8.3 New Essence Guide for Heart of Azeroth

Echoes of Ny'alotha are a new currency in the Visions of N'Zoth content cycle. They provide an alternate route towards the acquisition of Rank 3 Essences on alt characters, often allowing you to skip content you do not wish to engage with on that particular character.

You can learn all about this new system in our specialized guide for Echoes of Ny'alotha below.

In Patch 8.3, the Heart of Azeroth can be slotted with 7 new essences, collected through the new Assaults, Horrific Visions and the Ny'alotha raid.

These essences passively increase your Corruption Resistance by 10, allowing you to use more corrupted gear without downsides, and have very strong powers, which are sure to be changing the meta going forward. Keep reading on to find out the details on each one and our preliminary evaluation for their use cases and relative strengths.

If you need a general overview on essences and how they work with the Heart of Azeroth, please consult our general essence guide.

Essence	Short Description	Source
Universal Essences
The Formless Void Major: Replica of Knowledge Minor: Symbiotic Presence	Replicate the major essence currently slotted in an ally's Heart of Azeroth. See full description.	Ny'alotha
DPS Essences
Breath of the Dying Major: Reaping Flames Minor: Lethal Strikes	Deals damage on a 45-second cooldown, which is reduced by 30 seconds depending on the target's health. See full description.	Assaults
Spark of Inspiration Major: Moment of Glory Minor: Unified Strength	Increases the damage dealt by essences of allies within 15 yards by 45% for 10 seconds, on a 60-second cooldown. See full description.	Horrific Visions
Healer Essences
Spirit of Preservation Major: Spirit of Preservation Minor: Devout Spirit	Heals a target over 3 seconds on a 60-second cooldown and also all allies between you and the target at higher ranks. See full description.	Assaults
Unwavering Ward Major: Guardian Shell Minor: Unwavering Ward	Grants you an extra raid cooldown, channeled over 4 seconds, mostly through absorb shields but also with a healing component at higher ranks. See full description.	Horrific Visions
Tank Essences
Touch of the Everlasting Major: Touch of the Everlasting Minor: Will to Survive	The next time you would die, you heal to 20 / 40% of maximum health instead and gain 85% damage reduction for 3 seconds. Also resets the cooldown on your major defensive cooldown at higher ranks. Only activates once every 10 minutes. See full description.	Assaults
Strength of the Warden Major: Vigilant Protector Minor: Endurance	Taunts all nearby enemies, forcing them to attack you for 6 seconds on a 2-minute cooldown. See full description.	Horrific Visions

The Formless Void's powers are as follows.

Its major power allows you to copy your target's currently slotted Major Essence for 15 seconds, but incurring a longer cooldown when its ability is used. As ranks go up, this cooldown is decreased and the rank of the copied essence increases.

Rank	Power
1	Replica of Knowledge
2	Replica of Knowledge
3	Replica of Knowledge

Its minor power causes you to gain a moderate amount of primary stat for 20 seconds whenever an ally within 40 yards uses an Azerite Essence. At higher ranks it also grants Haste to you and to the ally who used the essence.

Rank	Power
1	Symbiotic Presence
2	Symbiotic Presence
3	Symbiotic Presence

This essence has a lot of potential, as it allows players to bypass the usual role restrictions on essences. You could have everyone in a M+ group using the DPS Essence of the Focusing Iris for insane beam burst damage potential on huge pulls, for example. Its specific usage will come down to the meta that develops in each content type, but make sure to stay on top of our Class Essence Guides for details!

This essence is obtained through the Ny'alotha raid.

Rank	Item	How to Obtain?
1	Replicating Void Droplets	15x Encrypted Ny'alothan Text
2	Burgeoning Void Droplet	30x Encrypted Ny'alothan Text
3	Volatile Void Droplet	60x Encrypted Ny'alothan Text
4	Bursting Void Droplet	Kill N'Zoth the Corruptor on Mythic difficulty

Breath of the Dying's powers are as follows.

Its major power causes damage to an enemy, on a 45-second cooldown. This cooldown is reduced by 30 seconds if the enemy has under 20% health remaining. Higher ranks cause it to also have a lowered cooldown when used on enemies above 80% health, and the final rank supercharges it whenever it kills an enemy, lowering cooldown to 5 seconds and causing it to deal double damage on the next cast.

Rank	Power
1	Reaping Flames
2	Reaping Flames
3	Reaping Flames

This major power looks to be a simple, practical ability for solo activities, where enemies die quickly and you can reliably activate the essence on cooldown. Add fights, if those are slowly trickling in, could also be a good place to use it, but Essence of the Focusing Iris should still prove superior whenever mass area of effect damage is required.

