Essence Drain

Essence DrainSpell, Projectile, Chaos, Duration
Tier: 3
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (5-57) Mana
Cast Time: 0.80 sec
Critical Strike Chance: 7.00%Fire a Projectile that applies a powerful Chaos damage over time debuff to enemies it hits.Projectile
Deals (5-138) to (9-257) Chaos Damage

Damage over Time
Modifiers to Spell Damage apply to Debuff's Damage over Time
Debuff duration is 4 seconds
Deals (9.2–409.4) Base Chaos Damage per second

Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
+(0.05-1) seconds to Debuff durationSkills can be managed in the Skills Panel.

Acquisition
Drop restricted
It can be obtained by engraving an Uncut Skill Gem.Metadata
Item class: Skill Gem
Metadata ID: Metadata/Items/Gems/SkillGemEssenceDrain

Essence Drain is a Projectile Chaos Duration Spell Skill that launches a projectile in front of the character. This projectile deals Chaos Damage on Hit and applies a (4-5) second long Chaos Damage over time Debuff.

Skill functions and interactions

Enemies that are affected by the Damage over time Debuff of Essence Drain seem to be prioritized targets when casting ContagionContagionSpell, AoE, Chaos, Duration
Tier: 1
Level: (1-20)
Cost: (8-83) Mana
Cast Time: 1.00 secAfflict a single enemy with a Debuff that deals Chaos damage over time. If the enemy dies while affected by Contagion, it and all other Chaos damage over time Debuffs spread to nearby enemies and refresh their durations. Reanimating or detonating a corpse affected by Contagion will cause the Minion or explosion to
spread Contagion on hit.Deals (1.9-93.9) Base Chaos Damage per second
Modifiers to Spell Damage apply to Debuff's Damage over Time
Debuff deals 100% more Damage for each
time it has spread, up to 300%
Spread radius is 1.7 metres
Debuff duration is 5 seconds

Additional Effects From 1-20% Quality:
Contagion targets (0.1-2) additional Enemies when CastSkills can be managed in the Skills Panel..

Gem level progression

Level			Mana Cost	Projectile Chaos Damage
1	0	0	5	5 to 9
2	3	9	6	6 to 12
3	6	14	7	8 to 16
4	10	21	8	11 to 20
5	14	28	10	14 to 26
6	18	35	11	17 to 32
7	22	41	13	21 to 38
8	26	48	15	25 to 46
9	31	57	17	29 to 55
10	36	65	19	34 to 64
11	41	74	22	40 to 75
12	46	82	24	47 to 87
13	52	92	27	54 to 100
14	58	103	30	62 to 115
15	64	113	34	71 to 133
16	66	116	38	82 to 152
17	72	126	42	93 to 173
18	78	137	46	107 to 198
19	84	147	51	121 to 226
20	90	157	57	138 to 257

Recommended support gems

The following support gems are recommendations by GGG as listed in-game, and do not necessarily reflect optimal combinations or the views of the wiki.

