Orbs & Spheres

Orbs and Spheres are used in crafting for creating various items. Many of them however have no use at all.

Naming Conventions

You can tell a lot just from the name of your orb or sphere.

1. The name starts depending upon Tier:

2. Then there is a variant name, usually either "of Pure" and "of Distilled". There is also "of Tainted", which seems to have vanished from the game (Tainted Orb of Magic on Exchange 04/22/2013), and "of Dark", which seems to have no use yet.

3. Finally, the last word depends upon the craft trade:

Example

Therefore, for example, a "Shimmering Orb of Distilled Power", is a distilled crafting ingredient of Tier 3 for Outfitter.

Uses

Orbs and Spheres are used for special recipes.

Sources

Pure Orbs (Blue - Uncommon) drop en masse from harvesting and item deconstruction, can be bought from the Exotic Crafting Merchant, and drop occasionately from Set and Batch Work Order rewards.

Distilled Orbs (Green - Common) can be bought from the Exotic Crafting Merchant and drop occasionately from Set and Batch Work Order rewards.

Tainted Orbs (Yellow - Rare) no longer drop at all. (Tainted Orb of Magic on Exchange 04/22/2013)

Dark Orbs (Orange - Heroic) drop sometimes from item deconstruction of heroic and better items.

Orbs

Spheres

_{origional information from vgcrafters}