With the Rise of the Abyssal League came a new form of endgame crafting, Desecration Crafting. Learn how to utilize this new system to create powerful items fit for Endgame.
What is Desecration Crafting
Desecration Crafting is our term for utilizing the Desecration mechanic added in the Rise of the Abyssal League. Everything from simply applying the various Desecrated Bones to using all manner of currency in combination with them.
This powerful mechanic allows us to pick from our choice of three modifiers to place on a piece of gear, giving us a ton of control over the outcome. While the choices presented are random, there are plenty of desirable Modifiers that are common enough to get use out of.
We’ll share a few things to get the most out of this system, including some early game tips for using the system and the endgame crafting process that can create Best-in-Slot Gear, or in most cases at least as near to such as possible.
Early Game Tips for Desecration Crafting
First and foremost, don’t be afraid to use Gnawed Bones. These are only useful in the campaign due to the Maximum Item Level restriction, so there’s no point in holding on to them. They’re a great way to add extra Life, Defences, and resistances to gear, as these options show up frequently.
As we progress and start finding Preserved Bones, don’t be too scared to use these either. We’ll find these as we near the end of the campaign, and they can really jump-start our mapping progress if applied to a good drop.
When upgrading our gear, make sure to Desecrate good Armour and Weapons if they have an open Modifier slot. Just by having control over one Modifier, we’ll be able to make the item even stronger and have it last for way longer. Ideally, we’re looking for at least 3 other good modifiers. We may even hit a missing mod that would be considered mandatory, like Movement Speed for Boots.
While we strongly encourage using Desecrated Bones often, it’s also recommended to keep at least 1 Preserved Jawbone, 2 Preserved Ribs, and 3 Preserved Collarbones on hand at all times. This ensures that if we find a drop worth using them on, we always have what we need. We’re being extra conservative with Collarbones as they are much rarer than the other two types.
Don’t forget about the Currency Exchange either! Consider selling excess Desecrated Bones for Exalted Orbs or Chaos Orbs. This will make it easier to swap them out as well as provide plenty of currency for other items.
Endgame Desecration Crafting
There are multiple ways to go about this process and many currencies we can use, but what’s the best way to ensure we’re getting the most out of them? Let’s outline the general process of a crafting sequence and cover the different ways to approach it.
Before we dive into the method, here’s a quick shopping list of sorts of everything mentioned in the process, if you want to buy everything before following along. All of this totals to around 3 or so Divine Orbs (in SC Trade), but trust us, the cost is worth it if we need a good upgrade.
- Exalted Orbs (at least 1 Greater or Perfect)
- Preserved Bones (Collarbone, Jawbone, Rib)
- Omen of Abyssal Echoes
- Omen of Sinistral Necromancy
- Omen of Sinistral Exaltation
- Omen of Homogenising Exaltation
- Greater Essences (varies by item)
- Regal Orb (optional, Greater or Perfect if possible)
- Omen of Homogenising Coronation (optional)
- Fracturing Orb (optional)
Step 1: Find a Magic Base
First, we need to find an item to start with. Our Ideal item here would be a Magic Item, ideally Item Level 82 for the highest potential or 78 at minimum for most T1 Modifiers, with only the Modifiers we want on it. We can trade for one, which gets very pricey, find one as a drop, or, like the item for this example, buy it off Rog.
Both of these modifiers are desirable for me, though the Deflection Rating is a lower tier. However, the absolutely perfect roll Defence roll makes up for that.
The last option, which is more for the very late game, is finding an Exceptional Item, which drops as a Normal Rarity item. Then we’ll use a Perfect Orb of Transmutation to give it the best possible modifier we can to start, and if it lands something good, carry on from there.
We can technically do this with any Normal Item, but this will take time, patience, and many Perfect Orbs of Transmutation to get to the starting point. It’s generally not worth it outside of the Exceptional Items.
So we have our base Item, what’s next?
Step 2: Make it Rare
Now there are two excellent ways to go about doing this: Essences and Regal Orbs. Both will take the item we’re working on and make it rare, and both allow us to control the outcome in different ways. In the case of our example piece, we chose to go with an Essence just to ensure we’re getting something valuable.
Essences give us the most control as they guarantee a specific Modifier, but can only be applied to certain items. The most common to use for this are Resistance Essences for Armour pieces, and the Attack or Cast Speed Essences for Weapons. Of course, we’ll want to use a Greater Essence where possible for this for the strongest result.
Regal Orbs are less reliable overall, but can be great in one very specific circumstance, a Magic Item with Only a Defence (Armour, Evasion, Energy Shield) and a Resistance roll. This is because a Perfect Regal Orb, in combination with the Omen of Homogenising Coronation, will almost guarantee a very good modifier that matches one of these two.
Ensure the Omen is active if attempting this method; without it, we are very likely to turn any item we’re attempting to craft into a useless brick.
The only catch here is that this is only super consistent for Helmets without any STR requirement. This is because most armour pieces also have modifier to reduce the duration of various Elemental Ailments, or in Armour’s Case, Armor applies to Elemental Damage. These are generally less desirable modifiers compared to Resistance or even Deflection.
