Leveling for ES(aka: level 1 to mapping)

I leveled a Shadow to level 66, with a focus on
1. Arc with a quality +lightning gem and lightning penetration
2. Herald of Thunder with Culling support gem for main damage booster
3. Energy Shield as main defence
4. Block -> Cast on Stun -> Molten Shield + Conductivity
5. Reserved mana: Clarity, Herald of Thunder, Clarity, Tempest shield.
6. Once I got a armor bottle, it seems to boost Molten Shield quite well
7. Will get CI as soon as I get another +1% HP regen(have 2%) and Zealots Oath

I still only got ~280 ES on my chest piece, I have a total of 3,5k ES, and I get half of that from the ES aura. This is also the first character i leveled past level 40.
If I where to graph my ES gain, I think I reached maybe 300 by the end of normal, 2000 by the end of cruel, and I have spent a lot of time trying to improve my chest/helm/shield to gain more ES, but it won't simply drop.

I am just wondering how I should have leveled ES. Regardless of build.


The major problems seem to be the entire of
1. Hard hitting uniques in Act 3, normal
2. getting a armor bottle to drop,

3. Cruel:
a. First problem is Brutus, he is the only thing that hits hard in the act. He hits for most of my lifebar when I had 1800ish HP
b. somewhere between Act II and Dominus, the HP on gear stops scaling hard enough without nodes, and ES scales a lot slower. If I was playing HC, this is most likely the point where I would die, due not having a good way to reduce physical damage to gain EHP
c. Tentacle miscreations. I had to stop my natural progression to farm up better flasks and gear, because Dominus spawned them during his final phase
d. Climbing Scepter of God(Trap uniques? Frogs? Chimeras?)

4. and how to gain anything resembling ES once you go to Merciless.
a) If I remember correctly, Hailrake two shotted me from almost offscreen when I got to him
b) Brutus was insane. I had kite him to avoid getting 2 shotted
c) I had to grind up before Merveil, and even then it took a few tries
d) Weaver Ethereal Knifes hits for ~0.7k chaos damage. Black Death deals over 2k chaos damage over time
e) I finally got myself up to 3k ES when I reached Sarn, but i still randomly die to burst damage, with the Granite Flask active

From a bit on searching on the forums, it seems you can create a ~900-1000 ES chest piece once you get a Vaal Regalia to drop and roll maxed mods after using a few hundred Chaos orbs.

But what about before Merciless? Or mapping? How do you get there if you was a Harcore character?

Most CI builds just run as life until they can get good ES gear (usually not until at least the start of merc). Until then, it's difficult to scale ES to reasonable levels and life comes naturally from levels and gear.

Once you get more passives to play with and decent ES gear though, your pool ramps up very quickly.

ES is not impossible to level, but you're going to need to skill Ghost Reaver ASAP and you're going to need an Eye of Chayula (or Lioneye's Paws if low-life ES) also ASAP.

It's not worth getting stunned to CwS things. CwS Lightning Warp kinda sorta works, but I would never rely on it if the goal is to survive. Stunning should be avoided at any cost.

Similarly, flasks "... of Heat" will be your best friend from level 1 until 100 if you're going majorly ES. Shock sucks and burns/punctures suck, but freezes and stuns are what will absolutely maul you.

The 900-1k ES chest is fancy. Don't expect to ever get something like that. Most of your ES will come from just having decent ES on every gear piece (especially your chest and shield), running Discipline, and having a ton of int/%es on the tree.

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I would lean heavily on the few "leveling" ES pieces (Zahn's Cassock is ~150 ES chest at L37, Icetomb is ~120 ES chest at L39, Shav's Pace is ~50 ES boots at L32 (and awesome mspd if CI), Crown of Thorns is ~80(!) ES helm at L0) alongside a Discipline while leveling.

As with most things in this game, layered defense is best. Leeching (via GR) helps a lot. Block helps a lot. CwDT + EC + IC helps a lot. Vaal Discipline helps a lot. AA helps a lot, even at low levels!

Overall, leveling as ES isn't really worth it because losing instant health flasks is the #1 biggest loss through all of "normal" gameplay through mid- and even high-level maps.

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The suggestion to "level as something else then respec into what you want" is... so lame. It certainly works, but I recommend to not walk down that path if the goal is to try and experience something new in this game.

