Essence Drain

Essence DrainSpell, Projectile, Duration, Chaos
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (9-27) Mana
Cast Time: 0.75 sec
Critical Strike Chance: 5.00%
Effectiveness of Added Damage: 60%Requires Level 12Fires a projectile that applies a damage over time debuff when it hits. You are healed for a portion of the debuff damage. The debuff is spread by Contagion. This skill cannot be used by Traps or Mines.Deals (21.3-1159) Base Chaos Damage per second
Regenerate 0.5% of Debuff Damage as Life
Base duration is 3.8 seconds
Deals (6-334) to (9-501) Chaos Damage
Modifiers to Spell Damage apply to this Skill's Damage Over Time effectPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket.Acquisition
Area level: 12Vendor Prices

Normal

1x Orb of Transmutation

Vendor Offer
1x Scroll FragmentMetadata
Item class: Active Skill Gems
Metadata ID: Metadata/Items/Gems/SkillGemEssenceDrain

Essence Drain (often referred to as ED) is a spell that fires a chaos projectile that applies a damage over time debuff when it hits the enemy. The spell also regenerates a portion of the debuff damage as life. If target dies while afflicted with both ContagionContagionSpell, AoE, Duration, Chaos
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (5-20) Mana
Cast Time: 0.60 sec
Radius: 20Unleashes a vile contagion on enemies, dealing chaos damage over time. If an enemy dies while affected by Contagion, it spreads to other enemies.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3Divergent0.5% increased Area of Effect3% increased Chaos Damage3% chance to Spread when affected Enemy is HitDeals (3.5-235.9) Base Chaos Damage per second
Base duration is 5 seconds
Modifiers to Spell Damage apply to this Skill's Damage Over Time effectPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket. and Essence Drain, the remaining duration of both degeneration effects will be spread to nearby enemies.

Skill functions and interactions

• Damage over time: Modifiers to spell, chaos damage, and damage over time affect the damage over time component of this spell. Modifiers to Spell Damage apply to this skill's Damage Over Time Effect modifier does not affect other damage over time effects created by this skill, such as poison or ignite.
• Traps and Mines: Essence Drain can not be supported by Trap SupportTrap SupportSupport, Trap
  Icon: T
  Level: (1-20)
  Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 120%Requires Level 8Supports spells, or attacks that use bows or wands. Instead of using that skill, you will throw a trap that will use the skill for you when an enemy walks near it. Traps cannot use channelling skills.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3DivergentSupported Skills have 0.5% increased Trap Throwing SpeedSupported Skills deal 0.5% increased DamageSupported Skills have 1% increased Trap Trigger Area of EffectTrap lasts 4 seconds
  Supported Attack Skills cannot be used with Melee Weapons
  Supported Skills have (0-19)% increased Trap Throwing Speed
  Supported Skills deal (0-38)% increased Trap DamageThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Active Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket. and Blastchain Mine SupportBlastchain Mine SupportSupport, Mine
  Icon: Y
  Level: (1-20)
  Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 50%Requires Level 8Supports spells, or attacks that use bows or wands. Instead of using that skill, you will throw a mine that will use the skill for you when you detonate it. Mines cannot use channelling skills.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3DivergentSupported Skills have 0.5% increased Mine Throwing SpeedSupported Skills have 1% reduced Mana ReservedMines from Supported Skills have 1% increased Detonation SpeedMine lasts 5 seconds
  Supported Skills deal (40-33)% less Damage
  Supported Skills deal 5% more Damage for each prior Mine in Detonation Sequence
  Supported Skills have a Base Mine Detonation Time of 0.25 seconds
  Supported Attack Skills cannot be used with Melee WeaponsThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Active Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket..
• Debuff Regeneration: The amount of life regenerated from the debuff damage caused by Essence Drain is calculated solely off the final amount of outbound damage dealt by the skill, not the damage inflicted on an enemy. An easy way to calculate the amount of regen provided is to multiply the tooltip amount of debuff damage by 0.5%. This will give you the amount of regen that Essence Drain will grant you per target effected. This means that using methods to increased the enemies received damage from sources such as DespairDespairSpell, AoE, Duration, Chaos, Curse, Hex
  Level: (1-20)
  Cost: (16-33) Mana
  Cast Time: 0.50 sec
  Radius: 22Requires Level 24Curses all targets in an area, lowering their chaos resistance and increasing damage over time they take. All hits will deal added chaos damage to the cursed enemies.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3DivergentCursed enemies take 0.5% increased Damage from Damage Over Time effects0.5% increased Effect of CurseSpell Hits have 0.5% chance to Hinder Cursed Enemies with 30% reduced Movement Speed for 4 secondsBase duration is (9-10.9) seconds
  Cursed enemies have -(20-29)% to Chaos Resistance
  Cursed enemies take (15-25)% increased Damage from Damage Over Time effects
  Adds (9-46) to (12-57) Chaos Damage to Hits against Cursed Enemies
  Curse gains 10 Doom per second if you Cast this Spell yourself
  +(0-10) to radiusPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket., WitherWitherSpell, AoE, Duration, Chaos, Channelling
  Level: (1-20)
  Cost: (3-9) Mana
  Cast Time: 0.28 secRequires Level 10Casts a debilitating debuff on enemies in an area, hindering their movement and also inflicts the Withered debuff, which increases the Chaos Damage they take and can stack up to 15 times.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3Divergent1% increased Skill Effect DurationHindered Enemies deal 0.2% reduced Chaos Damage5% chance to apply an additional Withered Debuff if you Cast this Spell yourself(30-36)% reduced Movement Speed
  6% increased Chaos Damage taken
  Base duration is 0.5 seconds
  Withered lasts 2 seconds
  (0-19)% increased Area of EffectPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket., or the Occultist Void Beacon notable does not influence the amount of regen provided by Essence Drain.

