CI vs Life - Advantages and Disadvantages?

Anyone played both or have insights/experience on either to want to list some advantages and disadvantages of both in high level maps?

Can't seem to decide on which one to go to. People seem to have 9k shields and that's just insane! I don't think you can get that much even with life unless with kaom but even then, you lack a 6L.

Anyone wanna share some info?

Short version : Life Is King

Long version :

life bonuses - u can counter status ailments ,stunlock, get regen with nodes, get flat hp with nodes, multiply ure hp on items by a 300% fauld.

Energy shield bonuses - non-existend. u can have 9000ES get frozen once/stunned once and u can slowly watch ure char die at 1/3 the speed while if u had 3000hp u could run away and retreat.
Only way ES is viable is with good equip and 2/3 unique's taking up ure slots
(cannot be stunned,cannot be frozen, cannot be shocked,etc u get the idee)

ES ore CI in most cases is generealy out of the question if ure new to the game cuse it's an elitist keystone, unplayable without good gear and totaly fucked up if ure considering a melee CI build(<--- dont even attempt this on HC)

The main disadvantage of Ci is simply it's extreme item dependance. As soon as you got good ES gear and are in reach of CI the disadvantages are basically non existant.
Óf course you can't run low life builds or use auras with blood magic limiting the total amount of auras you can have active and stun gets a big problem but thats nothing you can't counter with items. thats pretty much it.

Life you can control through pots. In a game that features desync and shit hitting the fan all of a sudden, control over what goes on is nice.

Energy has the potential to be much better itemized, opens up the flask slots that you'd use for health pots and brushing off an entire damage type is evidently awesome. Status ailments against you might give you a hard time because their duration is calculated versus your base health, you give up availability of Life Gain on Hit, "on low health" mods and you have to choose between committing to a fancy build that travels from Zealot's Oath to CI or relying solely on ES cooldown (which might not be your playstyle).

Not sure what CI vs HP is like now with those 3 extra nodes they added behind CI but the balance has been tipped in favor of HP since OB up until this point.

You can also use a combination.

The fact is life stacking is much easier and a lot of builts constist of it. The Advantage of a CI built is that you are immune to chaos dmg. Chaos dmg normally bypass the Energyshield and hurts because you cant really stack chaos resists. The downside is that especially in early stages it is hard to get decent ES on gear. And high ES on endgame gear is generally harder to get.

Are status ailments that problematic? I'm planning on playing a ranged character, probably dual totems or ice spear caster. I've been looking through the guides and a lot of them say go CI and some say go EB for non existent mana regen problems.

In higher level maps, wouldn't having 9k ES be better than 5k Life? Less chances of getting one shot or bursted down? 9k ES is a lot compared to 5k Life...

Also looking at the posts in witch forums, all of them are CI based

It really depends on what build you're planning on playing. It's not a blanket thing where any build with either CI, HP, EB or BM is going to be better or worse.

A couple examples to tie this concept and answer your other question.

Some people that play summoner builds like running a lot of auras. EB helps running a lot of auras, so some take it. Will they rely on HP because it's better? Not necessarily, but since a lot of summons usually means you won't be taking much damage anyway and EB overrides CI, it's not a bad choice.

Some people that play totem builds like taking CI. Is it better than HP? Not necessarily, but you might be in the area of the keystone anyway, it's only 1-5 points and it saves you from spending points in life. Because of totems and maybe a couple of zombies, you won't be taking much damage anyway.

Some people that play bow builds like taking BM and stacking HP. Could you the same build with mana? Maybe, but BM+stacking life+LGoH+ranged is a great synergy so why bother?

Status ailments can be annoying at the very least, but again, it depends on what build you play.

I see a lot of CI is broken posts though which I don't honestly get.

The one thing I don't get about the complaints is: You get 9k ES vs 5k Life...why the complaints??? It's a pretty huge advantage, and not broken that it is underpowered...(maybe broken that it is overpowered)

I'm planning on making a CI build. I levelled a wander to 66 and not I've got a witch to 43 or 44. For me, I just love the thought of running around being IMMUNE to something fairly powerful in the game and only having ONE HP. It's just a cool feeling I guess. I know one advantage will be that you don't have to waste loads of currency trying to find good items with chaos resist - the flip side being that if you find a good piece with chaos resistance on it it means you can profit!

I do think that the stun threshold is a little bit unfair in that it shouldn't solely depend on life (I.e. if you have CI then it should transfer to being dependent on your energy shield).

Can't frozen and chilled be dispelled by a potion? If that's the case, it 100% shouldn't be a problem at all - you have 5 slots for potions and if you're CI you it need health potions!