I've done a CI character (Crit Arc) in Bloodlines, as shadow. While leveling I took a few life nodes, and started equipping pure ES gear around act 3 normal so I would benefit from some of the ES nodes I was taking.

At the end of Act 3 Normal I had 1000 HP or so and about 1K ES.
At the end of Act 3 Cruel I had 1200 HP and 2.3K ES. I specced into Ghost Reaver shortly before doing Piety and it helped a lot.
I specced into CI about midway through A1M (at level 56, as I remember). I jumped to about 2.9K ES and kept going from there. (He currently is lvl 85 and has 7.25K ES; I stopped taking ES nodes a while ago because my total is fine atm).

I would highly recommend trading to get upgrades (hint: use poe.trade). It will be much easier to buy upgrades for a few chaos then to find them yourself.

I know a lot about CI builds; feel free to ask any other questions you may have!

-Savage

Also, you do not need stun immunity if you are playing a ranged character. I would only recommend using Eye of Chayula or maybe taking Unwavering stance if you are playing melee (and not flicker strike).

If you're a caster you can easily get 90% or even 100% stun avoidance while casting (50% from having ES and 40% from a couple tree nodes)

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pneuma wrote:

It's not worth getting stunned to CwS things.

? But you don't need to get stunned to CwS, since blocking usually counts as a stun.
On the top of 50% stun avoidance from having ES, and separately 55% while casting.
It just keeps on casting. And it just works.
Unless you are melee. Melee would be no fun since most kite able melee mobs hit too hard & fast.

Avoiding hard hitting mobs like Brutus as an Arc caster is not a matter of ES but a matter of keeping him away from close range.

I recommend a Spell Totem + Frost Wall + Faster Casting + xyz setup. This will provide a huge benefit to ranged casters, especially against hard hitting physical damage mobs, simply because they won't ever get in range - but it won't save your life in every case, so stay prepaired.

It is also great to have Vaal Discipline + Increased Duration. You can only use it once per fight but are nearly unkillable during its duration.
Against hard hitting attackers like Brutus/Kole etc. i also like to use Ball Lightning + Blind + Leech. BL hits so often that you will be able to keep them blinded easily and leech back some life, hit with Arc until you have to renew the blind effect.

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del_diablo wrote:

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pneuma wrote:

It's not worth getting stunned to CwS things.

? But you don't need to get stunned to CwS, since blocking usually counts as a stun.
On the top of 50% stun avoidance from having ES, and separately 55% while casting.
It just keeps on casting. And it just works.
Unless you are melee. Melee would be no fun since most kite able melee mobs hit too hard & fast.

CwS only works if it is possible to get stunned.

Yes, it still triggers through block and yes, ES gives 50% avoidance, but it's much more reliable and safer to just slot Chayula and run CwDT instead.

Generally, the only thing that's going to kill you is sudden melee when you don't expect it (Devourers, leaping goatmen/chimerals, flicker grapplers, charging rhoas). It's not worth the headache, and if you haven't run pure ES from level 1 completely before, Chayula and move on.

At really high levels you can drop it and rely on a humongous buffer and some alt+f4 reflexes to free up the amulet slot for some crit/stats/resists. Until then, don't make the game harder on yourself than you need to. It's not like Chayula is Mjolner-rarity or anything, nor is any amulet you're going to get before level 60 going to be worth the slot.

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+1 VD+ID. Vaal Discipline is easily the most fun addition to ES-based defenses that I've had since playing this game since 2011. It's an absurdly powerful burst of defense and it'll last long enough to clear whatever hard room or boss you're in without breaking a sweat.

The only thing I wish it had was a way to guarantee it wouldn't be interrupted during the cast (see also: stun/freeze). :P

General CI rules apply. ES doesn't offer mitigation. You need either high leech or avoid getting hit all the time, especially by avoidable stuff (Brutus).

- rush Ghost Reaver
- level in a group or use minions
- use a cold skill so the freezes allow your ES to recharge
- Vaal Discipline

Could I rephrase the question?
1. Assuming you have some Alch and Chaos in cruel,
2. at what armor tier do you move from going Life + armor/evade to either ES/armor or ES/evade,
3. and then at what area can you start going towards RAW ES?

And thanks for the advice. I will praise the Life Leech Gods as I get along again.