossing is that essences were used as an alteration orb rerolling a blue item but forcing on it the essence mod...

Well.. Thats not a bad idea I guess.
It would give essences at lest a worthy use.

For high grade essences Im guessing u would like them to work as an old chaos orb but with 1 granteed mod.
That has at lest a use as a crafting system combined with fractured orbs at lest...

And them are not as common as alteration or chaos were used to be, so u will probably save those for endgame crafting.

Not a bad idea. +1.

Did I get u right?

You absolutely got it right! I hope there's plenty of discussion to be had on how much of an Alternation Orb effect should be introduced here, but I see no better vehicle than Essences for this introduction in POE2. Additionally, if we care to just have a random-weighted true Alteration Orb, we can easily implement it into the game by inclusion of a "white" Essence as well.

Additionally, maybe instead of a guaranteed Essence mode, is more of an increase towards weights dependent on the Essence used. But this type of limitation would only be needed if we wanted to increase the average amount of Essence a player would need to use to get an intended result. This would be a logical step if it was found to be too OP.

Chaos orb crafting currently adds +1/-1. Idea would be for Essesnce to completely side-roll items, with the potential to have weighting towards the chosen Essences Affinity.

PSA: Portals are not used up by returning to town, Only when you die.

Altogether, you have some insightful comments/improvements to make a big problem maybe a little better.

Another idea to b explored for essences is replace 1 mod of a blue item at random for the essence mod.

So it would b a 50% of taking out the mod u dnt like in a blue item and get the essence one.

Onviusly the same mod cant b apllied twice.

There should b a restriction. A item can only have 1 essence mod so if u use another essence it will always replace the same mod.

For greater essences, them would do the same in yellow items. Replace one mod at random for the one in the greatter essence.

And if u use another essence it will always replace the essence mod.

So doesent matter in wich process u use the essence. IT will only have 1 essence mod at maximum.

Ha, I've been making it harder on myself this whole time! You learn something new every day. I'll edit my post to fix this misconception!

"

Sarke#5416 wrote:

Another idea to b explored for essences is replace 1 mod of a blue item at random for the essence mod.

So it would b a 50% of taking out the mod u dnt like in a blue item and get the essence one.

Onviusly the same mod cant b apllied twice.

There should b a restriction. A item can only have 1 essence mod so if u use another essence it will always replace the same mod.

For greater essences, them would do the same in yellow items. Replace one mod at random for the one in the greatter essence.

And if u use another essence it will always replace the essence mod.

So doesent matter in wich process u use the essence. IT will only have 1 essence mod at maximum.

You are coming up with some great balancing ideas, and I love them. There are plenty of ways to keep a system such as this one balanced if the base proposition - gives Essences the ability to reroll - is accepted.

Similarly, there are ways to buff crafting from White -> Rare items as well. Make the first White -> Blue Lesser Essence roll a buffed roll, at which point Blue -> Blue spamming is statistically weaker, and similarly make Blue -> Rare Greater Essence roll a buffed roll, at which point Rare -> Rare is statistically weaker.

I like this, at end game when essences become a little more frequent the number of normal good bases items are very little, at least with the reroll effect of essences we would be able to try and hit the mod most suits us.

+1

We seriously need a way to reroll magic items. Using essences for that would be an improvement.

whatever system they come up with, it MUST have a reasonable chance of actually producing something desirable. as it stand right now the crafting "feels" like it produces garbage way more often than something useful. for example i swear chaos orbs are hard coded to simply reroll the most desirable mods while leaving things like light radius and accuracy immune to change.