Its minor power causes your spells and abilities to have a high chance to hit enemies for a small amount of damage and, at higher essence ranks, heal you for 50% of the damage dealt and have a chance of doing 400% damage against targets under 20% health.

Rank	Power
1	Lethal Strikes
2	Lethal Strikes
3	Lethal Strikes

This minor power, while very basic, contributes to the simplicity and direct damage abilities that make this essence great for solo content.

This essence and its upgrades are obtained from 8.3's Assaults.

Rank	Item	How to Obtain?
1	Token of Death's Door	Gained during the initial 8.3 quest line
2	Token of Death's Mark	Combine x3 Breath of Everlasting Spirit, obtained from Lesser Visions
3	Token of Death's Glee	50 Corrupted Mementos once Revered with the Uldum Accord faction
4	Token of a Brilliant Death	Open Uldum Accord Supplies, Uldum's reputation supply caches

Spark of Inspiration's powers are as follows.

Its major power increase the damage allies within 15 yards deal with their Azerite Essences by 45% for the next 10 seconds. At higher ranks, the duration of this effect is increased to 20 seconds, and it also grants speed.

Rank	Power
1	Moment of Glory
2	Moment of Glory
3	Moment of Glory

This major power is clearly meant for large group gameplay, as it goes from useless when used in solo gameplay to a potentially large raid damage increase that can be activated by only one to three players in the raid, depending on how much uptime you wish to have. In order to get the most of it, you will require most, if not all players to be using damage dealing Azerite Majors, however, so leave its usage at the criteria of your raid leader.

Its minor power causes your spells and abilities to have a chance to increase your Haste for 8 seconds and reduce the cooldown of your Major Essence by 1 second. At higher ranks, these effects activate more often, and are extended to 1 (at rank 2) and 2 (at rank 3) nearby allies.

Rank	Power
1	Unified Strength
2	Unified Strength
3	Unified Strength

This minor power is a great complement to the main ability, allowing you to use it more often to boost your raid, and also for your allies to use their damage essence abilities more often.

This essence and its upgrades are obtained from Horrific Visions.

Rank	Item	How to Obtain?
1	Overflowing Azerite Geode	Looted from your first successful Horrific Vision
2	Pulsing Azerite Geode	Looted from a successful Horrific Vision where you completed at least one Lost Area
3	Quickening Azerite Geode	45x Sparks of Unwavering Strength looted from Horrific Visions with Lost / Corrupted Area completions
4	Luminous Azerite Geode	Through the Depths of Visions achievement

Spirit of Preservation's powers are as follows.

Its major power heals a targeted ally over 3 seconds, on a 60-second cooldown. At higher ranks, it also heals up to 6 allies between you and the target, and grants Devout Spirit stacks.

Rank	Power
1	Spirit of Preservation
2	Spirit of Preservation
3	Spirit of Preservation

This major power, at rank 2, provides an area of effect healing burst, as long as the targets are properly aligned, and also supercharges your next quick heal spell at rank 3, which could help stabilize your group during emergencies.

Its minor power grants you Devout Spirit every 5 seconds. These initially stack to 3, going up to 5 at higher ranks, where you also get 20% extra critical strike on your quick heal spell per stack, easily hitting the 100% cap.

Rank	Power
1	Devout Spirit
2	Devout Spirit
3	Devout Spirit

This minor power makes your quick heal spell significantly stronger as long as you save it for emergencies, thus contributing to your spot healing capability in groups.

This essence and its upgrades are obtained from 8.3's Assaults.

Rank	Item	How to Obtain?
1	Focused Star Point	Gained during the initial 8.3 quest line
2	Swirling Star Dust	Combine x3 Breath of Everlasting Spirit, obtained from Lesser Visions
3	Gleaming Star Shard	50 Corrupted Mementos once Revered with the Rajani faction
4	Pulsing Star Heart	Open Rajani Supplies, Vale of Eternal Blossoms reputation supply caches

Unwavering Ward's powers are as follows.

Its major power channels for 4 seconds to release 12 spheres which grant allies who touch them absorb shields. At higher ranks, you also get an absorb while channeling, and also self heal yourself and allies who pick the spheres. It has a 3 minute cooldown.

Rank	Power
1	Guardian Shell
2	Guardian Shell
3	Guardian Shell

This major power is an additional raid cooldown, with the potential to do massive healing, balanced by a large 3 minute cooldown. This makes it very useful for healers in just about any situation, as countering burst damage is the most difficult thing to do in most encounters.