Gem tier	Support gems
I	Minion Pact IMinion Pact ISupport, Minion Category: Minion Pact Tier: 1Support Requirements: +5 IntSupports damaging skills you use yourself, draining the life from one of your Minions on use in order to boost the skill's damage. Only takes effect if you have a Minion with enough life to drain the full amount.Supported Skills remove 100% of your maximum Life from a nearby Minion on use to deal 30% more damagePlace into a Skill's Support Gem socket in the Skills Panel to apply its effects to that Skill. You cannot have multiple Support Gems of the same Category socketed within one Skill.	Prolonged Duration IProlonged Duration ISupport, Duration Category: Prolonged Duration Tier: 1 Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 120%Support Requirements: +5 StrSupports any skill that has a duration, making that duration longer.Supported Skills have 30% more Skill Effect DurationPlace into a Skill's Support Gem socket in the Skills Panel to apply its effects to that Skill. You cannot have multiple Support Gems of the same Category socketed within one Skill.	Swift Affliction ISwift Affliction ISupport, Duration Category: Swift Affliction Tier: 1Support Requirements: +5 DexSupports any skill that deals damage, causing it to deal more non-Ailment damage over time but have a shorter duration.Supported Skills deal 30% more non-Ailment Damage over Time 20% less Duration of Supported Skills and Damaging Ailments they inflictPlace into a Skill's Support Gem socket in the Skills Panel to apply its effects to that Skill. You cannot have multiple Support Gems of the same Category socketed within one Skill.
II	AcrimonyAcrimonySupport Category: Acrimony Tier: 2 Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 110%Support Requirements: +5 IntSupports Skills which can Damage Enemies. Enemies affected by Damage over time from Supported Skills which was not caused by a Damaging Ailment have reduced Life regeneration rate. Only the strongest instance of this Debuff will apply. Does not Support Skills used by Minions.Enemies affected by non-Ailment Damage over time from Supported Skills have 50% reduced Life regeneration ratePlace into a Skill's Support Gem socket in the Skills Panel to apply its effects to that Skill. You cannot have multiple Support Gems of the same Category socketed within one Skill.	Intense AgonyIntense AgonySupport, Spell, Duration Category: Intense Agony Tier: 2Support Requirements: +5 IntSupports Spells that deal non-Ailment damage over time, causing them to have a shorter duration but deal substantially more damage over time with Debuffs inflicted against enemies on full life.Damage over time with non-Ailment Debuffs inflicted on full-life enemies by Supported Skills deal 50% more damage Supported Skills have 25% less Skill Effect DurationPlace into a Skill's Support Gem socket in the Skills Panel to apply its effects to that Skill. You cannot have multiple Support Gems of the same Category socketed within one Skill.
III	Prolonged Duration IIProlonged Duration IISupport, Duration Category: Prolonged Duration Tier: 3 Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 120%Support Requirements: +5 StrSupports any skill that has a duration, making that duration longer.Supported Skills have 35% more Skill Effect DurationPlace into a Skill's Support Gem socket in the Skills Panel to apply its effects to that Skill. You cannot have multiple Support Gems of the same Category socketed within one Skill.	Swift Affliction IISwift Affliction IISupport, Duration Category: Swift Affliction Tier: 3Support Requirements: +5 DexSupports any skill that deals damage, causing it to deal more non-Ailment damage over time but have a shorter duration.Supported Skills deal 30% more non-Ailment Damage over Time 10% less Duration of Supported Skills and Damaging Ailments they inflictPlace into a Skill's Support Gem socket in the Skills Panel to apply its effects to that Skill. You cannot have multiple Support Gems of the same Category socketed within one Skill.	Zenith IIZenith IISupport, Spell Category: Zenith Tier: 3 Cost & Reservation Multiplier: 120%Support Requirements: +5 IntSupports Spell Skills. Supported Skills deal more damage while you are above 90% of your Maximum Mana, and Recoup a portion of Skill costs as Mana. Does not modify Skills used by Minions.25% of Supported Skills costs are Recouped as Mana Supported Spells deal 30% more Damage while you are above 90% of your Maximum ManaPlace into a Skill's Support Gem socket in the Skills Panel to apply its effects to that Skill. You cannot have multiple Support Gems of the same Category socketed within one Skill.
IV	DerangeDerangeSupport Category: Derange Tier: 4Support Requirements: +5 IntSupports Skills which you use yourself which can deal damage. Supported Skills gain an Energy Shield cost equal to your Intelligence, while also dealing more non-Ailment Damage over time based off of your Intelligence. Cannot support Channelling Skills.Supported Skills gain an Energy Shield cost equal to your Intelligence Supported Skills deal 8% more non-Ailment Damage over time per 100 IntelligencePlace into a Skill's Support Gem socket in the Skills Panel to apply its effects to that Skill. You cannot have multiple Support Gems of the same Category socketed within one Skill.	Minion Pact IIMinion Pact IISupport, Minion Category: Minion Pact Tier: 4Support Requirements: +5 IntSupports damaging skills you use yourself, draining the life from one of your Minions on use in order to boost the skill's damage. Only takes effect if you have a Minion with enough life to drain the full amount.Supported Skills remove 150% of your maximum Life from a nearby Minion on use to deal 35% more damagePlace into a Skill's Support Gem socket in the Skills Panel to apply its effects to that Skill. You cannot have multiple Support Gems of the same Category socketed within one Skill.	Rapid Casting IIRapid Casting IISupport, Spell Category: Rapid Casting Tier: 4Support Requirements: +5 IntSupports Spells, causing them to cast faster.Supported Skills have 20% increased Cast SpeedPlace into a Skill's Support Gem socket in the Skills Panel to apply its effects to that Skill. You cannot have multiple Support Gems of the same Category socketed within one Skill.
V	Chaos MasteryChaos MasterySupport, Chaos Category: Mastery Tier: 5Support Requirements: +5 IntSupports Chaos skills, granting them an additional level. Does not support skills which do not have levels.+1 to Level of Supported Chaos SkillsPlace into a Skill's Support Gem socket in the Skills Panel to apply its effects to that Skill. You cannot have multiple Support Gems of the same Category socketed within one Skill.	Profanity IIProfanity IISupport, Chaos Category: Profanity Tier: 5Support Requirements: +5 IntSupports Skills you use yourself. Supported Skills consume many Corpses on use, dealing more Chaos Damage per Corpse consumed. Cannot support Triggered Skills or Reservation Skills.Supported Skills consume up to 10 Corpses within 5 metres on use, if possible Supported Skills deal 5% more Chaos Damage for each Corpse consumed this wayPlace into a Skill's Support Gem socket in the Skills Panel to apply its effects to that Skill. You cannot have multiple Support Gems of the same Category socketed within one Skill.

Item acquisition

Essence Drain has restrictions on where or how it can drop.

It can be obtained by engraving an Uncut Skill Gem.

Alternate skill effects

Essence Drain has the following alternate skill effects:

Item	Description

Version history

Version	Changes
0.3.0	The base damage scaling of all player spell and secondary damage skills has been tweaked to scale better in the late game. Generally speaking, spells that do not have damage number changes called out below will have near-identical base damage at low levels, roughly 5% more damage at gem level 20, and roughly 20% more damage at gem level 30. Removed "Barrageable" gem tag. [Undocumented]
0.2.1	Added "Barrageable" gem tag.[Undocumented]
0.2.0	Many Skills have had their base damage and/or damage growth per level rebalanced. Most of these changes are not specifically mentioned below as the changes are too widespread.
0.1.0e	Increased the damage growth per level on Essence Drain, Contagion, Profane Ritual and Chaos Bolt (Wand Skill). Results in approximately 33% more damage at Gem Level 25.
0.1.0	Introduced to the game.