The Essence Focuser, lore or legend?Follow

I used it for the longest time on my paladin until after I got my rep with the Sha'tar exalted. It's not great by any means(the one from Shattered Halls is certainly better, and the one from Mech can be debated since it wastes itemization on Spirit), but it's not bad. At the very least, throw an int enchant on it(healing would probably be better if you're willing to spend the gold).

It goes as follows, for mace selection and paladins:

1) Essence Focuser

2) Mech mace

3) Shatterd Halls Mace

4) Hand of Eternity

5) Shatar rep mace

6) Shockwave Truncheon

7) Light's Justice (Prince mace)

8) Shard of the Virtous (Maiden mace)

#8 is obviously the best choice.


After that point youre not likely to get a new mace anytime soon, and by the time you get to the point where a new mace is available you'll know what you need based on your gear(spellcrit, mp5, mana, health points, etc, etc) to pick and choose accordingly.

Hand of Eternity has no stamina so it is rather crap, at least once you are past Karazhan and you need to actually survive things that hit you.
Light's Justice has +sprit which is a total waste, as opposed to the Shard of the Virtous that has 6mp5. Get both, so you can max out +healing for those incredibly hard hitting encounters that don't last eons (Karathress and his Shaman comes to mind).

Run mech a couple of times for the mace, it's pretty decent and easy to get. I used mine until i got shard of the virtuous from maiden, which isn't a very long time really, depending on your guild, and your loot luck. OR you could pvp till you get the glad's salvation/merc glad's (post 2.4). Good maces, lack of mp5 hurts a bit, but it's easy to obtain and the healing's pretty good. slap a 81 healing on it and it can last you quite a while. Never been a big fan of mp5 anyway, crit's the way to go imo.

I ran Shattered Halls repeatedly in order to get that mace but to no avail. Finally my guildies stuck an Essence Focuser in my face and said "STOP. You're using this, now!" At any point in time since dinging 70, there's always been an Essence Focuser or three on the AH, with a price ranging between 30-60G. Like the OP, I couldn't really pass up a "free" one. The mace has no INT/STAM stats which is its major detraction in my book, but so far it's been working out okay. In retrospect I think I could have given up and settled for the S1 mace even sooner (though I wouldn't be just shy of Exalted with Honor Hold, would I?).

I've been in SSC/ TK with essence focuser lol... so yes its viable.

i've probably been the unluckiest person at getting a kara healing mace to drop. I've been using the Essence Focuser for months now and still no kara mace in sight (i've ran it every single week for about the past 6 months...)

It's dirt cheap and always available on the AH, not to mention a completely viable weapon for getting your foot in the door at endgame (in this case defined as things you can't do until you hit 70 and start gearing up).

There is ALWAYS an Essence Focuser and Crystal Pulse Shield on the AH, so there's really no good reason for a Holy Pally to not have the bare minimum in their weapon and shield slots within 10 minutes of dinging 70.