Its minor power causes allies within 15 yards to gain a small shield every 10 seconds, with the shield applied being larger at higher ranks and also reducing damage taken by 3% at rank 3.

Rank	Power
1	Unwavering Ward
2	Unwavering Ward
3	Unwavering Ward

While it looks good on paper, this minor power will tend to quickly destroyed by any sort of raid damage, but it still scales well with raid size on stacked fights and should contribute a good chunk of healing towards your group. Overall, this looks to be a great healing essence in stacked situations.

This essence and its upgrades are obtained from Horrific Visions.

Rank	Item	How to Obtain?
1	Ward of Unwavering Hope	Looted from your first successful Horrific Vision
2	Ward of Reciprocation	Looted from a successful Horrific Vision where you completed at least one Lost Area
3	Ward of Mutual Aid	45x Sparks of Unwavering Strength looted from Horrific Visions with Lost / Corrupted Area completions
4	Ward of Unimaginable Brilliance	Through the Depths of Visions achievement

Touch of the Everlasting's powers are as follows.

Its major power prevents your next death and heals you for 20% health (40% at higher ranks), instead. It also grants 85% damage reduction for 3 seconds afterwards. At Rank 3 your main survivability cooldown is also reset when the essence activates:

Class / Specialization	Cooldown Affected
Blood Death Knight	Icebound Fortitude
Vengeance Demon Hunter	Metamorphosis
Guardian Druid	Survival Instincts
Brewmaster Monk	Fortifying Brew
Protection Paladin	Guardian of Ancient Kings
Protection Warrior	Shield Wall

These effects cannot occur more than once every 10 minutes.

Rank	Power
1	Touch of the Everlasting
2	Touch of the Everlasting
3	Touch of the Everlasting

Its minor power grants you avoidance and 30% longer duration on your next active mitigation skill when you drop under 35% health. This effect can only activate once every 90 seconds at rank 1, but higher ranks allow it to activate every 60 seconds instead. At rank 3 your next active mitigation skill lasts for 50% longer, instead.

Rank	Power
1	Will to Survive
2	Will to Survive
3	Will to Survive

This essence grants tanks a second life, allowing for mistakes to happen without causing a wipe. This can easily be invaluable during progress and, even though the minor effect is relatively weak, most tanks should consider using this essence when tackling difficult content.

This essence and its upgrades are obtained from 8.3's Assaults.

Rank	Item	How to Obtain?
1	Death-Resistant Leaf	Gained during the initial 8.3 quest line
2	Petrified Living Bark	Combine x3 Breath of Everlasting Spirit, obtained from Lesser Visions
3	Branch of Rejuvenating Rings	50 Corrupted Mementos once Revered with the Rajani faction
4	Roots of Magnificent Revival	Open Rajani Supplies, Vale of Eternal Blossoms reputation supply caches

Strength of the Warden's powers are as follows.

Its major power taunts all nearby enemies for 6 seconds on a 2-minute cooldown. At rank 2, you also gain 15% dodge for 6 seconds after using this essence and at rank 3 you also deal 50% extra damage to those enemies for 6 seconds.

Rank	Power
1	Vigilant Protector
2	Vigilant Protector
3	Vigilant Protector

This major power allows you to AoE taunt whenever needed, keeping enemies glued to you for 6 seconds. While this is usually not needed, this could be an interesting essence to use in Skittish M+ weeks, or in order to kite particularly dangerous enemies in the right raid encounter.

Its minor power stores a small amount of healing every 2 seconds, up to 10% of your maximum health, which is activated whenever you parry or dodge an attack. More healing is stored at rank 2, and at rank 3 tanks in your group gain 3% extra health, which stacks for each player with this essence.

Rank	Power
1	Endurance
2	Endurance
3	Endurance

Besides the meme usage of having everyone in your mythic group take this essence (with the help of The Formless Void) for a whooping 60% maximum tank health increase, this essence looks like one of the weakest in the 8.3 patch. Save it for niche kiting scenarios.

This essence and its upgrades are obtained from Horrific Visions.

Rank	Item	How to Obtain?
1	Mark of Boistrous Duty	Looted from your first successful Horrific Vision
2	Water Dancer's Technique	Looted from a successful Horrific Vision where you completed at least one Lost Area
3	Manual of Unbalanced Tactics	45x Sparks of Unwavering Strength looted from Horrific Visions with Lost / Corrupted Area completions
4	Resplendent Warden's Badge	Through the Depths of Visions achievement

If after reading all of this you still want to learn more about essences, please consult our general essence guide.