Some thoughts on Aegis Aurora

So I had some currency stashed up and thought:
"Hey, let's finally join the club of immortals and buy... the shield..."

I was running a weird Life/ES Hybrid Marauder before and had actually skilled "Zealot's Oath" (which gave me 5.5% ES regen + 2.0% with 5 Endurance Charges, while keeping the life up with a little life leech).

So I respecced out of ZO and the regen nodes, and grabbed a ton of block nodes.

I played with the shield of all shields for a while now, here's my thoughts on it:

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What Aegis Aurora costs you

1. You are 100% required to get spellblock, or this shield does nothing for you against half the monsters in the game.

So you have to wear Stone of Lazhwar or some other spellblock, some may even say, you also need Bringer of Rain and Rainbowstrides (I don't think so, I think I'm actually doing alright with 63% block/39% spellblock).

This is not only a hefty cost in terms of currency, you are also sacrificing at least two life rolls (Aegis and Lazwhar), if you are going for RBS and BoR too, you have only one life roll and 30% elemental resist on 5 out of possible 9 item slots!
This a) makes it an absolute lategame item, as you need a ton of and life/block nodes, and some very good (expensive) life/resist gear on the rest.

Don't get me wrong, Life and Block nodes are very strong and should be taken anyway when using a shield, the block/spellblock mechanic is obviously very powerful, but it is also very costly.
Block Nodes come at about "2% block per point" (the bigger nodes too, if you calculate travelling cost), which means +30% block is at least 15 skillpoints that are not life and that are not damage.

Aegis Aurora also has shitty ES.

I went from...

...to this:


...which let my ES drop from 2k to 1.2k, my life from 5k to 4.5k and I was also forced to replace skillpoints to meet stat requirements and the missing life leech (4 points spent, had to be life, so I went down to 3.8-4k).

This will be replaced once I level up further, but it makes it very costly at ~Lvl 75-80.

Again: Not saying it is not worth it, but it comes at a very brutal cost.

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What Aegis Aurora does for you

It removes strategy, or at least it reduces it to absurdity.

Usually a strategical approach in an ARPG would be:
a) you don't want to get surrounded
b) you want to fight monsters in small packs, not huge packs
c) you want to kill ads before the boss, as their DpS adds up

With Aegis, it is the other way around:
The more you are hit, the better for you.
Ideally you want hundreds of monsters hitting you at the same time, so your ES gets recharged like crazy.
You are actually stronger in the beginning of a fight than in the end, as the number of monsters gets diminished, AA's effectiveness drops as well.

Best monsters for you are fast shooters like plumed chimeras, tentacle miscreations and voidbearers, you can also stand in Dominus' shooting skill and recharge your ES with it.

While this is funny, this is also absurd.

You want to get cornered, surrounded, shotgunned, machinegunned, the more, the better.

I'm now literally happy when a map boss is in company of splitting voidbearers, as they keep my ES full all day and I'm invincible. Yeah... not. ;)

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What Aegis Aurora doesn't do for you

1. Slow, heavy hitters
It doesn't do anything for you against those.
And most monsters are at least "slow", if not also heavy hitting.
A pack of Zombies will most likely not recharge your ES.
Fighting a boss like Kole, AA is virtually useless compared to a shield with similar block, but more life, ES, armor.
Same for Rhoa's or rare Monsters with extra damage and powerful crits.

2. ES recharge in between hits and fights
I actually had more uptime on my ES with Zealot's Oath, both in combat and out of it.
Nobody plays with ZO, everybody plays with AA, so I must be doing it wrong, but I literally felt more protected with ZO in most situations.

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Conclusion

AA is a situational item, it is all or nothing.

In some situations it makes you literally 100% invincible (big crowds of fasthitting monsters with low damage per hit), in some it does nothing at all (the opposite, few slow and heavyhitting monsters).

I am not regretting spending my Exalts on it, but I don't think it is overpowered at all, you will have to pay a price for using it.
And I seriously consider going back to Zealot's Oath once I can afford an Armor/ES shield with similar block, 300+ES and life.

I really fucking hate the "big hits" argument... What shield is good for that?

Your "24 ES on block" means you had 1200 armour.
What I'm trying to say is... you did it wrong and you've made a conclusion about the item with poor practical testing.

Aegis doesn't require max block or spell block, just like any other shield doesn't. A 50% block build with a random armour shield is worse (in survivability) than a 50% Aegis build.

Your spell block argument is hilarious to me. "Does nothing", well what does any shield without a spell block do for you against spells? Sure, it can provide more buffer (ES/life) but you'll need that extra crisp of buffer only against hard spells, and going against hard spells without a spell block is just... out of my understanding.

Note, no non-boss/exile spellcaster monster will provide any sort of danger if you don't have spell block and if you don't have a shitty build.

Rainbowstrides are BiS for Aegis builds, hell, I've even used them on my non-Aegis life based character, those boots are that good.