Strategy

The damage per cast of this spell is humongous, the damage it does per second is comparable to the damage of most spells and it keeps dealing damage (like with totems). Because this spell normally can hit only one enemy, it's not very useful alone unless the target is a boss or a player. However, it can be supported by Lesser Multiple Projectiles SupportLesser Multiple Projectiles SupportSupport, Projectile
Icon: l
Level: (1-20)
Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 130%Requires Level 8Supports projectile skills.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3DivergentSupported Skills have 0.5% increased Attack Speed
Supported Skills have 0.5% increased Cast SpeedSupported Skills have 1% reduced Mana Cost
Supported Skills have 0.5% increased Projectile SpeedProjectiles Fired by Supported Skills have 1% increased Projectile spreadSupported Skills fire 2 additional Projectiles
Supported Skills deal (15-6)% less Projectile DamageThis is a Support Gem. It does not grant a bonus to your character, but to skills in sockets connected to it. Place into an item socket connected to a socket containing the Active Skill Gem you wish to augment. Right click to remove from a socket. or similar projectile support skills to hit more enemies at once and in the case of weaker monsters, ContagionContagionSpell, AoE, Duration, Chaos
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (5-20) Mana
Cast Time: 0.60 sec
Radius: 20Unleashes a vile contagion on enemies, dealing chaos damage over time. If an enemy dies while affected by Contagion, it spreads to other enemies.Per 1% Quality:1Superior2Anomalous3Divergent0.5% increased Area of Effect3% increased Chaos Damage3% chance to Spread when affected Enemy is HitDeals (3.5-235.9) Base Chaos Damage per second
Base duration is 5 seconds
Modifiers to Spell Damage apply to this Skill's Damage Over Time effectPlace into an item socket of the right colour to gain this skill. Right click to remove from a socket. can be used to spread it to the whole pack and kill a lot of monsters just with two casts.

Gem level progression

Level				Mana Cost	Chaos Damage per sec	Chaos Damage	Exp.	Total Exp.
1	12	14	21	8	31.2	9 to 14	0	0
2	15	17	25	9	40.6	12 to 18	15249	15249
3	19	21	30	10	56.4	16 to 24	41517	56766
4	23	24	35	11	76.7	22 to 33	81983	138749
5	27	28	41	12	102.7	30 to 44	147968	286717
6	31	32	46	13	136	39 to 59	250557	537274
7	35	36	51	14	178.4	51 to 77	405086	942360
8	38	38	55	15	217.4	63 to 94	447718	1390078
9	41	41	59	16	264	76 to 114	615318	2005396
10	44	44	63	16	319.4	92 to 138	834639	2840035
11	47	47	67	17	385.3	111 to 166	1570760	4410795
12	50	49	71	18	463.5	133 to 200	1633987	6044782
13	53	52	75	19	556.1	160 to 240	2151030	8195812
14	56	55	79	19	665.7	192 to 288	2812189	11008001
15	59	58	83	20	795.2	229 to 344	5099360	16107361
16	62	60	87	21	948.1	273 to 410	9400731	25508092
17	64	62	90	21	1065	307 to 460	15273366	40781458
18	66	64	92	22	1195.5	344 to 516	26286582	67068040
19	68	66	95	22	1341	386 to 579	62890590	129958630
20	70	68	98	23	1503.2	433 to 649	212046017	342004647
21	72	70	100	24	1683.9	485 to 727	N/A	N/A
22	74	N/A	N/A	24	1885.3	543 to 814	N/A	N/A
23	76	N/A	N/A	25	2109.6	608 to 911	N/A	N/A
24	78	N/A	N/A	25	2359.2	679 to 1019	N/A	N/A
25	80	N/A	N/A	26	2637	759 to 1139	N/A	N/A
26	82	N/A	N/A	26	2946.1	848 to 1273	N/A	N/A
27	84	N/A	N/A	27	3289.8	947 to 1421	N/A	N/A
28	86	N/A	N/A	27	3672	1058 to 1586	N/A	N/A
29	88	N/A	N/A	28	4096.8	1180 to 1770	N/A	N/A
30	90	N/A	N/A	28	4568.8	1316 to 1974	N/A	N/A
31	91	N/A	N/A	28	4824.1	1389 to 2084	N/A	N/A
32	92	N/A	N/A	29	5093.1	1467 to 2200	N/A	N/A
33	93	N/A	N/A	29	5376.6	1548 to 2323	N/A	N/A
34	94	N/A	N/A	29	5675.4	1635 to 2452	N/A	N/A
35	95	N/A	N/A	29	5990.2	1725 to 2588	N/A	N/A
36	96	N/A	N/A	30	6322	1821 to 2731	N/A	N/A
37	97	N/A	N/A	30	6671.5	1921 to 2882	N/A	N/A
38	98	N/A	N/A	30	7039.7	2027 to 3041	N/A	N/A
39	99	N/A	N/A	30	7427.5	2139 to 3209	N/A	N/A
40	100	N/A	N/A	31	7836.1	2257 to 3385	N/A	N/A

