Leveling for ES(aka: level 1 to mapping)

Personally, i go for a life/ES hybrid build as soon as i can and then go for CI in Merciless when i can run a mid level Discipline and have at least 2k ES. Most people will recommend going pure life at first then switching to hybrid, then CI. But i like to get a feel for the build as soon as possible and life/ES hybrid is pretty powerful early on - unless you are melee!

1. you mean for rolling armor yourself or for minimal trading?
2. starting with ES/x hybrid or even pure ES gear from lvl 1 or as soon as i can.
3. when your ES is considerably higher than your life, usually around 2000-2500 ES.

Many people seem to underestimate the usefulness of faster ES recharge from gear and passives. True, on a melee char you will want to get Ghost Reaver no matter what, but a ranged char can get away with kiting and that is where the faster recharge starts to really shine!

125% faster start of ES recharge from passives plus the Bated Breath belt mean that your ES starts recharging after less than 2.2 seconds instead of the standard 6 seconds. That is usually fast enough to fully recharge between engaging individual mob groups and even during most fights you can simply kite for a short time to let your ES recharge - although you might want to use Vaal Discipline for bosses like the Atziri prebosses and the Weaver (72 version).

Not saying that LL + Ghost Reaver isn't great, but on the other hand, i have a lvl 91 crit arc Witch (now retired due to Standard) that got by purely by high mobility (via an instant Lightning Warp) and a ton of ES recharge speed without any leech in endgame (7k ES).
When doing 77/78 maps in public groups, she was often the last one standing and people seemed to be really surprised about how well a CI char can do in endgame without leech. I don't remember how often i solo'd double Courtyard bosses on rippy 78 rare maps with 6 player health on her because the others went poof after a few seconds.
If you have a decent connection (ping below 100) and are confident about your reflexes, this is another viable way to play a ranged CI caster.

1. Yes. Both.
From what I experienced, armor from normal to cruel never experiences the insane yield up curve ES has. From ES its more confusing.
Since flat modes adds ~+30 before you get to cruel. The same is true of +% local, where it soft caps to +50% before you reach high item levels. +30 and +50% on a item with only 50-70ES isn't that great. I think armor would give you more EHP, and i am just wondering if I am wrong

2. How do you avoid dying from physical damage as Pure ES in Cruel? The flasks only do so so much?
I assume you trade in a +Armor flask, and then roll it until you get the +% armor increase.

3. How early should you reach those 2000-2500 ES? With or without the aura?

@Topic Poster:
If you are using Chaos Inoculation / Ghost Reaver, you should get something to prevent stun.
If you are using Chaos Inoculation / Zealot's Oath, you don't need anything like that.
Ghost Reaver kind of implies you need to be attacking and getting stunned doesn't help.
Since you are on the right side of the tree (Shadow), Zealot's Oath is kind of far away and getting sufficient regeneration is too hard.
For items, it is hard to find good drops that you need, so you probably should buy it from other players. Mid range energy shield items, like 600 ES armor, are fairly cheap.

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2. How do you avoid dying from physical damage as Pure ES in Cruel? The flasks only do so so much?
I assume you trade in a +Armor flask, and then roll it until you get the +% armor increase.

Have a second Cast When Damage Taken (level this up to max) and put Molten Shell as well as some other defensive options on it. Something like Cast When Damage Taken - Molten Shell - Cold Snap - Elemental Proliferation.
Cast When Stunned can be used if you are Zealot's Oath, but starting as Shadow, I'm not sure how easy that is.

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3. How early should you reach those 2000-2500 ES? With or without the aura?

Act 1 Merciless.