Some of my thoughts are comparing it to my Zealot's Oath stuff that I was running before, as this is another way to replenish ES.
You can't compare AA to other shields, as its unique ability is... unique.

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tinko92 wrote:

I really fucking hate the "big hits" argument... What shield is good for that?

The effect ist just not as strong there, AA shines against multi hits. So this is no disadvantage, but AA is not very helpful here.

ZO replenishes ES between big hits, AA doesn't. Other shields obviously are not what I compare it to.

"

Your "24 ES on block" means you had 1200 armour.

You mean ES, not armor, I guess.

Yes, that's where I got the number 24 from.
But it feels like I get more than 24, even though 24 is 2%.
It looks like 240, not 24.
That's what I wrote, did you even bother to read it?

"

Aegis doesn't require max block or spell block, just like any other shield doesn't. A 50% block build with a random armour shield is worse (in survivability) than a 50% Aegis build.

Where do I write this?
I literally write "I don't think so, I think I'm actually doing alright with 63% block/39% spellblock" which is again, as so often when I meet you in the forum, exactly the same thing as you write.
But for some reason you always want to fight, you want to oppose what I write...
And then write the exact same thing as "your opinion, while mine is false".
I don't get it, I simply don't get it.

"

Your spell block argument is hilarious to me. "Does nothing", well what does any shield without a spell block do for you against spells?

...compared to Zealot's Oath. Not "compared to another shield".

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Peterlerock wrote:

The effect ist just not as strong there, AA shines against multi hits. So this is no disadvantage, but AA is not very helpful here.

ZO replenishes ES between big hits, AA doesn't. Other shields obviously are not what I compare it to.

Same as life regeneration, but that's just meaningless, if you know how to play, you will have life leech.

"

You mean ES, not armor, I guess.

Yes, that's where I got the number 24 from.
But it feels like I get more than 24, even though 24 is 2%.
It looks like 240, not 24.
That's what I wrote, did you even bother to read it?

No, I mean armour.
The shield replenishes 2% of your armour as ES on block, you didn't even know how the item works :)

"

Where do I write this?
I literally write "I don't think so, I think I'm actually doing alright with 63% block/39% spellblock" which is again, as so often when I meet you in the forum, exactly the same thing as you write.
But for some reason you always want to fight, you want to oppose what I write...
And then write the exact same thing as "your opinion, while mine is false".
I don't get it, I simply don't get it.

I was following a path, trying to explain why spell block isn't required as you've stated it is. And it isn't required.

How exactly do I want to "fight" here? I want to oppose, as you can see. Because I don't agree with you, it's a gameplay discussion, not a fight.

I'm not saying the same thing as you do.

"

...compared to Zealot's Oath. Not "compared to another shield".

Again, meaningless, just like life regeneration.

Unless you want to afk at hard hits, then there is a slight chance that a regen build will last longer, depending on the luck in the blocking. Which is something not worth discussing, I believe.

You misinterpreted the mod. The amount of replenish is based on 2% of your armor and not 2% of your total ES.

Edit: ninja-ed

Edit 2: My opion on it is it's simply OP. It makes me immortal vs 99% of the content. Another 0.5% is covered by Saffel. All my block char so far had the same moto :go Aegis or go home. However, I came to the acceptance that some uniques are just the best at what they do( Aa,Shav, crown, Kaom ...) and I just enjoy them as they are, even if it kinda goes against the game principles.

"

tinko92 wrote:

Same as life regeneration, but that's just meaningless, if you know how to play, you will have life leech.

"If you know how to play"...
How do you know what I want to play? How do you know if life leech even fits into my build?

I built around using ZO or AA (I cannot integrate both block and regen in a ~100 point build while still having enough damage and life) to have my ES up all time, so I have full life all day and can use the "melee damage on full life gem" for a sweet additional damage multiplier.
Which works pretty good with both options to keep ES up.

ZO is more stable, but requires a little strategic approach.
AA is insane in some situations, but worse in others (and that is those "slow, big hits" situations).

Sure I could play a usual melee with usual gems and usual skilltree, but I can also try to build around AAs unique ability.
Which is a way more interesting approach for me.

That's not "poor testing" or "doing it wrong", that's just a different idea of the game.

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"

No, I mean armour.
The shield replenishes 2% of your armour as ES on block, you didn't even know how the item works :)

Oh, cool. :)
Was so sure it does 2% of ES I didn't even bother to read it. ;)

"

"

...compared to Zealot's Oath. Not "compared to another shield".

Again, meaningless, just like life regeneration.

Meaningless to you, not to me.

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@Lovely Monster

You're immortal in 99% of the content anyway, if you are not being undergeared and acting stupid.
it makes you "even more immortal", but who cares?

My dualwielding 40% block no spellblock girl does twice the damage and has twice the clearspeed and is also immortal in 99% of content. So what?

