If you’re gonna say this, at least give an example that fits this context if you want to actually make a point.
Explain why it shouldn’t be easier to get essence.
I’d love for you to justify the miserable grind that it currently is for a feature that every other class gets for free with no strings attached.
Sure, QoL can make the game easier, I’ll give you that, but that’s only if nightmarish tedium and boredom is the form of ““difficulty”” that the feature is built on.
Last I checked, AO wasn’t designed to be a rage game, so making the game intentionally miserable isn’t doing anyone any favors.
The good boy is typing …
Quality of Life should improve the game without changing the balance or intended design of the game.
- Being able to sort and filter items is quality of life. Being able to list more items on the market would go beyond quality of life, as it’d have an impact on the economy.
- Making Hecate Essence easier to get would not be a mere quality of life change, as it would go against the intended design that it’s not easy to change your first magic. Making it more difficult to miss when there’s one on an island you are exploring I feel would be a quality of life improvement - the rarity and needing to explore the Dark Sea is still there, while reducing the chance of merely overlooking it.
I’m not against quality of life changes, and I don’t think every change needs to perfectly preserve the balance or an earlier intended design of the game. I just want people to avoid sugar-coating “something that will skip the part of the game I don’t like”.
It comes down to class identity. Weapons have versatility, fighting styles have very unique features compared to other tools, magic has decisions. When you see a wood first magic user, you know they either chose to run wood magic from the start, or they chose to switch to wood magic using Hecate essence. If changing magic becomes as easy as switching a weapon, then magic loses the magic, the prestige of making a decision and needing to stick to it, or deciding to take on the task of changing the magic.
The question is, what is more important? Being able to change magics around with ease, or giving magic an identity that makes it stand out from the other stats? I think it is the latter.
someone likes calling people good boys 
There are ways of making hecate essence hard to get though that is not tedious and relying on RNG (for example, maybe a difficult boss fight).
However I do get your point on magics having an identity, I cannot really argue much with that and I do agree that magic should have a level of prestige, and not merely an item for a character. I do think the way vetex is going would need the dark sea to have a LOT more content, so player will more likely stumble across a hecate essence rather than solely entering the dark sea for it. Currently, though the dark sea just has to little content for that to work.
Magic reset should be a progress bar that can be filled by doing most activities in the game, although it takes a VERY long time to fill up completely.
I feel like this would somewhat fix the frustration a lot of people feel towards it.
While it still takes a long time to get, you’d actually feel like you’re working towards something instead of just going off of hope.
If you wanna make something be grindy, you should make it so that the player feels like they’re working towards something.
RNG just makes it so that some people don’t have to grind at all, meanwhile some will spend weeks trying to find it.
A magic reset bar might work, but I feel it would be too off-putting to see a bar telling you when you will get a magic reset.
Its ragebait and u fell for it
sounds like something a good boy would say
No I’m the BAD BOY. You’re the good boy. 
woah don’t get me all excited champ! 
so… beautiful i love you wally
hello.
hi Jim Neptune son of John Neptune inventor of Neptune
I wouldn’t be angry about hecate being “hard” to get, but the issue is that it’s not actually difficult, it’s tedious and boring. It isnt actually that difficult to run around dark sea islands, but it is completely boring as shit and that is bad game design.
It was intentional bad game design yes, but just because something is intended doesn’t make it good.
…so you’re not gonna call me a good boy? :(
boowomp
the dickriding is crazy
you actually want in in you bruh
seriously tho,
the problem isnt that its that hard, the problem is that its way too tedious for no real reason and that it killes off interest in the game
making changing your magic, the main appeal of the game, this boring is just gonna drive people away.
theres no reason for changing magics to be this shit when you can easily change weapons and fighting styles
nobody cares about immersion if it comes at the cost of gameplay