Step 3: Applying Desecration
Now that our item is Rare, we can apply our Desecration to it. But before we go slapping a Desecrated Bone on it, there are two very important Omens to keep in mind for this step: the Omen of Sinistral Necromancy and the Omen of Dextral Necromancy.
These powerful Omens allow us to pick which side the Desecrated Mod will appear on, and as a result, more control over the outcome of our crafting. It’s very important to ensure this Omen is in our inventory and activated, or we will not get the benefit of the control this offers. This can absolutely make or break a craft.
The Sinistral version is the most commonly used, as a lot of our character power is found there. Dextral has its uses, particularly if we’re looking to get a specific Lich modifier for a Weapon, but it is also generally a risk to the outcome.
Continuing the Example, we opted for Sinistral Necromancy, as the Prefixes are far more important to get right. Yes, it looks like a Suffix, but Desecrated mods always seem to be listed last by default.
It’s important to note that using Ancient Desecrated Bone over Preserved ones will almost always result in items that are worth keeping, barring landing a dead modifier at the very end of crafting. However, this comes at a significantly higher cost and is only recommended for Exceptional Item bases.
Step 4: Revealing the Desecrated Modifier
This step is pretty simple, but just like the previous, we have an Omen we can make use of here. This time, it’s the Omen of Abyssal Echoes, which allows us to re-roll our Desecrated Modifier Selections once while choosing. Make sure this Omen is active before choosing to Reveal the Modifier.
This helps us land stronger modifiers without having to always use an Ancient Desecrated Bone. In the case of our continued example, without the re-roll, we would have been stuck with a very weak modifier and had a weaker resulting item.
We highly recommend referring to the list of Modifiers for gear on POE2DB to compare to what shows. This will help determine what tier of mod we land, and which is the strongest of the options. Ideally, we’ll land a Tier 1 (strongest) or Tier 2 (runner-up) version of the modifier we’re trying to get.
If all modifiers are undesirable or end up being under Tier 3 (or less effective than an Ancient Bone in most cases), then use the re-roll provided by the Omen. Tier 3 is as far as we want to stray from the top, so re-rolling anything below that is a good call. This however, doesn’t have guaranteed success
Step 5: Finishing the Modifiers
Now, for the last thing we’ll want to do, finish up our Modifiers. This means primarily using Exalted Orbs, the Greater or Perfect varieties, preferably for endgame crafts. We can also make use of Perfect Essences as well as Fracturing Orbs during this, as well if we’re looking to push the result even further.
Exalted Orbs
We’ll start with Exalted Orbs first, as in most cases, we’ll be using them to add our 3rd Prefix first before anything else. We’ll want to do this by combining a Greater or Perfect Exalted Orb with the Omen of Sinstral Exaltation AND Omen of Homogenising Exaltation. In particular, this results in always having 3 Modifiers for Physical Damage or Spell Damage on a Weapon, or 3 Modifiers for Defences on Armour.
Once this is done, our current item will be a 4-5 Modifier Rare item, all with desirable modifiers. In the case of our running example craft, we decided to just leave it as a 5-mod item.
Depending on our crafting, we can continue to use additional Omens of Homogenising Exaltation alongside (preferably) Greater or Perfect Exalted Orbs.
This will fill our Suffixes with mostly desirable modifiers. We’ll just need to be cautious of potentially dead modifiers that we may roll, like Leech on Martial Weapons, or Ailment duration on Armour.
For Martial Weapons, the more desirable Suffixes share the Attack Tag, or Attack Modifier Category, with the Attack or Cast Speed we added with an Essence. The same goes for the Caster Tag on Wands and Staves as well as Resistances for Armours. Our Defences filling the other side will also enable Evasion Armours to still Deflection as well.
Fracturing Orbs and Perfect Essence
Now, if we want to use a Fracturing Orb, we ideally want to use it just after filling the Prefixes. But this only works if we have a Suffix as well, as 4 Modifiers are required. This locks one Modifier in place, preventing it from being removed though Chaos Orbs, Orbs of Annulment, or similar effects.
For Weapons, the absolute best outcome is hitting that Suffix as well due to perfect Essences. This allows us to fill the suffixes with junk, and repeated use of Perfect Essences to fill the remaining suffixes.
This is because with full Suffixes, the Perfect Essences of Battle and Haste (for Martial Weapons) or Sorcery and Alacrity (for Magical Weapons) allow us to pick up two really great stats, assuming they’re not already on them to start. There are similar pairs of essences for the other slots, so we’re free to figure out what works best for our gear with some leeway.
Step 6: Finishing Touches
It’s time for the final touches to our item, name Quality, and Sockets. What socket we will vary from item to item and build to build. It’d be best to look over the available options for Socketables to see what works. However, we’ll always want the maximum number of Sockets and Quality when possible.
Safe options for most sockets tend to be Greater Iron Runes or Greater Desert, Glacial or Storm Runes. These tend to be plentiful and easy to get more of, while providing great offensive and defensive effects.
To finish up our example throughout this guide, we’ve gone with Greater Iron Runes. Since the build we’re crafting for is a Hollow Palm Technique Build, the defences double as offences for us.
This full crafting process works exceptionally well and can be adapted to any item with ease. Just be sure that when starting that the item we start with has similar modifiers that can be rolled with the Omen of Homogenising Coronation or Exaltation.