I dont really like the way tinko jump into every thread regards to Aegis, saying the same thing all over and over again, but I have to agree with him here.

Your misconception of how AA works kinda explain your stance regarding aa. 24 ES per block seems abysmal compare to ZO, like 100, 200 or even 300 ES regen per sec ? Well in reality it replenish 2% of armor, which is 200, 400 or even 800 with flask and all per block, and consider that in normal combat, you block like 2-5 or even 10 block per sec, well yeah AA owns.

Secondly, like tinko said, the argument of comparing to ZO doesnt rly make sense =/. If you take the ES and hp pool and combine into a single hp pool, and apply that regen, you would realize that it function exactly like normal regen. Which is kinda somewhat irrelevant here, since they're not mutually exclusive and regen can be incorporate into everything, I dont get why you compare regen with benefits of a shield since you can always have both.

Your section of what AA doesnt do for your is somewhat meaningful I guess. However, there's a few flaw. You went from your shield to AA. So what AA doesnt protect you from hard hitter, does you shield ?
I guess in your case an extra 600 ES and around 350 life if it was a rare does sth, I admit there's a point there.
The es recharge between hit and fight thing, ES does that anyway so that kinda a moot point.

I think that this segment
["Fighting a boss like Kole, AA is virtually useless compared to a shield with similar block, but more life, ES, armor.
Same for Rhoa's or rare Monsters with extra damage and powerful crits.

2. ES recharge in between hits and fights
I actually had more uptime on my ES with Zealot's Oath, both in combat and out of it."]

Only ever hold true if you have very low armor and only get hit once every 3s or so, since even in your example like Kole, he hits quite slow in compare to other monster (let just say once per sec), and block happens 3 time very 4 hits. Thus, with just 20k armor, the ES replenish is 300 per sec in average. I fail to see how ZO can be better than that =/

@Peterlerock

I don't know what do you want to play, I don't know what fits to your build, and that's completely irrelevant and I don't even have to.

When we're talking about Aegis, it's about survivability. And if someone wants the survivability, he'll have life leech or he will not be able to keep up the very same survivability.
EDIT: And even if life leech isn't present, life regen can be.

Like I've said, about the "slow and big hits" argument:
"Unless you want to afk at hard hits, then there is a slight chance that a regen build will last longer, depending on the luck in the blocking. Which is something not worth discussing, I believe."

My "poor testing" was related to your 24 ES on block, don't pull things out of the context.


And yes, it's meaningless in the bigger picture, sure, you might like ZO better and your ridiculous "slow and big hits" argument, but in fact, it really is meaningless.


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@Oversky

I do jump on every thread, because that's the subject that interests me, because I cannot believe that a shield like that exists, and as far as I'm concerned, it exists for the embarrassment of the one(s) who made it and the one(s) who "balanced" it.

Shields are in an awful situation, having a rare shield outside of ES shield (and maybe EV shields in evasion builds) is a joke.

"

0versky wrote:

Your misconception of how AA works kinda explain your stance regarding aa. 24 ES per block seems abysmal compare to ZO, like 100, 200 or even 300 ES regen per sec ? Well in reality it replenish 2% of armor, which is 200, 400 or even 800 with flask and all per block, and consider that in normal combat, you block like 2-5 or even 10 block per sec, well yeah AA owns.

I understand that already. :)

"

Secondly, like tinko said, the argument of comparing to ZO doesnt rly make sense =/.

It is one of three ways to get "ES combat regen".
Zealot's Oath - ES Regen
Ghost Reaver - ES Life Leech
Aegis Aurora - ES on block
And this "ES Combat Regen" is what I look at.

All have their own benefits and drawbacks (to me, obversing while playing):
Aegis has the sickest mechanic, but it has quite weak stats beside the "2% armor as ES on block".
Zealot's Oath is somewhat slow, even if you stack as much regen as you can. In most situations this is enough, as you stun most monsters anyway and they do little to no damage.
Ghost Reaver would just be too far off in the skilltree, can't grab it even if I wanted.

For my char and playstyle, it only matters to have full life.
So I want ES on top of my life all day, I don't want to "throw ES and life together in a single pool".
Look at him like as if he was a CI char, who happens to have 5k life instead of 1.

And I'm 100% sure I am not the only person using AA and Melee full gem combined.

@Tinko:

Well shield also gives stats, and not always for max block. For non-block essential char but use 1h weapon anyway. For example, ele ST, I think Aegis doesnt provide much for them, and a EV life shield would be better.

Basically, Aegis is not that good for char that dont expected to get hit a lot, but still want a shield.
Conversely, Aegis > everything if one expected to get hit frequently ( unless someone wants to go EV/Acro melee ). So to be more precise, the existance of rare str/armor shield is an embarrassment. Not sure how would they fix it though, since imo it's more about armor shield is very weak ( dont get me start on ar/ev hybrid ), and less about Aegis OP.