ES leech is ... kind of broken

I'm playing the glassiest build I can.
Worst gear I ever reached Yellow Maps with.
my resistances aren't just uncapped - some of them are fucking negative.
and yet even though I'm playing something only slightly tankier than a deliberate Cast On Death build, I don't die as much as I expect.

The reason is ES leech. a couple casts and my ES is full.

If I get more ES (have ~4k) and actual resistances - this silly character will probably become my tankiest, instantly.

Did Tencent intend to release this in such a broken state, just so they can nerf if later?

For the most part yes.

GGG wants to mix up the meta even if it means creating slightly overpowered skills of mechanics for a certain duration. Don't be shocked if ES/ES leech is nerfed next league in favor of life/melee.

They will nerf it to the ground for certain.
in favor of melee? hahahahaha good one. melee. hahaha... *looking at my characters list* ha... oh fuck my life.

"I don't die as much as I'd expect".

Well you shouldn't die at all ;)

I'm pretty sure you can play in a lot of goofy ways on softcore and say the same thing. Has pretty much nothing to do with that gem.

Not a gem - the mechanic itself.

I picked up some leech nodes and Ghost Reaver.

It's completely busted.

(delete. double post)

Its more about recovery mechanics at all.
What about instant life leech, instant flasks, VP Slayers etc.
Its fine in the current state of the game.

I'm interested in particularly how it's working this way for you, I'm not really having the same experience. I'm old and slow and some of the yellow and red maps and/or mods can be hard for me to survive.

I'm running Kelvynn's Whispering Ice Scion build with all resistances over-capped. Ghost Reaver, all leech nodes I can reach, and over 8000 ES.

I'm not the best player by any means, but it doesn't seem broken to me.

I'm old and slow as well.
And some things can certainly one-shot you through 8k and capped resistances, especially in Red Maps.

But this mechanic seems to have old Vaal Pact potential. Meaning anything that isn't a 1-shot will never kill you.
That's... pretty fkn broken.

Yeah, maybe I haven't ran enough maps to have a fair grip on it yet. Most of my deaths have been pre-patch with Incursion freeze, a couple with high level essence mobs = my greed. I'll see how it goes.