Transmuting (successfully) gives an essence of the item's tier, UP TO the rarity of the item. Example, transmute tier 1-Arcange will give a tier 1 essence, anywhere between Magic and Arcane. The catch is how insanely long it takes to get Transmuting up to a good enough level to successfully do decent tier items...but even the junk ones do sell in bulk so it's never "wasted time".

yeah I'll give it another go on next climb. Can't hurt! Ty for info

Yeahhhh so I didn't know you can get Objectives in Maps...

Going to be doing your strat going forward lol. 1-10 spamming completes for maps, anything w/ a mod other than just lights/rooms I kept and am chain running now. Might just keep/run any map within level range after these just to get easier objectives out of the way early.

Ty for the tip!