Item acquisition

Upgrade paths

This item can be acquired through the following upgrade paths or vendor recipes:

Amount	Ingredient	General Notes	Type
3	The Bitter BlossomThe Bitter Blossom3Level 21 Chaos Gem Quality: +23% CorruptedThe pain you feel is of no consequence, it is evolution, to be made whole within something greater.	random corrupted superior level 21 Chaos gem with 23% quality	Automatic
8	Dying AnguishDying Anguish8Level 19 Gem Alternative Quality: +19%Moribund, he gazed upon the journey taken as blood trickled down his chin. His eye closed on the city ahead that he would never call home.	random level 19 gem with 19% alternative quality	Automatic
1	Gemcutter's IncubatorGemcutter's IncubatorAdds an incubated Quality Gem item to an equippable item Item drops after killing # monstersQuality GemRight click this item then left click an item to apply it. The Incubated item drops after killing a specific number of monsters.	random superior gem	Automatic
6	The FoxThe Fox6Level 20 Gem"Masters of wit, strength and cunning. To survive the harsh winters, you must be like the fox." - Ezomyte Proverb	random level 20 gem	Automatic
13	The CataclysmThe Cataclysm13Level 21 Spell Gem CorruptedThe mighty warriors traded in blows, the nimble archers in arrows, yet it was the brazen thaumaturgists who would bring catastrophe to all.	random corrupted level 21 Spell gem	Automatic
3	Gemcutter's PromiseGemcutter's Promise3Superior Gem Quality: +20%"I swore to use my position to help the people. What good is power when it just accumulates on the already-powerful?" - Erasmus, Imperial Gemcutter	random superior gem with 20% quality	Automatic
1	The VoidThe Void1Reach into the Void and claim your prize.	random divination card set exchange	Automatic

Quest reward

This item is given as a quest reward for the following quests:

Class →	Witch	Shadow	Ranger	Duelist	Marauder	Templar	Scion
Quest ↓
The Siren's Cadence Act 1	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✗	✗

Vendor reward

This item can be bought at the listed NPC vendors, after completing the following quests:

Class →	Witch	Shadow	Ranger	Duelist	Marauder	Templar	Scion
Quest ↓
The Siren's Cadence Act 1 Nessa	✓	✓	✗	✗	✗	✓	✓
A Fixture of Fate Act 3 Siosa	✓
Fallen from Grace Act 6 Lilly Roth	✓

Related helmet enchantments

The following helmet enchantments affect Essence Drain.

Name		Stats	Spawn Weighting
Enchantment Essence Drain Damage 1	66	25% increased Essence Drain Damage	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Essence Drain Damage 2	75	40% increased Essence Drain Damage	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Essence Drain Duration 1	66	20% increased Essence Drain Duration	helmet 100 default 0
Enchantment Essence Drain Duration 2	75	30% increased Essence Drain Duration	helmet 100 default 0

Alternate skill effects

Essence Drain has the following alternate skill effects:

Item	Effect(s)
Arcane Essence Drain EffectArcane Essence Drain EffectSkill Gem EffectYour Essence Drain becomes a blue arcane effect.	Your Essence Drain becomes a blue arcane effect.
Celestial Essence Drain EffectCelestial Essence Drain EffectSkill Gem EffectYour Essence Drain becomes a celestial version.	Your Essence Drain becomes a celestial version.
Project Essence Drain EffectProject Essence Drain EffectSkill Gem EffectYour Essence Drain becomes a Project version.	Your Essence Drain becomes a Project version.
Scientist Essence Drain EffectScientist Essence Drain EffectSkill Gem EffectYour Essence Drain becomes a Scientist version.	Your Essence Drain becomes a Scientist version.

Version history

Version	Changes
3.3.0	Now specifies it cannot be used by traps or mines.
2.1.1c	Fixed an instance crash with Essence Drain [...]. Fixed a bug with Essence Drain spreading between enemies.
2.1.1b	Fixed a bug where players could get the Essence Drain life recovery effect stuck on their character until changing instances.
2.1.1	Essence Drain can now be supported by "Cast On" trigger support gems.
2.1.0	Added to the game.