Essence Guide for Heart of Azeroth (BfA 8.3)

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 is gaining a new minor Essence slot at level 75, and two new +3% Stamina nodes at levels 71 and 80, respectively.

It will also be much easier to level it up, as artifact knowledge will increase by about 6 weeks worth of artifact power cost reduction, bringing a player character with a level 70 Heart of Azeroth to 17.500 AP needed to reach 71.

Finally, there are 7 new essences to collect in 8.3, obtained through the new Assaults, Horrific Visions and Ny'alotha. Find out everything there is to know about them in our 8.3 essence guide:

In Patch 8.2, the Heart of Azeroth was upgraded to have a more involved progression system, introduced by a line of introductory quests that eventually led to the Heart Forge.

By leveling your neck through the collection of Azerite, you can unlock:

• a Major slot (unlocked right away through Patch 8.2's introductory quest line);
• two Minor slots (unlocked at Heart of Azeroth Levels 55 and 65, respectively);
• bonus Stamina nodes at Heart of Azeroth Levels 52, 57, 62, and 67, each granting a +3% Stamina boost (for a total of +12%, once every node has been unlocked).

Each Major or Minor slots can receive an Essence that grants your character active or passive abilities (see next section for details). An extra Major slot is planned to be added later in Battle for Azeroth.

An essence is a new type of item in Patch 8.2. Each essence has a Major (active) and Minor (passive) power.

• Placing an essence in the Major slot of your Heart of Azeroth grants you both powers of that essence.
• Placing an essence in the Minor slot grants you only the Minor (passive) power of that essence.

Each essence has four ranks, ranging from rank 1 (uncommon) to rank 4 (legendary), and can be obtained from doing a specific activity in the game. You upgrade essences by infusing your Heart of Azeroth with specific items (we explain below what the items are for each essence). The higher the rank of an essence, the better its powers (with the exception of the legendary rank, which only brings in a cosmetic change).

You can pick and choose your essence setup at any time you could also swap talents, by shift + right-clicking the Heart of Azeroth from your character panel. This includes rested XP areas, and during the effect of Tome of the Tranquil Mind and Codex of the Tranquil Mind, as long as you are not in combat.

Due to their varying, sometimes specialization-specific effects, essences will be valued differently by each specialization. Feel free to look inside our class guides for the details on which essences are good for which specializations.

It is strongly advised to unlock every possible Essence for the following reasons:

• different Essences excel in different environments;
• essences keep getting rebalanced by Blizzard, much like Azerite traits;
• having multiple Essences allows your character a higher degree of flexibility in order to better tackle any possible encounter.

You will naturally unlock the Heart Forge through the Patch 8.2 introductory quest line, but if you would like to know more about this quest line, please check out the initial part of the Nazjatar Zone Guide.

This is the end of the general essence guide, but feel free to continue browsing through our 8.3 Essence guide: