Am I correct that essence is unlikely to become a scarce resource?

Question

We are converting from a previous edition to 3e. To me, it looks like essence is unlikely to become a scarce resource. I'm especially thinking of the rule that you regain 5 motes of Essence each combat turn, and that your regaining motes as time passes even when not resting.

From p. 174 of the Core Rule Book:

Characters with mote pools regain five motes of Essence at the end of each round while in combat, as the dynamism of battle stirs the world around them. Outside of battle, characters regain five motes per hour. In the most relaxed of times—such as when a character is asleep, meditating, or quietly reading—they respire Essence at a rate of 10 motes per hour.

I'm looking for practical experience from play on how this actually works out.

My assumption that is that there is something I'm not understanding, and that somehow it becomes a scarce resource even in combat where you regain 5 essence a round. A perfect answer would include references to the rules, but also examples of how they could be used. The ideal examples for me are based on starting character solar or dragon blooded.

Answer 1

Summary

I estimate that a Dragon-Blooded will have essence for 5 rounds if they don't regain essence every combat round. They will have 12 rounds if they do regain essence, and after, they will have to run on 50% normal expenditure.

Longer version

In my current campaign, I have house-ruled that you only get essence back when you are resting and not in combat as the rules stipulate. I have three Dragon-Blooded characters and some others, but they are not as relevant for this discussion.

We have very little combat, but the experience from the ones we have had so far is that after about 4 rounds, the most aggressive essence spenders start to conserve essence. They are not out of essence, but they begin not to use certain charms to conserve what they have left.

Most of our fights are over in 6 rounds or less.

In my group, the characters have about 35 motes in their combined pools after removing the artifacts' attunement cost and everyday usage.

They spend between 4 and 15 motes each round. I would guess at an average of about 8 for all the characters and rounds. I suspect this number would be higher for Solars due to their higher charm-dice threshold.

That gives me an essence burndown of 35, 27, 19, 11, 3, 0 If I had kept the original rule of returning 5 motes per round, each round's net change is 3 instead. Giving a burndown: 35, 32, 29, 26, 23, 20, 17, 14, 11, 8, 5, 3, 0

They would have the essence for 11 rounds in their normal expenditure with the RAW, and they would have to cut that in half after that. Without regaining motes during combat, they have essence for 5 rounds.

This is all based on my low combat campaign with mostly Dragon-Blooded. But I feel confident in concluding; If you run a low/short combat campaign, essence will not be a constraining factor in RAW. Removing the 5 motes recovery will make it a constraint in a few rounds.