The essence of Essences coming to upgrade your Heart of Azeroth in Patch 8.2

As we head to Nazjatar to fight Queen Azshara and save our planet, we’re going to need to upgrade our necklace — the Heart of Azeroth. Remember the Netherlight Crucible and all the options we had for upgrading our Legion weapons? Coming in patch 8.2 will be a similar — but different — system for upgrading our necklaces. This customization is called Essences.

What are they?

An Essence is an item that drops from a variety of sources as you continue the Battle for Azeroth. When the patch arrives, there will be an introductory quest line which opens a major slot on the Heart and opens the Heart Forge in Silithus — you know, that place we’ve been going to with Magni as we work to stabilize the planet.

We will be collecting Azerite to level the necklace from 50 to 70. There are stamina increases at 52, 57, 62, and 67. Each increase is 3% for a total of 12% when you reach 67. Who wouldn’t like 12% more health? All powers are passive, meaning you don’t have to click a button to use the enhancements.

In the introductory quest line, Magni is going to teach us how to use these Essences. Each Essence has a major and a minor power. You’ll get the screen above when you go to put an Essence into your necklace. In order to learn an Essence to your neck, you’ll need to go to the Heart Forge. Once you’ve learned it, you can use a Tome of the Quiet Mind while out of combat to change your Essence. The only restriction on Essences is you have to be level 120 to use the system. Your necklace does not have to be at maximum level — 50 — to use them.

Essences have four levels:  uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary. Some of the enhancements will be increased damage and stats, but there are also buffs, damage reductions, additional charges to attacks, shields, etc. If you place an Essence of rare or epic quality in a major power slot, you’ll have access to the major and minor powers for that essence. If you choose to use it only in a minor slot, you’ll only have access to the minor power. Uncommon Essences have one unique ability for your role. Legendary Essences are strictly cosmetic with special procs — think the cloak procs from Mists of Pandaria.

How do you get these?

There are six Essences which are useful to everyone. After those six, each spec has an Essence just for them. When we complete the introductory quest line and unlock the forge, everyone gets their first Essence — The Crucible of Flame. The traits on this Essence will automatically unlock as you level your necklace. This is a damage dealing Essence with more damage applied the higher your necklace goes.

Other Essences — both general and specific — drop from all Battle for Azeroth content. There are general Essences from Island Expeditions, completing Nazjatar content, Operation Mechagon dungeon, and rated and Nazjatar specific PvP. Spec-specific Essences will also drop from the Eternal Palace raid, Mythic Plus dungeons, and Nazjatar and Mechagon reputation. Essences come from completion of a quest, or obtaining an achievement, or getting exalted with the two new factions.

If you want to plan ahead as to where you’re going to have to go to get the Essence you want, our friends at WoWHead and Icy Veins have put together tables of what each Essence is, what its major and minor powers are, and where you can get it, as well as suggested Essences for each spec. I cannot answer the question of whether these are tradable or can be sold on the Auction House as the Relics were. Unfortunately, Blizzard continues the idea of forcing non-PvP people into PvP by placing some Essences within that area. This is extremely frustrating.

This is the essence of Essences. Fortunately, we all get one once we do the introductory quest line. That will help make more sense of this new system. The Netherlight Crucible was confusing when it first opened, but then we got used to it. Check out the tables linked above so you can plan what content you’ll want to do when Patch 8.2 arrives.