Do Essences Respect Metamods in Path of Exile?
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The short and direct answer is: no, essences do not respect metamods in Path of Exile. When you use an essence on an item, it will ignore any meta-crafting modifiers present (with the exception of the multi-craft mod) and re-roll the item’s modifiers. This crucial understanding is paramount for efficient and effective crafting. If you have invested in metamods like “Suffixes Cannot Be Changed” or “Prefixes Cannot Be Changed”, using an essence will remove these mods and completely re-roll the item’s affixes as if the metamods were never present.
This interaction can be a pitfall for the unwary crafter. The game itself provides a clear warning: “Failed to apply item: You can’t use this currency on items with a modifier that affects mod outcomes,” when attempting to use an essence on an item with metamods. However, this is easy to miss, especially when deep into a complex crafting project. This rule applies to all essences, meaning any attempt to utilize them on an item with a meta-crafting mod (excluding the multi-craft) will result in losing the pre-existing metamod and a new roll of affixes.
Understanding Essences and Metamods
To grasp the implications of this interaction, we must first understand what essences and metamods are and how they function in Path of Exile.
What are Essences?
Essences are a type of currency item in Path of Exile that serve as a powerful means for upgrading and modifying gear. They are primarily found in essence monoliths which can be found across the game’s zones. When released, these monsters can drop essence shards which can be turned into their respective essences.
The primary purpose of essences is twofold:
- Upgrading normal rarity items to rare: Essences can transform a normal item into a rare item while guaranteeing one specific affix based on the essence being used.
- Rerolling Rare Items: Essences can also re-roll the affixes of a rare item while applying one guaranteed affix associated with the used essence.
Essences are categorized by types (e.g. of Dread, of Misery, of Envy etc.) and tiers, each granting different effects. The higher the tier of the essence, the better its corresponding modifier on your gear. The highest tier of essences are obtained through the Remnant of Corruption item, making them valuable and sought after. Essences are useful for both early-game item improvement and late-game crafting. They are a crucial part of the crafting loop in Path of Exile.
What are Metamods?
Meta-crafting Modifiers, commonly known as metamods, are crafted modifiers that provide specific controls over the affix rolling process. These mods allow players to influence the outcome of their item crafting, making it more predictable and less reliant on pure luck.
Key metamods include:
- Prefixes Cannot Be Changed: This mod prevents any prefixes on the item from being re-rolled or altered by future currency usage.
- Suffixes Cannot Be Changed: This mod similarly prevents any suffixes on the item from being re-rolled or altered.
- Cannot roll Attack Modifiers: This prevents the item from rolling attack-related modifiers.
- Cannot roll Caster Modifiers: This prevents the item from rolling caster-related modifiers.
Metamods are essential for high-end crafting strategies, allowing players to isolate certain desirable modifiers on items, and to prevent the random loss of those affixes when using other currency.
The Conflict: Essences vs. Metamods
The interaction (or rather, lack thereof) between essences and metamods highlights an important design choice by the developers. While metamods aim to provide predictable crafting, essences introduce a layer of controlled randomness. Essences guarantee a specific modifier, but also re-roll other modifiers on an item which makes them incompatible with crafting methods designed to lock certain affixes in place.
The game’s design actively prevents using essences on items with metamods (other than the multi-craft mod), enforcing this rule very clearly. Thus, you must remove your metamods before using an essence and be prepared to reapply them as needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some frequently asked questions related to essences and metamods:
1. Can I use an essence on an item with “Suffixes Cannot Be Changed”?
No. Using any essence on an item with the “Suffixes Cannot Be Changed” metamod (or any other meta-mod other than multi-craft) will trigger a warning that you cannot use that essence, it will ignore the metamod, and the affixes will be completely re-rolled.
2. Does quality affect my chances of getting better mods with essences?
No, the quality of an item does not affect the chances of getting better modifiers when using essences. Quality affects specific attributes depending on the item type but has no bearing on the essence re-roll.
3. Can I use more than one essence on an item at the same time?
No, you can only apply one essence at a time to an item. Using an essence replaces all existing modifiers (aside from the guaranteed essence mod), so you cannot combine different essence modifiers this way.
4. Are essences affected by map tier?
No, unlike many other mechanics in the game, essence rewards do not scale with map tier. This makes them equally viable to farm in both low-tier and high-tier maps.
5. How do I obtain the highest tier essences?
The highest tier essences are obtained by using a Remnant of Corruption on monsters trapped by essences, giving a chance to upgrade the trapped essence.
6. Can I use master crafting to add an essence to an item while keeping its old affixes?
No, you cannot use master crafting to add an essence modifier without re-rolling the item’s other affixes. Essences always re-roll the item, not simply add an affix, making it incompatible with meta-crafting methods.
7. Can I get multiple essence mods on one item?
While you can get multiple mods on an item that could have come from essences, you cannot apply multiple essences onto one single item. Essences are exclusive and overwrite each other.
8. What are the best essences to corrupt?
Essence of Hysteria, Insanity, Horror, and Delirium are the ones you generally want to target for corruptions to get their higher-tier versions. These are also the rarest.
9. Do Awakener Orbs respect Metamods?
No, Awakener’s Orbs now ignore Mastercrafting Metamods.
10. Do Veiled Chaos Orbs respect Metamods?
Yes, Veiled Chaos Orbs do respect metamods, making them a valuable crafting tool when using metamods.
11. How does the multi-craft mod interact with essences?
The multi-craft mod is the only exception to the rule that meta-mods block essence usage. You can have multi-craft on an item and still use an essence on it. This often comes at the cost of removing other meta-mods on the item and the multi-craft mod itself.
12. Can I use essences to upgrade a non-rare item to rare?
Yes, all essences can be used to upgrade a normal rarity item to a rare item, while also guaranteeing one modifier.
13. Can you use essences on influenced items?
Yes, essences can be used on influenced items. The rule that meta-mods block essence usage still holds true when dealing with influenced items as it does with non-influenced items.
14. Does Magic Find (MF) affect essence drops?
No, Magic Find does not affect essence drops. Essences are unaffected by MF and are treated like gems.
15. Can you get the highest tier essences without using Remnant of Corruption?
No, Remnants of Corruption are the only way to obtain the highest tier of essence.
Conclusion
The interaction (or lack thereof) between essences and metamods is a crucial aspect of Path of Exile crafting. While essences are powerful tools for modifying gear, their inability to respect metamods requires careful planning and execution from the crafter. Understanding this interaction, or lack there of, will prevent costly mistakes and enable you to make well-informed crafting decisions. Remember that essences can be useful for creating the initial items you wish to craft further, but they are not a way to further develop an item once it has meta-mods on it.